OBSERVATIONS, &c.

HE genius of the paftoral, as well as

THE

of every other refpectable fpecies of poetry, had its origin in the East, and from thence was tranfplanted by the muses 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 fhould ftill remain a doubt through what channel the paftoral travelled weftward, there is not the least fhadow

fhadow of uncertainty concerning its Ori

ental 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 legislators were at the fame time fhepherds. Thus Strabo informs us, that the hiftory of the creation was communicated to the Egyptians by a Chaldæan fhepherd.

FROM these circumftances 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

of rural fimplicity in which they were converfant, and, as it was the offspring of Harmony and Nature, would employ the power's it derived from the former to celebrate 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 systems.

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 sufficient to distinguish the pastoral. The tender paffion, however, feems to be effential to this species of poetry, and is hardly ever exclud

ed

ed from those pieces that were intended to come under this denomination: even in

thofe eclogues of the Amabean kind, whofe only purport is a trial of skill between contending fhepherds, love has its usual share, and the praises of their respective mistresses are the general subjects of the competitors.

It is to be lamented that scarce any ori-. ental compofitions of this kind have survived the ravages of ignorance, tyranny, and time; we cannot doubt that many fuch have been extant, poffibly as far down as that fatal period, never to be mentioned in the world of letters without horrour, when the glorious monuments of human ingenuity perifhed in the ashes of the Alexandrian library,

THOSE ingenious Greeks whom we call the parents of paftoral poetry were, probably, no more than imitators of imitators, that derived

derived their harmony from higher and remoter fources, and kindled their poetical fires at those then unextinguished lamps which burned within the tombs of oriental genius.

IT is evident that Homer has availed himfelf of those magnificent images and descriptions fo frequently to be met with in the books of the Old Testament; and why may not Theocritus, Mofchus and Bion have found their archetypes in other eaftern writers, whose names have perifhed with their works? yet, though it may not be illiberal to admit such a supposition, it would, certainly, be invidious to conclude what the malignity of cavillers alone could fuggeft with regard to Homer, that they deftroyed the fources from which they borrowed, and, as it is fabled of the young of the pelican, drained their fupporters to death.

As