applied himself to merchandise in his youth; though others assure us
that he traveled rather to get learning and experience than to make
money. It is certain that he was a lover of knowledge, for when he was
old he would say that he

Each day grew older, and learnt something new.

But that he accounted himself rather poor than rich is evident from the
lines,

Some wicked men are rich, some good are poor,
We will not change our virtue for their store;
Virtue's a thing that none can take away,
But money changes owners all the day.

It is stated that Anacharsis and Solon and Thales were familiarly
acquainted, and some have quoted parts of their discourse; for, they
say, Anacharsis, coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door and told
him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a
friendship with him; and Solon replying; "It is better to make friends
at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship
with me." Solon, somewhat surprised at the readiness of the repartee,
received him kindly, and kept him some time with him, being already
engaged in public business and the compilation of his laws; which when
Anacharsis understood, he laughed at him for imagining the dishonesty
and covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws,
which were like spiders' webs, and would catch, it is true, the weak
and poor, but easily be broken by the mighty and rich. To this Solon
rejoined that men keep their promises when neither side can get anything
by the breaking of them; and he would so fit his laws to the citizens,
that all should understand it was more eligible to be just than to break
the laws. But the event rather agreed with the conjecture of Anacharsis
than Solon's hope. Anacharsis, being once at the assembly, expressed his
wonder that in Greece wise men spoke and fools decided.

Now, when the Athenians were tired with a tedious and difficult war that
they conducted against the Megarians for the island Salamis, and made
a law that is should be death for any man, by writing or speaking, to
assert that the city ought to endeavor to recover it, Solon, vexed at
the disgrace, and perceiving thousands of the youth wished for
somebody to begin, but did not dare to stir first for fear of the law,
counterfeited a distraction, and by his own family it was spread about
the city that he was mad. He then secretly composed some elegiac verses,
and getting t