The other of a bowl embossed 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 fwain in this place, who for-
gets the name of the Zodiack, is no ill imitation
of Virgil: but how much more plainly and unaf-
fectedly would Philips have dressed this thought in
his Doric?

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

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 fhown fome parts, in which these two writers may be compared, it is a juftice I owe to Mr. Philips to difcover thofe in which no man can compare with him. First, That beautiful rufticity, of which I fhall only produce two instances 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
use of our author's expreffion) are extremely ele-
gant,

.

In another of his paftorals, a fhepherd utters a Dirge not much inferior to the former, in the following lines:

Ah me the while! ah me! the lucklefs day,
Ah luckless lad! the rather might I say;
Ab filly I! more filly than my sheep,

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

How he ftill 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 stone 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. Againft 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 eldest born of Spencer, and our only true Arcadian. I should think it proper for the several writers of Pastoral, 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 island, one fhepherd bids the other good morrow, in an unusual and elegant manner :

Diggon Davy, I bid hur God-day :

Or Diggon hur is, or I mif-fay.

Diggon answers:

Hur was bur, while it was day-light;
But now hur is a moft wretched wight, etc.

But the most beautiful example of this kind that I ever met with, is in a very valuable piece which I chanced to find among fome old manuscripts, entituled, A Paftoral Ballad: which I think, for its nature and fimplicity, may (notwithstanding the modefty of the title) be allowed a perfect Paftoral. It is compofed in the Somerfetfhire dialect, and the names fuch as are proper to the country people. It may be obferved as a further beauty of this Paftoral, the words Nymph, Dryad, Naiad, Fawn, Cupid, or Satyr, are not once mentioned throughout the whole. I fhall make no apology for inferting some few lines of this excellent piece. Cicily breaks thus into the subject, as fhe is going a milking:

Cicily. Rager, go vetch tha* Kee, or elfe tha Zun Will quite be go, bevore c'have half a don. Roger. Thou shouldft not ax ma tweece, but I've a bee To dreve our bull to bull tha Parfon's Keee.

It is to be obferved, that this whole dialogue is formed upon the paffion of Jealousy; and his mentioning the Parfon's Kine naturally revives the jealoufy of the fhepherdess Cicily, which the expreffes as follows:

Cicily. Ah Rager, Rager, ches was zore avraid,
When in yon Vield you kiss'd tha Parson's maid :
Is this the love that once to me you zed,
When from the Wake thou brought'ft me ginger-
bread?

*That is, the Kine or Cows.

Roger.

Roger. Cicily, thou charg'ft me valse,--I'll zwear to

thee,

Tha Parfon's maid is still a maid for me.

In which anfwer of his, are expreffed at once that Spirit of Religion, and that Innocence of the Golden age, fo neceffary to be observed by all writers of Paftoral.

At the conclufion of this piece, the author reconciles the Lovers, and ends the Eclogue the moft fimply in the world:

So Rager parted vor to vetch tha Kee,
And vor her bucket in went Cicily.

I am loth to fhow my fondness for antiquity fo far as to prefer this ancient British author to our prefent English Writers of Paftoral; but I cannot avoid making this obvious remark, that Philips hath hit into the fame road with this old Weft Country Bard of ours.

After all that hath been faid, I hope none can think it any injuftice to Mr. Pope that I forbore to mention him as a Paftoral writer; fince, upon the whole, he is of the fame class with Mofchus and Bion, whom we have excluded that rank; and of whofe Eclogues, as well as fome of Virgil's, it may be faid, that (according to the description we have given of this fort of poetry) they are by no means Pastorals, but fomething better.

No. 61.

May 21, 1713.

Primoque a caede ferarum

Incaluiffe putem maculatum fanguine ferrum. OVID.

I

CANNOT think it extravagant to imagine, that mankind are no lefs, in proportion, accountable for the ill ufe of their dominion over creatures of the lower rank of beings, than for the exercife of tyranny over their own Species. The more entirely the inferior creation is fubmitted to our power, the more anfwerable we fhould seem for our mismanagement of it; and the rather, as the very condition of nature renders thefe creatures incapable of receiving any recompence in another life for their ill treatment in this.

'Tis obfervable of those noxious animals, which have qualities moft powerful to injure us, that they naturally avoid mankind, and never hurt us unless provoked, or neceffitated by hunger. Man, on the other hand, feeks out and purfues even the moft inoffenfive animals, on purpose to perfecute and deftroy them.

Montaigne thinks it fome reflection upon human nature itself, that few people take delight in feeing beafts carefs or play together, but almost every one is pleafed to fee them lacerate and worry one another. I am forry this temper is become almost a diftinguishing character of our own nation, from the obfervation which is made by foreigners of our beloved paftimes, Bear-baiting, Cock-fighting, and the like. We fhould find it hard to vindicate the destroying of any thing that has life, merely out of wantonnefs; yet in this principle our children are bred up, and one of the