[8] _I know some have affirm'd that_ Moses's _Song in the_ 14_th of_ Exodus _was writ in Hexameters, but I can't perceive any such thing in it, any more than in the_ 90_th_ Psalm, _or the Book of_ Job, _which seem to be written about the same time with it. The Song of the_ Well, _in_ Numbers, _pag._ 15. _is clearly an_ Ode _of unequal Measures_. [Illustration: _THE_ LIFE _of_ Christ. An Heroic Poem. _In Ten BOOKS with sixty Copper Plates._ London: _Printed for Charles Harper, & Benj. Motte._] THE LIFE OF OUR Blessed Lord & Saviour JESUS CHRIST. AN HEROIC POEM: DEDICATED TO Her Most Sacred MAJESTY. _In Ten Books._ ATTEMPTED BY _SAMUEL WESLEY_, M.A. Chaplain to the most Honourable JOHN Lord Marquess of _Normanby_, and Rector of _Epwerth_ in the County of _Lincoln_. Each Book Illustrated by necessary Notes, explaining all the more difficult Matters in the whole History: Also a Prefatory Discourse concerning Heroic Poetry. _The Second Edition, revised by the Author, and improved with the addition of a large Map of the_ HOLY-LAND, _and a table of the principal matters._ With Sixty Copper-Plates, by the celebrated Hand of _W. Faithorn_. _LONDON_: Printed for _Charles Harper_, at the _Flower-de-Luce_ over against St. _Dunstan_'s Church, and are to be Sold by him, and _Roger Clavel_ at the _Peacock_ against _Fetter-Lane_, both in _Fleetstreet_, 1697. THE PREFACE, Being an ESSAY on HEROIC POETRY A Just Heroic Poem is so vast an Undertaking, requires so much both of Art and Genius for its Management, and carries such Difficulty in the Model of the Whole, and Disposition of the several Parts, that it's no Wonder, if not above One or Two of the Ancients, and hardly any of the Moderns, have succeeded in their Attempts of this Nature. Rapin, and other Masters of Epic, represent it as an Enterprize so hardy, that it can scarce enter into the Mind of a wise Man, without affrighting him, as being the most perfect Piece of Work that Art can produce. That Author has many excellent Reflexions and Rules concerning it in his Discourse sur la Poetique; but Bossu is the first I've seen who has writ a just and perfect Tract thereon, wherein he has in a clear and Scholastic Method amass'd together most that's to be found in Antiquity on that Subject, tho' chiefly keeping to the Observations of Aristotle, which he drew from Homer, and who seems the first that reduced Poetry to an Art. That Author defines Epic, "An Artificial Discourse, in order to form the Manners by Instructions, disguis'd under the Allegories of some one important Action, recited in Verse, in a manner probable, diverting and admirable;" which he thus himself abridges, "'Tis a Fable, agreeably imitated on some important Action, recited in Verse in a manner that's probable and admirable;" In which Definition are contain'd, as he afterwards explains it, the general Nature of Epic, and that double, Fable and Poem: The Matter, some one