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 better in my opinion to separate the adventures, to form divers Histories of them, and to make persons acting, thereby to appear both fertile and judicious together, and to be still within this so necessary true resemblance.  And indeed they who have made one man alone defeat whole Armies, have forgotten the Proverb which saith, not one against two; and know not that Antiquity doth assure us, how Hercules would in that case be too weak.  It is without all doubt, that to represent a true heroical courage, one should make it execute some thing extraordinary, as it were by a transport of the Heros; but he must not continue in that sort, for so those incredible actions would degenerate into ridiculous Fables, and never move the mind.  This fault is the cause also