ripened their fruit every month.[1] There they found most of the heroes of Grecian legend and of later history. Philosophers, too—genuine philosophers—were there in good number. And here the satirist quite gets the mastery over the story-teller. Plato was remarked as absent; he preferred living "in his own Republic, under his own laws," to any Elysium that could be offered him. The Stoics had not yet arrived, when these voyagers reached the island, though they were expected; Hesiod's 'Hill of Virtue,'[2] which they all had to climb, was such a very long one. Neither were the Sceptics of the Academy to be seen there; they were thinking of coming, but had "doubts" about it—doubts whether there were any such place at all; and perhaps, thinks Lucian, they were shy of encountering the judgment of Rhadamanthus, having a profound dislike to any decisive judgment upon any subject whatever.
The travellers would gladly have remained in the Happy Island altogether, but this was not allowed. They were promised, however, by Rhadamanthus, that if during their further voyage they complied with certain rules, which remind us of the old burlesque oath for-
- ↑ It has been thought that the writer must either have seen or heard of the description of the New Jerusalem in the Revelation. But figurative diction has always some features in common; and in this passage reminiscences of the Greek poets are very evident. The ingenuity of some commentators has discovered, not only here, but throughout this "Veracious History," an intentional travesty of Scripture. But such an idea is surely fanciful.
- ↑ See p. 121.
