THE HAPPY CURÉ
"Such was Socrates said to have been, because the outside beholders, and those estimating him by his external appearance, would not have given the slice of an onion, so plain was he in his person, and ridiculous in his bearing … simple in habits, poor in fortune, unfortunate with women, unfit for all the offices of the republic, always laughing, always drinking with one or another, always sporting, always concealing his divine wisdom."
RABELAIS (Gargantua).
Monsieur Ridoux was a very good fellow, but he was not handsome. A big nose, a big belly, blinking eyes, an enormous mouth, hair on end, the arm of a chimpanzee, and the legs of a Greenlander. At first sight, he gave me the impression of a monkey with young.
But what is a man's outward form? The vessel, more or less regular, filled with a baneful or beneficent liquid, and you all know that the shape of the flagon has no influence on the quality of the wine.
The outward form is the wrapper of the goods: very often that wrapper is brilliant and gilded, of satin or watered silk, and the goods are adulterated and spoiled. At other times the wrapper is rough and coarse, but it enfolds precious commodities.
The stamp of genius is usually found only on countenances with fantastic features. Have you ever seen on the fair insipid faces of our young swells the imprint of a powerful and fertile intelligence?
The body nearly always is adorned at the expense of the mind.
Of all the deformities of nature, the hunchbacks are intellectual in proportion as the handsome men are not.
Enquire of the army its opinion on its pre-eminently fine man, the drum-major.