And now I found, by the number of my verses, that they began to swell into a little volume; which gave me an occasion of looking backward on some beauties of my author, in his former books.

There occurred to me the _Hunting of the Boar, Cinyras and Myrrha_, the good-natur'd story of _Baucis and Philemon_, with the rest, which I hope I have translated closely enough, and given them the same turn of verse which they had in the original; and this, I may say without vanity, is not the talent of every poet.

He who has arriv'd the nearest to it, is the ingenious and learned Sandys, the best versifier of the former age; if I may properly call it by that name, which was the former part of this concluding century.

For Spenser and Fairfax both flourish'd in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; great masters in our language, and who saw much farther into the beauties of our numbers than those who immediately followed them.

Milton was the poetical son of Spenser, and Mr.Waller of Fairfax, for we have our lineal descents and clans as well as other families.