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; Pictoribus atque poetis Quidlibet audendi semper fuit aequa potestas. Horace, Ars Poet. 9 sq. 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.