fails to take account of certain general qualities, which made Johnson's writings popular with his contemporaries and have given them a permanent place in our literature. No one can deny that Johnson's style possesses to an eminent degree clearness, force, and melody. The tendency to use large words seldom renders a sentence obscure, partly because Johnson seldom used large words of his own coining. The antithesis, which he clearly carried to excess, was still an important element in the force characterizing his writings. Alliteration and balance, though also used too freely, yet made his sentences more melodious and pleasing.

V. THE TEXT.

The original edition of Rasselas was published with the following title page :

two

The Prince of | Abyssinia. | A | Tale. | In volumes. | London. | Printed for R. and J. Dodsley, in Pall-Mall; | and W. Johnston, in Ludgate-Street. MDCCLIX.

On the first page occurs the title which has been commonly used for the work, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. But this was not used in the printed edition, if we may trust the Bibliography of Dr. James Macaulay,' before 1789, although two years before an edition was printed with the title, Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia. The book was referred to under the usual title, however, in the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1759, in which it was first noticed. Reprint of the first edition, London, 1884.

This is apparently explained by the notice in the Monthly Review of May, 1759, in which the story is referred to as The Prince of Abyssinia, but a note tells us that it was advertised under the title of Rasselas. The name of Rasselas also occurs in Boswell's Life, as if this were commonly used by the friends of Johnson. The first edition was printed in two small volumes (cf. p. xi), one including chapters i.-xxv., and the other the rest of the story. By an error two chapters are numbered xxviii., so that there seem to be but forty-eight chapters in all.

There is no evidence that Johnson ever altered or revised the book after sending it to the printer. This at least may be inferred from the reminiscence of Sir Joshua Reynolds already referred to, and from a reference in Boswell's Life. Notwithstanding, a comparison of late editions with the first, for which alone Johnson was responsible, shows that many slight changes have since been made. These are usually alterations in single words, occasionally in phrases, and sometimes in clauses or even sentences. Even chapter headings have also been sometimes altered by later editors. It is true that the changes which have been made are not so considerable as to alter Johnson's meaning in important particulars, but it is still essential that a critical text should adhere exactly to the words of the author. For this reason the present edition follows the text of the first edition in every respect, except for one or two obvious typographical errors, which are mentioned in the notes. While following the first edition word for word,

1 See note on 32: 14.

however, there has been no attempt to follow the spelling, the capitalization, or the punctuation of the original print where they differ essentially from modern usage. In general the punctuation of Rasselas, as of other eighteenth-century books, differs from present usage in the more frequent employment of the colon, the semi-colon, and the comma. The first was often put where a period would be placed to-day. The second was used where a comma would now be regarded as sufficient, and the comma occurs with far greater frequency on the pages of an eighteenth-century publication than is usual in books printed at the present time. But the structure of Johnson's sentences seems to require the use of the semi colon to a greater extent than at present, so that in this respect the original punctuation has sometimes been retained.

THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS.

CHAPTER I.

DESCRIPTION OF A PALACE IN A VALLEY.

YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day 5 will be supplied by the morrow,-attend to the history of Rasselas, prince of Abyssinia.

Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty emperor in whose dominions the Father of Waters begins his course; whose bounty pours down the streams of Io plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt.

IO

According to the custom which has descended from age to age among the monarchs of the torrid zone, he was confined in a private palace, with the other sons 15 and daughters of Abyssinian royalty, till the order of succession should call him to the throne.

The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes, was a spacious valley in the kingdom of 20 Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the summits overhang the middle part. The