前些时候网罗了一套四卷本的《英诗选评》（The English Poets: Selections with Critical Introductions by Various Writers and General Introduction），编者前言说，这是独特的诗选，以前没有过的。还说，there are innumerable volumes of “Beauties” of a more or less unsatisfactory kind……这儿见“美人”，令我想起前-前些时候的一本书，Beauties of the British Poets: with Notices, Biographical and Critical (1824)——当时想当然认为是英国诗人写美人的。现在看来，“Beauties”就是一种诗歌选本而已，自作多情了。

真是那样的吗？也许可以从OED追寻beauty的意思，果然，有下面的义项：复数形式，用于选段的标题——

6b.pl.In the titles ofcollections of the beautiful or choice passages of a writer or speaker, orexamples of art.

例子很多：

  1737    The Beauties of the English Stage, consisting of all the celebrated passages, soliloquies,   similies, descriptions and other poetical beauties in the Englishplays, etc.

1752      W. Dodd. The Beauties of Shakespear, regularly selected from each play.

1767       The Beauties of English Poesy. Selected by Oliver Goldsmith.  

1786       The beauties of the British Senate, taken from the debates of the Lords andCommons.

         1865     Beauties of Poetry and Art.

字典还列举了一个有趣的例句：It might have been fancied that the days of ‘Beauties’, ‘Gems’, ‘Anthologies’ were over.  （Athenæum 31 Mar. 442/1, 1869）