Some Samuel Johnson typed up

By Samuel Johnson

CHAPTER XVII

The Prince associates with young men of spirit and gaiety

RASSELAS rose next day, and resolved to begin his experiments upon life. 'Youth, cried he, is the time of gladness: I will join myself to the young men, whose only business is to gratify their desires, and whose time is all spent in a succession of enjoyments.'

To such societies he was readily admitted, but a few days brought him back weary and disgusted. Their mirth was without images, their laughter without motive; their pleasures were gross and sensual in which the mind had no part; their conduct was at once wild and mean; they laughed at order and at law, but the frown of pwer dejected, and the eye of wisdom abashed them.

The prince soon concluded, that he should never be happy in a course of life of which he was ashamed. He thought it unsuitable to a reasonable being to act without a plan, and to be sad or cheerful only by chance. 'Happiness, said he, must be something solid and permanent, without fear and without uncertainty.'

But his young companions had gained so much of his regard by their frankness and courtesy, that he could not leave them without warning and remonstrance. 'My friends, said he, I have seriously considered our manners and our prospects, and find that we have mistaken our own interest. The first years of man must mjake provision for the last. He that never thinks never can be wise. Perpetual leveity must end in ignorance; and intemperance, though it wmay fire the spirits for an hour, will make life short or miserable. Let us consider that youth is of no long durration and that in maturrer age, when the enchantments of fancy shall cease, and phantoms of delight dance no more about us, we shall have no comforts but the esteem of wise men, and the means of doing good. Let us, therefore, stop, while to stop is in our power: let us live as men who are sometime to grow old, and to whom it willb e the most dreadful of all evils not to count their past years but by follies, and to be reminded of their former luxuriance of health only by the maladies which rito has produced.'

They stared a while in silence one upon another, and, at last, drove him away by a general chorus of continued laughter.

The consciousness that his sentiments were just, and his intentions kind, was scarcely sufficient to support him against the horrour of dierision. But he recovered his tranquillity, and pursued his search [for happiness].