erson's Life we
undertake; not any trifling Action can be sufficient to constitute the
_Fable_.

_Fourthly_, Another Quality which a Pastoral Fable should have to be the
most compleat is a _Moral Result_.

I shall speak to all these Heads, except the first, concerning the
_Unity_; for without that Quality, it's self-evident that 'tis no Fable.
By _Unity_ I mean the same with Aristotle.[A]

[Footnote A: _See his 6th Chapter_.]

SECT. 1.

_What Length a perfect Pastoral should have_.

All _Pastoral-Writers_ have used the same _Length_ which _Theocritus_
at first happen'd into. I shall be therefore obliged, I doubt, to dwell
longer, on this Head, than the Importance of it may seem to require; and
must premise, that tho' a _Fable_ would need, finely carry'd on, to
be three or four Hundred Lines, yet let no Writer be under any Concern
about this: If a _Fable_ have Unity, shews a delightful story, paints
proper Characters, and contains a Moral, I shall not doubt to call the
Poem a perfect and compleat _Pastoral_, tho' the Length exceeds not
fifty Lines. But my Reasons for extending it are these:

Some Author I have seen, ingeniously observes, that even in telling
common Stories, 'twere best to give some short Account of the Persons
first, to be heard with Delight and Attention; For, says he, 'tis not so
much this being said, but its being said on such a particular Occasion,
or by such a particular Person. As this is true in a common Story, so
'tis more so in a Poem. The strongest Pleasure that the Mind receives
from Poetry, flows from its being engaged and concerned in the Progress
and Event of the Story. We naturally side in Parties, and interest our
selves in their Affairs of one side or the other. Then 'tis, our Care
pursues our Favourite Character, where're he goes. We anticipate all his
Successes, and make his Misfortunes our own. Were the Catastrophe in a
Tragedy to appear in the first Act, but little should we be moved by it,
not having as yet imbibed a favourable Opinion of the Hero, nor learn'd
to be in Pain as often as he is in Danger.

Now, we may read, I fear, some Number of the _Pastorals_ of the ordinary
Length, before we shall meet with this Pleasure. The Truth is, we are
commonly past a hundred Lines, the length of these Pieces, before the
Mind and Attention is entirely fix'd, and has lost all its former and
external Thoughts. All the Pleasure therefore which proceeds from the
Story is lost in thes