Page:Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice - Parnell (1717).djvu/90

 Thus Envy finds Words to put in the Mouth of Ignorance; and the Time will come, when Ignorance shall repeat what Envy has pronounced so rashly.

II. 77. And tap'ring Sea-Reed.] If we here take the Reed for that of our own Growth, it is no Spear to match the long Sort of Needles with which the Mice had arm'd themselves; but the Cane, which is rather intended, has its Splinters stiff and sharp, to answer all the Uses of a Spear in Battle. Nor is it here to be lightly past over, since moves a Question upon it, that the Poet cou'd not choose a more proper Weapon for the Frogs, than that which they choose for themselves in a defensive War they maintain with the Serpents of ''Nile. They have this Stratagem, says Ælian, to protect themselves; they swim with Pieces of Cane across their Mouths, of too great a Length for the Breadth of the Serpents Threats; by which Means they are preserv'd from being swallow'd by them''. This is a Quotation so much to the Point, that I ought to have usher'd in my Author with more Pomp to dazzle the Reader. and his Followers, who seldom praise any Man, are however careful to do it for their own Sakes, if at any Time they get an Author of their Opinion: Tho' indeed it must be allow'd, they still have a Drawback in their Manner of Praise, and rather choose to drop the Name of their Man, or darkly hint him in a Periphrasis, than to have it appear that they have directly assisted the perpetuating of any