THE PRINCE EXAMINES THE HAPPINESS OF HIGH STATIONS
Rasselas applauded the design, and appeared next day with a splendid
retinue at the court of the Bassa. He was soon distinguished for his
magnificence, and admitted, as a prince whose curiosity had brought him
from distant countries, to an intimacy with the great officers, and
frequent conversation with the Bassa himself.
He was at first inclined to believe, that the man must be pleased with
his own condition whom all approached with reverence and heard with
obedience, and who had the power to extend his edicts to a whole
kingdom. "There can be no pleasure," said he, "equal to that of feeling
at once the joy of thousands all made happy by wise administration. Yet
since by the law of subordination this sublime delight can be in one
nation but the lot of one, it is surely reasonable to think that there
is some satisfaction more popular and accessible, and that millions can
hardly be subjected to the will of a single man, only to fill his
particular breast with incommunicable content."
These thoughts were often in his mind, and he found no solution of the
difficulty. But as presents and civilities gained him more familiarity,
he found that almost every man who stood high in employment hated all
the rest, and was hated by them, and that their lives were a continual
succession of plots and detections, stratagems and escapes, faction and
treachery. Many of those who surrounded the Bassa were sent only to
watch and report his conduct; every tongue was muttering censure, and
every eye was searching for a fault.
At last the letters of revocation arrived, the Bassa was carried in
chains to Constantinople, and his name was mentioned no more.
"What are we now to think of the prerogatives of power?" said Rasselas
to his sister; "is it without any efficacy to good? or, is the
subordinate degree only dangerous, and the supreme safe and glorious? Is
the Sultan the only happy man in his dominions? or, is the Sultan
himself subject to the torments of suspicion and the dread of enemies?"
In a short time the second Bassa was deposed; the Sultan that had
advanced him was murdered by the Janizaries, and his successor had other
views and different favourites.