XI. Long, long, thy ftone, and pointed clay O! vales, and wild woods, fhall He say, OBSER OBSERVATIONS, &c. THE HE genius of the paftoral, as well as of every other refpectable fpecies 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 eafy 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 fhould ftill remain a doubt through what channel the pastoral travelled weftward, there is not the leaft fhadow of 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 moft authentic hiftorians that the chiefs of the people employed themselves in rural exercises, and that aftronomers and legislators were at the fame time fhepherds. Thus Strabo in-. forms us that the hiftory of the creation was communicated to the Egyptians by a Chaldaan fhepherd. From these circumstances it is evident not only that fuch fhepherds were capable of all the dignity and elegance peculiar to poetry, but that whatever poetry they attempted would be of the paftoral kind; would take its fubjects from those scenes of rural fimplicity in which they were converfant, and, as it was the off fpring |