Page:Thoughts on art and life.djvu/121

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Music should be given no other name than the tne sister of painting, inasmuch as it is subject to the hearing, — a sense inferior to the eye, — and it pro- duces harmony by the unison of its proportioned . parts, which are brought into operation at the same moment and are constrained to come to life and die in one or more harmonic times ; and time is, as it were, the circumference of the parts which constitute the harmony, in the same way as the outline constitutes the circumference of limbs whence human beauty emanates. But painting excels and lords over music be- cause it does not die as soon as it is born, as oc- curs with music, the less fortunate; on the con- trary, it continues to exist and reveals itself to be what it is, a single surface. O marvellous science, thou givest lasting life to the perished beauty of mortals, which are thus made more enduring than the works of nature, for these undergo for- ever the changes of time, and time leads them to inevitable old age ! And this science is to divine nature as its works are to the works of nature, and on this account it is worshipped.

15. The most worthy thing is that which satisfies the most worthy sense; therefore painting, which satisfies the sense of sight, is more worthy than

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