Page:The Poetical Works of Thomas Parnell (1833).djvu/265

Rh find it. I have taken the liberty to divide my translation into books (though it be otherwise in the original) according as the fable allowed proper resting places, by varying its scene, or nature of action: this I did, after the example of Aristarchus and Zenodotus in the Iliad. I then thought of carrying the grammarians' example further, and placing arguments at the head of each, which I framed as follows, in imitation of the short ancient Greek inscriptions to the Iliad. In Alpha, the ground Of the quarrel is found.

In Beta, we The council see.

Dire Gamma relates The work of the fates. But as I am averse from all information which lessens our surprise, I only mention these for a handle to quarrel with the custom of long arguments before a poem. It may be necessary in books of controversy or abstruse learning, to write an epitome before each part; but it is not kind to forestall us in the work of fancy, and make our