ii THE AGE OF GOLD 267 



Pastor Fido]. Otium presses its claim to a place in the 

 heavens as being more truly a virtue than solicitude or 

 strenuous effort, to which the place of Perseus had been 

 given. Its chief argument is that through it the golden 

 age had been instituted and maintained, by the law of 

 idleness which is the law of nature, while it was through 

 solicitude, with its following of vainglory, contempt of 

 others, violence, oppression, torment, fear, and death, 

 that the age had departed. u All praise the fair age of 

 gold, when I kept minds quiet and peaceful, safe from 

 this virtuous goddess of yours. For their bodies, 

 hunger was sufficient sauce to make a delicious and 

 satisfying repast out of acorns, apples, chestnuts, peaches, 

 and roots, which benign nature administered at a time 

 when such food was the best nourishment for them, gave 

 them most pleasure, and kept them longest in life, which 

 the many artificial sauces that industry and zeal have 

 discovered cannot do." l Industry had introduced 

 property, and divided up not only the earth, which is 

 given to all its children, but also the sea, and perhaps 

 the air as well ; so that instead of sufficiency for all 

 there is too much for some and too little for others. 

 It had introduced an unnatural inequality, and confused 

 together peoples whom nature had intended to live apart, 

 with the consequence that the vices of one race were 

 being implanted upon those of others. The right of 

 the stronger had taken the place of the law of nature, 

 violence that of the peace of nature, which are the law 

 and peace of God. 



O bella eta de 1'oro 



Non gia perche di latte 



Sen corse il fiume, et stillo mele il bosco. 



1 Lag. p. 503. 20. 



