OBSERVATIONS ON SECOND PERIOD, &C. 15

Hunting is now, and always has been, accompanied vit*music of various descriptions. It is regarded as one ot thebest of exercises, and the most conducive to health, wiickcan be followed, as well from the exercise of the body andmind, as the great variety of free and wholesome air wiichis inhaled; and also from the mind being constantly em-ployed in expectation of the event of the pursuit.

Second Period. — Pasturage. —The second epoclu ofhuman society’s existence was supported by that nutriuentto be drawn from the produce of flocks and herds; we lavsabundant proof of this from numerous circumstances nen-tioned in the Pentateuch ; among others, let the instante pfthe separation of Abraham and Lot be taken into consicera-tion:—why did they separate? because there was not loonfor all their cattle; and the herdsmen of Abram and hoseof Lot disagreed, and this misunderstanding between theservants, in some degree affected their masters. “ AndAbram said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee,between me and thee, and between my herdsmen anc thyherdsmen; for we be brethren. Is not the whole land btforethee? Separate thyself, I pray thee, from me: If thou wilttake the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if thoudepart to the right hand, then I will go to the left. And Letlifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, thatit was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyedSodom and Gomorrah; even as the garden of the Lord,like the laud of Egypt , as thou comest unto Zoar. ThenLot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyedeast; and they separated themselves one from the odier.And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan , and Lot dwelledin the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent towardsSodom.” 8

Their flocks and herds, in those days, furnished the peoplewith food and clothing; and in the cultivation and caie ofthese, they lived in that sweet simplicity, denominatec, byway of eminence, the golden age, which is so beautifullydescribed in the writings of the best pastoral poets: a: thehead of whom appear the Syracusian, Theocritus , and theRoman, Virgil. Of modern authors, none are consideredmore beautiful than Shenstone, Thomson, Gesner, andBloomfield; Allan Ramsay 's Gentle Shepherd is also entitledto much admiration.

It has been, with truth and elegance, observed by at ele-gant writer, 9 “ That pastoral subjects are ‘admirably ealen-

8 Genesis, xiii. 8, 9, 10, 11, 1?.

9 Dr. Blair’s Essay on Rhetoric, &c.