A GLIMPSE OF PASTORAL LIFE
He was still eager upon the same inquiry; 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 sanctity, resolved to visit his retreat,
and inquire whether that felicity which public life could not afford was
to be found in solitude; and whether a man whose age and virtue made him
venerable could teach any peculiar art of shunning evils or enduring
them.
Imlac and the princess agreed to accompany him; and, after the
necessary preparations, they began their journey. Their way lay through
the fields, where shepherds tended their flocks, and the lambs were
playing upon the pasture. "This," said 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 shepherds' tents, and know whether all our searches
are not to terminate in pastoral simplicity."
The proposal pleased him, and they induced the shepherds, by small
presents and familiar questions, to tell their opinion of their own
state. They were so rude and ignorant, so little able to compare the
good with the evil of the occupation, and so indistinct 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 considered themselves as condemned to labour for
the luxury of the rich, and looked up with stupid malevolence toward
those that were placed above them.
The princess pronounced with vehemence, that she would never suffer
these envious savages to be her companions, and that she should not soon
be desirous of seeing any more specimens of rustic happiness; but could
not believe that all the accounts of primeval pleasures were fabulous,
and was yet in doubt, whether life had anything that could be justly
preferred to the placid gratifications of fields and woods. She hoped
that the time would come, when, with a few virtuous and elegant
companions, she should gather flowers planted by her own hand, fondle
the lambs of her own ewe, and listen without care, among brooks and
breezes, to one of her maidens reading in the shade.