In the third dialogue of the _Spaccio_ is a digression on _Otium_, Idleness, and the Golden Age, which had been brought into popularity by the pastoral poem of Tasso, the _Aminta_, and its imitators (_e.g._ Guarini in the _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. "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."[469] 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 etá de l'oro Non gia perche di latte Sen corse il fiume, et stilló mele il bosco. * * * * * Ma 'n primavera eterna Ch' hora s' accende et verna Rise di luce, et di sereno il cielo, Ne porto peregrino O' guerra, o merce a' l' altrui lidi il pino. * * * * * Ma legge aurea et felice Che natura scolpi. S' ei piace, ei lice[470]