I have ever loved as thou knowest (so Tully wrote to Dolabella) Marcus Brutus for his great wit, singular honesty, constancy, sweet conditions: and believe it there is nothing so amiable and fair as vertue.

I do mightily love Calvisius, (so Pliny writs to Sosius) a most industrious, eloquent, upright man, which is all in all with me: The affection came from his good parts.

And as S. Austin comments on the 84. Psalm, 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 to pieces with wilde beasts, yet this beauty shines, and we love their vertues.

The Stoicks 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 minde are far fairer then those of the body, incomparably beyond them: wisdom and valour according to Xenophon, especially deserve the name of beauty, and denominate one fair, & incomparabiliter pulchrior est (as Austin holds) veritas Christianorum quam Helena Græcorum.

Wine is strong, the King is strong, women are strong, but truth overcometh all things, Esd. 1. 3. 10, 11, 12. Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding; for the merchandise thereof is better then silver, and the gain thereof better then gold; it is more precious then pearls, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her, Prov. 2. 13, 14, 15. a wise, true, just, upright, and good man, I say it again, is onely fair:

It is reported of Magdalen Queen of France, and wife to Lewes 11th, a Scottish woman by birth, that walking forth in an evening with her Ladies, she spied M. Alanus one of the Kings Chaplains, a silly, old, hard-favoured man fast asleep in a Bower, and kissed him sweetly; when the yong Ladies laughed at her for it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did embrace and reverence, but with a Platonick love, the divine beauty of his soul.

Thus in all ages vertue hath been adored, admired, a singular lustre hath proceeded from it: and the more vertuous he is, the more gratious, the more admired. No man so much followed upon earth as Christ himself; and as the Psalmist saith 45. 2. He was fairer then the sons of men.

Chrysostome Hom. 8. in Mat. Bernard Ser. 1. de omnibus sanctis, Austin, Cassiodore, Hier. in 9. Mat. interpret it of the beauty of his person; there was a divine Majestie in his looks, it shined like Lightning, and drew all men to it: but Basil, Cyril. lib. 6. super. 55. Esay. Theodoret, Arnobius, &c. of the beauty of his divinity, justice, grace, eloquence, &c. Thomas in Psal. 44. of both; and so doth Baradius, and Peter Morales, lib. de pulchritud. Jesu & Mariæ, adding as much of Joseph and the Virgin Mary,

———hæc alios formâ præcesserit omnes,

according to that prediction of Sybilla Cumea. Be they present or absent, near us, or afar off, this beauty shines, and will attract men many miles to come and visite it. Plato and Pythagoras left their Countrey, to see those wise Egyptian Priests: Apollonius travelled into Æthiopia, Persia, to consult with the Magi, Brachmanni, Gymnosophists.

The Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon; and many, saith Hierom, went out of Spain and remote places a thousand miles, to behold that eloquent Livy; Multi Romam non ut urbem pulcherrimam, aut urbis & orbis dominum Octavianum, sed ut hunc unum inviserent audirentque, à Gadibus profecti sunt.

No beauty leaves such an impression, strikes so deep, or links the souls of men closer then vertue.

Non per deos aut pictor posset, Aut statuarius ullus fingere Talem pulchritudinem qualem virtus habet;

no Painter, no Graver, no Carver can express vertues lustre, or those admirable rayes that come from it, those enchanting rayes that enamour posterity, those everlasting rayes that continue to the worlds end.

Many, saith Phavorinus, that loved and admired Alcibiades, in his youth, knew not, cared not for Alcibiades a man, nunc intuentes quærebant Alcibiadem: but the beauty of Socrates is still the same; vertues lustre never fades, is ever fresh and green, semper viva to all succeeding ages, and a most attractive loadstone, to draw and combine such as are present. For that reason belike, Homer feigns the three Graces to be linked and tied hand in hand, because the hearts of men are so firmly united with such graces.

O sweet bands (Seneca exclaims) which so happily combine, that those which are bound by them love their binders, desiring withall, much more harder to be bound, and as so many Geryons to be united into one.

For the nature of true friendship is to combine, to be like affected, of one minde,

Velle & nolle ambobus idem, satiataq; toto Mens ævo ——

as the Poet saith, still to continue one and the same. And where this love takes place, there is peace and quietness, a true correspondence, perfect amity, a Diapason of vowes and wishes, the same opinions, as betwixt David and Jonathan, Damon, and Pythias, Pylades and Orestes, Nysus and Euryalus, Theseus and Perithous, they will live and die together, and prosecute one another with good turns. Nam vinci in amore turpissimum putant,

not only living, but when their friends are dead, with Tombs and monuments, Nænia’s, Epitaphs, Elegies, Inscriptions, Pyramids, Obelisks, Statues, Images, Pictures, Histories, Poems, Annals, Feasts, Anniversaries, many ages after (as Plato’s Schollers did) they will parentare still, omit no good office that may tend to the preservation of their names, honours, and eternall memory.