THE CONCLUSION, IN WHICH NOTHING IS CONCLUDED.
IT was now the time of the inundation of the Nile. A few days after
their visit to the catacombs the river began to rise.
They were confined to their house. The whole region being under water,
gave them no invitation to any excursions; and being well supplied with
materials for talk, they diverted themselves with comparisons of the
different forms of life which they had observed, and with various schemes
of happiness which each of them had formed.
Pekuah was never so much charmed with any place as the Convent of St.
Anthony, where the Arab restored her to the Princess, and wished only to
fill it with pious maidens and to be made prioress of the order. She was
weary of expectation and disgust, and would gladly be fixed in some
unvariable state.
The Princess thought that, of all sublunary things, knowledge was the
best. She desired first to learn all sciences, and then proposed to
found a college of learned women, in which she would preside, that, by
conversing with the old and educating the young, she might divide her
time between the acquisition and communication of wisdom, and raise up
for the next age models of prudence and patterns of piety.
The Prince desired a little kingdom in which he might administer justice
in his own person and see all the parts of government with his own eyes;
but he could never fix the limits of his dominion, and was always adding
to the number of his subjects.
Imlac and the astronomer were contented to be driven along the stream of
life without directing their course to any particular port.
Of those wishes that they had formed they well knew that none could be
obtained. They deliberated awhile what was to be done, and resolved,
when the inundation should cease, to return to Abyssinia.
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