folemn elephant repofing in the fhade. All the diverfities of the world were brought together, the bleffings of nature were collected, and its evils extracted and excluded.

The valley, wide and fruitful, fupplied its inhabitants with the neceffaries of life, and all delights and fuperfluities were added at the annual vifit which the emperour paid his children, when the iron gate was opened to the found of mufick; and during eight days every one that refided in the valley was required to propofe whatever might contribute to make feclufion pleafant, to fill up the vacancies of attention, and leffen the tediousness of time. Every defire was immediately granted. All the artificers of pleasure were called to gladden the feftivity; the muficians exerted the power of harmony, and the dancers fhewed their activity before the princes, in hope that they fhould pass their lives in this blifsful captivity, to which those only were admitted whose performance was thought able to add novelty to luxury. Such was the appearance of fecurity and delight which this retirement afforded, that they, to whom it was new, always defired that it might be perpetual; and as thofe, on whom the iron gate had once closed, were never fuffered to return, the effect of longer experience could not be known. Thus every year produced new schemes of delight, and new competitors for imprisonment.

The palace stood on an eminence raised about thirty paces above the furface of the lake. It was divided into many fquares or courts, built with greater or less magnificence, according to the rank

of thofe for whom they were defigned. The roofs were turned into arches of maffy ftone joined by a cement that grew harder by time, and the building stood from century to century deriding the folftitial rains and equinoctial hurricanes, without need of reparation.

This house, which was fo large as to be fully known to none but fome ancient officers who fucceffively inherited the fecrets of the place, was built as if fufpicion herself had dictated the plan. To every room there was an open and fecret paffage, every fquare had a communication with the reft, either from the upper ftories by private galleries, or by fubterranean paffages from the lower apartments. Many of the columns had unfuspected cavities, in which a long race of monarchs had repofited their treasures. They then clofed up the opening with marble, which was never to be removed but in the utmoft exigencies of the kingdom; and recorded their accumulations in a book which was itself concealed in a tower not entered but by the emperour, attended by the prince who flood next in fucceffion.

CHA P. II.

THE DISCONTENT OF RASSELAS IN THE HAPPY

H

VALLEY.

ERE the fons and daughters of Abiffinia lived only to know the foft viciffitudes of pleasure and repose, attended by all that were skilful to delight, and gratified with whatever the fenfes can

enjoy.

enjoy. They wandered in gardens of fragrance, and flept in the fortreffes of fecurity. Every arc was practifed to make them pleased with their own condition. The fages who inftructed them, told them of nothing but the miferies of publick life, and described all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity, where difcord was always raging, and where man preyed upon man.

To heighten their opinion of their own felicity, they were daily entertained with fongs, the fubject of which was the happy valley. Their appetites were excited by frequent enumerations of different enjoyments, and revelry and merriment was the business of every hour from the dawn of morning to the close of even.

Thefe methods were generally fuccefsful; few of the princes had ever wifhed to enlarge their bounds, but passed their lives in full conviction that they had all within their reach that art or nature could bestow, and pitied those whom fate had excluded from this feat of tranquillity, as the fport of chance and the flaves of misery.

Thus they rofe in the morning and lay down at night, pleafed with each other and with themselves, all but Raffelas, who in the twenty-fixth year of his age began to withdraw himfelf from their pastimes and affemblics, and to delight in folitary walks and filent meditation. He often fat before tables covered with luxury, and forgot to tafte the dainties that were placed before him: he rofe abruptly in the midst of the fong, and haftily retired beyond the found of mufick. His attendants obferved the change, and endeavoured to renew his

love of pleasure: he neglected their officiousness, repulfed their invitations, and spent day after day on the banks of rivulets sheltered with trees, where he fometimes liftened to the birds in the branches, fometimes obferved the fish playing in the ftream, and anon caft his eyes upon the pastures and mountains filled with animals, of which fome were biting the herbage, and fome fleeping among the bushes.

This fingularity of his humour made him much obferved. One of the Sages, in whofe conversation he had formerly delighted, followed him fecretly, in hope of difcovering the caufe of his difquiet. Raffelas, who knew not that any one was near him, having for fome time fixed his eyes upon the goats that were broufing among the rocks, began to compare their condition with his own.

"What," said he, "makes the difference between man and all the rest of the animal creation? Every beaft that ftrays befide me has the fame corporal neceffities with myself; he is hungry and crops the grafs, he is thirfty and drinks the ftream, his thirst and hunger are appeafed, he is fatisfied and fleeps; he rifes again and is hungry, he is again fed and is at reft. I am hungry and thirsty like him, but when thirft and hunger cease I am not at reft; I am, like him, pained with want, but am not, like him, fatisfied with fulness. The intermediate hours are tedious and gloomy; I long again to be hungry that I may again quicken my attention. The birds peck the berries or the corn, and fly away to the groves where they fit in feeming happiness on the branches, and waste their lives

in tuning one unvaried feries of founds. I likewise can call the lutanift and the finger, but the founds that pleafed me yesterday weary me to-day, and will grow yet more wearifome to morrow. I can difcover within me no power of perception which is not glutted with its proper pleasure, yet I do not feel myself delighted. Man furely has fome latent fenfe for which this place affords no gratification, or he has fome defires diftinct from fenfe which must be fatisfied before he can be happy."

After this he lifted up his head, and feeing the moon rifing, walked towards the palace. As he paffed through the fields, and faw the animals around him, “ Ye, faid he, are happy, and need not envy me that walk thus among you, burdened with myfelf; nor do I, ye gentle beings, envy your felicity; for it is not the felicity of man. I have many diftreffes from which ye are free; I fear pain when I do not feel it; I fometimes fhrink at evils recollected, and fometimes ftart at evils anticipated: furely the equity of providence has balanced peculiar fufferings with peculiar enjoyments."

With obfervations like thefe the prince amufed himself as he returned, uttering them with a plaintive voice, yet with a look that discovered him to feel fome complacence in his own perfpicacity, and to receive fome folace of the miferies of life, from consciousness of the delicacy with which he felt, and the eloquence with which he bewailed them. He mingled cheerfully in the diverfions of the evening, and all rejoiced to find that his heart was lightened.