diff options
Diffstat (limited to '23639-h/23639-h.htm')
| -rw-r--r-- | 23639-h/23639-h.htm | 26592 |
1 files changed, 26592 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/23639-h/23639-h.htm b/23639-h/23639-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e636ef1 --- /dev/null +++ b/23639-h/23639-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,26592 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Plutarch's Morals translated +by A. R. Shilleto.</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + + p.two { text-align: justify; margin-top: 0em; + margin-bottom: 0em; margin-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .tnote {border: solid 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; font-size: 90%;} + + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; font-weight: normal; + } + + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + + td.cell_left {vertical-align: top; font-size: .85em; width: 90%; text-align: left;} + td.cell_right {vertical-align: bottom; font-size: .85em; width: 10%; text-align: right;} + td.cell_center {vertical-align: top; font-size: .85em; width: 80%; text-align: left;} + td.cell_right2 {vertical-align: top; font-size: .85em; width: 10%; text-align: right;} + td.cell_center2 {vertical-align: top; font-size: .85em; width: 100%; text-align: center;} + + body {margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + ul {list-style-type: none;} + ul.IX { /* styling the IndeX */ + list-style-type: none; + font-size: 90%; text-indent: -2em; + } + ul.IX li { /* list items in an index list: compressed */ + margin-top: 0; text-indent: -2em;} + + + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: .8em; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;} + + + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.90em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; font-size: 0.80em; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .80em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:15%; font-size: .9em; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem2 {margin-left: 5%; font-size: .9em; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem2 span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i15 {display: block; margin-left: 15em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i9 {display: block; margin-left: 9em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i1 {display: block; margin-left: 1em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i11 {display: block; margin-left: 11em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + + + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + +</style> +</head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Plutarch's Morals, by Plutarch + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Plutarch's Morals + +Author: Plutarch + +Translator: Arthur Richard Shilleto + +Release Date: November 27, 2007 [EBook #23639] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLUTARCH'S MORALS *** + + + + +Produced by Paul Murray, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<h3><i>BOHN'S CLASSICAL LIBRARY</i></h3> + +<h2>PLUTARCH'S MORALS</h2> + +<h4>GEORGE BELL & SONS,<br /> +LONDON: YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN<br /> +NEW YORK: 66, FIFTH AVENUE, AND<br /> +BOMBAY: 53, ESILANADE ROAD<br /> +CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL & CO.</h4> + +<h1>PLUTARCH'S MORALS</h1> + +<h3>ETHICAL ESSAYS</h3> + +<h5>TRANSLATED</h5> + +<h4>WITH NOTES AND INDEX</h4> + +<h3>BY ARTHUR RICHARD SHILLETO, M.A.</h3> + +<h5><i>Sometime Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge,<br /> +Translator of Pausanias.</i></h5> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 100px;"><img src="images/printers.png" +width="100" height="94" alt="Printers mark" /></div> + +<h5>LONDON<br /> +GEORGE BELL AND SONS<br /> +1898</h5> + +<h5>CHISWICK PRESS:—CHARLES WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS +COURT,<br /> +CHANCERY LANE.</h5> + +<div class="tnote"> +<p><b>Transcriber's note:</b> The original book uses often colons +instead of semicolons. Spelling of proper names is +different in different pages and some words occur in +hyphenated and unhyphenated forms. These have not been +changed. A couple of commas and periods have been added or +removed to improve the reading and only obvious spelling +errors have been corrected.</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id= +"Page_vii">vii</a></span></p> + +<h3>PREFACE.</h3> + +<p>Plutarch, who was born at Chæronea in Bœotia, +probably about A.D. 50, and was a contemporary of Tacitus and +Pliny, has written two works still extant, the well-known +<i>Lives</i>, and the less-known <i>Moralia</i>. The <i>Lives</i> +have often been translated, and have always been a popular work. +Great indeed was their power at the period of the French +Revolution. The <i>Moralia</i>, on the other hand, consisting of +various Essays on various subjects (only twenty-six of which are +directly ethical, though they have given their name to the +<i>Moralia</i>), are declared by Mr. Paley "to be practically +almost unknown to most persons in Britain, even to those who call +themselves scholars."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id= +"FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">1</a> +<i>Habent etiam sua fata libelli.</i></p> + +<p>In older days the <i>Moralia</i> were more valued. Montaigne, +who was a great lover of Plutarch, and who observes in one passage +of his Essays that "Plutarch and Seneca were the only two books of +solid learning he seriously settled himself to read," quotes as +much from the <i>Moralia</i> as from the <i>Lives</i>. And in the +seventeenth century I cannot but think the <i>Moralia</i> were +largely read at our Universities, at least at the University of +Cambridge. For, not to mention the wonderful way in which the +famous Jeremy Taylor has taken the cream of "Conjugal Precepts" in +his Sermon called "The Marriage Ring," or the large and copious use +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id= +"Page_viii">viii</a></span>he has made in his "Holy Living" of +three other Essays in this volume, namely, those "On Curiosity," +"On Restraining Anger," and "On Contentedness of Mind," proving +conclusively what a storehouse he found the <i>Moralia</i>, we have +evidence that that most delightful poet, Robert Herrick, read the +<i>Moralia</i>, too, when at Cambridge, so that one cannot but +think it was a work read in the University course generally in +those days. For in a letter to his uncle written from Cambridge, +asking for books or money for books, he makes the following remark: +"How kind Arcisilaus the philosopher was unto Apelles the painter, +Plutark in his Morals will tell you."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id= +"FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class= +"fnanchor">2</a></p> + +<p>In 1882 the Reverend C. W. King, Senior Fellow of Trinity +College, Cambridge, translated the six "Theosophical Essays" of the +<i>Moralia</i>, forming a volume in Bohn's Classical Library. The +present volume consists of the twenty-six "Ethical Essays," which +are, in my opinion, the cream of the <i>Moralia</i>, and constitute +a highly interesting series of treatises on what might be called +"The Ethics of the Hearth and Home." I have grouped these Essays in +such a manner as to enable the reader to read together such as +touch on the same or on kindred subjects.</p> + +<p>As is well known, the text of the <i>Moralia</i> is very +corrupt, and the reading very doubtful, in many places. In eight of +the twenty-six Essays in this volume I have had the invaluable help +of the text of Rudolf Hercher; help so invaluable that one cannot +but sadly regret that only one volume of the <i>Moralia</i> has yet +appeared in the <i>Bibliotheca Teubneriana</i>. Wyttenbach's text +and notes I have always used when available, and when not so have +fallen back upon Reiske. Reiske is always ingenious, but too fond +of correcting a text, and the criticism of him by Wyttenbach <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">ix</a></span>is +perhaps substantially correct. "In nullo auctore habitabat; +vagabatur per omnes: nec apud quemquam tamdiu divertebat, ut in +paulo interiorem ejus consuetudinem se insinuaret." I have also had +constantly before me the Didot Edition of the <i>Moralia</i>, +edited by Frederic Dübner.</p> + +<p>Let any reader who wishes to know more about Plutarch, consult +the article on Plutarch, in the Ninth Edition of the +<i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i>, by the well-known scholar F. A. +Paley. He will also do well to read an Essay on Plutarch by R. W. +Emerson, reprinted in Volume III. of the Bohn's Standard Library +Edition of Emerson's Works, and Five Lectures on Plutarch by the +late Archbishop Trench, published by Messrs. Macmillan and Co. in +1874. All these contain much of interest, and will repay +perusal.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, I hope this little volume will be the means of +making popular some of the best thoughts of one of the most +interesting and thoughtful of the ancients, who often seems indeed +almost a modern.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><small><span class= +"smcap">Cambridge,</span></small></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;"><small><i>March</i>, +1888.</small></span></p> + + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> See article +<i>Plutarch</i>, in <i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i>, Ninth +Edition.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> Grosart's +<i>Herrick</i>, vol. i. p. liii. See in this volume, p. <a href= +"#Page_180">180</a>, and also note to p. <a href= +"#Page_288">288</a>. Richard Baxter again is always quoting the +<i>Moralia</i>.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<table width="100%" summary="TOC"> +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2"> </td> +<td class="cell_center"> </td> +<td class="cell_right">Page</td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">I.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON EDUCATION.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">II.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON LOVE TO ONE'S OFFSPRING.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_21a">21</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">III.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON LOVE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">IV.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">CONJUGAL PRECEPTS.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_70">70</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">V.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">CONSOLATORY LETTER TO HIS WIFE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_85">85</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">VI.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">THAT VIRTUE MAY BE TAUGHT.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_92a">92</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">VII.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON VIRTUE AND VICE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_95a">95</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">VIII.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON MORAL VIRTUE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_98a">98</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">IX.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">HOW ONE MAY BE AWARE OF ONE'S PROGRESS IN +VIRTUE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_118a">118</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">X.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">WHETHER VICE IS SUFFICIENT TO CAUSE UNHAPPINESS.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_138a">138</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XI.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">WHETHER THE DISORDERS OF MIND OR BODY ARE WORSE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_142a">142</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XII.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON ABUNDANCE OF FRIENDS.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_145a">145</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XIII.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">HOW ONE MAY DISCERN A FLATTERER FROM A FRIEND.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_153a">153</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XIV.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">HOW A MAN MAY BE BENEFITED BY HIS ENEMIES.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_201a">201</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XV.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON TALKATIVENESS.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XVI.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON CURIOSITY.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_238a">238</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XVII.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON SHYNESS.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_252a">252</a> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XVIII.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON RESTRAINING ANGER.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_267a">267</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XIX.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON CONTENTEDNESS OF MIND.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_289">289</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XX.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON ENVY AND HATRED.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XXI.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">HOW ONE CAN PRAISE ONESELF WITHOUT EXCITING +ENVY.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_315a">315</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XXII.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHED BY THE DEITY LATE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_331a">331</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XXIII.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">AGAINST BORROWING MONEY.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_365a">365</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XXIV.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">WHETHER "LIVE UNKNOWN" BE A WISE PRECEPT.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_373a">373</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XXV.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON EXILE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_378a">378</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">XXVI.</td> +<td class="cell_center"> +<p class="two">ON FORTUNE.</p> +</td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_394a">394</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2"> </td> +<td class="cell_center"> </td> +<td class="cell_right"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="cell_right2">INDEX</td> +<td class="cell_center"> </td> +<td class="cell_right"><a href="#Page_401">401</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id= +"Page_1">1</a></span></p> + +<h3>PLUTARCH'S MORALS.</h3> + +<h4>ON EDUCATION.</h4> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Come let us consider what +one might say on the education of free children, and by what +training they would become good citizens.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> It is perhaps best to +begin with birth: I would therefore warn those who desire to be +fathers of notable sons, not to form connections with any kind of +women, such as courtesans or mistresses: for those who either on +the father or mother's side are ill-born have the disgrace of their +origin all their life long irretrievably present with them, and +offer a ready handle to abuse and vituperation. So that the poet +was wise, who said, "Unless the foundation of a house be well laid, +the descendants must of necessity be unfortunate."<a name= +"FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class= +"fnanchor">3</a> Good birth indeed brings with it a store of +assurance, which ought to be greatly valued by all who desire +legitimate offspring. For the spirit of those who are a spurious +and bastard breed is apt to be mean and abject: for as the poet +truly says, "It makes a man even of noble spirit servile, when he +is conscious of the ill fame of either his father or mother."<a +name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" +class="fnanchor">4</a> On the other hand the sons of illustrious +parents are full of pride and arrogance. As an instance of this it +is recorded of Diophantus,<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id= +"FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">5</a> +the son of Themistocles, that he often used to say to various +people "that he could do what he pleased with the Athenian people, +for what he wished his mother wished, and what she wished +Themistocles wished, and what Themistocles <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_2" id="Page_2">2</a></span>wished all the Athenians +wished." All praise also ought we to bestow on the +Lacedæmonians for their loftiness of soul in fining their +king Archidamus for venturing to marry a small woman, for they +charged him with intending to furnish them not with kings but +kinglets.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> Next must we mention, +what was not overlooked even by those who handled this subject +before us, that those who approach their wives for procreation must +do so either without having drunk any wine or at least very little. +For those children, that their parents begot in drink, are wont to +be fond of wine and apt to turn out drunkards. And so Diogenes, +seeing a youth out of his mind and crazy, said, "Young man, your +father was drunk when he begot you." Let this hint serve as to +procreation: now let us discuss education.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> To speak generally, what +we are wont to say about the arts and sciences is also true of +moral excellence, for to its perfect development three things must +meet together, natural ability, theory, and practice. By theory I +mean training, and by practice working at one's craft. Now the +foundation must be laid in training, and practice gives facility, +but perfection is attained only by the junction of all three. For +if any one of these elements be wanting, excellence must be so far +deficient. For natural ability without training is blind: and +training without natural ability is defective, and practice without +both natural ability and training is imperfect. For just as in +farming the first requisite is good soil, next a good farmer, next +good seed, so also here: the soil corresponds to natural ability, +the training to the farmer, the seed to precepts and instruction. I +should therefore maintain stoutly that these three elements were +found combined in the souls of such universally famous men as +Pythagoras, and Socrates, and Plato, and of all who have won +undying fame. Happy at any rate and dear to the gods is he to whom +any deity has vouchsafed all these elements! But if anyone thinks +that those who have not good natural ability cannot to some extent +make up for the deficiencies of nature by right training and +practice, let such a one know that he is very wide of the mark, if +not out of it altogether. For good natural parts are impaired by +sloth; while inferior ability is<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_3" id="Page_3">3</a></span> mended by training: and while +simple things escape the eyes of the careless, difficult things are +reached by painstaking. The wonderful efficacy and power of long +and continuous labour you may see indeed every day in the world +around you.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">6</a> Thus water continually +dropping wears away rocks: and iron and steel are moulded by the +hands of the artificer: and chariot wheels bent by some strain can +never recover their original symmetry: and the crooked staves of +actors can never be made straight. But by toil what is contrary to +nature becomes stronger than even nature itself. And are these the +only things that teach the power of diligence? Not so: ten thousand +things teach the same truth. A soil naturally good becomes by +neglect barren, and the better its original condition, the worse +its ultimate state if uncared for. On the other hand a soil +exceedingly rough and sterile by being farmed well produces +excellent crops. And what trees do not by neglect become gnarled +and unfruitful, whereas by pruning they become fruitful and +productive? And what constitution so good but it is marred and +impaired by sloth, luxury, and too full habit? And what weak +constitution has not derived benefit from exercise and athletics? +And what horses broken in young are not docile to their riders? +while if they are not broken in till late they become hard-mouthed +and unmanageable. And why should we be surprised at similar cases, +seeing that we find many of the savagest animals docile and tame by +training? Rightly answered the Thessalian, who was asked who the +mildest Thessalians were, "Those who have done with fighting."<a +name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" +class="fnanchor">7</a> But why pursue the line of argument further? +For the Greek name for moral virtue is only habit: and if anyone +defines moral virtues as habitual virtues, he will not be beside +the mark. But I will employ only one more illustration, and dwell +no longer on this topic. Lycurgus, the Lacedæmonian +legislator, took two puppies of the same parents, and brought them +up in an entirely different way: the one he pampered and cosseted +up, while he taught the other to hunt and be a retriever. Then on +one occasion, when the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id= +"Page_4">4</a></span>Lacedæmonians were convened in assembly, +he said, "Mighty, O Lacedæmonians, is the influence on moral +excellence of habit, and education, and training, and modes of +life, as I will prove to you at once." So saying he produced the +two puppies, and set before them a platter and a hare: the one +darted on the hare, while the other made for the platter. And when +the Lacedæmonians could not guess what his meaning was, or +with what intent he had produced the puppies, he said, "These +puppies are of the same parents, but by virtue of a different +bringing up the one is pampered, and the other a good hound." Let +so much suffice for habit and modes of life.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> The next point to discuss +will be nutrition. In my opinion mothers ought to nurse and suckle +their own children. For they will bring them up with more sympathy +and care, if they love them so intimately and, as the proverb puts +it, "from their first growing their nails."<a name="FNanchor_8_8" +id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class= +"fnanchor">8</a> Whereas the affection of wet or dry nurses is +spurious and counterfeit, being merely for pay. And nature itself +teaches that mothers ought themselves to suckle and rear those they +have given birth to. And for that purpose she has supplied every +female parent with milk. And providence has wisely provided women +with two breasts, so that if they should bear twins, they would +have a breast for each. And besides this, as is natural enough, +they would feel more affection and love for their children by +suckling them. For this supplying them with food is as it were a +tightener of love, for even the brute creation, if taken away from +their young, pine away, as we constantly see. Mothers must +therefore, as I said, certainly try to suckle their own children: +but if they are unable to do so either through physical weakness +(for this contingency sometimes occurs), or in haste to have other +children, they must select wet and dry nurses with the greatest +care, and not introduce into their houses any kind of women. First +and foremost they must be Greeks in their habits. For just as it is +necessary immediately after birth to shapen the limbs of children, +so that they may grow straight and not crooked, so from the +beginning must their habits be carefully <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_5" id="Page_5">5</a></span>attended to. For infancy is +supple and easily moulded, and what children learn sinks deeply +into their souls while they are young and tender, whereas +everything hard is softened only with great difficulty. For just as +seals are impressed on soft wax, so instruction leaves its +permanent mark on the minds of those still young. And divine Plato +seems to me to give excellent advice to nurses not to tell their +children any kind of fables, that their souls may not in the very +dawn of existence be full of folly or corruption.<a name= +"FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class= +"fnanchor">9</a> Phocylides the poet also seems to give admirable +advice when he says, "We must teach good habits while the pupil is +still a boy."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> Attention also must he +given to this point, that the lads that are to wait upon and be +with young people must be first and foremost of good morals, and +able to speak Greek distinctly and idiomatically, that they may not +by contact with foreigners of loose morals contract any of their +viciousness. For as those who are fond of quoting proverbs say not +amiss, "If you live with a lame man, you will learn to halt."<a +name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">10</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Next, when our boys are +old enough to be put into the hands of tutors,<a name= +"FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" +class="fnanchor">11</a> great care must be taken that we do not +hand them over to slaves, or foreigners, or flighty persons. For +what happens nowadays in many cases is highly ridiculous: good +slaves are made farmers, or sailors, or merchants, or stewards, or +money-lenders; but if they find a winebibbing, greedy, and utterly +useless slave, to him parents commit the charge of their sons, +whereas the good tutor ought to be such a one as was Phœnix, +the tutor of Achilles. The point also which I am now going to speak +about is of the utmost importance. The schoolmasters we ought to +select for our boys should be of blameless life, of pure character, +and of great experience. For a good training is the source and root +of gentlemanly behaviour. And just as farmers prop up their trees, +so good schoolmasters prop up the young by good advice and +suggestions, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id= +"Page_6">6</a></span>that they may become upright. How one must +despise, therefore, some fathers, who, whether from ignorance or +inexperience, before putting the intended teachers to the test, +commit their sons to the charge of untried and untested men. If +they act so through inexperience it is not so ridiculous; but it is +to the remotest degree absurd when, though perfectly aware of both +the inexperience and worthlessness of some schoolmasters, they yet +entrust their sons to them; some overcome by flattery, others to +gratify friends who solicit their favours; acting just as if +anybody ill in body, passing over the experienced physician, +should, to gratify his friend, call him in, and so throw away his +life; or as if to gratify one's friend one should reject the best +pilot and choose him instead. Zeus and all the gods! can anyone +bearing the sacred name of father put obliging a petitioner before +obtaining the best education for his sons? Were they not then wise +words that the time-honoured Socrates used to utter, and say that +he would proclaim, if he could, climbing up to the highest part of +the city, "Men, what can you be thinking of, who move heaven and +earth to make money, while you bestow next to no attention on the +sons you are going to leave that money to?"<a name="FNanchor_12_12" +id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class= +"fnanchor">12</a> I would add to this that such fathers act very +similarly to a person who should be very careful about his shoe but +care nothing about his foot. Many persons also are so niggardly +about their children, and indifferent to their interests, that for +the sake of a paltry saving, they prefer worthless teachers for +their children, practising a vile economy at the expense of their +children's ignorance. <i>Apropos</i> of this, Aristippus on one +occasion rebuked an empty-headed parent neatly and wittily. For +being asked how much money a parent ought to pay for his son's +education, he answered, "A thousand drachmæ." And he +replying, "Hercules, what a price! I could buy a slave for as +much;" Aristippus answered, "You shall have two slaves then, your +son and the slave you buy."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id= +"FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class= +"fnanchor">13</a> And is it not altogether strange that you +accustom your son to take his food in his right hand, and chide him +if he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id= +"Page_7">7</a></span>offers his left, whereas you care very little +about his hearing good and sound discourses? I will tell you what +happens to such admirable fathers, when they have educated and +brought up their sons so badly: when the sons grow to man's estate, +they disregard a sober and well-ordered life, and rush headlong +into disorderly and low vices; then at the last the parents are +sorry they have neglected their education, bemoaning bitterly when +it is too late their sons' debasement. For some of them keep +flatterers and parasites in their retinue—an accursed set of +wretches, the defilers and pest of youth; others keep mistresses +and common prostitutes, wanton and costly; others waste their money +in eating; others come to grief through dice and revelling; some +even go in for bolder profligacy, being whoremongers and defilers +of the marriage bed,<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id= +"FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class= +"fnanchor">14</a> who would madly pursue their darling vice if it +cost them their lives. Had they associated with some philosopher, +they would not have lowered themselves by such practices, but would +have remembered the precept of Diogenes, whose advice sounds rather +low, but is really of excellent moral intent,<a name= +"FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" +class="fnanchor">15</a> "Go into a brothel, my lad, that you may +see the little difference between vice and virtue."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> I say, then, to speak +comprehensively (and I might be justly considered in so saying to +speak as an oracle, not to be delivering a mere precept), that a +good education and sound bringing-up is of the first and middle and +last importance; and I declare it to be most instrumental and +conducive to virtue and happiness. For all other human blessings +compared to this are petty and insignificant. For noble birth is a +great honour, but it is an advantage from our forefathers. And +wealth is valuable, but it is the acquisition of fortune, who has +often taken it away from those who had it, and brought it to those +who little expected it; and much wealth is a sort of mark for +villanous slaves and informers to shoot at to fill their own <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">8</a></span>purses; +and, what is a most important point, even the greatest villains +have money sometimes. And glory is noble, but insecure. And beauty +is highly desirable, but shortlived. And health is highly valuable, +but soon impaired. And strength is desirable, but illness or age +soon made sad inroads into it. And generally speaking, if anyone +prides himself on his bodily strength, let him know that he is +deficient in judgment. For how much inferior is the strength of a +man to that of animals, as elephants, bulls, and lions! But +education is of all our advantages the only one immortal and +divine. And two of the most powerful agencies in man's nature are +mind and reason. And mind governs reason, and reason obeys mind; +and mind is irremovable by fortune, cannot be taken away by +informers, cannot be destroyed by disease, cannot have inroads made +into it by old age. For the mind alone flourishes in age; and while +time takes away everything else, it adds wisdom to old age. Even +war, that sweeps away everything else like a winter torrent, cannot +take away education. And Stilpo, the Megarian, seems to me to have +made a memorable answer when Demetrius enslaved Megara and rased it +to the ground. On his asking whether Stilpo had lost anything, he +replied, "Certainly not, for war can make no havoc of virtue." +Corresponding and consonant to this is the answer of Socrates, who +when asked, I think by Gorgias,<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id= +"FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class= +"fnanchor">16</a> if he had any conception as to the happiness of +the King of Persia, replied, "I do not know his position in regard +to virtue and education: for happiness lies in these, and not in +adventitious advantages."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> And as I advise parents to +think nothing more important than the education of their children, +so I maintain that it must be a sound and healthy education, and +that our sons must be kept as far as possible from vulgar twaddle. +For what pleases the vulgar displeases the wise. I am borne out by +the lines of Euripides, "Unskilled am I in the oratory that pleases +the mob; but amongst the few that are my equals I am reckoned +rather wise. For those who are little thought of by the wise, seem +to hit the taste <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id= +"Page_9">9</a></span>of the vulgar."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id= +"FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class= +"fnanchor">17</a> And I have myself noticed that those who practise +to speak acceptably and to the gratification of the masses +promiscuously, for the most part become also profligate and lovers +of pleasure in their lives. Naturally enough. For if in giving +pleasure to others they neglect the noble, they would be hardly +likely to put the lofty and sound above a life of luxury and +pleasure, and to prefer moderation to delights. Yet what better +advice could we give our sons than to follow this? or to what could +we better exhort them to accustom themselves? For perfection is +only attained by neither speaking nor acting at random—as the +proverb says, <i>Perfection is only attained by practice</i>.<a +name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">18</a> Whereas extempore oratory +is easy and facile, mere windbag, having neither beginning nor end. +And besides their other shortcomings extempore speakers fall into +great disproportion and repetition, whereas a well considered +speech preserves its due proportions. It is recorded by tradition +that Pericles, when called on by the people for a speech, +frequently refused on the plea that he was unprepared. Similarly +Demosthenes, his state-rival, when the Athenians called upon him +for his advice, refused to give it, saying, "I am not prepared." +But this you will say, perhaps, is mere tradition without +authority. But in his speech against Midias he plainly sets forth +the utility of preparation, for he says, "I do not deny, men of +Athens, that I have prepared this speech to the best of my ability: +for I should have been a poor creature if, after suffering so much +at his hands, and even still suffering, I had neglected how to +plead my case."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a +href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">19</a> Not that I would +altogether reject extempore oratory, or its use in critical cases, +but it should be used only as one would take medicine.<a name= +"FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" +class="fnanchor">20</a> Up, indeed, to man's estate I would have no +extempore speaking, but when anyone's powers of speech are rooted +and grounded, then, as emergencies call for it, I would allow his +words to flow freely. For as those who have been for a long time in +fetters stumble if unloosed, not being able <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span>to walk from +being long used to their fetters, so those who for a long time have +used compression in their words, if they are suddenly called upon +to speak off-hand, retain the same character of expression. But to +let mere lads speak extempore is to give rise to the acme of +foolish talk. A wretched painter once showed Apelles, they say, a +picture, and said, "I have just done it." Apelles replied, "Without +your telling me, I should know it was painted quickly; I only +wonder you haven't painted more such in the time." As then (for I +now return from my digression), I advise to avoid stilted and +bombastic language, so again do I urge to avoid a finical and petty +style of speech; for tall talk is unpopular, and petty language +makes no impression. And as the body ought to be not only sound but +in good condition, so speech ought to be not only not feeble but +vigorous. For a safe mediocrity is indeed praised, but a bold +venturesomeness is also admired. I am also of the same opinion with +regard to the disposition of the soul, which ought to be neither +audacious nor timid and easily dejected: for the one ends in +impudence and the other in servility; but to keep in all things the +mean between extremes is artistic and proper. And, while I am still +on this topic, I wish to give my opinion, that I regard a +monotonous speech first as no small proof of want of taste, next as +likely to generate disdain, and certain not to please long. For to +harp on one string is always tiresome and brings satiety; whereas +variety is pleasant always whether to the ear or eye.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> Next our freeborn lad ought +to go in for a course of what is called general knowledge, but a +smattering of this will be sufficient, a taste as it were (for +perfect knowledge of all subjects would be impossible); but he must +seriously cultivate philosophy. I borrow an illustration to show my +meaning: it is well to sail round many cities, but advantageous to +live in the best. It was a witty remark of the philosopher Bion,<a +name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">21</a> that, as those suitors +who could not seduce Penelope took up with her maids as a <i>pis +aller</i>, so those who cannot attain philosophy wear themselves +out in useless pursuits. Philosophy, therefore, ought <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span>to be +regarded as the most important branch of study. For as regards the +cure of the body, men have found two branches, medicine and +exercise: the former of which gives health, and the latter good +condition of body; but philosophy is the only cure for the maladies +and disorders of the soul. For with her as ruler and guide we can +know what is honourable, what is disgraceful; what is just, what +unjust; generally speaking, what is to be sought after, what to be +avoided; how we ought to behave to the gods, to parents, to elders, +to the laws, to foreigners, to rulers, to friends, to women, to +children, to slaves: viz., that we ought to worship the gods, +honour parents, reverence elders, obey the laws, submit ourselves +to rulers, love our friends, be chaste in our relations with women, +kind to our children, and not to treat our slaves badly; and, what +is of the greatest importance, to be neither over elated in +prosperity nor over depressed in adversity,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" +id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class= +"fnanchor">22</a> nor to be dissolute in pleasures, nor fierce and +brutish in anger. These I regard as the principal blessings that +philosophy teaches. For to enjoy prosperity nobly shows a man; and +to enjoy it without exciting envy shows a moderate man; and to +conquer the passions by reason argues a wise man; and it is not +everybody who can keep his temper in control. And those who can +unite political ability with philosophy I regard as perfect men, +for I take them to attain two of the greatest blessings, serving +the state in a public capacity, and living the calm and tranquil +life of philosophy. For, as there are three kinds of life, the +practical, the contemplative, and the life of enjoyment, and of +these three the one devoted to enjoyment is a paltry and animal +life, and the practical without philosophy an unlovely and harsh +life, and the contemplative without the practical a useless life, +so we must endeavour with all our power to combine public life with +philosophy as far as circumstances will permit. Such was the life +led by Pericles, by Archytas of Tarentum, by Dion of Syracuse, by +Epaminondas the Theban, one of whom was a disciple of Plato (viz., +Dion). And as to education, I do not know that I need dwell any +more on it. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id= +"Page_12">12</a></span>But in addition to what I have said, it is +useful, if not necessary, not to neglect to procure old books, and +to make a collection of them, as is usual in agriculture. For the +use of books is an instrument in education, and it is profitable in +learning to go to the fountain head.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> Exercise also ought not to +be neglected, but we ought to send our boys to the master of the +gymnasium to train them duly, partly with a view to carrying the +body well, partly with a view to strength. For good habit of body +in boys is the foundation of a good old age. For as in fine weather +we ought to lay up for winter, so in youth one ought to form good +habits and live soberly so as to have a reserve stock of strength +for old age. Yet ought we to husband the exertions of the body, so +as not to be wearied out by them and rendered unfit for study. For, +as Plato says,<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a +href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">23</a> excessive sleep and +fatigue are enemies to learning. But why dwell on this? For I am in +a hurry to pass to the most important point. Our lads must be +trained for warlike encounters, making themselves efficient in +hurling the javelin and darts, and in the chase. For the +possessions of those who are defeated in battle belong to the +conquerors as booty of war; and war is not the place for delicately +brought up bodies: it is the spare warrior that makes the best +combatant, who as an athlete cuts his way through the ranks of the +enemies. Supposing anyone objects: "How so? As you undertook to +give advice on the education of freeborn children, do you now +neglect the poor and plebeian ones, and give instructions only +suitable to the rich?" It is easy enough to meet such critics. I +should prefer to make my teaching general and suitable to all; but +if any, through their poverty, shall be unable to follow up my +precepts, let them blame fortune, and not the author of these +hints. We must try with all our might to procure the best education +for the poor as well as the rich, but if that is impossible, then +we must put up with the practicable. I inserted those matters into +my discourse here, that I might hereafter confine myself to all +that appertains to the right education of the young.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> And this I say that we +ought to try to draw our boys to good pursuits by entreaties and +exhortation, but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id= +"Page_13">13</a></span>certainly not by blows or abusive language. +For that seems to be more fitting for slaves than the freeborn. For +slaves try to shirk and avoid their work, partly because of the +pain of blows, partly on account of being reviled. But praise or +censure are far more useful than abuse to the freeborn, praise +pricking them on to virtue, censure deterring them from vice. But +one must censure and praise alternately: when they are too saucy we +must censure them and make them ashamed of themselves, and again +encourage them by praise, and imitate those nurses who, when their +children sob, give them the breast to comfort them. But we must not +puff them up and make them conceited with excessive praise, for +that will make them vain and give themselves airs.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> And I have ere now seen +some fathers, whose excessive love for their children has turned +into hatred. My meaning I will endeavour to make clearer by +illustration. While they are in too great a hurry to make their +sons take the lead in everything, they lay too much work upon them, +so that they faint under their tasks, and, being overburdened, are +disinclined for learning. For just as plants grow with moderate +rain, but are done for by too much rain, so the mind enlarges by a +proper amount of work, but by too much is unhinged. We must +therefore give our boys remission from continuous labour, bearing +in mind that all our life is divided into labour and rest; thus we +find not only wakefulness but sleep, not only war but peace, not +only foul weather but fine also, not only working days but also +festivals. And, to speak concisely, rest is the sauce of labour. +And we can see this not only in the case of animate, but even +inanimate things, for we make bows and lyres slack that we may be +able to stretch them. And generally the body is preserved by +repletion and evacuation, and the soul by rest and work. We ought +also to censure some fathers who, after entrusting their sons to +tutors and preceptors, neither see nor hear how the teaching is +done. This is a great mistake. For they ought after a few days to +test the progress of their sons, and not to base their hopes on the +behaviour of a hireling; and the preceptors will take all the more +pains with the boys, if they have from time to time to give an +account of their progress. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" +id="Page_14">14</a></span> Hence the propriety of that remark of +the groom, that nothing fats the horse so much as the king's eye.<a +name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">24</a> And especial attention, +in my opinion, must be paid to cultivating and exercising the +memory of boys, for memory is, as it were, the storehouse of +learning; and that was why they fabled Mnemosyne to be the mother +of the Muses, hinting and insinuating that nothing so generates and +contributes to the growth of learning as memory. And therefore the +memory must be cultivated, whether boys have a good one by nature, +or a bad one. For we shall so add to natural good parts, and make +up somewhat for natural deficiencies, so that the deficient will be +better than others, and the clever will outstrip themselves. For +good is that remark of Hesiod, "If to a little you keep adding a +little, and do so frequently, it will soon be a lot."<a name= +"FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" +class="fnanchor">25</a> And let not fathers forget, that thus +cultivating the memory is not only good for education, but is also +a great aid in the business of life. For the remembrance of past +actions gives a good model how to deal wisely in future ones.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> We must also keep our +sons from filthy language. For, as Democritus says, Language is the +shadow of action. They must also be taught to be affable and +courteous. For as want of affability is justly hateful, so boys +will not be disagreeable to those they associate with, if they +yield occasionally in disputes. For it is not only excellent to +know how to conquer, but also to know how to be defeated, when +victory would be injurious, for there is such a thing as a Cadmean +victory.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">26</a> I can cite wise Euripides +as a witness of the truth of what I say, who says, "When two are +talking, and one of them is in a passion, he is the wiser who first +gives way."<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a +href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">27</a></p> + +<p>I will next state something quite as important, indeed, if +anything, even more important. That is, that life must be spent +without luxury, the tongue must be <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span>under control, so must the +temper and the hands. All this is of extreme importance, as I will +show by examples. To begin with the last case, some who have put +their hands to unjust gains, have lost all the fruits of their +former life, as the Lacedæmonian Gylippus,<a name= +"FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" +class="fnanchor">28</a> who was exiled from Sparta for embezzling +the public money. To be able to govern the temper also argues a +wise man. For Socrates, when a very impudent and disgusting young +fellow kicked him on one occasion, seeing all the rest of his class +vexed and impatient, even to the point of wanting to prosecute the +young man, said, "What! If a young ass kicked me would you have me +kick it back?" Not that the young fellow committed this outrage on +Socrates with impunity, for as all reviled him and nicknamed him +the kicker, he hung himself. And when Aristophanes brought his +"<i>Clouds</i>" on the stage, and bespattered Socrates with his +gibes and flouts, and one of the spectators said, "Aren't you +vexed, Socrates, at his exhibiting you on the stage in this comic +light?" he answered, "Not I, by Zeus, for I look upon the theatre +as only a large supper party."<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id= +"FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class= +"fnanchor">29</a> Very similar to this was the behaviour of +Archytas of Tarentum and Plato. The former, on his return from war, +where he had been general, finding his land neglected, called his +bailiff, and said to him, "You would have caught it, had I not been +very angry." And Plato, very angry with a gluttonous and shameless +slave, called his sister's son Speusippus, and said, "Go and beat +him, for I am too angry." But someone will say, these examples are +difficult and hard to follow. I know it. But we must try, as far as +possible, following these examples, to avoid ungovernable and mad +rage. For we cannot in other respects equal those distinguished men +in their ability and virtue, nevertheless we must, like initiating +priests of the gods and torchbearers of wisdom, attempt as far as +possible to imitate and nibble at their practice. Then, again, if +anyone thinks it a small and unimportant matter to govern the +tongue, another point I promised to touch on, he is very far from +the reality. For silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better +than any speech. And that is, I <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span>think, the reason why the +ancients instituted the mysteries that we, learning therein to be +silent, might transfer our secrecy to the gods to human affairs. +And no one ever yet repented of his silence, while multitudes have +repented of their speaking. And what has not been said is easy to +say, while what has been once said can never be recalled. I have +heard of myriads who have fallen into the greatest misfortunes +through inability to govern their tongues. Passing over the rest, I +will mention one or two cases in point. When Ptolemy Philadelphus +married his sister Arsinoe, Sotades said, "You are contracting an +unholy marriage."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id= +"FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class= +"fnanchor">30</a> For this speech he long lingered in prison, and +paid the righteous penalty for his unseasonable babbling, and had +to weep a long time for making others laugh. Theocritus the Sophist +similarly cracked his jokes, and had to pay even a greater penalty. +For when Alexander ordered the Greeks to furnish him with purple +robes to wear at the sacrifices on his triumphal return from war +against the barbarians, and his subjects contributed so much per +head, Theocritus said, "Before I doubted, but now I am sure, that +this is the <i>purple death</i> Homer speaks of."<a name= +"FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" +class="fnanchor">31</a> By this speech he made Alexander his enemy. +The same Theocritus put Antigonus, the King of the Macedonians, a +one-eyed man, into a thundering rage by alluding to his misfortune. +For the King sent his chief cook, Eutropio, an important person at +his court, to go and fetch Theocritus before him to confer with +him, and when he had frequently requested him to come without +avail, Theocritus at last said, "I know well you wish to serve me +up raw to the Cyclops;" flouting the King as one-eyed and the cook +with his profession. Eutropio replied, "You shall lose your head, +and pay the penalty for this babbling and mad insolence;" and +reported his words to the King, who sent and had his head taken +off. Our boys must also be taught to speak the truth as a most +sacred duty; for to lie is servile, and most hateful in all men, +hardly to be pardoned even in poor slaves.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> Thus much have I said +about the good conduct <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id= +"Page_17">17</a></span>and self-control of boys without any doubt +or hesitation: but as to what I am now going to say I am doubtful +and undecided, and like a person weighed in the scales against +exactly his weight, and feel great hesitation as to whether I +should recommend or dissuade the practice. But I must speak out. +The question is this—whether we ought to let the lovers of +our boys associate and be with them, or on the contrary, debar them +from their company and scare them off. For when I look at fathers +self-opinionated sour and austere, who think their sons having +lovers a disgrace not to be borne, I am rather afraid of +recommending the practice. But when, on the other hand, I think of +Socrates, Xenophon, Æschines, Cebes, and all the company of +those men who have approved of male loves, and who have introduced +their minions to learning, to high positions in the State, and to +good morals, I change my opinion, and am moved to emulate those +men. And Euripides seems to favour these views in the passage, "But +there is among mortals another love, that of the righteous +temperate and pure soul."<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id= +"FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class= +"fnanchor">32</a> Nor must we omit the remark of Plato, which seems +to mix seriousness with mirth, that "those who have distinguished +themselves ought to be permitted to kiss any handsome boy they +like."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">33</a> Those then that seek only +carnal enjoyment must be kept off, but those that love the soul +must be encouraged. And while the loves common at Thebes and Elis, +and the so-called rape at Crete, must be avoided, the loves of +Athens and Lacedæmon should be emulated.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> As to this matter, +therefore, let every parent follow his inclination. And now, as I +have spoken about the good and decent behaviour of boys, I shall +change my subject and speak a little about youths. For I have often +censured the introducers of bad habits, who have set over boys +tutors and preceptors, but have given to youths full liberty, when +they ought, on the contrary, to have watched and guarded them more +than boys. For who does not know that the offences of boys are +petty and easily cured, and proceed from the carelessness of tutors +or want of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id= +"Page_18">18</a></span>obedience to preceptors; but the faults of +young men are often grave and serious, as gluttony, and robbing +their fathers, and dice, and revellings, and drinking-bouts, and +deflowering of maidens, and seducing of married women. Such +outbreaks ought to be carefully checked and curbed. For that prime +of life is prodigal in pleasure, and frisky, and needs a bridle, so +that those parents who do not strongly check that period, are +foolishly, if unawares, giving their youths license for vice.<a +name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">34</a> Sensible parents, +therefore, ought during all that period to guard and watch and +restrain their youths, by precepts, by threats, by entreaties, by +advice, by promises, by citing examples,<a name="FNanchor_35_35" +id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class= +"fnanchor">35</a> on the one hand, of those who have come to ruin +by being too fond of pleasure, on the other hand, of those who by +their self-control have attained to praise and good report. For +these are, as it were, the two elements of virtue, hope of honour, +and fear of punishment; the former inciting to good practices, the +latter deterring from bad.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> We ought, at all +hazards, to keep our boys also from association with bad men, for +they will catch some of their villany. This was the meaning of +Pythagoras' enigmatical precepts, which I shall quote and explain, +as they give no slight momentum towards the acquisition of virtue: +as, <i>Do not touch black tails</i>: that is, do not associate with +bad men.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">36</a> <i>Do not go beyond the +balance</i>: that is, we must pay the greatest attention to justice +and not go beyond it. <i>Do not sit on a measure</i>: that is, do +not be lazy, but earn tomorrow's bread as well as to-day's. <i>Do +not give everyone your right hand</i>: that is, do not be too ready +to strike up a friendship. <i>Do not wear a tight ring</i>: that +is, let your life be free, do not bind yourself by a chain. <i>Do +not poke the fire with a sword</i>: that is, do not provoke an +angry person, but yield to such. <i>Do not eat the heart</i>: do +not wear away the heart by anxiety. <i>Abstain from beans</i>: that +is, do not meddle in state affairs, for the voting for offices was +formerly taken by beans. <i>Do not put your food in the +chamber-pot</i>: that is, do not throw your pearls before swine, +for words are the food of the mind, and the villany of men <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span>twist +them to a corrupt meaning. <i>When you have come to the end of a +journey do not look back</i>: that is, when people are going to die +and see that their end is near, they ought to take it easily and +not be dejected. But I will return from my digression. We must keep +our boys, as I said, from association with all bad men, but +especially from flatterers. For, as I have often said to parents, +and still say, and will constantly affirm, there is no race more +pestilential, nor more sure to ruin youths swiftly, than the race +of flatterers, who destroy both parents and sons root and branch, +making the old age of the one and the youth of the others +miserable, holding out pleasure as a sure bait. The sons of the +rich are by their fathers urged to be sober, but by them to be +drunk; by their fathers to be chaste, by them to wax wanton; by +their fathers to save, by them to spend; by their fathers to be +industrious, by them to be lazy. For they say, "'Our life's but a +span;'<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">37</a> we can only live once; +why should you heed your father's threats? he's an old twaddler, he +has one foot in the grave; we shall soon hoist him up and carry him +off to burial." Some even pimp for them and supply them with +prostitutes or even married women, and cut huge slices off the +father's savings for old age, if they don't run off with them +altogether. An accursed tribe, feigning friendship, knowing nothing +of real freedom, flatterers of the rich, despisers of the poor, +drawn to young men by a sort of natural logic,<a name= +"FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" +class="fnanchor">38</a> showing their teeth and grinning all over +when their patrons laugh,<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id= +"FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class= +"fnanchor">39</a> misbegotten brats of fortune and bastard elements +in life, living according to the nod of the rich, free in their +circumstances, but slaves by inclination, when they are not +insulted thinking themselves insulted, because they are parasites +to no purpose. So, if any father cares for the good bringing-up of +his sons, he must banish from his house this abominable race. He +must also be on his guard against the viciousness of his sons' +schoolfellows, for they are quite sufficient to corrupt the best +morals.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> What I have said +hitherto is <i>apropos</i> to my <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span>subject: I will now speak a +word to the men. Parents must not be over harsh and rough in their +natures, but must often forgive their sons' offences, remembering +that they themselves were once young. And just as doctors by +infusing a sweet flavour into their bitter potions find delight a +passage to benefit, so fathers must temper the severity of their +censure by mildness; and sometimes relax and slacken the reins of +their sons' desires, and again tighten them; and must be especially +easy in respect to their faults, or if they are angry must soon +cool down. For it is better for a father to be hot-tempered than +sullen, for to continue hostile and irreconcilable looks like +hating one's son. And it is good to seem not to notice some faults, +but to extend to them the weak sight and deafness of old age, so as +seeing not to see, and hearing not to hear, their doings. We +tolerate the faults of our friends; why should we not that of our +sons? often even our slaves' drunken debauches we do not expose. +Have you been rather near? spend more freely. Have you been vexed? +let the matter pass. Has your son deceived you by the help of a +slave? do not be angry. Did he take a yoke of oxen from the field, +did he come home smelling of yesterday's debauch? wink at it. Is he +scented like a perfume shop? say nothing. Thus frisky youth gets +broken in.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">40</a></p> + +<p><a name="Page_20a" id="Page_20a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">xix.</span> Those of our sons who are given to pleasure and +pay little heed to rebuke, we must endeavour to marry, for marriage +is the surest restraint upon youth. And we must marry our sons to +wives not much richer or better born, for the proverb is a sound +one, "Marry in your own walk of life."<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id= +"FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class= +"fnanchor">41</a> For those who marry wives superior to themselves +in rank are not so much the husbands of their wives as unawares +slaves to their dowries.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id= +"FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class= +"fnanchor">42</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xx.</span> I shall add a few remarks, +and then bring my subject to a close. Before all things fathers +must, by a good behaviour, set a good example to their sons, that, +looking at their lives as a mirror, they may turn away from <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span>bad +deeds and words. For those fathers who censure their sons' faults +while they themselves commit the same, are really their own +accusers, if they know it not, under their sons' name; and those +who live a depraved life have no right to censure their slaves, far +less their sons. And besides this they will become counsellors and +teachers of their sons in wrongdoing; for where old men are +shameless youths will of a certainty have no modesty. We must +therefore take all pains to teach our sons self-control, emulating +the conduct of Eurydice, who, though an Illyrian and more than a +barbarian, to teach her sons educated herself though late in life, +and her love to them is well depicted in the inscription which she +offered to the Muses: "Eurydice of Hierapolis made this offering to +the Muses, having conceived a vast love for knowledge. For when a +mother with sons full-grown she learnt letters, the preservers of +knowledge."</p> + +<p>To carry out all these precepts would be perhaps a visionary +scheme; but to attain to many, though it would need a happy +disposition and much care, is a thing possible to human nature.<a +name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">43</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> Euripides, "Here. +Fur." 1261, 1262.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> Euripides, +"Hippol." 424, 425.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> Cleophantus is the +name given to this lad by other writers.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">6</span></a> Compare Sophocles, +"Œdipus Tyrannus," 112, 113.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">7</span></a> The Thessalians +were very pugnacious. Cf. Isocrates, "Oratio de Pace," p. 316. +οἱ μὲν +(θετταλοὶ) +σφίσιν +αύσῖς +ἀτοῖς ἀεὶ +πολεμοῦσιν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">8</span></a> A proverbial +expression among the ancients for earliest childhood. See Erasmus, +"Adagia."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">9</span></a> Plato, "Republic," +ii. p. 429, E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">10</span></a> See Erasmus, +"Adagia."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">11</span></a> It is difficult +to know how to render the word +παιδαγωγὸς +in English. He was the slave who took the boy to school, and +generally looked after him from his seventh year upward. Tutor or +governor seems the best rendering. He had great power over the boy +entrusted to him.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">12</span></a> Plato, +"Clitophon," p. 255, D.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">13</span></a> Compare +Diogenes Laertius, ii. 72.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">14</span></a> Reading +κοιτοφθοροῦντες, +the excellent emendation of Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">15</span></a> From the +heathen standpoint of course, not from the Christian. Compare the +advice of Cato in Horace's "Satires," Book i. Sat. ii. 31-35. It is +a little difficult to know what Diogenes' precept really means. Is +it that vice is universal? Like Shakespeare's "Measure for +Measure," Act ii. Sc. ii. 5. "All sects, all ages smack of this +vice."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">16</span></a> He was asked by +Polus, see Plato, "Gorgias," p. 290, F.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">17</span></a> "Hippolytus," +986-989.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">18</span></a> Cf. Plato, +"Cratylus," p. 257, E. ὦ παῖ +Ὶππονίκου +Ὲρμόγενες, +παλαιὰ +παροιμἰα, +ὃτι χαλεπὰ +τὰ καλἀ ἐσιν +ὃπη ἔχει +μαθεῖν. So Horace, "Sat." i. ix. +59, 60, "Nil sine magno Vita labore dedit mortalibus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">19</span></a> "Midias," p. +411, C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">20</span></a> <i>i.e.</i>, +occasionally and sparingly.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">21</span></a> Diogenes +Laertius assigns the remark to Aristippus, while Stobæus +fathers it on Aristo.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">22</span></a> A favourite +thought with the ancients. Compare Isocrates, "Admonitio ad +Demonicum," p. 18; and Aristotle, "Nic. Eth.," iv. 3.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">23</span></a> "Republic," +vii. p. 489, E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">24</span></a> A famous +Proverb. It is "the master's eye" generally, as in Xenophon, +"Œconom." xii. 20; and Aristotle, "Œconom." i. 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">25</span></a> "Works and +Days," 361, 362. The lines were favourite ones with our author. He +quotes them again, § 3, of "How one may be aware of one's +Progress in Virtue."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">26</span></a> See Pausanias, +ix. 9. Also Erasmus, "Adagia."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">27</span></a> A fragment from +the "Protesilaus" of Euripides. Our "It takes two to make a +quarrel."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">28</span></a> See Plutarch's +Lysander.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">29</span></a> Or +<i>symposium</i>, where all sorts of liberties were taken.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">30</span></a> I have softened +his phrase. His actual words were very coarse, and would naturally +be resented by Ptolemy. See Athenæus, 621, A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">31</span></a> See "Iliad," v. +83; xvi. 334; xx, 477.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">32</span></a> A fragment from +the "Dictys" of Euripides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">33</span></a> "Republ." v. +463, F. sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">34</span></a> Cf. +Shakespeare's "Winter Tale," Act iii. sc. iii. 59-63.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">35</span></a> As Horace's +father did. See "Satires," Book i. Sat. iv. 105-129.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">36</span></a> What we call +<i>black sheep</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">37</span></a> From Simonides. +Cf. Seneca, "Epist." xlix. "Punctum est quod vivimus, et adhuc +puncto minus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">38</span></a> Reading with +Wyttenbach, ὡς ἐκ +λογικῆς +τέχνης.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">39</span></a> Like +<i>Carker</i> in Dombey.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">40</span></a> Compare the +character of Micio in the "Adelphi" of Terence.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">41</span></a> This saying is +assigned by Diogenes Laertius to Pittacus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">42</span></a> Compare +Plautus, "Asinaria," i. l. 74. "Argentum accepi: dote imperum +vendidi." Compare also our author, "Whether Vice is sufficient to +cause Unhappiness," <a href="#Page_138a">§ i.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">43</span></a> Wyttenbach +thinks this treatise is not Plutarch's. He bases his conclusion +partly on external, partly on internal, grounds. It is not quoted +by Stobæus, or any of the ancients, before the fourteenth +century. And its style is not Plutarch's; it has many words foreign +to Plutarch: it has "nescio quid novum ac peregrinum, ab illa +Plutarchea copia et gravitate diversum leve et inane." Certainly +its matter is superior to its manner.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_21a" id="Page_21a">ON LOVE TO ONE'S +OFFSPRING.</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Appeals to foreign +law-courts were first devised among the Greeks through mistrust of +one another's justice, for they looked on justice as a necessity +not indigenous among them. Is it not on much the same principle +that the philosophers, in regard to some of their questions, owing +to their variety of opinion, have appealed to the brute creation as +to a strange state, and submitted the decision to their instincts +and habits as not to be talked over <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span>and impartial? Or is it a +general charge against human infirmity that, having different +opinions on the most necessary and important things, we seek in +horses and dogs and birds how to marry and beget and rear children, +as though we had no means of making our own nature known, and +appeal to the habits and instincts of the brute creation, and call +them in to bear witness against the many deviations from nature in +our lives, which from the first are confused and disorderly. For +among the brutes nature remains ever the same, pure and simple, but +in men, owing to reason and habit, like oil in the hands of the +perfumers, being mixed up with many added opinions, it becomes +various and loses its original simplicity. And let us not wonder +that the brutes follow nature more closely than human beings, for +in that respect even they are outstripped by inanimate things, +which, being dowered neither with imagination nor any appetite or +inclination contrary to nature, ever continue in the one path which +nature has prescribed for them, as if they were tied and bound. But +in brutes the gentleness of mood inspired by reason, the subtlety, +the love of freedom, are not qualities found in excess, but they +have unreasonable appetites and desires, and act in a roundabout +way within certain limits, riding, as it were, at the anchor of +nature, and only going straight under bit and bridle. But in man +reason, which is absolute master, inventing different modes and +fashions of life, has left no plain or evident trace of nature.<a +name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">44</a></p> + +<p><a name="Page_22a" id="Page_22a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">ii.</span> Consider in their marriages how much the animals +follow nature. For they do not wait for any legislation about +bachelor or late-married, like the citizens of Lycurgus and Solon, +nor do they fear penalties for childlessness, nor are they anxious +for the <i>jus trium liberorum</i>,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id= +"FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class= +"fnanchor">45</a> like many of the Romans, who only marry and have +children for the privileges it bestows, not to have heirs, but to +be qualified for succeeding themselves to inheritances. Then, +again, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id= +"Page_23">23</a></span>the male animal does not go with the female +at all times; for its aim is not pleasure but procreation: so in +the season of spring, the most appropriate time for such +pairings,<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">46</a> the female being +submissive and tender attracts the male by her beautiful condition +of body, coming as she does from the dew and fresh pastures, and +when pregnant modestly retires and takes thought for the birth and +safety of her offspring. We cannot adequately describe all this, +but every animal exhibits for its young affection and forethought +and endurance and unselfishness. We call the bee wise, and +celebrate its "making the yellow honey,"<a name="FNanchor_47_47" +id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class= +"fnanchor">47</a> flattering it for its tickling sweetness; but we +neglect the wisdom and ingenuity of other creatures, both as +regards the birth and bringing up of their young. For example, the +kingfisher after conception weaves its nest with the thorns of the +marine needle, making it round and oblong in shape like a +fisherman's basket, and after deftly and closely weaving it +together, subjects it to the action of the sea waves, that its +surface may be rendered waterproof by this plash and cement, and it +is hard for even iron or stone to break it. And what is more +wonderful still, so symmetrically is the entrance of the nest +adjusted to the kingfisher's shape and size, that no beast either +greater or smaller can enter it, they even say that it does not +admit the sea, or even the very smallest things. And cats, when +they breed, very often let their kittens go out and feed, and take +them back into their entrails again.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id= +"FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class= +"fnanchor">48</a> And the bear, a most savage and ugly beast, gives +birth to its young without shape or joints, and with its tongue as +with an instrument moulds its features, so that it seems to give +form as well as life to its progeny. And the lion in Homer, "whom +the hunters meet in the wood with its whelps, exulting in its +strength, which so frowns that it hides its eyes,"<a name= +"FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" +class="fnanchor">49</a> does it not intend to bargain with the +hunters for its whelps? For universally the love of animals for +their offspring makes timid ones bold, and lazy ones energetic, and +greedy ones <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id= +"Page_24">24</a></span>unselfish. And so the bird in Homer, feeding +its young "with its beak, with whatever it has captured, even +though it goes ill with itself,"<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id= +"FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class= +"fnanchor">50</a> nourishes its young at the cost of its own +hunger, and when the food is near its maw abstains from it, and +holds it tightly in its mouth, that it may not gulp it down +unawares. "And so a bitch bestriding her tender pups, barks at a +strange man, and yearns for the fray,"<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id= +"FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class= +"fnanchor">51</a> making her fear for them a sort of second anger. +And partridges when they are pursued with their young let them fly +on, and, contriving their safety, themselves fly so near the +sportsmen as to be almost caught, and then wheel round, and again +fly back and make the sportsmen hope to catch them, till at last, +having thus provided for the safety of their young, they lead the +sportsmen on a long way. As to hens, we see every day how they +watch over their chicks, dropping their wings over some, and +letting others climb on their backs, or anywhere about them, and +clucking for joy all the time: and though they fly from dogs and +dragons when only afraid for themselves, if they are afraid for +their chicks they stand their ground and fight valiantly. Are we to +suppose then that nature has only implanted these instincts in +fowls and dogs and bears, anxious only about their offspring, to +put us mortals out of countenance and to give us a bad name? +considering these examples for us to follow, while disgrace justly +attaches to our inhumanity, for mankind only is accused of having +no disinterested affection, and of not knowing how to love except +in regard to advantage. For that line is greatly admired in the +theatres, "Man loves man only for reward," and is the view of +Epicurus, who thinks that the father so loves his son, the mother +her child, children their parents. Whereas, if the brutes could +understand conversation, and if anyone were to introduce horses and +cows and dogs and birds into a common theatre,<a name= +"FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" +class="fnanchor">52</a> and were to change the sentiment into +"neither do dogs love their pups, nor horses their foals, nor birds +their young, out <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id= +"Page_25">25</a></span>of interest, but gratuitously and by +nature," it would be recognized by the affections of all of them to +be a true sentiment. Why it would be disgraceful, great God, that +birth and travail and procreation should be gratis and mere nature +among the beasts, while among mankind they should be merely +mercenary transactions!</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> But such a statement is +not true or worthy of credit. For as nature, in wild growths, such +as wild vines, wild figs, or wild olives, makes the fruit imperfect +and inferior to the fruit of cultivated trees, so has she given to +the brutes an imperfect affection for their kind, one neither +marked by justice nor going beyond commodity: whereas to man, a +logical and social animal, she has taught justice and law, and +honour to the gods, and building of cities, and philanthropy, and +has contributed the noble and goodly and fruitful seeds of all +these in love to one's offspring, thereby following the very first +elements that are found in the construction of the body. For nature +is everywhere perfect and artistic and complete, and, to borrow the +expression of Erasistratus, has nothing tawdry about her: but one +cannot adequately describe all the processes appertaining to birth, +nor would it be perhaps decent to pry too closely into such hidden +matters, and to particularize too minutely all their wondrous +ingenuity. But her contrivance and dispensation of milk alone is +sufficient to prove nature's wonderful care and forethought. For +all the superfluous blood in women, that owing to their languor and +thinness of spirit floats about on the surface and oppresses them, +has a safety-valve provided by nature in the menses, which relieve +and cleanse the rest of the body, and fit the womb for conception +in due season. But after conception nature stops the menses, and +arrests the flow of the blood, using it as aliment for the babe in +the womb, until the time arrives for its birth, and it requires a +different kind of food. At this stage the blood is most ingeniously +changed into a supply of milk, not diffused all over the body, but +externally in the breasts, so that the babe can with its mouth +imbibe the gentle and soothing nutriment.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" +id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class= +"fnanchor">53</a> But all these various <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span>processes of nature, all +this economy, all this forethought, would be useless, had not +nature also implanted in mothers love to their offspring and +anxiety for their welfare.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For of all things, that on +the earth do breathe</span> <span class="i0">Or creep, man is by +far the wretchedest."<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id= +"FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class= +"fnanchor">54</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And the poet's words are especially applicable to a newborn +babe. For there is nothing so imperfect, so helpless, so naked, so +shapeless, so foul as a newborn babe: to whom almost alone nature +has given an impure outlet to the light of day: being kneaded with +blood, and full of defilement, and like one killed rather than +born: which no one would touch, or lift up, or kiss, or embrace, +but from natural affection. And that is why all the animals have +their udders under the belly, women alone have their breasts high +on their bodies, that they can lift up their babes to kiss, to +dandle, and to fondle: seeing that their bearing and rearing +children comes not from necessity but love.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Refer the question to the +ancient inhabitants of the earth, to the first mothers and fathers. +There was no law ordering them to have families, no expectation of +advantage or return to be got out of them. I should rather say that +mothers would be likely to be hostile and bear malice to their +babes, owing to the great danger and pains of travail. And women +say the lines, "When the sharp pangs of travail seize on the +pregnant woman, then come to her aid the Ilithyiæ, who help +women in hard childbirth, those daughters of Hera, goddesses of +travail,"<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">55</a> were not written by +Homer, but by some Homerid who had been a mother, or was even then +in the throes of travail, and who vividly felt the sharp pain in +her womb. But the love to one's offspring implanted by nature, +moves and influences the mother even then: in the very height of +her throes, she neglects not nor flees from her babe, but turns to +it and smiles at it, and takes it up and caresses it, though she +derives no pleasure or utility from it, but with pain and sorrow +receives it, "warming it and fostering it <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span>in swaddling clothes, with +unintermittent assiduity both night and day."<a name= +"FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" +class="fnanchor">56</a> What hope of gain or advantage had they in +those days? nay, or even now? for the hopes of parents are +uncertain, and have to be long waited for. He who plants a vine in +the spring equinox, gleans its vintage in the autumnal equinox; he +who sows corn when the Pleiads set, reaps it when they rise; cattle +and horses and birds have produce at once fit for use; whereas +man's bringing up is toilsome, his growth slow; and as excellence +flowers late, most fathers die before their sons attain to fame. +Neocles lived not to see Themistocles' victory at Salamis, nor +Miltiades Cimon's at the Eurymedon, nor did Xanthippus hear +Pericles haranguing, nor did Aristo hear Plato philosophizing, nor +did their fathers know of the triumphs of Euripides and Sophocles. +They heard them faltering in speech and lisping in syllables, the +poor parents saw their errors in revelling and drinking and +love-affairs, so that of all Evenus'<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id= +"FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class= +"fnanchor">57</a> lines, that one alone is most remembered and +quoted, "to a father a son is always a cause of fear or pain." +Nevertheless, parents do not cease to bring up sons, even when they +can least need them. For it is ridiculous to suppose that the rich, +when they have sons, sacrifice and rejoice that they will have +people to take care of them and to bury them; unless indeed they +bring up sons from want of heirs; as if one could not find or fall +in with anyone who would be willing to have another's property! +Why, the sand on the sea shore, and the dust, and the wings of +birds of varied note, are less numerous than the number of would-be +heirs. For had Danaus, the father of fifty daughters, been +childless, he would have had more heirs, and of a different spirit. +For sons have no gratitude, nor regard, nor veneration for +inheritance; but take it as a debt; whereas the voices of strangers +which you hear round the childless man, are like those lines in the +play, "O People, first bathe, after one decision in the courts, +then eat, drink, gobble, take the three-obol-piece."<a name= +"FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" +class="fnanchor">58</a> And what Euripides has said, "Money finds +friends for men, and has the greatest <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span>power among mankind," is +not merely a general truth, but is especially true in the case of +the childless. For those the rich entertain to dinner, those great +men pay court to, to those alone orators give their services +gratis. "A mighty personage is a rich man, whose heir is unknown." +It has at any rate made many much loved and honoured, whom the +possession of one child would have made unloved and insignificant. +Whence we see that there is no power or advantage to be got from +children, but that the love of them, alike in mankind as among the +animals, proceeds entirely from nature.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> What if this natural +affection, like many other virtues, is obscured by badness, as a +wilderness chokes a garden? Are we to say that man does not love +himself by nature, because many cut their throats or throw +themselves down precipices? Did not Œdipus put out his eyes? +And did not Hegesias by his speeches make, many of his hearers to +commit suicide?<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a +href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">59</a> "Fatality has many +different aspects."<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id= +"FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class= +"fnanchor">60</a> But all these are diseases and maladies of the +soul driving a man contrary to nature out of his wits: as men +themselves testify even against themselves. For if a sow destroys +one of its litter, or a bitch one of its pups, men are dejected and +troubled, and think it an evil omen, and sacrifice to the gods to +avert any bad results, on the score that it is natural to all to +love and cherish their offspring, unnatural to destroy it. For just +as in mines the gold is conspicuous even though mixed up with +earth, so nature manifests plainly love to offspring even in +instances of faulty habits and affections. For when the poor do not +rear their children, it is from fear that if reared to man's estate +they would be more than ought to be the case servile, and have +little culture, and be debarred of all advantages: so, thinking +poverty the worst of all evils, they cannot bear to give it their +children, any more than they would some bad disease.<a name= +"FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" +class="fnanchor">61</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">44</span></a> Much of this is +very corrupt in the Greek. I have tried to get the best sense I +could; but it is very obscure. Certainly Plutarch's style is often +very harsh and crabbed.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">45</span></a> The <i>jus +trium liberorum</i> assigned certain privileges to the father of +three children, under the Roman Emperors. Frequent allusions are +made to this law by the ancient writers.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">46</span></a> Compare +Lucretius, i. 10-20.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">47</span></a> A quotation +from Simonides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">48</span></a> We are not +bound to swallow all the ancients tell us. Credat Judæus +Apella!</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">49</span></a> "Iliad," xvii. +134-136.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">50</span></a> "Iliad," ix. +324. Quoted again in "How one may be aware of one's Progress in +Virtue," § 8.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">51</span></a> "Odyssey," xx. +14, 15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">52</span></a> A theatre, that +is, in which animals and birds and human beings should meet in +common.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">53</span></a> All that is +said here about the milk, the menses, and the blood, I have been +obliged somewhat to condense and paraphrase. The ancients sometimes +speak more plainly than we can. Ever and anon one must pare down a +phrase or word in translating an ancient author. It is inevitable. +<i>Verbum sat sapienti.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">54</span></a> Homer, "Iliad," +xvii. 446, 447.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">55</span></a> Ibid. xi. +269-271.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">56</span></a> A fragment from +Euripides, according to Xylander.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">57</span></a> Evenus of Paros +was an Elegiac Poet.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">58</span></a> Aristophanes, +"Equites," 50, 51.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">59</span></a> See Cicero +"Tuscul." i. 34.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">60</span></a> Euripides, +"Alcestis," 1159; "Helena," 1688; "Andromache," 1284; +"Bacchæ," 1388.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">61</span></a> The discourse +breaks off abruptly. It is directed against the Epicureans. It +throws ridicule on appealing to the affection of brutes for their +offspring instead of appealing to human nature.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id= +"Page_29">29</a></span></p> + +<h3>ON LOVE.</h3> + +<p class="two">FLAVIANUS AND AUTOBULUS, THE OPENERS OF THE +DIALOGUE, ARE BROTHERS. THE OTHER SPEAKERS ARE THEIR FATHER, +DAPHNÆUS, PROTOGENES, PISIAS, AND OTHERS.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_29a" id="Page_29a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">i.</span> <i>Flavianus.</i>—You say that it was on +Mount Helicon, Autobulus, that those conversations took place about +Love, which you are now about to narrate to us at our request, as +you either wrote them down, or at least remember them from +frequently asking our father about them.</p> + +<p><i>Autobulus.</i>—It was on Mount Helicon among the Muses, +Flavianus, when the people of Thespiæ were celebrating their +Festival to the God of Love, which they celebrate very +magnificently and splendidly every five years to that God, as also +to the Muses.</p> + +<p><i>Flavianus.</i>—Do you know what all of us who have come +to this audience intend to ask of you?</p> + +<p><i>Autobulus.</i>—No, but I shall know if you tell me.</p> + +<p><i>Flavianus.</i>—Remove from your discourse for this once +the poet's meadows and shades, and talk about ivy and yews, and all +other commonplaces of that kind that writers love to introduce, +with more zeal than discretion, in imitation of Plato's Ilissus and +the famous willow and the gentle slope of grass.<a name= +"FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" +class="fnanchor">62</a></p> + +<p><i>Autobulus.</i>—My dear Flavianus, my narrative needs +not any such exordium. The occasion that caused the conversation +simply demands a chorus for the action and a stage, nothing else is +wanting to the drama, let us only pray to the Mother of the Muses +to be propitious, and give me memory for my narrative.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> Long ago our father, +before we were born, having lately married our mother, had gone to +sacrifice to the God of Love, in consequence of a dispute and +variance that broke out among their parents, and took our mother to +the Festival, for she also had her part in the vow and sacrifice. +Some of their intimate friends journeyed with them from the town +where they lived, and when they got to Thespiæ <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span>they found +there Daphnæus the son of Archidamus, a lover of Lysandra the +daughter of Simo, and of all her suitors the one who stood highest +in her favour, and Soclarus the son of Aristio, who had come from +Tithorea. And there were there also Protogenes of Tarsus, and +Zeuxippus from Sparta, strangers, and my father said most of the +most notable Bœotians were there also. For two or three days +they went about the town in one another's company, as it was likely +they would do, quietly carrying on philosophical discussions in the +wrestling-schools and theatres: after that, to avoid a wearisome +contest of harpers, decided beforehand by canvassing and cabal, +most broke up their camp as if they had been in a hostile country, +and removed to Mount Helicon, and bivouacked there with the Muses. +In the morning they were visited by Anthemion and Pisias, both men +of good repute, and very great friends of Baccho, who was surnamed +the Handsome, and also rivals of one another somewhat through their +affection for him. Now you must know that there was at +Thespiæ a lady called Ismenodora, famous for her wealth and +good family, and of uncommon good repute for her virtuous life: for +she had been a widow some time without a breath of slander lighting +upon her, though she was young and good-looking. As Baccho was the +son of a friend and crony of hers, she had tried to bring about a +marriage between him and a maiden who was her own relation, but by +frequently being in his company and talking to him she had got +rather smitten with him herself. And hearing much in his favour, +and often talking about him, and seeing that many noble young men +were in love with him, she fell violently in love with him, and, +being resolved to do nothing unbecoming to her fair fame, +determined to marry and live openly with him. And the matter +seeming in itself rather odd, Baccho's mother looked rather askance +at the proposed matrimonial alliance as being too high and splendid +for her son, while some of his companions who used to go out +hunting with him, frightening him and flouting him with +Ismenodora's being rather too old for him, really did more to break +off the match than those who seriously opposed it. And Baccho, +being only a youth, somehow felt a little ashamed at the idea +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id= +"Page_31">31</a></span> marrying a widow, but, neglecting the +opinions of everybody else, he submitted the decision as to the +expediency of the marriage to Pisias and Anthemion, the latter +being his cousin, though older than him, and the former the +gravest<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">63</a> of his lovers. Pisias +objected to the marriage, and upbraided Anthemion with throwing the +youth away on Ismenodora. Anthemion replied that it was not well in +Pisias, being a good fellow in other respects, to imitate depraved +lovers by shutting out his friend from house and marriage and +wealth, merely that he might enjoy the sight of him as long as +possible naked and in all his virgin bloom at the +wrestling-schools.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> To avoid getting +estranged by provoking one another on the question, they came and +chose our father and his companions as umpires on the matter. And +of the other friends, as if by concerted arrangement, +Daphnæus espoused the view of Anthemion, and Protogenes the +view of Pisias. And Protogenes inveighing somewhat too freely +against Ismenodora, Daphnæus took him up and said, "Hercules, +what are we not to expect, if Protogenes is going to be hostile to +love? he whose whole life, whether in work or at play, has been +devoted to love, in forgetfulness of letters, in forgetfulness of +his country, not like Laius, away from his country only five days, +his was only a torpid and land love: whereas your love 'unfolding +its swift wings,' flew over the sea from Cilicia to Athens, merely +to gaze at and saunter about with handsome boys. For that was the +original reason, doubtless, of Protogenes' journey abroad."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> And some laughter ensuing, +Protogenes replied, "Do I really seem to you now to be hostile to +love, and not to be fighting for love against ungovernable lust, +which with most disgraceful acts and emotions assumes the most +honourable of titles?" Whereupon Daphnæus, "Do you call the +marriage and union of man and woman most disgraceful, than which no +holier tie exists nor ever <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" +id="Page_32">32</a></span>did?" Protogenes replied, "Why, as all +this is necessary for the human race to continue, our legislators +do not act amiss in crying up marriage and eulogizing it to the +masses, but of genuine love there is not a particle in the woman's +side of a house;<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a +href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">64</a> and I also say that +you who are sweet on women and girls only love them as flies love +milk, and bees the honey-comb, and butchers and cooks calves and +birds, fattening them up in darkness.