To-morrow I will have that grove of fig-trees yonder uprooted.

The young priest there, who seems so fond of gardening, has other fruit in his mind besides the half-ripe figs that he is so slowly dropping into his basket.

While his hand is plucking the figs, his ear gathers the words that fall from the mouth of his king." "But, by our father Zeus, and by Apollo--" "Yes, I understand thy indignation and I share it; but every position has its duties, and as a king of a people who venerate tradition as the highest divinity, I must submit, at least in the main, to the ceremonies handed down through thousands of years.

Were I to burst these fetters, I know positively that at my death my body would remain unburied; for, know that the priests sit in judgment over every corpse, and deprive the condemned of rest, even in the grave." [This well-known custom among the ancient Egyptians is confirmed, not only by many Greek narrators, but by the laboriously erased inscriptions discovered in the chambers of some tombs.] "Why care about the grave ?" cried Croesus, becoming angry.

"We live for life, not for death!" "Say rather," answered Amasis rising from his seat, "we, with our Greek minds, believe a beautiful life to be the highest good.