What kind-hearted woman, young or old, does not love
match-making?--_The Newcomes._


Who does not know how ruthlessly women will tyrannize when they are
let to domineer? And who does not know how useless advice is?... A
man gets his own experience about women, and will take nobody's
hearsay; nor, indeed, is the young fellow worth a fig that
would.--_Henry Esmond._


Stupid! Why not? Some women ought to be stupid. What you call
dullness I call repose. Give me a calm woman, a slow woman,--a
lazy, majestic woman. Show me a gracious virgin bearing a lily;
not a leering giggler frisking a rattle. A lively woman would be
the death of me.... Why shouldn't the Sherrick be stupid, I say?
About great beauty there should always reign a silence. As you look
at the great stars, the great ocean, any great scene of nature, you
hush, sir. You laugh at a pantomime, but you are still in a temple.
When I saw the great Venus of the Louvre, I thought,--Wert thou
alive, O goddess, thou shouldst never open those lovely lips but to
speak lowly, slowly; thou shouldst never descend from that pedestal
but to walk stately to some near couch, and assume another attitude
of beautiful calm. To be beautiful is enough. If a woman can do
that well; who shall demand more from her? You don't want a rose to
sing. And I think wit is as out of place where there's great
beauty; as I wouldn't have a queen to cut jokes on her
throne.--_The Newcomes._