VIRTUE is like a rich stone, best plain set; and
surely virtue is best, in a body that is comely,
though not of delicate features; and that hath
rather dignity of presence, than beauty of aspect.
Neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful per-
sons are otherwise of great virtue; as if nature were
rather busy, not to err, than in labor to produce
excellency. And therefore they prove accom-
plished, but not of great spirit; and study rather
behavior, than virtue. But this holds not always:
for Augustus Caesar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le
Belle of France, Edward the Fourth of England,
Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophy of Persia,
were all high and great spirits; and yet the most
beautiful men of their times. In beauty, that of
favor, is more than that of color; and that of decent
and gracious motion, more than that of favor. That
is the best part of beauty, which a picture cannot
express; no, nor the first sight of the life. There is no
excellent beauty, that hath not some strangeness
in the proportion. A man cannot tell whether
Apelles, or Albert Durer, were the more trifler;
whereof the one, would make a personage by geo-
metrical proportions; the other, by taking the best
parts out of divers faces, to make one excellent.
Such personages, I think, would please nobody,
but the painter that made them. Not but I think a
painter may make a better face than ever was; but
he must do it by a kind of felicity (as a musician
that maketh an excellent air in music), and not by
rule. A man shall see faces, that if you examine
them part by part, you shall find never a good;
and yet altogether do well. If it be true that the
principal part of beauty is in decent motion, cer-
tainly it is no marvel, though persons in years
seem many times more amiable; pulchrorum
autumnus pulcher; for no youth can be comely
but by pardon, and considering the youth, as to
make up the comeliness. Beauty is as summer
fruits,) which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last;
and for the most part it makes a dissolute youth,
and an age a little out of countenance; but yet cer-
tainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtue shine,
and vices blush.
Back to: The Essays