Paraphrase of Bacon's "Of Beauty" (Lydia's Grade Eight)

This is Lydia's (uncorrected) paraphrase of "Of Beauty" (also called "Of Virtue"), by Francis Bacon.

Virtue is like a gem...better showcased in a plain ring than a distracting one. Virtue does better in a pretty person, but not a young, undignified person. And one that is dignified rather than cute and delicate. Usually perfect people have pretty much no virtue. Like nature was trying just to get the job done fast, instead of being a perfectionist. They seem pretty amazing, but they're kinda boring. And they tend to be more interested in learning how to be perfect than virtue. But not always. Augustus Caesar, Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Bel of France, Edward the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael the Sophy of Persia were all great guys, while still being very handsome. Generally peoples features matter more than the color of their skin in beauty, and gracefulness trumps features. That's the best part of beauty...because no photo can capture it. You can't see it when you first meet the person. However, no one is perfect. Everyone has flaws. Nobody can tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer was more of a perfectionist. One of them used geometrical proportions, the other one would take the best part out of everyone's faces and put the all together, to make perfect, flawless people. But these pictures only pleased the painters. They're great, but they're made wrong. If you look carefully they're weird, but altogether they're perfect. 

If it's true that beauty is mainly grace, then no wonder younger people are more beautiful than old people, because no young person can be beautiful without special reason. Beauty is like fruit...it can be corrupted...AKA it can rot. When you are young, you are not as pretty as when you grow older and more beautiful and virtuous.