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Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia-Part3_Samuel Johnson(1709-1784)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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apprehension, often declared his hope that I should be some time

the richest man in Abyssinia."



"Why," said the Prince, "did thy father desire the increase of his

wealth when it was already greater than he durst discover or enjoy?



I am unwilling to doubt thy veracity, yet inconsistencies cannot

both be true."



"Inconsistencies," answered Imlac, "cannot both be right; but,

imputed to man, they may both be true. Yet diversity is not



inconsistency. My father might expect a time of greater security.

However, some desire is necessary to keep life in motion; and he



whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy."

"This," said the Prince, "I can in some measureconceive. I repent



that I interrupted thee."

"With this hope," proceeded Imlac, "he sent me to school. But when



I had once found the delight of knowledge, and felt the pleasure of

intelligence and the pride of invention, I began silently to



despise riches, and determined to disappoint the purposes of my

father, whose grossness of conception raised my pity. I was twenty



years old before his tenderness would expose me to the fatigue of

travel; in which time I had been instructed, by successive masters,



in all the literature of my native country. As every hour taught

me something new, I lived in a continual course of gratification;



but as I advanced towards manhood, I lost much of the reverence

with which I had been used to look on my instructors; because when



the lessons were ended I did not find them wiser or better than

common men.



"At length my father resolved to initiate me in commerce; and,

opening one of his subterranean treasuries, counted out ten



thousand pieces of gold. 'This, young man,' said he, 'is the stock

with which you must negotiate. I began with less than a fifth



part, and you see how diligence and parsimony have increased it.

This is your own, to waste or improve. If you squander it by



negligence or caprice, you must wait for my death before you will

be rich; if in four years you double your stock, we will



thenceforward let subordination cease, and live together as friends

and partners, for he shall be always equal with me who is equally



skilled in the art of growing rich.'

"We laid out our money upon camels, concealed in bales of cheap



goods, and travelled to the shore of the Red Sea. When I cast my

eye on the expanse of waters, my heart bounded like that of a



prisoner escaped. I felt an inextinguishable curiositykindle in

my mind, and resolved to snatch this opportunity of seeing the



manners of other nations, and of learning sciences unknown in

Abyssinia.



"I remembered that my father had obliged me to the improvement of

my stock, not by a promise, which I ought not to violate, but by a



penalty, which I was at liberty to incur; and therefore determined

to gratify my predominant desire, and, by drinking at the fountain



of knowledge, to quench the thirst of curiosity.

"As I was supposed to trade without connection with my father, it



was easy for me to become acquainted with the master of a ship, and

procure a passage to some other country. I had no motives of



choice to regulate my voyage. It was sufficient for me that,

wherever I wandered, I should see a country which I had not seen



before. I therefore entered a ship bound for Surat, having left a

letter for my father declaring my intention."



CHAPTER IX - THE HISTORY OF IMLAC (CONTINUED).

"WHEN I first entered upon the world of waters, and lost sight of



land, I looked round about me in pleasingterror, and thinking my

soul enlarged by the boundlessprospect, imagined that I could gaze






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