He still persisted in his design to leave the happy
valley by the first opportunity.
His imagination was now at a stand; he had no prospect of entering into
the world; and, notwithstanding all his endeavours to support himself,
discontent, by degrees, preyed upon him, and he began again to lose his
thoughts in sadness, when the rainy season, which, in these countries,
is periodical, made it inconvenient to wander in the woods.
The rain continued longer, and with more violence, than had been ever
known: the clouds broke on the surrounding mountains, and the torrents
streamed into the plain on every side, till the cavern was too narrow to
discharge the water. The lake overflowed its banks, and all the level of
the valley was covered with the inundation. The eminence, on which the
palace was built, and some other spots of rising ground, were all that
the eye could now discover. The herds and flocks left the pastures, and
both the wild beasts and the tame retreated to the mountains.
This inundation confined all the princes to domestick amusements, and
the attention of Rasselas was particularly seized by a poem, which Imlac
rehearsed, upon the various conditions of humanity. He commanded the
poet to attend him in his apartment, and recite his verses a second
time; then entering into familiar talk, he thought himself happy in
having found a man who knew the world so well, and could so skilfully
paint the scenes of life.
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