_It is not my purpose here to reckon up all the impertinencies of Mankind, which are the several instances of the forementioned folly, I would onely give a charitable notice of one, =viz. the VVriting and Reading of Romances=. This I put into the number, because for the most part it is verified in them what =Justin Martyr= said of =Homers= Poetry, Ἔστι γαρ ἡ πᾶσα ῥαψῳδία Ἰλιάδος τε καὶ Ὀδυσσείας, ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος, γυνὴ, =i.e. The whole Rhapsody of Homers Iliads and Odysseis, beginning and end, is but a VVoman=. Yet they dote so much upon that subject, that they think with those amorous =Trojans=, that =Helen= was not onely worthy of all the labours of =Homers Quill=, but also of the sharp contentions of the =Greek= and =Trojan= swords._
Ου’ νέμεσις Τρωες και ευκνημιδαι Αχαιοι Τοιη δ’ αμφι γυναικι πολυν χρονον αλγεα πασχειν: _i.e._
A ten years VVar is no unworthy sight, VVhen _Greece_ and _Troy_ for such a VVoman fight.
_She was a brave Woman indeed, and it was but fit that so many Gallant men should destroy one another in the =Revenge= and =Defence= of her Adultery. But =Maximus Tyrius= in his 15th. Dissertation doth justly reprove the folly of their opinion, and condemn the unreasonablenesse of that lavish praise._
_I am not ignorant that =Homer= wrote upon another design, then to tell so many tales of =Helen= and =Paris=, and that =Horace= hath said in his Commendation,_
_Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, Plenius ac melius =Chrysippo= & =Crantore= dicit: i.e._
He what is fair, what foul, what good, what not, Better then _Crantor_ and _Chrysippus_ wrot.
_It may be so; for though =Chrysippus= was so great a man, that he was esteemed the onely support of the Stoick School, according to the Proverbiall speech recorded by =Diogenes Laertius=, Εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἦν Χρύσιππος, οὐκ ἂν ἦν Στοά. Yet quite contrary to the vertuous design of prudent =Socrates=, he spoil’d the Docrine of good manners, and unwisely changed the substiantiall precepts of a morall life for the uselesse subtilties of nice disputation. Or what if =Crantor=, whom he yokes with him in the disparagement, made no great proficiency either by =Plato=, to whose School he belonged, or =Homer= himself, who was his delight? For all this fair verdict, which =Horace= hath passed in favour of his Brother Poet, the Morall Vertues, which so highly concern the felicity of the World, ought to be discours’d in another manner then he useth; for he, as it may be said also of other =Romancers=, hath made the fabulous rind so thick, that few can see through it into the usefull sense. I do not deny what =Plutarch= saies, that his Verses were not written onely for pleasure, ὰλλὰ γαρ βαθύτερός εστι τους ενκεκρυμμενους τοις επεσι, =i.e.= but that a deeper meaning is hid under his Poems; but he hath sunk it so deep, that very few can come at it. And some of those who applaud him for a =Philosopher=, confesse that such onely can make a gain of him, that have already attain’d a mature judgement by long study; that is, such may possibly learn of him, who are able to teach him: But he is so unfit for others, that =Plato= desired they might not see him, ἱνα μη μυθους οιησοιντο γραφειν τον Ἡρωα, =i.e.= for fear they should think that the =Hero= wrote fables, which he had good reason to expect upon the perusall._