I could fend rain on the fouthern mountains, and raife the Nile to an inundation, In the hurry of my imagination I commanded rain to fall, and by comparing the time of my command with that of the inundation, I found that the clouds had liftened to my lips."

"Might not fome other cause, said I, produce this concurrence? the Nile does not always rife on the fame day."

"Do not believe, faid he with impatience, that fuch objections could efcape me: I reafoned long against my own conviction, and laboured against truth with the utmost obftinacy. I fometimes fufpected myself of madness, and fhould not have dared to impart this fecret but to a man like you, capable of diftinguishing the wonderful from the impoffible, and the incredible from the falfe."

"Why, Sir, faid I, do you call that incredible, which you know, or think you know, to be true?"

"Because, faid he, I cannot prove it by any external evidence; and I know too well the laws of demonftration to think that my conviction ought to influence another, who cannot, like me, be confcious of its force. I, therefore, fhall not attempt to gain credit by difputation. It is fufficient that I feel this power, that I have long poffeffed, and every day exerted it. But the life of man is fhort, the infirmities of age increase upon me, and the time will foon come, when the regulator of the year must mingle with the duft. The care of appointing a fucceffor has long disturbed me; the night and the day have been spent in comparisons of all the characters which have come to my knowledge, and I have yet found none fo worthy as thyself,

14

CHAP. XLII.

THE ASTRONOMER LEAVES IMLAC HIS DIRECTIONS.

"H EAR, therefore, what I fhall impart with attention, fuch as the welfare of a world requires. If the task of a king be confidered as difficult, who has the care only of a few millions, to whom he cannot do much good or harm, what must be the anxiety of him, on whom depends the action of the elements, and the great gifts of light and heat!-Hear me therefore with attention.

"I have diligently confidered the pofition of the earth and fun, and formed innumerable fchemes in which I changed their fituation. I have fometimes turned afide the axis of the earth, and fometimes varied the ecliptick of the fun: but I have found it impoffible to make a difpofition by which the world may be advantaged; what one region gains, another lofes by an imaginable alteration, even without confidering the diftant parts of the folar fyftem with which we are unacquainted. Do not therefore, in thy administration of the year, indulge thy pride by innovation; do not please thyfelf with thinking that thou canft make thyfelf renowned to all future ages, by difordering the feafons. The memory of mifchief is no defirable fame. Much lefs will it become thee to let kindness or intercft prevail. Never rob other countries of rain to pour it on thine own. For us the Nile is fuffi cient."

"I promifed, that when I poffeffed the power, I would ufe it with inflexible integrity; and he dif

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 wifdom 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 fmiled, 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 practise his virtues; but all may fuffer his calamity. Of the uncertainties of our present state, the most dreadful and alarming is the uncertain continuance of reafon."

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

fear

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

action.

To indulge the power of fiction, and fend imagination out upon the wing, is often the sport of thofe 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 idlenefs or fatiety. He who has nothing external that can divert him, muft find pleature in his own thoughts, and muft conceive himfelf 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 fcene, unites all pleafures in all combinations, and riots in delights, which nature and fortune, with all their bounty, cannot beftow.

"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 feafts on the luscious falfehood, whenever fhe is offended with the bitterness of truth. By degrees the reign of fancy is confirmed; the grows firft 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 mifery 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 adjufting 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 almost forgotten to bow down before her."

"And I, faid the princefs, will not allow myself 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 sheep 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 fuppofe myself 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 poffibility