in the story of the ship, that had survived its sea-perils, burnt at
last as it lay on shore near its native forest, and finding the ocean
less faithless than the land.[14] In a different vein is the sarcastic
praise of Fortune for her exaltation of a worthless man to high
honour, "that she might shew her omnipotence."[15] At the root of all
there is the sense, born of considering the flux of things and the
tyranny of time, that man plays a losing game, and that his only
success is in refusing to play. For the busy and idle, for the
fortunate and unhappy alike, the sun rises one morning for the last
time;[16] he only is to be congratulated who is done with hope and
fear;[17] how short-lived soever he be in comparison with the world
through which he passes, yet no less through time Fate dries up the
holy springs, and the mighty cities of old days are undecipherable
under the green turf;[18] it is the only wisdom to acquiesce in the
forces, however ignorant or malign in their working, that listen to no
protest and admit no appeal, that no force can affect, no subtlety
elude, no calculation predetermine.
----------

[1] {to theion pan phthoneron te kai tarakhodes}, Hdt. i. 32.

[2] Anth. Pal. v. 74, 118.

[3] Ibid. xi. 53; xii. 32, 234.

[4] Anth. Pal. vii. 472.

[5] Ibid. xi. 25; xii. 50.

[6] Ibid. v. 85.