seem
less delightful. Pleasure is greatest if we know not whence it proceeds.
And such is the Nature of Man, that if he has all he desires he is no
longer delighted; but if ought is with-held, he is still in Eagerness,
and full of Curiosity.

Besides, Descriptions in Pastoral should be particularly short, because
it draw's into Description nought but the most Common tho' the most
Beautiful of Nature's Works: Whereas Epick Poetry, whose Business is
to Astonish, represents Monsters and Things unheard of before, and a
_Polyphemus_ or a _Cyclops_ will bear, nay require, a more particular
Description, than a beauteous Grott, or falling Water; because the
One is only calling up into our Mind what we knew before, the other is
Creation. Besides that in Epick Poetry the Descriptions are generally
more necessary than in Pastoral. To describe the fair Bank where your
Lovers sate to talk does not help the _Fable_; but if _Homer_ had not
prepared us, by a particular Description of _Polyphemus_'s hugeness, he
would not have been credited, when he afterwards said, _That he hurl'd
such a Piece of a Rock after_ Ulysses'_s Ship, as drove it back, tho' it
touch'd it not, but only plung'd into the Waves, and made 'em roll with
so great Violence_.

I shall only add one Observation on this Head, and proceed. Pastoral
admits of _Narration_ and _Dialogue_, but in _Narration_ we may be
greatly more diffuse in our Descriptions than in the _Dialogue_ part of
the Piece. For nothing in Poetry is to be preserv'd with more care than
probability, especially in Pastoral. Now for a Shepherd to be relating
an Accident of Concern, and to dwell on a Description of Place or Person
for four or five Lines in the midst, does it not look as if 'twere only
Verses written, and not a Tale actually told by the Swain, since in
such a Case 'tis natural to hast to the main Point, and not to dwell so
particularly on Matters of no Consideration.

I might give several other Reasons for the shortness of Pastoral
Descriptions, as that 'tis the manner of Shepherds not to dwell on one
Matter so precisely, but to run from one thing to another; Also, that
the Reader's Mind is delighted when it has scope to employ it self; and
the like. But the clearness of the Question prevents me.

SECT. 3.

_What Pastoral Images will shine most in a Description_.

We have just shown which Images are the finest; and 'tis evident that by
an accumulation of the best Images is form'd th