Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-09-17

out danger; and, lest he should draw
any false hopes from the civilties which
he received, discovered to him their con-
dition, with the motives of their Journey:
and required his opinion on the choice of
| life.
"Of the various conditions which the
world spreads before you. which YOU
shall PREFER" said the sage, IL am not
able to instruct you. | can only tell that
| have chosen wrong. | have passed my
time in study without experience; in the
attainment of sciences which can. for the
most part, be but remotely useful to
mankind. | have purchased knowledge
at the expense of all the common COM
forts of life; | have missed the endear-
ing elegance of female friendship. and
the happy commerce of domestic tender
ness. If | have obtained any preroga-
tives above other students, they have been
accompanied with fear, disquiet, and
scrupulosity: but even of these preroga-
tives, whatever they were, | have. since
my thoughts have been diversified by
more intercourse with the world, begun
to question the reality. When | have
been for few days lost in pleasing
dissipation. | am always tempted to
think that my inquiries have ended in
error, and that have suffered much, and
suffered it in vain
lmlac was delighted to find that the
sage's understanding was breaking
through its mists, and resolved to detain
him from the planets till he should for
get his task of ruling them, and reason
should recover its original influence.
From this time the astronomer was
received into familiar friendship. and
partook of all their projects and pleas
ures his respect kept him attentive. and
the activity of Rasselas did not leave
much time unengaged. Something was
always to be done; the day was spent in
making observations, which furnished
talk for the evening, and the evening was
; closed with a scheme for the morrow.
The sage confessed to Imlac that since
he had mingled in the gay tumults of
life and divided his hours by a success
sion of amusements. he found the con-
viction of his authority over the skies
fade gradually from his mind. and began
to trust less to an opinion which he
never could prove to others. and which
he now found subject to variation. from
causes in which reason had no part. III
, | am accidentally left alone for a few
hours, said he, 'my inveterate persua.
sion PUSHES upon my soul. and my
thoughts are chained down by some ir
resistible violence: but they are sool
disentangled by the princes conversation
! and instantaneOusly released at the en-.
trance of Pekuah. | am like a mar
. habitually afraid of spectre>S. who is sci
at ease by Il lamp, and wonders at the
dread which haraSsed him in the dark
yet, if his lamp be eXtinguished. feel,
;. again the terrors which he knows tina
3 when it is light he shall feel no more
But | am sometimes afraid lest indu q,
. my quiet by criminal negligence, ant
voluntarily forget the great charge will
in a known error, or am determined by
my own ease in doubtful question o.
this importance, how dreadful is my
4 crime"
"No disease of the Imagination.
+ answered lmlac, lis so difficult of cur,
: a. that which is complicated with tn,
p dread of guilt; fancy and conscience thel
O act Interchangeable upon Us, and st
l. often shift their places that the illusions
of one are not distinguished from til,
= dictates of the other. If fancy present
n images not moral or religious. the mine
"a drives them away when they give it pain
r. but when melancholc notions take tn
"a form of duty, they lay hold on the facul
: ties without opposition, because we ar
!. afraid to exclude or Danish them. Fo
this reason the supersttious are oftel
~. melancholy, and the melancholy almos
y always superSttious.
Is But do not let the suggestions of tim
: idity overpower your better reason; tn
a danger of neglect can be but as the prof.
|. dDllltE OF tne ODllSatlOn, Wnlcll. Wne
2, you consider it with freedom, you fin,
If very little, and that little growing ever
l. day less. Open your heart to the ntlu
1t ence of the light which, from time t
> time, breaks in upon you; when scruple
o importune YOU, which you in your luci
20 moments know to be vain, do not stan
to parley, but fly to business or to Pekua
re and keep this thought always prevalent
e. that you are only one atom of the mas
It of humanity, and have neither such vii
he tue nor vice rs that you should be single
in out for supernatural favors or attiC
le tionS."
-, CHAPTER NLNU.
ia The Prince enters, and briN0S II Nelr Tonic