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For if that be a good saying of Callimachus, that we ought not to measure wisdom by a Persian cord, much less should we measure happiness by cords of furlongs, or, if we chance to inhabit an island of two hundred furlongs and not (like Sicily) of four days’ sail in compass, think that we ought to disquiet ourselves and lament as if we were very miserable and unfortunate. For what does a place of large extent contribute to the tranquillity of one’s life? Do you not hear Tantalus saying in the tragedy: I sow the Berecyntian ground, A field of twelve days’ journey round? But he says a little after: My mind, that used to mount the skies, Fallen to the earth dejected lies, And now this friendly counsel brings,— Less to admire all earthly things.From the Niobe of Aeschylus, Frag. 153 and 154. Nausithous, forsaking the spacious country of Hyperia because the Cyclops bordered upon it, and removing to an island far distant from all other people, chose there, Remote from all commerce t’ abide, By sea’s surrounding waves denied;Odyss. VI. 204. and yet he procured a very pleasant way of living to his own citizens.
