“Surely,” said the prince, “my father must be negligent of his charge, if any man, in his dominions, dares take that which belongs to another.  Does he not know, that kings are accountable for injustice permitted, as well as done?  If I were emperour, not the meanest of my subjects should be oppressed with impunity.  My blood boils, when I am told that a merchant durst not enjoy his honest gains, for fear of losing them by the rapacity of power.  Name the governour, who robbed the people, that I may declare his crimes to the emperour.”

“Sir,” said Imlac, “your ardour is the natural effect of virtue animated by youth:  the time will come, when you will acquit your father, and, perhaps, hear with less impatience of the governour.  Oppression is, in the Abissinian dominions, neither frequent nor tolerated; but no form of government has been yet discovered, by which cruelty can be wholly prevented.  Subordination supposes power on one part, and subjection on the other; and if power be in the hands of men, it will, sometimes, be abused.  The vigilance of the supreme magistrate may do much, but much will still remain undone.  He can never know all the crimes that are committed, and can seldom punish all that he knows.”

“This,” said the prince, “I do not understand, but I had rather hear thee than dispute.  Continue thy narration.”

“My father,” proceeded Imlac, “originally intended that I should have no other education, than such as might qualify me for commerce; and, discovering in me great strength of memory, and quickness of apprehension, often declared his hope, that I should be, some time, the richest man in Abissinia.”

“Why,” said the prince, “did thy father desire the increase of his wealth, when it was already greater than he durst discover or enjoy?  I am unwilling to doubt thy veracity, yet inconsistencies cannot both be true.”

“Inconsistencies,” answered Imlac, “cannot both be right, but, imputed to man, they may both be true.  Yet diversity is not inconsistency.  My father might expect a time of greater security.  However, some desire is necessary to keep life in motion, and he, whose real wants are supplied, must admit those of fancy.”

“This,” said the prince, “I can, in some measure, conceive.  I repent that I interrupted thee.”

“With this hope,” proceeded Imlac, “he sent me to school; but when I had once found the delight of knowledge, and felt the pleasure of intelligence and the pride of invention, I began, silently, to despise riches, and determined to disappoint the purpose of my father, whose grossness of conception raised my pity.  I was twenty years old before his tenderness would expose me to the fatigue of travel, in which time I had been instructed, by successive masters, in all the literature of my native country.  As every hour taught me something new, I lived in a continual course of gratifications; but, as I advanced towards manhood, I lost much of the reverence with which I had been used to look on my instructers; because, when the lesson was ended, I did not find them wiser or better than common men.