that which for the prefent moment he should most defire, amufes his defires with impoffible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable dominion. The mind dances from scene to fcene, unites all pleasures in all combinations, and riots in delights which nature and fortune, with all their bounty, cannot bestow. 4 In time fome particular train of ideas fixes the attention, all other intellectual gratifications are rejected, the mind, in weariness or leifure, recurs conftantly to the favourite conception, and feasts on the lufcious falsehood whenever he is offended with the bitternefs of truth. By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; the grows first imperious, and in time defpotick. Then fictions begin to operate as realities, falfe opinions faften upon the mind, and Q2 life life paffes in dreams of rapture or of anguish. ,, This, Sir, is one of the dangers of folitude, which the hermit has confeffed not always to promote goodness, and the aftronomer's mifery has pro ved to be not always propitious to wisdom." I will no more, faid the favourite, imagine myself the queen of Abiffinia. I have often spent the hours, which the princefs gave to my own disposal, in adjufting ceremonies and regulating the court; I have repressed the pride of the powerful, and granted the petitions of the poor; I have built new palaces in more happy fituations, planted groves upon the tops of mountains, and have exulted in the benefi cence of royalty, till, when the princefs entered, I had almoft forgotten to bow down before her." And I, faid the princess, will not allow myself any more to play the fhepherdefs in my waking dreams. I I have often foothed my thoughts with the quiet and innocence of paftoral employments, till I have in my chamber heard the winds whistle, and the sheep bleat: fometimes freed the lamb entangled in the thicket, and fometimes with my crook encountered the wolf. I have a dress like that of the village maids, which I put on to help my imagination, and a pipe on which I play foftly, and fuppofe myself followed by my flocks." , I will confefs, faid the prince, an indulgence of fantaftick delight more dangerous than yours. I have frequently endeavoured to image the poffibility of a perfect government, by which all wrong fhould be restrained, all vice reformed, and all the fubjects preferved in tranquillity and innocence. This thought produced innumerable fchemes of reformation, and dictated many ufeful regulations and falutary edicts. This Q 3 has 1 has been the fport and fometimes the labour of my folitude; and I ftart, when I think with how little anguish I once supposed the death of my father and my brothers." ,, Such, fays Imlac, are the effects of vifionary schemes: when we first form them we know them to be abfurd, but familiarize them by degrees, and in time lofe fight of their folly," 1 CHAP. CHA P. XLV. THEY DISCOURSE WITH AN THE HE evening was now far paft, and they rose to return home. As they walked along the bank of the Nile, delighted with the beams of the moon quivering on the water, they faw at a fmall diftance an old man, whom the prince had often heard in the affembly of the fages.,, Yonder, faid he, is one whofe years have calmed his paffions, but not clouded his reafon: let us clofe the difquifitions of the night, by inquiring what are his fentiments of his own ftate, that we may know whether youth alone is to struggle with vexation, and whether any better hope remains for the latter part of life.” Here the fage approached and faluted them. They invited him to join |