either idea fuffer laceration? As is the effect, fuch is the caufe: as thought, fuch is the power that thinks; a power impaffive and indifcerptible."

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

"He, furely, can destroy it," answered Imlac, "fince, however unperishable, it receives from a fuperiour 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 philosophy can tell no more. That it will not be annihilated by him that made it, we muft humbly learn from higher authority."

The whole affembly stood awhile filent and collected. "Let us return," said Raffelas, "from this feene of mortality.

How

How gloomy would be thefe 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 shortnefs of our prefent 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. XLIX.

THE CONCLUSION, IN WHICH NOTHING IS CONCLUDED.

T was now the time of the inundation

IT

of the Nile: a few days after their vifit to the Catacombs, 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 supplied with materials for talk, they diverted themselves with comparisons of the different forms of life which they had obferved, and with various schemes of happiness, which each of them had formed.

with

Pekuah was never fo much charmed any place as the convent of St. Anthony,

thony, where the Arab restored her to the princess, and wifhed only to fill it with pious maidens, and to be made prioress of the order: fhe was weary of expectation and disgust, and would gladly be fixed in fome unvariable state.

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

The prince defired a little kingdom, in which he might adminifter justice in his own person, and fee all the parts of govern

5

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 stream of life, without directing their course to any párticular 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 fhould ceafe, to return to Abiffinia.

THE EN D.