CHA P. III. THE WANTS OF HIM THAT WANTS NOTHING. N- the next day his old inftructor, imagining that he had now made himself acquainted with his difease of mind, was in hope of curing it by counsel, and officiously fought an opportunity of conference, which the prince, having long confidered him as one whofe intellects were exhaufted, was not very willing to afford: " Why, faid he, does this man thus intrude upon me; shall I be never fuffered to forget thofe lectures which pleased only while they were new, and to become new again must be forgotten?" He then walked into the wood, and compofed himself 6 to to his usual meditations; when before his thoughts had taken any fettled form, he perceived his purfuer at his fide, and was at first prompted by his impatience to go haftily away; but, being unwilling to offend a man whom he had once reverenced and still loved, he invited him to fit down with him on the bank. The old man thus encouraged, began to lament the change which had been lately observed in the prince, and to enquire why he fo often retired from the pleasures of the palace, to loneliness and filence." I fly from pleasure, faid the prince, because pleasure has ceased to please; I am lonely because I am miferable, and am unwilling to cloud with my presence the happiness of others." "You, Sir, faid the fage, are the first who has complained of mifery in the г happy 1 happy valley. I hope to convince you that your complaints have no real caufe. You are here in full poffeffion of all that the emperour of Abiffinia can beflow; here is neither labour to be endured nor danger to be dreaded, yet here is all that labour or danger can procure or purchase. Look round and tell me which of your wants is without fupply if you want nothing, how are you unhappy?" "That I want nothing, said the prince, or that I know not what I want, is the cause of my complaint; if I had any known want, I fhould have a certain wifh, that with would excite endeavour, and I should not then repine to fee the fun move fo flowly towards the western mountain, or lament when the day breaks and fleep will no longer hide me me from myself. When I fee the kids and the lambs chafing one another, I fancy that I fhould be happy if I had something to perfue. But, poffeffing all that I can want, I find one day and. one hour exactly like another, except that the latter is ftill more tedious than the former. Let your experience inform me how the day may now feem as fhort as in my childhood, while nature was yet fresh, and every moment shewed me what I never had obferved before. I have already enjoyed too much; give me fomething to defire.", The old man was furprised at this new fpecies of affliction, and knew not what to reply, yet was unwilling to be filent. "Sir, faid he, if you had seen the miseries of the world, you would know |