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 carry this resemblance yet further, it
would not be amiss to give these shepherds some skill in astronomy, as
far as it may be useful to that sort of life. And 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; the connexion should be loose, the narrations and
descriptions short, and the periods concise. Yet it is not sufficient,
that the sentences only be brief, the whole eclogue should be so too.
For we cannot suppose poetry in those days to have been the business of
men, but their recreation at vacant hours.
But with respect to the present age, nothing more conduces to make these
composures natural than when some knowledge in rural affairs is
discovered. This may be made to appear rather done by chance than on
design, and sometimes is best shown by inference; lest by too much study
to seem natural, we destroy that easy simplicity from whence arises the
delight. For what is inviting in this sort of poetry, proceeds not so
much from the idea of that business, as of the tranquility of a country
life.
We must therefore use some illusion to render a pastoral delightful; and
this consists in exposing the best side only of a shepherd's life, and
in concealing its miseries.
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