The Good Book (35 page)

We were ambitious, and never paused to sit quietly,

To look at the moon, to listen to the oriole sing,

To appreciate the shapes of oak leaves and acorns.

Now I listen to the water falling in the stream,

And if I have you and a cup of wine with me there

I can tell the story of my life again, and listen to yours.

108

Do I love you for the fine soft waves of hair

That fall about your neck when you undress?

Do I love you for the flowers on your cheeks, the rose

And the fragrant blossom there of palest red?

Do I love you for your coral lips, and the kisses I plant there,

Though those kisses may melt

Mightiest tyrants, and waken death to life?

Do I love you for those pearl teeth

That guard the music of your voice,

Or that ivory pillar of your neck, or your breasts

Soft and fair with rosy nipples crowned?

Do I love you, fairest of all fair?

109

Let there be persuasions to joy, O love.

Before the quick eye and darting affection grow cold,

Before the graces of manner and face change or fall,

Before golden hair grows to snow, or fresh beauty fades:

Let there be persuasions to joy.

Before time brings his sickle, or his wings,

Let us grasp it, and gather what now is,

And live before winter.

110

Have you grown a stranger to peace?

Are you troubled? Take the flagon and a cup;

Leave the turmoil of the town, its dust and clamour,

Walk up those paths that wind into the woods,

And let the sunlight paint patterns through the leaves around you,

The chorus of birds sing to you,

The stream falling among the rocks soothe you.

In the brevity of life there is little time for these self-estrangements.

Go up to the woods;

You will find yourself waiting there,

Flagon and cup ready, peace seated beside you.

111

Every petal that falls reduces spring.

Every leaf that falls hurries the year’s end towards us.

Having studied the world, I wonder at man:

How can he be so deaf to that roar,

That thunder of passing time?

112

The butterflies go deeper and deeper among the flowers,

The dragonflies hover between drops of water

Flung up in the fountain’s spray.

Watching them I see that they are unconcerned about what troubles us,

Which is that our candle of life flutters so weakly in the blast of time.

We have so little chance to know each other, beloved,

We should never be apart.

113

When born we weep, while others round us smile.

May we live that when we die

We smile, and others round us weep.

Do not deceive, do not offer strangers wrong;

Act a brother’s part in all;

Then shall you smile on the last day,

To have lived as humanity should:

To be mourned as a servant of the good.

114

My fugitive years are hasting away:

Soon I must lie with the turf on my breast.

To muse on the perishing pleasures of man

I went back to those favourite fields

Where I played in childhood;

To the bank of the river where I sat and dreamt;

And found all changed.

The poplars were felled that shaded me then;

No more could I hear the rustle of their leaves,

Or see their image tremble in the river,

Or sit in their shade to rest;

No more could the blackbird find there retreat

From which to offer his sweet-flowing song.

Long since they were turned to smoke,

As the years turn to smoke.

Long since the fugitive years have hastened them away,

And my years with them.

Histories

Chapter 1

  1. These are the records of the historian, offered to preserve remembrance of what mankind has experienced,

  2. And to give account of the great war between East and West, on which the hinge of history turned;

  3. Of how the West defended its birth from the assault of the East,

  4. For the East, in its power and sway, and its indifference to liberty, would by victory have turned the course of the world into different paths.

  5. Whereas the free hearts of the fathers of the West, smaller in number, weaker in power,

  6. Yet stronger in resolve and greater in genius, kept the infant civilisation free.

  7. Experience is our first guide; how much better we fare when we recall examples of our ancestors and their deeds,

  8. Not least those that instruct and illuminate our way, placing our steps in the path of understanding;

  9. Nor should we forget our beginnings, nor those few to whom we, who are now as multitudinous as stars, owe so much.

Chapter 2

  1. When the East was Persia, and had already begun to wax great,

  2. And the West was Greece, yet an infant in comparison of numbers and wealth,

  3. The relation between them was that of a centre to its margins.

  4. For the world was Asia, and the small Greek states from the Aegean islands to Italy’s foot were mere villages on its distant shore.

  5. The Easterners trace to stories of Troy the reason of their first enmity towards the Greeks;

  6. But in truth the seeds of conflict lay in the growth of Eastern power,

  7. When Croesus, son of Alyattes, a Lydian by birth, extended his dominion over all the nations west of the River Halys.

  8. He was the first of the barbarian kings to have dealings with Greeks, forcing some to become his tributaries, and making allies among others.

  9. He conquered the Greeks of Asia and the eastern Mediterranean, the Aeolians, Dorians and Ionians, who up to that time had been free.

