To spend our youth in pursuit of riches or fame, in hopes to
enjoy them when we are old; and when we are old, we find it is too late
to enjoy any thing. I therefore hope the wits will pardon me, if I
reserve some of my time to save my soul; and that some wise men will be
of my opinion, even if I should think a part of it better spent in the
enjoyments of life than in pleasing the critics.
PASTORALS,
WITH A DISCOURSE ON PASTORAL POETRY.[3]
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR MDCCIV.
Rura mihi et rigui placeant in vallibus amnes,
Flumina amem, sylvasque, inglorius!
VIRG.
There are not, I believe, a greater number of any sort of verses than of
those which are called Pastorals; nor a smaller, than of those which are
truly so. It therefore seems necessary to give some account of this kind
of poem; and it is my design to comprise in this short paper the
substance of those numerous dissertations the critics have made on the
subject, without omitting any of their rules in my own favour. You will
also find some points reconciled, about which they seem to differ, and a
few remarks which, I think, have escaped their observation.
The original of poetry is ascribed to that age which succeeded the
creation of the world: and as the keeping of flocks seems to have been
the first employment of mankind, the most ancient sort of poetry was
probably _pastoral_.
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