Page:The Iliad in a Nutshell, or Homer's Battle of the Frogs and Mice - Wesley (1726).djvu/43

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Pierc'd by Seutlæus'^[1] Lance in fatal Hour,
460 Embasichytrus vast fell like a ruin'd Tow'r.

XLVII.
Nor joy'd Seuthæus long, Isenor^[2] griev'd
Vow'd to revenge Embasichytrus slain;
But hasty Wrath his erring Hand deceiv'd,
The Spear wide swerving struck the distant Plain.
465 He snatch'd a Land-mark of enormous size,
The Burthen of the Field wherein it lay,
For twelve the tallest^[3] strongest modern Mice,
To lift or roul it might in vain assay.
As from an Engine shot, the Mill-stone flies
470 Full on Seutlæus' Neck, and Darkness vails his Eyes.

1. v. 459. Seutlæus.] Call'd from the Beets.
2. v. 461. Isenor.] One equal to a Man; for a Mouse may as easily be supposed equal to a Man, as a Man equal to a God.
3. v. 465. For twelve the tallest.] The Opinion of a Degeneracy of human Size and Strength in the Process of Ages, has been very general. Virgil makes a farther Allowance. In this way of thinking it will appear that Frogs and Mice were not such despicable Animals heretofore as they are at present, either as to their bodily or intellectual Accomplishments.

XLVIII.