"I know not, faid Nekayah, any great ufe of this question. Does that immateriality, which, in my opinion, you have fufficiently proved, neceffarily include eternal duration ?"

"Of immateriality, faid Imlac, our ideas are negative, and therefore obfcure. Immateriality feems to imply a natural power of perpetual duration as a confequence of exemption from all caufes of decay : whatever perishes is destroyed by the folution of its contexture, and feparation of its parts; nor can we conceive how that which has no parts, and therefore admits no folution, can be naturally corrupted or impaired."

"I know not, faid Raffelas, how to conceive any thing without extenfion; what is extended muft have parts, and you allow, that whatever has parts may be destroyed."

"Confider your own conceptions, replied Imlac, and the difficulty will be lefs. You will find fubftance without extenfion. An ideal form is no lefs real than material bulk: yet an ideal form has no extenfion. It is no lefs certain, when you think on a pyramid, that your mind poffeffes the idea of a pyramid, than that the pyramid itself is ftanding. What space does the idea of a pyramid occupy more than the idea of a grain of corn? or how can either idea fuffer laceration? As is the effect, fuch is the cause as thought, fuch is the power that thinks; a power impassive and indifcerptible."

"But the Being, faid Nekayah, whom I fear to name, the Being which made the foul, can deftroy it."

"He,

"He, furely, can deftroy it, anfwered Imlac, fince, however unperishable, it receives from a superiour nature its power of duration. That it will not perish by any inherent cause of decay, or principle of corruption, may be fhewn by philosophy; but philofophy can tell no more. That it will not be annihilated by him that made it, we must humbly learn from higher authority."

The whole affembly ftood awhile filent and collected. "Let us return, faid Raffelas, from this fcene of mortality. How gloomy would be these manfions of the dead to him who did not know that he should never die; that what now acts fhall continue its agency, and what now thinks fhall think on for ever. Those that lie here ftretched before us, the wife and the powerful of ancient times, warn us to remember the fhortnefs of our present ftate: they were, perhaps, fnatched away while they were bufy like us in the choice of life."

"To me, faid the princefs, the choice of life is become lefs important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of eternity."

They then haftened out of the caverns, and, under the protection of their guard, returned to Cairo.

CHAP. XLVIII.

THE CONCLUSION, IN WHICH NOTHING IS CONCLUDED.

IT
T was now the time of the inundation of the
Nile a few days after their vifit to the cata-
combs, the river began to rife.

They were confined to their houfe. The whole region being under water gave them no invitation to any excurfions, and, being well fupplied with materials for talk, they diverted themselves with comparisons of the different forms of life which they had obferved, and with various fchemes of happiness, which each of them had formed.

Pekuah was never fo much charmed with any place as the convent of St. Anthony, where the Arab reftored her to the princefs, and wished only to fill it with pious maidens, and to be made prioress of the order: fhe was weary of expectation and difguft, and would gladly be fixed in fome unvariable state.

The princefs thought, that of all fublunary things, knowledge was the beft: fhe defired first to learn all sciences, and then purposed to found a college of learned women, in which she would prefide, that, by converfing with the old, and educating the young, she might divide her time between the acquifition and communication of wisdom, and raise for the next age models of prudence, and patterns of piety.

up

The prince defired a little kingdom, in which he might adminifter juftice in his own perfon, and fee

alf

all the parts of government with his own eyes; but he could never fix the limits of his dominion, and was always adding to the number of his fubjects.

Imlac and the aftronomer were contented to be driven along the ftream of life, without directing their course to any particular port.

Of these wishes that they had formed they well knew that none could be obtained. They deliberated awhile what was to be done, and refolved, when the inundation should ceafe, to return to Abiffinia,

THE

VISION OF THEODORE,

The HERMIT of TENERIFFE,

FOUND IN HIS CELL.

ON of Perseverance, whoever thou art, whose curiofity has led thee hither, read and be wife. He that now calls upon thee is Theodore, the Hermit of Teneriffe, who in the fifty-feventh year of his retreat left this inftruction to mankind, left his folitary hours should be spent in vain.

I was once what thou art now, a groveller on the earth, and a gazer at the fky; I trafficked and heaped wealth together, I loved and was favoured, I wore the robe of honour and heard the mufick of adulation; I was ambitious, and rofe to greatness; I was unhappy, and retired. I fought for fome time what I at length found here, a place where all real wants might be easily supplied, and where I might not be under the neceffity of purchafing the affistance of men by the toleration of their follies. Here I faw fruits and herbs and water, and here determined to wait the hand of death, which I hope, when at last it comes, will fall lightly upon me.

Forty-eight years had I now paffed in forgetfulnefs of all mortal cares, and without any inclination VOL. XI.

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