Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia

OF IMLAC (

looking on barren uniformity, where I could only see again what I had already seen. I then descended into the ship, and doubted for awhile whether all my future pleasures would not end, like this, in disgust and disappointment. 'Yet surely,' said I, 'the ocean and the l

ng from the sailors the art of navigation, which I have never practised, and sometimes by form

ome reason or other, conjecturing that I was rich, and, by my inquiries and admiration, finding that I was ignorant, considered me as a novice whom they had a right to cheat, and who was to learn, at the usual expense, the art

hat all are pleased with superiority; but your ignorance was merely accidental, which, being neither your crime nor your folly, could afford them no r

feels not its own happiness but when it may be compared with the misery of others. They were my enem

f the facts which you relate, but imagine

f the country, and in a few months was able to converse with the learned men; some of whom I found morose and reserved, and others easy and communicative; some wer

owledge. The Emperor asked me many questions concerning my country and my travels, and though I cannot now recollect anythi

the ladies of the Court. I was surprised at their confidence of solicitation and greatly reproached them wi

t do for money, and refused them, not because they had injured me, but because I would not enable them to

magnificence and observed many new accommodations of life. The Persians are a nation eminently social, and their assemblies

t any settled habitation, whose wealth is their flocks and herds, and who have carried on thro