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rasselas, prince of abyssinia-第21部分

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 he should omit some of the mortifications  which are practised in the cloister; and allow himself such  harmless delights as his condition may place within his reach?〃
〃This;〃 said Imlac; 〃is a question which has long divided the wise  and perplexed the good。  I am afraid to decide on either part。  He  that lives well in the world is better than he that lives well in a  monastery。  But perhaps everyone is not able to stem the  temptations of public life; and if he cannot conquer he may  properly retreat。  Some have little power to do good; and have  likewise little strength to resist evil。  Many are weary of the  conflicts with adversity; and are willing to eject those passions  which have long busied them in vain。  And many are dismissed by age  and diseases from the more laborious duties of society。  In  monasteries the weak and timorous may be happily sheltered; the  weary may repose; and the penitent may meditate。  Those retreats of  prayer and contemplation have something so congenial to the mind of  man; that perhaps there is scarcely one that does not purpose to  close his life in pious abstraction; with a few associates serious  as himself。〃
〃Such;〃 said Pekuah; 〃has often been my wish; and I have heard the  Princess declare that she should not willingly die in a crowd。〃
〃The liberty of using harmless pleasures;〃 proceeded Imlac; 〃will  not be disputed; but it is still to be examined what pleasures are  harmless。  The evil of any pleasure that Nekayah can image is not  in the act itself but in its consequences。  Pleasure in itself  harmless may become mischievous by endearing to us a state which we  know to be transient and probatory; and withdrawing our thoughts  from that of which every hour brings us nearer to the beginning;  and of which no length of time will bring us to the end。   Mortification is not virtuous in itself; nor has any other use but  that it disengages us from the allurements of sense。  In the state  of future perfection to which we all aspire there will be pleasure  without danger and security without restraint。〃
The Princess was silent; and Rasselas; turning to the astronomer;  asked him whether he could not delay her retreat by showing her  something which she had not seen before。
〃Your curiosity;〃 said the sage; 〃has been so general; and your  pursuit of knowledge so vigorous; that novelties are not now very  easily to be found; but what you can no longer procure from the  living may be given by the dead。  Among the wonders of this country  are the catacombs; or the ancient repositories in which the bodies  of the earliest generations were lodged; and where; by the virtue  of the gums which embalmed them; they yet remain without  corruption。〃
〃I know not;〃 said Rasselas; 〃what pleasure the sight of the  catacombs can afford; but; since nothing else is offered; I am  resolved to view them; and shall place this with my other things  which I have done because I would do something。〃
They hired a guard of horsemen; and the next day visited the  catacombs。  When they were about to descend into the sepulchral  caves; 〃Pekuah;〃 said the Princess; 〃we are now again invading the  habitations of the dead; I know that you will stay behind。  Let me  find you safe when I return。〃  〃No; I will not be left;〃 answered  Pekuah; 〃I will go down between you and the Prince。〃
They then all descended; and roved with wonder through the  labyrinth of subterraneous passages; where the bodies were laid in  rows on either side。

