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 Imlac's 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