A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSION, 615

absolute dominion over himself, whose reason entirely governs his
will, is certainly greater than he that conquers a city. “ But, my
lord,” said T, ‘shall I take the liberty to ask you a question?”
‘With all my heart,” says he. “If the door of your liberty was
opened,” said I, “would you not take hold of it to deliver your-
self from this exile ?”

“Wold!” said he; “your question is subtle, and requires some
serious just distinctions to give it a sincere answer; and I’ll give it
to you from the bottom of my heart. Nothing that I know of in
this world would move me to deliver myself from this state of
banishment except these two—first, the enjoyment of my relations;
and, secondly, a little warmer climate. But I protest to you that
to go back to the pomp of the court, the glory, the power, the
hurry of a minister of state; the wealth, the gaiety, and the
pleasures, that is to say, follies, of a courtier ;—if my master should
send me word this moment, that he restores me to all he banished
me from, [ protest, if T know myself at all, I would not leave this
wilderness, these deserts, and these frozen lakes, for the palace at
Moscow,”

“ But, my lord,” said I, ‘perhaps you not only are banished
from the pleasures of the court, and from the power, and authority,
and wealth vou enjoyed before, but you may be absent, too, from
some of the conveniences of life, your estate, perhaps, confiscated,
and your effects plundered, and the supplies left you here may not
bo suitable to the ordinary demands of life.”

“ Ay,” says he, “that is, as you suppose me to be a lord ora
princes, &e. So indeed Tam; but you are now to consider me only
as aman, a human creature, not at all distinguished from another ;
and so [ can sutfer no want, unless T shall be visited with sickness
and distempers, However, to put the question out of dispute: you
seo our manner; we are in this place five persons of rank; we live
perfectly retired, as suited to a state of banishment; we have
something rescued from the shipwreck of our fortunes, which keeps
us from the mere necessity of hunting for our food; but the poor
soldiers who are here, without that help, live in as much plenty as
we, who go into the woods and catch sables and foxes; the labour
of a month will maintain them a year: and as the way of living