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Theocritus. But none equal the mild and captivating Gessner; whose simplicity and tenderness have power to animate the bosom of age, and to refine the passions of the young. Superior to the rural poets of France and Spain, of England, Scotland, and Italy, he united the elegance of Virgil to the simplicity of Theocritus; and decorated Nature, by adopting the manners of the golden age. His "Death of Abel" is almost worthy the pen of Moses; his "First Navigator" combines all the fancy of the poet, with the primeval simplicity of the patriarch; and his “Idyls" are captivating to all, but the pedant and the sensualist.

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! It was his family, which rendered the geniusof Gessner so irresistibly engaging. His wife and his children animated his heart; and he dipped his pen, as it were, in their bosoms. While we are reading, we seem to be gazing on the pictures of his imagination; but we are, in reality, witnessing passages in his life. One of his daughters chances to visit a poor woman out of charity. Gessner is impressed with her intention, and immediately writes an idyl, in which one Zephyr says to another, "Why flutterest thou here, so idly among the rose-bushes?" "A maiden will soon pass along the path: she is as lovely as the youngest of the Graces. At peep of dawn, she repairs with a well-filled basket to the cot, which stands on yonder hill. See! That is the cot; the mossy roof of which is now gilded by the rays of the sun. In that cot dwells a female, afflicted with sickness and poverty. She has two infants, both of whom would weep with hunger by the side of her bed, did not Daphne afford them relief and consolation, every day. She will return by this very path; her cheeks glowing with pleasure, and tears of sympathy gemming her eyes. In this rose-bush I wait till I perceive her coming. When she issues from the cottage, I fly to meet her, laden with perfumes. I fan her cheeks, and kiss the dewy pearls from her eyes. This is my employment."

In this manner, Gessner rendered all the more agree

able incidents of domestic life subservient to his genius. Upon recovering from a fit of illness, he composed his idyl of " Daphnis and Chloe;" in which, depicting the anxiety of children, at the dread of losing their father, they indicate their affection, by offering a sacrifice of all they possess; accompanying their offers with language the most innocent and engaging. Something analogous occurring in the canton of Zurich, Gessner wrote that history of the wooden leg, which he calls a Swiss Idyl; but which is infinitely superior to any idyl in Theocritus, or any bucolic in Virgil.

What was Gessner's wish? All that a delicate imagination might desire to possess! A cottage overhung by walnut trees; doves flying among the boughs; a bee-garden, hedged with hazels; and, at each corner, a bower formed of vines. Behind the garden a meadow; and before it a grove of fruit-trees; in the midst of which a small lake, in the centre of which an island, containing an arbour. On the south side of the orchard a vineyard; and on the north a field waving with corn. "With such an habitation," says the poet, "the richest of monarchs, when compared with myself, would be comparatively poor."

The first pastoral poem, exhibited on the stage, was the "Arethusa," by Lollio; the second, the "Sacrificio," by Beccari; the third, "Lo Sfortunato," by Arienti; the fourth, the "Aminta;" the fifth, "Il Pastor Fido." So much was the "Aminta" admired, that, within a few years after its first appearance, Italy had no less than eighty dramatic pastorals; few of which, however, possessed merit; except Bonarelli's "Filli-di-Sciro," and Ongaro's "Alceo." The first pastoral comedy is said by some to have been written by Tansillo; by others the honour is given to Politian. Fontenelle considered pastoral the oldest species of poetry; because the occupation of a shepherd was the oldest employment. Hence Boileau personified it, as a nymph at a feast of shepherds, adorned with ornaments, gathered from the fields and mea

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Much more plausible is the idea of Fontenelle, than that of Rapin; who fancifully endeavours to trace the origin of the pastoral drama to the "Cyclops" of Euripides!

