1.
1. PIndar was incredibly admired and honored among the Ancients, even to that degree that we may believe, they saw more in him then we do now: Insomuch, that long af∣ter his death, when Thebes was quite burnt and destroyed (by the Lacedemonians, and by Alexander the Great) both times the House wherein he had lived was along preserved by pub∣lick Authority, as a place sacred and inviolable. Among the very many Elogies of him, I will onely cite that of Quinctilian (then whom no man perhaps ever living was a better Iudge) L. 10. c. 1. Novem Lyricorum longe Pindarus princeps, spiritus magnificentiâ, sententiis, figuris beatissimus, rerum verborúm{que} copiâ & velut quodam eloquentiae flumine, propter quae Horatius ne∣mini credit eum imitabilem. Where he applys Horace his similitudes of a River to his Wit; but it is such a River, as when Poetical Fury,
Tanquam fera diluvies quietumIrritat annem. Hor.And like the rest of that description of the River.
Nunc pace delabentis Hetrusc••mIn mare, nunc lapides ades••sStirpes{que} raptas & pecus & domosVolventis un•• non ••ine montiumClamore vicinae{que} silvae.For which reason, I term his Song Vnnavigable; for it is able to drown any Head that is not strong built and well ballasted. Horace in another place calls it a Fountain; from the unex∣hausted abundance of his Invention.