are here in full poffeffion of all that the emperour of Abiffinia can bestow; here is neither labour to be endured nor danger to be dreaded, yet here is all that labour or danger can procure or purchase. Look round and tell me which of your wants is without fupply: if you want nothing, how are you unhappy?"

"That I want nothing, faid the prince, or that I know not what I want, is the cause of my complaint; if I had any known want, I should have a certain with; that with would excite endeavour, and I fhould not then repine to fee the fun move fo flowly towards the western mountain, or lament when the day breaks and fleep will no longer hide me from myfelf. When I fee the kids and the lambs chafing one another, I fancy that I fhould be happy if I had fomething to persue. But, poffeffing all that I can want, I find one day and one hour exactly like another, except that the latter is ftill more tedious than the former. Let your experience inform me how the day may now feem as short as in my childhood, while nature was yet fresh, and every moment fhewed me what I never had obferved before. I have already enjoyed too much; give me fomething to defire."

The old man was furprised at this new fpecies of affliction, and knew not what to reply, yet was unwilling to be filent. "Sir, faid he, if you had feen the miseries of the world, you would know how to value your prefent ftate." "Now, faid the prince, you have given me fomething to defire; I fhall long to fee the miferies of the world, fince the fight of them is neceffary to happiness."

CHA P. IV.

THE PRINCE CONTINUES TO GRIEVE AND MUSE.

AT this time the found of mufick proclaimed the hour of repaft, and the converfation was concluded. The old man went away fufficiently discontented, to find that his reasonings had produced the only conclufion which they were intended to prevent. But in the decline of life fhame and grief are of fhort duration; whether it be that we bear eafily what we have born long, or that, finding ourselves in age lefs regarded, we lefs regard others; or, that we look with flight regard upon afflictions, to which we know that the hand of death is about to put an end.

The prince, whofe views were extended to a wider space, could not fpeedily quiet his emotions. He had been before terrified at the length of life which nature promifed him, because he confidered that in a long time much must be endured; he now rejoiced in his youth, because in many years much might be done.

This first beam of hope, that had been ever darted into his mind, rekindled youth in his cheeks, and doubled the luftre of his eyes. He was fired with the defire of doing fomething, though he knew not yet with diftinétnefs, either end or

means.

He was now no longer gloomy and unsocial; but, confidering himself as mafter of a fecret stock of happiness, which he could enjoy only by concealing it, he affected to be bufy in all fchemes of

diverfion,

diverfion, and endeavoured to make others pleased with the state of which he himself was weary. But pleasures never can be fo multiplied or continued, as not to leave much of life unemployed; there were many hours, both of the night and day, which he could spend without fufpicion in folitary thought. The load of life was much lightened: he went eagerly into the affemblies, because he fuppofed the frequency of his prefence neceffary to the fuccess of his purposes; he retired gladly to privacy, because he had now a fubject of thought.

His chief amusement was to picture to himself that world which he had never feen; to place himself in various conditions; to be entangled in imaginary difficulties, and to be engaged in wild adventures: but his benevolence always terminated his projects in the relief of distress, the detection of fraud, the defeat of oppreffion, and the diffufion of happiness.

Thus paffed twenty months of the life of Raffe. las. He bufied himfelf fo intenfely in vifionary bustle, that he forgot his real folitude; and, amidst hourly preparations for the various incidents of human affairs, neglected to confider by what means he fhould mingle with mankind.

One day, as he was fitting on a bank, he feigned to himself an orphan virgin robbed of her little portion by a treacherous lover, and crying after him for reftitution and redrefs. So ftrongly was the image impreffed upon his mind, that he started up in the maid's defence, and run forward to feize the plunderer with all the eagerness of real purfuit. Fear naturally quickens the flight of guilt, Raffelas

could

could not catch the fugitive with his utmost efforts; but, refolving to weary by perfeverance, him whom he could not furpafs in fpeed, he preffed on till the foot of the mountain ftopped his courfe.

Here he recollected himfelf, and fimiled at his own ufelefs impetuofity. Then railing his eyes to the mountain, This, faid he, is the fatal obftacle that hinders at once the enjoyment of pleafure, and the exercife of virtue. How long is it that my hopes and wishes have flown beyond this boundary of my life, which yet I never have attempted to furmount!"

He now

Struck with this reflection, he fat down to mufe; and remembered, that fince he firft refolved to efcape from his confinement, the fun had paffed twice over him in his annual courfe. felt a degree of regret with which he had never been before acquainted. He confidered how much might have been done in the time which had paffed, and left nothing real behind it. He compared twenty months with the life of man. "In life, faid he, is not to be counted the ignorance of infancy, or imbecility of age. We are long before we are able to think, and we foon ceafe from the power of acting. The true period of human exiftence may be reafonably eflimated at forty years, of which I have mufed away the four and twentieth part. What have loft was certain, for I have certainly poffeffed it; but of twenty months to come who can affure me?"

The confcioufnefs of his own fully pierced him deeply, and he was long before he could be reconciled to himself. "The rest of my time, faid he,

has

has been lost by the crime or folly of my ancestors, and the abfurd inftitutions of my country; member it with difguft, yet without remorfe: but the months that have paffed fince new light darted into my foul, fince I formed a scheme of reafonable felicity, have been fquandered by my own fault. I have loft that which can never be restored: I have feen the fun rife and fet for twenty months, an idle gazer on the light of heaven: In this time the birds have left the neft of their mother, and committed themselves to the woods and to the fkies: the kid has forfaken the teat, and learned by degrees to climb the rocks in queft of independent sustenance. I only have made no advances, but am ftill helpless and ignorant. The moon, by more than twenty changes, admonished me of the flux of life; the stream that rolled before my feet upbraided my inactivity. I fat feafting on intellectual luxury, regardless alike of the examples of the earth, and the inftructions of the planets. Twenty months are paffed, who shall restore them?"

Thefe forrowful meditations faftened upon his mind; he paffed four months in refolving to lofe no more time in idle refolves, and was awakened to more vigorous exertion, by hearing a maid, who had broken a porcelain cup, remark, that what cannot be repaired is not to be regretted.

This was obvious; and Raffelas reproached himfelf that he had not difcovered it, having not known, or not confidered, how many useful hints are obtained by chance, and how often the mind, hurried by her own ardour to diftant views, neglects the truths that lie open before her. He, for a few

hours,