Montaigne. "I cannot often enough repeat how much I hold beauty to be a potent and advantageous quality. Socrates called it a short tyranny, and Plato the privilege of nature. We have nothing that excels it in credit; it holds the first rank in the commerce of men; it seduces and prepossesses our judgment with great authority and wonderful impression. I find that Cyrus, Alexander, and Cæsar, the three masters of the world, never neglected beauty in their greatest affairs. Aristotle says the right of command belongs to the beautiful, and when one asked him why handsome persons were most sought after, he replied, 'The question is not to be asked by any but the blind.' The Holy Word often calls those good whom it would call fair, and we know of whom it is said, 'Speciosus formâ præ filiis hominum.'" We translate freely. As for the arts they used, you know there remain fragments of a long poem by Ovid on cosmetics.
The Librarian.—You mean the Medicamina faciei.
We.—Yes, and a marvellous specimen of versification it is.
The Librarian.—You are right. Its curiosa felicitas surpasses that of the most ready of our modern poets, Pope and Byron not excepted.
Portia.—The session is becoming learned and dull, isn't it?
The Librarian.—A mild hint that we had better adjourn. Be it so. Though the subject is not ex-
