And Jacob served seven years for Rachel: and they seemed unto him but a few days, for the love he had to her.(25*)In the compositions of Ossian, which describe the manners of a people acquainted with pasturage, there is often a degree of tenderness and delicacy of sentiment which can hardly be equalled in the most refined productions of a civilized age.Some allowance no doubt must be made for the heightening of a poet possessed of uncommon genius and sensibility; but, at the same time, it is probable, that the real history of his countrymen was the groundwork of those events which he has related, and of those tragical effects which he frequently ascribes to the passion between the sexes.(26*)Lorma sat in Aldo's hall, at the light of a flaming oak: the night came, but he did not return, and the soul of Lorma is sad.
-- What detains thee, Hunter of Cona? for thou didst promise to return.-- Has the deer been distant far, and do the dark winds sigh round thee on the heath? I am in the land of strangers, where is my friend, but Aldo? Come from thy echoing hills, O my best beloved!
Her eyes are turned towards the gate, and she listens to the rustling blast.She thinks it is Aldo's tread, and joy rises in her face: -- but sorrow returns again, like a thin cloud on the moon.-- And thou wilt not return, my love? Let me behold the face of the hill.The moon is in the east.Calm and bright is the breast of the lake! When shall I behold his dogs returning from the chase? When shall I hear his voice loud and distant on the wind? Come from thy echoing hills, Hunter of Woody Cona!
His thin ghost appeared on a rock, like the watery beams of the moon, when it rushes from between two clouds, and the midnight shower is on the field.-- She followed the empty form over the heath, for she knew that her hero fell.-- I heard her approaching cries on the wind, like the mournful voice of the breeze, when it sighs on the grass of the cave.
She came, she found her hero: her voice was heard no more:
silent she rolled her sad eyes; she was pale as a watery cloud, that rises from the lake to the beam of the moon.
Few were her days on Cona: she sunk into the tomb: Fingal commanded his bards, and they sung over the death of Lorma.The daughters of Morven mourned her for one day in the year, when the dark winds of autumn returned.(27*)In the agreeable pictures of the golden age, handed down from remote antiquity, we may discover the opinion.that was generally entertained of the situation and manners of shepherds.Hence that particular species of poetry, which is now appropriated by fashion, to describe the pleasures of rural retirement, accompanied with innocence and simplicity, and with the indulgence of all the tender passions.There is good reason to believe, that these representations of the pastoral life were not inconsistent with the real condition of shepherds, and that the poets, who were the first historians, have only embellished the traditions of early times.In Arcadia, in Sicily, and in some parts of Italy, where the climate was favourable to the rearing of cattle, or where the inhabitants were but little exposed to the depredations of their neighbours, it is probable that the refinement natural to the pastoral state was carried to a great height.This refinement was the more likely to become the subject of exaggeration and poetical embellishment; as, from a view of the progressive improvements in society, it was contrasted, on the one hand, with the barbarous manners of mere savages; and, on the other, with the opposite style of behaviour in polished nations, who, being constantly engaged in the pursuit of gain, and immersed in the cares of business, have contracted habits of industry, avarice, and selfishness.
Nondum caesa suis, peregrinum ut viseret orbem, Montibus, in liquidas pinus descenderat undas:
Nullaque mortales, praeter sua, littora norant.
Nondum praecipites cingebant oppida fossae:
Non tuba directi, non aeris cornua flexi, Non galeae, non ensis erant.Sine militis usu Mollia securae peragebant otia mentes.
Ipsa quoque immunis, rastroque intacta, nec ullis Saucia vomeribus, per se dabat omnia tellus;Contentique cibis, nullo cogente, creatis, Arbuteos foetus, montanaque fraga legebant;Cornaque, et in duris haerentia mora rubetis;Et quae deciderant patula Jovis arbore glandes:
Ver erat eternum, placidique tepentibus auris Mulcebant zephyri, natos sine semine flores.
Section IV
The consequences of the introduction of agriculture, with respect to the intercourse of the sexes The passions which relate to the commerce of the sexes may be still raised to a greater height, when men are acquainted with the cultivation of the ground, and have made some progress in the different branches of husbandry.
The improvement of agriculture, which in most parts of the world has been posterior to the art of taming and rearing cattle, is productive of very important alterations in the state of society; more especially with respect to the subject of our present inquiry.Although this employment requires greater industry and labour than is necessary among men who have only the care of herds and flock; yet by producing plenty of vegetable as well as of animal food, it multiplies the comforts and conveniences of life, and therefore excites in mankind a stronger desire of obtaining those pleasures to which they are prompted by their natural appetites.It also obliges men to fix their residence in the neighbourhood of that spot where their labour is chiefly to be employed, and thereby gives rise to property in land, the most valuable and permanent species of wealth; by the unequal distribution of which a greater disproportion is made in the fortune and rank of individuals, and the causes of their dissension and jealousy are, of course, extended.
In the heroic times of Greece, we may, in some measure, discern the effect of these circumstances upon the character and manners of the people.
