"Had either happened, faid Nekayah, I could not have endured life till now: I fhould have been tortured to madness by the remembrance of fuch cruelty, or must have pined away in abhorrence of myfelf."

"This at leaft, faid Imlac, is the prefent reward of virtuous conduct, that no unlucky confequence can oblige us to repent it."

THE PRINCESS LANGUISHES FOR WANT OF PEKUAH.

NEKAYAH being thus reconciled to herself, found that no evil is infupportable but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong. .She was, from that time, delivered from the violence of tempeftuous forrow, and funk into filent penfiveness and gloomy tranquillity. She fat from morning to evening recollecting all that had been done or faid by her Pekuah, treasured up with care every trifle on which Pekuah had fet an accidental value, and which might recal to mind any little incident or carelefs converfation. The fentiments of her, whom the now expected to fee no more, were treasured in her memory as rules of life, and the deliberated to no other end than to conjecture on any occafion what would have been the opinion and counsel of Pekuah.

The women, by whom fhe was attended, knew nothing of her real condition, and therefore the could not talk to them but with caution and reserve. She began to remit her curiofity, having no great care

to

to collect notions which the had no convenience of uttering. Raffelas endeavoured first to comfort, and afterwards to divert her; he hired musicians, to whom the feemed to liften, but did not hear them, and procured mafters to inftruct her in various arts, whofe lectures, when they visited her again, were again to be repeated. She had loft her taste of pleasure, and her ambition of excellence. And her mind, though forced into fhort excurfions, always recurred to the image of her friend.

Imlac was every morning earneftly enjoined to renew his inquiries, and was afked every night whether he had yet heard of Pekuah, till not being able to return the princefs the answer that fhe defired, he was lefs and lefs willing to come into her prefence. She obferved his backwardness, and commanded him to attend her. "You are not, faid she, to confound impatience with refentment, or to fuppofe that I charge you with negligence, because I repine at your unfuccefsfulness. I do not much wonder at your abfence; I know that the unhappy are never pleafing, and that all naturally avoid the contagion of mifery. To hear complaints is wearifome alike to the wretched and the happy; for who would cloud, by adventitious grief, the fhort gleams of gaiety which life allows us? or who, that is ftruggling under his own evils, will add to them the miferies. of another?

"The time is at hand, when none fhall be difturbed any longer by the fighs of Nekayah: my fearch after happiness is now at an end. I am refolved to retire from the world with all its flatteries and deceits, and will hide myself in folitude without VOL. XI.

H

any

any other care than to compofe my thoughts, and regulate my hours by a conftant fucceffion of innocent occupations, till, with a mind purified from all earthly defires, I fhall enter into that state, to which all are haftening, and in which I hope again to enjoy the friendship of Pekuah.”

"Do not entangle your mind, faid Imlac, by irrevocable determinations, nor increase the burthen of life by a voluntary accumulation of mifery: the weariness of retirement will continue or increase when the lofs of Pekuah is forgotten. That you have been deprived of one pleafure, is no very good reafon for rejection of the reft."

"Since Pekuah was taken from me, faid the princess, I have no pleasure to reject or to retain. She that has no one to love or truft has little to hope. She wants the radical principle of happiness. We may, perhaps, allow that what fatisfaction this world can afford, must arife from the conjunction of wealth, knowledge, and goodnefs: wealth is nothing but as it is bestowed, and knowledge nothing but as it is communicated: they must therefore be imparted to. others, and to whom could I now delight to impart them? Goodnefs affords the only comfort which can be enjoyed without a partner, and goodness may be practifed in retirement."

"How far folitude may admit goodness, or advance it, I shall not, replied Imlac, difpute at prefent. Remember the confeffion of the pious hermit. You will wish to return into the world, when the image of your companion has left your thoughts." "That time, faid Nekayah, will never come. The generous frankness, the modeft obfequioufnefs, and

the

the faithful fecrecy of my dear Pekuah, will always be more miffed, as I fhall live longer to fee vice and folly."

"The state of a mind oppreffed with a fudden calamity, faid Imlac, is like that of the fabulous inhabitants of the new created earth, who, when the first night came upon them, fuppofed that day would never return. When the clouds of forrow gather over us, we fee nothing beyond them, nor can imagine how they will be difpelled: yet a new day fucceeded to the night, and forrow is never long without a dawn of eafe. But they who restrain themselves from receiving comfort, do as the favages would have done, had they put out their eyes when it was dark. Our minds, like our bodies, are in continual flux; fomething is hourly loft, and fomething acquired. To lofe much at once is inconvenient to either, but while the vital powers remain uninjured, nature will find the means of reparation. Diftance has the fame effect on the mind. as on the eye, and while we glide along the fiream of time, whatever we leave behind us is always leffening, and that which we approach increafing in magnitude. Do not fuffer life to ftagnate; it will grow muddy for want of motion: commit yourfelf again to the current of the world; Pekuah will va nith by degrees; you will meet in your way fome other favourite, or learn to diffufe yourself in general converfation."

"At least, said the prince, do not despair before all remedies have been tried: the enquiry after the unfortunate lady is ftill continued, and shall be carried on with yet greater diligence, on condition

that you will promife to wait a year for the event, without any unalterable refolution."

Nekayah thought this a reasonable demand, and made the promise to her brother, who had been advifed by Imlac to require it. Imlac had, indeed, no great hope of regaining Pekuah, but he fuppofed, that if he could fecure the interval of a year, the princefs would be then in no danger of a cloifter.

NEKAYAH, feeing that nothing was omitted for the recovery of her favourite, and having, by her promife, fet her intention of retirement at a diftance, began imperceptibly to return to common cares and common pleafures. She rejoiced without her own confent at the fufpenfion of her forrows, and sometimes caught herself with indignation in the act of turning away her mind from the remembrance of her, whom yet the refolved never to forget.

She then appointed a certain hour of the day for meditation on the merits and fondnefs of Pekuah, and for fome weeks retired conftantly at the time fixed, and returned with her eyes fwollen and her countenance clouded. By degrees fhe grew less fcrupulous, and fuffered any important and preffing avocation to delay the tribute of daily tears. She then yielded to lefs occafions; fometimes forgot what fhe was indeed afraid to remember, and, at