metimes varied the
ecliptick of the sun: but I have found it impossible to make a
disposition, by which the world may be advantaged; what one region
gains, another loses by an imaginable alteration, even without
considering the distant parts of the solar system, with which ye are
unacquainted. Do not, therefore, in thy administration of the year,
indulge thy pride by innovation; do not please thyself with thinking,
that thou canst make thyself renowned to all future ages, by disordering
the seasons. The memory of mischief is no desirable fame. Much less will
it become thee to let kindness or interest prevail. Never rob other
countries of rain to pour it on thine own. For us the Nile is
sufficient.'

"I promised, that when I possessed the power, I would use it with
inflexible integrity; and he dismissed me, pressing my hand. 'My heart,'
said he, 'will be now at rest, and my benevolence will no more destroy
my quiet: I have found a man of wisdom and virtue, to whom I can
cheerfully bequeath the inheritance of the sun.'"

The prince heard this narration with very serious regard; but the
princess smiled, and Pekuah convulsed herself with laughter. "Ladies,"
said Imlac, "to mock the heaviest of human afflictions, is neither
charitable nor wise. Few can attain this man's knowledge, and few
practise his virtues; but all may suffer his calamity. Of the
uncertainties of our present state, the most dreadful and alarming is
the uncertain continuance of reason."

The princess was recollected, and the favourite was abashed. Rasselas,
more deeply affected, inquired of Imlac, whether he thought such
maladies of the mind frequent, and how they were contracted.

CHAP. XLIV.

THE DANGEROUS PREVALENCE OF IMAGINATION.

"Disorders of intellect," answered Imlac, "happen much more often than
superficial observers will easily believe. Perhaps, if we speak with
rigorous exactness, no human mind is in its right state[a]. There is no
man, whose imagination does not, sometimes, predominate over his reason,
who can regulate his attention wholly by his will, and whose ideas will
come and go at his command. No man will be found, in whose mind airy
notions do not, sometimes, tyrannize, and force him to hope or fear
beyond the limits of sober probability. All power of fancy over reason,
is a degree of insanity; but, while this power is such as we can control
and repress, it is not visible to others, nor considered as any
deprivation of the ment