For certainly _Pastorals_ ought not to rise to the Majesty of
_Heroicks_: but who on the other side {22} dares reprehend such great
and judicious Authors, whose very doing it is Authority enough? What
shall I say of _Virgil_? who in his Sixth _Eclogue_ hath put together
allmost all the particulars of the fabulous Age; what is so high to
which _Silenus_ that Master of Mysterys doth not soar?

For lo! he sung the Worlds stupendious birth,
How scatter'd seeds of sea, of Air, and Earth,
And purer Fire thro universal night
And empty space did fruitfully unite:
From whence th' innumerable race of things
By circular successive order springs:

And afterward

How Pyrra's Stony race rose from the ground,
And Saturn reign'd with Golden plenty crown'd,
How bold _Prometheus_ (whose untam'd desire,
Rival'd the Sun with his own Heavenly Fire)
Now doom'd the _Scythian_ Vulturs endless prey
Severely pays for Animating Clay:

So true, so certain 'tis, that nothing is so high and lofty to which
_Bucolicks_ may not successfully aspire. But if this be so, what will
become of _Macrobius, Georgius Valla, Julius Scaliger, Vossius,_ and
the whole company of Grammarians? who all affirm that simplicity and
meanness is so essential to _Pastorals_, that it ought to be confin'd
to the State, Manners, Apprehension and even common phrases of
Sheapards: for nothing can {23} be said to be _Pastoral_, which is not