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id= +"FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class= +"fnanchor">65</a> But as nature leads one to eat and drink +moderately and sufficiently, and excess in this is called gluttony +and gormandizing, so the mutual desires between men and women are +natural; but that headlong, violent, and uncontrollable passion for +the sex is not rightly called love. For love, when it seizes a +noble and young soul, ends in virtue through friendship; but these +violent passions for women, at the best, aim only at carnal +enjoyment and reaping the harvest of a beauteous prime, as +Aristippus showed in his answer to one who told him Lais loved him +not, 'No more,' he said, 'do meat and wine love me, but I gladly +enjoy both.'<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a +href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">66</a> For the end of +passion is pleasure and fruition: but love, when it has once lost +the promise of friendship, will not remain and continue to cherish +merely for beauty that which gives it pain, where it gives no +return of friendship and virtue. You remember the husband in the +play saying to his wife, 'Do you hate me? I can bear that hatred +very easily, since of my dishonour I make money.' Not a whit more +really in love than this husband is the one, who, not for gain but +merely for the sexual appetite, puts up with a peevish and +unsympathetic wife, as Philippides, the comic poet, ridiculed the +orator, Stratocles, 'You scarce can kiss her if she turns her back +on you.' If, however, we ought to give the name of love to this +passion, then is it an effeminate and bastard love, and like at +Cynosarges,<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a +href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">67</a> taking us to the +woman's side of the house: or rather as <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span>they say there is a +genuine mountain eagle, which Homer called 'black, and a bird of +prey,' and there are other kinds of spurious eagles, which catch +fish and lazy birds in marshes, and often in want of food emit an +hungry wail: so the genuine love is the love of boys, a love not +'flashing with desire,' as Anacreon said the love of maidens was, +nor 'redolent of ointment and sprightly,' but you will see it plain +and without airs in the schools of the philosophers, or perhaps in +the gymnasiums and wrestling-schools, keenly and nobly pursuing +youths, and urging on to virtue those who are well worthy of +attention: but that soft and stay-at-home love, spending all its +time in women's bosoms and beds, always pursuing effeminate +delights, and enervated by unmanly, unfriendly, and unimpassioned +pleasures, we ought to condemn as Solon condemned it: for he +forbade slaves to love boys or to anoint them with oil, while he +allowed them to associate with women. For friendship is noble and +refined, whereas pleasure is vulgar and illiberal. Therefore, for a +slave to love boys is neither liberal or refined: for it is merely +the love of copulation, as the love of women."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Protogenes was intending to +go on at greater length, when Daphnæus stopped him and said, +"You do well, by Zeus, to mention Solon, and we too may use him as +the test of an amorous man. Does he not define such a one in the +lines, 'As long as you love boys in the glorious flower of their +youth for their kisses and embraces.' And add to Solon the lines of +Æschylus, 'You did not disdain the honour of the thighs, O +thankless one after all my frequent kisses.'<a name= +"FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" +class="fnanchor">68</a> For some laugh at them if they bid lovers, +like sacrificing priests and seers, to inspect thighs and loins; +but I think this a mighty argument in behalf of the love of women. +For if the unnatural commerce with males does not take away or mar +the amorous propensity, much more likely is it that the natural +love of women will end in friendship after the favour. For, +Protogenes, the yielding of the female to the male was called by +the ancients the favour. Thus Pindar says Hephæstus was the +son of Hera <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id= +"Page_34">34</a></span>'without any favours':<a name= +"FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" +class="fnanchor">69</a> and Sappho, addressing a girl not yet ripe +for marriage, says to her, 'You seemed to me a little girl, too +young for the favour.' And someone asks Hercules, 'Did you obtain +the girl's favour by force or by persuasion?' But the love of males +for males, whether rape or voluntary—pathicks effeminately +submitting, to use Plato's words, 'to be treated +bestially'—is altogether a foul and unlovely favour. And so I +think Solon wrote the lines quoted above 'in his hot youth,' as +Plato puts it; but when he became older wrote these other lines, +'Now I delight in Cyprus-born Aphrodite, and in Dionysus, and in +the Muses: all these give joys to men': as if, after the heat and +tempest of his boyish loves, he had got into a quiet haven of +marriage and philosophy. But indeed, Protogenes, if we look at the +real facts of the case, the love for boys and women is really one +and the same passion: but if you wish in a disputatious spirit to +make any distinction, you will find that this boy-love goes beyond +all bounds, and, like some late-born and ill-begotten bastard brat, +seeks to expel its legitimate brother the older love, the love of +women. For indeed, friend, it is only yesterday or the day before, +since the strippings and exposures of the youths in the gymnasiums, +that this boy-love crept in, and gently insinuated itself and got a +footing, and at last in a little time got fully-fledged in the +wrestling-schools, and has now got fairly unbearable, and insults +and tramples on conjugal love, that love that gives immortality to +our mortal race, when our nature has been extinguished by death, +kindling it again by new births. And this boy-love denies that +pleasure is its aim: for it is ashamed and afraid to confess the +truth: but it needs some specious excuse for the liberties it takes +with handsome boys in their prime: the pretext is friendship and +virtue. So your boy-lover wallows in the dust, bathes in cold +water, raises his eyebrows, gives himself out for a philosopher, +and lives chaste abroad because of the law: but in the stillness of +night</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Sweet is the ripe fruit when +the guard's withdrawn.'<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id= +"FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class= +"fnanchor">70</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id= +"Page_35">35</a></span> But if, as Protogenes says, there is no +carnal intercourse in these boy-familiarities, how is it Love, if +Aphrodite is not present, whom it is the destiny of Love to cherish +and pay court to, and to partake of just as much honour and power +as she assigns to him? But if there is any Love without Aphrodite, +as there is drunkenness without wine in drinks made from figs and +barley, the disturbing it will be fruitless and without effect, and +surfeiting and disgusting."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> At the conclusion of this +speech, it was clear that Pisias was vexed and indignant with +Daphnæus; and after a moment's silence he began: "O Hercules! +what levity and audacity for men to state that they are tied to +women as dogs to bitches, and to banish the god of Love from the +gymnasiums and public walks, and light of day and open intercourse, +and to restrict him to brothels<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id= +"FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class= +"fnanchor">71</a> and philtres and incantations of wanton women: +for to chaste women, I am sure, it belongs not either to love or be +loved." At this point our father told me he interposed, and took +Protogenes by the hand, and said to him:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"'This word of yours rouses +the Argive host,'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and of a verity Pisias makes us to side with Daphnæus by +his extravagant language, charging marriage with being a loveless +intercourse, and one that has no participation in divine +friendship, although we can see that it is an intercourse, if +erotic persuasion and favour fail, that cannot be restrained by +shame and fear as by bit and bridle." Thereupon Pisias said, "I +care little about his arguments; but I see that Daphnæus is +in the same condition as brass: for, just as it is not worked upon +so much by the agency of fire as by the molten and liquid brass +fused with it, so is he not so much captivated by the beauty of +Lysandra as by his association with one who is the victim of the +gentle passion; and it is plain that, if he doesn't take refuge +with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id= +"Page_36">36</a></span>us, he will soon melt away in the flame +altogether. But I see, what Anthemion would very much like, that I +am offending the Court, so I stop." "You amuse us," said Anthemion: +"but you ought from the first to have spoken to the point."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> "I say then," continued +Pisias, "and give it out boldly, as far as I am concerned, let +every woman have a lover; but we ought to guard against giving the +wealth of Ismenodora to Baccho, lest, if we involve him in so much +grandeur and magnificence, we unwittingly lose him in it, as tin is +lost in brass. For if the lad were to marry quite a plain and +insignificant woman, it would be great odds whether he would keep +the upper hand, as wine mixed with water; and Ismenodora seems +already marked out for sway and command; for otherwise she would +not have rejected such illustrious and wealthy suitors to woo a lad +hardly yet arrived at man's estate, and almost requiring a tutor +still. And therefore men of sense prune the excessive wealth of +their wives, as if it had wings that required clipping; for this +same wealth implants in them luxury, caprice, and vanity, by which +they are often elated and fly away altogether: but if they remain, +it would be better to be bound by golden fetters, as in Ethiopia, +than to a woman's wealth."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Here Protogenes put in, +"You say nothing about the risk we run of unseasonably and +ridiculously reversing the well-known advice of Hesiod:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'If seasonable marriage you +would make,</span> <span class="i0">Let about thirty be the +bridegroom's age,</span> <span class="i0">The bride be in the fifth +year of her womanhood:'<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id= +"FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class= +"fnanchor">72</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>if we thus marry a lad hardly old enough for marriage to a woman +so many years older, than himself, as dates and figs are forced. +You will say she loves him passionately: who prevents her, then, +from serenading at his doors, singing her amorous ditty, putting +garlands on his statues, and wrestling and boxing with her rivals +in his affections? For all these are what people in love do. And +let her lower her eyebrows, and give up the airs of a coquette, and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id= +"Page_37">37</a></span>assume the appearance of those that are +deeply smitten. But if she is modest and chaste, let her decorously +stay at home and await there her lovers and sweethearts; for any +sensible man would be disgusted and flee from a woman who took the +initiative in love, far less would he be likely to marry her after +such a barefaced wooing."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> When Protogenes had done +speaking, my father said, "Do you see, Anthemion, that they force +us to intervene again, who have no objection to dance in the +retinue of conjugal Love?" "I do," said Anthernion, "but pray +defend Love at some length, as you are on his side, and moreover +come to the rescue of wealth,<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id= +"FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class= +"fnanchor">73</a> with which Pisias seeks to scare us." Thereupon +my father began, "What on earth will not be brought as a charge +against a woman, if we are to reject Ismenodora because she is in +love and has money? Granted she loves sway and is rich? What then, +if she is young and handsome? And what if she plumes herself +somewhat on the lustre of her race? Have not chaste women often +something of the morose and peevish in their character almost past +bearing? Do they not sometimes get called waspish and shrewish by +virtue of their very chastity? Would it be best then to marry off +the street some Thracian Abrotonus, or some Milesian Bacchis, and +seal the bargain by the present of a handful of nuts? But we have +known even such turn out intolerable tyrants, Syrian flute-girls +and ballet-dancers, as Aristonica, and Œnanthe with her +tambourine, and Agathoclea, who have lorded it over kings' +diadems.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">74</a> Why Syrian Semiramis was +only the servant and concubine of one of king Ninus's slaves, till +Ninus the great king seeing and falling in love with her, she got +such power over him that she thought so cheap of him, that she +asked to be allowed one day to sit on the royal throne, with the +royal diadem on her head, and to transact state affairs. And <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span>Ninus +having granted her permission, and having ordered all his subjects +to obey her as himself, she first gave several very moderate orders +to make trial of the guards; but when she saw that they obeyed her +without the slightest hesitation, she ordered them to seize Ninus +and put him in fetters, and at last put him to death; and all her +commands being obeyed, she ruled over Asia for a long time with +great lustre. And was not Belestiche a foreign woman off the +streets, although at Alexandria she has shrines and temples, with +an inscription as Aphrodite Belestiche, which she owes to the +king's love? And she who has in this very town<a name= +"FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" +class="fnanchor">75</a> a temple and rites in common with Eros, and +at Delphi stands in gold among kings and queens, by what dowry got +she her lovers? But just as the lovers of Semiramis, Belestiche, +and Phryne, became their prey unconsciously through their weakness +and effeminacy, so on the other hand poor and obscure men, having +contracted alliances with rich women of rank, have not been thereby +spoilt nor merged their personality, but have lived with their +wives on a footing of kindness, yet still kept their position as +heads of the house. But he that abases his wife and makes her +small, like one who tightens the ring on a finger too small for it +fearing it will come off,<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id= +"FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class= +"fnanchor">76</a> is like those who cut their mares' tails off and +then take them to a river or pond to drink, when they say that +sorrowfully discerning their loss of beauty these mares lose their +self-respect and allow themselves to be covered by asses.<a name= +"FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" +class="fnanchor">77</a> To select a wife for wealth rather than for +her excellence or family is dishonourable and illiberal; but it is +silly to reject wealth when it is accompanied by excellence and +family. Antigonus indeed wrote to his officer who had garrisoned +Munychia<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">78</a> to make not only the +collar strong but the dog lean, that he might undermine the +strength of the Athenians; but it becomes not the husband of a rich +or handsome woman to make his wife poor or ugly, but by his +self-control<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id= +"Page_39">39</a></span> and good sense, and by not too +extravagantly showing his admiration for her, to exhibit himself as +her equal not her slave, and (to borrow an illustration from the +scales) to add just so much weight to his character as shall +over-balance her, yet only just. Moreover, both Ismenodora and +Baccho are of a suitable age for marriage and procreation of +children; Ismenodora, I hear, is still in her prime, and" (here my +father smiled slily at Pisias) "she is certainly not a bit older +than her rivals, and has no grey hairs, as some of those who +consort with Baccho have. And if their union is seasonable, who +knows but that she may be a better partner for him than any young +woman? For young couples do not blend and mix well together, and it +takes a long time and is not an easy process for them to divest +themselves of their pride and spirit, and at first there's a good +deal of dirty weather and they don't pull well together, and this +is oftenest the case when there's love on both sides, and, just as +a storm wrecks the ship if no pilot is on board, so their marriage +is trouble and confusion, neither party knowing how either to rule +or to give way properly. And if the baby is under the nurse, and +the boy under the master, and the lad under the master of the +gymnasium, and the youth under his lover, and the full-grown man +under the law and magistrate, and no one is his own master and +exempt from obedience to someone, what wonder would it be if a +sensible woman rather older than her husband would direct well the +life of a young man, being useful to him by reason of her superior +wisdom, and acceptable to him for her sweetness and gentleness? And +to sum up the whole matter," said he, "we Bœotians ought to +revere Hercules, and so find no fault in any inequality of age in +marriages, seeing that he gave his own wife Megara in marriage to +Iolaus, though he was only sixteen and she three-and-thirty."<a +name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">79</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> As the conversation was +going on, our father said that a friend of Pisias came galloping up +from the town to report an act of marvellous audacity. Ismenodora, +it appears, thinking Baccho had no personal dislike to the <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span>match, +but only stood in awe of his friends who tried to dissuade him from +it, determined that she would not let the young fellow slip through +her fingers. Accordingly, she sent for the most active and +intimate<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">80</a> of her male friends, and +for some of her female cronies, and instructed them as to what part +they should play, and waited for the hour when Baccho was +accustomed regularly to pass by her house on his way to the +wrestling-school. And as he passed by on this occasion with two or +three of his companions, anointed for the exercise, Ismenodora met +him at the door and just touched his cloak, and her friends rushed +out all together and prettily seized the pretty fellow as he was in +his cloak and jersey,<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id= +"FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class= +"fnanchor">81</a> and hurried him into the house and at once locked +the doors. And the women inside at once divested him of his cloak +and put on him a bridal robe; and the servants ran about the town +and put olive wreaths and laurel garlands at the doors of Baccho's +house as well as Ismenodora's, and a flute-girl went up and down +the street playing and singing the wedding-song. And some of the +inhabitants of Thespiæ and the strangers laughed, others were +indignant and tried to make the superintendents of the gymnasium +move in the matter, for they have great power in Thespiæ over +the youths, and pay great attention to their actions. And now there +was no more talk about the sports, but everyone left the theatre +for the neighbourhood of Ismenodora's house, and there stood in +groups talking and disputing about what had happened.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> Now when Pisias' friend +had come up like an <i>aide-de-camp</i> in war, "bloody with +spurring, fiery red with haste," to report this news that +Ismenodora had seized Baccho, my father said that Zeuxippus smiled, +and being a great lover of Euripides repeated the line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Lady, though rich, thou hast +thy sex's feelings."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But Pisias jumped up and cried out, "Ye gods, what will be the +end of license like this which will overthrow our town? Already we +are fast tending to lawlessness through our independence. And yet +it is perhaps ridicu<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id= +"Page_41">41</a></span>lous to be indignant about law and justice, +when nature itself is trampled upon by being thus subjected to +women? Saw even Lemnos ever the like of this?<a name= +"FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" +class="fnanchor">82</a> Let us go," he continued, "let us go and +hand over to the women the gymnasium and council-hall, if the +townsmen have lost all their nerve." Pisias then left the company, +and Protogenes went with him, partly sympathizing with his +indignation, but still endeavouring to cool him. And Anthemion +said, "'Twas a bold deed and certainly does savour somewhat of +Lemnos—I own it now we are alone—this Ismenodora must +be most violently in love." Hereupon Soclarus said, with a sly +smile, "You don't think then that this rape and detention was an +excuse and stratagem on the part of a wily young man to escape from +the clutches of his lovers, and fly of his own volition to the arms +of a rich and handsome widow?" "Pray don't say so, Soclarus," said +Anthemion, "pray don't entertain any such suspicions of Baccho, for +even if he were not by nature most simple and naïve, he would +not have concealed the matter from me to whom he divulges all his +secrets, especially as he knows that I have always been very +anxious he should marry Ismenodora. But as Heraclitus says truly, +It is more difficult to control love than anger; for whatever love +has a fancy to, it will buy even at the cost of life, money, and +reputation. Who lives a more quiet life in our town than +Ismenodora? When did ever any ugly rumour attach itself to her? +When did ever any breath of suspicion sully her house? Some divine +inspiration, beyond human calculation, seems now to have possessed +her."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> Then Pemptides laughed +and said, "Of course you know that there is a certain disease of +the body called the sacred disease.<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id= +"FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class= +"fnanchor">83</a> It is no wonder, therefore, if some call the +greatest and most insane passion of the soul sacred and divine. +However, as in Egypt I once saw two neighbours <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span>disputing +when a serpent passed by them on the road, both calling it a good +omen, but each claiming the blessing as his alone; so seeing lately +that some of you drag Love to the men's apartments, while others +confine it to the women's side of the house, while all of you +regard it as a divine and superlative blessing, I do not wonder, +since it is a passion that has such power and honour, that those +who ought to banish it from every quarter and clip its wings do +themselves add to its influence and power. And hitherto I held my +peace, for I saw that the discussion turned rather on private than +public interests, but now that we have got rid of Pisias, I would +gladly hear from you to what they had an eye who first called Love +a god."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> Just as Pemptides had +left off, and our father was about to answer his question, another +messenger came from the town, sent by Ismenodora to summon +Anthemion, for the tumult had increased, and there was a difference +of opinion between the superintendents of the gymnasium, one +thinking they ought to demand the liberation of Baccho, the other +thinking they ought not to interfere. Anthemion got up at once and +went off. And our father, addressing Pemptides especially, said, +"You seem to me, my dear Pemptides, to be handling a great and bold +matter, or rather to be discussing things that ought not to be +discussed, in asking for a reason in each case for our opinion +about the gods. Our ancient and hereditary faith is sufficient, a +better argument than which we cannot either utter or find,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Not e'en if wisdom in our +brains resides;'<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a +href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">84</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>but if this common foundation and basis of all piety be +disturbed, and its stability and time-honoured ideas be unsettled, +it becomes undermined and is suspected by everybody. You have +heard, of course, what hot water Euripides got into, when he wrote +at the beginning of his 'Melanippe,'</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Zeus, whosoe'er he is, I do +not know</span> <span class="i0">Except by hearsay,'<a name= +"FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" +class="fnanchor">85</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>but if he changed the opening line, he had confidence, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span>it +seems, that his play would go down with the public uncommonly +well,<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">86</a> so he altered it into</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Zeus the divine, as he is +truly called.'<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a +href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">87</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And what difference is there between calling in question the +received opinion about Zeus or Athene, and that about Love? For it +is not now for the first time that Love asks for an altar and +sacrifices, nor is he a strange god introduced by foreign +superstition, as some Attis or Adonis, furtively smuggled in by +hermaphrodites and women, and secretly receiving honours not his +own, to avoid an indictment among the gods for coming among them +under false pretences. And when, my friend, you hear the words of +Empedocles,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Friendship is there too, of +same length and breadth,</span> <span class="i0">But with the +mind's eye only can you see it,</span> <span class="i0">Till with +the sight your very soul is thralled,'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>you must suppose that they refer to Love. For this god is +invisible, but to be extolled by us as one of the very oldest gods. +And if you demand proofs about every one of the gods, laying a +profane hand on every temple, and bringing a learned doubt to every +altar, you will scrutinize and pry into everything. But we need not +go far to find Love's pedigree.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'See you how great a goddess +Aphrodite is?</span> <span class="i0">She 'tis that gave us and +engendered Love,</span> <span class="i0">Whereof come all that on +the earth do live.'<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id= +"FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class= +"fnanchor">88</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And so Empedocles calls Aphrodite <i>Life-giving</i>,<a name= +"FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" +class="fnanchor">89</a> and Sophocles calls her <i>Fruitful</i>, +both very appropriate epithets. And though the wonderful act of +generation belongs to Aphrodite only, and Love is only present in +it as a subordinate, yet if he be absent the whole affair becomes +undesirable, and low, and tame. For a loveless coition brings only +satiety, as the satisfaction of hunger and thirst, and has nothing +noble resulting from it, whereas by Love Aphrodite removes the +cloying element in pleasure, and <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span>produces harmonious friendship. +And so Parmenides declares Love to be the oldest of the creations +of Aphrodite, writing in his Cosmogony,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Of all the gods first Love +she did contrive.'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But Hesiod, more naturally in my opinion, makes Love the most +ancient of all, so that all things derive their existence from +him.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">90</a> If we then deprive Love +of his ancient honours, those of Aphrodite will be lost also. For +we cannot argue that, while some revile Love, all spare Aphrodite, +for on the same stage we hear of Love,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Love is an idle thing and for +the idle:'<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">91</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and again of Aphrodite,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Cypris, my boys, is not her +only name,</span> <span class="i0">For many names has she. She is a +hell,</span> <span class="i0">A power remorseless, nay a raging +madness.'<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">92</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Just as in the case of the other gods there is hardly one that +has not been reviled, or escaped the scurrility of ignorance. Look, +for example, at Ares, who may be considered as it were the +counterpart of Love, what honours he has received from men, and +again what abuse, as</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Ares is blind, ye women, has +no eyes,</span> <span class="i0">And with his pig's snout roots up +all good things.'<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id= +"FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class= +"fnanchor">93</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And Homer calls him 'blood-stained' and 'fickle.'<a name= +"FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" +class="fnanchor">94</a> And Chrysippus brings a grievous charge +against him, in defining his name to mean destroyer,<a name= +"FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" +class="fnanchor">95</a> thereby giving a handle to those who think +that Ares is only the fighting, wrangling, and quarrelsome instinct +among mankind. Others again will tell us that Aphrodite is simply +desire, and Hermes eloquence, and the Muses the arts and sciences, +and Athene wisdom. You see what an abyss of impiety opens up before +us, if we describe each of the gods, as only a passion, a power, or +a virtue!"</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> "I see it," said +Pemptides, "and it is impious either to make the gods passions, or +to do just the con<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id= +"Page_45">45</a></span>trary, and make the passions gods." "What +then?" said my father, "do you consider Ares a god, or only a human +passion?" And Pemptides, answering that he looked on Ares as god of +the passionate and manly element in mankind, "What," cried my +father, "shall the passionate and warlike and antagonistic +instincts in man have a god, but the affectionate and social and +clubable have none? Shall Ares, under his names of Enyalius and +Stratius, preside over arms and war and sieges and sacks of cities, +and shall there be no god to witness and preside over, to direct +and guide, conjugal affection, that friendship of closest union and +communion? Why even those who hunt gazelles and hares and deer have +a silvan deity who harks and halloos them on, for to +Aristæus<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a +href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">96</a> they pay their vows +when in pitfalls and snares they trap wolves and bears,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'For Aristæus first set +traps for animals.'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>And Hercules invoked another god, when he was about to shoot at +the bird, as the line of Æschylus shows,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Hunter Apollo, make my bolt +go straight!'<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a +href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">97</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And shall no god or good genius assist and prosper the man who +hunts in the best chase of all, the chase of friendship? For I +cannot for my part, my dear Daphnæus, consider man a less +beautiful or important plant than the oak, or sacred olive, or the +vine which Homer glorifies,<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id= +"FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class= +"fnanchor">98</a> seeing that man too has his growth and glorious +prime alike of soul and body."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> Then said Daphnæus, +"In the name of the gods, who thinks differently?" "All those +certainly must," answered my father, "who think that the gods care +only about ploughing and planting and sowing. Have they not Nymphs +attending upon them, called Dryads, 'whose age is coeval with the +trees they live in: and Dionysus the mirth-giving does he not +increase the yield of the trees, the sacred splendour of Autumn,' +as Pindar says?<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a +href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">99</a> And if they care +about all this, is there no god or genius who is interested in the +nurture and growth of boys and youths in all their glorious flower? +is there no one that cares that <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span>the growing man may be upright +and virtuous, and that the nobility of his nature may not be warped +and corrupted, either through want of a guardian or by the +depravity of those he associates with? Is it not monstrous and +thankless to say so, seeing that we enjoy the divine bounty, which +is dealt out to us richly, and never abandons us in our straits? +And yet some of these same straits have more necessity than beauty. +For example, our birth, in spite of the unpleasant circumstances +attending it, is witnessed by the divine Ilithyia and Artemis: and +it would be better not to be born at all than to become bad through +want of a good guardian and guide. Moreover in sickness the god who +is over that province does not desert us, nor even in death: for +even then there is a conductor and guide for the departed, to lay +them to sleep, and convey their souls to Hades,<a name= +"FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">100</a> as the poet says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Night bore me not to be lord +of the lyre,</span> <span class="i0">Nor to be seer, or healer of +diseases,</span> <span class="i0">But to conduct the souls of the +departed.'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>And yet these duties involve much unpleasantness, whereas we +cannot mention a holier work, nor any struggle or contest more +fitting for a god to attend and play the umpire in, than the +guidance of the young and beautiful in the prosecution of their +love-affairs. For there is here nothing of an unpleasant nature, no +compulsion of any kind, but persuasion and grace, truly making toil +sweet and labour delightful, lead the way to virtue and friendship, +and do not arrive at that desired goal without the deity, for they +have as their leader and lord no other god than Love, the companion +of the Muses and Graces and Aphrodite. For Love 'sowing in the +heart of man the sweet harvest of desire,' to borrow the language +of Melanippides, mixes the sweetest and most beautiful things +together. But perhaps you are of a different opinion, +Zeuxippus."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> "Not I, by Zeus," replied +Zeuxippus. "To have a different opinion would be ridiculous." +"Then," continued my father, "is it not also ridiculous, if there +are four kinds of friendship, for so the ancients distinguished, +the natural first, the second that to one's kindred, the third +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id= +"Page_47">47</a></span>that to one's companions, the fourth the +friendship of love, and each of the first three have a god as +patron, either a god of friendship, or a god of hospitality, or a +god of the family, or a god of the race,<a name="FNanchor_101_101" +id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class= +"fnanchor">101</a> whereas the friendship of love only, as +something altogether unholy, is left without any patron god, and +that, too, when it needs most of all attentive direction?" "It is," +said Zeuxippus, "highly ridiculous." My father continued, "The +language of Plato is very suggestive here, to make a slight +digression. One kind of madness (he says) is conveyed to the soul +from the body through certain bad temperaments or mixtures, or +through the prevalence of some noxious spirit, and is harsh, +difficult to cure, and baneful. Another kind of madness is not +uninspired or from within, but an afflatus from without, a +deviation from sober reason, originated and set in motion by some +higher power, the ordinary characteristic of which is called +enthusiasm. For, as one full of breath is called +ἔμτνοος, and as one full of +sense is called ἔμφρων, so the name +enthusiasm is given to the commotion of the soul caused by some +Divine agency.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id= +"FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class= +"fnanchor">102</a> Thus there is the prophetic enthusiasm which +proceeds from Apollo, and the Bacchic enthusiasm which comes from +Dionysus, to which Sophocles alludes where he says, 'Dance with the +Corybantes;' for the rites of Cybele and Pan have great affinities +to the orgies of Bacchus. And the third madness proceeds from the +Muses, and possesses an impressionable and pure soul, and stirs up +the poetry and music in a man. As to the martial and warlike +madness, it is well known from what god it proceeds, namely, Ares, +'kindling tearful war, that puts an end to the dance and the song, +and exciting civic strife.'<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id= +"FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class= +"fnanchor">103</a> There remains, Daphnæus, one more kind of +madness in man, neither obscure nor tranquil, as to which I should +like to ask Pemptides here,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'What god it is that shakes +the fruitful thyrsus?'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>I refer to that love-fury for modest boys and chaste women, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id= +"Page_48">48</a></span>which is far the keenest and fiercest +passion of all. For have you not observed how the soldier, when he +lays aside his arms, ceases from his warlike fury, as the poet +says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i11">'Then from him</span> <span +class="i0">Right gladly did his squires remove the armour,'<a name= +"FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">104</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and sits down a peaceful spectator of others?<a name= +"FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">105</a> The Bacchic and +Corybantic dances one can also modulate and quell, by changing the +metre from the trochaic and the measure from the Phrygian. +Similarly, too, the Pythian priestess, when she descends from her +tripod, possesses her soul in peace. Whereas the love-fury, when +once it has really seized on a man and inflamed him, can be laid by +no Muse, no charm or incantation, no change of place; but present +they burn, absent they desire, by day they follow their loves +about, by night they serenade them, sober call for them, and +drunken sing about them. And he who said that poetic fancies, owing +to their vividness, were dreams of people awake, would have more +truly spoken so of the fancies of lovers, who, as if their loves +were present, converse with them, greet them, chide them. For sight +seems to paint all other fancies on a wet ground, so soon do they +fade and recede from the memory, but the images of lovers, painted +by the fancy as it were on encaustic tiles, leave impressions on +the memory, that move, and live, and speak, and are permanent for +all time. The Roman Cato, indeed, said that the soul of the lover +resided in the soul of the loved one, and I should extend the +remark to the appearance, the character, the life, and the actions, +conducted by which he travels a long journey in a short time, as +the Cynics say they have found a short cut and, as it were, forced +march to virtue, for there is also a short cut to friendship and +love when the god is propitious. To sum up, the enthusiasm of +lovers is not a thing uninspired, and the god that guides and +governs it is none other than the god whose festival we are now +keeping, and to whom we are now sacrificing. Nevertheless, as we +judge of a god mainly from his power and usefulness (as among human +advantages we reckon and call these two the most divine, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id= +"Page_49">49</a></span>dominion and virtue), it is high time to +consider, before we proceed any further, whether Love yields to any +of the gods in power. Certainly, as Sophocles says, 'Wonderful is +the power which the Cyprian Queen exerts so as always to win the +victory:'<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a +href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">106</a> great also is the +might of Ares; and in some sort we see the power of all the other +gods divided among these two; for Aphrodite has most intimate +connection with the beautiful, and Ares is in our souls from the +first to combat against the sordid, to borrow the idea of Plato. +Let us consider, then, to begin with, that the venereal delight can +be purchased for six obols, and that no one ever yet put himself +into any trouble or danger about it, unless he was in love. And not +to mention here such famous courtesans as Phryne or Lais, +Gnathænium, 'kindling her lamp at evening time,' on the +look-out for lovers and inviting them, is often passed by; 'yet, if +some sudden whiff arise' of mighty love and desire, it makes this +very delight seem equal to the fabled wealth of Tantalus and his +domains. So feeble and cloying is the venereal indulgence, if Love +inspires it not. And you will see this more plainly still from the +following consideration. Many have allowed others to share in their +venereal enjoyments, prostituting not only their mistresses but +their wives, like that Roman Galba, who used to ask Mæcenas +to dinner, and when he saw from his nods and winks that he had a +mind to do with his wife, turned his head gently aside as if +asleep; but when one of his slaves came up to the table and stole +some wine, his eyes were wide open enough, and he said, 'Villain, +don't you know that I am asleep only for Mæcenas?'<a name= +"FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">107</a> But this is not +perhaps so strange, considering Galba was a buffoon. But at Argos +Nicostratus and Phayllus were great political rivals: so when King +Philip visited that city, Phayllus thought if he prostituted his +wife, who was very handsome, to the King, he would get from him +some important office or place. And Nicostratus getting wind of +this, and walking about the doors of Phayllus' house with some of +his servants on the <i>qui vive</i>, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span>Phayllus made his wife put on +men's boots, and a military cloak, and a Macedonian broad-brimmed +hat, and so smuggled her into the King, without being detected, as +one of the King's young men. But, of all the multitude of lovers, +did you ever hear of one that prostituted his boy-love even for the +honours of Zeus? I think not. Why, though no one will generally +either speak or act against tyrants, many will who find them their +rivals and are jealous about their handsome minions. You must have +heard how Aristogiton of Athens, and Antileon of Metapontum, and +Melanippus of Agrigentum, rose not against tyrants, although they +saw how badly they managed affairs, and what drunken tricks they +played, yet, when they attempted the chastity of their boy-loves, +they retaliated on them, jeoparding their lives, as if they were +defending the inviolability of temples and sanctuaries. It is also +recorded that Alexander wrote to Theodoras, the brother of Proteas, +'Send me your singing-girl, unless you love her yourself, and I +will give you ten talents;' and when Antipatridas, one of his +companions, came to revel with him, bringing with him a female +harper, he fancied the girl not a little, and asked Antipatridas if +he cared very much about her. And when he replied that he did +immensely, Alexander said, 'Plague take you,' but nevertheless +abstained from touching the girl.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> "Consider also how Love +excels in warlike feats, and is by no means idle, as Euripides +called him,<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a +href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">108</a> nor a +carpet-knight, nor 'sleeping on a maiden's soft cheeks.'<a name= +"FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">109</a> For a man inspired by +Love needs not Ares to help him when he goes out as a warrior +against the enemy, but at the bidding of his own god is 'ready' for +his friend 'to go through fire and water and whirlwinds.' And in +Sophocles' play,<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id= +"FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class= +"fnanchor">110</a> when the sons of Niobe are being shot at and +dying, one of them calls out for no helper or assister but his +lover. And you know of course how it was that Cleomachus the +Pharsalian fell in battle?" "We cer<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span>tainly don't," said Pemptides +and those near him, "but we should very much like to." "Well," said +my father, "the tale's worth hearing. When the war between the +Eretrians and Chalcidians was at its height, Cleomachus had come to +aid the latter with a Thessalian force; and the Chalcidian infantry +seemed strong enough, but they had great difficulty in repelling +the enemy's cavalry. So they begged that high-souled hero +Cleomachus to charge the Eretrian cavalry first. And he asked his +boy-love, who was by, if he would be a spectator of the fight, and +he saying he would, and affectionately kissing him and putting his +helmet on his head, Cleomachus with a proud joy put himself at the +head of the bravest of the Thessalians, and charged the enemy's +cavalry with such impetuosity that he threw them into disorder and +routed them; and the Eretrian infantry also fleeing in consequence, +the Chalcidians won a splendid victory. However, Cleomachus got +killed, and they show his tomb in the market-place at Chalcis, over +which a huge pillar stands to this day, and whereas before that the +people of Chalcis had censured boy-loves, from that time forward +they preferred that kind of love to the normal love. Aristotle +gives a slightly different account, namely, that this Cleomachus +came not from Thessaly, but from Chalcis in Thrace, to the help of +the Chalcidians in Eubœa; and that that was the origin of the +song in vogue among the Chalcidians,</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Ye boys, who come of noble +sires and beauteous are in face,</span> <span class="i0">Grudge not +to give to valiant men the joy of your embrace:</span> <span class= +"i0">For Love that does the limbs relax combined with +bravery</span> <span class="i0">In the Chalcidian cities has fame +that ne'er shall die.'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But according to the account of the poet Dionysius, in his +'Causes,'<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a +href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">111</a> the name of the +lover was Anton, and that of the boy-love was Philistus. And among +you Thebans, Pemptides, is it not usual for the lover to give his +boy-love a complete suit of armour when he is enrolled among the +men? And did not the erotic Pammenes change the disposition of the +heavy-armed infantry, censuring Homer as knowing nothing about +love, because he drew up the Achæans in <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span>order of +battle in tribes and clans, and did not put lover and love +together, that so</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Spear should be next to +spear, helmet to helmet,'<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id= +"FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class= +"fnanchor">112</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>seeing that Love is the only invincible general.<a name= +"FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">113</a> For men in battle will +leave in the lurch clansmen and friends, aye, and parents and sons, +but what warrior ever broke through or charged through lover and +love, seeing that even when there is no necessity lovers frequently +display their bravery and contempt of life. As Thero the +Thessalian, who put his left hand on a wall, and drew his sword, +and chopped off his thumb, and challenged his rival to do the same. +And another in battle falling on his face, as his enemy was about +to give him the <i>coup-de-grace</i>, begged him to wait a little +till he could turn round, that his love should not see him with a +wound in his back. And not only are the most warlike nations most +amorous, as the Bœotians the Lacedæmonians and the +Cretans, but also of the old heroes, who were more amorous than +Meleager, Achilles, Aristomenes, Cimon, and Epaminondas. Why, +Epaminondas had as his boy-loves Asopichus and Cephisodorus, the +latter of whom fell with him at Mantinea, and is buried near him. +As to ..., who was most formidable and a source of terror to the +enemy, Eucnamus of Amphissa, who first stood up against him and +smote him, received hero honours from the Phocians for his exploit. +And as to all the loves of Hercules, it would take up too much time +to enumerate them, but those who think that Iolaus was one of them +do up to this day worship and honour him, and make their loves +swear fidelity at his tomb. Hercules is also said, having +understood the art of healing, to have preserved the life of +Alcestis, when she was given up by the doctors, to gratify Admetus, +who passionately loved his wife, and was Hercules' minion. They say +also in legend that Apollo was enamoured of Admetus,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'And was his hired slave for +one long year.'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>It was a happy thought our remembering Alcestis, for <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span>though +women have not much of Ares in them, yet when possessed by Love +they are bold even to the death, beyond what one would expect from +their nature. For if we may credit legendary lore, the stories +about Alcestis, and Protesilaus, and Eurydice the wife of Orpheus, +show that the only one of the gods that Hades pays attention to is +Love; although to everybody else, as Sophocles says, "he knows of +no forbearance or favour, or anything but strict justice; "yet +before lovers his genius stands rebuked, and they alone find him +neither implacable nor relentless. Wherefore although, my friend, +it is an excellent thing to be initiated in the Eleusinian +mysteries, yet I see that the votaries and initiated of Love have a +better time of it in Hades than they have, * *<a name= +"FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">114</a> though in regard to +legendary lore I stand in the position of one who neither +altogether believes nor altogether disbelieves. For legendary lore +speaks well, and by a certain wonderful good fortune lights upon +the truth, in saying that lovers have a return from Hades to the +light of day, but it knows not by what way or how, having as it +were got benighted on the road which Plato first discovered by +philosophy. There are, indeed, some slender and obscure particles +of truth scattered about in the mythology of the Egyptians, but +they require a clever man to hunt them out, a man capable of +getting great results from small data. Wherefore let that matter +pass. And now next to the mighty power of Love let us consider its +good will and favour to mankind, I do not mean as to whether it +bestows many gifts on its votaries—that is palpable to +all—but whether they derive any further advantage from it. +For Euripides, though very amorous, admired a very small matter, +when he wrote the line—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Love teaches letters to a man +unlearn'd.'<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a +href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">115</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For it makes one previously sluggish quick and intelligent, and, +as has been said before, it makes the coward brave, as people +harden wood in the fire and make it strong from being weak. And +every lover becomes liberal and genuine <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span>and generous, even if he +was mean before, his littleness and miserliness melting away like +iron in the fire, so that they rejoice to give to their loves more +than they do to receive themselves from others. You know of course +that Anytus, the son of Anthemion, was in love with Alcibiades, and +was on one occasion sumptuously entertaining several of his +friends, when Alcibiades broke in and took from the table half the +cups and went away again; and when some of the guests were +indignant and said, 'The stripling has used you most insolently and +contemptuously,' Anytus replied, 'Nay, rather, he has dealt kindly +with me, for when he might have taken all he has left me +half.'"</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> Zeuxippus was pleased +with this story, and said, "O Hercules, you have been within an ace +of making me forget my hereditary hatred to Anytus for his +behaviour to Socrates and philosophy,<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id= +"FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class= +"fnanchor">116</a> since he was so mild and noble to his love." "Be +it so," said my father, "Love also makes peevish and gloomy persons +kind and agreeable to those they live with; for as 'when the fire +blazes the house looks brighter,'<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id= +"FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class= +"fnanchor">117</a> so man, it seems, becomes more cheerful through +the heat of love. But most people are affected rather curiously; if +they see by night a light in a house, they look on it with +admiration and wonder; but if they see a little, mean, and ignoble +soul suddenly filled with noble-mindedness, freedom, dignity, +grace, and liberality, they do not feel constrained to say with +Telemachus, 'Surely, some god is there within.'<a name= +"FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">118</a> And is it not +wonderful, Daphnæus," continued my father,<a name= +"FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">119</a> "in the name of the +Graces, that the lover who cares about hardly anything, either his +companions and friends, or even the laws and magistrates and kings, +who fears nothing, admires nothing, courts nothing, but can even +endure to gaze on 'the forked lightning,'<a name="FNanchor_120_120" +id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class= +"fnanchor">120</a> yet directly he looks on his love 'he crouches +like a cock with drooping feathers,' and his boldness is <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span>broken +and his pride is cowed. And among the Muses it would not be amiss +to mention Sappho; for as the Romans say Cacus the son of +Hephæstus vomited out of his mouth fire and flames, so she +really speaks words that burn like fire, and in her songs shows the +warmth of her heart, as Philoxenus puts it, 'by euphonious songs +assuaging the pains of love.' And if you have not in your love for +Lysandra forgot all your old love-songs, do repeat to us, +Daphnæus, the lines in which beautiful Sappho says that 'when +her love appeared her voice failed and her body burned, and she was +seized with paleness and trembling and vertigo.'" And when +Daphnæus had repeated the lines, my father resumed, "In the +name of Zeus, is not this plainly a divine seizure? Is not this a +wonderful commotion of soul? Why, the Pythian priestess on the +tripod is not moved so much as this! Who of those inspired by +Cybele are made beside themselves to this extent by the flute and +the kettledrum? Moreover, while many see the same body and the same +beauty, only the lover is taken by it. Why is this the case? We get +no light on it from Menander's words, 'Love is opportunity; and he +that is smitten is the only one wounded.' But the god is the cause +of it, striking one and letting another go scot-free. But I will +not pass over now, 'since it has come into my mouth,' as +Æschylus says, what perhaps would have been better spoken +before, for it is a very important point. Perhaps, my friend, of +all other things which we do not perceive through the senses, some +got believed through legend, some through the law, some through +reason; whereas we owe our conception of the gods altogether to the +poets and legislators and philosophers: all alike teaching the +existence of gods, but greatly differing as to their number and +order, nature and power. For the gods of the philosophers 'know +nothing of disease or old age or pain, and have not to cross the +resounding Acheron;' nor do the philosophers accept as gods +Strifes, or Prayers, which are found in poetry;<a name= +"FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">121</a> nor will they admit +Terror and Fear as gods or as the sons of Ares. And on many points +also they are at variance with the legislators, as Xenophanes bade +the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id= +"Page_56">56</a></span>Egyptians, if they regarded Osiris as +mortal, not to honour him as a god; but if they thought him a god +not to mourn for him. And, again, the poets and legislators will +not listen to, nor can they understand, the philosophers who make +gods of ideas and numbers and units and spirits. And their views +generally are very different. As there were formerly three parties +at Athens, the Parali, the Epacrii, and the Pediei, all at variance +with one another, yet all agreed to vote for Solon, and chose him +with one accord as their mediator and ruler and lawgiver, as he +seemed indisputably to hold the first place in merit; so the three +parties that entertain different views about the gods are all +unanimous on one point, for poets legislators and philosophers all +alike register Love as one of the gods, 'loudly singing his praises +with one voice,' as Alcæus says the people of Mitylene chose +Pittacus as their monarch. But our king and ruler and governor, +Love, is brought down crowned from Helicon to the Academy by Hesiod +and Plato and Solon, and in royal apparel rides in a chariot drawn +by friendship and intimacy (not such as Euripides speaks of in the +line, 'he has been bound in fetters not of brass,'<a name= +"FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">122</a> shamefully throwing +round him cold and heavy necessity), and soars aloft to the most +beautiful and divine things, about which others have spoken better +than I can."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xix.</span> When my father had spoken +thus much, Soclarus began, "Do you see that a second time you have +committed the same fault, not cancelling your debts as you ought to +do—for I must speak my mind—but evading them on +purpose, and not delivering to us your promised ideas on a sacred +subject? For as some little time back you only just touched on +Plato and the Egyptians as if unwilling to enter on the subject +more fully, so now you are doing again. However, as to what has +been 'eloquently told'<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id= +"FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class= +"fnanchor">123</a> by Plato, or rather by the Muses through Plato's +mouth, do not tell us that, my good friend, even if we ask for it; +but as to your hint that the Egyptian legend about Love +corresponded with Plato's views, you need not discuss it fully and +minutely, we shall be satisfied if we hear a little of <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span>such mighty +matters." And as the rest of the company made the same request, my +father said, "The Egyptians, (like the Greeks) recognize two Loves, +the Pandemian and the Celestial, to which they add the Sun, they +also highly venerate Aphrodite. We also see much similarity between +Love and the Sun, for neither is a fire, as some think, but a sweet +and productive radiance and warmth, the Sun bringing to the body +nourishment and light and growth, and Love doing the same to the +soul. And as the heat of the Sun is more powerful when it emerges +from clouds and after mist, so Love is sweeter and hotter after a +jealous tiff with the loved one,<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id= +"FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class= +"fnanchor">124</a> and moreover, as some think the Sun is kindled +and extinguished, so also do people conceive of Love as mortal and +uncertain. Moreover, just as without training the body cannot +easily bear the heat of the Sun, so neither can the untrained soul +easily bear the yoke of Love, but both are equally out of tune and +suffer, for which they blame the deity and not their own weakness. +But in this respect they seem to differ, in that the Sun exhibits +to the eye things beautiful and ugly alike, whereas Love throws its +light only on beautiful things, and persuades lovers to concentrate +their attention on these, and to neglect all other things. As to +those that call Aphrodite the Moon, they, too, find some points in +common between them; for the Moon is divine and heavenly and a sort +of halfway-house between mortal and immortal, but inactive in +itself and dark without the presence of the Sun, as is the case +with Aphrodite in the absence of Love. So we may say that Aphrodite +resembles the Moon, and Love the Sun, more than any other deities, +yet are not Love and the Sun altogether the same, for just as body +and soul are not the same, but something different, so is it with +the Sun and Love, the former can be seen, the latter only felt. And +if it should not seem too harsh a saying, one might argue that the +Sun acts entirely opposite to Love, for it turns the mind away from +the world of fancy to the world of reality, beguiling us by its +grace and splendid appearance, and persuading us to seek for truth +and everything else in and round it and nowhere else. For as +Euripides says,</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id= +"Page_58">58</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Too passionately do we love +the Sun,</span> <span class="i0">Because it always shines upon the +earth,</span> <span class="i0">From inexperience of another +life,'<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">125</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>or rather from forgetfulness of those things which Love brings +to our remembrance. For as when we are woke by a great and bright +light, everything that the soul has seen in dreams is vanished and +fled, so the Sun is wont to banish the remembrance of past changes +and chances, and to bewitch the intelligence, pleasure and +admiration causing this forgetfulness. And though reality is really +there, yet the soul cleaves to dreams and is dazzled by what is +most beautiful and divine. 'For round the soul are poured sweet yet +deceiving dreams,' so that the soul thinks everything here good and +valuable, unless it obtain divine and chaste Love as its physician +and preserver. For Love brings the soul through the body to truth +and the region of truth, where pure and guileless beauty is to be +found, kindly befriending its votaries like an initiator at the +mysteries. And it associates with the soul only through the body. +And as geometricians, in the case of boys who cannot yet be +initiated into the perception of incorporeal and impassive +substance, convey their ideas through the medium of spheres, cubes, +and dodecahedrons, so celestial Love has contrived beautiful +mirrors of beautiful things, and exhibits them to us glittering in +the shapes colours and appearances of youths in all their flower, +and calmly stirs the memory which is inflamed first by these. +Consequently some, through the stupidity of their friends and +intimates, who have endeavoured by force and against reason to +extinguish the flame, have got no advantage from it, but filled +themselves with smoke and confusion, or have rushed into secret and +lawless pleasures and ingloriously wasted their prime. But as many +as by sober reason and modesty have abated the extravagance of the +passion, and left in the soul only a bright glow—not exciting +a tornado of passion, but a wonderful and productive diffusion, as +in a growing plant, opening the pores of complaisance and +friendliness—these in no long time cease to regard the +personal charms of those they love, and study their inward <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id= +"Page_59">59</a></span>characters, and gaze at one another with +unveiled eyes, and associate with one another in words and actions, +if they find in their minds any fragment or image of the beautiful; +and if not they bid them farewell and turn to others, like bees +that only go to those flowers from which they can get honey. But +wherever they find any trace or emanation or pleasing resemblance +of the divine, in an ecstasy of pleasure and delight they indulge +their memory, and revive to whatever is truly lovely and felicitous +and admired by everybody."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xx.</span> "The poets indeed seem for +the most part to have written and sung about Love in a playful and +merry manner, but have sometimes spoken seriously about him, +whether out of their own mind, or the god helping them to truth. +Among these are the lines about his birth, 'Well-sandalled Iris +bare the most powerful of the gods to golden-haired Zephyr.'<a +name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">126</a> But perhaps the +learned have persuaded you that these lines are only a fanciful +illustration of the variety and beauty of love." "Certainly," said +Daphnæus, "what else could they mean?" "Hear me," said my +father, "for the heavenly phenomenon compels us so to speak. The +rainbow<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a +href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">127</a> is, I suppose, a +reflection caused by the sun's rays falling on a moist cloud, +making us think the appearance is in the cloud. Similarly erotic +fancy in the case of noble souls causes a reflection of the memory, +from things which here appear and are called beautiful, to what is +really divine and lovely and felicitous and wonderful. But most +lovers pursuing and groping after the semblance of beauty in boys +and women, as in mirrors,<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id= +"FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class= +"fnanchor">128</a> can derive nothing more certain than pleasure +mixed with pain. And this seems the love-delirium of Ixion, who +instead of the joy he desired embraced only a cloud, as children +who desire to take the rainbow into their hands, clutching at +whatever they see. But different is the be<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span>haviour of the noble and +chaste lover: for he reflects on the divine beauty that can only be +felt, while he uses the beauty of the visible body only as an organ +of the memory, though he embraces it and loves it, and associating +with it is still more inflamed in mind. And so neither in the body +do they sit ever gazing at and desiring this light, nor after death +do they return to this world again, and skulk and loiter about the +doors and bedchambers of newly-married people, disagreeable ghosts +of pleasure-loving and sensual men and women, who do not rightly +deserve the name of lovers. For the true lover, when he has got +into the other world and associated with beauties as much as is +lawful, has wings and is initiated and passes his time above in the +presence of his Deity, dancing and waiting upon him, until he goes +back to the meadows of the Moon and Aphrodite, and sleeping there +commences a new existence. But this is a subject too high for the +present occasion. However, it is with Love as with the other gods, +to borrow the words of Euripides, 'he rejoices in being honoured by +mankind,'<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a +href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">129</a> and <i>vice +versa</i>, for he is most propitious to those that receive him +properly, but visits his displeasure on those that affront him. For +neither does Zeus as god of Hospitality punish and avenge any +outrages on strangers or suppliants, nor as god of the family +fulfil the curses of parents, as quickly as Love hearkens to lovers +unfairly treated, being the chastiser of boorish and haughty +persons. Why need I mention the story of Euxynthetus and +Leucomantis, the latter of whom is called The Peeping Girl to this +day in Cyprus? But perhaps you have not heard of the punishment of +the Cretan Gorgo, a somewhat similar case to that of Leucomantis, +except that she was turned into stone as she peeped out of window +to see her lover carried out to burial. For this Gorgo had a lover +called Asander, a proper young man and of a good family, but +reduced in fortune, though he thought himself worthy to mate with +anybody. So he wooed Gorgo, being a relation of hers, and though he +had many rivals, as she was much run after for her wealth belike, +yet he had won the esteem of all the guardians and relations of the +young girl.<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a +href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">130</a> * * * *</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id= +"Page_61">61</a></span></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxi.</span> * * * Now the origins and +causes of Love are not peculiar to either sex, but common to both. +For those attractions that make men amorous may as well proceed +from women as from boys.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id= +"FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class= +"fnanchor">131</a> And as to those beautiful and holy reminiscences +and invitations to the divine and genuine and Olympian beauty, by +which the soul soars aloft, what hinders but that they may come +either from boys or lads, maidens or grown women, whenever a chaste +and orderly nature and beauteous prime are associated together +(just as a neat shoe exhibits the shapeliness of the foot, to +borrow the illustration of Aristo), whenever connoisseurs of beauty +descry in beautiful forms and pure bodies clear traces of an +upright and unenervated soul.<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id= +"FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class= +"fnanchor">132</a> For if<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id= +"FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class= +"fnanchor">133</a> the man of pleasure, who was asked whether "he +was most given to the love of women or boys," and answered, "I care +not which so beauty be but there," is considered to have given an +appropriate answer as to his erotic desires, shall the noble lover +of beauty neglect beauty and nobility of nature, and make love only +with an eye to the sexual parts? Why, the lover of horses will take +just as much pleasure in the good points of Podargus, as in those +of Æthe, Agamemnon's mare,<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id= +"FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class= +"fnanchor">134</a> and the sportsman rejoices not only in dogs, but +also rears Cretan and Spartan bitches,<a name="FNanchor_135_135" +id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class= +"fnanchor">135</a> and shall the lover of the beautiful and of +humanity be unfair and deal unequally with either sex, and think +that the difference between the loves of boys and women is only +their different dress? And yet they say that beauty is a flower of +virtue; and it is ridiculous to assert that the female sex never +blossoms nor make a goodly show of virtue, for as Æschylus +truly says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'I never can mistake the +burning eye</span> <span class="i0">Of the young woman that has +once known man.'<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id= +"FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class= +"fnanchor">136</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Shall the indications then of a forward wanton and corrupt <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id= +"Page_62">62</a></span>character be found in the faces of women, +and shall there be no gleam of chastity and modesty in their +appearance? Nay, there are many such, and shall they not move and +provoke love? To doubt it would be neither sensible nor in +accordance with the facts, for generally speaking, as has been +pointed out, all these attractions are the same in both sexes.... +But, Daphnæus, let us combat those views which Zeuxippus +lately advanced, making Love to be only irregular desire carrying +the soul away to licentiousness, not that this was so much his own +view as what he had often heard from morose men who knew nothing of +love: some of whom marry unfortunate women for their dowries, and +force on them economy and illiberal saving, and quarrel with them +every day of their lives: while others, more desirous of children +than wives, when they have made those women they come across +mothers, bid farewell to marriage, or regard it not at all, and +neither care to love nor be loved. Now the fact that the word for +conjugal love differs only by one letter from the word for +endurance, the one being +στέργειν the other +στέγειν, seems to emphasize +the conjugal kindness mixed by time and intimacy with necessity. +But that marriage which Love has inspired will in the first place, +as in Plato's Republic, know nothing of <i>Meum</i> and +<i>Tuum</i>, for the proverb, 'whatever belongs to a friend is +common property,'<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id= +"FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class= +"fnanchor">137</a> is especially true of married persons who, +though disunited in body, are perforce one in soul, neither wishing +to be two, nor thinking themselves so. In the second place there +will be mutual respect, which is a vital necessity in marriage. For +as to that external respect which has in it more of compulsion than +choice, being forced by the law and shame and fear,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Those needful bits and curbs +to headstrong weeds,"<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id= +"FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class= +"fnanchor">138</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>that will always exist in wedlock. But in Love there is such +self-control and decorum and constancy, that if the god but once +enter the soul of a licentious man, he makes him give up all his +amours, abates his pride, and breaks down his haughtiness and +dissoluteness, putting in their place modesty and silence and +tranquillity and decorum, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" +id="Page_63">63</a></span>and makes him constant to one. You have +heard of course of the famous courtesan Lais,<a name= +"FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">139</a> how she set all Greece +on fire with her charms, or rather was contended for by two seas,<a +name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">140</a> and how, when she fell +in love with Hippolochus the Thessalian, 'she left Acro-Corinthus +washed by the green sea,'<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id= +"FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class= +"fnanchor">141</a> and deserted all her other lovers, that great +army, and went off to Thessaly and lived faithful to Hippolochus. +But the women there, envious and jealous of her for her surpassing +beauty, dragged her into the temple of Aphrodite, and there stoned +her to death, for which reason probably it is called to this day +the temple of Aphrodite the Murderess.<a name="FNanchor_142_142" +id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class= +"fnanchor">142</a> We have also heard of servant girls who have +refused the embraces of their masters, and of private individuals +who have scorned an amour with queens, when Love has had dominion +in their hearts. For as in Rome, when a dictator is proclaimed, all +other magistrates lay down their offices, so those over whom Love +is lord are free henceforward from all other lords and masters, and +pass the rest of their lives dedicate to the god and slaves in his +temple. For a noble woman united by Love to her lawful husband +would prefer the embraces of bears and dragons to those of any +other man."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxii.</span> "Although there are +plenty of examples of this virtue of constancy, yet to you, that +are the festive votaries of the god,<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id= +"FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class= +"fnanchor">143</a> it will not be amiss to relate the story of the +Galatian Camma. She was a woman of most remarkable beauty, and the +wife of the tetrarch Sinatus, whom Sinorix, one of the most +influential men in Galatia, and desperately in love with Camma, +murdered, as he could neither get her by force or persuasion in the +lifetime of her husband. And Camma found a refuge and comfort in +her grief in discharging the functions of hereditary priestess to +Artemis, and most of her time she spent in her temple, <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span>and, though +many kings and potentates wooed her, she refused them all. But when +Sinorix boldly proposed marriage to her, she declined not his +offer, nor blamed him for what he had done, as though she thought +he had only murdered Sinatus out of excessive love for her, and not +in sheer villany. He came, therefore, with confidence, and asked +her hand, and she met him and greeted him and led him to the altar +of the goddess, and pledged him in a cup of poisoned mead, drinking +half of it herself and giving him the rest. And when she saw that +he had drunk it up, she shouted aloud for joy, and calling upon the +name of her dead husband, said, 'Till this day, dearest husband, I +have lived, deprived of you, a life of sorrow: but now take me to +yourself with joy, for I have avenged you on the worst of men, as +glad to share death with him as life with you.' Then Sinorix was +removed out of the temple on a litter, and soon after gave up the +ghost, and Camma lived the rest of that day and following night, +and is said to have died with a good courage and even with +gaiety."<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a +href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">144</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxiii.</span> "As many similar +examples might be adduced, both among ourselves and foreigners, who +can feel any patience with those that reproach Aphrodite with +hindering friendship when she associates herself with Love as a +partner? Whereas any reflecting person would call the love of boys +wanton and gross lasciviousness, and say with the poet:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'This is an outrage, not an +act of love.'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>All willing pathics, therefore, we consider the vilest of +mankind, and credit them with neither fidelity, nor modesty, nor +friendship, for as Sophocles says:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Those who shall lose such +friends may well be glad,</span> <span class="i0">And those who +have such pray that they may lose them,'<a name="FNanchor_145_145" +id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class= +"fnanchor">145</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But as for those who, not being by nature vicious, have been +seduced or forced, they are apt all their life to despise and hate +their seducers, and when an opportunity has presented itself to +take fierce vengeance. As Crateus, who murdered Archelaus, and +Pytholaus, who murdered <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id= +"Page_65">65</a></span>Alexander of Pheræ. And Periander, the +tyrant of the Ambraciotes, having asked a most insulting question +of his minion, was murdered by him, so exasperated was he. But with +women and wives all this is the beginning of friendship, and as it +were an initiation into the sacred mysteries. And pleasure plays a +very small part in this, but the esteem and favour and mutual love +and constancy that result from it, proves that the Delphians did +not talk nonsense in giving the name of Arma<a name= +"FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">146</a> to Aphrodite, nor +Homer in giving the name of friendship<a name="FNanchor_147_147" +id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class= +"fnanchor">147</a> to sexual love, and testifies to the fact that +Solon was a most experienced legislator in conjugal matters, seeing +that he ordered husbands not less than thrice a month to associate +with their wives, not for pleasure, but as states at certain +intervals renew their treaties with one another, so he wished that +by such friendliness marriage should, as it were, be renewed after +any intervening tiffs and differences. But you will tell me there +is much folly and even madness in the love of women. Is there not +more extravagance in the love of boys?</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'Seeing my many rivals I grow +faint.</span> <span class="i0">The lad is beardless, smooth and +soft and handsome,</span> <span class="i0">O that I might in his +embraces die,</span> <span class="i0">And have the fact recorded on +my tomb.'</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Such extravagant language as this is madness not love. And it is +absurd to detract from woman's various excellence. Look at their +self-restraint and intelligence, their fidelity and uprightness, +and that bravery courage and magnanimity so conspicuous in many! +And to say that they have a natural aptitude for all other virtues, +but are deficient as regards friendship alone, is monstrous. For +they are fond of their children and husbands, and generally +speaking the natural affection in them is not only, like a fruitful +soil, capable of friendship, but is also accompanied by persuasion +and other graces. And as poetry gives to words a kind of relish by +melody and metre and rhythm, making instruction thereby more +interesting, but what is injurious more insidious, so nature, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id= +"Page_66">66</a></span>investing woman with beautiful appearance +and attractive voice and bewitching figure, does much for a +licentious woman in making her wiles more formidable, but makes a +modest one more apt thereby to win the goodwill and friendship of +her husband. And as Plato advised Xenocrates, a great and noble man +in all other respects, but too austere in his temperament, to +sacrifice to the Graces, so one might recommend a good and modest +woman to sacrifice to Love, that her husband might be a mild and +agreeable partner, and not run after any other woman, so as to be +compelled to say like the fellow in the comedy, 'What a wretch I am +to ill-treat such a woman!' For to love in marriage is far better +than to be loved, for it prevents many, nay all, of those offences +which spoil and mar marriage.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxiv.</span> As to the passionate +affection in the early days of marriage,<a name="FNanchor_148_148" +id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class= +"fnanchor">148</a> my dear Zeuxippus, do not fear that it will +leave any sore or irritation, though it is not wonderful that there +should be some friction at the commencement of union with a +virtuous woman, just as at the grafting of trees, as there is also +pain at the beginning of conception, for there can be no complete +union without some suffering. Learning puts boys out somewhat when +they first go to school, as philosophy does young men at a later +day, but the ill effects are not lasting, either in their cases or +in the case of lovers. As in the fusion of two liquors, love does +indeed at first cause a simmering and commotion, but eventually +cools down and settles and becomes tranquil. For the union of +lovers is indeed a complete union, whereas the union of those that +live together without love resembles only the friction and +concussion of Epicurus' atoms in collision and recoil, forming no +such union as Love makes, when he presides over the conjugal state. +For nothing else produces so much pleasure, or such lasting +advantages, or such beautiful remarkable and desirable +friendship,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">'As when husband and wife live +in one house,</span> <span class="i0">Two souls beating as one.'<a +name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">149</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And the law gives its countenance, and nature shows that <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span>even +the gods themselves require love for the production of everything. +Thus the poets tell us that 'the earth loves a shower, and heaven +loves the earth,' and the natural philosophers tell us that the sun +is in love with the moon, and that they are husband and wife, and +that the earth is the mother of man and beast and the producer of +all plants. Would not the world itself then of necessity come to an +end, if the great god Love and the desires implanted by the god +should leave matter, and matter should cease to yearn for and +pursue its lead? But not to seem to wander too far away and +altogether to trifle, you know that many censure boy-loves for +their instability, and jeeringly say that that intimacy like an egg +is destroyed by a hair,<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id= +"FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class= +"fnanchor">150</a> for that boy-lovers like Nomads, spending the +summer in a blooming and flowery country, at once decamp then as +from an enemy's territory. And still more vulgarly Bion the Sophist +called the sprouting beards of beautiful boys Harmodiuses and +Aristogitons,<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id= +"FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class= +"fnanchor">151</a> inasmuch as lovers were delivered by them from a +pleasant tyranny. But this charge cannot justly be brought against +genuine lovers, and it was prettily said by Euripides, as he +embraced and kissed handsome Agatho whose beard was just sprouting, +that the Autumn of beautiful youths was lovely as well as the +Spring. And I maintain that the love of beautiful and chaste wives +flourishes not only in old age amid grey hairs and wrinkles, but +even in the grave and monument. And while there are few such long +unions in the case of boy-loves, one might enumerate ten thousand +such instances of the love of women, who have kept their fidelity +to the end of their lives. One such case I will relate, which +happened in my time in the reign of the Emperor Vespasian.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxv.</span> Julius, who stirred up a +revolt in Galatia, among several other confederates had one +Sabinus, a young man of good family, and for wealth and renown the +most conspicuous of all the men in those parts. But having +attempted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id= +"Page_68">68</a></span>what was too much for them they were foiled, +and expecting to pay the penalty, some committed suicide, others +fled and were captured. Now Sabinus himself could easily have got +out of the way and made his escape to the barbarians, but he had +married a most excellent wife, whose name in that part of the world +was Empone, but in Greek would be Herois, and he could neither +leave her behind nor take her with him. As he had in the country +some underground caves, known only to two of his freedmen, where he +used to stow away things, he dismissed all the rest of his slaves, +as if he intended to poison himself, and taking with him these two +trusty freedmen he descended with them into those underground +caves, and sent one of them, Martialis, to tell his wife that he +had poisoned himself, and that his body was burnt in the flames of +his country-house, for he wanted his wife's genuine sorrow to lend +credit to the report of his death. And so it happened. For she, +throwing herself on to the ground, groaned and wailed for three +days and nights, and took no food. And Sabinus, being informed of +this, and fearing that she would die of grief, told Martialis to +inform her secretly that he was alive and well and in hiding, and +to beg her not to relax her show of grief, but to keep up the +farce. And she did so with the genius of a professional actress, +but yearning to see her husband she visited him by night, and +returned without being noticed, and for six or seven months she +lived with him this underground life. And she disguised him by +changing his dress, and cutting off his beard, and re-arranging his +hair, so that he should not be known, and took him to Rome, having +some hopes of obtaining his pardon. But being unsuccessful in this +she returned to her own country, and spent most of her time with +her husband underground, but from time to time visited the town, +and showed herself to some ladies who were her friends and +relations. But what is most astonishing of all is that, though she +bathed with them, she concealed her pregnancy from them. For the +dye which women use to make their hair a golden auburn, has a +tendency to produce corpulence and flesh and a full habit, and she +rubbed this abundantly over all parts of her body, and so concealed +her pregnancy. And she bare the pangs of travail by herself, as a +lioness bears her whelps, having hid herself in the cave with +her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id= +"Page_69">69</a></span> husband, and there she gave birth to two +boys, one of whom died in Egypt, the other, whose name was Sabinus, +was among us only the other day at Delphi. Vespasian eventually put +her to death, but paid the penalty for it, his whole progeny in a +short time being wiped off the face of the earth.<a name= +"FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">152</a> For during the whole +of his reign he did no more savage act, nor could gods or demons +have turned away their eyes from a crueller sight. And yet her +courage and bold language abated the pity of the spectators, though +it exasperated Vespasian, for, despairing of her safety, she bade +them go and tell the Emperor, 'that it was sweeter to live in +darkness and underground than to wear his crown.'"<a name= +"FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">153</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxvi.</span> Here my father said that +the conversation about Love which took place at Thespiæ +ended. And at this moment Diogenes, one of Pisias' companions, was +noticed coming up at a faster pace than walking. And while he was +yet a little way off, Soclarus hailed him with, "You don't announce +war, Diogenes," and he replied, "Hush! it is a marriage; come with +me quickly, for the sacrifice only waits for you." All were +delighted, and Zeuxippus asked if Pisias was still against the +marriage. "As he was first to oppose it," said Diogenes, "so he was +first to yield the victory to Ismenodora, and he has now put on a +crown and robed himself in white, so as to take his place at the +head of the procession to the god through the market-place." +"Come," said my father, "in Heaven's name, let us go and laugh at +him, and worship the god; for it is clear that the god has taken +delight in what has happened, and been propitious."</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">62</span></a> The allusion is +to Plato's "Phædrus," p. 230, B. Much, indeed, of the +subject-matter here is, we shall find, somewhat similar to that of +the Phædrus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">63</span></a> It is difficult +to know what the best English word here is. From the sly thrust in +§ ix. Pisias was evidently grey. I have therefore selected the +word <i>gravest</i>. But <i>the most austere</i>, <i>the most +sensible</i>, <i>the most solid</i>, <i>the most sedate</i>, all +might express the Greek word also. Let the reader take which he +likes best.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">64</span></a> In a Greek +house the women and men had each their own separate apartments. +This must be borne in mind here to explain the allusion.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">65</span></a> That is, from +interested and selfish motives.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">66</span></a> On Lais and +Aristippus see Cicero, "Ad. Fam.," ix. 26.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">67</span></a> Pausanias, i. +19, shows us that there was at Athens a Temple of Hercules called +Cynosarges. But the matter is obscure. What the exact allusion is I +cannot say.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">68</span></a> Fragment of +Æschylus. See Athenæus, xiii. p. 602, E, which explains +the otherwise obscure allusion.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">69</span></a> That is the son +of Hera alone, who was unwilling to be outdone by Zeus, who had +given birth to Pallas Athene alone. Hesiod has the same view, +"Theog." 927.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">70</span></a> +ὀπώρα is so used also in Æsch. +"Suppl.," 998, 1015. See also "Athenæus," 608, F. +Daphnæus implies these very nice gentlemen, like the same +class described by Juvenal, "Curios simulant et Bacchanalia +vivunt."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">71</span></a> I omit +καὶ +κοπίδας as a gloss or +explanation of the old reading +μακελεῖα instead +of ματρυλεῖα. +Nothing can be made of καὶ +κοπίδας in the +context.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">72</span></a> "Works and +Days," 606-608.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">73</span></a> I follow here +the reading of Wyttenbach. Through the whole of this essay the +reading is very uncertain frequently. My text in it has been formed +from a careful collation of Wyttenbach, Reiske, and Dübner. I +mention this here once for all, for it is unnecessary in a +translation to minutely specify the various readings on every +occasion. I am not editing the "Moralia."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">74</span></a> "De +Œnantha et Agathoclea, v. Polyb. excerpt, l. +xv."—<i>Reiske</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">75</span></a> Thespiæ. +The allusion is to Phryne. See Pausanias, ix. 27; x. 15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">76</span></a> Reading with +Wyttenbach, ὥσπερ +δακτύλιον +ἰσχνοῦ ὡ μὴ +περιῤῥυῇ +δεδιώς.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">77</span></a> Perhaps +<i>cur</i> = coward, was originally <i>cur-tail</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">78</span></a> One of the +three ports at Athens. See Pausanias, i. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">79</span></a> Iolaus was the +nephew of Hercules, and was associated with him in many of his +Labours. See Pausanias, i. 19; vii. 2; viii. 14, 45.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">80</span></a> I read +συνοαρίζοντας. +The general reading +συνερῶντας +will hardly do here. Wyttenbach suggests +συνεαρίζοντας.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">81</span></a> What the +διβολἰα was is not quite +clear. I have supposed a jersey.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">82</span></a> The women of +Lemnos were very masterful. On one memorable occasion they killed +all their husbands in one night. Thus the line of Ovid has almost a +proverbial force, "Lemniadesque viros nimium quoque vincere +norunt."—<i>Heroides</i>, vi. 53. Siebelis in his Preface to +Pausanias, p. xxi, gives from an old Scholia a sort of excuse for +the action of the women of Lemnos.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">83</span></a> Probably the +epilepsy. See Herodotus, iii. 33.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">84</span></a> Euripides, +"Bacchae," 203.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">85</span></a> Euripides, +Fragment of the "Melanippe."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">86</span></a> I take +Wyttenbach's suggestion as to the reading here.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">87</span></a> This line is +taken bodily by Aristophanes in his "Frogs," 1244.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">88</span></a> The first line +is the first line of a passage from Euripides, consisting of +thirteen lines, containing similar sentiments to this. See +Athenæus, xiii. p. 599, F. The last two lines are from +Euripides, "Hippolytus," 449, 450.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">89</span></a> Compare +Lucretius, i. 1-5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">90</span></a> Hesiod, +"Theogony," 116-120.