e." In conceding then to Pope, that he has
exhibited "the ideas of Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser, in language
equally mellifluous and pure," Dr. Warton has granted every thing which
Pope endeavoured to accomplish; and the observation of Johnson, "that no
invention was intended," is, as far as the remark of Warton affects the
genius and character of Pope, a decisive answer. Nor although the scene
be laid in Windsor Forest, does there appear to be any impropriety in
referring to a pipe of reeds, the clusters of grapes, the bounty of
Ceres, and other objects connected with pastoral life, and for which the
poet has himself assigned a sufficient reason in the following
discourse. "If," he observes, "we would copy nature, it would be useful
to carry this idea along with us, that pastoral is an image of what they
call the golden age; so that we are not to describe our shepherds as
shepherds at this day really are, but as they may be conceived then to
have been when the best of men followed the employment;" to which he
adds, that "an air of piety to the gods should shine through the poem,
which so visibly appears in all the works of antiquity, and it ought to
preserve some relish of the old way of writing."--ROSCOE.

The manuscript of Pope's Pastorals is still preserved among the
Richardson papers. It was lent by Mr. T. B. Hollis to Wakefield, who has
noted the variations from the published text with minute fidelity.
Richardson has done the same in his copy of the quarto of 1717, and
gives this correct description of the handwriting of the original:--"The
manuscript title of the Discourse on Pastoral Poetry, viz., An Essay on
Pastoral, and the title of the Pastorals, are written by Mr. Pope in
printing capitals so perfectly beautiful, and so exactly imitated, that
one can hardly believe they are not really from the press; the same of
all the words which would have been printed in italics throughout the
whole, which are in common printing character, the general being in
italics, beautifully formed, so as in all to imitate a printed book, but
in a fine taste of type, and form of the page and margin." Pope has
written upon the manuscript, "Mem. This copy is that which passed
through the hands of Mr. Walsh, Mr. Congreve, Mr. Mainwaring, Dr. Garth,
Mr. Granville, Mr. Southern, Sir H. Sheers, Sir William Trumbull, Lord
Halifax, Lord Wharton, Marquis of Dorchester, Duke of Bucks, &c. Only
the third Eclogue was written since some of t