A Snail decided to foul a statue of Venus because of the excitation it excited. A Bird assured him that the beauty will out no matter what the Snail did.
Art will shine through surface blemishes.
JBR Collection
A Statue of the Medicean Venus was erected in a grove sacred to beauty and the fine arts. Its nudest attitude, its elegant proportions, assisted by the situation in which it was placed, attracted the regard of every delicate observer. A Snail, who had fixed himself beneath the moulding of the pedestal, beheld with an evil eye the admiration it excited. Accordingly, watching his opportunity, he strove, by trailing his filthy slime over every limb and feature, to obliterate those beauties which he could not endure to hear so much applauded. An honest Linnet, however, who observed him at his dirty work, took the freedom to assure him that he would infallibly lose his labour. “For although,” said he, “to an injudicious eye, thou mayest sully the perfections of this finished piece, yet a more accurate and close inspector will discover its beauty, through all the blemishes with which thou hast endeavoured to disguise it.”
