C If % ) 
f- ^power, becaufe flie could give whenftiQ pleafed wen to4^A: 
JF?/&^i', the melodious Voice of the Swan, 1 was not a lit- 
tle (hockt and contounded, for I lookt upon the fancy as 
perfeftly forced and. groundlefs 3 founded upon nothing that 
was real or true Nature ^ and therefore could pafs for no 
more, than a wild rant or extravagant Whim ot the Poets, 
fignifying little if any thing at all ^ and brought frefh into 
my Minda the Charadter behimfelf gives in another place ot 
ill Verfcs. 
Verfifs Inopes R€rum Nug£q*^ can$r£. 
For I could not conceive in any fence whatever, how he 
^ could fuppbfe his Muje to be able to give to a Dnmb Frfi this 
Tweet melodious Voice. 
None of his Commentators gave me the leaft fatisfeftioa 
towards the clearing of this panage, or the folutioo of this 
diSiculty 5 I found they were all filent as to the main Point, 
and yet I rould not w^th quietnefs of Mind, raife even but 
in ray own Thoughts^ fo railing and high an Accufation 
this was againft the Prince of the Ly rick Poets : nor could i 
conceive fo great a Judge and Mafter in the' art of Poetry^ 
fo particularly remarkt for his Propriety of thought^ and de« 
licacy of expreffioD, in fo' jaboury and exquifiie a Poem aa 
this, could poffibly have been guilty of fo v.^eak a failure., or 
rather have run into fo grofs a faults 
This mademerfbon alter ray Opinion., by g: ^ ' 
another turn- to- ray Judgment, and.' immediate] 7 
the, holt rnuft not' be in the excellent Author, hut rather in. 
my dull and imperfeft apprehenfion of his true fence ^ and 
that there muil: be certainly couched in thefe words, feme 
further meaning than what occurd to every one at the.firft 
tranfient Reading, or from the bare conftruftion of tiie 
Words according to*the common 5;/^to. 
So I put myfelf to confider a little, whether upon fccoiid 
thoughts, 1 could not difcover whatniight be the trueinten- 
tioh'* 
