The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia. XXX–XXXIV

' " THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA. BY SAMUEL JOHNSON, LL. D. CHAPTER XXX. IMLAC ENTERS, AND CHANGES THE CONVERSATION. Here Imlac entered and interrupted them. "Imlac, " said Rasselas, "I have been taking' from the princess the dismal history of private life, and am almost discouraged from further search. "It seems to me," said Imlac, ''that while you are making the choice of lifeyou neglect to live. You wander about a single city, which however large and diversified, can now afford few nov- elties, and forget that you are in a country famous among the earliest monarchies for the power and wisdom of its inhabitants; a country where the sciences first dawned that illuminate the world, and beyond which the arts cannot be traced of civil society or domestic life. ' 'The old Egyptians have left behind them monuments of in- dustry and power, before which all European magnificence is con- fessed to fade away. The ruins of their architecture are the schools of modern builders, and from the wonders which time has spared, we may conjecture, though uncertainly, what it has destroyed." "My curiosity," said Rasselas, "does not very strongly lead me to survey the piles of stone or mounds of earth; my business is with man. came hither not to measure fragments of temples, I or trace choked aqueducts, but to look upon the various scenes of ' the present world. "The things that are now before us," said the princess,

THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS. 587 "require attention and deserve it. What have I to do with the heroes or the monuments of ancient times? with times which never can return, and heroes, whose form of life was different from all that the present condition or man requires or allows?" **To know anything," returned the poet, *Ve must know its effects; to see men we must see their works, that vve may learn what reason has dictated, or passion has incited, and find what are the most powerful motives of action. To judge rightly of the present, we must oppose it to the past; for all judgment is com- parative, and of the future nothing can be known. The truth is that no mind is much employed upon the present: recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments. Our passions are joy and grief, love and hatred, hope and fear. Of joy and grief, the past is the object, and the future of hope and fear; even love and hatred respect the past, for the cause must have been before the effect. "The present state of things is the consequence of the former, and it is natural to inquire what were the sources of the good that we enjoy, or the evil that we suffer. If we act only for ourselves, to neglect the study of history is not prudent: if we are entrusted with the care of others, it is not just. Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may be properly charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it. ' 'There is no part of history so generally useful as that which relates the progress of the human mind, the gradual improvement of reason, the successive advances of science, the vicissitudes of learning and ignorance, which are the light and darkness of think- ing beings, the extinction and resuscitation of arts, and the revo- lutions of the intellectual world. If accounts of battles and invasions are peculiarly the business of princes, the useful or ele- gant arts are not to be neglected, those who have kingdoms to govern have understandings to cultivate. "Example is always more efiicacious than precept. A soldier is formed in war, and a painter must copy pictures. In this, con- templative life has the advantage: great actions are seldom seen, but the labors of art are always at hand for those who desire to know what art has been able to perform. ' 'When the eye or the imagination is struck with an uncommon

. 588 IMPRO YEMEN T ERA work, the next transition of an active mind is to the means by which it was performed. Here begins the true use of such contemplation; we enlarge our comprehension by new ideas and perhaps recover some art lost to mankind, or learn what is less perfectly known in our own country. At least, we compare our own with former times, and either rejoice at our improvements, or, what is the first motion towards good, discover our defects." "I am willing, " said the prince, "to see all that can deserve my search." "And I," said the princess, "shall rejoice to learn something of the manners of antiquity." "The most pompous monument of Egyptian greatness, and one of the most bulky works of manual industry, " said Imlac, "are the Pyramids, fabrics raised before the time of history, and of which the earliest narratives afford us only uncertain traditions. Of these the greatest is still standing, very little injured by time." ''Let us visit them tomorrow," said Nekayah. "I have often heard of the Pyramids, and shall not rest until I have seen them within and without with my own eyes." CHAPTER XXXI. THEY VISIT THE PYRAMIDS. The resolution being taken, they set out the next day. They laid tents upon their camels, being resolved to stay among the Pyra- mids till their curiosity was fully satisfied. They traveled gently, turned aside to everything remarkable, stopped from time to time and conversed with the inhabitants, and observed the various appearances of towns ruined and inhabited, of wild and cultivated nature. When they came to the great Pyramid, they were astonished at the extent of the base, and the height of the top. Imlac explained to them the principle upon which the pyram'dical form was chosen for a fabric intended to co-extend its duration with that of the world: he showed that its gradual diminution gave it such stability as defeated all the common attacks of the elements, and could scarcely be overthrown by earthquakes themselves, the least resistible of natural violence. A concussion that should

THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS. 689 shatter the Pyramid would threaten the dissolution of the conti- nent. They measured all its dimensions, and pitched their tents at its foot. Next day they prepared to enter its interior apartments; and having hired the common guides, climbed up to the first pas- sage, when the favorite of the princess, looking into the cavity stepped back and trembled. "Pekuah, " said the princess, "of what art thou afraid?" "Of the narrow entrance," answered the lady,"and of the dreadful gloom. I dare not enter a place that must surely be inhabited by unquiet souls. The original possess- ors of these dreadful vaults will start up before us, and perhaps shut us in forever." She spoke, and threw her arms around the neck of her mistress. "If all your fear be of apparitions," said the prince, "I will promise you safety; there is no danger from the dead; he that is once buried will be seen no more.'' "That the dead are seen no more," said Imlac, "I will not undertake to maintain, against the concurrent and unvaried testi- mony of all ages and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned, among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed. This opinion, which perhaps prevails as far as hu- man nature is diffused, could become universal only by its truth; those that never heard of one another, would not have agreed in a tale which nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by single cavillers can very little weaken the general evidence; and some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears. "Yet I do not mean to add new terrors to those which have already seized upon Pekuah. There can be no reason why specters should haunt the Pyramid more than other places, or why they should have power or will to hurt innocence or purity. Our entrance is no violation of their privileges; we can take nothirg from them, how can we offend them?" "My dear Pekuah," said the princess, "I will always go before you, and Imlac shall follow you. Remember that you are the companion of the princess of Abyssinia." "If the princess is pleased that her servant should die," returned the lady, "let her command some death less dreadful

590 IMPROVEMENT ERA. than enclosure in this horrid cavern; you know I dare not disobey you; I must go if you command me; but if I once enter, I never shall come back.'' The princess saw that her fear was too strong for expostula- tion or reproof; and, embracing her, told her that she should stay in the tent till their return. Pekuah was yet not satisfied, but entreated the princess not to pursue so dreadful a purpose as that of entering the recesses of the Pyramid. * 'Though I cannot teach courage," said Nekayah, "I must not learn cowardice; nor leave at last undone what I came hither only to do." • CHAPTER XXXII. THEY ENTER THE PYRAMID. Pekuah descended to the tents, and the rest entered the Pyramid they passed through the galleries, surveyed the vaults of : marble, and examined the chest in which the body of the founder They then sat down in one of the is supposed to have been reposited. most spacious chambers to rest awhile before they attempted to return. "We have now,'' said Imlac, "gratified our minds with an exact view of the greatest work of man, except the wall of China. "Of the wall it is very easy to assign the motive. It secured a wealthy and timerous nation from the incursions of barbarians, whose unskillfulness in the arts made it easier for them to supply their wants by rapine than y industry, and who from time to time poured in upon the habitations of peaceful commerce as vultures descend upon domestic fowl. Their celerity and fierceness rendered the wall necessary, and their ignorance made it effica- cious. "But, for tne Pyramids no reason has ever been given ade- quate to the cost and labor of the work. The narrowness of the chambers proves that it could afford no retreat from enemies, and treasures might have been reposited at far less expense with equal security. It seems to have been erected only in compliance with that hunger of imagination which preys incessantly upon life and must be always appeased by some employment. Those who have already all that they can enjoy must enlarge their desires. He

THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS. 591 that has built for use, till use is supplied, must begin to build for vanity, and extend his plan to the utmost power of human per- formance, that he may not be soon reduced to form another wish. "I consider this mighty structure as a monument of the insufficiency of human enjoyments. A king, whose power is unlimited, and whose treasures surmount all real and imaginary wants, is compelled to solace, by the erection of a Pyramid, the satiety of dominion and tastelessness of pleasures, and to amuse the tediousness of declining by seeing thousands laboring life, without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon another. Whoever thou art that, not content with a moderate condition, imaginest happiness in royal magnificence, and dreamest that com- mand or riches can feed the appetite of novelty with perpetual gratifications, survey the Pyramids, and confess thy folly." CHAPTER XXXIII. THE PRINCESS MEETS WITH AN UNEXPECTED MISFORTUNE. They rose up and returned through the cavity at which they had entered, and the princess prepared for her favorite a long nar- rative of dark labyrinths and costly rooms, and of the different impressions which the varieties of the way had made upon her. But when they came to their train, they found every one silent and dejected, the men discovered fear and shame in the ir counte- nances, and the women were weeping in the tents. What had happened they did not try to conjecture, but im- mediately inquired. "You had scarcely entered into the Pyramids" said one of the attendants, ' 'when a troop of Arabs rushed upon us; we were too few to resist them, and too slow to escape. They were about to search the tents, set us on our camels, and drive us along before them, when the approach of some Turkish horsemen put them to flight: but they seized the lady Pekuah with her two maids and carried her away; the Turks are now pursuing them by our instigation, but I fear they will not be able to overtake them." The princess was overpowered with surprise and grief. Ras- selas, in the first heat of his resentment, ordered his servants to follow him, and prepared to pursue the robbers with his saber in

