GRACES, THE

   reckoned at one time two in number, but originally they appear to have been regarded as being, what at bottom they are, one. At last they are spoken of as three, and called Aglaia, Euphrosyne, and Thalia: Thalia, the blooming one, or life in full bloom; Euphrosyne, the cheerful one, or life in the exuberance of joy and sympathy; and Aglaia, the shining one, or life in its effulgence of sunny splendour and glory. But these three are one, involved each in the other, and made perfect in one. There is not Thalia by herself, or Aglaia, but where one truly is, there, in the same being also, the other two are. They are three sisters, as such always inseparable, and in their inseparability alone are Graces. Their secret is not learned from one, but from all three; and they give grace only with fulness, buoyancy, and radiancy of soul, or life, united all in one. They are in essence the soul in its fulness of life and sympathy, pouring itself rhythmically through every obstruction, before which the most solid becomes fluid, transparent, and radiant of itself.