and again,--
But now the Powers of Beauty, Song, and Wine,
Which are most men's delights, are also mine.
Plato, willing to improve the story of the Atlantic Island, as if it
were a fair estate that wanted an heir and came with some title to him,
formed, indeed, stately entrances, noble enclosures, large courts, such
as never yet introduced any story, fable, or poetic fiction; but,
beginning it late, ended his life before his work; and the reader's
regret for the unfinished part is the greater, as the satisfaction he
takes in that which is complete is extraordinary. For as the city of
Athens left only the temple of Jupiter Olympius unfinished, so Plato,
amongst all his excellent works, left this only piece about the Atlantic
Island imperfect. Solon lived after Pisistratus seized the government,
as Heraclides Ponticus asserts, a long time; but Phanias the Eresian
says not two full years; for Pisistratus began his tyranny when Comias
was archon, and Phanias says Solon died under Hegestratus, who succeeded
Comias. The story that his ashes were scattered about the island
Salamis is too strange to be easily believed, or be thought anything
but a mere fable; and yet it is given, amongst other good authors, by
Aristotle, the philosopher.