zealous for the reputation of our age, as we find the ancients themselves were in reference to those who lived before them. For you hear your Horace saying,
Indignor quidquam reprehendi, non quia crassé
Compositum, illepidève putetur, sed quia nuper. n
And after:
Si meliora dies, ut vina, poemata reddit,
Scire velim, pretium chartis quotus arroget annus? n
'But I see I am engaging in a wide dispute, where the arguments are not like to reach close on either side; for poesy is of so large an extent, and so many both of the ancients and moderns have done well in all kinds of it, that in citing one against the other, we shall take up more time this evening than each man's occasions[1] will allow him: therefore I would ask Crites to what part of poesy he would confine his arguments, and whether he would defend the general cause of the ancients against the moderns, or oppose any age of the moderns against this of ours?'
5. Crites, a little while considering upon this demand, told Eugenius, that if[2] he pleased, he would limit their dispute to Dramatique Poesie[3]; in which he thought it not difficult to prove, either that the ancients were superior to the moderns, or the last age to this of ours.
Eugenius was somewhat surprised, when he heard Crites make choice of that subject. 'For ought I
