Pagina 416 de 1391

And this, without being really different, appears to be

different, and has many points of view, of which only one is

caught by the painter, who represents everything because he

represents a piece of everything, and that piece an image. And he

can paint any other artist, although he knows nothing of their

arts; and this with sufficient skill to deceive children or

simple people. Suppose now that somebody came to us and told us,

how he had met a man who knew all that everybody knows, and

better than anybody:-should we not infer him to be a simpleton

who, having no discernment of truth and falsehood, had met with a

wizard or enchanter, whom he fancied to be all-wise? And when we

hear persons saying that Homer and the tragedians know all the

arts and all the virtues, must we not infer that they are under a

similar delusion? they do not see that the poets are imitators,

and that their creations are only imitations.