la Vallière did not, as might be thought, redeem her face from being plain; and Louis, even after he began to regard her, on discovering her affection for himself, confessed her entire want of beauty; and his taste in everything was admirable. One day a courtier pointed her out to the king, and said, in a jeering tone: “Come hither, fair one, with the dying eyes (la belle aux yeux mourans), who art content with nothing less than monarchs." La Vallière was confused, and the king was vexed at the rudeness. He still saw nothing to admire about her, but, after his gracious fashion, he saluted her with the utmost respect and spoke kindly to her; and he soon after made it known that he wished to see her married to a nobleman of high rank, and that he would compensate for her want of personal charms by the fortune which he would bestow on her. When he came, however, after this to enter more frequently into conversation with this affectionate creature, his kindness became converted into love.* "La Vie de la Duchesse de la Vallière," p. 96. Amongst beautiful squinters is enumerated the Greek poet, Menander. A modern writer on the calamities of genius, mentions the squint of Menander.* The poet is described as living Flowing with unguents the life of a Sybarite. and with a loose robe," says Phædrus, describing his appearance before the tyrant Dionysius, “he came forward with a delicate and languid walk." His passion for female beauty is described as a perfect madness, his love for the courtesan Glycera being much celebrated amongst the Greeks. Some there have been who inflamed all hearts by the fire of a single eye, notwithstanding the almost universal prejudice in favour of two. The Princess of Eboli, the mistress of Philip II., of Spain, who was deprived of the sight of one of her eyes, was, notwithstanding, a perfect miracle of beauty. "Nature," says the Père le Moyne, "had finished with extraordinary care both the mind and the body of this princess, but had only given her one eye; whether it was that she despaired of being able *D. Josephus Barberius, "De Miseria Poetarum," p. 54. Neap. 1686. to make a second equal to the first; or that, in this respect, the princess might resemble the day, which has but one eye; or, as Perez said to Henry the Great, that Nature was afraid that if she had had two eyes she would have set the whole world on fire."* Mrs. Jameson, in her "Memoirs of Early Italian Painters," notices a picture by Titian, called "Philip II. and the Princess of Eboli," in the Fitzwilliam Museum, at Cambridge. According to Dr. Joseph Warton, it was upon the Princess of Eboli and Luis de Maguiron, the most beautiful man of his time, and the favourite of Henry III. of France, who lost an eye at the siege of Isore, that the famous epigram about Acon and Leonilla-the finest of modern Latin epigrams, as it is justly allowed to be-was written. It has been translated, but with little success, into various languages. "Lumine Acon dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro *"La Galérie des Femmes Fortes," par le Père le Moyne, partie 11, p. 25. Paris, 1663. "Acon is deprived of his right eye; Leonilla of the left; and either of them in beauty is able to vanquish the gods. Sweet youth, yield up to your sister the eye that you have; so you will be blind Love, and she will be Venus." Warton believed this renowned epigram to be anonymous. It is, however, the production of an obscure Italian poet, Girolamo Amaltheo (in Latin, Hieronymus Amaltheus), and is to be found amongst his pieces, in a collection of the beauties of two hundred Italian poets.* Only one other epigram by Amaltheo has obtained celebrity. It is the epigram Galla tibi totus sua munera dedicat annus, &c. "Oh, Galla, the whole year dedicates its gifts to thee; the spring has painted with its red thy rosy cheeks and lips; the summer has placed a thousand fires in thy radiant eyes; the autumn hides its fruit in thy bosom, and the winter has sprinkled all the rest with its snow." * "Delitiæ C. C., Italorum Poetarum, hujus, superiorisque ævi Illustrium." Collectore Ranutio Ghero, 1608. HELEN OF TROY. HAVING brought forward a traditional portrait of Hector, I may be allowed to refer to the pictures which have been given of Helen of Troy, the most illustrious name in the history of beauty. Helen, according to the author of the work which bears the name of Dares, and which is believed to have been written during the decline of the Roman literature, resembled her brothers, Castor and Pollux, who had yellow hair and large eyes. "She was besides," says Dares, "beautiful, of a simple mind (as no doubt she was), pleasant, with very fine legs, having a mark between her eyebrows (notam inter duo supercilia habentem; this, I suspect, |