ection."

"This" said the prince, "may be true of others, since it is true of me;
yet, whatever be the general infelicity of man, one condition is more
happy than another, and wisdom surely directs us to take the least evil
in the CHOICE OF LIFE."

"The causes of good and evil," answered Imlac, "are so various and
uncertain, so often entangled with each other, so diversified by various
relations, and so much subject to accidents, which cannot be foreseen,
that he, who would fix his condition upon incontestable reasons of
preference, must live and die inquiring and deliberating."

"But surely," said Rasselas, "the wise men, to whom we listen with
reverence and wonder, chose that mode of life for themselves, which they
thought most likely to make them happy."

"Very few," said the poet, "live by choice. Every man is placed in his
present condition by causes which acted without his foresight, and with
which he did not always willingly cooperate; and, therefore, you will
rarely meet one, who does not think the lot of his neighbour better than
his own."

"I am pleased to think," said the prince, "that my birth has given me,
at least, one advantage over others, by enabling me to determine for
myself. I have here the world before me; I will review it at leisure:
surely happiness is somewhere to be found."

CHAP. XVII.

THE PRINCE ASSOCIATES WITH YOUNG MEN OF SPIRIT AND GAIETY.

Rasselas rose next day, and resolved to begin his experiments upon life.
"Youth," cried he, "is the time of gladness: I will join myself to the
young men, whose only business is to gratify their desires, and whose
time is all spent in a succession of enjoyments."

To such societies he was readily admitted, but a few days brought him
back, weary and disgusted. Their mirth was without images; their
laughter without motive; their pleasures were gross and sensual, in
which the mind had no part; their conduct was, at once, wild and mean;
they laughed at order and at law, but the frown of power dejected, and
the eye of wisdom abashed them.

The prince soon concluded, that he should never be happy in a course of
life, of which he was ashamed. He thought it unsuitable to a reasonable
being to act without a plan, and to be sad or cheerful only by chance.
"Happiness," said he, "must be something solid and permanent, without
fear and without uncertainty."

But his young companions had gained so much of his regard by their
frankness and courtesy, that