_It were a thing to be wondred at, that by many nothing is esteem’d witty, except =Poetry= and =Romances=, but that want of Judgement doth notoriously discover it self in those persons who are =highly= pleas’d with =pittifull= things. Divers of their =admired= Authors are so =empty= of true =worth=, that if the =entire= sense of their books were summ’d up, it would onely amount to some small matter as =triviall= as =uselesse=: And if most of them, whether =Antient= or =Modern=, were examined with a =Judicious= Eye, they would appear to be full of the grossest =Indecorum’s= of Invention, as =odious misrepresentations= of =Divinity=, =unnaturall Descriptions= of =Humane Life=, =Improper= and =Prophane Allusions to Sacred Things=, =frequent= and =palpable Contradictions=, =Sottish stories=, and in short, all the =absurdities= of =wild Imagination=. I need not verifie this by bringing together those great multitudes of Instances which abound in that sort of books written in the =Greek=, =Latin=, =Italian= and =French= Languages. If any desire, they may see it done largely in the =Extravagant Shepheard=, especially in the Speech of =Clarimond= in the 13th. book, not long since translated by Mr. =Davies=._ _For my own part I do not desire that all books should be as dull as many are, and none compos’d, as all are not, to delight; but I would have that delight true, and the quicknesse not evaporate into Lightnesse and Vanity. Is there no joy but laughter? Doth nothing recreate but what is fabulous? Such as do not like true happinesse, because it is a serious thing, have a reasonable Soul bestowed upon them in vain, and would have been better pleas’d if God had made them worse, and more content if God had not design’d them to so Noble an End. But those which like nothing except what goes in a plain Rode of talk, may as reasonably desire every body to spell, when they read. Such as would not have Truth presented in ingenious Schemes of Discourse, do foolishly condemn the wisdom of the Antients, some of which we may not reprove without a kind of Blasphemy: and whilst they understand not the Excellent use of Apologues, Parables, and such like Modes of signification, they are sufficiently answer’d by the Confession of their own Ignorance. There are severall spirits in the World; some will take a thing one way, that will not another. A Physitian will not wisely quarrell with his Patient, because he refuseth to take the Pill unlesse it be guilded. There are also some persons that need to have some things told them, which because they are guarded with the stately Circumstance of Worldly Quality, one cannot so easily come near them as in a Disguise._