Homines, sed eodem pacto ut insani solent.
I lov'd her not as others soberly,
But as a madman rageth, so did I.
He cast his eye upon Emilia,
And therewith he blent and cried ha, ha,
As though he had been stroke unto the hearta.
If you desire to know more particularly what this beauty is, how it doth Influere, how it doth fascinate (for, as all hold, love is a fascination), thus in brief. [4910]“This comeliness or beauty ariseth from the due proportion of the whole, or from each several part.” For an exact delineation of which, I refer you to poets, historiographers, and those amorous writers, to Lucian's Images, and Charidemus, Xenophon's description of Panthea, Petronius Catalectes, Heliodorus Chariclia, Tacius Leucippe, Longus Sophista's Daphnis and Chloe, Theodorus Prodromus his Rhodanthes, Aristaenetus and Philostratus Epistles, Balthazar Castilio, lib. 4. de aulico. Laurentius, cap. 10, de melan. Aeneas Sylvius his Lucretia, and every poet almost, which have most accurately described a perfect beauty, an absolute feature, and that through every member, both in men and women. Each part must concur to the perfection of it; for as Seneca saith, Ep. 33. lib. 4. Non est formosa mulier cujus crus laudatur et brachium, sed illa cujus simul universa facies admirationem singulis partibus dedit; “she is no fair woman, whose arm, thigh, &c. are commended, except the face and all the other parts be correspondent.” And the face especially gives a lustre to the rest: the face is it that commonly denominates a fair or foul: arx formae facies, the face is beauty's tower; and though the other parts be deformed, yet a good face carries it (facies non uxor amatur) that alone is most part respected, principally valued, deliciis suis ferox, and of itself able to captivate.
[4911]Urit te Glycerae nitor,
Urit grata protervitas,
Et vultus nimium lubricus aspici.