Excerpt from English Prose, Vol. 2 of 5<br><br>Time: s'erves' not now,-and~perhaps -i might Seem too profuse to give any certain account of what the mind-at home, in the Spacious circuits of her musing, hath liberty to propose to herself, though of highest hope and hardest? Attempting whether that epic form whereof the two poems Of Homer, and those other two Of Virgil and Tasso, are a diffuse, and the book ofljob a brief or whether the rules of Aristotle hereiniarge Strictlyto be kept,~or nature to be followed;~wliich.in them 'that,kn'ow art, and ustudg'eme'ntyis no transgression: but an enrich ing of art lastly;; What kingzor knight, before the conquest; mightfbe-chosen in whom to:lay the. Patternfof a Christian hero. I'and as 'tasso gave to' a prince? Of Italy his choice Whether he would: commandl'himi to write. 'oi' Godfrey'snexpedition against the Infidels; or Belisarius'against the Goths; or Charlemagne? Ag'a'inst'lthe Lombards; if'to thc' instinct Of' natureand th'e emboldening of art aught may be'trusted, land,that' there be nothing adverse ill'olii? Climatefior the fate of this age, it;haply would be no rashnesss from an 'equal,diligence and inclina tion, to present the like offer 'in.our own ancient stories; Oehether those dramatic constitutions, wherein 'sophocles an'd: Euripides Ieig'n, shall be found more doctrinalra'nd exemplary to, a nation.' The Scripture alsomaffords us a divine, pastoral.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.