10. The first Greek city captured by Croesus was Ephesus; thereafter he took all the Greek cities of that region,

11. And even planned a fleet to attack the islands, but his advisers stopped him;

12. For the Greeks were masters of the waves, and Croesus would have ventured too far in challenging them there.

13. When Croesus had brought under his dominion all the nations west of the Halys – Lydians, Phrygians, Mysians, Mariandynians,

14. Chalybians, Paphlagonians, Thynian and Bithynian Thracians,

15. Carians, Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians and Pamphylians – and his power was at its height, he was visited by Solon the Athenian.

16. Now Solon was deemed the wisest man in Athens by his fellow citizens, so they had asked him to devise laws for them,

17. To quell arguments and divisions in the city, thus helping its citizens live a peaceful and prosperous life together.

18. Solon agreed, saying, ‘I do this on condition that none of my laws shall be changed for ten years, to give them time to take effect.’

19. And when he had done his work he left the city and travelled abroad, so that his fellow-citizens could not plead with him to revoke his laws,

20. But more to see new things and gain new knowledge, for this he loved beyond all else.

Chapter 3

  1. After travelling in Egypt and the regions of the near East, Solon went to the court of Croesus in Sardis.

  2. He knew that this king was the richest and until then the most fortunate of the world’s rulers; and he wished to see him in the high state of his fortune and his empire.

  3. Croesus for his part wished to impress so renowned a man as Solon.

  4. He lodged him in his palace in opulent rooms, and ordered his servants to show him the immense palace treasuries.

  5. When Solon had seen all this, he was given a splendid dinner, seated at the right hand of Croesus;

  6. And when the eating was over and fresh wine was poured, the king addressed Solon as follows.

  7. ‘Solon of Athens,’ he said, ‘we have heard much of your wisdom and your travels through many lands, seeking knowledge of all things.

  8. ‘I am curious to ask you: who is happiest of all the people you have encountered in your life?’

  9. And Croesus expected to be told that he himself was the happiest because he was the richest and most powerful among kings.

10. But Solon answered with truth rather than flattery, saying, ‘The happiest man I have ever encountered is Tellus of Athens.’

11. Astonished and disappointed, Croesus asked in what way Tellus was happiest.

12. Solon said, ‘First, because in his time Athens was flourishing;

13. ‘Second, he had sons who were both beautiful and good, and he lived to see each of them have children of their own;

14. ‘And third, after a life lived in comfort and uprightness, and in favourable standing among all who knew him,

15. ‘He died a courageous and honourable death, fighting alongside his countrymen during the war between Athens and Eleusis.

16. ‘He was given a public funeral where he fell, and was paid the highest civic honours.’

17. Thus did Solon admonish Croesus by the example of Tellus.

18. But Croesus privately discounted this story, thinking Tellus no more than a good citizen who, though deserving praise,

19. Could not compare with the glory of a rich and universally admired king.

20. So he asked again, ‘Who seems to you happiest after Tellus?’

21. To this Solon replied, ‘I would give second place to two men jointly, the brothers Cleobis and Biton.

22. ‘They were Argives, modestly well off, but of enormous physical strength, who had both won prizes at the Games for their prowess.

23. ‘It once happened that there was an important festival which their mother wished to attend, but the oxen did not return from the fields in time to draw her cart thither;

24. ‘So the sons hitched themselves to it, and pulled it from their home to the distant place of festival, bearing their mother along.

25. ‘Great crowds saw this feat; the men standing by praised the brothers’ athleticism, the women praised their mother for having such dutiful sons;

26. ‘And their mother herself applauded them before all the company, and laid claim on their behalf to a monument for their filial affection.’

27. Angrily Croesus said, ‘Do you set at nothing all my happiness, that I am to come below private men,

28. ‘Even men who have not much beyond mere muscles and the respect for a mother that we expect from everyone?’

29. ‘O Croesus,’ replied Solon, ‘you asked me about the condition of man, and I know that human lives are full of trouble and change.

30. ‘A long life witnesses many things that one would rather not witness. A man has not so many as a thousand months to live, no, not so many as nine hundred;

31. ‘And each day of those months can bring events unlike any other day, and all manner of accidents.

32. ‘I see that you are very rich, and rule many lands and peoples, but what you wish me to answer you I cannot until I have heard of your death,

33. ‘For only then can I judge whether your life was happy.

34. ‘For we can call no man happy until he is dead, when the good and bad of his life has been added up and understood.

35. ‘Do not call the rich man happy then; call him fortunate; do not call him happy until all things have been reckoned up, and the true balance of his life is weighed.

36. ‘For assuredly, the rich man is no nearer happiness than the poor man who has all he needs.

37. ‘Indeed the rich man has more worries and responsibilities, and more to lose, than the poor man;

38. ‘And therefore more reasons not to sleep well at night. Can we call such a man happy?

39. ‘It is necessary for us all to remember the end of life: for it often happens that we have great reason to count ourselves happy,

40. ‘Only to have everything dashed from our hands, and a bitter cup placed there instead.

41. ‘He who unites all the advantages of having what suffices him, and health, and the affection of those close to him,