they were, could not be preserved pure, but were embittered by petty competitions and worthless emulation. They were always jealous of the beauty of each other; of a quality to which folicitude can add nothing, and from which detraction can take nothing away. Many were in love with triflers like themselves, and many fancied that they were in love when in truth they were only idle. Their affection was fixed on fenfe or virtue, and therefore feldom ended but in vexation. Their grief, however, like their joy, was tranfient; every thing floated in their mind unconnected with the paft or future, fo that one defire eafily gave way to another, as a fecond stone caft into the water effaces and confounds the circles of the first.

With these girls fhe played as with inoffenfive animals, and found them proud of her countenance, and weary of her company.

But her purpose was to examine more deeply, and her affability easily perfuaded the hearts that were fwelling with forrow to discharge their fecrets in her ear and thofe whom hope flattered, or prosperity delighted, often courted her to partake their pleasures.

The princess and her brother commonly met in the evening in a private fummer-house on the bank of the Nile, and related to each other the occurrences of the day. As they were fitting together, the princefs caft her eyes upon the river that flowed before her." Anfwer, faid fhe, great father of waters, thou that rolleft thy floods through eighty nations, to the invocations of the daughter of thy pative king. Tell me if thou watereft, through all

thy course, a fingle habitation from which thou dot not hear the murmurs of complaint?"

"You are then, faid Raffelas, not more fuccefsful in private houses than I have been in courts.” "I have, fince the laft partition of our provinces, faid the princefs, enabled myself to enter familiarly into many families, where there was the faireft fhew of profperity and peace, and know not one houfe that is not haunted by fome fury that deftroys their quiet.

"I did not feek eafe among the poor, because I concluded that there it could not be found. But I faw many poor, whom I had fuppofed to live in affluence. Poverty has, in large cities, very different appearances it is often concealed in fplendour, and often in extravagance. It is the care of a very great part of mankind to conceal their indigence from the reft: they fupport themfelves by temporary expedients, and every day is loft in contriving for the morrow.

This, however, was an evil, which, though frequent, I faw with lefs pain, becaufe I could relieve it. Yet fome have refufed my bounties; more offended with my quicknefs to detect their wants, than pleafed with my readinefs to fuccour them: and others, whofe exigencies compelled them to admit my kindness, have never been able to for give their benefactrefs. Many, however, have been fincerely grateful, without the oftentation of gratitude, or the hope of other favours."

CHAP. XXVI.

THE PRINCESS CONTINUES HER REMARKS UPON PRIVATE LIFE.

Ν'

EKAYAH perceiving her brother's attention fixed, proceeded in her narrative.

«In families, where there is or is not poverty, there is commonly difcord: if a kingdom be, as Imlac tells us, a great family, a family likewife is a little kingdom, torn with factions, and expofed to revolutions. An unpractifed obferver expects the love of parents and children to be conftant and equal; but this kindness feldom continues beyond the years of infancy: in a fhort time the children. become rivals to their parents. Benefits are allayed by reproaches, and gratitude debased by envy.

"Parents and children feldom act in concert: each child endeavours to appropriate the esteem or fondness of the parents, and the parents, with yet less temptation, betray each other to their children; thus fome place their confidence in the father, and fome in the mother, and by degrees, the house is filled with artifices and feuds.

"The opinions of children and parents, of the young and the old, are naturally oppofite, by the contrary effects of hope and defpondence, of expectation and experience, without crime or folly on either fide. The colours of life in youth and age appear different, as the face of nature in fpring and winter. And how can children credit the affertions of parents, which their own eyes fhow them to be falfe?

Few parents act in fuch a manner as much to enforce their maxims by the credit of their lives. The old man trufts wholly to flow contrivance and gradual progreffion: the youth expects to force his way by genius, vigour, and precipitance. The old man pays regard to riches, and the youth reverences virtue. The old man deifies prudence: the youth commits himfelf to magnanimity and chance. The young man, who intends no ill, believes that none is intended, and therefore acts with openness and candour: but his father, having fuffered the injuries of fraud, is impelled to fufpect, and too often allured to practife it. Age looks with anger on the temerity of youth, and youth with contempt on the fcrupulofity of age. Thus parents and children, for the greatest part, lefs: and, if thofe whom nature has thus clofely united are the torments of each other, where fhall we look for tendernefs and confolation?"

live on to love less and

Surely, faid the prince, you must have been unfortunate in your choice of acquaintance: I am unwilling to believe, that the most tender of all relations is thus impeded in its effects by natural neceffity."

"Domestick difcord, anfwered fhe, is not inevitably and fatally neceffary; but yet it is not easily avoided. We feldom fee that a whole family is virtuous: the good and evil cannot well agree; and the evil can yet lefs agree with one another: even the virtuous fall fometimes to variance, when their virtues are of different kinds, and tending to extremes. In general, thofe parents have most re

verence

verence who most deserve it: for he that lives well cannot be despised.

"Many other evils infeft private life. Some are the flaves of fervants whom they have trufted with their affairs. Some are kept in continual anxiety to the caprice of rich relations, whom they cannot pleafe, and dare not offend. Some hufbands are imperious, and fome wives perverfe: and, as it is always more eafy to do evil than good, though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one may often make many miferable."

"If fuch be the general effect of marriage, faid the prince, I fhall, for the future, think it dangerous to connect my intereft with that of another, left I should be unhappy by my partner's fault."

"I have met, faid the princefs, with many who live fingle for that reafon; but I never found that their prudence ought to raise envy. They dream away their time without friendship, without fondnefs, and are driven to rid themselves of the day, for which they have no use, by childish amusements, or vicious delights. They act as beings under the conftant fenfe of fome known inferiority, that fills their minds with rancour, and their tongues with cenfure. They are peevish at home, and malevolent abroad; and, as the outlaws of human nature, make it their business and their pleasure to difturb that fociety which debars them from its privileges. To live without feeling or exciting fympathy, to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tafting the palm of pity, is a ftate more gloomy than foli

litude;