Page:The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous substances 2.djvu/284

 at the base of the hill was dedicated to Pan, as we have seen was the case some centuries afterwards at Athens.

In the preceding observations we have endeavored to give a correct representation of the real sentiments and practices of the Arcadians in regard to the proper divinity of their country; and from this account we are naturally led to inquire what influence this peculiar belief and worship had upon their manners and their social life. Whilst the elegant simplicity and innocence of the Arcadian shepherds, their graceful chorusses, their dance and song, their love for their fleecy charge, which they delighted and soothed with the melody of the pipe, have been the theme and ornament of poetry and romance from the earliest times, the question is highly important and interesting, whether these ideal visions are realised by historical testimony? whether the shepherds of the ancient Arcadia were so entirely and so favorably distinguished from men of the same class and employment in almost all other times and countries? One modern writer denies this fact. He says, "The refined and almost spiritualized state of innocence, which we call the pastoral life of Arcadia, was entirely unknown to the ancients:" and he quotes in support of this assertion several expressions, used by Philostratus and other writers, and denoting contempt for the Arcadians as a rude, ignorant, stupid race of people. Polybius, who was an Arcadian, confidently asserts, that they had throughout Greece a high and honorable reputation, not only on account of their hospitality to strangers and their benevolence towards all men, but especially on account of their piety towards the divine being! It is true they make no figure in Grecian history, because they were too wise to take part in the irrational contests, which continually embroiled the surrounding states. Their division into small independent communities, each presenting a purely democratic constitution, rendered it impossible for them to acquire celebrity in legis-*