ion appears in all _Virgil_; for how sparing is he in his
description of _Meliboeus's_ Beechen Pot, the work of Divine
_Alcimedon_? He doth it in _five_ verses, _Theocritus_ runs out into
_thirty_, which certainly is an argument of a wit that is very much at
leisure, and unable to moderate his force. That _shortness_ which
_Virgil_ hath prudently made choice of, is in my opinion much better;
for a Shepherd, who is naturally incurious, and unobserving, cannot
think that tis his duty to be exact in particulars, and describe every
thing with an accurate niceness: yet _Roncardus_ hath done it, a man
of most correct judgment, and, in imitation of _Theocritus_, hath,
considering the then poverty of our language, admirably and largely
describ'd _his_ Cup; and _Marinus_ in his Idylliums hath follow'd the
same example. He never keeps within compass in his Descriptions, for
which he is deservedly blam'd; let those who would be thought
accurate, and men of judgment, follow _Virgil's_ prudent moderation.
Nor can the Others gain any advantage from _Moschus's_ _Europa_, in
which the description of the _Basket_ is very long, for that Idyllium
is not _Pastoral_; yet I confess, that some {66} descriptions of such
trivial things, if not minutely accurate, may, if seldom us'd, be
decently allow'd a place in the discourses of _Shepherds_.

But tho you must be sparing in your _Descriptions_, yet your
_Comparisons_ must be frequent, and the more often you use them, the
better and more graceful will be the Composure; especially if taken
from such things, as the Shepherds must be familiarly acquainted with:
They are frequent in _Theocritus_ but so proper to the Country, that
none but a _Shepherd_ dare use them. Thus _Menalcas_ in the eighth
Idyllium:

Rough Storms to Trees, to Birds the treacherous Snare,
Are frightful Evils; Springes to the Hare,
Soft Virgins Love to Man, &c.

And _Damoetas_ in _Virgil's_ _Palaemon_,

Woolves sheep destroy, Winds Trees when newly blown,
Storms Corn, and me my _Amaryllis_ frown.

And that in the eighth _Eclogue_,

As Clay grows hard, Wax soft in the same fire,
So _Daphnis_ does in one extream desire.

And such _Comparisons_ are very frequent in him, and very suitable to
the Genius of a Shepherd; as likewise often _repetitions_, and
doublings of some words: which, if they are luckily plac'd have an
unexpressible quaintness, and make the Numbers extream sweet, and the
turns ravishing and