"Nothing," says a celebrated traveller, "delights me so much as the inside of a Swiss cottage. All those I have visited convey the liveliest images of cleanliness, ease, and simplicity; and cannot but strongly impress on the observer a most pleasing conviction of the peasant's happiness." With such models constantly before him, it is no subject for astonishment, that Gessner should be capable of painting such exquisite companion pieces. But for a man, bred in the school of dulness, as a country town invariably is; associating with players; and residing, for the principal part of his life, in all the dust and poison of a city, how much are our wonder and admiration excited, when we read the delineations of pastoral manners, drawn in several dramas of that fine delineator of passion,-Shakspeare! That a master, so skilled in the minute anatomy of the heart, should be capable of divesting himself of all that fatal knowledge to sound “wild wood-notes," worthy of the reed of Tasso, is, of itself, a singular phenomenon; and proves our English bard to be superior to Euripides.

As Colonna was walking, one day, in Mecklenburgh-square, he met the poet Bloomfield. They had not seen each other for two or three years; and Colonna engaged him to breakfast the next day. As they were talking over their coffee, Colonna inquired of his guest, whether he had been engaged lately in any literary pursuit? "No," returned Bloomfield, "my health has been declining; and my anxieties have prevented me from attending to literary labour of any sort. To write," continued he, "we must be tranquil."-" Ah!" returned Colonna, "to write, with any degree of effect, we must, indeed, be tranquil. And yet, after all, it is misfortune, which gives that solemn tone to the feelings, which impresses the mind so deeply."-" To paint the manners and

occupations of rural life," said he again, "the mind, or at least my mind, must enjoy tranquillity." Bloomfield pines;and General Delancey enjoys two thousand a year!

SHEPHERDS.

THERE is no occupation so fascinating to the imagination, as that of the shepherd. This chiefly arises from the simplicity with which shepherds are introduced as actors on the theatre of scripture; where allusions to patriarchal manners are so frequently occurring. It is a mode of life, which, in some climates, must indeed be highly delightful.

Come hither, come hither ;-by night and by day,

We revel in pleasures, that never are gone :
Like the waves of the summer, as one dies away,
Another as sweet and as shining comes on ".

d

Job had 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 she-asses; and these were doubled at the end of his trial c. He was the greatest proprietor in all the East. Jacob, too, must have had large flocks and herds ; since he sent to his brother Esau, as a peace-offering, no less than 200 she-goats and 20 he-goats; 200 ewes and 20 rams; 30 milch camels, with their colts; 40 cows; 10 bulls; 20 sheasses, and 10 foals.

Moses kept sheep on Mount Horeb : he had fled from before Pharaoh, and was sitting by the side of a well, when the daughters of Midian came to draw water for their father's flock. When they arrived at the well, the neighbouring shepherds came to drive them away: but Moses stood up and assisted them. When these young maids returned to their father's house, they told him of the assistance they had received from Moses. Upon hearing this, Jethro invited the Egyptian exile to his board; married him to his daughter

a Moore.

b Ch. i. v. 3.

d Gen. xxxii. v. 14.

c Ch. xlii. v. 12.

Zipporah; and gave him charge of all his flocks. These flocks Moses kept on Mount Horeb; where the God of the Israelites appeared to him in a burning bush; and where he received the command to deliver the children of Israel from the bondage, beneath which they laboured in the land of Egypt.

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Homer calls kings" shepherds of the people;" and the Messiah is represented as the Shepherd of the human race. "Tell me, oh thou, whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest; where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon? If thou know not, thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents a." In Isaiah, “Jehovah in his goodness shall feed his flock like a shepherd; he shall gather the lambs with his arm; carry them in his bosom; and gently lead those that are with young. In the Psalms, the royal poet exclaims, "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; he maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul."

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In Ezekiel the prophet reproves bad shepherds. These are represented as feeding themselves, and giving no food to their flocks as clothing themselves with their wool; as neglecting the sick; neither binding up the wounds of those that are injured; nor searching for those that are lost. In St. Matthewd, "When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand; but the goats on his left "."

e

b Ch. xl. v. 11.

a

Song of Solomon, ch. i. v. 7, 8.

c Ps. xxiii. 1, 2.

d Ch. xxv. 31.

e The following passage, too, occurs in Mrs. Barbauld's admirable Hymns for Children. Thus the association begins in the earliest period of life"Behold the shepherd of the flock, he taketh care for his sheep, he leadeth

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