By long experience of his integrity and wisdom, the prince and his
sister were convinced that he might be trusted without danger; and, lest
he should draw any false hopes from the civilities which he received,
discovered to him their condition, with the motives of their journey;
and required his opinion on the CHOICE OF LIFE.
"Of the various conditions which the world spreads before you, which you
shall prefer," said the sage, "I am not able to instruct you. I can only
tell, that I have chosen wrong. I have passed my time in study, without
experience; in the attainment of sciences, which can, for the most part,
be but remotely useful to mankind. I have purchased knowledge at the
expense of all the common comforts of life: I have missed the endearing
elegance of female friendship, and the happy commerce of domestick
tenderness. If I have obtained any prerogatives above other students,
they have been accompanied with fear, disquiet, and scrupulosity; but,
even of these prerogatives, whatever they were, I have, since my
thoughts have been diversified by more intercourse with the world, begun
to question the reality. When I have been, for a few days, lost in
pleasing dissipation, I am always tempted to think that my inquiries
have ended in errour, and that I have suffered much, and suffered it in
vain.
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