All then
was union, all peace, all love and friendship in the world. As yet no
rude ploughshare presumed with violence to pry into the pious bowels
of our mother earth, for she without compulsion kindly yielded from
every part of her fruitful and spacious bosom, whatever might at once
satisfy, sustain, and indulge her frugal children. Then was the time
when innocent, beautiful young sheperdesses went tripping over the
hills and vales; their lovely hair sometimes plaited, sometimes loose
and flowing, clad in no other vestment but what the modesty of nature
might require. The Tyrian dye, the rich glossy hue of silk, martyred
and dissembled into every colour, which are now esteemed so fine and
magnificent, were unknown to the innocent simplicity of that age; yet,
bedecked with more becoming leaves and flowers, they outshone the
proudest of the vaindressing ladies of our times, arrayed in the most
magnificent garbs and all the most sumptuous adornings which idleness
and luxury have taught succeeding pride. Lovers then expressed the
passion of their souls in the unaffected language of the heart, with
the native plainness and sincerity in which they were conceived, and
divested of all that artificial contexture which enervates what it
labours to enforce.
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