Beau-ideal

To this same level of the beau-ideal the imagination in absence descends as well as rises—and it is by this theory alone I can account for having done injustice to Mrs. Norton's beauty in my remembrance of her.

It seems but proper, every way, therefore, for us to know, that this king of poets and philosophers was also among the best of men ; that, in his character, modesty and humility kept pace with greatness ; and that he was as much better than the beau-ideals of our intellectual popinjays and dandiprats, as those beau-ideals were prouder than he.

The latter says—“I felt the future ; I foretold that they would prove themselves the finest things on earth, that they would overturn the false beau-ideal, where nature was nothing, and establish the true beau-ideal of which nature alone is the basis."