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">91</span></a> Euripides, +"Danae," Frag. Compare Ovid, "Cedit amor rebus: res age, tutus +eris."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">92</span></a> Sophocles, +Fragm. 678, Dindorf. Compare a remark of Sophocles, recorded by +Cicero, "De Senectute," ch. xiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">93</span></a> Sophocles, +Fragm. 720. Reading καλὰ with Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">94</span></a> "Iliad," v. +831.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">95</span></a> Connecting +Ἄρῃς with +ἀναιρεῖν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">96</span></a> The <i>Saint +Hubert</i> of the Middle Ages.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">97</span></a> Æschylus, +Frag. 1911. Dindorf.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">98</span></a> Odyssey, v. +69.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">99</span></a> Fragm. 146, +125.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">100</span></a> Hermes is +alluded to.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">101</span></a> All these +four were titles of <i>Zeus</i>. They are very difficult to put +into English so as to convey any distinctive and definite idea to +an English reader.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">102</span></a> Enthusiasm +is the being ἔνθεος, or +inspired by some god.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">103</span></a> From +Æschylus, "Supplices," 681, 682.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">104</span></a> "Iliad," +vii. 121, 122.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">105</span></a> Like the +character described in Lucretius, ii. 1-6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">106</span></a> Sophocles, +"Trachiniae," 497. The Cyprian Queen is, of course, Aphrodite.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">107</span></a> Hence the +famous Proverb, "Non omnibus dormio." See Cic. "Ad. Fam." vii. +24.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">108</span></a> Above, in +§ xiii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">109</span></a> See +Sophocles, "Antigone," 783, 784. And compare Horace, "Odes," Book +iv. Ode xiii. 6-8, "Ille virentis et Doctæ psallere +Chiæ <i>Pulchris excubat in genis</i>."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">110</span></a> The "Niobe," +which exists only in a few fragments.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">111</span></a> This was the +name of Dionysius' Poem. He was a Corinthian poet.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">112</span></a> "Iliad," +xiii. 131.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">113</span></a> Reading +according to the conjecture of Wyttenbach, ὡς +τὸν Ἔρωτα +υὁνον +ἀήττητον +ὄντα τῶν +στρατηγῶν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">114</span></a> Something +has probably dropped out here, as Dübner suspects.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">115</span></a> Fragment +from the "Sthenebœa" of Euripides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">116</span></a> Anytus was +one of the accusers of Socrates, and so one of the causers of his +death. So Horace calls Socrates "Anyti reum," "Sat." ii. 4, 3.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">117</span></a> Homeric +Epigrammata, xiii. 5. Quoted also in "On Virtue and Vice," <a href= +"#Page_95a">§ I.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">118</span></a> Odyssey, +xix. 40.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">119</span></a> I adopt the +suggestion of Wyttenbach, εἶπεν ῶ +Δαφναῖε.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">120</span></a> Pinder, +"Pyth." i. 8.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">121</span></a> See for +example Homer, "Iliad," xi. 3, 73; ix. 502.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">122</span></a> Euripides, +"Pirithous," Fragm. 591. Dindorf.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">123</span></a> An allusion +to Homer, "Odyssey," xii. 453.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">124</span></a> So Terence, +"Andria," 555. "Amantium iræ amoris integratiost."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">125</span></a> Euripides, +"Hippolytus," 194-196.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">126</span></a> The lines +are from Alcæus. Thus Love was the child of the Rainbow and +the West Wind. A pretty conceit.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">127</span></a> Greek +<i>iris</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">128</span></a> The mirrors +of the ancients were of course not like our mirrors. They were only +burnished bronze. Hence the view in them would be at best somewhat +obscure. This explains 1 Cor. xiii. 12; 2 Cor. iii. 18; James i. +23.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">129</span></a> See +Euripides, "Hippolytus," 7, 8.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">130</span></a> Here the +story unfortunately ends, and for all time we shall know no more of +it. Reiske somewhat forcibly says, "Vel lippus videat Gorgus +historiam non esse finitam, et multa, ut et alias, periisse."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">131</span></a> Like Reiske +we condense here a little.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">132</span></a> Reading with +Reiske ὀρθῆς και +ἀθρύπτου.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">133</span></a> I read +εἰ γἁρ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">134</span></a> See "Iliad," +xxiii. 295. Podargus was an entire horse.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">135</span></a> See Ovid, +"Metamorph." iii. 206-208.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">136</span></a> +Æschylus, "Toxotides," Fragm. 224.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">137</span></a> A very +favourite proverb among the ancients. See Plat. "Phaedr." fin. +Martial, ii. 43.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">138</span></a> Soph. Fragm. +712.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">139</span></a> On Lais, see +Pausanias, ii. 2. Her Thessalian lover is there called +Hippostratus. Her favours were so costly that the famous proverb is +said to owe its origin to her, "Non cuivis homini contingit adire +Corinthum."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">140</span></a> The +Ægean and Ionian. Cf. Horace, "Odes," i. 7, 2.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">141</span></a> On +Acro-Corinthus, see Pausanias, ii. 4. The words in inverted commas +are from Euripides, Fragm. 921.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">142</span></a> On Lais +generally, and her end, see Athenæus, xiii. 54, 55.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">143</span></a> See <a href= +"#Page_29a">§ <span class="smcap">I</span>.</a> The Festival +of Love was being kept at this very time.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">144</span></a> This story +is also told by Plutarch, "De Mulierum Virtutibus," § xx.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">145</span></a> Sophocles, +Fragm. 741. Quoted again in "On Abundance of Friends," § +iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">146</span></a> A Delphic +word for love. Can it be connected with +ἅρμα?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">147</span></a> Very +frequent in Homer, <i>e.g.</i>, "Iliad," ii. 232; vi, 165; xiii. +636: xiv. 353, etc.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">148</span></a> See +Lucretius, iv. 1105-1114. I tone down the original here a +little.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">149</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," vi. 183, 184. Cf. Eurip. "Medea," 14, 15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">150</span></a> This means +when the moustache and beard and whiskers begin to grow.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">151</span></a> The whole +story about Harmodius and Aristogiton and how they killed +Hipparchus is told by Thucydides, vi. 54-59. Bion therefore +practically called these sprouting beards <i>tyrant-killers</i>, +<i>tyrannicides</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">152</span></a> "Scriptus +igitur hic libellus est post caedem +Domitiani."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">153</span></a> Vespasian +certainly was not cruel generally. "Non temere quis punitus insons +reperietur, nisi absente eo et ignaro aut certe invito atque +decepto..... Sola est, in qua merito culpetur, pecuniæ +cupiditas."—Suetonius, "Divus Vespasianus," 15, 16.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id= +"Page_70">70</a></span></p> + +<h3>CONJUGAL PRECEPTS.</h3> + +<h4>PLUTARCH SENDS GREETING TO POLLIANUS AND EURYDICE.</h4> + +<p>After the customary marriage rites, by which, the Priestess of +Demeter has united you together, I think that to make an +appropriate discourse, and one that will chime in with the +occasion, will be useful to you and agreeable to the law. For in +music one of the tunes played on the flute is called Hippothorus,<a +name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">154</a> which is a tune that +excites fierce desire in stallions to cover mares; and though in +philosophy there are many goodly subjects, yet is there none more +worthy of attention than that of marriage, on which subject +philosophy spreads a charm over those who are to pass life +together, and makes them gentle and mild to one another. I send +therefore as a gift to both of you a summary of what you have often +heard, as you are both well versed in philosophy, arranging my +matter in a series of short observations that it may be the more +easily remembered, and I pray that the Muses will assist and +co-operate with Aphrodite, so that no lyre or lute could be more +harmonious or in tune than your married life, as the result of +philosophy and concord. And thus the ancients set up near Aphrodite +statues of Hermes, to show that conversation was one of the great +charms of marriage, and also statues of Peitho<a name= +"FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">155</a> and the Graces, to +teach married people to gain their way with one another by +persuasion, and not by wrangling or contention.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Solon bade the bride eat a +quince the first night of marriage, intimating thereby, it seems, +that the bridegroom, was to expect his first pleasure from the +bride's mouth and conversation.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> In Bœotia they dress +up the bride with a chaplet <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" +id="Page_71">71</a></span>of asparagus, for as the asparagus gives +most excellent fruit from a thorny stalk, so the bride, by not +being too reluctant and coy in the first approaches, will make the +married state more agreeable and pleasant. But those husbands who +cannot put up with the early peevishness of their brides, are not a +whit wiser than those persons who pluck unripe grapes and leave the +ripe grapes for others.<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id= +"FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class= +"fnanchor">156</a> On the other hand, many brides, being at first +disgusted with their husbands, are like those that stand the bee's +sting but neglect the honey.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> Married people should +especially at the outset beware of the first quarrel and collision, +observing that vessels when first fabricated are easily broken up +into their component parts, but in process of time, getting compact +and firmly welded together, are proof against either fire or +steel.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> As fire gets kindled +easily in chaff or in a wick or in the fur of hares, but is easily +extinguished again, if it find no material to keep it in and feed +it, so we must not consider that the love of newly-married people, +that blazes out so fiercely in consequence of the attractions of +youth and beauty, will be durable and lasting, unless it be fixed +in the character, and occupy the mind, and make a living +impression.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a +href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">157</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> As catching fish by drugged +bait is easy, but makes the fish poor to eat and insipid, so those +wives that lay traps for their husbands by philtres and charms, and +become their masters by pleasure, have stupid senseless and spoiled +husbands to live with. For those that were bewitched by Circe did +her no good, nor could she make any use of them when they were +turned into swine and asses, but she was greatly in love with the +prudent Odysseus who dwelt with her sensibly.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> Those women who would +rather lord it over fools than obey sensible men, resemble those +people who would rather lead the blind on a road, and not people +who have eyesight and know how to follow.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Women disbelieve that +Pasiphäe, a king's wife, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span>was enamoured of a bull, +although they see some of their sex despising grave and sober men, +and preferring to associate with men who are the slaves of +intemperance and pleasure, and like dogs and he-goats.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Men who through weakness +or effeminacy cannot vault upon their horses' backs, teach them to +kneel and so receive their riders. Similarly, some men that marry +noble or rich wives, instead of making themselves better humble +their wives, thinking to rule them easier by lowering them. But one +ought to govern with an eye to the merit of a woman, as much as to +the size of a horse.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> We see that the moon when +it is far from the sun is bright and glorious, but pales and hides +its light when it is near. A modest wife on the contrary ought to +be seen chiefly with her husband, and to stay at home and in +retirement in his absence.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> It is not a true +observation of Herodotus, that a woman puts off her modesty with +her shift.<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a +href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">158</a> On the contrary, +the modest woman puts on her modesty instead, and great modesty is +a sign of great conjugal love.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> As where two voices are in +unison the loudest prevails; so in a well-managed household +everything is done by mutual consent, but the husband's supremacy +is exhibited, and his wishes are consulted.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> The Sun beat the North +Wind.<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">159</a> For when it blew a +strong and terrible blast, and tried to make the man remove his +cloak, he only drew it round him more closely, but when the Sun +came out with its warm rays, at first warmed and afterwards +scorched, he stripped himself of coat as well as cloak. Most woman +act similarly: if their husbands try to curtail by force their +luxury and extravagance, they are vexed and fight for their rights, +but if they are convinced by reason, they quietly drop their +expensive habits, and keep within bounds.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> Cato turned out of the +Senate a man who kissed his own wife in the presence of his +daughter. This was perhaps too strong a step, but if it is +unseemly, as indeed it is, for husband and wife in the presence of +others to fondle <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id= +"Page_73">73</a></span>and kiss and embrace one another, is it not +far more unseemly in the presence of others to quarrel and jangle? +Just as conjugal caresses and endearments ought to be private, so +ought admonition and scolding and plain speaking.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> Just as there is little +use in a mirror adorned with gold or precious stones, unless it +conveys a true likeness, so there is no advantage in a rich wife, +unless she conforms her life and habits to her husband's position. +For if when a man is joyful the mirror makes him look sad, and when +he is put out and sad it makes him look gay and smiling from ear to +ear, the mirror is plainly faulty. So the wife is faulty and devoid +of tact, who frowns when her husband is in the vein for mirth and +jollity, and who jokes and laughs when he is serious: the former +conduct is disagreeable, the latter contemptuous.<a name= +"FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">160</a> And, just as +geometricians say lines and surfaces do not move of themselves, but +only in connection with bodies, so the wife ought to have no +private emotions of her own, but share in her husband's gravity or +mirth, anxiety or gaiety.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> As those husbands who do +not like to see their wives eating and drinking in their company +only teach them to take their food on the sly, so those husbands +who are not gay and jolly with their wives, and never joke or smile +with them, only teach them to seek their pleasures out of their +company.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> The kings of Persia have +their wedded wives at their side at banquets and entertainments; +but when they have a mind for a drunken debauch they send them +away,<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">161</a> and call for +singing-girls and concubines, rightly so doing, for so they do not +mix up their wives with licentiousness and drunkenness. Similarly, +if a private individual, lustful and dissolute, goes astray with a +courtesan or maid-servant, the wife should not be vexed or +impatient, but consider that it is out of respect to her that he +bestows upon another all his wanton depravity.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id= +"Page_74">74</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> As +kings make<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a +href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">162</a> if fond of music +many musicians, if lovers of learning many men of letters, and many +athletes if fond of gymnastics, so the man who has an eye for +female charms teaches his wife to dress well, the man of pleasure +teaches his meretricious tricks and wantonness, while the true +gentleman makes his virtuous and decorous.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> A Lacedæmonian +maiden, when someone asked her if she had yet had dealings with a +man, replied, "No, but he has with me." This methinks is the line +of conduct a matron should pursue, neither to decline the embraces +of a husband when he takes the initiative, nor to provoke them +herself, for the one is forward and savours of the courtesan, the +other is haughty and unnatural.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xix.</span> The wife ought not to +have her own private friends, but cultivate only those of the +husband. Now the gods are our first and greatest friends, so the +wife ought only to worship and recognize her husband's gods, and +the door ought to be shut on all superfluous worship and strange +superstitions, for none of the gods are pleased with stealthy and +secret sacrifices on the part of a wife.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xx.</span> Plato says that is a happy +and fortunate state, where the words <i>Meum</i> and <i>Tuum</i> +are least heard,<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id= +"FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class= +"fnanchor">163</a> because the citizens regard the common interest +in all matters of importance. Far more essential is it in marriage +that the words should have no place. For, as the doctors say, that +blows on the left shoulders are also felt on the right,<a name= +"FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">164</a> so is it good<a name= +"FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">165</a> for husband and wife +to mutually sympathize with one another, that, just as the strength +of ropes comes from the twining and interlacing of fibres together, +so the marriage knot may be confirmed and strengthened by the +interchange of mutual affection and kindness. Nature itself teaches +this by the birth of children, which are so much a joint result, +that neither husband nor wife can dis<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span>criminate or discern which part +of the child is theirs. So, too, it is well for married persons to +have one purse, and to throw all their property into one common +stock, that here also there may be no <i>Meum</i> and <i>Tuum</i>. +And just as we call the mixture of water and wine by the name of +wine, even though the water should preponderate,<a name= +"FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">166</a> so we say that the +house and property belongs to the man, even though the wife +contribute most of the money.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxi.</span> Helen was fond of wealth, +Paris of pleasure, whereas Odysseus was prudent, Penelope chaste. +So the marriage of the last two was happy and enviable, while that +of the former two brought an Iliad of woe on Greeks and barbarians +alike.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxii.</span> The Roman who was taken +to task by his friends for repudiating a chaste wealthy and +handsome wife, showed them his shoe and said, "Although this is new +and handsome, none of you know where it pinches me."<a name= +"FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">167</a> A wife ought not +therefore to put her trust in her dowry, or family, or beauty, but +in matters that more vitally concern her husband, namely, in her +disposition and companionableness and complaisance with him, not to +make every-day life vexatious or annoying, but harmonious and +cheerful and agreeable. For as doctors are more afraid of fevers +that are generated from uncertain causes, and from a complication +of ailments, than of those that have a clear and adequate cause, so +the small and continual and daily matters of offence between +husband and wife, that the world knows nothing about, set the +household most at variance, and do it the greatest injury.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxiii.</span> King Philip was +desperately enamoured of a Thessalian woman,<a name= +"FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">168</a> who was accused of +bewitching him; his wife Olympias therefore wished to get this +woman into her power. But when she came before her, and was <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id= +"Page_76">76</a></span>evidently very handsome, and talked to her +in a noble and sensible manner, Olympias said, "Farewell to +calumny! Your charms lie in yourself."<a name="FNanchor_169_169" +id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class= +"fnanchor">169</a> So invincible are the charms of a lawful wife to +win her husband's affection by her virtuous character, bringing to +him in herself dowry, and family, and philtres, and even +Aphrodite's cestus.<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id= +"FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class= +"fnanchor">170</a></p> + +<p><a name="Page_76a" id="Page_76a"></a>§ <span class= +"smcap">xxiv.</span> Olympias, on another occasion, when a young +courtier had married a wife who was very handsome, but whose +reputation was not very good, remarked, "This fellow has no sense, +or he would not have married with his eyes." We ought neither to +marry with our eyes, nor with our fingers, as some do, who reckon +up on their fingers what dowry the wife will bring, not what sort +of partner she will make.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxv.</span> It was advice of +Socrates, that when young men looked at themselves in the mirror, +those who were not handsome should become so through virtue, and +those who were so should not by vice deform their beauty. Good also +is it for the matron, when she has the mirror in her hands, if not +handsome to say to herself, "What should I be, if I were not +virtuous?" and if handsome to say to herself, "How good it were to +add virtue to beauty!" for it is a feather in the cap of a woman +not handsome to be loved for herself and not for good looks.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxvi.</span> Dionysius, the tyrant of +Sicily, sent some costly dresses and necklaces to the daughters of +Lysander, but he would not receive them, and said, "These presents +will bring my daughters more shame than adornment." And Sophocles +said still earlier than Lysander, "Your madness of mind will not +appear handsome, wretch, but most unhandsome." For, as Crates says, +"that is adornment which adorns," and that adorns a woman that +makes her more comely; and it is not gold or diamonds or scarlet +robes that make her so, but her dignity, her correct conduct, and +her modesty.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxvii.</span> Those who sacrifice to +Hera as goddess of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id= +"Page_77">77</a></span>marriage,<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id= +"FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class= +"fnanchor">171</a> do not burn the gall with the other parts of the +victim, but when they have drawn it throw it away beside the altar: +the lawgiver thus hinting that gall and rage have no place in +marriage. For the austerity of a matron should be, like that of +wine, wholesome and pleasant, not bitter as aloes, or like a +drug.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxviii.</span> Plato advised +Xenocrates, a man rather austere but in all other respects a fine +fellow, to sacrifice to the Graces. I think also that a chaste wife +needs the graces with her husband that, as Metrodorus said, "she +may live agreeably with him, and not be bad-tempered because she is +chaste." For neither should the frugal wife neglect neatness, nor +the virtuous one neglect to make herself attractive, for +peevishness makes a wife's good conduct disagreeable, as untidiness +makes one disgusted with simplicity.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxix.</span> The wife who is afraid +to laugh and jest with her husband, lest she should appear bold and +wanton, resembles one that will not anoint herself with oil lest +she should be thought to use cosmetics, and will not wash her face +lest she should be thought to paint. We see also in the case of +those poets and orators, that avoid a popular illiberal and +affected style, that they artificially endeavour to move and sway +their audience by the facts, and by a skilful arrangement of them, +and by their gestures. Consequently a matron will do well to avoid +and repudiate over-preciseness meretriciousness and pomposity, and +to use tact in her dealings with her husband in every-day life, +accustoming him to a combination of pleasure and decorum. But if a +wife be by nature austere and apathetic, and no lover of pleasure, +the husband must make the best of it, for, as Phocion said, when +Antipater enjoined on him an action neither honourable nor +becoming, "You cannot have me as a friend and flatterer both," so +he must say to himself about his strict and austere wife, "I cannot +have in the same woman wife and mistress."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxx.</span> It was a custom among the +Egyptian ladies not to wear shoes, that they might stay at home all +day and not go abroad. But most of our women will only stay at +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id= +"Page_78">78</a></span>home if you strip them of their golden +shoes, and bracelets, and shoe-buckles, and purple robes, and +pearls.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxi.</span> Theano, as she was +putting on her shawl, displayed her arm, and somebody observing, +"What a handsome arm!" she replied, "But not common." So ought not +even the speech, any more than the arm, of a chaste woman, to be +common, for speech must be considered as it were the exposing of +the mind, especially in the presence of strangers. For in words are +seen the state of mind and character and disposition of the +speaker.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxii.</span> Phidias made a statue +of Aphrodite at Elis, with one foot on a tortoise,<a name= +"FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">172</a> as a symbol that women +should stay at home and be silent. For the wife ought only to speak +either to her husband, or by her husband, not being vexed if, like +a flute-player, she speaks more decorously by another +mouth-piece.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxiii.</span> When rich men and +kings honour philosophers, they really pay homage to themselves as +well; but when philosophers pay court to the rich, they lower +themselves without advancing their patrons. The same is the case +with women. If they submit themselves to their husbands they +receive praise, but if they desire to rule, they get less credit +even than the husbands who submit to their rule. But the husband +ought to rule his wife, not as a master does a chattel, but as the +soul governs the body, by sympathy and goodwill. As he ought to +govern the body by not being a slave to its pleasures and desires, +so he ought to rule his wife by cheerfulness and complaisance.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxiv.</span> The philosophers tell +us that some bodies are composed of distinct parts, as a fleet or +army; others of connected parts, as a house or ship; others united +and growing together, as every animal is. The marriage of lovers is +like this last class, that of those who marry for dowry or children +is like the second class, and that of those who only sleep together +is like the first class, who may be said to live in the same house, +but in no other sense to live together. But, just as doctors tell +us that liquids are the only things that thoroughly mix, so in +married people there must be a complete union of bodies, wealth, +friends, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id= +"Page_79">79</a></span>and relations. And thus the Roman legislator +forbade married people to exchange presents with one another, not +that they should not go shares with one another, but that they +should consider everything as common property.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxv.</span> At Leptis, a town in +Libya, it is the custom for the bride the day after marriage to +send to her mother-in-law's house for a pipkin, who does not lend +her one, but says she has not got one, that from the first the +daughter-in-law may know her mother-in-law's stepmotherly mind,<a +name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">173</a> that if afterwards she +should be harsher still, she should be prepared for it and not take +it ill. Knowing this the wife ought to guard against any cause of +offence, for the bridegroom's mother is jealous of his affection to +his wife. But there is one cure for this condition of mind, to +conciliate privately the husband's affection, and not to divert or +diminish his love for his mother.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxvi.</span> Mothers seem to love +their sons best as able to help them, and fathers their daughters +as needing their help; perhaps also it is in compliment to one +another, that each prefers the other sex in their children, and +openly favours it. This, however, is a matter perhaps of little +importance. But it looks very nice in the wife to show greater +respect to her husband's parents than to her own, and if anything +unpleasant has happened to confide it to them rather than to her +own people. For trust begets trust,<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id= +"FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class= +"fnanchor">174</a> and love love.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxvii.</span> The generals of the +Greeks in Cyrus's army ordered their men to receive the enemy +silently if they came up shouting, but if they came up silently to +rush out to meet them with a shout. So sensible wives, in their +husband's tantrums, are quiet when they storm, but if they are +silent and sullen talk them round and appease them.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxviii.</span> Rightly does +Euripides<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a +href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">175</a> censure those who +introduce the lyre at wine-parties, for music ought to be <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span>called +in to assuage anger and grief, rather than to enervate the +voluptuous still more than before. Think, therefore, those in error +who sleep together for pleasure, but when they have any little +difference with one another sleep apart, and do not then more than +at any other time invoke Aphrodite, who is the best physician in +such cases, as the poet, I ween, teaches us, where he introduces +Hera, saying:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Their long-continued strife I +now will end,</span> <span class="i0">For to the bed of love I will +them send."<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a +href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">176</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxix.</span> Everywhere and at all +times should husband and wife avoid giving one another cause of +offence, but most especially when they are in bed together. The +woman who was in labour and had a bad time said to those that urged +her to go to bed, "How shall the bed cure me, which was the very +cause of this trouble?"<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id= +"FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class= +"fnanchor">177</a> And those differences and quarrels which the bed +generates will not easily be put an end to at any other time or +place.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_80a" id="Page_80a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">xl.</span> Hermione seems to speak the truth where she +says:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The visits of bad women +ruined me."<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a +href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">178</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But this case does not happen naturally, but only when +dissension and jealousy has made wives open not only their doors +but their ears to such women. But that is the very time when a +sensible wife will shut her ears more than at any other time, and +be especially on her guard against whisperers, that fire may not be +added to fire,<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id= +"FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class= +"fnanchor">179</a> and remember the remark of Philip, who, when his +friends tried to excite him against the Greeks, on the ground that +they were treated well and yet reviled him, answered, "What will +they do then, if I treat them ill?" Whenever, then, calumniating +women come and say to a wife, "How badly your husband treats you, +though a chaste and loving wife!" let her answer, "How would he act +then, if I were to begin to hate him and injure him?"</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xli.</span> The master who saw his +runaway slave a long <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id= +"Page_81">81</a></span>time after he had run away, and chased him, +and came up with him just as he had got to the mill, said to him, +"In what more appropriate place could I have wished to find you?"<a +name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">180</a> So let the wife, who +is jealous of her husband, and on the point of writing a bill of +divorce in her anger, say to herself, "In what state would my rival +be better pleased to see me in than this, vexed and at variance +with my husband, and on the point of abandoning his house and +bed?"</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xlii.</span> The Athenians have three +sacred seedtimes: the first at Scirus, as a remembrance of the +original sowing of corn, the second at Rharia, the third under +Pelis, which is called Buzygium.<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id= +"FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class= +"fnanchor">181</a> But a more sacred seedtime than all these is the +procreation of children, and therefore Sophocles did well to call +Aphrodite "fruitful Cytherea." Wherefore it behoves both husband +and wife to be most careful over this business, and to abstain from +lawless and unholy breaches of the marriage vow, and from sowing in +quarters where they desire no produce, or where, if any produce +should come, they would be ashamed of it and desire to conceal +it.<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">182</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xliii.</span> When Gorgias the +Rhetorician recited his speech at Olympia recommending harmony to +the Greeks, Melanthius cried out, "He recommend harmony to us! Why, +he can't persuade his wife and maid to live in harmony, though +there are only three of them in the house!" Gorgias belike had an +intrigue with the maid, and his wife was jealous. He then must have +his own house in good order who undertakes to order the affairs of +his friends and the public, for any ill-doings on the part of +husbands to their wives is far more likely to come out and be known +to the public than the ill-doings of wives to their husbands.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xliv.</span> They say the cat is +driven mad by the smell of perfumes. If it happens that wives are +equally affected <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id= +"Page_82">82</a></span>by perfumes, it is monstrous that their +husbands should not abstain from using perfumes, rather than for so +small a pleasure to incommode so grievously their wives. And since +they suffer quite as much when their husbands go with other women, +it is unjust for a small pleasure to pain and grieve wives, and not +to abstain from connection with other women, when even bee-keepers +will do as much, because bees are supposed to dislike and sting +those that have had dealings with women.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xlv.</span> Those that approach +elephants do not dress in white, nor those that approach bulls in +red, for these colours render those animals savage; and tigers they +say at the beating of drums go quite wild, and tear themselves in +their rage. Similarly, as some men cannot bear to see scarlet and +purple dresses, and others are put out by cymbals and drums,<a +name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">183</a> what harm would it do +wives to abstain from these things, and not to vex or provoke +husbands, but to live with them quietly and meekly?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xlvi.</span> A woman said to Philip, +who against her will was pulling her about, "Let me go, all women +are alike when the lamp is put out."<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id= +"FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class= +"fnanchor">184</a> A good remark to adulterers and debauchees. But +the married woman ought to show when the light is put out that she +is not like all other women, for then, when her body is not +visible, she ought to exhibit her chastity and modesty as well as +her personal affection to her husband.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xlvii.</span> Plato<a name= +"FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">185</a> recommended old men to +act with decorum especially before young men, that they too might +show respect to them; for where the old behave shamelessly, no +modesty or reverence will be exhibited by the young. The husband +ought to remember this, and show no one more respect than his wife, +knowing that the bridal chamber will be to her either a school of +virtue or of vice. And he who enjoys pleasures that he forbids his +wife, is like a man that orders his wife to go on fighting against +an enemy to whom he has himself surrendered.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xlviii.</span> As to love of show, +Eurydice, read and try to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" +id="Page_83">83</a></span>remember what was written by Timoxena to +Aristylla: and do you, Pollianus, not suppose that your wife will +abstain from extravagance and expense, if she sees that you do not +despise such vanities in others, but delight in gilt cups, and +pictures in houses, and trappings for mules, and ornaments for +horses. For it is not possible to banish extravagance from the +women's side of the house if it is always to be seen in the men's +apartments. Moreover, Pollianus, as you are already old enough for +the study of philosophy, adorn your character by its teaching, +whether it consists of demonstration or constructive reasoning, by +associating and conversing with those that can profit you. And for +your wife gather honey from every quarter, as the bees do, and +whatever knowledge you have yourself acquired impart to her, and +converse with her, making the best arguments well known and +familiar to her. For now</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Father thou art to her, and +mother dear,</span> <span class="i0">And brother too."<a name= +"FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">186</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And no less decorous is it to hear the wife say, "Husband, you +are my teacher and philosopher and guide in the most beautiful and +divine subjects." For such teaching in the first place detaches +women from absurdities: for the woman who has learnt geometry will +be ashamed to dance, nor will she believe in incantations and +spells, if she has been charmed by the discourses of Plato and +Xenophon; and if anyone should undertake to draw the moon down from +the sky, she will laugh at the ignorance and stupidity of women +that credit such nonsense, well understanding geometry, and having +heard how Aglaonice, the daughter of the Thessalian Hegetor, having +a thorough knowledge of the eclipses of the moon, and being aware +beforehand of the exact time when the moon would be in eclipse, +cheated the women, and persuaded them that she herself had drawn it +down from the sky. For no woman was ever yet credited with having +had a child without intercourse with a man, for those shapeless +embryos and gobbets of flesh that take form from corruption are +called moles. We must guard against such false conceptions as these +arising in the minds <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id= +"Page_84">84</a></span>of women, for if they are not well informed +by good precepts, and share in the teaching that men get, they +generate among themselves many foolish and absurd ideas and states +of mind. But do you, Eurydice, study to make yourself acquainted +with the sayings of wise and good women, and ever have on your +tongue those sentiments which as a girl you learnt with us, that so +you may make your husband's heart glad, and be admired by all other +women, being in yourself so wonderfully and splendidly adorned. For +one cannot take or put on, except at great expense, the jewels of +this or that rich woman, or the silk dresses of this or that +foreign woman, but the virtues that adorned Theano,<a name= +"FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">187</a> and Cleobuline, and +Gorgo the wife of Leonidas, and Timoclea the sister of Theagenes, +and the ancient Claudia,<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id= +"FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class= +"fnanchor">188</a> and Cornelia the sister of Scipio,<a name= +"FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">189</a> and all other such +noble and famous women, these one may array oneself in without +money and without price, and so adorned lead a happy and famous +life. For if Sappho plumed herself so much on the beauty of her +lyrical poetry as to write to a certain rich woman, "You shall lie +down in your tomb, nor shall there be any remembrance of you, for +you have no part in the roses of Pieria," how shall you not have a +greater right to plume yourself on having a part not in the roses +but in the fruits which the Muses bring, and which they freely +bestow on those that admire learning and philosophy?<a name= +"FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">190</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">154</span></a> This tune is +again alluded to by Plutarch in "Quæstion. Convival"., p. 704, +F. See also Clemens Alexandrinus, "Pædagog." ii. p. 164, +Α ταῐς δὲ +ἵπποις +μιγνυμέναις +οἷον +ὑμέναιος +ἐπαυλεῖται +νόμος +αὐλωδιας +ἱππόθορον +τοῦτον +κεκληκασιν +οἱ +Μουσικοί.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">155</span></a> Peitho means +Persuasion, and is represented as one of the Graces by Hermes anax. +See Pausanias, ix. 35.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">156</span></a> Compare the +Proverb Εικελὸς +ὀμφακίζεται, +and Tibullus, iii. 5, 19: "Quid fraudare juvat vitem crescentibus +uvis?"</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">157</span></a> Cf. +Shakspere, "Romeo and Juliet," A. ii. Sc. vi. 9-15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">158</span></a> Herodotus, +i. 8.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">159</span></a> An allusion +to the well-known Fable of Æsop, No. 82 in Halm's +edition.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">160</span></a> This +comparison of the mirror is beautifully used by Keble in his +"Christian Year:"</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Without a hope on earth to +find</span> <span class="i0">A mirror in an answering mind."</span> +<span class="i9"><i>Wednesday before Easter</i>.</span> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">161</span></a> Does this +throw light on Esther, i. 10-12?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">162</span></a> By their +patronage.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">163</span></a> "Republic," +v. p. 462, C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">164</span></a> By the power +of sympathy. This is especially true of eyes. Wyttenbach compares +the Epigram in the Anthology, i. 46. 9. Καὶ +γὰρ δέξιον +ὄμμα +κακούμενον +ὄμματι λαίῳ +Πολλάκι +τοῦς +ἰδίους +ἀντιδίδωσι +πόνους.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">165</span></a> Reading +καλον with Hercher.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">166</span></a> The ancients +hardly ever drank wine neat. Hence the allusion. The symposiarch, +or arbiter bibendi, settled the proportions to be used.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">167</span></a> Compare the +French proverb, "Le beau soulier blesse souvent le pied."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">168</span></a> Thessaly was +considered by the ancients famous for enchantments and spells. So +Juvenal, vi. 610, speaks of "Thessala philtia," and see Horace, +"Odes," i. 27. 21, 22; "Epodes," v. 45.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">169</span></a> Wyttenbach +well compares the lines of Menander:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class= +"i0">ἔνεστ᾽ἀληθὲς +φίλτρον +εὐγνώμων +τρόπός,</span> <span class= +"i0">τούτῳ +κατακρατεῖν +ἀνδρὸς +εἴωθεν +γυνή.</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">170</span></a> An allusion +to Homer, "Iliad," xiv. 214-217.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">171</span></a> Called by +the Romans "pronuba Juno." See Verg. "Æneid," iv. 166; Ovid, +"Heroides," vi. 43.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">172</span></a> See +Pausanias, vi. 25. The statue was made of ivory and gold.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">173</span></a> Compare +Terence, "Hecyra," 201. "Uno animo omnes socrus oderunt nurus." As +to stepmotherly feelings, the "injusta noverca" has passed into a +proverb with all nations. See for example Hesiod, "Works and Days," +823, ἄλλοτε +μητρυιὴ +πἐλει ἡμἐρη, +ἄλλοτε +μήτηρ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">174</span></a> Wyttenbach +compares Seneca's "Fidelem si putaveris facies." "Ep." iii. p. +6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">175</span></a> Euripides, +"Medea," 190-198.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">176</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xiv. 205, 209.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">177</span></a> See Mulier +Parturiens, Phaedrus' "Fables," i. 18.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">178</span></a> Euripides, +"Andromache," 930.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">179</span></a> Proverb. Cf. +Horace, "Oleum adde camino," ii. "Sat." iii. 321.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">180</span></a> See +Æsop's Fables, No. 121. Halme. +Δραπέτης is the title. All +readers of Plautus and Terence know what a bugbear to slaves the +threat of being sent to the mill was. They would have to turn it +instead of horses, or other cattle.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">181</span></a> That is, +<i>Yoking oxen for the plough</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">182</span></a> Procreation +of children was among the ancients frequently called +<i>Ploughing</i> and <i>Sowing</i>. Hence the allusions in this +paragraph. So, too, Shakspere, "Measure for Measure," Act i. Sc. +iv. 41-44.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">183</span></a> The +reference is to the rites of Cybele. See Lucretius, ii. 618.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">184</span></a> See Erasmus, +"Adagia." The French proverb is "La nuit tous les chats sont +gris."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">185</span></a> "Laws," p. +729, C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">186</span></a> From the +words of Andromache to Hector, "Iliad," vi. 429, 430.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">187</span></a> Theano was +the wife of Pythagoras.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">188</span></a> See Livy, +xxix. 14. Propertius, v. 11. 51, 52. Ovid, "Fasti," iv. 305 sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">189</span></a> And mother +of the Gracchi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">190</span></a> Jeremy +Taylor, in his beautiful sermon on "The Marriage Ring," has +borrowed not a few hints from this treatise of Plutarch, as usual +investing with a new beauty whatever he borrows, from whatever +source. He had the classics at his fingers' end, and much of his +unique charm he owes to them. But he read them as a philosopher, +and not as a grammarian.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id= +"Page_85">85</a></span></p> + +<h3>CONSOLATORY LETTER TO HIS WIFE.</h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Plutarch to his wife sends +greeting. The messenger that you sent to me to announce the death +of our little girl seems to have missed his way <i>en route</i> for +Athens; but when I got to Tanagra I heard the news from my niece. I +suppose the funeral has already taken place, and I hope everything +went off so as to give you least sorrow both now and hereafter. But +if you left undone anything you wished to do, waiting for my +opinion, and thinking your grief would then be lighter, be it +without ceremoniousness or superstition, both which things are +indeed foreign to your character.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> Only, my dear wife, let us +both be patient at this calamity. I know and can see very clearly +how great it is, but should I find your grief too excessive, it +would trouble me even more than the event itself. And yet I have +not a heart hard as heart of oak or flintstone, as you yourself +know very well, who have shared with me in the bringing up of so +many children, as they have all been educated at home by ourselves. +And this one I know was more especially beloved by you, as she was +the first daughter after four sons, when you longed for a daughter, +and so I gave her your name.<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id= +"FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class= +"fnanchor">191</a> And as you are very fond of children your grief +must have a peculiar bitterness when you call to mind her pure and +simple gaiety, which was without a tincture of passion or +querulousness. For she had from nature a wonderful contentedness of +mind and meekness, and her affectionateness and winning ways not +only pleased one but also afforded a means of observing her +kindliness of heart, for she used to bid her nurse<a name= +"FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">192</a> give the teat not only +to other children but even to her favourite playthings, and so +invited them as it were to her table in kindliness of heart, and +gave them a share of her good things, and provided the best +entertainment for those that pleased her.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> But I see no reason, my +dear wife, why these and similar traits in her character, that gave +us delight in her lifetime,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" +id="Page_86">86</a></span> should now, when recalled to the +memory, grieve and trouble us. Though, on the other hand, I fear +that if we cease to grieve we may also cease to remember her, like +Clymene, who says in the Play<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id= +"FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class= +"fnanchor">193</a>—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I hate the supple bow of +cornel-wood,</span> <span class="i0">And would put down +athletics,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>because she ever avoided and trembled at anything that reminded +her of her son, for it brought grief with it, and it is natural to +avoid everything that gives us pain. But as she gave us the +greatest pleasure in embracing her and even in seeing and hearing +her, so ought her memory living and dwelling with us to give us +more, aye, many times more, joy than grief, since those arguments +that we have often used to others ought to be profitable to us in +the present conjuncture, nor should we sit down and rail against +fortune, opposing to those joys many more griefs.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Those who were present at +the funeral tell me with evident surprise that you put on no +mourning, and that you bedizened up neither yourself nor your maids +with the trappings of woe, and that there was no ostentatious +expenditure of money at the funeral, but that everything was done +orderly and silently in the presence of our relations. I am not +myself surprised that you, who never made a display either at the +theatre or on any other public occasion, and thought extravagance +useless even in the case of pleasure, should have been frugal in +your grief. For not only ought the chaste woman to remain uncorrupt +in Bacchanalian revels,<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id= +"FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class= +"fnanchor">194</a> but she ought to consider her self-control not a +whit less necessary in the surges of sorrow and emotion of grief, +contending not (as most people think) against natural affection, +but against the extravagant wishes of the soul. For we are +indulgent to natural affection in the regret, and honour, and +memory that it pays to the dead: but the insatiable desire for a +passionate display of funeral grief, coming to the climax in +coronachs and beatings of the breast, is not less unseemly than +intemperance in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id= +"Page_87">87</a></span>pleasure and is unreasonably<a name= +"FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">195</a> forgiven only because +pain and grief instead of delight are elements in the unseemly +exhibition. For what is more unreasonable than to curtail excessive +laughter or any other demonstration of joy, and to allow a free +vent to copious lamentation and wailing that come from the same +source? And how unreasonable is it, as some husbands do, to quarrel +with their wives about perfume and purple robes, while they allow +them to shear their heads in mourning, and to dress in black, and +to sit in idle grief, and to lie down in weariness! And what is +worst of all, how unreasonable is it for husbands to interfere if +their wives chastise the domestics and maids immoderately or +without sufficient cause, yet allow them to ill-treat themselves +cruelly in cases and conjunctures that require repose and +kindness!</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> But between us, my dear +wife, there never was any occasion for such a contest, nor do I +think there ever will be. For as to your economy in dress and +simple way of living, there is no philosopher with whom you are +acquainted whom you did not amaze, nor is there any citizen who has +not observed<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a +href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">196</a> how plainly you +dressed at sacred rites, and sacrifices, and theatres. You have +also already on similar painful occasions exhibited great +fortitude, as when you lost your eldest son, and again when our +handsome Chæron died. For when I was informed of his death, I +well remember some guests from the sea were coming home with me to +my house as well as some others, but when they saw the great quiet +and tranquillity of the household, they thought, as they afterwards +told some other people, that no such disaster had really happened, +but that the news was untrue. So well had you ordered everything in +the house, at a time when there would have been great excuse for +disorder. And yet you had suckled that son, though your breast had +had to be lanced owing to a contusion. This was noble conduct and +showed your great natural affection.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> But most mothers we see, +when their children are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id= +"Page_88">88</a></span>brought to them clean and tidy, take them +into their hands as playthings, and when they die burst out into +idle and unthankful grief, not so much out of affection—for +affection is thoughtful and noble—but a great yearning for +vain glory<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a +href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">197</a> mixed with a +little natural affection makes their grief fierce and vehement and +hard to appease. And this does not seem to have escaped +Æsop's notice, for he says that when Zeus assigned their +honours to various gods, Grief also claimed his. And Zeus granted +his wish, with this limitation that only those who chose and wished +need pay him honour.<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id= +"FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class= +"fnanchor">198</a> It is thus with grief at the outset, everyone +welcomes it at first, but after it has got by process of time +settled, and become an inmate of the house, it is with difficulty +dislodged again, however much people may wish to dislodge it. +Wherefore we ought to keep it out of doors, and not let it approach +the garrison by wearing mourning or shearing the hair, or by any +similar outward sign of sorrow. For these things occurring daily +and being importunate make the mind little, and narrow, and +unsocial, and harsh, and timid, so that, being besieged and taken +in hand by grief, it can no longer laugh, and shuns daylight, and +avoids society. This evil will be followed by neglect of the body, +and dislike to anointing and the bath and the other usual modes of +life: whereas the very opposite ought to be the case, for the mind +ill at ease especially requires that the body should be in a sound +and healthy condition. For much of grief is blunted and relaxed +when the body is permeated by calm, like the sea in fine weather. +But if the body get into a dry and parched condition from a low +diet, and gives no proper nutriment to the soul, but only feeds it +with sorrow and grief, as it were with bitter and injurious +exhalations, it cannot easily recover its tone however people may +wish it should. Such is the state of the soul that has been so +ill-treated.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Moreover, I should not +hesitate to assert<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id= +"FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class= +"fnanchor">199</a> that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" +id="Page_89">89</a></span>most formidable peril in connection with +this is "the visits of bad women,"<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id= +"FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class= +"fnanchor">200</a> and their chatter, and joint lamentation, all +which things fan the fire of sorrow and aggravate it, and suffer it +not to be extinguished either by others or by itself. I am not +ignorant what a time of it you had lately, when you went to the aid +of Theon's sister, and fought against the women who came on a visit +of condolence and rushed up with lamentation and wailing, adding +fuel as it were to her fire of grief in their simplicity. For when +people see their friends' houses on fire they put it out as quickly +and energetically as they can, but when their souls are on fire +they themselves bring fuel. And if anybody has anything the matter +with his eyes they will not let him put his hands to them, however +much he wish, nor do they themselves touch the inflamed part; but a +person in grief sits down and gives himself up to every chance +comer, like a river [that all make use of], to stir up and +aggravate the sore, so that from a little tickling and discomfort +it grows into a great and terrible disease. However, as to all this +I know you will be on your guard.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Try also often to carry +yourself back in memory to that time when, this little girl not +having been then born, we had nothing to charge Fortune with, and +to compare that time and this together, as if our circumstances had +gone back to what they were then. Otherwise, my dear wife, we shall +seem discontented at the birth of our little daughter, if we +consider our position before her birth as more perfect. But we +ought not to erase from our memory the two years of her life, but +to consider them as a time of pleasure giving us gratification and +enjoyment, and not to deem the shortness of the blessing as a great +evil, nor to be unthankful for what was given us, because Fortune +did not give us a longer tenure as we wished. For ever to be +careful what we say about the gods, and to be cheerful and not rail +against Fortune, brings a sweet and goodly profit; and he who in +such conjunctures as ours mostly tries to remember his blessings, +and turns and diverts his mind from the dark and disturbing things +in life to the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id= +"Page_90">90</a></span>bright and radiant, either altogether +extinguishes his grief or makes it small and dim from a comparison +with his comforts. For as perfume gives pleasure to the nose, and +is a remedy against disagreeable smells, so the remembrance of past +happiness in present trouble gives all the relief they require to +those who do not shut out of their memory the blessings of the +past, or always and everywhere rail against Fortune. And this +certainly ought not to be our case, that we should slander all our +past life because, like a book, it has one erasure in it, when all +the other pages have been bright and clean.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> You have often heard that +happiness consists in right calculations resulting in a healthy +state of mind, and that the changes which Fortune brings about need +not upset it, and introduce confusion into our life. But if we too +must, like most people, be governed by external events, and make an +inventory of the dealings of Fortune, and constitute other people +the judges of our felicity, do not now regard the tears and +lamentations of those who visit you, which by a faulty custom are +lavished on everybody, but consider rather how happy you are still +esteemed by them for your family, your house, and life. For it +would be monstrous, if others would gladly prefer your destiny to +theirs, even taking into account our present sorrow, that you +should rail against and be impatient at our present lot, and in +consequence of our bitter grief not reflect how much comfort is +still left to us. But like those who quote imperfect verses of +Homer<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">201</a> and neglect the finest +passages of his writings, to enumerate and complain of the trials +of life, while you pay no attention to its blessings, is to +resemble those stingy misers, who heap up riches and make no use of +them when they have them, but lament and are impatient if they are +lost. And if you grieve over her dying unmarried and childless, you +can comfort yourself with the thought that you have had both those +advantages. For they should not be reckoned as great blessings in +the case of those who do not enjoy them, and small blessings in the +case of those who do. And that she has gone to a <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span>place where +she is out of pain ought not to pain us, for what evil can we mourn +for on her account if her pains are over? For even the loss of +important things does not grieve us when we have no need of them. +But it was only little things that your Timoxena was deprived of, +little things only she knew, and in little things only did she +rejoice; and how can one be said to be deprived of things of which +one had no conception, nor experience, nor even desire for?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> As to what you hear from +some people, who get many to credit their notion, that the dead +suffer no evil or pain, I know that you are prevented from +believing that by the tradition of our fathers and by the mystic +symbols of the mysteries of Dionysus, for we are both initiated. +Consider then that the soul, being incorruptible, is in the same +condition after death as birds that have been caught. For if it has +been a long time in the body, and during this mortal life has +become tame by many affairs and long habit, it swoops down again +and a second time enters the body, and does not cease to be +involved in the changes and chances of this life that result from +birth. For do not suppose that old age is abused and ill-spoken of +only for its wrinkles and white hair and weakness of body, but this +is the worst feature about it, that it makes the soul feeble in its +remembrance of things in the other world, and strong in its +attachment to things in this world, and bends and presses it, if it +retain the form which it had in the body from its experience. But +that soul, which does indeed enter the body, but remains only a +short time in it, being liberated from it by the higher powers, +rears as it were at a damp and soft turning post in the race of +life, and hastens on to its destined goal. For just as if anyone +put out a fire, and light it again at once, it is soon rekindled, +and burns up again quickly, but if it has been out a long time, to +light it again will be a far more difficult and irksome task, so +the soul that has sojourned only a short time in this dark and +mortal life, quickly recovers the light and blaze of its former +bright life, whereas for those who have not had the good fortune +very early, to use the language of the poet, "to pass the gates of +Hades,"<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a +href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">202</a> nothing remains +but a great <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id= +"Page_92">92</a></span>passion for the things of this life, and a +softening of the soul through contact with the body, and a melting +away of it as if by the agency of drugs.<a name="FNanchor_203_203" +id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class= +"fnanchor">203</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> And the truth of this is +rendered more apparent in our hereditary and time-honoured customs +and laws. For when infants die no libations are poured out for +them, nor are any other rites performed for them, such as are +always performed for adults. For they have no share in the earth or +in things of the earth, nor do parents haunt their tombs or +monuments, or sit by their bodies when they are laid out. For the +laws do not allow us to mourn for such, seeing that it is an +impious thing to do so in the case of persons who have departed +into a better and more divine place and sphere. I know that doubts +are entertained about this, but since to doubt is harder for them +than to believe, let us do externally as the laws enjoin, and +internally let us be more holy and pure and chaste.<a name= +"FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">204</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">191</span></a> Timoxena, as +we see later on, § ix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">192</span></a> Adopting +Reiske's reading, μαστὸν +κελεύουσα, +προεκαλεῖτο +καθάπερ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">193</span></a> Euripides' +"Phaethon," which exists only in fragments. Clymene was the +daughter of Oceanus, and mother of Phaethon.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">194</span></a> An allusion +to Euripides, "Bacchæ," 317, 318.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">195</span></a> Reading with +Reiske οὐδένι +λόγῳ δὲ, or +ἀλόγως δὲ. Some +such reading seems necessary to comport with the τί +γὰρ +ἀλογώτερον +two lines later.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">196</span></a> Reading +παρεῖχες with +Xylander.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">197</span></a> A great +craving for sympathy would be the modern way of putting it.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">198</span></a> See the +Fable of Æsop, entitled +Πένθους +γερας, No. 355. Halme. See also +Plutarch's "Consolation to Apollonius," § xix., where the +Fable is told at some length.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">199</span></a> Reading with +Reiske οὐκ ἂν +εἰπεῖν +φοβηθείην.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">200</span></a> An allusion +to Euripides, "Andromache," 930. See Plutarch's "Conjugal +Precepts," <a href="#Page_80a">§ xl.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">201</span></a> The whole +subject is discussed in full by Athenæus, p. 632, F. F. A +false quantity we see was a bugbear even before the days of +Universities.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">202</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," v. 646; xxiii. 71.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">203</span></a> This section +is dreadfully corrupt. I have adopted, it will be seen, the +suggestions of Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">204</span></a> This +Consolatory Letter ends rather abruptly. It is probable that there +was more of it.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_92a" id="Page_92a">THAT VIRTUE MAY BE +TAUGHT.</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> As to virtue we deliberate +and dispute whether good sense, and justice, and rectitude can be +taught: and then we are not surprised that, while the works of +orators, and pilots, and musicians, and house-builders, and +farmers, are innumerable, good men are only a name and expression, +like Centaurs and Giants and Cyclopes, and that it is impossible to +find any virtuous action without alloy of base motives, or any +character free from vice: but if nature produces spontaneously +anything good, it is marred by much that is alien to it, as fruit +choked by weeds. Men learn to play on the harp, and to dance, and +to read, and to farm, and to ride on horseback: they learn how to +put on their shoes and clothes generally: people teach how <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span>to pour +out wine, how to cook; and all these things cannot be properly +performed, without being learned. The art of good living alone, +though all those things I have mentioned only exist on its account, +is untaught, unmethodical, inartistic, and supposed to come by the +light of nature!</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> O sirs, by asserting that +virtue is not a thing to be taught, why are we making it unreal? +For if teaching produces it, the deprivation of teaching prevents +it. And yet, as Plato says, a discord and false note on the lyre +makes not brother go to war with brother, nor sets friends at +variance, nor makes states hostile to one another, so as to do and +suffer at one another's hands the most dreadful things:<a name= +"FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">205</a> nor can anyone say +that there was ever a dissension in any city as to the +pronunciation of Telchines: nor in a private house any difference +between man and wife as to woof and warp. And yet no one without +learning would undertake to ply the loom, or write a book, or play +on the lyre, though he would thereby do no great harm, but he fears +making himself ridiculous, for as Heraclitus says, "It is better to +hide one's ignorance," yet everyone thinks himself competent to +manage a house and wife and the state and hold any magisterial +office. On one occasion, when a boy was eating rather greedily, +Diogenes gave the lad's tutor a blow with his fist, ascribing the +fault not to the boy, who had not learnt how to eat properly, but +to the tutor who had not taught him. And can one not properly +handle a dish or a cup, unless one has learnt from a boy, as +Aristophanes bids us, "not to giggle, nor eat too fast, nor cross +our legs,"<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a +href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">206</a> and yet be +perfectly fit to manage a family and city, and wife, and live well, +and hold office, when one has not learnt how one should behave in +the conduct of life? When Aristippus was asked by someone, "Are you +everywhere then?" he smiled and said, "If I am everywhere, I lose +my passage money."<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id= +"FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class= +"fnanchor">207</a> Why should not you also say, "If men are not +better for learning, the money paid to tutors is also lost?" For +just as nurses mould with their hands <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span>the child's body, so +tutors, receiving it immediately it is weaned, mould its soul, +teaching it by habit the first vestiges of virtue. And the +Lacedæmonian, who was asked, what good he did as a tutor, +replied, "I make what is good pleasant to boys." Moreover tutors +teach boys to walk in the streets with their heads down,<a name= +"FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">208</a> to touch salt fish +with one finger only, other fish bread and meat with two, to +scratch themselves in such a way, and in such a way to put on their +cloak.<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">209</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> What then? He that says +that the doctor's skill is wanted in the case of a slight +skin-eruption or whitlow, but is not needed in the case of +pleurisy, fever, or lunacy, in what respect does he differ from the +man that says that schools and teaching and precepts are only for +small and boyish duties, while great and important matters are to +be left to mere routine and accident? For, as the man is ridiculous +who says we ought to learn to row but not to steer, so he who +allows all other arts to be learnt, but not virtue, seems to act +altogether contrary to the Scythians. For they, as Herodotus tells +us,<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">210</a> blind their slaves +that they may remain with them, but such an one puts the eye of +reason into slavish and servile arts, and takes it away from +virtue. And the general Iphicrates well answered Callias, the son +of Chabrias, who asked him, "What are you? an archer? a targeteer? +cavalry, or infantry?" "None of these," said he, "but the commander +of them all." Ridiculous therefore is he who says that the use of +the bow and other arms and the sling and riding are to be taught, +but that strategy and how to command an army comes by the light of +nature. Still more ridiculous is he who asserts that good sense +alone need not be taught, without which all other arts are useless +and profitless, seeing that she is the mistress and orderer and +arranger of all of them, and puts each of them to their proper use. +For example, what grace would there be in a banquet, though the +servants had been well-trained, and had learnt how to dress and +cook <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id= +"Page_95">95</a></span>the meat and pour out the wine,<a name= +"FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">211</a> unless there was good +order and method among the waiters?<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id= +"FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class= +"fnanchor">212</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">205</span></a> Plato, +"Clitophon," p. 407, C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">206</span></a> +Aristophanes, "Clouds," 983.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">207</span></a> Does Juvenal +allude to this, viii. 97?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">208</span></a> So as to +look modest and be "Ingenui vultus pueri, ingenuique pudoris."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">209</span></a> Reading with +Salmasius, +ἀναβαλεῐν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">210</span></a> Herodotus, +iv. 2. The historian, however, assigns other reasons for blinding +them.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">211</span></a> A line from +"Odyssey," xv. 323.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">212</span></a> "Malim +δαιτυμόνας." +Wyttenbach, who remarks generally on this short treatise, "Non +integra videtur esse nec continua disputatio, sed disputationis, +Plutarcheæ tamen, excerptum compendium."</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_95a" id="Page_95a" />ON VIRTUE AND VICE.</h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Clothes seem to warm a man, +not by throwing out heat themselves (for in itself every garment is +cold, whence in great heat or in fevers people frequently change +and shift them), but the heat which a man throws out from his own +body is retained and wrapped in by a dress fitting close to the +body, which does not admit of the heat being dissipated when once +it has got firm hold. A somewhat similar case is the idea that +deceives the mass of mankind, that if they could live in big +houses, and get together a quantity of slaves and money, they would +have a happy life. But a happy and cheerful life is not from +without, on the contrary, a man adds the pleasure and gratification +to the things that surround him, his temperament being as it were +the source of his feelings.<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id= +"FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class= +"fnanchor">213</a></p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"But when the fire blazes the +house is brighter to look at."<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id= +"FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class= +"fnanchor">214</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>So, too, wealth is pleasanter, and fame and power more splendid, +when a man has joy in his heart, seeing that men can bear easily +and quietly poverty and exile and old age if their character is a +contented and mild one.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> For as perfumes make +threadbare coats and rags to smell sweet, while the body of +Anchises sent forth a fetid <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" +id="Page_96">96</a></span> discharge, "distilling from his back on +to his linen robe," so every kind of life with virtue is painless +and pleasurable, whereas vice if infused into it makes splendour +and wealth and magnificence painful, and sickening, and unwelcome +to its possessors.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He is deemed happy in the +market-place,</span> <span class="i0">But when he gets him home, +thrice miserable,</span> <span class="i0">His wife rules all, +quarrels, and domineers."<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id= +"FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class= +"fnanchor">215</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And yet there would be no great difficulty in getting rid of a +bad wife, if one was a man and not a slave. But a man cannot by +writing a bill of divorce to his vice get rid of all trouble at +once, and enjoy tranquillity by living apart: for it is ever +present in his vitals, and sticks to him night and day, "and burns +without a torch, and consigns him to gloomy old age,"<a name= +"FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">216</a> being a disagreeable +fellow-traveller owing to its arrogance, and a costly companion at +table owing to its daintiness, and an unpleasant bed-fellow, +disturbing and marring sleep by anxiety and care and envy. For +during such a one's sleep the body indeed gets rest, but the mind +has terrors, and dreams, and perturbations, owing to +superstition,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For when my trouble catches +me asleep,</span> <span class="i0">I am undone by the most fearful +dreams,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>as one says. For thus envy, and fear, and anger, and lust affect +one. During the daytime, indeed, vice looks abroad and imitates the +behaviour of others, is shy and conceals its evil desires, and does +not altogether give way to its propensities, but often even resists +and fights stoutly against them; but in sleep it escapes the +observation of people and the law, and, being as far as possible +removed from fear or modesty, gives every passion play, and excites +its depravity and licentiousness, for, to borrow Plato's +expression,<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a +href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">217</a> "it attempts +incest with its mother, and procures for itself unlawful meats, and +abstains from no action what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" +id="Page_97">97</a></span>ever," and enjoys lawlessness as far as +is practicable in visions and phantasies, that end in no complete +pleasure or satisfaction, but can only stir up and inflame the +passions and morbid emotions.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> Where then is the +pleasure of vice, if there is nowhere in it freedom from anxiety +and pain, or independence, or tranquillity, or rest?<a name= +"FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">218</a> A healthy and sound +constitution does indeed augment the pleasures of the body, but for +the soul there can be no lasting joy or gratification, unless +cheerfulness and fearlessness and courage supply a calm serenity +free from storms; for otherwise, even if hope or delight smile on +the soul, it is soon confused and disturbed by care lifting up its +head again, so that it is but the calm of a sunken rock.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Pile up gold, heap up +silver, build covered walks, fill your house with slaves and the +town with debtors, unless you lay to rest the passions of the soul, +and put a curb on your insatiable desires, and rid yourself of fear +and anxiety, you are but pouring out wine for a man in a fever, and +giving honey to a man who is bilious, and laying out a sumptuous +banquet for people who are suffering from dysentery, and can +neither retain their food nor get any benefit from it, but are made +even worse by it. Have you never observed how sick persons turn +against and spit out and refuse the daintiest and most costly +viands, though people offer them and almost force them down their +throats, but on another occasion, when their condition is +different, their respiration good, their blood in a healthy state, +and their natural warmth restored, they get up, and enjoy and make +a good meal of simple bread and cheese and cress? Such, also, is +the effect of reason on the mind. You will be contented, if you +have learned what is good and honourable. You will live daintily +and be a king in poverty, and enjoy a quiet and private life as +much as the public life of general or statesman. By the aid of +philosophy you will live not unpleasantly, for you will learn to +extract pleasure from all places <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span>and things: wealth will make +you happy, because it will enable you to benefit many; and poverty, +as you will not then have many anxieties; and glory, for it will +make you honoured; and obscurity, for you will then be safe from +envy.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">213</span></a> Happiness +comes from within, not from without. The true seat of happiness is +the mind. Compare Milton, "Paradise Lost," Book i. 254, +255:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The mind is its own place, +and in itself</span> <span class="i0">Can make a Heaven of Hell, a +Hell of Heaven."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">214</span></a> Homeric +Epigrammata, xiii. 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">215</span></a> Wyttenbach +thinks these lines are by Menander. Plutarch quotes them again "On +Contentedness of Mind," <a href="#Page_300a">§ xi.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">216</span></a> Hesiod, +"Works and Days," 705.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">217</span></a> Plato, +"Republic," ix. p. 571, D. Quoted again, "How one may be aware of +one's Progress in Virtue," § xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">218</span></a> And so Dr. +Young truly says,—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"A man of pleasure is a man of +pains."</span> <span class="i0"><i>Night Thoughts.</i></span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_98a" id="Page_98a">ON MORAL VIRTUE.</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> I propose to discuss what +is called and appears to be moral virtue (which differs mainly from +contemplative virtue in that it has emotion for its matter, and +reason for its form), what its nature is, and how it subsists, and +whether that part of the soul which takes it in is furnished with +reason of its own, or participates in something foreign, and if the +latter, whether as things that are mixed with something better than +themselves, or rather as that which is subject to superintendence +and command, and may be said to share in the power of that which +commands. For I think it is clear that virtue can exist and +continue altogether free from matter and mixture. My best course +will be to run briefly over the views of others, not so much to +display my research as because, when their ideas have been set +forth, mine will become more clear and be on a firmer basis.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> Menedemus of Eretria took +away the number and differences of virtues, on the ground that +virtue was one though it had many names; for that just as mortal is +synonymous with man, so temperance and bravery and justice were the +same thing. And Aristo of Chios also made virtue one in substance, +and called it soundness of mind: its diversities and varieties only +existing in certain relations, as if one called our sight when it +took in white objects white-sight, and when it took in black +objects black-sight, and so on. For virtue, when it considers what +it ought to do and what it ought not to do, is called prudence; and +when it curbs passion, and sets a fit and proper limit to pleasure, +it is called self-control; and when it is associated with our +dealings and covenants with one another, it is called justice; just +as a knife is one article,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" +id="Page_99">99</a></span> though at different times it cuts +different things in half: and so, too, fire acts on different +matter though it has but one property. And Zeno of Cittium seems to +incline somewhat to the same view, as he defines prudence in +distribution as justice, in choice as self-control, in endurance as +fortitude: and those who defend these views maintain that by the +term prudence Zeno means knowledge. But Chrysippus, thinking each +particular virtue should be arranged under its particular quality, +unwittingly stirred up, to use Plato's language, "a whole swarm of +virtues,"<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a +href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">219</a> unusual and +unknown. For as from brave we get bravery, and from mild mildness, +and from just justice, so from acceptable he got acceptableness, +and from good goodness, and from great greatness, and from the +honourable honourableness, and he made virtues of many other such +clevernesses, affabilities, and versatilities, and filled +philosophy, which did not at all require it, with many strange +names.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> Now all these agree in +supposing virtue to be a disposition and faculty of the governing +part of the soul set in motion by reason, or rather to be reason +itself conformable and firm and immutable. They think further that +the emotional and unreasoning part of the soul is not by any +natural difference distinct from the reasoning part, but that that +same part of the soul, which they call intellect and the leading +principle of action, being altogether diverted and changed by the +passions, and by the alterations which habit or disposition have +brought about, becomes either vice or virtue, without having in +itself any unreasoning element, but that it is called unreasoning +when, by the strong and overpowering force of appetite, it launches +out into excesses contrary to the direction of reason. For passion, +according to them, is only vicious and intemperate reason, getting +its strength and power from bad and faulty judgement. But all of +those philosophers seem to have been ignorant that we are all in +reality two-fold and composite, though they did not recognize it, +and only saw the more evident mixture of soul and body. And yet +that there is in the soul itself something composite and two-fold +and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id= +"Page_100">100</a></span>dissimilar (the unreasoning part of it, as +if another body, being by necessity and nature mixed up with and +united to reason), seems not to have escaped the notice even of +Pythagoras, as we infer from his zeal for music, which he +introduced to calm and soothe the soul, as knowing that it was not +altogether amenable to precept and instruction, or redeemable from +vice only by reason, but that it needed some other persuasion and +moulding and softening influence to co-operate with reason, unless +it were to be altogether intractable and refractory to philosophy. +And Plato saw very plainly and confidently and decidedly that the +soul of this universe is not simple or uncomposite or uniform, but +is made up of forces that work uniformly and differently, in the +one case it is ever marshalled in the same order and moves about in +one fixed orbit, in the other case it is divided into motions and +orbits contrary to each other and changing about, and thus +generates differences in things. So, too, the soul of man, being a +part or portion of the soul of the universe, and compounded upon +similar principles and proportions, is not simple or entirely +uniform, but has one part intelligent and reasoning, which is +intended by nature to rule and dominate in man, and another part +unreasoning, and subject to passion and caprice, and disorderly, +and in need of direction. And this last again is divided into two +parts, one of which, being most closely connected with the body, is +called desire, and the other, sometimes taking part with the body, +sometimes with reason, lending its influence against the body, is +called anger. And the difference between reason and sense on the +one hand, and anger and desire on the other, is shown by their +antipathy to one another, so that they are often at variance with +one another as to what is best.<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id= +"FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class= +"fnanchor">220</a> These were at first<a name="FNanchor_221_221" +id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class= +"fnanchor">221</a> the views of Aristotle, as is clear from his +writings, though afterwards he joined anger to desire, as if anger +were nothing but a desire and passion for revenge. However, he +always considered the emotional and unreasoning part of the soul as +distinct from the reasoning, not that it is altogether unreasoning +as the perceptive, or nutritive, or <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span>vegetative portions of the +soul, for these are always deaf and disobedient to reason, and in a +certain sense are off-shoots from the flesh, and altogether +attached to the body; but the emotional, though it is destitute of +any reason of its own, yet is naturally inclined to listen to +reason and sense, and turn and submit and mould itself accordingly, +unless it be entirely corrupted by brute pleasure and a life of +indulgence.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> As for those who wonder +that what is unreasoning should obey reason, they do not seem to me +to recognize the power of reason, how great it is, and how +far-reaching its dominion is—a power not gained by harsh and +repelling methods, but by attractive ones, as mild persuasion which +always accomplishes more than compulsion or violence. For even the +spirit and nerves and bones, and other parts of the body, though +devoid of reason, yet at any instigation of reason, when she shakes +as it were the reins, are all on the alert and compliant and +obedient, the feet to run, and the hands to throw or lift, at her +bidding. Right excellently has the poet set forth in the following +lines the sympathy and accordance between the unreasoning and +reason:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Thus were her beauteous +cheeks diffused with tears,</span> <span class="i0">Weeping her +husband really present then.</span> <span class="i0">But though +Odysseus pitied her in heart,</span> <span class="i0">His eyes like +horn or steel impassive stood</span> <span class="i0">Within their +lids, and craft his tears repressed."<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id= +"FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class= +"fnanchor">222</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>So completely under the control of judgement did he keep his +spirit and blood and tears. The same is shown by the subsidence of +our passions, which are laid to rest in the presence of handsome +women or boys, whom reason and the law forbid us to touch; a case +which most frequently happens to lovers, when they hear that they +have unwittingly fallen in love with a sister or daughter. For at +once passion is laid at the voice of reason, and the body exhibits +its members as subservient to decorum. And frequently in the case +of dainty food, people very much attracted by it, if they find out +at the time or learn afterwards that they have eaten what is +unclean or unlawful, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id= +"Page_102">102</a></span>not only suffer distress and grief in +their imagination, but even their very body is upset by the notion, +and violent retchings and vomitings follow.<a name= +"FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">223</a> I fear I should seem +to be introducing merely novel and enticing arguments, if I were to +enumerate stringed instruments and lyres, and harps and flutes, and +other harmonious musical instruments, which, although inanimate, +yet speak to man's passions, rejoicing with him, and mourning with +him, and chiming in with him, and rioting with him,—in a +word, falling in with the vein and emotions and characters of those +that play on them. And they say that Zeno on one occasion, going +into the theatre when Amœbeus<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id= +"FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class= +"fnanchor">224</a> was playing on the harp, said to the pupils, +"Let us go and learn what music can be produced by guts and nerves +and wood and bones, when they preserve proportion and time and +order." But passing these things over, I would gladly learn from +them, if, when they see dogs and horses and birds domesticated, and +by habit and training uttering sounds that can be understood, and +making obedient movements and gestures, and acting quietly and +usefully to us, and when they notice that Achilles in Homer cheers +on horses as well as men to the fight,<a name="FNanchor_225_225" +id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class= +"fnanchor">225</a> they still wonder and doubt, whether the +passionate and emotional and painful and pleasurable elements in us +are by nature obedient to the voice of reason, and influenced and +affected by it, seeing that those elements are not apart from us or +detached from us, or formed from outside, or hammered into us by +force, but are innate in us, and ever associate with us, and are +nourished within us, and abound in us through habit. Accordingly +moral character is well called by the Greeks +ἧθος, for it is, to speak generally, a +quality of the unreasoning element in man, and is called +ἧθος because the unreasoning element +moulded by reason receives this quality and difference by habit, +which is called ἔθος.