not having as yet imbibed a favourable Opinion of the Hero, nor learn'd
to be in Pain as often as he is in Danger.

Now, we may read, I fear, some Number of the _Pastorals_ of the ordinary
Length, before we shall meet with this Pleasure. The Truth is, we are
commonly past a hundred Lines, the length of these Pieces, before the
Mind and Attention is entirely fix'd, and has lost all its former and
external Thoughts. All the Pleasure therefore which proceeds from the
Story is lost in these short Pieces.

'Tis true Indeed, I think it possible for a Novel, or perhaps a Poem,
to contain a Story in a hundred Lines which shall be able to engage the
Mind so as to delight it from the _fable_ it self, stript of all its
Ornaments. But how few in a hundred Ages have had Genius's capable of
this. And if 'tis difficult in a Novel or Poem, which may couch the
Circumstances close together, how much more Difficult must it be in
_Pastoral_. In the former Pieces nothing is to be observed but the Story
itself, in the latter a thousand Beauties are to be adjoyn'd and as many
Rules observ'd.


SECT 2.

_The proper Length of Pastoral further collected from the Consideration
of the_ Characters.

Another Pleasure which the brevity of these Pieces robs us of, is this.
The Characters cannot finely and distinctly be depainted in so short a
Compass. And 'tis observable, we are concern'd for the Personages in
no Poetry so much as those of Pastoral. Simplicity and Innocence have