The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 3, No. 3, June, 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
How busily my fancy was employed the whole of that forenoon, I need
not stop here to tell. Enough, that of all the various pictures she
then drew for me, not one resembled the pale, the slightly made, and,
but for a partial stoop, the somewhat tall, half-lay, half-clerical
figure in spectacles, to whom I was presented on arriving at my
friend's apartments. This was Strauss himself, whose portrait I may as
well go on and finish here at once as well as I can, and so have done
with externals.
Judging from appearance, Strauss's age might be any where between
forty and fifty. But for his light brown, glossy hair, I should have
said nearer the latter than the former. I have since ascertained,
however, that he is, or was then, exactly forty-one years of age. His
head is the very contrary of massive,--as, indeed, his whole figure is
the opposite of robust or muscular. But it--the head--is of a purely
classical form, having none of those bumps and extravagant
protuberances, which phrenologists delight in. His profile, in
particular, might be called truly Grecian, were it not for the thin
and somewhat pinched lips, which give it an almost ascetical
character. Strange enough, too, this same character of ascetism, or
something akin to it, seems likewise indicated by a peculiar
expression in his otherwise fine, dark-brown eyes. It is not a squint,
as at first sight it appears, but a frequent turning-upward of the
eye-balls, like a Methodist at his devotions, which, in Strauss's
case, is of course involuntary. Perhaps it is to conceal this slight
blemish that he wears spectacles, for his large and lustrous eyes did
not else appear to need them. I have said that Strauss was slightly
made; and, in fact, this is so much the case as to suggest the idea of
a consumptive habit. Nor do his narrow shoulders and hollow breast,
together with a certain swinging serpentine gait when he walks, seem
to contradict the supposition. I have little more to add to this
feeble sketch of Strauss's outward man; for it would, I suppose, be
too trifling a circumstance to mention that I had seldom seen a more
_thorough-bred_ hand and foot than his!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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