Lady Hester Stanhope, in a letter she wrote to Prince Pückler Muskau, describes her system briefly as follows; and she desired me to keep a copy of it,
—that is not the star that pleases me;" and she returned me the engraving, with some signs of impatience. I imagined, as there was a maid in the room, that she did so, lest the girl should report that she adored the Virgin Mary. I then showed her a painting of the Nozze Aldobrandini. "Ah!" said she, after examining it, "that figure," pointing to the one farthest on the spectator's right hand, "is the star I like, only the eyes do not belong to that countenance: if the eyes were as they ought to be, that figure would be charming." There was much truth in the observations she made on the blunders of artists and sculptors in giving incongruous features to their works. An ordinary observer has only to look at the statues of the ancients, and he will find that the forehead, nose, mouth, ears, and limbs of a Minerva, are such as he will see in grave and dignified women, totally different from the same features in a Diana or a Venus. Each temperament, each class of beings in nature, has its external marks, which never vary in character, but only in degree. But painters are accustomed to make a selection of what they suppose the most perfect Grecian lines, and to clap them on to a body, whether it be for a muse, an amazon, a nymph, or a courtezan: this is obviously false. "There are some women who are born courtezans," Lady Hester would say, "and whatever their station in life is, they must be so. Thus, Lady was so by nature; from the time she first came out, she had the air of a woman of the town: Mademoiselle de , who married one of the , nothing could have ever altered her. There was a woman for great passions! it was almost indecent to be where she was."
