But now again no more the woodland maids,
Nor paftoral fongs delight-Farewell, ye fhades-
No toils of ours the cruel god can change,
Tho' loft in frozen deferts we fhould range;
Tho' we fhould drink where chilling Hebrus flows,
Endure bleak winter blafts, and Thracian fnows;
Or on hot India's plains our flocks thould feed,
Where the parch'd elm declines his fickening head;
Beneath fierce-glowing Cancer's fiery beams,
Far from cool breezes and refreshing streams.
Love over all maintains refiftless sway,
And let us love's all-conquering power obey.

WARTON.

But notwithstanding the excellence of the tenth paftoral, I cannot forbear to give the preference to the firft, which is equally natural and more diverfified. The complaint of the fhepherd, who faw his old companion at eafe in the fhade, while himself was driving his little flock he knew not whither, is fuch as, with variation of circumftances, mifery always utters at the fight of profperity:

Nos patriæ fines, & dulcia linquimus arva ;

Nos patriam fugimus: tu, Tityre, lentus in umbra.
Formofam refonare doces Amaryllida fylvas.

We leave our country's bounds, our much lov'd plains;
We from our country fly, unhappy fwains!

You, Tit'rus, in the groves at leifure laid,
Teach Amaryllis' name to every fhade.

WARTON.

His account of the difficulties of his journey, gives

a very tender image of paftoral diftrefs:

En

En ipfe capellas

Protenus æger ago: hanc etiam vix, Tityre, duco:
Hic inter denfas corylos modo namque gemellos,
Spem gregis, ah! filice in nuda connixa reliquit.

And lo! fad partner of the general care,
Weary and faint I drive my goats afar!
While scarcely this my leading hand fuftains,
Tir'd with the way, and recent from her pains;
For 'mid yon tangled hazels as we past,
On the bare flints her haplefs twin fhe caft,
The hopes and promise of my ruin❜d fold !

WARTON.

The description of Virgil's happiness in his little farm, combines almoft all the images of rural pleafure; and he, therefore, that can read it with indifference, has no fenfe of paftoral poetry;

Fortunate fenex, ergo tua rura manebunt,
Et tibi magna fatis; quamvis lapis omnia nudus.
Limofoque palus obducat pafcua junco,
Non infueta gravis tentabunt pabula fœtas,
Nec mala vicini pecoris contagia lædent.
Fortunate fenex, his inter flumina nota,
Et fontes facros, frigus captabis opacum.
Hinc tibi, quæ femper vicino ab limite fepes,
Hybleis apibus florem depafta falikti,
Sæpe levi fomnum fuadebit inire fufurro.
Hine altâ fub rupe canet frondator ad auras;
Nec tamen interea rauca, tua cura, palumbes,
Nec gemere aëria ceffabit turtur ab ulmo.

Happy old man! then ftill thy farms reftor'd,
Enough for thee, fhall blefs thy frugal board.
What tho' rough ftones the naked foil o'erfpreap,

Or marshy bulrush rear its wat'ry head,

No foreign food thy teeming ewes fhall fear,
No touch contagious fpread its influence here.
Happy old man! here 'mid th' accuftom'd streams.
And facred fprings, you'll fhun the scorching beams;
While from yon willow-fence, thy picture's bound,
The bees that fuck their flow'ry ftores around,
Shall fweetly mingle, with the whispering boughs,
Their lulling murmurs, and invite repofe:
While from steep rocks the pruner's fong is heard;
Nor the foft-cooing dove, thy fav'rite bird,
Mean while fhall cease to breathe her melting strain,
Nor turtles from th' aeriel elm to 'plain.

WARTON.

It may be obferved, that these two poems were produced by events that really happened; and may, therefore, be of ufe to prove, that we can always feel more than we can imagine, and that the most artful fiction must give way to truth.

I am, SIR,

Your humble fervant,

DUBIUS,

NUMB. 95. TUESDAY, October 2, 1753.

Dulcique animos novitate tenebo.

And with fweet novelty your foul detain.

OVID.

IT is often charged upon writers, that with all their

pretenfions to genius and difcoveries, they do little more than copy one another; and that compofitions obtruded upon the world with the pomp of novelty, contain only tedious repetitions of common fentiments, or at best exhibit a tranfpofition of known images, and give a new appearance to truth only by fome flight difference of drefs and decoration.

The allegation of resemblance between authors, is indisputably true; but the charge of plagiarism, which is raised upon it, is not to be allowed with equal readiness. A coincidence of fentiment may eafily happen without any communication, fince there are many occafions in which all reafonable men will nearly think, alike. Writers of all ages have had the fame fentiments, becaufe they have in all ages had the fame objects of fpeculation; the interefts and paffions, the virtues and vices of mankind, have been diverfified in different times, only by uneffential and cafual varieties: and we muft, therefore, expect in the works of all thofe who attempt to defcribe them, fuch a likenefs as we find in

the pictures of the fame perfon drawn in differen periods of his life.

It is neceffary, therefore, that before an author be charged with plagiarism, one of the most reproachful, though, perhaps, not the most atrocious of literary crimes, the fubject on which he treats fhould be carefully confidered. We do not wonder, that hiftorians, relating the fame facts, agree in their narration; or that authors, delivering the elements of science, advance the fame theorems, and lay down the fame definitions: yet it is not wholly without ufe to mankind, that books are multiplied, and that different authors lay out their labours on the fame fubject; for there will always be fome reason why one fhould on particular occafions or to particular perfons, be preferable to another; fome will be clear where others are obfcure, fome will pleafe by their ftyle and others by their method, fome by their embellishments and others by their fimplicity, fome by clofenefs and others by

diffufion.

The fame indulgence is to be fhewn to the writers of morality right and wrong are immutable; and thofe, therefore, who teach us to diftinguish them, if they all teach us right, muft agree with one another. The relations of focial life, and the duties refulting from them, must be the fame at all times and in all nations: fome petty differences may be, indeed, produced, by forms of government or arbitrary customs; but the general doctrine can receive no alteration.

Yet it is not to be defired, that morality should be confidered as interdicted to all future writers:

men