and how shall we do that for others, which we are feldom able to do for ourselves ?"

"But furely, interpofed the prince, you suppose the chief motive of choice forgotten or neglected. Whenever I

fhall feek a wife, it fhall be my first queftion, whether fhe be willing to be led by reafon ?"

"Thus it is, faid Nekayah, that philofophers are deceived. There are a thousand familiar difputes which reason never can decide; queftions that elude investigation, and make logick ridicu lous; cafes where fomething must be done, and where little can be faid. Confider the state of mankind, and inquire how few can be fuppofed to act upon any occafions, whether small or great, with all the reafons of action present to their minds. Wretched

would

would be the pair above all names of wretchedness, who should be doomed to adjust by reason, every morning, all the minute detail of a domeftick day.

"Those who marry at an advanced age, will probably escape the encroachments of their children; but, in dimi- · nution of this advantage, they will be likely to leave them, ignorant and helplefs, to a guardian's mercy: or, if that fhould not happen, they must at least go out of the world before they fee those whom they love beft either wife or great.

"From their children, if they have lefs to fear, they have lefs alfo to hope, and they lofe, without equivalent, the joys of early love, and the convenience of uniting with manners pliant, and minds fufceptible of new impreffions, which might wear away their diffimiliI 5 tudes

tudes by long cohabitation, as foft bodies by continual attrition, conform their furfaces to each other.

"I believe it will be found that thofe who marry late are best pleased with their children, and thofe who marry early with their partners."

"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."

66

Every hour, answered the princess, confirms my prejudice in favour of the position so often uttered by the mouth of Imlac, That nature fets her gifts on the right hand and on the left.' Thofe conditions, which flatter hope and attract defire, are fo conftituted, that, as we approach one, we recede from another.

other. There are goods fo opposed that we cannot feize both, but, by too much prudence, may pass 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 content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his fcent with the flowers of the fpring: no man can, at the fame time, fill his cup from the fource and from the mouth of the Nile,"

CHAP. XXXIX.

IMLAC ENTERS, AND CHANGES THE

HE

CONVERSATION.

ERE Imlac entered, and interrupted them. Imlac, faid Raf.

felas, I have been taking from the prin cefs the difmal history of private life, and am almost discouraged from further fearch."

"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 wisdom of its inhabitants; a country where the fciences

firft