Page:The Emperor Marcus Antoninus - His Conversation with Himself.djvu/427

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of Cebes the Theban.
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blem of her Nature. How so? Because says he, her standing upon a Globe shews her Feet not well fix’d, and that there's no depending upon her Bounty. Indeed those that reckon upon her are generally ruffled with Disappointment, and mightily shock’d in their Expectation. Here I desir’d to know, what was the Business of all that Crowd about her, and who they were? I was answer’d, they were a Clan of unthinking People, and all of them making their Application to Fortune for those things she threw away. Very well: But how comes it to pass that they appear so differently Affected in their Countenances, that some of them are all in an Extasy, and others as much out of sorts, and ringing their Hands in Despair? Those, says he, who seem so merry and well pleas'd, have receiv'd a Spill, and sped in their Addresses to this Lady; and therefore they call her Good Fortune: But the others who weep and wring their Hands are Diffeiz'd by her of what she had granted them before, and here her Title is Bad-fortune. What sort of Favour does she bestow then, that makes her command the Temper, and dispose of the Passions of her Admirers, in so Soveraign a manner? To answer you, says he, her Bounty consists of such Things as

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