The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

246 §HEEP BREEDING AND
at the base of the hill was dedicated to Pan, as we have seen
was the case some centuries afterwards at Athens*.
In the preceding observations we have endeavored to give a
correct representation of the real sentiments and practices of
the Arcadians in regard to the proper divinity of their country
and from this account we are naturally led to inquire what in-
fluence this pecuhar beUef and worship had upon their manners
and their social life. Whilst the elegant simplicity and inno-
cence of the Arcadian shepherds, their graceful chorusses, their
dance and song, their love for their fleecy charge, which they
delighted and soothed with the melody of the pipe, have been
the theme and ornament of poetry and romance from the ear-
liest times, the question is highly important and interesting,
whether these ideal visions are realised by historical testimony ?
whether the shepherds of the ancient Arcadia were so entirely
and so favorably distinguished from men of the same class and
employment in almost all other times and countries? One
modern writer denies this fact. He says, " The refined and
almost spiritualized state of innocence, which we call the pas-
toral life of Arcadia, was entirely unknown to the ancients :"
and he quotes in support of this assertion several expressions,
used by Philostratus and other writers, and denoting contempt
for the Arcadians as a rude, ignorant, stupid race of peoplet.
Polybius, who was an Arcadian, confidently asserts, that they
had throughout Greece a high and honorable reputation, not
only on account of their hospitality to strangers and their benev-
olence towards all men, but especially on account of their pie-
ty toioards the divine being ! It is true they make no figure
in Grecian history, because they were too wise to take part in
the irrational contests, which continually embroiled the sur-
rounding states. Their division into small independent com-
munities, each presenting a purely democratic constitution,
rendered it impossible for them to acquire celebrity in legis-
* Dionys. Halicam. Hist. Rom. I. i. p. 20, 21, ed. R. Steph. Paris 1546. Strabon
1. V. cap. iii. § 3. Aur. Victor, Origo Gentis RomanoB. Livii 1. i. c. 5. Pausanias,
viii. 43. 2. Virg. iEu. viii. 51-54. 342-344. Ileyno's E.\cursuB ad loc. Ovidii
Fasti, ii. 268^52. v. 88, &c.
t J. H. Voss, Virgil's Landliche Gedichte, torn. ii. p. 353.
;