6
The barbarians are not beauty-levers; they are moneylovers. On the contrary, the beauty of this hall has nothing to do with barbarian eyes, Persian flattery, or Sultanic vainglory. Instead of just a poor man, it wants a cultured man for a spectator, who, instead of judging with his eyes, applies thought to what he sees. It faces the fairest quarter of the day (for the fairest and loveliest is surely the beginning); it welcomes in the sun when he first peeps up; light fills it to overflowing through the wide-flung doors; the proportion of length to “breadth and of both to height is harmonious; the windows are generous and well-suited to every season of the year. Is not all this attractive and praiseworthy?
7
One might also admire the ceiling for its reserved modelling, its flawless decoration, and the refined - symmetry of its gilding, which is not unnecessarily lavish, but only in such degree as would suffice a modest and beautiful woman to set off her beauty— a delicate chain round her neck, a light ring on her finger, pendants in her ears, a buckle, a band that confines the luxuriance of her hair and adds as much to her good looks as a purple border adds to a gown. It is courtesans, especially the less attractive of them, who have clothing all purple and necks all gold, trying to secure seductiveness by extravagance and to make up for their lack of beauty by the addition of extraneous charms; they think that their arms will look whiter when they are bright with gold, and that the unshapeliness of their feet will escape notice in golden sandals, and that their very faces will be lovelier when seen together with something very bright. This is the course they follow; but a modest girl uses only what gold is sufficient and necessary, and would not be ashamed of her beauty, I am sure, if she were to show it unadorned.
