And tis
necessary {48} to Government, that as there is one kind of _Poetry_ to
instruct the _Citizens_, there should be another to fashion the
manners of the _Rusticks_: which if _Pastoral_, as it does, did not
do, yet would it not be altogether frivolous, and idle, since by its
taking prettinesses it can delight, and please. It can scarce be
imagin'd, how much the most flourishing times of the _Roman_ Common-
wealth, in which _Virgil_ wrote, grew better and brisker by the use of
_Pastoral_: with it were _Augustus_, _Mecaenas_, _Asinius Pollio_,
_Alphenus Varus_, _Cornelius Gallus_, the most admired Wits of that
happy Age, wonderfully pleas'd; for whatever is sweet, and ravishing,
is contain'd in this sweetest kind of Poetry. But if we must slight
every thing, from which no _profit_ is to be hop'd, all pleasures of
the Eye and Ear are presently to be laid aside; and those excellent
Arts, _Musick_, and _Painting_, with which the best men use to be
delighted, are presently to be left off. Nor is it indeed credible,
that so many excellent Wits, as have devoted themselves to Poetry,
would ever have medled with it, if it had been so empty, idle, and
frivolous, as some ridiculously morose imagine; who forsooth are
better pleas'd with the severity of _Philosophy_, and her harsh,
deform'd impropriety of Expressions. But the judgments of such men are
the most contemptible in the world; for when by _Poetry_ mens minds
are fashioned to generous {49} Humors, Kindness, and the like: those
must needs be strangers to all those good qualites, who hate, or
proclaim _Poetry_ to be frivolous, and useless.
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