CHAPTER XXVII--DISQUISITION UPON GREATNESS.



The conversation had a short pause. The Prince, having considered
his sister's observation, told her that she had surveyed life with
prejudice and supposed misery where she did not find it. "Your
narrative," says he, "throws yet a darker gloom upon the prospects
of futurity. The predictions of Imlac were but faint sketches of
the evils painted by Nekayah. I have been lately convinced that
quiet is not the daughter of grandeur or of power; that her
presence is not to be bought by wealth nor enforced by conquest.
It is evident that as any man acts in a wider compass he must be
more exposed to opposition from enmity or miscarriage from chance.
Whoever has many to please or to govern must use the ministry of
many agents, some of whom will be wicked and some ignorant, by some
he will be misled and by others betrayed. If he gratifies one he
will offend another; those that are not favoured will think
themselves injured, and since favours can be conferred but upon few
the greater number will be always discontented."

"The discontent," said the Princess, "which is thus unreasonable, I
hope that I shall always have spirit to despise and you power to
repress."

"Discontent," answered Rasselas, "will not always be without reason
under the most just and vigilant administration of public affairs.
None, however attentive, can always discover that merit which
indigence or faction may happen to obscure, and none, however
powerful, can always reward it. Yet he that sees inferior desert