"
"Why," said the Prince, "did thy father desire the increase of his
wealth when it was already greater than he durst discover or enjoy?
I am unwilling to doubt thy veracity, yet inconsistencies cannot
both be true."
"Inconsistencies," answered Imlac, "cannot both be right; but,
imputed to man, they may both be true. Yet diversity is not
inconsistency. My father might expect a time of greater security.
However, some desire is necessary to keep life in motion; and he
whose real wants are supplied must admit those of fancy."
"This," said the Prince, "I can in some measure conceive. I repent
that I interrupted thee."
"With this hope," proceeded Imlac, "he sent me to school. But when
I had once found the delight of knowledge, and felt the pleasure of
intelligence and the pride of invention, I began silently to
despise riches, and determined to disappoint the purposes of my
father, whose grossness of conception raised my pity. I was twenty
years old before his tenderness would expose me to the fatigue of
travel; in which time I had been instructed, by successive masters,
in all the literature of my native country.
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