Book: Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia

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"These," said the Prince, "are European distinctions. I will
consider them another time. What have you found to be the effect
of knowledge? Are those nations happier than we?"

"There is so much infelicity," said the poet, "in the world, that
scarce any man has leisure from his own distresses to estimate the
comparative happiness of others. Knowledge is certainly one of the
means of pleasure, as is confessed by the natural desire which
every mind feels of increasing its ideas. Ignorance is mere
privation, by which nothing can be produced; it is a vacuity in
which the soul sits motionless and torpid for want of attraction,
and, without knowing why, we always rejoice when we learn, and
grieve when we forget. I am therefore inclined to conclude that if
nothing counteracts the natural consequence of learning, we grow
more happy as out minds take a wider range.

"In enumerating the particular comforts of life, we shall find many
advantages on the side of the Europeans. They cure wounds and
diseases with which we languish and perish. We suffer inclemencies
of weather which they can obviate. They have engines for the
despatch of many laborious works, which we must perform by manual
industry. There is such communication between distant places that
one friend can hardly be said to be absent from another. Their
policy removes all public inconveniences; they have roads cut
through the mountains, and bridges laid over their rivers. And, if
we descend to the privacies of life, their habitations are more
commodious and their possessions are more secure."

"They are surely happy," said the Prince, "who have all these
conveniences, of which I envy none so much as the facility with
which separated friends interchange their thoughts."

"The Europeans," answered Imlac, "are less unhappy than we, but
they are not happy. Human life is everywhere a state in which much
is to be endured and little to be enjoyed."



CHAPTER XII--THE STORY OF IMLAC (continued).



"I am not willing," said the Prince, "to suppose that happiness is
so parsimoniously distributed to mortals, nor can I believe but
that, if I had the choice of life, I should be able to fill every
day with pleasure. I would injure no man, and should provoke no
resentments; I would relieve every distress, and should enjoy the
benedictions of gratitude. I would choose my friends among the
wise and my wife among the virtuous, and therefore should be in no
danger from treachery or unkindness. My children should by my care
be learned and pious, and would repay to my age what their
childhood had received. What would dare to molest him who might
call on every side to thousands enriched by his bounty or assisted
by his power? And why should not life glide away in the soft
reciprocation of protection and reverence? All this may be done
without the help of European refinements, which appear by their
effects to be rather specious than useful. Let us leave them and
pursue our journey."

"From Palestine," said Imlac, "I passed through many regions of
Asia; in the more civilised kingdoms as a trader, and among the
barbarians of the mountains as a pilgrim. At last I began to long
for my native country, that I might repose after my travels and
fatigues in the places where I had spent my earliest years, and
gladden my old companions with the recital of my adventures. Often
did I figure to myself those with whom I had sported away the gay
hours of dawning life, sitting round me in its evening, wondering
at my tales and listening to my counsels.

"When this thought had taken possession of my mind, I considered
every moment as wasted which did not bring me nearer to Abyssinia.
I hastened into Egypt, and, notwithstanding my impatience, was
detained ten months in the contemplation of its ancient
magnificence and in inquiries after the remains of its ancient
learning. I found in Cairo a mixture of all nations: some brought
thither by the love of knowledge, some by the hope of gain; many by
the desire of living after their own manner without observation,
and of lying hid in the obscurity of multitudes; for in a city
populous as Cairo it is possible to obtain at the same time the
gratifications of society and the secrecy of solitude.

"From Cairo I travelled to Suez, and embarked on the Red Sea,
passing along the coast till I arrived at the port from which I had
departed twenty years before. Here I joined myself to a caravan,
and re-entered my native country.

"I now expected the caresses of my kinsmen and the congratulations
of my friends, and was not without hope that my father, whatever
value he had set upon riches, would own with gladness and pride a
son who was able to add to the felicity and honour of the nation.
But I was soon convinced that my thoughts were vain. My father had
been dead fourteen years, having divided his wealth among my
brothers, who were removed to some other provinces. Of my
companions, the greater part was in the grave; of the rest, some
could with difficulty remember me, and some considered me as one
corrupted by foreign manners.

"A man used to vicissitudes is not easily dejected. I forgot,
after a time, my disappointment, and endeavoured to recommend
myself to the nobles of the kingdom; they admitted me to their
tables, heard my story, and dismissed me. I opened a school, and
was prohibited to teach. I then resolved to sit down in the quiet
of domestic life, and addressed a lady that was fond of my
conversation, but rejected my suit because my father was a
merchant.

"Wearied at last with solicitation and repulses, I resolved to hide
myself for ever from the world, and depend no longer on the opinion
or caprice of others. I waited for the time when the gate of the
Happy Valley should open, that I might bid farewell to hope and
fear; the day came, my performance was distinguished with favour,
and I resigned myself with joy to perpetual confinement."

"Hast thou here found happiness at last?" said Rasselas. "Tell me,
without reserve, art thou content with thy condition, or dost thou
wish to be again wandering and inquiring? All the inhabitants of
this valley celebrate their lot, and at the annual visit of the
Emperor invite others to partake of their felicity."

"Great Prince," said Imlac, "I shall speak the truth. I know not
one of all your attendants who does not lament the hour when he
entered this retreat. I am less unhappy than the rest, because I
have a mind replete with images, which I can vary and combine at
pleasure. I can amuse my solitude by the renovation of the
knowledge which begins to fade from my memory, and by recollection
of the accidents of my past life. Yet all this ends in the
sorrowful consideration that my acquirements are now useless, and
that none of my pleasures can be again enjoyed. The rest, whose
minds have no impression but of the present moment, are either
corroded by malignant passions or sit stupid in the gloom of
perpetual vacancy."

