herodotus

days, not reckoning for any intercalated month. Then if every otherone of these years shall be made longer by one month, that the seasonsmay be caused to come round at the due time of the year, theintercalated months will be in number five-and-thirty besides theseventy years; and of these months the days will be one thousand andfifty. Of all these days, being in number twenty-six thousand twohundred and fifty, which go to the seventy years, one day producesnothing at all which resembles what another brings with it. Thus then,O Crœsus, man is altogether a creature of accident. As for thee, Iperceive that thou art both great in wealth and king of many men, butthat of which thou didst ask me I cannot call thee yet, until I learnthat thou hast brought thy life to a fair ending: for the very richman is not at all to be accounted more happy than he who has but hissubsistence from day to day, unless also the fortune go with him ofending his life well in possession of all things fair. For many verywealthy men are not happy,[32] while many who have but a moderateliving are fortunate;[33] and in truth the very rich man who is nothappy has two advantages only as compared with the poor man who isfortunate, whereas this latter has many as compared with the rich manwho is not happy. The rich man is able better to fulfil his desire,and also to endure a great calamity if it fall upon him; whereas theother has advantage over him in these things which follow:--he is notindeed able equally with the rich man to endure a calamity or tofulfil his desire, but these his good fortune keeps away from him,while he is sound of limb,[34] free from disease, untouched bysuffering, the father of fair children and himself of comely form; andif in addition to this he shall end his life well, he is worthy to becalled that which thou seekest, namely a happy man; but before hecomes to his end it is well to hold back and not to call him yet happybut only fortunate. Now to possess all these things together isimpossible for one who is mere man, just as no single land suffices tosupply all tings for itself, but one thing it has and another itlacks, and the land that has the greatest number of things is thebest: so also in the case of a man, no single person is complete inhimself, for one thing he has and another he lacks; but whosoever ofmen continues to the end in possession of the greatest number of thesethings and then has a gracious ending of his life, he is by meaccounted worthy, O king, to receive this name. But we must of everything examine the end and how it will turn out at the last, for tomany God shows but a glimpse of happiness and then plucks them up bythe roots and overturns them." 33. Thus saying he refused to gratifyCrœsus, who sent him away from his presence holding him in no esteem,and thinking him utterly senseless in that he passed over present goodthings and bade men look to the end of every matter.34. After Solon had departed, a great retribution from God came upon