弗朗西斯·培根/Francis Bacon
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 Bel 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...
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“beautiful persons have a beautiful autumn”; 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.
美德好比寶石，它在相互背景的襯托下反而更華麗。同樣，一個打扮並不華貴卻端莊嚴肅而有美德的人，是令人肅然起敬的。美貌的人並不都有其他方麵的才能。因為造物是吝嗇的，他給了此就不再予彼。所以許多容顏俊秀的人卻一無作為，他們過於追求外形美而放棄了內在美。但這話也不全對，因為奧古斯都、菲斯帕斯、腓力普王、愛德華四世、阿爾西巴底斯、伊斯梅爾等，都既是大丈夫，又是美男子。仔細考究起來，形體之美要勝於顏色之美，而優雅行為之美又勝於形體之美。最極致的美是畫家所無法表現的，因為它是難於直觀的。這是一種奇妙的美。曾經有兩位畫家——阿皮雷特和丟勒滑稽地認為，可以按照幾何比例，或者通過攝取不同人身上最美的點，作畫合成一張最完美的人像。其實像這樣畫出來的美人，恐怕隻有畫家本人喜歡。美是不能製訂規範的，創造它的常常是機遇，而不是公式。有許多臉型，就它的部分看並不優美，但作為整體卻非常動人。