Essays in Portraiture Defended (18)

But all this, no doubt, is apart from the issue and has nothing to do with the case; and the charge to which I must answer is that in making my sketch of you I likened you in beauty to Cnidian Aphrodite and Our Lady in the Gardens and Hera and Athena. That seemed to you extravagant and presumptuous. I shall address myself precisely to that point.

It is an ancient saying, however, that poets and painters are not to be held accountable;[*] still less, I think, eulogists, even if they fare humbly afoot like me, instead of being borne on the wings of song. For praise is an unshackled thing, and has

ESSAYS IN PORTRAITURE DEFENDED no limit, whether upper or lower, prescribed for it. The only object that it ever has in view is to excite high admiration and to maké its subject enviable. Nevertheless, I shall not take this course, for fear you may think that I do so for want of a better.