through the fields, where shepherds tended their flocks and the
lambs were playing upon the pasture. "This," said the poet, "is
the life which has been often celebrated for its innocence and
quiet; let us pass the heat of the day among the shepherds' tents,
and know whether all our searches are not to terminate in pastoral
simplicity."

The proposal pleased them; and they induced the shepherds, by small
presents and familiar questions, to tell the opinion of their own
state. They were so rude and ignorant, so little able to compare
the good with the evil of the occupation, and so indistinct in
their narratives and descriptions, that very little could be
learned from them. But it was evident that their hearts were
cankered with discontent; that they considered themselves as
condemned to labour for the luxury of the rich, and looked up with
stupid malevolence towards those that were placed above them.

The Princess pronounced with vehemence that she would never suffer
these envious savages to be her companions, and that she should not
soon be desirous of seeing any more specimens of rustic happiness;
but could not believe that all the accounts of primeval pleasures
were fabulous, and was in doubt whether life had anything that
could be justly preferred to the placid gratification of fields and
woods. She hoped that the time would come when, with a few
virtuous and elegant companions, she should gather flowers planted
by her own hands, fondle the lambs of her own ewe, and listen
without care, among brooks and breezes, to one of her maidens
reading in the shade.