Samuel Johnson
Rasselas
The Prince of Abessinia
A Tale
Chapter I
Description of a palace in a valley
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy and pursue with eagerness
the phantoms of hope who expect that age will perform the promises of youth
and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow
attend to the history of Rasselas prince of Abissinia
Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty emperour in whose dominions the
Father of waters begins his course whose bounty pours down the streams of
plenty and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt
According to the custom which has descended from age to age among the
monarchs of the torrid zone Rasselas was confined in a private palace with the
other sons and daughters of Abissinian royalty till the order of succession
should call him to the throne
The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the
residence of the Abissinian princes was a spacious valley in the kingdom of
Amhara surrounded on every side by mountains of which the summits overhang the
middle part The only passage by which it could be entered was a cavern that
passed under a rock of which it has long been disputed whether it was the work
of nature or of human industry The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a
thick wood and the mouth which opened into the valley was closed with gates of
iron forged by the artificers of ancient days so massy that no man could
without the help of engines open or shut them
From the mountains on every side rivulets descended that filled all the
valley with verdure and fertility and formed a lake in the middle inhabited by
fish of every species and frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to
dip the wing in water This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream which
entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern side and fell with
dreadful noise from precipice to precipice till it was heard no more
The sides of the mountains were covered with trees the banks of the brooks
were diversified with flowers every blast shook spices from the rocks and
every month dropped fruits upon the ground All animals that bite the grass or
brouse the shrub whether wild or tame wandered in this extensive circuit
secured from beasts of prey by the mountains which confined them On one part
were flocks and herds feeding in the pastures on another all the beasts of
chase frisking in the lawns the spritely kid was bounding on the rocks the
subtle monkey frolicking in the trees and the solemn elephant reposing in the
shade All the diversities of the world were brought together the blessings of
nature were collected and its evils extracted and excluded
The valley wide and fruitful supplied its inhabitants with the necessaries
of life and all delights and superfluities were added at the annual visit which
the emperour paid his children when the iron gate was opened to the sound of
musick and during eight days every one that resided in the valley was required
to propose whatever might contribute to make seclusion pleasant to fill up the
vacancies of attention and lessen the tediousness of time Every desire was
immediately granted All the artificers of pleasure were called to gladden the
festivity the musicians exerted the power of harmony and the dancers showed
their activity before the princes in hope that they should pass their lives in
this blissful captivity to which these only were admitted whose performance was
thought able to add novelty to luxury Such was the appearance of security and
delight which this retirement afforded that they to whom it was new always
desired that it might be perpetual and as those on whom the iron gate had once
closed were never suffered to return the effect of longer experience could not
be known Thus every year produced new schemes of delight and new competitors
for imprisonment
The palace stood on an eminence raised about thirty paces above the surface
of the lake It was divided into many squares or courts built with greater or
less magnificence according to the rank of those for whom they were designed
The roofs were turned into arches of massy stone joined with a cement that grew
harder by time and the building stood from century to century deriding the
solstitial rains and equinoctial hurricanes without need of reparation
This house which was so large as to be fully known to none but some ancient
officers who successively inherited the secrets of the place was built as if
suspicion herself had dictated the plan To every room there was an open and
secret passage every square had a communication with the rest either from the
upper stories by private galleries or by subterranean passages from the lower
apartments Many of the columns had unsuspected cavities in which a long race
of monarchs had reposited their treasures They then closed up the opening with
marble which was never to be removed but in the utmost exigencies of the
kingdom and recorded their accumulations in a book which was itself concealed
in a tower not entered but by the emperour attended by the prince who stood
next in succession
Chapter II
The discontent of Rasselas in the happy valley
Here the sons and daughters of Abissinia lived only to know the soft
vicissitudes of pleasure and repose attended by all that were skilful to
delight and gratified with whatever the senses can enjoy They wandered in
gardens of fragrance and slept in the fortresses of security Every art was
practised to make them pleased with their own condition The sages who
instructed them told them of nothing but the miseries of publick life and
described all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity where discord was
always raging and where man preyed upon man
To heighten their opinion of their own felicity they were daily entertained
with songs the subject of which was the happy valley Their appetites were
excited by frequent enumerations of different enjoyments and revelry and
merriment was the business of every hour from the dawn of morning to the close
of even
These methods were generally successful few of the Princes had ever wished
to enlarge their bounds but passed their lives in full conviction that they had
all within their reach that art or nature could bestow and pitied those whom
fate had excluded from this seat of tranquillity as the sport of chance and
the slaves of misery
Thus they rose in the morning and lay down at night pleased with each
other and with themselves all but Rasselas who in the twentysixth year of
his age began to withdraw himself from their pastimes and assemblies and to
delight in solitary walks and silent meditation He often sat before tables
covered with luxury and forgot to taste the dainties that were placed before
him he rose abruptly in the midst of the song and hastily retired beyond the
sound of musick His attendants observed the change and endeavoured to renew his
love of pleasure he neglected their officiousness repulsed their invitations
and spent day after day on the banks of rivulets sheltered with trees where he
sometimes listened to the birds in the branches sometimes observed the fish
playing in the stream and anon cast his eyes upon the pastures and mountains
filled with animals of which some were biting the herbage and some sleeping
among the bushes
This singularity of his humour made him much observed One of the Sages in
whose conversation he had formerly delighted followed him secretly in hope of
discovering the cause of his disquiet Rasselas who knew not that any one was
near him having for some time fixed his eyes upon the goats that were brousing
among the rocks began to compare their condition with his own
»What said he makes the difference between man and all the rest of the
animal creation Every beast that strays beside me has the same corporal
necessities with myself he is hungry and crops the grass he is thirsty and
drinks the stream his thirst and hunger are appeased he is satisfied and
sleeps he rises again and is hungry he is again fed and is at rest I am
hungry and thirsty like him but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest
I am like him pained with want but am not like him satisfied with fulness
The intermediate hours are tedious and gloomy I long again to be hungry that I
may again quicken my attention The birds peck the berries or the corn and fly
away to the groves where they sit in seeming happiness on the branches and
waste their lives in tuning one unvaried series of sounds I likewise can call
the lutanist and the singer but the sounds that pleased me yesterday weary me
to day and will grow yet more wearisome to morrow I can discover within me no
power of perception which is not glutted with its proper pleasure yet I do not
feel myself delighted Man has surely some latent sense for which this place
affords no gratification or he has some desires distinct from sense which must
be satisfied before he can be happy«
After this he lifted up his head and seeing the moon rising walked towards
the palace As he passed through the fields and saw the animals around him
»Ye said he are happy and need not envy me that walk thus among you
burthened with myself nor do I ye gentle beings envy your felicity for it is
not the felicity of man I have many distresses from which ye are free I fear
pain when I do not feel it I sometimes shrink at evils recollected and
sometimes start at evils anticipated surely the equity of providence has
balanced peculiar sufferings with peculiar enjoyments«
With observations like these the prince amused himself as he returned
uttering them with a plaintive voice yet with a look that discovered him to
feel some complacence in his own perspicacity and to receive some solace of the
miseries of life from consciousness of the delicacy with which he felt and the
eloquence with which he bewailed them He mingled cheerfully in the diversions
of the evening and all rejoiced to find that his heart was lightened
Chapter III
The wants of him that wants nothing
On the next day his old instructor imagining that he had now made himself
acquainted with his disease of mind was in hope of curing it by counsel and
officiously sought an opportunity of conference which the prince having long
considered him as one whose intellects were exhausted was not very willing to
afford »Why said he does this man thus intrude upon me shall I be never
suffered to forget those lectures which pleased only while they were new and to
become new again must be forgotten« He then walked into the wood and composed
himself to his usual meditations when before his thoughts had taken any
settled form he perceived his pursuer at his side and was at first prompted by
his impatience to go hastily away but being unwilling to offend a man whom he
had once reverenced and still loved he invited him to sit down with him on the
bank
The old man thus encouraged began to lament the change which had been
lately observed in the prince and to inquire why he so often retired from the
pleasures of the palace to loneliness and silence »I fly from pleasure said
the prince because pleasure has ceased to please I am lonely because I am
miserable and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others«
»You Sir said the sage are the first who has complained of misery in the
happy valley I hope to convince you that your complaints have no real cause
You are here in full possession of all that the emperour of Abissinia can
bestow here is neither labour to be endured nor danger to be dreaded yet here
is all that labour or danger can procure or purchase Look round and tell me
which of your wants is without supply if you want nothing how are you
unhappy«
»That I want nothing said the prince or that I know not what I want is
the cause of my complaint if I had any known want I should have a certain
wish that wish would excite endeavour and I should not then repine to see the
sun move so slowly towards the western mountain or lament when the day breaks
and sleep will no longer hide me from myself When I see the kids and the lambs
chasing one another I fancy that I should be happy if I had something to
pursue But possessing all that I can want I find one day and one hour exactly
like another except that the latter is still more tedious than the former Let
your experience inform me how the day may now seem as short as in my childhood
while nature was yet fresh and every moment showed me what I never had observed
before I have already enjoyed too much give me something to desire«
The old man was surprised at this new species of affliction and knew not
what to reply yet was unwilling to be silent »Sir said he if you had seen
the miseries of the world you would know how to value your present state«
»Now said the prince you have given me something to desire I shall long to
see the miseries of the world since the sight of them is necessary to
happiness«
Chapter IV
The prince continues to grieve and muse
At this time the sound of musick proclaimed the hour of repast and the
conversation was concluded The old man went away sufficiently discontented to
find that his reasonings had produced the only conclusion which they were
intended to prevent But in the decline of life shame and grief are of short
duration whether it be that we bear easily what we have born long or that
finding ourselves in age less regarded we less regard others or that we look
with slight regard upon afflictions to which we know that the hand of death is
about to put an end
The prince whose views were extended to a wider space could not speedily
quiet his emotions He had been before terrified at the length of life which
nature promised him because he considered that in a long time much must be
endured he now rejoiced in his youth because in many years much might be done
This first beam of hope that had been ever darted into his mind rekindled
youth in his cheeks and doubled the lustre of his eyes He was fired with the
desire of doing something though he knew not yet with distinctness either end
or means
He was now no longer gloomy and unsocial but considering himself as master
of a secret stock of happiness which he could enjoy only by concealing it he
affected to be busy in all schemes of diversion and endeavoured to make others
pleased with the state of which he himself was weary But pleasures never can be
so multiplied or continued as not to leave much of life unemployed there were
many hours both of the night and day which he could spend without suspicion in
solitary thought The load of life was much lightened he went eagerly into the
assemblies because he supposed the frequency of his presence necessary to the
success of his purposes he retired gladly to privacy because he had now a
subject of thought
His chief amusement was to picture to himself that world which he had never
seen to place himself in various conditions to be entangled in imaginary
difficulties and to be engaged in wild adventures but his benevolence always
terminated his projects in the relief of distress the detection of fraud the
defeat of oppression and the diffusion of happiness
Thus passed twenty months of the life of Rasselas He busied himself so
intensely in visionary bustle that he forgot his real solitude and amidst
hourly preparations for the various incidents of human affairs neglected to
consider by what means he should mingle with mankind
One day as he was sitting on a bank he feigned to himself an orphan virgin
robbed of her little portion by a treacherous lover and crying after him for
restitution and redress So strongly was the image impressed upon his mind that
he started up in the maids defence and run forward to seize the plunderer with
all the eagerness of real pursuit Fear naturally quickens the flight of guilt
Rasselas could not catch the fugitive with his utmost efforts but resolving to
weary by perseverance him whom he could not surpass in speed he pressed on
till the foot of the mountain stopped his course
Here he recollected himself and smiled at his own useless impetuosity Then
raising his eyes to the mountain »This said he is the fatal obstacle that
hinders at once the enjoyment of pleasure and the exercise of virtue How long
is it that my hopes and wishes have flown beyond this boundary of my life which
yet I never have attempted to surmount«
Struck with this reflection he sat down to muse and remembered that since
he first resolved to escape from his confinement the sun had passed twice over
him in his annual course He now felt a degree of regret with which he had never
been before acquainted He considered how much might have been done in the time
which had passed and left nothing real behind it He compared twenty months
with the life of man »In life said he is not to be counted the ignorance of
infancy or imbecility of age We are long before we are able to think and we
soon cease from the power of acting The true period of human existence may be
reasonably estimated as forty years of which I have mused away the four and
twentieth part What I have lost was certain for I have certainly possessed it
but of twenty months to come who can assure me«
The consciousness of his own folly pierced him deeply and he was long
before he could be reconciled to himself »The rest of my time said he has
been lost by the crime or folly of my ancestors and the absurd institutions of
my country I remember it with disgust yet without remorse but the months that
have passed since new light darted into my soul since I formed a scheme of
reasonable felicity have been squandered by my own fault I have lost that
which can never be restored I have seen the sun rise and set for twenty months
an idle gazer on the light of heaven In this time the birds have left the nest
of their mother and committed themselves to the woods and to the skies the kid
has forsaken the teat and learned by degrees to climb the rocks in quest of
independant sustenance I only have made no advances but am still helpless and
ignorant The moon by more than twenty changes admonished me of the flux of
life the stream that rolled before my feet upbraided my inactivity I sat
feasting on intellectual luxury regardless alike of the examples of the earth
and the instructions of the planets Twenty months are past who shall restore
them«
These sorrowful meditations fastened upon his mind he past four months in
resolving to lose no more time in idle resolves and was awakened to more
vigorous exertion by hearing a maid who had broken a porcelain cup remark
that what cannot be repaired is not to be regretted
This was obvious and Rasselas reproached himself that he had not discovered
it having not known or not considered how many useful hints are obtained by
chance and how often the mind hurried by her own ardour to distant views
neglects the truths that lie open before her He for a few hours regretted his
regret and from that time bent his whole mind upon the means of escaping from
the valley of happiness
Chapter V
The prince meditates his escape
He now found that it would be very difficult to effect that which it was very
easy to suppose effected When he looked round about him he saw himself
confined by the bars of nature which had never yet been broken and by the gate
through which none that once had passed it were ever able to return He was now
impatient as an eagle in a grate He passed week after week in clambering the
mountains to see if there was any aperture which the bushes might conceal but
found all the summits inaccessible by their prominence The iron gate he
despaired to open for it was not only secured with all the power of art but
was always watched by successive sentinels and was by its position exposed to
the perpetual observation of all the inhabitants
He then examined the cavern through which the waters of the lake were
discharged and looking down at a time when the sun shone strongly upon its
mouth he discovered it to be full of broken rocks which though they permitted
the stream to flow through many narrow passages would stop any body of solid
bulk He returned discouraged and dejected but having now known the blessing
of hope resolved never to despair
In these fruitless searches he spent ten months The time however passed
cheerfully away in the morning he rose with new hope in the evening applauded
his own diligence and in the night slept sound after his fatigue He met a
thousand amusements which beguiled his labour and diversified his thoughts He
discerned the various instincts of animals and properties of plants and found
the place replete with wonders of which he purposed to solace himself with the
contemplation if he should never be able to accomplish his flight rejoicing
that his endeavours though yet unsuccessful had supplied him with a source of
inexhaustible inquiry
But his original curiosity was not yet abated he resolved to obtain some
knowledge of the ways of men His wish still continued but his hope grew less
He ceased to survey any longer the walls of his prison and spared to search by
new toils for interstices which he knew could not be found yet determined to
keep his design always in view and lay hold on any expedient that time should
offer
Chapter VI
A dissertation on the art of flying
Among the artists that had been allured into the happy valley to labour for the
accommodation and pleasure of its inhabitants was a man eminent for his
knowledge of the mechanick powers who had contrived many engines both of use
and recreation By a wheel which the stream turned he forced the water into a
tower whence it was distributed to all the apartments of the palace He erected
a pavillion in the garden around which he kept the air always cool by
artificial showers One of the groves appropriated to the ladies was
ventilated by fans to which the rivulet that run through it gave a constant
motion and instruments of soft musick were placed at proper distances of which
some played by the impulse of the wind and some by the power of the stream
This artist was sometimes visited by Rasselas who was pleased with every
kind of knowledge imagining that the time would come when all his acquisitions
should be of use to him in the open world He came one day to amuse himself in
his usual manner and found the master busy in building a sailing chariot he
saw that the design was practicable upon a level surface and with expressions
of great esteem solicited its completion The workman was pleased to find
himself so much regarded by the prince and resolved to gain yet higher honours
»Sir said he you have seen but a small part of what the mechanick sciences can
perform I have been long of opinion that instead of the tardy conveyance of
ships and chariots man might use the swifter migration of wings that the
fields of air are open to knowledge and that only ignorance and idleness need
crawl upon the ground«
This hint rekindled the princes desire of passing the mountains having
seen what the mechanist had already performed he was willing to fancy that he
could do more yet resolved to inquire further before he suffered hope to
afflict him by disappointment »I am afraid said he to the artist that your
imagination prevails over your skill and that you now tell me rather what you
wish than what you know Every animal has his element assigned him the birds
have the air and man and beasts the earth« »So replied the mechanist fishes
have the water in which yet beasts can swim by nature and men by art He that
can swim needs not despair to fly to swim is to fly in a grosser fluid and to
fly is to swim in a subtler We are only to proportion our power of resistance
to the different density of the matter through which we are to pass You will be
necessarily upborn by the air if you can renew any impulse upon it faster than
the air can recede from the pressure«
»But the exercise of swimming said the prince is very laborious the
strongest limbs are soon wearied I am afraid the act of flying will be yet more
violent and wings will be of no great use unless we can fly further than we
can swim«
»The labour of rising from the ground said the artist will be great as we
see it in the heavier domestick fowls but as we mount higher the earths
attraction and the bodys gravity will be gradually diminished till we shall
arrive at a region where the man will float in the air without any tendency to
fall no care will then be necessary but to move forwards which the gentlest
impulse will effect You Sir whose curiosity is so extensive will easily
conceive with what pleasure a philosopher furnished with wings and hovering in
the sky would see the earth and all its inhabitants rolling beneath him and
presenting to him successively by its diurnal motion all the countries within
the same parallel How must it amuse the pendent spectator to see the moving
scene of land and ocean cities and deserts To survey with equal security the
marts of trade and the fields of battle mountains infested by barbarians and
fruitful regions gladdened by plenty and lulled by peace How easily shall we
then trace the Nile through all his passage pass over to distant regions and
examine the face of nature from one extremity of the earth to the other«
»All this said the prince is much to be desired but I am afraid that no
man will be able to breathe in these regions of speculation and tranquillity I
have been told that respiration is difficult upon lofty mountains yet from
these precipices though so high as to produce great tenuity of the air it is
very easy to fall therefore I suspect that from any height where life can be
supported there may be danger of too quick descent«
»Nothing replied the artist will ever be attempted if all possible
objections must be first overcome If you will favour my project I will try the
first flight at my own hazard I have considered the structure of all volant
animals and find the folding continuity of the bats wings most easily
