Not to mention other kinds of _Poetry_, what particular Genius is requir'd to _Pastoral_ I think, is evident from the foregoing Discourse, for as every part of it ought to be full of simple and inartificial neatness, so it requires a Wit naturally neat and pleasant, born to delight and ravish, which are the qualifications certainly of a great and most excellent Nature: For whatsoever in any kind is delicate and elegant, that is usually most excellent: And such a _Genius_ that hath a sprightfulness of Nature, and is well instructed { 46} by the rules of Art, is fit to attempt _Pastorals_.
Of the end of Pastorals tis not so easy to give an account: For as to the end of Poetry in General: The Enemies of Poets run out into a large common place, and loudly tell us that Poetry is frivolous and unprofitable. Excellent men! that love _profit_ perchance, but have no regard for _Honesty_ and _Goodness_; who do not know that all excellent _Arts_ sprang from _Poetry_ at first.
Which what is honest, base, or just, or good, Better than _Crantor_, or _Chrysippus_ show'd.
For tis _Poetry_ that like a chast unspotted Virgin, shews men the way, and the means to live happily, who afterward are deprav'd by the immodest precepts of vitiated and impudent _Philosophy_. For every body knows, that the _Epick_ sets before us the highest example of the Bravest man; the _Tragedian_ regulates the Affections of the Mind; the _Lyrick_ reforms Manners, or sings the Praises of Gods, and Heroes; so that there's no part of _Poetry_ but hath it's proper end, and profits.
But grant all this true, _Pastoral_ can make no such pretence: if you sing a _Hero_, you excite mens minds to imitate his Actions, and notable Exploits; but how can _Bucolicks_ apply these or the like advantages to its self? _He that reads { 47} Heroick Poems, learns what is the vertue of a Hero, and wishes to be like him; but he that reads Pastorals, neither learns how to feed sheep, nor wishes himself a shepherd:_ And a great deal more to this purpose you may see in _Modicius_, as _Pontanus_ cites him in his Notes on _Virgil's_ _Eclogues_.
But when tis the end of _Comedy_, as _Jerom_ in his Epistle to _Furia_ says, to know the Humors of Men, and to describe them; and _Demea_ in _Terence_ intimates the same thing,