make mock for deride, and witless younglings for fimple lambs, etc. by which means he had attained as much of the air of Theocritus, as Philips hath of Spencer?

4. Mr. Pope hath fallen into the fame error with Virgil. His clowns do not converfe in all the fimplicity proper to the country: His names are borrowed from Theocritus and Virgil, which are improper to the scene of his paftorals. He introduces Daphnis, Alexis, and Thyrfis on British plains, as Virgil had done before him on the Mantuan: Whereas Philips, who hath the ftricteft regard to propriety, makes choice of names peculiar to the country, and more agreeable to a reader of delicacy; fuch as Hobbinol, Lobbin, Cuddy and Colin Clout.

5. So eafy as paftoral writing may seem (in the fimplicity we have described it) yet it requires great reading, both of the ancients and moderns, to be a master of it. Philips hath given us manifest proofs of his knowledge of books. It must be confeffed his competitor hath imitated fome fingle thoughts of the ancients well enough (if we confider he had not the happiness of an Univerfity education} but he hath dispersed them here and there, without that order and method which Mr. Philips obferves, whofe whole third paftoral is an instance how well he hath ftudied the fifth of Virgil, and how judiciously reduced Virgil's thoughts to the standard of Pastoral; as his contention of Colin Clout and the Nightingale fhows with what exactness he hath imitated every line in Strada.

6. When I remarked it as a principal fault, to introduce fruits and flowers of a foreign growth, in descriptions where the scene lies in our own country, I did not defign that obfervation should extend alfo to animals, or the fenfitive life; for Mr. Philips hath with great judgment defcribed Wolves

Wolves in England in his first pastoral. Nor would I have a poet flavishly confine himself (as Mr. Pope hath done) to one particular Seafon of the year, one certain Time of the day, and one unbroken Scene in each eclogue. 'Tis plain Spencer neglected this pedantry, who in his paftoral of November mentions the mournful fong of the Nightingale,

Sad Philomel her fong in tears doth steep.

And Mr. Philips, by a poetical creation, hath raised up finer beds of flowers than the most industrious gardiner; his rofes, endives, lilies, kingcups, and daffidils, blow all in the fame season.

7. But the better to discover the merits of our two contemporary Paftoral writers, I fhall endeavour to draw a parallel of them, by fetting feveral of their particular thoughts in the fame light, whereby it will be obvious how much Philips hath the advantage. With what fimplicity he introduces two fhepherds finging alternately?

Hobb. Come, Rofalind, O come, for without thee
What pleasure can the country have for me?
Come, Rofalind, O come; my brinded kine,
My fnowy freep, my farm and all, is thine.

Lanq. Come, Rofalind, O come; here shady bowers, Here are cool fountains, and here Springing flowers.

Come, Rofalind; here ever let us stay,

And fweetly waft our live-long time away.

Our other pastoral writer, in expreffing the fame thought, deviates into downright Poetry:

Streph. In Spring the fields, in Autumn hills I love,
At morn the plains, at noon the fhady grove,
But Delia always; forc'd from Delia's fight,
Nor plains at morn, nor groves at noon delight.

Daph.

Daph. Sylvia's like Autumn ripe, yet mild as May, More bright than noon, yet fresh as early day; Ev'n Spring difpleases, when she shines not here, But bleft with her, 'tis Spring throughout the

year.

In the first of these authors, two fhepherds thus innocently describe the behaviour of their miftreffes:

Hobb. As Marian bath'd, by chance I passed by,
She blush'd, and at me caft a fide-long eye:
Then swift beneath the crystal wave she try'd
Her beauteous form, but all in vain, to hide.
Lanq. As I to cool me bath'd one fultry day,
Fond Lydia lurking in the fedges lay.

The wanton laugh'd, and feem'd in hafte to fly;
Yet often stopp'd, and often turn'd ber eye.

The other modern (who it must be confeffed hath a knack of versifying) hath it as follows: Streph. Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain,

Then, hid in fhades, eludes her eager fwain; But feigns a Laugh, to fee me search around, And by that Laugh the willing fair is found. Daph. The fprightly Sylvia trips along the green, She runs, but hopes she does not run unfeen; While a kind glance at her purfuer flies, How much at variance are her feet and eyes!

There is nothing the writers of this kind of poetry are fonder of than descriptions of paftoral Prefents. Philips fays thus of a Sheep-hook,

Of feafon'd elm; where ftuds of brass appear,
To fpeak the giver's name, the month and year;
The back of polish'd steel, the handle turn'd,
And richly by the graver's frill adorn'd.

The other of a bowl emboffed with figures:

where wanton ivy twines,

And fwelling clusters bend the curling vines ;
Four figures rifing from the work appear,
The various feafons of the rolling year;

And, what is that which binds the radiant sky,
Where twelve bright signs in beauteous order lie?

The fimplicity of the swain in this place, who forgets the name of the Zodiack, is no ill imitation of Virgil: but how much more plainly and unaffectedly would Philips have dreffed this thought in his Doric?

And what that hight, which girds the welkin fheen, Where twelve gay figns in meet array are seen?

If the reader would indulge his curiofity any further in the comparison of particulars, he may read the first pastoral of Philips with the fecond of his contemporary, and the fourth and fixth of the former with the fourth and first of the latter; where feveral parallel places will occur to every one.

Having now shown fome parts, in which thefe two writers may be compared, it is a justice I owe to Mr. Philips to discover those in which no man can compare with him. First, That beautiful rufticity, of which I fhall only produce two inftances out of a hundred not yet quoted:

O woeful day! O day of woe! quoth he,
And woful I, who live the day to fee!

The fimplicity of diction, the melancholy flowing of the numbers, the folemnity of the found, and the easy turn of the words in this Dirge (to make ufe of our author's expreffion) are extremely elegant.

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,
Ab luckless lad! the rather might I fay;
Ab filly I! more filly than my sheep,

Which on the flow'ry plains I once did keep.

How he still charms the ear with these artful repetitions of the epithets; and how fignificant is the last verse! I defy the most common reader to repeat them, without feeling fome motions of compaffion.

In the next place I fhall rank his Proverbs, in which I formerly observed he excells: 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 fnoaring lies.
Against Ill-luck all cunning fore-fight fails;
Whether we fleep or wake, it naught avails.

Nor fear, from upright sentence, wrong.

Laftly, his elegant Dialect, which alone might prove him the eldeft born of Spencer, and our only true Arcadian. I should think it proper for the feveral writers of Paftoral, to confine themselves to their feveral Counties. Spencer 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 ifland, one fhepherd bids the other good morrow, in an unusual and elegant manner :

Diggon Davy, I bid hur God-day :

Or Diggon bur is, or I mis-say.