e will not fear, who desires to be alone. Again,
magnanimity is the contempt of every mortal concern; it is the wing
by which we fly into the regions of intellect. And lastly, prudence is
no other than intelligence, declining subordinate objects; and
directing the eye of the soul to that which is immortal and divine.
The soul, thus defined, becomes form and reason, is altogether
incorporeal and intellectual, and wholly participates of that divine
nature, which is the fountain of loveliness, and of whatever is allied
to the beautiful and fair. Hence the soul reduced to intellect becomes
astonishingly beautiful; for as the lambent flame which appears
detached from the burning wood, enlightens its dark and smoky
parts, so intellect irradiates and adorns the inferior powers of the
soul, which, without its aid, would be buried in the gloom of
formless matter. But intellect, and whatever emanates from intellect,
is not the foreign, but the proper ornament of the soul, for the being
of the soul, when absorbed in intellect, is then alone real and true. It
is, therefore, rightly said, that the beauty and good of the soul
consists in her similitude to the Deity_;_ for from hence flows all
her beauty, and her allotment of a better being. But the beautiful
itself is that which is called beings; and turpitude is of a different
nature and participates more of non-entity than being.

But, perhaps, the good and the beautiful are the same, and must be
investigated by one and the same process; and in like manner the
base and the evil. And in the first rank we must place the beautiful,
and consider it as the same with the good; from which immediately
emanates intellect as beautiful. Next to this, we must consider the
soul receiving its beauty from intellect, and every inferior beauty
deriving its origin from the forming power of the soul, whether
conversant in fair actions and offices, or sciences and arts. Lastly,
bodies themselves participate of beauty from the soul, which, as
something divine, and a portion of the beautiful itself, renders
whatever it supervenes and subdues, beautiful as far as its natural
capacity will admit.

Let us, therefore, re-ascend to the good itself, which every soul
desires; and in which it can alone find perfect repose. For if anyone
shall become acquainted with this source of beauty he will then
know what I say, and after what manner he is beautiful. Indeed,
whatever is desirable is a kind of good, since