who marry early with their part

ners.

"The union of these two affections, faid Raffelas, 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, anfwered the princefs, 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." Thofe conditions, which flatter hope and attract defire, are so constituted, that, as we approach one, we recede from another. There are goods fo opposed that we cannot seize both, but, by too much prudence, may pafs between them at too great a distance to reach either. This is often the fate of long confideration; he does nothing who endeavours to do more than is allowed to humanity.

Flatter not yourself with contrarieties of pleasure. Of the bleffings fet before you make your choice, and be No man can tafte the fruits

content.

of autumn while he is delighting his fcent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the fame time

fill

his cup from the fource and from the mouth of the Nile,"

CHAP

CHAP. XXX.

IMLAC ENTERS, AND CHANGES THE CONVERSATION.

HERE Imlac entered, and interrupted

them. "Imlac, faid Raffelas, I have been taking from the princefs the difmal. history of private life, and am almoft discouraged from further search, "

"It seems to me, faid Imlac, that while you are making the choice of life, you neglect to live. You wander about a fingle city, which ? however large and diverfified can now afford few novelties, and forget that you are in a country, famous among the earlieft monarchies for the power and wifdom of its inhabitants; a country where the fciences firft dawned that illuminate the world, and

beyond which the arts cannot be traced of civil fociety or domeftick life.

"The old Egyptians have left behind them monuments of industry and power before which all European magnificence is confeffed to fade away. The ruins of their architecture are the fchools of modern builders, and from the wonders which time has fpared we may conjecture, though uncertainly, what it has destroyed."

"My curiofity, faid Raffelas, does not very strongly lead me to furvey piles of stone, or mounds of earth; my business is with man. I came hither not to measure fragments of temples, trace choaked aqueducts, but to look upon the various fcenes of the present world."

or

"The things that are now before us, faid 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, whofe form of life was different from all that the prefent condition of mankind requires or allows,"

"To know any thing, returned the poet, we must know its effects; to fee men we muft fee their works that we may learn what reafon has dictated, or paffion has incited, and find what are the moft powerful motives of action. To judge rightly of the present we muft oppofe it to the paft; for all judgment is comparative, and of the future nothing can be known. The truth is, that no mind is much employed upon the prefent: recollection and anticipation fill up almoft all our moments. Our paffions are joy and grief, love and hatred, hope and fear.

L4

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