Page:Beautiful and interesting account of the shepherd of Salisbury Plain.pdf/5

5 one, while I only submit to the lot that is appointed me. You are exposed to great cold and heat, said the gentleman.—

True, Sir, said the Shepherd; but then I am not exposed to great temptations; and so throwing one thing against another, God is pleased to contrive things more equal than we poor ignorant short-sighted creatures are apt to think. David was happiest when he kept his father’s sheep on such a plain as this, and singing some of his own psalms, perhaps, than ever he was when he became King of Israel and Judah. And I dare say; we should never have had some of the most beautiful texts in all those fine psalms, if he had not been a shepherd, which enabled him to make so many fine comparisons and similitudes, as one may say, from a country life, flocks of sheep, hills and vallies, and fountains of water.

Here the Shepherd stopped, for he began to feel he had made too free, and