pastoral life, like the _tibia dextra_, has led and given the cue
to the agricultural life, as we have on the authority of that learned
man Dicaearchus who, in his _Life of Greece_ from the earliest times,
shows us how in the beginning men pursued a purely pastoral life and
knew not how to plough nor to plant trees nor to prune them; only
later taking up the pursuits of agriculture; whence it may be
said that agriculture is in harmony with the pastoral life but is
subordinate to it, as the left pipe is to the right pipe."

"Beware," exclaimed Agrius, "of pushing your musical analogy too far,
for you would not only rob the farmer of his cattle and the shepherd
of his livelihood but you would even break the law of the land in
which it is written that a farmer may not graze a young orchard with
that pestiferous animal which astrology has placed in the heavens near
the Bull."

"See here, Agrius," said Fundanius, "let there be no mistake about
this. The law you cite applies only to certain designated kinds of
cattle, as indeed there are kinds of cattle which are the foes and the
bane of agriculture such as those you have mentioned--the goats--for
by their nibbling they ruin young plantations, and not the least vines
and olives. But, because the goat is the greatest offender in this
respect, we have a rule for him which works both ways, namely: that
victims of his family are grateful offerings on the altar of one god
but should never come near the fane of another; since by reason of the
same hate one god is not willing even to see a goat and the other is
pleased to see him killed. So it is that goats found among the vines
are sacrificed to Father Bacchus as it were that they should pay the
penalty of their evil doing with their lives; while on the contrary
nothing of the goat kind is ever sacrificed to Minerva, because they
are said to make the olive sterile even by licking it, for their very
spittle is poison to the fruit. For this reason goats are never
driven into the Acropolis of Athens, except once a year for a certain
necessary sacrifice, lest the olive tree, which is said to have its
origin there,[55] might be touched by a goat."

"No kind of cattle," said I, "are of any use to agriculture except
those which aid in the cultivation of the land, as they do when they
are yoked to the plough."

"If this was so," said Agrasius, "how could we afford to take cattle
off the land, since it is from our flocks and herds that