and my travels; and, though I cannot now recollect any thing that he uttered above the power of a common man, he difmiffed me aftonished at his wifdom and enamoured of his goodness..

My credit was now fo high, that the merchants, with whom I had travelled, applied to me for recommendations to the Ladies of the Court. I was surprised at their confidence of follicitation, and gently reproached them with their practices on the road. They heard me with cold indifference, and fhewed no tokens of fhame or forrow.

They then urged their request with the offer of a bribe; but what I would not do for kindness I would not do for money; and refused them, not because they had injured me, but because I would not enable them to injure others; for I knew they would have made ufe of my credit to cheat thofe who should buy their wares.

Having refided at Agra till there was no more to be learned, I travelled into Perfia, where I saw many remains of ancient magnificence, and obferved many new accommodations of life. The Perfians are a nation eminently focial, and their affemblies afforded me daily opportunities of remarking characters and manners, and of tracing human nature through all its variations.

'From Perfia I passed into Arabia, where I saw a nation at once paftoral and warlike; who live without any fettled habitation; whofe only wealth is their flocks and herds; and who have yet carried on, through all ages, an hereditary war with all mankind, though they neither covet nor envy their poffeffions.

. Wherever I went, I found that poetry was confidered as the highest learning, and regarded with a veneration somewhat approaching to that which man would pay to the angelic nature: And it yet fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the moft ancient poets are confidered as the beft; whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquifition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the firft poetry of every nation furprifed them as a novelty, and retained the credit by confent which it received by accident at first; or whether the province of poetry is to defcribe nature and paffion, which are always the fame, and the firft writers took poffeffion of the most striking objects for defcription, and the moft probable occurrences for fiction, and left nothing to thofe that followed them, but transcription of the fame events, and new combinations of the fame images. Whatever be the reafon, it is commonly obferved that the early writers

3

'I was defirous to add my name to this illuftrious fraternity. I read all the poets of Perfia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that are suspended in the mofque of Mecca. But I foon found that no man was ever great by imitation. My defire of excellence impelled me to transfer my attention to nature and to life. Nature was to be my subject, and men to be my acditors: I could never defcribe what I had not feen; I could not hope to move thofe with delight or terror, whofe interefts and opinions I did not understand.

Being now refolved to be a poet, I faw every thing with a new purpose; my sphere of attention was fuddenly magnified; no kind of knowledge was to be overlooked. I ranged mountains and defarts for images and refemblances, and pictured upon my mind every tree of the foreft and flower of the valley. I obferved with equal care the crags of the rock and the pinnacles of the palace. Sometimes I wandered along the mazes of the rivulet, and fometimes watched the changes of the fummer clouds. To a poet nothing can be uselefs; whatever is beautiful and whatever is dreadful, must be familiar to his imagination; he must be converfant with all that is awfully vaft or elegantly little: The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and meteors of the fky, muft all concur to ftore his mind with inexhaustible variety; for every idea is useful for the inforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth; and he, who knows moft, will have moft power of diverfifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allufions and unexpected inftruction.

All the appearances of nature I was therefore careful to ftudy; and every country which I have furveyed has contributed fomething to my poetical powers.'

In fo wide a furvey, faid the Prince, you muft furely have left much unobserved. I have lived, till now, within the circuit of thefe mountains, and yet cannot walk abroad without the fight of fomething which I had never beheld before, or never heeded.'

The business of a poet, fáid Imlac, is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: He does not number the streaks of the tulip, or defcribe the different shades in the verdure of the reft: He is to exhibit, in his portraits of nature, fuch prominent and ftriking features as recal the ori

ginal

ginal to every mind; and muft neglect the minuter difcriminations, which one may have remarked and another have neglected, for thofe characteristics which are alike obvious to vigilance and careleffnefs.

But the knowledge of nature is only half the talk of a poet; he must be acquainted likewife with all the modes of life: His character requires that he estimate the happinefs and mifery of every condition; obferve the power of all the paffions, in all their combinations; and trace the changes of the human mind, as they are modified by various inftitutions and accidental influences of climate or custom, from the fprightliness of infancy to the defpondence of decrepitude: He must diveft himself of the prejudices of his age or country; he must confider right and wrong in their abstracted and invariable ftate; he muft difregard prefent laws and opinions, and rife to general and tranfcendental truths, which will always be the fame; he must therefore content himself with the flow progress of his name; contemn the applaufe of his own time; and commit his claims to the justice of pofterity: He muft write as the interpreter of nature and the legiflator of mankind, and confider himfelf as prefiding over the thoughts and manners of fucceffive generations, as a being fuperior to time and place. His labour is not yet at an end; he must know many languages and many fciences; and, that his ftile may be worthy of his thoughts, muft, by inceffant practice, familiarife to himself every delicacy of fpeech and grace of harmony.'

