Rasselas - 1860 Author:Samuel Johnson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE HISTOEY OF RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA. CHAPTER I. DESCRIPTION OF A PALACE IN A VALLEY. Credulity, credo. Fancy, Phantoms, phaino. Monarchs, m... more »onos, archo. Passage, Paces, pas. Cavern, Cavities, cams. Disputed, puto. Superfluities, fluo. Pastures, pastvm. Extracted, traho. Excluded, Seclusion, claudo. Captivity, capio. Novelty, novus. Competitors, peto. Century, centum. Deriding, rideo. Solstitial, sol, sisto. Equinoctial, aguus, nox. Subterranean, terra. Ye who listen with credulity to the whisper of fancy, and 1 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 2 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. 3 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 Abyssinian royalty, till the order of succession should call him to the throne. 4 The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes, was a spacious valley in the kingdom of Amhara, surrounded on every side by mountains, of which the summits overhang the middle part. The only passage by which it could be entered, was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it has long been disputed whether it was the work of 5 nature or of human industry. The outlet of the cavern was concealed by a thick wood, and the mouth which opened into the valley was closed with gates of ir...« less