Arcadia has for many centuries exhibited a most melancholy contrast to that condition of hardy and yet peaceful independence, of rustic simplicity united with tasteful elegance, of social kindness and domestic enjoyment undisturbed by the projects of ambition, which has supplied many of the most beautiful pictures to the writers of poetry and romance. The great natural features of the country are unalterable. The pine-forests of Lycæus, its deep glens continually refreshed with sparkling streams and cataracts, its savage precipices where scarce even a goat can climb, remain in their original beauty and grandeur. This region also affords pasture to flocks of sheep more numerous than those which feed in any other part of Greece[306]. But whatever depends on the moral nature of man is changed. The valleys, once richly cultivated and tenanted by an overflowing population, are scarcely kept in tillage. The noble cities are traced only by their scattered ruins. The few descendants of the ancient Arcades have crouched beneath a degrading tyranny. The thick forests and awful caverns but a few years ago served to shelter fierce banditti; and the traveller startled at the sound of their fire-arms instead of being charmed with the sweet melody of the syrinx[307]. But a new dynasty has been established under the sanction of the most powerful and enlightened nations of Europe. It remains to be seen whether this or any other part of Greece will again become wise, virtuous, and renowned. The philanthropist, who amidst the gloom and desolation of the moral world depends with confidence upon an all-wise and all-disposing Providence, may console himself with the hope, that that great Being who bestowed such inestimable blessings upon Arcadian shepherds in their ignorance, will not abandon those of their descendants, who with superior means of knowledge, aim at corresponding attainments in the excellencies of political, social, and private life. [306] [German 283] Bartholdy, Bruchstücke zur Kenntniss des heut. Griechenlands, p. 238. [307] Dodwell’s Tour, vol. ii. p. 388-393. Leake’s Travels in the Morea, vol. i. p. 486-490. The latter author gives the following account of a visit which he paid to the family of a shepherd, consisting of twelve or fifteen individuals, who lived together in a tent on Mount Lycæus:--“Milk and misithra (a preparation made by boiling milk and whey together) is their usual food. ‘We have milk in plenty,’ they tell me, ‘but no bread.’ Such is the life of a modern Arcadian shepherd, who has almost reverted to the balanephagous state of his primitive ancestors (Orac. Pyth. ap. Pausan. Arcad. c. 42.). The children, however, all look healthy and are handsome, having large black eyes and regular features with very dark complexion.”