The History of Rasselas, X–XII

THE

HISTORY OF RASSELAS. PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA. BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. CHAPTER X. IMLAC'S HISTORY CONTINUED A DISSERTATION ON I OETRY, "Wherever I went, I found that poetry was considered as the kighest learning, and regarded with a veneration somewhat ap- proaching to that which man would pay to the Angelic Nature. And yet it fills me with wonder, that, in almost all countries, the most ancient poets are considered as the best; whether it be that every other kind of knowledge is an acquisition gradually attained, and poetry is a gift conferred at once; or that the first poetry of every nation surprised them as a novelty, and retained the credit by consent, which is received by accident at first: or whether, as the province of poetry is to describe nature and passion, which are always the same, the first writers took possession of the most striking objects for description, and the most probable occurrences for fiction and left nothing to those that followed them, but tran- scription of the same events, and new combinations of the same images. Whatever be the reason, it is commonly observed that the early writers are in possession of nature, and their followers of art; that the first excel in strength and invention, and the latter in elegance and refinement. "I was desirous to add my name to this illustrious fraternity. I read all the poets of Persia and Arabia, and was able to repeat by memory the volumes that are suspended in the mosque of Mecca. But I soon found that no man was great by imitation. My desire

200 IMPROVEMENT ERA. of excellence impelled me to transfer my attention to nature and to life. Nature was to be my subject, and men to be my auditors: I could never describe what I had not seen: I could not hope to move those with delight or terror, whose interests and opinions I did not understand. "Being now resolved to be a poet, I saw everything with a new purpose; my sphere of attention was suddenly magnified: no kind of knowledge was to be overlooked. I ranged mountains and des- erts for images and resemblances, and pictured upon my mind every tree of the forest and flower of the valley. I observed with equal care the crags oi the rock and the pinnacles of the palace. Sometimes I wandered along the mazes of the rivulet, and some- times watched the changes of the summer clouds. To a poet noth- ing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful and whatever is dread- ful must be familiar to his imagination: he must be conversant with all that is awfully vast or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with in- exhaustible variety: for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth; and he who knows most will have most power of diversifying his scenes, and of gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction. "All the appearances of nature I was therefore careful to study; and every country which I have surveyed has contributed something to my poetical powers." "In so wide a survey, " said the prince, "you must surely have left much unobserved. I have lived, till now, within the circuit of these mountains, and yet cannot walk abroad without the sight of something which I had never beheld before or never heeded." "The business of a poet," said Imlac, "is to examine, not the individual, but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances; he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or de- scribe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit in his portraits of nature such prominent and striking feat- ures as recall the original to every mind; and must neglect the minuter discriminations, which one have remarked, and another have neglected, for those characteristics which are alike obvious to vigilance and carelessness.

THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS. 201 "But the knowledge of nature is only half the task of a poet; he must be acquainted likewise with all the modes of life. His character requires that he estimate the happiness and misery of every condition; observe the power of all the passions in all their combinations, and trace the changes of the human mind as they are modified by various institutions and accidental influences of climate or custom, from the sprightliness of infancy to the des- pondence of decrepitude. He must divest himself of the preju- dices of his age or country; he must consider right and wrong in their abstracted and invariable state; he must disregard present laws and opinions, and rise to general and transcendental truths, which will always be the same; he must therefore content himself with the slow progress of his name; contemn the applause of his own time, and commit his claims to the justice of posterity. He must write as the interpreter of nature, and the legislator of man- kind, and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of future generations; as a being superior to time and place. "His labor is not yet at an end; he must know many languages and many sciences: and, that his style may be worthy of his thoughts, must, by incessant practice, familiarize to himself every delicacy of speech and grace of harmony. CHAPTER XL IMLAC'S NARRATIVE CONTINUED. A HINT ON PILGRIMAGE. Imlac now felt the enthusiastic fit, and was proceeding to ag- grandize his own profession, when the prince cried out, "Enough! thou hast convinced me that no human being can ever be a poet. Proceed with thy narration." "To be a poet," said Imlac, "is indeed very difficult." "So difficult, " returned the prince, "that I will at present hear no more of his labors. Tell me whither you went when you had seen Persia." "From Persia," said the poet, "I traveled through Syria, and for three years resided in Palestine, where I conversed with great numbers of the northern and western nations ot Europe; the na- tions which are now in possession of all power and all knowledge

