nent; but there was a great harmony in every part, and the turn of
the nostrils and lips evinced, that the soul must have had taste, to
which they had served as organs. Penetration and judgment were seated on
the brows that overhung the eye. Fixed as it was, Sagestus quickly
discerned the expression it must have had; dark and pensive, rather from
slowness of comprehension than melancholy, it seemed to absorb the light
of knowledge, to drink it in ray by ray; nay, a new one was not allowed
to enter his head till the last was arranged: an opinion was thus
cautiously received, and maturely weighed, before it was added to the
general stock. As nature led him to mount from a part to the whole, he
was most conversant with the beautiful, and rarely comprehended the
sublime; yet, said Sagestus, with a softened tone, he was all heart, full
of forbearance, and desirous to please every fellow-creature; but from a
nobler motive than a love of admiration; the fumes of vanity never
mounted to cloud his brain, or tarnish his beneficence. The fluid in
which those placid eyes swam, is now congealed; how often has tenderness
given them the finest water! Some torn parts of the child's dress hung
round his arm, which led the sage to conclude, that he had saved the
child; every line in his face confirmed the conjecture; benevolence
indeed strung the nerves that naturally were not very firm; it was the
great knot that tied together the scattered qualities, and gave the
distinct stamp to the character.

The female whom he next approached, and supposed to be an attendant on
the other, was below the middle size, and her legs were so
disproportionably short, that, when she moved, she must have waddled
along; her elbows were drawn in to touch her long taper, waist, and the
air of her whole body was an affectation of gentility. Death could not
alter the rigid hang of her limbs, or efface the simper that had
stretched her mouth; the lips were thin, as if nature intended she should
mince her words; her nose was small, and sharp at the end; and the
forehead, unmarked by eyebrows, was wrinkled by the discontent that had
sunk her cheeks, on which Sagestus still discerned faint traces of
tenderness; and fierce good-nature, he perceived had sometimes animated
the little spark of an eye that anger had oftener lighted. The same
thought occurred to him that the sight of the sailors had suggested, Men
and women are all in their proper places--this female was