e he was making these
preparations, a certain philosopher was visiting at his court: he
was one of the seven wise men of Greece, who had recently come from
the Peloponnesus. Croesus asked him if there was any news from that
country. "I heard," said the philosopher, "that the inhabitants of the
islands were preparing to invade your dominions with a squadron of ten
thousand horse." Croesus, who supposed that the philosopher was
serious, appeared greatly pleased and elated at the prospect of his
sea-faring enemies attempting to meet him as a body of cavalry. "No
doubt," said the philosopher, after a little pause, "you would be
pleased to have those sailors attempt to contend with you on
horseback; but do you not suppose that they will be equally pleased
at the prospect of encountering Lydian landsmen on the ocean?"

Croesus perceived the absurdity of his plan, and abandoned the
attempt to execute it.

Croesus acquired the enormous wealth for which he was so celebrated
from the golden sands of the River Pactolus, which flowed through his
kingdom. The river brought the particles of gold, in grains, and
globules, and flakes, from the mountains above, and the servants and
slaves of Croesus washed the sands, and thus separated the heavier
deposit of the metal. In respect to the origin of the gold, however,
the people who lived upon the banks of the river had a different
explanation from the simple one that the waters brought down the
treasure from the mountain ravines. They had a story that, ages
before, a certain king, named Midas, rendered some service to a god,
who, in his turn, offered to grant him any favor that he might ask.
Midas asked that the power might be granted him to turn whatever he
touched into gold. The power was bestowed, and Midas, after changing
various objects around him into gold until he was satisfied, began to
find his new acquisition a source of great inconvenience and danger.
His clothes, his food, and even his drink, were changed to gold when
he touched them. He found that he was about to starve in the midst of
a world of treasure, and he implored the god to take back the fatal
gift. The god directed him to go and bathe in the Pactolus, and he
should be restored to his former condition. Midas did so, and was
saved, but not without transforming a great portion of the sands of
the stream into gold during the process of his restoration.

Croesus thus attained quite speedily to a very high degree of
w