The Works of Samuel Johnson, Ll D

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Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012 - 360 pages
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: of thofe for whom they were defigned. The roofs were turned into arches of ma fly (lone joined by a cement that grew harder by time, and the building flood from century to century deriding the fol- ftitial rains and equinoctial hurricanes, without need cf reparation. This houfe, which was fo large as to be fully known to none but fome ancient officers who fuc- ceffively inherited the fecrets of the place, was built as if fufpicion herfclf had dictated the plan. To every room there was an open and fecret paffage, every fquare had a communication with the reft, either from the upper (lories by private galleries, or by fubterranean paffages from the lower apartments. ' Many of the columns had unfufpected cavities, in which a long race of monarchs had repofited their treafures. They then doled up the opening with marble, which was never to be removed but in the utmofl exigencies of the kingdom; and recorded their accumulations in a book which was itfelf concealed in a tower not entered but by the emperour, attended by the prince who ftood next in fucceffion. CHAP. II. Tl-fE DISCONTENT OF RASSELAS IN THE HAPPY VALLEY. Ttere the fons and daughters of AbifTmia lived only to know the foft viciffitudes of pleafure and repofe, attended by all that were fkilful to delight, and gratified with whatever the fenfes can enjoy.enjoy. They wandered in gardens of fragrance, and flept in the fortrefies of fecurity. Every arc was practifed to make them pleafed with their own condition. The fages who inft.ru6r.ed them, told them of nothing but the miferies of publick life, and defcribed all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity, where difcord was always raging, and where man preyed upon man. To heighten their opinion of their own felicity, they were daily entertained with fongs, ..

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