nd beautiful to a maiden; and so far as a maiden is the love of
a youth's wisdom, so far she is lovely and beautiful to a youth;
wherefore as love meets and kisses the love of another, so also do
beauties. I conclude therefore, that love forms beauty into a
resemblance of itself."

383. After him arose a second, with a view of discovering, in a neat and
elegant speech, the origin of beauty. He expressed himself thus: "I have
heard that love is the origin of beauty; but I cannot agree with this
opinion. What human being knows what love is? Who has ever contemplated
it with any idea of thought? Who has ever seen it with the eye? Let such
a one tell me where it is to be found. But I assert that wisdom is the
origin of beauty; in women a wisdom which lies concealed and stored up
in the inmost principles of the mind, in men a wisdom which manifests
itself, and is apparent. Whence is a man (_homo_) a man but from wisdom?
Were it not so, a man would be a statue or a picture. What does a maiden
attend to in a youth, but the quality of his wisdom; and what does a
youth attend to in a maiden, but the quality of her affection of his
wisdom? By wisdom I mean genuine morality; because this is the wisdom of
life. Hence it is, that when wisdom which lies concealed, approaches and
embraces wisdom which is manifest, as is the case interiorly in the
spirit of each, they mutually kiss and unite, and this is called love;
and in such case each of the parties appears beautiful to the other. In
a word, wisdom is like the light or brightness of fire, which impresses
itself on the eyes, and thereby forms beauty."

384. After him the third arose, and spoke to this effect: "It is neither
love alone nor wisdom alone, which is the origin of beauty; but it is
the union of love and wisdom; the union of love with wisdom in a youth,
and the union of wisdom with its love in a maiden: for a maiden does not
love wisdom in herself but in a youth, and hence sees him as beauty, and
when a youth sees this in a maiden, he then sees her as beauty;
therefore love by wisdom forms beauty, and wisdom grounded in love
receives it. That this is the case, appears manifestly in Heaven. I have
there seen maidens and wives, and have attentively considered their
beauties, and have observed, that beauty in maidens differs from beauty
in wives; in maidens being only the brightness, but in wives the
splendor of beauty. The difference appeared like that of a diamond
sparklin