st" (so Tully wrote to Dolabella) "Marcus Brutus for his
great wit, singular honesty, constancy, sweet conditions; and believe it"
[4557] "there is nothing so amiable and fair as virtue." "I [4558]do
mightily love Calvisinus," (so Pliny writes to Sossius) "a most
industrious, eloquent, upright man, which is all in all with me:" the
affection came from his good parts. And as St. Austin comments on the 84th
Psalm, [4559]"there is a peculiar beauty of justice, and inward beauty,
which we see with the eyes of our hearts, love, and are enamoured with, as
in martyrs, though their bodies be torn in pieces with wild beasts, yet
this beauty shines, and we love their virtues." The [4560]stoics are of
opinion that a wise man is only fair; and Cato in Tully _3 de Finibus_
contends the same, that the lineaments of the mind are far fairer than
those of the body, incomparably beyond them: wisdom and valour according to
[4561]Xenophon, especially deserve the name of beauty, and denominate one
fair, _et incomparabiliter pulchrior est_ (as Austin holds) _veritas
Christianorum quam Helena Graecorum_. "Wine is strong, the king is strong,
women are strong, but truth overcometh all things," Esd. i. 3, 10, 11, 12.
"Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding, for the
merchandise thereof is better than silver, and the gain thereof better than
gold: it is more precious than pearls, and all the things thou canst desire
are not to be compared to her," Prov. ii. 13, 14, 15, a wise, true, just,
upright, and good man, I say it again, is only fair: [4562]it is reported
of Magdalene Queen of France, and wife to Lewis 11th, a Scottish woman by
birth, that walking forth in an evening with her ladies, she spied M.
Alanus, one of the king's chaplains, a silly, old, [4563]hard-favoured man
fast asleep in a bower, and kissed him sweetly; when the young ladies
laughed at her for it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did
embrace and reverence, but, with a platonic love, the divine beauty of
[4564]his soul. Thus in all ages virtue hath been adored, admired, a
singular lustre hath proceeded from it: and the more virtuous he is, the
more gracious, the more admired. No man so much followed upon earth as
Christ himself: and as the Psalmist saith, xlv. 2, "He was fairer than the
sons of men." Chrysostom _Hom. 8 in Mat._ Bernard _Ser. 1. de omnibus
sanctis_; Austin, Cassiodore, _Hier. in 9 Mat._ interpret it of the
[4565]beauty of h