Words and Pictures

Peter J. Leithart, April 12, 2006

In The Republic 588d, Plato writes, "words are a more plastic material than wax." We can construct any manner of phantasmagorical creature in words, but think of how inept any pictorial depiction of Revelation appears, or how bizarre a portrait based on the Song of Songs would be.

(Jonathan McIntosh at the University of Dallas sent along this link that effectively makes my point: .)