oa dea 
mt. 4.) THE SECOND BOOK, 101 
I do not insist, because I have no deficiences to propound 
concerning them. 
5. Thus much therefore concerning history, which is 
that part of learning which answereth to one of the cells, 
domiciles, or offices of the mind of man; which is that 
of the memory. 
IV. 1. Poesy is a part of learning in measure of words 
for the most part restrained, but in all other points ex- 
tremely licensed, and doth truly refer to the imagination ; 
which, being not tied to the laws of matter, may at plea- 
sure join that which nature hath severed, and sever that 
which nature hath joined; and so make unlawful matches 
and divorces of things; Prctorzbus atque poetis, dc. It 
is taken in two senses in respect of words or matter. 
In the first sense it is but a character_of style, and be- 
longeth to arts of speech, and is not pertinent for the 
present. In the latter it is (as hath been said) one of the 
principal portions of learning, and is nothing else but 
feigned history, which may be styled as well in prose as 
in verse. 
2. The use of this feigned history hath been to give 
some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man in those 
points wherein the nature of things doth deny it, the 
world being in proportion inferior to the soul; by reason 
whereof there is, agreeable to the spirit of man, a more 
ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more 
absolute variety, than can be found in the nature of 
things. Therefore, because the acts or events of true 
history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind | 
of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more 
heroical. Because true history propoundeth the successes 
‘and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of 
virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in 
