It was ridiculous in Cestius, when he said of Alexander:
"Fremit oceanus, quasi indignetur, quod terras relinquas." {117a}
But propitiously from Virgil:
"Credas innare revulsas
Cycladas." {117b}
He doth not say it was so, but seemed to be so. Although it be
somewhat incredible, that is excused before it be spoken. But there
are hyperboles which will become one language, that will by no means
admit another. As Eos esse P. R. exercitus, qui caelum possint
perrumpere, {118a} who would say with us, but a madman? Therefore
we must consider in every tongue what is used, what received.
Quintilian warns us, that in no kind of translation, or metaphor, or
allegory, we make a turn from what we began; as if we fetch the
original of our metaphor from sea and billows, we end not in flames
and ashes: it is a most foul inconsequence. Neither must we draw
out our allegory too long, lest either we make ourselves obscure, or
fall into affectation, which is childish. But why do men depart at
all from the right and natural ways of speaking? sometimes for
necessity, when we are driven, or think it fitter, to speak that in
obscure words, or by circumstance, which uttered plainly would
offend the hearers.
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