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When all had given in their judgments upon this point, we requested Periander he would condescend to give the company the satisfaction to let them know his thoughts upon the same head. Disorder and discontent appearing in his countenance, he said, These opinions are enough to scare any wise man from affecting empire. These things, saith Esop after his fault-finding way, ought rather to have been discussed privately among ourselves, lest we be accounted antimonarchical while we desire to be esteemed friends and loyal counsellors. Solon, gently clapping him upon the shoulder and smiling, answered: Do you not perceive that any one would make a king more moderate and a tyrant more favorable, who should persuade him that it is better not to reign than to reign? Then we must believe you before the oracle delivered unto you, quoth Esop, which pronounced that city happy that heard but one crier. Yes, quoth Solon, and Athens, though now a commonwealth, hath but one crier and one magistrate, and that is the law, though the government be democratical; but you, my friend, have been so accustomed to the croaking of ravens and the prating of jays, that you do not hear your own voice. For you maintain it to be the happiness of a city to be under the command of one man, and yet account it the praise of a feast if liberty is allowed every man to speak his mind freely upon what subject he pleases. But you have not prohibited your servants’ drunkenness, as you have forbidden them to love or to use dry ointments. Solon laughed at this; but Cleodorus the physician said: To use dry ointment is like talking when a man is drenched with wine; both are very pleasant. Therefore, saith Chilo, it concerns men the more carefully to avoid it. Esop proceeds, Thales seemed to imply that he should soon grow old.
