THE princess, in the meantime, insinuated herself into many families; for there are few doors through which liberality, joined with good-humor, cannot find its way. The daughters of many houses were airy and cheerful, but Nekayah had been too long accustomed to the conversation of Imlac and her brother, to be much pleased with childish levity, and prattle which had no meaning. She found their thoughts narrow, their wishes low, and their merriment often artificial. Their pleasures, poor as they were, could not be preserved pure, but were embittered by petty competitions and worthless emulation. They were always jealous of the beauty of each other; of a quality to which solitude can add nothing, and from which detraction can take nothing away. Many were in love with triflers like themselves, and many fancied that they were in love, when in truth they were only idle. Their affection was not fixed on sense or virtue, and therefore seldom ended but in vexation. Their grief, however, like their joy, was transient; everything floated in their mind unconnected with the past or future, so that one desire easily gave way to another, as a second stone cast into the water effaces and confounds the circles of the first.
With these girls she played as with inoffensive animals,
-74-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.
Contributors: Samuel Johnson - Author.
Publisher: Ginn.
Place of publication: Boston.
Publication year: 1895.
Page number: 74.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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