time, and the building stood from century to century, deriding the solstitial rains and equinoctial hurricanes, without need of reparation.

This house, which was so large as to be fully known to none but some ancient officers who successively inherited the secrets of the place, was built as if suspicion herself had dictated the plan. To every room there was an open and a secret passage; every square had a communication with the rest, either from the either from the upper stories by private galleries, or by subterranean passages from the lower apartments. Many of the columns had unsuspected cavities, in which a long race of monarchs had deposited their treasures. They then closed up the opening with marble, which was never to be removed but in the utmost exigencies of the kingdom; and recorded their accumulations in a book, which was itself concealed in a tower not entered but by the emperor, attended by the prince who

stood next in succession.

puis des siècles braver également les pluies des solstices et les tempêtes de l'équinoxe.

La distribution de ce palais, dont le soupçon luimême semblait avoir conçu et dirigé les plans, n'était connue que d'un petit nombre d'anciens officiers, parmi lesquels le secret s'en était transmis d'âge en âge. Chaque appartement avait son entrée apparente et son entrée cachée; chaque corps-delogis communiquait avec les autres, pour les étages supérieurs, par des galeries particulières, pour les bas appartemens, par des corridors souterrains. Plusieurs des colonnes du palais contenaient des cavités secrètes dans lesquelles une longue suite de monarques avaient renfermé des trésors. Ces dépôts étaient masqués par des pièces de marbre qu'on ne déplaçait que dans les plus pressans besoins de l'État. Il y avait un registre pour inscrire l'or qu'on accumulait ainsi, et ce registre était caché dans une tour dont l'accès n'était permis qu'à l'empereur, accompagné de l'héritier présomptif du trône.

CHAPTER II.

THE DISCONTENT OF RASSELAS IN THE HAPPY VALLEY.

HERE the sons and daughters of Abyssinia lived only to know the soft vicissitudes of pleasure and repose, attended by all that were skilful to delight, and gratified with whatever the senses can enjoy. They wandered in gardens of fragrance, and slept in the fortresses of security. Every art was practised to make them pleased with their own condition. The sages who instructed them told them of nothing but the miseries of public life, and described all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity, where discord was always raging, and where man preyed upon man.

To heighten their opinion of their own felicity, they were daily entertained with songs, the subject of which was the happy valley. Their appetites were excited by frequent enumerations of differents enjoyments, and revelry and merriment was the business of every hour, from the dawn of morning to the close of even.

CHAPITRE II.

RASSELAS MALHEUREUX DANS LA VALLÉE DU BONHEUR.

Là vivaient les princes et les princesses d'Abyssynie, partageant leur douce existence entre le plaisir et le repos, entourés des personnes les plus habiles en l'art de plaire, et possédant tout ce qui peut flatter les sens. Le jour ils erraient au milieu de leurs jardins parfumés; la nuit ils se livraient au sommeil dans une sécurité profonde : en un mot tout était mis en œuvre pour les rendre satisfaits de leur sort. Les sages, chargés de les instruire, ne leur parlaient que des misères de la vie comet leur peignaient toutes les régions placées derrière leurs montagnes comme un séjour de malheur et de discorde, où l'homme était sans cesse la proie de l'homme.

Pour augmenter l'idée qu'ils se formaient de leur propre félicité, on leur faisait entendre chaque jour des chants dont le sujet était la vallée du bonheur. Leurs désirs étaient excités par la variété des jouissances dont on leur présentait le tableau, de sorte que les plaisirs et les fêtes formaient leur seule occupation depuis la naissance du jour jusqu'au retour de la nuit.

These methods were generally successful; few of the princes had ever wished to enlarge their bounds, but passed their lives in full conviction that they had all within their reach that art or nature could bestow, and pitied those whom fate had excluded from this seat of tranquillity, as the sport of chance and the slaves of misery.

Thus they rose in the morning and lay down at night, pleased with each other and with themselves, all but Rasselas, who, in the twentysixth year of his age, began to withdraw himself from their pastimes and assemblies, and to delight in solitary walks and silent meditation. He often sat before tables covered with luxury, and forgot to taste the dainties that were placed before him; he rose abruptly in the midst of the song, and hastily retired beyond the sound of music. His attendants observed the change, and endeavoured to renew his love of pleasure; he neglected their officiousness, repulsed their invitations, and spent day after day on the banks of rivulets sheltered with trees, where he sometimes listened to the birds in the branches, sometimes observed the fish playing in the stream, and anon cast his eyes upon the pastures and mountains filled with animals, of which