very fact it attracted the notice of every one, and was held in higher
estimation than any other painting there.

It was a custom with Apelles, to which he most tenaciously adhered,
never to let any day pass, however busy he might be, without
exercising himself by tracing some outline or other; a practise which
has now passed into a proverb. It was also a practise with him, when
he had completed a work, to exhibit it to the view of the passers-by
in some exposed place; while he himself, concealed behind the picture,
would listen to the criticisms that were passed upon it: it being his
opinion that the judgment of the public was preferable to his own, as
being the more discerning of the two. It was under these
circumstances, they say, that he was censured by a shoemaker for
having represented the shoes with one shoe-string too little. The next
day, the shoemaker, quite proud at seeing the former error corrected,
thanks to his advice, began to criticize the leg; upon which Apelles,
full of indignation, popped his head out, and reminded him that a
shoemaker should give no opinion beyond the shoes--a piece of advice
which has equally passed into a proverbial saying. In fact, Apelles
was a person of great amenity of manners--a circumstance which
rendered him particularly agreeable to Alexander the Great, who would
often come to his studio. He had forbidden himself by public edict, as
already stated, to be represented by any other artist. On one
occasion, however, when the prince was in his studio, talking a great
deal about painting without knowing anything about it, Apelles quietly
begged that he would quit the subject, telling him that he would get
laughed at by the boys who were there grinding the colors; so great
was the influence which he rightfully possest over a monarch who was
otherwise of an irascible temperament. And yet, irascible as he was,
Alexander conferred upon him a very signal mark of the high estimation
in which he held him: for having, in his admiration of her
extraordinary beauty, engaged Apelles to paint Pancaste undraped--the
most beloved of all his concubines--the artist while so engaged fell
in love with her; upon which, Alexander, perceiving this to be the
ease, made him a present of her: thus showing himself, tho a great
king in courage, a still greater one in self-command--this action
redounding no less to his honor than any of his victories.

Superior to all the statues not only of Praxiteles,[9