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In another of his pastorals, a fhepherd utters a dirge, not much inferior to the former, in the following lines:

Ah me the while! ah me! the luckless day,
Ah lucklefs lad! the rather might I say;
Ah filly I more filly than my sheep,

Which on the flow'ry plains I once did keep. How he still charms the ear with thefe artful repetitions of the epithets; and how fignificant is the last verfe! I defy the most common reader to repeat them without feeling fome motions of com paffion.

In the the next place I fhall rank his proverbs, in which I formerly observed he excels. For example:

A rolling ftone is ever bare of mofs;

And, to their coft, green years old proverbs cross, --He that late lies down, as late will rife, And, fluggard-like, till noon-day fnoring lies. -Againft ill-luck all cunning fore-fight fails; Whether we fleep or wake, it naught avails. ---Nor fear, from upright fentence, wrong.

Laftly, his elegant dialect, which alone might prove him the eldest born of Spenser, and our onÎy true Arcadian. I fhould think it proper for the feveral writers of paftoral, to confine themfelves to their feveral counties. Spenfer feems to have been of this opinion; for he hath laid the fcene of one of his paftorals in Wales, where, with all the fimplicity natural to that part of our island,

one

one fhepherd bids the other good morrow, in an unusual and elegant manner:

Diggon Davy, I bid hur God-day: Or Diggon hur is, or I mif-fay. Diggon anfwers:

Hur was hur while it was day-light;

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But now hur is a moft wretched wight, &c. But the most beautiful example of this kind that I ever met with, is in a very valuable piece which 1 chanced to find among fome old manufcripts, entitled, A paftoral ballad; which, I think, for its nature and fimplicity, may (notwithstanding the modesty of the title) be allowed a perfect paftoral. It is compofed in the Somersetshire dialect, and the names fuch as are proper to the countrypeople. It may be obferved, as a further beauty of this paftoral, the words Nymph, Dryad, Naiad, Fawn, Cupid, or Satyr, are not once mentioned throughout the whole. I fhall make no apology for inferting fome few lines of this excellent piece. Cicily breaks thus into the fubject, as she is going a-milking.

Cicily. Rager, ga vetch tha kee *, or else tha zun Will quite be go, bevore c'have half a don. Roger. Thou shouldst not ax ma tweece, but I've a bee

Tó dreve our bull to bull tha parson's kee. It is to be observed, that this whole dialogue is formed upon the paffion of jealousy; and his mentioning the parfon's kine naturally revives the jealoufy of the shepherdefs Cicily, which the expreffes as follows:

*That is, the kine or cows.
FS

Cicily.

Cicily. Ah Rager, Rager, ches was zore avraid, When in yon vield you kifs'd tha parfon's maid:

Is this the love that once to me you zed, When vrom the wake thou brought'ft me gingerbread ?

Roger. Cicily thou charg'st me valse,----I'll zwear to thee,

Tha parfon's maid is ftill a maid for me.

In which answer of his, are expreffed at once that fpirit of religion, and that innocence of the golden age, fo neceffary to be observed by all writers of

Paftoral.

At the conclufion of this piece, the author reconciles the lovers, and ends the eclogue the most fimply in the world.

So Rager parted vor to vetch tha kee,

And vor her bucket in went Cicily.

I am loath to fhow my fondness for antiquity so far as to prefer this ancient British author to our prefent English writers of paftoral; but I cannot avoid making this obvious remark, that Philips hath hit into the fame road with this old weitcountry bard of ours.

After all that hath been faid, I hope none can think it any injuftice to Mr Pope that I forbore to mention him as a paftoral writer; fince, upon the whole, he is of the fame clafs with Mofchus and Bion, whom we have excluded that rank; and of whofe eclogues, as well as fome of Virgil's, it may be faid, that (according to the description we have given of this fort of poetry) they are by no means paftorals, but fomething better.

No. 61.

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------Primoque a cæde ferarum,
Incaluiffe putem maculatum fanquine ferrum.

OVID.

CANNOT think it extravagant to imagine, that mankind are no lefs, in proportion, accountable for the ill ufe of their dominion over creatures of the lower rank of beings, than for the exercise of tyranny over their own fpecies. The more entirely the inferior creation is fubmitted to our power, the more answerable we fhould feem for our mifmanagement of it; and the rather,, as the very condition of nature renders thefe creatures incapable of receiving any recompence in another life for their ill-treatment in this.

It is obfervable of thofe noxious animals, which have qualities moft powerful to injure us, that they naturally avoid mankind, and never hurt us unlefs provoked, or neceffitated by hunger. Man, on the other hand, feeks out and purfues even the moft inoffenfive animals, on purpose to perfecute and destroy them.

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Montaigne thinks it fome reflection upon human nature itself, that few people take delight in feeing beafts carefs or play together, but almost every one is pleafed to fee them lacerate and worry one another. I am forry this temper is become almost L6

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a distinguishing character of our own nation, from the obfervation which is made by foreigners of our beloved pastimes, bear-beating, cock-fighting, and the like. We fhould find it hard to vindicate the deftroying of any thing that has life, merely out of wantonness; yet in this principle our children are bred up, and one of the first pleasures we allow them, is the licence of inflicting pain upon poor animals: Almost as foon as we are fenfible what life is ourselves, we make it our sport to take it from other creatures. I cannot but believe a very good ufe might be made of the fancy which children have for birds and infects. Mr Locke takes notice of a mother who permitted them to her children, but rewarded or punished them as they treated them well or ill. This was no other than entering them betimes into a daily exercife of humanity, and improving their very diverfion to a virtue.

I fancy too, fome advantage might be taken of the common notion, that it is ominous or unlucky, to deftroy fome forts of birds, as fwallows or martins. This opinion might poffibly arife from the confidence thefe birds feem to put in us, by building under our roofs, so that it is a kind of violation of the laws of hofpitality to murder them As for robin-red-breafts in particular, it is not improbable they owe their fecurity to the old ballad of The children in the wood. However it be, I don't know, I fay, why this prejudice, well improved and carried as far as it would go, might not be made to conduce to the prefervation of many innocent creatures, which are now exposed to all the wantonness of an ignorant barbarity.

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