flat, if 'tis drawn out to any length, if not close, short, and
broken, as that in _Virgil_,

He that loves _Bavius_ Verses, hates not Thine:

And in the same _Eclogue_,

--It is not safe to drive too nigh,
The Bank may fail, the Ram is hardly dry:

And in _Corydon_,

To learn this Art what won't _Amyntas_ do?

And in _Theocritus_ much of the same nature may be seen; as in his
other _Pastoral Idylliums_, so chiefly in his fifth. Thus _Battus_ in
the fourth _Idyllium_, complaining for the loss of _Amaryllis_,

{60} Dear Nymph, dear as my Goats, you dy'd.

And how soft and tender is that in the third _Idyllium_,

And she may look on me, she may be won,
She may be kind, she is not perfect Stone,

And in this _concise_, close way of Expression lies the chiefest
Grace of _Pastorals_: for in my opinion there's nothing in the whole
Composition that can delight more than those frequent stops, and
breakings off. Yet lest in these too it become dull and sluggish, it
must be quickned by frequent lively touches of Concernment: such as