the section on the pastoral in the _Reflections_. Contrary to his own
statement that he "reconciled" some points on which the critics
disagree and in spite of the fact that he quotes Fontenelle, Pope in
his "Discourse" is a neoclassicist almost as thoroughgoing as Rapin.
The ideas which he says he took from Fontenelle are either
unimportant or may be found in Rapin. Pope ends his "Discourse" by
drawing a general conclusion concerning his _Pastorals_: "But after
all, if they have any merit, it is to be attributed to some good old
authors, whose works as I had leisure to study, so I have not wanted
care to imitate." This statement is diametrically opposed to the
basic ideas and methods of Fontenelle, but in full accord with and no
doubt directly indebted to those of Rapin.

The same year, 1717, that Pope 'imitated' Rapin's "Treatise," Thomas
Purney made a direct attack on Rapin's neoclassic procedure. In the
"Preface" to his own _Pastorals_ he expresses his disapproval of
Rapin's method, evidently with the second passage from Rapin quoted
above in mind:
_Rapine's_ Discourse is counted the best on this Poem, for 'tis
the longest. You will easily excuse my not mentioning all his
Defects and Errors in this Preface. I shall only say then, that
instead of looking into the true Nature of the Pastoral Poem,
and then judging whether _Theocritus_ or any of his Followers
have brought it to it's utmost Perfection or not. _Rapine_
takes it for granted that _Theocritus_ and _Virgil_ are
infallible; and aim's at nothing beyond showing the Rules which
he thinks they observ'd. Facetious Head! (_Works_, Oxford,
1933, pp. 51-52. The Peroy Reprints, No. XII)

The influence of Rapin on the development of the pastoral,
nevertheless, was salutary. Finding the genre vitiated with wit,
extravagance, and artificiality, he attempted to strip it of these
Renaissance excrescencies and restore it to its pristine purity by
direct reference to the Ancients--Virgil, in particular. Though Rapin
does not have the psychological insight into the esthetic principles
of the genre equal to that recently exhibited by William Empson or
even to that expressed by Fontenelle, he does understand the
intrinsic appeal of the pastoral which has enabled it to survive, and
often to flourish, through the centuries in painting, music, and
poetry. Perhaps his most explicit expression of this appreciation is
made while he is discussing Horace's statem