<a name= +"FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">226</a> Not that reason wishes +to expel passion altogether (that is neither <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span>possible, +nor advisable), but only to keep it within bounds and order, and to +engender the moral virtues, which are not apathetic, but hold the +due proportion and mean in regard to passion. And this she does by +reducing the power of passion to a good habit. For there are said +to be three things existing in the soul, power, passion, and habit. +Power is the principle or matter of passion, as power to be angry, +ashamed, or confident: and passion is the actual setting in motion +of that power, being itself anger, confidence, or shame; and habit +is the strong formation of power in the unreasoning element +engendered by use, being vice if the passions are badly tutored by +reason, virtue if they are well tutored.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> But since they do not +regard every virtue as a mean, nor call it moral, we must discuss +this difference by approaching the matter more from first +principles. Some things in the world exist absolutely, as the +earth, the sky, the stars, and the sea; others have relation to us, +as good and evil, as what is desirable or to be avoided, as +pleasant and painful: and since reason has an eye to both of these +classes, when it considers the former it is scientific and +contemplative, when it considers the latter it is deliberative and +practical. And prudence is the virtue in the latter case, as +knowledge in the former. And there is this difference between +prudence and knowledge, prudence consists in applying the +contemplative to the practical and emotional so as to make reason +paramount. On which account it often needs the help of fortune; +whereas knowledge needs neither the help of fortune nor +deliberation to gain its ends: for it considers only things which +are always the same. And as the geometrician does not deliberate +about the triangle, as to whether its interior angles are together +equal to two right angles, for he knows it as a fact—and +deliberation only takes place in the case of things which differ at +different times, not in the case of things which are certain and +unchangeable—so the contemplative mind having its scope in +first principles, and things that are fixed, and that ever have one +nature which does not admit of change, has no need for +deliberation. But prudence, which has to enter into matters full of +obscurity and confusion, frequently has to take its chance, +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id= +"Page_104">104</a></span> to deliberate about things which are +uncertain, and, in carrying the deliberation into practice, has to +co-operate with the unreasoning element, which comes to its help, +and is involved in its decisions, for they need an impetus. Now +this impetus is given to passion by the moral character, an impetus +requiring reason to regulate it, that it may render moderate and +not excessive help, and at the seasonable time. For the emotional +and unreasoning elements are subject to motions sometimes too quick +and vehement, at other times too remiss and slow. And so everything +we do may be a success from one point of view, but a failure from +many points of view; as to hit the mark one thing only is +requisite, but one may miss it in various ways, as one may shoot +beyond or too short. This then is the function of practical reason +following nature, to prevent our passions going either too far or +too short. For where from weakness and want of strength, or from +fear and hesitation, the impetus gives in and abandons what is +good, there reason is by to stir it up and rekindle it; and where +on the other hand it goes ahead too fast and in disorder, there it +represses and checks its zeal. And thus setting bounds to the +emotional motions, it engenders in the unreasoning part of the soul +moral virtues, which are the mean between excess and deficiency. +Not that we can say that all virtue exists in the mean, but +knowledge and prudence being in no need of the unreasoning element, +and being situated in the pure and unemotional part of the soul, is +a complete perfection and power of reason, whereby we get the most +divine and happy fruit of understanding. But that virtue which is +necessary because of the body, and needs the help of the passions +as an instrument towards the practical, not destroying or doing +away with but ordering and regulating the unreasoning part of the +soul, is perfection as regards its power and quality, but in +quantity it is a mean correcting both excess and deficiency.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> But since the word mean +has a variety of meanings—for there is one kind of mean +compounded of two simple extremes, as grey is the mean between +white and black; and there is another kind of mean, where that +which contains and is contained is the mean between the containing +and contained, as eight is the mean between twelve and<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span> four; and +there is a third kind of mean which has part in neither extreme, as +the indifferent is the mean between good and bad,—virtue +cannot be a mean in any of these ways. For neither is it a mixture +of vices, nor containing that which is defective is it contained by +that which is excessive, nor is it again altogether free from, +emotional storms of passion, wherein are excess and deficiency. But +it is, and is commonly so called, a mean like that in music and +harmony. For as in music there is a middle note between the highest +and lowest in the scale, which being perfectly in tune avoids the +sharpness of the one and the flatness of the other; so virtue, +being a motion and power in the unreasoning part of the soul, takes +away the remissness and strain, and generally speaking the excess +and defect of the appetite, by reducing each of the passions to a +state of mean and rectitude. For example, they tell us that bravery +is the mean between cowardice and foolhardiness, whereof the former +is a defect, the latter an excess of anger: and that liberality is +the mean between stinginess and prodigality: and that meekness is +the mean between insensibility and savageness: and so of temperance +and justice, that the latter, being concerned with contracts, is to +assign neither too much nor too little to litigants, and that the +former ever reduces the passions to the proper mean between apathy +(or insensibility) and gross intemperance. This last illustration +serves excellently to show us the radical difference between the +unreasoning and reasoning parts of the soul, and to prove to us +that passion and reason are wide as the poles asunder. For the +difference would not be discernible between temperance and +continence, nor between intemperance and incontinence, in pleasure +and desires, if the appetite and judgement were in the same portion +of the soul. Now temperance is a state, wherein reason holds the +reins, and manages the passions as a quiet and well-broken-in +animal, finding them obedient and submissive to the reins and +masters over their desires.<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id= +"FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class= +"fnanchor">227</a> Continence on the other hand is not driven by +reason without some trouble, not being docile but jibbing and <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id= +"Page_106">106</a></span>kicking, like an animal compelled by bit +and bridle and whip and backing, being in itself full of struggles +and commotion. Plato explains this by his simile of the +chariot-horses of the soul, the worse one of which ever kicking +against the other and disturbing the charioteer, he is obliged ever +to hold them in with all his might, and to tighten the reins, lest, +to borrow the language of Simonides, "he should drop from his hands +the purple reins." And so they do not consider continence to be an +absolute virtue, but something less than a virtue; for no mean +arises from the concord of the worse with the better, nor is the +excess of the passion curtailed, nor does the appetite obey or act +in unison with reason, but it both gives and suffers trouble, and +is constrained by force, and is as it were an enemy in a town given +up to faction.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The town is full of incense, +and at once</span> <span class="i0">Resounds with triumph-songs and +bitter wailing."<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id= +"FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class= +"fnanchor">228</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Such is the state of soul of the continent person owing to his +conflicting condition. On the same grounds they consider +incontinence to be something less than vice, but intemperance to be +a complete vice. For it, having both its appetite and reason +depraved, is by the one carried away to desire disgraceful +things,<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a +href="#Footnote_229_229" class="fnanchor">229</a> by the other, +through bad judgement consenting to desire, loses even the +perception of wrongdoing. But incontinence keeps its judgement +sound through reason, but is carried away against its judgement by +passion which is too strong for reason, whence it differs from +intemperance. For in the one case reason is mastered by passion, in +the other it does not even make a fight against it, in the one case +it opposes its desires even when it follows them, in the other it +is their advocate and even leader, in the one case it gladly +participates in what is wrong, in the other sorrowfully, in the one +case it willingly rushes into what is disgraceful, in the other it +abandons the honourable unwillingly. And as there is a difference +in their deeds, so no less manifest is the difference <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span>in their +language. For these are the expressions of the intemperate. "What +grace or pleasure in life is there without golden Aphrodite? May I +die, when I care no longer for these things!" And another says, "To +eat, to drink, to enjoy the gifts of Aphrodite is everything, for +all other things I look upon as supplementary," as if from the +bottom of his soul he gave himself up to pleasures, and was +completely subverted by them. And not less so he who said, "Let me +be ruined, it is best for me," had his judgement diseased through +his passion. But the sayings of incontinence are quite different, +as</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"My nature forces me against +my judgement,"<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id= +"FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class= +"fnanchor">230</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Alas! it is poor mortals' +plague and bane,</span> <span class="i0">To know the good, yet not +the good pursue."<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id= +"FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class= +"fnanchor">231</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And again—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"My anger draws me on, has no +control,</span> <span class="i0">'Tis but a sandy hook against a +tempest."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Here he compares not badly to a sandy hook, a sorry kind of +anchor, the soul that is unsettled and has no steady reason, but +surrenders judgment through flabbiness and feebleness. And not +unlike this image are the lines,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"As some ship moored and +fastened to the shore,</span> <span class="i0">If the wind blows, +the cables cannot hold it."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>By cables he means the judgement which resists what is +disgraceful, though sometimes it gives way under a tremendous storm +of passion. For indeed it is with full sail that the intemperate +man is borne on to pleasure by his desires, and surrenders himself +to them, and even plays the part of pilot to the vessel; whereas +the incontinent man is dragged sidelong into the disgraceful, and +is its victim, as it were, while he desires eagerly to resist and +overcome his passion, as Timon bantered Anaxarchus: "The +recklessness and frantic energy of Anaxarchus to rush anywhere +seemed like a dog's courage, but he being aware of it was +miserable, so people said, but his voluptuous nature ever plunged +him into excesses again, nature which even <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span>most sophists are +afraid of." For neither is the wise man continent but temperate, +nor the fool incontinent but intemperate; for the one delights in +what is good, and the other is not vexed at what is bad. +Incontinence, therefore, is a mark of a sophistical soul, endued +with reason which cannot abide by what it knows to be right.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Such, then, are the +differences between incontinence and intemperance, and continence +and temperance have their counterpart and analogous differences; +for remorse and trouble and annoyance are companions of continence, +whereas in the soul of the temperate person there is everywhere +such equability and calm and soundness, by which the unreasoning is +adjusted and harmonized to reason, being adorned with obedience and +wonderful mildness, that looking at it you would say with the poet, +"At once the wind was laid, and a wondrous calm ensued, for the god +allayed the fury of the waves,"<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id= +"FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class= +"fnanchor">232</a> reason having extinguished the vehement and +furious and frantic motions of the desires, and making those which +nature necessarily requires sympathetic and obedient and friendly +and co-operative in carrying purposes out in action, so that they +do not outrun or come short of reason, or behave disorderly and +disobediently, but that every appetite is tractable, "as sucking +foal runs by the side of its dam."<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id= +"FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233" class= +"fnanchor">233</a> And this confirms the saying of Xenocrates about +true philosophers, that they alone do willingly what all others do +unwillingly at the compulsion of the law, as dogs are turned away +from their pleasures by a blow, or cats by a noise, looking at +nothing but their danger. It is clear then that there is in the +soul a perception of such a generic and specific difference in +relation to the desires, as of something fighting against and +opposing them. But some say that there is no radical distinction +difference or variance between reason and passion, but that there +is a shifting of one and the same reason from one to the other, +which escapes our notice owing to the sharpness and quickness of +the change, so that we do not see at a glance that desire and +repentance, anger and fear, giving way to what is disgraceful <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id= +"Page_109">109</a></span>through passion, and recovery from the +same, are the same natural property of the soul. For desire and +fear and anger and the like they consider only depraved opinions +and judgements, not in one portion of the soul only but in all its +leading principles, inclinations and yieldings, and assents and +impulses, and generally speaking in its energies soon changed, like +the sallies of children, whose fury and excessive violence is +unstable by reason of their weakness. But these views are, in the +first place, contrary to evidence and observation; for no one +observes in himself a change from passion to judgement, and from +judgement back to passion; nor does anyone cease from loving when +he reflects that it would be well to break the affair off and +strive with all his might against it; nor again, does he put on one +side reflection and judgement, when he gives way and is overcome by +desire. Moreover, when he resists passion by reason, he does not +escape passion altogether; nor again, when he is mastered by +passion does he fail to discern his fault through reason: so that +neither by passion does he abolish reason, nor does he by reason +get rid of passion, but is tossed about to and fro alternately +between passion and reason. And those who suppose that the leading +principle in the soul is at one time desire, and at another time +reason in opposition to desire, are not unlike people who would +make the hunter and the animal he hunts one and the same person, +but alternately changing from hunter to animal, from animal to +hunter. As their eyesight is plainly deficient, so these are faulty +in regard to their perceptions, seeing that they must perceive in +themselves not a change of one and the same thing, but a difference +and struggle between two opposing elements. "What then," say they, +"does not the deliberative element in a man often hold different +views, and is it not swayed to different opinions as to expediency, +and yet it is one and the same thing?" Certainly, I reply; but the +case is not similar. For the rational part of the soul does not +fight against itself, but though it has only one faculty, it makes +use of different reasonings; or rather the reasoning is one, but +employs itself in different subjects as on different matter. And so +there is neither pain in reasonings without passion, nor are men +compelled, as it were, to choose something contrary to<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> their +judgement, unless indeed some passion, as in a balance, secretly +predominates in the scale. For this often happens, reason not +opposing reason, but ambition, or contention, or favour, or +jealousy, or fear opposing reason, that we do but think there is a +difference between two reasons, as in the line, "They were ashamed +to refuse, and feared to accept,"<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id= +"FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class= +"fnanchor">234</a> or, "To die in battle is dreadful but glorious; +but not to die, though cowardly, is more pleasant." Moreover, in +judgements about contracts passions come in and cause the greatest +delay; and in the councils of kings those who speak to ingratiate +themselves do not favour either of the two cases, but give +themselves up to passion without regard to what is expedient; and +so those that rule in aristocracies do not allow orators to be +pathetic in their pleadings. For reasoning without passion has a +direct tendency to justice, while if passion is infused, a contest +and difference is excited between pleasure and pain on the one +hand, and judgement and justice on the other. For otherwise how is +it that in philosophical speculations people are with little pain +frequently induced by others to change their opinions, and even +Aristotle himself and Democritus and Chrysippus have rejected +without trouble or pain, and even with pleasure, some of the +opinions which they formerly advocated? For no passion stands in +the way in the theoretic and scientific part of the soul, and the +unreasoning element is quiet and gives no trouble therein. And so +reason gladly inclines to the truth, when it is evident, and +abandons error; for in it, and not in passion, lies a willingness +to listen to conviction and to change one's opinions on conviction. +But the deliberations and judgements and arbitrations of most +people as to matters of fact being mixed up with passion, give +reason no easy or pleasant access, as she is held fast and +incommoded by the unreasonable, which assails her through pleasure, +or fear, or pain, or desire. And the decision in these cases lies +with sense which has dealings with both passion and reason, for if +one gets the better of the other the other is not destroyed, but +only dragged along by force in spite of its resistance. For he who +is dissatisfied with himself for <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span>falling in love calls in +reason to his aid to overcome his passion, for both reason and +passion are in his soul, and he perceives they are contrary one to +the other, and violently represses the inflammatory one of the two. +On the other hand, in deliberations and speculations without +passion (such as the contemplative part of the soul is most +conversant with), if they are evenly balanced no decision takes +place, but the matter is left in doubt, which is a sort of +stationary position of the mind in conflicting arguments. But +should there be any inclination to one of the two sides, the most +powerful opinion carries the day, yet without giving pain or +creating hostility. And, generally speaking, when reason seems +opposed to reason, there is no perception of two distinct things, +but only of one under different phases, whereas when the +unreasoning has a controversy with reason, since there can be no +victory or defeat without pain, forthwith they tear the soul in +two,<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_235_235" class="fnanchor">235</a> and make the +difference between them apparent.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> And not only from their +contest, but quite as much from their agreement, can we see that +the source of the passions is something quite distinct from that of +reason. For since<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id= +"FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class= +"fnanchor">236</a> one may love either a good and excellent child +or a bad and vicious one, and be unreasonably angry with one's +children or parents, yet in behalf of them show a just anger +against enemies or tyrants; as in the one case there is the +perception of a difference and struggle between passion and reason, +so in the other there is a perception of persuasion and agreement +inclining, as it were, the scale, and giving their help. Moreover a +good man marrying a wife according to the laws is minded to +associate and live with her justly and soberly, but as time goes +on, his intercourse with her having engendered a strong passion for +her, he perceives that his love and affection are increased by +reason. Just so, again, young fellows falling in with kindly +teachers at first submit themselves to them out of necessity and +emulation for learning, but end by loving them, and instead of +being their pupils and scholars become and get the title of their +lovers. The same is the case in cities in respect to good <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id= +"Page_112">112</a></span>magistrates, and neighbours, and +connections by marriage; for beginning at first to associate with +one another from necessity and propriety, they afterwards go on to +love almost insensibly, reason drawing over and persuading the +emotional element. And he who said—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"There are two kinds of shame, +the one not bad,</span> <span class="i0">The other a sad burden to +a family,"<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a +href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">237</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>is it not clear that he felt this emotion in himself often +contrary to reason and detrimental by hesitation and delay to +opportunities and actions?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> In a certain sense +yielding to the force of these arguments, they call shame modesty, +pleasure joy, and timidity caution; nor would anyone blame them for +this euphemism, if they only gave those specious names to the +emotions that are consistent with reason, while they gave other +kinds of names to those emotions that resist and do violence to +reason. But whenever, though convicted by their tears and +tremblings and changes of colour, they avoid the terms pain and +fear, and speak of bitings and states of excitement, and gloss over +the passions by calling them inclinations, they seem to contrive +evasions and flights from facts by names sophistical, and not +philosophical. And yet again they seem to use words rightly when +they call those joys and wishes and cautions not apathies but good +conditions of the mind. For it is a happy disposition of the soul +when reason does not annihilate passion, but orders and arranges it +in the case of temperate persons. But what is the condition of +worthless and incontinent persons, who, when they judge they ought +to love their father and mother better than some boy or girl they +are enamoured of, yet cannot, and yet at once love their mistress +or flatterer, when they judge they ought to hate them? For if +passion and judgement were the same thing, love and hate would +immediately follow the judging it right to love and hate, whereas +the contrary happens, passion following some judgements, but +declining to follow others. Wherefore they acknowledge, the facts +compelling them to do so, that every judgement is not passion, but +only that judgement that is provocative of violent and excessive +impulse: ad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id= +"Page_113">113</a></span>mitting that judgement and passion in us +are something different, as what moves is different from what is +moved. Even Chrysippus himself, by his defining in many places +endurance and continence to be habits that follow the lead of +reason, proves that he is compelled by the facts to admit, that +that element in us which follows absolutely is something different +from that which follows when persuaded, but resists when not +persuaded.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> Now as to those who make +all sins and offences equal, it is not now the occasion to discuss +if in other respects they deviate from truth: but as regards the +passions<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a +href="#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">238</a> they seem to go +clean contrary to reason and evidence. For according to them every +passion is a sin, and everyone who grieves, or fears, or desires, +commits sin. But in good truth it is evident that there are great +differences between passions, according as one is more or less +affected by them. For who would say that the craven fear of Dolon<a +name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">239</a> was not something very +different from the fear of Ajax, "who retreated with his face to +the enemy and at a foot's pace, drawing back slowly knee after +knee"?<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">240</a> Or who would say that +the grief of Plato at the death of Socrates was identical with the +grief of Alexander at the death of Clitus, when he attempted to lay +violent hands on himself? For grief is beyond measure intensified +by falling out against expectation: and the calamity that comes +unlooked for is more painful than that we may reasonably fear: as +if when expecting to see one's friend basking in prosperity and +admiration, one should hear that he had been put to the torture, as +Parmenio heard about Philotas. And who would say that the anger of +Magas against Philemon was equal to that of Nicocreon against +Anaxarchus? Both Magas and Nicocreon had been insulted, but whereas +Nicocreon brayed Anaxarchus to death with iron pestles and made +mincemeat of him, Magas contented himself with bidding the +executioner lay his naked sword on Philemon's neck, and then let +him go.<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a +href="#Footnote_241_241" class="fnanchor">241</a> And so Plato +called anger the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id= +"Page_114">114</a></span>nerves of the mind, since it can be both +intensified by bitterness, and slackened by mildness. To evade +these and similar arguments, they deny that intensity and excess of +passion are according to judgement, wherein is the propensity to +fault, but maintain that they are bites and contractions and +diffusings capable of increase or diminution through the +unreasoning element. And yet it is evident that there are +differences as regards judgements; for some judge poverty to be no +evil, while others judge it to be a great evil, and others again +the very greatest evil, insomuch that they even throw themselves +headlong down rocks and into the sea on account of it. Again as to +death, some think it an evil only in depriving us of good things, +whereas others think it so in regard to eternal punishments and +awful torments in the world below. Health again is valued by some +as natural and advantageous, while to others it seems the greatest +blessing of life, in comparison with which they reckon little +either of wealth or children or "royal power that makes one equal +to the gods," and at last come to think even virtue useless and +unprofitable, if health be absent. Thus it is clear that even with +regard to judgements themselves some err more, some less. But I +shall bring no further proof of this now, but this one may assume +therefrom, that they themselves concede that the unreasoning +element is something different from judgement, in that they allow +that by it passion becomes greater and more violent, and while they +quarrel about the name and word they give up the thing itself to +those who maintain that the emotional and unreasoning part of the +soul is distinct from the reasoning and judging element. And in his +treatise on Anomaly,<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id= +"FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class= +"fnanchor">242</a> Chrysippus, after telling us that anger is +blind, and frequently does not let one see what is obvious, +frequently also obscures what we do get a sight of, goes on to say, +"The encroachment of the passions blots out reason, and makes +things look different to what they should look, violently forcing +people on unreasonable acts." And he quotes as witness Menander, +who says, "Alas! <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id= +"Page_115">115</a></span>poor me, wherever were my brains in my +body at the time when I chose that line of conduct, and not this?" +And Chrysippus proceeds, "Though every living creature endowed with +reason is naturally inclined to use reason and to be governed by it +on every occasion, yet often do we reject it, being borne away by a +more violent impulse;" thus admitting what results from the +difference between passion and reason. For otherwise it is +ridiculous, as Plato says, to argue that a man is sometimes better +than himself, sometimes worse, sometimes master of himself, +sometimes not master of himself.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> For how is it possible +that the same person can be both better and worse than himself, +both master of himself and not master, unless everyone is in some +way twofold, having in himself both a better and worse self? For so +he that makes the baser element subject to the better has +self-control and is a superior man, whereas he who allows the +nobler element of the soul to follow and be subservient to the +incorrigible and unreasoning element, is inferior to what he might +be, and is called incontinent, and is in an unnatural condition. +For by nature it appertains to reason, which is divine, to rule and +govern the unreasoning element, which has its origin from the body, +which it also naturally resembles and participates in its passions, +being placed in it and mixed up with it, as is proved by the +impulses to bodily delights, which are always fierce or languid +according to the changes of the body. And so it is that young men +are keen and vehement in their desires, being red hot and raging +from their fulness of blood and animal heat, whereas with old men +the liver, which is the seat of desire, is dried up and weak and +feeble, and reason has more power with them than passion which +decays with the body. This principle also no doubt characterizes +the nature of animals as regards the sexual appetite. For it is not +of course from any fitness or unfitness of opinions, that some +animals are so bold and resolute in the presence of danger, while +others are helpless and full of fear and trembling; but this +difference of emotion is produced by the workings of the blood and +spirit and body, the emotional part growing out of the flesh, as +from a root, and carrying along with it its quality and +temperament. And that the body of man<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> sympathizes with and is +affected by the emotional impulses is proved by pallors, and +blushings, and tremblings, and palpitations of the heart, as on the +other hand by an all-pervading joy in the hope and expectation of +pleasures. But whenever the mind is by itself and unmoved by +passion, the body is in repose and at rest, having no participation +or share in the working of the intellect, unless it involve the +emotional, or the unreasoning element call it in. So that it is +clear that there are two distinct parts of the soul differing from +one another in their faculties.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> And generally speaking of +all existing things, as they themselves admit and is clear, some +are governed by nature, some by habit, some by an unreasoning soul, +some by a soul that has reason and intelligence. Man too +participates in all this, and is subject to all those differences +here mentioned, for he is affected by habit, and nourished by +nature, and uses reason and intelligence. He has also a share of +the unreasoning element, and has the principle of passion innate in +him, not as a mere episode in his life but as a necessity, which +ought not therefore to be entirely rooted out, but requires care +and attention. For the function of reason is no Thracian or +Lycurgean one to root up and destroy all the good elements in +passion indiscriminately with the bad, but, as some genial and mild +god, to prune what is wild, and to correct disproportion, and after +that to train and cultivate the useful part. For as those who are +afraid to get drunk do not pour on the ground their wine, <i>but +mix it with water</i>, so those who are afraid of the disturbing +element in passion do not eradicate passion altogether but temper +it. Similarly with oxen and horses people try to restrain their mad +bounds and restiveness, not their movements and powers of work, and +so reason makes use of the passions when they have become tame and +docile, not by cutting out the sinews or altogether mutilating the +serviceable part of the soul. For as Pindar says, "The horse to the +chariot, and the ox to the plough, while he that meditates +destruction for the boar must find a staunch hound."<a name= +"FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">243</a> But much more useful +than these are the whole tribe of passions when they wait on reason +and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id= +"Page_117">117</a></span>run parallel to virtue. Thus moderate +anger is useful to courage, and hatred of evil to uprightness, and +righteous indignation against those who are fortunate beyond their +deserts, when they are inflamed in their souls with folly and +insolence and need a check. And no one if they wished could pluck +away or sever<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id= +"FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244" class= +"fnanchor">244</a> natural affection from friendship, or pity from +philanthropy, or sympathy both in joy and grief from genuine +goodwill. And if those err who wish to banish love because of +erotic madness, neither are they right who blame all desire because +of love of money, but they act like people who refuse to run +because they might stumble, or to throw because they might throw +wide of the mark, or object to sing altogether because they might +make a false note. For as in sounds music does not create melody by +the banishment of sharps and flats, and as in bodies the art of the +physician procures health not by the doing away of cold and heat +but by their being blended in due proportions and quantities, so is +victory won in the soul by the powers and motions of the passions +being reduced by reason to moderation and due proportion. For +excessive grief or fear or joy in the soul (I speak not of mere joy +grief or fear), resembles a body swollen or inflamed. And Homer +when he says excellently,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The brave man's colour never +changes, nor</span> <span class="i0">Is he much frightened,"<a +name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">245</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>does not take away all fear but only excessive fear, that +bravery may not become recklessness, nor confidence foolhardiness. +So also in regard to pleasure we must do away with excessive +desire, and in regard to vengeance with excessive hatred of evil. +For so in the former case one will not be apathetic but temperate, +and in the latter one will not be savage or cruel but just. But if +the passions were entirely removed, supposing that to be possible, +reason would become in many duller and blunter, like the pilot in +the absence of a storm. And no doubt it is from having noticed this +that legislators try to excite in states ambition and emulation +among their townsmen, and stir up and increase their courage and +pugnacity against enemies <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" +id="Page_118">118</a></span>by the sound of trumpets and flutes. +For it is not only in poems, as Plato says, that he that is +inspired by the Muses, and as it were possessed by them, will laugh +to shame the plodding artist, but also in fighting battles passion +and enthusiasm will be irresistible and invincible, such as Homer +makes the gods inspire men with, as in the line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Thus speaking he infused +great might in Hector,</span> <span class="i0">The shepherd of the +people."<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a +href="#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">246</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He is not mad like this +without the god,"<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id= +"FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class= +"fnanchor">247</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>as if the god had added passion to reason as an incitement and +spur. And you may see those very persons, whose opinions I am +combating, frequently urging on the young by praises, and +frequently checking them by rebukes, though pleasure follows the +one, pain the other. For rebukes and censure produce repentance and +shame, the one bringing grief, the other fear, and these they +mostly make use of for purposes of correction. And so Diogenes, +when Plato was being praised, said, "What has he to vaunt of, who +has been a philosopher so long, and yet never gave pain to anyone?" +For one could not say, to use the words of Xenocrates, that the +mathematics are such handles to philosophy as are the emotions of +young men, such as shame, desire, repentance, pleasure, pain, +ambition, whereon reason and the law laying a suitable grip succeed +in putting the young man on the right road. So that it was no bad +remark of the Lacedæmonian tutor, that he would make the boy +entrusted to his charge pleased with what was good and displeased +with what was bad,<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id= +"FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class= +"fnanchor">248</a> for a higher or nobler aim cannot be proposed in +the education fit for a freeborn lad.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">219</span></a> See "Meno," +p. 72, A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">220</span></a> Omitting +ἕτερα, which Reiske justly +suspects.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">221</span></a> Reading +πρῶτον with Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">222</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xix. 208-212.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">223</span></a> As in the +story in "Gil Blas" of the person who, after eating a ragout of +rabbit, was told it was a ragout of cat.—Book X. chapter +xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">224</span></a> As to +Amœbeus, see Athenæus, p. 623. D.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">225</span></a> "Iliad," +xvi. 167.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">226</span></a> Generally +speaking ἔθος is the habit, +ἦθος the moral character generated by +habit. The former is Aristotle's +ἐνέργεια, the latter +his ἕξις.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">227</span></a> I have +adopted, it will be seen, the suggestion of Wyttenbach, +"τῷ λογισμῷ +mutandum videtur in τὸν +χαλινόν."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">228</span></a> Sophocles, +"Œdipus Tyrannus," 4, 5. Quoted by our author again "On +Abundance of Friends," § vi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">229</span></a> Reading with +"Reiske," ἐξάγεται +πρὸς τὸ +ἐπιθυμεῖν +τὰ αἰσχρά.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">230</span></a> In the +"Chrysippus" of Euripides, Fragm.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">231</span></a> Compare +Romans viii. 19.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">232</span></a> "Odyssey," +xii. 168, 169.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">233</span></a> This line is +from Simonides, and is quoted again in "How one may be aware of +one's Progress in Virtue," § xiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">234</span></a> "Iliad," +vii. 93.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">235</span></a> Reading with +Reiske, εἰς δύο.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">236</span></a> Reading +ἐτεὶ with Reiske and Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">237</span></a> Euripides, +"Hippolytus" 385, 386.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">238</span></a> Reading with +Reiske πάθεσι for +πλείοσι.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">239</span></a> See "Iliad," +x. 374, sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">240</span></a> "Iliad," xi. +547.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">241</span></a> "De +Anaxarchi supplicio nota res. v. Menage ad Diog. Läert. 9, 59. +De Magae, reguli Cyrenarum, adversus Philemonem lenitate v. De +Cohibenda Ira, § ix."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">242</span></a> "Celebres +fuere quondam Chrysippi sex libri περὶ +τῆς κατὰ +τὰς λήξεις +ἀνωμαλίας, in quibus +auctore Varrone, <i>propositum habuit ostendere, similes res +dissimilibus verbis et similibus dissimiles esse notatas +vocabulis</i>. v. Menage ad Diog. Läert. 7, +192."—<i>Reiske</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">243</span></a> Compare "On +Contentedness of Mind," <a href="#Page_302a">§ xiii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">244</span></a> Reading with +<i>Reiske</i>, +ἀποῤῥήξειεν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">245</span></a> "Iliad," +xiii. 284, 285.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">246</span></a> "Iliad," xv. +262.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">247</span></a> "Iliad," v. +185.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">248</span></a> Compare +"That Virtue may be Taught," § ii.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_118a" id="Page_118a">HOW ONE MAY BE AWARE OF +ONE'S PROGRESS IN VIRTUE.</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> What amount of argument, +Sossius Senecio, will make a man know that he is improving in +respect to virtue, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id= +"Page_119">119</a></span>if his advances in it do not bring about +some diminution in folly, but vice, weighing equally with all his +good intentions, "acts like the lead that makes the net go down?"<a +name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_249_249" class="fnanchor">249</a> For neither in music +nor grammatical knowledge could anyone recognize any improvement, +if he remained as unskilful in them as before, and had not lost +some of his old ignorance. Nor in the case of anyone ill would +medical treatment, if it brought no relief or ease, by the disease +somewhat yielding and abating, give any perception of improvement +of health, till the opposite condition was completely brought about +by the body recovering its full strength. But just as in these +cases there is no improvement unless, by the abatement of what +weighs them down till they rise in the opposite scale, they +recognize a change, so in the case of those who profess philosophy +no improvement or sign of improvement can be supposed, unless the +soul lay aside and purge itself of some of its imperfection, and if +it continue altogether bad until it become absolutely good and +perfect. For indeed a wise man cannot in a moment of time change +from absolute badness to perfect goodness, and suddenly abandon for +ever all that vice, of which he could not during a long period of +time divest himself of any portion. And yet you know, of course, +that those who maintain these views frequently give themselves much +trouble and bewilderment about the difficulty, that a wise man does +not perceive that he has become wise, but is ignorant and doubtful +that in a long period of time by little and little, by removing +some things and adding others, there will be a secret and quiet +improvement, and as it were passage to virtue. But if the change +were so great and sudden that the worst man in the morning could +become the best man at night, or should the change so happen that +he went to bed vicious and woke up in the morning wise, and, having +dismissed from his mind all yesterday's follies and errors, should +say,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"False dreams, away, you had +no meaning then!"<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id= +"FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class= +"fnanchor">250</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>who on earth could be ignorant of so great a change happening to +himself, of virtue blazing forth so completely <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span>all at +once? I myself am of opinion that anyone, like Caeneus,<a name= +"FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">251</a> who, according, to his +prayer, got changed from a woman into a man, would sooner be +ignorant of the transformation, than that a man should become at +once, from a cowardly and senseless person with no powers of +self-control, brave and sensible and perfect master of himself, and +should in a moment change from a brutish life to a divine without +being aware of it.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> That was an excellent +observation, Measure the stone by the mason's rule, not the rule by +the stone.<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a +href="#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">252</a> But the Stoics, +not applying dogmas to facts but facts to their own preconceived +opinions, and forcing things to agree that do not by nature, have +filled philosophy with many difficulties, the greatest of which is +that all men but the perfect man are equally vicious, which has +produced the enigma called progress, one little short of extreme +folly, since it makes those who have not at once under its guidance +given up all passions and disorders equally unfortunate as those +who have not got rid of a single vile propensity. However they are +their own confuters, for while they lay down in the schools that +Aristides was as unjust as Phalaris, and Brasidas as great a craven +as Dolon, and Plato actually as senseless as Meletus, in life and +its affairs they turn away from and avoid one class as implacable, +while they make use of the others and trust them in most important +matters as most worthy people.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> But we who see that in +every kind of evil, but especially in a disordered and unsettled +state of mind, there are degrees of more and less (so that the +progress made differs in different cases, badness abating, as a +shadow flees away, under the influence of reason, which calmly +illuminates and cleanses the soul), cannot consider it unreasonable +to think that the change will be perceived, as people who come up +out of some ravine can take note of the progress they make upwards. +Look at the case from the following point of view first. Just as +mariners sailing with full sail over the gaping<a name= +"FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">253</a> ocean measure the +course <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id= +"Page_121">121</a></span>they have made by the time they have taken +and the force of the wind, and compute their progress accordingly, +so anyone can compute his progress in philosophy by his continuous +and unceasing course, by his not making many halts on the road, and +then again advancing by leaps and bounds, but by his quiet and even +and steady march forward guided by reason. For the words of the +poet, "If to a little you keep adding a little, and do so +frequently, <i>it will soon be a lot</i>,"<a name= +"FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">254</a> are not only true of +the increase of money, but are universally applicable, and +especially to increase in virtue, since reason invokes to her aid +the enormous force of habit. On the other hand the inconsistencies +and dulnesses of some philosophers not only check advance, as it +were, on the road, but even break up the journey altogether, since +vice always attacks at its leisure and forces back whatever yields +to it.<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">255</a> The mathematicians +tell us that planets, after completing their course, become +stationary; but in philosophy there is no such intermission or +stationary position from the cessation of progress, for its nature +is ever to be moving and, as it were, to be weighed in the scales, +sometimes being overweighted by the good preponderating, sometimes +by the bad. If, therefore, imitating the oracle given to the +Amphictyones by the god, "to fight against the people of Cirrha +every day and every night,"<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id= +"FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class= +"fnanchor">256</a> you are conscious that night and day you ever +maintain a fierce fight against vice, not often relaxing your +vigilance, or long off your guard, or receiving as heralds to treat +of peace<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a +href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">257</a> the pleasures, or +idleness, or stress of business, you may reasonably go forward to +the future courageously and confidently.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Moreover, if there be any +intermissions in philosophy, and yet your later studies are firmer +and more continuous than your former ones, it is no bad indication +that your sloth has been expelled by labour and exercise; for the +contrary is a bad sign, when after a short time your lapses <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span>from +zeal become many and continuous, as if your zeal were dying away. +For as in the growth of a reed, which shoots up from the ground +finely and beautifully to an even and continuous height, though at +first from its great intervals it is hindered and baffled in its +growth, and afterwards through its weakness is discouraged by any +breath of air, and though strengthened by many and frequent joints, +yet a violent wind gives it commotion and trembling, so those who +at first make great launches out into philosophy, and afterwards +find that they are continually hindered and baffled, and cannot +perceive that they make any progress, finally get tired of it and +cry off. "But he who is as it were winged,"<a name= +"FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">258</a> is by his simplicity +borne along to his end, and by his zeal and energy cuts through +impediments to his progress, as merely obstacles on the road. As it +is a sign of the growth of violent love, not so much to rejoice in +the presence of the loved one, for everyone does that, as to be +distressed and grieved at his absence,<a name="FNanchor_259_259" +id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class= +"fnanchor">259</a> so many feel a liking for philosophy and seem to +take a wonderful interest in the study, but if they are diverted by +other matters and business their passion evaporates and they take +it very easily. "But whoever is strongly smitten with love for his +darling"<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a +href="#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">260</a> will show his +mildness and agreeableness in the presence of and joint pursuit of +wisdom with the loved one, but if he is drawn away from him and is +not in his company you will see him in a stew and ill at ease and +peevish whether at work or leisure, and unreasonably forgetful of +his friends, and wholly impelled by his passion for philosophy. For +we ought not to rejoice at discourses only when we hear them, as +people like perfumes only when they smell them, and not to seek or +care about them in their absence, but in the same condition as +people who are hungry and thirsty are in if torn away from food and +drink, we ought to follow after true proficiency in philosophy, +whether marriage, or wealth, or friendship, or military service, +strike in and produce a separation. For just as more <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span>is to be +got from philosophy, so much the more does what we fail to obtain +trouble us.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Either precisely the same +as this or very similar is Hesiod's<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id= +"FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class= +"fnanchor">261</a> very ancient definition of progress in virtue, +namely, that the road is no longer very steep or arduous, but easy +and smooth and level, its roughness being toned down by exercise, +and casting the bright light of philosophy on doubt and error and +regrets, such as trouble those who give themselves to philosophy at +the outset, like people who leave a land they know, and do not yet +descry the land they are sailing to. For by abandoning the common +and familiar, before they know and apprehend what is better, they +frequently flounder about in the middle and are fain to return. As +they say the Roman Sextius, giving up for philosophy all his +honours and offices in Rome, being afterwards discontented with +philosophy from the difficulties he met with in it at first, very +nearly threw himself out of window. Similarly they relate of +Diogenes of Sinope,<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id= +"FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262" class= +"fnanchor">262</a> when he began to be a philosopher, that the +Athenians were celebrating a festival, and there were public +banquets and shows and mutual festivities, and drinking and +revelling all night, and he, coiled up in a corner of the +market-place intending to sleep, fell into a train of thought +likely seriously to turn him from his purpose and shake his +resolution, for he reflected that he had adopted without any +necessity a toilsome and unusual kind of life, and by his own fault +sat there debarred of all the good things. At that moment, however, +they say a mouse stole up and began to munch some of the crumbs of +his barley-cake, and he plucked up his courage and said to himself, +in a railing and chiding fashion, "What say you, Diogenes? Do your +leavings give this mouse a sumptuous meal, while you, the +gentleman, wail and lament because you are not getting drunk yonder +and reclining on soft and luxurious couches?" Whenever such +depressions of mind are not frequent, and the mind when they take +place quickly recovers from them, after having put them to flight +as it were, and when such annoyance and distraction is easily <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span>got +rid of, then one may consider one's progress in virtue as a +certainty.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> And since not only the +things that in themselves shake and turn them in the opposite +direction are more powerful in the case of weak philosophers, but +also the serious advice of friends, and the playful and jeering +objections of adversaries bend and soften people, and have ere now +shaken some out of philosophy altogether, it will be no slight +indication of one's progress in virtue if one takes all this very +calmly, and is neither disturbed nor aggravated by people who tell +us and mention to us that some of our former comrades are +flourishing in kings' courts, or have married wives with dowries, +or are attended by a crowd of friends when they come down to the +forum to solicit some office or advocateship. He that is not moved +or affected by all this is already plainly one upon whom philosophy +has got a right hold; for it is impossible that we should cease to +be envious of what most people admire, unless the admiration of +virtue was strongly implanted in us. For over-confidence may be +generated in some by anger and folly, but to despise what men +admire is not possible without a true and steady elevation of mind. +And so people in such a condition of mind, comparing it with that +of others, pride themselves on it, and say with Solon, "We would +not change virtue for wealth, for while virtue abides, wealth +changes hands, and now one man, now another, has it."<a name= +"FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_263_263" class="fnanchor">263</a> And Diogenes compared +his shifting about from Corinth to Athens, and again from Thebes to +Corinth, to the different residences of the King of Persia, as his +spring residence at Susa, his winter residence at Babylon, and his +summer residence in Media. And Agesilaus said of the great king, +"How is he better than me, if he is not more upright?" And +Aristotle, writing to Antipater about Alexander, said, "that he +ought not to think highly of himself because he had many subjects, +for anyone who had right notions about the gods was entitled to +think quite as highly of himself." And Zeno, observing that +Theophrastus was admired for the number of his pupils,<a name= +"FNanchor_264_264" id="FNanchor_264_264"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_264_264" class="fnanchor">264</a> said, <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span>"His choir +is, I admit, larger than mine, but mine is more harmonious."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Whenever then, by thus +comparing the advantages of virtue with external things, you get +rid of envies and jealousies and those things which fret and +depress the minds of many who are novices in philosophy, this also +is a great indication of your progress in virtue. Another and no +slight indication is a change in the style of your discourses. For +generally speaking all novices in philosophy adopt most such as +tend to their own glorification; some, like birds, in their levity +and ambition soaring to the height and brightness of physical +things; others like young puppies, as Plato<a name= +"FNanchor_265_265" id="FNanchor_265_265"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_265_265" class="fnanchor">265</a> says, rejoicing in +tearing and biting, betake themselves to strifes and questions and +sophisms; but most plunging themselves into dialectics immediately +store themselves for sophistry; and some collect sentences<a name= +"FNanchor_266_266" id="FNanchor_266_266"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_266_266" class="fnanchor">266</a> and histories and go +about (as Anacharsis said he saw the Greeks used money for no other +purpose but to count it up), merely piling up and comparing them, +but making no practical use of them. Applicable here is that saying +of Antiphanes, which someone applied to Plato's pupils. Antiphanes +said playfully that in a certain city words were frozen directly +they were spoken, owing to the great cold, and were thawed again in +the summer, so that one could then hear what had been said in the +winter. So he said of the words which were spoken by Plato to young +men, that most of them only understood them late in life when they +were become old men. And this is the condition people are in in +respect to all philosophy, until the judgement gets into a sound +and healthy state, and begins to adapt itself to those things which +can produce character and greatness of mind, and to seek discourses +whose footsteps turn inwards rather than outwards, to borrow the +language of Æsop.<a name="FNanchor_267_267" id= +"FNanchor_267_267"></a><a href="#Footnote_267_267" class= +"fnanchor">267</a> For as Sophocles said he had first toned down +the pompous style of Æschylus, then his harsh and +over-artificial method, and had in the third <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span>place +changed his manner of diction, a most important point and one that +is most intimately connected with the character, so those who go in +for philosophy, when they have passed from flattering and +artificial discourses to such as deal with character and emotion, +are beginning to make genuine and modest progress in virtue.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Furthermore, take care, +in reading the writings of philosophers or hearing their speeches, +that you do not attend to words more than things, nor get attracted +more by what is difficult and curious than by what is serviceable +and solid and useful. And also, in studying poems or history, let +nothing escape you of what is said to the point, which is likely +either to correct the character or to calm the passions. For as +Simonides says the bee hovers among the flowers "making the yellow +honey,"<a name="FNanchor_268_268" id="FNanchor_268_268"></a><a +href="#Footnote_268_268" class="fnanchor">268</a> while others +value and pluck flowers only for their beauty and fragrance, so of +all that read poems for pleasure and amusement he alone that finds +and gathers what is valuable seems capable of knowledge from his +acquaintance with and friendship for what is noble and good.<a +name="FNanchor_269_269" id="FNanchor_269_269"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_269_269" class="fnanchor">269</a> For those who study +Plato and Xenophon only for their style, and cull out only what is +pure and Attic, and as it were the dew and the bloom, do they not +resemble people who love drugs for their smell and colour, but care +not for them as anodynes or purges, and are not aware of those +properties? Whereas those who have more proficiency can derive +benefit not from discourses only, but from sights and actions, and +cull what is good and useful, as is recorded of Æschylus and +other similar kind of men. As to Æschylus, when he was +watching a contest in boxing at the Isthmus, and the whole theatre +cried out upon one of the boxers being beaten, he nudged with his +elbow Ion of Chios, and said, "Do you observe the power of +training? The beaten man holds his peace, while the spectators cry +out." And Brasidas having caught hold of a mouse among some figs, +being bitten by it let it go, and said to himself, "Hercules, there +is no creature so small or weak that it will not fight for its +life!" <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id= +"Page_127">127</a></span>And Diogenes, seeing a lad drinking water +out of the palm of his hand, threw away the cup which he kept in +his wallet. So much does attention and assiduous practice make +people perceptive and receptive of what contributes to virtue from +any source. And this is the case still more with those who mix +discourses with actions, who not only, to use the language of +Thucydides,<a name="FNanchor_270_270" id="FNanchor_270_270"></a><a +href="#Footnote_270_270" class="fnanchor">270</a> "exercise +themselves in the presence of danger," but also in regard to +pleasures and strifes, and judgements, and advocateships, and +magistrateships make a display of their opinions, or rather form +their opinions by their practice. For we can no more think those +philosophers who are ever learning and busy and investigating what +they have got from philosophy, and then straightway publish it in +the market-place or in the haunt of young men, or at a royal +supper-party, any more than we give the name of physicians to those +who sell drugs and mixtures. Nay rather such a sophist differs very +little at all from the bird described in Homer,<a name= +"FNanchor_271_271" id="FNanchor_271_271"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_271_271" class="fnanchor">271</a> offering his scholars +like it whatever he has got, and as it feeds its callow young from +its own mouth, "though it goes ill with itself," so he gets no +advantage or food from what he has got for himself.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> We must therefore see to +it that our discourse be serviceable to ourselves, and that it may +not appear to others to be vain-glorious or ambitious, and we must +show that we are as willing to listen as to teach, and especially +must we lay aside all disputatiousness and love of strife in +controversy, and cease bandying fierce words with one another as if +we were contending with one another at boxing, and leave off +rejoicing more in smiting and knocking down one another than in +learning and teaching. For in such cases moderation and mildness, +and to commence arguing without quarrelsomeness and to finish +without getting into a rage, and neither to be insolent if you come +off best in the argument, nor dejected if you come off worst, is a +sufficient sign of progress in virtue. Aristippus was an excellent +example of this, when overcome in argument by the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span>sophistry +of a man, who had plenty of assurance, but was generally speaking +mad or half-witted. Observing that he was in great joy and very +puffed up at his victory, he said, "I who have been vanquished in +the argument shall have a better night's rest than my victor." We +can also test ourselves in regard to public speaking, if we are not +timid and do not shrink from speaking when a large audience has +unexpectedly been got together, nor dejected when we have only a +small one to harangue to, and if we do not, when we have to speak +to the people or before some magistrate, miss the opportunity +through want of proper preparation; for these things are recorded +both of Demosthenes and Alcibiades. As for Alcibiades, though he +possessed a most excellent understanding, yet from want of +confidence in speaking he often broke down, and in trying to recall +a word or thought that slipped his memory had to stop short.<a +name="FNanchor_272_272" id="FNanchor_272_272"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_272_272" class="fnanchor">272</a> And Homer did not deny +that his first line was unmetrical,<a name="FNanchor_273_273" id= +"FNanchor_273_273"></a><a href="#Footnote_273_273" class= +"fnanchor">273</a> though he had sufficient confidence to follow it +up by so many other lines, so great was his genius. Much more then +ought those who aim at virtue and what is noble to lose no +opportunity of public speaking, paying very little attention to +either uproar or applause at their speeches.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_128a" id="Page_128a" />§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> And not only ought each to +see to his discourses but also to his actions whether he regards +utility more than show, and truth more than display. For if a +genuine love for youth or maiden seeks no witnesses, but is content +to enjoy its delights privately, far more does it become the +philosopher and lover of the beautiful, who is conversant with +virtue through his actions, to pride himself on his silence, and +not to need people to praise or listen to him. As that man who +called his maid in the house, and cried out to her, "See, Dionysia, +I am angry no longer,"<a name="FNanchor_274_274" id= +"FNanchor_274_274"></a><a href="#Footnote_274_274" class= +"fnanchor">274</a> so he that does anything agreeable and polite, +and then goes and spreads it about the town, plainly shows that he +looks for public applause and has a strong propensity to +vain-glory, and as yet has no acquaintance with virtue as a reality +but only as a dream, restlessly roving about amid <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">129</a></span>phantoms +and shadows, and making a display of whatever he does as painters +display a picture. It is therefore a sign of progress in virtue not +merely to have given to a friend or done a good turn to an +acquaintance without mentioning it to other people, but also to +have given an honest vote among many unjust ones, and to have +withstood the dishonourable request of some rich man or of some man +in office, and to have been above taking bribes, and, by Zeus, to +have been thirsty all night and not to have drunk, or, like +Agesilaus,<a name="FNanchor_275_275" id="FNanchor_275_275"></a><a +href="#Footnote_275_275" class="fnanchor">275</a> to have resisted, +though strongly tempted, the kiss of a handsome youth or maiden, +and to have kept the fact to oneself and been silent about it. For +one's being satisfied with one's own good opinion<a name= +"FNanchor_276_276" id="FNanchor_276_276"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_276_276" class="fnanchor">276</a> and not despising it, +but rejoicing in it and acquiescing in it as competent to see and +decide on what is honourable, proves that reason is rooted and +grounded within one, and that, to borrow the language of +Democritus, one is accustomed to draw one's delights from oneself. +And just as farmers behold with greater pleasure those ears of corn +which bend and bow down to the ground, while they look upon those +that from their lightness stand straight upright as empty +pretenders, so also among those young men who wish to be +philosophers those that are most empty and without any solidity +show the greatest amount of assurance in their appearance and walk, +and a face full of haughtiness and contempt that looks down on +everybody, but when they begin to grow full and get some fruit from +study they lay aside their proud and vain<a name="FNanchor_277_277" +id="FNanchor_277_277"></a><a href="#Footnote_277_277" class= +"fnanchor">277</a> bearing. And just as in vessels that contain +water the air is excluded, so with men that are full of solid merit +their pride abates, and their estimate of themselves becomes a +lower one, and they cease to plume themselves on a long beard and +threadbare cloak,<a name="FNanchor_278_278" id= +"FNanchor_278_278"></a><a href="#Footnote_278_278" class= +"fnanchor">278</a> and transfer their training to the mind, and are +most severe and austere to themselves, while they are milder in +their intercourse with everybody else; and they do not as before +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id= +"Page_130">130</a></span>eagerly snatch at the name and reputation +of philosopher, nor do they write themselves down as such, but even +if he were addressed by that title by anyone else, an ingenuous +young man would say, smiling and blushing, "I am not a god: why do +you liken me to the immortals?"<a name="FNanchor_279_279" id= +"FNanchor_279_279"></a><a href="#Footnote_279_279" class= +"fnanchor">279</a> For as Æschylus says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I never can mistake the +burning eye</span> <span class="i0">Of the young woman that has +once known man,"<a name="FNanchor_280_280" id= +"FNanchor_280_280"></a><a href="#Footnote_280_280" class= +"fnanchor">280</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>so to the young man who has tasted of true progress in +philosophy the following lines of Sappho are applicable, "My tongue +cleaves to the roof of my month, and a fire courses all over my +lean body," and his eye will be gentle and mild, and you would +desire to hear him speak. For as those who are initiated come +together at first with confusion and noise and jostle one another, +but when the mysteries are being performed and exhibited, they give +their attention with awe and silence, so also at the commencement +of philosophy you will see round its doors much confusion and +assurance and prating, some rudely and violently jostling their way +to reputation, but he who once enters in, and sees the great light, +as when shrines are open to view, assumes another air and is silent +and awe-struck, and in humility and decorum follows reason as if +she were a god. And the playful remark of Menedemus seems to suit +these very well. He said that the majority of those who went to +school at Athens became first wise, and then philosophers, after +that orators, and as time went on became ordinary kind of people, +the more they had to do with learning, so much the more laying +aside their pride and high estimate of themselves.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_130a" id= +"Page_130a"></a>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> Of people that need the +help of the physician some, if their tooth ache or even finger +smart, run at once to the doctor, others if they are feverish send +for one and implore his assistance at their own home, others who +are melancholy or crazy or delirious will not sometimes even see +the doctor if he comes to their house, but drive him away, or avoid +him, ignorant through their grievous disease that they are diseased +at all. Similarly of those who have done +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">131</a></span> +what is wrong some are +incorrigible, being hostile and indignant and furious at those who +reprove and admonish them, while others are meeker and bear and +allow reproof. Now, when one has done what is wrong, to offer +oneself for reproof, to expose the case and reveal one's +wrongdoing, and not to rejoice if it lies hid, or be satisfied if +it is not known, but to make confession of it and ask for +interference and admonishment, is no small indication of progress +in virtue. And so Diogenes said that one who wished to do what was +right ought to seek either a good friend or red-hot enemy, that +either by rebuke or mild entreaty he might flee from vice. But as +long as anyone, making a display of dirt or stains on his clothes, +or a torn shoe, prides himself to outsiders on his freedom from +arrogance, and, by Zeus, thinks himself doing something very smart +if he jeers at himself as a dwarf or hunchback, but wraps up and +conceals as if they were ulcers the inner vileness of his soul and +the deformities of his life, as his envy, his malignity, his +littleness, his love of pleasure, and will not let anyone touch or +look at them from fear of disgrace, such a one has made little +progress in virtue, yea rather none. But he that joins issue with +his vices, and shows that he himself is even more pained and +grieved about them than anyone else, or, what is next best, is able +and willing to listen patiently to the reproof of another and to +correct his life accordingly, he seems truly to be disgusted at his +depravity and resolute to divest himself of it. We ought certainly +to be ashamed of and shun every appearance of vice, but he who is +more put about by his vice itself than by the bad reputation that +ensues upon it, will not mind either hearing it spoken against or +even speaking against it himself if it make him a better man. That +was a witty remark of Diogenes to a young man, who when seen in a +tavern retired into the kitchen: "The more," said he, "you retire, +the more are you in the tavern."<a name="FNanchor_281_281" id= +"FNanchor_281_281"></a><a href="#Footnote_281_281" class= +"fnanchor">281</a> Even so the more a vicious man denies his vice, +the more does it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id= +"Page_132">132</a></span>insinuate itself and master him: as those +people really poor who pretend to be rich get still more poor from +their false display. But he who is really making progress in virtue +imitates Hippocrates, who confessed publicly and put into black and +white that he had made a mistake about the sutures of the skull,<a +name="FNanchor_282_282" id="FNanchor_282_282"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_282_282" class="fnanchor">282</a> for he will think it +monstrous, if that great man declared his mistake, that others +might not fall into the same error, and yet he himself for his own +deliverance from vice cannot bear to be shown he is in the wrong, +and to confess his stupidity and ignorance. Moreover the sayings of +Bion and Pyrrho will test not so much one's progress as a greater +and more perfect habit of virtue. Bion maintained that his friends +might think they had made progress, when they could listen as +patiently to abuse as to such language as the following, "Stranger, +you look not like a bad or foolish person,"<a name= +"FNanchor_283_283" id="FNanchor_283_283"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_283_283" class="fnanchor">283</a> "Health and joy go +with you, may the gods give you happiness!"<a name= +"FNanchor_284_284" id="FNanchor_284_284"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_284_284" class="fnanchor">284</a> While as to Pyrrho +they say, when he was at sea and in peril from a storm, that he +pointed out a little pig that was quietly enjoying some grain that +had been scattered about, and said to his companions that the man +who did not wish to be disturbed by the changes and chances of life +should attain a similar composedness of mind through reason and +philosophy.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> Look also at the opinion +of Zeno, who thought that everybody might gauge his progress in +virtue by his dreams, if he saw himself in his dreams pleasing +himself with nothing disgraceful, and neither doing nor wishing to +do anything dreadful or unjust, but that, as in the clear depths of +a calm and tranquil sea, his fancy and passions were plainly shown +to be under the control of reason. And this had not escaped the +notice of Plato,<a name="FNanchor_285_285" id= +"FNanchor_285_285"></a><a href="#Footnote_285_285" class= +"fnanchor">285</a> it seems, who had earlier expressed in form and +outline the part that fancy and unreason played in sleep in the +soul that was by nature tyrannical, "for it attempts incest," he +says, "with its mother, and procures for itself unlawful meats, and +gives <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id= +"Page_133">133</a></span>itself up to the most abandoned desires, +such as in daytime the law through shame and fear debars people +from." As then beasts of burden that have been well-trained do not, +even if their driver let go the reins, attempt to turn aside and +leave the proper road, but go forward orderly as usual, pursuing +their way without stumbling, so those whose unreason has become +obedient and mild and tempered by reason, will not easily wish, +either in dreams or in illnesses, to deal insolently or lawlessly +through their desires, but will keep to their usual habits, which +acquire their power and force by attention. For if the body can by +training make itself and its members so subject to control, that +the eyes in sorrow can refrain from tears, and the heart from +palpitating in fear, and the passions can be calm in the presence +of beautiful youths and maidens, is it not far more likely that the +training of the passions and emotions of the soul will allay, tame +down, and mould their propensities even in dreams? A story is told +about the philosopher Stilpo,<a name="FNanchor_286_286" id= +"FNanchor_286_286"></a><a href="#Footnote_286_286" class= +"fnanchor">286</a> that he thought he saw in a dream Poseidon angry +with him because he had not sacrificed an ox to him, as was usual +among the Megarians:<a name="FNanchor_287_287" id= +"FNanchor_287_287"></a><a href="#Footnote_287_287" class= +"fnanchor">287</a> and that he, not a bit frightened, said, "What +are you talking about, Poseidon? Do you come here as a peevish boy, +because I have not with borrowed money filled the town with the +smell of sacrifice, and have only sacrificed to you out of what I +had at home on a modest scale?" Then he thought that Poseidon +smiled at him, and held out his right hand, and said that for his +sake he would give the Megarians a large shoal of anchovies. Those, +then, that have such pleasant, clear, and painless dreams, and no +frightful, or harsh, or malignant, or untoward apparition, may be +said to have reflections of their progress in virtue; whereas +agitation and panics and ignoble flights, and boyish delights, and +lamentations in the case of sad and strange dreams, are like the +waves that break on the coast, the soul not having yet got its +proper composure, but being still in course of being moulded by +opinions and laws, from which it escapes in dreams as far <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">134</a></span>as +possible, so that it is once again set free and open to the +passions. Do you investigate all these points too, as to whether +they are signs of progress in virtue, or of some habit which has +already a settled constancy and strength through reason.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> Now since entire freedom +from the passions is a great and divine thing, and progress in +virtue seems, as we say, to consist in a certain remissness and +mildness of the passions, we must observe the passions both in +themselves and in reference to one another to gauge the difference: +in themselves as to whether desire, and fear, and rage are less +strong in us now than formerly, through our quickly extinguishing +their violence and heat by reason; and in reference to one another +as to whether we are animated now by modesty more than by fear, and +by emulation more than by envy, and by love of glory rather than by +love of riches, and generally speaking whether—to use the +language of musicians—it is in the Dorian more than in the +Lydian measures that we err either by excess or deficiency,<a name= +"FNanchor_288_288" id="FNanchor_288_288"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_288_288" class="fnanchor">288</a> whether we are plainer +in our manner of living or more luxurious, whether we are slower in +action or quicker, whether we admire men and their discourses more +than we should or despise them. For as it is a good sign in +diseases if they turn aside from vital parts of the body, so in the +case of people who are making progress in virtue, when vice seems +to shift to milder passions, it is a sign it will soon die out. +When Phrynis added to the seven chords two chords more, the Ephors +asked him which he preferred to let them cut off, the upper or +lower ones;<a name="FNanchor_289_289" id="FNanchor_289_289"></a><a +href="#Footnote_289_289" class="fnanchor">289</a> so we must cut +off both above and below, if we mean to attain, to the mean and to +due proportion: for progress in virtue first diminishes the excess +and sharpness of the passions,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"That sharpness for which +madmen are so vehement,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>as Sophocles says.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> I have already said that +it is a very great indication of progress in virtue to transfer our +judgement to action, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id= +"Page_135">135</a></span>and not to let our words remain merely +words, but to make deeds of them. A manifestation of this is in the +first place emulation as regards what we praise, and a zeal to do +what we admire, and an unwillingness either to do or allow what we +censure. To illustrate my meaning by an example, it is probable +that all Athenians praised the daring and bravery of Miltiades; but +Themistocles alone said that the trophy of Miltiades would not let +him sleep, but woke him up of a night, and not only praised and +admired him, but manifestly emulated and imitated his glorious +actions. Small, therefore, can we think the progress we have made, +as long as our admiration for those who have done noble things is +barren, and does not of itself incite us to imitate them. For as +there is no strong love without jealousy, so there is no ardent and +energetic praise of virtue, which does not prick and goad one on, +and make one not envious but emulous of what is noble, and desirous +to do something similar. For not only at the discourses of a +philosopher ought we, as Alcibiades said,<a name="FNanchor_290_290" +id="FNanchor_290_290"></a><a href="#Footnote_290_290" class= +"fnanchor">290</a> to be moved in heart and shed tears, but the +true proficient in virtue, comparing his own deeds and actions with +those of the good and perfect man, and grieved at the same time at +the knowledge of his own deficiency, yet rejoicing in hope and +desire, and full of impulses that will not let him rest, is, as +Simonides says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Like sucking foal running by +side of dam,"<a name="FNanchor_291_291" id= +"FNanchor_291_291"></a><a href="#Footnote_291_291" class= +"fnanchor">291</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>being desirous all but to coalesce with the good man. For it is +a special sign of true progress in virtue to love and admire the +disposition of those whose deeds we emulate, and to resemble them +with a goodwill that ever assigns due honour and praise to them. +But whoever is steeped in contentiousness and envy against his +betters, let him know that he may be pricked on by a jealous desire +for glory or power, but that he neither honours nor admires +virtue.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> Whenever, then, we begin +so much to love good men that we deem happy, "not only," as Plato<a +name="FNanchor_292_292" id="FNanchor_292_292"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_292_292" class="fnanchor">292</a> says, "the temperate +man himself, but also the man who hears <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_136" id="Page_136">136</a></span>the words that flow +from his wise lips," and even admire and are pleased with his +figure and walk and look and smile, and desire to adapt ourselves +to his model and to stick closely to him, then may we think that we +are making genuine progress. Still more will this be the case, if +we admire the good not only in prosperity, but like lovers who +admire even the lispings and paleness of those in their flower,<a +name="FNanchor_293_293" id="FNanchor_293_293"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_293_293" class="fnanchor">293</a> as the tears and +dejection of Panthea in her grief and affliction won the affections +of Araspes,<a name="FNanchor_294_294" id="FNanchor_294_294"></a><a +href="#Footnote_294_294" class="fnanchor">294</a> so we fear +neither the exile of Aristides, nor the prison of Anaxagoras, nor +the poverty of Socrates, nor the condemnation of Phocion, but think +virtue worthy our love even under such trials, and join her, ever +chanting that line of Euripides,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Unto the noble everything is +good."<a name="FNanchor_295_295" id="FNanchor_295_295"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_295_295" class="fnanchor">295</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For the enthusiasm that can go so far as not to be discouraged +at the sure prospect of trouble, but admires and emulates what is +good even so, could never be turned away from what is noble by +anybody. Such men ever, whether they have some business to +transact, or have taken upon them some office, or are in some +critical conjuncture, put before their eyes the example of noble +men, and consider what Plato would have done on the occasion, what +Epaminondas would have said, how Lycurgus or Agesilaus would have +dealt; that so, adjusting and re-modelling themselves, as it were, +at their mirrors, they may correct any ignoble expression, and +repress any ignoble passion. For as those that have learnt the +names of the Idæan Dactyli<a name="FNanchor_296_296" id= +"FNanchor_296_296"></a><a href="#Footnote_296_296" class= +"fnanchor">296</a> make use of them to banish their fear by quietly +repeating them over, so the bearing in mind and remembering good +men, which soon suggests itself forcibly to those who have made +some progress in virtue in all their emotions and difficulties, +keeps them upright and not liable to fall. Let this also then be a +sign to you of progress in virtue.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> In addition to this, not +to be too much disturbed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" +id="Page_137">137</a></span>nor to blush, nor to try and conceal +oneself, or make any change in one's dress, on the sudden +appearance of a man of distinction and virtue, but to feel +confident and go and meet such a one, is the confirmation of a good +conscience. It is reported that Alexander, seeing a messenger +running up to him full of joy and holding out his right hand, said, +"My good friend, what are you going to tell me? Has Homer come to +life again?" For he thought that his own exploits required nothing +but posthumous fame.<a name="FNanchor_297_297" id= +"FNanchor_297_297"></a><a href="#Footnote_297_297" class= +"fnanchor">297</a> And a young man improving in character +instinctively loves nothing better than to take pride and pleasure +in the company of good and noble men, and to display his house, his +table, his wife, his amusements, his serious pursuits, his spoken +or written discourses; insomuch that he is grieved when he +remembers that his father or guardian died without seeing him in +that condition in life, and would pray for nothing from the gods so +much, as that they could come to life again, and be spectators of +his life and actions; as, on the contrary, those that have +neglected their affairs, and come to ruin, cannot look upon their +relatives even in dreams without fear and trembling.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> Add, if you please, to +what I have already said, as no small indication of progress in +virtue, the thinking no wrong-doing small, but being on your guard +and heed against all. For as people who despair of ever being rich +make no account of small expenses, thinking they will never make +much by adding little to little,<a name="FNanchor_298_298" id= +"FNanchor_298_298"></a><a href="#Footnote_298_298" class= +"fnanchor">298</a> but when hope is nearer fruition, then with +wealth increases the love of it,<a name="FNanchor_299_299" id= +"FNanchor_299_299"></a><a href="#Footnote_299_299" class= +"fnanchor">299</a> so in things that have respect to virtue, not he +that generally assents to such sayings as "Why trouble about +hereafter?" "If things are bad now, they will some day be +better,"<a name="FNanchor_300_300" id="FNanchor_300_300"></a><a +href="#Footnote_300_300" class="fnanchor">300</a> but the man who +pays heed to everything, and is vexed and concerned if vice gets +pardon, when it lapses into even the most trifling wrongdoing, +plainly shows that he has <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" +id="Page_138">138</a></span>already attained to some degree of +purity, and deigns not to contract defilement from anything +whatever. For the idea that we have nothing of any importance to +bring disgrace upon, makes people inclined to what is little and +careless.<a name="FNanchor_301_301" id="FNanchor_301_301"></a><a +href="#Footnote_301_301" class="fnanchor">301</a> To those who are +building a stone wall or coping it matters not if they lay on any +chance wood or common stone, or some tombstone that has fallen +down, as bad workmen do, heaping and piling up pell-mell every kind +of material; but those who have made some progress in virtue, whose +life "has been wrought on a golden base,"<a name="FNanchor_302_302" +id="FNanchor_302_302"></a><a href="#Footnote_302_302" class= +"fnanchor">302</a> like the foundation of some holy or royal +building, undertake nothing carelessly, but lay and adjust +everything by the line and level of reason, thinking the remark of +Polycletus superlatively good, that that work is most excellent, +where the model stands the test of the nail.<a name= +"FNanchor_303_303" id="FNanchor_303_303"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_303_303" class="fnanchor">303</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">249</span></a> See Erasmus, +Adagia, "Eadem pensari trutina."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">250</span></a> Euripides, +"Iphigenia in Tauris," 569.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">251</span></a> See Ovid, +"Metamorphoses," xii. 189, sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">252</span></a> See Erasmus, +"Adagia," p. 1103.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">253</span></a> Compare +Shakspere, "Tempest," A. i. Sc. i. 63, "And gape at widest to glut +him."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">254</span></a> Hesiod, +"Works and Days," 361, 362. Quoted again by our author, "On +Education," § 13.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">255</span></a> "In via ad +virtutem qui non progreditur, is non stat et manet, sed +regreditur."—<i>Wyttenbach</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">256</span></a> Adopting the +reading of Hercher. See Pausanias, x. 37, where the oracle is +somewhat different.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">257</span></a> For the town +which parleys surrenders.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">258</span></a> From Homer, +"Iliad," xix. 386.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">259</span></a> Compare +Aristotle, <i>Rhetoric</i>, i. 11. και +ἀρχή δὲ τοῦ +ἔρωτος +γίγνεται +αὕτη πᾶσιν, +ὅταν μὴ μόνον +παρόντος +χαίρωσιν, +ἀλλὰ και +ἀπόντος +μεμνημένοι +ἔρῶσιν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">260</span></a> The line is +a Fragment of Sophocles.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">261</span></a> See Hesiod, +"Works and Days," 289-292.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">262</span></a> The +well-known Cynic philosopher.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">263</span></a> Bergk. fr. +15. Compare Homer, "Iliad," vi. 339. νίκη +δ᾽ +ἐπαμείβεται +ἄνδρας.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_264_264" id="Footnote_264_264"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_264_264"><span class="label">264</span></a> We are told +by Diogenes Läertius, v. 37, that Theophrastus had 2000 +hearers sometimes at once.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_265_265" id="Footnote_265_265"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_265_265"><span class="label">265</span></a> "Republic," +vii. p. 539, B.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_266_266" id="Footnote_266_266"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_266_266"><span class="label">266</span></a> Sentences +borrowed from some author or other, such, as we still possess from +the hands of Hermogenes and Aphthonius; compare the collection of +bon-mots of Greek courtesans in Athenæus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_267_267" id="Footnote_267_267"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_267_267"><span class="label">267</span></a> A reference +to Æsop's Fable, Λέων +και Ἀλώπηξ. Cf. +Horace, "Epistles," i. i. 73-75.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_268_268" id="Footnote_268_268"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_268_268"><span class="label">268</span></a> This passage +is alluded to also in "On Love to one's Offspring." <a href= +"#Page_22a">§ ii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_269_269" id="Footnote_269_269"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_269_269"><span class="label">269</span></a> Madvig's +text.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_270_270" id="Footnote_270_270"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_270_270"><span class="label">270</span></a> Thucydides, +i. 18.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_271_271" id="Footnote_271_271"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_271_271"><span class="label">271</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," ix. 323, 324. Quoted also in "On Love to One's Offspring," +<a href="#Page_22a">§ ii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_272_272" id="Footnote_272_272"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_272_272"><span class="label">272</span></a> The remark +about Demosthenes has somehow slipped out, as Wyttenbach has +suggested.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_273_273" id="Footnote_273_273"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_273_273"><span class="label">273</span></a> Does this +refer to +Πηληίαδεω before +Ἀχιλῆος in "Iliad," i. +1?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_274_274" id="Footnote_274_274"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_274_274"><span class="label">274</span></a> An allusion +to some passage in a Play that has not come down to us.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_275_275" id="Footnote_275_275"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_275_275"><span class="label">275</span></a> Compare our +Author, <i>De Audiendis Poetis</i>, § xi. +ὥσπερ ὁ +Ἀγησίλαοσ +οὐκ +ὑπέμεινεν +ὑπὸ τοῦ +καλοῦ +φιληθῆναι +προσιόντος.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_276_276" id="Footnote_276_276"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_276_276"><span class="label">276</span></a> Reading with +Madvig and Hercher, τὸ γὰρ +αὺτὸν, sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_277_277" id="Footnote_277_277"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_277_277"><span class="label">277</span></a> Literally +<i>cork-like</i>, so vain, empty. So Horace, "levior cortice," +"Odes," iii. 9, 22.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_278_278" id="Footnote_278_278"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_278_278"><span class="label">278</span></a> Marks of a +philosopher among the ancients. Compare our Author, "How one may +discern a flatterer from a friend," § vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_279_279" id="Footnote_279_279"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_279_279"><span class="label">279</span></a> "Odyssey," +xvi. 187.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_280_280" id="Footnote_280_280"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_280_280"><span class="label">280</span></a> +Æschylus, "Toxotides," Fragm. 