reely upon what subject he pleases. But you have not
prohibited your servants' drunkenness at Athens, Aesop said, as you have
forbidden them to love or to use dry ointments. Solon laughed at this;
but Cleodorus the physician said: To use dry ointment is like talking
when a man is soaked with wine; both are very pleasant. Therefore, saith
Chilo, men ought the more carefully to avoid it. Aesop proceeds, Thales
seemed to imply that he should soon grow old.

Periander said laughing: We suffer deservedly, for, before we have
perfected any remarks upon the letter, we are fallen upon disputes
foreign to the matter under consideration; and therefore I pray,
Niloxenus, read out the remainder of your lord's letter, and slip not
this opportunity to receive what satisfaction all that are present
shall be able to give you. The command of the king of Ethiopia, says
Niloxenus, is no more and no less than (to use Archilochus's phrase) a
broken scytale; that is, the meaning is inscrutable and cannot be found
out. But your master Amasis was more mild and polite in his queries;
for he commanded him only to resolve him what was most ancient, most
beautiful, greatest, wisest, most common, and withal, what was most
profitable, most pernicious, most strong, and most easy. Did he resolve
and answer every one of these questions? He did, quoth Niloxenus, and
do you judge of his answers and the soundness thereof: and it is my
Prince's purpose not to misrepresent his responses and condemn unjustly
what he saith well, so, where he finds him under a mistake, not to
suffer that to pass without correction. His answers to the foresaid
questions I will read to you.--What is most ancient? Time. What is
greatest? The World. What is wisest? Truth. What is most beautiful? The
light. What is most common? Death. What is most profitable? God. What
is most Pernicious? An evil genius. What is strongest? Fortune. What is
most easy? That which is pleasant.

When Niloxenus had read out these answers, there was a short silence
among them; by and by Thales desires Niloxenus to inform him if Amasis
approved of these answers. Niloxenus said, he liked some and disliked
others. There is not one of them right and sound, quoth Thales, but all
are full of wretched folly and ignorance. As for instance, how can that
be most ancient whereof part is past, part is now present, and part
is yet to come; every man knows it is younger than ourselves and our
actions. As to his answe