I have taken up, laid down, and resumed, as often as I
pleased, the same subject, and this loose proceeding I shall use
through all this prefatory dedication. Yet all this while I have
been sailing with some side-wind or other toward the point I
proposed in the beginning--the greatness and excellence of an heroic
poem, with some of the difficulties which attend that work. The
comparison therefore which I made betwixt the epopee and the tragedy
was not altogether a digression, for it is concluded on all hands
that they are both the masterpieces of human wit.
In the meantime I may be bold to draw this corollary from what has
been already said--that the file of heroic poets is very short; all
are not such who have assumed that lofty title in ancient or modern
ages, or have been so esteemed by their partial and ignorant
admirers.
There have been but one great "Ilias" and one "AEneis" in so many
ages; the next (but the next with a long interval betwixt) was the
"Jerusalem"--I mean, not so much in distance of time as in
excellence.
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