Note 1808 — Chapter VI · PASTORAL LIFE.
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Lord Bacon considers the pastoral state preferable in some respects to the agricultural:—“The two simplest and most primitive trades of life; that of the shepherd (who by reason of his leisure, rests in a place, and living in view of heaven, is a lively image of a contemplative life) and that of the husbandman; where we see the favour of God went to the shepherd and not to the tiller of the ground.”—Advancement of Learning, p. 64. Shepherds made libations of milk to the Muses. Theocrit. i. 143, seq.