affemblages of pleasing objects, which are not to be found in nature. The figs and the honey, which he affigns* as a reward to a victorious fhepherd, were in themselves exquifite, and are therefore affigned with great propriety: and the beauties of that luxurious landscape fo richly and circumftantially delineated in the clofe of the feventh idyllium, where all things fmelt of fummer and smelt of autumn, Παι' ώσδεν θέλεος μαλα πιοῦ, ὡσδε δ' όπωςης †, were present and real. Succeeding writers fuppofing these beauties too great and abundant to be real, referred them to the fictitious and imaginary scenes of a golden age. A MIXTURE of British and Grecian ideas may justly be deemed a blemish in the PASTORALS of POPE: and propriety is certainly violated, when he couples Pactolus with Thames, and Windfor with Hybla. Complaints of immoderate heat, and wishes to be conveyed to cooling caverns, when uttered + Ver. 133. Idyll. i. ver. 146. by . by the inhabitants of Greece, have a decorum and confiftency, which they totally lose in the character of a British fhepherd: and, Theocritus, during the ardors of Sirius, must have heard the murmurings of a brook, and the whispers of a pine*, with more homefelt pleasure, than POPE † could poffibly experience upon the fame occafion. We can never completely relish, or adequately understand any author, efpecially any Ancient, except we conftantly keep in our eye his climate, his country, and his age. POPE himself informs us, in a note, that he judiciously omitted the following verfe, And lift'ning wolves grow milder as they hear ‡ on account of the abfurdity, which Spenfer overlooked, of introducing wolves into England. But on this principle, which is certainly a just one, may it not be afked, why he fhould fpeak, the fcene lying in Windfor Idyll. i. ver. 1. Paft. iv. ver. 1. Paft, ii. B 3 Foreft, Foreft, of the SULTRY SIRIUS, of the GRATEFUL CLUSTERS of grapes †, of a pipe of reeds, the antique fiftula, of thanking Ceres for a plentiful harvest §, of the facrifice of lambs, with many other inftances that might be adduced to this purpose. That POPE however was fenfible of the importance of adapting images to the scene of action, is obvious from the following example of his judgment; for in tranflating, Audiit EUROTAS, juffitque edifcere LAUROS he has dexterously dropt the laurels appropriated to Eurotas, as he is fpeaking of the river Thames, and has rendered it, Thames heard the numbers, as he flow'd along, In the paffages which POPE has imitated from Theocritus, and from his Latin tranflator Virgil, he has merited but little applause. It may not be unentertaining to fee Paft. ii. ver. 21. § Ibid. ver. 65. + Paft. iii. ver. 24. || Paft. iv. ver. 81. Paft. ii. ver. 41. §§ Ibid. ver. 14. how how coldly and unpoetically POPE has copied the fubfequent appeal to the nymphs on the death of Daphnis, in comparison of Milton: on LYCIDAS, one of his juvenile pieces, i Πα ποκ' ας ήσθ ἱκα Δαφνις ἐτακείο ; πα πικα, Νύμφαι; Η καλα Πηνεία καλα τέμπεα, η κατα Πίνδω ; Ου γαρ δη πολέμοιο με αν ςοον ειχεῖ ̓ Αναπω, Where ftray ye, Muses, in what lawn or grove, A Where were ye, nymphs, when the remorseless deep For neither were ye playing on the steep Where your old bards, the famous Druids lie; Nor yet where Deva fpreads her wizard stream ‡. THE mention of places remarkably romantic, the fuppofed habitation of Druids, bards, and wizards, is far more pleafing to the imagination, than the obvious introduction of Cam and Ifis, as feats of the Muses. THEOCRITUS, Idyll. i. 66. † POPE, Paft. ii. 24. MILTON. A SHEP B 4 A SHEPHERD in Theocritus wishes with much tenderness and elegance, both which muft fuffer in a literal tranflation, "Would "I could become a murmuring bee, fly into mong your grotto, and be permitted to creep athe leaves of ivy and fern that compose the chaplet which adorns your head*.” POPE has thus altered this image, Oh! were I made by fome transforming pow'r, On three accounts the former image is preferable to the latter: for the paftoral wildness, the delicacy, and the uncommonness of the thought, I cannot forbear adding, that the riddle of the Royal Oak, in the first Pastoral, invented in imitation of the Virgilian ænigmas in the third eclogue, favours of pun, and puerile conceit. Αιθε γενοίμαν Α βομβευσα μελισσα, κι ἐς τεον ανρον ἐκοιμαν, Τον κισσον διαδύς, και ταν πλεριν & τυ πυκασδη. Idyll. iii. 12. + Paft. ii. 45. Say |