338 Works of Samuel Johnson
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No. 141. Tuesday, July 23, 1751. Hilarisque, tamen cum pondere, virtus.STAT. Greatness with ease, and gay severity. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, Politicians have long observed, that the greatest events may be often traced back to slender causes. Petty competition or casual friendship, the prudence of a slave, or the garrulity of a woman, have hindered […]
No. 142. Saturday, July 27, 1751. [Greek: Entha d aner eniaue pelorios––oude, met allousPoleit, all apaneuthen eon athemistia ede.Kai gar Oaum etetukto pelorion oude epskeiAndri ge sitophagps.]HOMER. Od. [Greek: I’.] 187. A giant shepherd here his flock maintainsFar from the rest, and solitary reigns,In shelter thick of horrid shade reclin’d;And gloomy mischiefs labour in the […]
No. 129. Tuesday, June 11. 1751. –Nunc, O nunc, Daedale, dixit,Materiam, qua sis ingeniosus, habes.Possidet en terras, et possidet aequara, Minos:Nec tellus nostrae, nec patet undo fugae.Restat iter coelo: tentabimus ire.Da veniam caepto, Jupiter alte, meo.OVID. Ar. Am. Lib. ii. 33. Now, Daedalus, behold, by fate assign’d,A task proportion’d to thy mighty mind!Unconquer’d bars on […]
No. 130. Saturday, June 15, 1751. Non sic prata novo vere decentiaAEstatis calidtae dispoliat vapor:Saevit solstitio cum medius dies;–Ut fulgor teneris qui radiat genisMomento rapitur! nullaque non diesFormosi spolium corporis abstulit.Res est forma fugax: quis sapiens bonoConfidat fragili?SENECA, Hippol. act. ii. 764. Not faster in the summer’s rayThe spring’s frail beauty fades away,Than anguish and […]
No. 131. Tuesday, June 18, 1751. –Fatis accede, Deisque,Et cole felices, miseros fuge. sidera terraeUt distant, ut flamma mari, sic utile recto.LUCAN. Lib. viii. 486. Still follow where auspicious fates invite;Caress the happy, and the wretched slight.Sooner shall jarring elements unite,Than truth with gain, than interest with right.F. LEWIS. There is scarcely any sentiment in […]
No. 132. SATURDAY, JUNE 22, 1751. –Dociles imitandisTurpibus ac pravis omnes sumus.–JUV. Sat. xiv. 40. The mind of mortals, in perverseness strong,Imbibes with dire docility the wrong. TO THE RAMBLER. MR. RAMBLER, I was bred a scholar, and after the usual course of education, found it necessary to employ for the support of life that […]
No. 133. Tuesday, June 25, 1751. Magna quidem, sacris quae dat praecepta libellisVictrix fortune sapientia. Dicimus autemHos quoque felices, qui ferre incommoda vitae,Nec jactare jugum, vita didicere magistra.Juv. Sat. xiii. 19. Let Stoicks ethicks’ haughty rules advanceTo combat fortune, and to conquer chance:Yet happy those, though not so learn’d are thought,Whom life instructs, who by […]
No. 134. Saturday, June 29, 1751. Quis scit an adjiciant hodiernae crastina summaeTempora Dii superi?HOR. Lib. iv. Ode vii. 16. Who knows if Heav’n, with ever-bounteous pow’r,Shall add to-morrow to the present hour?FRANCIS. I sat yesterday morning employed in deliberating on which, among the various subjects that occurred to my imagination, I should bestow the […]
No. 122. Saturday, May 18, 1751. Nescio qua natale solum dulcedine captosDucit.OVID, Ex Pon. Lib. i. Ep. iii. 35. By secret charms our native land attracts. Nothing is more subject to mistake and disappointment than anticipated judgment concerning the easiness or difficulty of any undertaking, whether we form our opinion from the performances of others, […]
No. 123. TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1751. Quo semet est imbuta recens, servabit odoremTesta din.–HOR. Lib. i. Ep. ii. 69. What season’d first the vessel, keeps the taste.CREECH. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, Though I have so long found myself deluded by projects of honour and distinction, that I often resolve to admit them no more into […]
