In the latter, the word _cradle_ is doubtful.

I suggest _cradled_, but am not satisfied with it.

The meaning is, however, plain enough.
[67] "The very blessing the soul needed." [68] An old English game, still in use in Scotland and America, but vanishing before cricket.
[69] _Silly_ means _innocent_, and therefore _blessed_; ignorant of evil, and in so far helpless.

It is easy to see how affection came to apply it to idiots.

It is applied to the ox and ass in the next stanza, and is often an epithet of shepherds.
[70] See _Poems by Sir Henry Wotton and others.