592 IMPROVEMENT ERA. his hand. "Sir," said Imlac, "what can you hope from violence or valor? The Arabs are mounted on horses trained to battle and retreat; we have only beasts of burden. By leaving our present station we may lose the princess, but cannot hope to regain Pekuah." In a short time the Turks returned, having not been able to reach the enemy. The princess burst out into new lamentations, and Rasselas could scarcely forbear to reproach them with cow- ardice; but Imlac was of opinion that the escape of the Arabs was no addition to their misfortune, for perhaps they would have killed their captives rather than have resigned them. CHAPTER XXXIV. THEY RETURN TO CAIRO WITHOUF PEKUAH. There was nothing to be hoped from longer stay. They returned to Cairo, repenting their curiosity, censuring the negli- gence of the government, lamenting their own rashness, which had neglected to procure a guard, imagining many expedients by which the loss of Pekuah might have been prevented, and resolv- ing to do something for her recovery, though none could find any- thing proper to be done. Nekayah retired to her chamber, where her women attempted to comfort her, by telling her that all had their troubles, and that lady Pekuah had enjoyed much happmess in the world for a long time, and might reasonably expect a change of fortune. They hoped that some good would befall her wherever she was, and that their mistress would find another friend who might supply her place. The princess made them no answer, and they continued the form of condolence, not much grieved in their hearts that the favorite was lost. Next day the prince presented to the Bassa a memorial of the wrong which he had suffered, and a petition for redress. The Bassa threatened to punish the robbers, but did not attempt to catch them, nor indeed could any account or description be given by which he might direct the pursuit. It soon appeared that nothing could be done by authority.

THE HISTORY OF RASSELAS. 593 Governors being accustomed to hear of more crimes than they can punish, and more wrongs than they can redress, set themselves at ease by indiscriminate negligence, and presently forget the request when they lose sight of the petitioner. Imlac then endeavored to gain some intelligence by private agents. He found many who pretended to an exact knowledge of all the haunts of Arabs, and to regular correspondence with their chiefs, and who readily undertook the recovery of Pekuah. Of these, some were furnished with money for their journey and came back no more; some were liberally paid for accounts which a few days discovered to be false. But the princess would not suffer any means, however improbable, to be left untried. While she was doing something she kept her hope alive. As one expedient failed, another was suggested; when one messenger returned unsuccessful, another was dispatched to a different quarter. Two months had now passed, and of Pekuah nothing had been heard; the hopes which they had endeavored to rais-^ in each other grew more languid; and the princess when she saw nothing more sunk down inconsolable in hopeless dejection. to be tried, A thousand times she reproached herself with the easy compliance by which she permitted her favorite to stay behind her. "Had not my fondness," said she, "lessened my authority, Pekuah had not dared to talk of her terrors. She ought to have feared me more than specters. A severe look would have overpowered her; a peremptory command would have compelled obedience. Why did foolish indulgence prevail upon me? Why did I not speak, and refuse to hear?" "Great princess," said Imlac, "do not reproach yourself for your virtue, or consider that as blaraable by which evil has acci- dentally been caused. Your tenderness for the timidity of Pekuah was generuos and kind. When we act according to our duty, we commit the event to him by whose laws our actions are governed, and who will suffer none to be finally punished for obedience. When, in prospect of some good, whether natural or moral, we break the rules prescribed us, we withdraw from the direction of superior wisdom, and take all consequences upon ourselves. Man cannot so far know the connection of causes and events, as that he may venture to do wrong in order to do right. When we pur-

; 594 IMPROVEMENT ERA. sue our end by lawful means, we may always console our miscar- riage by the hope of future recompense. When we consult only our own policy, and attempt to find a nearer way to good, by over- leaping the settled boundaries of right and wrong, we cannot be happy even by success, because we cannot escape the consciousness of our fault: but if we miscarry, the disappointment is irremediably embittered. How comfortless is the sorrow of him who feels at once the pangs of guilt, and the vexation of calamity which guilt has brought upon him! * 'Consider, princess, what would have been your condition, if the lady Pekuah had entreated to accompany you, and being com- pelled to stay in the tents, had been carried away; or how you would have borne the thought if you had forced her into the Pyra- mid, and she had died before you in agonies of terror?" "Had either happened," said Nekayah, "I could not have endured life till now: I should have been tortured to madness by the remembrance of such cruelty, or must have pined away in abhorrence of myself." "This, at least, " said Imlac, "is the present reward of virtu- ous conduct,, that no unlucky consequence can oblige us to repent it." [to be continued.]