accommodated to the human form Upon this model I shall begin my task to morrow
and in a year expect to tower into the air beyond the malice or pursuit of man
But I will work only on this condition that the art shall not be divulged and
that you shall not require me to make wings for any but ourselves«
»Why said Rasselas should you envy others so great an advantage All skill
ought to be exerted for universal good every man has owed much to others and
ought to repay the kindness that he has received«
»If men were all virtuous returned the artist I should with great alacrity
teach them all to fly But what would be the security of the good if the bad
could at pleasure invade them from the sky Against an army sailing through the
clouds neither walls nor mountains nor seas could afford any security A
flight of northern savages might hover in the wind and light at once with
irresistible violence upon the capital of a fruitful region that was rolling
under them Even this valley the retreat of princes the abode of happiness
might be violated by the sudden descent of some of the naked nations that swarm
on the coast of the southern sea«
The prince promised secrecy and waited for the performance not wholly
hopeless of success He visited the work from time to time observed its
progress and remarked many ingenious contrivances to facilitate motion and
unite levity with strength The artist was every day more certain that he should
leave vultures and eagles behind him and the contagion of his confidence seized
upon the prince
In a year the wings were finished and on a morning appointed the maker
appeared furnished for flight on a little promontory he waved his pinions a
while to gather air then leaped from his stand and in an instant dropped into
the lake His wings which were of no use in the air sustained him in the
water and the prince drew him to land half dead with terrour and vexation
Chapter VII
The prince finds a man of learning
The prince was not much afflicted by this disaster having suffered himself to
hope for a happier event only because he had no other means of escape in view
He still persisted in his design to leave the happy valley by the first
opportunity
His imagination was now at a stand he had no prospect of entering into the
world and notwithstanding all his endeavours to support himself discontent by
degrees preyed upon him and he began to lose his thoughts in sadness when the
rainy season which in these countries is periodical made it inconvenient to
wander in the woods
The rain continued longer and with more violence than had been ever known
the clouds broke on the surrounding mountains and the torrents streamed into
the plain on every side till the cavern was too narrow to discharge the water
The lake overflowed its banks and all the level of the valley was covered with
the inundation The eminence on which the palace was built and some other
spots of rising ground were all that the eye could now discover The herds and
flocks left the pastures and both the wild beasts and the tame retreated to the
mountains
This inundation confined all the princes to domestick amusements and the
attention of Rasselas was particularly seized by a poem which Imlac rehearsed
upon the various conditions of humanity He commanded the poet to attend him in
his apartment and recite his verses a second time then entering into familiar
talk he thought himself happy in having found a man who knew the world so well
and could so skilfully paint the scenes of life He asked a thousand questions
about things to which though common to all other mortals his confinement from
childhood had kept him a stranger The poet pitied his ignorance and loved his
curiosity and entertained him from day to day with novelty and instruction so
that the prince regretted the necessity of sleep and longed till the morning
should renew his pleasure
As they were sitting together the prince commanded Imlac to relate his
history and to tell by what accident he was forced or by what motive induced
to close his life in the happy valley As he was going to begin his narrative
Rasselas was called to a concert and obliged to restrain his curiosity till the
evening
Chapter VIII
The history of Imlac
The close of the day is in the regions of the torrid zone the only season of
diversion and entertainment and it was therefore midnight before the musick
ceased and the princesses retired Rasselas then called for his companion and
required him to begin the story of his life
»Sir said Imlac my history will not be long the life that is devoted to
knowledge passes silently away and is very little diversified by events To
talk in publick to think in solitude to read and to hear to inquire and
answer inquiries is the business of a scholar He wanders about the world
without pomp or terrour and is neither known nor valued but by men like
himself
I was born in the kingdom of Goiama at no great distance from the fountain
of the Nile My father was a wealthy merchant who traded between the inland
countries of Africk and the ports of the Red Sea He was honest frugal and
diligent but of mean sentiments and narrow comprehension he desired only to
be rich and to conceal his riches lest he should be spoiled by the governors
of the province«
»Surely said the prince my father must be negligent of his charge if any
man in his dominions dares take that which belongs to another Does he not know
that kings are accountable for injustice permitted as well as done If I were
emperour not the meanest of my subjects should be oppressed with impunity My
blood boils when I am told that a merchant durst not enjoy his honest gains for
fear of losing them by the rapacity of power Name the governor who robbed the
people that I may declare his crimes to the emperour«
»Sir said Imlac your ardour is the natural effect of virtue animated by
youth the time will come when you will acquit your father and perhaps hear
with less impatience of the governor Oppression is in the Abissinian
dominions neither frequent nor tolerated but no form of government has been
yet discovered by which cruelty can be wholly prevented Subordination supposes
power on one part and subjection on the other and if power be in the hands of
men it will sometimes be abused The vigilance of the supreme magistrate may do
much but much will still remain undone He can never know all the crimes that
are committed and can seldom punish all that he knows«
»This said the prince I do not understand but I had rather hear thee than
dispute Continue thy narration«
»My father proceeded Imlac originally intended that I should have no other
education than such as might qualify me for commerce and discovering in me
great strength of memory and quickness of apprehension often declared his hope
that I should be some time the richest man in Abissinia«
»Why said the prince did thy father desire the increase of his wealth
when it was already greater than he durst discover or enjoy I am unwilling to
doubt thy veracity yet inconsistencies cannot both be true«
»Inconsistencies answered Imlac cannot both be right but imputed to man
they may both be true Yet diversity is not inconsistency My father might
expect a time of greater security However some desire is necessary to keep
life in motion and he whose real wants are supplied must admit those of
fancy«
»This said the prince I can in some measure conceive I repent that I
interrupted thee«
»With this hope proceeded Imlac he sent me to school but when I had once
found the delight of knowledge and felt the pleasure of intelligence and the
pride of invention I began silently to despise riches and determined to
disappoint the purpose of my father whose grossness of conception raised my
pity I was twenty years old before his tenderness would expose me to the
fatigue of travel in which time I had been instructed by successive masters
in all the literature of my native country As every hour taught me something
new I lived in a continual course of gratifications but as I advanced towards
manhood I lost much of the reverence with which I had been used to look on my
instructors because when the lesson was ended I did not find them wiser or
better than common men
At length my father resolved to initiate me in commerce and opening one of
his subterranean treasuries counted out ten thousand pieces of gold This
young man said he is the stock with which you must negotiate I began with
less than the fifth part and you see how diligence and parsimony have increased
it This is your own to waste or to improve If you squander it by negligence or
caprice you must wait for my death before you will be rich if in four years
you double your stock we will thenceforward let subordination cease and live
together as friends and partners for he shall always be equal with me who is
equally skilled in the art of growing rich
We laid our money upon camels concealed in bales of cheap goods and
travelled to the shore of the Red Sea When I cast my eye on the expanse of
waters my heart bounded like that of a prisoner escaped I felt an
unextinguishable curiosity kindle in my mind and resolved to snatch this
opportunity of seeing the manners of other nations and of learning sciences
unknown in Abissinia
I remembered that my father had obliged me to the improvement of my stock
not by a promise which I ought not to violate but by a penalty which I was at
liberty to incur and therefore determined to gratify my predominant desire and
by drinking at the fountains of knowledge to quench the thirst of curiosity
As I was supposed to trade without connexion with my father it was easy for
me to become acquainted with the master of a ship and procure a passage to some
other country I had no motives of choice to regulate my voyage it was
sufficient for me that wherever I wandered I should see a country which I had
not seen before I therefore entered a ship bound for Surat having left a
letter for my father declaring my intention«
Chapter IX
The history of Imlac continued
When I first entered upon the world of waters and lost sight of land I looked
round about me with pleasing terrour and thinking my soul enlarged by the
boundless prospect imagined that I could gaze round for ever without satiety
but in a short time I grew weary of looking on barren uniformity where I
could only see again what I had already seen I then descended into the ship
and doubted for a while whether all my future pleasures would not end like this
in disgust and disappointment Yet surely said I the ocean and the land are
very different the only variety of water is rest and motion but the earth has
mountains and vallies deserts and cities it is inhabited by men of different
customs and contrary opinions and I may hope to find variety in life though I
should miss it in nature
»With this thought I quieted my mind and amused myself during the voyage
sometimes by learning from the sailors the art of navigation which I have never
practised and sometimes by forming schemes for my conduct in different
situations in not one of which I have been ever placed
I was almost weary of my naval amusements when we landed safely at Surat I
secured my money and purchasing some commodities for show joined myself to a
caravan that was passing into the inland country My companions for some reason
or other conjecturing that I was rich and by my inquiries and admiration
finding that I was ignorant considered me as a novice whom they had a right to
cheat and who was to learn at the usual expence the art of fraud They exposed
me to the theft of servants and the exaction of officers and saw me plundered
upon false pretences without any advantage to themselves but that of rejoicing
in the superiority of their own knowledge«
»Stop a moment said the prince Is there such depravity in man as that he
should injure another without benefit to himself I can easily conceive that all
are pleased with superiority but your ignorance was merely accidental which
being neither your crime nor your folly could afford them no reason to applaud
themselves and the knowledge which they had and which you wanted they might
as effectively have shown by warning as betraying you«
»Pride said Imlac is seldom delicate it will please itself with very mean
advantages and envy feels not its own happiness but when it may be compared
with the misery of others They were my enemies because they grieved to think me
rich and my oppressors because they delighted to find me weak«
»Proceed said the prince I doubt not of the facts which you relate but
imagine that you impute them to mistaken motives«
»In this company said Imlac I arrived at Agra the capital of Indostan
the city in which the great Mogul commonly resides I applied myself to the
language of the country and in a few months was able to converse with the
learned men some of whom I found morose and reserved and others easy and
communicative some were unwilling to teach another what they had with
difficulty learned themselves and some showed that the end of their studies was
to gain the dignity of instructing
To the tutor of the young princes I recommended myself so much that I was
presented to the emperour as a man of uncommon knowledge The emperour asked me
many questions concerning my country and my travels and though I cannot now
recollect anything that he uttered above the power of a common man he dismissed
me astonished at his wisdom and enamoured of his goodness
My credit was now so high that the merchants with whom I had travelled
applied to me for recommendations to the ladies of the court I was surprised at
their confidence of solicitation and gently reproached them with their
practices on the road They heard me with cold indifference and showed no
tokens of shame or sorrow
They then urged their request with the offer of a bribe but what I would
not do for kindness I would not do for money and refused them not because they
had injured me but because I would not enable them to injure others for I knew
they would have made use of my credit to cheat those who should buy their wares
Having resided at Agra till there was no more to be learned I travelled
into Persia where I saw many remains of ancient magnificence and observed many
new accommodations of life The Persians are a nation eminently social and
their assemblies afforded me daily opportunities of remarking characters and
manners and of tracing human nature through all its variations
From Persia I passed into Arabia where I saw a nation at once pastoral and
warlike who live without any settled habitation whose only wealth is their
flocks and herds and who have yet carried on through all ages an hereditary
war with all mankind though they neither covet nor envy their possessions«
Chapter X
Imlacs history continued A dissertation upon poetry
Wherever I went I found that Poetry was considered as the highest learning and
regarded with a veneration somewhat approaching to that which man would pay to
the Angelick Nature And it yet fills me with wonder that in almost all
countries the most ancient poets are considered as the best whether it be that
every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained and poetry
is a gift conferred at once or that the first poetry of every nation surprised
them as a novelty and retained the credit by consent which it received by
accident at first or whether as the province of poetry is to describe Nature
and Passion which are always the same the first writers took possession of the
most striking objects for description and the most probable occurrences for
fiction and left nothing to those that followed them but transcription of the
same events and new combinations of the same images Whatever be the reason it
is commonly observed that the early writers are in possession of nature and
their followers of art that the first excel in strength and invention and the
latter in elegance and refinement
»I was desirous to add my name to this illustrious fraternity I read all
the poets of Persia and Arabia and was able to repeat by memory the volumes
that are suspended in the mosque of Mecca But I soon found that no man was ever
great by imitation My desire of excellence impelled me to transfer my attention
to nature and to life Nature was to be my subject and men to be my auditors I
could never describe what I had not seen I could not hope to move those with
delight or terrour whose interests and opinions I did not understand
Being now resolved to be a poet I saw every thing with a new purpose my
sphere of attention was suddenly magnified no kind of knowledge was to be
overlooked I ranged mountains and deserts for images and resemblances and
pictured upon my mind every tree of the forest and flower of the valley I
observed with equal care the crags of the rock and the pinnacles of the palace
Sometimes I wandered along the mazes of the rivulet and sometimes watched the
changes of the summer clouds To a poet nothing can be useless Whatever is
beautiful and whatever is dreadful must be familiar to his imagination he
must be conversant with all that is awfully vast or elegantly little The plants
of the garden the animals of the wood the minerals of the earth and meteors
of the sky must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety for
every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious
truth and he who knows most will have most power of diversifying his scenes
and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction
All the appearances of nature I was therefore careful to study and every
country which I have surveyed has contributed something to my poetical powers«
»In so wide a survey said the prince you must surely have left much
unobserved I have lived till now within the circuit of these mountains and
yet cannot walk abroad without the sight of something which I had never beheld
before or never heeded«
»The business of a poet said Imlac is to examine not the individual but
the species to remark general properties and large appearances he does not
number the streaks of the tulip or describe the different shades in the verdure
of the forest He is to exhibit in his portraits of nature such prominent and
striking features as recall the original to every mind and must neglect the
minuter discriminations which one may have remarked and another have
neglected for those characteristicks which are alike obvious to vigilance and
carelessness
But the knowledge of nature is only half the task of a poet he must be
acquainted likewise with all the modes of life His character requires that he
estimate the happiness and misery of every condition observe the power of all
the passions in all their combinations and trace the changes of the human mind
as they are modified by various institutions and accidental influences of
climate or custom from the spriteliness of infancy to the despondence of
decrepitude He must divest himself of the prejudices of his age or country he
must consider right and wrong in their abstracted and invariable state he must
disregard present laws and opinions and rise to general and transcendental
truths which will always be the same he must therefore content himself with
the slow progress of his name contemn the applause of his own time and commit
his claims to the justice of posterity He must write as the interpreter of
nature and the legislator of mankind and consider himself as presiding over
the thoughts and manners of future generations as a being superiour to time and
place
His labour is not yet at an end he must know many languages and many
sciences and that his stile may be worthy of his thoughts must by incessant
practice familiarize to himself every delicacy of speech and grace of harmony«
Chapter XI
Imlacs narrative continued A hint on pilgrimage
Imlac now felt the enthusiastic fit and was proceeding to aggrandize his own
profession when the prince cried out »Enough Thou hast convinced me that no
human being can ever be a poet Proceed with thy narration«
»To be a poet said Imlac is indeed very difficult« »So difficult
returned the prince that I will at present hear no more of his labours Tell me
whither you went when you had seen Persia«
»From Persia said the poet I travelled through Syria and for three years
resided in Palestine where I conversed with great numbers of the northern and
western nations of Europe the nations which are now in possession of all power
and all knowledge whose armies are irresistible and whose fleets command the
remotest parts of the globe When I compared these men with the natives of our
own kingdom and those that surround us they appeared almost another order of
beings In their countries it is difficult to wish for any thing that may not be
obtained a thousand arts of which we never heard are continually labouring
for their convenience and pleasure and whatever their own climate has denied
them is supplied by their commerce«
»By what means said the prince are the Europeans thus powerful or why
since they can so easily visit Asia and Africa for trade or conquest cannot the
Asiaticks and Africans invade their coasts plant colonies in their ports and
give laws to their natural princes The same wind that carries them back would
bring us thither«
»They are more powerful Sir than we answered Imlac because they are
wiser knowledge will always predominate over ignorance as man governs the
other animals But why their knowledge is more than ours I know not what reason
can be given but the unsearchable will of the Supreme Being«
»When said the prince with a sigh shall I be able to visit Palestine and
mingle with this mighty confluence of nations Till that happy moment shall
arrive let me fill up the time with such representations as thou canst give me
I am not ignorant of the motive that assembles such numbers in that place and
cannot but consider it as the center of wisdom and piety to which the best and
wisest men of every land must be continually resorting«
»There are some nations said Imlac that send few visitants to Palestine
for many numerous and learned sects in Europe concur to censure pilgrimage as
superstitious or deride it as ridiculous«
»You know said the prince how little my life has made me acquainted with
diversity of opinions it will be too long to hear the arguments on both sides
you that have considered them tell me the result«
»Pilgrimage said Imlac like many other acts of piety may be reasonable or
superstitious according to the principles upon which it is performed Long
journeys in search of truth are not commanded Truth such as is necessary to
the regulation of life is always found where it is honestly sought Change of
place is no natural cause of the increase of piety for it inevitably produces
dissipation of mind Yet since men go every day to view the fields where great
actions have been performed and return with stronger impressions of the event
curiosity of the same kind may naturally dispose us to view that country whence
our religion had its beginning and I believe no man surveys those awful scenes
without some confirmation of holy resolutions That the Supreme Being may be
more easily propitiated in one place than in another is the dream of idle
superstition but that some places may operate upon our own minds in an uncommon
manner is an opinion which hourly experience will justify He who supposes that
his vices may be more successfully combated in Palestine will perhaps find
himself mistaken yet he may go thither without folly he who thinks they will
be more freely pardoned dishonours at once his reason and religion«
»These said the prince are European distinctions I will consider them
another time What have you found to be the effect of knowledge Are those
nations happier than we«
»There is so much infelicity said the poet in the world that scarce any
man has leisure from his own distresses to estimate the comparative happiness of
others Knowledge is certainly one of the means of pleasure as is confessed by
the natural desire which every mind feels of increasing its ideas Ignorance is
mere privation by which nothing can be produced it is a vacuity in which the
soul sits motionless and torpid for want of attraction and without knowing
why we always rejoice when we learn and grieve when we forget I am therefore
inclined to conclude that if nothing counteracts the natural consequence of
learning we grow more happy as our minds take a wider range
In enumerating the particular comforts of life we shall find many advantages
on the side of the Europeans They cure wounds and diseases with which we
languish and perish We suffer inclemencies of weather which they can obviate
They have engines for the despatch of many laborious works which we must
perform by manual industry There is such communication between distant places
that one friend can hardly be said to be absent from another Their policy
removes all publick inconveniencies they have roads cut through their
mountains and bridges laid upon their rivers And if we descend to the
privacies of life their habitations are more commodious and their possessions
are more secure«
»They are surely happy said the prince who have all these conveniencies
of which I envy none so much as the facility with which separated friends
interchange their thoughts«
»The Europeans answered Imlac are less unhappy than we but they are not
happy Human life is every where a state in which much is to be endured and
little to be enjoyed«
Chapter XII
The story of Imlac continued
»I am not yet willing said the prince to suppose that happiness is so
parsimoniously distributed to mortals nor can believe but that if I had the
choice of life I should be able to fill every day with pleasure I would injure
no man and should provoke no resentment I would relieve every distress and
should enjoy the benedictions of gratitude I would choose my friends among the
wise and my wife among the virtuous and therefore should be in no danger from
