When, like the high-soaring Icarus, we beat our way up towards the heavens, the Almighty singes our wings a little, that we may fly somewhat lower

When, like the high-soaring Icarus, we beat our way up towards the heavens, the Almighty singes our wings a little, that we may fly somewhat lower. Icarus, the son of Daedalus, who knew not by what means to bring his son out of the labyrinth (that is, out of such a garden from which, if anyone entered, he could never come out again), fitted him with wings and bade him fly neither very high nor very low; but Icarus, seeing himself at the extreme height of the air, wished to fly up beneath the sun, by which his wings were burnt, and he fell into the sea.

From the first original Russian novel, «The Inconstant Fortune, or the Adventures of Miramond» by Fyodor Alexandrovich Emin, 1763.

Illustration: a specimen of the highest mastery of engraving. The Fall of Icarus, Hendrik Goltzius, 1558-1617, after Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem. National Gallery of Art, Washington

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Pope Leo XIV on the courage to do good, to forgive and to enter into dialogue

Our time needs men and women who have the courage to do good, even when it involves sacrifice. Draw near to those who are lonely, support the weary and seek out those who have lost their way. Have the courage to forgive, to begin anew and to enter into dialogue.

Old colour photograph with cracks: adults and children resting on the grass on a slope under a tree.

Orientalist Grigory Kozakov with relatives and children at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

The Orientalist Grigory Alexandrovich Kozakov, surrounded by his relatives, his daughter-in-law Countess Anna Nikolayevna Tolstaya, the children and their tutor, at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

Konstantin Ivanov's Cosmonautics Day poster, published in Moscow in 1977

Grow strong, cosmic youth! A poster for Cosmonautics Day, created by the artist Konstantin Konstantinovich Ivanov in 1977. The work was issued by the Moscow publishing house “Plakat” for 12 April. Konstantin Ivanov was a Soviet graphic artist and poster designer, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR. The theme of space

Signs of violent death found on skulls from burials beside the royal tombs at Abydos

An American archaeologist has carried out a forensic analysis of skulls of people who were buried beside the tombs of Egypt's first kings at Abydos, and has found on many of them traces of violent death. Abydos in Upper Egypt served as the burial place of the kings

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Pope Leo XIV on the courage to do good, to forgive and to enter into dialogue

Orientalist Grigory Kozakov with relatives and children at a picnic near the village of Zhikharevka in 1903

Konstantin Ivanov's Cosmonautics Day poster, published in Moscow in 1977

Signs of violent death found on skulls from burials beside the royal tombs at Abydos