Self image: making a self-portrait (3)

"In Picture we never die, never decay, or or grow older. Painting has another Advantage over Words, and that is, it Pours Ideas in our Minds, Words only Drop them, The whole Scene opens at one View, whereas the other way lifts up the curtain little by little."

"Painting is of great use, as being one of the means wheby we convey our Ideas to each other, and which in some respects has the Advantage of all the rest. And thus it must be rank'd with These, and accordingly esteem'd not only as an Enjoyment, but as another Language, which completes the whole art of communicating our thoughts; one of those particulars which raises the Dignity of Human Nature so much above the Brutes; and which is the more considerable, as being Gift bestowed but upon a Few even of our own Species."