treachery or unkindness My children should by my care be learned and pious
and would repay to my age what their childhood had received What would dare to
molest him who might call on every side to thousands enriched by his bounty or
assisted by his power And why should not life glide quietly away in the soft
reciprocation of protection and reverence All this may be done without the help
of European refinements which appear by their effects to be rather specious
than useful Let us leave them and pursue our journey«
»From Palestine said Imlac I passed through many regions of Asia in the
more civilized kingdoms as a trader and among the Barbarians of the mountains
as a pilgrim At last I began to long for my native country that I might repose
after my travels and fatigues in the places where I had spent my earliest
years and gladden my old companions with the recital of my adventures Often
did I figure to myself those with whom I had sported away the gay hours of
dawning life sitting round me in its evening wondering at my tales and
listening to my counsels
When this thought had taken possession of my mind I considered every moment
as wasted which did not bring me nearer to Abissinia I hastened into Egypt
and notwithstanding my impatience was detained ten months in the contemplation
of its ancient magnificence and in inquiries after the remains of its ancient
learning I found in Cairo a mixture of all nations some brought thither by the
love of knowledge some by the hope of gain and many by the desire of living
after their own manner without observation and of lying hid in the obscurity of
multitudes for in a city populous as Cairo it is possible to obtain at the
same time the gratifications of society and the secrecy of solitude
From Cairo I travelled to Suez and embarked on the Red Sea passing along
the coast till I arrived at the port from which I had departed twenty years
before Here I joined myself to a caravan and re my native country
I now expected the caresses of my kinsmen and the congratulations of my
friends and was not without hope that my father whatever value he had set upon
riches would own with gladness and pride a son who was able to add to the
felicity and honour of the nation But I was soon convinced that my thoughts
were vain My father had been dead fourteen years having divided his wealth
among my brothers who were removed to some other provinces Of my companions
the greater part was in the grave of the rest some could with difficulty
remember me and some considered me as one corrupted by foreign manners
A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected I forgot after a time
my disappointment and endeavoured to recommend myself to the nobles of the
kingdom they admitted me to their tables heard my story and dismissed me I
opened a school and was prohibited to teach I then resolved to sit down in the
quiet of domestick life and addressed a lady that was fond of my conversation
but rejected my suit because my father was a merchant
Wearied at last with solicitation and repulses I resolved to hide myself
for ever from the world and depend no longer on the opinion or caprice of
others I waited for the time when the gate of the happy valley should open
that I might bid farewell to hope and fear the day came my performance was
distinguished with favour and I resigned myself with joy to perpetual
confinement«
»Hast thou here found happiness at last said Rasselas Tell me without
reserve art thou content with thy condition or dost thou wish to be again
wandering and inquiring All the inhabitants of this valley celebrate their lot
and at the annual visit of the emperour invite others to partake of their
felicity«
»Great prince said Imlac I shall speak the truth I know not one of all
your attendants who does not lament the hour when he entered this retreat I am
less unhappy than the rest because I have a mind replete with images which I
can vary and combine at pleasure I can amuse my solitude by the renovation of
the knowledge which begins to fade from my memory and by recollection of the
accidents of my past life Yet all this ends in the sorrowful consideration
that my acquirements are now useless and that none of my pleasures can be again
enjoyed The rest whose minds have no impression but of the present moment are
either corroded by malignant passions or sit stupid in the gloom of perpetual
vacancy«
»What passions can infest those said the prince who have no rivals We are
in a place where impotence precludes malice and where all envy is repressed by
community of enjoyments«
»There may be community said Imlac of material possessions but there can
never be community of love or of esteem It must happen that one will please
more than another he that knows himself despised will always be envious and
still more envious and malevolent if he is condemned to live in the presence of
those who despise him The invitations by which they allure others to a state
which they feel to be wretched proceed from the natural malignity of hopeless
misery They are weary of themselves and of each other and expect to find
relief in new companions They envy the liberty which their folly has forfeited
and would gladly see all mankind imprisoned like themselves
From this crime however I am wholly free No man can say that he is
wretched by my persuasion I look with pity on the crowds who are annually
soliciting admission to captivity and wish that it were lawful for me to warn
them of their danger«
»My dear Imlac said the prince I will open to thee my whole heart I have
long meditated an escape from the happy valley I have examined the mountains on
every side but find myself insuperably barred teach me the way to break my
prison thou shalt be the companion of my flight the guide of my rambles the
partner of my fortune and my sole director in the choice of life«
»Sir answered the poet your escape will be difficult and perhaps you
may soon repent your curiosity The world which you figure to yourself smooth
and quiet as the lake in the valley you will find a sea foaming with tempests
and boiling with whirlpools you will be sometimes overwhelmed by the waves of
violence and sometimes dashed against the rocks of treachery Amidst wrongs and
frauds competitions and anxieties you will wish a thousand times for these
seats of quiet and willingly quit hope to be free from fear«
»Do not seek to deter me from my purpose said the prince I am impatient to
see what thou hast seen and since thou art thyself weary of the valley it is
evident, that thy former state was better than this Whatever be the consequence
of my experiment I am resolved to judge with my own eyes of the various
conditions of men and then to make deliberately my choice of life«
»I am afraid said Imlac you are hindered by stronger restraints than my
persuasions yet if your determination is fixed I do not counsel you to
despair Few things are impossible to diligence and skill«
Chapter XIII
Rasselas discovers the means of escape
The prince now dismissed his favourite to rest but the narrative of wonders and
novelties filled his mind with perturbation He revolved all that he had heard
and prepared innumerable questions for the morning
Much of his uneasiness was now removed He had a friend to whom he could
impart his thoughts and whose experience could assist him in his designs His
heart was no longer condemned to swell with silent vexation He thought that
even the happy valley might be endured with such a companion and that if they
could range the world together he should have nothing further to desire
In a few days the water was discharged and the ground dried The prince and
Imlac then walked out together to converse without the notice of the rest The
prince whose thoughts were always on the wing as he passed by the gate said
with a countenance of sorrow »Why art thou so strong and why is man so weak«
»Man is not weak answered his companion knowledge is more than equivalent
to force The master of mechanicks laughs at strength I can burst the gate but
cannot do it secretly Some other expedient must be tried«
As they were walking on the side of the mountain they observed that the
conies which the rain had driven from their burrows had taken shelter among
the bushes and formed holes behind them tending upwards in an oblique line
»It has been the opinion of antiquity said Imlac that human reason borrowed
many arts from the instinct of animals let us therefore not think ourselves
degraded by learning from the coney We may escape by piercing the mountain in
the same direction We will begin where the summit hangs over the middle part
and labour upward till we shall issue out beyond the prominence« The eyes of
the prince when he heard this proposal sparkled with joy The execution was
easy and the success certain
No time was now lost They hastened early in the morning to choose a place
proper for their mine They clambered with great fatigue among crags and
brambles and returned without having discovered any part that favoured their
design The second and the third day were spent in the same manner and with the
same frustration But on the fourth they found a small cavern concealed by a
thicket where they resolved to make their experiment
Imlac procured instruments proper to hew stone and remove earth and they
fell to their work on the next day with more eagerness than vigour They were
presently exhausted by their efforts and sat down to pant upon the grass The
prince for a moment appeared to be discouraged »Sir said his companion
practice will enable us to continue our labour for a longer time mark however
how far we have advanced and you will find that our toil will some time have an
end Great works are performed not by strength but perseverance yonder palace
was raised by single stones yet you see its height and spaciousness He that
shall walk with vigour three hours a day will pass in seven years a space equal
to the circumference of the globe«
They returned to their work day after day and in a short time found a
fissure in the rock which enabled them to pass far with very little
obstruction This Rasselas considered as a good omen »Do not disturb your mind
said Imlac with other hopes or fears than reason may suggest if you are
pleased with prognosticks of good you will be terrified likewise with tokens of
evil and your whole life will be a prey to superstition Whatever facilitates
our work is more than an omen it is a cause of success This is one of those
pleasing surprises which often happen to active resolution Many things
difficult to design prove easy to performance«
Chapter XIV
Rasselas and Imlac receive an unexpected visit
They had now wrought their way to the middle and solaced their toil with the
approach of liberty when the prince coming down to refresh himself with air
found his sister Nekayah standing before the mouth of the cavity He started and
stood confused afraid to tell his design and yet hopeless to conceal it A few
moments determined him to repose on her fidelity and secure her secrecy by a
declaration without reserve
»Do not imagine said the princess that I came hither as a spy I had long
observed from my window that you and Imlac directed your walk every day towards
the same point but I did not suppose you had any better reason for the
preference than a cooler shade or more fragrant bank nor followed you with any
other design than to partake of your conversation Since then not suspicion but
fondness has detected you let me not lose the advantage of my discovery I am
equally weary of confinement with yourself and not less desirous of knowing
what is done or suffered in the world Permit me to fly with you from this
tasteless tranquillity which will yet grow more loathsome when you have left
me You may deny me to accompany you but cannot hinder me from following«
The prince who loved Nekayah above his other sisters had no inclination to
refuse her request and grieved that he had lost an opportunity of showing his
confidence by a voluntary communication It was therefore agreed that she should
leave the valley with them and that in the mean time she should watch lest
any other straggler should by chance or curiosity follow them to the mountain
At length their labour was at an end they saw light beyond the prominence
and issuing to the top of the mountain beheld the Nile yet a narrow current
wandering beneath them
The prince looked round with rapture anticipated all the pleasures of
travel and in thought was already transported beyond his fathers dominions
Imlac though very joyful at his escape had less expectation of pleasure in the
world which he had before tried and of which he had been weary
Rasselas was so much delighted with a wider horizon that he could not soon
be persuaded to return into the valley He informed his sister that the way was
open and that nothing now remained but to prepare for their departure
Chapter XV
The prince and princess leave the valley and see many wonders
The prince and princess had jewels sufficient to make them rich whenever they
came into a place of commerce which by Imlacs direction they hid in their
cloaths and on the night of the next full moon all left the valley The
princess was followed only by a single favourite who did not know whither she
was going
They clambered through the cavity and began to go down on the other side
The princess and her maid turned their eyes towards every part and seeing
nothing to bound their prospect considered themselves as in danger of being
lost in a dreary vacuity They stopped and trembled »I am almost afraid said
the princess to begin a journey of which I cannot perceive an end and to
venture into this immense plain where I may be approached on every side by men
whom I never saw« The prince felt nearly the same emotions though he thought
it more manly to conceal them
Imlac smiled at their terrours and encouraged them to proceed but the
princess continued irresolute till she had been imperceptibly drawn forward too
far to return
In the morning they found some shepherds in the field who set milk and
fruits before them The princess wondered that she did not see a palace ready
for her reception and a table spread with delicacies but being faint and
hungry she drank the milk and eat the fruits and thought them of a higher
flavour than the products of the valley
They travelled forward by easy journeys being all unaccustomed to toil or
difficulty and knowing that though they might be missed they could not be
pursued In a few days they came into a more populous region where Imlac was
diverted with the admiration which his companions expressed at the diversity of
manners stations and employments
Their dress was such as might not bring upon them the suspicion of having
any thing to conceal yet the prince wherever he came expected to be obeyed
and the princess was frighted because those that came into her presence did not
prostrate themselves before her Imlac was forced to observe them with great
vigilance lest they should betray their rank by their unusual behaviour and
detained them several weeks in the first village to accustom them to the sight
of common mortals
By degrees the royal wanderers were taught to understand that they had for a
time laid aside their dignity and were to expect only such regard as liberality
and courtesy could procure And Imlac having by many admonitions prepared
them to endure the tumults of a port and the ruggedness of the commercial race
brought them down to the seacoast
The prince and his sister to whom every thing was new were gratified
equally at all places and therefore remained for some months at the port
without any inclination to pass further Imlac was content with their stay
because he did not think it safe to expose them unpractised in the world to
the hazards of a foreign country
At last he began to fear lest they should be discovered and proposed to fix
a day for their departure They had no pretensions to judge for themselves and
referred the whole scheme to his direction He therefore took passage in a ship
to Suez and when the time came with great difficulty prevailed on the
princess to enter the vessel They had a quick and prosperous voyage and from
Suez travelled by land to Cairo
Chapter XVI
They enter Cairo and find every man happy
As they approached the city which filled the strangers with astonishment
»This said Imlac to the prince is the place where travellers and merchants
assemble from all the corners of the earth You will here find men of every
character and every occupation Commerce is here honourable I will act as a
merchant and you shall live as strangers who have no other end of travel than
curiosity it will soon be observed that we are rich our reputation will
procure us access to all whom we shall desire to know you will see all the
conditions of humanity and enable yourself at leisure to make your choice of
life«
They now entered the town stunned by the noise and offended by the crowds
Instruction had not yet so prevailed over habit but that they wondered to see
themselves pass undistinguished along the street and met by the lowest of the
people without reverence or notice The princess could not at first bear the
thought of being levelled with the vulgar and for some days continued in her
chamber where she was served by her favourite Pekuah as in the palace of the
valley
Imlac who understood traffick sold part of the jewels the next day and
hired a house which he adorned with such magnificence that he was immediately
considered as a merchant of great wealth His politeness attracted many
acquaintance and his generosity made him courted by many dependants His table
was crowded by men of every nation who all admired his knowledge and solicited
his favour His companions not being able to mix in the conversation could
make no discovery of their ignorance or surprise and were gradually initiated
in the world as they gained knowledge of the language
The prince had by frequent lectures been taught the use and nature of
money but the ladies could not for a long time comprehend what the merchants
did with small pieces of gold and silver or why things of so little use should
be received as equivalent to the necessaries of life
They studied the language two years while Imlac was preparing to set before
them the various ranks and conditions of mankind He grew acquainted with all
who had any thing uncommon in their fortune or conduct He frequented the
voluptuous and the frugal the idle and the busy the merchants and the men of
learning
The prince being now able to converse with fluency and having learned the
caution necessary to be observed in his intercourse with strangers began to
accompany Imlac to places of resort and to enter into all assemblies that he
might make his choice of life
For some time he thought choice needless because all appeared to him
equally happy Wherever he went he met gaiety and kindness and heard the song
of joy or the laugh of carelessness He began to believe that the world
overflowed with universal plenty and that nothing was withheld either from
want or merit that every hand showered liberality and every heart melted with
benevolence »and who then says he will be suffered to be wretched«
Imlac permitted the pleasing delusion and was unwilling to crush the hope
of inexperience till one day having sat a while silent »I know not said the
prince what can be the reason that I am more unhappy than any of our friends I
see them perpetually and unalterably cheerful but feel my own mind restless and
uneasy I am unsatisfied with those pleasures which I seem most to court I live
in the crowds of jollity not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself and am
only loud and merry to conceal my sadness«
»Every man said Imlac may by examining his own mind guess what passes in
the minds of others when you feel that your own gaiety is counterfeit it may
justly lead you to suspect that of your companions not to be sincere Envy is
commonly reciprocal We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never
to be found and each believes it possessed by others to keep alive the hope of
obtaining it for himself In the assembly where you passed the last night
there appeared such spriteliness of air and volatility of fancy as might have
suited beings of an higher order formed to inhabit serener regions inaccessible
to care or sorrow yet believe me prince there was not one who did not dread
the moment when solitude should deliver him to the tyranny of reflection«
»This said the prince may be true of others since it is true of me yet
whatever be the general infelicity of man one condition is more happy than
another and wisdom surely directs us to take the least evil in the choice of
life«
»The causes of good and evil answered Imlac are so various and uncertain
so often entangled with each other so diversified by various relations and so
much subject to accidents which cannot be foreseen that he who would fix his
condition upon incontestable reasons of preference must live and die inquiring
and deliberating«
»But surely said Rasselas the wise men to whom we listen with reverence
and wonder chose that mode of life for themselves which they thought most
likely to make them happy«
»Very few said the poet live by choice Every man is placed in his present
condition by causes which acted without his foresight and with which he did not
always willingly cooperate and therefore you will rarely meet one who does not
think the lot of his neighbour better than his own«
»I am pleased to think said the prince that my birth has given me at least
one advantage over others by enabling me to determine for myself I have here
the world before me I will review it at leisure surely happiness is somewhere
to be found«
Chapter XVII
The prince associates with young men of spirit and gaiety
Rasselas rose next day and resolved to begin his experiments upon life »Youth
cried he is the time of gladness I will join myself to the young men whose
only business is to gratify their desires and whose time is all spent in a
succession of enjoyments«
To such societies he was readily admitted but a few days brought him back
weary and disgusted Their mirth was without images their laughter without
motive their pleasures were gross and sensual in which the mind had no part
their conduct was at once wild and mean they laughed at order and at law but
the frown of power dejected and the eye of wisdom abashed them
The prince soon concluded that he should never be happy in a course of life
of which he was ashamed He thought it unsuitable to a reasonable being to act
without a plan and to be sad or cheerful only by chance »Happiness said he
must be something solid and permanent without fear and without uncertainty«
But his young companions had gained so much of his regard by their frankness
and courtesy that he could not leave them without warning and remonstrance »My
friends said he I have seriously considered our manners and our prospects and
find that we have mistaken our own interest The first years of man must make
provision for the last He that never thinks never can be wise Perpetual levity
must end in ignorance and intemperance though it may fire the spirits for an
hour will make life short or miserable Let us consider that youth is of no
long duration and that in maturer age when the enchantments of fancy shall
cease and phantoms of delight dance no more about us we shall have no comforts
but the esteem of wise men and the means of doing good Let us therefore
stop while to stop is in our power let us live as men who are sometime to grow
old and to whom it will be the most dreadful of all evils not to count their
past years but by follies and to be reminded of their former luxuriance of
health only by the maladies which riot has produced«
They stared a while in silence one upon another and at last drove him
away by a general chorus of continued laughter
The consciousness that his sentiments were just and his intentions kind
was scarcely sufficient to support him against the horrour of derision But he
recovered his tranquillity and pursued his search
Chapter XVIII
The prince finds a wise and happy man
As he was one day walking in the street he saw a spacious building which all
were by the open doors invited to enter he followed the stream of people and
found it a hall or school of declamation in which professors read lectures to
their auditory He fixed his eye upon a sage raised above the rest who
discoursed with great energy on the government of the passions His look was
venerable his action graceful his pronunciation clear and his diction
elegant He showed with great strength of sentiment and variety of
illustration that human nature is degraded and debased when the lower
faculties predominate over the higher that when fancy the parent of passion
usurps the domination of the mind, nothing ensues but the natural effect of
unlawful government perturbation and confusion that she betrays the fortresses
of the intellect to rebels and excites her children to sedition against reason
their lawful sovereign He compared reason to the sun of which the light is
constant uniform and lasting and fancy to a meteor of bright but transitory
lustre irregular in its motion and delusive in its direction
He then communicated the various precepts given from time to time for the
conquest of passion and displayed the happiness of those who had obtained the
important victory after which man is no longer the slave of fear nor the fool
of hope is no more emaciated by envy inflamed by anger emasculated by
tenderness or depressed by grief but walks on calmly through the tumults or
the privacies of life as the sun pursues alike his course through the calm or
the stormy sky
He enumerated many examples of heroes immovable by pain or pleasure who
looked with indifference on those modes or accidents to which the vulgar give
