27. Which the prince, &c. Which, objective to afford. Only, adverb modifying the adverbial conjunction while, or the adverbial clause introduced by while.

28. Whom he had once, &c. Reverenced being a perfect participle, and loved a past tense, the adverb once should have preceded the auxiliary had, "whom he once had reverenced and still loved."

29. "I am lonely," that is, I keep myself apart from others, because, being miserable myself, I am unwilling, &c.

"To cloud," to cast a gloom upon, as overshadowing clouds darken the face of a landscape.

31. The prince being dissatisfied, though without any defined or actually understood want, gives occasion to the curious and expressive title of the chapter. "That wish would excite," &c.-A definite wish would excite endeavour to gratify it, and such employment would prevent me from repining at the tediousness of time.

'What I want" is a noun clause governed by know, and taken along with the noun clause "that I know not," forms a noun sentence nominative to is.

66

32. Exactly like another," viz., like that which succeeds it.

Chasing one another, i. e., one chasing another, the noun one being an objective agreeing by a kind of distributive apposition with kids and lambs. Except, preposition governing a noun clause. Much, an adjective used as a noun, and modified by the adverb too.

33. "Since the sight of them," that is, since, as you say, it is necessary that I should have seen the miseries of the world in order to feel happy in this retreat.

Something to desire.—The infinitive here has a transitive import, though without an expressed object, and is equivalent to the clause that I may desire it. See Hunter's "Text Book of English Grammar," p. 130, § 3.

34. The reasonings of the sage were intended to prevent Rasselas from concluding that the valley did not contain every thing necessary to happiness.

35. Whether is originally a distributive pronoun, denoting which of the two, as in the question "Whether of them twain did the will of his father?" It is now commonly regarded as a conjunction, and may refer, as here, to a choice of more things than two.

36. " Views extended to a wider space."-The emotions of shame and grief in the mind of the sage were soon quieted, because, perhaps,

the short remainder of life in prospect made him look with slight regard upon afflictions; but Rasselas, expecting to live many years, could not so speedily quiet his emotions, which for some time had been of a distressful kind, when he thought of a long life of discontent being before him, but now were joyful, because he had found something to desire and to prosecute. "He now rejoiced in his youth" means that now he was delighted with the fact of his being young, and likely to live many years longer.

37. The first beam of hope was that which gave him the prospect of a long and well-employed future. He had not previously experienced hope, because in the happy valley "every desire was immediately granted." There is an observable metaphorical propriety in the expressions used to describe the effects of this beam of hope; it rekindled youth, it doubled lustre, it fired the prince with desire.

Either, originally and still frequently a distributive pronoun, might be parsed as such in the present instance; see the explanation of whether in the 35th section.

39. It was previously observed that some degree of vanity actuated the heart of Rasselas. We now perceive that he has an ambition to distinguish himself by projects of benevolence, and that his inexperience permits him to indulge the most sanguine expectations of uniformly succeeding in such projects.

40. "Mingle with mankind." Engrossed with the imaginary execution of his purposes, he neglected to consider how he was to find his way into public life.

41. This paragraph represents, by a supposition perhaps some what extravagant, the influence of an excited imagination; it is intended to introduce a means of reminding Rasselas of the difficulty of getting beyond the bounds of the valley.

One day. The noun is here an objective governed by on understood.

43. Rasselas is impressed with the folly of having filled an uncertain future with purposed employment, and yet having suffered twenty months of that future to become past without any portion of his purposes being fulfilled.

44. We are long, i. e., we exist long, the word long being an adverb. Twenty mouths to come.—Infinitive expressions have very often, like preposition phrases, an adverbial, or else an adjective

signification; in this instance, to come has the meaning of an adjective describing months.

45. "The rest of my time," that is, the time preceding the last twenty months was wasted through no fault of mine.

A scheme of reasonable felicity,"-felicity suited to a rational being, viz., that arising from the exercise of benevolence.

46. "An idle gazer on the light of heaven."-Having had the light of heaven and made no profitable use of it.

Gazer, nominative in apposition to I. I only, that is, I taken or regarded singly; so that only is properly an adverb modifying an understood participle.

47. "More than twenty changes," because twenty months contain upwards of 600 days, and a lunar month is less than 30 days, viz., about 29 days.

Than, conjunction, connecting the adjectives more and twenty.

48. He spent the remaining part of two years in repenting of his idle resolves, when the accidental remark about the broken cup roused him to exertion.

