their treatment of a subject which both of them have touched.
CHAP. XXI.] AMBROSE ON VIRGINITY. 159 neighbours ? When did she spurn the humble, laugh at the weak, or shun the indigent ? She is accustomed to visit only those haunts of men that pity would not blush for, nor modesty pass by. There is nothing haughty in her eyes, nothing bold in her words, nothing wanton in her gestures : her bearing is not voluptuous, nor her gait too free, nor her voice petulant ; so that her outward appearance is an image of her mind, and a picture of purity. For a good house ought to be known for such at the very threshold, and show at the very entrance that there is no dark recess within, as the light of a lamp set inside sheds its radiance on the outside. Why need I detail her sparingness in food, her superabundance in duty,—the one falling beneath the demands of nature, the other rising above its powers ? The latter has no intervals of intermission, the former doubles the days by fasting ; and when the desire for refreshment does arise, it is satisfied with food such as will
Now I have cited support life, but not minister to appetite."
these latter passages as examples of the temperate style, because their purpose is not to induce those who have not yet devoted themselves to take the vows of virginity, but to show of what character those who have taken vows ought to be. To prevail on any one to take a step of such a nature and of so great importance, requires that the mind should be excited and set on fire by the majestic style. Cyprian the martyr, however, did not write about the duty of taking up the profession of virginity, but about the dress and deportment of virgins. Yet that great bishop urges them to their duty even in these respects by the power of a majestic eloquence.
49. But I shall select examples of the majestic style from their treatment of a subject which both of them have touched.
Both have denounced the women who colour, or rather discolour, their faces with paint. And the first, in dealing with this topic, says : " Suppose a painter should depict in colours that rival nature's the features and form and complexion of some man, and that, when the portrait had been finished Avith consummate art, another painter should put his hand over it, as if to improve by his superior skill the painting already completed ; surely the first artist would feel deeply insulted,
^ De Virginihus, lib. ii. chap. i.