the names of good and evil He exhorted his hearers to lay aside their
prejudices and arm themselves against the shafts of malice or misfortune by
invulnerable patience concluding that this state only was happiness and that
this happiness was in every ones power
Rasselas listened to him with the veneration due to the instructions of a
superiour being and waiting for him at the door humbly implored the liberty
of visiting so great a master of true wisdom The lecturer hesitated a moment
when Rasselas put a purse of gold into his hand which he received with a
mixture of joy and wonder
»I have found said the prince at his return to Imlac a man who can teach
all that is necessary to be known who from the unshaken throne of rational
fortitude looks down on the scenes of life changing beneath him He speaks and
attention watches his lips He reasons and conviction closes his periods This
man shall be my future guide I will learn his doctrines and imitate his life«
»Be not too hasty said Imlac to trust or to admire the teachers of
morality they discourse like angels but they live like men«
Rasselas who could not conceive how any man could reason so forcibly
without feeling the cogency of his own arguments paid his visit in a few days
and was denied admission He had now learned the power of money and made his
way by a piece of gold to the inner apartment where he found the philosopher in
a room half darkened with his eyes misty and his face pale »Sir said he you
are come at a time when all human friendship is useless what I suffer cannot be
remedied what I have lost cannot be supplied My daughter my only daughter
from whose tenderness I expected all the comforts of my age died last night of
a fever My views my purposes my hopes are at an end I am now a lonely being
disunited from society«
»Sir said the prince mortality is an event by which a wise man can never
be surprised we know that death is always near and it should therefore always
be expected« »Young man answered the philosopher you speak like one that has
never felt the pangs of separation« »Have you then forgot the precepts said
Rasselas which you so powerfully enforced Has wisdom no strength to arm the
heart against calamity Consider that external things are naturally variable
but truth and reason are always the same« »What comfort said the mourner can
truth and reason afford me of what effect are they now but to tell me that my
daughter will not be restored«
The prince whose humanity would not suffer him to insult misery with
reproof went away convinced of the emptiness of rhetorical sound and the
inefficacy of polished periods and studied sentences
Chapter XIX
A Glimpse of pastoral life
He was still eager upon the same inquiry and having heard of a hermit that
lived near the lowest cataract of the Nile and filled the whole country with
the fame of his sanctity resolved to visit his retreat and inquire whether
that felicity which publick life could not afford was to be found in solitude
and whether a man whose age and virtue made him venerable could teach any
peculiar art of shunning evils or enduring them
Imlac and the princess agreed to accompany him and after the necessary
preparations they began their journey Their way lay through fields where
shepherds tended their flocks and the lambs were playing upon the pasture
»This said the poet is the life which has been often celebrated for its
innocence and quiet let us pass the heat of the day among the shepherds tents
and know whether all our searches are not to terminate in pastoral simplicity«
The proposal pleased them and they induced the shepherds by small presents
and familiar questions to tell their opinion of their own state they were so
rude and ignorant so little able to compare the good with the evil of the
occupation and so indistinct in their narratives and descriptions that very
little could be learned from them But it was evident that their hearts were
cankered with discontent that they considered themselves as condemned to labour
for the luxury of the rich and looked up with stupid malevolence toward those
that were placed above them
The princess pronounced with vehemence that she would never suffer these
envious savages to be her companions and that she should not soon be desirous
of seeing any more specimens of rustick happiness but could not believe that
all the accounts of primeval pleasures were fabulous and was yet in doubt
whether life had any thing that could be justly preferred to the placid
gratifications of fields and woods She hoped that the time would come when
with a few virtuous and elegant companions she should gather flowers planted by
her own hand fondle the lambs of her own ewe and listen without care among
brooks and breezes to one of her maidens reading in the shade
Chapter XX
The danger of prosperity
On the next day they continued their journey till the heat compelled them to
look round for shelter At a small distance they saw a thick wood which they no
sooner entered than they perceived that they were approaching the habitations of
men The shrubs were diligently cut away to open walks where the shades were
darkest the boughs of opposite trees were artificially interwoven seats of
flowery turf were raised in vacant spaces and a rivulet that wantoned along
the side of a winding path had its banks sometimes opened into small basons
and its stream sometimes obstructed by little mounds of stone heaped together to
increase its murmurs
They passed slowly through the wood delighted with such unexpected
accommodations and entertained each other with conjecturing what or who he
could be that in those rude and unfrequented regions had leisure and art for
such harmless luxury
As they advanced they heard the sound of musick and saw youths and virgins
dancing in the grove and going still further beheld a stately palace built
upon a hill surrounded with woods The laws of eastern hospitality allowed them
to enter and the master welcomed them like a man liberal and wealthy
He was skilful enough in appearances soon to discern that they were no
common guests and spread his table with magnificence The eloquence of Imlac
caught his attention and the lofty courtesy of the princess excited his
respect When they offered to depart he entreated their stay and was the next
day still more unwilling to dismiss them than before They were easily persuaded
to stop and civility grew up in time to freedom and confidence
The prince now saw all the domesticks cheerful and all the face of nature
smiling round the place and could not forbear to hope that he should find here
what he was seeking but when he was congratulating the master upon his
possessions he answered with a sigh »My condition has indeed the appearance of
happiness but appearances are delusive My prosperity puts my life in danger
the Bassa of Egypt is my enemy incensed only by my wealth and popularity I
have been hitherto protected against him by the princes of the country but as
the favour of the great is uncertain I know not how soon my defenders may be
persuaded to share the plunder with the Bassa I have sent my treasures into a
distant country and upon the first alarm am prepared to follow them Then
will my enemies riot in my mansion and enjoy the gardens which I have planted«
They all joined in lamenting his danger and deprecating his exile and the
princess was so much disturbed with the tumult of grief and indignation that
she retired to her apartment They continued with their kind inviter a few days
longer and then went forward to find the hermit
Chapter XXI
The happiness of solitude The hermits history
They came on the third day by the direction of the peasants to the hermits
cell it was a cavern in the side of a mountain overshadowed with palmtrees
at such a distance from the cataract that nothing more was heard than a gentle
uniform murmur such as composed the mind to pensive meditation especially when
it was assisted by the wind whistling among the branches The first rude essay
of nature had been so much improved by human labour that the cave contained
several apartments appropriated to different uses and often afforded lodging
to travellers whom darkness or tempests happened to overtake
The hermit sat on a bench at the door to enjoy the coolness of the evening
On one side lay a book with pens and papers on the other mechanical instruments
of various kinds As they approached him unregarded the princess observed that
he had not the countenance of a man that had found or could teach the way to
happiness
They saluted him with great respect which he repaid like a man not
unaccustomed to the forms of courts »My children said he if you have lost
your way you shall be willingly supplied with such conveniencies for the night
as this cavern will afford I have all that nature requires and you will not
expect delicacies in a hermits cell«
They thanked him and entering were pleased with the neatness and
regularity of the place The hermit set flesh and wine before them though he
fed only upon fruits and water His discourse was cheerful without levity and
pious without enthusiasm He soon gained the esteem of his guests and the
princess repented of her hasty censure
At last Imlac began thus »I do not now wonder that your reputation is so
far extended we have heard at Cairo of your wisdom and came hither to implore
your direction for this young man and maiden in the choice of life«
»To him that lives well answered the hermit every form of life is good
nor can I give any other rule for choice than to remove from all apparent
evil«
»He will remove most certainly from evil said the prince who shall devote
himself to that solitude which you have recommended by your example«
»I have indeed lived fifteen years in solitude said the hermit but have no
desire that my example should gain any imitators In my youth I professed arms
and was raised by degrees to the highest military rank I have traversed wide
countries at the head of my troops and seen many battles and sieges At last
being disgusted by the preferment of a younger officer and feeling that my
vigour was beginning to decay I resolved to close my life in peace having
found the world full of snares discord and misery I had once escaped from the
pursuit of the enemy by the shelter of this cavern and therefore chose it for
my final residence I employed artificers to form it into chambers and stored
it with all that I was likely to want
For some time after my retreat I rejoiced like a tempestbeaten sailor at
his entrance into the harbour being delighted with the sudden change of the
noise and hurry of war to stillness and repose When the pleasure of novelty
went away I employed my hours in examining the plants which grow in the valley
and the minerals which I collected from the rocks But that inquiry is now grown
tasteless and irksome I have been for some time unsettled and distracted my
mind is disturbed with a thousand perplexities of doubt and vanities of
imagination which hourly prevail upon me because I have no opportunities of
relaxation or diversion I am sometimes ashamed to think that I could not secure
myself from vice but by retiring from the exercise of virtue and begin to
suspect that I was rather impelled by resentment than led by devotion into
solitude My fancy riots in scenes of folly and I lament that I have lost so
much and have gained so little In solitude if I escape the example of bad
men I want likewise the counsel and conversation of the good I have been long
comparing the evils with the advantages of society and resolve to return into
the world to morrow The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable but
not certainly devout«
They heard his resolution with surprise but after a short pause offered
to conduct him to Cairo He dug up a considerable treasure which he had hid
among the rocks and accompanied them to the city on which as he approached
it he gazed with rapture
Chapter XXII
The happiness of a life led according to nature
Rasselas went often to an assembly of learned men who met at stated times to
unbend their minds and compare their opinions Their manners were somewhat
coarse but their conversation was instructive and their disputations acute
though sometimes too violent and often continued till neither controvertist
remembered upon what question they began Some faults were almost general among
them every one was desirous to dictate to the rest and every one was pleased
to hear the genius or knowledge of another depreciated
In this assembly Rasselas was relating his interview with the hermit and
the wonder with which he heard him censure a course of life which he had so
deliberately chosen and so laudably followed The sentiments of the hearers
were various Some were of opinion that the folly of his choice had been justly
punished by condemnation to perpetual perseverance One of the youngest among
them with great vehemence pronounced him an hypocrite Some talked of the
right of society to the labour of individuals and considered retirement as a
desertion of duty Others readily allowed that there was a time when the claims
of the publick were satisfied and when a man might properly sequester himself
to review his life and purify his heart
One who appeared more affected with the narrative than the rest thought it
likely that the hermit would in a few years go back to his retreat and
perhaps if shame did not restrain or death intercept him return once more
from his retreat into the world »For the hope of happiness said he is so
strongly impressed that the longest experience is not able to efface it Of the
present state whatever it be we feel and are forced to confess the misery
yet when the same state is again at a distance imagination paints it as
desirable But the time will surely come when desire will be no longer our
torment and no man shall be wretched but by his own fault«
»This said a philosopher who had heard him with tokens of great
impatience is the present condition of a wise man The time is already come
when none are wretched but by their own fault Nothing is more idle than to
inquire after happiness which nature has kindly placed within our reach The
way to be happy is to live according to nature in obedience to that universal
and unalterable law with which every heart is originally impressed which is not
written on it by precept but engraven by destiny not instilled by education
but infused at our nativity He that lives according to nature will suffer
nothing from the delusions of hope or importunities of desire he will receive
and reject with equability of temper and act or suffer as the reason of things
shall alternately prescribe Other men may amuse themselves with subtle
definitions or intricate raciocination Let them learn to be wise by easier
means let them observe the hind of the forest and the linnet of the grove let
them consider the life of animals whose motions are regulated by instinct they
obey their guide and are happy Let us therefore at length cease to dispute
and learn to live throw away the incumbrance of precepts which they who utter
them with so much pride and pomp do not understand and carry with us this
simple and intelligible maxim That deviation from nature is deviation from
happiness«
When he had spoken he looked round him with a placid air and enjoyed the
consciousness of his own beneficence »Sir said the prince with great modesty
as I like all the rest of mankind am desirous of felicity my closest
attention has been fixed upon your discourse I doubt not the truth of a
position which a man so learned has so confidently advanced Let me only know
what it is to live according to nature«
»When I find young men so humble and so docile said the philosopher I can
deny them no information which my studies have enabled me to afford To live
according to nature is to act always with due regard to the fitness arising
from the relations and qualities of causes and effects to concur with the great
and unchangeable scheme of universal felicity to cooperate with the general
disposition and tendency of the present system of things«
The prince soon found that this was one of the sages whom he should
understand less as he heard him longer He therefore bowed and was silent and
the philosopher supposing him satisfied and the rest vanquished rose up and
departed with the air of a man that had cooperated with the present system
Chapter XXIII
The prince and his sister divide between them the work of observation
Rasselas returned home full of reflexions doubtful how to direct his future
steps Of the way to happiness he found the learned and simple equally ignorant
but as he was yet young he flattered himself that he had time remaining for
more experiments and further inquiries He communicated to Imlac his
observations and his doubts but was answered by him with new doubts and
remarks that gave him no comfort He therefore discoursed more frequently and
freely with his sister who had yet the same hope with himself and always
assisted him to give some reason why though he had been hitherto frustrated he
might succeed at last
»We have hitherto said she known but little of the world we have never
yet been either great or mean In our own country though we had royalty we had
no power and in this we have not yet seen the private recesses of domestick
peace Imlac favours not our search lest we should in time find him mistaken
We will divide the task between us you shall try what is to be found in the
splendour of courts and I will range the shades of humbler life Perhaps
command and authority may be the supreme blessings as they afford most
opportunities of doing good or perhaps what this world can give may be found
in the modest habitations of middle fortune too low for great designs and too
high for penury and distress«
Chapter XXIV
The prince examines the happiness of high stations
Rasselas applauded the design and appeared next day with a splendid retinue at
the court of the Bassa He was soon distinguished for his magnificence and
admitted as a prince whose curiosity had brought him from distant countries to
an intimacy with the great officers and frequent conversation with the Bassa
himself
He was at first inclined to believe that the man must be pleased with his
own condition whom all approached with reverence and heard with obedience and
who had the power to extend his edicts to a whole kingdom »There can be no
pleasure said he equal to that of feeling at once the joy of thousands all
made happy by wise administration Yet since by the law of subordination this
sublime delight can be in one nation but the lot of one it is surely reasonable
to think that there is some satisfaction more popular and accessible and that
millions can hardly be subjected to the will of a single man only to fill his
particular breast with incommunicable content«
These thoughts were often in his mind and he found no solution of the
difficulty But as presents and civilities gained him more familiarity he found
that almost every man who stood high in employment hated all the rest and was
hated by them and that their lives were a continual succession of plots and
detections stratagems and escapes faction and treachery Many of those who
surrounded the Bassa were sent only to watch and report his conduct every
tongue was muttering censure and every eye was searching for a fault
At last the letters of revocation arrived the Bassa was carried in chains
to Constantinople and his name was mentioned no more
»What are we now to think of the prerogatives of power said Rasselas to his
sister is it without any efficacy to good or is the subordinate degree only
dangerous and the supreme safe and glorious Is the Sultan the only happy man
in his dominions or is the Sultan himself subject to the torments of
suspicion and the dread of enemies«
In a short time the second Bassa was deposed The Sultan that had advanced
him was murdered by the Janisaries and his successor had other views and
different favourites
Chapter XXV
The princess pursues her inquiry with more diligence than success
The princess in the mean time insinuated herself into many families for there
are few doors through which liberality joined with good humour cannot find
its way The daughters of many houses were airy and cheerful but Nekayah had
been too long accustomed to the conversation of Imlac and her brother to be much
pleased with childish levity and prattle which had no meaning She found their
thoughts narrow their wishes low and their merriment often artificial Their
pleasures poor as they were could not be preserved pure but were embittered
by petty competitions and worthless emulation They were always jealous of the
beauty of each other of a quality to which solicitude can add nothing and from
which detraction can take nothing away Many were in love with triflers like
themselves and many fancied that they were in love when in truth they were only
idle Their affection was seldom fixed on sense or virtue and therefore seldom
ended but in vexation Their grief however like their joy was transient
every thing floated in their mind unconnected with the past or future so that
one desire easily gave way to another as a second stone cast into the water
effaces and confounds the circles of the first
With these girls she played as with inoffensive animals and found them
proud of her countenance and weary of her company But her purpose was to
examine more deeply and her affability easily persuaded the hearts that were
swelling with sorrow to discharge their secrets in her ear and those whom hope
flattered or prosperity delighted often courted her to partake their
pleasures
The princess and her brother commonly met in the evening in a private
summerhouse on the bank of the Nile and related to each other the occurrences
of the day As they were sitting together the princess cast her eyes upon the
river that flowed before her »Answer said she great father of waters thou
that rollest thy floods through eighty nations to the invocations of the
daughter of thy native king Tell me if thou waterest through all thy course a
single habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmurs of complaint«
»You are then said Rasselas not more successful in private houses than I
have been in courts« »I have since the last partition of our provinces said
the princess enabled myself to enter familiarly into many families where there
was the fairest show of prosperity and peace and know not one house that is not
haunted by some fury that destroys its quiet
I did not seek ease among the poor because I concluded that there it could
not be found But I saw many poor whom I had supposed to live in affluence
Poverty has in large cities very different appearances it is often concealed
in splendour and often in extravagance It is the care of a very great part of
mankind to conceal their indigence from the rest they support themselves by
temporary expedients and every day is lost in contriving for the morrow
This however was an evil which though frequent I saw with less pain
because I could relieve it Yet some have refused my bounties more offended
with my quickness to detect their wants than pleased with my readiness to
succour them and others whose exigencies compelled them to admit my kindness
have never been able to forgive their benefactress Many however have been
sincerely grateful without the ostentation of gratitude or the hope of other
favours«
Chapter XXVI
The princess continues her remarks upon private life
Nekayah perceiving her brothers attention fixed proceeded in her narrative
»In families where there is or is not poverty there is commonly discord
if a kingdom be as Imlac tells us a great family a family likewise is a
little kingdom torn with factions and exposed to revolutions An unpractised
observer expects the love of parents and children to be constant and equal but
this kindness seldom continues beyond the years of infancy in a short time the
children become rivals to their parents Benefits are allayed by reproaches and
gratitude debased by envy
Parents and children seldom act in concert each child endeavours to
appropriate the esteem or fondness of the parents and the parents with yet
less temptation betray each other to their children thus some place their
confidence in the father and some in the mother and by degrees the house is
filled with artifices and feuds
The opinions of children and parents of the young and the old are
naturally opposite by the contrary effects of hope and despondence of
expectation and experience without crime or folly on either side The colours
of life in youth and age appear different as the face of nature in spring and
winter And how can children credit the assertions of parents which their own
eyes show them to be false Few parents act in such a manner as much to enforce
their maxims by the credit of their lives The old man trusts wholly to slow
contrivance and gradual progression the youth expects to force his way by
genius vigour and precipitance The old man pays regard to riches and the
youth reverences virtue The old man deifies prudence the youth commits himself
to magnanimity and chance The young man who intends no ill believes that none
is intended and therefore acts with openness and candour but his father
having suffered the injuries of fraud is impelled to suspect and too often
allured to practise it Age looks with anger on the temerity of youth and youth
with contempt on the scrupulosity of age Thus parents and children for the
greatest part live on to love less and less and if those whom nature has thus
closely united are the torments of each other where shall we look for
tenderness and consolation«
»Surely said the prince you must have been unfortunate in your choice of
acquaintance I am unwilling to believe that the most tender of all relations
is thus impeded in its effects by natural necessity«
