 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 maid's 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
