CHAPTER XVIII. THE PRINCE FINDS A WISE AND HAPPY MAN. PAGE • 293 XXI. THE HAPPINESS OF SOLITUDE. THE HERMIT'S HISTORY 302 XXII. THE HAPPINESS OF A LIFE LED ACCORDING TO NATURE 306 XXIII. THE PRINCE AND HIS SISTER DIVIDE BETWEEN THEM XXX. IMLAC ENTERS, AND CHANGES THE CONVERSATION 333 344 XXXIV. THEY RETURN TO CAIRO WITHOUT PEKUAH . XXXVI. PEKUAH IS STILL REMEMBERED. THE PROGRESS XXXVII, THE PRINCESS HEARS NEWS OF PEKUAH XXXVIII. THE Adventures of THE LADY PEKUAH XXXIX, THE ADVENTURES OF PEKUAH CONTINUED XL. THE HISTORY OF A MAN OF LEARNING XLIII. THE ASTRONOMER LEAVES IMLAC HIS DIRECTIONS XLIV. THE DANGEROUS PREVALENCE OF IMAGINATION ASTRO- XLVII. THE PRINCE ENTERS, AND BRINGS A NEW TOPIC THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA. CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTION OF A PALACE IN A VALLEY. YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty emperor, in whose dominions the Father of Waters begins his course; whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt. According to the custom which has descended from age to age among the monarchs of the torrid zone, Rasselas was confined in a private palace with the other sons and daughters of Abyssinian royalty, till the order of succession should call him to the throne The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes, was a spacious valley in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the summits overhang the middle part. The only passage by which it could be entered was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it has long been disputed whether it was the work of nature or of human industry. The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth, which opened into the valley, was closed with gates of iron, forged by the artificers of ancient days, so massy that no man without the help of engines could open or shut them. From the mountains on every side rivulets descended that filled all the valley with verdure and fertility, and formed a lake in the middle, inhabited by fish of every species, and frequented by every fowl whom nature has taught to dip the wing in water. This lake discharged its superfluities by a stream which entered a dark cleft of the mountain on the northern side, and fell with dreadful noise from precipice to precipice till it was heard no more. The sides of the mountains were covered with trees, the banks of the brooks were diversified with flowers; every blast shook spices from the rocks, and every month dropped fruits from the ground. All animals that bite the grass, or browse the shrub, whether wild or tame, wandered in this extensive circuit, secured from beasts of prey by the mountains which confined them. On one part were flocks and herds feeding in the pastures, on another all the beasts of chase frisk |