PICTUREMAKERS #3

The powerful writer G K Chesterton (1874-1936), one of my favorite authors, wrote this in ‘The Everlasting Man.’ “It is not contended here that these primitive men did wear clothes any more than they weave rushes; but merely that we have not enough evidence to know whether they did or not. But it may be worthwhile to look back for a moment at some of the very few things that we do know and that they did do. If we consider them, we shall certainly not find them inconsistent with such ideas as dress and decoration. We do not know whether they decorated themselves; but we do know that they decorated other things. We do not know whether they had embroideries, and if they had the embroideries could not be expected to have remained. But we do know that they had pictures; and the pictures have remained. And there remains with them, as already suggested, the testimony of something that is absolute and unique; that belongs to man and to nothing else except man; that is a difference of kind and not a difference of degree. A monkey does not draw clumsily and a man cleverly; a monkey does not begin the art of representation and a man carry it to perfection. A monkey does not do it at all; he does not begin to do it at all; he does not begin to begin to do it at all. A line of some kind is crossed before the first faint line can begin.”

“For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” Jesus