Diana of the crossways

" Among the Diaries beginning with the second quarter of our century, there is frequent mention of a lady then becoming famous for her beauty and her wit : 'an unusual combination, ' in the deliberate syllables of one of the writers, who is, however, not disposed to personal irony when speaking of her. It is otherwise in his case and a general fling at the sex we may deem pardonable, for doing as little harm to womankind as the stone of an urchin cast upon the bosom of mother Earth ; though men must look some day to have it returned to them, which is a certainty ; and indeed full surely will our idle-handed youngster too, in his riper season ; be heard complaining of a strange assault of wanton missiles, coming on him he knows not whence ; for we are all of us distinctly marked to get back what we give, even from the thing named inanimate nature".