The soile of the downes I take generally to be a white earth or mawme.
More south, sc. about Wilton and Chalke, the downes are intermixt with
boscages that nothing can be more pleasant, and in the summer time doe
excell Arcadia in verdant and rich turfe and moderate aire, but in
winter indeed our air is cold and rawe. The innocent lives here of the
shepherds doe give us a resemblance of the golden age. Jacob and Esau
were shepherds; and Amos, one of the royall family, asserts the same
of himself, for he was among the shepherds of Tecua [Tekoa] following
that employment. The like, by God's own appointment, prepared Moses
for a scepter, as Philo intimates in his life, when he tells us that a
shepherd's art is a suitable preparation to a kingdome. The same he
mentions in his Life of Joseph, affirming that the care a shepherd has
over his cattle very much resembles that which a King hath over his
subjects. The same St. Basil, in his Homily de St. Mamme Martyre has,
concerning David, who was taken from following the ewes great with
young ones to feed Israel. The Romans, the worthiest and greatest
nation in the world, sprang from shepherds. The augury of the twelve
vultures plac't a scepter in Romulus's hand, which held a crook
before; and as Ovid sayes:-
"His own small flock each senator did keep."
Lucretius mentions an extraordinary happinesse, and as it were
divinity in a shepherd's life: -
"Thro' shepherds' care, and their divine retreats.
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