That a Shepherd should talk in a different Dialect from other People, is
allow'd by all. That the Pastoral Language should be soft and agreeable
is equally past dispute. The only remaining Question then is, what it is
that composes such a Dialect, and how to attain it.

In order to compose a Pastoral Dialect entirely perfect; the first
thing, I think, a Writer has to do, is, as we said before, to enervate
it and deprive it of all strength.

As for the manner of enervating a Language, it must be perform'd by the
Genius of the Poet, and not shown by a Critick. However when the Thing
is done, 'tis not difficult to see what chiefly effected it. There are,
I think, _Cubbin_, two Things that principally enervate your Language.

_First_, 'Tis perform'd by throwing out all Words that are _Sonorous_
and raise a _Verse_. Mr. _PHILIPS_ comes the nearest to a Pastoral
Language of any English Swain but _Spencer_. And he has truly enervated
his Language in four several Lines. One of which is the last of these
two.

_Ye Swains, I beg ye pass in silence by;
My Love in yonder Vale asleep doth lye_.

The Word Doth, is what enervates the last Line. But 'twould be still
better enervated if Mr. _Philips_ had used only such Words as have very
few Consonants in them. For by Consonants, joyn'd with the Vowel O, a
Writer may render his Language, in Epick Poetry, just as Sonorous as he
will; and by the want of Consonants and by delighting in the other soft
Vowels he may render it weak. I cannot see that Mr. _PHILIPS_ has any
Line where the Language is wholly enervated. But see how _Spencer_ has