Imlac now felt the enthufiaftic fit, and was proceeding to aggrandife his own profeffion, when the Prince cried out, · Enough! Thou haft convinced me that no human being can ever be a poet. Proceed now with thy narration.'

To be a poet, faid Imlac, is indeed very difficult. So difficult, returned the Prince, that I will at prefent hear no more of his labours: Tell me whither you went when you had feen Perfia.'

From Perfia, faid the poet, I travelled through Syria, and for three years refided in Palestine, where I converfed with great numbers of the northern and western nations, of Europe; the nations which are now in poffeffion of all power and all knowledge; whofe armies are irresistible, and whofe fleets command the remoteft parts of the globe. When I compared these men with the natives of our own kingdom, and thofe that furround us, they appeared almoft another order of beings. In their countries it is difficult to with for any thing that may not be obtained; a thousand arts, of which we ne

ver heard, are continually labouring for their convenience and pleature; and whatever their own climate has denied them is fupplied by their commerce.'

By what means, faid the Prince, are the Europeans thus powerful? Or why, fince they can fo eafily vifit Afia and Africa for trade or conqueft, cannot the Afiatics and Africans invade their coafts, plant colonies in their ports, and give laws to their natu ral Princes? The fame wind that carries them back would bring us thither.'

They are more powerful, Sir, than we, anfwered Imlac, because they are wifer; knowledge will always predominate over ig norance, as man governs the other animals But, why their knowledge is more than ours, I know not what reafon can be given, but the unfearchable will of the Supreme Being.

When, faid the Prince, with a figh, fhall I be able to vifit Paleftine, and mingle with this mighty confluence of nations? Till that happy moment fhall arrive, let me fill up the time with fuch reprefentations as thou canst give me. I am not ignorant of the motive that affembles fuch numbers in that place, and cannot but confider it as the center of wisdom and piety, to which the best and wifeft men of every land must be continually reforting.'

There are fome nations, faid Imlac, that fend few vifitants to Paleftine; for ma ny numerous and learned fects in Europe concur to cenfure pilgrimage as fuperftitious, or deride it as ridiculous."

You know, faid the Prince, how little my life has made me acquainted with diverfity of opinions; it will be too long to hear the arguments on both fides; you, that have confidered them, tell me the refult,'

Pilgrimage, faid Imlac, like many other acts of piety, may be reasonable or fuperftitious, according to the principles upon which it is performed. Long journies in search of truth are not commanded; truth, fuch as is neceffary to the regulation of life, is always found where it is honeftly fought: Change of place is no natural cause of the increafe of piety; for it inevitably produces diffipation of mind: Yet, fince men go every day to view the places where great actions have been performed, and return with ftronger impreffions of the event, curiofity of the fame kind may naturally difpofe us to view that country whence our religion had its beginning; and I believe no man furveys those awful scenes without fome confirmation of holy resolutions. That the Supreme Being may be more eafily propitiated in one place than in another, is the dream of idle fuperftition; but that fome places may operate upon our own minds in

Hh 2

an.

an uncommon manner, is an opinion which hourly experience will juftify. He who fuppoles that his vices may be more fuccefsfully combated in Paleftine, will perhaps find himself mistaken; yet he may go thither without folly; He who thinks they will be more freely pardoned, difhonours at once his reafon and religion.'

Thefe, faid the Prince, are European diftinctions; I will confider them another time. What have found to be the efyou fect of knowledge? Are thofe nations happier than we ?'

There is fo much infelicity, faid the poet, in the world, that scarce any man has leifure from his own diftreffes to estimate the comparative happiness of others. Knowledge is certainly one of the means of pleafure, as is confeffed by the natural defire which every mind feels of increafing its ideas. Ignorance is mere privation, by which nothing can be produced; it is a vacuity in which the foul fits motionlefs and torpid for want of attraction; and, without knowing why, we always rejoice when we learn, and grieve when we forget. I am therefore inclined to conclude, that, if nothing counteracts the natural confequence of learning, we grow more happy as our minds take a wider range.

In enumerating the particular comforts of life, we fhall find many advantages on the fide of the Europeans: They cure wounds and diseases with which we languifh and perish: We fuffer inclemencies of weather which they can obviate: They have engines for the difpatch of many laborious works, which we must perform by manual industry: There is fuch communication between diftant places, that one friend can hardly be faid to be absent from another : Their policy removes all public inconveniencies; they have roads cut through their mountains, and bridges laid upon their rivers: And, if we defcend to the privacies of life, their habitations are more commodious, and their poffeffions are more fecure.'

They are furely happy, faid the Prince, who have all thefe conveniencies, of which I envy none fo much as the facility with which feparated friends interchange their thoughts."

