rabic, or Syriac.

"With a fondness for philosophy she united a love of letters as rare as
it is attractive; and in the companionship of scholars and poets her
mind expanded as it added to its priceless store of wealth. She was not
only familiar with the heroic tales and traditions, the poetic myths and
chronicles, and the religious legends, of ancient Egypt, but she was
well versed, too, in the literature and science of Phoenicia and
Chaldaea, of Greece and Rome; she was skilled also in metallurgy and
chemistry; and a proficient in astronomy and the other sciences
cultivated in the age in which she lived. Her skill in music found none
to equal it. Her voice itself was perfect melody, and touched by her
fingers the cithara seemed instinct with life, and from its strings
there rolled a gushing flood of glorious symphonies. She was eloquent
and imaginative, witty and animated. Her conversation, therefore, was
charming; and if she exhibited caprice, which she sometimes did, it was
forgotten in the inevitable grace of her manner."

Essentially Greek in all her characteristics, she possessed the wisdom
of Athena, the dignity of Hera, and the witchery of Aphrodite. An
enthusiastic writer has thus described her: "She was tall of stature and
queenly in gait and appearance. The warm sun of that southern clime had
tinged her cheek with a hue of brown, but her complexion was as clear
and pure as the serene sky that smiled above her head, and distinctly
traced beneath it were the delicate veins filled with the rich blood
that danced so wildly when inflamed with hate or heated with passion.
Her eyes and hair were like jet and as glossy as the raven's plume. The
former were large and, as was characteristic of her race, apparently
half-shut and slightly turned up at the outer angles, thus adding to the
naturally arch expression of her countenance; but they were full, too,
of brilliancy and fire. Both nose and chin were small, but fashioned as
with all the nicety of the sculptor's art; and her pearly teeth nestled
lovingly between the coral lips whose kisses were as sweet as honey
from the hives of Hybla."

Plutarch expresses himself rather differently from the modern
writer,--who draws largely on his imagination,--and perhaps more
truthfully:

"There was nothing so incomparable in her beauty as to compel
admiration; but by the charm of her physiognomy, the grace of her whole
person, the fascination of her presence, Cleopatra left