me now," said his father, "dost thou wish for sudden affluence, that may pour upon thee like the mountain torrent, or for a slow and gradual increase, resembling the rill gliding from the well?""Let me be quickly rich," said Ortogrul; "let the golden stream be quick and violent.” "Look round thee," said his father, "once again." Ortogrul looked, and perceived the channel of the torrent dry and dusty; but following the rivulet from the well, he traced it to a wide lake, which the supply, slow and constant, kept always full. He awoke, and determined to grow rich by silent profit, and persevering industry. Having sold his patrimony, he engaged in merchandize : and in twenty years purchased lands, on which he raised a house, equal in sumptuousness to that of the vizier, to which he invited all the ministers of pleasure, expecting to enjoy all the felicity which he had imagined riches able to afford. Leisure soon made him weary of himself, and he longed to be persuaded that he was great and happy. He was courteous and liberal: he gave all that approached him hopes of pleasing him, and all who should please him, hopes of being rewarded. Every art of praise was tried, and every source of adulatory fiction was exhausted. Ortogrul heard his flatterers without delight, because he found himself unable to believe them. His own heart told him its frailties; his own understanding reproached him with his faults. "How long," said he, with a deep sigh, "have I been labouring in vain to amass wealth, which at last is useless! Let no man hereafter wish to be rich, who is already too wise to be flattered." DR. JOHNSON. SECTION VI. THE HILL OF SCIENCE. IN that season of the year, when the serenity of the sky, the various fruits which cover the ground, the discoloured foilage of the trees, and all the sweet, but fading graces of inspiring autumn, open the mind to benevolence and dispose it for contemplation, I was wandering in a beautiful and romantic country, til curiosity began to give way to weariness; and I sat down on the fragment of a rock overgrown with moss; where the rustling of the falling leaves, the dashing of waters, and the hum of the distant city, soothed my mind into a most perfect tranquility; and sleep insensibly stole upon me, as I was indulging the agreeable reveries, which the objects around me. aturally inspired. Narrative Pieces. 47. liately found myself in a vast extended plain, in the which arose a mountain, higher than I had before any of. It was covered with a multitude of people, ath; many of whom pressed forward with the livession of ardoar in their countenance, though the way by places steep and difficult.I observed, that those ut just began to climb the hill, thought themselves n the top; but as they proceeded, new hills were coning to their view; and the summit of the highest they re discern, seemed but the foot of another, till the at length appeared to lose itself in the clouds. As I on these things with astonishment, a friendly inddenly appeared: "The mountain before thee," is the hill of Science. On the top is the temple of ose head is above the clouds, and a veil of pure light face. Observe the progress of her votaries: be sitentive. had noticed a variety of objects, I turned mine eye e multitudes who were climbing the steep ascent; ed among them a youth of a lively look, a piercing something fiery and irregular in all his motions. was genius. He darted like an eagle up the mounleft his companions gazing after him with envy and : but his progress was unequal, and interrupted by caprices. When Pleasure warbled in the valley, I in her train. When Pride beckoned towards the he ventured to the tottering edge. He delighted in nd untried paths; and made so many excursions -oad, that his feebler companions often outstripped served that the muses beheld him with partiality; often frowned, and turned aside her face. While s thus wasting his strength in eccentric flights, I son of a very different appearance, named Applicacrept along with a slow and unremitting pace, his on the top of the mountain, patiently removing evehat obstructed his way, till he saw most of those bewho had at first derided his slow and toilsome prodeed, there were few who ascended the hill with uninterrupted steadiness; for, besides the difficulties , they were continually solicited to turn aside, by a crowd of appetites, passions, and pleasures, whose 3, when once complied with, they became less and o resist and though they often returned to the path, ies of the road were more severely felt: the hill an : peared more steep and rugged; the fruits which were wholesome and refreshing, seemed harsh and ill-tasted; their sight grew dim; and their feet tripped at every little obstruction. I saw, with some surprise, that the muses, whose business was to cheer and encourage those who were toiling up the ascent, would often sing in the bowers of pleasure, and accompany those who were enticed away at the call of the passions. They accompanied them, however, but a little way; and always forsook them when they lost sight of the hill. The tyrants then doubled their chains upon the unhappy captives; and led them away, without resistance, to the cells of Iguorance, or the mansions of misery Amongst the innumerable seducers, who were endeavouring to draw away the votaries of Truth from the path of science, there was one so little formidable in her appearance, and so gentle and languid in her attempts, that I should scarcely have taken notice of her, but for the numbers she had imperceptibly loaded with her chains. Indolence, (for so she was called,) far from proceeding to open hostilities, did not attempt to turn their feet out of the path, but contented herself with retarding their progress; and the purpose she could not force them to abandon, slie persuaded them to delay. Her touch had a power like that of the torpedo, which withered the strength of those who came within its influence. Her