be expressed by any
proportion, nor with any colour, and that has nothing in common with any
of those things you mentioned, and which the pencil can imitate; in a
word, a thing that cannot be seen?" "Do not the very looks of men,"
replied Socrates, "confess either hatred or friendship?" "In my opinion
they do," said Parrhasius. "You can then make hatred and friendship
appear in the eyes?" "I own we can." "Do you think likewise," continued
Socrates, "that they who concern themselves either in the adversity or
prosperity of friends, keep the same look with those who are wholly
unconcerned for either?" "By no means," said he, "for during the
prosperity of our friends, our looks are gay and full of joy, but in
their adversity we look cloudy and dejected." "This, then, may be
painted likewise?" "It may." "Besides," said Socrates, "magnificence,
generosity, meanness of mind, cowardice, modesty, prudence, insolence,
rusticity, all appear in the looks of a man, whether sitting or
standing." "You say true." "And cannot the pencil imitate all this
likewise?" "It may." "And in which do you take most pleasure," said
Socrates, "in regarding the picture of a man whose external appearance
discovereth a good natural disposition, and bespeaks an honest man, or of
one who wears in his face the marks of a vicious inclination?" "There is
no comparison between them," said Parrhasius.

Another time, talking with Clito the sculptor, he said to him, "I wonder
not that you make so great a difference between the statue of a man who
is running a race and that of one who stands his ground to wait for his
antagonist with whom he is to wrestle, or to box, or to play a prize at
all sorts of defence; but what ravishes the beholders is, that your
statues seem to be alive. I would fain know by what art you imprint upon
them this wonderful vivacity?" Clito, surprised at this question, stood
considering what to answer, when Socrates went on:--"Perhaps you take
great care to make them resemble the living persons, and this is the
reason that they seem to live likewise." "It is so," said Clito. "You
must then," replied Socrates, "observe very exactly in the different
postures of the body what are the natural dispositions of all the parts,
for when some of them stoop down, the others raise themselves up; when
some are contracted, the others stretch themselves out; when some are
stiff with straining, others relax themselves; and when you imita