Ponkapog Papers
PONKAPOG PAPERS By Thomas Bailey Aldrich TO FRANCIS BARTLETT THESE miscellaneous notes and essays are called _Ponkapog Papers_ not simply because they chanced, for the most part, to be written within the limits of the old Indian Reservation, but, rather, because there is something typical of their unpretentiousness in the modesty with which Ponkapog assumes to being even a village. The little Massachusetts settlement, nestled under the wing of the Blue Hills, has no illusions concerning itself, never mistakes the cackle of the bourg for the sound that echoes round the world, and no more thinks of rivalling great centres of human activity than these slight papers dream of inviting comparison between themselves and important pieces of literature.
APELLES painted a mare and a dog so lively [_lifelike_], that horses and
dogs passing by would neigh and bark at them. He grew so famous for his
excellent art, that great ALEXANDER came often to his shop to visit him,
and commanded that none other should paint him. At his death, he left
VENUS unfinished; neither was any [one] ever found, that durst perfect
what he had begun.
ZEUXIS was so excellent in painting, that it was easier for any man to
view his pictures than to imitate them; who, to make an excellent table
[_picture_], had five Agrigentine virgins naked by him. He painted grapes
so lively, that birds did fly to eat them.
PARRHASIUS painted a sheet [_curtain_] so artificially, that ZEUXIS took
it for a sheet indeed; and commanded it to be taken away, to see the
picture that he thought it had veiled.
As learned and skilful Greece had these excellently renowned for their
limning; so England hath these: HILIARD, ISAAC OLIVER, and JOHN DE
CREETES, very famous for their painting.
As Greece moreover had these painters, TIMANTES, PHIDIAS, POLIGNOTUS,
PANEUS, BULARCHUS, EUMARUS, CIMON CLEONCEUS, PYTHIS, APPOLLODORUS
Atheniensis, ARISTIDES Thebanus, NICOPHANES, PERSEUS, ANTIPHILUS, and
NICEARCHUS: so in England, we have also these; WILLIAM and FRANCIS SEGAR,
brethren; THOMAS and JOHN BETTES; LOCKEY, LYNE, PEAKE, PETER COLE,
PONKAPOG PAPERS By Thomas Bailey Aldrich TO FRANCIS BARTLETT THESE miscellaneous notes and essays are called _Ponkapog Papers_ not simply because they chanced, for the most part, to be written within the limits of the old Indian Reservation, but, rather, because there is something typical of their unpretentiousness in the modesty with which Ponkapog assumes to being even a village. The little Massachusetts settlement, nestled under the wing of the Blue Hills, has no illusions concerning itself, never mistakes the cackle of the bourg for the sound that echoes round the world, and no more thinks of rivalling great centres of human activity than these slight papers dream of inviting comparison between themselves and important pieces of literature.