P R Æ F A T I O.

more impetuous than the Ocean? What is more violent than the anger and storms of Aeolus, implored by Juno and raging against Deiopeia? What is more rapacious than the reciprocating tide? Add to these the effort of sails and oars pushing in the same direction. Even if all these things conspire and rush together, oh human vanity! A fish of a foot or half a foot in length (if we follow Pliny, book 32, chapter 1) restrains, tames, and breaks the fury of the World and of Men, with no effort of its own or any other method than simply adhering; and, as you might marvel with Gaius Caesar, it does not possess the same power once brought into the ship.

We do not ascend into the immense tract of the Air; we do not dip even a finger into the Fire, which once held reverence among our Ancestors for idolatrous worship, lest we be burned by celestial flame. Those things which belong to Art must be kept at hand, as they are more accommodated to human comprehension. And indeed, although sometimes Art itself—as a rival to the Mother of the All-Good, All-Great, sometimes her minister, sometimes even her helper and accomplisher—produces certain most occult images in her likeness; nevertheless, they are not of such a kind that they cannot be detected by sense or by the sharpness of wit. For if anyone does not clearly perceive Homer's Iliad, which is so small, as Pliny relates,