_It may be so; for though =Chrysippus= was so great a man, that he was esteemed the onely support of the Stoick School, according to the Proverbiall speech recorded by =Diogenes Laertius=, Εἰ μὴ γὰρ ἦν Χρύσιππος, οὐκ ἂν ἦν Στοά. Yet quite contrary to the vertuous design of prudent =Socrates=, he spoil’d the Docrine of good manners, and unwisely changed the substiantiall precepts of a morall life for the uselesse subtilties of nice disputation. Or what if =Crantor=, whom he yokes with him in the disparagement, made no great proficiency either by =Plato=, to whose School he belonged, or =Homer= himself, who was his delight? For all this fair verdict, which =Horace= hath passed in favour of his Brother Poet, the Morall Vertues, which so highly concern the felicity of the World, ought to be discours’d in another manner then he useth; for he, as it may be said also of other =Romancers=, hath made the fabulous rind so thick, that few can see through it into the usefull sense. I do not deny what =Plutarch= saies, that his Verses were not written onely for pleasure, ὰλλὰ γαρ βαθύτερός εστι τους ενκεκρυμμενους τοις επεσι, =i.e.= but that a deeper meaning is hid under his Poems; but he hath sunk it so deep, that very few can come at it. And some of those who applaud him for a =Philosopher=, confesse that such onely can make a gain of him, that have already attain’d a mature judgement by long study; that is, such may possibly learn of him, who are able to teach him: But he is so unfit for others, that =Plato= desired they might not see him, ἱνα μη μυθους οιησοιντο γραφειν τον Ἡρωα, =i.e.= for fear they should think that the =Hero= wrote fables, which he had good reason to expect upon the perusall._ _Besides this, as many others do, he hath so form’d the representations of Vertue and Vice, that it is hard to say, which is commended and which reproved; whil’st the Gods are frequently brought in practising Immoralities, he doth at least equall Vice to Vertue, and nourish that which he should eradicate. For, why should men endeavour to be better then their Gods? So he in the Comedy made the Adultery of =Jupiter= an apology for his lust._ ----Et quia consimilem luserat Jam olim ille ludum-------- Ego homuncio hoc non facerem: _Terent. Eunuch._ _By these and such like instances the Greek Fathers did convince the Heathens of the imperfection of their best Authors. So one may perceive in some =Romances= of a later date, that the pictures of =Heroes=, which they have drawn far exact patterns of the most rais’d vertue are often blotted with notorious defects, as Impatience, Revenge, and the like._