Like the Odyssey, it has a double thread of plot, and also an opposite catastrophe for the good and for the
bad. It is accounted the best because of the weakness of the spectators; for the poet is guided in what he writes by the wishes of his audience.
Some intermediate qualities have names, such as grey and sallow and all the other colours that come between white and black; in other cases, however, it is not easy to name the intermediate, but we must define it as that which is not either extreme, as in the case of that which is neither good nor bad, neither just nor unjust.
For it is possible that that that which is healthy should become diseased, that which is white, black, that which is cold, hot, that which is good, bad, that which is bad, good.
"They are
bad sailors," said Jip; "and their ship is very swift.
But let us assume that what is called science can harmonize all contradictions and possesses an unchanging standard of good and
bad by which to try historic characters and events; let us say that Alexander could have done everything differently; let us say that with guidance from those who blame him and who profess to know the ultimate aim of the movement of humanity, he might have arranged matters according to the program his present accusers would have given him- of nationality, freedom, equality, and progress (these, I think, cover the ground).
I hated the crupper; to have my long tail doubled up and poked through that strap was almost as bad as the bit.
She told me the better I behaved the better I should be treated, and that it was wisest always to do my best to please my master; "but," said she, "there are a great many kinds of men; there are good thoughtful men like our master, that any horse may be proud to serve; and there are bad, cruel men, who never ought to have a horse or dog to call their own.
And he said that handling a snake- skin was such awful
bad luck that maybe we hadn't got to the end of it yet.
No class of man is altogether bad, but each has its own faults and virtues; and these shipmates of mine were no exception to the rule.
It made my heart bleed; but the men had a great respect for the chief mate, who was, as they said, "the only seaman of the whole jing-bang, and none such a bad man when he was sober." Indeed, I found there was a strange peculiarity about our two mates: that Mr.
"Yes, the Old Masters often drew badly; they did not care much for truth and exactness in minor details; but after all, in spite of bad drawing, bad perspective, bad proportions, and a choice of subjects which no longer appeal to people as strongly as they did three hundred years ago, there is a SOMETHING about their pictures which is divine--a something which is above and beyond the art of any epoch since--a something which would be the despair of artists but that they never hope or expect to attain it, and therefore do not worry about it."
Thus: bad drawing, bad proportion, bad perspective, indifference to truthful detail, color which gets its merit from time, and not from the artist--these things constitute the Old Master; conclusion, the Old Master was a bad painter, the Old Master was not an Old Master at all, but an Old Apprentice.