224. Quoted again by our +author, "On Love," § xxi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_281_281" id="Footnote_281_281"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_281_281"><span class="label">281</span></a> "Turpe +habitum fuisse in caupona conspici, et hoc exemplo apparet, et alia +sunt indicia. Isocrates Orat. Areopagitica laudans antiquorum +Atheniensium mores, p. 257: ἐν +καπηλείῳ +δὲ φαγεῖν ἢ +πιεῖν +οὐδεὶς ἃν +οἰκέτης +ἐπιεικὴς +ἐτὸλμησε: quem locum +citans Athenæus alia etiam adfert xiii. p. 566, +F."—<i>Wyttenbach</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_282_282" id="Footnote_282_282"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_282_282"><span class="label">282</span></a> Wyttenbach +compares Quintilian, "Institut. Orat." iii. 6, p. 255: "Nam et +Hippocrates clarus arte medicinæ videtur honestissime +fecisse, qui quosdam errores suos, ne posteri errarent, confessus +est."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_283_283" id="Footnote_283_283"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_283_283"><span class="label">283</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," vi. 187.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_284_284" id="Footnote_284_284"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_284_284"><span class="label">284</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xxiv. 402.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_285_285" id="Footnote_285_285"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_285_285"><span class="label">285</span></a> Plato, +"Republic," ix. p. 571, D.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_286_286" id="Footnote_286_286"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_286_286"><span class="label">286</span></a> A somewhat +similar story about Stilpo is told in Athenæus, x. p. 423, +D.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_287_287" id="Footnote_287_287"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_287_287"><span class="label">287</span></a> So Haupt and +Herscher very ingeniously for +ἱερεῦσιν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_288_288" id="Footnote_288_288"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_288_288"><span class="label">288</span></a> Adopting the +suggestion of Wyttenbach as to the reading. The Dorian measure was +grave and severe, the Lydian soft and effeminate.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_289_289" id="Footnote_289_289"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_289_289"><span class="label">289</span></a> See our +author, "Apophthegmata Laconica," p. 220 C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_290_290" id="Footnote_290_290"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_290_290"><span class="label">290</span></a> Plato, +"Symposium," p. 25, E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_291_291" id="Footnote_291_291"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_291_291"><span class="label">291</span></a> This line is +quoted again by our author, "On Moral Virtue," § vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_292_292" id="Footnote_292_292"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_292_292"><span class="label">292</span></a> Plato, +"Laws," iv. p. 711, E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_293_293" id="Footnote_293_293"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_293_293"><span class="label">293</span></a> See those +splendid lines of Lucretius, iv. 1155-1169.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_294_294" id="Footnote_294_294"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_294_294"><span class="label">294</span></a> "Res valde +celebrata ex Institutione Cyri Xenophontea, v. 1, 2; vi. 1, +17."—<i>Wyttenbach</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_295_295" id="Footnote_295_295"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_295_295"><span class="label">295</span></a> This line is +very like a Fragment in the "Danae" of Euripides. Dind. (328).</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_296_296" id="Footnote_296_296"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_296_296"><span class="label">296</span></a> On these see +Pausanias, v. 7.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_297_297" id="Footnote_297_297"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_297_297"><span class="label">297</span></a> Such as +Homer could have brought. Compare Horace, "Odes," iv. ix. 25-28; +and Cicero, "pro Archia," x. "Magnus ille Alexander—cum in +Sigeo ad Achillis tumulum adstitisset, O fortunate, inquit, +adolescens, qui tuæ virtutis Homerum præconem +inveneris."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_298_298" id="Footnote_298_298"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_298_298"><span class="label">298</span></a> Contrary to +Hesiod's saw, "Works and Days," 361, 362.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_299_299" id="Footnote_299_299"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_299_299"><span class="label">299</span></a> So Juvenal, +xiv. 138-140.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_300_300" id="Footnote_300_300"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_300_300"><span class="label">300</span></a> Like +Horace's "Non si male nunc, et olim Sic erit." "Odes," ii. x. 16, +17.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_301_301" id="Footnote_301_301"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_301_301"><span class="label">301</span></a> <i>Noblesse +oblige</i> in fact.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_302_302" id="Footnote_302_302"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_302_302"><span class="label">302</span></a> Pindar, +Frag. 206.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_303_303" id="Footnote_303_303"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_303_303"><span class="label">303</span></a> Like +Horace's <i>factus ad unguem</i>, because the sculptor tries its +polish and the niceness of the joints by drawing his nail over the +surface. Casaub. Pers. i. 64; Horace, "Sat." i. v. 32, 33; A. P. +294; Erasmus, "Adagia," p. 507.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_138a" id="Page_138a" />WHETHER VICE IS SUFFICIENT +TO CAUSE UNHAPPINESS.<a name="FNanchor_304_304" id= +"FNanchor_304_304"></a><a href="#Footnote_304_304" class= +"fnanchor">304</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> ... He who gets a dowry with his wife sells +himself for it, as Euripides says,<a name="FNanchor_305_305" id= +"FNanchor_305_305"></a><a href="#Footnote_305_305" class= +"fnanchor">305</a> but his gains are few and uncertain; but he who +does not go all on fire through many a funeral pile, but through a +regal pyre, full of panting and fear and sweat got from travelling +over the sea as a merchant, has the wealth of Tantalus, but cannot +enjoy it owing to his want of leisure. For that Sicyonian +horse-breeder was wise, who gave Agamemnon as a present a swift +mare, "that he should not follow him to wind-swept Ilium, but +delight himself at home,"<a name="FNanchor_306_306" id= +"FNanchor_306_306"></a><a href="#Footnote_306_306" class= +"fnanchor">306</a> in the quiet enjoyment of his abundant riches +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id= +"Page_139">139</a></span>and painless leisure. But nowadays +courtiers, and people who think they have a turn for affairs, +thrust themselves forward of their own accord uninvited into courts +and toilsome escorts and bivouacs, that they may get a horse, or +brooch, or some such piece of good luck. "But his wife is left +behind in Phylace, and tears her cheeks in her sorrow, and his +house is only half complete without him,"<a name="FNanchor_307_307" +id="FNanchor_307_307"></a><a href="#Footnote_307_307" class= +"fnanchor">307</a> while he is dragged about, and wanders about, +and wastes his time in idle hopes, and has to put up with much +insult. And even if he gets any of those things he desires, giddy +and dizzy at Fortune's rope-dance, he seeks retirement, and deems +those happy who live obscure and in security, while they again look +up admiringly at him who soars so high above their heads.<a name= +"FNanchor_308_308" id="FNanchor_308_308"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_308_308" class="fnanchor">308</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> Vice has universally an +ill effect on everybody, being in itself a sufficient producer of +infelicity, needing no instruments nor ministers. For tyrants, +anxious to make those whom they punish wretched, keep executioners +and torturers, and contrive branding-irons and other instruments of +torture to inspire fear<a name="FNanchor_309_309" id= +"FNanchor_309_309"></a><a href="#Footnote_309_309" class= +"fnanchor">309</a> in the brute soul, whereas vice attacks the soul +without any such apparatus, and crushes and dejects it, and fills a +man with sorrow, and lamentation, and melancholy, and remorse. Here +is a proof of what I say. Many are silent under mutilation, and +endure scourging or torture at the hand of despots or tyrants +without uttering a word, whenever their soul, abating the pain by +reason, forcibly as it were checks and represses them: but you can +never quiet anger or smother grief, or persuade a timid person not +to run away, or one suffering from remorse not to cry out, nor tear +his hair, nor smite his thigh. Thus vice is stronger than fire and +sword.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> You know of course that +cities, when they desire to publicly contract for the building of +temples or colossuses, listen to the estimates of the contractors +who compete for the job, and bring their plans and charges, and +finally select the contractor who will do the work at least <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id= +"Page_140">140</a></span>expense, and best, and quickest. Let us +suppose then that we publicly contract to make the life of man +miserable, and take the estimates of Fortune and Vice for this +object. Fortune shall come forward, provided with all sorts of +instruments and costly apparatus to make life miserable and +wretched. She shall come with robberies and wars, and the +blood-guiltiness of tyrants, and storms at sea, and lightning drawn +down from the sky, she shall compound hemlock, she shall bring +swords, she shall levy an army of informers, she shall cause fevers +to break out, she shall rattle fetters and build prisons. It is +true that most of these things are owing to Vice rather than +Fortune, but let us suppose them all to come from Fortune. And let +Vice stand by naked, without any external things against man, and +let her ask Fortune how she will make man unhappy and dejected. +Fortune, dost thou threaten poverty? Metrocles laughs at thee, who +sleeps during winter among the sheep, in summer in the vestibules +of temples, and challenges the king of the Persians,<a name= +"FNanchor_310_310" id="FNanchor_310_310"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_310_310" class="fnanchor">310</a> who winters at +Babylon, and summers in Media, to vie with him in happiness. Dost +thou bring slavery, and bondage, and sale? Diogenes despises thee, +who cried out, as he was being sold by some robbers, "Who will buy +a master?" Dost thou mix a cup of poison? Didst not thou offer such +a one to Socrates? And cheerfully, and mildly, without fear, +without changing colour or countenance, he calmly drank it up: and +when he was dead, all who survived deemed him happy, as sure to +have a divine lot in Hades. And as to thy fire, did not Decius, the +general of the Romans, anticipate it for himself, having piled up a +funeral pyre between the two armies, and sacrificed himself to +Cronos, dedicating himself for the supremacy of his country? And +the chaste and loving wives of the Indians strive and contend with +one another for the fire, and she that wins the day and gets burnt +with the body of her husband, is pronounced happy by the rest, and +her praises sung. And of the wise men in that part of the world no +one is esteemed or pronounced happy, who does not in his <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id= +"Page_141">141</a></span>lifetime, in good health and in full +possession of all his faculties, separate soul from body by fire, +and emerge pure from flesh, having purged away his mortal part. Or +wilt thou reduce a man from a splendid property, and house, and +table, and sumptuous living, to a threadbare coat and wallet, and +begging of daily bread? Such was the beginning of happiness to +Diogenes, of freedom and glory to Crates. Or wilt thou nail a man +on a cross, or impale him on a stake? What cares Theodorus whether +he rots above ground or below? Such was the happy mode of burial +amongst the Scythians,<a name="FNanchor_311_311" id= +"FNanchor_311_311"></a><a href="#Footnote_311_311" class= +"fnanchor">311</a> and among the Hyrcanians dogs, among the +Bactrians birds, devour according to the laws the dead bodies of +those who have made a happy end.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Who then are made unhappy +by these things? Those who have no manliness or reason, the +enervated and untrained, who retain the opinions they had as +children. Fortune therefore does not produce perfect infelicity, +unless Vice co-operate. For as a thread saws through a bone that +has been soaked in ashes and vinegar, and as people bend and +fashion ivory only when it has been made soft and supple by beer, +and cannot under any other circumstances, so Fortune, lighting upon +what is in itself faulty and soft through Vice, hollows it out and +wounds it. And as the Parthian juice, though hurtful to no one else +nor injurious to those who touch it or carry it about, yet if it be +communicated to a wounded man straightway kills him through his +previous susceptibility to receive its essence, so he who will be +upset in soul by Fortune must have some secret internal ulcer or +sore to make external things so piteous and lamentable.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Does then Vice need Fortune +to bring about infelicity? By no means. She lashes not up the rough +and stormy sea, she girds not lonely mountain passes with robbers +lying in wait by the way, she makes not clouds of hail to burst on +the fruitful plains, she suborns not Meletus or Anytus or +Callixenus as accusers, she takes not away wealth, excludes not +people from the prætorship to make them wretched; but she +scares the rich, the well-to-do, and great heirs; by land and sea +she insinuates herself and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" +id="Page_142">142</a></span>sticks to people, infusing lust, +inflaming with anger, afflicting them with superstitious fears, +tearing them in pieces with envy.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_304_304" id="Footnote_304_304"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_304_304"><span class="label">304</span></a> The +beginning of this short Treatise is lost. Nor is the first +paragraph at all clear. We have to guess somewhat at the +meaning.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_305_305" id="Footnote_305_305"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_305_305"><span class="label">305</span></a> In a +fragment of the "Phaethon." Compare also "On Education," <a href= +"#Page_20a">§ 19.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_306_306" id="Footnote_306_306"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_306_306"><span class="label">306</span></a> "Iliad," +xxiii. 297, 298.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_307_307" id="Footnote_307_307"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_307_307"><span class="label">307</span></a> "Iliad," ii. +700, 701.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_308_308" id="Footnote_308_308"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_308_308"><span class="label">308</span></a> 'Tis ever +so. Compare Horace, "Sat." i. i. 1-14.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_309_309" id="Footnote_309_309"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_309_309"><span class="label">309</span></a> Adopting +Reiske's reading.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_310_310" id="Footnote_310_310"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_310_310"><span class="label">310</span></a> Proverbial +for extreme good fortune. Cf. Horace, "Odes," iii. ix. 4, "Persarum +vigui rege beatior."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_311_311" id="Footnote_311_311"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_311_311"><span class="label">311</span></a> See +Herodotus, iv. 72.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_142a" id="Page_142a" />WHETHER THE DISORDERS OF +MIND OR BODY ARE WORSE.</h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Homer, looking at the +mortality of all living creatures, and comparing them with one +another in their lives and habits, gave vent to his thoughts in the +words,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Of all the things that on the +earth do breathe,</span> <span class="i0">Or creep, man is by far +the wretchedest;"<a name="FNanchor_312_312" id= +"FNanchor_312_312"></a><a href="#Footnote_312_312" class= +"fnanchor">312</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>assigning to man an unhappy pre-eminence in extreme misfortune. +But let us, assuming that man is, as thus publicly declared, +supreme in infelicity and the most wretched of all living +creatures, compare him with himself, in the estimate of his misery +dividing body and soul, not idly but in a very necessary way, that +we may learn whether our life is more wretched owing to Fortune or +through our own fault. For disease is engendered in the body by +nature, but vice and depravity in the soul is first its own doing, +then its settled condition. And it is no slight aid to tranquillity +of mind if what is bad be capable of cure, and lighter and less +violent.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> The fox in Æsop<a +name="FNanchor_313_313" id="FNanchor_313_313"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_313_313" class="fnanchor">313</a> disputing with the +leopard as to their respective claims to variety, the latter showed +its body and appearance all bright and spotted, while the tawny +skin of the former was dirty and not pleasant to look at. Then the +fox said, "Look inside me, sir judge, and you will see that I am +more full of variety than my opponent," referring to his trickiness +and versatility in shifts. Let us similarly say to ourselves, Many +diseases and disorders, good sir, thy body naturally produces of +itself, many also it receives from without; but if thou lookest at +thyself within thou wilt find, to borrow the language of +Democritus, a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id= +"Page_143">143</a></span>varied and susceptible storehouse and +treasury of what is bad, not flowing in from without, but having as +it were innate and native springs, which vice, being exceedingly +rich and abundant in passion, produces. And if diseases are +detected in the body by the pulse and by pallors and flushes,<a +name="FNanchor_314_314" id="FNanchor_314_314"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_314_314" class="fnanchor">314</a> and are indicated by +heats and sudden pains, while the diseases of the mind, bad as they +are, escape the notice of most people, the latter are worse because +they deprive the sufferer of the perception of them. For reason if +it be sound perceives the diseases of the body, but he that is +diseased in his mind cannot judge of his sufferings, for he suffers +in the very seat of judgement. We ought to account therefore the +first and greatest of the diseases of the mind that ignorance,<a +name="FNanchor_315_315" id="FNanchor_315_315"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_315_315" class="fnanchor">315</a> whereby vice is +incurable for most people, dwelling with them and living and dying +with them. For the beginning of getting rid of disease is the +perception of it, which leads the sufferer to the necessary relief, +but he who through not believing he is ill knows not what he +requires refuses the remedy even when it is close at hand. For +amongst the diseases of the body those are the worst which are +accompanied by stupor, as lethargies, headaches, epilepsies, +apoplexies, and those fevers which raise inflammation to the pitch +of madness, and disturb the brain as in the case of a musical +instrument,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"And move the mind's strings +hitherto untouched."<a name="FNanchor_316_316" id= +"FNanchor_316_316"></a><a href="#Footnote_316_316" class= +"fnanchor">316</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> And so doctors wish a man +not to be ill, or if he is ill to be ignorant of it, as is the case +with all diseases of the soul. For neither those who are out of +their minds, nor the licentious, nor the unjust think themselves +faulty—some even think themselves perfect. For no one ever +yet called a fever health, or consumption a good condition of body, +or gout swift-footedness, or paleness a good colour; but many call +anger manliness, and love friendship, and envy competition, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">144</a></span>and +cowardice prudence. Then again those that are ill in body send for +doctors, for they are conscious of what they need to counteract +their ailments; but those who are ill in mind avoid philosophers, +for they think themselves excellent in the very matters in which +they come short. And it is on this account that we maintain that +ophthalmia is a lesser evil than madness, and gout than frenzy. For +the person ill in body is aware of it and calls loudly for the +doctor, and when he comes allows him to anoint his eye, to open a +vein, or to plaster up his head; but you hear mad Agave in her +frenzy not knowing her dearest ones, but crying out, "We bring from +the mountain to the halls a young stag recently torn limb from +limb, a fortunate capture."<a name="FNanchor_317_317" id= +"FNanchor_317_317"></a><a href="#Footnote_317_317" class= +"fnanchor">317</a> Again he who is ill in body straightway gives up +and goes to bed and remains there quietly till he is well, and if +he toss and tumble about a little when the fit is on him, any of +the people who are by saying to him,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i15">"Gently,</span> <span class= +"i0">Stay in the bed, poor wretch, and take your ease,"<a name= +"FNanchor_318_318" id="FNanchor_318_318"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_318_318" class="fnanchor">318</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>restrain him and check him. But those who suffer from a diseased +brain are then most active and least at rest, for impulses bring +about action, and the passions are vehement impulses. And so they +do not let the mind rest, but when the man most requires quiet and +silence and retirement, then is he dragged into the open air, and +becomes the victim of anger, contentiousness, lust, and grief, and +is compelled to do and say many lawless things unsuitable to the +occasion.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> As therefore the storm +which prevents one's putting into harbour is more dangerous than +the storm which will not let one sail, so those storms of the soul +are more formidable which do not allow a man to take in sail, or to +calm his reason when it is disturbed, but without a pilot and +without ballast, in perplexity and uncertainty through contrary and +confusing courses, he rushes headlong and falls into woeful +shipwreck, and shatters his life. So that <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_145" id="Page_145">145</a></span>from these points of +view it is worse to be diseased in mind than body, for the latter +only suffer, but the former do ill as well as suffer ill. But why +need I speak of our various passions? The very times bring them to +our mind. Do you see yon great and promiscuous crowd jostling +against one another and surging round the rostrum and forum? They +have not assembled here to sacrifice to their country's gods, nor +to share in one another's rites; they are not bringing to +Ascræan Zeus the firstfruits of Lydian produce,<a name= +"FNanchor_319_319" id="FNanchor_319_319"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_319_319" class="fnanchor">319</a> nor are they +celebrating in honour of Dionysus the Bacchic orgies on festival +nights with common revellings; but a mighty plague stirring up Asia +in annual cycles drives them here for litigation and suits at law +at stated times: and the mass of business, like the confluence of +mighty rivers, has inundated one forum, and festers and teems with +ruiners and ruined. What fevers, what agues, do not these things +cause? What obstructions, what irruptions of blood into the +air-vessels, what distemperature of heat, what overflow of humours, +do not result? If you examine every suit at law, as if it were a +person, as to where it originated, where it came from, you will +find that one was produced by obstinate temper, another by frantic +love of strife, a third by some sordid desire.<a name= +"FNanchor_320_320" id="FNanchor_320_320"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_320_320" class="fnanchor">320</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_312_312" id="Footnote_312_312"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_312_312"><span class="label">312</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xvii. 446, 447.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_313_313" id="Footnote_313_313"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_313_313"><span class="label">313</span></a> See the +Fable Ἀλώπηξ και +Πὰρδαλις. No. 42, Ed. +Halme.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_314_314" id="Footnote_314_314"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_314_314"><span class="label">314</span></a> Reading with +Wyttenbach, +ὠχριάσεσι +και +ἐρυθήμασι.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_315_315" id="Footnote_315_315"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_315_315"><span class="label">315</span></a> Forte +ἄγνοιαν."—<i>Wyttenbach</i>. +The ordinary reading is +ἂνοιαν. "E cœlo +descendit γνῶθι +σεαυτόν," says Juvenal +truly, xi. 27.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_316_316" id="Footnote_316_316"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_316_316"><span class="label">316</span></a> Compare the +image in Shakspere, "Hamlet," A. iii. Sc. I. 165, 166.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Now see that noble and most +sovereign reason,</span> <span class="i0">Like sweet bells jangled, +out of tune and harsh."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_317_317" id="Footnote_317_317"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_317_317"><span class="label">317</span></a> Euripides, +"Bacchæ," 1170-1172. Agave's treatment of her son Pentheus +was a stock philosophical comparison. See for example Horace, ii. +"Sat." iii. 303, 304, and context.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_318_318" id="Footnote_318_318"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_318_318"><span class="label">318</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 258.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_319_319" id="Footnote_319_319"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_319_319"><span class="label">319</span></a> +"<i>Aurum</i> puta. Pactolus enim aurum fert. Videtur dictio e +Pindaro desumta esse."—<i>Reiske</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_320_320" id="Footnote_320_320"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_320_320"><span class="label">320</span></a> "Libellus +hic fine carere videtur. Quare autem opusculum hoc Plutarcho +indignum atque suppositum visum Xylandro fuerit, non +intelligo."—<i>Reiske</i>.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_145a" id="Page_145a">ON ABUNDANCE OF +FRIENDS.</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Menon the Thessalian, who +thought he was a perfect adept in discourse, and, to borrow the +language of Empedocles, "had attained the heights of wisdom," was +asked by Socrates, what virtue was, and upon his answering quickly +and glibly, that virtue was a different thing in boy and old man, +and in man and woman, and in magistrate and private person, and in +master and servant, "Capital," said Socrates, "you were asked about one virtue, but you +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">146</a></span>have raised up a whole swarm of them,"<a +name="FNanchor_321_321" id="FNanchor_321_321"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_321_321" class="fnanchor">321</a> conjecturing not amiss +that the man named many because he knew not one. Might not someone +jeer at us in the same way, as being afraid, when we have not yet +one firm friendship, that we shall without knowing it fall upon an +abundance of friends? It is very much the same as if a man maimed +and blind should be afraid of becoming hundred-handed like Briareus +or all eyes like Argus. And yet we wonderfully praise the young man +in Menander, who said that he thought anyone wonderfully good, if +he had even the shadow of a friend.<a name="FNanchor_322_322" id= +"FNanchor_322_322"></a><a href="#Footnote_322_322" class= +"fnanchor">322</a></p> + +<p><a name="Page_146a" id="Page_146a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">ii.</span> But among many other things what stands chiefly +in the way of getting a friend is the desire for many friends, like +a licentious woman who, through giving her favours +indiscriminately, cannot retain her old lovers, who are neglected +and drop off;<a name="FNanchor_323_323" id= +"FNanchor_323_323"></a><a href="#Footnote_323_323" class= +"fnanchor">323</a> or rather like the foster-child of Hypsipyle, +"sitting in the meadow and plucking flower after flower, snatching +at each prize with gladsome heart, insatiable in its childish +delight,"<a name="FNanchor_324_324" id="FNanchor_324_324"></a><a +href="#Footnote_324_324" class="fnanchor">324</a> so in the case of +each of us, owing to our love of novelty and fickleness, the recent +flower ever attracts, and makes us inconstant, frequently laying +the foundations of many friendships and intimacies that come to +nothing, neglecting in love of what we eagerly pursue what we have +already possession of. To begin therefore with the domestic +hearth,<a name="FNanchor_325_325" id="FNanchor_325_325"></a><a +href="#Footnote_325_325" class="fnanchor">325</a> as the saying is, +with the traditions of life that time has handed down to us about +constant friends, let us take the witness and counsel of antiquity, +according to which friendships go in pairs, as in the cases of +Theseus and Pirithous, Achilles and Patroclus, Orestes and Pylades, +Phintias and Damon, Epaminondas and Pelopidas. For friendship is a +creature that goes in pairs, and is not gregarious, or crow-like,<a +name="FNanchor_326_326" id="FNanchor_326_326"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_326_326" class="fnanchor">326</a> and to think a <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id= +"Page_147">147</a></span>friend a second self, and to call him +companion as it were second one,<a name="FNanchor_327_327" id= +"FNanchor_327_327"></a><a href="#Footnote_327_327" class= +"fnanchor">327</a> shows that friendship is a dual relation. For we +can get neither many slaves nor many friends at small expense. What +then is the purchase-money of friendship? Benevolence and +complaisance conjoined with virtue, and yet nature has nothing more +rare than these. And so to love or be loved very much cannot find +place with many persons; for as rivers that have many channels and +cuttings have a weak and thin stream, so excessive love in the soul +if divided out among many is weakened. Thus love for their young is +most strongly implanted in those that bear only one, as Homer calls +a beloved son "the only one, the child of old age,"<a name= +"FNanchor_328_328" id="FNanchor_328_328"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_328_328" class="fnanchor">328</a> that is, when the +parents neither have nor are likely to have another child.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> Not that we insist on +only one friend, but among the rest there should be one eminently +so, like a child of old age, who according to that well-known +proverb has eaten a bushel of salt with one,<a name= +"FNanchor_329_329" id="FNanchor_329_329"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_329_329" class="fnanchor">329</a> not as nowadays many +so-called friends contract friendship from drinking together once, +or playing at ball together, or playing together with dice, or +passing the night together at some inn, or meeting at the +wrestling-school or in the market. And in the houses of rich and +leading men people congratulate them on their many friends, when +they see the large and bustling crowd of visitors and handshakers +and retainers: and yet they see more flies in their kitchens, and +as the flies only come for the dainties, so they only dance +attendance for what they can get. And since true friendship has +three main requirements, virtue, as a thing good; and familiarity, +as a thing pleasant; and use, as a thing serviceable; for we ought +to choose a friend with judgement, and rejoice in his company, and +make use of him in need; and all these things are prejudicial to +abundance of friends, especially judgement, which is the most +important point; we must first consider, if it is impossible in a +short time to test dancers who are to form a chorus, or rowers who +are to pull together, or slaves who are to act as stewards of +estates, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id= +"Page_148">148</a></span>or as tutors of one's sons, far more +difficult is it to meet with many friends who will take off their +coats to aid you in every fortune, each of whom "offers his +services to you in prosperity, and does not object to share your +adversity." For neither does a ship encounter so many storms at +sea, nor do they fortify places with walls, or harbours with +defences and earthworks, in the expectation of so many and great +dangers, as friendship tested well and soundly promises defence and +refuge from. But if friends slip in without being tested, like +money proved to be bad,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Those who shall lose such +friends may well be glad,</span> <span class="i0">And those who +have such pray that they may lose them."<a name="FNanchor_330_330" +id="FNanchor_330_330"></a><a href="#Footnote_330_330" class= +"fnanchor">330</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Yet is it difficult and by no means easy to avoid and bring to a +close an unpleasant friendship: as in the case of food which is +injurious and harmful, we cannot retain it on the stomach without +damage and hurt, nor can we expel it as it was taken into the +mouth, but only in a putrid mixed up and changed form, so a bad +friend is troublesome both to others and himself if retained, and +if he be got rid of forcibly it is with hostility and hatred, and +like the voiding of bile.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> We ought not, therefore, +lightly to welcome or strike up an intimate friendship with any +chance comers, or love those who attach themselves to us, but +attach ourselves to those who are worthy of our friendship. For +what is easily got is not always desirable: and we pass over and +trample upon heather and brambles that stick to us<a name= +"FNanchor_331_331" id="FNanchor_331_331"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_331_331" class="fnanchor">331</a> on our road to the +olive and vine: so also is it good not always to make a friend of +the person who is expert in twining himself around us, but after +testing them to attach ourselves to those who are worthy of our +affection and likely to be serviceable to us.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> As therefore Zeuxis, when +some people accused him of painting slowly, replied, "I admit that +I do, but then I paint to last," so ought we to test for a long +time the friendship and intimacy that we take up and mean to <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id= +"Page_149">149</a></span>keep. Is it not easy then to put to the +test many friends, and to associate with many friends at the same +time, or is this impossible? For intimacy is the full enjoyment of +friendship, and most pleasant is companying with and spending the +day with a friend. "Never again shall we alive, apart from dear +friends, sit and take counsel alone together."<a name= +"FNanchor_332_332" id="FNanchor_332_332"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_332_332" class="fnanchor">332</a> And Menelaus said +about Odysseus, "Nor did anything ever divide or separate us, who +loved and delighted in one another, till death's black cloud +overshadowed us."<a name="FNanchor_333_333" id= +"FNanchor_333_333"></a><a href="#Footnote_333_333" class= +"fnanchor">333</a> The contrary effect seems to be produced by +abundance of friends. For the friendship of a pair of friends draws +them together and puts them together and holds them together, and +is heightened by intercourse and kindliness, "as when the juice of +the fig curdles and binds the white milk,"<a name= +"FNanchor_334_334" id="FNanchor_334_334"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_334_334" class="fnanchor">334</a> as Empedocles says, +such unity and complete union will such a friendship produce. +Whereas having many friends puts people apart and severs and +disunites them, by transferring and shifting the tie of friendship +too frequently, and does not admit of a mixture and welding of +goodwill by the diffusing and compacting of intimacy. And this +causes at once an inequality and difficulty in respect of acts of +kindness, for the uses of friendship become inoperative by being +dispersed over too wide an area. "One man is acted upon by his +character, another by his reflection."<a name="FNanchor_335_335" +id="FNanchor_335_335"></a><a href="#Footnote_335_335" class= +"fnanchor">335</a> For neither do our natures and impulses always +incline in the same directions, nor are our fortunes in life +identical, for opportunities of action are, like the winds, +favourable to some, unfavourable to others.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_149a" id="Page_149a"></a>§ <span class= +"smcap">vi.</span> Moreover, if all our friends want to do the same +things at the same time, it will be difficult to satisfy them all, +whether they desire to deliberate, or to act in state affairs, or +wish for office, or are going to entertain guests. If again at the +same time they chance to be engaged in different occupations and +interests and ask you all together, one who is going on a voyage +that you will sail with him, another who is going to law that you +will be his advocate, another who is going to try a case that you +will try it with him, another who is selling or buying that you +will go into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id= +"Page_150">150</a></span>partnership with him, another who is going +to marry that you will join him in the sacrifice, another who is +going to bury a relation that you will be one of the mourners,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The town is full of incense, +and at once</span> <span class="i0">Resounds with triumph-songs and +bitter wailing,"<a name="FNanchor_336_336" id= +"FNanchor_336_336"></a><a href="#Footnote_336_336" class= +"fnanchor">336</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>that is the fruit of many friends; to oblige all is impossible, +to oblige none is absurd, and to help one and offend many is +grievous.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"No lover ever yet fancied +neglect."<a name="FNanchor_337_337" id="FNanchor_337_337"></a><a +href="#Footnote_337_337" class="fnanchor">337</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And yet people bear patiently and without anger the carelessness +and neglect of friends, if they get from them such excuses as "I +forgot," "I did it unwittingly." But he who says, "I did not assist +you in your lawsuit, for I was assisting another friend," or "I did +not visit you when you had your fever, for I was helping so-and-so +who was entertaining his friends," excusing himself for his +inattention to one by his attention to another, so far from making +the offence less, even adds jealousy to his neglect. But most +people in friendship regard only, it seems, what can be got out of +it, overlooking what will be asked in return, and not remembering +that he, who has had many of his own requests granted, must oblige +others in turn by granting their requests. And as Briareus with his +hundred hands had to feed fifty stomachs, and was therefore no +better provided than we are, who with two hands have to supply the +necessities of only one belly, so in having many friends<a name= +"FNanchor_338_338" id="FNanchor_338_338"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_338_338" class="fnanchor">338</a> one has to do many +services for them, one has to share in their anxiety, and to toil +and moil with them. For we must not listen to Euripides when he +says, "mortals ought to join in moderate friendships for one +another, and not love with all their heart, that the spell may be +soon broken, and the friendship may either be ended or become +closer at will,"<a name="FNanchor_339_339" id= +"FNanchor_339_339"></a><a href="#Footnote_339_339" class= +"fnanchor">339</a> that so it may be adjusted to our requirements, +like the sail of a ship that we can either slacken or haul <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id= +"Page_151">151</a></span>tight. But let us transfer, Euripides, +these lines of yours to enmities, and bid people make their +animosities moderate, and not hate with all their heart, that their +hatred, and wrath, and querulousness, and suspicions, may be easily +broken. Recommend rather for our consideration that saying of +Pythagoras, "Do not give many your right hand,"<a name= +"FNanchor_340_340" id="FNanchor_340_340"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_340_340" class="fnanchor">340</a> that is, do not make +many friends, do not go in for a common and vulgar friendship, +which is sure to cause anyone much trouble; for its sharing in +others' anxieties and griefs and labours and dangers is quite +intolerable to free and noble natures. And that was a true saying +of the wise Chilo<a name="FNanchor_341_341" id= +"FNanchor_341_341"></a><a href="#Footnote_341_341" class= +"fnanchor">341</a> to one who told him he had no enemy, "Neither," +said he, "do you seem to me to have a friend." For enmities +inevitably accompany and are involved in friendships.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> It is impossible I say +not to share with a friend in his injuries and disgraces and +enmities, for enemies at once suspect and hate the friend of their +enemies, and even friends are often envious and jealous and carp at +him. As then the oracle given to Timesias about his colony foretold +him, "that his swarm of bees would soon be followed by a swarm of +wasps," so those that seek a swarm of friends have sometimes +lighted unawares on a wasp's-nest of enemies. And the remembrance +of wrongs done by an enemy and the kindness of a friend do not +weigh in the same balance. See how Alexander treated the friends +and intimates of Philotas and Parmenio, how Dionysius treated those +of Dion, Nero those of Plautus, Tiberius those of Sejanus, +torturing and putting them to death. For as neither the gold nor +rich robes of Creon's daughter<a name="FNanchor_342_342" id= +"FNanchor_342_342"></a><a href="#Footnote_342_342" class= +"fnanchor">342</a> availed her or her sire, but the flame that +burst out suddenly involved him in the same fate as herself, as he +ran up to embrace her and rescue her, so some friends, though they +have had no enjoyment out of their friends' prosperity, are +involved in their misfortunes. And this is especially the case with +philosophers and kind people, as Theseus, when his friend Pirithous +was punished and im<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id= +"Page_152">152</a></span>prisoned, "was also bound in fetters not +of brass."<a name="FNanchor_343_343" id="FNanchor_343_343"></a><a +href="#Footnote_343_343" class="fnanchor">343</a> And Thucydides +tells us that during the plague at Athens those that most displayed +their virtue perished with their friends that were ill, for they +neglected their own lives in going to visit them.<a name= +"FNanchor_344_344" id="FNanchor_344_344"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_344_344" class="fnanchor">344</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> We ought not therefore +to be too lavish with our virtue, binding it together and +implicating it in various people's fortunes, but we ought to +preserve our friendship for those who are worthy of it, and are +capable of reciprocating it. For this is indeed the greatest +argument against many friends that friendship is originated by +similarity. For seeing that even the brutes can hardly be forced to +mix with those that are unlike themselves, but crouch down, and +show their dislike, and run away, while they mix freely with those +that are akin to them and have a similar nature, and gently and +gladly make friends with one another then, how is it possible that +there should be friendship between people differing in characters +and temperaments and ideas of life? For harmony on the harp or lyre +is attained by notes in unison and not in unison, sharp and flat +somehow or other producing concord, but in the harmony of +friendship there must be no unlike, or uneven, or unequal element, +but from all alike must come agreement in opinions and wishes and +feeling, as if one soul were put into several bodies.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_152a" id="Page_152a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">ix.</span> What man then is so industrious, so changeable, +and so versatile, as to be able to make himself like and adapt +himself to many different persons, and not to laugh at the advice +of Theognis, "Imitate the ingenuity of the polypus, that takes the +colour of whatever stone it sticks to."<a name="FNanchor_345_345" +id="FNanchor_345_345"></a><a href="#Footnote_345_345" class= +"fnanchor">345</a> And yet the changes in the polypus do not go +deep but are only on the surface, which, from its thickness or +thinness takes the impression of everything that approaches it, +whereas friends endeavour to be like one another in character, and +feeling, and language, and pursuits, and disposition. It requires a +not very fortunate or very good Proteus,<a name="FNanchor_346_346" +id="FNanchor_346_346"></a><a href="#Footnote_346_346" class= +"fnanchor">346</a> able by jugglery to assume various forms, to be +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id= +"Page_153">153</a></span>frequently at the same time a student with +the learned, and ready to try a fall with wrestlers, or to go a +hunting with people fond of the chase, or to get drunk with +tipplers, or to go a canvassing with politicians, having no fixed +character of his own.<a name="FNanchor_347_347" id= +"FNanchor_347_347"></a><a href="#Footnote_347_347" class= +"fnanchor">347</a> And as the natural philosophers say of unformed +and colourless matter when subjected to external change, that it is +now fire, now water, now air, now solid earth, so the soul suitable +for many friendships must be impressionable, and versatile, and +pliant, and changeable. But friendship requires a steady constant +and unchangeable character, a person that is uniform in his +intimacy. And so a constant friend is a thing rare and hard to +find.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_321_321" id="Footnote_321_321"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_321_321"><span class="label">321</span></a> Plato, +"Men." p. 71 E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_322_322" id="Footnote_322_322"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_322_322"><span class="label">322</span></a> Quoted more +fully by our author, "De Fraterno Amore," § iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_323_323" id="Footnote_323_323"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_323_323"><span class="label">323</span></a> "Eadem +comparatione utitur Lucianus in Toxari T. ii. p. 351: +ὅστις ἂν +πολύφιλος +ᾗ ὅμοιος +ἡμῖν δοκεῖ +ταῖς +κοιναῖς +ταύταις καὶ +μοιχευομέναις +γυναιξί· +και +οἰόμεθ᾽ +οὐκεθ᾽ +ὁμοίως +ἰσχυρὰν τὴν +φιλίαν +αὐτοῦ +εἷναι πρὸς +πολλὰς +εὐνοίας +διαιρεθεῖσαν."—<i> +Wyttenbach</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_324_324" id="Footnote_324_324"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_324_324"><span class="label">324</span></a> From the +"Hypsipyle" of Euripides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_325_325" id="Footnote_325_325"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_325_325"><span class="label">325</span></a> A well-known +proverb for beginning at the beginning. Aristophanes, +"Vespæ." 846; Plato, "Euthryphro," 3 A; Strabo, 9.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_326_326" id="Footnote_326_326"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_326_326"><span class="label">326</span></a> An allusion +to the well-known proverb, +κολοιὸς +ποτι +κολοιόν. See Erasmus, +"Adagia," p. 1644.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_327_327" id="Footnote_327_327"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_327_327"><span class="label">327</span></a> The +paronomasia is on ἑταῖρος, +ἕτερος.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_328_328" id="Footnote_328_328"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_328_328"><span class="label">328</span></a> "Iliad," ix. +482; "Odyssey," xvi. 19.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_329_329" id="Footnote_329_329"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_329_329"><span class="label">329</span></a> Cf. Cicero, +"De Amicitia," xix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_330_330" id="Footnote_330_330"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_330_330"><span class="label">330</span></a> Sophocles, +Fragm. 741. Quoted again by our author, "On Love," § +xxiii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_331_331" id="Footnote_331_331"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_331_331"><span class="label">331</span></a> For the +image compare Lucio's speech, Shakspere, "Measure for Measure," A. +iv. Sc. iii. 189, 190: "Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall +stick."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_332_332" id="Footnote_332_332"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_332_332"><span class="label">332</span></a> "Iliad," +xxiii. 77, 78.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_333_333" id="Footnote_333_333"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_333_333"><span class="label">333</span></a> "Odyssey," +iv. 178-180.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_334_334" id="Footnote_334_334"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_334_334"><span class="label">334</span></a> "Iliad," v. +902, altered somewhat.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_335_335" id="Footnote_335_335"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_335_335"><span class="label">335</span></a> Bergk. p. +1344<sup>3</sup>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_336_336" id="Footnote_336_336"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_336_336"><span class="label">336</span></a> Sophocles, +"Œdipus Tyrannus," 4, 5. Quoted again "On Moral Virtue," +§ vi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_337_337" id="Footnote_337_337"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_337_337"><span class="label">337</span></a> A line from +Menander. Quoted again "De Fraterno Amore," § xx.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_338_338" id="Footnote_338_338"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_338_338"><span class="label">338</span></a> Reading with +Halm and Hercher ἐν τῷ +πολλοῖς +φιλοῖς +χρῆσθαι.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_339_339" id="Footnote_339_339"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_339_339"><span class="label">339</span></a> Euripides, +"Hippolytus," 253-257, where Dindorf and Hercher agree in the +reading.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_340_340" id="Footnote_340_340"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_340_340"><span class="label">340</span></a> Compare "On +Education," § xvii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_341_341" id="Footnote_341_341"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_341_341"><span class="label">341</span></a> Chilo was +one of the Seven Wise Men. See Pausanias, iii. 16; X. 24.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_342_342" id="Footnote_342_342"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_342_342"><span class="label">342</span></a> For the +circumstances see Euripides, "Medea," 1136 sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_343_343" id="Footnote_343_343"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_343_343"><span class="label">343</span></a> For the +friendship of Theseus and Pirithous, see Pausanias, i. 17; x. 29. +The line is from Euripides, "Pirithous," Fragm. 591. Cf. "On +Shyness," § x.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_344_344" id="Footnote_344_344"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_344_344"><span class="label">344</span></a> Thucydides, +ii. 51.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_345_345" id="Footnote_345_345"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_345_345"><span class="label">345</span></a> Bergk. p. +500<sup>3</sup>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_346_346" id="Footnote_346_346"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_346_346"><span class="label">346</span></a> On Proteus, +see Verg. "Georg." iv. 387 sq.; Ovid, "Art." i. 761; "Met." ii. 9; +"Fasti," i. 367 sq., and especially Horace, "Epistles," i. i. 90: +"Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea nodo?"</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_347_347" id="Footnote_347_347"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_347_347"><span class="label">347</span></a> Literally, +"having no hearth of character," the hearth being an emblem of +stability. Compare "How One may Discern a Flatterer from a Friend," +§ vii., where the same image is employed.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_153a" id="Page_153a" />HOW ONE MAY DISCERN A +FLATTERER FROM A FRIEND.</h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Plato says,<a name= +"FNanchor_348_348" id="FNanchor_348_348"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_348_348" class="fnanchor">348</a> Antiochus Philopappus, +that all men pardon the man who acknowledges that he is excessively +fond of himself, but that there is among many other defects this +very grave one in self-love, that by it a man becomes incapable of +being a just and impartial judge about himself, for love is blind +in regard to the loved object, unless a person has learnt and +accustomed himself to honour and pursue what is noble rather than +his own selfish interests. This gives a great field for the +flatterer in friendship, who finds a wonderful base of operations +in our self-love, which makes each person his own first and +greatest flatterer, and easily admits a flatterer from without, who +will be, so he thinks and hopes, both a witness and confirmer of +his good opinion of himself. For he that lies open to the reproach +of being fond of flatterers is very fond of himself, and owing to +his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id= +"Page_154">154</a></span>goodwill to himself wishes to possess all +good qualities, and thinks he actually does; the wish is not +ridiculous, but the thought is misleading and requires a good deal +of caution. And if truth is a divine thing, and, according to +Plato,<a name="FNanchor_349_349" id="FNanchor_349_349"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_349_349" class="fnanchor">349</a> the beginning of all +good things both to the gods and men, the flatterer is likely to be +an enemy to the gods, and especially to Apollo, for he always sets +himself against that famous saying, "Know thyself,"<a name= +"FNanchor_350_350" id="FNanchor_350_350"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_350_350" class="fnanchor">350</a> implanting in +everybody's mind self-deceit and ignorance of his own good or bad +qualities, thus making his good points defective and imperfect, and +his bad points altogether incorrigible.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> If however, as is the case +with most other bad things, the flatterer attacked only or chiefly +ignoble or worthless persons, the evil would not be so mischievous +or so difficult to guard against. But since, as wood-worms breed +most in soft and sweet wood, those whose characters are honourable +and good and equitable encourage and support the flatterer +most,—and moreover, as Simonides says, "rearing of horses +does not go with the oil-flask,<a name="FNanchor_351_351" id= +"FNanchor_351_351"></a><a href="#Footnote_351_351" class= +"fnanchor">351</a> but with fruitful fields," so we see that +flattery does not join itself to the poor, the obscure, or those +without means, but is the snare and bane of great houses and +estates, and often overturns kingdoms and principalities,—it +is a matter of no small importance, needing much foresight, to +examine the question, that so flattery may be easily detected, and +neither injure nor discredit friendship. For just as lice leave +dying persons, and abandon bodies when the blood on which they feed +is drying up, so one never yet saw flatterers dancing attendance on +dry and cold poverty, but they fasten on wealth and position and +there get fat, but speedily decamp if reverses come. But we ought +not to wait to experience that, which would be unprofitable, or +rather injurious and dangerous. For not to find friends at a time +when you want them is hard, as also not to be able to exchange an +inconstant and bad friend for a constant and good one. For a friend +should be like money tried before being re<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_155" id="Page_155">155</a></span>quired, not found +faulty in our need. For we ought not to have our wits about us only +when the mischief is done, but we ought to try and prevent the +flatterer doing any harm to us: for otherwise we shall be in the +same plight as people who test deadly poisons by first tasting +them, and kill or nearly kill themselves in the experiment. We do +not praise such, nor again all those who, looking at their friend +simply from the point of view of decorum and utility, think that +they can detect all agreeable and pleasant companions as flatterers +in the very act. For a friend ought not to be disagreeable or +unpleasant, nor ought friendship to be a thing high and mighty with +sourness and austerity, but even its decorous deportment ought to +be attractive and winning,<a name="FNanchor_352_352" id= +"FNanchor_352_352"></a><a href="#Footnote_352_352" class= +"fnanchor">352</a> for by it</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The Graces and Desire have +pitched their tents,"<a name="FNanchor_353_353" id= +"FNanchor_353_353"></a><a href="#Footnote_353_353" class= +"fnanchor">353</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and not only to a person in misfortune "is it sweet to look into +the eyes of a friendly person," as Euripides<a name= +"FNanchor_354_354" id="FNanchor_354_354"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_354_354" class="fnanchor">354</a> says, but no less does +it bring pleasure and charm in good fortune, than when it relieves +the sorrows and difficulties of adversity. And as Evenus said "fire +was the best sauce,"<a name="FNanchor_355_355" id= +"FNanchor_355_355"></a><a href="#Footnote_355_355" class= +"fnanchor">355</a> so the deity, mixing up friendship with life, +has made everything bright and sweet and acceptable by its presence +and the enjoyment it brings. How else indeed could the flatterer +insinuate himself by the pleasure he gives, unless he knew that +friendship admitted the pleasurable element? It would be impossible +to say. But just as spurious and mock gold only imitates the +brightness and glitter of real gold, so the flatterer seems to +imitate the pleasantness and agreeableness of the real friend, and +to exhibit himself ever merry and bright, contradicting and +opposing nothing. We must not however on that account suspect all +who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id= +"Page_156">156</a></span>praise as simple flatterers. For +friendship requires praise as much as censure on the proper +occasion. Indeed peevishness and querulousness are altogether alien +to friendship and social life: but when goodwill bestows praise +ungrudgingly and readily upon good actions, people endure also +easily and without pain admonition and plainspeaking, believing and +continuing to love the person who took such pleasure in praising, +as if now he only blamed out of necessity.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> It is difficult then, +someone may say, to distinguish between the flatterer and the +friend, if they differ neither in the pleasure they give nor in the +praise they bestow; for as to services and attentions you may often +see friendship outstripped by flattery. Certainly it is so, I +should reply, if we are trying to find the genuine flatterer who +handles his craft with cleverness and art, but not if, like most +people, we consider those persons flatterers who are called their +own oil-flask-carriers and table-men, men who begin to talk, as one +said, the moment their hands have been washed for dinner,<a name= +"FNanchor_356_356" id="FNanchor_356_356"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_356_356" class="fnanchor">356</a> whose servility, +ribaldry, and want of all decency, is apparent at the first dish +and glass. It did not of course require very much discrimination to +detect Melanthius the parasite of Alexander of Pheræ of +flattery, who, to those who asked how Alexander was murdered, +answered, "Through his side into my belly": or those who formed a +circle round a wealthy table, "whom neither fire, nor sword, nor +steel, would keep from running to a feast":<a name= +"FNanchor_357_357" id="FNanchor_357_357"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_357_357" class="fnanchor">357</a> or those female +flatterers in Cyprus, who after they crossed over into Syria were +nicknamed "step-ladders,"<a name="FNanchor_358_358" id= +"FNanchor_358_358"></a><a href="#Footnote_358_358" class= +"fnanchor">358</a> because they lay down and let the kings' wives +use their bodies as steps to mount their carriages.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> What kind of flatterer +then must we be on our guard against? The one who neither seems to +be nor acknowledges himself to be one: whom you will not always +find in the vicinity of your kitchen, who is not to be <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">157</a></span>caught +watching the dial to see how near it is to dinner-time,<a name= +"FNanchor_359_359" id="FNanchor_359_359"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_359_359" class="fnanchor">359</a> nor gets so drunk as +to throw himself down anyhow, but one who is generally sober, and a +busybody, and thinks he ought to have a hand in your affairs, and +wishes to share in your secrets, and as to friendship plays rather +a tragic than a satyric or comic part. For as Plato says, "it is +the height of injustice to appear to be just when you are not +really so,"<a name="FNanchor_360_360" id="FNanchor_360_360"></a><a +href="#Footnote_360_360" class="fnanchor">360</a> so we must deem +the most dangerous kind of flattery not the open but the secret, +not the playful but the serious. For it throws suspicion even upon +a genuine friendship, which we may often confound with it, if we +are not careful. When Gobryas pursued one of the Magi into a dark +room, and was on the ground wrestling with him, and Darius came up +and was doubtful how he could kill one without killing both, +Gobryas bade him thrust his sword boldly through both of them;<a +name="FNanchor_361_361" id="FNanchor_361_361"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_361_361" class="fnanchor">361</a> but we, since we give +no assent to that saying, "Let friend perish so the enemy perish +with him,"<a name="FNanchor_362_362" id="FNanchor_362_362"></a><a +href="#Footnote_362_362" class="fnanchor">362</a> in our endeavour +to distinguish the flatterer from the friend, seeing that their +resemblances are so many, ought to take great care that we do not +reject the good with the bad, nor in sparing what is beneficial +fall in with what is injurious. For as wild grains mixed up with +wheat, if very similar in size and appearance, are not easily kept +apart, for if the sieve have small holes they don't pass through, +and if large holes they pass with the corn, so flattery is not +easily distinguished from friendship, being mixed up with it in +feeling and emotion, habit and custom.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Because however friendship +is the most pleasant of all things, and nothing more glads the +heart of man, therefore the flatterer attracts by the pleasure he +gives, pleasure being in fact his field. And because favours and +good services accompany friendship, as the proverb says "a friend +is more necessary than fire or water,"<a name="FNanchor_363_363" +id="FNanchor_363_363"></a><a href="#Footnote_363_363" class= +"fnanchor">363</a> therefore <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_158" id="Page_158">158</a></span>the flatterer volunteers all +sorts of services, and strives to show himself on all occasions +zealous and obliging and ready. And since friendship is mainly +produced by a similarity of tastes and habits, and to have the same +likes and dislikes first brings people together and unites them +through sympathy,<a name="FNanchor_364_364" id= +"FNanchor_364_364"></a><a href="#Footnote_364_364" class= +"fnanchor">364</a> the flatterer observing this moulds himself like +material and demeans himself accordingly, seeking completely to +imitate and resemble those whom he desires to ingratiate himself +with, being supple in change, and plausible in his imitations, so +that one would say,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Achilles' son, O no, it is +himself."<a name="FNanchor_365_365" id="FNanchor_365_365"></a><a +href="#Footnote_365_365" class="fnanchor">365</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But his cleverest trick is that, observing that freedom of +speech, is both spoken of and reckoned as the peculiar and natural +voice of friendship, while not speaking freely is considered +unfriendly and disingenuous, he has not failed to imitate this +trait of friendship also. But just as clever cooks infuse bitter +sauces and sharp seasoning to prevent sweet things from cloying, so +these flatterers do not use a genuine or serviceable freedom of +speech, but merely a winking and tickling innuendo. He is therefore +difficult to detect, like those creatures which naturally change +their colour and take that of the material or place near them.<a +name="FNanchor_366_366" id="FNanchor_366_366"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_366_366" class="fnanchor">366</a> But since he deceives +and conceals his true character by his imitations, it is our duty +to unmask him and detect him by the differences between him and the +true friend, and to show that he is, as Plato says, "tricked out in +other people's colours and forms, from lack of any of his own."<a +name="FNanchor_367_367" id="FNanchor_367_367"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_367_367" class="fnanchor">367</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> Let us examine the matter +then from the beginning. I said that friendship originated in most +cases from a similar disposition and nature, generally inclined to +the same habits and morals, and rejoicing in the same pursuits, +studies, and amusements, as the following lines testify: "To old +man the voice of old man is sweetest, to boy that of boy, to woman +is most acceptable that of woman, to the sick person that of sick +person, while he that is overtaken <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_159" id="Page_159">159</a></span>by misfortune is a comforter +to one in trouble." The flatterer knowing then that it is innate in +us to delight in, and enjoy the company of, and to love, those who +are like ourselves, attempts first to approach and get near a +person in this direction, (as one tries to catch an animal in the +pastures,) by the same pursuits and amusements and studies and +modes of life quietly throwing out his bait, and disguising himself +in false colours, till his victim give him an opportunity to catch +him, and become tame and tractable at his touch. Then too he +censures the things and modes of life and persons that he knows his +victim dislikes, while he praises those he fancies immoderately, +overdoing it indeed<a name="FNanchor_368_368" id= +"FNanchor_368_368"></a><a href="#Footnote_368_368" class= +"fnanchor">368</a> with his show of surprise and excessive +admiration, making him more and more convinced that his likes and +dislikes are the fruits of judgement and not of caprice.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> How then is the flatterer +convicted, and by what differences is he detected, of being only a +counterfeit, and not really like his victim? We must first then +look at the even tenor and consistency of his principles, if he +always delights in the same things, and always praises the same +things, and directs and governs his life after one pattern, as +becomes the noble lover of consistent friendship and familiarity. +Such a person is a friend. But the flatterer having no fixed +character of his own,<a name="FNanchor_369_369" id= +"FNanchor_369_369"></a><a href="#Footnote_369_369" class= +"fnanchor">369</a> and not seeking to lead the life suitable for +him, but shaping and modelling himself after another's pattern, is +neither simple nor uniform, but complex and unstable, assuming +different appearances, like water poured from vessel to vessel, +ever in a state of flux and accommodating himself entirely to the +fashion of those who entertain him. The ape indeed, as it seems, +attempting to imitate man, is caught imitating his movements and +dancing like him, but the flatterer himself attracts and decoys +other men, imitating not all alike, for with one he sings and +dances, with another he wrestles and gets covered with the dust of +the palæstra, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id= +"Page_160">160</a></span>while he follows a third fond of hunting +and the chase all but shouting out the words of Phædra,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"How I desire to halloo on the +dogs,</span> <span class="i0">Chasing the dappled deer,"<a name= +"FNanchor_370_370" id="FNanchor_370_370"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_370_370" class="fnanchor">370</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and yet he has really no interest in the chase, it is the hunter +himself he sets the toils and snares for. And if the object of his +pursuit is some young scholar and lover of learning, he is all for +books then, his beard flows down to his feet,<a name= +"FNanchor_371_371" id="FNanchor_371_371"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_371_371" class="fnanchor">371</a> he's quite a sight +with his threadbare cloak, has all the indifference of the Stoic, +and speaks of nothing but the rectangles and triangles of Plato. +But if any rich and careless fellow fond of drink come in his +way,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Then wise Odysseus stript him +of his rags,"<a name="FNanchor_372_372" id= +"FNanchor_372_372"></a><a href="#Footnote_372_372" class= +"fnanchor">372</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>his threadbare cloak is thrown aside, his beard is shorn off +like a fruitless crop, he goes in for wine-coolers and tankards, +and laughs loudly in the streets, and jeers at philosophers. As +they say happened at Syracuse, when Plato went there, and Dionysius +was seized with a furious passion for philosophy, and so great was +the concourse of geometricians that they raised up quite a cloud of +dust in the palace, but when Plato fell out of favour, and +Dionysius gave up philosophy, and went back again headlong to wine +and women and trifles and debauchery, then all the court was +metamorphosed, as if they all had drunk of Circe's cup, for +ignorance and oblivion and silliness reigned rampant. I am borne +out in what I say by the behaviour of great flatterers and +demagogues,<a name="FNanchor_373_373" id="FNanchor_373_373"></a><a +href="#Footnote_373_373" class="fnanchor">373</a> the greatest of +whom Alcibiades, a jeerer and horse-rearer at Athens, and living a +gay and merry life, wore his hair closely shaven at +Lacedæmon, and washed in cold water, and attired himself in a +threadbare cloak; while in Thrace he fought<a name= +"FNanchor_374_374" id="FNanchor_374_374"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_374_374" class="fnanchor">374</a> and drank; and at +Tissaphernes' court lived delicately and luxuriously and in a +pretentious style; and thus curried favour and was <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">161</a></span>popular +with everybody by imitating their habits and ways. Such was not the +way however in which Epaminondas or Agesilaus acted, for though +they associated with very many men and states and different modes +of life, they maintained everywhere their usual demeanour, both in +dress and diet and language and behaviour. So Plato<a name= +"FNanchor_375_375" id="FNanchor_375_375"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_375_375" class="fnanchor">375</a> at Syracuse was +exactly the same man as in the Academy, the same with Dionysius as +with Dion.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> As to the changes of the +flatterer, which resemble those of the polypus,<a name= +"FNanchor_376_376" id="FNanchor_376_376"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_376_376" class="fnanchor">376</a> a man may most easily +detect them by himself pretending to change about frequently, and +by censuring the kind of life he used formerly to praise, and anon +approving of the words actions and modes of life that he used to be +displeased with. He will then see that the flatterer is never +consistent or himself, never loving hating rejoicing grieving at +his own initiative, but like a mirror, merely reflecting the image +of other people's emotions and manners and feelings. Such a one +will say, if you censure one of your friends to him, "You are slow +in finding the fellow out, he never pleased me from the first." But +if on the other hand you change your language and praise him, he +will swear by Zeus that he rejoices at it, and is himself under +obligations to the man, and believes in him. And if you talk of the +necessity of changing your mode of life, of retiring from public +life to a life of privacy and ease, he says, "We ought long ago to +have got rid of uproar<a name="FNanchor_377_377" id= +"FNanchor_377_377"></a><a href="#Footnote_377_377" class= +"fnanchor">377</a> and envy." But if you think of returning again +to public life, he chimes in, "Your sentiments do you honour: +retirement from business is pleasant, but inglorious and mean." One +ought to say at once to such a one, "'Stranger, quite different now +you look to what you did before.'<a name="FNanchor_378_378" id= +"FNanchor_378_378"></a><a href="#Footnote_378_378" class= +"fnanchor">378</a> I do not need a friend to change his opinions +with me and to assent to me in everything, my shadow will do that +better, but I need one that will speak the truth and help me with +his judgement." This is one way of detecting the flatterer.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id= +"Page_162">162</a></span></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> We must also observe +another difference in the resemblance between the friend and +flatterer. The true friend does not imitate you in everything, nor +is he too keen to praise, but praises only what is excellent, for +as Sophocles says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He is not born to share in +hate but love,"<a name="FNanchor_379_379" id= +"FNanchor_379_379"></a><a href="#Footnote_379_379" class= +"fnanchor">379</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>yes, by Zeus, and he is born to share in doing what is right and +in loving what is noble, and not to share in wrong-doing or +misbehaviour, unless it be that, as a running of the eyes is +catching, so through companionship and intimacy he may against his +will contract by infection some vice or ill habit, as they say +Plato's intimates imitated his stoop, Aristotle's his lisp, and +king Alexander's his holding his head a little on one side, and +rapidity of utterance in conversation,<a name="FNanchor_380_380" +id="FNanchor_380_380"></a><a href="#Footnote_380_380" class= +"fnanchor">380</a> for people mostly pick up unawares such traits +of character. But the flatterer is exactly like the chameleon,<a +name="FNanchor_381_381" id="FNanchor_381_381"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_381_381" class="fnanchor">381</a> which takes every +colour but white, and so he, though unable to imitate what is worth +his while, leaves nothing that is bad unimitated. And just as poor +painters unable to make a fine portrait from inefficiency in their +craft, bring out the likeness by painting all the wrinkles, moles +and scars, so the flatterer imitates his friend's intemperance, +superstition, hot temper, sourness to domestics, suspicion of his +friends and relations. For he is by nature inclined to what is +worst, and thinks that imitation of what is bad is as far as +possible removed from censure. For those are suspected who have +noble aims in life, and seem to be vexed and disgusted at their +friends' faults, for that injured and even ruined Dion with +Dionysius, Samius with Philip, and Cleomenes with Ptolemy. But he +that wishes to be and appear at the same time both agreeable and +trustworthy pretends <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id= +"Page_163">163</a></span>to rejoice more in what is bad, as being +through excessive love for his friend not even offended at his +vices, but as one with him in feeling and nature in all matters. +And so they claim to share in involuntary and chance ailments, and +pretend to have the same complaints, in flattery to those who +suffer from any, as that their eyesight and sense of hearing are +deficient, if their friends are somewhat blind or deaf, as the +flatterers of Dionysius, who was rather short-sighted, jostled one +another at a dinner party, and knocked the dishes off the table, +<i>as if from defect of vision</i>.<a name="FNanchor_382_382" id= +"FNanchor_382_382"></a><a href="#Footnote_382_382" class= +"fnanchor">382</a> And some to make their cases more similar wind +themselves in closer, and dive even into family secrets for +parallels. For seeing that their friends are unfortunate in +marriage, or suspicious about the behaviour of their sons or +relations, they do not spare themselves, but make quite a Jeremiad +about their own sons, or wife, or kinsfolk, or relations, +proclaiming loudly their own family secrets. For similarity in +situation makes people more sympathetic, and their friends having +received as it were hostages by their confessions, entrust them in +return with their secrets, and having once made confidants of them, +dare not take back their confidence.<a name="FNanchor_383_383" id= +"FNanchor_383_383"></a><a href="#Footnote_383_383" class= +"fnanchor">383</a> I actually know of a man who turned his wife out +of doors because his friend had put away his; but as he secretly +visited her and sent messages to her, he was detected by his +friend's wife noticing his conduct. So little did he know the +nature of a flatterer that thought the following lines more +applicable to a crab than a flatterer, "His whole body is belly, +his eye is on everything, he is a creature creeping on his teeth," +for such is a true picture of the parasite, "friends of the +frying-pan, hunting for a dinner," to borrow the language of +Eupolis.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> However let us put off all +this to its proper place in the discourse. But let us not fail to +notice the wiliness of the flatterer's imitation, in that, even if +he imitates any good points in the person he flatters, he always +takes care to give him the palm. Whereas among real friends there +is no rivalry or jealousy of one another, but they are satisfied +and contented alike whether they are equal or one of them <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">164</a></span>is +superior. But the flatterer, ever remembering that he is to play +second fiddle,<a name="FNanchor_384_384" id= +"FNanchor_384_384"></a><a href="#Footnote_384_384" class= +"fnanchor">384</a> makes his copy always fall a little short of the +original, for he admits that he is everywhere outstripped and left +behind, except in vice. For in that alone he claims pre-eminence, +for if his friend is peevish, he says he is atrabilious; if his +friend is superstitious, he says he is a fanatic; if his friend is +in love, he says he is madly in love; if his friend laughs, he will +say, "You laughed a little unseasonably, but I almost died of +laughter." But in regard to any good points his action is quite the +opposite. He says he can run quickly, but his friend flies; he says +he can ride pretty well, but his friend is a Centaur on horseback. +He says "I am not a bad poet, and don't write very bad lines,"</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"'But your sonorous verse is +like Jove's thunder.'"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Thus he shows at once that his friend's aims in life are good, +and that his friend has reached a height he cannot soar to. Such +then are the differences in the resemblances between the flatterer +and the friend.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> But since, as has been +said before, to give pleasure is common to both, for the good man +delights in his friends as much as the bad man in his flatterers, +let us consider the difference between them here too. The +difference lies in the different aim of each in giving pleasure. +Look at it this way. There is no doubt a sweet smell in perfume. So +there is also in medicine. But the difference is that while in +perfume pleasure and nothing else is designed, in medicine either +purging, or warming, or adding flesh to the system, is the primary +object, and the sweet smell is only a secondary consideration. +Again painters mix gay colours and dyes: there are also some drugs +which are gay in appearance and not unpleasing in colour. What then +is the difference between these? Manifestly we distinguish by the +end each aims at. So too the social life of friends employs mirth +to add a charm to some good and useful end,<a name= +"FNanchor_385_385" id="FNanchor_385_385"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_385_385" class="fnanchor">385</a> and sometimes makes +joking and a good table and wine, aye, and even chaff and banter, +the seasoning to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id= +"Page_165">165</a></span>noble and serious matters, as in the +line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Much they enjoyed talking to +one another,"<a name="FNanchor_386_386" id= +"FNanchor_386_386"></a><a href="#Footnote_386_386" class= +"fnanchor">386</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and again,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i9">"Never did ought else</span> +<span class="i0">Disturb our love or joy in one another."<a name= +"FNanchor_387_387" id="FNanchor_387_387"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_387_387" class="fnanchor">387</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But the flatterer's whole aim and end is to cook up and season +his joke or word or action, so as to produce pleasure. And to speak +concisely, the flatterer's object is to please in everything he +does, whereas the true friend always does what is right, and so +often gives pleasure, often pain, not wishing the latter, but not +shunning it either, if he deems it best. For as the physician, if +it be expedient, infuses saffron or spikenard, aye, or uses some +soothing fomentation or feeds his patient up liberally, and +sometimes orders castor,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Or poley,<a name= +"FNanchor_388_388" id="FNanchor_388_388"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_388_388" class="fnanchor">388</a> that so strong and +foully smells,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>or pounds hellebore and compels him to drink it,—neither +in the one case making unpleasantness, nor in the other +pleasantness, his end and aim, but in both studying only the +interest of his patient,—so the friend sometimes by praise +and kindness, extolling him and gladdening his heart, leads him to +what is noble, as Agamemnon,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Teucer, dear head, thou son +of Telamon,</span> <span class="i0">Go on thus shooting, captain of +thy men;"<a name="FNanchor_389_389" id="FNanchor_389_389"></a><a +href="#Footnote_389_389" class="fnanchor">389</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>or Diomede,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"How could I e'er forget +divine Odysseus?"<a name="FNanchor_390_390" id= +"FNanchor_390_390"></a><a href="#Footnote_390_390" class= +"fnanchor">390</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But where on the other hand there is need of correction, then he +rebukes with biting words and with the freedom worthy of a +friend,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Zeus-cherished Menelaus, art +thou mad,</span> <span class="i0">And in thy folly tak'st no heed +of safety?"<a name="FNanchor_391_391" id="FNanchor_391_391"></a><a +href="#Footnote_391_391" class="fnanchor">391</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Sometimes also he joins action to word, as Menedemus sobered the +profligate and disorderly son of his friend Asclepiades, by +shutting him out of his house, and not speaking to him. And +Arcesilaus forbade Bato his school, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_166" id="Page_166">166</a></span>when he wrote a line in one +of his plays against Cleanthes, and only got reconciled with him +after he repented and made his peace with Cleanthes. For we ought +to give our friend pain if it will benefit him, but not to the +extent of breaking off our friendship; but just as we make use of +some biting medicine, that will save and preserve the life of the +patient. And so the friend, like a musician, in bringing about an +improvement to what is good and expedient, sometimes slackens the +chords, sometimes tightens them, and is often pleasant, but always +useful. But the flatterer, always harping on one note, and +accustomed to play his accompaniment only with a view to please and +to ingratiate himself, knows not how either to oppose in deed, or +give pain in word, but complies only with every wish, ever chiming +in with and echoing the sentiments of his patron. As then Xenophon +says Agesilaus took pleasure in being praised by those who would +also censure him,<a name="FNanchor_392_392" id= +"FNanchor_392_392"></a><a href="#Footnote_392_392" class= +"fnanchor">392</a> so ought we to think that to please and gratify +us is friendly in the person who can also give us pain and oppose +us, but to feel suspicion at an intercourse which is merely for +pleasure and gratification, and never pungent, aye and by Zeus to +have ready that saying of the Lacedæmonian, who, on hearing +king Charillus praised, said, "How can he be a good man, who is not +severe even to the bad?"</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> They say the gadfly +attacks bulls, and the tick dogs, in the ear: so the flatterer +besieges with praise the ears of those who are fond of praise, and +sticks there and is hard to dislodge. We ought therefore here to +make a wide-awake and careful discrimination, whether the praise is +bestowed on the action or the man. It is bestowed on the action, if +people praise the absent rather than the present, if also those +that have the same aims and aspirations praise not only us but all +that are similarly disposed, and do not evidently say and do one +thing at one time, and the direct contrary at another; and the +greatest test is if we are conscious, in the matters for which we +get the praise, that we have not regretted them, and are not +ashamed at them, and would not rather have said and done +differently. For <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id= +"Page_167">167</a></span>our own inward judgement, testifying the +contrary and not admitting the praise, is above passion, and +impregnable and proof against the flatterer. But I know not how it +is that most people in misfortune cannot bear exhortation, but are +captivated more by condolence and sympathy, and when they have done +something wrong and acted amiss, he that by censure and blame +implants in them the stings of repentance is looked upon by them as +hostile and an accuser, while they welcome and regard as friendly +and well-disposed to them the person who bestows praise and +panegyric on what they have done. Those then that readily praise +and join in applauding some word or action on the part of someone +whether in jest or earnest, only do temporary harm for the moment, +but those who injure the character by their praise, aye, and by +their flattery undermine the morals, act like those slaves who do +not steal from the bin, but from the seed corn.<a name= +"FNanchor_393_393" id="FNanchor_393_393"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_393_393" class="fnanchor">393</a> For they pervert the +disposition, which is the seed of actions, and the character, which +is the principle and fountain of life, by attaching to vice names +that belong properly only to virtue. For as Thucydides says,<a +name="FNanchor_394_394" id="FNanchor_394_394"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_394_394" class="fnanchor">394</a> in times of faction +and war "people change the accustomed meaning of words as applied +to acts at their will and pleasure, for reckless daring is then +considered bravery to one's comrades, and prudent delay specious +cowardice, and sober-mindedness the cloak of the coward, and taking +everything into account before action a real desire to do nothing." +So too in the case of flattery we must observe and be on our guard +against wastefulness being called liberality, and cowardliness +prudence, and madness quick-wittedness, and meanness frugality, and +the amorous man called social and affectionate, and the term manly +applied to the passionate and vain man, and the term civil applied +to the paltry and mean man. As I remember Plato<a name= +"FNanchor_395_395" id="FNanchor_395_395"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_395_395" class="fnanchor">395</a> says the lover is a +flatterer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id= +"Page_168">168</a></span>of the beloved one, and calls the snub +nose graceful, and the aquiline nose royal, and swarthy people +manly, and fair people the children of the gods, and the olive +complexion is merely the lover's phrase to gloss over and palliate +excessive pallor. And yet the ugly man persuaded he is handsome, or +the short man persuaded he is tall, cannot long remain in the +error, and receives only slight injury from it, and not irreparable +mischief: but praise applied to vices as if they were virtues, so +that one is not vexed but delighted with a vicious life, removes +all shame from wrong-doing, and was the ruin of the Sicilians, by +calling the savage cruelty of Dionysius and Phalaris detestation of +wickedness and uprightness. It was the ruin of Egypt, by styling +Ptolemy's effeminacy, and superstition, and howlings, and beating +of drums, religion and service to the gods.<a name= +"FNanchor_396_396" id="FNanchor_396_396"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_396_396" class="fnanchor">396</a> It was nearly the +overthrow and destruction of the ancient manners of the Romans, +palliating the luxury and intemperance and display of Antony as +exhibitions of jollity and kindliness, when his power and fortune +were at their zenith. What else invested Ptolemy<a name= +"FNanchor_397_397" id="FNanchor_397_397"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_397_397" class="fnanchor">397</a> with his pipe and +fiddle? What else brought Nero<a name="FNanchor_398_398" id= +"FNanchor_398_398"></a><a href="#Footnote_398_398" class= +"fnanchor">398</a> on the tragic stage, and invested him with the +mask and buskins? Was it not the praise of flatterers? And are not +many kings called Apollos if they can just sing a song,<a name= +"FNanchor_399_399" id="FNanchor_399_399"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_399_399" class="fnanchor">399</a> and Dionysuses if they +get drunk, and Herculeses if they can wrestle, and do they not joy +in such titles, and are they not dragged into every kind of +disgrace by flattery?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> Wherefore we must be +especially on our guard against the flatterer in regard to praise; +as indeed he is very well aware himself, and clever to avoid +suspicion. If he light upon some dandy, or rustic in a thick +leather garment, he treats him with nothing but jeers and mocks,<a +name="FNanchor_400_400" id="FNanchor_400_400"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_400_400" class="fnanchor">400</a> as Struthias insulted +Bias, ironically praising him for his stupidity, saying, "You have +drunk more than king Alex<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" +id="Page_169">169</a></span>ander,"<a name="FNanchor_401_401" id= +"FNanchor_401_401"></a><a href="#Footnote_401_401" class= +"fnanchor">401</a> and, "that he was ready to die of laughing at +his tale about the Cyprian."<a name="FNanchor_402_402" id= +"FNanchor_402_402"></a><a href="#Footnote_402_402" class= +"fnanchor">402</a> But when he sees people more refined very much +on their guard, and observing both time and place, he does not +praise them directly, but draws off a little and wheels round and +approaches them noiselessly, as one tries to catch a wild animal. +For sometimes he reports to a man the panegyric of other persons +upon him, (as orators do, introducing some third person,) saying +that he had a very pleasant conversation in the market with some +strangers and men of worth, who mentioned how they admired his many +good points. On another occasion he concocts and fabricates some +false and trifling charges against him, pretending he has heard +them from other people, and runs up with a serious face and +inquires, where he said or did such and such a thing. And upon his +denying he ever did, he pounces on him at once<a name= +"FNanchor_403_403" id="FNanchor_403_403"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_403_403" class="fnanchor">403</a> and compliments his +man with, "I thought it strange that you should have spoken ill of +your friends, seeing that you don't even treat your enemies so: and +that you should have tried to rob other people, seeing that you are +so lavish with your own money."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> Other flatterers again, +just as painters heighten the effect of their pictures by the +combination of light and shade, so by censure abuse detraction and +ridicule of the opposite virtues secretly praise and foment the +actual vices of those they flatter. Thus they censure modesty as +merely rustic behaviour in the company of profligates, and greedy +people, and villains, and such as have got rich by evil and +dishonourable courses; and contentment and uprightness they call +having no spirit or energy in action; and when they associate with +lazy and idle persons who avoid all public duties, they are not +ashamed to call the life of a citizen wearisome meddling in other +people's affairs, and the desire to hold office fruitless +vain-glory. And some ere now to flatter an orator have depreciated +a philosopher, and others won favour with wanton women by traducing +those wives who are faithful to their husbands as constitutionally +cold and countrybred. And by an acme of villainy flatterers <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">170</a></span>do +not always spare even themselves. For as wrestlers stoop that they +may the easier give their adversaries a fall, so by censuring +themselves they glide into praising others. "I am a cowardly +slave," says such a one, "at sea, I shirk labour, I am madly in +rage if a word is said against me; but this man fears nothing, has +no vices, is a rare good fellow, patient and easy in all +circumstances." But if a person has an excellent idea of his own +good sense, and desires to be austere and self-opinionated, and in +his moral rectitude is ever spouting that line of Homer,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Tydides, neither praise nor +blame me much,"<a name="FNanchor_404_404" id= +"FNanchor_404_404"></a><a href="#Footnote_404_404" class= +"fnanchor">404</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>the artistic flatterer does not attack him as he attacked +others, but employs against such a one a new device. For he comes +to him about his own private affairs, as if desirous to have the +advice of one wiser than himself; he has, he says, more intimate +friends, but he is obliged to trouble him; "for whither shall we +that are deficient in judgement go? whom shall we trust?" And +having listened to his utterance he departs, saying he has received +an oracle not an opinion. And if he notices that somebody lays +claim to experience in oratory, he gives him some of his writings, +and begs him to read and correct them. So, when king Mithridates +took a fancy to play the surgeon, several of his friends offered +themselves for operating upon, as for cutting or cauterizing, +flattering in deed and not in word, for his being credited by them +would seem to prove his skill.