ndition. He has come to know everything there is to know about his small and isolated internal world. His knowing that an outside world exist, could be compared to the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge by Adam and Eve. In contrast to how the fall of man, or the leaving of the Garden of Eden was a punishment for Adam and Eve, for Rasselas, it would be considered a reward. Although Abyssinia could be considered one persons heaven, it is most certainly is Rasselas' hell. Johnson, gives us subtle clues about his condition by describing his home as "blissful captivity" (40). This ideal world is actually and ideal prison that encloses its occupants "with gates of iron" (39). Rasselas, realizing his condition becomes unhappy.
             While contemplating his condition Rasselas begins the intellectual process that will ultimately begin his journey in search of happiness. His thoughts are provoked as he watches goats graze in the pasture and thinks that they share "the same corporeal necessities with [him]self" (42). His observations cause him to make sense of the benefits of being human. This dialogue not only reveals his depression in this captivity, but it also looks for the source of his desire. Using some basic logic to help with his question, he begins to make the comparisons first: "[the goat] is hungry and crops the grass, he is thirsty and drinks the stream, his thirst and hunger are appeased; he is satisfied and he sleeps...I am thirsty and hungry like him, but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest" (43). Though about 100 years before Darwin's time, it seems that Johnson himself was looking at the relationship man shared with Nature. The last line is the answer to the difference between humans and animals. While our baser necessities may be similar to those of beasts, providence (as Johnson would believe it), unlike animals, has given us the ability to reason. His concl...