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no excellent Beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. A man cannot tell, whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler ; whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions, the other by taking the best parts out of divers faces to make one excellent. Such personages I think would please nobody, but the painter that made them. Not but I think a painter may make a better face than ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity, (as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music) and not by rule. A man shall see faces, that if examine them part by you part, you shall find never a good, and yet all together do well. If it be true, that the principal part of Beauty is in decent motion, certainly it is no marvel though persons in years seem many times more amiable, "Of all beautiful things, Autumn is the most beautiful;" for no youth can be comely but by pardon, and considering the youth as to make up the comeliness. Beauty is as summer-fruits, which are easy to corrupt, and cannot last; and for the most part it makes a dissolute youth, and an age, a little out of countenance; but yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtues shine, and vices blush.

Of Deformity.

DEFORMED persons are commonly even with

Nature; for as Nature hath done ill by them, so do they by Nature, being for the most part (as the Scripture saith) void of natural affection, and so they have revenge of Nature. Certainly, there is a consent between the body and the mind; and where Nature erreth in the one, she ventureth in the other: "Ubi peccat in uno, periclitatur in altero." "Where she errs in the one, there is danger that she will do so in the other." But because there is in man an election touching the frame of his mind, and a necessity in the frame of his body, the stars of natural inclination are sometimes obscured by the sun of discipline and virtue: therefore it is good to consider of Deformity, not as a sign which is more deceivable, but as a cause which seldom faileth of the effect. Whosoever hath any thing fixed in his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn. Therefore all deformed persons are extreme bold. First, as in their own defence, as being exposed to scorn, but in process of time, by a general habit. Also it stirreth in them industry, and especially of this kind, to watch and observe the weakness of others, that they may have somewhat to repay. Again, in their

superiors, it quencheth jealousy towards them, as persons that they think they may at pleasure despise and it layeth their competitors and emulators asleep, as never believing they should be in possibility of advancement, till they see them in possession; so that upon the matter in a great wit, Deformity is an advantage to rising. Kings in ancient times (and at this present in some countries) were wont to put great trust in eunuchs; because they that are envious to all, are more obnoxious and officious towards one. But yet their trust towards them hath rather been as to good spials, and good whisperers, than good magistrates and officers. And much like is the reason of deformed persons. Still the ground is, they will, if they be of spirit, seek to free themselves from scorn, which must be either by virtue or malice; and therefore let it not be marvelled if sometimes they prove excellent persons; as was 'Agesilaus, Zanger the son of Solyman, Æsop, Gasca President of Peru; and Socrates may go likewise amongst them, with others.

Of Building.

HOUSES are built to live in, and not to look on: therefore let use be preferred before uniformity, except where both may be had. Leave the

goodly fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to the enchanted palaces of the poets, who build them with small cost. He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat, committeth himself to prison. Neither do I reckon it an ill seat only where the air is unwholesome, but likewise where the air is unequal; as you shall see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground, environed with higher hills round about it, whereby the heat of the sun is pent in, and the wind gathereth as in troughs; so as you shall have, and that suddenly, as great diversity of heat and cold, as if you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air only that maketh an ill seat, but ill ways, ill markets, and, if you will consult with Momus, ill neighbours. I speak not of any more: want of water, want of wood, shade and shelter, want of fruitfulness, and mixture of grounds of several natures, want of prospect, want of level grounds, want of places at some near distance for sports of hunting, hawking, and races; too near the sea, too remote; having the commodity of navigable rivers, or the discommodity of their overflowing; too far off from great cities, which may hinder business, or too near them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh every thing dear: where a man hath a great living laid together, and where he is scanted. All which, as it is impossible perhaps to find together, so it is good to know them, and think of them,

that a man may take as many as he can; and if he have several dwellings, that he sort them so, that what he wanteth in the one, he may find in the other. Lucullus answered Pompey well, who, when he saw his stately galleries and rooms so large and lightsome in one of his houses, said: "Surely an excellent place for summer, but how do you in winter?" Lucullus answered: " Why do you not think me as wise as some fowls are, that ever change their abode towards the winter?"

Το pass from the seat to the house itself, we will do as Cicero doth in the orator's art, who writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles Orator; whereof the former delivers the precepts of the art, and the latter the perfection. We will therefore describe a princely palace, making a brief model thereof. For it is strange to see now in Europe such huge Buildings, as the Vatican, and Escurial, and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair room in them.

First therefore, I say, you cannot have a perfect palace, except you have two several sides; a side for the banquet, as is spoken of in the book of Hester, and a side for the household; the one for feasts and triumphs, and the other for dwelling. I understand both these sides to be not only returns, but parts of the front, and to be uniform without, though severally partitioned within; and to be on

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