<a name="FNanchor_405_405" id= +"FNanchor_405_405"></a><a href="#Footnote_405_405" class= +"fnanchor">405</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For Providence has many +different aspects."<a name="FNanchor_406_406" id= +"FNanchor_406_406"></a><a href="#Footnote_406_406" class= +"fnanchor">406</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But we can test this kind of negative praise, that needs more +wary caution, by purposely giving strange advice and suggestions, +and by adopting absurd corrections. For if he raises no objection +but nods assent to everything, and approves of everything, and is +always crying out, "Good! How admirable!" he is evidently</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Asking advice, but seeking +something else,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>wishing by praise to puff you up.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id= +"Page_171">171</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> +Moreover, as some have defined painting to be silent poetry,<a +name="FNanchor_407_407" id="FNanchor_407_407"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_407_407" class="fnanchor">407</a> so is there praise in +silent flattery. For as hunters are more likely to catch the +objects of their chase unawares, if they do not openly appear to be +so engaged, but seem to be walking, or tending their sheep, or +looking after the farm, so flatterers obtain most success in their +praise, when they do not seem to be praising but to be doing +something else. For he who gives up his place or seat to the great +man when he comes in, and while making a speech to the people or +senate breaks off even in the middle, if he observes any rich man +wants to speak, and gives up to him alike speech and platform, +shows by his silence even more than he would by any amount of +vociferation that he thinks the other the better man, and superior +to him in judgement. And consequently you may always see them +occupying the best places at theatres and public assembly rooms, +not that they think themselves worthy of them, but that they may +flatter the rich by giving up their places to them; and at public +meetings they begin speaking first, and then make way as for better +men, and most readily take back their own view, if any influential +or rich or famous person espouse the contrary view. And so one can +see plainly that all such servility and drawing back on their part +is a lowering their sails, not to experience or virtue or age, but +to wealth and fame. Not so Apelles the famous painter, who, when +Megabyzus sat with him, and wished to talk about lines and shades, +said to him, "Do you see my lads yonder grinding colours, they +admired just now your purple and gold, but now they are laughing at +you for beginning to talk about what you don't understand."<a name= +"FNanchor_408_408" id="FNanchor_408_408"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_408_408" class="fnanchor">408</a> And Solon, when +Crœsus asked him about happiness, replied that Tellus, an +obscure Athenian, and Bito and Cleobis were happier than he was.<a +name="FNanchor_409_409" id="FNanchor_409_409"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_409_409" class="fnanchor">409</a> But flatterers +proclaim kings and rich men and rulers not only happy and +fortunate, but also pre-eminent for wisdom, and art, and every +virtue.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id= +"Page_172">172</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> Now +some cannot bear to hear the assertion of the Stoics<a name= +"FNanchor_410_410" id="FNanchor_410_410"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_410_410" class="fnanchor">410</a> that the wise man is +at once rich, and handsome, and noble, and a king; but flatterers +declare that the rich man is at once orator and poet, and (if he +likes) painter, and flute-player, and swift-footed, and strong, +falling down if he wrestles with them, and if contending with him +in running letting him win the race, as Crisso of Himera purposely +allowed Alexander to outrun him, which vexed the king very much +when he heard of it.<a name="FNanchor_411_411" id= +"FNanchor_411_411"></a><a href="#Footnote_411_411" class= +"fnanchor">411</a> And Carneades said that the sons of rich men and +kings learnt nothing really well and properly except how to ride, +for their master praised and flattered them in their studies, and +the person who taught them wrestling always let them throw him, +whereas the horse, not knowing or caring whether his rider were a +private person or ruler, rich or poor, soon threw him over his head +if he could not ride well. Simple therefore and fatuous was that +remark of Bion, "If you could by encomiums make your field to yield +well and be fruitful, you could not be thought wrong in tilling it +so rather than digging it and labouring in it: nor would it be +strange in you to praise human beings if by so doing you could be +useful and serviceable to them." For a field does not become worse +by being praised, but those who praise a man falsely and against +his deserts puff him up and ruin him.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> Enough has been said on +this matter: let us now examine outspokenness. For just as +Patroclus put on the armour of Achilles, and drove his horses to +the battle, only durst not touch his spear from Mount Pelion, but +let that alone, so ought the flatterer, tricked out and modelled in +the distinctive marks and tokens of the friend, to leave untouched +and uncopied only his outspokenness, as the special burden of +friendship, "heavy, huge, strong."<a name="FNanchor_412_412" id= +"FNanchor_412_412"></a><a href="#Footnote_412_412" class= +"fnanchor">412</a> But since flatterers, to avoid the blame they +incur by their buffoonery, and drinking, and gibes, and jokes, +sometimes work their ends by frowns and gravity, and intermix +cen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id= +"Page_173">173</a></span>sure and reproof, let us not pass this +over either without examination. And I think, as in Menander's Play +the sham Hercules comes on the stage not with a club stout and +strong, but with a light and hollow cane, so the outspokenness of +the flatterer is to those who experience it mild and soft, and the +very reverse of vigorous, and like those cushions for women's +heads, which seem able to stand their ground, but in reality yield +and give way under their pressure; so this sham outspokenness is +puffed up and inflated with an empty and spurious and hollow +bombast, that when it contracts and collapses draws in the person +who relies on it. For true and friendly outspokenness attacks +wrong-doers, bringing pain that is salutary and likely to make them +more careful, like honey biting but cleansing ulcerated parts of +the body,<a name="FNanchor_413_413" id="FNanchor_413_413"></a><a +href="#Footnote_413_413" class="fnanchor">413</a> but in other +respects serviceable and sweet. But we will speak of this anon.<a +name="FNanchor_414_414" id="FNanchor_414_414"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_414_414" class="fnanchor">414</a> But the flatterer +first exhibits himself as disagreeable and passionate and +unforgiving in his dealings with others. For he is harsh to his +servants, and a terrible fellow to attack and ferret out the faults +of his kinsmen and friends, and to look up to and respect nobody +who is a stranger, but to look down upon them, and is relentless +and mischief-making in making people provoked with others, hunting +after the reputation of hating vice, as one not likely knowingly to +mince matters with the vicious, or ingratiate himself with them +either in word or deed. Next he pretends to know nothing of real +and great crimes, but he is a terrible fellow to inveigh against +trifling and external shortcomings, and to fasten on them with +intensity and vehemence, as if he sees any pot or pipkin out of its +place, or anyone badly housed, or neglecting his beard or attire, +or not adequately attending to a horse or dog. But contempt of +parents, and neglect of children, and bad treatment of wife, and +haughtiness to friends, and throwing away money, all this he cares +nothing about, but is silent and does not dare to make any allusion +to it: just as if the trainer in a gymnasium were to allow the +athlete to get drunk and live in debauchery,<a name= +"FNanchor_415_415" id="FNanchor_415_415"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_415_415" class="fnanchor">415</a> <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">174</a></span>and yet be +vexed at the condition of his oil-flask or strigil if out of order; +or as if the schoolmaster scolded a boy about his tablet and pen, +but paid no attention to a solecism or barbarism. The flatterer is +like a man who should make no comment on the speech of a silly and +ridiculous orator, but should find fault with his voice, and chide +him for injuring his throat by drinking cold water; or like a +person bidden to read some wretched composition, who should merely +find fault with the thickness of the paper, and call the copyist a +dirty and careless fellow. So too when Ptolemy seemed to desire to +become learned, his flatterers used to spin out the time till +midnight, disputing about some word or line or history, but not one +of them all objected to his cruelty and outrages, his torturing and +beating people to death.<a name="FNanchor_416_416" id= +"FNanchor_416_416"></a><a href="#Footnote_416_416" class= +"fnanchor">416</a> Just as if, when a man has tumours and fistulas, +one were to cut his hair and nails with a surgeon's knife, so +flatterers use outspokenness only in cases where it gives no pain +or distress.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> Moreover some of them +are cleverer still and make their outspokenness and censure a means +of imparting pleasure. As Agis the Argive,<a name= +"FNanchor_417_417" id="FNanchor_417_417"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_417_417" class="fnanchor">417</a> when Alexander +bestowed great gifts on a buffoon, cried out in envy and +displeasure, "What a piece of absurdity!" and on the king turning +angrily to him and saying, "What are you talking about?" he +replied, "I admit that I am vexed and put out, when I see that all +you descendants of Zeus alike take delight in flatterers and +jesters, for Hercules had his Cercopes, and Dionysus his Sileni, +and with you too I see that such are held in good repute." And on +one occasion, when the Emperor Tiberius entered the senate, one of +his flatterers got up and said, that being free men they ought to +be outspoken, and not suppress or conceal anything that might be +important, and having by this exordium engaged everybody's +attention, a dead silence prevailing, and even Tiberius being all +attention, he said, "Listen, Cæsar, to what we all charge you +with, although no one ventures to tell you openly of it; you +neglect yourself, and are careless <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_175" id="Page_175">175</a></span>about your health, and wear +yourself out with anxiety and labour on our behalf, taking no rest +either by night or day." And on his stringing much more together in +the same strain, they say the orator Cassius Severus said, "This +outspokenness will ruin the man."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xix.</span> These are indeed trifling +matters: but the following are more important and do mischief to +foolish people, when flatterers accuse them of the very contrary +vices and passions to those to which they are really addicted; as +Himerius the flatterer twitted a very rich, very mean, and very +covetous Athenian with being a careless spendthrift, and likely one +day to want bread as well as his children; or on the other hand if +they rail at extravagant spendthrifts for meanness and sordidness, +as Titus Petronius railed at Nero; or exhort rulers who make savage +and cruel attacks on their subjects to lay aside their excessive +clemency, and unseasonable and inexpedient mercy. Similar to these +is the person who pretends to be on his guard against and afraid of +a silly stupid fellow as if he were clever and cunning; and the one +who, if any person fond of detraction, rejoicing in defamation and +censure, should be induced on any occasion to praise some man of +note, fastens on him and alleges against him that he has an itch +for praising people. "You are always extolling people of no merit: +for who is this fellow, or what has he said or done out of the +common?" But it is in regard to the objects of their love that they +mostly attack those they flatter, and additionally inflame them. +For if they see people at variance with their brothers, or +despising their parents, or treating their wives contemptuously, +they neither take them to task nor scold them, but fan the flame of +their anger still more. "You don't sufficiently appreciate +yourself," they say, "you are yourself the cause of your being put +upon in this way, through your constant submissiveness and +humility." And if there is any tiff or fit of jealousy in regard to +some courtesan or adulteress, the flatterer is at hand with +remarkable outspokenness, adding fuel to flame,<a name= +"FNanchor_418_418" id="FNanchor_418_418"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_418_418" class="fnanchor">418</a> and taking the lady's +part, and accusing her lover of acting in a very unkind harsh and +shameful manner to her,</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id= +"Page_176">176</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"O ingrate, after all those +frequent kisses!"<a name="FNanchor_419_419" id= +"FNanchor_419_419"></a><a href="#Footnote_419_419" class= +"fnanchor">419</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Thus Antony's friends, when he was passionately in love with the +Egyptian woman,<a name="FNanchor_420_420" id= +"FNanchor_420_420"></a><a href="#Footnote_420_420" class= +"fnanchor">420</a> persuaded him that he was loved by her, and +twitted him with being cold and haughty to her. "She," they said, +"has left her mighty kingdom and happy mode of life, and is wasting +her beauty, taking the field with you like some camp-follower,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The while your heart is proof +'gainst all her charms,"<a name="FNanchor_421_421" id= +"FNanchor_421_421"></a><a href="#Footnote_421_421" class= +"fnanchor">421</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>as you neglect her love-lorn as she is." But he that is pleased +at being reproached with his wrong-doing, and delights in those +that censure him, as he never did in those that praised him, is +unconscious that he is really perverted also by what seems to be +rebuke. For such outspokenness is like the bites of wanton women,<a +name="FNanchor_422_422" id="FNanchor_422_422"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_422_422" class="fnanchor">422</a> that while seeming to +hurt really tickle and excite pleasure. And just as if people mix +pure wine, which is by itself an antidote against hemlock, with it +and so offer it, they make the poison quite deadly, being rapidly +carried to the heart by the warmth,<a name="FNanchor_423_423" id= +"FNanchor_423_423"></a><a href="#Footnote_423_423" class= +"fnanchor">423</a> so ill-disposed men, knowing that outspokenness +is a great antidote to flattery, make it a means of flattering. And +so it was rather a bad answer Bias<a name="FNanchor_424_424" id= +"FNanchor_424_424"></a><a href="#Footnote_424_424" class= +"fnanchor">424</a> made, to the person who inquired what was the +most formidable animal, "Of wild animals the tyrant, and of tame +the flatterer." For it would have been truer to observe that tame +flatterers are those that are found round the baths and table, but +the one that intrudes into the interior of the house and into the +women's apartments with his curiosity and calumny and malignity, +like the legs and arms of the polypus, is wild and savage and +unmanageable.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xx.</span> Now one kind of caution +against his snares is to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" +id="Page_177">177</a></span>know and ever remember that, whereas +the soul contains true and noble and reasoning elements, as also +unreasoning and false and emotional ones, the friend is always a +counsellor and adviser to the better instincts of the soul, as the +physician improves and maintains health, whereas the flatterer +works upon the emotional and unreasoning ones, and tickles and +titillates them and seduces them from reason, employing sensuality +as his bait. As then there are some kinds of food which neither +benefit the blood or spirit, nor brace up the nerves and marrow, +but stir the passions, excite the lower nature, and make the flesh +unsound and rotten, so the language of the flatterer adds nothing +to soberness and reason, but encourages some love passion, or stirs +up foolish rage, or incites to envy, or produces the empty and +burdensome vanity of pride, or joins in bewailing woes, or ever by +his calumnies and hints makes malignity and illiberality and +suspicion sharp and timid and jealous, and cannot fail to be +detected by those that closely observe him. For he is ever +anchoring himself upon some passion, and fattening it, and, like a +bubo, fastens himself on some unsound and inflamed parts of the +soul. Are you angry? Have your revenge, says he. Do you desire +anything? Get it. Are you afraid? Let us flee. Do you suspect? +Entertain no doubts about it. But if he is difficult to detect in +thus playing upon our passions, since they often overthrow reason +by their intensity and strength, he will give a handle to find him +out in smaller matters, being consistent in them too. For if anyone +feels a little uneasy after a surfeit or excess in drink, and so is +a little particular about his food and doubts the advisability of +taking a bath, a friend will try and check him from excess, and bid +him be careful and not indulge, whereas the flatterer will drag him +to the bath, bid him serve up some fresh food, and not starve +himself and so injure his constitution. And if he see him reluctant +about a journey or voyage or some business or other, he will say +that there is no hurry, that it's all one whether the business be +put off, or somebody else despatched to look after it. And if you +have promised to lend or give some money to a friend, but have +repented of your offer, and yet feel ashamed not to keep your +promise, the flatterer will throw<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_178" id="Page_178">178</a></span> his influence into the +worse scale, he will confirm your desire to save your purse, he +will destroy your reluctance, and will bid you be careful as having +many expenses, and others to think about besides that person. And +so, unless we are entirely ignorant of our desires, our +shamelessness, and our timidity, the flatterer cannot easily escape +our detection. For he is ever the advocate of those passions, and +outspoken when we desire to repress them.<a name="FNanchor_425_425" +id="FNanchor_425_425"></a><a href="#Footnote_425_425" class= +"fnanchor">425</a> But so much for this matter.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxi.</span> Now let us pass on to +useful and kind services, for in them too the flatterer makes it +very difficult and confusing to detect him from the friend, seeming +to be zealous and ready on all occasions and never crying off. For, +as Euripides says,<a name="FNanchor_426_426" id= +"FNanchor_426_426"></a><a href="#Footnote_426_426" class= +"fnanchor">426</a> a friend's behaviour is, "like the utterance of +truth, simple," and plain and inartificial, while that of the +flatterer "is in itself unsound, and needs wise remedies," aye, by +Zeus, and many such, and not ordinary ones. As for example in +chance meetings the friend often neither speaks nor is spoken to, +but merely looks and smiles, and then passes on, showing his inner +affection and goodwill only by his countenance, which his friend +also reciprocates, but the flatterer runs up, follows, holds out +his hand at a distance, and if he is seen and addressed first, +frequently protests with oaths, and calls witnesses to prove, that +he did not see you. So in business friends neglect many unimportant +points, are not too punctilious and officious, and do not thrust +themselves upon every service, but the flatterer is persevering and +unceasing and indefatigable in it, giving nobody else either room +or place to help, but putting himself wholly at your disposal, and +if you will not find him something to do for you, he is troubled, +nay rather altogether dejected and lamenting loudly.<a name= +"FNanchor_427_427" id="FNanchor_427_427"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_427_427" class="fnanchor">427</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxii.</span> To all sensible people +all this is an indication, not of true or sober friendship, but of +a meretricious one, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id= +"Page_179">179</a></span>that embraces you more warmly than there +is any occasion for. Nevertheless let us first look at the +difference between the friend and flatterer in their promises. For +it has been well said by those who have handled this subject before +us, that the friend's promise is,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"If I can do it, and 'tis to +be done,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>but the flatterer's is,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Speak out your mind, whate'er +it is, to me."<a name="FNanchor_428_428" id= +"FNanchor_428_428"></a><a href="#Footnote_428_428" class= +"fnanchor">428</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And the comic dramatists put such fellows on the stage,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Nicomachus, pit me against +that soldier,</span> <span class="i0">See if I beat him not into a +jelly,</span> <span class="i0">And make his face e'en softer than a +sponge."<a name="FNanchor_429_429" id="FNanchor_429_429"></a><a +href="#Footnote_429_429" class="fnanchor">429</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>In the next place no friend participates in any matter, unless +he has first been asked his advice, and put the matter to the test, +and set it on a suitable and expedient basis. But the flatterer, if +anyone allows him to examine a matter and give his opinion on it, +not only wishes to gratify him by compliance, but also fearing to +be looked upon with suspicion as unwilling and reluctant to engage +in the business, gives in to and even urges on his friend's desire. +For there is hardly any king or rich man who would say,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"O that a beggar I could find, +or worse</span> <span class="i0">Than beggar, if, with good intent +to me,</span> <span class="i0">He would lay bare his heart boldly +and honestly;"<a name="FNanchor_430_430" id= +"FNanchor_430_430"></a><a href="#Footnote_430_430" class= +"fnanchor">430</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>but, like the tragedians, they require a chorus of sympathizing +friends, or the applause of a theatre. And so Merope gives the +following advice in the tragedy,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Choose you for friends those +who will speak their mind,</span> <span class="i0">For those bad +men that only speak to please</span> <span class="i0">See that you +bolt and bar out of your house."<a name="FNanchor_431_431" id= +"FNanchor_431_431"></a><a href="#Footnote_431_431" class= +"fnanchor">431</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But they act just the contrary, for they turn away with horror +from those who speak their mind, and hold different <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">180</a></span>views as +to what is expedient, while they welcome those bad and illiberal +impostors (that only speak to please them) not only within their +houses, but also to their affections and secrets. Now the simpler +of these do not think right or claim to advise you in important +matters, but only to assist in the carrying out of them: but the +more cunning one stands by during the discussion, and knits his +brows, and nods assent with his head, but says nothing, but if his +friend express an opinion, he then says, "Hercules, you only just +anticipated me, I was about to make that very remark." For as the +mathematicians tell us that surfaces and lines neither bend nor +extend nor move of themselves, being without body and only +perceived by the mind, but only bend and extend and change their +position with the bodies whose extremities they are: so you will +catch the flatterer ever assenting with, and agreeing with, aye, +and feeling with, and being angry with, another, so easy of +detection in all these points of view is the difference between the +friend and the flatterer. Moreover as regards the kind of good +service. For the favour done by a friend, as the principal strength +of an animal is within, is not for display or ostentation, but +frequently as a doctor cures his patient imperceptibly, so a friend +benefits by his intervention, or by paying off creditors, or by +managing his friend's affairs, even though the person who receives +the benefit may not be aware of it. Such was the behaviour of +Arcesilaus on various occasions, and when Apelles<a name= +"FNanchor_432_432" id="FNanchor_432_432"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_432_432" class="fnanchor">432</a> of Chios was ill, +knowing his poverty, he took with him twenty drachmæ when he +visited him, and sitting down beside him he said, "There is nothing +here but those elements of Empedocles, 'fire and water and earth +and balmy expanse of air,' but you don't lie very comfortably," and +with that he moved his pillow, and privately put the money under +it. And when his old housekeeper found it, and wonderingly told +Apelles of it, he laughed and said, "This is some trick of +Arcesilaus." And the saying is also true in philosophy that +"children are like their parents."<a name="FNanchor_433_433" id= +"FNanchor_433_433"></a><a href="#Footnote_433_433" class= +"fnanchor">433</a> For <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id= +"Page_181">181</a></span>when Cephisocrates had to stand his trial +on a bill of indictment, Lacydes (who was an intimate friend of +Arcesilaus) stood by him with several other friends, and when the +prosecutor asked for his ring, which was the principal evidence +against him, Cephisocrates quietly dropped it on the ground, and +Lacydes noticing this put his foot on it and so hid it. And after +sentence was pronounced in his favour, Cephisocrates going up to +thank the jury, one of them who had seen the artifice told him to +thank Lacydes, and related to him all the matter, though Lacydes +had not said a word about it to anybody. So also I think the gods +do often perform benefits secretly, taking a natural delight in +bestowing their favours and bounties.<a name="FNanchor_434_434" id= +"FNanchor_434_434"></a><a href="#Footnote_434_434" class= +"fnanchor">434</a> But the good service of the flatterer has no +justice, or genuineness, or simplicity, or liberality about it; but +is accompanied with sweat, and running about, and noise, and +knitting of the brow, creating an impression and appearance of +toilsome and bustling service, like a painting over-curiously +wrought in bold colours, and with bent folds wrinkles and angles, +to make the closer resemblance to life. Moreover he tires one by +relating what journeys and anxieties he has had over the matter, +how many enemies he has made over it, the thousand bothers and +annoyances he has gone through, so that you say, "The affair was +not worth all this trouble." For being reminded of any favour done +to one is always unpleasant and disagreeable and insufferable:<a +name="FNanchor_435_435" id="FNanchor_435_435"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_435_435" class="fnanchor">435</a> but the flatterer not +only reminds us of his services afterwards, but even during the +very moment of doing them upbraids us with them and is importunate. +But the friend, if he is obliged to mention the matter, relates it +modestly, and says not a word about himself. And so, when the +Lacedæmonians sent corn to the people of Smyrna that needed +it, and the people of Smyrna wondered at their kindness, the +Lacedæmonians said, "It was no great matter, we only voted +that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id= +"Page_182">182</a></span>we and our beasts of burden should go +without our dinner one day, and sent what was so saved to you."<a +name="FNanchor_436_436" id="FNanchor_436_436"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_436_436" class="fnanchor">436</a> Not only is it +handsome to do a favour in that way, but it is more pleasant to the +receivers of it, because they think those who have done them the +service have done it at no great loss to themselves.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxiii.</span> But it is not so much +by the importunity of the flatterer in regard to services, nor by +his facility in making promises, that one can recognize his nature, +as by the honourable or dishonourable kind of service, and by the +regard to please or to be of real use. For the friend is not as +Gorgias defined him, one who will ask his friend to help him in +what is right, while he will himself do many services for his +friend that are not right.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For friend should share in +good not in bad action."<a name="FNanchor_437_437" id= +"FNanchor_437_437"></a><a href="#Footnote_437_437" class= +"fnanchor">437</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>He will therefore rather try and turn him away from what is not +becoming, and if he cannot persuade him, good is that answer of +Phocion to Antipater, "You cannot have me both as friend and +flatterer,"<a name="FNanchor_438_438" id="FNanchor_438_438"></a><a +href="#Footnote_438_438" class="fnanchor">438</a> that is, as +friend and no friend. For one must indeed assist one's friend but +not do anything wrong for him, one must advise with him but not +plot with him, one must bear witness for him but not join him in +fraud, one must certainly share adversity with him but not crime. +For since we should not wish even to know of our friends' +dishonourable acts, much less should we desire to share their +dishonour by acting with them. As then the Lacedæmonians, +when conquered in battle by Antipater, on settling the terms of +peace, begged that he would lay upon them what burdens he pleased, +provided he enjoined nothing dishonourable, so the friend, if any +necessity arise involving expense or danger or trouble, is the +first to desire to be applied to and share in it with alacrity and +without crying off, but if there be anything disgraceful in +connection with it he begs to have nothing to do with it. The +flatterer on the contrary cries off from <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_183" id="Page_183">183</a></span>toilsome and dangerous +employments, and if you put him to the test by ringing him,<a name= +"FNanchor_439_439" id="FNanchor_439_439"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_439_439" class="fnanchor">439</a> he returns a hollow +and spurious sound, and finds some excuse; whereas use him in +disgraceful and low and disreputable service, and trample upon him, +he will think no treatment too bad or ignominious. Have you +observed the ape? He cannot guard the house like the dog, nor bear +burdens like the horse, nor plough like the ox, so he has to bear +insult and ribaldry, and put up with being made sport of, +exhibiting himself as an instrument to produce laughter. So too the +flatterer, who can neither advocate your cause, nor give you useful +counsel, nor share in your contention with anybody, but shirks all +labour and toil, never makes any excuses in underhand transactions, +is sure to lend a helping hand in any love affair, is energetic in +setting free some harlot, and not careless in clearing off the +account of a drinking score, nor remiss in making preparations for +banquets, and obsequious to concubines, but if ordered to be +uncivil to your relations, or to help in turning your wife out of +doors, he is relentless and not to be put out of countenance. So +that he is not hard to detect here too. For if ordered to do +anything you please disreputable or dishonourable, he is ready to +take any pains to oblige you.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxiv.</span> One might detect again +how greatly the flatterer differs from the friend by his behaviour +to other friends. For the friend is best pleased with loving and +being beloved by many, and also always tries to contrive for his +friend that he too may be much loved and honoured, for he believes +in the proverb "the goods of friends are common property,"<a name= +"FNanchor_440_440" id="FNanchor_440_440"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_440_440" class="fnanchor">440</a> and thinks it ought to +apply to nothing more than to friends; but the false and spurious +and counterfeit friend, knowing how much he debases friendship, +like debased and spurious coin, is not only by nature envious, but +shows his envy even of those who are like himself, striving to +outdo them in scurrility and gossip, while he quakes and trembles +at any of his betters, not by Zeus "merely walking on foot by their +Lydian chariot," but, to use the language of Simonides, "not even, +having pure lead by <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id= +"Page_184">184</a></span> comparison with their refined gold."<a +name="FNanchor_441_441" id="FNanchor_441_441"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_441_441" class="fnanchor">441</a> Whenever then, being +light and counterfeit and false, he is put to the test at close +quarters with a true and solid and cast-iron friendship, he cannot +stand the test but is detected at once, and imitates the conduct of +the painter that painted some wretched cocks, for he ordered his +lad to scare away all live cocks as far from his picture as +possible. So he too scares away real friends and will not let them +come near if he can help it, but if he cannot prevent that, he +openly fawns upon them, and courts them, and admires them as his +betters, but privately runs them down and spreads calumnies about +them. And when secret detraction has produced a sore feeling,<a +name="FNanchor_442_442" id="FNanchor_442_442"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_442_442" class="fnanchor">442</a> if he has not effected +his end completely, he remembers and observes the teaching of +Medius, who was the chief of Alexander's flatterers, and a leading +sophist in conspiracy against the best men. He bade people +confidently sow their calumny broadcast and bite with it, teaching +them that even if the person injured should heal his sore, the scar +of the calumny would remain. Consumed by these scars, or rather +gangrenes and cancers, Alexander put to death Callisthenes, and +Parmenio, and Philotas; while he himself submitted to be completely +outwitted by such as Agnon, and Bagoas, and Agesias, and Demetrius, +who worshipped him and tricked him up and feigned him to be a +barbaric god. So great is the power of flattery, and nowhere +greater, as it seems, than among the greatest people. For their +thinking and wishing the best about themselves makes them credit +the flatterer, and gives him courage.<a name="FNanchor_443_443" id= +"FNanchor_443_443"></a><a href="#Footnote_443_443" class= +"fnanchor">443</a> For lofty heights are difficult of approach and +hard to reach for those who <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_185" id="Page_185">185</a></span>endeavour to scale them, but +the highmindedness and conceit of a person thrown off his balance +by good fortune or good natural parts is easily reached by mean and +petty people.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxv.</span> And so we advised at the +beginning of this discourse, and now advise again, to cut off +self-love and too high an opinion of ourselves; for that flatters +us first, and makes us more impressionable and prepared for +external flatterers. But if we hearken to the god, and recognize +the immense importance to everyone of that saying, "Know +thyself,"<a name="FNanchor_444_444" id="FNanchor_444_444"></a><a +href="#Footnote_444_444" class="fnanchor">444</a> and at the same +time carefully observe our nature and education and training, with +its thousand shortcomings in respect to good, and the large +proportion of vice and vanity mixed up with our words and deeds and +feelings, we shall not make ourselves so easy a mark for +flatterers. Alexander said that he disbelieved those who called him +a god chiefly in regard to sleep and the sexual delight, for in +both those things he was more ignoble and emotional than in other +respects.<a name="FNanchor_445_445" id="FNanchor_445_445"></a><a +href="#Footnote_445_445" class="fnanchor">445</a> So we, if we +observe the blots, blemishes, shortcomings, and imperfections of +our private selves, shall perceive clearly that we do not need a +friend who shall bestow upon us praise and panegyric, but one that +will reprove us, and speak plainly to us, aye, by Zeus, and censure +us if we have done amiss. For it is only a few out of many that +venture to speak plainly to their friends rather than gratify them, +and even among those few you will not easily find any who know how +to do so properly, for they think they are outspoken when they +abuse and scold. And yet, just as in the case of any other +medicine, to employ freedom of speech unseasonably is only to give +needless pain and trouble, and in a manner to do so as to produce +vexation the very thing the flatterer does so as to produce +pleasure. For it does people harm not only to praise them +unseasonably but also to blame them unseasonably, and especially +exposes them to the successful attack of flatterers, for, like +water, they abandon the rugged hills for the soft grassy valleys. +And so outspokenness ought to be tempered with kindness, and reason +ought to be called in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id= +"Page_186">186</a></span>to correct its excessive tartness, (as we +tone down the too powerful glare of a lamp), that people may not, +by being troubled and grieved at continual blame and rebuke, fly +for refuge to the shade of the flatterer, and turn aside to him to +free themselves from annoyance. For we ought, Philopappus, to +banish all vice by virtue, not by the opposite vice, as some +hold,<a name="FNanchor_446_446" id="FNanchor_446_446"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_446_446" class="fnanchor">446</a> by exchanging modesty +for impudence, and countrified ways for town ribaldry, and by +removing their character as far as possible from cowardice and +effeminacy, even if that should make people get very near to +audacity and foolhardiness. And some even make superstition a plea +for atheism, and stupidity a plea for knavery, perverting their +nature, like a stick bent double, from inability to set it +straight. But the basest disowning of flattery is to be +disagreeable without any purpose in view, and it shows an +altogether inelegant and clumsy unfitness for social intercourse to +shun by unpleasing moroseness the suspicion of being mean and +servile in friendship; like the freedman in the comedy who thought +railing only enjoying freedom of speech. Seeing then, that it is +equally disgraceful to become a flatterer through trying only to +please, as in avoiding flattery to destroy all friendship and +intimacy by excessive freedom of speech, we must avoid both these +extremes, and, as in any other case, make our freedom of speech +agreeable by its moderation. So the subject itself seems next to +demand that I should conclude it by discussing that point.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxvi.</span> As then we see that much +trouble arises from excessive freedom of speech, let us first of +all detach from it any element of self-love, being carefully on our +guard that we may not appear to upbraid on account of any private +hurt or injury. For people do not regard a speech on the speaker's +own behalf as arising from goodwill, but from anger, and reproach +rather than admonition. For freedom in speech is friendly and has +weight, but reproach is selfish and little. And so people respect +and admire those that speak their mind freely, but accuse back and +despise those that reproach them: as Agamemnon would not stand the +moderate freedom of speech of Achilles, but <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">187</a></span>submitted +to and endured the bitter attack and speech of Odysseus,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Pernicious chief, would that +thou didst command</span> <span class="i0">Some sorry host, and not +such men as these!"<a name="FNanchor_447_447" id= +"FNanchor_447_447"></a><a href="#Footnote_447_447" class= +"fnanchor">447</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>for he was restrained by the carefulness and sobriety of his +speech, and also Odysseus had no private motive of anger but only +spoke out on behalf of Greece,<a name="FNanchor_448_448" id= +"FNanchor_448_448"></a><a href="#Footnote_448_448" class= +"fnanchor">448</a> whereas Achilles seemed rather vexed on his own +account. And Achilles himself, though not sweet-tempered or mild of +mood, but "a terrible man, and one that would perchance blame an +innocent person,"<a name="FNanchor_449_449" id= +"FNanchor_449_449"></a><a href="#Footnote_449_449" class= +"fnanchor">449</a> yet silently listened to Patroclus bringing +against him many such charges as the following,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Pitiless one, thy sire never +was</span> <span class="i0">Knight Peleus, nor thy mother gentle +Thetis,</span> <span class="i0">But the blue sea and steep and +rocky crags</span> <span class="i0">Thy parents were, so flinty is +thy heart."<a name="FNanchor_450_450" id="FNanchor_450_450"></a><a +href="#Footnote_450_450" class="fnanchor">450</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For as Hyperides the orator bade the Athenians consider not only +whether he spoke bitterly, but whether he spoke so from interested +motives,<a name="FNanchor_451_451" id="FNanchor_451_451"></a><a +href="#Footnote_451_451" class="fnanchor">451</a> so the rebuke of +a friend void of all private feeling is solemn and grave and what +one dare not lightly face. And if anyone shows plainly in his +freedom of speech, that he altogether passes over and dismisses any +offences his friend has done to himself, and only blames him for +other shortcomings, and does not spare him but gives him pain for +the interests of others, the tone of his outspokenness is +invincible, and the sweetness of his manner even intensifies the +bitterness and austerity of his rebuke. And so it has well been +said, that in anger and differences with our friends we ought more +especially to act with a view to their interest or honour. And no +less friendly is it, when it appears that we have been passed over +and neglected, to boldly put in a word for others that are +neglected too, and to remind people of them, as Plato, when he was +out of favour with Dionysius, begged for an <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">188</a></span>audience, +and Dionysius granted it, thinking that Plato had some personal +grievance and was going to enter into it, but Plato opened the +conversation as follows, "If, Dionysius, you knew that some enemy +had sailed to Sicily with a view to do you some harm, but found no +opportunity, would you allow him to sail back again, and go off +scot-free?" "Certainly not, Plato," replied Dionysius, "for we must +not only hate and punish the deeds of our enemies, but also their +intentions." "If then," said Plato, "anyone has come here for your +benefit, and wishes to do you good, and you do not find him an +opportunity, is it right to let him go away with neglect and +without thanks?" And on Dionysius asking, who he meant, he replied, +"I mean Æschines, a man of as good a character as any of +Socrates' pupils whatever, and able to improve by his conversation +any with whom he might associate: and he is neglected, though he +has made a long voyage here to discuss philosophy with you." This +speech so affected Dionysius, that he at once threw his arms round +Plato and embraced him, admiring his benevolence and loftiness of +mind, and treated Æschines well and handsomely.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxvii.</span> In the next place, let +us clear away as it were and remove all insolence, and jeering, and +mocking, and ribaldry, which are the evil seasonings of freedom of +speech. For as, when the surgeon performs an operation, a certain +neatness and delicacy of touch ought to accompany his use of the +knife, but all pantomimic and venturesome and fashionable +suppleness and over-finicalness ought to be far away from his hand, +so freedom of speech admits of dexterity and politeness, provided +that a pleasant way of putting it does not destroy the power of the +rebuke, for impudence and coarseness and insolence, if added to +freedom of speech, entirely mar and ruin the effect. And so the +harper plausibly and elegantly silenced Philip, who ventured to +dispute with him about proper playing on the harp, by answering +him, "God forbid that you should be so unfortunate, O king, as to +understand harping better than me." But that was not a right answer +of Epicharmus, when Hiero a few days after putting to death some of +his friends invited him to supper, "You did not invite me," he<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">189</a></span> +said, "the other day, when you sacrificed your friends." Bad also +was that answer of Antiphon, who, when Dionysius asked him "which +was the best kind of bronze," answered, "That of which the +Athenians made statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton." For this +unpleasant and bitter kind of language profits not those that use +it, nor does scurrility and puerile jesting please, but such kind +of speeches are indications of an incontinent tongue inspired by +hate, and full of malignity and insolence, and those who use such +language do but ruin themselves, recklessly dancing on the verge of +a well.<a name="FNanchor_452_452" id="FNanchor_452_452"></a><a +href="#Footnote_452_452" class="fnanchor">452</a> For Antiphon was +put to death by Dionysius, and Timagenes lost the friendship of +Augustus, not by using on any occasion too free a tongue, but at +supper-parties and walks always declining to talk seriously, "only +saying what he knew would make the Argives laugh,"<a name= +"FNanchor_453_453" id="FNanchor_453_453"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_453_453" class="fnanchor">453</a> and thus virtually +charging friendship with being only a cloak for abuse. For even the +comic poets have introduced on the stage many grave sentiments well +adapted to public life, but joking and ribaldry being mixed with +them, like insipid sauces with food, destroy their effect and make +them lose their nourishing power, so that the comic poets only get +a reputation for malignity and coarseness, and the audience get no +benefit from what is said. We may on other occasions jest and laugh +with our friends, but let our outspokenness be coupled with +seriousness and gravity, and if it be on important matters, let our +speech be trustworthy and moving from its pathos, and animation, +and tone of voice. And on all occasions to let an opportunity slip +by is very injurious, but especially does it destroy the usefulness +of freedom of speech. It is plain therefore that we must abstain +from freedom of speech when men are in their cups. For he disturbs +the harmony of a social gathering<a name="FNanchor_454_454" id= +"FNanchor_454_454"></a><a href="#Footnote_454_454" class= +"fnanchor">454</a> who, in the midst of mirth and jollity, +introduces a topic that shall knit the brows and contract the face, +and shall act as a damper to the Lysian<a name="FNanchor_455_455" +id="FNanchor_455_455"></a><a href="#Footnote_455_455" class= +"fnanchor">455</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id= +"Page_190">190</a></span>god, who, as Pindar says, "looses the rope +of all our cares and anxieties." There is also great danger in such +ill-timed freedom of speech. For wine makes people easily slip into +rage, and oftentimes freedom of speech in liquor makes enemies. And +generally speaking it is not noble or brave but cowardly to conceal +your ideas when people are sober and to give free vent to them at +table, snarling like cowardly dogs. We need say no more therefore +on this head.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxviii.</span> But since many people +do not think fit or even dare to find fault with their friends when +in prosperity, but think that condition altogether out of the reach +and range of rebuke, but inveigh against them if they have made a +slip or stumble, and trample upon them if they are in dejection and +in their power, and, like a stream swollen above its banks, pour +upon them then the torrent of all their eloquence,<a name= +"FNanchor_456_456" id="FNanchor_456_456"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_456_456" class="fnanchor">456</a> and enjoy and are glad +at their reverse of fortune, owing to their former contempt of them +when they were poor themselves, it is not amiss to discuss this +somewhat, and to answer those words of Euripides,</p> + +<div class="blockquot">"What need of friends, when things go well +with us?"<a name="FNanchor_457_457" id="FNanchor_457_457"></a><a +href="#Footnote_457_457" class="fnanchor">457</a></div> + +<p>for those in prosperity stand in especial need of friends who +shall be outspoken to them, and abate their excessive pride. For +there are few who are sensible in prosperity, most need to borrow +wisdom from others, and such considerations as shall keep them +lowly when puffed up and giving themselves airs owing to their good +fortune. But when the deity has abased them and stripped them of +their conceit, there is something in their very circumstances to +reprove them and bring about a change of mind. And so there is no +need then of a friendly outspokenness, nor of weighty or caustic +words, but truly in such reverses "it is sweet to look into the +eyes of a friendly person,"<a name="FNanchor_458_458" id= +"FNanchor_458_458"></a><a href="#Footnote_458_458" class= +"fnanchor">458</a> consoling <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_191" id="Page_191">191</a></span>and cheering one up: as +Xenophon<a name="FNanchor_459_459" id="FNanchor_459_459"></a><a +href="#Footnote_459_459" class="fnanchor">459</a> tells us that the +sight of Clearchus in battle and dangers, and his calm benevolent +face, inspired courage in his men when in peril. But he who uses to +a man in adversity too great freedom and severity of speech, like a +man applying too pungent a remedy to an inflamed and angry eye, +neither cures him nor abates his pain, but adds anger to his grief, +and exasperates his mental distress. For example anyone well is not +at all angry or fierce with a friend, who blames him for his +excesses with women and wine, his laziness and taking no exercise, +his frequent baths, and his unseasonable surfeiting: but to a +person ill all this is unsufferable, and even worse than his +illness to hear, "All this has happened to you through your +intemperance, and luxury, your dainty food, and love for women." +The patient answers, "How unseasonable is all this, good sir! I am +making my will, the doctors are preparing me a dose of castor and +scammony, and you are scolding me and plying me with philosophy." +And thus the affairs of the unfortunate do not admit of +outspokenness and a string of Polonius-like saws, but they require +kindness and help. For when children fall down their nurses do not +run up to them and scold, but pick them up, and clean them, and +tidy their dress, and afterwards find fault and correct them. The +story is told of Demetrius of Phalerum, when an exile from his +native country, and living a humble and obscure life at Thebes, +that he was not pleased to see Crates approaching, for he expected +to receive from him cynical outspokenness and harsh language. But +as Crates talked kindly to him, and discussed his exile, and +pointed out that there was no evil in it, or anything that ought to +put him about, for he had only got rid of the uncertainties and +dangers of public life, and at the same time bade him trust in +himself and his condition of mind, Demetrius cheered up and became +happier, and said to his friends, "Out upon all my former business +and employments, that left me no leisure to know such a man as +this!"</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For friendly speech is good +to one in grief,</span> <span class="i0">While bitter language only +suits the fool."<a name="FNanchor_460_460" id= +"FNanchor_460_460"></a><a href="#Footnote_460_460" class= +"fnanchor">460</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id= +"Page_192">192</a></span> This is the way with generous friends. +But the ignoble and low flatterers of those in prosperity, as +Demosthenes says fractures and sprains always give us pain again +when the body is not well,<a name="FNanchor_461_461" id= +"FNanchor_461_461"></a><a href="#Footnote_461_461" class= +"fnanchor">461</a> adhere to them in reverses, as if they were +pleased at and enjoyed them. But indeed if there be any need of +reminding a man of the blunders he committed through unadvisedly +following his own counsel, it is enough to say, "This was not to my +mind, indeed I often tried to dissuade you from it."<a name= +"FNanchor_462_462" id="FNanchor_462_462"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_462_462" class="fnanchor">462</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxix.</span> In what cases then ought +a friend to be vehement, and when ought he to use emphatic freedom +of language? When circumstances call upon him to check some +headlong pleasure or rage or insolence, or to curtail avarice, or +to correct some foolish negligence. Thus Solon spoke out to +Crœsus, who was corrupted and enervated by insecure good +fortune, bidding him look to the end.<a name="FNanchor_463_463" id= +"FNanchor_463_463"></a><a href="#Footnote_463_463" class= +"fnanchor">463</a> Thus Socrates restrained Alcibiades, and wrung +from him genuine tears by his reproof, and changed his heart.<a +name="FNanchor_464_464" id="FNanchor_464_464"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_464_464" class="fnanchor">464</a> Such also was the +plain dealing of Cyrus with Cyaxares, and of Plato with Dion, for +when Dion was most famous and attracted to himself the notice of +all men, by the splendour and greatness of his exploits, Plato +warned him to fear and be on his guard against "pleasing only +himself, for so he would lose all his friends."<a name= +"FNanchor_465_465" id="FNanchor_465_465"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_465_465" class="fnanchor">465</a> Speusippus also wrote +to him not to plume himself on being a great person only with lads +and women, but to see to it that by adorning Sicily with piety and +justice and good laws he might make the Academy glorious. On the +other hand Euctus and Eulæus, companions of Perseus, in the +days of his prosperity ingratiated themselves with him, and +assented to him in all things, and danced attendance upon him, like +all the other courtiers, but when he fled after his defeat by the +Romans at Pydna, they attacked him and censured him bitterly, +reminding him and upbraiding him in regard to everything he had +done amiss or neglected to do, till he was so greatly <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id= +"Page_193">193</a></span>exasperated both from grief and rage that +he whipped out his sword and killed both of them.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxx.</span> Let so much suffice for +general occasions of freedom of speech. There are also particular +occasions, which our friends themselves furnish, that one who +really cares for his friends will not neglect, but make use of. In +some cases a question, or narrative, or the censure or praise of +similar things in other people, gives as it were the cue for +freedom of speech. Thus it is related that Demaratus came to +Macedonia from Corinth at the time when Philip was at variance with +his wife and son, and when the king asked if the Greeks were at +harmony with one another, Demaratus, being his well-wisher and +friend, answered, "It is certainly very rich of you, Philip, +inquiring as to concord between the Athenians and Peloponnesians, +when you don't observe that your own house is full of strife and +variance."<a name="FNanchor_466_466" id="FNanchor_466_466"></a><a +href="#Footnote_466_466" class="fnanchor">466</a> Good also was the +answer of Diogenes, who, when Philip was marching to fight against +the Greeks, stole into his camp, and was arrested and brought +before him, and the king not recognizing him asked if he was a spy, +"Certainly," replied he, "Philip, I have come to spy out your +inconsiderate folly, which makes you, under no compulsion, come +here and hazard your kingdom and life on a moment's<a name= +"FNanchor_467_467" id="FNanchor_467_467"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_467_467" class="fnanchor">467</a> cast of the die." This +was perhaps rather too strong a remark.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxi.</span> Another suitable time +for reproof is when people have been abused by others for their +faults, and have consequently become humble, and abated their +pride. The man of tact will ingeniously seize the occasion, +checking and baffling those that used the abuse, but privately +speaking seriously to his friend, and reminding him, that he ought +to be more careful if for no other reason than to take off the edge +of his enemies' satire. He will say, "How can they open their +mouths against you, or what can they urge, if you give up and +abandon what you get this bad name about?" Thus pain comes only +from abuse, but profit from reproof. And some correct their friends +more <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id= +"Page_194">194</a></span>daintily by blaming others; censuring +others for what they know are their friends' faults. Thus my master +Ammonius in afternoon school, noticing that some of his pupils had +not dined sufficiently simply, bade one of his freedmen scourge his +own son, charging him with being unable to get through his dinner +without vinegar,<a name="FNanchor_468_468" id= +"FNanchor_468_468"></a><a href="#Footnote_468_468" class= +"fnanchor">468</a> but in acting thus he had an eye to us, so that +this indirect rebuke touched the guilty persons.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxii.</span> We must also beware of +speaking too freely to a friend in the company of many people, +remembering the well-known remark of Plato. For when Socrates +reproved one of his friends too vehemently in a discussion at +table, Plato said, "Would it not have been better to have said this +privately?" Whereupon Socrates replied, "And you too, sir, would it +not have become you to make this remark also privately?" And +Pythagoras having rebuked one of his pupils somewhat harshly before +many people, they say the young fellow went off and hung himself, +and from that moment Pythagoras never again rebuked anyone in +another's presence. For, as in the case of some foul disease, so +also in the case of wrong-doing we ought to make the detection and +exposure private, and not ostentatiously public by bringing +witnesses and spectators. For it is not the part of a friend but a +sophist to seek glory by the ill-fame of another, and to show off +in company, like the doctors that perform wonderful cures in the +theatres as an advertisement.<a name="FNanchor_469_469" id= +"FNanchor_469_469"></a><a href="#Footnote_469_469" class= +"fnanchor">469</a> And independently of the insult, which ought not +to be an element in any cure, we must remember that vice is +contentious and obstinate. For it is not merely "love," as +Euripides says, that "if checked becomes more vehement," but an +unsparing rebuke before many people makes every infirmity and vice +more impudent. As then Plato<a name="FNanchor_470_470" id= +"FNanchor_470_470"></a><a href="#Footnote_470_470" class= +"fnanchor">470</a> urges old men who want to teach the young +reverence to act reverently to them first themselves, so among +friends a gentle rebuke is gently taken, and <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">195</a></span>a cautious +and careful approach and mild censure of the wrong-doer undermines +and destroys vice, and makes its own modesty catching. So that line +is most excellent, "holding his head near, that the others might +not hear."<a name="FNanchor_471_471" id="FNanchor_471_471"></a><a +href="#Footnote_471_471" class="fnanchor">471</a> And most +especially indecorous is it to expose a husband in the hearing of +his wife, or a father before his children, or a lover in the +presence of the loved one, or a master before his scholars. For +people are beside themselves with pain and rage if reproached +before those with whom they desire to be held in good repute. And I +think it was not so much wine that exasperated Alexander with +Clitus, as his seeming to put him down in the presence of many +people. And Aristomenes, the tutor of Ptolemy,<a name= +"FNanchor_472_472" id="FNanchor_472_472"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_472_472" class="fnanchor">472</a> because he went up to +the king and woke him as he was asleep in an audience of some +ambassadors, gave a handle to the king's flatterers who professed +to be indignant on his behalf, and said, "If after your immense +state-labours and many vigils you have been overpowered by sleep, +he ought to have rebuked you privately, and not put his hands upon +you before so many people." And Ptolemy sent for a cup of poison +and ordered the poor man to drink it up. And Aristophanes said +Cleon blamed him for "railing against the state when strangers were +present,"<a name="FNanchor_473_473" id="FNanchor_473_473"></a><a +href="#Footnote_473_473" class="fnanchor">473</a> and so irritating +the Athenians. We ought therefore to be very much on our guard in +relation to this point too as well as others, if we wish not to +make a display and catch the public ear, but to use our freedom of +speech for beneficial purposes and to cure vice. Moreover, what +Thucydides has represented the Corinthians saying of themselves, +that "they had a right to blame their neighbours,"<a name= +"FNanchor_474_474" id="FNanchor_474_474"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_474_474" class="fnanchor">474</a> is not a bad precept +for those to remember who intend to use freedom of speech. +Lysander, it seems, on one occasion said to a Megarian, who was +speaking somewhat boldly on behalf of Greece among the allies, +"Your words require a state to back <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_196" id="Page_196">196</a></span>them":<a name= +"FNanchor_475_475" id="FNanchor_475_475"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_475_475" class="fnanchor">475</a> similarly every man's +freedom of speech requires character behind it, and especially true +is this in regard to those who censure and correct others. Thus +Plato said that his life was a tacit rebuke to Speusippus: and +doubtless Xenocrates by his mere presence in the schools, and by +his earnest look at Polemo, made a changed man of him. Whereas a +man of levity and bad character, if he ventures to rebuke anybody, +is likely to hear the line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He doctors others, all +diseased himself."<a name="FNanchor_476_476" id= +"FNanchor_476_476"></a><a href="#Footnote_476_476" class= +"fnanchor">476</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxiii.</span> Yet since +circumstances frequently call on people who are bad themselves in +association with other such to reprove them, the most convenient +mode of reproof will be that which contrives to include the +reprover in the same indictment as the reproved, as in the case of +the line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Tydides, how on earth have we +forgot</span> <span class="i0">Our old impetuous courage?"<a name= +"FNanchor_477_477" id="FNanchor_477_477"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_477_477" class="fnanchor">477</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Now are we all not worth one +single Hector."<a name="FNanchor_478_478" id= +"FNanchor_478_478"></a><a href="#Footnote_478_478" class= +"fnanchor">478</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>In this mild way did Socrates rebuke young men, as not himself +without ignorance, but one that needed in common with them to +prosecute virtue, and seek truth. For they gain goodwill and +influence, who seem to have the same faults as their friends, and +desire to correct themselves as well as them. But he who is high +and mighty in setting down another, as if he were himself perfect +and without any imperfections, unless he be of a very advanced age, +or has an acknowledged reputation for virtue and worth, does no +good, but is only regarded as a tiresome bore. And so it was wisely +done of Phœnix to relate his own mishaps, how he had meant +killing his father, but quickly repented at the thought "that he +would be called by the Achæans parricide,"<a name= +"FNanchor_479_479" id="FNanchor_479_479"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_479_479" class="fnanchor">479</a> that he might not seem +to be rebuking Achilles, as one that had himself never suffered +from excess of rage. For kindness of this sort has great influence, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id= +"Page_197">197</a></span>and people yield more to those who seem to +be sympathetic and not supercilious. And since we ought not to +expose an inflamed eye to a strong light, and a soul a prey to the +passions cannot bear unmixed reproof and rebuke, one of the most +useful remedies will be found to be a slight mixture of praise, as +in the following lines,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Ye will not sure give up your +valiant courage,</span> <span class="i0">The best men in the host! +I should not care</span> <span class="i0">If any coward left the +fight, not I;</span> <span class="i0">But you to do so cuts me to +the heart."<a name="FNanchor_480_480" id="FNanchor_480_480"></a><a +href="#Footnote_480_480" class="fnanchor">480</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Where is thy bow, where thy +wing'd arrows, Pandarus,</span> <span class="i0">Where thy great +fame, which no one here can match?"<a name="FNanchor_481_481" id= +"FNanchor_481_481"></a><a href="#Footnote_481_481" class= +"fnanchor">481</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Such language again plainly cheers very much those that are down +as,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Where now is Œdipus, +and his famous riddles?"<a name="FNanchor_482_482" id= +"FNanchor_482_482"></a><a href="#Footnote_482_482" class= +"fnanchor">482</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Does much-enduring Hercules +say this?"<a name="FNanchor_483_483" id="FNanchor_483_483"></a><a +href="#Footnote_483_483" class="fnanchor">483</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For not only does it soften the harsh imperiousness of censure, +but also, by reminding a man of former noble deeds, implants a +desire to emulate his former self in the person who is ashamed of +what is low, and makes himself his own exemplar for better things. +But if we make a comparison between him and other men, as his +contemporaries, his fellow-citizens, or his relations, then the +contentious spirit inherent in vice is vexed and exasperated, and +is often apt to chime in angrily, "Why don't you go off to my +betters then, and leave off bothering me?" We must therefore be on +our guard against praising others, when we are rebuking a man, +unless indeed it be their parents, as Agamemnon says in Homer,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Little like Tydeus is his +father's son!"<a name="FNanchor_484_484" id= +"FNanchor_484_484"></a><a href="#Footnote_484_484" class= +"fnanchor">484</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>or as Odysseus in the play called "The Scyrians,"<a name= +"FNanchor_485_485" id="FNanchor_485_485"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_485_485" class="fnanchor">485</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Dost thou card wool, and thus +the lustre smirch</span> <span class="i0">Of thy illustrious sire, +thy noble race?"</span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id= +"Page_198">198</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">xxxiv.</span> +But it is by no means fitting when rebuked to rebuke back, and when +spoken to plainly to answer back, for that soon kindles a flame and +causes dissension; and generally speaking such altercation will not +look so much like a retort as an inability to bear freedom of +speech. It is better therefore to listen patiently to a friend's +rebuke, for if he should afterwards do wrong himself and so need +rebuke, he has set you the example of freedom of speech. For being +reminded without any malice, that he himself has not been +accustomed to spare his friends when they have done wrong, but to +convince them and show them their fault, he will be the more +inclined to yield and give himself up to correction, as it will +seem a return of goodwill and kindness rather than scolding or +rage.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxv.</span> Moreover, as Thucydides +says "he is well advised who [only] incurs envy in the most +important matters,"<a name="FNanchor_486_486" id= +"FNanchor_486_486"></a><a href="#Footnote_486_486" class= +"fnanchor">486</a> so the friend ought only to take upon himself +the unpleasant duty of reproof in grave and momentous cases. For if +he is always in a fret and a fume, and rates his acquaintances more +like a tutor than a friend, his rebuke will be blunt and +ineffective in cases of the highest importance, and he will +resemble a doctor who dispenses some sharp and bitter, but +important and costly, drug in trifling cases of common occurrence, +where it was not at all needed, and so will lose all the advantages +that might come from a judicious use of freedom of speech. He will +therefore be very much on his guard against continual +fault-finding, and if his friend is always pettifogging about +minute matters, and is needlessly querulous, it will give him a +handle against him in more important shortcomings. Philotimus the +doctor, when a patient who had abscesses on his liver showed him +his sore finger, said to him, "My friend, it is not the whitlow +that matters."<a name="FNanchor_487_487" id= +"FNanchor_487_487"></a><a href="#Footnote_487_487" class= +"fnanchor">487</a> So an opportunity sometimes offers itself to a +friend to say to a man, who is always finding fault on small and +trivial points, "Why are we always discussing mere child's play, +tippling,<a name="FNanchor_488_488" id="FNanchor_488_488"></a><a +href="#Footnote_488_488" class="fnanchor">488</a> <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">199</a></span>and +trifles? Let such a one, my dear sir, send away his mistress, or +give up playing at dice, he will then be in my opinion in all +respects an excellent fellow." For he who receives pardon on small +matters is content that his friend should rebuke him on matters of +more moment: but the man who is ever on the scold, everywhere sour +and glum, knowing and prying into everything, is scarcely tolerable +to his children or brothers, and insufferable to his slaves.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_199a" id="Page_199a" />§ <span class="smcap">xxxvi.</span> But since "neither," to +use the words of Euripides, "do all troubles proceed only from old +age,"<a name="FNanchor_489_489" id="FNanchor_489_489"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_489_489" class="fnanchor">489</a> nor from the stupidity +of our friends, we ought to observe not only the shortcomings but +also the good points of our friends, aye, by Zeus, and to be ready +to praise them first, and only censure them afterwards. For as iron +receives its consistency and temper by first being submitted to +fire and so made soft and then dipped into cold water, so when +friends have been first warmed and melted with praises we can +afterwards use gentle remonstrance, which has a similar effect to +that of dipping in the case of the metal. For an opportunity will +offer itself to say, "Are those actions worthy to be compared with +these? Do you see what fruits virtue yields? These are the things +we your friends ask of you, these become you, for these you are +designed by nature; but all that other kind of conduct we must +reject with abhorrence, 'cast it away on a mountain, or throw it +into the roaring sea.'"<a name="FNanchor_490_490" id= +"FNanchor_490_490"></a><a href="#Footnote_490_490" class= +"fnanchor">490</a> For as a clever doctor would prefer to cure the +illness of his patient by sleep and diet rather than by castor or +scammony, so a kind friend and good father or teacher delight to +use praise rather than blame to correct the character. For nothing +makes rebuke less painful or more beneficial than to refrain from +anger, and to inveigh against wrong-doing mildly and kindly. And so +we ought not sharply to drive home the guilt of those who deny it, +or prevent their making their defence, but even contrive to furnish +them with specious excuses, and if they seem reluctant to give a +bad motive for their action we ought ourselves to find for them a +better, as Hector did for his brother Paris,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Unhappy man, thy anger was +not good,"<a name="FNanchor_491_491" id="FNanchor_491_491"></a><a +href="#Footnote_491_491" class="fnanchor">491</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id= +"Page_200">200</a></span>suggesting that his absconding from the +battle was not running away or cowardice, but only anger. And +Nestor says to Agamemnon,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"You only yielded to your +lofty passion."<a name="FNanchor_492_492" id= +"FNanchor_492_492"></a><a href="#Footnote_492_492" class= +"fnanchor">492</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For it has, I think, a better moral tendency to say "You +forgot," or "You did it inadvertently," than to say "You acted +unfairly," or "You behaved shamefully:" as also "Don't contend with +your brother," than "Don't envy your brother;" and "Avoid the woman +who is your ruin," than "Stop ruining the woman." Such is the +language employed in rebuke that desires to reform and not to +wound; that rebuke which looks merely at the effect to be produced +acts on another principle. For when it is necessary to stop people +on the verge of wrong-doing, or to check some violent and irregular +impulse, or if we wish to rouse and infuse vigour in those who +prosecute virtue only feebly and languidly, we may then assign +strange and unbecoming motives for their behaviour. As Odysseus in +Sophocles' play,<a name="FNanchor_493_493" id= +"FNanchor_493_493"></a><a href="#Footnote_493_493" class= +"fnanchor">493</a> striving to rouse Achilles, says he is not angry +about his supper,<a name="FNanchor_494_494" id= +"FNanchor_494_494"></a><a href="#Footnote_494_494" class= +"fnanchor">494</a> but "that he is afraid now that he looks upon +the walls of Troy," and when Achilles was vexed at this, and talked +of sailing home again, he said,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I know what 'tis you shun: +'tis not ill fame:</span> <span class="i0">But Hector's near, it is +not safe to beard him."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Thus by frightening the high-spirited and courageous man by the +imputation of cowardice, and the sober and orderly man by that of +licentiousness, and the liberal and munificent man by that of +meanness and avarice, people urge them on to what is good, and +deter them from what is bad, showing moderation in cases past +remedy, and exhibiting in their freedom of speech more sorrow and +sympathy than fault-finding; but in the prevention of wrong-doing +and in earnest fighting against the passions they are vehement and +inexorable and assiduous: for that is the time <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">201</a></span>for +downright plainness and truth. Besides we see that enemies censure +one another for what they have done amiss, as Diogenes said,<a +name="FNanchor_495_495" id="FNanchor_495_495"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_495_495" class="fnanchor">495</a> he who wished to lead +a good life ought to have good friends or red-hot enemies, for the +former told you what was right, and the latter blamed you if you +did what was wrong. But it is better to be on our guard against +wrong actions, through listening to the persuasion of those that +advise us well, than to repent, after we have done wrong, in +consequence of the reproaches of our enemies. And so we ought to +employ tact in our freedom of speech, as it is the greatest and +most powerful remedy in friendship, and always needs a well-chosen +occasion, and moderation in applying it.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxxvii.</span> Since then, as I have +said before, freedom of speech is often painful to the person who +is to receive benefit from it, we must imitate the surgeons, who, +when they have performed an operation, do not leave the suffering +part to pain and smart, but bathe and foment it; so those who do +their rebuking daintily run<a name="FNanchor_496_496" id= +"FNanchor_496_496"></a><a href="#Footnote_496_496" class= +"fnanchor">496</a> off after paining and smarting, and by different +dealing and kind words soothe and mollify them, as statuaries +smooth and polish images which have been broken or chipped. But he +that is broken and wounded by rebuke, if he is left sullen and +swelling with rage and off his equilibrium, is henceforth hard to +win back or talk over. And so people who reprove ought to be +especially careful on this point, and not to leave them too soon, +nor break off their conversation and intercourse with their +acquaintances at the exasperating and painful stage.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_348_348" id="Footnote_348_348"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_348_348"><span class="label">348</span></a> Plato, +"Laws," v. p. 731 D, E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_349_349" id="Footnote_349_349"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_349_349"><span class="label">349</span></a> "Laws," v. +p. 730 C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_350_350" id="Footnote_350_350"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_350_350"><span class="label">350</span></a> Inscribed in +the vestibule of the temple of Apollo at Delphi. See Pausanias, x. +24.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_351_351" id="Footnote_351_351"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_351_351"><span class="label">351</span></a> Used here +apparently proverbially for poverty or low position in life.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_352_352" id="Footnote_352_352"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_352_352"><span class="label">352</span></a> Wyttenbach +well compares Cicero, "De Amicitia," xviii.: "Accedat huc suavitas +quædam oportet sermonum atque morum, haudquaquam mediocre +condimentum amicitiæ. Tristitia autem et in omni re +severitas, habet illa quidem gravitatem: sed amicitia remissior +esse debet, et liberior, et dulcior, et ad omnem comitatem +facilitatemque proclivior."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_353_353" id="Footnote_353_353"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_353_353"><span class="label">353</span></a> Hesiod, +"Theogony," 64.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_354_354" id="Footnote_354_354"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_354_354"><span class="label">354</span></a> Euripides, +"Ion," 732.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_355_355" id="Footnote_355_355"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_355_355"><span class="label">355</span></a> Our author +assigns this saying to Prodicus, "De Sanitate Præcepta," +§ viii. But to Evenus, "Quæst. Conviv." Lib. vii. +Proœmium, and "Platonicæ Quæstiones," x. § +iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_356_356" id="Footnote_356_356"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_356_356"><span class="label">356</span></a> As was +usual. See Homer, "Odyssey," i. 146. Cf. Plautus, "Persa," v. iii. +16: "Hoc age, accumbe: hunc diem suavem meum natalem agitemus +amœnum: date aquam manibus: apponite mensam."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_357_357" id="Footnote_357_357"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_357_357"><span class="label">357</span></a> From a play +of Eupolis called "The Flatterers." Cf. Terence, "Eunuchus," +489-491.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_358_358" id="Footnote_358_358"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_358_358"><span class="label">358</span></a> See +Athenæus, 256 D. Compare also Valerius Maximus, ix. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_359_359" id="Footnote_359_359"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_359_359"><span class="label">359</span></a> "Videatur +Casaubonus ad Athenæum, vi. p. 243 +A."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_360_360" id="Footnote_360_360"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_360_360"><span class="label">360</span></a> "Republic," +p. 361 A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_361_361" id="Footnote_361_361"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_361_361"><span class="label">361</span></a> See +Herodotus, iii. 78.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_362_362" id="Footnote_362_362"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_362_362"><span class="label">362</span></a> See Erasmus, +"Adagia," p. 1883.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_363_363" id="Footnote_363_363"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_363_363"><span class="label">363</span></a> "Proverbium +etiam a Cicerone laudatum 'De Amicitia,' cap. vi.: Itaque non aqua, +non igne, ut aiunt, pluribus locis utimur, quam amicitia. Notavit +etiam Erasmus 'Adag.' p. 112."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_364_364" id="Footnote_364_364"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_364_364"><span class="label">364</span></a> Compare +Sallust, "De Catilinæ Conjuratione," cap. xx.: "Nam idem +velle atque idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_365_365" id="Footnote_365_365"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_365_365"><span class="label">365</span></a> +"Proverbiale, quo utitur Plutarchus in Alcibiade, p. 203 D. Iambus +Tragici esse videtur, ad Neoptolemum +dictus."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_366_366" id="Footnote_366_366"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_366_366"><span class="label">366</span></a> As the +polypus, or chameleon.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_367_367" id="Footnote_367_367"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_367_367"><span class="label">367</span></a> Plato, +"Phædrus," p. 239 D.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_368_368" id="Footnote_368_368"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_368_368"><span class="label">368</span></a> Wyttenbach +compares Juvenal, iii. 100-108.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_369_369" id="Footnote_369_369"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_369_369"><span class="label">369</span></a> See my note +"On Abundance of Friends," <a href="#Page_152a">§ ix.</a> +Wyttenbach well points out the felicity of the expression here, +"siquidem parasitus est +άοικος καὶ +ἀνέστιος."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_370_370" id="Footnote_370_370"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_370_370"><span class="label">370</span></a> Euripides, +"Hippolytus," 219, 218. Cf. Ovid, "Heroides," iv. 41, 42.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_371_371" id="Footnote_371_371"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_371_371"><span class="label">371</span></a> Compare "How +one may be aware of one's progress in virtue," <a href="#Page_128a">§ x.</a> Cf. also +Horace, "Satires," ii. iii. 35; Quintilian, xi. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_372_372" id="Footnote_372_372"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_372_372"><span class="label">372</span></a> "Odyssey," +xxii. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_373_373" id="Footnote_373_373"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_373_373"><span class="label">373</span></a> The +demagogue is a kind of flatterer. See Aristotle, "Pol." iv. 4.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_374_374" id="Footnote_374_374"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_374_374"><span class="label">374</span></a> Cf. +Aristophanes, "Acharnians," 153, ὅπερ +μαχιμώτατον +θρᾳκῶν +ἔθνος.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_375_375" id="Footnote_375_375"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_375_375"><span class="label">375</span></a> Plato was +somewhat of a traveller, he three times visited Syracuse, and also +travelled in Egypt.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_376_376" id="Footnote_376_376"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_376_376"><span class="label">376</span></a> As to the +polypus, see "On Abundance of Friends," <a href="#Page_152a">§ ix.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_377_377" id="Footnote_377_377"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_377_377"><span class="label">377</span></a> As "Fumum et +opes <i>strepitumque</i> Romæ."—Horace, "Odes," iii. +29. 12.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_378_378" id="Footnote_378_378"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_378_378"><span class="label">378</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xvi. 181.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_379_379" id="Footnote_379_379"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_379_379"><span class="label">379</span></a> Sophocles, +"Antigone," 523.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_380_380" id="Footnote_380_380"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_380_380"><span class="label">380</span></a> As to these +traits in Plato and Aristotle, compare "De Audiendis Poetis," +§ viii. And as to Alexander, Plutarch tells us in his Life +that he used to hold his head a little to the left, "Life," p. 666 +B. See also "De Alexandri Fortuna aut Virtute," § ii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_381_381" id="Footnote_381_381"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_381_381"><span class="label">381</span></a> "De +Chamæleonte Aristoteles 'Hist. Animal.' i. 11; 'Part. +Animal.' iv. 11; Theophrastus Eclog. ap. Photium edit. Aristot. +Sylburg. T. viii. p. 329: +μεταβάλλει +δὲ ὁ +χαμαιλέων +εἰς πάντα τὰ +χρώματα· +πλὴν τὴν εἰς +τὸ λευκὸν +και τὸ +ἐρυθρὸν οὐ +δέχεται +μεταβολήν. +Similiter Plinius 'Hist. Nat.' viii. +51."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_382_382" id="Footnote_382_382"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_382_382"><span class="label">382</span></a> See +Athenæus, 249 F; 435 E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_383_383" id="Footnote_383_383"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_383_383"><span class="label">383</span></a> Cf. Juv. +iii. 113; "Scire volunt secreta domus, atque inde timeri."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_384_384" id="Footnote_384_384"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_384_384"><span class="label">384</span></a> Cf. Menander +apud Stob. p. 437: Τὰ +δεύτερ᾽ +αἰεὶ τὴν +γυναῖκα +δεὶ λέγειν, +Τὴν δ᾽ +ἡγεμονιαν +τῶν ὅλων τὸν +ἄνδρ᾽ ἔχειν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_385_385" id="Footnote_385_385"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_385_385"><span class="label">385</span></a> As Lord +Stowell used to say that "dinners lubricated business."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_386_386" id="Footnote_386_386"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_386_386"><span class="label">386</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xi. 643.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_387_387" id="Footnote_387_387"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_387_387"><span class="label">387</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," iv. 178, 179.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_388_388" id="Footnote_388_388"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_388_388"><span class="label">388</span></a> Perhaps the +poley-germander. See Pliny, "Nat. Hist," xxi. 84. The line is from +Nicander Theriac. 64.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_389_389" id="Footnote_389_389"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_389_389"><span class="label">389</span></a> "Iliad," +viii. 281, 282.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_390_390" id="Footnote_390_390"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_390_390"><span class="label">390</span></a> "Iliad," x. +243.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_391_391" id="Footnote_391_391"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_391_391"><span class="label">391</span></a> "Iliad," +vii. 109, 110.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_392_392" id="Footnote_392_392"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_392_392"><span class="label">392</span></a> Xenophon, +"Agesilaus," xi. 5. p. 673 C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_393_393" id="Footnote_393_393"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_393_393"><span class="label">393</span></a> To filch the +grain from the bin or granary would not of course be so important a +theft as to steal the seed-stock preserved for sowing. So probably +Cato, "De Re Rustica," v. § iv.: "Segetem ne defrudet," sc. +villicus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_394_394" id="Footnote_394_394"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_394_394"><span class="label">394</span></a> Thucydides, +iii. 82.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_395_395" id="Footnote_395_395"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_395_395"><span class="label">395</span></a> Plato, +"Republic," v. p. 474 E. Compare also Lucretius, iv. 1160-1170; +Horace, "Satires," i. 3. 38 sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_396_396" id="Footnote_396_396"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_396_396"><span class="label">396</span></a> This Ptolemy +was a votary of Cybele, and a spiritual ancestor of General Booth. +The worship of Cybele is well described by Lucretius, ii. +598-643.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_397_397" id="Footnote_397_397"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_397_397"><span class="label">397</span></a> This was +Ptolemy Auletes, as the former was Ptolemy Philopator.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_398_398" id="Footnote_398_398"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_398_398"><span class="label">398</span></a> See +Suetonius, "Nero," ch. 21.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_399_399" id="Footnote_399_399"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_399_399"><span class="label">399</span></a> "Plerumque +<i>minuta voce cantillare</i>."—<i>Wyttenbach</i>. What +Milton would have called "a lean and flashy song."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_400_400" id="Footnote_400_400"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_400_400"><span class="label">400</span></a> Naso +suspendit adunco, as Horace, "Sat." i. 6. 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_401_401" id="Footnote_401_401"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_401_401"><span class="label">401</span></a> See +Athenæus, p. 434 C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_402_402" id="Footnote_402_402"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_402_402"><span class="label">402</span></a> As Gnatho in +Terence, "Eunuch." 496-498.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_403_403" id="Footnote_403_403"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_403_403"><span class="label">403</span></a> Reading +ἑλών, as Courier, Hercher.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_404_404" id="Footnote_404_404"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_404_404"><span class="label">404</span></a> "Iliad," x. +249. They are words of Odysseus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_405_405" id="Footnote_405_405"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_405_405"><span class="label">405</span></a> This was +carrying flattery rather far. "Mithridatis medicinæ scientia +multis memorata veterum."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_406_406" id="Footnote_406_406"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_406_406"><span class="label">406</span></a> Euripides, +"Alcestis," 1159.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_407_407" id="Footnote_407_407"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_407_407"><span class="label">407</span></a> Our author +gives this definition to Simonides, "De Gloria Atheniensium," +§ iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_408_408" id="Footnote_408_408"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_408_408"><span class="label">408</span></a> So our +author again, "On Contentedness of Mind," <a href= +"#Page_301a">§ xii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_409_409" id="Footnote_409_409"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_409_409"><span class="label">409</span></a> See +Herodotus, i. 30, 33; Juvenal, x. 274, 275; and Pausanias, ii. +20.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_410_410" id="Footnote_410_410"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_410_410"><span class="label">410</span></a> "Nobile +Stoæ Paradoxum. Cicero Fin. iii. 22, ex persona Catonis. +Horatius ridet Epistol. i. 1. 106-108. Ad summam sapiens uno minor +est Jove: dives, Liber, honoratus, pulcher, rex denique regum; +Præcipue sanus, nisi quum pituita molesta +est."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_411_411" id="Footnote_411_411"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_411_411"><span class="label">411</span></a> See also "On +Contentedness of Mind," <a href="#Page_301a">§ xii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_412_412" id="Footnote_412_412"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_412_412"><span class="label">412</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xvi. 141. See the context also from 130 sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_413_413" id="Footnote_413_413"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_413_413"><span class="label">413</span></a> Our author +has used this illustration again in "Phocion," p. 742 B.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_414_414" id="Footnote_414_414"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_414_414"><span class="label">414</span></a> Namely in +§ xxvii. where παῤῥησια is +discussed.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_415_415" id="Footnote_415_415"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_415_415"><span class="label">415</span></a> Contrary to +the severe training he ought to undergo, well expressed by Horace, +"De Arte Poetica," 412-414.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_416_416" id="Footnote_416_416"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_416_416"><span class="label">416</span></a> Reading with +Hercher +ἀποτυμπανίζοντος +και +στρεβλοῦντος. +This was Ptolemy Physcon.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_417_417" id="Footnote_417_417"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_417_417"><span class="label">417</span></a> "Unus ex +Alexandri adulatoribus: memoratus Curtio viii. 5, +6."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_418_418" id="Footnote_418_418"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_418_418"><span class="label">418</span></a> A common +proverb among the ancients. See "Conjugal Precepts," § xl.; +Erasmus, "Adagia," pp. 1222, 1838.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_419_419" id="Footnote_419_419"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_419_419"><span class="label">419</span></a> A line out +of Æschylus' "Myrmidons." Quoted again by our author, "Of +Love," § v.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_420_420" id="Footnote_420_420"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_420_420"><span class="label">420</span></a> +Cleopatra.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_421_421" id="Footnote_421_421"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_421_421"><span class="label">421</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," x. 329. They are the words of Circe to Odysseus. But the +line was suspected even by old grammarians, and is put in brackets +in modern editions of the "Odyssey."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_422_422" id="Footnote_422_422"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_422_422"><span class="label">422</span></a> See +Lucretius, iv. 1079-1085.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_423_423" id="Footnote_423_423"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_423_423"><span class="label">423</span></a> So Pliny, +"Hist. Nat." xxv. 95: "Remedio est (cicutæ), priusquam +perveniat ad vitalia, vini natura excalfactoria: sed in vino pota +irremediabilis existimatur."