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