, and the very
Talk of Shepherds is enough to support a Piece. And the truth is, of
a Nature so exceeding pleasant is Pastoral, that a Piece which has but
Fields and Hedges repeated pretty often in it, is at least tolerable;
whereas in any other Poetry, we see every day far better Poems cast out
of the World as soon as they enter into it. But another reason of their
Success proceeds from the little Knowledge most People have of
Pastoral; all Poets having gone in exactly the same Track, without one
endeavouring to raise the Poem to any greater Perfection than they
found it in; whereas Epick Poetry, Tragedy, and Comedy, arriv'd by slow
degrees to the Perfection they now bear; and this Writer still went
beyond the last of an equal Genius.

But I was going to give an Instance how incapable these Pieces are of
raising the Passions. A mournful Dialogue, or Elegy is formed upon the
Death of some Person. But if this Elegy raises not our Pity, 'tis a
Trifle, and only a childish Copy of Verses. But in order to raise that
most delightful Passion, should not the Reader be first prepossess'd in
favour of the Party dead? Can I pity a Person because deceas'd, without
knowing any thing of his while alive?

'Tis the same in that other well-known way of drawing up a Pastoral.
I mean, where two Shepherds sing alternately. _Theocritus_ haply light
upon this, and every Pastoral Writer since his time, (that I have
seen) has been so unfortunate as to happen exactly upon the same. And
I believe it has as often been indifferent to the Readers which of the
Shepherds overcame. Our Joy in this Case is equal to our Grief in the
other.

SECT. 4.

_From the length by Nature prescribed to all Pieces, Epick, Tragick, &c.
is shown, That Pastoral will, at least, admit of the Length of three or
four hundred Lines_.

Thus far of the Necessity of extending a Pastoral to the Length of
three or four hundred Lines, if we would not deprive our selves of the
Opportunities of being as delightful as Poetry will permit. But if any
Commentator, who think's himself oblig'd to defend _Theocritus_ and
_Virgil_ in every particular, should not only not allow this Length to
be preferable, but even condemn it as faulty, it would oblige us to come
more close to the Point, and to take the Question from the bottom. What
is the Length by Nature fix'd for all Pieces? And why mayn't an Epick
be as short as a Tragick Poem? Methink's a Poet should not be content
to take t