Others with _Cæsius Bassus_ and _Isacius Tzetzes_ hold that that distribution of _Poetry_, which _Aristotle_ and _Tully_ hath left us, is deficient and imperfect; and that only the chief Species are reckoned, but the more inconsiderable not mention'd: I shall not here interest my self in that quarrel of the _Criticks_, whether we have all _Aristotles_ books of Poetry or no; this is a considerable difficulty I confess, for _Laertius_ who accurately weighs this matter, says that he wrote two books of _Poetry_, the one lost, and the other we have, tho _Mutinensis_ is of an other mind: but to end this dispute, I must agree with _Vossius_, who says the Philosopher comprehended these Species not expressly mentioned, under a higher and more noble head: and that therefore _Pastoral_ was contain'd in _Epick_. for these are his own words, _besides there are Epicks of an inferior rank, such as the Writers of Bucolicks_. _Sincerus_, as _Minturnus_ quotes him, is of the same mind, for thus he delivers his opinion concerning _Epick Verse_: _The matters about which these numbers may be employed is various; either mean and low, as in Pastorals, great and lofty, as when { 19} the Subject is Divine Things, or Heroick Actions, or of a middle rank, as when we use them to deliver precepts in:_ And this likewise he signifys before, where he sets down three sorts of _Epicks_: _one of which, says he, is divine, and the most excellent by much in all Poetry_; the _other the lowest but most pure, in which Theocritus excelled, which indeed shews nothing of Poetry beside the bare numbers_: These points being thus settled, the remaining difficultys will be more easily dispatched.
For as in _Dramatick_ Poetry the Dignity and meanness of the _Persons_ represented make two different _Species of imitation_ the one _Tragick_, which agrees to none but great and Illustrious persons, the other _Comick_, which suits with common and gentile humors: so in _Epick_ too, there may be reckoned two sorts of _Imitation_, one of which belongs to _Heroes_, and that makes the _Heroick_; the other to _Rusticks_ and _Sheapards_ and that constitutes the _Pastoral_, now as a _Picture_ imitates the Features of the face, so _Poetry_ doth action, and tis not a representation of the Person but the Action.