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 Bel of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alicibiades 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 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 as 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 [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 make the virtue shine, and vices blush.

hath: <废>have的第三人称单数现在式

trifler: 不务正业的人；吊儿郎当的人

personage: 要人, 名流, 个人

geometrical: 几何学的，几何的
Apelles: Greek painter whose works, none of which survives, are described in ancient writings.
divers: Various; several; sundry.
felicity: Great happiness; bliss.
dissolute: Lacking moral restraint; indulging in sensual pleasures or vices. 放纵的，生活放荡的缺少道德限制；沉溺于性快乐或堕落中

王佐良翻译

德行犹如宝石，朴素最美；其于人也：则有德者但须形体悦目，不必面貌俊秀，与其貌美
，不若气度恢宏。人不尽知：绝色无大德也；一如自然劳碌终日， 但求无过，而无力制成
上品。因此美男子有才而无壮志，重行而不重德。 但亦不尽然。罗马大帝奥古斯提与泰特
思，法王菲律浦，英王爱德华四世， 古雅典之亚西拜提斯，波斯之伊斯迈帝，皆有宏图壮
志而又为当时最美之人也。 美不在颜色艳丽而在面目端正，又不尽在面目端正而在举止文
雅合度。美之极致， 非图画所能表，乍见所能识。举凡最美之人，其部位比例， 必有异
于常人之处。阿贝尔与杜勒皆画家也，其画人像也，一则按照几何学之比例， 一则集众脸
形之长于一身，二者谁更不智，实难断言，窃以为此等画像除画家本人外， 恐无人喜爱也
。余不否认画像之美可以超绝尘寰，但此美必为神笔， 而非可依规矩得之者，乐师之谱成
名曲亦莫不皆然。人面如逐部细察，往往一无是处， 观其整体则光彩夺目。美之要素既在
于举止，则年长美过年少亦无足怪。 古人云：“美者秋日亦美。”年少而著美名，率由宽
假，盖鉴其年事之少， 而补其形体之不足也。美者犹如夏日蔬果，易腐难存；要之，年少
而美者常无行， 年长而美者不免面有惭色。虽然，但须托体得人，则德行因美而益彰， 
恶行见美而愈愧。

    弗兰西斯·培根（Francis Bacon ，1561—1626）是英国哲学家、作家和科学家。他竭力倡导“读史使人明智，读诗使人聪慧，数学使人精密，哲理使人深刻，伦理学使人有修养，逻辑修辞使人善辩。”（Histories make men wise, poets witty, the mathematics subtle, natural philosophy deep, moral grave, logic and rhetoric able to contend)
　　他推崇科学、发展科学的进步思想和崇尚知识的进步口号，一直推动着社会的进步。这位一生追求真理的思想家，被马克思称为“英国唯物主义和整个现代实验科学的真正始祖”。他在逻辑学、美学、教育学方面也提出许多思想。著有《新工具》、《论说随笔文集》等。后者收入58篇随笔，从各个角度论述广泛的人生问题，精妙、有哲理，拥有很多读者。