_The =first= of these two out of their great love to do nothing, can make no better wish for themselves, then that they might sleep out the other half of their time; and it is rationall to do so, if his Rule were good for any thing, who said, =He values his life at a just rate, who would be content to forgoe it for a Dream=._ _The =other= make their bargain but a little better; for whilest they entertain themselves with things which correspond not with the Dignity of Reasonable Souls, instead of perfecting those rare Capacities with which their Natures are invested, by a generous endeavour to obtain that Happiness which God doth not envy us, they lessen themselves, clip the wings of their Souls, and bring them down from those degrees of Excellency which they actually enjoy, and make them degenerate into a brutish incapacity, though many times they take no notice of the weakness of their judgements: till they meet it in the miserable Consequences of their Actions._ _It is not my purpose here to reckon up all the impertinencies of Mankind, which are the several instances of the forementioned folly, I would onely give a charitable notice of one, =viz. the VVriting and Reading of Romances=. This I put into the number, because for the most part it is verified in them what =Justin Martyr= said of =Homers= Poetry, Ἔστι γαρ ἡ πᾶσα ῥαψῳδία Ἰλιάδος τε καὶ Ὀδυσσείας, ἀρχὴ καὶ τέλος, γυνὴ, =i.e. The whole Rhapsody of Homers Iliads and Odysseis, beginning and end, is but a VVoman=. Yet they dote so much upon that subject, that they think with those amorous =Trojans=, that =Helen= was not onely worthy of all the labours of =Homers Quill=, but also of the sharp contentions of the =Greek= and =Trojan= swords._ Ου’ νέμεσις Τρωες και ευκνημιδαι Αχαιοι Τοιη δ’ αμφι γυναικι πολυν χρονον αλγεα πασχειν: _i.e._ A ten years VVar is no unworthy sight, VVhen _Greece_ and _Troy_ for such a VVoman fight. _She was a brave Woman indeed, and it was but fit that so many Gallant men should destroy one another in the =Revenge= and =Defence= of her Adultery. But =Maximus Tyrius= in his 15th. Dissertation doth justly reprove the folly of their opinion, and condemn the unreasonablenesse of that lavish praise._ _I am not ignorant that =Homer= wrote upon another design, then to tell so many tales of =Helen= and =Paris=, and that =Horace= hath said in his Commendation,_ _Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, Plenius ac melius =Chrysippo= & =Crantore= dicit: i.e._ He what is fair, what foul, what good, what not, Better then _Crantor_ and _Chrysippus_ wrot.