himself to hope for a happier event only because he had no other
means of escape in view. He still persisted in his design to leave
the Happy Valley by the first opportunity.

His imagination was now at a stand; he had no prospect of entering
into the world, and, notwithstanding all his endeavours to support
himself, discontent by degrees preyed upon him, and he began again
to lose his thoughts in sadness when the rainy season, which in
these countries is periodical, made it inconvenient to wander in
the woods.

The rain continued longer and with more violence than had ever been
known; the clouds broke on the surrounding mountains, and the
torrents streamed into the plain on every side, till the cavern was
too narrow to discharge the water. The lake overflowed its banks,
and all the level of the valley was covered with the inundation.
The eminence on which the palace was built, and some other spots of
rising ground, were all that the eye could now discover. The herds
and flocks left the pasture, and both the wild beasts and the tame
retreated to the mountains.

This inundation confined all the princes to domestic amusements,
and the attention of Rasselas was particularly seized by a poem
(which Imlac rehearsed) upon the various conditions of humanity.
He commanded the poet to attend him in his apartment, and recite
his verses a second time; then entering into familiar talk, he
thought himself happy in having found a man who knew the world so
well, and could so skilfully paint the scenes of life. He asked a
thousand questions about things to which, though common to all
other mortals, his confinement from childhood had kept him a