sailor at his entrance into the harbour, being delighted with the
sudden change of the noise and hurry of war to stillness and
repose. When the pleasure of novelty went away, I employed my
hours in examining the plants which grow in the valley, and the
minerals which I collected from the rocks. But that inquiry is now
grown tasteless and irksome. I have been for some time unsettled
and distracted: my mind is disturbed with a thousand perplexities
of doubt and vanities of imagination, which hourly prevail upon me,
because I have no opportunities of relaxation or diversion. I am
sometimes ashamed to think that I could not secure myself from vice
but by retiring from the exercise of virtue, and begin to suspect
that I was rather impelled by resentment than led by devotion into
solitude. My fancy riots in scenes of folly, and I lament that I
have lost so much, and have gained so little. In solitude, if I
escape the example of bad men, I want likewise the counsel and
conversation of the good. I have been long comparing the evils
with the advantages of society, and resolve to return into the
world to-morrow. The life of a solitary man will be certainly
miserable, but not certainly devout."

They heard his resolution with surprise, but after a short pause
offered to conduct him to Cairo. He dug up a considerable treasure
which he had hid among the rocks, and accompanied them to the city,
on which, as he approached it, he gazed with rapture.



CHAPTER XXII--THE HAPPINESS OF A LIFE LED ACCORDING TO NATURE.