Naples: and a crowd of those loungers, whether young or old, who attach
themselves to the reigning beauty, was gathered round Madame de
Ventadour.  Generally speaking, there is more caprice than taste in the
election of a beauty to the Italian throne.  Nothing disappoints a
stranger more than to see for the first time the woman to whom the world
has given the golden apple.  Yet he usually falls at last into the
popular idolatry, and passes with inconceivable rapidity from indignant
scepticism into superstitious veneration.  In fact, a thousand things
beside mere symmetry of feature go to make up the Cytherea of the hour.
--tact in society--the charm of manner--nameless and piquant
brilliancy.  Where the world find the Graces they proclaim the Venus.
Few persons attain pre-eminent celebrity for anything, without some
adventitious and extraneous circumstances which have nothing to do with
the thing celebrated.  Some qualities or some circumstances throw a
mysterious or personal charm about them.  "Is Mr.  So-and-So really such
a genius?" "Is Mrs.  Such-a-One really such a beauty?" you ask
incredulously.  "Oh, yes," is the answer.  "Do you know all about him or
her? Such a thing is said, or such a thing has happened." The idol is
interesting in itself, and therefore its leading and popular attribute
is worshipped.