49. The mind engaged with remote expectations frequently overlooks obvious truths, attention to which is necessary to the fulfilment of those expectations.

As the prince had before been wasting time in regretting his idle resolves, he now, but only for a few hours, regretted his regret.

50. 'Which it was very easy to suppose effected.'-Which is governed by suppose and adjectively described by the participle effected; the pronoun it represents, by anticipation, the phrase to suppose which effected.

52. The prince had now known the pleasure of hoping, and was solaced by the self-approbation inspired by his industry.

53. In the exercise of his industry, he found every day fresh sources of interesting inquiry, which proved a temporary reward of his pains.

55. The kind of dissertation contained in the sixth chapter is called colloquial, being conducted conversationally between Rasselas and the artist.

By "the mechanic powers" is here to be understood not merely the more elementary powers called the lever, the pulley, the wheeland-axle, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the screw, but the general principles of mechanism.

57. A sailing chariot is one fitted with sails and propelled by the wind.

58. "The tardy conveyance of ships and chariots" which Johnson makes the artist refer to, may suggest to our minds the speed of modern navigation and of the railway, so wonderful in comparison with any means of transport known in our author's time.

Instead, a word formed by uniting a preposition with its objective noun, and may be parsed as an adverb modifying the succeeding preposition phrase.

The art of flying was much discussed by the philosophers of the reign of Charles II. The celebrated Bishop Wilkins was so confident of success in it, that he said he did not question but in future ages it would be as usual for a man to call for his wings, when going a journey, as it had been to call for his boots.

There is a well-known fabulous story of Dedalus, an ingenious mechanist of Athens, who was with his son Icarus confined in a labyrinth, of his own contrivance, in Crete, and not being able to find his way out of it, made wings for himself and his son, with which they flew away. The youth soared so near the sun, that the waxen fastenings of his wings melted, and he fell into the sea.

60. "So fishes have the water, in which yet beasts can swim."The words so and yet have an interjectional character, but might be called adverbs, respectively modifying have and swim, and meaning in like manner and notwithstanding that.

61. A body's gravity is the effect of the earth's attraction. As we recede from the earth's centre, this attractive force diminishes in geometrical progression.

The sanguine thoughts and anticipations of the mechanist were of course illusory and fruitless.

Others

64. "In a year expect to tower."-In expresses relation between tower and year. "Envy others so great an advantage." governed by to understood; advantage governed by envy.

66. The union of lightness with strength is beautifully exemplified in the structure of the wings of birds.

67. The artist's anticipations of success have been stated at some length; the result of these anticipations is very briefly told; this is to intimate that sudden failure often awaits plausible and longcherished schemes.

68. The prince was not much afflicted by this disaster, because

he would not have indulged any hope of a more successful issue, if he had had any likelier means of escape to engage his mind. But he was now left without any prospect of liberation, and became melancholy.

"In these countries," that is, in tropical countries.

Notwithstanding all his endeavours. It is usual to call notwithstanding a preposition; withstanding, however, is in reality an intransitive participle, here describing endeavours—a nominative absolute.

69. The number of rainy days in the year is generally least in those countries where the entire quantity of rain is greatest, viz. in tropical countries. In the regions of the torrid zone, the periodical rains come in such copious torrents, that frequently large districts are in a few hours made impassable.

70. The inundation confining the princes to the palace gives the author of the story an opportunity of representing Rasselas as entertained by the discourse of a man of learning, whose name, however, is introduced as if it had occurred before: Imlac had not been previously referred to. The scenes of life described in a poem by Imlac, and rehearsed to Rasselas, supply appropriate food for

the young prince's curiosity.

75. Goiama, or Gojam, an ancient kingdom of Abyssinia, west of Amhara. "The Nile," says Lobo, "which the natives call Abavi, that is, the Father of Waters, rises first in Sacala, a province of the kingdom of Goiama."

The principal Abyssinian port on the west coast of the Red Sea was Masuah.

78. "I had rather hear thee than dispute." The prince impatiently desired to hear more about the actual condition of public life, and would not now waste time in discussing a difficulty.

Had, in the above sentence, is a past tense having the potential meaning I would have. I would rather have to hear. This potential meaning is often implied in the past tenses of the verbs have and be.

79. "Such as might qualify." The employment of as like a relative pronoun has probably resulted from abridgment:-Such as [what] might.

80. “Diversity is not inconsistency." For men to think differently at different times is not necessarily inconsistent.