; by Endymion, {171} that is not the case, but
I was really grieved to see you so uneasy: and now, how shall we
contrive to make you see clear?" "That, by Jove," said I, "I cannot
guess, unless you can take off this mist from my eyes, for they are
horribly dim at present." "You have brought the remedy along with
you." "How so?" "Have you not got an eagle's wing?" "True, but
what has that to do with an eye?" "An eagle, you know, is more
sharp-sighted than any other creature, and the only one that can
look against the sun: your true royal bird is known by never
winking at the rays, be they ever so strong." "So I have heard, and
I am sorry I did not, before I came up, take out my own eyes and put
in the eagle's; thus imperfect, to be sure, I am not royally
furnished, but a kind of bastard bird." "You may have one royal
eye, for all that, if you please; it is only when you rise up to
fly, holding the vulture's wing still, and moving the eagle's only;
by which means, you will see clearly with one, though not at all
with the other." "That will do, and is sufficient for me; I have
often seen smiths, and other artists, look with one eye only, to
make their work the truer." This conversation ended, Empedocles
vanished into smoke, and I saw no more of him. I acted as he
advised me, and no sooner moved my eagle's wing, than a great light
came all around me, and I saw everything as clear as possible:
looking down to earth, I beheld distinctly cities and men, and
everything that passed amongst them; not only what they did openly,
but whatever was going on at home, and in their own houses, where
they thought to conceal it. I saw Lysimachus betrayed by his son;
{172a} Antiochus intriguing with his mother-in-law; {172b} Alexander
the Thessalian slain by his wife; and Attalus poisoned by his son:
in another place I saw Arsaces killing his wife, and the eunuch
Arbaces drawing his sword upon Arsaces; Spartim, the Mede, dragged
by the heels from the banquet by his guards, and knocked on the head
with a cup. In the palaces of Scythia and Thrace the same
wickedness was going forward; and nothing could I see but murderers,
adulterers, conspirators, false swearers, men in perpetual terrors,
and betrayed by their dearest friends and acquaintance.

Such was the employment of kings and great men: in private houses
there was something more ridiculous; there I saw Hermodorus the
Epicurean forswearing himself for a thousand drachmas