treachery. Many of those who surrounded the Baffa, were sent only to watch and report his conduct; every tongue was muttering cenfure, and every eye was fearching for a fault.

At laft the letters of revocation arrived, the Baffa was carried in chains to Conftantinople, and his name was mentioned no more.

"What are we now to think of the prerogatives of power, faid Raffelas to his fifter; is it without any efficacy to good? or, is the fubordinate degree only dangerous, and the fupreme fafe and glorious? Is the Sultan the only happy man in his dominions? or, is the Sultan himself subject to the torments of fufpicion, and the dread of enemies?"

In a fhort time the fecond Baffa was depofed. The Sultan, that had advanced him, was murdered by the Janifaries, and his fucceffor had other views and different favourites.

CHA P. XXV.

THE PRINCESS PERSUES HER ENQUIRY WITH MORE DILIGENCE THAN SUCCESS.

T

HE princefs, in the mean time, infinuated herself into many families; for there are few doors, through which liberality, joined with good humour, cannot find its way. The daughters of many houfes were airy and cheerful, but Nekayah had been too long accustomed to the converfation of Imlac and her brother to be much pleased with childish levity and prattle which had no meaning. She found their thoughts narrow, their wishes low, and their merriment often artificial. Their pleasures, poor as

they were, could not be preferved pure, but were embittered by petty competitions and worthless emulation. They were always jealous of the beauty of each other; of a quality to which folicitude can add nothing, and from which detraction can take nothing away. Many were in love with triflers like themselves, and many fancied that they were in love when in truth they were only idle. Their affection was fixed on fenfe or virtue, and therefore feldom ended but in vexation. Their grief, however, like their joy, was tranfient; every thing floated in their mind unconnected with the paft or future, fo that one defire eafily gave way to another, as a second stone caft into the water effaces and confounds the circles of the first.

With these girls fhe played as with inoffenfive animals, and found them proud of her countenance, and weary of her company,

But her purpose was to examine more deeply, and her affability easily perfuaded the hearts that were fwelling with forrow to discharge their fecrets in her ear and thofe whom hope flattered, or profperity delighted, often courted her to partake their pleasures.

The princess and her brother commonly met in the evening in a private fummer-houfe on the bank of the Nile, and related, to each other the occurrences of the day. As they were fitting together, the princefs caft her eyes upon the river that flowed before her. "C Answer, said she, great father of waters, thou that rolleft thy floods through eighty nations, to the invocations of the daughter of thy native king. Tell me if thou watereft, through all

thy course, a fingle habitation from which thou dost not hear the murmurs of complaint?"

"You are then, faid Raffelas, not more fuccessful in private houses than I have been in courts.” << I have, fince the laft partition of our provinces, faid the princess, enabled myself to enter familiarly into many families, where there was the fairest shew of prosperity and peace, and know not one houfe that is not haunted by fome fury that deftroys their quiet.

"I did not feek eafe among the poor, because I concluded that there it could not be found. But I

faw many poor, whom I had fuppofed to live in affluence. Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances it is often concealed in fplendour, and often in extravagance. It is the care of a very 'great part of mankind to conceal their indigence from the reft: they support themselves by temporary expedients, and every day is loft in contriving for the morrow.

<<This, however, was an evil, which, though frequent, I faw with lefs pain, because I could relieve it. Yet fome have refufed my bounties; more offended with my quickness to detect their wants, than pleased with my readiness to fuccour them : and others, whofe exigencies compelled them to admit my kindness, have never been able to forgive their benefactress. Many, however, have been fincerely grateful, without the oftentation of gratitude, or the hope of other favours."

CHAP. XXVI.

THE PRINCESS CONTINUES HER REMARKS UPON PRIVATE LIFE.

EKAYAH perceiving her brother's attention fixed, proceeded in her narrative.

NEKA

"In families, where there is or is not poverty, there is commonly difcord: if a kingdom be, as Imlac tells us, a great family, a family likewife is a little kingdom, torn with factions, and expofed to revolutions. An unpractifed obferver expects the love of parents and children to be conftant and equal; but this kindness feldom continues beyond the years of infancy: in a fhort time the children become rivals to their parents. Benefits are allayed by reproaches, and gratitude debased by envy.

"Parents and children feldom act in concert: each child endeavours to appropriate the esteem or fondness of the parents, and the parents, with yet lefs temptation, betray each other to their children; thus fome place their confidence in the father, and fome in the mother, and by degrees, the house is filled with artifices and feuds.

"The opinions of children and parents, of the young and the old, are naturally oppofite, by the contrary effects of hope and defpondence, of expectation and experience, without crime or folly on either fide. The colours of life in youth and age appear different, as the face of nature in fpring and winter. And how can children credit the affertions of parents, which their own eyes show them to be falfe?

F 4

"Few

"Few parents act in fuch a manner as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their lives. The old man trufts wholly to flow contrivance and gradual progreffion: the youth expects to force his way by genius, vigour, and precipitance. The old man pays regard to riches, and the youth reverences virtue. The old man deifies prudence: the youth commits himfelf to magnanimity and chance. The young man, who intends no ill, believes that none is intended, and therefore acts with openness and candour: but his father, having fuffered the injuries of fraud, is impelled to fufpect, and too often allured to practife it. Age looks with anger on the temerity of youth, and youth with contempt on the scrupulofity of age. Thus parents and children, for the greatest part, lefs and, if thofe whom nature has thus closely united are the torments of each other, where fhall we look for tendernefs and confolation?"

live on to love lefs and

Surely, faid the prince, you must have been unfortunate in your choice of acquaintance: I am unwilling to believe, that the moft tender of all relations is thus impeded in its effects by natural neceffity."

"Domestick difcord, answered fhe, is not inevitably and fatally neceffary; but yet it is not eafily avoided. We feldom fee that a whole family is virtuous: the good and evil cannot well agree; and the evil can yet lefs agree with one another: even the virtuous fall fometimes to variance, when their virtues are of different kinds, and tending to extremes. In general, thofe parents have most re

verence