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140

THE RAMBLER.

N° 129.

enjoyment, and all distinctions of dress unexpectedly obliterated by a general mourning.

Such is the state of every age, every sex, and every condition: all have their cares, either from nature or from folly: and whoever therefore finds himself inclined to envy another, should remember that he knows not the real condition which he desires to obtain, but is certain that by indulging a vicious passion, he must lessen that happiness which he thinks already too sparingly bestowed.

Numb. 129. Tuesday, June 11, 1751.

——Nunc, o nunc, Dædale, dixit, Materiam, qua sis ingeniosus, habes. Possidet in terras, et possidet æquora Minos: Nec tellus nostræ, nec patet unda fugæ. Restat iter cœlo: cœlo tentabimus ire. Da veniam cœpto, Jupiter alte, meo.	⁠Ovid.

Now, Dædalus, behold, by fate assign'd, A task proportion'd to thy mighty mind! Unconquer'd bars on earth and sea withstand; Thine, Minos, is the main, and thine the land. The skies are open—let us try the skies: Forgive, great Jove, the daring enterprize.

MOralists, like other writers, instead of casting their eyes abroad in the living world, and endeavouring to form maxims of practice and new hints of theory, content their curiosity with that secondary knowledge which books afford, and think themselves entitled to reverence by a new arrangement of an ancient system, or new illustration of established principles. The

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