145 



were gratified; and expanded by full indulgent, in the elegant but 

 diffolute enjoyments of the Sanuan court, where his difpofition and ta- 

 lents recommended him to the proteftion and friendflaip of Polycrates, 

 the fovereign of the ijland. 



Long fubfequent to thofe writers, whom I have mentioned, was Theo- 

 critus, who painted paftoral fcenes, and paftoral manners, with fo much 

 truth and fimplicity, and did fuch ample juftice to the tender emotions 

 of the young and enamoured heart. He lived when fociety had at- 

 tained a degree of refinement and elegance, the manners of men, a 

 meafure of luxurious foftnefs, differing fomewhat in form and kind, but 

 fully equal to what prevails at the prefent day among the mod re- 

 fined and poliflied nations. Although the Sicilian poet delighted in 

 ruftic fubjefts, his education, his habits of life, and his mufe were by 

 no means ruftic : he joins the manners of Arcadia, with the foftnefs 

 and refinement of a court. No writer is more fuccefsful in painting 

 the fond wifhes, the ardent afpirations, the languor and imperious do- 

 minion of love, pofiTeffing the young and artlefs bofom with impetuous 

 and irrefiftible influence; the entire abandonment of the heart and 

 wifhes, to the controul of this delightful and fafcinating pafTion. This 

 is accompanied by a fmooth and melodious verfification, a fweetnefs 

 and fimplicity of language, an unaffefted eafe of conftruftion, all ren- 

 dered more charming and engaging, by the ufe of the Doric dialect, 

 fo replete with unftudied and ruflic fweetnefs. We are carried back 

 by enchantment, into Arcadian times. We liften to the fhepherd's 

 pipe, whofe ftops are attempered by the hands of love himfelf. Thus 

 contrafted is the catalogue of the ancient Greciatn, who have written 

 profefTedly on the fubjeft of love. 



I am fenfible that in fome of the afi"ertions, I have made, I differ in fome 

 meafure from that elegant and accompliflied writer, Sir William Jones, who in 

 his commentaries on 4/f^//V Poetry, (Cap. 15, de Poefi Amatorii. — Works, 

 vol. 2, page 543,) feems to confider amatory poetry as being one of 

 the firft prodaftions of the human intelleft, and equally the offspring 

 and the delight of every ftage of fociety, from the rudeft to the moll 



Vol. IX. T poliflied. 



