Though you haven't read it, could you please tell me if there are examples of paradox (also called oxymoron) in the following sentences? I can’t find them.
1) "And beauty is a form of genius... is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts of the world, like sunlight, or spring-time, or the reflection in dark waters of that silver shell we call the moon. It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty. It makes princes of those who have it.
2) "You smile? Ah! when you have lost it you won't smile... People say sometimes that beauty is only superficial. That may be so, but at least it is not so superficial as thought is. To me, beauty is the wonder of wonders. It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible...
I don't see paradox in the first one of those:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/paradox
Beauty: "It cannot be questioned. It has its divine right of sovereignty." What??
Beauty: "It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible..." This can be considered a paradox if you are going with definition #4 in the definition linked above.
In the given sentences, there are examples of paradox or oxymoron. Let's identify them:
1) In the first sentence, the phrase "needs no explanation" is paradoxical because it suggests that beauty, despite being a fascinating concept, cannot be fully understood or explained. The notion of something being both self-evident and unexplainable creates a paradoxical statement.
2) In the second sentence, the phrase "superficial as thought" is an oxymoron. It juxtaposes the idea of beauty being superficial with the assertion that thought is even more superficial. The contradiction lies in suggesting that something often regarded as profound (thought) is actually shallower than something deemed superficial (beauty).
It is essential to note that paradox and oxymoron are similar literary devices, but they are not exactly interchangeable. Paradox refers to a statement or situation that appears contradictory but may contain some truth or deeper meaning, while oxymoron is a combination of words with contrasting meanings within one phrase.
To find examples of paradox or oxymoron in a text, it is crucial to analyze phrases or statements that contain contradictory elements, opposing ideas, or unexpected combinations of words.