An Embassy to the Court of the Teshoo Lama in Tibet - Prajna Quest

BOOTAN. 171cultivated than the rest of their countrymen, they have the best pro- \spect of being selected for public offices:and, in fact, the greater partof all who are employed in such situations, are "chosen from amongthem. Yet whether the following peculiarity be imputable to earlytuition, inability, or disgust, I cannot determine.It very frequently happens,that those who have long enjoyed posts of honour, or emolument,take the sudden resolution of retiring for ever from the business andthe cares of life ; afterwards, under the sanction of a religious impulse, ithe inspired devotee chooses some solitary station, perhaps the summitof a mountain, where he builds himself a cottage, and having depositeda hord of grain in it, shuts himself up, determined never againto return into the world, or hold any intercourse with mankind.Tlius secluded from society, if,in consequence of an erroneous calculation,he sees his. stock of food about to fail, while life maintainsits post in full vigour, and is by no means inclined to quit its hold,the sole reliance of the retired devotee, for fiituresupport, must thenreston. tlxc adventitious visits of such, as hold converse with the buriedliving.The beuevulcnce which thus ministers to his necessities, has alsoits appropriate merit ; so tiiat the recluse may yet exist, for monthsor years, upon the bounty tliat places his daily food at his door, withoutthe least knowledge of the hand that feeds him ; till at length the feeblejprinciple that animates the human frame, and preserves itfrom dissolution,ceases to perform its functions, and the individual is no more.It is true, he might long have ceased to be of any earthly importance,whatever spiritual esteem is attached to the devotee, the hermit, orthe misanthrope, term him which you will : yet this singular bent ofZ