Page:Xenophon by Alexander Grant.djvu/156

146 At last, when he was on one of his visits to Persia, being now advanced in years, though apparently in perfect health—after performing some sacrifices and leading in person a national dance—Cyrus was in the night warned by a vision of his approaching end. A being of superhuman dignity seemed to come to him, and to say, "Cyrus, prepare thyself, for thou art now going to the gods." After this vision he awoke, and, taking victims, went to the summit of a mountain, where he sacrificed to Jupiter, the sun, and the rest of the gods, thanking them for their care of him during his long and prosperous life, and for all the omens and signs they had sent him as indications of what he ought to do; and praying for a blessing on his family, his friends, and his country. He then returned home, and lay down to rest. Feeling no inclination to eat, he took nothing for three days, after which he called round him his sons and the chief men of Persia, and addressed them. He told them that he knew his end was at hand, and that when he was gone they were to think of him as one who had lived a happy life. "I have realised," said he, "all that is most highly prized in the successive ages of life—as a child in childhood, as a young man in youth, as a man in maturity. My strength has seemed to increase with the advance of time; I have failed in nothing that I undertook. I have exalted my friends and humbled my enemies, and have brought my country from obscurity to the summit of glory. I have kept hitherto from anything like boasting, knowing that a reverse might come; but now that