202 1MPKO VEMENT ERA. whose armies are irresistible, and whose fleets command the re- motest parts of the globe. When I compared these men with the natives of our own kingdom, and those that surround us, they ap- peared almost another order of beings. In their countries it is difficult to wish for anything that may not be obtained: a thousand arts, of which we never heard, are continually laboring for their convenience and pleasure,; and whatever their own climate has denied them is supplied by their commerce." "By what means," said the prince, "are the Europeans thus powerful; or why, since they can so easily visit Asia or Africa for trade or conquest, cannot the Asiatics and Africans invade their coasts, plant colonies in their ports, and give laws to their natural princes? The same wind that carries them back would bring us thither." "They are more powerful, sir, than we," answered Imlac, "because they are wiser; knowledge, will always predominate over ignorance, as man governs the other animals. But why their knowledge is more than ours, I know not what reason can be given, but the unsearchable will of the Supreme Being. ' "When," said the prince with a sigh, "shall I be able to visit Palestine, and mingle with this mighty confluence of nations? Till that happy moment shall arrive, let me fill up the time with such representations as thou canst give me. I am not ignorant of the motive that assembles such numbers in that place, and cannot but consider it as the center of wisdom and piety, to which the best and wisest of every land must be continually resorting." "There are some nations, " said Imlac, "that send few visit- ants to Palestine; for many numerous and learned sects in Europe concur to censure pilgrimage as superstitious, or deride it as ridic- ulous. " "You know." said the prince, "how little my life has made me acquainted with diversity of opinions: it will be too long to hear the arguments on both sides; you, that have considered them, tell me the result." "Pilgrimage," said Imlac, "like many other acts of piety, may be reasonable or superstitious, according to the principles upon which it is performed. Long journeys in search of truth are not commanded. Truth, such as is necessary to the regulation cf life,

THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS. 203 is always found where it is honestly sought. Change of place is no natural cause of the increase of piety, for it inevitably produces dissipation of mind. Yet, since men go every day to view the fields where great actions have been performed, and return with stronger impressions of the event, curiosity of the same kind may naturally dispose us to view that country whence our religion had its beginning: and I believe no man surveys those awful scenes without some confirmation of holy resolutions. That the Supreme Being may be more easily propitiated in one place than in another is the dream of idle superstition; but that some places may operate upon our minds in an uncommon manner is an opinion which hourly experience will justify. He who supposes that his vices may be more successfully combated in Palestine will, perhaps, find himself mistaken; yet he may go thither without folly: he who thinks they will be more freely pardoned dishonors at once his reason and re- ligion. " "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 sarce 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 our 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 in- clemencies 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 an- other. Their policy removes all public inconveniences; they have

204 IMPROVEMENT ERA. roads cut through their mountains, and bridges laid upon their rivers. And, if we descend to the privacies of life, their habita- tions 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. 'lam not yet willing," said the prince, "to suppose that happiness is so parsimoniously distributed to mortals; nor can be- lieve 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 pro- voke no resentment: I would relieve every distress, and should en- joy 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 mo- lest him who might call on every side to thousands enriched by his bounty, or assisted by his power? And why should not life glide quietly away in the soft reciprocity 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 civilized 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 fatigue, 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 around me in its evening, wondering at my tales, and listening to my counsels.

THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS. 205 "When this thought had taken possession of my mind, I con- sidered every moment as wasted which did not bring me nearer to Abyssinia. I hastened into Egypt, and notwithstanding my im- patience, was detained ten months in the contemplation of its an- cient 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, and many by the desire of living after their own manner without ob- servation, 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 traveled 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 con- gratulations 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 honor of the nation. But I was soon convinced that my thoughts were vain. My father had been dead fourteen years, having di- vided 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 endeavored 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 con- versation, but rejected my suit because my father was a mer- chant. "Wearied at last with solicitations and repulses, I resolved to hide myself forever 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

206 IMPROVEMENT ERA. with favor, and I resigned myself with joy to perpetual confine- ment." "Hast thou here found happiness at last? Tell me with- out 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 em- peror 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 recol- lections of the incidents 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 that 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 enjoy- ments." "There may be community," said Imlac, "of material posses- sions, but there can never be community of love or of es- teem. 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 permission. I look with pity on the crowds who are annually soliciting admission into captivity, and wish that it were lawful for me to warn them of their danger."