267
AN
ESSAY
UPON
SATYR,
Written by the Famous
Monsieur DACIER.
Horace having Entitled his Books of Satyrs Sermones and Satyræ indifferently, and these two Titles giving different Idea's; I think it very necessary to explain what the Latins understood by the Word Satyr. The Learned Casaubon is the first, and indeed the only Man, that has with Success attempted to shew what the Satyrical Poesie of the Greeks, and the Satyr of the Romans, was. His Book is an inestimable Treasure; and it must be confessed, I have had considerable Helps from it; which is the Use we ought to make of the Works of such extraordinary Men, who have gone before us only to be our Guides, and serve us as Torches in the Darkness of Antiquity. Nevertheless, you must not so continually fix your Eyes upon them, as not to consider whither you are led: for they divert sometimes into Paths, where you cannot with Safety follow them. This Method is what my self have observed in forsaking my Directors, and have ventured that way which no body before me has gone; of which the following Discourse will convince you.
Satyr
