tuted, that, as we approach one, we recede from another. There are goods fo opposed that we cannot feize both, but, by too much prudence, may pafs between them at too great a distance to reach either. This is often the fate of long confideration; he does nothing who endeavours to do more than is allowed to humanity. Flatter not yourfelf with contrarieties of pleafure. Of the bleffings fet before you make your choice, and be content. No man can tafte the fruits of autumn while he is delighting his fcent with the flowers of the fpring: no man can, at the fame time, fill his cup from the fource and from the mouth of the Nile."

CIIA P. XXXIX.

IMLAC ENTERS, AND CHANGES THE CONVERSATION.

H

ERE Imlac entered, and interrupted them. "Imlac, faid Raffelas, I have been taking from the princefs the difmal hiftory of private life, and am aiment difcouraged from further fearch."

you are

"It feems to me, faid Imlac, that while making the choice of life, you neglect to live. You wander about a fingle city, which, however large and diverfified, can now afford few novelties, and forget that you are in a country, famous among the earlieft monarchies for the power and wifdom of its inhabitants; a country where the fciences firft dawned that illuminate the world, and beyond which the arts cannot be traced of civil fociety or domeftick life.

"The old Egyptians have left behind them monuments of industry and power, before which all

European

European magnificence is confeffed to fade away. The ruins of their architecture are the schools of modern builders, and from the wonders which time has ipared we may conjecture, though uncertainly, what it has destroyed."

"My curiofity, faid Raffelas, does not very ftrongly lead me to furvey piles of stone, or mounds of earth; my business is with man. I came hither not to measure fragments of temples, or trace choaked aqueducts, but to look upon the various fcenes of the present world."

"The things that are now before us, faid the princefs, require attention, and deferve it. What have I to do with the heroes or the monuments of ancient times? with times which never can return, and heroes, whofe form of life was different from all that the prefent condition of mankind requires or allows ?"

"To know any thing, returned the poet, we must know its effects; to fee men we must fee their works, that we may learn what reafon has dictated, or paffion has incited, and find what are the most powerful motives of action. To judge rightly of the present we muft oppofe it to the paft; for all judgment is comparative, and of the future nothing can be known. The truth is, that no mind is much employed upon the prefent: recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. Our passions are joy and grief, love and hatred, hope and fear. Of joy and grief the paft is the object, and the future of hope and fear; even love and hatred refpect the paft, for the cause must have been before the effect,

"The prefent state of things is the confequence of the former, and it is natural to inquire what were the fources of the good that we enjoy, or the evil that we fuffer. If we act only for ourfelves, to neglect the ftudy of hiftory is not prudent: if we are intrufted with the care of others, it is not just. Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may properly be charged with evil who refufed to learn how he might prevent it.

"There is no part of hiftory fo generally useful as that which relates the progrefs of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reafon, the fucceffive advances of fcience, the viciffitudes of learning and ignorance which are the light and darkness of thinking beings, the extinction and refufcitation of arts, and the revolutions of the intellectual world. If accounts of battles and invafions are peculiarly the bufinefs of princes, the ufeful or elegant arts are not to be neglected; thofe who have kingdoms to govern, have underflandings to cultivate.

"Example is always more efficacious than precept. A foldier is formed in war, and a painter muft copy pictures. In this, contemplative life has the advantage: great actions are feldom feen, but the labours of art are always at hand for thofe who defire to know what art has been able to perform.

"When the eye or the imagination is ftruck with. any uncommon work, the next tranfition of an adive mind is to the means by which it was performed. Here begins the true ufe of fuch contemplation; we enlarge our comprehenfion by new ideas, and perhaps recover fome art loft to mankind, or learn what is lefs perfectly known in our

own

own country. At least we compare our own with former times, and either rejoice at our improvements, or, what is the first motion towards good, difcover our defects."

"I am willing, faid the prince, to see all that can deferve my fearch." "And I, faid the princefs, fhall rejoice to learn fomething of the manners of antiquity."

"The most pompous monument of Egyptian greatness, and one of the moft bulky works of manual industry, faid Imlac, are the Pyramids; fabricks raised before the time of hiftory, and of which the earliest narratives afford us only uncertain traditions. Of these the greatest is ftill ftanding very little injured by time."

"Let us vifit them to-morrow, faid Nekayah. I have often heard of the Pyramids, and fhall not reft, till I have feen them within and without with my own eyes.'

THE

CHAP. XXX.

THEY VISIT THE PYRAMIDS.

HE refolution being thus taken, they fet out the next day. They laid tents upon their camels, being refolved to stay among the Pyramids till their curiofity was fully fatisfied. They travelled gent.y, turned afide to every thing remarkable, stopped from time to time and converfed with the inhabitants, and obferved the various appearances of towns ruined and inhabited, of wild and cultivated nature.

When they came to the great pyramid, they were aftonished at the extent of the bafe, and the height of the top. Imlac explained to them the principles upon which the pyramidal form was chofen for a fabrick intended to co-extend its duration with that of the world: he fhewed that its gradual diminution gave it fuch ftability, as defeated all the common attacks of the elements, and could scarcely be overthrown by earthquakes themfelves, the least refiftible of natural violence. A concuffion that fhould hatter the pyramid would threaten the diffolution of the continent.

They measured all its dimenfions, and pitched their tents at its foot. Next day they prepared to enter its interior apartments, and having hired the common guides climbed up to the firft paffage, when the favourite of the princefs, looking into the cavity, tepped back and trembled. Pekuah, faid the princefs, of what art thou afraid?" "Of the narrow entrance, anfwered the lady, and of the dreadful gloom. I dare not enter a place which muft furely be inhabited by unquiet fouls. The original poffeffors of thefe dreadful vaults will start up before us, and perhaps fhut us in for ever." She fpoke, and threw her arms round the neck of her miftrefs.

"If all your fear be of apparitions, faid the prince, I will promife you fafety: there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried will be seen

no more.'

"That the dead are feen no more, faid Imlac, I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried teftimony of all ages, and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned,

among