The Poets Flocks. 249 



gently rise, o'er dewy dales, a fairer species boast, of shorter 

 limb and frontlet more ornate, such the Silurian ; " the 

 Southdown, " the larger sorts of head defenceless," " whose 

 fleece is deep and clammy, close and plain ; " the other, 



" Whose tawny fleece in ringlets curls. 

 With horns Ammonian circulating twice 

 Around each open ear — like those fair scrolls 

 That grace the columns of th' Ionic dome," 



and many another, is specifically described, while the 

 elaborate minuteness of Dyers history of the Fleece, from 

 the ingredients that compose the soil, that grows the grass, 

 that feeds the sheep, that gives the wool, that makes dyers 

 rich, and ought to make England mistress of the world, is 

 probably too well known to need any detailed reference 

 here to that amazing abuse of poetical instinct, and unique 

 infelicity of choice of subject. But the " poem," for such 

 Akenside declares it to be, contains some delightful refer- 

 ences to foreign sheep and shepherds, which are worth a 

 passing notice. Having put the Indus in Cashmere, he 

 calls the goats of the country sheep, and then, rambUng 

 off across Cathay, refers enraptured to the shepherd by 

 " China's long canals," and so, coming round to the west, 

 sees Mississippi " lengthen-on " her sheep-walks, and finally 

 arrives in South America, where he speaks of the llama or 

 the alpaca of Peru as 



" That sheep 

 Of fertile Arica, like camels formed, 

 Which bear huge burdens to the sea-beat shore 

 And shine with fleeces soft as feathery down." 



But the whole poem is too pathetic in its vain struggle with 

 the hopeless to be made fun of There are lines and 

 occasional passages of tolerable merit, but of the work, as a 

 whole, Johnson's verdict on it will generally commend itself 

 to the majority. 



