Note 1821 — Chapter VI · PASTORAL LIFE.

It has been observed by Gibbon, who had diligently studied the pastoral nations of Asia in their general habits and characteristics, that ambition and the spirit of conquest are powerfully excited by the shepherd’s manner of life. “The thrones of Asia have been repeatedly overturned by the shepherds of the north, and their arms have spread terror and devastation over the most fertile and warlike countries of Europe. On this occasion, as well as on many others, the sober historian is forcibly awakened from a pleasing vision and is compelled with some reluctance to confess, that the pastoral manners which have been adorned with the fairest attributes of peace and innocence are much better adapted to the fierce and cruel habits of a military life.” Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, iv. 348. Hippocrates in his brief but vigorous manner has presented us with a picture of the Scythian shepherd’s life in ancient times, (De Aër. et Loc. § 92, sqq.) and from modern travellers we find that it differed very little from that which they lead at the present day. See the travels of Rubriquis in Hakluyt, i. 101, sqq. See also the notes of Coray on Hippocrates, t. ii. 280, seq.