Page:Johnson - Rambler 3.djvu/145

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N° 128.
THE RAMBLER.
135

served him from trivial elations and discouragements, and enabled him to proceed with constancy and cheerfulness, neither enervated by commendation, nor intimidated by censure.



Numb. 128. Saturday, June 8, 1751.

Αἰὼν δ' ἀσφαλὴς
Οὐκ ἐγένετ, οὔτ' Αἰακίδα παρὰ Πηλεὶ,
Οὔτε πὰρ ' ἀντιθέῳ
Κάδμῳ λέγονταί γε μὰν βρότων
Ὀλβον ὐπέρτατον ὅι
Σχεῖν.

Pind.

  For not the brave, or wise, or great,
E'er yet had happiness complete:
Nor Peleus, grandson of the sky,
 Nor Cadmus, scap'd the shafts of pain,
Though favour'd by the Pow'rs on high,
 With ev'ry bliss that man can gain.

THE writers who have undertaken the task of reconciling mankind to their present state, and relieving the discontent produced by the various distribution of terrestrial advantages, frequently remind us that we judge too hastily of good and evil, that we view only the superficies of life, and determine of the whole by a very small part; and that in the condition of men it frequently happens, that grief and anxiety lie hid under the golden robes of prosperity, and the gloom of calamity is cheered by secret radiations of hope and comfort; as in the works of nature the bog is sometimes covered with flowers, and the mine concealed in the barren crags.