[7]
I am not going to hesitate to tell you frankly of the confusion which now comes into my thoughts, of the strangeness of my feelings on the present occasion, and of my perplexity as to whether I am doing anything to the purpose. For I have had my share of the greatest goods of life—the things which all men would pray the gods to have as their portion:1 first of all, I have enjoyed health both of body and of soul, not in common degree, but in equal measure with those who have been most blessed in these respects;2 secondly, I have been in comfortable circumstances, so that I have not lacked for any of the moderate satisfactions nor for those that a sensible man would desire;
1 For the “greatest goods” cf. Plat. Laws 631c; Aristot. Rh. 1.5; and Herrick's rendering of the famous Greek skolion: “Health is the first good lent to men;/A gentle disposition then;/Next, to be rich by no by-wayes;/Lastly, with friends t'enjoy our dayes.”
2 Cf. Bacchyl. 1.27 ff. （Bacchyl. 1.55 ff., Jebb's edition）: εἰ δ᾽ ὑγιείγας θνατὸς ἐὼν ἔλαχεν, ζώειν τ᾽ ἀπ᾽ οἰκείων ἔχει, πρώτοις ἐρίζει.
Isocrates. Isocrates with an English Translation in three volumes, by George Norlin, Ph.D., LL.D. Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann Ltd. 1980.
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