Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/57

Rh on the great questions of ethics, politics, and theology, which were then occupying men's minds. The historian dwells on the mutability of all things.

"The cities that once were great for the most part have become small, and those that in my time were great were of old time small; and I, therefore, knowing that human happiness never continueth in the same state, will make mention of both alike."—Herod., i. 5. 1.

The poet gives back an echo of the same thought.

Who then can count the happiness of man

As great, or small, or held in no esteem?

None of all this continues in one stay."—Fragm. 93.

(5.) Following in the same line Herodotos puts into the mouth of Solon, speaking to Crœsos, the well-known reflection, "I cannot call thee happy till I learn that thou hast finished thy life well. But before a man dies we ought to hold our judgment in suspense, and to call him not happy, but prosperous." Compare with this the two following passages of Sophocles:—

'Tis an old saying told of many men,

Thou can'st not judge aright the life of man,

Or whether it be good or bad to him

Before he die."—Trach. 1–3.

Or this, the moral drawn from the history of Œdipus,—

From hence the lesson learn,

To reckon no man happy till ye see

The closing day, until he pass the bourne

Which severs life from death, unscathed by woe."

—Œd. King, 1528–30.