Francis Bacon - The Essays 1601
OF BEAUTY
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 persons
are otherwise of great virtue;
as if nature were rather busy, not to err,
than in labor to produce excellency.
And therefore they prove accomplished,
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 geometrical 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,
certainly 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 certainly again,
if it light well,
it maketh virtue shine, and vices blush.
- Impressum -