“Domestick discord,” answered she, “is not inevitably and fatally necessary; but yet it is not easily avoided.  We seldom see that a whole family is virtuous:  the good and evil cannot well agree:  and the evil can yet less agree with one another:  even the virtuous fall, sometimes, to variance, when their virtues are of different kinds, and tending to extremes.  In general, those parents have most reverence who most deserve it:  for he that lives well cannot be despised.

“Many other evils infest private life.  Some are the slaves of servants, whom they have trusted with their affairs.  Some are kept in continual anxiety, by the caprice of rich relations, whom they cannot please, and dare not offend.  Some husbands are imperious, and some wives perverse:  and, as it is always more easy to do evil than good, though the wisdom or virtue of one can very rarely make many happy, the folly or vice of one may often make many miserable.”

“If such be the general effect of marriage,” said the prince, “I shall, for the future, think it dangerous to connect my interest with that of another, lest I should be unhappy by my partner’s fault.”

“I have met,” said the princess, “with many who live single for that reason; but I never found that their prudence ought to raise envy.  They dream away their time without friendship, without fondness, and are driven to rid themselves of the day, for which they have no use, by childish amusements, or vitious delights.  They act as beings under the constant sense of some known inferiority, that fills their minds with rancour, and their tongues with censure.  They are peevish at home, and malevolent abroad; and, as the outlaws of human nature, make it their business and their pleasure to disturb that society, which debars them from its privileges.  To live without feeling or exciting sympathy; to be fortunate without adding to the felicity of others, or afflicted without tasting the balm of pity, is a state more gloomy than solitude:  it is not retreat, but exclusion from mankind.  Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.”

“What then is to be done?” said Rasselas; “the more we inquire, the less we can resolve.  Surely he is most likely to please himself, that has no other inclination to regard.”

CHAP.  XXVII.

DISQUISITION UPON GREATNESS.

The conversation had a short pause.  The prince, having considered his sister’s observations, told her that she had surveyed life with prejudice, and supposed misery where she did not find it.  “Your narrative,” says he, “throws yet a darker gloom upon the prospects of futurity:  the predictions of Imlac were but faint sketches of the evils painted by Nekayah.  I have been lately convinced, that quiet is not the daughter of grandeur, or of power:  that her presence is not to be bought by wealth, nor enforced by conquest.  It is evident, that as any man acts in a wider compass, he must be more exposed to opposition from enmity, or miscarriage from chance; whoever has many to please or to govern, must use the ministry of many agents, some of whom will be wicked, and some ignorant; by some he will be misled, and by others betrayed.  If he gratifies one, he will offend another:  those that are not favoured will think themselves injured; and, since favours can be conferred but upon few, the greater number will be always discontented.”