Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia | Page 5

before acquainted. He considered
how much might have been done in the time which had passed, and left
nothing real behind it. He compared twenty months with the life of man.
"In life," said he, "is not to be counted the ignorance of infancy or
imbecility of age. We are long before we are able to think, and we soon
cease from the power of acting. The true period of human existence
may be reasonably estimated at forty years, of which I have mused
away the four-and-twentieth part. What I have lost was certain, for I
have certainly possessed it; but of twenty months to come, who can
assure me?"
The consciousness of his own folly pierced him deeply, and he was
long before he could be reconciled to himself. "The rest of my time,"
said he, "has been lost by the crime or folly of my ancestors, and the
absurd institutions of my country; I remember it with disgust, yet
without remorse: but the months that have passed since new light
darted into my soul, since I formed a scheme of reasonable felicity,
have been squandered by my own fault. I have lost that which can
never be restored; I have seen the sun rise and set for twenty months, an
idle gazer on the light of heaven; in this time the birds have left the nest
of their mother, and committed themselves to the woods and to the
skies; the kid has forsaken the teat, and learned by degrees to climb the
rocks in quest of independent sustenance. I only have made no
advances, but am still helpless and ignorant. The moon, by more than

twenty changes, admonished me of the flux of life; the stream that
rolled before my feet upbraided my inactivity. I sat feasting on
intellectual luxury, regardless alike of the examples of the earth and the
instructions of the planets. Twenty months are passed: who shall
restore them?"
These sorrowful meditations fastened upon his mind; he passed four
months in resolving to lose no more time in idle resolves, and was
awakened to more vigorous exertion by hearing a maid, who had
broken a porcelain cup, remark that what cannot be repaired is not to be
regretted.
This was obvious; and Rasselas reproached himself that he had not
discovered it--having not known, or not considered, how many useful
hints are obtained by chance, and how often the mind, hurried by her
own ardour to distant views, neglects the truths that lie open before her.
He for a few hours regretted his regret, and from that time bent his
whole mind upon the means of escaping from the Valley of Happiness.
CHAPTER V
--THE PRINCE MEDITATES HIS ESCAPE.

He now found that it would be very difficult to effect that which it was
very easy to suppose effected. When he looked round about him, he
saw himself confined by the bars of nature, which had never yet been
broken, and by the gate through which none that had once passed it
were ever able to return. He was now impatient as an eagle in a grate.
He passed week after week in clambering the mountains to see if there
was any aperture which the bushes might conceal, but found all the
summits inaccessible by their prominence. The iron gate he despaired
to open for it was not only secured with all the power of art, but was
always watched by successive sentinels, and was, by its position,
exposed to the perpetual observation of all the inhabitants.
He then examined the cavern through which the waters of the lake were

discharged; and, looking down at a time when the sun shone strongly
upon its mouth, he discovered it to be full of broken rocks, which,
though they permitted the stream to flow through many narrow
passages, would stop any body of solid bulk. He returned discouraged
and dejected; but having now known the blessing of hope, resolved
never to despair.
In these fruitless researches he spent ten months. The time, however,
passed cheerfully away--in the morning he rose with new hope; in the
evening applauded his own diligence; and in the night slept soundly
after his fatigue. He met a thousand amusements, which beguiled his
labour and diversified his thoughts. He discerned the various instincts
of animals and properties of plants, and found the place replete with
wonders, of which he proposed to solace himself with the
contemplation if he should never be able to accomplish his
flight--rejoicing that his endeavours, though yet unsuccessful, had
supplied him with a source of inexhaustible inquiry. But his original
curiosity was not yet abated; he resolved to obtain some knowledge of
the ways of men. His wish still continued, but his hope grew less. He
ceased to survey any longer