ctors
from that Topick will be easily answer'd, for as _Heroick_ Poems owe
their dignity to the Quality of _Heroes_, so _Pastorals_ to that of
_Sheapards_.

Now to manifest this, I shall not rely on the authority of the
_Fabulous_, and _Heroick_ Ages, tho, in the former, a God fed Sheep in
_Thessaly_, and in the latter, _Hercules_ the Prince of _Heroes_, (as
_Paterculus_ stiles him) graz'd on mount _Aventine_: These Examples,
tis true, are not convinceing, yet they sufficiently shew that the
employment of a Sheapard was sometime look'd upon to be such, as in
those Fabulous times was not alltogether unbecomeing the _Dignity_ of
a _Heroe_, or the _Divinity_ of a _God_: which consideration if it
cannot be of force enough to procure excellence, yet certainly it may
secure it from the imputation of baseness, since it was sometime lookt
upon as fit for the greatest in Earth or Heaven.

But not to insist on the authority of _Poets_, _Sacred Writt_ tells
us that _Jacob_ and _Esau_, two great men, were Sheapards; And _Amos_,
one of the Royal Family, asserts the same of himself, for _He was_
among _the Sheapards of Tecua_, following that employment: The like by
Gods own appointment {3} prepared _Moses_ for a Scepter, as _Philo_
intimates in his life, when He tells us, _that a Sheapards Art is a
suitable preparation to a Kingdome_; the same He mentions in the Life
of _Joseph_, affirming that the care a Sheapard hath over his Cattle,
very much resembles that which a King hath over his Subjects: The same
_Basil_ in his Homily de _S. Mamm. Martyre_ hath concerning _David_,
who was taken from following the Ews great with young ones to feed
_Israel_, for He says that the Art of feeding and governing are very
near akin, and even Sisters: And upon this account I suppose twas,
that Kings amongst the _Greeks_ reckoned the name of Sheapard one of
their greatest titles, for, if we believe _Varro_, amongst the
Antients, the best and bravest was still a Sheapard: Every body knows
that the _Romans_ the worthiest and greatest Nation in the World
sprang from _Sheapards_: The Augury of the Twelve Vulturs plac't a
Scepter in _Romulus's_ hand which held a Crook before; and at that
time, as _Ovid_ says,

His own small Flock each Senator did keep.

_Lucretius_ mentions an extraordinary happiness, and as it were
Divinity in a _Sheaperd's_ life,

Thro Sheapards ease, and their Divine retreats.

And this is the reason, I suppose, why the soli