Since the business of both poetry and painting is to throw pictures on the mind, the declaration of Simonides must be accepted, but it has no particular meaning as applied either to criticism or the practice of the arts. It is merely a fact of common knowledge put into the form of a misleading _jeu d'esprit_, though one has a natural reluctance in so describing a time-honoured saying. There is room for doubt whether it really had the effect upon criticism that is alleged. Annibale Carracci varied it slightly into a better form with "Poets paint with words, and painters speak with the pencil," and it was certainly as well known in his time as in the eighteenth century, yet we find no particular evidence of weak art criticism either in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Moreover allegorical painting was not less common in these centuries than in the century following; and while there was unquestionably a spurt of descriptive poetry in the eighteenth, it is difficult to trace a connection between this phenomenon and general criticism based upon the dictum of Simonides. In regard to later times, the statement of Watts-Dunton wants demonstration. [a] Article on "Poetry," _Encyclopædia Britannica_, 11th edition. NOTE 30. PAGE 79 A few distinguished poets have attempted to portray beauty of form by description of features, but they have all been signally unsuccessful. The best known essay of the kind is Ariosto's portrait of Araminta, where he closely describes all details of her features and form, using forty lines for the purpose; but put together the pieces as one will, it is quite impossible to gain from them an idea of the beauty of her countenance.[a] This is pointed out by Lessing. The very length of the catalogue is apt to kill the beauty as one endeavours to dovetail the separate elements. Perhaps the lines of Cornelius Gallus to Lydia form the most perfect poetical delineation of a beautiful face known to us, but as will be seen from the translation below, they are quite insufficient to enable us to picture the beauty of the combined features on our minds.[b] Lydia! girl of prettiest mien, And fairest skin, that e'er were seen: Lilies, cream, thy cheeks disclose; The ruddy and the milky rose; Smooth thy limbs as ivory shine, Burnished from the Indic mine. Oh, sweet girl! those ringlets spread Long and loose, from all thy head; Glistening like gold in yellow light O'er thy falling shoulders white. Show, sweet girl! thy starry eyes, And black brows that arching rise: Show, sweet girl! thy rose-bloom cheeks, Which Tyre's vermillion scarlet streaks: Drop those pouting lips to mine, Those ripe, those coral lips of thine. [a] _Orlando Furioso_, C. VII. [b] C. A. Elton translation. NOTE 31. PAGE 80