unhappy captives still turned their faces towards the temple, and always hoped to arrive there; but the ground seemed to slide from beneath their feet, and they found themselves at the bottom, before they suspected they had changed their place. The placid serenity, which at first appeared in their countenance, charged by degrees into a melancholy lan-" guor, which was tinged with deeper and deeper gloom, as they glided down the stream of insignificance; a dark and sluggish water, which is curled by no breeze, and enlivened by no murmur, till it falls into a dead sea, where startled passengers are awakened by the shock, and the next moment buried in the gulph of Oblivion. Of all the unhappy deserters from the paths of Science, none seemed less able to return than the followers of Indolence. The captives of Appetite and Passion could often sieze the moment when these tyrants were languid or asleep, to escape from their enchantment; but the dominion of Indolence was constant and unremitted; and seldom resisted, till resistance was in vain. After contemplating these things, I turned my eyes towards the top of the mountain, where the air was always pure and exhilirating, the path shaded with laurels and other ever Narrative Pieces. nd the effulgence which beamed from the face of seemed to shed a glory round her votaries. Happy, re they who are permitted to ascend the mountain !- I was pronouncing this exclamation with uncommon I saw, standing beside me, a form of diviner features, ore benign radience. "Happier," said she, "are they irtue conducts to the mansions of Content." 66 What, 'does Virtue then reside in the vale?" "I am found,” ," in the vale, and I illuminate the mountain. I cheer ger at his toil, and inspire the sage at his meditation. I the crowd of cities, and bless the hermit in his cell. I emple in every heart that owns my influence; and to wishes for me, I am already present. Science may ee to eminence; but I alone can guide thee to felicity!" Virtue was thas speaking, I stretched out my arms toer, with a vehemence which broke my slumber. The ws were falling around me, and the shades of evening d over the landscape. I hastened homeward; and reEne night to silence and meditation. SECTION VII. AIKIN. JOURNEY OF A DAY; A PICTURE OF HUMAN LIFE. AH, the son of Abensina, left the caravansera early in ning, and pursued his journey through the plains of InHe was fresh and vigorous with rest; he was animated c; he was incited by desire; he walked swiftly forward valleys, and saw the hills gradually rising before him. assed along, his ears were delighted with, the morning the bird of Paradise; he was fanned by the last flutters sinking breeze, and sprinkled with dew by groves of He sometimes contemplated the towering height of the arch of the hills; and sometimes caught the gentle fraof the primrose, eldest daughter of the spring: all his vere gratified, and all care was banished from his heart. he went on, till the sun approached his meridian, and reased heat preyed upon his strength; he then looked hout him for some more commodious path. He saw, ight hand, a greve that seemed to wave its shades as a invitation; he entered it, and found the coolness and irresistably pleasant. He did not, however, forget he was travelling; but found a narrow way bordered save which ancered to have the same divaation whils the main road; and was pleased, that by this happy experiment, he had found means to unite pleasure with business, and to gain the rewards of diligence without suffering its fatigues. He, therefore, still continued to walk for a time, without the Jeast remission of his ardour, except that he was sometimes tempted to stop by the music of the birds, which the heat had assembled in the shade; and sometimes amused himself with plucking the flowers that covered the banks on either side, or the fruits that hung upon the branches. At last, the green path began to decline from its first tendency, and to wind among hills and thickets, cooled with fountains, and murmuring with waterfalls. Here Obidah paused for a time, and began to consider whether it were longer safe to forsake the known and common track; but remembering that the heat was now in its greatest violence, and that the plain was dusty and uneven, he resolved to pursue the new path, which he supposed only to make a few meanders, in compliance with the varieties of the ground, and to end at last in the common road./ Having thus calmed his solicitude, he renewed his pace, though he suspected that he was not gaining ground. This uneasiness of his mind inclined him to lay hold on every new object, and give way to every sensation that might soothe or divert him. He listened to every echo; he mounted every hill for a fresh prospect: he turned aside to every cascade; and pleased himself with tracing the course of a gentle river that rolled among the trees, and watered a large region with innumerable circumvolutions. In these amusements, the hours passed away unaccounted; his deviations had perplexed his memory, and he knew not towards what point to travel. He stood pensive and confused, afraid to go forward lest he should go wrong, yet conscious that the time of loitering was now past. While he was thus tortured with uncertainty, the sky was overspread with clouds; the day vanished from before him; and a sudden tempest gathered round his head. He was now roused by his danger to a quick and painful remembrance of his folly; he now saw how happiness is lost when ease is consulted; he Jamented the unmanly impatience that prompted him to seek shelter in the grove; and despised the petty curiosity that led him on from trifle to trifle. While he was thus reflecting, the air grew blacker, and a clap of thunder broke his meditation. He now resolved to do what yet remained in his power, to tread back the ground which he had passed, and try to find some issue where the wood might open into the plain. He |