OBSERVATIONS, &c. HE genius of the paftoral, as well as of THE every other respectable species of poetry, had its origin in the East, and from thence was tranfplanted by the mufes of Greece; but whether from the continent of the leffer Afia, or from Egypt, which, about the era of the Grecian paftoral, was the hofpitable nurse of letters, it is not easy to determine. From the fubjects, and the manner of Theocritus, one would incline to the latter opinion, while the hiftory of Bion is in favour of the former. HOWEVER, though it should still remain a doubt through what channel the paftoral tra velled westward, there is not the least shadow of uncertainty concerning its Oriental Origin. IN thofe ages, which, guided by facred chronology, from a comparative view of time, we call the early ages, it appears from the most authentic hiftorians that the chiefs of the people employed themselves in rural exercises, and that aftronomers and legiflators were at the fame time fhepherds. Thus Strabo informs us that the hiftory of the creation was communicated to the Egyptians by a Chaldæan Thepherd. FROM these circumstances it is evident not only that such shepherds were capable of al' the dignity and elegance peculiar to poetry, but that whatever poetry they attempted would be of the pastoral kind; would take its subjects from those scenes of rural fimplicity in which they they were converfant, and, as it was the offspring of Harmony and Nature, would employ it derived from the former to cele the powers brate the beauty and benevolence of the latter. ACCORDINGLY we find that the most ancient poems treat of agriculture, aftronomy, and other objects within the rural and natural fystems. WHAT Conftitutes the difference between the Georgic and the Paftoral is love and the colloquial, or dramatic form of compofition peculiar to the latter: this form of compofition is fometimes difpenfed with, and love and rural imagery alone are thought fufficient to distinguish the paftoral. The tender paffion, however, seems to be effential to this fpecies of poetry, and is hardly ever excluded from those pieces that were intended to come under this denomination : |