On hyperbolical ideas.
In the category of false ideas must be reckoned the hyperbolical. These are not false in a given word, for we dealt with this above, but false in the whole train of thought. Of this kind is that epigram of Ausonius, the absurdity of which is unbearable:
Riding in state, as on an elephant,
Faustus fell backwards off a silly ant;
Abandoned, tortured to the point of death
By the sharp hooves, his soul stayed on his breath
And his voice broke: "Envy," he cried, "begone!
Laugh not at my fall! So fell Phaethon."[13]
Ausonius was imitating in this epigram the Greeks, who were quite open to this sort of bad imitation, as may be seen in their Anthology which is stuffed full of such hyperboles. A good many fall into the same fault either because their talent is weak or because they write for the unskilled—a consideration which should move those who have no compunction about reading, let alone praising, the silly tales of Rabelais which are filled with stupid hyperboles.