77. To have full knowledge of what is foul
is in the highest degree shameful. To see anything of this sort,
if by chance it should happen, how dreadful that is! What,
therefore, is displeasing to us in others, can that be pleasing in
ourselves? Is not nature herself our teacher, who has formed to
perfection every part of our body, so as to provide for what is
necessary and to beautify and grace its form? However she has
left plain and open to the sight those parts which are beautiful to
look upon; among which, the head, set as it were above all, and the
pleasant lines of the figure, and the appearance of the face are
prominent, whilst their usefulness for work is ready to hand. But
those parts in which there is a compliance with the necessities of
nature, she has partly put away and hidden in the body itself, lest
they should present a disgusting appearance, and partly, too, she has
taught and persuaded us to cover them. Cic. de
Off. I. 35.