As for the _Manners_ of your _Shepherds_, they must be such as theirs who liv'd in the Islands of the Happy or Golden Age: They must be candid, simple, and ingenuous; lovers of Goodness, and Justice, affable, and kind; strangers to all fraud, contrivance, and deceit; in their Love modest, and chast, not one suspitious word, no loose expression to be allowed: and in this part _Theocritus_ is faulty, _Virgil_ never; and this difference perhaps is to be ascrib'd to their Ages, the times in which the latter liv'd being more polite, civil, and gentile. And therefore those who make wanton Love-stories the subject of Pastorals, are in my opinion very unadvis'd; for all sort of lewdness or debauchery are directly contrary to the _Innocence_ of the _golden_ Age. There is another thing in which _Theocritus_ is faulty, and that is making his Shepherds too sharp, and abusive to one another; _Comatas_ and _Lacon_ are ready to fight, and the railing between those two is as bitter as _Billingsgate_: Now certainly such Raillery cannot be suitable to those sedate times of the Happy Age. As for _Sentences_, if weighty, and Philosophical, common Sense tells us they are not fit for a _Shepherd's_ mouth. Here _Theocritus_ cannot be altogether excus'd, but _Virgil_ deserves no reprehension. But _Proverbs_ justly challenge admission into _Pastorals_, nothing being more common in {68} the mouths of Countrymen than old Sayings. Thus much seem'd necessary to be premis'd out of _RAPIN_, for the direction and information of the Reader. * * * * * ERRATA. p. 13. l. 15. _read_ the wind. p. 15. l. 16. _read_ fight. p. 60. l. 4. _read_ Shoes. p. 95. l. 17. _read_ whilst all. p. 112. l. 9. _read_ of my Love. [ Transcriber's Note: The listed errata appear to belong to the translation of Theocritus, not included in this reprint. The following uncorrected words in the Rapin text are probably misprints: p. 9 dissetation. p. 17 mannes. p. 24 theefore. p. 25 stifes. p. 44 finessess [uncertain reading]. p. 64 Viogil. ] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Rapin's _Discourse of Pastorals_ was first published in Latin, with his eclogues, under the title: Eclogae, cum dissertatione de carmine pastorali. Parisiis, apud S. Cramoisy, 1659. The English translation by Thomas Creech, prefixed to his translation of the _Idylliums_ of Theocritus, appeared in 1684. A second edition "to which is prefix'd, The Life of Theocritus. By Basil Kennet", was printed at London for E. Curll, at the Dial and Bible against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street, in 1713, and a third edition, also printed for Curll, appeared in 1721. Ella M. Hymans Curator of Rare Books, General Library, University of Michigan * * * * * ANNOUNCING the _Publications_ of