{2} For some think that to be a Sheapard is in it self mean, base, and sordid; And this I think is the first thing that the graver and soberer sort will be ready to object.

But if we consider how honorable that employment is, our Objectors from that Topick will be easily answer’d, for as Heroick Poems owe their dignity to the Quality of Heroes, so Pastorals to that of Sheapards.

Now to manifest this, I shall not rely on the authority of the Fabulous, and Heroick Ages, tho, in the former, a God fed Sheep in Thessaly, and in the latter, Hercules the Prince of Heroes, (as Paterculus stiles him) graz’d on mount Aventine:  These Examples, tis true, are not convinceing, yet they sufficiently shew that the employment of a Sheapard was sometime look’d upon to be such, as in those Fabulous times was not alltogether unbecomeing the Dignity of a Heroe, or the Divinity of a God:  which consideration if it cannot be of force enough to procure excellence, yet certainly it may secure it from the imputation of baseness, since it was sometime lookt upon as fit for the greatest in Earth or Heaven.

But not to insist on the authority of Poets, Sacred Writt tells us that Jacob and Esau, two great men, were Sheapards; And Amos, one of the Royal Family, asserts the same of himself, for He was among the Sheapards of Tecua, following that employment:  The like by Gods own appointment {3} prepared Moses for a Scepter, as Philo intimates in his life, when He tells us, that a Sheapards Art is a suitable preparation to a Kingdome; the same He mentions in the Life of Joseph, affirming that the care a Sheapard hath over his Cattle, very much resembles that which a King hath over his Subjects:  The same Basil in his Homily de S.  Mamm.  Martyre hath concerning David, who was taken from following the Ews great with young ones to feed Israel, for He says that the Art of feeding and governing are very near akin, and even Sisters:  And upon this account I suppose twas, that Kings amongst the Greeks reckoned the name of Sheapard one of their greatest titles, for, if we believe Varro, amongst the Antients, the best and bravest was still a Sheapard:  Every body knows that the Romans the worthiest and greatest Nation in the World sprang from Sheapards:  The Augury of the Twelve Vulturs plac’t a Scepter in Romulus’s hand which held a Crook before; and at that time, as Ovid says,

  His own small Flock each Senator did keep.

Lucretius mentions an extraordinary happiness, and as it were Divinity in a Sheaperd’s life,

  Thro Sheapards ease, and their Divine retreats.

And this is the reason, I suppose, why the solitude of the Country, the shady Groves, and security of that happy Quiet was so grateful to the Muses, for thus Horace represents them,