around me for ever without satiety; but in a short time I grew
weary of looking on barrenuniformity, 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 land are very different. The only variety of

water is rest and motion. But the earth has mountains and valleys,
deserts and cities; it is inhabited by men of different customs and

contrary opinions; and I may hope to find variety in life, though I
should miss it in nature.'

"With this thought I quieted my mind, and amused myself during the
voyage, sometimes by learning from the sailors the art of

navigation, which I have never practised, and sometimes by forming
schemes for my conduct in different situations, in not one of which

I have been ever placed.
"I was almost weary of my naval amusements when we safely landed at

Surat. I secured my money and, purchasing some commodities for
show, joined myself to a caravan that was passing into the inland

country. My companions, for some 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 of

fraud. They exposed me to the theft of servants and the exaction
of officers, and saw me plundered upon false pretences, without any

advantage to themselves but that of rejoicing in the superiority of
their own knowledge."

"Stop a moment," said the Prince; "is there such depravity in man
as that he should injure another without benefit to himself? I can

easily conceive that all are pleased with superiority; but your
ignorance was merely accidental, which, being neither your crime

nor your folly, could afford them no reason to applaud themselves;
and the knowledge which they had, and which you wanted, they might

as effectually have shown by warning as betraying you."
"Pride," said Imlac, "is seldom delicate; it will please itself

with very mean advantages, and envy feels not its own happiness but
when it may be compared with the misery of others. They were my

enemies because they grieved to think me rich, and my oppressors
because they delighted to find me weak."

"Proceed," said the Prince; "I doubt not of the facts which you
relate, but imagine that you impute them to mistaken motives."

"In this company," said Imlac, "I arrived at Agra, the capital of
Hindostan, the city in which the Great Mogul commonly resides. I

applied myself to the language of 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 were
unwilling to teach another what they had with difficulty learned

themselves; and some showed that the end of their studies was to
gain the dignity of instructing.

"To the tutor of the young princes I recommended myself so much
that I was presented to the Emperor as a man of uncommon knowledge.

The Emperor asked me many questions concerning my country and my
travels, and though I cannot now recollect anything that he uttered

above the power of a common man, he dismissed me astonished at his
wisdom and enamoured of his goodness.

"My credit was now so high that the merchants with whom I had
travelled applied to me for recommendations to the ladies of the

Court. I was surprised at their confidence of solicitation and
greatly reproached them with their practices on the road. They

heard me with cold indifference, and showed no tokens of shame or
sorrow.

"They then urged their request with the offer of a bribe, but what
I would not do for kindness I would not do for money, and refused

them, not because they had injured me, but because I would not
enable them to injure others; for I knew they would have made use

of my credit to cheat those who should buy their wares.
"Having resided at Agra till there was no more to be learned, I

travelled into Persia, where I saw many remains of ancient
magnificence and observed many new accommodations of life. The

Persians are a nation eminently social, and their assemblies
afforded me daily opportunities of remarking characters and

manners, and of tracing human nature through all its variations.
"From Persia I passed into Arabia, where I saw a nation pastoral

and warlike, who lived without any settled habitation, whose wealth
is their flocks and herds, and who have carried on through ages an

hereditary war with mankind, though they neither covet nor envy
their possessions."

CHAPTER X - IMLAC'S HISTORY (CONTINUED) - A DISSERTATION UPON
POETRY.

"WHEREVER I went I found that poetry was considered as the highest
learning, and regarded with a veneration somewhat approaching to

that which man would pay to 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 greatly 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 it 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
transcription 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 illustriousfraternity. 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 ever great by imitations. My desire

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 deserts 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 of the rock and the pinnacles of the palace. Sometimes I
wandered along the mazes of the rivulet, and sometimes watched the

changes of the summer clouds. To a poet nothing can be useless.
Whatever is beautiful and whatever is dreadful 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 inexhaustible 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 the
mountains, and yet cannot walk abroad without the sight of

something which I had never beheld before, or never heeded."
"This 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

describe the different shades of the verdure of the forest. He is
to exhibit in his portraits of nature such prominent and striking

features as recall the original to every mind, and must neglect the
minuter discriminations, which one may have remarked and another

have neglected, for those characteristics which are alike obvious
to vigilance and carelessness.