Yet all this ends in the
sorrowful consideration that my acquirements are now useless, and
that none of my pleasures can be again enjoyed. The rest, whose
minds have no impression but of the present moment, are either
corroded by malignant passions or sit stupid in the gloom of
perpetual vacancy."
"What passions can infest those," said the Prince, "who have no
rivals? We are in a place where impotence precludes malice, and
where all envy is repressed by community of enjoyments."
"There may be community," said Imlac, "of material possessions, but
there can never be community of love or of esteem. It must happen
that one will please more than another; he that knows himself
despised will always be envious, and still more envious and
malevolent if he is condemned to live in the presence of those who
despise him. The invitations by which they allure others to a
state which they feel to be wretched, proceed from the natural
malignity of hopeless misery. They are weary of themselves and of
each other, and expect to find relief in new companions.
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