"What passions can infest those," said the Prince, "who have no
rivals? We are in a place where impotence precludes malice, and
where all envy is repressed by community of enjoyments."

"There may be community," said Imlac, "of material possessions, but
there can never be community of love or of esteem. It must happen
that one will please more than another; he that knows himself
despised will always be envious, and still more envious and
malevolent if he is condemned to live in the presence of those who
despise him. The invitations by which they allure others to a
state which they feel to be wretched, proceed from the natural
malignity of hopeless misery. They are weary of themselves and of
each other, and expect to find relief in new companions. They envy
the liberty which their folly has forfeited, and would gladly see
all mankind imprisoned like themselves.

"From this crime, however, I am wholly free. No man can say that
he is wretched by my persuasion. I look with pity on the crowds
who are annually soliciting admission to captivity, and wish that
it were lawful for me to warn them of their danger."

"My dear Imlac," said the Prince, "I will open to thee my whole
heart. I have long meditated an escape from the Happy Valley. I
have examined the mountain on every side, but find myself
insuperably barred--teach me the way to break my prison; thou shalt
be the companion of my flight, the guide of my rambles, the partner
of my fortune, and my sole director in the CHOICE OF LIFE.

"Sir," answered the poet, "your escape will be difficult, and
perhaps you may soon repent your curiosity. The world, which you
figure to yourself smooth and quiet as the lake in the valley, you
will find a sea foaming with tempests and boiling with whirlpools;
you will be sometimes overwhelmed by the waves of violence, and
sometimes dashed against the rocks of treachery. Amidst wrongs and
frauds, competitions and anxieties, you will wish a thousand times
for these seats of quiet, and willingly quit hope to be free from
fear."

"Do not seek to deter me from my purpose," said the Prince. "I am
impatient to see what thou hast seen; and since thou art thyself
weary of the valley, it is evident that thy former state was better
than this. Whatever be the consequence of my experiment, I am
resolved to judge with mine own eyes of the various conditions of
men, and then to make deliberately my CHOICE OF LIFE."

"I am afraid," said Imlac, "you are hindered by stronger restraints
than my persuasions; yet, if your determination is fixed, I do not
counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and
skill."



CHAPTER XIII--RASSELAS DISCOVERS THE MEANS OF ESCAPE.



The Prince now dismissed his favourite to rest; but the narrative
of wonders and novelties filled his mind with perturbation. He
revolved all that he had heard, and prepared innumerable questions
for the morning.

Much of his uneasiness was now removed. He had a friend to whom he
could impart his thoughts, and whose experience could assist him in
his designs. His heart was no longer condemned to swell with
silent vexation. He thought that even the Happy Valley might be
endured with such a companion, and that if they could range the
world together he should have nothing further to desire.

In a few days the water was discharged, and the ground dried. The
Prince and Imlac then walked out together, to converse without the
notice of the rest. The Prince, whose thoughts were always on the
wing, as he passed by the gate said, with a countenance of sorrow,
"Why art thou so strong, and why is man so weak?"

"Man is not weak," answered his companion; "knowledge is more than
equivalent to force. The master of mechanics laughs at strength.
I can burst the gate, but cannot do it secretly. Some other
expedient must be tried."

As they were walking on the side of the mountain they observed
that the coneys, which the rain had driven from their burrows, had
taken shelter among the bushes, and formed holes behind them
tending upwards in an oblique line. "It has been the opinion of
antiquity," said Imlac, "that human reason borrowed many arts from
the instinct of animals; let us, therefore, not think ourselves
degraded by learning from the coney. We may escape by piercing the
mountain in the same direction. We will begin where the summit
hangs over the middle part, and labour upward till we shall issue
out beyond the prominence."

The eyes of the Prince, when he heard this proposal, sparkled with
joy. The execution was easy and the success certain.

No time was now lost. They hastened early in the morning to choose
a place proper for their mine. They clambered with great fatigue
among crags and brambles, and returned without having discovered
any part that favoured their design. The second and the third day
were spent in the same manner, and with the same frustration; but
on the fourth day they found a small cavern concealed by a thicket,
where they resolved to make their experiment.

Imlac procured instruments proper to hew stone and remove earth,
and they fell to their work on the next day with more eagerness
than vigour. They were presently exhausted by their efforts, and
sat down to pant upon the grass. The Prince for a moment appeared
to be discouraged. "Sir," said his companion, "practice will
enable us to continue our labour for a longer time. Mark, however,
how far we have advanced, and ye will find that our toil will some
time have an end. Great works are performed not by strength, but
perseverance; yonder palace was raised by single stones, yet you
see its height and spaciousness. He that shall walk with vigour
three hours a day, will pass in seven years a space equal to the
circumference of the globe."

They returned to their work day after day, and in a short time
found a fissure in the rock, which enabled them to pass far with
very little obstruction. This Rasselas considered as a good omen.
"Do not disturb your mind," said Imlac, "with other hopes or fears
than reason may suggest; if you are pleased with the prognostics of
good, you will be terrified likewise with tokens of evil, and your
whole life will be a prey to superstition. Whatever facilitates
our work is more than an omen; it is a cause of success. This is
one of those pleasing surprises 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 young men whose only business is to gratify their
desires, and whose time is all spent in a succession of
enjoyments."

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