»Domestick discord answered she is not inevitably and fatally necessary
but yet is not easily avoided We seldom see that a whole family is virtuous
the good and evil cannot well agree and the evil can yet less agree with one
another even the virtuous fall sometimes to variance when their virtues are of
different kinds and tending to extremes In general those parents have most
reverence who most deserve it for he that lives well cannot be despised
Many other evils infest private life Some are the slaves of servants whom
they have trusted with their affairs Some are kept in continual anxiety to the
caprice of rich relations whom they cannot please and dare not offend Some
husbands are imperious and some wives perverse and as it is always more easy
to do evil than good though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make
many happy the folly or vice of one may often make many miserable«
»If such be the general effect of marriage said the prince I shall for
the future think it dangerous to connect my interest with that of another lest
I should be unhappy by my partners fault«
»I have met said the princess with many who live single for that reason
but I never found that their prudence ought to raise envy They dream away their
time without friendship without fondness and are driven to rid themselves of
the day for which they have no use by childish amusements or vicious
delights They act as beings under the constant sense of some known inferiority
that fills their minds with rancour and their tongues with censure They are
peevish at home and malevolent abroad and as the outlaws of human nature
make it their business and their pleasure to disturb that society which debars
them from its privileges To live without feeling or exciting sympathy to be
fortunate without adding to the felicity of others or afflicted without tasting
the balm of pity is a state more gloomy than solitude it is not retreat but
exclusion from mankind Marriage has many pains but celibacy has no pleasures«
»What then is to be done said Rasselas the more we inquire the less we
can resolve Surely he is most likely to please himself that has no other
inclination to regard«
Chapter XXVII
Disquisition upon greatness
The conversation had a short pause The prince having considered his sisters
observations told her that she had surveyed life with prejudice and supposed
misery where she did not find it »Your narrative says he throws yet a darker
gloom upon the prospects of futurity the predictions of Imlac were but faint
sketches of the evils painted by Nekayah I have been lately convinced that
quiet is not the daughter of grandeur or of power that her presence is not to
be bought by wealth nor enforced by conquest It is evident, that as any man
acts in a wider compass he must be more exposed to opposition from enmity or
miscarriage from chance whoever has many to please or to govern must use the
ministry of many agents some of whom will be wicked and some ignorant by some
he will be misled and by others betrayed If he gratifies one he will offend
another those that are not favoured will think themselves injured and since
favours can be conferred but upon few the greater number will be always
discontented«
»The discontent said the princess which is thus unreasonable I hope that
I shall always have spirit to despise and you power to repress«
»Discontent answered Rasselas will not always be without reason under the
most just or vigilant administration of publick affairs None however
attentive can always discover that merit which indigence or faction may happen
to obscure and none however powerful can always reward it Yet he that sees
inferiour desert advanced above him will naturally impute that preference to
partiality or caprice and indeed it can scarcely be hoped that any man
however magnanimous by nature or exalted by condition will be able to persist
for ever in fixed and inexorable justice of distribution he will sometimes
indulge his own affections and sometimes those of his favourites he will
permit some to please him who can never serve him he will discover in those
whom he loves qualities which in reality they do not possess and to those from
whom he receives pleasure he will in his turn endeavour to give it Thus will
recommendations sometimes prevail which were purchased by money or by the more
destructive bribery of flattery and servility
He that has much to do will do something wrong and of that wrong must
suffer the consequences and if it were possible that he should always act
rightly yet when such numbers are to judge of his conduct the bad will censure
and obstruct him by malevolence and the good sometimes by mistake
The highest stations cannot therefore hope to be the abodes of happiness
which I would willingly believe to have fled from thrones and palaces to seats
of humble privacy and placid obscurity For what can hinder the satisfaction or
intercept the expectations of him whose abilities are adequate to his
employments who sees with his own eyes the whole circuit of his influence who
chooses by his own knowledge all whom he trusts and whom none are tempted to
deceive by hope or fear Surely he has nothing to do but to love and to be
loved to be virtuous and to be happy«
»Whether perfect happiness would be procured by perfect goodness said
Nekayah this world will never afford an opportunity of deciding But this at
least may be maintained that we do not always find visible happiness in
proportion to visible virtue All natural and almost all political evils are
incident alike to the bad and good they are confounded in the misery of a
famine and not much distinguished in the fury of a faction they sink together
in a tempest and are driven together from their country by invaders All that
virtue can afford is quietness of conscience a steady prospect of a happier
state this may enable us to endure calamity with patience but remember that
patience must suppose pain«
Chapter XXVIII
Rasselas and Nekayah continue their conversation
»Dear princess said Rasselas you fall into the common errours of exaggeratory
declamation by producing in a familiar disquisition examples of national
calamities and scenes of extensive misery which are found in books rather than
in the world and which as they are horrid are ordained to be rare Let us not
imagine evils which we do not feel nor injure life by misrepresentations I
cannot bear that querulous eloquence which threatens every city with a siege
like that of Jerusalem that makes famine attend on every flight of locusts and
suspends pestilence on the wing of every blast that issues from the south
On necessary and inevitable evils which overwhelm kingdoms at once all
disputation is vain when they happen they must be endured But it is evident,
that these bursts of universal distress are more dreaded than felt thousands
and ten thousands flourish in youth and wither in age without the knowledge of
any other than domestick evils and share the same pleasures and vexations
whether their kings are mild or cruel whether the armies of their country
pursue their enemies or retreat before them While courts are disturbed with
intestine competitions and ambassadours are negotiating in foreign countries
the smith still plies his anvil and the husbandman drives his plow forward the
necessaries of life are required and obtained and the successive business of
the seasons continues to make its wonted revolutions
Let us cease to consider what perhaps may never happen and what when it
shall happen will laugh at human speculation We will not endeavour to modify
the motions of the elements or to fix the destiny of kingdoms It is our
business to consider what beings like us may perform each labouring for his own
happiness by promoting within his circle however narrow the happiness of
others
Marriage is evidently the dictate of nature men and women were made to be
companions of each other and therefore I cannot be persuaded but that marriage
is one of the means of happiness«
»I know not said the princess whether marriage be more than one of the
innumerable modes of human misery When I see and reckon the various forms of
connubial infelicity the unexpected causes of lasting discord the diversities
of temper the oppositions of opinion the rude collisions of contrary desire
where both are urged by violent impulses the obstinate contests of disagreeing
virtues where both are supported by consciousness of good intention I am
sometimes disposed to think with the severer casuists of most nations that
marriage is rather permitted than approved and that none but by the
instigation of a passion too much indulged entangle themselves with
indissoluble compacts«
»You seem to forget replied Rasselas that you have even now represented
celibacy as less happy than marriage Both conditions may be bad but they
cannot both be worst Thus it happens when wrong opinions are entertained that
they mutually destroy each other and leave the mind open to truth«
»I did not expect answered the princess to hear that imputed to falsehood
which is the consequence only of frailty To the mind as to the eye it is
difficult to compare with exactness objects vast in their extent and various in
their parts Where we see or conceive the whole at once we readily note the
discriminations and decide the preference but of two systems of which neither
can be surveyed by any human being in its full compass of magnitude and
multiplicity of complication where is the wonder that judging of the whole by
parts I am alternately affected by one and the other as either presses on my
memory or fancy We differ from ourselves just as we differ from each other
when we see only part of the question as in the multifarious relations of
politicks and morality but when we perceive the whole at once as in numerical
computations all agree in one judgment and none ever varies his opinion«
»Let us not add said the prince to the other evils of life the bitterness
of controversy nor endeavour to vie with each other in subtilties of argument
We are employed in a search of which both are equally to enjoy the success or
suffer by the miscarriage It is therefore fit that we assist each other You
surely conclude too hastily from the infelicity of marriage against its
institution will not the misery of life prove equally that life cannot be the
gift of heaven The world must be peopled by marriage or peopled without it«
»How the world is to be peopled returned Nekayah is not my care and needs
not be yours I see no danger that the present generation should omit to leave
successors behind them we are not now inquiring for the world but for
ourselves«
Chapter XXIX
The debate on marriage continued
»The good of the whole says Rasselas is the same with the good of all its
parts If marriage be best for mankind it must be evidently best for
individuals or a permanent and necessary duty must be the cause of evil and
some must be inevitably sacrificed to the convenience of others In the estimate
which you have made of the two states it appears that the incommodities of a
single life are in a great measure necessary and certain but those of the
conjugal state accidental and avoidable
I cannot forbear to flatter myself that prudence and benevolence will make
marriage happy The general folly of mankind is the cause of general complaint
What can be expected but disappointment and repentance from a choice made in the
immaturity of youth in the ardour of desire without judgment without
foresight without inquiry after conformity of opinions similarity of manners
rectitude of judgment or purity of sentiment
Such is the common process of marriage A youth and maiden meeting by
chance or brought together by artifice exchange glances reciprocate
civilities go home and dream of one another Having little to divert
attention or diversify thought they find themselves uneasy when they are
apart and therefore conclude that they shall be happy together They marry and
discover what nothing but voluntary blindness had before concealed they wear
out life in altercations and charge nature with cruelty
From those early marriages proceeds likewise the rivalry of parents and
children the son is eager to enjoy the world before the father is willing to
forsake it and there is hardly room at once for two generations The daughter
begins to bloom before the mother can be content to fade and neither can
forbear to wish for the absence of the other
Surely all these evils may be avoided by that deliberation and delay which
prudence prescribes to irrevocable choice In the variety and jollity of
youthful pleasures life may be well enough supported without the help of a
partner Longer time will increase experience and wider views will allow better
opportunities of inquiry and selection one advantage at least will be
certain the parents will be visibly older than their children«
»What reason cannot collect said Nekayah and what experiment has not yet
taught can be known only from the report of others I have been told that late
marriages are not eminently happy This is a question too important to be
neglected and I have often proposed it to those whose accuracy of remark and
comprehensiveness of knowledge made their suffrages worthy of regard They have
generally determined that it is dangerous for a man and woman to suspend their
fate upon each other at a time when opinions are fixed and habits are
established when friendships have been contracted on both sides when life has
been planned into method and the mind has long enjoyed the contemplation of its
own prospects
It is scarcely possible that two travelling through the world under the
conduct of chance should have been both directed to the same path and it will
not often happen that either will quit the track which custom has made pleasing
When the desultory levity of youth has settled into regularity it is soon
succeeded by pride ashamed to yield or obstinacy delighting to contend And
even though mutual esteem produces mutual desire to please time itself as it
modifies unchangeably the external mien determines likewise the direction of
the passions and gives an inflexible rigidity to the manners Long customs are
not easily broken he that attempts to change the course of his own life very
often labours in vain and how shall we do that for others which we are seldom
able to do for ourselves« »But surely interposed the prince you suppose the
chief motive of choice forgotten or neglected Whenever I shall seek a wife it
shall be my first question whether she be willing to be led by reason«
»Thus it is said Nekayah that philosophers are deceived There are a
thousand familiar disputes which reason never can decide questions that elude
investigation and make logick ridiculous cases where something must be done
and where little can be said Consider the state of mankind and inquire how few
can be supposed to act upon any occasions whether small or great with all the
reasons of action present to their minds Wretched would be the pair above all
names of wretchedness who should be doomed to adjust by reason every morning
all the minute detail of a domestick day
Those who marry at an advanced age will probably escape the encroachments
of their children but in diminution of this advantage they will be likely to
leave them ignorant and helpless to a guardians mercy or if that should not
happen they must at least go out of the world before they see those whom they
love best either wise or great
From their children if they have less to fear they have less also to hope
and they lose without equivalent the joys of early love and the convenience
of uniting with manners pliant and minds susceptible of new impressions which
might wear away their dissimilitudes by long cohabitation as soft bodies by
continual attrition conform their surfaces to each other
I believe it will be found that those who marry late are best pleased with
their children and those who marry early with their partners«
»The union of these two affections said Rasselas would produce all that
could be wished Perhaps there is a time when marriage might unite them a time
neither too early for the father nor too late for the husband«
»Every hour answered the princess confirms my prejudice in favour of the
position so often uttered by the mouth of Imlac That nature sets her gifts on
the right hand and on the left Those conditions which flatter hope and attract
desire are so constituted that as we approach one we recede from another
There are goods so opposed that we cannot seize both but by too much prudence
may pass between them at too great a distance to reach either This is often the
fate of long consideration he does nothing who endeavours to do more than is
allowed to humanity Flatter not yourself with contrarieties of pleasure Of the
blessings set before you make your choice and be content No man can taste the
fruits of autumn while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the
spring no man can at the same time fill his cup from the source and from the
mouth of the Nile«
Chapter XXX
Imlac enters and changes the conversation
Here Imlac entered and interrupted them »Imlac said Rasselas I have been
taking from the princess the dismal history of private life and am almost
discouraged from further search«
»It seems to me said Imlac that while you are making the choice of life
you neglect to live You wander about a single city which however large and
diversified can now afford few novelties and forget that you are in a country
famous among the earliest monarchies for the power and wisdom of its
inhabitants a country where the sciences first dawned that illuminate the
world and beyond which the arts cannot be traced of civil society or domestick
life
The old Egyptians have left behind them monuments of industry and power
before which all European magnificence is confessed to fade away The ruins of
their architecture are the schools of modern builders and from the wonders
which time has spared we may conjecture though uncertainly what it has
destroyed« »My curiosity said Rasselas does not very strongly lead me to
survey piles of stone or mounds of earth my business is with man I came
hither not to measure fragments of temples or trace choaked aqueducts but to
look upon the various scenes of the present world«
»The things that are now before us said the princess require attention
and deserve it What have I to do with the heroes or the monuments of ancient
times with times which never can return and heroes whose form of life was
different from all that the present condition of mankind requires or allows«
»To know any thing returned the poet we must know its effects to see men
we must see their works that we may learn what reason has dictated or passion
has incited and find what are the most powerful motives of action To judge
rightly of the present we must oppose it to the past for all judgment is
comparative and of the future nothing can be known The truth is that no mind
is much employed upon the present recollection and anticipation fill up almost
all our moments Our passions are joy and grief love and hatred hope and fear
Of joy and grief the past is the object and the future of hope and fear even
love and hatred respect the past for the cause must have been before the
effect
The present state of things is the consequence of the former and it is
natural to inquire what were the sources of the good that we enjoy or of the
evil that we suffer If we act only for ourselves to neglect the study of
history is not prudent if we are entrusted with the care of others it is not
just Ignorance when it is voluntary is criminal and he may properly be
charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it
There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates the
progress of the human mind the gradual improvement of reason the successive
advances of science the vicissitudes of learning and ignorance which are the
light and darkness of thinking beings the extinction and resuscitation of arts
and all the revolutions of the intellectual world If accounts of battles and
invasions are peculiarly the business of princes the useful or elegant arts are
not to be neglected those who have kingdoms to govern have understandings to
cultivate
Example is always more efficacious than precept A soldier is formed in war
and a painter must copy pictures In this contemplative life has the advantage
great actions are seldom seen but the labours of art are always at hand for
those who desire to know what art has been able to perform
When the eye or the imagination is struck with any uncommon work the next
transition of an active mind is to the means by which it was performed Here
begins the true use of such contemplation we enlarge our comprehension by new
ideas and perhaps recover some art lost to mankind or learn what is less
perfectly known in our own country At least we compare our own with former
times and either rejoice at our improvements or what is the first motion
towards good discover our defects«
»I am willing said the prince to see all that can deserve my search« »And
I said the princess shall rejoice to learn something of the manners of
antiquity«
»The most pompous monument of Egyptian greatness and one of the most bulky
works of manual industry said Imlac are the pyramids fabricks raised before
the time of history and of which the earliest narratives afford us only
uncertain traditions Of these the greatest is still standing very little
injured by time«
»Let us visit them to morrow said Nekayah I have often heard of the
pyramids and shall not rest till I have seen them within and without with my
own eyes«
Chapter XXXI
They visit the pyramids
The resolution being thus taken they set out the next day They laid tents upon
their camels being resolved to stay among the pyramids till their curiosity was
fully satisfied They travelled gently turned aside to every thing remarkable
stopped from time to time and conversed with the inhabitants and observed the
various appearances of towns ruined and inhabited of wild and cultivated
nature
When they came to the great pyramid they were astonished at the extent of
the base and the height of the top Imlac explained to them the principles upon
which the pyramidal form was chosen for a fabrick intended to coextend its
duration with that of the world he showed that its gradual diminution gave it
such stability as defeated all the common attacks of the elements and could
scarcely be overthrown by earthquakes themselves the least resistible of
natural violence A concussion that should shatter the pyramid would threaten
the dissolution of the continent
They measured all its dimensions and pitched their tents at its foot Next
day they prepared to enter its interiour apartments and having hired the common
guides climbed up to the first passage when the favourite of the princess
looking into the cavity stepped back and trembled »Pekuah said the princess
of what art thou afraid« »Of the narrow entrance answered the lady and of the
dreadful gloom I dare not enter a place which must surely be inhabited by
unquiet souls The original possessors of these dreadful vaults will start up
before us and perhaps shut us in for ever« She spoke and threw her arms
round the neck of her mistress
»If all your fear be of apparitions said the prince I will promise you
safety there is no danger from the dead he that is once buried will be seen no
more«
»That the dead are seen no more said Imlac I will not undertake to
maintain against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all ages and of all
nations There is no people rude or learned among whom apparitions of the dead
are not related and believed This opinion which perhaps prevails as far as
human nature is diffused could become universal only by its truth those that
never heard of one another would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but
experience can make credible That it is doubted by single cavillers can very
little weaken the general evidence and some who deny it with their tongues
confess it by their fears
Yet I do not mean to add new terrours to those which have already seized
upon Pekuah There can be no reason why spectres should haunt the pyramid more
than other places or why they should have power or will to hurt innocence and
purity Our entrance is no violation of their privileges we can take nothing
from them how then can we offend them«
»My dear Pekuah said the princess I will always go before you and Imlac
shall follow you Remember that you are the companion of the princess of
Abissinia«
»If the princess is pleased that her servant should die returned the lady
let her command some death less dreadful than enclosure in this horrid cavern
You know I dare not disobey you I must go if you command me but if I once
enter I never shall come back«
The princess saw that her fear was too strong for expostulation or reproof
and embracing her told her that she should stay in the tent till their return
Pekuah was yet not satisfied but entreated the princess not to pursue so
dreadful a purpose as that of entering the recesses of the pyramid »Though I
cannot teach courage said Nekayah I must not learn cowardice nor leave at
last undone what I came hither only to do«
Chapter XXXII
They enter the pyramid
Pekuah descended to the tents and the rest entered the pyramid they passed
through the galleries surveyed the vaults of marble and examined the chest in
which the body of the founder is supposed to have been reposited They then sat
down in one of the most spacious chambers to rest a while before they attempted
to return
»We have now said Imlac gratified our minds with an exact view of the
greatest work of man except the wall of China
Of the wall it is very easy to assign the motives It secured a wealthy and
timorous nation from the incursions of Barbarians whose unskilfulness in arts
