H. B. Marriott Watson

“ I am not of those who hold, as they barbarously phrase it, that it is chiefly the animal we regard in woman. Affection upon such a basis were rightly unreasonable and fatuous. But to them that seek the soul within the precincts of beauty love wears another guise. ”

“ In that grimace her character was exhibited, and my own fatuity made public.
The philosophy of this fortunate disillusionment is most manifest to an astute thinker. It is a common error to suppose that the object of the affection glorifies her own actions; that from the love flows a divine halo to encircle all the properties of the beloved. ”

“ In one look he shall see nothing but the modest habit of innocence, and if he go no further he will swear she be virtue incarnate. In another there will be pride, and a little pride is most commending to a man of fashion; in yet another, humour—a gift of excellence upon a dull evening, when there is no news in the town; again, timidity, which a man shall find tempting in a woman ”

“ At my table I desired she should so incense my guests, whilst kicking my heels together I might chuckle at my own triumph and their delusion. (It is odd how one's humour lies so in a balance that another's must fall if it rise.) She had moved from her seat and was passing me with this delirious oaf, when, on a sudden (I presume at a remark of his) , she twisted her face into a remarkable grimace.
'Twas not indeed that I hold a grimace beyond the severe limits of beauty ”

“ To be cajoled, indeed, by a pretty seeming were easy even for the wisest, but haply there will come a time when the miserable man shall discover his folly. It is this knowledge should set us on edge to watch the phases ere it be too late. ”