It is a character governed by a principle of
its own, and not by rules taken from other men's experience; and
therefore it is that
"Age cannot wither them, nor custom stale
Their infinite variety."
Like violins, they gain by age, and the spirit of him who discourseth
through them most excellent music,
"Like wine well kept and long,
Heady, nor harsh, nor strong,
With each succeeding year is quaffed
A richer, purer, mellower draught."
Our French neighbors have been the object of humorous satire for their
new coinage of terms to describe the heroes of their modern romance.
A hero is no hero unless he has "ravaged brows," is "blase" or "brise"
or "fatigue." His eyes must be languid, and his cheeks hollow. Youth,
health and strength, charm no more; only the tree broken by the gust
of passion is beautiful, only the lamp that has burnt out the better
part of its oil precious, in their eyes. This, with them, assumes the
air of caricature and grimace, yet it indicates a real want of this
time--a feeling that the human being ought to grow more rather than
less attractive with the passage of time, and that the decrease in
physical charms would, in a fair and full life, be more than
compensated by an increase of those which appeal to the imagination
and higher feelings.
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