Mount up, if thou wilt, but only on condition that thou wilt not think it a hardship to come down when the rules of my game require it.

Wert thou ignorant of my character?
Didst not know how Croesus, King of the Lydians, erstwhile the dreaded rival of Cyrus, was afterwards pitiably consigned to the flame of the pyre, and only saved by a shower sent from heaven?
Has it 'scaped thee how Paullus paid a meed of pious tears to the misfortunes of King Perseus, his prisoner?
What else do tragedies make such woeful outcry over save the overthrow of kingdoms by the indiscriminate strokes of Fortune?
Didst thou not learn in thy childhood how there stand at the threshold of Zeus 'two jars,' 'the one full of blessings, the other of calamities'?
How if thou hast drawn over-liberally from the good jar?
What if not even now have I departed wholly from thee?
What if this very mutability of mine is a just ground for hoping better things?
But listen now, and cease to let thy heart consume away with fretfulness, nor expect to live on thine own terms in a realm that is common to all.' SONG II.
MAN'S COVETOUSNESS.
What though Plenty pour her gifts With a lavish hand, Numberless as are the stars, Countless as the sand, Will the race of man, content, Cease to murmur and lament?
Nay, though God, all-bounteous, give Gold at man's desire-- Honours, rank, and fame--content Not a whit is nigher; But an all-devouring greed Yawns with ever-widening need.
Then what bounds can e'er restrain This wild lust of having, When with each new bounty fed Grows the frantic craving?
He is never rich whose fear Sees grim Want forever near.
III.
'If Fortune should plead thus against thee, assuredly thou wouldst not have one word to offer in reply; or, if thou canst find any justification of thy complainings, thou must show what it is.

I will give thee space to speak.' Then said I: 'Verily, thy pleas are plausible--yea, steeped in the honeyed sweetness of music and rhetoric.

But their charm lasts only while they are sounding in the ear; the sense of his misfortunes lies deeper in the heart of the wretched.

So, when the sound ceases to vibrate upon the air, the heart's indwelling sorrow is felt with renewed bitterness.' Then said she: 'It is indeed as thou sayest, for we have not yet come to the curing of thy sickness; as yet these are but lenitives conducing to the treatment of a malady hitherto obstinate.