The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 3, September 1837 — John Shaqi
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 3, September 1837Various
History
The Knickerbocker, Vol. 10, No. 3, September 1837
Various
Periodicals
The sublime science of astrology, which once commanded the faith of
the learned, has been laughed at by the wisdom or scepticism of more
modern times. The doctrines and the devotion of those old readers of
the stars have been discarded; and to the human eye the only relict
of astrology now on earth has been confided. Lovers are the sole
inheritors of the romantic doctrines bequeathed by elder astrologers
to posterity. They do not cast devout looks toward the bespangled
firmament, at night; but to them, the brow of a beloved being is a
heaven, and the eye is the star that unfolds to them the shadows of
their coming destinies. Their ancestors read the decrees of fate in
the glittering watchers of the night-season, and they foresee the
mysteries of the future in the expressions which shift and play upon
the eye. If the eye of his mistress sparkles at his approach, it is
the precursor of after joy. If the murky shadow of a frown rests upon
it, it is the foreshadowing of the woe to come. To the lover, the
eye of his mistress is ever eloquent, of hope or fear, of triumph or
defeat. It is the polar star of his hope, the cynosure of his faith;
and the complexion of the future changes, as her eye wanes into
shadow, or waxes into the light of day.
* * * * *
A WHOLESOME lip is a thing to be loved. People are too much in
the habit of regarding lips as mere appendages to the 'human face
divine'--ornaments, like ear-rings, to set off its beauty. This is
to detract from their true use and excellence. They serve other
purposes, and are indices of character.
A wholesome lip is of the complexion of a morello cherry. It pouts
like a rosebud, and might lead a bee astray, as the grapes of Zeuxis
did the birds. When kissing was in fashion, gallants of taste showed
a flattering preference for lips of this kind. There was a flavor
about them--ambrosia, on which young Love fed and grew fat. The
disciple of Socrates was feminine in the matter of lips, for bees
hovered over them; and the judgment of a bee, in this respect, is
scarcely inferior to that of a bachelor under thirty.
In general, people are disposed to think their noses of more
importance than their lips, and many saucy noses seem to be of the
same way of thinking; since we see them turning up with an expression
of high disdain, as if the lips were so inferior as to merit scorn.
No 'genteel,' well-behaved nose, is guilty of such dastardly
effrontery. Such an one, it is true, may at times flap its nostrils,
and crow lustily over its neighbors, as if it were 'cock of the
walk;' but there is a soft insinuation about an eloquent lip, that
cuts the comb of the braggart, and tames the monarch down to a mere
republican.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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