a universal language--when they
are true to nature every person on the earth can understand them.
Show a picture of a person or a bird, a horse or a house, a ship, a
tree, or a landscape, and everyone knows what is meant, and this is
why most of the peoples of the ancient world conveyed their ideas in
picture language. FLETCHER, in his _Cyclopedia of Education_, says:--
"It has long been accepted as an axiom that the best explanation of a
thing is the sight and study of the thing itself, and the next best a
true picture of the thing." DRYDEN, speaking of poetry and painting
says:--

"The poets are confined to narrow space,
To speak the language of their native place;
The painter widely stretches his command,
_His pencil speaks the tongue of every land_."

Many writers, ancient and modern, have taught the great educational
power of pictures. HORACE says:--A picture is a poem without words".
SYDNEY SMITH says:--"Every good picture is the best of sermons and
lectures." O. S. FOWLER says:--"A single picture often conveys more
than volumes." W. M. HUNT says:--"From any picture we can learn
something." HENRY WARD BEECHER says:--"A picture that teaches any
affection or moral sentiment will speak in the language which men
understand, without any other education than that of being born and
of living." GARRICK, speaking of Hogarth, says:--

"His pictured morals mend the mind,
And through the eye improve the heart."

But pictures are not only a means of education, for they bring
pleasure, comfort, and education combined. STEELE says:--"Beautiful
pictures are the entertainment of pure minds." G. P. PUTMAN says:--
"How many an eye and heart have been fascinated by an enchanting
picture." CICERO says:--"The eyes are charmed by pictures, and the
ears by music." JOHN GILBERT says:--"Pictures are consolers of
loneliness; they are a sweet flattery to the soul, they are a relief
to the jaded mind; they are windows to the imprisoned thought; they
are books, they are histories and sermons, which we can read without
the trouble of turning over the leaves." UGO FOSCOLIO says:--
"Pictures are the chickweed to the gilded cage, and make up for the
want of many other enjoyments to those whose life is mostly passed
amid the smoke and din, the bustle and noise of an overcrowded city."
PANDOLFINI says:--Many an eye has been surprised into moisture by
pictured woe and heroism; and we are mistaken if the glow of pleasure