Many of the columns had unsuspected cavities, in which
a long race of monarchs had deposited their treasures. They then
closed up the opening with marble, which was never to be removed
but in the utmost exigences of the kingdom, and recorded their
accumulations in a book, which was itself concealed in a tower, not
entered but by the Emperor, attended by the prince who stood next
in succession.
CHAPTER II--THE DISCONTENT OF RASSELAS IN THE HAPPY VALLEY.
Here the sons and daughters of Abyssinia lived only to know the
soft vicissitudes of pleasure and repose, attended by all that were
skilful to delight, and gratified with whatever the senses can
enjoy. They wandered in gardens of fragrance, and slept in the
fortresses of security. Every art was practised to make them
pleased with their own condition. The sages who instructed them
told them of nothing but the miseries of public life, and described
all beyond the mountains as regions of calamity, where discord was
always racing, and where man preyed upon man. To heighten their
opinion of their own felicity, they were daily entertained with
songs, the subject of which was the Happy Valley.
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