But if the question be for your owne use and learning,
whether it be better to have it set downe as it should be, or as it was,
then certainly is more doctrinable the fayned _Cyrus of Xenophon_ than
the true _Cyrus in Justine_, and the fayned _AEneas in Virgil_ than the
true _AEneas_ in _Dares Phrygius._"
* * * * *
But now, having drawn breath, let us follow our Poet from the lowest up
to the highest of his claim. And be it observed, to start with, that in
clearing and cleansing the Idea for us (in the manner described) he does
but employ a process of Selection which all men are employing, all day
long and every day of their lives, upon more trivial matters; a process
indeed which every man is constantly obliged to employ. Life would be a
night-mare for him, soon over, if he had to take account, for example,
of every object flashed on the retina of his eye during a country walk.
How many millions of leaves, stones, blades of grass, must he not see
without seeing? Say it be the shortest of rambles on an afternoon in
early November. The light fades early: but before he reaches home in the
dark, how many of the myriad falling leaves has he counted?--a dozen at
most.
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