fancy the Don looking earnestly upon a handful of acorns,'
said Herbert, opening the book, 'while he exclaims, "O happy age!
which our first parents called the age of gold! not because gold, so
much adored in this iron age, was then easily purchased, but because
those two fatal words, _meum_ and _tuum_, were distinctions unknown to
the people of those fortunate times; for all things were in common in
that holy age: men, for their sustenance, needed only to lift their
hands, and take it from the sturdy oak, whose spreading arms liberally
invited them to gather the wholesome savoury fruit; while the clear
springs, and silver rivulets, with luxuriant plenty, afforded them
their pure refreshing water. In hollow trees, and in the clefts
of rocks, the labouring and industrious bees erected their little
commonwealths, that men might reap with pleasure and with ease the
sweet and fertile harvest of their toils, The tough and strenuous
cork-trees did, of themselves, and without other art than their native
liberality, dismiss and impart their broad light bark, which served to
cover those lowly huts, propped up with rough-hewn stakes, that were
first built as a shelter against the inclemencies of the air. All then
was union, all peace, all love and friendship in the world. As yet no
rude ploughshare presumed with violence to pry into the pious bowels
of our mother earth, for she without compulsion kindly yielded from
every part of her fruitful and spacious bosom, whatever might at once
satisfy, sustain, and indulge her frugal children. Then was the time
when innocent, beautiful young sheperdesses went tripping over the
hills and vales; their lovely hair sometimes plaited, sometimes loose
and flowing, clad in no other vestment but what the modesty of nature
might require. The Tyrian dye, the rich glossy hue of silk, martyred
and dissembled into every colour, which are now esteemed so fine and
magnificent, were unknown to the innocent simplicity of that age; yet,
bedecked with more becoming leaves and flowers, they outshone the
proudest of the vaindressing ladies of our times, arrayed in the most
magnificent garbs and all the most sumptuous adornings which idleness
and luxury have taught succeeding pride. Lovers then expressed the
passion of their souls in the unaffected language of the heart, with
the native plainness and sincerity in which they were conceived, and
divested of all that artificial contexture which enervates what it