The Preface.
think it a Work of Youth, written as a Prelude to his greater Poems. Chapman thinks it the Work of his Age, after he found Men ungrateful; to shew he cou'd give Strength, Lineage and Fame as he pleas'd, and praise a Mouse as well as a Man. Thus, says he, the Poet professedly flung up the World, and apply'd himself at last to Hymns. Now, tho' this Reason of his may be nothing more than a Scheme form'd out of the Order in which Homer's Works are printed, yet does the Conjecture that this Poem was written after the Iliad, appear probable, because of its frequent Allusions to that Poem, and particularly that there is not a Frog or a Mouse kill'd, which has not its parallel Instance there, in the Death of some Warrior or other.
The Poem itself is of the Epick Kind; the Time of its Action the Duration of two Days; the Subject (however in its Nature frivolous, or ridiculous) rais'd, by having the most shining Words and Deeds of Gods and Heroes accommodated to it: And while other Poems often compare the illustrious Exploits of great Men to those of Brutes, this always heightens the Subject by Comparisons drawn from Things above it. We have a great Character given it with Respect to the Fable in Gaddius de Script. non Eccles. It appears, says he, nearer Perfection than the Iliad, or Odysses, and excels both in Judgment, Wit, and exquisite Texture, since it is a Poem perfect in its own Kind. Nor does Crusius speak less to its Honour, with Respect to the Moral, when he cries out in an Apostrophe tothe
