miffed me, preffing my hand." "My heart, faid he, will be now at reft, and my benevolence will no more destroy my quiet; I have found a man of wisdom and virtue, to whom I can cheerfully bequeath the inheritance of the fun."

The prince heard this narration with very serious regard; but the princefs fimiled, and Pekuah convulfed herself with laughter. "Ladies, faid Imlac, to mock the heaviest of human afflictions is neither charitable nor wife. Few can attain this man's knowledge, and few practife his virtues; but all may fuffer his calamity. Of the uncertainties of our prefent ftate, the most dreadful and alarming is the uncertain continuance of reason."

The princess was recollected, and the favourite was abashed. Raffelas, more deeply affected, inquired of Imlac, whether he thought fuch maladies of the mind frequent, and how they were contracted?

CHA P. XLIII.

THE DANGEROUS PREVALENCE OF IMAGINATION.

DISORDERS of intellect, anfwered Imlac, happen much more often than fuperficial ob. fervers will eafily believe. Perhaps, if we fpeak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state. There is no man whofe imagination does not fometimes predominate over his reason, who can regulate his attention wholly by his will, and whose ideas will come and go at his command. No man will be found in whofe mind airy notions do not fometimes tyrannize, and force him to hope or

fear

fear beyond the limits of fober probability. All power of fancy over reafon is a degree of infanity; but while this power is fuch as we can control and reprefs, it is not vifible to others, nor confidered as any depravation of the mental faculties: it is not pronounced madness but when it becomes ungovernable, and apparently influences fpeech or

action.

"To indulge the power of fiction, and fend imagination out upon the wing, is often the fport of those who delight too much in filent fpeculation. When we are alone we are not always bufy; the labour of excogitation is too violent to laft long; the ardour of inquiry will fometimes give way to idleness or fatiety. He who has nothing external that can divert him, muft find pleasure in his own thoughts, and muft conceive himself what he is not; for who is pleafed with what he is? He then expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginable conditions that which for the prefent moment he fhould moft defire, amufes his defires with impoffible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable dominion. The mind dances from scene to scene, unites all pleasures in all combinations, and riots in delights, which nature and fortune, with all their bounty, cannot bestow.

"In time, fome particular train of ideas fixes the attention, all other intellectual gratifications are rejected, the mind, in wearinefs or leifure, recurs conftantly to the favourite conception, and feasts on the luscious falfehood, whenever fhe is offended with the bitterness of truth. By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; he grows first imperious,

and

and in time defpotick. Then fictions begin to operate as realities, false opinions fasten upon the mind, and life paffes in dreams of rapture or of anguish.

"This, Sir, is one of the dangers of folitude, which the hermit has confeffed not always to promote goodness, and the aftronomer's misery has proved to be not always propitious to wisdom."

"I will no more, faid the favourite, imagine myfelf the queen of Abiffinia. I have often spent the hours, which the princefs gave to my own difpofal, in adjusting ceremonies and regulating the court; I have repreffed the pride of the powerful, and granted the petitions of the poor; I have built new palaces in more happy fituations, planted groves upon the tops of mountains, and have exulted in the beneficence of royalty, till, when the princefs entered, I had almoft forgotten to bow down before her."

"And I, faid the princefs, will not allow myfelf any more to play the fhepherdefs in my waking dreams. I have often foothed my thoughts with the quiet and innocence of paftoral employments, till I have in my chamber heard the winds whistle, and the fheep bleat: fometimes freed the lamb entangled in the thicket, and fometimes with my crook encountered the wolf. I have a dress like that of the village maids, which I put on to help my imagination, and a pipe on which I play foftly, and suppose myfelf followed by my flocks."

"I will confefs, faid the prince, an indulgence of fantaftick delight more dangerous than yours. I have frequently endeavoured to image the posfibility

fibility of a perfect government, by which all wrong fhould be restrained, all vice reformed, and all the fubjects preferved in tranquillity and innocence. This thought produced innumerable schemes of reformation, and dictated many useful regulations and falutary edicts. This has been the sport, and fometimes the labour, of my folitude; and I ftart, when I think with how little anguifh I once fuppofed the death of father and my my brothers."

"Such, fays Imlac, are the effects of vifionary fchemes: when we first form them we know them to be abfurd, but familiarize them by degrees, and in time lofe fight of their folly."

TH

CHA P. XLIV.

THEY DISCOURSE WITH AN OLD MAN.

HE evening was now far paft, and they rose to return home. As they walked along the bank of the Nile, delighted with the beams of the moon quivering on the water, they faw at a small diftance an old man, whom the prince had often heard in the affembly of the fages. "Yonder, faid he, is one whofe years have calmed his paffions, but not clouded his reafon : let us clofe the difquifitions of the night, by inquiring what are his fentiments of his own ftate, that we may know whether youth alone is to ftruggle with vexation, and whether any better hope remains for the latter part of life."

Here the fage approached and faluted them. They invited him to join their walk, and prattled a while, as acquaintance that had unexpectedly met

one

one another. The old man was cheerful and talkative, and the way feemed fhort in his company. He was pleased to find himself not disregarded, accompanied them to their houfe, and, at the prince's request, entered with them. They placed him in the feat of honour, and set wine and conferves before him.

"Sir, faid the princefs, an evening walk muft give to a man of learning, like you, pleafures which ignorance and youth can hardly conceive. You know the qualities and the caufes of all that you behold, the laws by which the river flows, the periods in which the planets perform their revolutions. Every thing muft fupply you with contemplation, and renew the confcioufnefs of your own dignity."

"Lady, anfwered he, let the gay and the vigorous expect pleasure in their excurfions; it is enough that age can obtain eafe. To me the world has loft its novelty: I look round, and fee what I remember to have feen in happier days. I reft against a tree, and confider, that in the fame fhade I once difputed upon the annual overflow of the Nile with a friend who is now filent in the grave. I caft my eyes upwards, fix them on the changing moon, and think with pain on the viciffitudes of life. I have ceased to take much delight in phyfical truth; for what have I to do with thofe things which I am foon to leave?"

"You may at least recreate yourself, faid Imlac, with the recollection of an honourable and useful life, and enjoy the praife which all agree to give you."