Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

CHAP. XVI.

THEY ENTER CAIRO, AND FIND EVERY MAN HAPPY.

S they approached the city, which filled the

ftrangers with astonishment, " This, faid Imlac to the prince, is the place where travellers and merchants affemble from all the corners of the earth. You will here find men of every character, and every occupation. Commerce is here honourable : I will act as a merchant, and you fhall live as ftrangers, who have no other end of travel than curiofity; it will foon be observed that we are rich; our reputation will procure us accefs to all whom we shall defire to know; you will fee all the conditions of humanity, and enable yourfelf at leisure to make your choice of life.

They now entered the town, stunned by the noise, and offended by the crowds. Instruction had not yet fo prevailed over habit, but that they wondered to see themselves pafs undiftinguished along the street, and met by the lowest of the people without reverence or notice. The princefs could not at first bear the thought of being levelled with the vulgar, and, for fome days, continued in her chamber, where she was served by her favourite Pekuah as in the palace of the valley.

Imlac, who understood traffick, fold part of the jewels the next day, and hired a houfe, which he adorned with fuch magnificence, that he was immediately confidered as a merchant of great wealth. His politeness attracted many acquaintance, and his generofity made him courted by many dependants.

His table was crowded by men of every nation, who all admired his knowledge, and folicited his favour. His companions, not being able to mix in the converfation, could make no difcovery of their ignorance or furprife, and were gradually initiated in the world as they gained knowledge of the language.

The prince had, by frequent lectures, been taught the use and nature of money; but the ladies could not, for a long time, comprehend what the merchants did with fmall pieces of gold and filver, or why things of fo little ufe fhould be received as equivalent to the neceffaries of life.

They ftudied the language two years, while Imlac was preparing to fet before them the various ranks. and conditions of mankind. He grew acquainted with all who had any thing uncommon in their fortune or conduct. He frequented the voluptuous and the frugal, the idle and the bufy, the merchants and the men of learning.

The prince being now able to converfe with fluency, and having learned the caution neceffary to be obferved in his intercourfe with ftrangers, began to accompany Imlac to places of refort, and to enter into all affemblies, that he might make his choice of life.

For fome time he thought choice needlefs, because all appeared to him equally happy. Wherever he went he met gaiety and kindness, and heard the fong of joy or the laugh of careleffnefs. He began to believe that the world overflowed with univerfal plenty, and that nothing was withheld either from want or merit; that every hand fhowered liberality, VOL. XI.

E

and

and every heart melted with benevolence; " and who then, fays he, will be fuffered to be wretched?"

Imlac permitted the pleafing delufion, and was unwilling to crush the hope of inexperience, till one day, having fat a while filent, "I know not, faid the prince, what can be the reafon that I am more unhappy than any of our friends. I fee them perpetually and unalterably cheerful, but feel my own mind restlefs and uneafy. I am unfatisfied with thofe pleasures which I feem moft to court, I live in the crowds of jollity, not fo much to enjoy company as to fhun myfelf, and am only loud and merry to conceal my fadnefs."

"Every man, faid Imlac, may, by examining his own mind, guess what paffes in the minds of others: when you feel that your own gaiety is counterfeit, it may juftly lead you to fufpect that of your companions not to be fincere. Envy is commonly reciprocal. We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it poffeffed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himfelf. In the affembly, where you paffed the laft night, there appeared fuch fprightliness of air, and volatility of fancy, as might have fuited beings of an higher order, formed to inhabit ferener regions, inacceffible to care or forrow: yet, believe me, prince, there was not one who did not dread the moment when folitude should deliver him to the tyranny of reflection."

"This, faid the prince, may be true of others, fince it is true of me; yet, whatever be the general infelicity of man, one condition is more happy than

another,

another, and wifdom furely directs us to take the leaft evil in the choice of life."

"The causes of good and evil, answered Imlac, are so various and uncertain, so often entangled with each other, fo diverfified by various relations, and fo much fubject to accidents which cannot be foreseen, that he who would fix his condition upon inconteftible reafons of preference, muft live and die enquiring and deliberating."

"But furely, faid Raffelas, the wife men, to whom we liften with reverence and wonder, chose that mode of life for themselves which they thought most likely to make them happy."

"Very few, faid the poet, live by choice. Every man is placed in his prefent condition by caufes which acted without his forefight, and with which he did not always willingly co-operate; and therefore you will rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbour better than his own."

"I am pleased to think, faid the prince, that my birth has given me at leaft one advantage over others, by enabling me to determine for myself. I have here the world before me; I will review it at leifure: furely happiness is somewhere to be found.”

CHAP. XVII.

THE PRINCE ASSOCIATES WITH YOUNG MEN OF SPIRIT AND GAIETY.

R

ASSELAS rofe next day, and refolved to begin his experiments upon life. "Youth, cried he, is the time of gladnefs: I will join myfelf to the young men, whofe only bufinefs is to gratify

E 2

their

their defires, and whofe time is all spent in a fuc ceffion of enjoyments."

To fuch focieties he was readily admitted, but, a few days brought him back weary and difgufted. Their mirth was without images; their laughter without motive; their pleafures were grofs and fenfual, in which the mind had no part; their conduct was at once wild and mean; they laughed at order and at law, but the frown of power dejected, and the eye of wisdom abafhed them.

The prince foon concluded, that he should never be happy in a courfe of life of which he was ashamed. He thought it unsuitable to a reafonable being to act without a plan, and to be fad or cheerful only by chance. "Happiness, said he, muft be fomething folid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty."

[ocr errors]

But his young companions had gained fo much of his regard by their frankness and courtesy, that he could not leave them without warning and remonftrance. My friends, faid he, I have ferioufly confidered our manners and our profpects, and find that we have mistaken our own intereft. The firft years of man must make provifion for the laft. He that never thinks never can be wife. Perpetual levity must end in ignorance; and intemperance, though it may fire the fpirits for an hour, will make life short or miferable. Let us confider that youth is of no long duration, and that in maturer age, when the enchantments of fancy fhall cease, and phantoms of delight dance no more about us, we fhall have no comforts but the esteem of wife men, and the means of doing good. Let us, therefore,

« ElőzőTovább »