openly, this gross untruth
makes no impression in the soul, nor gives any delight: As indeed
how should I be touched with the misfortunes of the Queen of
_Gundaya_, and of the King of _Astrobacia_, whenas I know their very
Kingdoms are not in the universal Mapp, or, to say better, in the
being of things? But this is not the only defect which may carry us
from the true resemblance, for we have at other times seen
_Romanzes_, which set before us monsters, in thinking to let us see
Miracles; their Authors by adhering too much to wonders have made
Grotesques, which have not a little of the visions of a burning
Feaver; and one might demand of these Messieurs with more reason,
than the Duke of _Ferrara_ did of _Ariosto_, after he had read his
_Orlando, Messer Lodovico done diavolo havete pigliato tante
coyonerie_? As for me, I hold, that the more natural adventures
are, the more satisfaction they give; and the ordinary course of the
Sun seems more marvellous to me, than the strange and deadly rayes
of Comets; for which reason it is also that I have not caused so
many Shipwrecks, as there are in some ancient _Romanzes_; and to
speak seriously, _Du Bartas_ might say of these Authors,

_That with their word they bind,
Or loose, at will, the blowing of the wind._

So as one might think that _AEolus_ hath given them the Winds
inclosed in a bagg, as he gave them to _Ulysses_, so patly do they
unchain them; they make tempests and shipwracks when they please,
they raise them on the Pacifique Sea, they find rocks and shelves
where the most expert Pilots have never observed any: But they which
dispose thus of the winds, know not how the Prophet doth assure us,
that God keeps them in his Treasures; and that Philosophy, as clear
sighted as it is, could never discover their retreat. Howbeit I
pretend not hereby to banish Shipwrecks from _Romanzes_, I approve
of them in the works of others, and make use of them in mine; I know
likewise, that the Sea is the Scene most proper to make great
changes in, and that some have named it the Theatre of inconstancy;
but as all excess is vicious, I have made use of it but moderately,
for to conserve true resembling: Now the same design is the cause
also, that my _Heros_ is not oppressed with such a prodigious
quantity of accidents, as arrive unto some others, for that
according to my sense, the same is far from true resemblance, the
life of no man having ever been so cross'd. It would be be