and Tenderness; nor does it lay the Poet under a Restraint comparably so
great.

'Tis farther observable, as to the Difficulty of forming the Pastoral
Characters, that if we wou'd write up to the Perfection of Pastoral,
'tis necessary that whatever habit or temper of Mind distinguishes any
CHARACTER in the first Pastoral, wherever that CHARACTER afterwards
appears, thro' the whole set of Pastorals, it must appear with the
same Temper as before; that is, 'tis not enough to have the Characters
uniform and just thro' one and the same Pastoral, but what is the
Character of any Swain or Lass in the first and second Pastoral,
that must be their Character in all the rest, if they are nam'd or
introduc'd, tho' never so slightly. For by this means, not only
every single Pastoral will make a regular Piece, but the whole set of
Pastorals also constitute together one uniform and ample Poem; if the
Reader delights to fill his Mind with a large and ample Scheme.

The set of Pastorals would be still more perfect, if the Characters
were also all continued on from the first to the last Pastoral, and none
drop'd, as 'twere, in silence; but in the Pastorals which draw towards
the End, the Characters should be all disposed of in Pastoral, and after
an entertaining Manner; so that the two or three last Pastorals will be
like the fifth Act in a Tragedy, where the Catastrophe is drawn up. The
reasonableness of this appear's from hence. I suppose the Poet to form
his Story so, and so to draw his Characters, that the Reader's Mind may
be engag'd and concern'd for the Personages. Now the Mind is uneasy if
'tis not let into the issue of the Affairs of the Person it has been
long Intent upon, and given to know whether he is finally Unfortunate,
or Happy.