Samuel Johnson è il più fedele rappresentante del dotto inglese del secolo decimottavo: tutte le sue virtù più spiccate, tutti i suoi pregiudizi, e non ne ebbe pochi, sono essenzialmente inglesi, e non è questa l'ultima ragione per la quale si parlò e si parla ancora tanto di lui in Inghilterra.

L'edizione più recente delle opere complete di Samuel Johnson uscì in sedici volumi a New York l'anno 1903.

Rasselas e lo sfortunato aviatore.

Among the artists who had been allured into the happy valley, to labour for the accommodation and pleasure of its inhabitants, was a man eminent for his knowledge of the mechanic powers, who had contrived many engines both of use and recreation. By a wheel which the stream turned, he forced the water into a tower (1), whence it was distributed to all the apartments of the palace. He erected a pavilion in the garden, around which he kept the air always cool by artificial showers. One of the groves appropriated to the ladies, was ventilated by fans, to which the rivulets that run through it gave a constant motion: and instruments of soft music were placed at proper distances, of which some played by the impulse of the wind, and some by the power of the

stream.

This artist was sometimes visited by Rasselas, who was pleased with every kind of knowledge, imagining that the time would come when all his acquisitions should be of use to him in the open world. He came one day to amuse himself in his usual manner, and found the master busy in building a sailing chariot: he saw that the design was practicable upon a level surface, and with expressions of great esteem solicited its completion. The workman was pleased to find himself so much regarded by the prince, and resolved to gain yet higher honours. « Sir », said he, « you have seen but a small part of what the mechanic sciences can perform. I have been long of opinion, that instead of the tardy conveyance of ships and

(1) Costringeva l'acqua a salire in una torre da cui poi veniva distribuita....

chariots, man might use the swifter migration of wings; that the fields of air are open to knowledge, and that only ignorance and idleness need crawl upon the ground » (1).

This hint rekindled the prince's desire of passing the mountains: having seen what the mechanist had already performed, he was willing to fancy that he could do more; yet resolved to inquire further before he suffered hope to afflict him by disappointment. « I am afraid », said he to the artist, « that your imagination prevails over your skill (2), and that you now tell me rather what you wish, than what you know. Every animal has his element assigned him; the birds have the air, and man and beasts the earth ». « So », replied the mechanist, « fishes have the water, in which yet (3) beasts can swim by nature, and men by art. He that can swim needs not despair to fly: to swim is to fly in a grosser fluid, and to fly is to swim in a subtler. We are only to proportion our power of resistance to the different density of matter through which we are to pass (4). You will be necessarily upborn by the air, if you can renew any impulse upon it faster than the air can recede from the pressure ».

<< But the exercise of swimming », said the prince, «< is very laborious; the strongest limbs are soon wearied; I am afraid the act of flying will be yet more violent, and wings will be of no great use, unless we can fly farther than we can swim ».

<< The labour of rising from the ground », said the artist, << will be great, as we see it in the heavier domestic fowls, but as we mount higher, the earth's attraction and the body's gravity will be gradually diminished, till we shall arrive at a region where the man will float in the air without any tendency to fall: no care will then be necessary but to move forwards, which the gentlest impulse will effect. You, sir, whose curiosity is so extensive, will easily conceive with

(1) È il ragionamento che ha poi condotto all'odierna scoperta del

velivolo.

(2) Temo che la vostra íantasia prenda la mano alla vostra abilità. (3) Tuttavia.

(4) Dobbiamo soltanto proporzionare il nostro potere di resistenza. alla differente densità della materia che ci tocca attraversare.

what pleasure a philosopher, furnished with wings," , and hovering in the sky, would see the earth and all its inhabitants rolling beneath him, and presenting to him successively, by its diurnal motion, all the countries within the same parallel. How must it amuse the pendant spectator to see the moving scene of land and ocean, cities and deserts! To survey with equal security the marts of trade and the fields of battle; mountains infested by barbarians, and fruitful regions gladdened by plenty and lulled by peace! How easily shall we then trace the Nile through all its passages; pass over to distant regions, and examine the face of nature from one extremity of the earth to the other! ».

« All this », said the prince, « is much to be desired; but I am afraid that no man will be able to breathe in these regions of speculation and tranquillity. I have been told that respiration is difficult upon lofty mountains, yet from these precipices, though so high as to produce great tenuity of air, it is very easy to fall: therefore I suspect, that from any height, where life can be supported, there may be danger of too quick descent ».

