The Good Book_ A Secular Bible - A. C. Grayling [265]
27. Solon, pleased by this repartee, received him kindly, and kept him there some time.
28. He told Anacharsis about his compilation of laws; which when Anacharsis heard about them, he laughed at Solon for imagining that the dishonesty and covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws,
29. Which, he said, were like spiders’ webs, and would catch the weak and poor, yet be easily broken by the mighty and rich.
30. To this Solon rejoined that men keep their promises when neither side can get anything by breaking them;
31. And he would so fit his laws to the citizens, that all should understand it was more eligible to be just than to break them.
32. But Anacharsis proved the more right in the long run.
33. Anacharsis, being once at the assembly, expressed his wonder at the fact that in Greece wise men spoke and fools decided.
Chapter 17
1. Solon went, they say, to Thales at Miletus, and wondered that Thales had no wife and children.
2. To this, Thales made no answer for the present; but, a few days after, procured a stranger to pretend that he had just come from Athens;
3. And Solon enquiring what news there, the man, according to his instructions, replied, ‘None but a young man’s funeral, which the whole city attended;
4. ‘For he was the son of an honourable man, the most virtuous of the citizens, who was not then at home, but had been travelling a long time.’
5. Solon replied, ‘What an unfortunate man to have lost a son! What was his name?’
6. ‘I have forgotten it,’ said the man, ‘only there was great talk of his wisdom and his justice.’
7. Thus Solon was drawn on by every answer, and his fears heightened, till at last, being extremely concerned,
8. He mentioned his own name, and asked the stranger if that young man was called Solon’s son;
9. And the stranger assenting, Solon began to beat his head, and to do and say all that is usual with men in transports of grief.
10. But Thales took his hand, and, with a smile, said, ‘These things, Solon, keep me from marriage and rearing children, which are too great for even your constancy to support;
11. ‘However, be not concerned at the report, for it is a fiction.’
12. This was an unkind manner of teaching. Moreover, it is irrational and poor-hearted not to seek good things for fear of losing them,
13. For upon the same account we should not allow ourselves to seek wealth, glory or wisdom, since we may fear to be deprived of all these;
14. Nay, even virtue itself, than which there is no richer possession.
15. Now Thales, though unmarried, could not be free from concern, unless he likewise felt no care for his friends, his kinsmen or his country;
16. Yet we are told he adopted his sister’s son. For the mind of man, having a principle of kindness in itself,
17. And being born to love, as well as perceive, think and remember, must feel a connection with someone or something, even a dog or horse.
18. We must not guard against the loss of wealth by being poor, or the loss of friends by refusing to have friends, or the loss of children by having none;
19. Instead, it is by morality and reason that we must guard against the affliction that the loss of such things brings.
Chapter 18
1. Now, when the Athenians were tired with a tedious and difficult war that they conducted against the Megarians for the island of Salamis,
2. And made a law that it should be death for any man, by writing or speaking, to assert that the city ought to recover it,
3. Solon, vexed at the disgrace, and perceiving that thousands of the youth wished for somebody to oppose that decision, devised a stratagem;
4. He counterfeited madness, then secretly composed some elegiac verses, and getting them by heart, that they might seem extempore,
5. Ran into the agora with a cap upon his head, and, the people gathering about him, sang that elegy which begins:
6. ‘I am a herald come from Salamis the fair, My news from thence my verses shall declare.’
7. The poem contains