made it easier for them to supply their wants by rapine than by industry and
who from time to time poured in upon the habitations of peaceful commerce as
vultures descend upon domestick fowl Their celerity and fierceness made the
wall necessary and their ignorance made it efficacious
But for the pyramids no reason has ever been given adequate to the cost and
labour of the work The narrowness of the chambers proves that it could afford
no retreat from enemies and treasures might have been reposited at far less
expence with equal security It seems to have been erected only in compliance
with that hunger of imagination which preys incessantly upon life and must be
always appeased by some employment Those who have already all that they can
enjoy must enlarge their desires He that has built for use till use is
supplied must begin to build for vanity and extend his plan to the utmost
power of human performance that he may not be soon reduced to form another
wish
I consider this mighty structure as a monument of the insufficiency of human
enjoyments A king whose power is unlimited and whose treasures surmount all
real and imaginary wants is compelled to solace by the erection of a pyramid
the satiety of dominion and tastelessness of pleasures and to amuse the
tediousness of declining life by seeing thousands labouring without end and
one stone for no purpose laid upon another Whoever thou art that not
content with a moderate condition imaginest happiness in royal magnificence
and dreamest that command or riches can feed the appetite of novelty with
perpetual gratifications survey the pyramids and confess thy folly«
Chapter XXXIII
The princess meets with an unexpected misfortune
They rose up and returned through the cavity at which they had entered and the
princess prepared for her favourite a long narrative of dark labyrinths and
costly rooms and of the different impressions which the varieties of the way
had made upon her But when they came to their train they found every one
silent and dejected the men discovered shame and fear in their countenances
and the women were weeping in the tents
What had happened they did not try to conjecture but immediately inquired
»You had scarcely entered into the pyramid said one of the attendants when a
troop of Arabs rushed upon us we were too few to resist them and too slow to
escape They were about to search the tents set us on our camels and drive us
along before them when the approach of some Turkish horsemen put them to
flight but they seized the lady Pekuah with her two maids and carried them
away the Turks are now pursuing them by our instigation but I fear they will
not be able to overtake them«
The princess was overpowered with surprise and grief Rasselas in the first
heat of his resentment ordered his servants to follow him and prepared to
pursue the robbers with his sabre in his hand »Sir said Imlac what can you
hope from violence or valour The Arabs are mounted on horses trained to battle
and retreat we have only beasts of burthen By leaving our present station we
may lose the princess but cannot hope to regain Pekuah«
In a short time the Turks returned having not been able to reach the enemy
The princess burst out into new lamentations and Rasselas could scarcely
forbear to reproach them with cowardice but Imlac was of opinion that the
escape of the Arabs was no addition to their misfortune for perhaps they
would have killed their captives rather than have resigned them
Chapter XXXIV
They return to Cairo without Pekuah
There was nothing to be hoped from longer stay They returned to Cairo repenting
of their curiosity censuring the negligence of the government lamenting their
own rashness which had neglected to procure a guard imagining many expedients
by which the loss of Pekuah might have been prevented and resolving to do
something for her recovery though none could find any thing proper to be done
Nekayah retired to her chamber where her women attempted to comfort her by
telling her that all had their troubles and that lady Pekuah had enjoyed much
happiness in the world for a long time and might reasonably expect a change of
fortune They hoped that some good would befall her wheresoever she was and
that their mistress would find another friend who might supply her place
The princess made them no answer and they continued the form of condolence
not much grieved in their hearts that the favourite was lost
Next day the prince presented to the Bassa a memorial of the wrong which he
had suffered and a petition for redress The Bassa threatened to punish the
robbers but did not attempt to catch them nor indeed could any account or
description be given by which he might direct the pursuit
It soon appeared that nothing would be done by authority Governors being
accustomed to hear of more crimes than they can punish and more wrongs than
they can redress set themselves at ease by indiscriminate negligence and
presently forget the request when they lose sight of the petitioner
Imlac then endeavoured to gain some intelligence by private agents He found
many who pretended to an exact knowledge of all the haunts of the Arabs and to
regular correspondence with their chiefs and who readily undertook the recovery
of Pekuah Of these some were furnished with money for their journey and came
back no more some were liberally paid for accounts which a few days discovered
to be false But the princess would not suffer any means however improbable to
be left untried While she was doing something she kept her hope alive As one
expedient failed another was suggested when one messenger returned
unsuccessful another was dispatched to a different quarter
Two months had now passed and of Pekuah nothing had been heard the hopes
which they had endeavoured to raise in each other grew more languid and the
princess when she saw nothing more to be tried sunk down inconsolable in
hopeless dejection A thousand times she reproached herself with the easy
compliance by which she permitted her favourite to stay behind her »Had not my
fondness said she lessened my authority Pekuah had not dared to talk of her
terrours She ought to have feared me more than spectres A severe look would
have overpowered her a peremptory command would have compelled obedience Why
did foolish indulgence prevail upon me Why did I not speak and refuse to hear«
»Great princess said Imlac do not reproach yourself for your virtue or
consider that as blameable by which evil has accidentally been caused Your
tenderness for the timidity of Pekuah was generous and kind When we act
according to our duty we commit the event to him by whose laws our actions are
governed and who will suffer none to be finally punished for obedience When
in prospect of some good whether natural or moral we break the rules
prescribed us we withdraw from the direction of superiour wisdom and take all
consequences upon ourselves Man cannot so far know the connexion of causes and
events as that he may venture to do wrong in order to do right When we pursue
our end by lawful means we may always console our miscarriage by the hope of
future recompense When we consult only our own policy and attempt to find a
nearer way to good by overleaping the settled boundaries of right and wrong we
cannot be happy even by success because we cannot escape the consciousness of
our fault but if we miscarry the disappointment is irremediably embittered
How comfortless is the sorrow of him who feels at once the pangs of guilt and
the vexation of calamity which guilt has brought upon him
Consider princess what would have been your condition if the lady Pekuah
had entreated to accompany you and being compelled to stay in the tents had
been carried away or how would you have born the thought if you had forced her
into the pyramid and she had died before you in agonies of terrour«
»Had either happened said Nekayah I could not have endured life till now
I should have been tortured to madness by the remembrance of such cruelty or
must have pined away in abhorrence of myself«
»This at least said Imlac is the present reward of virtuous conduct that
no unlucky consequence can oblige us to repent it«
Chapter XXXV
The princess languishes for want of Pekuah
Nekayah being thus reconciled to herself found that no evil is insupportable
but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong She was from that
time delivered from the violence of tempestuous sorrow and sunk into silent
pensiveness and gloomy tranquillity She sat from morning to evening
recollecting all that had been done or said by her Pekuah treasured up with
care every trifle on which Pekuah had set an accidental value and which might
recall to mind any little incident or careless conversation The sentiments of
her whom she now expected to see no more were treasured in her memory as rules
of life and she deliberated to no other end than to conjecture on any occasion
what would have been the opinion and counsel of Pekuah
The women by whom she was attended knew nothing of her real condition and
therefore she could not talk to them but with caution and reserve She began to
remit her curiosity having no great care to collect notions which she had no
convenience of uttering Rasselas endeavoured first to comfort and afterwards to
divert her he hired musicians to whom she seemed to listen but did not hear
them and procured masters to instruct her in various arts whose lectures when
they visited her again were again to be repeated She had lost her taste of
pleasure and her ambition of excellence And her mind though forced into short
excursions always recurred to the image of her friend
Imlac was every morning earnestly enjoined to renew his inquiries and was
asked every night whether he had yet heard of Pekuah till not being able to
return the princess the answer that she desired he was less and less willing to
come into her presence She observed his backwardness and commanded him to
attend her »You are not said she to confound impatience with resentment or
to suppose that I charge you with negligence because I repine at your
unsuccessfulness I do not much wonder at your absence I know that the unhappy
are never pleasing and that all naturally avoid the contagion of misery To
hear complaints is wearisome alike to the wretched and the happy for who would
cloud by adventitious grief the short gleams of gaiety which life allows us or
who that is struggling under his own evils will add to them the miseries of
another
The time is at hand when none shall be disturbed any longer by the sighs of
Nekayah my search after happiness is now at an end I am resolved to retire
from the world with all its flatteries and deceits and will hide myself in
solitude without any other care than to compose my thoughts and regulate my
hours by a constant succession of innocent occupations till with a mind
purified from all earthly desires I shall enter into that state to which all
are hastening and in which I hope again to enjoy the friendship of Pekuah«
»Do not entangle your mind said Imlac by irrevocable determinations nor
increase the burthen of life by a voluntary accumulation of misery the
weariness of retirement will continue or increase when the loss of Pekuah is
forgotten That you have been deprived of one pleasure is no very good reason
for rejection of the rest«
»Since Pekuah was taken from me said the princess I have no pleasure to
reject or to retain She that has no one to love or trust has little to hope
She wants the radical principle of happiness We may perhaps allow that what
satisfaction this world can afford must arise from the conjunction of wealth
knowledge and goodness wealth is nothing but as it is bestowed and knowledge
nothing but as it is communicated they must therefore be imparted to others
and to whom could I now delight to impart them Goodness affords the only
comfort which can be enjoyed without a partner and goodness may be practised in
retirement«
»How far solitude may admit goodness or advance it I shall not replied
Imlac dispute at present Remember the confession of the pious hermit You will
wish to return into the world when the image of your companion has left your
thoughts« »That time said Nekayah will never come The generous frankness
the modest obsequiousness and the faithful secrecy of my dear Pekuah will
always be more missed as I shall live longer to see vice and folly«
»The state of a mind oppressed with a sudden calamity said Imlac is like
that of the fabulous inhabitants of the new created earth who when the first
night came upon them supposed that day never would return When the clouds of
sorrow gather over us we see nothing beyond them nor can imagine how they will
be dispelled yet a new day succeeded to the night and sorrow is never long
without a dawn of ease But they who restrain themselves from receiving comfort
do as the savages would have done had they put out their eyes when it was dark
Our minds like our bodies are in continual flux something is hourly lost and
something acquired To lose much at once is inconvenient to either but while
the vital powers remain uninjured nature will find the means of reparation
Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye and while we glide along
the stream of time whatever we leave behind us is always lessening and that
which we approach increasing in magnitude Do not suffer life to stagnate it
will grow muddy for want of motion commit yourself again to the current of the
world Pekuah will vanish by degrees you will meet in your way some other
favourite or learn to diffuse yourself in general conversation«
»At least said the prince do not despair before all remedies have been
tried the inquiry after the unfortunate lady is still continued and shall be
carried on with yet greater diligence on condition that you will promise to
wait a year for the event without any unalterable resolution« Nekayah thought
this a reasonable demand and made the promise to her brother who had been
advised by Imlac to require it Imlac had indeed no great hope of regaining
Pekuah but he supposed that if he could secure the interval of a year the
princess would be then in no danger of a cloister
Chapter XXXVI
Pekuah is still remembered The progress of sorrow
Nekayah seeing that nothing was omitted for the recovery of her favourite and
having by her promise set her intention of retirement at a distance began
imperceptibly to return to common cares and common pleasures She rejoiced
without her own consent at the suspension of her sorrows and sometimes caught
herself with indignation in the act of turning away her mind from the
remembrance of her whom yet she resolved never to forget
She then appointed a certain hour of the day for meditation on the merits
and fondness of Pekuah and for some weeks retired constantly at the time fixed
and returned with her eyes swollen and her countenance clouded By degrees she
grew less scrupulous and suffered any important and pressing avocation to delay
the tribute of daily tears She then yielded to less occasions sometimes forgot
what she was indeed afraid to remember and at last wholly released herself
from the duty of periodical affliction
Her real love of Pekuah was yet not diminished A thousand occurrences
brought her back to memory and a thousand wants which nothing but the
confidence of friendship can supply made her frequently regretted She
therefore solicited Imlac never to desist from inquiry and to leave no art of
intelligence untried that at least she might have the comfort of knowing that
she did not suffer by negligence or sluggishness »Yet what said she is to be
expected from our pursuit of happiness when we find the state of life to be
such that happiness itself is the cause of misery Why should we endeavour to
attain that of which the possession cannot be secured I shall henceforward
fear to yield my heart to excellence however bright or to fondness however
tender lest I should lose again what I have lost in Pekuah«
Chapter XXXVII
The princess hears news of Pekuah
In seven months one of the messengers who had been sent away upon the day when
the promise was drawn from the princess returned after many unsuccessful
rambles from the borders of Nubia with an account that Pekuah was in the hands
of an Arab chief who possessed a castle or fortress on the extremity of Egypt
The Arab whose revenue was plunder was willing to restore her with her two
attendants for two hundred ounces of gold
The price was no subject of debate The princess was in extasies when she
heard that her favourite was alive and might so cheaply be ransomed She could
not think of delaying for a moment Pekuahs happiness or her own but entreated
her brother to send back the messenger with the sum required Imlac being
consulted was not very confident of the veracity of the relator and was still
more doubtful of the Arabs faith who might if he were too liberally trusted
detain at once the money and the captives He thought it dangerous to put
themselves in the power of the Arab by going into his district and could not
expect that the Rover would so much expose himself as to come into the lower
country where he might be seized by the forces of the Bassa
It is difficult to negotiate where neither will trust But Imlac after some
deliberation directed the messenger to propose that Pekuah should be conducted
by ten horsemen to the monastery of St Anthony which is situated in the deserts
of UpperEgypt where she should be met by the same number and her ransome
should be paid
That no time might be lost as they expected that the proposal would not be
refused they immediately began their journey to the monastery and when they
arrived Imlac went forward with the former messenger to the Arabs fortress
Rasselas was desirous to go with them but neither his sister nor Imlac would
consent The Arab according to the custom of his nation observed the laws of
hospitality with great exactness to those who put themselves into his power
and in a few days brought Pekuah with her maids by easy journeys to their
place appointed where receiving the stipulated price he restored her with
great respect to liberty and her friends and undertook to conduct them back
towards Cairo beyond all danger of robbery or violence
The princess and her favourite embraced each other with transport too
violent to be expressed and went out together to pour the tears of tenderness
in secret and exchange professions of kindness and gratitude After a few hours
they returned into the refectory of the convent where in the presence of the
prior and his brethren the prince required of Pekuah the history of her
adventures
Chapter XXXVIII
The adventures of the lady Pekuah
»At what time and in what manner I was forced away said Pekuah your servants
have told you The suddenness of the event struck me with surprise and I was at
first rather stupified than agitated with any passion of either fear or sorrow
My confusion was increased by the speed and tumult of our flight while we were
followed by the Turks who as it seemed soon despaired to overtake us or were
afraid of those whom they made a show of menacing
When the Arabs saw themselves out of danger they slackened their course
and as I was less harassed by external violence I began to feel more
uneasiness in my mind After some time we stopped near a spring shaded with
trees in a pleasant meadow where we were set upon the ground and offered such
refreshments as our masters were partaking I was suffered to sit with my maids
apart from the rest and none attempted to comfort or insult us Here I first
began to feel the full weight of my misery The girls sat weeping in silence
and from time to time looked on me for succour I knew not to what condition we
were doomed nor could conjecture where would be the place of our captivity or
whence to draw any hope of deliverance I was in the hands of robbers and
savages and had no reason to suppose that their pity was more than their
justice or that they would forbear the gratification of any ardour of desire
or caprice of cruelty I however kissed my maids and endeavoured to pacify
them by remarking that we were yet treated with decency and that since we
were now carried beyond pursuit there was no danger of violence to our lives
When we were to be set again on horseback my maids clung round me and
refused to be parted but I commanded them not to irritate those who had us in
their power We travelled the remaining part of the day through an unfrequented
and pathless country and came by moonlight to the side of a hill where the
rest of the troop was stationed Their tents were pitched and their fires
kindled and our chief was welcomed as a man much beloved by his dependants
We were received into a large tent where we found women who had attended
their husbands in the expedition They set before us the supper which they had
provided and I eat it rather to encourage my maids than to comply with any
appetite of my own When the meat was taken away they spread the carpets for
repose I was weary and hoped to find in sleep that remission of distress which
nature seldom denies Ordering myself therefore to be undrest I observed that
the women looked very earnestly upon me not expecting I suppose to see me so
submissively attended When my upper vest was taken off they were apparently
struck with the splendour of my cloaths and one of them timorously laid her
hand upon the embroidery She then went out and in a short time came back
with another woman who seemed to be of higher rank and greater authority She
did at her entrance the usual act of reverence and taking me by the hand
placed me in a smaller tent spread with finer carpets where I spent the night
quietly with my maids
In the morning as I was sitting on the grass the chief of the troop came
towards me I rose up to receive him and he bowed with great respect«
»Illustrious lady« said he »my fortune is better than I had presumed to hope
I am told by my women that I have a princess in my camp« Sir answered I your
women have deceived themselves and you I am not a princess but an unhappy
stranger who intended soon to have left this country in which I am now to be
imprisoned for ever »Whoever or whencesoever you are returned the Arab your
dress and that of your servants show your rank to be high and your wealth to
be great Why should you who can so easily procure your ransome think yourself
in danger of perpetual captivity The purpose of my incursions is to increase my
riches or more properly to gather tribute The sons of Ishmael are the natural
and hereditary lords of this part of the continent which is usurped by late
invaders and lowborn tyrants from whom we are compelled to take by the sword
what is denied to justice The violence of war admits no distinction the lance
that is lifted at guilt and power will sometimes fall on innocence and
gentleness«
»How little said I did I expect that yesterday it should have fallen upon
me«
»Misfortunes answered the Arab should always be expected If the eye of
hostility could learn reverence or pity excellence like yours had been exempt
from injury But the angels of affliction spread their toils alike for the
virtuous and the wicked for the mighty and the mean Do not be disconsolate I
am not one of the lawless and cruel rovers of the desert I know the rules of
civil life I will fix your ransome give a pasport to your messenger and
perform my stipulation with nice punctuality«
»You will easily believe that I was pleased with his courtesy and finding
that his predominant passion was desire of money I began now to think my danger
less for I knew that no sum would be thought too great for the release of
Pekuah I told him that he should have no reason to charge me with ingratitude
if I was used with kindness and that any ransome which could be expected for a
maid of common rank would be paid but that he must not persist to rate me as a
princess He said he would consider what he should demand and then smiling
bowed and retired
Soon after the women came about me each contending to be more officious
than the other and my maids themselves were served with reverence We travelled
onward by short journeys On the fourth day the chief told me that my ransome
must be two hundred ounces of gold which I not only promised him but told him
that I would add fifty more if I and my maids were honourably treated
I never knew the power of gold before From that time I was the leader of
the troop The march of every day was longer or shorter as I commanded and the
tents were pitched where I chose to rest We now had camels and other
conveniencies for travel my own women were always at my side and I amused
myself with observing the manners of the vagrant nations and with viewing
remains of ancient edifices with which these deserted countries appear to have
been in some distant age lavishly embellished
The chief of the band was a man far from illiterate he was able to travel
by the stars or the compass and had marked in his erratick expeditions such
places as are most worthy the notice of a passenger He observed to me that
buildings are always best preserved in places little frequented and difficult
of access for when once a country declines from its primitive splendour the
more inhabitants are left the quicker ruin will be made Walls supply stones
more easily than quarries and palaces and temples will be demolished to make
stables of granate and cottages of porphyry«
Chapter XXXIX
The adventures of Pekuah continued
»We wandered about in this manner for some weeks whether as our chief
pretended for my gratification or as I rather suspected for some convenience
of his own I endeavoured to appear contented where sullenness and resentment
would have been of no use and that endeavour conduced much to the calmness of
my mind but my heart was always with Nekayah and the troubles of the night
