He was no sooner able to
walk, than he was sent naked, with the infant peasantry, to
attend the cattle of the village; and was obliged to seek the
refreshment of sleep, as well as pursue the occupations of the
day, in the open air[A]. He even pretended to be a stranger to
the art of writing and reading. But though neglected by those
who had the care of his infancy, the youth of this extraordinary
personage did not pass away without some of those incidents,
which might afford a glimpse of the sublimity of his genius; and
some of those prodigies, with which superstition is prompt to
adorn the story of the founders of nations, and the conquerors
of empires. In the mean time, his understanding was enlarged by
travel. It is not to be supposed that he frequented the
neighbouring countries, without making some of those profound
observations upon the decline of the two great empires of the
East and of Persia, which were calculated to expand his views,
and to mature his projects. The energies of his mind led him to
despise the fopperies of idolatry; and he found the Christians,
in the most unfavourable situation, torn into innumerable
parties, by the sectaries of Athanasius, Arius, Eutyches,
Nestorius.
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