Whence came the beauty of that Helena about whom so many battles were
fought? Whence comes the beauty of so many women comparable to Venus?
Whence came the beauty of Venus herself? Whence comes the beauty of a
perfect man, or that of one of those divinities who reveal themselves
to our eyes, or who, without showing themselves, nevertheless possess
a visible beauty? Does it not everywhere originate from the creating
principle that passes into the creature, just as, in the art considered
above, the beauty passes from the artist into the work? It would be
unreasonable to assert that the creatures and the ("seminal) reason"
united to matter are beautiful, while denying beauty to the "reason"
which is not united to matter while still residing in the creator in
a primary and incorporeal condition; and to assert that in order to
become beautiful this reason must become united to matter. For if mass,
as such, was beautiful, then the creative reason would be beautiful
only in so far as it was mass. If form, whether in a large or small
object, equally touches and moves the soul of the beholder, evidently
beauty does not depend on the size of the mass. Still another proof of
this is that so long as the form of the object remains exterior to
the soul, and as we do not perceive it, it leaves us insensible; but
as soon as it penetrates into the soul, it moves us. Now form alone
can penetrate into the soul by the eyes; for great objects could not
enter by so narrow a space. In this respect, the size of the object
contrasts, because that which is great is not mass, but form.[205]