must be acquainted likewise with all the modes of life. His
character requires that he estimate the happiness and misery of
every condition, observe the power of all the passions in all their
combinations, and trace the changes of the human mind, as they are
modified by various institutions and accidental influences of
climate or custom, from the sprightliness of infancy to the
despondence of decrepitude. He must divest himself of the
prejudices of his age and country; he must consider right and wrong
in their abstracted and invariable state; he must disregard present
laws and opinions, and rise to general and transcendental truths,
which will always be the same. He must, therefore, content himself
with the slow progress of his name, contemn the praise of his own
time, and commit his claims to the justice of posterity. He must
write as the interpreter of nature and the legislator of mankind,
and consider himself as presiding over the thoughts and manners of
future generations, as a being superior to time and place.

"His labour is not yet at an end. He must know many languages and
many sciences, and, that his style may be worthy of his thoughts,
must by incessant practice familiarise to himself every delicacy of
speech and grace of harmony."



CHAPTER XI--IMLAC'S NARRATIVE (continued)--A HINT OF PILGRIMAGE.



Imlac now felt the enthusiastic fit, and was proceeding to
aggrandise his own profession, when then Prince cried out: