“Wine is strong, the king is strong, women are strong, but truth overcometh all things,” Esd. i. 3, 10, 11, 12.  “Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding, for the merchandise thereof is better than silver, and the gain thereof better than gold:  it is more precious than pearls, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her,” Prov. ii. 13, 14, 15, a wise, true, just, upright, and good man, I say it again, is only fair:  [4562]it is reported of Magdalene Queen of France, and wife to Lewis 11th, a Scottish woman by birth, that walking forth in an evening with her ladies, she spied M. Alanus, one of the king’s chaplains, a silly, old, [4563]hard-favoured man fast asleep in a bower, and kissed him sweetly; when the young ladies laughed at her for it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did embrace and reverence, but, with a platonic love, the divine beauty of [4564]his soul.  Thus in all ages virtue hath been adored, admired, a singular lustre hath proceeded from it:  and the more virtuous he is, the more gracious, the more admired.  No man so much followed upon earth as Christ himself:  and as the Psalmist saith, xlv. 2, “He was fairer than the sons of men.”  Chrysostom Hom. 8 in Mat. Bernard Ser. 1. de omnibus sanctis; Austin, Cassiodore, Hier. in 9 Mat. interpret it of the [4565]beauty of his person; there was a divine majesty 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. xliv. of both; and so doth Baradius and Peter Morales, lib de pulchritud.  Jesu et Mariae, adding as much of Joseph and the Virgin Mary,—­haec alias forma praecesserit omnes, [4566]according to that prediction of Sibylla Cumea.  Be they present or absent, near us, or afar off, this beauty shines, and will attract men many miles to come and visit it.  Plato and Pythagoras left their country, to see those wise Egyptian priests:  Apollonius travelled into Ethiopia, Persia, to consult with the Magi, Brachmanni, gymnosophists.  The Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon; and “many,” saith [4567]Hierom, “went out of Spain and remote places a thousand miles, to behold that eloquent Livy:”  [4568]_Multi Romam non ut urbem pulcherrimam, aut urbis et orbis dominum Octavianum, sed ut hunc unum inviserent audirentque, a Gadibus profecti sunt._ No beauty leaves such an impression, strikes so deep [4569], or links the souls of men closer than virtue.

[4570] “Non per deos aut pictor posset,
        Aut statuarius ullus fingere
        Talem pulchritudinem qualem virtus habet;”