Lucian Navigium 16

That’s enough joking, Lycinus. Look how you’ve made Adimantus blush and overwhelmed his ship in a flood of laughter so that she’s waterlogged and can’t keep the sea out any more. Now we’ve still some way to go to the city, so let us divide the journey into four, and each of us in his allotted furlongs ask the gods for whatever he wants. In this way we shan’t notice the journey and at the same time we shall enjoy ourselves with a pleasant dream of our own choosing to bless us as long as we desire. Each one may decide the measure of his wish, and the gods may be supposed to grant it all, even if it is in essence improbable. Best of all it will show who would use his wealth and wish best, for it will show what sort of a man he would have been if he had been rich.

That is enough, Lycinus. Spare his blushes. You have quite swamped his ship; she is laughter-logged, and can weather it no longer. Now, we have still some distance before us; let us break it up into four parts, and each have so many furlongs, in which he may demand of the Gods what he will. This will lighten our journey, and amuse us into the bargain; we shall revel in a delightful waking dream of unlimited prosperity; for each of us will have full control of his own Wish, and it will be understood that the Gods must grant everything, however impracticable. Above all, it will give us an idea who would make the best use of the supposed wealth; we shall see what kind of a man it would have made of him.