The fourth Quality that a Fable ask's, to render it compleat, is a Moral Result. I need not trouble you with a Proof of a Moral's being necessary; 'tis plain that every Poem should be made as perfect as 'tis capable of being, and no one will ever affirm a Moral to be unnatural in Pastoral. But if any one should demand a Proof, 'tis thus: Poetry aim's at two Ends, Pleasure and Profit; but Pastoral will not admit of direct Instructions; therefore it must contain a Moral, or lose one End, which is Profit. We might as easy show that the other End of Poetry, viz. Pleasure, is also impair'd, if the Moral be neglected; but the thing is plain.
To hasten therefore to enquire what kind of Moral is proper for Pastoral, we must look back into the Reasons prescribed by Nature for the Morals in all Sorts of Poetry.
Epick Poetry and Tragedy are conversant about Hero's, Kings, and Princes, therefore the Morals there, should be directed to Persons engaged in Affairs of State, and at the Helm, and be of such a Nature as these; A Crown will not render a Person Happy, if he does not pursue his Duty towards God and Man; the best Method of Securing a Government, is to occasion Unity in it, and the like.
Again, Comedy's Subject is to expose the Ill Habits in low Life. It's moral therefore should contain Instructions to the middle Sort of People: As, What Ills attend on Covetousness. Or, On a Parent's being too Severe, or the like.
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But so easy and gentle a kind of Poetry is Pastoral, that 'tis not very pleasant to the busy Part of the World. Men in the midst of Ambition, delight to be rais'd and heated by their Images and Sentiments. Pastoral therefore addresses it self to the Young, the Tender, and particularly those of the SOFT-SEX. The Characters also in Pastoral are of the same Nature; An Innocent Swain; or Tender-Hearted Lass. From such Characters therefore we must draw our Morals, and to such Persons must we direct them; and they should particularly aim at regulating the Lives of Virgins and all young Persons.
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What Nature I would have a Moral of, cannot so well be explain'd as by Examples; but I do not remember at present any such Pastoral. You are not widely deficient, Cubbin, I think, in this particular. Your first show's us, that the best Preservative a young Lass can have against Love and our deluding Sex, is, to be wholly unacquainted therewith. Little Paplet is eager of Listning to Soflin's Account of Men and Love; but that first set's her Heart on the Flutter; then she is taken with Soflin's SWEET-HEART; tho' all the while she is ignorant of the Cause of her Uneasiness.
The Moral to your second Pastoral, which contain's Instructions to COQUETTS, warning them not to take pleasure in giving Pain, is, I think, not worst than this.
But the Moral to your Third (call'd the Bashful Swain), methinks, is not so good. It is also directed to the COQUETTS; and instruct's 'em not to give a Lover any Hopes, whom they do not intend to make happy. If the young Lass there, had jilted Cuddlett, she had mist of her good Fortune; and her Unwillingness to encrease the Number of her Admirers, is the Cause of her Happiness. But, I know not how, this like's me not so well as the other Three; or, perhaps it is not produced so naturally by the Fable, and that may prevent it's pleasing.