philosopher, "you speak like one that has never felt the pangs of
separation." "Have you then forgot the precepts," said Rasselas,
"which you so powerfully enforced? Has wisdom no strength to arm
the heart against calamity? Consider that external things are
naturally variable, but truth and reason are always the same."
"What comfort," said the mourner, "can truth and reason afford me?
Of what effect are they now, but to tell me that my daughter will
not be restored?"

The Prince, whose humanity would not suffer him to insult misery
with reproof, went away, convinced of the emptiness of rhetorical
sounds, and the inefficacy of polished periods and studied
sentences.



CHAPTER XIX--A GLIMPSE OF PASTORAL LIFE.



He was still eager upon the same inquiry; and having heard of a
hermit that lived near the lowest cataract of the Nile, and filled
the whole country with the fame of his sanctity, resolved to visit
his retreat, and inquire whether that felicity which public life
could not afford was to be found in solitude, and whether a man
whose age and virtue made him venerable could teach any peculiar
art of shunning evils or enduring them.

Imlac and the Princess agreed to accompany him, and after the
necessary preparations, they began their journey. Their way lay