Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia
which often happen to active resolution. Many things difficult to design
prove easy to performance.”
CHAPTER XIV
RASSELAS AND IMLAC RECEIVE AN UNEXPECTED VISIT.
THEY had now wrought their way to the middle, and solaced their toil with
the approach of liberty, when the Prince, coming down to refresh himself
with air, found his sister Nekayah standing at the mouth of the cavity.
He started, and stood confused, afraid to tell his design, and yet
hopeless to conceal it. A few moments determined him to repose on her
fidelity, and secure her secrecy by a declaration without reserve.
“Do not imagine,” said the Princess, “that I came hither as a spy. I had
long observed from my window that you and Imlac directed your walk every
day towards the same point, but I did not suppose you had any better
reason for the preference than a cooler shade or more fragrant bank, nor
followed you with any other design than to partake of your conversation.
Since, then, not suspicion, but fondness, has detected you, let me not
lose the advantage of my discovery. I am equally weary of confinement
with yourself, and not less desirous of knowing what is done or suffered
in the world. Permit me to fly with you from this tasteless
tranquillity, which will yet grow more loathsome when you have left me.
You may deny me to accompany you, but cannot hinder me from following.”
The Prince, who loved Nekayah above his other sisters, had no inclination
to refuse her request, and grieved that he had lost an opportunity of
showing his confidence by a voluntary communication. It was, therefore,
agreed that she should leave the valley with them; and that in the
meantime she should watch, lest any other straggler should, by chance or
curiosity, follow them to the mountain.
At length their labour was at an end. They saw light beyond the
prominence, and, issuing to the top of the mountain, beheld the Nile, yet
a narrow current, wandering beneath them.
The Prince looked round with rapture, anticipated all the pleasures of
travel, and in thought was already transported beyond his father’s
dominions. Imlac, though very joyful at his escape, had less expectation
of pleasure in the world, which he had before tried and of which he had
been weary.
Rasselas was so much delighted with a wider horizon, that he could not
soon be persuaded to return into the valley. He informed his sister that
the way was now open, and that nothing now remained but to prepare for
their departure.
CHAPTER XV
THE PRINCE AND PRINCESS LEAVE THE VALLEY, AND SEE MANY WONDERS.
THE Prince and Princess had jewels sufficient to make them rich whenever
they came into a place of commerce, which, by Imlac’s direction, they hid
in their clothes, and on the night of the next full moon all left the
valley. The Princess was followed only by a single favourite, who did
not know whither she was going.
They clambered through the cavity, and began to go down on the other
side. The Princess and her maid turned their eyes toward every part, and
seeing nothing to bound their prospect, considered themselves in danger
of being lost in a dreary vacuity. They stopped and trembled. “I am
almost afraid,” said the Princess, “to begin a journey of which I cannot
perceive an end, and to venture into this immense plain where I may be
approached on every side by men whom I never saw.” The Prince felt
nearly the same emotions, though he thought it more manly to conceal
them.
Imlac smiled at their terrors, and encouraged them to proceed. But the
Princess continued irresolute till she had been imperceptibly drawn
forward too far to return.
In the morning they found some shepherds in the field, who set some milk
and fruits before them. The Princess wondered that she did not see a
palace ready for her reception and a table spread with delicacies; but
being faint and hungry, she drank the milk and ate the fruits, and
thought them of a higher flavour than the products of the valley.
They travelled forward by easy journeys, being all unaccustomed to toil
and difficulty, and knowing that, though they might be missed, they could
not be pursued. In a few days they came into a more populous region,
where Imlac was diverted with the admiration which his companions
expressed at the diversity of manners, stations, and employments. Their
dress was such as might not bring upon them the suspicion of having
anything to conceal; yet the Prince, wherever he came, expected to be
obeyed, and the Princess was frighted because those who came into her
presence did not prostrate themselves. Imlac was forced to observe them
with great vigilance, lest they should betray their rank by their unusual
behaviour, and detained them several weeks in the first village to
accustom them to the sight of common mortals.
By degrees the royal wanderers were taught to understand that they had
for a time laid aside their dignity, and were to expect only such regard
as liberality and courtesy could procure. And Imlac having by many
admonitions prepared them to endure the tumults of a port and the
ruggedness of the commercial race, brought them down to the sea-coast.
The Prince and his sister, to whom everything was new, were gratified
equally at all places, and therefore remained for some months at the port
without any inclination to pass further. Imlac was content with their
stay, because he did not think it safe to expose them, unpractised in the
world, to the hazards of a foreign country.
At last he began to fear lest they should be discovered, and proposed to
fix a day for their departure. They had no pretensions to judge for
themselves, and referred the whole scheme to his direction. He therefore
took passage in a ship to Suez, and, when the time came, with great
difficulty prevailed on the Princess to enter the vessel. They had a
quick and prosperous voyage, and from Suez travelled by land to Cairo.
