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"Man is not weak, answered his companion; knowledge is more than equivalent to force. The master of mechanicks laughs at strength. I can burst the gate, but cannot do it fecretly. Some other expedient must be tried."

As they were walking on the fide of the mountain, they obferved that the conies, which the rain had driven from their burrows, had taken fhelter among the bushes, and formed holes behind them, tending upwards in an oblique line. "It has been the opinion of antiquity, faid Imlac, that human reason borrowed many arts from the instinct of animals; let us, therefore, not think ourselves degraded by learning from the coney. We may escape by piercing the

mountain in the fame direction. We

will

2

will begin where the fummit hangs over the middle part, and labour upward till we shall iffue out beyond the prominence."

The eyes of the prince, when he heard this propofal, fparkled with joy. The execution was easy, and the fuccefs certain.

No time was now loft. They haftened early in the morning to chufe a place proper for their mine. They clambered with great fatigue among crags and brambles, and returned without having discovered any part that favoured their defign. The fecond and the third day were spent in the fame manner, and with the fame fruftration. But, on the fourth, they found a small cavern, con

cealed

cealed by a thicket, where they refolved to make their experiment.

Imlac procured inftruments proper to hew stone and remove earth, and they fell to their work on the next day with more eagerness than vigour. They were presently exhausted by their efforts, and fat down to pant upon the grafs. The prince, for a moment, appeared to be discouraged. "Sir, faid his companion, practice will enable us to continue our labour for a longer time; mark, however, how far we have advanced, and you will find that our toil will fome time have an end. Great works are performed, not by ftrength, but perfeverance: yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you fee its height and fpacioufnefs. He that fhall walk with vigour three hours a day

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will pass in seven years a space equal to the circumference of the globe."

They returned to their work day after day, and, in a fhort time, found a fiffure in the rock, which enabled them to pafs far with very little obftruction. This Raffelas confidered as a good omen. "Do not difturb your mind, faid Imlac, with other hopes or fears than reason may fuggeft: if you are pleafed with prognofticks of good, you will be terrified likewife with tokens of evil, and your whole life will be a prey to fuperftition. Whatever facilitates our work is more than an omen, it is a cause of fuccefs. This is one of thofe pleafing furprises which often happen to active

refolution. Many things difficult to defign prove easy to performance."

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CHA P. XIV.

Raffelas and Imlac receive an unexpected vifit.

T

HEY had now wrought their way

to the middle, and folaced their toil with the approach of liberty, when the prince, coming down to refresh himfelf with air, found his fifter Nekayah standing before the mouth of the cavity. He started and stood confused, afraid to tell his defign, and yet hopeless to conceal it. A few moments determined him to repofe on her fidelity, and fecure her fecrecy by a declaration without reserve.

"Do not imagine, faid the princess, that I came hither as a fpy: I had long obferved from my window, that you and

VOL. I.

H

Imlac

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