"Such," faid Pekuah, "has often been my wish, and I have heard the princefs declare, that she should not willingly die in a crowd."

"The liberty of ufing harmless pleafures," proceeded Imlac, "will not be difputed; but it is ftill 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 confequences. Pleasure, in itfelf harmless, may become mifchievous, by endearing to us a state which we know to be tranfient 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 ufe, but that it difengages us from the allurements of fenfe. In the state

`of

of future perfection, to which we all aspire, there will be pleasure without danger, and fecurity without restraint."

The princess was filent, and Raffelas, turning to the aftronomer, afked him, whether he could not delay her retreat, by fhewing her fomething which she had not feen before?

"Your curiofity," faid the fage, "has been fo general, and your purfuit of knowledge fo 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 repofitories, 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," faid Raffelas, "what pleasure the fight of the Catacombs can afford; but, fince nothing elfe offered, I am refolved to view them, and fhall place this with many other things which I have done, because I would do fomething."

They hired a guard of horsemen, and the next day vifited the Catacombs. When they were about to descend into the fepulchral caves, "Pekuah," faid the princess, "we are now again invading the habitations of the dead; I know that you will stay behind; let me find you fafe when I return." "No, I will not be left," answered Pekuah, "I will go down between you and the prince."

They then all defcended, and roved with wonder through the labyrinth of fubterraneous paffages, where the bodies were laid in rows on either fide.

CHA P. XLVIII.

IMLAC DISCOURSES ON THE NATURE

OF THE SOUL.

WHAT

HAT reafon," faid the prince, " can be given, why the Egyptians fhould thus expenfively preferve those carcafes which fome nations confume with fire, others lay to mingle with the earth, and all agree to remove from their fight, as foon as decent rites can be performed?"

"The original of ancient customs," faid Imlac, "is commonly unknown; for the practice often continues when the caufe has ceased; and concerning fuperftitious ceremonies it is vain to conjecture; for what reafon did not dictate, reason cannot explain. I have long believed that the practice of embalming arofe only from tenderness to the remains

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mains of relations or friends, and to this opinion I am more inclined, because it feems impoffible that this care should have been general: had all the dead been embalmed, their repofitories muft in time have been more fpacious than the dwellings of the living. I fuppose only the rich or honourable were secured from corruption, and the reft left to the courfe of nature.

"But it is commonly fuppofed that the Egyptians believed the foul to live as long as the body continued undiffolved, and therefore tried this method of eluding death."

"Could the wife Egyptians," faid Nekayah, "think fo grofsly of the foul? If the foul could once furvive its feparation, what could it afterwards receive or fuffer from the body?"

"The