The PREFACE.
Again one may question whether most of his Descriptions are not too long, and whether if our English Poet had bestow'd as much pains, and spent as much time about his Poem, as Virgil did about his Æneid, he would not have shortn'd his Descriptions, avoided. Repetitions of the same things, and been more correct throughout the whole.
Lastly it is urg'd by some, that he has but a few Episodes in Comparison to Virgil, and it seems probable to me, that this Thinness of Episodes has oblig'd him to be so long and tedious in his Descriptions and Digressions; else his Poem would have taken up but a little Compass. These are all the faults that I think are worth taking notice of; there are indeed other little slips, which touch not the Essence and Bottom of the Fable and Poem, therefore I shall not mention them. Nor are those I have mention'd such as cast any great discredit upon our English Poet: For notwithstanding all that has been said, spight of Ill-nature, Envy, and Detraction, he may justly be reckon'd the Next to, though not an Equal with Homer and Virgil.
Having thus taken a short View of the Poets of all Ages, and of almost all the polite Countries in the World, and having found how far short all of them, even Blackmore himself, fall of the Perfections and Excellencies of the other Two, it may seem necessary to decide a Controversie that has arose among the Learned whether Homer or Virgil had the greater Genius, and which of them deserv'd the greater Applause. We find them divided into Parties about it, some declaring in favour of the One, some in favour of the Other. But without detracting from either, we may venture to say that each of them had their peculiar Excellencies, which the other had not. If Homer was the first Model of this way, yet Virgil was under such Circumstances as gave him not only the Glory of well copying so great a Pattern, but even of a primary In-vention
