ined its purpose does not prevent the
reason from considering the divine beauty. And in this case the
picture copied from the living beauty acts for the greater part as a
substitute; and the {75} description of the poet cannot accomplish
this.--the poet who is now set up as a rival to the painter, but does
not perceive that time sets a division between the words in which he
describes the various parts of the beauty, and that forgetfulness
intervenes and divides the proportions which he cannot name without
great prolixity; he cannot compose the harmonious concord which is
formed of divine proportions. And on this account beauty cannot be
described in the same space of time in which a painted beauty can be
seen, and it is a sin against nature to attempt to transmit by the ear
that which should be transmitted by the eye.

What prompts thee, O man, to abandon thy habitations in the city, to
leave thy parents and friends, and to seek rural spots in the mountains
and valleys, if it be not the natural beauty of the world, which, if
thou reflectest, thou dost enjoy solely by means of the sense of sight?
And if the poet wishes to be called a painter in this connection also,
why didst thou not take the descriptions of places made by the poet and
remain at home without exposing thyself to the heat of the sun? Oh!
would not this have been more profitable and less fatiguing to thee,
since this can be done in the cool without motion and danger of
illness? But the soul could not enjoy the benefit of the eyes, the
windows of its dwelling, and it could not note the character of joyous
{76} places; it could not see the shady valleys watered by the
sportiveness of the winding rivers; it could not see the various
flowers, which with their colours make a harmony for the eye, and all
the other objects which the eye can apprehend. But if the painter in
the cold and rigorous season of winter can evoke for thee the
landscapes, variegated and otherwise, in which thou didst experience
thy happiness; if near some fountain thou canst see thyself, a lover
with thy beloved, in the flowery fields, under the soft shadow of the
budding boughs, wilt thou not experience a greater pleasure than in
hearing the same effect described by the poet?

Here the poet answers, admitting these arguments; but he maintains that
he surpasses the painter, because he causes men to speak and reason in
diverse fictions, in which he invents things which do not exist, a