It moves from a tone of grayness to a more romantic and poetic vision, both strongly associated with the liberal fluidity of individual perceptions. Stephen also begins to see beauty in a new and more personal way. His previous encounters with women, particularly prostitutes, did not allow him to appreciate the beauty of a woman, but rather were an attempt to express himself as an individual in a system that frowned upon this notion. The descriptions of these encounters are fleeting and dry, implying much more than was actually said, and were, even before his "repentance", a source of guilt and shame. But, once Stephen begins to assert his individuality, he is able to appreciate beauty according to his own aesthetic, as we see in his ecstatic description of the girl he sees wading in the stream (p. 185). . he emerges from the experience viewing her as a “wild angel…of mortal youth and beauty.” (186) His later conversation about fire and beauty with the Dean of Studies, with Stephen quoting Thomas Aquinas, takes on a condescending and insincere tone when compared to this description. Stephen has already found his aesthetic, and Aquinas' quote is a statement of compromise: "Pulcra sunt quae visa placent" leaves Stephen enough room for his individual vision, while still moving this fact beyond the dean under the appearance of