242 Gleanings from the 



In the fame manner Spenfer depicts in a famous 

 ftanza the fingular group of objects drawn from 

 ancient monftrofities and romantic conceptions 

 with which were decorated the walls of the houfe 

 of Imagination : 



" His chamber was difpaintcd all within 

 With fondry colours, in the which were writ 

 Infinite fhapes of thinges difperfed thin ; 

 Some fuch as in the world were never yit, 

 Ne can devized be of mortall wit ; 

 Some daily feene and knowen by their names 

 Such as in idle fantafies do flit ; 

 Infernall hags, centaurs, feendes, hippodames, 

 Apes, lyons, aegles, owles, fooles, lovers, children, dames." 1 



It can hardly be faid, therefore, as Aulus Gellius 

 too confidently affirms, that marvels and prodigies 

 f'.ich as we have named are of no importance, 

 *' ad ornandum juvandumque ufum vitas." 2 He 

 himfelf, on landing from Greece at Brundifium, 

 tells us how eagerly he rufhed to a bookfeller's 

 mop, bought up a quantity of books containing 

 fuch recitals at a cheap rate, and then devoured 

 them in two confecutive nights. In fhort, the 

 imagination muft be fed, like the bodily appetite ; 

 and ftories of marvels muft at times be ferved up 

 to it, when they are as grateful after a period of 

 abftention as highly-feafoned viands are at certain 

 times to the bodily tafte. They ferved for ruder 

 ages the fame end which our own novels of 

 character and flight incident perform for more 

 critical readers. They amufe and infenfibly inftruct. 

 It was impofTible for an ancient Greek to liften to 



1 " Faerie Queene," ii. 9, 50. 



2 Aulus Gellius, ix. 4. 



