That no Woman is capable of being Beautiful, who is not incapable of
    being False.

    And, That what would be Odious in a Friend, is Deformity in a
    Mistress.

From these few Principles, thus laid down, it will be easie to prove, that the true Art of assisting Beauty consists in Embellishing the whole Person by the proper Ornaments of virtuous and commendable Qualities.  By this Help alone it is that those who are the Favourite Work of Nature, or, as Mr. Dryden expresses it, the Porcelain Clay of human Kind [2], become animated, and are in a Capacity of exerting their Charms:  And those who seem to have been neglected by her, like Models wrought in haste, are capable, in a great measure, of finishing what She has left imperfect.

It is, methinks, a low and degrading Idea of that Sex, which was created to refine the Joys, and soften the Cares of Humanity, by the most agreeable Participation, to consider them meerly as Objects of Sight.  This is abridging them of their natural Extent of Power, to put them upon a Level with their Pictures at Kneller’s.  How much nobler is the Contemplation of Beauty heighten’d by Virtue, and commanding our Esteem and Love, while it draws our Observation?  How faint and spiritless are the Charms of a Coquet, when compar’d with the real Loveliness of Sophronia’s Innocence, Piety, good Humour and Truth; Virtues which add a new Softness to her Sex, and even beautify her Beauty!  That Agreeableness, which must otherwise have appeared no longer in the modest Virgin, is now preserv’d in the tender Mother, the prudent Friend, and the faithful Wife.  Colours, artfully spread upon Canvas, may entertain the Eye, but not affect the Heart; and she, who takes no care to add to the natural Graces of her Person any excelling Qualities, may be allowed still to amuse, as a Picture, but not to triumph as a Beauty.

When Adam is introduced by Milton describing Eve in Paradise, and relating to the Angel the Impressions he felt upon seeing her at her first Creation, he does not represent her like a Grecian Venus by her Shape or Features, but by the Lustre of her Mind which shone in them, and gave them their Power of charming.

    Grace was in all her Steps, Heaven in her Eye,
    In all her Gestures Dignity and Love.

  Without this irradiating Power the proudest Fair One ought to know,
  whatever her Glass may tell her to the contrary, that her most perfect
  Features are Uninform’d and Dead.

  I cannot better close this Moral, than by a short Epitaph written by
  Ben Johnson, with a Spirit which nothing could inspire but such an
  Object as I have been describing.

    Underneath this Stone doth lie
    As much Virtue as cou’d die,
    Which when alive did Vigour give
    To as much Beauty as cou’d live. [3]