Their word also for 'to act', they say, is
_dran_, whereas Athenians use _prattein_.
So much, then, as to the number and nature of the points of difference
in the imitation of these arts.
4
It is clear that the general origin of poetry was due to two causes,
each of them part of human nature. Imitation is natural to man from
childhood, one of his advantages over the lower animals being this,
that he is the most imitative creature in the world, and learns at
first by imitation. And it is also natural for all to delight in works
of imitation. The truth of this second point is shown by experience:
though the objects themselves may be painful to see, we delight to
view the most realistic representations of them in art, the forms for
example of the lowest animals and of dead bodies. The explanation is
to be found in a further fact: to be learning something is the
greatest of pleasures not only to the philosopher but also to the
rest of mankind, however small their capacity for it; the reason of
the delight in seeing the picture is that one is at the same time
learning--gathering the meaning of things, e.
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