A Full Enquiry into the Nature of the Pastoral (1717)

by Thomas Purney

SECT 2.

The proper Length of Pastoral further collected from the Consideration of the Characters.

Another Pleasure which the brevity of these Pieces robs us of, is this.
The Characters cannot finely and distinctly be depainted in so short a
Compass. And 'tis observable, we are concern'd for the Personages in
no Poetry so much as those of Pastoral. Simplicity and Innocence have
Charms for every Mind, and we pity most, where most our Pity's wanted.

So that the two noblest Beauties, and which constitute the main Difference between Poetry and Versification, between a perfect Poem and a Madrigal, Epigram or Elegy, are entirely lost in those Pieces, and the only Pleasure they can raise, must proceed alone from Sentiment and Diction.