tter able to content
his desires, and to bear up against a sudden buffet of calamity. The
other has less ability to withstand these evils (from which, however,
his good luck keeps him clear), but he enjoys all these following
blessings: he is whole of limb, a stranger to disease, free from
misfortune, happy in his children, and comely to look upon.

"If in addition to all this he ends his life well, he is of a truth
the man of whom thou art in search, the man who may rightly be termed
happy. Call him, however, until he die, not happy but fortunate.
Scarcely indeed can any man unite all these advantages: as there is no
country which contains within it all that it needs, but each while it
possesses some things lacks others, and the best country is that which
contains the most, so no single human being is complete in every
respect--something is always lacking. He who unites the greatest
number of advantages, and retaining them to the day of his death, then
dies peaceably--that man alone, sire, is in my judgment entitled to
bear the name of 'happy.' But in every matter it behooves us to mark
well the end: for oftentimes God gives men a gleam of happiness, and
then plunges them into ruin."

Such was the speech which Solon addrest to Croesus, a speech which
brought him neither largess nor honor. The king with much indifference
saw Solon depart, since the former thought that a man must be an
arrant fool who made no account of present good, but bade men always
wait and mark the end.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Herodotus, at a certain period in his life, came under
the influence of Pericles and his contemporaries, but it is clear from
his writings that he received from Attic thought and style little
definite inspiration. J. P. Mahaffy has likened him to Goldsmith in
his aloofness from his environment. Often ridiculed by his friends for
simplicity, Goldsmith far exceeded his clever critics in directness
and pathos, and thus gained a place in literature which contemporaries
never dreamed would be his. The narrative of Herodotus, adds Mahaffy,
gives us more information about the state of the ancient nations and
their culture than all other Greek historians put together. His
purpose, as Herodotus himself declares, was to narrate the great
conflict between the Greeks and barbarians, in order that the causes
might be known and glorious deeds might not perish. Readers are
imprest by the perfect ease and mastery with which a great va