CHA P. XIX.

A GLIMPSE OF PASTORAL LIFE.

E was kill eager upon the fame in

HE

quiry; and having heard of a hermit, that lived near the lowest cataract of the Nile, and filled the whole country with the fame of his fanctity, refolved to vifit his retreat, and inquire whether that felicity, which publick life could not afford, was to be found in fo litude; and whether a man, whofe age and virtue made him venerable, could teach any peculiar art of fhunning evils, or enduring them?

Imlac and the princefs agreed to ac company him, and, after the neceffary preparations, they began their journey. Their way lay through the fields, where G fhepherds

fhepherds tended their flocks, and the lambs were playing upon the pasture. "This, faid the poet, is the life which has been often celebrated for its innocence and quiet; let us pass the heat of the day among the fhepherds tents, and know whether all our fearches are not to terminate in pastoral fimplicity."

The propofal pleased them, and they induced the fhepherds, by fmall prefents and familiar queftions, to tell their opinion of their own ftate: they were fo rude and ignorant, fo little able to compare the good with the evil of the occupation, and fo indiftinct in their narratives and descriptions, that very little could be learned from them. But it was evident that their hearts were cankered with discontent; that they confidered themselves as condemned to labour for the luxury of the rich, and looked up with

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with ftupid malevolence toward thofe that were placed above them.

The princess pronounced with vehemence, that she would never fuffer these envious favages to be her companions, and that she should not foon be defirous of seeing any more fpecimens of ruftick happiness; but could not believe that all the accounts of primeval pleasures were fabulous, and was yet in doubt, whether life had any thing that could be justly preferrred to the placid gratifications of fields and woods. She hoped that the time would come, when, with a few virtuous and elegant companions, fhe fhould gather flowers planted by her own hand, fondle the lambs of her own ewe, and liften, without care, among brooks and breezes, to one of her maidens reading in the fhade.

CHAP. XX.

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Ο

THE DANGER OF PROSPERITY.

N the next day they continued their journey, till the heat compelled. them to look round for fhelter. At a

fmall diftance they faw a thick wood, which they no fooner entered than they perceived that they were approaching the habitations of men. The fhrubs' were diligently cut away to open walks where the fhades were darkest; the boughs of oppofite trees were artificially interwoven; feats of flowery turf were raifed in vacant fpaces, and a rivulet, that wantoned along the fide of a winding path, had its banks fometimes opened into fmall bafons, and its ftream fometimes obftructed by little mounds

of

of ftone heaped together to increase its

murmurs.

They paffed flowly through the wood, delighted with fuch unexpected accommodations, and entertained each other with conjecturing what, or who, he could be, that, in those rude and unfrequented regions, had leisure and art for fuch harmless luxury.

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As they advanced they heard the found of mufic, and faw youths and virgins dancing in the grove; and, going ftill further beheld a stately palace built upon a hill furrounded with woods. The laws of eaftern hofpitality allowed them to enter, and the mafter welcomed them like a man liberal and wealthy.

He was skilful enough in appearances foon to difcern that they were no common guests, and fpread his table with magnificence. The eloquence of Imlac