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Gen_12:11 And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou [art] a fair woman to look upon:
Ver. 11. Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman.] And yet she was now sixty-five years of age; wherein she was a figure of "Jerusalem the mother of us all." {Gal_4:26 Son_1:15; Son_4:1} Sarai’s chief beauty was that of "the hidden man of the heart," as saith St Peter. {1Pe_3:4; 1Pe_3:6} But outward beauty is very lovely and attractive. Plato calls it the principality of nature; Aristotle, a greater commendation than all epistles. And being asked whether beauty were amiable, he answered, That’s a blind man’s question. {a} The poet could say, Gratior est pulchro veniens in corpore virtus -
That virtue hath a better grace
That shineth from a beauteous face.
Howbeit, Seneca saith, he was out in that saying; for that virtue needs no ornament more than she hath of her own, but beautifies herself sufficiently, and consecrates the body, wherein she dwells. {b} But by the leave of so great a philosopher, I am of the poet’s mind; and although I grant that favour without grace is but a gold ring in a swine’s snout, as Solomon hath it, or ornamentum in luto , as another (so it was in Alcibiades for a man, and in Aurelia Orestilla for a woman), yet surely, where they meet, they make a happy conjunction, and draw all hearts to them, as in Germanicus (for a man), in whom beauty and virtue strove for precedency; and Artaxerxes Longimanus, the son of Esther, who is said to have been of all men the most beautiful and most bountiful. {c} So in Esther (for a woman), who "obtained favour in the sight of all that looked upon her". {Est_2:15} And Aspasia Milesia, the wife of Cyrus, who deserved to be styled êáëç êáé óïöç , fair and wise, as Aelian relateth {d} As on the other side in Vatinius, deformity of body strove with dishonesty of mind, adeo ut animus eius dignissimo domicilio inclusus videretur , saith Paterculus.
{a} Tõöëïõ ôï åñùôçìò .
{b} Ipsa magnum sui decus est, et corpus suum consecrat. - Sen., epist. 67.
{c} Salvian. Cuias praeter formam nihil nunquam, bonus laudavit. - Salust. Káëëéóôïò ìåí ôï óùìá, áñéóôïò äå ôçí øõ÷çí åöõ . - Dio. Artaxerxes, omnium hominum pulcherrimus, ait Emil. Prob.
{d} Aelian Var. Hist., lib. xii. cap. 1.