Now, there is a greater Vicinity, in Nature, betwixt two rooms than betwixt two houses; betwixt two houses, than betwixt two cities; and so, of the rest. Reason, therefore, can sooner be led by Imagination, to step from one room to another, than to walk to two distant houses: and yet, rather to go thither, than to fly like a witch through the air, and be hurried from one region to another. Fancy and Reason go hand in hand. The first cannot leave the last behind: and though Fancy, when it sees the wide gulf, would venture over, as the nimbler; yet, it is withheld by Reason, which will refuse to take the leap, when the distance, over it, appears too large. If BEN. JOHNSON himself, will remove the scene from Rome into Tuscany, in the same Act; and from thence, return to Rome, in the Scene which immediate follows; Reason will consider there is no proportionable allowance of time to perform the journey; and therefore, will choose to stay at home. So then, the less change of place there is, the less time is taken up in transporting the persons of the Drama, with Analogy to Reason: and in that Analogy or Resemblance of Fiction to Truth consists the excellency of the Play. For what else concerns the Unity of PLACE; I have already given my opinion of it in my _Essay_, that "there is a latitude to be allowed to it, as several places in the same town or city; or places adjacent to each other, in the same country; which may all be comprehended under the larger denomination of One Place; yet, with this restriction, the nearer and fewer those imaginary places are, the greater resemblance they will have to Truth: and Reason which cannot _make_ them One, will be more easily led to _suppose_ them so." What has been said of the Unity of PLACE, may easily be applied to that of TIME. I grant it to be impossible that _the greater part of time should be comprehended in the less_, that _Twenty-four hours should be crowded into three_. But there is no necessity of that supposition. For as Place, so TIME relating to a Play, is either Imaginary or Real. The Real is comprehended in those three hours, more or less, in the space of which the Play is Represented. The Imaginary is that which is Supposed to be taken up in the representation; as twenty-four hours, more or less. Now, no man ever could suppose that twenty-four _real_ hours could be included in the space of three: but where is the absurdity of affirming, that the feigned business of twenty-four _imagined_ hours, may not more naturally be represented in the compass of three _real_ hours, than the like feigned business of twenty-four years in the same proportion of real time? For the _proportions_ are always real; and much nearer, by his permission! of twenty-four to three, than of 4000 to it.