the beauty of the Princess was the bright-shining of a lovely spirit;
her body was but the veil of her soul that shone through all her
perfect form as the radiance of the sun shines through clear water.
I cannot tell you how beautiful this Princess was, nor can I describe
the color of her hair and her eyes, or the aspect of her face.
Many men have seen her and tried to give an account of her; but
though I have read several of these accounts, they differ so greatly
from one another that I should find it hard indeed to reproduce
her picture from the records of it which her lovers have left.

For all these men who have written about the Princess loved her;
none, indeed, could help it who ever looked on her face. And to
some she has seemed fair as the dawn, and to others dark as night;
some have found her gay and joyous as Allegro, and others sad and
silent and sweet as Penseroso. But to every lover she has seemed
the essence and core of all beauty; the purest, noblest, highest,
and most regal being that he has found it possible to conceive.
I am not going to tell you about all the lovers of the Princess,
for that would take many volumes to rehearse, but only about three
of them, because these three were typical personages, and had very
remarkable histories.

Like all the lovers of the Princess, these three men were travelers,
coming from a distant country to the land beyond the sunset on
purpose to see the beautiful lady of whom their fathers and
grandfathers had told them; the lady who never could outlive
youth because she belonged to the race of the everlasting Gods who
ruled the earth in the old far-off Hellenic times.

I do not know how long these three men stayed in the country of