Page:The Anglo-Saxon version of the story of Apollonius of Tyre.djvu/63

 sunbeam of beauty, in which nature had created everything pure and perfect, and failed in nothing but in denying her the attribute of immortality. Her hair glittered like the snow, beneath which a brow of milky whiteness, smooth and unwrinkled as a plain, peacefully rested. Her eyes resembled the changeableness, not the prodigality, of two luminous orbs; for their gaze was directed by an unshaken modesty, which indicated a constant and enduring mind. Her eyebrows were naturally and excellently placed; and her shapely nose, describing a straight line, rose centrically upon the face: It possessed neither too much length, nor too little. Her neck was whiter than the solar rays, and ornamented with precious stones; while her countenance, full of unspeakable joy, communicated happiness to all who looked on her. She was exquisitely formed; and the most critical investigation could not discover more or less than there ought to be. Her beautiful arms, like the branches of some fair tree, descended from her well-turned breast; to which delicately chisseled fingers, not outshone by the lightning, were attached. In short, she was outwardly a perfect model, flashing through which the divine spark of soul her Creator had implanted might be gloriously distinguished. Works of power ought to accord with each other: and hence all corporal beauty originates in the soul's loveliness. It has even been said that mental excellence, however