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CHAP. 32. (32.)—PRECEPTS THE MOST USEFUL IN LIFE.

Again, men have placed on an equality with those of the oracles the precepts uttered by Chilon,1 the Lacedæmonian. These have been consecrated at Delphi in letters of gold, and are to the following effect: "That each person ought to know himself, and not to desire to possess too much;"2 and "That misery is the sure companion of debt and litigation." He died of joy, on hearing that his son had been victorious in the Olympic games, and all Greece assisted at his funeral rites.

1 Son of Damagetus, and one of the Seven Sages. He flourished towards the beginning of the sixth century B.C. Herodotus says that he held the office of Ephor Eponymus in Ol. 56. He was a man remarkable for his wisdom and his sententious brevity, so characteristic of his Spartan origin.

2 It appears somewhat doubtful to which of the Grecian sages the credit of this maxim is due.—B.

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