For there is no part of _Poetry_ that requires
more spirit, for if any part is not close and well compacted the whole
Fabrick will be ruin'd, and the {39} matter, in it self humble, must
creep; unless it is held up by the strength and vigor of the
_Expression_.
Another qualification and excellence of _Pastoral_ is to imitate
_Timanthes's_ Art, of whom _Pliny_ writes thus; _Timanthes was very
Ingenious, in all his peices more was to be understood than the
Colours express'd, and tho his Art was very extraordinary yet his
Fancy exceeded it_: In this _Virgil_ is peculiarly happy, but others,
especially raw unexperienced Writers, if they are to describe a
Rainbow, or a River, pour out their whole stock, and are unable to
contain: Now 'tis properly requisite to a Pastoral that there should
be a great deal coucht in a few words, and every thing it says should
be so short, and so close, as if its chiefest excellence was to be
spareing in Expression: such is that of _Virgil_;
These Fields and Corn shall a Barbarian share?
See the Effects of all our Civil War.
How short is that? how concise? and yet how full of sense in the same
_Eclogue_.
I wonder'd why all thy complaints were made,
Absent was _Tityrus_:
And the like you may every where meet with, as
_Mopsus_ weds _Nisa_, what may'nt Lovers hope?
and in the second _Eclogue_,
{40} Whom dost thou fly ah frantick! oft the Woods
Hold Gods, and _Paris_ equal to the Gods.
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