Prosecuting the Course of Don Quixote's Enchantment with Other Memorable Occurrences.
Don Quixote wonders at his enchantment, for knights-errant, he says, are usually swiftly carried in a sky chariot or on the back of a flying beast. At one point in the slow journey, they are overtaken by horsemen heading for a nearby inn. The newcomers, a group of clergymen, wonder at the strange manner of conveying a prisoner of the Holy Brotherhood, and the canon listens attentively as the curate relates the strange history of Don Quixote and his madness. The canon responds by discoursing on the evils of reading books of romances, for, he says, they neither instruct nor provide their readers with a sense of beauty. For all that, he continues, they have one grace, for they are unlimited vehicles for an author to try his skill at depicting various imaginative happenings and fantastic characters.