much overbalanced the amusements of the day My women who threw all their cares
upon their mistress set their minds at ease from the time when they saw me
treated with respect and gave themselves up to the incidental alleviations of
our fatigue without solicitude or sorrow I was pleased with their pleasure and
animated with their confidence My condition had lost much of its terrour since
I found that the Arab ranged the country merely to get riches Avarice is an
uniform and tractable vice other intellectual distempers are different in
different constitutions of mind that which sooths the pride of one will offend
the pride of another but to the favour of the covetous there is a ready way
bring money and nothing is denied
At last we came to the dwelling of our chief a strong and spacious house
built with stone in an island of the Nile which lies as I was told under the
tropick Lady said the Arab you shall rest after your journey a few weeks in
this place where you are to consider yourself as sovereign My occupation is
war I have therefore chosen this obscure residence from which I can issue
unexpected and to which I can retire unpursued You may now repose in security
here are few pleasures but here is no danger He then led me into the inner
apartments and seating me on the richest couch bowed to the ground His women
who considered me as a rival looked on me with malignity but being soon
informed that I was a great lady detained only for my ransome they began to vie
with each other in obsequiousness and reverence
Being again comforted with new assurances of speedy liberty I was for some
days diverted from impatience by the novelty of the place The turrets
overlooked the country to a great distance and afforded a view of many windings
of the stream In the day I wandered from one place to another as the course of
the sun varied the splendour of the prospect and saw many things which I had
never seen before The crocodiles and riverhorses are common in this unpeopled
region and I often looked upon them with terrour though I knew that they could
not hurt me For some time I expected to see mermaids and tritons which as
Imlac has told me the European travellers have stationed in the Nile but no
such beings ever appeared and the Arab when I inquired after them laughed at
my credulity
At night the Arab always attended me to a tower set apart for celestial
observations where he endeavoured to teach me the names and courses of the
stars I had no great inclination to this study but an appearance of attention
was necessary to please my instructor who valued himself for his skill and in
a little while I found some employment requisite to beguile the tediousness of
time which was to be passed always amidst the same objects I was weary of
looking in the morning on things from which I had turned away weary in the
evening I therefore was at last willing to observe the stars rather than do
nothing but could not always compose my thoughts and was very often thinking
on Nekayah when others imagined me contemplating the sky Soon after the Arab
went upon another expedition and then my only pleasure was to talk with my
maids about the accident by which we were carried away and the happiness that
we should all enjoy at the end of our captivity«
»There were women in your Arabs fortress said the princess why did you
not make them your companions enjoy their conversation and partake their
diversions In a place where they found business or amusement why should you
alone sit corroded with idle melancholy or why could not you bear for a few
months that condition to which they were condemned for life«
»The diversions of the women answered Pekuah were only childish play by
which the mind accustomed to stronger operations could not be kept busy I could
do all which they delighted in doing by powers merely sensitive while my
intellectual faculties were flown to Cairo They ran from room to room as a bird
hops from wire to wire in his cage They danced for the sake of motion as lambs
frisk in a meadow One sometimes pretended to be hurt that the rest might be
alarmed or hid herself that another might seek her Part of their time passed
in watching the progress of light bodies that floated on the river and part in
marking the various forms into which clouds broke in the sky
Their business was only needlework in which I and my maids sometimes helped
them but you know that the mind will easily straggle from the fingers nor will
you suspect that captivity and absence from Nekayah could receive solace from
silken flowers
Nor was much satisfaction to be hoped from their conversation for of what
could they be expected to talk They had seen nothing for they had lived from
early youth in that narrow spot of what they had not seen they could have no
knowledge for they could not read They had no ideas but of the few things that
were within their view and had hardly names for any thing but their cloaths and
their food As I bore a superiour character I was often called to terminate
their quarrels which I decided as equitably as I could If it could have amused
me to hear the complaints of each against the rest I might have been often
detained by long stories but the motives of their animosity were so small that
I could not listen without intercepting the tale«
»How said Rasselas can the Arab whom you represented as a man of more
than common accomplishments take any pleasure in his seraglio when it is
filled only with women like these Are they exquisitely beautiful«
»They do not said Pekuah want that unaffecting and ignoble beauty which
may subsist without spriteliness or sublimity without energy of thought or
dignity of virtue But to a man like the Arab such beauty was only a flower
casually plucked and carelessly thrown away Whatever pleasures he might find
among them they were not those of friendship or society When they were playing
about him he looked on them with inattentive superiority when they vied for his
regard he sometimes turned away disgusted As they had no knowledge their talk
could take nothing from the tediousness of life as they had no choice their
fondness or appearance of fondness excited in him neither pride nor gratitude
he was not exalted in his own esteem by the smiles of a woman who saw no other
man nor was much obliged by that regard of which he could never know the
sincerity and which he might often perceive to be exerted not so much to
delight him as to pain a rival That which he gave and they received as love
was only a careless distribution of superfluous time such love as man can
bestow upon that which he despises such as has neither hope nor fear neither
joy nor sorrow«
»You have reason lady to think yourself happy said Imlac that you have
been thus easily dismissed How could a mind hungry for knowledge be willing
in an intellectual famine to lose such a banquet as Pekuahs conversation«
»I am inclined to believe answered Pekuah that he was for some time in
suspense for notwithstanding his promise whenever I proposed to dispatch a
messenger to Cairo he found some excuse for delay While I was detained in his
house he made many incursions into the neighbouring countries and perhaps he
would have refused to discharge me had his plunder been equal to his wishes He
returned always courteous related his adventures delighted to hear my
observations and endeavoured to advance my acquaintance with the stars When I
importuned him to send away my letters he soothed me with professions of honour
and sincerity and when I could be no longer decently denied put his troop
again in motion and left me to govern in his absence I was much afflicted by
this studied procrastination and was sometimes afraid that I should be
forgotten that you would leave Cairo and I must end my days in an island of
the Nile
I grew at last hopeless and dejected and cared so little to entertain him
that he for a while more frequently talked with my maids That he should fall in
love with them or with me might have been equally fatal and I was not much
pleased with the growing friendship My anxiety was not long for as I
recovered some degree of cheerfulness he returned to me and I could not
forbear to despise my former uneasiness
He still delayed to send for my ransome and would perhaps never have
determined had not your agent found his way to him The gold which he would
not fetch he could not reject when it was offered He hastened to prepare for
our journey hither like a man delivered from the pain of an intestine conflict
I took leave of my companions in the house who dismissed me with cold
indifference«
Nekayah having heard her favourites relation rose and embraced her and
Rasselas gave her an hundred ounces of gold which she presented to the Arab for
the fifty that were promised
Chapter XL
The history of a man of learning
They returned to Cairo and were so well pleased at finding themselves together
that none of them went much abroad The prince began to love learning and one
day declared to Imlac that he intended to devote himself to science and pass
the rest of his days in literary solitude
»Before you make your final choice answered Imlac you ought to examine its
hazards and converse with some of those who are grown old in the company of
themselves I have just left the observatory of one of the most learned
astronomers in the world who has spent forty years in unwearied attention to
the motions and appearances of the celestial bodies and has drawn out his soul
in endless calculations He admits a few friends once a month to hear his
deductions and enjoy his discoveries I was introduced as a man of knowledge
worthy of his notice Men of various ideas and fluent conversation are commonly
welcome to those whose thoughts have been long fixed upon a single point and
who find the images of other things stealing away I delighted him with my
remarks he smiled at the narrative of my travels and was glad to forget the
constellations and descend for a moment into the lower world
On the next day of vacation I renewed my visit and was so fortunate as to
please him again He relaxed from that time the severity of his rule and
permitted me to enter at my own choice I found him always busy and always glad
to be relieved As each knew much which the other was desirous of learning we
exchanged our notions with great delight I perceived that I had every day more
of his confidence and always found new cause of admiration in the profundity of
his mind His comprehension is vast his memory capacious and retentive his
discourse is methodical and his expression clear His integrity and benevolence
are equal to his learning His deepest researches and most favourite studies are
willingly interrupted for any opportunity of doing good by his counsel or his
riches To his closest retreat at his most busy moments all are admitted that
want his assistance For though I exclude idleness and pleasure I will never
says he bar my doors against charity To man is permitted the contemplation of
the skies but the practice of virtue is commanded«
»Surely said the princess this man is happy«
»I visited him said Imlac with more and more frequency and was every time
more enamoured of his conversation he was sublime without haughtiness
courteous without formality and communicative without ostentation I was at
first great princess of your opinion thought him the happiest of mankind and
often congratulated him on the blessing that he enjoyed He seemed to hear
nothing with indifference but the praises of his condition to which he always
returned a general answer and diverted the conversation to some other topick
Amidst this willingness to be pleased and labour to please I had quickly
reason to imagine that some painful sentiment pressed upon his mind He often
looked up earnestly towards the sun and let his voice fall in the midst of his
discourse He would sometimes when we were alone gaze upon me in silence with
the air of a man who longed to speak what he was yet resolved to suppress He
would often send for me with vehement injunctions of haste though when I came
to him he had nothing extraordinary to say And sometimes when I was leaving
him would call me back pause a few moments and then dismiss me«
Chapter XLI
The astronomer discovers the cause of his uneasiness
At last the time came when the secret burst his reserve We were sitting
together last night in the turret of his house watching the emersion of a
satellite of Jupiter A sudden tempest clouded the sky and disappointed our
observation We sat a while silent in the dark and then he addressed himself to
me in these words »Imlac I have long considered thy friendship as the greatest
blessing of my life Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless and
knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful I have found in thee all
the qualities requisite for trust benevolence experience and fortitude I
have long discharged an office which I must soon quit at the call of nature and
shall rejoice in the hour of imbecility and pain to devolve it upon thee«
»I thought myself honoured by this testimony and protested that whatever
could conduce to his happiness would add likewise to mine«
»Hear Imlac what thou wilt not without difficulty credit I have possessed
for five years the regulation of weather and the distribution of the seasons
the sun has listened to my dictates and passed from tropick to tropick by my
direction the clouds at my call have poured their waters and the Nile has
overflowed at my command I have restrained the rage of the dogstar and
mitigated the fervours of the crab The winds alone of all the elemental
powers have hitherto refused my authority and multitudes have perished by
equinoctial tempests which I found myself unable to prohibit or restrain I have
administered this great office with exact justice and made to the different
nations of the earth an impartial dividend of rain and sunshine What must have
been the misery of half the globe if I had limited the clouds to particular
regions or confined the sun to either side of the equator«
Chapter XLII
The opinion of the astronomer is explained and justified
»I suppose he discovered in me through the obscurity of the room some tokens
of amazement and doubt for after a short pause he proceeded thus
Not to be easily credited will neither surprise nor offend me for I am
probably the first of human beings to whom this trust has been imparted Nor do
I know whether to deem this distinction a reward or punishment since I have
possessed it I have been far less happy than before and nothing but the
consciousness of good intention could have enabled me to support the weariness
of unremitted vigilance«
»How long Sir said I has this great office been in your hands«
»About ten years ago said he my daily observations of the changes of the
sky led me to consider whether if I had the power of the seasons I could
confer greater plenty upon the inhabitants of the earth This contemplation
fastened on my mind and I sat days and nights in imaginary dominion pouring
upon this country and that the showers of fertility and seconding every fall of
rain with a due proportion of sunshine I had yet only the will to do good and
did not imagine that I should ever have the power
One day as I was looking on the fields withering with heat I felt in my
mind a sudden wish that I could send rain on the southern mountains and raise
the Nile to an inundation In the hurry of my imagination I commanded rain to
fall and by comparing the time of my command with that of the inundation I
found that the clouds had listened to my lips«
»Might not some other cause said I produce this concurrence the Nile does
not always rise on the same day«
»Do not believe said he with impatience that such objections could escape
me I reasoned long against my own conviction and laboured against truth with
the utmost obstinacy I sometimes suspected myself of madness and should not
have dared to impart this secret but to a man like you capable of
distinguishing the wonderful from the impossible and the incredible from the
false«
»Why Sir said I do you call that incredible which you know or think you
know to be true«
»Because« said he »I cannot prove it by any external evidence and I know
too well the laws of demonstration to think that my conviction ought to
influence another who cannot like me be conscious of its force I therefore
shall not attempt to gain credit by disputation It is sufficient that I feel
this power that I have long possessed and every day exerted it But the life
of man is short the infirmities of age increase upon me and the time will soon
come when the regulator of the year must mingle with the dust The care of
appointing a successor has long disturbed me the night and the day have been
spent in comparisons of all the characters which have come to my knowledge and
I have yet found none so worthy as thyself«
Chapter XLIII
The astronomer leaves Imlac his directions
»Hear therefore what I shall impart with attention such as the welfare of a
world requires If the task of a king be considered as difficult who has the
care only of a few millions to whom he cannot do much good or harm what must
be the anxiety of him on whom depends the action of the elements and the great
gifts of light and heat Hear me therefore with attention
I have diligently considered the position of the earth and sun and formed
innumerable schemes in which I changed their situation I have sometimes turned
aside the axis of the earth and sometimes varied the ecliptick of the sun but
I have found it impossible to make a disposition by which the world may be
advantaged what one region gains another loses by any imaginable alteration
even without considering the distant parts of the solar system with which we are
unacquainted Do not therefore in thy administration of the year indulge thy
pride by innovation do not please thyself with thinking that thou canst make
thyself renowned to all future ages by disordering the seasons The memory of
mischief is no desirable fame Much less will it become thee to let kindness or
interest prevail Never rob other countries of rain to pour it on thine own For
us the Nile is sufficient«
»I promised that when I possessed the power I would use it with inflexible
integrity and he dismissed me pressing my hand« »My heart said he will be
now at rest and my benevolence will no more destroy my quiet I have found a
man of wisdom and virtue to whom I can cheerfully bequeath the inheritance of
the sun«
The prince heard this narration with very serious regard but the princess
smiled and Pekuah convulsed herself with laughter »Ladies said Imlac to mock
the heaviest of human afflictions is neither charitable nor wise Few can attain
this mans knowledge and few practise his virtues but all may suffer his
calamity Of the uncertainties of our present state the most dreadful and
alarming is the uncertain continuance of reason«
The princess was recollected and the favourite was abashed Rasselas more
deeply affected inquired of Imlac whether he thought such maladies of the mind
frequent and how they were contracted
Chapter XLIV
The dangerous prevalence of imagination
»Disorders of intellect answered Imlac happen much more often than superficial
observers will easily believe Perhaps if we speak with rigorous exactness no
human mind is in its right state There is no man whose imagination does not
sometimes predominate over his reason who can regulate his attention wholly by
his will and whose ideas will come and go at his command No man will be found
in whose mind airy notions do not sometimes tyrannise and force him to hope or
fear beyond the limits of sober probability All power of fancy over reason is a
degree of insanity but while this power is such as we can controll and repress
it is not visible to others nor considered as any depravation of the mental
faculties it is not pronounced madness but when it comes ungovernable and
apparently influences speech or action
To indulge the power of fiction and send imagination out upon the wing is
often the sport of those who delight too much in silent speculation When we are
alone we are not always busy the labour of excogitation is too violent to last
long the ardour of inquiry will sometimes give way to idleness or satiety He
who has nothing external that can divert him must find pleasure in his own
thoughts and must conceive himself what he is not for who is pleased with what
he is He then expiatates in boundless futurity and culls from all imaginable
conditions that which for the present moment he should most desire amuses his
desires with impossible enjoyments and confers upon his pride unattainable
dominion The mind dances from scene to scene unites all pleasures in all
combinations and riots in delights which nature and fortune with all their
bounty cannot bestow
In time some particular train of ideas fixes the attention all other
intellectual gratifications are rejected the mind in weariness or leisure
recurs constantly to the favourite conception and feasts on the luscious
falsehood whenever she is offended with the bitterness of truth By degrees the
reign of fancy is confirmed she grows first imperious and in time despotick
Then fictions begin to operate as realities false opinions fasten upon the
mind and life passes in dreams of rapture or of anguish
This Sir is one of the dangers of solitude which the hermit has confessed
not always to promote goodness and the astronomers misery has proved to be not
always propitious to wisdom«
»I will no more said the favourite imagine myself the queen of Abissinia
I have often spent the hours which the princess gave to my own disposal in
adjusting ceremonies and regulating the court I have repressed the pride of the
powerful and granted the petitions of the poor I have built new palaces in
more happy situations planted groves upon the tops of mountains and have
exulted in the beneficence of royalty till when the princess entered I had
almost forgotten to bow down before her«
»And I said the princess will not allow myself any more to play the
shepherdess in my waking dreams I have often soothed my thoughts with the quiet
and innocence of pastoral employments till I have in my chamber heard the winds
whistle and the sheep bleat sometimes freed the lamb entangled in the thicket
and sometimes with my crook encountered the wolf I have a dress like that of
the village maids which I put on to help my imagination and a pipe on which I
play softly and suppose myself followed by my flocks«
»I will confess said the prince an indulgence of fantastick delight more
dangerous than yours I have frequently endeavoured to image the possibility of
a perfect government by which all wrong should be restrained all vice
reformed and all the subjects preserved in tranquillity and innocence This
thought produced innumerable schemes of reformation and dictated many useful
regulations and salutary edicts This has been the sport and sometimes the
labour of my solitude and I start when I think with how little anguish I once
supposed the death of my father and my brothers«
»Such says Imlac are the effects of visionary schemes when we first form
them we know them to be absurd but familiarise them by degrees and in time
lose sight of their folly«
Chapter XLV
They discourse with an old man
The evening was now far past and they rose to return home As they walked along
the bank of the Nile delighted with the beams of the moon quivering on the
water they saw at a small distance an old man whom the prince had often heard
in the assembly of the sages »Yonder said he is one whose years have calmed
his passions but not clouded his reason let us close the disquisitions of the
night by inquiring what are his sentiments of his own state that we may know
whether youth alone is to struggle with vexation and whether any better hope
remains for the latter part of life«
Here the sage approached and saluted them They invited him to join their
walk and prattled a while as acquaintance that had unexpectedly met one
another The old man was cheerful and talkative and the way seemed short in his
company He was pleased to find himself not disregarded accompanied them to
their house and at the princes request entered with them They placed him in
the seat of honour and set wine and conserves before him
»Sir said the princess an evening walk must give to a man of learning
like you pleasures which ignorance and youth can hardly conceive You know the
qualities and the causes of all that you behold the laws by which the river
flows the periods in which the planets perform their revolutions Every thing
must supply you with contemplation and renew the consciousness of your own
dignity«
»Lady answered he let the gay and the vigorous expect pleasure in their
excursions it is enough that age can obtain ease To me the world has lost its
novelty I look round and see what I remember to have seen in happier days I
rest against a tree and consider that in the same shade I once disputed upon
the annual overflow of the Nile with a friend who is now silent in the grave I
cast my eyes upwards fix them on the changing moon and think with pain on the
vicissitudes of life I have ceased to take much delight in physical truth for
what have I to do with those things which I am soon to leave«
»You may at least recreate yourself said Imlac with the recollection of an
honourable and useful life and enjoy the praise which all agree to give you«
»Praise said the sage with a sigh is to an old man an empty sound I have
neither mother to be delighted with the reputation of her son nor wife to
partake the honours of her husband I have outlived my friends and my rivals
Nothing is now of much importance for I cannot extend my interest beyond
myself Youth is delighted with applause because it is considered as the
earnest of some future good and because the prospect of life is far extended
