384. After this a third speaker got up and spoke as follows. 'It is not love alone, nor wisdom alone, which is the source of beauty. It is the union of love and wisdom, the union of love with wisdom in the young man, and the union of wisdom with her love in the young woman. For a young woman does not love wisdom in herself, but in the young man; and this makes her see him as beautiful. When a young man sees this in a young woman, it makes him see her as beautiful. Love therefore by means of wisdom forms that beauty, and wisdom as the result of love receives it.
'I have had visual proof of the truth of this in heaven. I have there seen young women and wives, and observed their beauty, noticing that it was different in young women and in wives. In young women I saw only its sparkle, but in wives its splendour. The difference was like the bright sparkle of a diamond compared with the fiery flush of a ruby.
'Beauty is nothing but a delight to the eye; and where does this delight come from, but the play of love and wisdom? This play gives the sight a reddish colour, and this flashes from eye to eye and creates beauty. What is it that makes a face beautiful, if not its blush and its whiteness, and the charming way these combine? Surely its blush comes from love and its whiteness from wisdom. For love is red with its own fire, and wisdom is white with its own light. I have seen both of these plainly shown in the faces of a married couple in heaven, the blush of whiteness in the wife and the whiteness of blushing in the husband. I noticed that it was looking at each other which gave their faces such splendour.'
When the third speaker said this the gathering applauded, crying, 'This is the winner.' Suddenly a flame-like light, which is the light of conjugial love, filled the house with its splendour, and at the same time filled their hearts with pleasant feelings.
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