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_424_424" id="Footnote_424_424"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_424_424"><span class="label">424</span></a> Assigned to +Pittacus by our author, "Septem Sapientum Convivium," § +ii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_425_425" id="Footnote_425_425"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_425_425"><span class="label">425</span></a> So +Wyttenbach, who reads +ἐνστάσεις, and +translates, "et libertate loquendi in nobis reprehendendis utitur, +quando nos cupiditatibus morbisque animi nostri non indulgere, sed +resistere, volumus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_426_426" id="Footnote_426_426"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_426_426"><span class="label">426</span></a> +"Phœnissæ," 469-472.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_427_427" id="Footnote_427_427"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_427_427"><span class="label">427</span></a> Like +Juvenal's "Græculus esuriens in cælum, jusseris, +ibit."—Juvenal, iii, 78.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_428_428" id="Footnote_428_428"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_428_428"><span class="label">428</span></a> These are +two successive lines found three times in Homer, "Iliad," xiv. 195, +196; xviii. 426, 427; "Odyssey," v. 89, 90. The two lines are in +each case spoken by one person.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_429_429" id="Footnote_429_429"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_429_429"><span class="label">429</span></a> Probably +lines from "The Flatterer" of Menander.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_430_430" id="Footnote_430_430"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_430_430"><span class="label">430</span></a> From the +"Ino" of Euripides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_431_431" id="Footnote_431_431"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_431_431"><span class="label">431</span></a> From the +"Erechtheus" of Euripides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_432_432" id="Footnote_432_432"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_432_432"><span class="label">432</span></a> We know from +Athenæus, p. 420 D, that Apelles and Arcesilaus were +friends.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_433_433" id="Footnote_433_433"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_433_433"><span class="label">433</span></a> An allusion +to Hesiod, "Works and Days," 235. Cf. Horace, "Odes," iv. 5. +23.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_434_434" id="Footnote_434_434"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_434_434"><span class="label">434</span></a> See the +beautiful story of Baucis and Philemon, Ovid, "Metamorphoses," +viii. 626-724: "Cura pii dis sunt, et qui coluere coluntur."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_435_435" id="Footnote_435_435"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_435_435"><span class="label">435</span></a> Compare +Terence, "Andria," 43, 44. So too Seneca, "De Beneficiis," ii. 10: +"Hæc enim beneficii inter duos lex est: alter statim +oblivisci debet dati, alter accepti nunquam. Lacerat animum et +premit frequens meritorum commemoratio."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_436_436" id="Footnote_436_436"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_436_436"><span class="label">436</span></a> A similar +story about the Samians and Lacedæmonians is told by +Aristotle, "Œconom." ii. 9.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_437_437" id="Footnote_437_437"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_437_437"><span class="label">437</span></a> A line from +Euripides, "Iphigenia in Aulis," 407.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_438_438" id="Footnote_438_438"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_438_438"><span class="label">438</span></a> Also in +"Conjugal Precepts," <a href="#Page_76a">§ xxix.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_439_439" id="Footnote_439_439"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_439_439"><span class="label">439</span></a> See Persius, +iii. 21, 22, with Jahn's Note.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_440_440" id="Footnote_440_440"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_440_440"><span class="label">440</span></a> See "On +Love," <a href="#Page_61">§ xxi.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_441_441" id="Footnote_441_441"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_441_441"><span class="label">441</span></a> "Auri +plumbique oppositio fere proverbialis est. Petronius, 'Satyricon,' +43. Plane fortunæ filius: in manu illius plumbum aureum +fiebat."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i> The passage about the Lydian +chariot is said to be by Pindar in our author, "Nicias," p. 523 +D.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_442_442" id="Footnote_442_442"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_442_442"><span class="label">442</span></a> Wyttenbach +compares Seneca, "Epist." cxxiii. p. 495: "Horum sermo multum +nocet: nam etiamsi non statim officit, semina in animo relinquit, +sequiturque nos etiam cum ab illis discesserimus, resurrecturum +postea malum."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_443_443" id="Footnote_443_443"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_443_443"><span class="label">443</span></a> Compare +Cicero, "De Amicitia," xxvi.: "Assentatio, quamvis perniciosa sit, +nocere tamen nemini potest, nisi ei, qui eam recipit atque ea +delectatur. Ita fit, ut is assentatoribus patefaciat aures suas +maxime, qui ipse sibi assentetur et se maxime ipse delectet."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_444_444" id="Footnote_444_444"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_444_444"><span class="label">444</span></a> Compare +§ i.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_445_445" id="Footnote_445_445"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_445_445"><span class="label">445</span></a> Compare our +Author, "Quaestiones Convivalium," viii. p. 717 F.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_446_446" id="Footnote_446_446"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_446_446"><span class="label">446</span></a> So Horace, +"Satires," i. 2, 24: "Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria +currunt."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_447_447" id="Footnote_447_447"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_447_447"><span class="label">447</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xiv. 84, 85.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_448_448" id="Footnote_448_448"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_448_448"><span class="label">448</span></a> Compare +Cicero, "De Officiis," i. 25: "Omnis autem animadversio et +castigatio contumelia vacare debet: neque ad ejus, qui punitur +aliquem aut verbis fatigat, sed ad reipublicæ utilitatem +referri."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_449_449" id="Footnote_449_449"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_449_449"><span class="label">449</span></a> "Iliad," xi. +654.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_450_450" id="Footnote_450_450"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_450_450"><span class="label">450</span></a> "Iliad," +xvi. 33-35.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_451_451" id="Footnote_451_451"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_451_451"><span class="label">451</span></a> Cf. +Plutarch, "Phocion," p. 746 D.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_452_452" id="Footnote_452_452"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_452_452"><span class="label">452</span></a> A proverb of +persons on the brink of destruction. Wells among the ancients were +uncovered.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_453_453" id="Footnote_453_453"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_453_453"><span class="label">453</span></a> "Iliad," ii. +215, of Thersites. As to Theagenes, see Seneca, "De Ira," ii. +23.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_454_454" id="Footnote_454_454"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_454_454"><span class="label">454</span></a> Literally, +"brings a cloud over fair weather."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_455_455" id="Footnote_455_455"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_455_455"><span class="label">455</span></a> The MSS. +have Lydian. Lysian Dionysus is also found in Pausanias, ix. 16. +Lyæus is suggested by Wyttenbach, and read by Hercher. Lysius +or Lyæus will both be connected with λύω, +and so refer to Dionysus as the god that looses or frees us from +care. See Horace, "Epodes," ix. 37, 38.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_456_456" id="Footnote_456_456"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_456_456"><span class="label">456</span></a> Compare +Juvenal, iii. 73, 74: "Sermo Promptus et Isæo +torrentior."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_457_457" id="Footnote_457_457"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_457_457"><span class="label">457</span></a> "Orestes," +667.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_458_458" id="Footnote_458_458"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_458_458"><span class="label">458</span></a> Euripides, +"Ion," 732.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_459_459" id="Footnote_459_459"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_459_459"><span class="label">459</span></a> "Anabasis," +ii. 6, 11.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_460_460" id="Footnote_460_460"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_460_460"><span class="label">460</span></a> Perhaps by +Euripides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_461_461" id="Footnote_461_461"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_461_461"><span class="label">461</span></a> "Olynth." +ii. p. 8 C; "Pro Corona," 341 C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_462_462" id="Footnote_462_462"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_462_462"><span class="label">462</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," ix. 108, 109. They are the words of Nestor to +Agamemnon.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_463_463" id="Footnote_463_463"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_463_463"><span class="label">463</span></a> See +Herodotus, i. 30-32.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_464_464" id="Footnote_464_464"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_464_464"><span class="label">464</span></a> See Plato's +"Symposium," p. 215 E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_465_465" id="Footnote_465_465"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_465_465"><span class="label">465</span></a> See Plato, +"Epist." iv. p. 321 B.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_466_466" id="Footnote_466_466"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_466_466"><span class="label">466</span></a> See our +author, "Apophthegmata," p. 179 C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_467_467" id="Footnote_467_467"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_467_467"><span class="label">467</span></a> Compare +Horace, "Satires," i. 1. 7, 8: "Quid enim, concurritur: horæ +Momento cita mors venit aut victoria læta."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_468_468" id="Footnote_468_468"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_468_468"><span class="label">468</span></a> And so being +dainty. See Athenæus, ii. ch. 76.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_469_469" id="Footnote_469_469"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_469_469"><span class="label">469</span></a> We see from +this and other places that the mountebanks and quacks of the Middle +Ages and later times existed also among the ancients. Human nature +in its great leading features is ever the same. "Omne ignotum pro +magnifico est."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_470_470" id="Footnote_470_470"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_470_470"><span class="label">470</span></a> "Laws," p. +729 C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_471_471" id="Footnote_471_471"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_471_471"><span class="label">471</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," i. 157; iv. 70; xvii. 592.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_472_472" id="Footnote_472_472"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_472_472"><span class="label">472</span></a> Ptolemy V., +Epiphanes. The circumstances are related by Polybius, xv. 29; xvii. +35.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_473_473" id="Footnote_473_473"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_473_473"><span class="label">473</span></a> See +"Acharnians," 501, 502.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_474_474" id="Footnote_474_474"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_474_474"><span class="label">474</span></a> Thucydides, +i. 70: καὶ ἅμα, +εἴπερ τινὲς +και ἄλλοι, +νομίζομεν +ἄξιοι εἷναι +τοῖς πέλας +ψόγον +ἐπενεγκεῖν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_475_475" id="Footnote_475_475"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_475_475"><span class="label">475</span></a> See our +Author, "Apophthegmata," p. 190 E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_476_476" id="Footnote_476_476"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_476_476"><span class="label">476</span></a> A line of +Euripides, quoted again in "How a Man may be benefited by his +Enemies," § iv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_477_477" id="Footnote_477_477"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_477_477"><span class="label">477</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xi. 313.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_478_478" id="Footnote_478_478"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_478_478"><span class="label">478</span></a> Do. viii. +234, 235.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_479_479" id="Footnote_479_479"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_479_479"><span class="label">479</span></a> Do. ix. +461.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_480_480" id="Footnote_480_480"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_480_480"><span class="label">480</span></a> "Iliad," +xiii. 116-119.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_481_481" id="Footnote_481_481"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_481_481"><span class="label">481</span></a> Do. v. 171, +172.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_482_482" id="Footnote_482_482"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_482_482"><span class="label">482</span></a> Euripides, +"Phœnissæ," 1688.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_483_483" id="Footnote_483_483"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_483_483"><span class="label">483</span></a> Euripides, +"Hercules Furens," 1250.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_484_484" id="Footnote_484_484"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_484_484"><span class="label">484</span></a> "Iliad," v. +800. Athene is the speaker.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_485_485" id="Footnote_485_485"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_485_485"><span class="label">485</span></a> A play by +Sophocles, now only in fragments, relating the life of Achilles in +the island of Scyros, the scene of his amour with Deidamia, the +daughter of Lycomedes, by whom he became the father of Pyrrhus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_486_486" id="Footnote_486_486"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_486_486"><span class="label">486</span></a> Thucydides, +ii. 64. Quoted again in "On Shyness," § xviii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_487_487" id="Footnote_487_487"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_487_487"><span class="label">487</span></a> See also "De +Audiendo," § x.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_488_488" id="Footnote_488_488"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_488_488"><span class="label">488</span></a> +πότους comes in rather +curiously here. Can any other word lurk under it?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_489_489" id="Footnote_489_489"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_489_489"><span class="label">489</span></a> +"Phœnissæ," 528, 529.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_490_490" id="Footnote_490_490"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_490_490"><span class="label">490</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," vi. 347.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_491_491" id="Footnote_491_491"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_491_491"><span class="label">491</span></a> Do. vi. +326.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_492_492" id="Footnote_492_492"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_492_492"><span class="label">492</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," ix. 109, 110.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_493_493" id="Footnote_493_493"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_493_493"><span class="label">493</span></a> In Dindorf's +"Poetæ Scenici Græci," Fragment 152.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_494_494" id="Footnote_494_494"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_494_494"><span class="label">494</span></a> As it is not +quite clear why Achilles should have been angry about his supper, +διὰ τὸ +δειπνὸν, apropos of the context, +Wyttenbach ingeniously suggests, as this lost play of Sophocles was +called Συν +δεῖπνον, that Plutarch may +have written ἐν τῷ +Δείπνῳ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_495_495" id="Footnote_495_495"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_495_495"><span class="label">495</span></a> Compare "How +One may be aware of one's Progress in Virtue," <a href="#Page_130a">§ xi.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_496_496" id="Footnote_496_496"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_496_496"><span class="label">496</span></a> "Ductum e +proverbiali dictione βαλόντα +ἐκφεύγειν, +emisso telo aufugere."—<i>Wyttenbach.</i></p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_201a" id="Page_201a">HOW A MAN MAY BE BENEFITED +BY HIS ENEMIES.</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> I am well aware, Cornelius +Pulcher, that you prefer the mildest manners in public life, by +which you can be at once most useful to the community, and most +agreeable in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id= +"Page_202">202</a></span>private life to those who have any +dealings with you. But since it is difficult to find any region +without wild beasts, though it is related of Crete;<a name= +"FNanchor_497_497" id="FNanchor_497_497"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_497_497" class="fnanchor">497</a> and hitherto there has +been no state that has not suffered from envy, rivalry, and strife, +the most fruitful seeds of hostility; (for, even if nothing else +does, our friendships involve us in enmities, as Chilo<a name= +"FNanchor_498_498" id="FNanchor_498_498"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_498_498" class="fnanchor">498</a> the wise man +perceived, who asked the man who told him he had no enemy, whether +he had a friend either), it seems to me that a public man ought not +only to examine the whole question of enemies in its various +ramifications, but also to listen to the serious remark of +Xenophon,<a name="FNanchor_499_499" id="FNanchor_499_499"></a><a +href="#Footnote_499_499" class="fnanchor">499</a> that a sensible +man will receive profit even from his enemies. The ideas therefore +that lately occurred to me to deliver, I have now put together +nearly in the identical words and send them to you, with the +exception of some matter also in "Political Precepts,"<a name= +"FNanchor_500_500" id="FNanchor_500_500"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_500_500" class="fnanchor">500</a> a treatise which I +have often noticed in your hands.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> People in old times were +well satisfied if they were not injured by strange and wild beasts, +and that was the only motive of their fights with them, but those +of later days have by now learnt to make use of them, for they feed +on their flesh, and clothe themselves with their wool, and make +medical use of their gall and beestings, and turn their hides into +shields, so that we might reasonably fear, if beasts failed man, +that his life would become brutish, and wild, and void of +resources. Similarly since all others are satisfied with not being +injured by their enemies, but the sensible will also (as Xenophon +says) get profit out of them, we must not be incredulous, but seek +a method and plan how to obtain this advantage, seeing that life +without an enemy is impossible. The husbandman cannot cultivate +every tree, nor can the hunter tame every kind of animal, so both +seek means to derive profit according to their several necessities, +the one from his barren trees, the other from his wild animals. +Sea-water also is undrinkable and brackish, but it feeds fish, and +is a sort of vehicle to convey and transport travellers anywhere. +The Satyr, when he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id= +"Page_203">203</a></span>saw fire for the first time, wished to +kiss it and embrace it, but Prometheus warned him,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Goat, thou wilt surely mourn +thy loss of beard."<a name="FNanchor_501_501" id= +"FNanchor_501_501"></a><a href="#Footnote_501_501" class= +"fnanchor">501</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For fire burns whoever touches it, but it also gives light and +warmth, and is an instrument of art to all those who know how to +use it.<a name="FNanchor_502_502" id="FNanchor_502_502"></a><a +href="#Footnote_502_502" class="fnanchor">502</a> Consider also in +the case of the enemy, if he is in other respects injurious and +intractable, he somehow or other gives us a handle to make use of +him by, and so is serviceable. And many things are unpleasant and +detestable and antagonistic to those to whom they happen, but you +must have noticed that some use even illnesses as a period of rest +for the body, and others by excessive toil have strengthened and +trained their bodily vigour, and some have made exile and the loss +of money a passage to leisure and philosophy, as did Diogenes and +Crates. And Zeno, when he heard of the wreck of the ship which +contained all his property, said, "Thou hast done well, Fortune, to +confine me to my threadbare cloak."<a name="FNanchor_503_503" id= +"FNanchor_503_503"></a><a href="#Footnote_503_503" class= +"fnanchor">503</a></p> + +<p>For as those animals that have the strongest and healthiest +stomachs eat and digest serpents and scorpions, and some even feed +on stones and shells, which they convert into nourishment by the +strength and heat of their stomachs, while fastidious people out of +health almost vomit if offered bread and wine, so foolish people +spoil even their friendships, while the wise know how to turn to +account even their enmities.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> In the first place then +it seems to me that what is most injurious in enmity may become +most useful to those that pay attention to it? To what do I refer? +Why, to the way in which your enemy ever wide awake pries into all +your affairs, and analyzes your whole life, trying to get a handle +against you somewhere, able not only to look through a tree, like +Lynceus,<a name="FNanchor_504_504" id="FNanchor_504_504"></a><a +href="#Footnote_504_504" class="fnanchor">504</a> or through stones +and shells, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id= +"Page_204">204</a></span>but through your friend and domestic and +every intimate acquaintance, as far as possible detecting your +doings, and digging and ferreting into your designs. For our +friends are ill and often die without our knowing anything about it +through our delay and carelessness, but we almost pry into even the +dreams of our enemies; and our enemy knows even more than we do +ourselves of our diseases and debts and differences with our +wives.<a name="FNanchor_505_505" id="FNanchor_505_505"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_505_505" class="fnanchor">505</a> But they pay most +attention to our faults and hunt them out: and as vultures follow +the scent of putrid carcases, and cannot perceive sound and +wholesome ones, so the diseases and vices and crimes of life +attract the enemy, and on these those that hate us pounce, these +they attack and tear to pieces. Is not this an advantage to us? +Certainly it is. For it teaches us to live warily and be on our +guard, and neither to do or say anything carelessly or without +circumspection, but ever to be vigilant by careful mode of living +that we give no handle to an enemy. For the cautiousness that thus +represses the passions and follows reason implants a care and +determination to live well and without reproach. For as those +states that have been sobered by wars with their neighbours and +continual campaigns love the blessings of order and peace, so those +people who are compelled to lead a sober life owing to their +enemies, and to be on their guard against carelessness and +negligence, and to do everything with an eye to utility, +imperceptibly glide into a faultless mode of life, and tone down +their character, even without requiring much assistance from +precepts. For those who always remember the line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Ah! how would Priam and his +sons rejoice,"<a name="FNanchor_506_506" id= +"FNanchor_506_506"></a><a href="#Footnote_506_506" class= +"fnanchor">506</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>are by it diverted from and learn to shun all such things as +their enemies would rejoice and laugh at. Again we see actors<a +name="FNanchor_507_507" id="FNanchor_507_507"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_507_507" class="fnanchor">507</a> and singers on the +stage oftentimes slack and remiss, and not taking sufficient pains +about their performances in the theatres when they have it all to +themselves; but when there is a competition and contest with <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id= +"Page_205">205</a></span>others, they not only wake up but tune +their instruments, and adjust their chords, and play on the flute +with more care. Similarly whoever knows that his enemy is +antagonistic to his life and character, pays more attention to +himself, and watches his behaviour more carefully, and regulates +his life. For it is peculiar to vice to be more afraid of enemies +than friends in regard to our faults. And so Nasica, when some +expressed their opinion that the Roman Republic was now secure, +since Carthage was rased to the ground and Achaia reduced to +slavery, said, "Nay rather we are now in a critical position, since +we have none left to fear or respect."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Consider also that very +philosophical and witty answer of Diogenes to the man who asked, +"How shall I avenge myself on my enemy?" "By becoming a good and +honest man."<a name="FNanchor_508_508" id="FNanchor_508_508"></a><a +href="#Footnote_508_508" class="fnanchor">508</a> Some people are +terribly put about if they see their enemies' horses in a good +condition, or hear their dogs praised; if they see their farm +well-tilled, their garden well-kept, they groan aloud. What a state +think you then they would be in, if you were to exhibit yourself as +a just man, sensible and good, in words excellent, in deeds pure, +in manner of life decorous, "reaping fruit from the deep soil of +the soul, where good counsels grow."<a name="FNanchor_509_509" id= +"FNanchor_509_509"></a><a href="#Footnote_509_509" class= +"fnanchor">509</a> Pindar says<a name="FNanchor_510_510" id= +"FNanchor_510_510"></a><a href="#Footnote_510_510" class= +"fnanchor">510</a> "those that are conquered are reduced to +complete silence:" but not absolutely, not all men, only those that +see they are outdone by their enemies in industry, in goodness, in +magnanimity, in humanity, in kindnesses; these, as Demosthenes +says, "stop the tongue, block up the mouth, choke people, and make +them silent."<a name="FNanchor_511_511" id= +"FNanchor_511_511"></a><a href="#Footnote_511_511" class= +"fnanchor">511</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Be better than the bad: 'tis +in your power."<a name="FNanchor_512_512" id= +"FNanchor_512_512"></a><a href="#Footnote_512_512" class= +"fnanchor">512</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>If you wish to vex the man who hates you, do not abuse him by +calling him a pathick, or effeminate, or intemperate, or a low +fellow, or illiberal; but be yourself a man, and temperate, and +truthful, and kind and just in all your <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_206" id="Page_206">206</a></span>dealings with those you +come across. But if you are tempted to use abuse, mind that you +yourself are very far from what you abuse him for, dive down into +your own soul, look for any rottenness in yourself, lest someone +suggest to you the line of the tragedian,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"You doctor others, all +diseased yourself."<a name="FNanchor_513_513" id= +"FNanchor_513_513"></a><a href="#Footnote_513_513" class= +"fnanchor">513</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>If you say your enemy is uneducated, increase your own love of +learning and industry; if you call him coward, stir up the more +your own spirit and manliness; and if you say he is wanton and +licentious, erase from your own soul any secret trace of the love +of pleasure. For nothing is more disgraceful or more unpleasant +than slander that recoils on the person who sets it in motion; for +as the reflection of light seems most to injure weak eyes, so does +censure when it recoils on the censurer, and is borne out by the +facts. For as the north-east wind attracts clouds, so does a bad +life draw upon itself rebukes.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Whenever Plato was in +company with people who behaved in an unseemly manner, he used to +say to himself, "Am I such a person as this?"<a name= +"FNanchor_514_514" id="FNanchor_514_514"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_514_514" class="fnanchor">514</a> So he that censures +another man's life, if he straightway examines and mends his own, +directing and turning it into the contrary direction, will get some +advantage from his censure, which will be otherwise idle and +unprofitable. Most people laugh if a bald-pate or hump-back jeer +and mock at others who are so too: it is quite as ridiculous to +jeer and mock if one lies open to retort oneself, as Leo of +Byzantium showed in his answer to the hump-back who jeered at him +for weakness of eyes, "You twit me with an infirmity natural to +man, while you yourself carry your Nemesis on your back."<a name= +"FNanchor_515_515" id="FNanchor_515_515"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_515_515" class="fnanchor">515</a> And so do not abuse +another as an adulterer, if you yourself are mad after boys: nor as +a spendthrift, if you yourself are niggardly. Alcmæon said to +Adrastus, "You are near kinsman to a woman that slew her husband." +What <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id= +"Page_207">207</a></span>was his reply? He retaliated on him with +the appropriate retort, "But you killed with your own hand the +mother that bare you."<a name="FNanchor_516_516" id= +"FNanchor_516_516"></a><a href="#Footnote_516_516" class= +"fnanchor">516</a> And Domitius said to Crassus, "Did you not weep +for the lamprey that was bred in your fishpond, and died?" To which +Crassus replied, "Did you weep, when you buried your three wives?" +He therefore that intends to abuse others must not be witty and +noisy and impudent, but a man that does not lie open to +counter-abuse and retort, for the god seems to have enjoined upon +no one the precept "Know thyself" so much as on the person who is +censorious, to prevent people saying just what they please, and +hearing what don't please them. For such a one is wont, as +Sophocles<a name="FNanchor_517_517" id="FNanchor_517_517"></a><a +href="#Footnote_517_517" class="fnanchor">517</a> says, "idly +letting his tongue flow, to hear against his will, what he +willingly says ill of others."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> This use and advantage +then there is in abusing one's enemy, and no less arises from being +abused and ill-spoken of oneself by one's enemies. And so +Antisthenes<a name="FNanchor_518_518" id="FNanchor_518_518"></a><a +href="#Footnote_518_518" class="fnanchor">518</a> said well that +those who wish to lead a good life ought to have genuine friends or +red-hot enemies; for the former deterred you from what was wrong by +reproof, the latter by abuse. But since friendship has nowadays +become very mealy-mouthed in freedom of speech, voluble in flattery +and silent in rebuke, we can only hear the truth from our enemies. +For as Telephus<a name="FNanchor_519_519" id= +"FNanchor_519_519"></a><a href="#Footnote_519_519" class= +"fnanchor">519</a> having no surgeon of his own, submitted his +wound to be cured by his enemy's spear, so those who cannot procure +friendly rebuke must content themselves with the censure of an +enemy that hates them, reprehending and castigating their vices, +and regard not the animus of the person, but only his matter. For +as he who intended to kill the Thessalian Prometheus<a name= +"FNanchor_520_520" id="FNanchor_520_520"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_520_520" class="fnanchor">520</a> <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">208</a></span>only +stabbed a tumour, and so lanced it that the man's life was saved, +and he was rid of the tumour by its bursting, so oftentimes abuse, +suddenly thrust on a man in anger or hatred, has cured some disease +in his soul which he was ignorant of or neglected. But most people +when they are abused do not consider whether the abuse really +belongs to them properly, but look round to see what abuse they can +heap on the abuser, and, as wrestlers get smothered with the dust +of the arena, do not wipe off the abuse hurled at themselves, but +bespatter others, and at last get on both sides grimy and +discoloured. But if anyone gets a bad name from an enemy, he ought +to clear himself of the imputation even more than he would remove +any stain on his clothes that was pointed out to him; and if it be +wholly untrue, yet he ought to investigate what originated the +charge, and to be on his guard and be afraid lest he had unawares +done something very near akin to what was imputed to him. As +Lacydes, the king of the Argives, by the way he wore his hair and +by his mincing walk got charged with effeminacy: and Pompey's +scratching his head with one finger was construed in the same way, +though both these men were very far from effeminacy or wantonness. +And Crassus was accused of an intrigue with one of the Vestal +Virgins, because he wished to purchase from her a pleasant estate, +and therefore frequently visited her and waited upon her. And +Postumia, from her readiness to laugh and talk somewhat freely with +men, got accused and even had to stand her trial for incest,<a +name="FNanchor_521_521" id="FNanchor_521_521"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_521_521" class="fnanchor">521</a> but was, however, +acquitted of that charge: but Spurius Minucius the Pontif ex +Maximus, when he pronounced her innocent, urged her not to be freer +in her words than she was in her life. And though Themistocles<a +name="FNanchor_522_522" id="FNanchor_522_522"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_522_522" class="fnanchor">522</a> was guiltless of +treason, his intimacy with Pausanias, and the letters and messages +that frequently passed between them, laid him under suspicion.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_208a" id="Page_208a"></a>§ <span class= +"smcap">vii.</span> Whenever therefore any false charge is made +against us, we ought not merely to despise and neglect it as false, +but to see what word or action, either in jest or earnest, has made +the charge seem probable, and this we <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_209" id="Page_209">209</a></span>must for the future be +earnestly on our guard against and shun. For if others falling into +unforeseen trouble and difficulties teach us what is expedient, as +Merope says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Fortune has made me wise, +though she has ta'en</span> <span class="i0">My dearest ones as +wages,"<a name="FNanchor_523_523" id="FNanchor_523_523"></a><a +href="#Footnote_523_523" class="fnanchor">523</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>why should we not take an enemy, and pay him no wages, to teach +us, and give us profit and instruction, in matters which had +escaped our notice? For an enemy has keener perception than a +friend, for, as Plato<a name="FNanchor_524_524" id= +"FNanchor_524_524"></a><a href="#Footnote_524_524" class= +"fnanchor">524</a> says, "the lover is blind as respects the loved +one," and hatred is both curious and talkative. Hiero was twitted +by one of his enemies for his foul breath, so he went home and said +to his wife, "How is this? You never told me of it." But she being +chaste and innocent replied, "I thought all men's breath was like +that."<a name="FNanchor_525_525" id="FNanchor_525_525"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_525_525" class="fnanchor">525</a> Thus perceptible and +material things, and things that are plain to everybody, are sooner +learnt from enemies than from friends and intimates.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Moreover to keep the +tongue well under control, no small factor in moral excellence, and +to make it always obedient and submissive to reason, is not +possible, unless by practice and attention and painstaking a man +has subdued his worst passions, as for example anger. For such +expressions as "a word uttered involuntarily," and "escaping the +barrier of the teeth,"<a name="FNanchor_526_526" id= +"FNanchor_526_526"></a><a href="#Footnote_526_526" class= +"fnanchor">526</a> and "words darting forth spontaneously," well +illustrate what happens in the case of ill-disciplined souls, ever +wavering and in an unsettled condition through infirmity of temper, +through unbridled fancy, or through faulty education. But, +according to divine Plato,<a name="FNanchor_527_527" id= +"FNanchor_527_527"></a><a href="#Footnote_527_527" class= +"fnanchor">527</a> though a word seems a very trivial matter, the +heaviest penalty follows upon it both from gods and men. But +silence can never be called to account, is not only not thirsty, to +borrow the language of Hippocrates, but when abused is dignified +and Socratic, or rather Herculean, if indeed it was Hercules who +said,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Sharp words he heeded not so +much as flies."<a name="FNanchor_528_528" id= +"FNanchor_528_528"></a><a href="#Footnote_528_528" class= +"fnanchor">528</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id= +"Page_210">210</a></span>Not more dignified and noble than this is +it to keep silent when an enemy reviles you, "as one swims by a +smooth and mocking cliff," but in practice it is better. If you +accustom yourself to bear silently the abuse of an enemy, you will +very easily bear the attack of a scolding wife, and will remain +undisturbed when you hear the sharp language of a friend or +brother, and will be calm and placid when you are beaten or have +something thrown at your head by your father or mother. For +Socrates put up with Xanthippe, a passionate and forward woman, +which made him a more easy companion with others, as being +accustomed to submit to her caprices; and it is far better to train +and accustom the temper to bear quietly the insults and rages and +jeers and taunts of enemies and estranged persons, and not to be +distressed at it.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> Thus then must we exhibit +in our enmities meekness and forbearance, and in our friendships +still more simplicity and magnanimity and kindness. For it is not +so graceful to do a friend a service, as disgraceful to refuse to +do so at his request; and not to revenge oneself on an enemy when +opportunity offers is generous. But the man who sympathizes with +his enemy in affliction, and assists him in distress, and readily +holds out a helping hand to his children and family and their +fortunes when in a low condition, whoever does not admire such a +man for his humanity, and praise his benevolence,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He has a black heart made of +adamant</span> <span class="i0">Or iron or bronze."<a name= +"FNanchor_529_529" id="FNanchor_529_529"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_529_529" class="fnanchor">529</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>When Cæsar ordered the statues of Pompey that had been +thrown down to be put up again,<a name="FNanchor_530_530" id= +"FNanchor_530_530"></a><a href="#Footnote_530_530" class= +"fnanchor">530</a> Cicero said, "You have set up again Pompey's +statues, and in so doing have erected statues to yourself." We +ought not therefore to be niggardly in our praise and honour of an +enemy that deserves a good name. For he who praises another +receives on that account greater praise himself, and is the more +credited on another occasion when he finds fault, as not having any +personal ill-feeling against the man, but only <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id= +"Page_211">211</a></span>disapproving of his act; and what is most +noble and advantageous, the man who is accustomed to praise his +enemies, and not to be vexed or malignant at their prosperity, is +as far as possible from envying the good fortune of his friends, +and the success of his intimates. And yet what practice will be +more beneficial to our minds, or bring about a happier disposition, +than that which banishes from us all jealousy and envy? For as in +war many necessary things, otherwise bad, are customary and have as +it were the sanction of law, so that they cannot be abolished in +spite of the injury they do, so enmity drags along in its train +hatred, and envy, and jealousy, and malignity, and revenge, and +stamps them on the character. Moreover knavery, and deceit, and +villainy, that seem neither bad nor unfair if employed against an +enemy, if they once get planted in the mind are difficult to +dislodge; and eventually from force of habit get used also against +friends, unless they are forewarned and forearmed through their +previous acquaintance with the tricks of enemies. If then +Pythagoras,<a name="FNanchor_531_531" id="FNanchor_531_531"></a><a +href="#Footnote_531_531" class="fnanchor">531</a> accustoming his +disciples to abstain from all cruelty and inhumanity to the brute +creation, did right to discountenance bird-fowling, and to buy up +draughts of fishes and bid them be thrown into the water again, and +to forbid killing any but wild animals, much more noble is it, in +dissensions and differences with human beings, to be a generous, +just and true enemy, and to check and tame all bad and low and +knavish propensities, that in all intercourse with friends a man +may keep the peace and abstain from doing an injury. Scaurus was an +enemy and accuser of Domitius, but when one of Domitius' slaves +came to him to reveal some important matters which were unknown to +Scaurus, he would not hear him, but seized him and sent him back to +his master. And when Cato was prosecuting Murena for canvassing, +and was getting together his evidence, he was accompanied as was +usual by people who watched what he was doing,<a name= +"FNanchor_532_532" id="FNanchor_532_532"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_532_532" class="fnanchor">532</a> and would often ask +him if he intended that day to get together his witnesses and open +the case, and if he said "No," they believed him and went <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id= +"Page_212">212</a></span>their way. All this is the greatest proof +of the credit which was reposed in Cato, but it is better and more +important, that we should accustom ourselves to deal justly even +with our enemies, and then there will be no fear that we should +ever act unjustly and treacherously to our friends and +intimates.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> But since, as Simonides +says, "all larks must have their crests,"<a name="FNanchor_533_533" +id="FNanchor_533_533"></a><a href="#Footnote_533_533" class= +"fnanchor">533</a> and every man's nature contains in it pugnacity +and jealousy and envy, which last is, as Pindar says, "the +companion of empty-headed men," one might get considerable +advantage by purging oneself of those passions against enemies, and +by diverting them, like sewers, as far as possible from companions +and friends.<a name="FNanchor_534_534" id="FNanchor_534_534"></a><a +href="#Footnote_534_534" class="fnanchor">534</a> And this it seems +the statesmanlike Onomademus had remarked, for being on the +victorious side in a disturbance at Chios, he urged his party not +to expel all of the different faction, but to leave some, "in +order," he said, "that we may not begin to quarrel with our +friends, when we have got entirely rid of our enemies." So too our +expending these passions entirely on our enemies will give less +trouble to our friends. For it ought not to be, as Hesiod<a name= +"FNanchor_535_535" id="FNanchor_535_535"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_535_535" class="fnanchor">535</a> says, that "potter +envies potter, and singer envies singer, and neighbour neighbour," +and cousin cousin, and brother brother, "if hastening to get rich" +and enjoying prosperity. But if there is no other way to get rid of +strife and envy and quarrels, accustom yourself to be vexed at your +enemies' good fortune, and sharpen and accentuate on them your +acerbity. For as judicious gardeners think they produce finer roses +and violets by planting alongside of them garlic and onions, that +any bitter or strong elements may be transferred to them, so your +enemy's getting and attracting your envy and malignity will render +you kinder and more agreeable to your prosperous friends. And so +let us be rivals of our enemies for glory or office or righteous +gain, not only being vexed if they get ahead of us, but also +carefully observing all the steps by which they get ahead, and +trying to outdo <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id= +"Page_213">213</a></span>them in industry, and hard work, and +soberness, and prudence; as Themistocles said Miltiades' victory at +Marathon would not let him sleep.<a name="FNanchor_536_536" id= +"FNanchor_536_536"></a><a href="#Footnote_536_536" class= +"fnanchor">536</a> For he who thinks his enemy gets before him in +offices, or advocacies, or state affairs, or in favour with his +friends or great men, if from action and emulation he sinks into +envy and despondency, makes his life become idle and inoperative. +But he who is not blinded by hate,<a name="FNanchor_537_537" id= +"FNanchor_537_537"></a><a href="#Footnote_537_537" class= +"fnanchor">537</a> but a discerning spectator of life and character +and words and deeds, will perceive that most of what he envies +comes to those who have them from diligence and prudence and good +actions, and exerting himself in the same direction he will +increase his love of what is honourable and noble, and will +eradicate his vanity and sloth.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> But if our enemies seem to +us to have got either by flattery, or fraud, or bribery, or venal +services, ill-got and discreditable power at court or in state, it +ought not to trouble us but rather inspire pleasure in us, when we +compare our own liberty and purity and independence of life. For, +as Plato<a name="FNanchor_538_538" id="FNanchor_538_538"></a><a +href="#Footnote_538_538" class="fnanchor">538</a> says, "all the +gold above or below the earth is not of equal value with virtue." +And we ought ever to remember the precept of Solon, "We will not +exchange our virtue for others' wealth."<a name="FNanchor_539_539" +id="FNanchor_539_539"></a><a href="#Footnote_539_539" class= +"fnanchor">539</a> Nor will we give up our virtue for the applause +of banqueting theatres, nor for honours and chief seats among +eunuchs and harlots, nor to be monarchs' satraps; for nothing is to +be desired or noble that comes from what is bad. But since, as +Plato<a name="FNanchor_540_540" id="FNanchor_540_540"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_540_540" class="fnanchor">540</a> says, "the lover is +blind as respects the loved one," and we notice more what our +enemies do amiss, we ought not to let either our joy at their +faults or our grief at their success be idle, but in either case we +ought to reflect, how we may become better than them by avoiding +their errors, and by imitating their virtues not come short of +them.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_497_497" id="Footnote_497_497"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_497_497"><span class="label">497</span></a> So Pliny, +viii. 83: "In Creta Insula non vulpes ursive, atque omnino millum +maleficum animal præter phalangium."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_498_498" id="Footnote_498_498"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_498_498"><span class="label">498</span></a> See the same +remark of Chilo, "On Abundance of Friends," <a href= +"#Page_149a">§ vi.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_499_499" id="Footnote_499_499"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_499_499"><span class="label">499</span></a> +"Œconom." i. 15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_500_500" id="Footnote_500_500"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_500_500"><span class="label">500</span></a> A treatise +of Plutarch still extant.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_501_501" id="Footnote_501_501"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_501_501"><span class="label">501</span></a> A line from +a lost Satyric Play of Æschylus, called "Prometheus +Purphoros."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_502_502" id="Footnote_502_502"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_502_502"><span class="label">502</span></a> So fire is +called πάντεχνον in +Æschylus, "Prometheus Desmotes," 7.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_503_503" id="Footnote_503_503"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_503_503"><span class="label">503</span></a> Compare +Seneca, "De Animi Tranquillitate," cap. xiii.: "Zeno noster cum +omnia sua audiret submersa, Jubet, inquit, me fortuna expeditius +philosophari."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_504_504" id="Footnote_504_504"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_504_504"><span class="label">504</span></a> See Horace, +"Epistles," i. I. 28; Pausanias, iv. 2.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_505_505" id="Footnote_505_505"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_505_505"><span class="label">505</span></a> See Plautus, +"Trinummus," 205-211.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_506_506" id="Footnote_506_506"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_506_506"><span class="label">506</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," i. 255.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_507_507" id="Footnote_507_507"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_507_507"><span class="label">507</span></a> Literally +"the artists of Dionysus." We know what they were from our author's +"Quæstiones Romanæ," § 107: διὰ +τί τοὺς +περὶ τὸν +Διόνυσον +τεχνίτας +ἱστρίωνας +῾Ρωμαῖοι +καλοῦσιν;</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_508_508" id="Footnote_508_508"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_508_508"><span class="label">508</span></a> Compare "De +Audiendis Poetis," § iv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_509_509" id="Footnote_509_509"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_509_509"><span class="label">509</span></a> +Æschylus, "Septem contra Thebas," 593, 594.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_510_510" id="Footnote_510_510"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_510_510"><span class="label">510</span></a> Pindar, +"Fragm." 253.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_511_511" id="Footnote_511_511"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_511_511"><span class="label">511</span></a> Demosthenes, +"De Falsa Legatione," p. 406.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_512_512" id="Footnote_512_512"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_512_512"><span class="label">512</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 251.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_513_513" id="Footnote_513_513"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_513_513"><span class="label">513</span></a> A line from +Euripides. Quoted also "De Adulatore et Amico," § xxxii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_514_514" id="Footnote_514_514"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_514_514"><span class="label">514</span></a> Compare "De +Audiendo," §vi. See also Horace, "Satires," i, 4. 136, +137.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_515_515" id="Footnote_515_515"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_515_515"><span class="label">515</span></a> The story is +somewhat differently told, "Quæst. Conviv.," Lib. ii. § +ix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_516_516" id="Footnote_516_516"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_516_516"><span class="label">516</span></a> From a lost +play of Euripides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_517_517" id="Footnote_517_517"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_517_517"><span class="label">517</span></a> In some lost +play. Compare Hesiod, "Works and Days," 719-721; Terence, "Andria," +920.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_518_518" id="Footnote_518_518"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_518_518"><span class="label">518</span></a> The +sentiment is assigned to Diogenes twice elsewhere by our author, +namely, "How One may be aware of one's Progress in Virtue," <a href="#Page_130a">§ +xi</a>., and "How One may discern a Flatterer from a Friend," <a href="#Page_199a">§ +xxxvi</a>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_519_519" id="Footnote_519_519"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_519_519"><span class="label">519</span></a> See +Propertius, ii. 1. 63, 64; Ovid, "Metamorphoses," xii. 112; xiii. +171; "Tristia," v. 2. 15, 16; "Remedia Amoris," 47, 48; Erasmus, +"Adagia," p. 221.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_520_520" id="Footnote_520_520"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_520_520"><span class="label">520</span></a> "Jason +Pheræus cognomine Prometheus dictus est. Vide Ciceronem, +'Nat. Deor.' iii. 29; Plinium, vii. 51; Valerium Maximum, i. 8, +Extem. 6."—<i>Wytttenbach</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_521_521" id="Footnote_521_521"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_521_521"><span class="label">521</span></a> She was a +Vestal Virgin. See Livy, iv. 44.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_522_522" id="Footnote_522_522"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_522_522"><span class="label">522</span></a> See +Thucydides, i. 135, 136.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_523_523" id="Footnote_523_523"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_523_523"><span class="label">523</span></a> From a lost +play of Euripides. Compare the proverb, +παθήματα +μαθήματα.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_524_524" id="Footnote_524_524"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_524_524"><span class="label">524</span></a> "Laws," v. +p. 731 E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_525_525" id="Footnote_525_525"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_525_525"><span class="label">525</span></a> Told again +"Reg. et Imperator. Apophthegm.," p. 175 B.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_526_526" id="Footnote_526_526"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_526_526"><span class="label">526</span></a> A favourite +image of Homer, employed "Iliad," iv. 350; xiv. 83; "Odyssey," i. +64; xxiii. 70.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_527_527" id="Footnote_527_527"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_527_527"><span class="label">527</span></a> "Laws," xi. +p. 935 A. Quoted again "On Talkativeness," § vii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_528_528" id="Footnote_528_528"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_528_528"><span class="label">528</span></a> See +Pausanias, v. 14.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_529_529" id="Footnote_529_529"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_529_529"><span class="label">529</span></a> From a +Fragment of Pindar.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_530_530" id="Footnote_530_530"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_530_530"><span class="label">530</span></a> See +Suetonius, "Divus Julius," 75: "Sed et statuas L. Sullæ atque +Pompeii a plebe disjectas reposuit."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_531_531" id="Footnote_531_531"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_531_531"><span class="label">531</span></a> Compare our +author, "Quaestiones Convivalium," viii. p. 729 E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_532_532" id="Footnote_532_532"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_532_532"><span class="label">532</span></a> No doubt in +the interest of the defendant. See our author, "Cato Minor," p. 769 +B.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_533_533" id="Footnote_533_533"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_533_533"><span class="label">533</span></a> A Greek +proverb, see Erasmus, "Adagia," p. 921.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_534_534" id="Footnote_534_534"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_534_534"><span class="label">534</span></a> So Cicero, +"Nat. Deor." ii. 56: "In ædibus architecti avertunt ab oculis +naribusque dominorum ea quæ profluentia necessario +tætri essent aliquid habitura."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_535_535" id="Footnote_535_535"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_535_535"><span class="label">535</span></a> "Works and +Days," 23-26. Our "Two of a trade seldom agree."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_536_536" id="Footnote_536_536"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_536_536"><span class="label">536</span></a> Compare "How +One may be aware of one's Progress in Virtue," § xiv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_537_537" id="Footnote_537_537"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_537_537"><span class="label">537</span></a> For as the +English proverb says, "Hatred is blind as well as love."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_538_538" id="Footnote_538_538"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_538_538"><span class="label">538</span></a> "Laws," v. +p. 728 A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_539_539" id="Footnote_539_539"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_539_539"><span class="label">539</span></a> Quoted more +fully "How One may be aware of one's Progress in Virtue," § +vi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_540_540" id="Footnote_540_540"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_540_540"><span class="label">540</span></a> "Laws," v. +p. 731 E. See also above, <a href="#Page_208a">§ vii.</a></p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id= +"Page_214">214</a></span></p> + +<h3>ON TALKATIVENESS.<a name="FNanchor_541_541" id= +"FNanchor_541_541"></a><a href="#Footnote_541_541" class= +"fnanchor">541</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Philosophy finds +talkativeness a disease very difficult and hard to cure. For its +remedy, conversation, requires hearers: but talkative people hear +nobody, for they are ever prating. And the first evil this +inability to keep silence produces is an inability to listen. It is +a self-chosen deafness of people who, I take it, blame nature for +giving us one tongue and two ears. If then the following advice of +Euripides to a foolish hearer was good,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I cannot fill one that can +nought retain,</span> <span class="i0">Pumping up wise words for an +unwise man;"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>one might more justly say to a talkative man, or rather about a +talkative man,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I cannot fill one that will +nothing take,</span> <span class="i0">Pumping up wise words for an +unwise man;"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>or rather deluging with words one that talks to those who don't +listen, and listens not to those who talk. Even if he does listen +for a short time, talkativeness hurries off what is said like the +retiring sea, and anon brings it up again multiplied with the +approaching tide. The portico at Olympia that returns many echoes +to one utterance is called seven-voiced,<a name="FNanchor_542_542" +id="FNanchor_542_542"></a><a href="#Footnote_542_542" class= +"fnanchor">542</a> and if the slightest utterance catches the ear +of talkativeness, it at once echoes it all round,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Moving the mind's chords all +unmoved before."<a name="FNanchor_543_543" id= +"FNanchor_543_543"></a><a href="#Footnote_543_543" class= +"fnanchor">543</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For their ears can certainly have no passages leading to the +brain but only to the tongue. And so while other people retain what +they hear, talkative people lose it altogether, and, being +empty-headed, they resemble empty vessels, and go about making much +noise.<a name="FNanchor_544_544" id="FNanchor_544_544"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_544_544" class="fnanchor">544</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id= +"Page_215">215</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> If +however it seems that no attempt at cure has been left untried, let +us say to the talkative person,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Be silent, boy; silence has +great advantages;"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>two of the first and foremost of which are hearing and being +heard, neither of which can happen to talkative people, for however +they desire either so unhappy are they that they must desist from +it. For in all other diseases of the soul, as love of money, love +of glory, or love of pleasure, people at any rate attain the +desired object: but it is the cruel fate of talkative people to +desire hearers but not to get them, for everyone flees from them +with headlong speed; and if people are sitting or walking about in +any public place,<a name="FNanchor_545_545" id= +"FNanchor_545_545"></a><a href="#Footnote_545_545" class= +"fnanchor">545</a> and see one coming they quickly pass the word to +one another to shift quarters. And as when there is dead silence in +any assembly they say Hermes has joined the company, so when any +prater joins some drinking party or social gathering of friends, +all are silent, not wishing to give him a chance to break in, and +if he uninvited begin to open his mouth, they all, "like before a +storm at sea, when Boreas is blowing a gale round some headland," +foreseeing tossing about and nausea, disperse. And so it is their +destiny to find neither willing table-companions, nor messmates +when they are travelling by land or by sea, but only such as cannot +help themselves; for such a fellow is always at you, plucking hold +of your clothes or chin, or giving you a dig in the ribs with his +elbow. "Most valuable are the feet in such a conjuncture," +according to Archilochus, nay according to the wise Aristotle +himself. For he being bothered with a talkative fellow, and wearied +out with his absurd tales, and his frequent question, "Is not this +wonderful, Aristotle?" "Not at all," said he, "but it is wonderful +that anyone with a pair of legs stops here to listen to you." And +to another such fellow, who said after a long rigmarole, "Did I +weary you, philosopher, by my chatter?" "Not you, by Zeus," said +he, "for I paid no attention to you." For <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_216" id="Page_216">216</a></span>even if talkative +people force you to listen,<a name="FNanchor_546_546" id= +"FNanchor_546_546"></a><a href="#Footnote_546_546" class= +"fnanchor">546</a> the mind can give them only its outward ears to +deluge, while it unfolds and pursues some other thoughts within; so +they find neither hearers to attend to them, nor credit them. They +say those that are prone to Venus are commonly barren: so the +prating of talkative people is ineffectual and fruitless.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> And yet nature has fenced +and barricaded in us nothing so much as the tongue, having put the +teeth before it as a barrier, so that if, when reason holds tight +her "glossy reins,"<a name="FNanchor_547_547" id= +"FNanchor_547_547"></a><a href="#Footnote_547_547" class= +"fnanchor">547</a> it hearken not, nor keep within bounds, we may +check its intemperance, biting it till the blood comes. For +Euripides tells us that, not from unbolted houses or store-rooms, +but "from unbridled mouths the end is misfortune."<a name= +"FNanchor_548_548" id="FNanchor_548_548"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_548_548" class="fnanchor">548</a> But those persons who +think that houses without doors and open purses are no good to +their possessors, and yet keep their mouths open and unshut, and +allow their speech to flow continually like the waves of the +Euxine,<a name="FNanchor_549_549" id="FNanchor_549_549"></a><a +href="#Footnote_549_549" class="fnanchor">549</a> seem to regard +speech as of less value than anything. And so they never get +believed, though credit is the aim of every speech; for to inspire +belief in one's hearers is the proper end of speech, but praters +are disbelieved even when they tell the truth. For as corn stowed +away in a granary is found to be larger in quantity but inferior in +quality, so the speech of a talkative man is increased by a large +addition of falsehood, which destroys his credit.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Then again every man of +modesty and propriety would avoid drunkenness, for anger is next +door neighbour to madness as some think,<a name="FNanchor_550_550" +id="FNanchor_550_550"></a><a href="#Footnote_550_550" class= +"fnanchor">550</a> but drunkenness lives in the same house: or +rather drunkenness is madness, more short-lived indeed, but more +potent also through volition, for it is self-chosen. Nor is +drunkenness censured for anything so much as its intemperate and +endless talk.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id= +"Page_217">217</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Wine makes a prudent man +begin to sing,</span> <span class="i0">And gently laugh, and even +makes him dance."<a name="FNanchor_551_551" id= +"FNanchor_551_551"></a><a href="#Footnote_551_551" class= +"fnanchor">551</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And yet there is no harm in all this, in singing and laughing +and dancing. But the poet adds—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"And it compels to say what's +best unsaid."<a name="FNanchor_552_552" id= +"FNanchor_552_552"></a><a href="#Footnote_552_552" class= +"fnanchor">552</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>This is indeed dreadful and dangerous. And perhaps the poet in +this passage has solved that problem of the philosophers, and +stated the difference between being under the influence of wine and +being drunk, mirth being the condition of the former, foolish talk +of the latter. For as the proverb tells us, "What is in the heart +of the sober is on the tongue of the drunken."<a name= +"FNanchor_553_553" id="FNanchor_553_553"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_553_553" class="fnanchor">553</a> And so Bias, being +silent at a drinking bout, and jeered at by some young man in the +company as stupid, replied, "What fool could hold his tongue in +liquor?" And at Athens a certain person gave an entertainment to +the king's ambassadors, and at their desire contrived to get the +philosophers there too, and as they were all talking together and +comparing ideas, and Zeno alone was silent, the strangers greeted +him and pledged him, and said, "What are we to tell the king about +you, Zeno?" And he replied, "Nothing, but that there is an old man +at Athens that can hold his tongue at a drinking bout." So profound +and mysterious and sober is silence, while drunkenness is +talkative: for it is void of sense and understanding, and so is +loquacious. And so the philosophers define drunkenness to be silly +talk in wine. Drinking therefore is not censured, if silence go +with it, but foolish prating turns being under the influence of +wine into drunkenness. And the drunken man prates only in his cups; +but the talkative man prates everywhere, in the market-place, in +the theatre, out walking, by night and by day. If he is your +doctor, he is more trouble to you than your disease: if he is on +board ship with you, he disgusts you more than sea-sickness; if he +praises you, he is more fulsome than blame. It is more pleasure +associating with bad men who have tact than with good men who +prate. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id= +"Page_218">218</a></span>Nestor indeed in Sophocles' Play, trying +by his words to soothe exasperated Ajax, said to him mildly,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I blame you not, for though +your words are bad,</span> <span class="i0">Your acts are +good:"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>but we cannot feel so to the talkative man, for his want of tact +in words destroys and undoes all the grace of his actions.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Lysias wrote a defence for +some accused person, and gave it him, and he read it several times, +and came to Lysias in great dejection and said, "When I first +perused this defence, it seemed to me wonderful, but when I read it +a second and third time, it seemed altogether dull and ineffective. +Then Lysias laughed, and said, "What then? Are you going to read it +more than once to the jury?" And yet do but consider the +persuasiveness and grace of Lysias' style;<a name= +"FNanchor_554_554" id="FNanchor_554_554"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_554_554" class="fnanchor">554</a> for he "I say was a +great favourite with the dark-haired Muses."<a name= +"FNanchor_555_555" id="FNanchor_555_555"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_555_555" class="fnanchor">555</a> And of the things +which have been said of Homer the truest is that he alone of all +poets has survived the fastidiousness of mankind, as being ever new +and still at his acme as regards giving pleasure, and yet saying +and proclaiming about himself, "I hate to spin out a plain tale +over and over again,"<a name="FNanchor_556_556" id= +"FNanchor_556_556"></a><a href="#Footnote_556_556" class= +"fnanchor">556</a> he avoids and fears that satiety which lies in +ambush for every narrative, and takes the hearer from one subject +to another, and relieves by novelty the possibility of being +surfeited. But the talkative worry one's ears to death with their +tautologies, as people scribble the same things over and over again +on palimpsests.<a name="FNanchor_557_557" id= +"FNanchor_557_557"></a><a href="#Footnote_557_557" class= +"fnanchor">557</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> Let us remind them then +first of this, that just as in the case of wine, which was intended +for pleasure and mirth, those who compel people to drink it neat +and in large quantities bring some into a disgusting condition of +drunkenness, so with speech, which is the pleasantest social tie +amongst <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id= +"Page_219">219</a></span>mankind, those who make a bad and +ill-advised use of it render it unpleasing and unfit for company, +paining those whom they think to gratify, and become a +laughing-stock to those who they think admire them, and +objectionable to those who they think love them. As then he cannot +be a favourite of the goddess who with Aphrodite's charmed girdle<a +name="FNanchor_558_558" id="FNanchor_558_558"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_558_558" class="fnanchor">558</a> repels and drives away +those who associate with him, so he who with his speech bores and +disgusts one is without either taste or refinement.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Of all other passions and +disorders some are dangerous, some hateful, some ridiculous, but in +talkativeness all these elements are combined. For praters are +jeered at for their commonplaces, and hated when they bring bad +news, and run into danger when they reveal secrets. And so +Anacharsis, when he was feasted by Solon and lay down to sleep, and +was observed with his left hand on his private parts, and his right +hand on his mouth, for he thought his tongue needed the stronger +restraint, was right in his opinion. For it would be difficult to +find as many men who have been ruined by venereal excesses as +cities and leading states that have been undone by the utterance of +a secret. When Sulla was besieging Athens, and had no time to waste +there, "for he had other fish to fry,"<a name="FNanchor_559_559" +id="FNanchor_559_559"></a><a href="#Footnote_559_559" class= +"fnanchor">559</a> as Mithridates was ravaging Asia, and the party +of Marius was again in power at Rome, some old men in a barber's +shop happened to observe to one another that the Heptachalcon was +not well guarded, and that their city ran a great risk of being +captured at that point, and some spies who overheard this +conversation reported it to Sulla. And he at once marched up his +forces, and about midnight entered the city with his army, and all +but rased it to the ground, and filled it with slaughter and dead +bodies, insomuch that the Ceramicus ran with blood: and he was thus +savage against the Athenians for their words rather than their +deeds, for they had spoken ill of him and his wife Metella, jumping +on to the walls and calling out in a jeering way,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Sulla is a mulberry bestrewn +with barley meal,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id= +"Page_220">220</a></span>and much similar banter. Thus they drew +down upon themselves for words, which, as Plato<a name= +"FNanchor_560_560" id="FNanchor_560_560"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_560_560" class="fnanchor">560</a> says, are a very small +matter, a very heavy punishment.<a name="FNanchor_561_561" id= +"FNanchor_561_561"></a><a href="#Footnote_561_561" class= +"fnanchor">561</a> The prating of one man also prevented Rome from +becoming free by the removal of Nero. For it was only the night +before the tyrant was to be murdered, and all preparations had been +made, when he that was to do the deed going to the theatre, and +seeing someone in chains near the doors who was about to be taken +before Nero, and was bewailing his sad fortune, went up close to +him and whispered, "Pray only, good sir, that to-day may pass by, +to-morrow you will owe me many thanks." He guessing the meaning of +the riddle, and thinking, I take it, "he is a fool who gives up +what is in his hand for a remote contingency,"<a name= +"FNanchor_562_562" id="FNanchor_562_562"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_562_562" class="fnanchor">562</a> preferred certain to +honourable safety. For he informed Nero of what the man had said, +and he was immediately arrested, and torture, and fire, and +scourging were applied to him, who denied now in his necessity what +before he had divulged without necessity.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Zeno the philosopher,<a +name="FNanchor_563_563" id="FNanchor_563_563"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_563_563" class="fnanchor">563</a> that he might not +against his will divulge any secrets when put to the torture, bit +off his tongue, and spit it at the tyrant. Famous also was the +reward which Leæna had for her taciturnity.<a name= +"FNanchor_564_564" id="FNanchor_564_564"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_564_564" class="fnanchor">564</a> She was the mistress +of Harmodius and Aristogiton, and, although a woman, participated +in their hopes of success in the conspiracy against the tyrants: +for she had revelled in the glorious cup of love, and had been +initiated in their secrets through the god. When then they had +failed in their attempt and been put to death, and she was examined +and bidden to reveal the names of the other conspirators, she +refused to do so, and held out to the end, showing that those +famous men in loving such a one as her had done nothing unworthy of +them. And the Athenians erected to her <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_221" id="Page_221">221</a></span>memory a bronze lioness +without a tongue, and placed it near the entrance to the Acropolis, +signifying her dauntless courage by the nobleness of that animal, +and by its being without a tongue her silence and fidelity. For no +spoken word has done as much good as many unspoken ones. For at +some future day we can give utterance if we like to what has been +not said, but a word once spoken cannot be recalled, but flies +about and runs all round the world. And this is the reason, I take +it, why men teach us to speak, but the gods teach us to be silent, +silence being enjoined on us in the mysteries and in all religious +rites. Thus Homer has described the most eloquent Odysseus, and +Telemachus, and Penelope, and the nurse, as all remarkable for +their taciturnity. You remember the nurse saying,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I'll keep it close as heart +of oak or steel."<a name="FNanchor_565_565" id= +"FNanchor_565_565"></a><a href="#Footnote_565_565" class= +"fnanchor">565</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And Odysseus sitting by Penelope,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Though in his heart he pitied +her sad grief,</span> <span class="i0">His eyes like horn or steel +impassive stood</span> <span class="i0">Within their lids, and +craft his tears repressed."<a name="FNanchor_566_566" id= +"FNanchor_566_566"></a><a href="#Footnote_566_566" class= +"fnanchor">566</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>So great control had he over all his body, and so much were all +his members under the sway and rule of reason, that he commanded +his eyes not to weep, his tongue not to speak, and his heart not to +tremble or quake.<a name="FNanchor_567_567" id= +"FNanchor_567_567"></a><a href="#Footnote_567_567" class= +"fnanchor">567</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"So calm and passive did his +heart remain,"<a name="FNanchor_568_568" id= +"FNanchor_568_568"></a><a href="#Footnote_568_568" class= +"fnanchor">568</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>reason penetrating even to the irrational instincts, and making +spirit and blood obedient and docile to it. Such also were most of +his companions, for though they were dashed to the ground and +dragged along by the Cyclops, they said not a word about Odysseus, +nor did they show the stake of wood that had been put into the fire +and prepared to put out Polyphemus' eye, but they would rather have +been eaten alive than divulge secrets, such wonderful <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id= +"Page_222">222</a></span>self-control and fidelity had they.<a +name="FNanchor_569_569" id="FNanchor_569_569"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_569_569" class="fnanchor">569</a> And so it was not +amiss of Pittacus, when the king of Egypt sent him a victim, and +bade him take from it the best and worst piece of it, to pull out +the tongue and send that to the king, as being the instrument of +the greatest blessings and withal the greatest mischiefs.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> So Ino in Euripides, +speaking plainly about herself, says she knows "how to be silent +when she should, and to speak when speech is safe."<a name= +"FNanchor_570_570" id="FNanchor_570_570"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_570_570" class="fnanchor">570</a> For those who have +enjoyed a truly noble and royal education learn first to be silent +and then to speak. So the famous king Antigonus, when his son asked +him, "When are we going to shift our quarters?" answered, "Are you +afraid that you only will not hear the trumpet?" Was he afraid then +to entrust a secret to him, to whom he intended one day to leave +his kingdom? Nay rather, it was to teach him to be close and +guarded on such matters. Metellus<a name="FNanchor_571_571" id= +"FNanchor_571_571"></a><a href="#Footnote_571_571" class= +"fnanchor">571</a> also, the well-known veteran, when questioned +somewhat similarly about an expedition, said, "If I thought my coat +knew the secret, I would strip it off and throw it into the fire." +And Eumenes, when he heard that Craterus was marching against him, +told none of his friends, but pretended that it was Neoptolemus; +for his soldiers despised Neoptolemus, but they admired the glory +and loved the virtue of Craterus; and no one but Eumenes knew the +truth, and they engaged and were victorious, and unwittingly killed +Craterus, and only recognized his dead body. So great a part did +silence play in the battle, concealing the name of the enemy's +general: so that Eumenes' friends marvelled more than found fault +at his not having told them the truth. And if anyone should receive +blame in such a case, it is better to be censured when one has done +well by keeping one's counsel, rather than to have to accuse others +through having come to grief by trusting them.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> But, generally speaking, +who has the right to blame the person who has not kept his secret? +For if it was not to be known, it was not well to tell another +person of it at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id= +"Page_223">223</a></span>all, and if you divulged your secret +yourself and expected another person to keep it, you had more faith +in another than in yourself. And so should he be such another as +yourself you are deservedly undone, and should he be a better man +than yourself, your safety is more than you could have reckoned on, +as it involved finding a man more to be trusted than yourself. But +you will say, He is my friend. Yes, but he has another friend, whom +he reposes confidence in as much as you do in your friend, and that +other friend has one of his own, and so on, so that the secret +spreads in many quarters from inability to keep it close in one. +For as the unit never deviates from its orbit, but (as its name +signifies) always remains one, but the number two contains within +it the seeds of infinity, for when it departs from itself it +becomes plurality at once by doubling, so speech confined in one +person's breast is truly secret, but if it be communicated to +another it soon gets noised abroad. And so Homer calls words +"winged," for as he that lets a bird go from his hands cannot +easily get it back again, so he that lets a word go from his mouth +cannot catch or stop it, but it is borne along "whirling on swift +wings," and dispersed from one person to another. When a ship scuds +before the gale the mariners can stop it, or at least check its +course with cables and anchors, but when the spoken word once sails +out of harbour, so to speak, there is no roadstead or anchorage for +it, but borne along with much noise and echo it dashes its utterer +on the rocks, and brings him into imminent danger of shipwreck,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"As one might set on fire +Ida's woods</span> <span class="i0">With a small torch, so what one +tells one person</span> <span class="i0">Is soon the property of +all the citizens."<a name="FNanchor_572_572" id= +"FNanchor_572_572"></a><a href="#Footnote_572_572" class= +"fnanchor">572</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> The Roman Senate had been +discussing for several days a secret matter, and there was much +doubt and suspicion about it. And one of the senator's wives, +discreet in other matters but a very woman in curiosity, pressed +her husband close, and entreated him to tell her what the secret +was; she vowed and swore she would not divulge it, and did not +refrain from shedding tears at her not being trusted. And he, +nothing loth to convince her of her folly, <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_224" id="Page_224">224</a></span>said, "Your +importunity, wife, has prevailed, listen to a dreadful and +portentous matter. It has been told us by the priests that a lark +has been seen flying in the air with a golden helmet and spear: it +is this portent that we are considering and discussing with the +augurs, as to whether it be a good or bad omen. But say nothing +about it." Having said these words he went into the Forum. But his +wife seized on the very first of her maids that entered the room, +and smote her breast, and tore her hair, and said, "Alas! for my +husband and country! What will become of us?" wishing and teaching +her maid to say, "Whatever's up?" So when she inquired she told her +all about it, adding that refrain common to all praters, "Tell no +one a word about it." The maid however had scarce left her mistress +when she told one of her fellow-servants who was doing little or +nothing, and she told her lover who happened to call at that +moment. So the news spread to the Forum so quickly that it got the +start of its original author, and one of his friends meeting him +said, "Have you only just left your house?" "Only just," he +replied. "Didn't you hear the news?" said his friend. "What news?" +said he. "Why, that a lark has been seen flying in the air with a +golden helmet and spear, and the Senate are met to discuss the +portent." And he smiled and said to himself, "You are quick, wife, +for the tale to get before me to the Forum!" Then meeting some of +the Senators he disabused them of their panic. But to punish his +wife, he said when he got home, "You have undone me, wife: for the +secret has got abroad from my house, so that I must be an exile +from my country for your inability to keep a secret." And on her +trying to deny it, and saying, "Were there not three hundred +Senators that heard of it as well as you? Might not one of them +have divulged it?" he replied, "Stuff o' your three hundred! It was +at your importunity that I invented the story, to put you to the +test!" This fellow tested his wife warily and cunningly, as one +pours water, and not wine or oil, into a leaky vessel. And +Fabius,<a name="FNanchor_573_573" id="FNanchor_573_573"></a><a +href="#Footnote_573_573" class="fnanchor">573</a> the friend of +Augustus, hearing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id= +"Page_225">225</a></span>the Emperor in his old age mourning over +the extinction of his family, how two of his daughter Julia's sons +were dead, and how Posthumus Agrippa, the only remaining one, was +in exile through false accusation,<a name="FNanchor_574_574" id= +"FNanchor_574_574"></a><a href="#Footnote_574_574" class= +"fnanchor">574</a> and how he was compelled to put his wife's son<a +name="FNanchor_575_575" id="FNanchor_575_575"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_575_575" class="fnanchor">575</a> into the succession to +the Empire, though he pitied Agrippa and had half a mind to recall +him from banishment, repeated the Emperor's words to his wife, and +she to Livia.<a name="FNanchor_576_576" id= +"FNanchor_576_576"></a><a href="#Footnote_576_576" class= +"fnanchor">576</a> And Livia bitterly upbraided Augustus, if he +meant recalling his grandson, for not having done so long ago, +instead of bringing her into hatred and hostility with the heir to +the Empire. When Fabius came in the morning as usual into the +Emperor's presence, and said, "Hail, Cæsar!" the Emperor +replied, "Farewell,<a name="FNanchor_577_577" id= +"FNanchor_577_577"></a><a href="#Footnote_577_577" class= +"fnanchor">577</a> Fabius." And he understanding the meaning of +this straightway went home, and sent for his wife, and said, "The +Emperor knows that I have not kept his secret, so I shall kill +myself." And his wife replied, "You have deserved your fate, since +having been married to me so long you did not remember and guard +against my incontinence of speech, but suffer me to kill myself +first." So saying she took his sword, and slew herself first.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> That was a good answer +therefore that the comic poet Philippides made to king Lysimachus, +who greeted him kindly, and said to him,<a name="FNanchor_578_578" +id="FNanchor_578_578"></a><a href="#Footnote_578_578" class= +"fnanchor">578</a> "What shall I give you of all my possessions?" +"Whatever you like, O king, except your secrets." And talkativeness +has another plague attached to it, even curiosity: for praters wish +to hear much that they may have much to say, and most of all do +they gad about to investigate and pry into secrets and hidden +things, providing as it were an antiquated stock of rubbish<a name= +"FNanchor_579_579" id="FNanchor_579_579"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_579_579" class="fnanchor">579</a> for their twaddle, in +fine like children who cannot<a name="FNanchor_580_580" id= +"FNanchor_580_580"></a><a href="#Footnote_580_580" class= +"fnanchor">580</a> hold ice in their hands, and yet are unwilling +to let it go,<a name="FNanchor_581_581" id= +"FNanchor_581_581"></a><a href="#Footnote_581_581" class= +"fnanchor">581</a> or rather taking secrets to their bosoms and +embracing them as if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id= +"Page_226">226</a></span>they were so many serpents, that they +cannot control, but are sure to be gnawed to death by. They say +that garfish and vipers burst in giving life to their young, so +secrets by coming out ruin and destroy those who cannot keep them. +Seleucus Callinicus having lost his army and all his forces in a +battle against the Galati, threw off his diadem, and fled on a +swift horse with an escort of three or four of his men a long day's +journey by bypaths and out-of-the-way tracks, till faint and +famishing for want of food he drew rein at a small farmhouse, where +by chance he found the master at home, and asked for some bread and +water. And he supplied him liberally and courteously not only with +what he asked for but with whatever else was on the farm, and +recognized the king, and being very joyful at this opportunity of +ministering to the king's necessities, he could not contain +himself, nor dissemble like the king who wished to be incognito, +but he accompanied him to the road, and on parting from him, said, +"Farewell, king Seleucus." And he stretching out his right hand, +and drawing the man to him as if he was going to kiss him, gave a +sign to one of his escort to draw his sword and cut the man's head +off;</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"And at his word the head +roll'd in the dust."<a name="FNanchor_582_582" id= +"FNanchor_582_582"></a><a href="#Footnote_582_582" class= +"fnanchor">582</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Whereas if he had been silent then, and kept his counsel for a +time, as the king afterwards became prosperous and great, he would +have received, I take it, greater favour for his silence than for +his hospitality. And yet he had I admit some excuse for his want of +reticence, namely hope and joy.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> But most talkative +people have no excuse for ruining themselves. As for example in a +barber's shop one day there was some conversation about the tyranny +of Dionysius, that it was as hard as adamant and invincible, and +the barber laughed and said, "Fancy your saying this to me, who +have my razor at his throat most days!" And Dionysius hearing this +had him crucified. Barbers indeed are generally a talkative race, +for people fond of prating flock to them and sit in their shops, so +that they pick up the habit from their customers. It was a witty +answer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id= +"Page_227">227</a></span> therefore of king Archelaus,<a name= +"FNanchor_583_583" id="FNanchor_583_583"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_583_583" class="fnanchor">583</a> when a talkative +barber put the towel round his neck, and asked him, "How shall I +shave you, O king?" "Silently," said the monarch. It was a barber +that first spread the news of the great reverse of the Athenians in +Sicily, having heard of it at the Piræus from a slave that +had escaped from the island. He at once left his shop, and ran into +the city at full speed, "that no one else should reap the fame, and +he come in the second,"<a name="FNanchor_584_584" id= +"FNanchor_584_584"></a><a href="#Footnote_584_584" class= +"fnanchor">584</a> of carrying the news into the town. And an +uproar arising, as was only to be expected, the people assembled in +the ecclesia, and began to investigate the origin of the rumour. So +the barber was dragged up and questioned, but knew not the person's +name who had told him, so was obliged to refer its origin to an +anonymous and unknown person. Then anger filled the theatre, and +the multitude cried out, "Torture the cursed fellow, put him to the +rack: he has fabricated and concocted this news: who else heard it? +who credits it?" The wheel was brought, the poor fellow stretched +on it. Meantime those came up who had brought the news, who had +escaped from the carnage in Sicily. Then all the multitude +dispersed to weep over their private sorrows, and abandoned the +poor barber, who remained fastened to the wheel. And when released +late in the evening he actually asked the executioner, if they had +heard how Nicias the General was slain. So invincible and +incorrigible a vice does habit make talkativeness to be.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> And yet, as those that +drink bitter and strong-smelling physic are disgusted even with the +cups they drink it out of, so those that bring evil tidings are +disliked and hated by their hearers. Wittily therefore has +Sophocles described the conversation between Creon and the +guard.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"<i>G.</i> Is't in your ears +or in your mind you're grieved?</span> <span class="i0"><i>C.</i> +Why do you thus define the seat of grief?</span> <span class= +"i0"><i>G.</i> The doer pains your mind, but I your ears."<a name= +"FNanchor_585_585" id="FNanchor_585_585"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_585_585" class="fnanchor">585</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>However those that tell the tale grieve us as well as those +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id= +"Page_228">228</a></span>that did the deed: and yet there is no +means of checking or controlling the running tongue. At +Lacedæmon the temple of Athene Chalciœcus<a name= +"FNanchor_586_586" id="FNanchor_586_586"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_586_586" class="fnanchor">586</a> was broken into, and +an empty flagon was observed lying on the ground inside, and a +great concourse of people came up and discussed the matter. And one +of the company said, "If you will allow me, I will tell you what I +think about this flagon. I cannot help being of opinion that these +sacrilegious wretches drank hemlock, and brought wine with them, +before commencing their nefarious and dangerous work: that so, if +they should fail to be detected, they might depart in safety, +drinking the wine neat as an antidote to the hemlock: whereas +should they be caught in the act, before they were put to the +torture they would die of the poison easily and painlessly." When +he had uttered these words, the idea seemed so ingenious and +farfetched that it looked as if it could not emanate from fancy, +but only from knowledge of the real facts. So the crowd surrounded +this man, and asked him one after the other, "Who are you? Who +knows you? How come you to know all this?" And at last he was +convicted in this way, and confessed that he was one of those that +had committed the sacrilege. And were not the murderers of Ibycus +similarly captured? They were sitting in the theatre, and some +cranes flew over their heads, and they laughed and whispered to one +another, "Behold the avengers of Ibycus." And this being overheard +by some who sat near, as Ibycus had now been some time missing and +inquired after, they laid hold of this remark, and reported it to +the magistrates. And so they were convicted and dragged off to +punishment, being brought to justice not by the cranes but by their +own inability to hold their tongues, being compelled by some Fury +or Vengeance as it were to divulge the murder.