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Reflect:-Here are three beds; one in nature, which is made by

God; another, which is made by the carpenter; and the third, by

the painter. God only made one, nor could he have made more than

one; for if there had been two, there would always have been a

third-more absolute and abstract than either, under which they

would have been included. We may therefore conceive God to be the

natural maker of the bed, and in a lower sense the carpenter is

also the maker; but the painter is rather the imitator of what

the other two make; he has to do with a creation which is thrice

removed from reality. And the tragic poet is an imitator, and,

like every other imitator, is thrice removed from the king and

from the truth. The painter imitates not the original bed, but

the bed made by the carpenter.