280 The dream of an idealist 



the dreamer could possibly know. Aspirations towards a healthy out- 

 door life had been felt by many before Musonius. Admiration of rustic 

 pursuits was no new thing, but it was generally freedom from worries, 

 with the occasional diversions of the chase, that were attractive to the 

 town-bred man. Ploughing and digging, and the responsible charge of 

 flocks and herds, had long been almost entirely left to slaves, and 

 Musonius is driven to confess that few youths of the class from which 

 he drew pupils would be willing to undertake such occupations. It was 

 useless to urge that bodily labour is not degrading: that it is exhaust- 



fing, and engrosses the whole attention, he could not deny. He falls 

 back on pastoral duties as light and allowing leisure for serious dis- 

 ^ourse. The suggestion seems unreal, though sincere, when we re- 

 member that Italian shepherds had to fight wolves and brigands. 

 Moreover, the preference of grazing to tillage was in no small degree 

 due to the fewer persons employed in it, and the stockmen were a 

 notoriously rough class. Even the idealized shepherds of the bucolic 

 poets exhibit a coarseness not congenial to conversation savouring of 

 virtue. But to a Stoic preacher who could try to pacify a licentious 

 soldiery the notion of using pastoral pursuits as a means to moral 

 excellence may well have seemed a reasonable proposal. 



It is at least clear that the futility of philosophy as administered 

 by lecturers in Rome had made a strong impression on Musonius. The 

 fashionable company to whom the discourses were addressed, whether 

 they for the moment shed some of their self-satisfaction or not, were 

 seldom or never induced to remodel their worthless lives. So Musonius 

 urges them to break away from solemn trifling and take to rustic 

 labour. He probably chose this remedy as one specially Roman, fol- 

 lowing the tradition of the heroes of ancient Rome. But no artificial 

 revival of this kind was possible, whatever his generous optimism 

 might say. His contemporary the elder Pliny, who was content to 

 glorify the vanished past and deplore the present, had a truer appre- 

 ciation of the facts. Farm-work as a means of bringing personal in- 

 fluence to bear, treating body and mind together, a sort of * Wisdom 

 while you dig,' was in such a society a merely fantastic proposal. The 

 importance of farming and food-production was a commonplace, but 

 the vocation of Musonius was moralizing and character-production. 

 There is no reason to think that he hac^an}' practical knowledge of 

 His austere life proves nothing- of the kind. The only 



shews 1 acquaintani^r^itrr coMT^^ is his 



reference to the farmers who make a living on hired land. And this is 

 in too general terms to have any historical value. 



