imaginative, as we are wont to say by them that build castles in the
air; but so far substantially it worketh not only to make a Cyrus,
which had been but a particular excellency, as nature might have
done; but to bestow a Cyrus upon the world to make many Cyruses; if
they will learn aright, why, and how, that maker made him. Neither
let it be deemed too saucy a comparison to balance the highest point
of man's wit with the efficacy of nature; but rather give right
honour to the heavenly Maker of that maker, who having made man to
His own likeness, set him beyond and over all the works of that
second nature; which in nothing he showeth so much as in poetry;
when, with the force of a divine breath, he bringeth things forth
surpassing her doings, with no small arguments to the incredulous of
that first accursed fall of Adam; since our erected wit maketh us
know what perfection is, and yet our infected will keepeth us from
reaching unto it. But these arguments will by few be understood,
and by fewer granted; thus much I hope will be given me, that the
Greeks, with some probability of reason, gave him the name above all
names of learning.

Now {15} let us go to a more ordinary opening of him, that the truth
may be the more palpable; and so, I hope, though we get not so
unmatched a praise as the etymology of his names will grant, yet his
very description, which no man will deny, shall not justly be barred
from a principal commendation.

Poesy, {16} therefore, is an art of imitation; for so Aristotle
termeth it in the word [Greek text]; that is to say, a representing,
counterfeiting, or figuring forth: to speak metaphorically, a
speaking picture, with this end, to teach and delight.