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intercalated months will be in number five-and-thirty besides the
seventy years; and of these months the days will be one thousand and
fifty. Of all these days, being in number twenty-six thousand two
hundred and fifty, which go to the seventy years, one day produces
nothing at all which resembles what another brings with it. Thus then,
O Crœsus, man is altogether a creature of accident. As for thee, I
perceive that thou art both great in wealth and king of many men, but
that of which thou didst ask me I cannot call thee yet, until I learn
that thou hast brought thy life to a fair ending: for the very rich
man is not at all to be accounted more happy than he who has but his
subsistence from day to day, unless also the fortune go with him of
ending his life well in possession of all things fair. For many very
wealthy men are not happy,[32] while many who have but a moderate


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