Note 61 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
This truth is amply verified in the epistle above quoted:
"Oh, lasting as thy colours may they shine, Free as thy stroke, yet faultless as thy line! New graces yearly like thy works display, Soft without weakness, without glaring gay; Led by some rule that guides but not constrains, And finish'd more through happiness than pains."
In what light can we consider the character painted by the bard when we compare it with the pictures painted by the artist? It has been truly said, that "the poet has enshrined the feeble talents of the painter in the lucid amber of his glowing lines."
The conclusion of his epitaph on Sir Godfrey Kneller affords another notable example:—
"Living, great Nature fear'd he might outvie Her works; and dying, fears herself may die."