Page:Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice - Parnell (1717).djvu/96

 to Verse without an Ear, use the Poetical Dialect of Abbreviation, so that the Lines shall run the rougher for it. And, 3dly, Those who presume by their Critical Licenses to alter the Spellings of Words; an Affectation which destroys the Etymology of a Language, and being carry'd on by private Hands for Fancy or Fashion, wou'd be a Thing we shou'd never have an End.

III. 149. Nor Pallas, Jove.] I cannot, says, reflect upon this Speech of Mars, where a Mouse is oppos'd to the God of War, the Goddess of Valour, the Thunder of Jupiter, and all the Gods at once, but I rejoyce to think that Pythagoras saw 's Soul in Hell hanging on a Tree and surrounded with Serpents for what he said of the Gods. Thus he who hates Fables answers one with another, and can rejoyce in them when they flatter his Envy. He appears at the Head of his Squadron of Criticks, in the full Spirit of one utterly devoted to a Party; with whom Truth is a Lye, or as bad as a Lye, when it makes against him; and false Quotations, pass for Truth, or as good as Truth, when they are necessary to a Cause.

III. 203. And a whole War.] Here, says, is an End of a very foolish Poem, of which by this Time I have effectually convinc'd the World, and silenc'd all such for the future, who, like , write Fables to which others find Morals, Characters whose Justness is question'd, unnecessary Digressions, and impious Episodes. But what Assurance can such as have, that the World will ever be convinc'd against an esta-