tranquility, as the sport of chance and the slaves of

Thus they rose in the morning and lay down at night, psed with each other and with themselves, -all but 3 Hassels, who, in the twenty-sixth year of his age, began wiraw himself from their pastimes and assemblies,

to delight in solitary walks and silent meditation. He citen sat before tables covered with luxury, and forget to taste the dainties that were placed before him;

se abruptly in the midst of the song, and hastily
red beyond the sound of music. His attendants
served the change, and endeavored to renew his love
pleasure; he neglected their officiousness, repulsed
invitations, and spent day after day on the banks
rulets sheltered with trees, where he sometimes
btened to the birds in the branches, sometimes observed
splaying in the stream, and anon cast his eyes
1. the pastures and mountains filled with animals, of
▼h some were biting the herbage, and some sleeping
g the bushes.

:s singularity of his humor1 made him much ob-
One of the sages, in whose conversation he had
y delighted, followed him secretly, in hope of
the cause of his disquiet.

Rasselas, who
that any one was near him, having for some
is eyes upon the goats that were browsing
rocks, began to compare their condition with

*said he, "makes the difference between man
st of the animal creation? Every beast

that strays beside me has the same corporeal necessities with myself he is hungry and crops the grass, he is thirsty and drinks the stream; his thirst and hunger are appeased, he is satisfied and sleeps; he arises again. and is hungry; he is again fed and is at rest. I am 5 hungry and thirsty like him, but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest; I am like him pained with want, but am not like him satisfied with fulness. The intermediate hours are tedious and gloomy; I long again to be hungry, that I may again quicken my attention. The 10 birds peck the berries or the corn, and fly away to the groves, where they sit in seeming happiness on the branches, and waste their lives in tuning one unvaried series of sounds. I likewise can call the lutanist and the singer; but the sounds that pleased me yesterday 15 weary me to-day, and will grow yet more wearisome to-morrow. I can discover within me no power of perception which is not glutted with its proper1 pleasure; yet I do not feel myself delighted. Man surely has some latent sense for which this place affords no gratifi- 20 cation; or he has some desires distinct from sense, which must be satisfied before he can be happy."

After this he lifted up his head, and seeing the moon rising, walked towards the palace. As he passed through the fields, and saw the animals around him, "Ye," said 25 he, “are happy, and need not envy me that walk thus among you, burdened with myself; nor do I, ye gentle beings, envy your felicity, for it is not the felicity of man. I have many distresses from which ye are free ; I fear pain when I do not feel it; I sometimes shrink at

1773. Tour to Scotland and the Hebrides.

1774. The Patriot. Tour to North Wales.

1775. Taxation no Tyranny. Journey to the Western Islands. 1776. Political Tracts.

1777. Begins Lives of Poets.

1779. Publishes four volumes of Lives.

1781. Last six volumes of Lives. Thrale dies.

1784. Mrs. Thrale becomes Mrs. Piozzi. Dec. 13 Johnson dies.

1785. Johnson's Prayers and Meditations published. Boswell publishes Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides.

1788-9. Johnson's Sermons.

1791. Boswell's Life of Johnson.

1816. Johnson's Diary in North Wales.

THE

HISTORY OF RASSELAS,

PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA.

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 will be supplied by the morrow, attend to the history of Rasselas,3 prince 5 of Abyssinia.

Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty emperor in whose dominions the Father of Waters 2 begins his course; whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt.5 10

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

NOTE. The figures in the text refer to the notes, pp. 201-207.

The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes, was a spacious valley3 in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the summits over5 hang the middle part. The only passage by which it could be entered, was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it has long been disputed whether it was the work of nature or of human industry. The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth 10 which opened into the valley was closed with gates of iron, forged by the artificers of ancient days, so massy that no man could without the help of engines 1 open or shut them.

1

From the mountains on every side, rivulets descended, 15 that filled all the valley with verdure and fertility, and formed a lake in the middle, inhabited by fish of every species, and frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream, which entered a dark cleft 20 of the mountain on the northern side, and fell with dreadful noise from precipice to precipice till it was heard no

more.

The sides of the mountains were covered with trees; the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; 25 every blast shook spices from the rocks, and every month dropped fruits upon the ground. All animals tha bite the grass, or browse the shrub, whether wild or tame, wandered in this extensive circuit, secured from beasts of prey by the mountains which confined them. On one part were flocks and herds feeding in the pastures, on