पृष्ठ 449 / 1391

In the Tenth Book Plato introduces a new series of objections.

First, he says that the poet or painter is an imitator, and in

the third degree removed from the truth. His creations are not

tested by rule and measure; they are only appearances. In modern

times we should say that art is not merely imitation, but rather

the expression of the ideal in forms of sense. Even adopting the

humble image of Plato, from which his argument derives a colour,

we should maintain that the artist may ennoble the bed which he

paints by the folds of the drapery, or by the feeling of home

which he introduces; and there have been modern painters who have

imparted such an ideal interest to a blacksmith's or a

carpenter's shop. The eye or mind which feels as well as sees can

give dignity and pathos to a ruined mill, or a straw-built shed

(Rembrandt), to the hull of a vessel 'going to its last home'

(Turner).