Page:Pastorals Epistles Odes (1748).djvu/18

 ''To view a fair stately palace strikes us indeed with admiration, and swells the soul with notions of grandeur! but when I see a little country dwelling, advantageously situated amidst a beautiful variety of hills, meadows, fields, woods, and rivulets, I feel an unspeakable sort of satisfaction, and cannot forbear wishing my kinder fortune would place me in such a sweet retirement.''

Theocritus, Virgil, and Spenser, are the only Poets who seem to have hit upon the true nature of Pastoral Compositions: so that it will be sufficient praise for me, if I have not altogether failed in my attempt.