fear. Of joy and grief the paft is the object, and the future of hope and fear; even love and hatred refpect the paft, for the cause must have been before the effect.

"The present ftate of things is the confequence of the former, and it is natural to inquire what were the fources of the good that we enjoy, or the evil that we fuffer. If we act only for ourfelves, to neglect the ftudy of hiftory is not prudent: if we are entrusted with the care of others, it is not juft. 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 ge. nerally useful as that which relates the progrefs of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the fucceffive advances of fcience, the viciffitudes of learning and ignorance which

are

are the light and darkness of thinking beings, the extinction and refufcitation of arts, and the revolutions of the intellectual world. If accounts of battles and invafions are peculiarly the business of princes, the ufeful or elegant arts are not to be neglected: those who have kingdoms to govern, have understandings to cultivtae.

"Example is always more effica cious than precept. A foldier is formed in war, and a painter muft copy pictuIn this, contemplative life has

res.

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the advantage: great actions are feldom feen, but the labours of art are always at hand for thofe who defire to know what art has been able to perform.

"When the eye or the imagination is ftruck with any uncommon work, the next tranfition of an active mind is to the means by which it was performed. Here begins the true ufe of fuch contemplation; we enlarLS

ge

ge our comprehenfion by new ideas, and perhaps recover fome art loft to mankind, or learn what is less perfectly known in our own country. At leaft we compare our own with former times, and either rejoice at our improvements, or, what is the firft motion towards good, difcover our defects. "

"I am willing faid the prince, to fee all that can deserve my fearch." "And I, faid the princess, fhall rejoice to learn fomething of the manners of antiquity.

"

"The most pompous monument of Egyptian greatnefs, and one of the moft bulky works of manual induftry, faid Imlac, are the Pyramids; fabricks raifed before the time of hiftory, and of which the earlieft narratives afford us only uncertain traditions. Of these

the

the greatest is ftill ftanding very little injured by time. "

"Let us vifit them to-morrow, faid Nekayah. I have often heard of the Pyramids, and fhall not reft, till I have feen them within and without with my own eyes."

CHAP.

CHAP. XXXI.

THEY VISIT THE PYRAMIDS.

THE refolution being thus taken, they

fet out the next day. They laid tents upon their camels, being refolved to ftay among the Pyramids till their curiofity was fully fatisfied. They travelled gently, turned afide to every thing remarkable, ftopped from time to time and converfed 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 aftonished at the extent of the base, and the height of the. top. Imlac explained to them the principles upon which the pyramidal form was chofen for a fabrick intended to co