For the beauty of a lovely woman is like music; what can one say
more? Beauty has an expression beyond and far above the one woman's
soul that it clothes, as the words of genius have a wider meaning than
the thought that prompted them; it is more than a woman's love that
moves us in a woman's eyes--it seems to be a far-off, mighty love
that has come near to us, and made speech for itself there; the
rounded neck, the dimpled arm, move us by something more than their
prettiness--by their close kinship with all we have known of tenderness
and peace. [Footnote: Adam Bede, chapter XXXIII.]

Love, music and beautiful landscapes continually inspire the poetic side of
her nature; and these themes, which are constantly recurring in her
chapters, draw forth her imagination and give fervor and enthusiasm to her
expression. Her love of nature is deep and most appreciative of all its
transformations and beauties. This sensitiveness to the changes of the
outward world is a large element in her mind, and indicates the reality of
her poetic gifts. This may be seen in a passage such as the following:--

The ride to Stone Court, which Fred and Rosamond took the next morning,
lay through a pretty bit of midland landscape, almost all meadows and
pastures, with hedgerows still allowed to grow in bushy beauty, and to
spread out coral fruit for the birds. Little details gave each field a
particular physiognomy, dear to the eyes that have looked on them from
childhood; the pool in the corner where the grasses were dank and
trees leaned whisperingly; the great oak shadowing a bare place in
mid-pasture; the high bank where the ash-trees grew; the sudden slope
of the old marl-pit making a red background for the burdock; the
huddled roofs and ricks of the homestead without a traceable way of
approach; the gray gate and fences against the depths of the bordering
wood; and the stray hovel, its old, old thatch full of mossy hills and
valleys, with wondrous modulations of light and shadow, such as we
travel far to see in later life, and see larger, but not more
beautiful. These are the things that made the gamut of joy in landscape
to midland-bred souls--the things they toddled among, or perhaps
learned by heart, standing between their father's knees while he drove
leisurely. [Footnote: Middlemarch, chapter XII.]

It is nature as affecting man,