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| Grant that Beauty Be Not to Be Feared: Still It is to Be Shunned as Unnecessary and Vainglorious.
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Chapter
III.—Grant that Beauty Be Not to Be Feared: Still It is to
Be Shunned as Unnecessary and Vainglorious.
Let it now be granted that excellence of form be
not to be feared, as neither troublesome to its possessors, nor
destructive to its desirers, nor perilous to its compartners;161
let it be thought (to be) not exposed to
temptations, not surrounded by stumbling-blocks: it is enough
that to angels of God162
| 162 Angelis Dei. Comp.
the opening sentence of the book. | it is not
necessary. For, where modesty is, there beauty is idle; because
properly the use and fruit of beauty is voluptuousness, unless any one
thinks that there is some other harvest for bodily grace to
reap.163
| 163 Comp. ad Ux., b.
i. c. iv. | Are women who think that, in furnishing
to their neighbour that which is demanded of beauty, they are
furnishing it to themselves also, to augment that (beauty) when
(naturally) given them, and to strive after it when not (thus)
given? Some one will say, “Why, then, if voluptuousness be
shut out and chastity let in, may (we) not enjoy the praise of beauty
alone, and glory in a bodily good?” Let whoever finds
pleasure in “glorying in the flesh”164
see
to that. To us in the first place, there is no studious pursuit
of “glory,” because “glory” is the essence of
exaltation. Now exaltation is incongruous for
professors of humility according to God’s precepts.
Secondly, if all “glory” is “vain” and
insensate,165
how much more (glory)
in the flesh, especially to us? For even if
“glorying” is (allowable), we ought to wish our sphere of
pleasing to lie in the graces166
of the Spirit, not in
the flesh; because we are “suitors”167
of
things spiritual. In those things wherein our sphere of labour
lies, let our joy lie. From the sources whence we hope for
salvation, let us cull our “glory.” Plainly, a
Christian will “glory” even in the flesh; but
(it will be) when it has endured laceration for Christ’s
sake,168
| 168 Comp. 2 Cor. xi. 18; xii. 10; Phil. iii. 3,
4. | in order that the spirit may be crowned in
it, not in order that it may draw the eyes and sighs of youths after
it. Thus (a thing) which, from whatever point you look at it, is
in your case superfluous, you may justly disdain if you have it
not, and neglect if you have. Let a holy woman, if naturally
beautiful, give none so great occasion (for carnal appetite).
Certainly, if even she be so, she ought not to set off (her beauty),
but even to obscure it.169
| 169 Non adjuvare, sed etiam
impedire, debet. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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