No. 124. Saturday, May 25, 1751. –Taciturn sylvas inter reptare salubres,Curantem quicquid dignim sapiente bonoque est?HOR. Lib. i. Ep. iv. 4. To range in silence through each healthful wood,And muse what’s worthy of the wise and good.ELPHINSTON. The season of the year is now come, in which the theatres are shut, and the card-tables forsaken; […]
No. 125. Tuesday, May 28, 1751. Descriptas servare vices, operumque colores,Cur ego, si nequeo ignoroque, poeta salutor?HOR. De Ar. Poet. 86. But if, through weakness, or my want of art,I can’t to every different style impartThe proper strokes and colours it may claim,Why am I honour’d with a poet’s name?FRANCIS. It is one of the […]
No. 128. Saturday, June 8, 1751. [Greek:Aion d asphalaesOuk egent, out Aiakida para Paelei,Oute par antitheoKadmo legontai man brotonOlbon hupertaton hoiSchein.]PIND. Py. iii. 153. 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 every bliss […]
No. 115. TUESDAY, APRIL 23, 1751. Quaedam parvu quidem; sed non toleranda maritis.JUV. Sat vi. 184. Some faults, though small, intolerable grow.DRYDEN. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, I sit down, in pursuance of my late engagement, to recount the remaining part of the adventures that befel me in my long quest of conjugal felicity, which, though […]
No. 126. Saturday, June 1, 1751. –Nihil est aliud magnum quam multa minuta.VET. AUCT. Sands form the mountain, moments make the year.YOUNG. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, Among other topicks of conversation which your papers supply, I was lately engaged in a discussion of the character given by Tranquilla of her lover Venustulus, whom, notwithstanding the […]
Rambler 127 [Diligence too soon relaxed. Necessity of perseverance]
Story type: EssayNo. 127. Tuesday, June 4, 1751. Capisti meliust, quam desinis. Ultima primisCedunt: dissimiles hic vir et ille puer.Ovid. Ep. ix. 24. Succeeding years thy early fame destroy;Thou, who began’st a man, wilt end a boy. Politian, a name eminent among the restorers of polite literature, when he published a collection of epigrams, prefixed to many […]
No. 116. Saturday, April 27, 1751. Optat ephippia bos piger: optat arare caballus.HOR. Lib. i. Ep. xiv. 43. Thus the slow ox would gaudy trappings claim;The sprightly horse would plough.–FRANCIS. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, I was the second son of a country gentleman by the daughter of a wealthy citizen of London. My father having […]
No. 117. Tuesday, April 30, 1751. [Greek: Hossan ep Oulumpo memasan Themen autar ep OssaePaelion einosiphullon, in ouranos ambatos eiae.]HOMER, Od.[Greek: L] 314. The gods they challenge, and affect the skies:Heav’d on Olympus tott’ring Ossa stood;On Ossa, Pelion nods with all his wood.POPE. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, Nothing has more retarded the advancement of learning […]
No. 118. Saturday, May 4, 1751. –Omnes illacrymabilesUrgentur, ignotique longaNocte. Hon. Lib. iv. Ode ix. 26. In endless night they sleep, unwept, unknown.FRANCIS. Cicero has, with his usual elegance and magnificence of language, attempted, in his relation of the dream of Scipio, to depreciate those honours for which he himself appears to have panted with […]
Rambler 119 [Tranquilla’s account of her lovers, opposed to Hymenaeus]
Story type: EssayNo. 119. Tuesday, May 7, 1751. Iliacos intra muros peccatur, et extra.HOR. Lib. i. Ep. ii, 16. Faults lay on either side the Trojan tow’rs.ELPHINSTON. TO THE RAMBLER. SIR, As, notwithstanding all that wit, or malice, or pride, or prudence will be able to suggest, men and women must at last pass their lives together, […]