I only have made no advances,
but am still helpless and ignorant. The moon, by more than twenty
changes, admonished me of the flux of life; the stream, that rolled
before my feet, upbraided my inactivity. I sat feasting on intellectual
luxury, regardless alike of the examples of the earth, and the
instructions of the planets. Twenty months are passed; who shall restore
them?"
These sorrowful meditations fastened upon his mind; he passed four
months, in resolving to lose no more time in idle resolves, and was
awakened to more vigorous exertion, by hearing a maid, who had broken a
porcelain cup, remark, that what cannot be repaired is not to be
regretted.
This was obvious; and Rasselas reproached himself, that he had not
discovered it, having not known, or not considered, how many useful
hints are obtained by chance, and how often the mind, hurried by her own
ardour to distant views, neglects the truths that lie open before her.
He, for a few hours, regretted his regret, and from that time bent his
whole mind upon the means of escaping from the valley of happiness.
CHAP. V.
THE PRINCE MEDITATES HIS ESCAPE.
He now found, that it would be very difficult to effect that which it
was very easy to suppose effected. When he looked round about him, he
saw himself confined by the bars of nature, which had never yet been
broken, and by the gate, through which none, that once had passed it,
were ever able to return.
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