<< Nothing », replied the artist, « will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must be first overcome (1). If you will favour my project, I will try the first flight at my own hazard. I have considered the structure of all volant animals, and find the folding continuity of the bat's wings most easily accommodate to the human form. Upon this model I shall begin my task to-morrow, and in a year expect to tower into the air beyond the malice and pursuit of man. But I will work only on this condition, that the art shall not be divulged, and that you shall not require me to make wings. for any but ourselves ».

« Why », said Rasselas, « should you envy others so great an advantage? All skill ought to be exerted for universal good; every man has owed much to others, and ought to repay the kindness that he has received ».

<< If men were all virtuous », returned the artist, « I should

(1) Se si dovessero superare prima tutte le possibili objezioni, nulla si tenterebbe più in questo mondo.

with great alacrity teach them all to fly. But what would be the security of the good, if the bad could at pleasure invade them from the sky? Against an army sailing through the clouds, neither walls, nor mountains, nor seas, could afford any security. A flight of northern savages might hover in the wind, and light at once with irresistible violence upon the capital of a fruitful region that was rolling under them. Even this valley, the retreat of princes, the abode of happiness, might be violated by the sudden descent of some of the naked nations that swarm on the coast of the southern sea ».

The prince promised secrecy, and waited for the performance, not wholly hopeless of success. He visited the work from time to time, observed its progress, and remarked many ingenious contrivances to facilitate motion, and unite levity with strength. The artist was every day more certain that he should leave vultures and eagles behind him, and the contagion of his confidence seized upon the prince.

In a year the wings were finished, and, on a morning appointed, the maker appeared furnished for flight on a little promontory: he waved his pinions awhile to gather air, then leaped from his stand, and in an instant dropped into the lake. His wings, which were of no use in the air, sustained him in the water, and the prince drew him to land, half dead with terror and vexation.

Rasselas e Nekayah discutono sui vantaggi e svantaggi del matrimonio.

<< Marriage », said Rasselas, « is evidently the dictate of nature; men and women are made to be companions of each other, and therefore I cannot be persuaded but that marriage is one of the means of happiness » (1).

« I know not », said the princess, « whether marriage is more than one of the innumerable modes of human misery. When I see and reckon the various forms of connubial in

(1) E perciò non mi lascio persuadere che d'una cosa sola, che cioè il matrimonio sia uno dei mezzi per essere felici.

felicity, the unexpected causes of lasting discord, the diversities of temper, the oppositions of opinion, the rude collisions of contrary desire where both are urged by violent impulses, the obstinate contest of disagreeable virtues (1) where both are supported by consciousness of good intention, I am sometimes disposed to think with the severer casuists of most nations, that marriage is rather permitted than approved, and that none, but by the instigation of a passion too much indulged, entangle themselves with indissoluble compacts » (2).

<< You surely », replied Rasselas, « conclude too hastily from the infelicity of marriage against its institution: will not the misery of life prove equally that life cannot be the gift of heaven? The world must be peopled by marriage, or peopled without it ».

<< How the world is to be peopled », returned Nekayah, «< is not my care, and needs not be yours. I see no danger that the present generation should omit to leave successors behind them: we are not now enquiring for the world, but for ourselves >>.

<< The good of the whole », said Rasselas, « is the same with the good of all its parts. If marriage be best for mankind, it must be evidently best for individuals, or a permanent and necessary duty must be the cause of evil, and some must be inevitably sacrificed to the convenience of others (3). In the estimate which you have made of the two states (4), it appears that the incommodities of a single life are, in a great measure, necessary and certain, but those of the conjugal state accidental and avoidable.

(1) Virtù discordanti.

(2) « E che nessuno andrebbe a cacciarsi nei viluppi di contratti indissolubili se non ve lo istigasse una passione alla quale siamo fin troppo cedevoli ». La passione cui s'accenna è evidentemente l'amore fra i due sessi.

(3) Altrimenti un dovere permanente e necessario dovrebbe essere causa di male, ed alcuni resterebbero inevitabilmente sacrificati per il vantaggio degli altri.

(4) Cioè dello stato matrimoniale e del celibato. Nel capitolo XXVI Nekayah ha già detto che « marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures » e ha messo in evidenza tutti gl'inconvenienti e i guai del celibato.