CHA P. XLII.. THE ASTRONOMER LEAVES IMLAC HIS "HE DIRECTIONS. EAR, therefore, what I fhall impart with attention, fuch as the welfare of a world requires. If the task of a king be considered 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 dif. a disposition by which the world may be advantaged; what one region gains, an other lofes by an imaginable alteration, even without confidering the distant 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 thyself with thinking that thou canft make thyself renowned to all fu ture ages, by difordering the feafons. The memory of mischief is no defirable fame. Much lefs will it become thee to let kindnefs or intereft prevail. Never rob other countries of rain to pour it on thine own. For us the Nile is fufficient." "I promised, that when I poffeffed the power, I would use it with inflexible integrity; and he difmiffed me, preffing my hand." "My heart, faid he, will be now at rest, and my benevolence will 1 will no more deftroy 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 princess 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 prefent ftate, the most dreadful and alarming is the uncertain continuance of reafon." The princess was recollected, and the favourite was abafhed. Raffelas, more deeply affected, inquired of Imlac, whether he thought fuch maladies of the mind frequent, and how they were contracted? CHAP. CHA P. XLIII. THE DANGEROUS PREVALENCE OF IMA GINATION. ISORDERS of intellect, an "DIS "D'swered Imlac, happen much more often than fuperficial obfervers will eafily believe. Perhaps, if we fpeak with rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right ftate. There is no man whose imagination does not fometimes predominate over his reafon, 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 not fome. times tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear beyond the limits of fober probability. All power of fancy over reafon is a degree of infanity; but while this 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 comes 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 thofe who delight too much in filent fpeculation. When we are alone we are not always busy; 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 pleafure in his own thoughts, and muft conceive himfelf what he is not; for who is pleased with what he is? He then expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginable |