day; I know their persons, their works, their merits; but as
canonizing is for none but the dead, they will not take it ill if I
do not Deifie them, since they are living. And in this occasion I
propose no other example, than the great and incomparable _Urfé_;
certainly it must be acknowledged that he hath merited his
reputation; that the love which all the earth bears him is just; and
that so many different Nations, which have translated his Book into
their tongues, had reason to do it: as for me, I confess openly,
that I am his adorer; these twenty years I have loved him, he is
indeed admirable over all; he is fertile in his inventions, and in
inventions reasonable; every thing in him is mervellous, every thing
in him is excellent; and that which is more important, every thing
in him is natural, and truly resembling: But amongst many rare
matters, that which I most esteem of is, that he knows how to touch
the passions so delicately, that he may be called the Painter of the
Soul; he goes searching out in the bottom of hearts the most secret
thoughts; and in the diversity of natures, which he represents, evey
one findes his own pourtrait, so that

_If amongst mortals any be
That merits Altars_, Urfé's _he
Who can alone pretend thereto._

Certainly there is nothing more important in this kind of
composition, than strongly to imprint the Idea, or (to say better)
the image of the _Heroes_ in the mind of the Reader, but in such
sort, as if they were known to them; for that it is which
interesseth him in their adventures, and from thence his delight
cometh, now to make them be known perfectly, it is not sufficient to
say how many times they have suffered shipwreck, and how many times