There are indeed particular circumstances, by the
concurrence of which one branch of an Art may be rendered perfect, when
it is first introduced; and these circumstances were favourable to the
Authors of the Eclogue. But whatever some readers may think, your
Lordship will not look upon it as a paradox, to affirm that the same
causes which produced this advantage to pastoral poetry, contributed in
an equal degree to make the first Lyric Poems the most vague, uncertain,
and disproportioncd standards.

[Footnote 11: Id. ibid.]

In general it may be observed, that the difficulty of establishing rules
is always augmented in proportion to the variety of objects which an Art
includes. Pastoral Poetry is defined by an ingenious Author, to be an
imitation of what may be supposed to pass among Shepherds[12]. This was
accomplished the more easily by the first performers in this art,
because they were themselves employed in the occupation which they
describe, and the subjects which fell within their sphere must have been
confined to a very narrow circle. They contented themfelves with
painting in the simplest language the external beauties of nature, and
with conveying an image of that age in which men generally lived on the
footing of equality, and followed the dictates of an understanding
uncultivated by Art. In succeeding ages, when manners became more
polished, and the refinements of luxury were substituted in place of the
simplicity of Nature, men were still fond of retaining an idea of this
happy period (which perhaps originally existed in its full extent, only
in the imagination of Poets) and the character of a perfect pastoral was
justly drawen from the writings of those Authors who first attempted to
excel in it[13].

[Footnote 12: Toute Poesie est une imitation. La Poesie Bucolique
a pour but d'imiter ce qui a passe et ce qui ce dit entre les
Bergers. Mem. de Lit. V. III. p. 158.]

[Footnote 13: Elle ne doit pas s'en tenir a la simple
representation du vrai reel, qui rarement seroit agreable; elle
doit s'elever jusqu'au _vrai ideal_, qui tend' a embellir le vrai,
tel qu'il est dans la nature, et qui produit dans la Poesie comme
dans la Peinture, le derniere point de perfeftion, &c. Mem. de
Lit. ub. sup.]

Though we must acknowledge, that the poetic representations of a _golden
age_ are chimerical, and that descriptions of this kind were not always
measured by the standard of