And softened sounds along the waters die:
Smooth flow the waves, the zephyrs gently play. [ Pope ]

The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down, and still fluttered down the snow. [ Lowell ]

Woman was formed to admire; man to be admirable. His are the glories of the sun at noonday; hers the softened splendors of the midnight moon. [ Sir P. Sidney ]

The young mind is naturally pliable and imitative, but in a more advanced state it grows rigid, and must be warmed and softened before it will receive a deep impression. [ Joshua Reynolds ]

What is certain in death is somewhat softened by what is uncertain; it is an indefiniteness in the time which holds a certain relation to the infinite, and what is called eternity. [ La Bruyere ]

The light of genius never sets, but sheds itself upon other faces, in different hues of splendor. Homer glows in the softened beauty of Virgil, and Spenser revives in the decorated learning of Gray. [ Willmott ]

A mother's love is indeed the golden link that binds youth to age; and he is still but a child, however time may have furrowed his cheek or silvered his brow, who can yet recall, with a softened heart, the fond devotion, or the gentle chidings, of the best friend that God ever gives us. [ Bovee ]