The leisure, tranquillity, and retirement of a pastoral life, seem calculated in a peculiar manner to favour the indulgence of those indolent gratifications.From higher notions of refinement a nicer distinction is made with regard to the objects of desire;and the mere animal pleasure is more frequently accompanied with a correspondence of inclination and sentiment.As this must occasion a great diversity in the taste of individuals, it proves, on many occasions, an obstruction to their happiness, and prevents the lover from meeting with a proper return to his passion.But the delays and the uneasiness to which he is thereby subjected, far from repressing the ardour of his wishes, serve only to increase it; and, amid the idleness and freedom from other cares which his situation affords, he is often wholly occupied by the same tender ideas, which are apt to inflame his imagination, and to become the principal subject of such artless expressive songs as he is capable of composing for his ordinary pastime and amusement.
In consequence of these improvements the virtue of chastity begins to be recognized; for when love becomes a passion, instead of being a mere sensual appetite, it is natural to think that those affections which are not dissipated by variety of enjoyment, will be the purest and the strongest.
The acquisition of property among shepherds has also a considerable effect upon the commerce of the sexes.
Those who have no other fund for their subsistence but the natural fruits of the earth, or the game which the country affords, are acquainted with no other distinctions in the rank of individuals, but such as arise from their personal accomplishments; distinctions which are never continued for any length of time in the same family, and which therefore can never be productive of any lasting influence and authority.But the invention of taming and pasturing cattle gives rise to a more remarkable and permanent distinction of rank.Some persons, by being more industrious or more fortunate than others, are led in a short time to acquire more numerous herds and flock, and are thereby enabled to live in greater affluence, to maintain a number of servants and retainers, and to increase, in proportion, their power and dignity.As the superior fortune which is thus acquired by a single person is apt to remain with his posterity, it creates a train of dependence in those who have been connected with the possessor; and the influence which it occasions is gradually augmented, and transmitted from one generation to another.
The degree of wealth acquired by single families of shepherds is greater than may at first be imagined.In the eastern parts of Tartary, where the inhabitants are chiefly maintained upon the flesh of reindeer, many of the rich possess ten or twenty thousand of those animals; and one of the chiefs of that country, according to an account lately published, was proprietor of no less than an hundred thousand.
The introduction of wealth, and the distinction of rank with which it is attended, must interrupt the communication of the sexes, and, in many cases, render it difficult for them to gratify their wishes.As particular persons become opulent, they are led to entertain suitable notions of their own dignity; and, while they aim at superior elegance and refinement in their pleasures, they disdain to contract an alliance with their own dependents, or with people of inferior condition.If great families, upon an equal footing, happen to reside in the same neighbourhood, they are frequently engaged in mutual depredations, and are obliged to have a watchful eye upon the conduct of each other, in order to defend their persons and their property.The animosities and quarrels which arise from their ambition or desire of plunder, and which are fomented by reciprocal injuries, dispose them, in all cases, to behave to one another with distance and reserve, and sometimes prove an insuperable bar to their correspondence.
Among persons living upon such term, the passions of sex cannot be gratified with the same facility as among hunters and fishers.The forms of behaviour, naturally introduced among individuals jealous of each other, have a tendency to check all familiarity between them, and to render their approaches towards an intimacy proportionably slow and gradual.The rivalship subsisting between different families, and the mutual prejudices which they have long indulged, must often induce them to oppose the union of their respective relations: And thus the inclinations of individuals having in vain been smothered by opposition, will break forth with greater vigour, and rise at length to a higher pitch, in proportion to the difficulties which they have surmounted.
Upon the eastern coast of Tartary, it is said that such tribes as are accustomed to the pasturing of cattle discover some sort of jealousy with regard to the chastity of their women; a circumstance regarded as of no importance by those inhabitants of the same country who procure their subsistence merely by fishing.
From what is related of the patriarch Jacob, it would seem, that whole families or tribes of shepherds which were anciently scattered over the country of Arabia, had attained some degree of improvement in their manners.
And Jacob loved Rachel; and said, I will serve thee seven years for Rachel thy younger daughter.
And Laban said, It is better that I give her to thee than that I should give her to another man: abide with me.
