Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia

Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson CHAPTER I - DESCRIPTION OF A PALACE IN A VALLEY. YE who listen with credulity to the whispers of fancy, and pursue 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 Abyssinia. Rasselas was the fourth son of the mighty Emperor in whose dominions the father of waters begins his course - whose bounty pours down the streams of plenty, and scatters over the world the harvests of Egypt.