CHAPTER XVI
THEY ENTER CAIRO, AND FIND EVERY MAN HAPPY.
AS they approached the city, which filled the strangers with
astonishment, “This,” said Imlac to the Prince, “is the place where
travellers and merchants assemble from all corners of the earth. You
will here find men of every character and every occupation. Commerce is
here honourable. I will act as a merchant, and you shall live as
strangers who have no other end of travel than curiosity; it will soon be
observed that we are rich. Our reputation will procure us access to all
whom we shall desire to know; you shall see all the conditions of
humanity, and enable yourselves at leisure to make your _choice of
life_.”
They now entered the town, stunned by the noise and offended by the
crowds. Instruction had not yet so prevailed over habit but that they
wondered to see themselves pass undistinguished along the streets, and
met by the lowest of the people without reverence or notice. The
Princess could not at first bear the thought of being levelled with the
vulgar, and for some time continued in her chamber, where she was served
by her favourite Pekuah, as in the palace of the valley.
Imlac, who understood traffic, sold part of the jewels the next day, and
hired a house, which he adorned with such magnificence that he was
immediately considered as a merchant of great wealth. His politeness
attracted many acquaintances, and his generosity made him courted by many
dependants. His companions, not being able to mix in the conversation,
could make no discovery of their ignorance or surprise, and were
gradually initiated in the world as they gained knowledge of the
language.
The Prince had by frequent lectures been taught the use and nature of
money; but the ladies could not for a long time comprehend what the
merchants did with small pieces of gold and silver, or why things of so
little use should be received as an equivalent to the necessaries of
life.
They studied the language two years, while Imlac was preparing to set
before them the various ranks and conditions of mankind. He grew
acquainted with all who had anything uncommon in their fortune or
conduct. He frequented the voluptuous and the frugal, the idle and the
busy, the merchants and the men of learning.
The Prince now being able to converse with fluency, and having learned
the caution necessary to be observed in his intercourse with strangers,
began to accompany Imlac to places of resort, and to enter into all
assemblies, that he might make his _choice of life_.
For some time he thought choice needless, because all appeared to him
really happy. Wherever he went he met gaiety and kindness, and heard the
song of joy or the laugh of carelessness. He began to believe that the
world overflowed with universal plenty, and that nothing was withheld
either from want or merit; that every hand showered liberality and every
heart melted with benevolence: “And who then,” says he, “will be suffered
to be wretched?”
Imlac permitted the pleasing delusion, and was unwilling to crush the
hope of inexperience: till one day, having sat awhile silent, “I know
not,” said the Prince, “what can be the reason that I am more unhappy
than any of our friends. I see them perpetually and unalterably
cheerful, but feel my own mind restless and uneasy. I am unsatisfied
with those pleasures which I seem most to court. I live in the crowds of
jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself, and am only loud
and merry to conceal my sadness.”
“Every man,” said Imlac, “may by examining his own mind guess what passes
in the minds of others. When you feel that your own gaiety is
counterfeit, it may justly lead you to suspect that of your companions
not to be sincere. Envy is commonly reciprocal. We are long before we
are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it
possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.
In the assembly where you passed the last night there appeared such
sprightliness of air and volatility of fancy as might have suited beings
of a higher order, formed to inhabit serener regions, inaccessible to
care or sorrow; yet, believe me, Prince, was there not one who did not
dread the moment when solitude should deliver him to the tyranny of
reflection.”
“This,” said the Prince, “may be true of others since it is true of me;
yet, whatever be the general infelicity of man, one condition is more
happy than another, and wisdom surely directs us to take the least evil
in the _choice of life_.”
“The causes of good and evil,” answered Imlac, “are so various and
uncertain, so often entangled with each other, so diversified by various
relations, and so much subject to accidents which cannot be foreseen,
that he who would fix his condition upon incontestable reasons of
preference must live and die inquiring and deliberating.”
“But, surely,” said Rasselas, “the wise men, to whom we listen with
reverence and wonder, chose that mode of life for themselves which they
thought most likely to make them happy.”
“Very few,” said the poet, “live by choice. Every man is placed in the
present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with
which he did not always willingly co-operate, and therefore you will
rarely meet one who does not think the lot of his neighbour better than
his own.”
“I am pleased to think,” said the Prince, “that my birth has given me at
least one advantage over others by enabling me to determine for myself.
I have here the world before me. I will review it at leisure: surely
happiness is somewhere to be found.”
CHAPTER XVII
THE PRINCE ASSOCIATES WITH YOUNG MEN OF SPIRIT AND GAIETY.
RASSELAS rose next day, and resolved to begin his experiments upon life.
“Youth,” cried he, “is the time of gladness: I will join myself to the