The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Samuel Johnson (1759)
CHAPTER I — Description of a Palace in a Valley
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia.
Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty Emperor in whose dominions the Father of Waters begins his course; whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over half the world the harvests of Egypt.
According to the custom which has descended from age to age among the monarchs of the torrid zone, Rasselas was confined in a private palace, with the other sons and daughters of Abyssinia, whom their father, the Emperor, desired to conceal from the people till time should call them to the exercise of their respective offices. In this palace, which was built on the summit of a mountain surrounded on all sides by a wall of great height, the princes were educated with all the advantages that wealth could bestow, or genius could discover.
Here the youth were instructed in the arts of government, and the military exercises; here they were taught to manage the horse, to wield the sword, and to shoot the arrow; here they were initiated in the sciences, and here they were conversant with the learning of former ages.
The valley in which the palace was situated was of great extent, and enriched with all that nature or art could furnish to supply the necessities, or gratify the desires, of its inhabitants. Here were gardens and orchards, and here were fountains and streams, and here were woods and fields.
Rasselas was distinguished above his companions for the quickness of his apprehension, and the eagerness of his curiosity. He was never satisfied with any explanation that left the smallest difficulty behind; and he had a memory so retentive that nothing which he had heard or read ever escaped him.
CHAPTER II — The Discontent of Rasselas in the Happy Valley
The princes of Abyssinia had been educated in the Happy Valley from their infancy. They had been taught that the world was a great place, and that they were destined to govern a part of it. But they had never seen the world, and they knew not what it was.
Rasselas was now in the twenty-sixth year of his age. He had been instructed in all the knowledge that Abyssinia could afford; he had been taught the arts of government, the military exercises, the sciences, and the learning of former ages. But he was not happy.
He had been told that the world was a great place, and that there were many things in it that he had never seen. He had been told that there were cities and nations, and that there were men who lived in them, and that they were governed by laws, and that they had customs and manners different from those of the inhabitants of the Happy Valley.
But he had never seen the world, and he knew not what it was. He was discontented. He wished to see the world, and to know what it was.