Most of
us have heard the story: how three young captives, brought from an
almost unknown island on the verge of civilization, and indeed at the
western limit of the then known world, were exposed for sale in Rome,
and how Gregory the Great, not yet Pope, seeing them, was struck by
their beauty and asked what they were, and being told, _Angli_
(English), replied "_Non Angli, sed angeli_" (not Angles, but angels);
which was a tolerable pun for a future Pope and saint. This was twelve
hundred years ago; and since that time the English race has enjoyed the
reputation (subject to some carping criticism, due to the self-love of
other peoples) of being the handsomest in the world. It is well
deserved; indeed, if it were not, it would long ago have been jealously
extinguished. Not improbably, however, the impression made upon Gregory
was greatly due to the fair complexion, blue eyes, and golden brown
hair of the English captives, which, indeed, are mentioned in the
story. For southern Europe is peopled with dark-skinned, dark-haired
races; and the superior beauty of the blonde type was recognized by the
painters, who always, from the earliest days, represented angels as of
that type. The Devil was painted black so much as a matter of course
that his pictured appearance gave rise to a well-known proverb;
ordinary mortals were represented as more or less dark; celestial
people were white and golden-haired; whence the epithet "divinely
fair." When therefore the good Gregory saw the fair, blue-eyed English
youths, his comparison was at once suggested, and his pun was almost
made to his hand. And I am inclined to believe that it is of much later
origin, although he ought to have made it; just as Sidney Smith ought
to have said to Landseer, when he asked the Reverend wit to sit for his
portrait, "Is thy servant a dog that he should do the thing?" and as
the innkeeper ought to have said to Mr. Seward that he was not Governor
of New York, but "Thurlow Weed, by thunder?" but did not. In each of
these cases, however, and in all such, a significant fact is at the
bottom of the story, which otherwise would have no reason for its
being.

It is hardly true, however, that other races do not produce individuals
approaching as nearly to an ideal standard of beauty as any that are
seen among the English. These are found, as we all know, among the
various Latin races, the Celts and the Sclaves, and even, as Mr. Julian
Hawthorne himself would ha