CHAPTER XLVIII … IMLAC DISCOURSES ON THE NATURE OF THE SOUL。

〃WHAT reason;〃 said the Prince; 〃can be given why the Egyptians  should thus expensively preserve those carcases which some nations  consume with fire; others lay to mingle with the earth; and all  agree to remove from their sight as soon as decent rites can be  performed?〃
〃The original of ancient customs;〃 said Imlac; 〃is commonly  unknown; for the practice often continues when the cause has  ceased; and concerning superstitious ceremonies it is vain to  conjecture; for what reason did not dictate; reason cannot explain。   I have long believed that the practice of embalming arose only from  tenderness to the remains of relations or friends; and to this  opinion I am more inclined because it seems impossible that this  care should have been general; had all the dead been embalmed;  their repositories must in time have been more spacious than the  dwellings of the living。  I suppose only the rich or honourable  were secured from corruption; and the rest left to the course of  nature。
〃But it is commonly supposed that the Egyptians believed the soul  to live as long as the body continued undissolved; and therefore  tried this method of eluding death。〃
〃Could the wise Egyptians;〃 said Nekayah; 〃think so grossly of the  soul?  If the soul could once survive its separation; what could it  afterwards receive or suffer from the body?〃
〃The Egyptians would doubtless think erroneously;〃 said the  astronomer; 〃in the darkness of heathenism and the first dawn of  philosophy。  The nature of the soul is still disputed amidst all  our opportunities of clearer knowledge; some yet say that it may be  material; who; nevertheless; believe it to be immortal。〃
〃Some;〃 answered Imlac; 〃have indeed said that the soul is  material; but I can scarcely believe that any man has thought it  who knew how to think; for all the conclusions of reason enforce  the immateriality of mind; and all the notices of sense and  investigations of science concur to prove the unconsciousness of  matter。
〃It was never supposed that cogitation is inherent in matter; or  that every particle is a thinking being。  Yet if any part of matter  be devoid of thought; what part can we suppose to think?  Matter  can differ from matter only in form; density; bulk; motion; and  direction of motion。  To which of these; however varied or  combined; can consciousness be annexed?  To be round or square; to  be solid or fluid; to be great or little; to be moved slowly or  swiftly; one way or another; are modes of material existence all  equally alien from the nature of cogitation。  If matter be once  without thought; it can only be made to think by some new  modification; but all the modifications which it can admit are  equally unconnected with cogitative powers。〃
〃But the materialists;〃 said the astronomer; 〃urge that matter may  have qualities with which we are unacquainted。〃
〃He who will determine;〃 returned Imlac; 〃against that which he  knows because there may be something which he knows not; he that  can set hypothetical possibility against acknowledged certainty; is  not to be admitted among reasonable beings。  All that we know of  matter is; that matter is inert; senseless; and lifeless; and if  this conviction cannot he opposed but by referring us to something  that we know not; we have all the evidence that human intellect can  admit。  If that which is known may be overruled by that which is  unknown; no being; not omniscient; can arrive at certainty。〃
〃Yet let us not;〃 said the astronomer; 〃too arrogantly limit the  Creator's power。〃
〃It is no limitation of Omnipotence;〃 replied the poet; 〃to suppose  that one thing is not consistent with another; that the same  proposition cannot be at once true and false; that the same number  cannot be even and odd; that cogitation cannot be conferred on that  which is created incapable of cogitation。〃
〃I know not;〃 said Nekayah; 〃any great use of this question。  Does  that immateriality; which in my opinion you have sufficiently  proved; necessarily include eternal duration?〃
〃Of immateriality;〃 said Imlac; 〃our ideas are negative; and  therefore obscure。  Immateriality seems to imply a natural power of  perpetual duration as a consequence of exemption from all causes of  decay:  whatever perishes is destroyed by the solution of its  contexture and separation of its parts; nor can we conceive how  that which has no parts; and therefore admits no solution; can be  naturally corrupted or impaired。〃
〃I know not;〃 said Rasselas; 〃how to conceive anything without  extension:  what is extended must have parts; and you allow that  whatever has parts may be destroyed。〃
〃Consider your own conceptions;〃 replied Imlac; 〃and the difficulty  will be less。  You will find substance without extension。  An ideal  form is no less real than material bulk; yet an ideal form has no  extension。  It is no less certain; when you think on a pyramid;  that your mind possesses the idea of a pyramid; than that the  pyramid itself is standing。  What space does the idea of a pyramid  occupy more than the idea of a grain of corn? or how can either  idea suffer laceration?  As is the effect; such is the cause; as  thought; such is the power that thinks; a power impassive and  indiscerptible。〃
〃But the Being;〃 said Nekayah; 〃whom I fear to name; the Being  which made the soul; can destroy it。〃
〃He surely can destroy it;〃 answered Imlac; 〃since; however  imperishable; it receives from a superior nature its power of  duration。  That it will not perish by any inherent cause of decay  or principle of corruption; may be shown by philosophy; but  philosophy can tell no more。  That it will not be annihilated by  Him that made it; we must humbly learn from higher authority。〃
The whole assembly stood awhile silent and collected。  〃Let us  return;〃 said Rasselas; 〃from this scene of mortality。  How gloomy  would be these mansions of the dead to him who did not know that he  should never die; that what now acts shall continue its agency; and  what now thinks shall think on for ever。  Those that lie here  stretched before us; the wise and the powerful of ancient times;  warn us to remember the shortness of our present state; they were  perhaps snatched away while they were busy; like us; in the CHOICE  OF LIFE。〃
〃To me;〃 said the Princess; 〃the choice of life is become less  important; I hope hereafter to think only on the choice of  eternity。〃
They then hastened out of the caverns; and under the protection of  their guard returned to Cairo。

CHAPTER XLIX … THE CONCLUSION; IN WHICH NOTHING IS CONCLUDED。

IT was now the time of the inundation of the Nile。  A few days  after their visit to the catacombs the river began to rise。
They were confined to their house。  The whole 
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