myself for ever from the world, and depend no longer on the opinion
or caprice of others. I waited for the time when the gate of the
Happy Valley should open, that I might bid farewell to hope and
fear; the day came, my performance was distinguished with favour,
and I resigned myself with joy to perpetual confinement."

"Hast thou here found happiness at last?" said Rasselas. "Tell me,
without reserve, art thou content with thy condition, or dost thou
wish to be again wandering and inquiring? All the inhabitants of
this valley celebrate their lot, and at the annual visit of the
Emperor invite others to partake of their felicity."

"Great Prince," said Imlac, "I shall speak the truth. I know not
one of all your attendants who does not lament the hour when he
entered this retreat. I am less unhappy than the rest, because I
have a mind replete with images, which I can vary and combine at
pleasure. I can amuse my solitude by the renovation of the
knowledge which begins to fade from my memory, and by recollection
of the accidents of my past life. Yet all this ends in the
sorrowful consideration that my acquirements are now useless, and
that none of my pleasures can be again enjoyed. The rest, whose
minds have no impression but of the present moment, are either
corroded by malignant passions or sit stupid in the gloom of
perpetual vacancy."

"What passions can infest those," said the Prince, "who have no
rivals? We are in a place where impotence precludes malice, and
where all envy is repressed by community of enjoyments."

"There may be community," said Imlac, "of material possessions, but