ng Polycrates,
though he had no reason other than this for any feeling of enmity
toward him.

Polycrates, although the seat of his dominion was a small island in
the AEgean Sea, was a very wealthy, and powerful, and prosperous
prince. All his plans and enterprises had been remarkably successful.
He had built and equipped a powerful fleet, and had conquered many
islands in the neighborhood of his own. He was projecting still wider
schemes of conquests, and hoped, in fact, to make himself the master
of all the seas.

A very curious incident is related of Polycrates, which illustrates
very strikingly the childish superstition which governed the minds of
men in those ancient days. It seems that in the midst of his
prosperity, his friend and ally, the King of Egypt--for these events,
though narrated here, occurred before the invasion of Egypt by
Cambyses--sent to him a letter, of which the following is the purport.

"_Amasis, king of Egypt, to Polycrates._

"It always gives me great satisfaction and pleasure to hear
of the prosperity of a friend and ally, unless it is too
absolutely continuous and uninterrupted. Something like an
alternation of good and ill fortune is best for man; I have
never known an instance of a very long-continued course of
unmingled and uninterrupted success that did not end, at
last, in overwhelming and terrible calamity. I am anxious,
therefore, for you, and my anxiety will greatly increase if
this extraordinary and unbroken prosperity should continue
much longer. I counsel you, therefore, to break the current
yourself, if fortune will not break it. Bring upon yourself
some calamity, or loss, or suffering, as a means of averting
the heavier evils which will otherwise inevitably befall
you. It is a general and substantial welfare only that can
be permanent and final."

Polycrates seemed to think there was good sense in this suggestion. He
began to look around him to see in what way he could bring upon
himself some moderate calamity or loss, and at length decided on the
destruction of a very valuable signet ring which he kept among his
treasures. The ring was made with very costly jewels set in gold, and
was much celebrated both for its exquisite workmanship and also for
its intrinsic value. The loss of this ring would be, he thought, a
sufficient calamity to break the evil charm of an excessive and
unvaried curren