but to me who am now declining to decrepitude there is little to be feared
from the malevolence of men and yet less to be hoped from their affection or
esteem Something they may yet take away but they can give me nothing Riches
would now be useless and high employment would be pain My retrospect of life
recalls to my view many opportunities of good neglected much time squandered
upon trifles and more lost in idleness and vacancy I leave many great designs
unattempted and many great attempts unfinished My mind is burthened with no
heavy crime and therefore I compose myself to tranquillity endeavour to
abstract my thoughts from hopes and cares which though reason knows them to be
vain still try to keep their old possession of the heart expect with serene
humility that hour which nature cannot long delay and hope to possess in a
better state that happiness which here I could not find and that virtue which
here I have not attained«
He rose and went away leaving his audience not much elated with the hope of
long life The prince consoled himself with remarking that it was not
reasonable to be disappointed by this account for age had never been considered
as the season of felicity and if it was possible to be easy in decline and
weakness it was likely that the days of vigour and alacrity might be happy
that the noon of life might be bright if the evening could be calm
The princess suspected that age was querulous and malignant and delighted
to repress the expectations of those who had newly entered the world She had
seen the possessors of estates look with envy on their heirs and known many who
enjoy pleasure no longer than they can confine it to themselves
Pekuah conjectured that the man was older than he appeared and was willing
to impute his complaints to delirious dejection or else supposed that he had
been unfortunate and was therefore discontented »For nothing said she is
more common than to call our own condition the condition of life«
Imlac who had no desire to see them depressed smiled at the comforts which
they could so readily procure to themselves and remembered that at the same
age he was equally confident of unmingled prosperity and equally fertile of
consolatory expedients He forbore to force upon them unwelcome knowledge which
time itself would too soon impress The princess and her lady retired the
madness of the astronomer hung upon their minds and they desired Imlac to enter
upon his office and delay next morning the rising of the sun
Chapter XLVI
The princess and Pekuah visit the astronomer
The princess and Pekuah having talked in private of Imlacs astronomer thought
his character at once so amiable and so strange that they could not be
satisfied without a nearer knowledge and Imlac was requested to find the means
of bringing them together
This was somewhat difficult the philosopher had never received any visits
from women though he lived in a city that had in it many Europeans who followed
the manners of their own countries and many from other parts of the world that
lived there with European liberty The ladies would not be refused and several
schemes were proposed for the accomplishment of their design It was proposed to
introduce them as strangers in distress to whom the sage was always accessible
but after some deliberation it appeared that by this artifice no
acquaintance could be formed for their conversation would be short and they
could not decently importune him often »This said Rasselas is true but I
have yet a stronger objection against the misrepresentation of your state I
have always considered it as treason against the great republick of human
nature to make any mans virtues the means of deceiving him whether on great
or little occasions All imposture weakens confidence and chills benevolence
When the sage finds that you are not what you seemed he will feel the
resentment natural to a man who conscious of great abilities discovers that he
has been tricked by understandings meaner than his own and perhaps the
distrust which he can never afterwards wholly lay aside may stop the voice of
counsel and close the hand of charity and where will you find the power of
restoring his benefactions to mankind or his peace to himself«
To this no reply was attempted and Imlac began to hope that their curiosity
would subside but next day Pekuah told him she had now found an honest
pretence for a visit to the astronomer for she would solicite permission to
continue under him the studies in which she had been initiated by the Arab and
the princess might go with her either as a fellowstudent or because a woman
could not decently come alone »I am afraid said Imlac that he will be soon
weary of your company men advanced far in knowledge do not love to repeat the
elements of their art and I am not certain that even of the elements as he
will deliver them connected with inferences and mingled with reflections you
are a very capable auditress« »That said Pekuah must be my care I ask of you
only to take me thither My knowledge is perhaps more than you imagine it and
by concurring always with his opinions I shall make him think it greater than it
is«
The astronomer in pursuance of this resolution was told that a foreign
lady travelling in search of knowledge had heard of his reputation and was
desirous to become his scholar The uncommonness of the proposal raised at once
his surprise and curiosity and when after a short deliberation he consented
to admit her he could not stay without impatience till the next day
The ladies dressed themselves magnificently and were attended by Imlac to
the astronomer who was pleased to see himself approached with respect by
persons of so splendid an appearance In the exchange of the first civilities he
was timorous and bashful but when the talk became regular he recollected his
powers and justified the character which Imlac had given Inquiring of Pekuah
what could have turned her inclination towards astronomy he received from her a
history of her adventure at the pyramid and of the time passed in the Arabs
island She told her tale with ease and elegance and her conversation took
possession of his heart The discourse was then turned to astronomy Pekuah
displayed what she knew he looked upon her as a prodigy of genius and
entreated her not to desist from a study which she had so happily begun They
came again and again and were every time more welcome than before The sage
endeavoured to amuse them that they might prolong their visits for he found
his thoughts grow brighter in their company the clouds of solicitude vanished
by degrees as he forced himself to entertain them and he grieved when he was
left at their departure to his old employment of regulating the seasons
The princess and her favourite had now watched his lips for several months
and could not catch a single word from which they could judge whether he
continued or not in the opinion of his preternatural commission They often
contrived to bring him to an open declaration but he easily eluded all their
attacks and on which side soever they pressed him escaped from them to some
other topick
As their familiarity increased they invited him often to the house of Imlac
where they distinguished him by extraordinary respect He began gradually to
delight in sublunary pleasures He came early and departed late laboured to
recommend himself by assiduity and compliance excited their curiosity after new
arts that they might still want his assistance and when they made any
excursion of pleasure or inquiry entreated to attend them
By long experience of his integrity and wisdom the prince and his sister
were convinced that he might be trusted without danger and lest he should draw
any false hopes from the civilities which he received discovered to him their
condition with the motives of their journey and required his opinion on the
choice of life
»Of the various conditions which the world spreads before you which you
shall prefer said the sage I am not able to instruct you I can only tell that
I have chosen wrong I have passed my time in study without experience in the
attainment of sciences which can for the most part be but remotely useful to
mankind I have purchased knowledge at the expence of all the common comforts of
life I have missed the endearing elegance of female friendship and the happy
commerce of domestick tenderness If I have obtained any prerogatives above
other students they have been accompanied with fear disquiet and
scrupulosity but even of these prerogatives whatever they were I have since
my thoughts have been diversified by more intercourse with the world begun to
question the reality When I have been for a few days lost in pleasing
dissipation I am always tempted to think that my inquiries have ended in
errour and that I have suffered much and suffered it in vain«
Imlac was delighted to find that the sages understanding was breaking
through its mists and resolved to detain him from the planets till he should
forget his task of ruling them and reason should recover its original
influence
From this time the astronomer was received into familiar friendship and
partook of all their projects and pleasures his respect kept him attentive and
the activity of Rasselas did not leave much time unengaged Something was always
to be done the day was spent in making observations which furnished talk for
the evening and the evening was closed with a scheme for the morrow
The sage confessed to Imlac that since he had mingled in the gay tumults of
life and divided his hours by a succession of amusements he found the
conviction of his authority over the skies fade gradually from his mind and
began to trust less to an opinion which he never could prove to others and
which he now found subject to variation from causes in which reason had no part
»If I am accidentally left alone for a few hours said he my inveterate
persuasion rushes upon my soul and my thoughts are chained down by some
irresistible violence but they are soon disentangled by the princes
conversation and instantaneously released at the entrance of Pekuah I am like
a man habitually afraid of spectres who is set at ease by a lamp and wonders
at the dread which harassed him in the dark yet if his lamp be extinguished
feels again the terrours which he knows that when it is light he shall feel no
more But I am sometimes afraid lest I indulge my quiet by criminal negligence
and voluntarily forget the great charge with which I am entrusted If I favour
myself in a known errour or am determined by my own ease in a doubtful question
of this importance how dreadful is my crime«
»No disease of the imagination answered Imlac is so difficult of cure as
that which is complicated with the dread of guilt fancy and conscience then act
interchangeably upon us and so often shift their places that the illusions of
one are not distinguished from the dictates of the other If fancy presents
images not moral or religious the mind drives them away when they give it pain
but when melancholick notions take the form of duty they lay hold on the
faculties without opposition because we are afraid to exclude or banish them
For this reason the superstitious are often melancholy and the melancholy
almost always superstitious
But do not let the suggestions of timidity overpower your better reason the
danger of neglect can be but as the probability of the obligation which when
you consider it with freedom you find very little and that little growing
every day less Open your heart to the influence of the light which from time
to time breaks in upon you when scruples importune you which you in your
lucid moments know to be vain do not stand to parley but fly to business or to
Pekuah and keep this thought always prevalent that you are only one atom of
the mass of humanity and have neither such virtue nor vice as that you should
be singled out for supernatural favours or afflictions«
Chapter XLVII
The prince enters and brings a new topick
»All this said the astronomer I have often thought but my reason has been so
long subjugated by an uncontrolable and overwhelming idea that it durst not
confide in its own decisions I now see how fatally I betrayed my quiet by
suffering chimeras to prey upon me in secret but melancholy shrinks from
communication and I never found a man before to whom I could impart my
troubles though I had been certain of relief I rejoice to find my own
sentiments confirmed by yours who are not easily deceived and can have no
motive or purpose to deceive I hope that time and variety will dissipate the
gloom that has so long surrounded me and the latter part of my days will be
spent in peace«
»Your learning and virtue said Imlac may justly give you hopes«
Rasselas then entered with the princess and Pekuah and inquired whether
they had contrived any new diversion for the next day »Such said Nekayah is
the state of life that none are happy but by the anticipation of change the
change itself is nothing when we have made it the next wish is to change
again The world is not yet exhausted let me see something to morrow which I
never saw before«
»Variety said Rasselas is so necessary to content that even the happy
valley disgusted me by the recurrence of its luxuries yet I could not forbear
to reproach myself with impatience when I saw the monks of St Anthony support
without complaint a life not of uniform delight but uniform hardship«
»Those men answered Imlac are less wretched in their silent convent than
the Abissinian princes in their prison of pleasure Whatever is done by the
monks is incited by an adequate and reasonable motive Their labour supplies
them with necessaries it therefore cannot be omitted and is certainly
rewarded Their devotion prepares them for another state and reminds them of
its approach while it fits them for it Their time is regularly distributed
one duty succeeds another so that they are not left open to the distraction of
unguided choice nor lost in the shades of listless inactivity There is a
certain task to be performed at an appropriated hour and their toils are
cheerful because they consider them as acts of piety by which they are always
advancing towards endless felicity«
»Do you think said Nekayah that the monastick rule is a more holy and less
imperfect state than any other May not he equally hope for future happiness who
converses openly with mankind who succours the distressed by his charity
instructs the ignorant by his learning and contributes by his industry to the
general system of life even though he should omit some of the mortifications
which are practised in the cloister and allow himself such harmless delights as
his condition may place within his reach«
»This said Imlac is a question which has long divided the wise and
perplexed the good I am afraid to decide on either part He that lives well in
the world is better than he that lives well in a monastery But perhaps every
one is not able to stem the temptations of publick life and if he cannot
conquer he may properly retreat Some have little power to do good and have
likewise little strength to resist evil Many are weary of their conflicts with
adversity and are willing to eject those passions which have long busied them
in vain And many are dismissed by age and diseases from the more laborious
duties of society In monasteries the weak and timorous may be happily
sheltered the weary may repose and the penitent may meditate Those retreats
of prayer and contemplation have something so congenial to the mind of man
that perhaps there is scarcely one that does not purpose to close his life in
pious abstraction with a few associates serious as himself«
»Such said Pekuah has often been my wish and I have heard the princess
declare that she should not willingly die in a crowd«
»The liberty of using harmless pleasures proceeded Imlac will not be
disputed but it is still to be examined what pleasures are harmless The evil
of any pleasure that Nekayah can image is not in the act itself but in its
consequences Pleasure in itself harmless may become mischievous by endearing
to us a state which we know to be transient and probatory and withdrawing our
thoughts from that of which every hour brings us nearer to the beginning and
of which no length of time will bring us to the end Mortification is not
virtuous in itself nor has any other use but that it disengages us from the
allurements of sense In the state of future perfection to which we all aspire
there will be pleasure without danger and security without restraint«
The princess was silent and Rasselas turning to the astronomer asked him
whether he could not delay her retreat by showing her something which she had
not seen before
»Your curiosity said the sage has been so general and your pursuit of
knowledge so vigorous that novelties are not now very easily to be found but
what you can no longer procure from the living may be given by the dead Among
the wonders of this country are the catacombs or the ancient repositories in
which the bodies of the earliest generations were lodged and where by the
virtue of the gums which embalmed them they yet remain without corruption«
»I know not said Rasselas what pleasure the sight of the catacombs can
afford but since nothing else is offered I am resolved to view them and
shall place this with many other things which I have done because I would do
something«
They hired a guard of horsemen and the next day visited the catacombs When
they were about to descend into the sepulchral caves »Pekuah said the
princess we are now again invading the habitations of the dead I know that you
will stay behind let me find you safe when I return« »No I will not be left
answered Pekuah I will go down between you and the prince«
They then all descended and roved with wonder through the labyrinth of
subterraneous passages where the bodies were laid in rows on either side
Chapter XLVIII
Imlac discourses on the nature of the soul
»What reason said the prince can be given why the Egyptians should thus
expensively preserve those carcasses which some nations consume with fire
others lay to mingle with the earth and all agree to remove from their sight
as soon as decent rites can be performed«
»The original of ancient customs said Imlac is commonly unknown for the
practice often continues when the cause has ceased and concerning superstitious
ceremonies it is vain to conjecture for what reason did not dictate reason
cannot explain I have long believed that the practice of embalming arose only
from tenderness to the remains of relations or friends and to this opinion I am
more inclined because it seems impossible that this care should have been
general had all the dead been embalmed their repositories must in time have
been more spacious than the dwellings of the living I suppose only the rich or
honourable were secured from corruption and the rest left to the course of
nature
But it is commonly supposed that the Egyptians believed the soul to live as
long as the body continued undissolved and therefore tried this method of
eluding death«
»Could the wise Egyptians said Nekayah think so grossly of the soul If
the soul could once survive its separation what could it afterwards receive or
suffer from the body«
»The Egyptians would doubtless think erroneously said the astronomer in
the darkness of heathenism and the first dawn of philosophy The nature of the
soul is still disputed amidst all our opportunities of clearer knowledge some
yet say that it may be material who nevertheless believe it to be immortal«
»Some answered Imlac have indeed said that the soul is material but I can
scarcely believe that any man has thought it who knew how to think for all the
conclusions of reason enforce the immateriality of mind and all the notices of
sense and investigations of science concur to prove the unconsciousness of
matter
It was never supposed that cogitation is inherent in matter or that every
particle is a thinking being Yet if any part of matter be devoid of thought
what part can we suppose to think Matter can differ from matter only in form
density bulk motion and direction of motion to which of these however
varied or combined can consciousness be annexed To be round or square to be
solid or fluid to be great or little to be moved slowly or swiftly one way or
another are modes of material existence all equally alien from the nature of
cogitation If matter be once without thought it can only be made to think by
some new modification but all the modifications which it can admit are equally
unconnected with cogitative powers«
»But the materialists said the astronomer urge that matter may have
qualities with which we are unacquainted«
»He who will determine returned Imlac against that which he knows because
there may be something which he knows not he that can set hypothetical
possibility against acknowledged certainty is not to be admitted among
reasonable beings All that we know of matter is that matter is inert
senseless and lifeless and if this conviction cannot be opposed but by
referring us to something that we know not we have all the evidence that human
intellect can admit If that which is known may be overruled by that which is
unknown no being not omniscient can arrive at certainty«
»Yet let us not said the astronomer too arrogantly limit the Creators
power«
»It is no limitation of omnipotence replied the poet to suppose that one
thing is not consistent with another that the same proposition cannot be at
once true and false that the same number cannot be even and odd that
cogitation cannot be conferred on that which is created incapable of
cogitation«
»I know not said Nekayah any great use of this question Does that
immateriality which in my opinion you have sufficiently proved necessarily
include eternal duration«
»Of immateriality said Imlac our ideas are negative and therefore
obscure Immateriality seems to imply a natural power of perpetual duration as a
consequence of exemption from all causes of decay whatever perishes is
destroyed by the solution of its contexture and separation of its parts nor
can we conceive how that which has no parts and therefore admits no solution
can be naturally corrupted or impaired«
»I know not said Rasselas how to conceive any thing without extension
what is extended must have parts and you allow that whatever has parts may be
destroyed«
»Consider your own conceptions replied Imlac and the difficulty will be
less You will find substance without extension An ideal form is no less real
than material bulk yet an ideal form has no extension It is no less certain
when you think on a pyramid that your mind possesses the idea of a pyramid
than that the pyramid itself is standing What space does the idea of a pyramid
occupy more than the idea of a grain of corn or how can either idea suffer
laceration As is the effect such is the cause as thought is such is the power
that thinks a power impassive and indiscerptible«
»But the Being said Nekayah whom I fear to name the Being which made the
soul can destroy it«
»He surely can destroy it answered Imlac since however unperishable it
receives from a superiour nature its power of duration That it will not perish
by any inherent cause of decay or principle of corruption may be shown by
philosophy but philosophy can tell no more That it will not be annihilated by
him that made it we must humbly learn from higher authority«
The whole assembly stood a while silent and collected »Let us return said
Rasselas from this scene of mortality How gloomy would be these mansions of
the dead to him who did not know that he shall never die that what now acts
shall continue its agency and what now thinks shall think on for ever Those
that lie here stretched before us the wise and the powerful of ancient times
warn us to remember the shortness of our present state they were perhaps
snatched away while they were busy like us in the choice of life«
»To me said the princess the choice of life is become less important I
hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity«
They then hastened out of the caverns and under the protection of their
guard returned to Cairo
Chapter XLIX
The conclusion in which nothing is concluded
It was now the time of the inundation of the Nile a few days after their visit
to the catacombs the river began to rise
They were confined to their house The whole region being under water gave
them no invitation to any excursions and being well supplied with materials
for talk they diverted themselves with comparisons of the different forms of
life which they had observed and with various schemes of happiness which each
of them had formed
Pekuah was never so much charmed with any place as the convent of St
Anthony where the Arab restored her to the princess and wished only to fill it
with pious maidens and to be made prioress of the order she was weary of
expectation and disgust and would gladly be fixed in some unvariable state
The princess thought that of all sublunary things knowledge was the best
she desired first to learn all sciences and then purposed to found a college of
learned women in which she would preside that by conversing with the old and
educating the young she might divide her time between the acquisition and
communication of wisdom and raise up for the next age models of prudence and
patterns of piety
The prince desired a little kingdom in which he might administer justice in
his own person and see all the parts of government with his own eyes but he
could never fix the limits of his dominion and was always adding to the number
of his subjects
Imlac and the astronomer were contented to be driven along the stream of
life without directing their course to any particular port
Of these wishes that they had formed they well knew that none could be
obtained They deliberated a while what was to be done and resolved when the
inundation should cease to return to Abissinia
Finis