Ecclesiastes 5:12

The sleep of a labouring man is sweet We may probably, as suggested in the "Ideal Biography" of the Introductionch. iii., see in this reflection the reminiscence of a state with which the writer had once been familiar, and after which, now that it had passed away, he yearned regretfully. Again we get on the track of the maxims of Epicurean teachers. So Horace;

"Somnus agrestium

Lenis virorum non humiles domos

Fastidit umbrosamque ripam,

Non Zephyris agitata Tempe."

"Gentle slumber scorneth not

The ploughman's poor and lowly cot,

Nor yet the bank with sheltering shade,

Nor Tempe with its breezy glade."

Od. iii. 1. 21 24.

See the passage from Virgil, Georg. iv., already quoted in the note on ch. Ecclesiastes 2:24, and

"Gives not the hawthorn-bush a sweeter shade

To shepherds looking on their silly sheep,

Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy

To kings that fear their subjects" treachery?

O, yes, it doth; a thousand-fold it doth.

And to conclude, the shepherd's homely curds,

His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle,

His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade,

All which secure and sweetly he enjoys,

Is far beyond a prince's delicates,

His viands sparkling in a golden cup,

His body couched in a curious bed,

When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him."

Shakespeare, Henry VI. Act ii. Sc. 5.