Posted by
Buster Foghorn on Monday, March 30, 2009 7:47:31 PM
Dr. Johnson’s “The History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia” offers a philosophical journey for our modern era—a search for the secret of: what choice of life to make.
I highly recommend the Oxford World’s Classic edition, edited by J.P. Hardy. The introductory material is quite helpful, and the extensive footnotes, further explaining the text, are a valuable gateway to many of Dr. Johnson’s writings in Rambler and Adventurer, writings where he further pursued topics raised in this book.
Rasselas lives in a garden paradise—his every need is provided for by his father, the King, who has sent his four children to live in Happy Valley, a beautiful valley, a Garden of Eden, from which there is no known escape, until they are called to rule through the line of succession.
After years of having his every wish fulfilled, Rasselas grows dissatisfied—there is no challenge or deep satisfaction in merely waiting for others to die so he can be King. Rasselas wants more. He doesn’t know life beyond the mountain. The Prince recruits his teacher, his sister, and her companion. Rasselas sets his goal to leave Happy Valley, and then he discovers his means of escape.
He plans to travel the world; to seek out the wise and the learned; to study humanity. Along the way Rasselas and his friends enquire and learn about the human condition: misfortune, desire, corruption, curiosity, loneliness, insanity and the loss of reason. They also consider other questions when making a choice of life: the business of a man of letters; the importance of novelty in a life well-lived; the greatness of a nation as measured by the completeness of her poets; the importance of a desire of knowledge; that the old is valuable because: “what has been longest known has been most considered, and what is most considered is best understood.”
Their travels take them to Cairo, and they visit a number of places, including the pyramids, and meet many people on their journey, giving them an opportunity to talk to others who have made their choice of life. They meet the married and the single man; what about the choice of a married life? They meet the recluse; what about the choice of a life of seclusion? They visit the great pyramids of Egypt, and learn about the folly of man. They spend time with the astronomer; a man who has spent his life studying the stars. He has lived the life of the hedgehog, learning deeply about star knowledge. How does he feel about his choice of life versus the man who learns about self knowledge?
Dr. Johnson wrote: “The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope.” He also understood that “hope was necessary in every condition,” but warns us as he begins his tale:
Ye who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and persue with eagerness the phantoms of hope; who expect that age will perform the promises of youth, and that the deficiencies of the present day will be supplied by the morrow; attend to the history of Rasselas prince of Abissinia.
I recommend you travel with Rasselas and his friends; enjoy their journey, their hopes, and their search for the choice of life.