The Europeans, answered Imlac, are lefs unhappy than we, but they are not happy; human life is every-where a state in which much is to be endured, and little to be enjoyed."

I am not yet willing, faid the Prince, to fuppofe that happiness is so parfimonioufly diftributed to mortals; nor can believe but that, if I had the choice of life, I fhould be able to fill every day with pleasure: I would

injure no man, and fhould provoke no re fentment: I would relieve every distress, i and fhould enjoy the benedictions of grati tude: I would chufe my friends among the wife, and my wife among the virtuous; and therefore fhould be in no danger from treachery or unkindness. My children fhould, by my care, be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their childhood had received. What would dare to moleft him who might call on every fide to thoufands inriched by his bounty or af fitted by his power? And why should not life glide quietly away in the soft reciprocation of protection and reverence? All this may be done without the help of European refinements, which appear by their effects to be rather fpecious than useful. Let us leave them, and purfue our jour ney.

From Palestine, faid Imlac, I paffed through many regions of Afia; in the more civilifed kingdoms as a trader, and among the barbarians of the mountains as a pil grim. At laft I began to long for my native country, that I might repose, after my travels and fatigues, in the places where I had spent my earliest years, and gladden my old companions with the recital of my adventures. Often did I figure to myself thofe, with whom I had sported away the gay hours of dawning life, fitting round me in its evening, wondering at my tales and liften. ing to my counfels.

When this thought had taken poffeffion of my mind, I confidered every moment as wafted, which did not bring me nearer to Abiffinia. I haftened into Egypt, and, notwithstanding my impatience, was detained ten months in the contemplation of its ancient magnificence, and in inquiries after the remains of its ancient learning. I found in Cairo a mixture of all nations; fome brought thither by the love of knowledge, fome by the hope of gain, and many by the defire of living after their own manner without obfervation, and of lying hid in the obfcurity of multitudes; for, in a city populous as Cairo, it is poffible to obtain at the fame time the gratifications of fociety and the fecrecy of folitude.

From Cairo I travelled to Suez, and embarked on the Red fea, paffing along the coaft till I arrived at the port from which I had departed twenty years before. Here I joined myself to a caravan, and re-entered my native country.

I now expected the careffes of my kinfmen, and the congratulations of my friends; and was not without hope that my father, whatever value he had set upon riches, would own, with gladness and pride, a fon

who

Mandane have an interview, in which all their love, friendship, and attachment are repeated: And the Prince implores an interview of the tyrant, to whom he discloses, in order to fave Zamti, Mandane, and Hamet, that he is Zaphimri: But Gengis Kan imagines this another artifice to deceive him.

The tyrant is now informed by a Chinefe forced into his fervice, that fome of the Coreans and malecontens are up in arms to fupport the young Prince's cause : Gengis Kan, terrified by a dream, is ready to arm and head his troops against them; but is diffuaded by his Officer, who tells him the enemy will easily be difperfed; that the pretended Etan was really the young Prince, and, as foon as he had discovered it, his zeal forced him to destroy the fource of rebellious diffenfion.

The tyrant is fatisfied; and, when he leaft expects it, the young Prince is oppofed to him fabre in hand. The tyrant declines the combat, under pretence of being unarmed,-Zaphimri generously tells him, against his introductor's will, that he does not purpose taking any advantage of him. When Gengis Kan has reached his fword, the young Prince follows him; and, in upbraiding him for his tyranny, heroically decides the cause.

In the mean while, the guards of Zamti,

Nor only richer by the spoils become, But praife th' advent'rous youth, who bring them home.

One dubious character, we own, he draws A patriot zealous in a Monarch's caule! Nice is the task the varying hand to guide And teach the blending colours to divide; Where, rain-bow like, th' incroaching tint invade

Each other's bounds, and mingle light with fhade.

If then, affiduous to obtain his end, You find too far the subject's zeal extend; If undistinguish'd loyalty prevails Where nature shrinks, and strong affection fails,

On China's tenets charge the fond mistake And fpare his error for his virtue's fake. From nobler motives our allegiance

fprings,

For Britain knows no right divine in Kings;

From freedom's choice that boasted right arofe,

And thro' each line from freedom's choice it flows.

Juftice, with Mercy join'd, the throne main

the Tartars,

Mr. Branby,

OCTAR, a Tartar General
Mr. Garrick.
ZAMTI, a Mandarin,
ETAN, educated as his fon, Mr. Moffop.
HAMET, a youthful cap-Mr. Holland.
tive,

MORAT, a faithful friend? Mr. Burton.

of Zamti, MIRVAN, a Chinese in the Tartar's fervice, fecretly a friend of Zamti, ORASMING, Two conZIMVENTI, fpirators, MANDANE, Zamti's wife,

Mr. Davies.

Mr. Packer. Mr. Auftin.

Mrs. Yates.