This very reason obliged them not to represent their Heroes superior to those of former Ages: But the probable diminution from Age to Age, as they supposed, ought on the contrary to give the Fathers the preference over their Children. Homer makes no difficulty of it; and *Nestor who had lived two Ages already, says without any Complement to the Princes of the Iliad, that they fell short of their Fore-fathers. †Virgil also says, that the Times of Itus and Assaracus were better than those in which his Hero lived.
It seems Statius had the same mind to represent the strength of his Heroes, as far surpassing that of Homer's and Virgil's Heroes, though in truth the Heroes of the one were only the Children of the Heroes of the other two; so prodigious are the Actions he would attribute to some. But 'tis more likely, that herein his whole aim was to amplifie to a Prodigy whatsoever he handled. For if by this extraordinary Strength he had a mind to heighten the Grandeur and Importance of his Action, he forgot himself in several Places, and has done something worse than sleep, when he debased it so much in his first Book. 'Tis there, where to shew the Baseness and Poverty of the Kingdom of Thebes, he compares it to the Power and Riches of the greatest Empires that have flourish'd since. Is it not pleasant in him to declaim himself against the Design he bestows upon his Heroes, and to ridicule the great labour he puts them upon for a wretched and pitiful Kingdom?
The End of the Second Book.
Monsieur
