“At last the time came, when the secret burst his reserve.  We were sitting together, last night, in the turret of his house, watching the emersion of a satellite of Jupiter.  A sudden tempest clouded the sky, and disappointed our observation.  We sat awhile silent in the dark, and then he addressed himself to me in these words:  ’Imlac, I have long considered thy friendship as the greatest blessing of my life.  Integrity, without knowledge, is weak and useless; and knowledge, without integrity, is dangerous and dreadful.  I have found in thee all the qualities requisite for trust—­benevolence, experience, and fortitude.  I have long discharged an office, which I must soon quit at the call of nature, and shall rejoice, in the hour of imbecility and pain, to devolve it upon thee.’

“I thought myself honoured by this testimony, and protested, that whatever could conduce to his happiness, would add likewise to mine.

“’Hear, Imlac, what thou wilt not, without difficulty, credit.  I have possessed, for five years, the regulation of weather, and the distribution of the seasons:  the sun has listened to my dictates, and passed, from tropick to tropick, by my direction; the clouds, at my call, have poured their waters, and the Nile has overflowed at my command; I have restrained the rage of the dog-star, and mitigated the fervours of the crab.  The winds alone, of all the elemental powers, have, hitherto, refused my authority, and multitudes have perished by equinoctial tempests, which I found myself unable to prohibit or restrain.  I have administered this great office with exact justice, and made, to the different nations of the earth, an impartial dividend of rain and sunshine.  What must have been the misery of half the globe, if I had limited the clouds to particular regions, or confined the sun to either side of the equator!’

CHAP.  XLII.

THE OPINION OF THE ASTRONOMER IS EXPLAINED AND JUSTIFIED.

“I suppose he discovered in me, through the obscurity of the room, some tokens of amazement and doubt, for, after a short pause, he proceeded thus: 

“’Not to be easily credited will neither surprise nor offend me; for I am, probably, the first of human beings to whom this trust has been imparted.  Nor do I know whether to deem this distinction a reward or punishment; since I have possessed it, I have been far less happy than before, and nothing but the consciousness of good intention could have enabled me to support the weariness of unremitted vigilance.’

“How long, sir, said I, has this great office been in your hands?”

“‘About ten years ago,’ said he, ’my daily observations of the changes of the sky, led me to consider, whether, if I had the power of the seasons, I could confer greater plenty upon the inhabitants of the earth.  This contemplation fastened on my mind, and I sat, days and nights, in imaginary dominion, pouring, upon this country and that, the showers of fertility, and seconding every fall of rain with a due proportion of sunshine.  I had yet only the will to do good, and did not imagine that I should ever have the power.