Note 1777 — Chapter VI · PASTORAL LIFE.
Reading edition
The charm of that repose and freedom from care supposed to be tasted in the seclusion of the country, appears in all ages to have led to the belief, that there is something more natural in fields and forests than in cities, though it be quite as necessary that man should have dwellings as that he should cultivate the ground. The paradox, however, is thus expressed by Varro: Divina natura dedit agros, ars humana ædificavit urbes. De Re Rust. iii. 1, which Cowper, unconsciously perhaps, has thus translated,
God gave the country, but man made the town.