<a name= +"FNanchor_587_587" id="FNanchor_587_587"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_587_587" class="fnanchor">587</a> For as in the body +there is an attraction to sore and suffering parts from +neighbouring parts, so the tongue of talkative persons, ever +suffering from inflammation and a throbbing pulse, attracts and +draws to it secret and hidden things. And so the tongue ought to be +fenced in, and have reason ever before <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_229" id="Page_229">229</a></span>it, as a bulwark, to +prevent its tripping: that we may not seem to be more silly than +geese, of whom it is said that, when they fly from Cilicia over Mt. +Taurus which swarms with eagles, they carry in their mouths a large +stone, which they employ as a gag or bridle for their scream, and +so they cross over by night unobserved.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> Now if anyone were to ask +who is the worst and most abandoned man, no one would pass over the +traitor, or mention anyone else. It was as the reward of treason +that Euthycrates roofed his house with Macedonian wood, as +Demosthenes tells us; and that Philocrates got a large sum of +money, and spent it on women and fish; and it was for betraying +Eretria that Euphorbus and Philagrus got an estate from king +Philip. But the talkative man is an unhired and officious traitor, +not of horses<a name="FNanchor_588_588" id= +"FNanchor_588_588"></a><a href="#Footnote_588_588" class= +"fnanchor">588</a> or walls, but of secrets which he divulges in +the law courts, in factions, in party-strife, no one thanking him +for his pains; but should anyone listen to him he thinks he is the +obliged party. So that what was said to a man who rashly and +indiscriminately squandered away all his means and bestowed them on +others,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"It is not kindness in you but +disease,</span> <span class="i0">This itch for giving,"<a name= +"FNanchor_589_589" id="FNanchor_589_589"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_589_589" class="fnanchor">589</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>is appropriate also to the prater, "You don't communicate to us +all this out of friendship or goodwill, but it is a disease in you, +this itch for talking and prating."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> But all this must not be +looked upon merely as an indictment against talkativeness, but an +attempt to cure it: for we overcome the passions by judgement and +practice, but judgement is the first step. For no one is wont to +shun, and eradicate from his soul, what he does not dislike. And we +dislike the passions only when we discern by reason the harm and +shame that results to us by indulging them. As we see every day in +the case of talkative people: if they wish to be loved, they are +hated; if they desire to please, they bore; when they think they +are admired, they are really laughed at; they spend, and get no +gain from so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id= +"Page_230">230</a></span> doing; they injure their friends, benefit +their enemies, and ruin themselves. So that the first cure and +remedy of this disorder will be to reckon up the shame and trouble +that results from it.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> In the next place we +must consider the opposite virtue to talkativeness, always +listening to and having on our lips the encomiums passed upon +reserve, and remembering the decorum sanctity and mysterious power +of silence, and ever bearing in mind that terse and brief speakers, +who put the maximum of matter into the minimum of words, are more +admired and esteemed and thought wiser<a name="FNanchor_590_590" +id="FNanchor_590_590"></a><a href="#Footnote_590_590" class= +"fnanchor">590</a> than unbridled windbags. And so Plato<a name= +"FNanchor_591_591" id="FNanchor_591_591"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_591_591" class="fnanchor">591</a> praises, and compares +to clever javelin-men, such as speak tersely, compressedly, and +concisely. And Lycurgus by using his citizens from boyhood to +silence taught them to perfection their brevity and terseness. For +as the Celtiberians make steel of iron only after digging down deep +in the soil, and carefully separating the iron ore, so Laconian +oratory has no rind,<a name="FNanchor_592_592" id= +"FNanchor_592_592"></a><a href="#Footnote_592_592" class= +"fnanchor">592</a> but by the removal of all superfluous matter +goes home straight to the point like steel. For its +sententiousness,<a name="FNanchor_593_593" id= +"FNanchor_593_593"></a><a href="#Footnote_593_593" class= +"fnanchor">593</a> and pointed suppleness in repartee, comes from +the habit of silence. And we ought to quote such pointed sayings +especially to talkative people, such neatness and vigour have they, +as, for example, what the Lacedæmonians said to Philip, +"[Remember] Dionysius at Corinth."<a name="FNanchor_594_594" id= +"FNanchor_594_594"></a><a href="#Footnote_594_594" class= +"fnanchor">594</a> And again, when Philip wrote to them, "If I +invade Laconia, I will drive you all out of house and home," they +only wrote back, "If." And when king Demetrius was indignant and +cried out, "The Lacedæmonians have only sent me one +ambassador," the ambassador was not frightened but said, "Yes, one +to one man." Certainly among the ancients men of few words were +admired. So the Amphictyones did not write extracts from the Iliad +or Odyssey, or the Pæans of <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_231" id="Page_231">231</a></span>Pindar, in the temple of +Pythian Apollo at Delphi, but "Know thyself," "Not too much of +anything,"<a name="FNanchor_595_595" id="FNanchor_595_595"></a><a +href="#Footnote_595_595" class="fnanchor">595</a> and "Be a surety, +trouble is near;"<a name="FNanchor_596_596" id= +"FNanchor_596_596"></a><a href="#Footnote_596_596" class= +"fnanchor">596</a> so much did they admire compactness and +simplicity of speech, combining brevity with shrewdness of mind. +And is not the god himself short and concise in his oracles? Is he +not called Loxias,<a name="FNanchor_597_597" id= +"FNanchor_597_597"></a><a href="#Footnote_597_597" class= +"fnanchor">597</a> because he prefers ambiguity to longwindedness? +And are not those who express their meaning by signs without words +wonderfully praised and admired? As Heraclitus, when some of the +citizens asked him to give them his opinion about concord, got on +the platform, and took a cup of cold water, and put some +barley-meal in it, and stirred it up with penny-royal, thus showing +them that it is being content with anything, and not needing costly +dainties, that keeps cities in peace and concord. Scilurus, the +king of the Scythians, left eighty sons, and on his death-bed asked +for a bundle of sticks, and bade his sons break it when it was tied +together, and when they could not, he took the sticks one by one +and easily broke them all up: thus showing them that their harmony +and concord would make them strong and hard to overthrow, while +dissension would make them feeble and insecure.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> If then anyone were +continually to recollect and repeat these or similar terse sayings, +he would probably cease to be pleased with idle talk. As for +myself, when I consider of what importance it is to attend to +reason, and to keep to one's purpose, I confess I am quite put out +of countenance by the example of the slave of Pupius Piso the +orator. He, not wishing to be annoyed by their prating, ordered his +slaves merely to answer his questions, and not say a word more. On +one occasion wishing to pay honour to Clodius who was then in +power, he ordered him to be invited to his house, and provided for +him no doubt a sumptuous entertainment. At the time fixed all the +guests were present except Clodius, for whom they waited, and the +host frequently sent the slave who used to invite guests to see if +he was coming, but when evening came, and he was now quite +despaired of, he said to his slave, "Did you <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">232</a></span>not invite +him?" "Certainly," said the slave. "Why then has he not come?" said +the master. "Because he declined," said the slave. "Why then did +you not tell me of it at once?" said the master. "Because you never +asked me," said the slave. This was a Roman slave. But an Athenian +slave "while digging will tell his master on what terms peace was +made." So great is the force of habit in all matters. And of it we +will now speak.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xix.</span> For it is not by applying +bit or bridle that we can restrain the talkative person, we must +master the disease by habit. In the first place then, when you are +in company and questions are going round, accustom yourself not to +speak till all the rest have declined giving an answer. For as +Sophocles says, "counsel is not like a race;" no more are question +and answer. For in a race the victory belongs to him who gets in +first, but in company, if anyone has given a satisfactory answer, +it is sufficient by assenting and agreeing to his view to get the +reputation of being a pleasant fellow; and if no satisfactory +answer is given, then to enlighten ignorance and supply the +necessary information is well-timed and does not excite envy. But +let us be especially on our guard that, if anyone else is asked a +question, we do not ourselves anticipate and intercept him in +giving an answer. It is indeed perhaps nowhere good form, if +another is asked a favour, to push him aside and undertake to grant +it ourselves; for we shall seem so to upbraid two people at once, +the one who was asked as not able to grant the favour, and the +other as not knowing how to ask in the right quarter. But +especially insulting is such forwardness and impetuosity in +answering questions. For he that anticipates by his own answer the +person that was asked the question seems to say, "What is the good +of asking him? What does he know about it? In my presence nobody +else ought to be asked about these matters." And yet we often put +questions to people, not so much because we want an answer, as to +elicit from them conversation and friendly feeling, and from a wish +to fit them for company, as Socrates drew out Theætetus and +Charmides. For it is all one to run up and kiss one who wishes to +be kissed by another, or to divert to oneself the attention that he +was bestowing on another, as to intercept another person's<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">233</a></span> +answers, and to transfer people's ears, and force their attention, +and fix them on oneself; when, even if he that was asked declines +to give an answer, it will be well to hold oneself in reserve, and +only to meet the question modestly when one's turn comes, so +framing one's answer as to seem to oblige the person who asked the +question, and as if one had been appealed to for an answer by the +other. For if people are asked questions and cannot give a +satisfactory answer they are with justice excused; but he who +without being asked undertakes to answer a question, and +anticipates another, is disagreeable even if he succeeds, while, if +his answer is unsatisfactory, he is ridiculed by all the company, +and his failure is a source of the liveliest satisfaction to +them.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xx.</span> The next thing to practise +oneself to in answering the questions put to one,—a point to +which the talkative person ought to pay the greatest +attention,—is not through inadvertence to give serious +answers to people who only challenge you to talk in fun and sport. +For some people concoct questions not for real information, but +simply for amusement and to pass the time away, and propound them +to talkative people, just to have them on. Against this we must be +on our guard, and not rush into conversation too hastily, or as if +we were obliged for the chance, but we must consider the character +of the inquirer and his purpose. When it seems that he really +desires information, we should accustom ourselves to pause, and +interpose some interval between the question and answer; during +which time the questioner can add anything if he chooses, and the +other can reflect on his answer, and not be in too great a hurry +about it, nor bury it in obscurity, nor, as is frequently the case +in too great haste, answer some other question than that which was +asked. The Pythian Priestess indeed was accustomed to utter some of +her oracles at the very moment before the question was put: for the +god whom she serves "understands the dumb, and hears the mute."<a +name="FNanchor_598_598" id="FNanchor_598_598"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_598_598" class="fnanchor">598</a> But he that wishes to +give an appropriate answer must carefully consider both the +question and the mind of the questioner, lest it be as the proverb +expresses it,</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id= +"Page_234">234</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I asked for shovels, they +denied me pails."<a name="FNanchor_599_599" id= +"FNanchor_599_599"></a><a href="#Footnote_599_599" class= +"fnanchor">599</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Besides we ought to check this greediness and hunger for words, +that it may not seem as if we had a flood on our tongue which was +dammed up, but which we were only too glad to discharge<a name= +"FNanchor_600_600" id="FNanchor_600_600"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_600_600" class="fnanchor">600</a> on a question being +put. Socrates indeed so repressed his thirst, that he would not +allow himself to drink after exercise in the gymnasium, till he had +first drawn from the well one bucket of water and poured it on to +the ground, that he might accustom his irrational part to wait upon +reason.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxi.</span> There are moreover three +kinds of answers to questions, the necessary, the polite, and the +superfluous. For instance, if anyone asked, "Is Socrates at home?" +one, as if backward and disinclined to answer, might say, "Not at +home;" or, if he wished to speak with Laconic brevity, might cut +off "at home," and simply say "No;" as, when Philip wrote to the +Lacedæmonians to ask if they would receive him in their city, +they sent him back merely a large "No." But another would answer +more politely, "He is not at home, but with the bankers," and if he +wished to add a little more, "he expects to see some strangers +there." But the superfluous prater, if he has read Antimachus of +Colophon,<a name="FNanchor_601_601" id="FNanchor_601_601"></a><a +href="#Footnote_601_601" class="fnanchor">601</a> says, "He is not +at home, but with the bankers, waiting for some Ionian strangers, +about whom he has had a letter from Alcibiades who is in the +neighbourhood of Miletus, staying with Tissaphernes the satrap of +the great king, who used long ago to favour the Lacedæmonian +party, but now attaches himself to the Athenians for Alcibiades' +sake, for Alcibiades desires to return to his country, and so has +succeeded in changing the views of Tissaphernes." And then he will +go over the whole of the Eighth Book of Thucydides, and deluge the +man, till before he is aware Miletus is captured, and Alcibiades is +in exile the second time. In such a case most of all ought we to +curtail talkativeness, by following <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_235" id="Page_235">235</a></span>the track of a question +closely, and tracing out our answer according to the need of the +questioner with the same accuracy as we describe a circle. When +Carneades was disputing in the gymnasium before the days of his +great fame, the superintendent of the gymnasium sent to him a +message to bid him modulate his voice (for it was of the loudest), +and when he asked him to fix a standard, the superintendent replied +not amiss, "The standard of the person talking with you." So the +meaning of the questioner ought to be the standard for the +answer.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxii.</span> Moreover as Socrates +urged his disciples to abstain from such food as tempted them to +eat when they were not hungry, and from such drinks as tempted them +to drink when they were not thirsty, so the talkative person ought +to be afraid most of such subjects of conversation as he most +delights in and repeats <i>ad nauseam</i>, and to try and resist +their influence. For example, soldiers are fond of descriptions +about war, and thus Homer introduces Nestor frequently narrating +his prowess and glorious deeds. And generally speaking those who +have been successful in the law courts, or beyond their hopes been +favourites of kings and princes, are possessed, as it were by some +disease, with the itch for frequently recalling and narrating, how +they got on and were advanced, what struggles they underwent, how +they argued on some famous occasion, how they won the day either as +plaintiffs or defendants, what panegyrics were showered upon them. +For joy is much more inclined to prate than the well-known +sleeplessness represented in comedies, frequently rousing itself, +and finding something fresh to relate. And so at any excuse they +slip into such narratives. For not only,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Where anyone does itch, there +goes his hand,"<a name="FNanchor_602_602" id= +"FNanchor_602_602"></a><a href="#Footnote_602_602" class= +"fnanchor">602</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>but also delight has a voice of its own, and leads about the +tongue in its train, ever wishing to fortify it with memory. Thus +lovers spend most of their time in conversations that revive the +memory of their loves; and if they cannot talk to human beings +about them, they talk about them to inanimate objects, as, "O +dearest bed," and,</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id= +"Page_236">236</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"O happy lamp, Bacchis deems +you a god,</span> <span class="i0">And if she thinks so, then you +are indeed</span> <span class="i0">The greatest of the +gods."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>The talkative person therefore is merely as regards words a +white line,<a name="FNanchor_603_603" id="FNanchor_603_603"></a><a +href="#Footnote_603_603" class="fnanchor">603</a> but he that is +especially inclined to certain subjects should be especially on his +guard against talking about them, and should avoid such topics, +since from the pleasure they give him they may entice him to be +very prolix and tedious. The same is the case with people in regard +to such subjects as they think they are more experienced in and +acquainted with than others. For such a one, being +self-appreciative and fond of fame, "spends most of the day in that +particular branch of study in which he chances to be proficient."<a +name="FNanchor_604_604" id="FNanchor_604_604"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_604_604" class="fnanchor">604</a> Thus he that is fond +of reading will give his time to research; the grammarian his to +syntax; and the traveller, who has wandered over many countries, +his to geography. We must therefore be on our guard against our +favourite topics, for they are an enticement to talkativeness, as +its wonted haunts are to an animal. Admirable therefore was the +behaviour of Cyrus in challenging his companions, not to those +contests in which he was superior to them, but to those in which he +was inferior, partly that he might not give them pain through his +superiority, partly for his own benefit by learning from them. But +the talkative person acts just contrary, for if any subject is +introduced from which he might learn something he did not know, +this he rejects and refuses, not being able to earn a good deal by +a short silence,<a name="FNanchor_605_605" id= +"FNanchor_605_605"></a><a href="#Footnote_605_605" class= +"fnanchor">605</a> but he rambles round the subject and babbles out +stale and commonplace rhapsodies. As one amongst us, who by chance +had read two or three of the books of Ephorus,<a name= +"FNanchor_606_606" id="FNanchor_606_606"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_606_606" class="fnanchor">606</a> bored everybody, and +dispersed every social party, by always narrating the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id= +"Page_237">237</a></span>particulars of the battle of Leuctra and +its consequences, so that he got nicknamed Epaminondas.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxiii.</span> Nevertheless this is +one of the least of the evils of talkativeness, and we ought even +to try and divert it into such channels as these, for prating is +less of a nuisance when it is on some literary subject. We ought +also to try and get some persons to write on some topic, and so +discuss it by themselves. For Antipater the Stoic philosopher,<a +name="FNanchor_607_607" id="FNanchor_607_607"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_607_607" class="fnanchor">607</a> not being able or +willing it seems to dispute with Carneades, who inveighed +vehemently against the Stoic philosophy, writing and filling many +books of controversy against him, got the nickname of +<i>Noisy-with-the-pen</i>; and perhaps the exercise and excitement +of writing, keeping him very much apart from the community, might +make the talkative man by degrees better company to those he +associated with; as dogs, bestowing their rage on sticks and +stones, are less savage to men. It will also be very advantageous +for such to mix with people better and older than themselves, for +they will accustom themselves to be silent by standing in awe of +their reputation. And withal it will be well, when we are going to +say something, and the words are on our lips, to reflect and +consider, "What is this word that is so eager for utterance? To +what is this tongue marching? What good will come of speaking now, +or what harm of silence?" For we ought not to drop words as we +should a burden that pressed upon us, for the word remains still +after it has been spoken just the same; but men speak either on +their own behalf if they want something, or to benefit those that +hear them, or, to gratify one another, they season everyday life +with speech, as one seasons food with salt. But if words are +neither useful to the speaker, nor necessary for the hearer, nor +contain any pleasure or charm, why are they spoken? For words may +be idle and useless as well as deeds. And besides all this we must +ever remember as most important the dictum of Simonides, that he +had often repented he had spoken, but never that he had been +silent: while as to the power and strength of practice consider how +men by much toil and painstaking will get rid even of a cough or +hiccough. And silence is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" +id="Page_238">238</a></span>not only never thirsty, as Hippocrates +says, but also never brings pain or sorrow.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_541_541" id="Footnote_541_541"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_541_541"><span class="label">541</span></a> Or +<i>Garrulity</i>, <i>Chattering</i>, <i>Prating</i>. It is +Talkativeness in a bad sense.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_542_542" id="Footnote_542_542"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_542_542"><span class="label">542</span></a> Or +<i>Heptaphonos</i>. See Pausanias, v. 21.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_543_543" id="Footnote_543_543"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_543_543"><span class="label">543</span></a> Some unknown +poet's words. I suppose they mean driving one mad, making one "Like +sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_544_544" id="Footnote_544_544"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_544_544"><span class="label">544</span></a> So our +English proverb, "Empty vessels make the greatest sound."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_545_545" id="Footnote_545_545"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_545_545"><span class="label">545</span></a> Literally in +a semi-circular place. It is not quite clear whether the front +seats of the theatre are meant, or, as I have taken it, more +generally, of some public place for entertainment or meeting, some +promenade or piazza.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_546_546" id="Footnote_546_546"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_546_546"><span class="label">546</span></a> Reading +ἀκοὔειν, which seems far +the best reading.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_547_547" id="Footnote_547_547"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_547_547"><span class="label">547</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," v. 226; "Odyssey," vi. 81.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_548_548" id="Footnote_548_548"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_548_548"><span class="label">548</span></a> +"Bacchæ," 385-387.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_549_549" id="Footnote_549_549"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_549_549"><span class="label">549</span></a> See Ovid, +"Tristia," iv. 4, 55-58.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_550_550" id="Footnote_550_550"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_550_550"><span class="label">550</span></a> For example, +Horace, "Epistles," i. 2, 62: "Ira furor brevis est" I read +ὁμότοιχος with +Mez.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_551_551" id="Footnote_551_551"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_551_551"><span class="label">551</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xiv. 463-465.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_552_552" id="Footnote_552_552"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_552_552"><span class="label">552</span></a> Ibid. +466.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_553_553" id="Footnote_553_553"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_553_553"><span class="label">553</span></a> Compare the +German proverb, "Thought when sober, said when +drunk"—"Nuchtern gedacht, voll gesagt."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_554_554" id="Footnote_554_554"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_554_554"><span class="label">554</span></a> Cf. +Quintilian, x. 1, 78: "His ætate Lysias major, subtilis atque +elegans et quo nihil, si oratori satis est docere, quæras +perfectius. Nihil enim est inane, nihil arcessitum; puro tamen +fonti quam magno flumini propior." Cf. ix. 4, 17.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_555_555" id="Footnote_555_555"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_555_555"><span class="label">555</span></a> Somewhat +like Pindar, "Pyth." i. 1. 1, 2.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_556_556" id="Footnote_556_556"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_556_556"><span class="label">556</span></a> "Odyssey," +xii. 452, 453.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_557_557" id="Footnote_557_557"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_557_557"><span class="label">557</span></a> See Cicero, +"Ad Fam." vii. 18; Catullus, xxii. 5, 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_558_558" id="Footnote_558_558"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_558_558"><span class="label">558</span></a> See "Iliad," +xiv. 214-217.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_559_559" id="Footnote_559_559"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_559_559"><span class="label">559</span></a> "Allusio ad +Homericum ἐπεἱ +πόνος +ἄλλος +ἐπείγει."—<i>Xylander.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_560_560" id="Footnote_560_560"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_560_560"><span class="label">560</span></a> "Laws," xi. +p. 935 A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_561_561" id="Footnote_561_561"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_561_561"><span class="label">561</span></a> So true are +the words of Æschylus, +γλώσσῃ +ματαίᾳ ζημία +προστρίβεται.—"Prom." +329.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_562_562" id="Footnote_562_562"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_562_562"><span class="label">562</span></a> Our "A bird +in the hand is worth two in the bush."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_563_563" id="Footnote_563_563"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_563_563"><span class="label">563</span></a> "Non +Citticus, sed Eleates. v. Cic. Tuscul. ii. 22, et Nat. Deor. 3, +33."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_564_564" id="Footnote_564_564"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_564_564"><span class="label">564</span></a> See +Pausanias, i. 23. Leæna means "lioness." On the conspiracy +see Thucydides, vi. 54-59.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_565_565" id="Footnote_565_565"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_565_565"><span class="label">565</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xix. 494. Plutarch quotes from memory. The nurse's name +was Euryclea.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_566_566" id="Footnote_566_566"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_566_566"><span class="label">566</span></a> Odyssey," +xix. 210-212. Quoted again "On Moral Virtue," § iv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_567_567" id="Footnote_567_567"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_567_567"><span class="label">567</span></a> Literally +<i>bark</i>. See "Odyssey," xx. 13, 16.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_568_568" id="Footnote_568_568"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_568_568"><span class="label">568</span></a> "Odyssey," +xx. 23.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_569_569" id="Footnote_569_569"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_569_569"><span class="label">569</span></a> See +"Odyssey," ix. +Κυκλώπεια.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_570_570" id="Footnote_570_570"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_570_570"><span class="label">570</span></a> Euripides, +"Ino." Fragment, 416.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_571_571" id="Footnote_571_571"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_571_571"><span class="label">571</span></a> "Significat +Q. Cæcilium Metellum, de quo Liv. xl. 45, +46."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_572_572" id="Footnote_572_572"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_572_572"><span class="label">572</span></a> Euripides, +"Ino." Fragm. 415. Compare St. James, iii. 5, 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_573_573" id="Footnote_573_573"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_573_573"><span class="label">573</span></a> Fabius +Maximus. So Tacitus, "Annals," i. 5, who relates this story +somewhat differently.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_574_574" id="Footnote_574_574"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_574_574"><span class="label">574</span></a> See Tacitus, +"Annals," i. 3. As to his fate, see "Annals," i. 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_575_575" id="Footnote_575_575"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_575_575"><span class="label">575</span></a> Tiberius +Nero, who actually did succeed Augustus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_576_576" id="Footnote_576_576"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_576_576"><span class="label">576</span></a> The +Emperor's wife.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_577_577" id="Footnote_577_577"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_577_577"><span class="label">577</span></a> So it is in +§ xii. But perhaps here it means, "I wish you had more sense, +Fabius!"</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_578_578" id="Footnote_578_578"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_578_578"><span class="label">578</span></a> Adopting the +reading of Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_579_579" id="Footnote_579_579"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_579_579"><span class="label">579</span></a> Reading +φορυτοῦ or +φορυτῶν, as Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_580_580" id="Footnote_580_580"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_580_580"><span class="label">580</span></a> Reading +κατέχειν +δύνανται with Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_581_581" id="Footnote_581_581"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_581_581"><span class="label">581</span></a> See +Sophocles, Fragm. 162.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_582_582" id="Footnote_582_582"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_582_582"><span class="label">582</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," x. 457.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_583_583" id="Footnote_583_583"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_583_583"><span class="label">583</span></a> Compare +"Moralia," p. 177 A; Horace, "Satires," i. 7. 3: "Omnibus et lippis +notum et tonsoribus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_584_584" id="Footnote_584_584"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_584_584"><span class="label">584</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xxii. 207.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_585_585" id="Footnote_585_585"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_585_585"><span class="label">585</span></a> Sophocles, +"Antigone," 317-319.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_586_586" id="Footnote_586_586"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_586_586"><span class="label">586</span></a> See +Pausanias, iii. 17; iv. 15; x. 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_587_587" id="Footnote_587_587"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_587_587"><span class="label">587</span></a> Compare the +idea of the people of Melita, Acts xxviii. 4.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_588_588" id="Footnote_588_588"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_588_588"><span class="label">588</span></a> An Allusion +to Dolon in Homer, "Iliad," x., 374, sq. according to Xylander.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_589_589" id="Footnote_589_589"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_589_589"><span class="label">589</span></a> Quoted again +by our author in his "Publicola," p. 105 B., and assigned to +Epicharmus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_590_590" id="Footnote_590_590"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_590_590"><span class="label">590</span></a> So Shakspere +has taught us, "Brevity is the soul of wit."—<i>Hamlet</i>, +Act ii Sc. 2.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_591_591" id="Footnote_591_591"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_591_591"><span class="label">591</span></a> "In +Protagora."—<i>Xylander.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_592_592" id="Footnote_592_592"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_592_592"><span class="label">592</span></a> That is, is +all kernel. See passim our author's "Apophthegmata Laconica."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_593_593" id="Footnote_593_593"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_593_593"><span class="label">593</span></a> Or, +<i>apophthegmatic nature</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_594_594" id="Footnote_594_594"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_594_594"><span class="label">594</span></a> Dionysius +the younger, tyrant of Syracuse, was expelled, and afterwards kept +a school at Corinth. That is the allusion. It would be like saying +"Remember Napoleon at St. Helena."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_595_595" id="Footnote_595_595"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_595_595"><span class="label">595</span></a> See +Pausanias, x. 24.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_596_596" id="Footnote_596_596"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_596_596"><span class="label">596</span></a> See Plato, +"Charmides," 165 A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_597_597" id="Footnote_597_597"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_597_597"><span class="label">597</span></a> A title +applied to Apollo first by Herodotus, i. 91, from his ambiguous +(λοξά) oracles.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_598_598" id="Footnote_598_598"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_598_598"><span class="label">598</span></a> Part of the +words of an oracle of the Pythian Priestess, slightly changed. The +whole oracle may be seen in Herodotus, i. 47.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_599_599" id="Footnote_599_599"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_599_599"><span class="label">599</span></a> Proverb of +cross purposes.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_600_600" id="Footnote_600_600"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_600_600"><span class="label">600</span></a> Reading +ἐξερᾰσθαι with +Dübner.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_601_601" id="Footnote_601_601"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_601_601"><span class="label">601</span></a> Catullus +calls him "tumidus," <i>i.e.</i> long-winded, 95, 10. See also +Propertius, iii. 34-32. He was a Greek poet, a contemporary of +Socrates and Plato, and author of a Thebaid. Pausanias mentions +him, viii. 25; ix. 35.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_602_602" id="Footnote_602_602"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_602_602"><span class="label">602</span></a> The +mediæval proverb, <i>Ubi dolor ibi digitus</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_603_603" id="Footnote_603_603"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_603_603"><span class="label">603</span></a> A proverbial +expression for having no judgment. See Sophocles, Fragm. 307; +Plato, "Charmides," 154 B; Erasmus, "Adagia." So we say a person's +mind is a blank sheet on a subject he knows nothing about.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_604_604" id="Footnote_604_604"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_604_604"><span class="label">604</span></a> Euripides, +Fragm. 202. Quoted also by Plato, "Gorgias," 484 E.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_605_605" id="Footnote_605_605"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_605_605"><span class="label">605</span></a> Reading with +Reiske, μισθὸν +αὑτῷ δοῦναι +τῷ μικρὸν +σιωπῆσαι +μὴ +δυνάμενος.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_606_606" id="Footnote_606_606"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_606_606"><span class="label">606</span></a> A celebrated +Greek historian, and pupil of Isocrates. See Cicero, "De Oratore," +ii. 13.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_607_607" id="Footnote_607_607"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_607_607"><span class="label">607</span></a> Of Tarsus. +See Cicero, "De Officiis," iii. 12.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_238a" id="Page_238a" />ON CURIOSITY.<a name= +"FNanchor_608_608" id="FNanchor_608_608"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_608_608" class="fnanchor">608</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> If a house is dark, or has +little air, is in an exposed position, or unhealthy, the best thing +will probably be to leave it; but if one is attached to it from +long residence in it, one can improve it and make it more light and +airy and healthy by altering the position of the windows and +stairs, and by throwing open new doors and shutting up old ones. So +some towns have been altered for the better, as my native place,<a +name="FNanchor_609_609" id="FNanchor_609_609"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_609_609" class="fnanchor">609</a> which did lie to the +west and received the rays of the setting sun from Parnassus, was +they say turned to the east by Chæron. And Empedocles the +naturalist is supposed to have driven away the pestilence from that +district, by having closed up a mountain gorge that was prejudicial +to health by admitting the south wind to the plains. Similarly, as +there are certain diseases of the soul that are injurious and +harmful and bring storm and darkness to it, the best thing will be +to eject them and lay them low by giving them open sky, pure air +and light, or, if that cannot be, to change and improve them some +way or other. One such mental disease, that immediately suggests +itself to one, is curiosity, the desire to know other people's +troubles, a disease that seems neither free from envy nor +malignity.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Malignant wretch, why art so +keen to mark</span> <span class="i0">Thy neighbour's fault, and +seest not thine own?"<a name="FNanchor_610_610" id= +"FNanchor_610_610"></a><a href="#Footnote_610_610" class= +"fnanchor">610</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Shift your view, and turn your curiosity so as to look inwards: +if you delight to study the history of evils, you have copious +material at home, "as much as there is water in the Alizon, or +leaves on the oak," such a quantity of faults will you find in your +own life, and passions in your soul, <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_239" id="Page_239">239</a></span>and shortcomings in your +duty. For as Xenophon says<a name="FNanchor_611_611" id= +"FNanchor_611_611"></a><a href="#Footnote_611_611" class= +"fnanchor">611</a> good managers have one place for the vessels +they use in sacrificing, and another for those they use at meals, +one place for their farm instruments, and another for their weapons +of war, so your faults arise from different causes, some from envy, +some from jealousy, some from cowardice, some from meanness. Review +these, consider these; bar up the curiosity that pries into your +neighbours' windows and passages, and open it on the men's +apartments, and women's apartments, and servant's attics, in your +own house. There this inquisitiveness and curiosity will find full +vent, in inquiries that will not be useless or malicious, but +advantageous and serviceable, each one saying to himself,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"What have I done amiss? What +have I done?</span> <span class="i0">What that I ought to have done +left undone?"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> And now, as they say of +Lamia that she is blind when she sleeps at home, for she puts her +eyes on her dressing-table, but when she goes out she puts her eyes +on again, and has good sight, so each of us turns, like an eye, our +malicious curiosity out of doors and on others, while we are +frequently blind and ignorant about our own faults and vices, not +applying to them our eyes and light. So that the curious man is +more use to his enemies than to himself, for he finds fault with +and exposes their shortcomings, and shows them what they ought to +avoid and correct, while he neglects most of his affairs at home, +owing to his excitement about things abroad. Odysseus indeed would +not converse with his mother till he had learnt from the seer +Tiresias what he went to Hades to learn; and after receiving that +information, then he turned to her, and asked questions about the +other women, who Tyro was, and who the fair Chloris, and why +Epicaste<a name="FNanchor_612_612" id="FNanchor_612_612"></a><a +href="#Footnote_612_612" class="fnanchor">612</a> had died, "having +fastened a noose with a long drop to the lofty beam."<a name= +"FNanchor_613_613" id="FNanchor_613_613"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_613_613" class="fnanchor">613</a> But we, while very +remiss and ignorant and careless about ourselves, know all about +the pedigrees <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id= +"Page_240">240</a></span>of other people, that our neighbour's +grandfather was a Syrian, and his grandmother a Thracian woman, and +that such a one owes three talents, and has not paid the interest. +We even inquire into such trifling matters as where somebody's wife +has been, and what those two are talking in the corner about. But +Socrates used to busy himself in examining the secret of +Pythagoras' persuasive oratory, and Aristippus, meeting Ischomachus +at the Olympian games, asked him how Socrates conversed so as to +have so much influence over the young men, and having received from +him a few scraps and samples of his style, was so enthusiastic +about it that he wasted away, and became quite pale and lean, +thirsty and parched, till he sailed to Athens and drew from the +fountain-head, and knew the wonderful man himself and his speeches +and philosophy, the object of which was that men should recognize +their faults and so get rid of them.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> But some men cannot bear +to look upon their own life, so unlovely a spectacle is it, nor to +throw and flash on themselves, like a lantern, the reflection of +reason; but their soul being burdened with all manner of vices, and +dreading and shuddering at its own interior, sallies forth and +wanders abroad, feeding and fattening its malignity there. For as a +hen, when its food stands near its coop,<a name="FNanchor_614_614" +id="FNanchor_614_614"></a><a href="#Footnote_614_614" class= +"fnanchor">614</a> will frequently slip off into a corner and +scratch up,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Where I ween some poor little +grain appears on the dunghill,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>so curious people neglecting conversation or inquiry about +common matters, such as no one would try and prevent or be +indignant at their prying into, pick out the secret and hidden +troubles of every family. And yet that was a witty answer of the +Egyptian, to the person who asked him, "What he was carrying +wrapped up;" "It was wrapped up on purpose that you should not +know." And you too, Sir, I would say to a curious person, why do +you pry into what is hidden? If it were not something bad it would +not be hidden. Indeed it is not usual to go into a strange house +without knocking at the door, and nowadays there are porters, but +in old times there were knockers on doors <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_241" id="Page_241">241</a></span>to let the people +inside know when anyone called, that a stranger might not find the +mistress or daughter of the house <i>en déshabille</i>, or +one of the slaves being corrected, or the maids bawling out. But +the curious person intrudes on all such occasions as these, +although he would be unwilling to be a spectator, even if invited, +of a well-ordered family: but the things for which bars and bolts +and doors are required, these he reveals and divulges openly to +others. Those are the most troublesome winds, as Aristo says, that +blow up our clothes: but the curious person not only strips off the +garments and clothes of his neighbours, but breaks through their +walls, opens their doors, and like the wanton wind, that insinuates +itself into maidenly reserve, he pries into and calumniates dances +and routs and revels.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> And as Cleon is satirized +in the play<a name="FNanchor_615_615" id="FNanchor_615_615"></a><a +href="#Footnote_615_615" class="fnanchor">615</a> as having "his +hands among the Ætolians, but his soul in Peculation-town," +so the soul of the curious man is at once in the mansions of the +rich, and the cottages of the poor, and the courts of kings, and +the bridal chambers of the newly married; he pries into everything, +the affairs of foreigners, the affairs of princes, and sometimes +not without danger. For just as if one were to taste aconite to +investigate its properties, and kill oneself before one had +discovered them, so those that pry into the troubles of great +people ruin themselves before they get the knowledge they desire; +even as those become blind who, neglecting the wide and general +diffusion all over the earth of the sun's rays, impudently attempt +to gaze at its orb and penetrate to its light. And so that was a +wise answer of Philippides the Comic Poet, when King Lysimachus +asked him on one occasion, "What would you like to have of mine?" +"Anything, O king, but your secrets." For the pleasantest and +finest things to be got from kings are public, as banquets, and +riches, and festivities, and favours: but come not near any secret +of theirs, pry not into it. There is no concealment of the joy of a +prosperous monarch, or of his laugh when he is in a playful mood, +or of any tokens of his goodwill and favour; but dreadful is what +he conceals, his gloominess, his sternness, his reserve, his store +of latent wrath, his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id= +"Page_242">242</a></span>meditation on stern revenge, his jealousy +of his wife, or suspicion of his son, or doubt about the fidelity +of a friend. Flee from this cloud that is so black and threatening, +for when its hidden fury bursts forth, you will not fail to hear +its thunder and see its lightning.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> How shall you flee from it? +Why, by dissipating and distracting your curiosity, by turning your +soul to better and pleasanter objects: examine the phenomena of +sky, and earth, and air, and sea. Are you by nature fond of gazing +at little or great things? If at great, turn your attention to the +sun, consider its rising and setting: view the changes of the moon, +like the changes of our mortal life, see how it waxes and +wanes,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"How at the first it peers out +small and dim</span> <span class="i0">Till it unfolds its full and +glorious Orb,</span> <span class="i0">And when its zenith it has +once attained,</span> <span class="i0">Again it wanes, grows small, +and disappears."<a name="FNanchor_616_616" id= +"FNanchor_616_616"></a><a href="#Footnote_616_616" class= +"fnanchor">616</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>These are indeed Nature's secrets, but they bring no trouble on +those that study them. But if you decline the study of great +things, inspect with curiosity smaller matters, see how some plants +flourish, are green and gay, and exhibit their beauty, all the year +round, while others are sometimes gay like them, at other times, +like some unthrift, run through their resources entirely, and are +left bare and naked. Consider again their various shapes, how some +produce oblong fruits, others angular, others smooth and round. But +perhaps you will not care to pry into all this, since you will find +nothing bad. If you must then ever bestow your time and attention +on what is bad, as the serpent lives but in deadly matter, go to +history, and turn your eye on the sum total of human misery. For +there you will find "the falls of men, and murders of their +lives,"<a name="FNanchor_617_617" id="FNanchor_617_617"></a><a +href="#Footnote_617_617" class="fnanchor">617</a> rapes of women, +attacks of slaves, treachery of friends, mixing of poisons, +envyings, jealousies, "shipwrecks of families," and dethroning of +princes. Sate and cloy your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" +id="Page_243">243</a></span>self on these, you will by so doing vex +and enrage none of your associates.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> But it seems curiosity +does not rejoice in stale evils, but only in fresh and recent ones, +gladly viewing the spectacle of tragedies of yesterday, but +backward in taking part in comic and festive scenes. And so the +curious person is a languid and listless hearer to the narrator of +a marriage, or sacrifice, or solemn procession, he says he has +heard most of all that before, bids the narrator cut it short and +come to the point; but if his visitor tell him of the violation of +some girl, or the adultery of some married woman, or the disputes +and intended litigation of brothers, he doesn't go to sleep then, +nor pretend want of leisure,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"But he pricks up his ears, +and asks for more."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>And indeed those lines,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Alas! how quicker far to +mortals' ears</span> <span class="i0">Do ill news travel than the +news of good!"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>are truly said of curious people. For as cupping-glasses take +away the worst blood, so the ears of curious people attract only +the worst reports; or rather, as cities have certain ominous and +gloomy gates, through which they conduct only condemned criminals, +or convey filth and night soil, for nothing pure or holy has either +ingress into or egress from them, so into the ears of curious +people goes nothing good or elegant, but tales of murders travel +and lodge there, wafting a whiff of unholy and obscene +narrations.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"And ever in my house is heard +alone</span> <span class="i0">The sound of wailing;"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>this is to the curious their one Muse and Siren, this the +sweetest note they can hear. For curiosity desires to know what is +hidden and secret; but no one conceals his good fortune, nay +sometimes people even pretend to have such advantages as they do +not really possess. So the curious man, eager to hear a history of +what is bad, is possessed by the passion of malignity, which is +brother to envy and jealousy. For envy is pain at another's +blessings, and malignity is joy at another's misfortunes: and both +proceed from the same savage and brutish vice, ill-nature.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id= +"Page_244">244</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> But +so unpleasant is it to everybody to have his private ills brought +to light, that many have died rather than acquaint the doctors with +their secret ailments. For suppose Herophilus, or Erasistratus, or +even Æsculapius himself during his sojourn on earth, had gone +with their drugs and surgical instruments from house to house, to +inquire what man had a fistula in ano, or what woman had a cancer +in her womb;—and yet their curiosity would have been +professional<a name="FNanchor_618_618" id="FNanchor_618_618"></a><a +href="#Footnote_618_618" class="fnanchor">618</a>—who would +not have driven them away from their house, for not waiting till +they were sent for, and for coming without being asked to spy out +their neighbours' ailments? But curious people pry into these and +even worse matters, not from a desire to heal them, but only to +expose them to others, which makes them deservedly hated. For we +are not vexed and mortified with custom-house officers when they +levy toll on goods <i>bona fide</i> imported, but only when they +seek for contraband articles, and rip up bags and packages: and yet +the law allows them to do even this, and sometimes it is injurious +to them not to do so. But curious people abandon and neglect their +own affairs, and are busy about their neighbours' concerns. Seldom +do they go into the country, for they do not care for its quiet and +stillness and solitude, but if once in a way they do go there, they +look more at their neighbours' vines than their own, and inquire +how many cows of their neighbour have died, or how much of his wine +has turned sour, and when they are satisfied on these points they +soon return to town again. But the genuine countryman does not +willingly listen to any rumour that chances to come from the town, +for he quotes the following lines,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Even with spade in hand he'll +tell the terms</span> <span class="i0">On which peace was +concluded: all these things</span> <span class="i0">The +cursèd fellow walks about and pries into."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> But curious people shun +the country as stale and dull and too quiet, and push into +warehouses and markets and harbours, asking, "Any news? Were you +not in the market in the forenoon?" and sometimes receiving for +answer, "What then? Do you think things in the town change every +three hours?" Notwithstanding if any<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_245" id="Page_245">245</a></span>one brings any news, he'll +get off his horse, and embrace him, and kiss him, and stand to +listen. If however the person who meets him says he has no news, he +will say somewhat peevishly, "No news, Sir? Have you not been in +the market? Did you not pass by the officers' quarters? Did you +exchange no words with those that have just arrived from Italy?" To +stop such people the Locrian authorities had an excellent rule; +they fined everyone coming from abroad who asked what the news was. +For as cooks pray for plenty of meat, and fishmongers for shoals of +fish, so curious people pray for shoals of trouble, and plenty of +business, and innovations and changes, that they may have something +to hunt after and tittle-tattle about. Well also was it in +<i>Charondas</i>, the legislator of the people of Thurii,<a name= +"FNanchor_619_619" id="FNanchor_619_619"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_619_619" class="fnanchor">619</a> to forbid any of the +citizens but adulterers and curious persons to be ridiculed on the +stage. Adultery itself indeed seems to be only the fruit of +curiosity about another man's pleasures, and an inquiring and +prying into things kept close and hidden from the world; while +curiosity is a tampering with and seduction of and revealing the +nakedness of secrets.<a name="FNanchor_620_620" id= +"FNanchor_620_620"></a><a href="#Footnote_620_620" class= +"fnanchor">620</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> As it is likely that much +learning will produce wordiness, and so Pythagoras enjoined five +years' silence on his scholars, calling it a truce from words,<a +name="FNanchor_621_621" id="FNanchor_621_621"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_621_621" class="fnanchor">621</a> so defamation of +character is sure to go with curiosity. For what people are glad to +hear they are glad to talk about, and what they eagerly pick up +from others they joyfully retail to others. And so, amongst the +other mischiefs of curiosity, the disease runs counter to their +desires; for all people fight shy of them, and conceal their +affairs from them, and neither care to do or say anything in their +presence, but defer consultations, and put off investigations, till +such people are out of the way; and if, when some secret is just +about to be uttered, or some important business is <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">246</a></span>just about +to be arranged, some curious man happen to pop in, they are mum at +once and reserved, as one puts away fish if the cat is about; and +so frequently things seen and talked about by all the rest of the +world are unknown only to them. For the same reason the curious +person never gets the confidence of anybody. For we would rather +entrust our letters and papers and seals to slaves and strangers +than to curious friends and intimates. The famous Bellerophon,<a +name="FNanchor_622_622" id="FNanchor_622_622"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_622_622" class="fnanchor">622</a> though he carried +letters against his life, opened them not, but abstained from +reading the letter to the king, as he had refused to sell his +honour to Proetus' wife, so great was his continence.<a name= +"FNanchor_623_623" id="FNanchor_623_623"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_623_623" class="fnanchor">623</a> For curiosity and +adultery both come from incontinence, and to the latter is added +monstrous folly and insanity. For to pass by so many common and +public women, and to intrude oneself on some married woman,<a name= +"FNanchor_624_624" id="FNanchor_624_624"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_624_624" class="fnanchor">624</a> who is sure to be more +costly, and possibly less pretty to boot, is the acme of madness. +Yet such is the conduct of curious people. They neglect many gay +sights, fail to hear much that would be well worth hearing, lose +much fine sport and pastime, to break open private letters, to put +their ears to their neighbour's walls, and to whisper to their +slaves and women-servants, practices always low, and frequently +dangerous.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> It will be exceedingly +useful, therefore, to deter the curious from these propensities, +for them to remember their past experience. Simonides used to say +that he occasionally opened two chests for rewards and thanks that +he had by him, and found the one full for rewards, but the one for +thanks always empty.<a name="FNanchor_625_625" id= +"FNanchor_625_625"></a><a href="#Footnote_625_625" class= +"fnanchor">625</a> So if anyone were to open occasionally the +stores that curiosity had amassed, and observe what a cargo there +was of useless and idle and unlovely things, perhaps the sight of +all this poor stuff would inspire him with disgust. Suppose +someone, in studying the writings of the ancients, were to pick out +only their worst passages, and compile them into a volume, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">247</a></span>as +Homer's imperfect lines, and the solecisms of the tragedians, and +Archilochus' indecent and bitter railings against women, by which +he so exposed himself, would he not be worthy of the curse of the +tragedian,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Perish, compiler of thy +neighbours' ills?"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>And independently of such a curse, the piling up of other +people's misdoings is indecent and useless, and like the town which +Philip founded and filled with the vilest and most dissolute +wretches, and called <i>Rogue Town</i>. Curious persons, indeed, +making a collection of the faults and errors and solecisms, not of +lines or poems but of people's lives, render their memory a most +inelegant and unlovely register of dark deeds. Just as there are in +Rome some people who care nothing for pictures and statues, or even +handsome boys or women exposed for sale, but haunt the +monster-market, and make eager inquiries about people who have no +calves, or three eyes, or arms like weasels, or heads like +ostriches, and look about for some</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Unnatural monster like the +Minotaur,"<a name="FNanchor_626_626" id="FNanchor_626_626"></a><a +href="#Footnote_626_626" class="fnanchor">626</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and for a time are greatly captivated with them, but if anyone +continually gazes at such sights, they will soon give him satiety +and disgust; so let those who curiously inquire into the errors and +faults of life, and disgraces of families, and disorders in other +people's houses, first remember what little favour or advantage +such prying has brought them on previous occasions.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> Habit will be of the +utmost importance in stopping this propensity, if we begin early to +practise self-control in respect to it, for as the disease +increases by habit and degrees, so will its cure, as we shall see +when we discuss the necessary discipline. In the first place, let +us begin with the most trifling and unimportant matters. What +hardship will it be when we walk abroad not to read the epitaphs on +graves, or what detriment shall we suffer by not glancing at the +inscriptions on walls in the public walks? Let us reflect that +there is nothing useful or pleasant for us in these notices, which +only record that so-and-so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" +id="Page_248">248</a></span> remembered so-and-so out of +gratitude, and, "Here lies the best of friends," and much poor +stuff of that kind;<a name="FNanchor_627_627" id= +"FNanchor_627_627"></a><a href="#Footnote_627_627" class= +"fnanchor">627</a> which indeed do not seem to do much harm, except +indirectly, to those that read them, by engendering the practice of +curiosity about things immaterial. And as huntsmen do not allow the +hounds to follow any scent and run where they please, but check and +restrain them in leashes, keeping their sense of smell pure and +fresh for the object of their chase, that they may the keener dart +on their tracks, "following up the traces of the unfortunate beasts +by their scent," so we must check and repress the sallies and +excursions of the curious man to every object of interest, whether +of sight or hearing, and confine him to what is useful. For as +eagles and lions on the prowl keep their claws sheathed that they +may not lose their edge and sharpness, so, when we remember that +curiosity for learning has also its edge and keenness, let us not +entirely expend or blunt it on inferior objects.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> Next let us accustom +ourselves when we pass a strange house not to look inside at the +door, or curiously inspect the interior, as if we were going to +pilfer something, remembering always that saying of Xenocrates, +that it is all one whether one puts one's feet or eyes in another +person's house. For such prying is neither honourable, nor comely, +nor even agreeable.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Stranger, thou'lt see within +untoward sights."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>For such is generally the condition inside houses, utensils +kicking about, maids lolling about, no work going on, nothing to +please the eye; and moreover such side glances, and stray shots as +it were, distort the soul, and are unhandsome, and the practice is +a pernicious one. When Diogenes saw Dioxippus, a victor at Olympia, +driving up in his chariot and unable to take his eyes off a +handsome woman who was watching the procession, but still turning +round and casting sheep's eyes at her, he said, "See you yon +athlete straining his neck to look at a girl?" And similarly you +may see curious people twisting and straining <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">249</a></span>their +necks at every spectacle alike, from the habit and practice of +turning their eyes in all directions. And I think the senses ought +not to rove about, like an ill-trained maid, when sent on an errand +by the soul, but to do their business, and then return quickly with +the answer, and afterwards to keep within the bounds of reason, and +obey her behests. But it is like those lines of Sophocles,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Then did the Ænianian's +horses bolt,</span> <span class="i0">Unmanageable quite;"<a name= +"FNanchor_628_628" id="FNanchor_628_628"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_628_628" class="fnanchor">628</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>for so the senses not having, as we said, right training and +practice, often run away, and drag reason along with them, and +plunge her into unlawful excesses. And so, though that story about +Democritus is false, that he purposely destroyed his eyesight by +the reflection from burning-glasses (as people sometimes shut up +windows that look into the street), that they might not disturb him +by frequently calling off his attention to external things, but +allow him to confine himself to purely intellectual matters, yet it +is very true in every case that those who use the mind most are +least acted upon by the senses. And so the philosophers erected +their places for study as far as possible from towns, and called +Night the time propitious to thought,<a name="FNanchor_629_629" id= +"FNanchor_629_629"></a><a href="#Footnote_629_629" class= +"fnanchor">629</a> thinking quiet and withdrawal from worldly +distractions a great help towards meditating upon and solving the +problems of life.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> Moreover, when men are +abusing and reviling one another in the market-place, it is not +very difficult or tiresome not to go near them; or if a tumultuous +concourse of people crowd together, to remain seated; or to get up +and go away, if you are not master of yourself. For you will gain +no advantage by mixing yourself up with curious people: but you +will derive the greatest benefit from putting a force upon your +inclinations, and bridling your curiosity, and accustoming it to +obey reason. Afterwards it will be well to extend the practice +still further, and not to go to the theatre when some fine piece is +performing, and if your friends invite you to see some dancer or +actor to decline, and, if there is some shouting <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">250</a></span>in the +stadium and hippodrome, not even to turn your head to look what is +up. For as Socrates advised people to abstain from food that made +them eat when they were not hungry, and from drinks that made them +drink when they were not thirsty, so ought we also to shun and flee +from those objects of interest, whether to eye or ear, that master +us and attract us when we stand in no need of them. Thus Cyrus +would not look at Panthea, but when Araspes told him that her +beauty was well worth inspection, he replied, "For that very reason +must I the more abstain from seeing her, for if at your persuasion +I were to pay her a visit, perhaps she would persuade me to visit +her again when I could ill spare the time, so that I might neglect +important business to sit with her and gaze on her charms."<a name= +"FNanchor_630_630" id="FNanchor_630_630"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_630_630" class="fnanchor">630</a> Similarly Alexander +would not see the wife of Darius, who was reputed to be very +beautiful, but visited her mother who was old, and would not +venture to look upon the young and handsome queen. We on the +contrary peep into women's litters, and hang about their windows, +and think we do no harm, though we thus make our curiosity a +loop-hole<a name="FNanchor_631_631" id="FNanchor_631_631"></a><a +href="#Footnote_631_631" class="fnanchor">631</a> for all manner of +vice.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> Moreover, as it is of +great help to fair dealing sometimes not to seize some honest gain, +that you may accustom yourself as far as possible to flee from +unjust gains, and as it makes greatly for virtue to abstain +sometimes from your own wife, that you may not ever be tempted by +another woman, so, applying the habit to curiosity, try not to see +and hear at times all that goes on in your own house even, and if +anyone wishes to tell you anything about it give him the go-by, and +decline to hear him. For it was nothing but his curiosity that +involved Œdipus in his extreme calamities: for it was to try +and find out his extraction that he left Corinth and met Laius, and +killed him, and got his kingdom, and married his own mother, and +when he then seemed at the acme of felicity, he must needs make +further inquiries about himself; and though his wife tried to +prevent him, he none the less com<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_251" id="Page_251">251</a></span>pelled the old man that had +been an eye-witness of the deed to tell him all the circumstances +of it, and though he long suspected how the story would end, yet +when the old man cried out,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Alas! the dreadful tale I +must then tell,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>so inflamed was he with curiosity and trembling with impatience, +that he replied,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I too must hear, for hear it +now I will."<a name="FNanchor_632_632" id="FNanchor_632_632"></a><a +href="#Footnote_632_632" class="fnanchor">632</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>So bitter-sweet and uncontrollable is the itch of curiosity, +like a sore, shedding its blood when lanced. But he that is free +from this disease, and calm by nature, being ignorant of many +unpleasant things, may say,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Holy oblivion of all human +ills,</span> <span class="i0">What wisdom dost thou bring!"<a name= +"FNanchor_633_633" id="FNanchor_633_633"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_633_633" class="fnanchor">633</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> We ought therefore also to +accustom ourselves, when we receive a letter, not to be in a +tremendous hurry about breaking the seal, as most people are, even +tearing it open with their teeth if their hands are slow; nor to +rise from our seat and run up to meet him, if a messenger comes; +and if a friend says, "I have some news to tell you," we ought to +say, "I had rather you had something useful or advantageous to tell +me." When I was on one occasion lecturing at Rome, one of my +audience was the well-known Rusticus, whom the Emperor Domitian +afterwards had put to death through envy of his glory, and a +soldier came in in the middle and brought him a letter from the +Emperor, and silence ensuing, and I stopping that he might have +time to read his letter, he would not, and did not open it till I +had finished my lecture, and the audience had dispersed; so that +everybody marvelled at his self-control. But whenever anyone who +has power feeds his curiosity till it is strong and vehement, he +can no longer easily control it, when it hurries him on to illicit +acts, from force of habit; and such people open their friends' +letters, thrust themselves in at private meetings, become +spectators of rites <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id= +"Page_252">252</a></span>they ought not to witness, enter holy +grounds they ought not to, and pry into the lives and conversations +of kings.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> Indeed tyrants +themselves, who must know all things, are made unpopular by no +class more than by their spies<a name="FNanchor_634_634" id= +"FNanchor_634_634"></a><a href="#Footnote_634_634" class= +"fnanchor">634</a> and talebearers. Darius in his youth, when he +mistrusted his own powers, and suspected and feared everybody, was +the first who employed spies; and the Dionysiuses introduced them +at Syracuse: but in a revolution they were the first that the +Syracusans took and tortured to death. Indeed informers are of the +same tribe and family as curious people. However informers only +investigate wicked acts or plots, but curious people pry into and +publish abroad the involuntary misfortunes of their neighbours. And +it is said that impious people first got their name from curiosity, +for it seems there was a mighty famine at Athens, and those people +that had wheat not producing it, but grinding it stealthily by +night in their houses, some of their neighbours went about and +noticed the noise of the mills grinding, and so they got their +name.<a name="FNanchor_635_635" id="FNanchor_635_635"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_635_635" class="fnanchor">635</a> This also is the +origin of the well-known Greek word for informer, (Sycophant, +<i>quasi</i> Fig-informer), for when the people were forbidden to +export figs, those who informed against those who did were called +Fig-informers. It is well worth the while of curious people to give +their attention to this, that they may be ashamed of having any +similarity or connection in habit with a class of people so +universally hated and disliked as informers.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_608_608" id="Footnote_608_608"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_608_608"><span class="label">608</span></a> Jeremy +Taylor has largely borrowed from this Treatise in his "Holy +Living," chap. ii. § v. Of Modesty.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_609_609" id="Footnote_609_609"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_609_609"><span class="label">609</span></a> +Chæronea in Bœotia.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_610_610" id="Footnote_610_610"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_610_610"><span class="label">610</span></a> Lines from +some comic poet, no doubt.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_611_611" id="Footnote_611_611"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_611_611"><span class="label">611</span></a> +"Œconomicus," cap. viii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_612_612" id="Footnote_612_612"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_612_612"><span class="label">612</span></a> The mother +of Œdipus, better known as "Jocasta."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_613_613" id="Footnote_613_613"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_613_613"><span class="label">613</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xi. 278. Epicaste hung herself.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_614_614" id="Footnote_614_614"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_614_614"><span class="label">614</span></a> +"οἰκίσκῳ corrigit +Valekenarius ad Herodot. p. 557."—<i>Wyttenbach</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_615_615" id="Footnote_615_615"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_615_615"><span class="label">615</span></a> +Aristophanes, "Equites," 79.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_616_616" id="Footnote_616_616"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_616_616"><span class="label">616</span></a> Sophocles, +Fragm. 713. The lines are quoted more fully by our author in his +"Lives," p. 911. There are there four preceding lines that compare +human life to the moon's changes.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_617_617" id="Footnote_617_617"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_617_617"><span class="label">617</span></a> +Æschylus, "Supplices," 937.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_618_618" id="Footnote_618_618"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_618_618"><span class="label">618</span></a> All three +being eminent doctors.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_619_619" id="Footnote_619_619"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_619_619"><span class="label">619</span></a> "Intelligo +Charondam."—<i>Xylander.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_620_620" id="Footnote_620_620"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_620_620"><span class="label">620</span></a> Plutarch +wants to show that curiosity and adultery are really the same vice +in principle. Hence his imagery here. Jeremy Taylor has very +beautifully dealt with this passage, "Holy Living," chap. ii. +§ v. I cannot pretend to his felicity of language. Thus +Plutarch makes adultery mere curiosity, and curiosity a sort of +adultery in regard to secrets. A profoundly ethical and moral view. +Compare § ix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_621_621" id="Footnote_621_621"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_621_621"><span class="label">621</span></a> Compare +Lucian's +ἐχεγλωττία, +after ἐχεχειρία +(<i>armistice</i>), <i>Lexiph.</i> 9.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_622_622" id="Footnote_622_622"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_622_622"><span class="label">622</span></a> See the +story in Homer, "Iliad," vi. 155 sq.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_623_623" id="Footnote_623_623"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_623_623"><span class="label">623</span></a> Or +self-control.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_624_624" id="Footnote_624_624"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_624_624"><span class="label">624</span></a> Literally, +some woman <i>shut up</i>, or <i>enclosed</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_625_625" id="Footnote_625_625"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_625_625"><span class="label">625</span></a> See also our +author's "On those who are punished by the Deity late," <a href= +"#Page_344a">§ xi.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_626_626" id="Footnote_626_626"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_626_626"><span class="label">626</span></a> See +Euripides, Fragm., 389. Also Plutarch's "Theseus," cap. xv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_627_627" id="Footnote_627_627"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_627_627"><span class="label">627</span></a> Plutarch +rather reminds one, in his evident contempt for <i>Epitaphs</i>, of +the cynic who asked, "Where are all the bad people buried?" Where +indeed?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_628_628" id="Footnote_628_628"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_628_628"><span class="label">628</span></a> Sophocles, +"Electra," 724, 725.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_629_629" id="Footnote_629_629"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_629_629"><span class="label">629</span></a> +<i>euphronê</i>, a stock phrase for night, is here +defined.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_630_630" id="Footnote_630_630"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_630_630"><span class="label">630</span></a> "Historia +exstat initio libri quinti +Cyropædiæ."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_631_631" id="Footnote_631_631"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_631_631"><span class="label">631</span></a> Literally, +"slippery and prone to." For the metaphor of "slippery" compare +Horace, "Odes," i. 19-8, "Et vultus nimium lubricus adspici."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_632_632" id="Footnote_632_632"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_632_632"><span class="label">632</span></a> This and the +line above are in Sophocles, "Œdipus Tyrannus," 1169, +1170.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_633_633" id="Footnote_633_633"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_633_633"><span class="label">633</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 213.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_634_634" id="Footnote_634_634"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_634_634"><span class="label">634</span></a> Literally, +<i>ears</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_635_635" id="Footnote_635_635"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_635_635"><span class="label">635</span></a> The +paronomasia is as follows. The word for impious people is supposed +to mean <i>listeners to mills grinding</i>.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_252a" id="Page_252a" />ON SHYNESS.<a name= +"FNanchor_636_636" id="FNanchor_636_636"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_636_636" class="fnanchor">636</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Some of the things that +grow on the earth are in their nature wild and barren and injurious +to the growth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id= +"Page_253">253</a></span>of seeds and plants, yet those who till +the ground consider them indications not of a bad soil but of a +rich and fat one;<a name="FNanchor_637_637" id= +"FNanchor_637_637"></a><a href="#Footnote_637_637" class= +"fnanchor">637</a> so also there are passions of the soul that are +not good, yet are as it were offshoots of a good disposition, and +one likely to improve with good advice. Among these I class +shyness, no bad sign in itself, though it affords occasion to vice. +For the modest oftentimes plunge into the same excesses as the +shameless, but then they are pained and grieved at them, and not +pleased like the others. For the shameless person is quite +apathetic at what is disgraceful, while the modest person is easily +affected even at the very appearance of it. Shyness is in fact an +excess of modesty. And thus it is called shamefacedness, because +the face exhibits the changes of the mind. For as dejection is +defined to be the grief that makes people look on the ground, so +shamefacedness is that shyness that cannot look people in the face. +And so the orator said the shameless person had not pupils<a name= +"FNanchor_638_638" id="FNanchor_638_638"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_638_638" class="fnanchor">638</a> in his eyes but +harlots. The bashful person on the other hand shows his delicacy +and effeminacy of soul in his countenance, and palliates his +weakness, which exposes him to defeat at the hands of the impudent, +by the name of modesty. Cato used to say he was better pleased with +those lads that blushed than with those that turned pale, rightly +teaching us to fear censure more than labour,<a name= +"FNanchor_639_639" id="FNanchor_639_639"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_639_639" class="fnanchor">639</a> and suspicion than +danger. However we must avoid too much timidity and fear of +censure, since many have played the coward, and abandoned noble +ventures, more from fear of a bad name than of the dangers to be +undergone, not being able to bear a bad reputation.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> As we must not disregard +their weakness, so neither again must we praise that rigid and +stubborn insensibility, "that recklessness and frantic energy to +rush anywhere, that seemed like a dog's courage in Anaxarchus."<a +name="FNanchor_640_640" id="FNanchor_640_640"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_640_640" class="fnanchor">640</a> But we must contrive a +harmonious blending of the two, that shall remove the shamelessness +of pertinacity, and the weakness of excessive modesty; seeing its +cure is</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id= +"Page_254">254</a></span></p> + +<p>difficult, and the correction of such excesses not without +danger. For as the husbandman, in rooting up some wild and useless +weed, at once plunges his spade vigorously into the ground, and +digs it up by the root, or burns it with fire, but if he has to do +with a vine that needs pruning, or some apple-tree, or olive, he +puts his hand to it very carefully, being afraid of injuring any +sound part; so the philosopher, eradicating from the soul of the +young man that ignoble and untractable weed, envy, or unseasonable +avarice, or amputating the excessive love of pleasure, may bandage +and draw blood, make deep incision, and leave scars: but if he has +to apply reason as a corrective to a tender and delicate part of +the soul, such as shyness and bashfulness, he is careful that he +may not inadvertently root up modesty as well. For nurses who are +often rubbing the dirt off their infants sometimes tear their flesh +and put them to torture. We ought not therefore, by rubbing off the +shyness of youths too much, to make them too careless and +contemptuous; but as those that pull down houses close to temples +prop up the adjacent parts, so in trying to get rid of shyness we +must not eradicate with it the virtues akin to it, as modesty and +meekness and mildness, by which it insinuates itself and becomes +part of a man's character, flattering the bashful man that he has a +nature courteous and civil and affable, and not hard as flint or +self-willed. And so the Stoics from the outset verbally +distinguished shame and shyness from modesty, that they might not +by identity of name give the vice opportunity to inflict harm. But +let it be granted to us to use the words indiscriminately, +following indeed the example of Homer. For he said,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Modesty does both harm and +good to men;"<a name="FNanchor_641_641" id= +"FNanchor_641_641"></a><a href="#Footnote_641_641" class= +"fnanchor">641</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and he did well to mention the harm it does first. For it +becomes advantageous only through reason's curtailing its excess, +and reducing it to moderate proportions.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> In the first place, then, +the person who is afflicted with shyness ought to be persuaded that +he suffers from an injurious disease, and that nothing injurious +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id= +"Page_255">255</a></span> can be good: nor must he be wheedled and +tickled with the praise of being called a nice and jolly fellow +rather than being styled lofty and dignified and just; nor, like +Pegasus in Euripides, "who stooped and crouched lower than he +wished"<a name="FNanchor_642_642" id="FNanchor_642_642"></a><a +href="#Footnote_642_642" class="fnanchor">642</a> to take up his +rider Bellerophon, must he humble himself and grant whatever +favours are asked him, fearing to be called hard and ungentle. They +say that the Egyptian Bocchoris, who was by nature very severe, had +an asp sent him by Isis, which coiled round his head, and shaded +him from above, that he might judge righteously. Bashfulness on the +contrary, like a dead weight on languid and effeminate persons, not +daring to refuse or contradict anybody, makes jurors deliver unjust +verdicts, and shuts the mouth of counsellors, and makes people say +and do many things against their wish; and so the most headstrong +person is always master and lord of such, through his own impudence +prevailing against their modesty. So bashfulness, like soft and +sloping ground, being unable to repel or avert any attack, lies +open to the most shameful acts and passions. It is a bad guardian +of youth, as Brutus said he didn't think that person had spent his +youth well who had not learnt how to say No. It is a bad duenna of +the bridal bed and of women's apartments, as the penitent adultress +in Sophocles said to her seducer,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"You did persuade, and coax me +into sin."<a name="FNanchor_643_643" id="FNanchor_643_643"></a><a +href="#Footnote_643_643" class="fnanchor">643</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Thus shyness, being first seduced by vice,<a name= +"FNanchor_644_644" id="FNanchor_644_644"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_644_644" class="fnanchor">644</a> leaves its citadel +unbarred, unfortified, and open to attack. By gifts people ensnare +the worse natures, but by persuasion and playing upon their +bashfulness people often seduce even good women. I pass over the +injury done to worldly affairs by bashfulness causing people to +lend to those whose credit is doubtful, and to go security against +their wish, for though they commend that saying, "Be a surety, +trouble is at hand,"<a name="FNanchor_645_645" id= +"FNanchor_645_645"></a><a href="#Footnote_645_645" class= +"fnanchor">645</a> they cannot apply it when business is on +hand.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> It would not be easy to +enumerate how many this vice has ruined. When Creon said to +Medea,</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id= +"Page_256">256</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Lady, 'tis better now to earn +your hate,</span> <span class="i0">Than through my softness +afterwards to groan,"<a name="FNanchor_646_646" id= +"FNanchor_646_646"></a><a href="#Footnote_646_646" class= +"fnanchor">646</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>he uttered a pregnant maxim for others; for he himself was +overcome by his bashfulness, and granted her one day more, and so +was the undoing of his family. And some, when they suspected murder +or poison, have failed through it to take precautions for their +safety. Thus perished Dion, not ignorant that Callippus was +plotting against him, but ashamed to be on his guard against a +friend and host. So Antipater, the son of Cassander, having invited +Demetrius to supper, and being invited back by him for the next +day, was ashamed to doubt another as he had been trusted himself, +and went, and got his throat cut after supper. And Polysperchon +promised Cassander for a hundred talents to murder Hercules, the +son of Alexander by Barsine, and invited him to supper, and, as the +stripling suspected and feared the invitation, and pleaded as an +excuse that he was not very well, Polysperchon called on him, and +addressed him as follows, "Imitate, my lad, your father's +good-nature and kindness to his friends, unless indeed you fear us +as plotting against you." The young man was ashamed to refuse any +longer, so he went with him, and some of those at the supper-party +strangled him. And so that line of Hesiod,<a name= +"FNanchor_647_647" id="FNanchor_647_647"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_647_647" class="fnanchor">647</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Invite your friend to supper, +not your enemy,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>is not ridiculous, as some say, or stupid advice, but wise. Show +no bashfulness in regard to an enemy, and do not suppose him +trustworthy, though he may seem so.<a name="FNanchor_648_648" id= +"FNanchor_648_648"></a><a href="#Footnote_648_648" class= +"fnanchor">648</a> For if you invite you will be invited back, and +if you entertain others you will be entertained back to your hurt, +if you let the temper as it were of your caution be weakened by +shame.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> As then this disease is the +cause of much mischief, we must try and exterminate it by assiduous +effort, beginning first, as people are wont to do in other matters, +with small and easy things. For example, if anyone pledge you to +drink with him at a dinner when you have had enough, do not be +bashful, or do violence to nature, but <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_257" id="Page_257">257</a></span>put the cup down +without drinking. Again, if somebody else challenge you to play at +dice with him in your cups, be not bashful or afraid of ridicule, +but imitate Xenophanes, who, when Lasus of Hermione called him +coward because he would not play at dice with him, admitted that he +was a great coward and had no courage for what was ignoble. Again, +if you meet with some prating fellow who attacks you and sticks to +you, do not be bashful, but get rid of him, and hasten on and +pursue your undertaking. For such flights and repulses, keeping you +in practice in trying to overcome your bashfulness in small +matters, will prepare you for greater occasions. And here it is +well to record a remark of Demosthenes. When the Athenians were +going to help Harpalus, and to war against Alexander, all of a +sudden Philoxenus, who was Alexander's admiral, was sighted in the +offing. And the populace being greatly alarmed, and speechless for +fear, Demosthenes said, "What will they do when they see the sun, +if they cannot lift their eyes to face a lamp?" And what will you +do in important matters, if the king desires anything, or the +people importune you, if you cannot decline to drink when your +friend asks you, or evade the onset of some prating fellow, but +allow the trifler to waste all your time, from not having nerve to +say, "I will see you some other time, I have no leisure now."<a +name="FNanchor_649_649" id="FNanchor_649_649"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_649_649" class="fnanchor">649</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> Moreover, the use and +practice of restraining one's bashfulness in small and unimportant +matters is advantageous also in regard to praise. For example, if a +friend's harper sings badly at a drinking party, or an actor hired +at great cost murders<a name="FNanchor_650_650" id= +"FNanchor_650_650"></a><a href="#Footnote_650_650" class= +"fnanchor">650</a> Menander, and most of the party clap and +applaud, I find it by no means hard, or bad manners, to listen +silently, and not to be so illiberal as to praise contrary to one's +convictions. For if in such matters you are not master of yourself, +what will you do if your friend reads a poor poem, or parades a +speech stupidly and ridiculously written?<a name="FNanchor_651_651" +id="FNanchor_651_651"></a><a href="#Footnote_651_651" class= +"fnanchor">651</a> You will praise it of course, and join the +flatterers in loud applause. But how then will you <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">258</a></span>find fault +with your friend if he makes mistakes in business? How will you be +able to correct him, if he acts improperly in reference to some +office, or marriage, or the state? For I cannot indeed assent to +the remark of Pericles to his friend, who asked him to bear false +witness in his favour even to the extent of perjury, "I am your +friend as far as the altar." He went too far. But he that has long +accustomed himself never to go against his convictions in praising +a speaker, or clapping a singer, or laughing at a dull buffoon, +will never go to this length, nor say to some impudent fellow in +such matters, "Swear on my behalf, bear false witness, pronounce an +unjust verdict."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> So also we ought to +refuse people that want to borrow money of us, from being +accustomed to say No in small and easily refused matters. Thus +Archelaus, king of the Macedonians, being asked at supper for a +gold cup by a man who thought <i>Receive</i> the finest word in the +language, bade a boy give it to Euripides,<a name= +"FNanchor_652_652" id="FNanchor_652_652"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_652_652" class="fnanchor">652</a> and gazing intently on +the man said to him, "You are fit to ask, and not to receive, and +he is fit to receive without asking." Thus did he make judgement +and not bashfulness the arbiter of his gifts and favours. Yet we +oftentimes pass over our friends who are both deserving and in +need, and give to others who continually and impudently importune +us, not from the wish to give but from the inability to say No. So +the older Antigonus, being frequently annoyed by Bion, said, "Give +a talent to Bion and necessity." Yet he was of all the kings most +clever and ingenious at getting rid of such importunity. For on one +occasion, when a Cynic asked him for a drachma, he replied, "That +would be too little for a king to give;"<a name="FNanchor_653_653" +id="FNanchor_653_653"></a><a href="#Footnote_653_653" class= +"fnanchor">653</a> and when the Cynic rejoined, "Give me then a +talent," he met him with, "That would be too much for a Cynic to +receive."<a name="FNanchor_654_654" id="FNanchor_654_654"></a><a +href="#Footnote_654_654" class="fnanchor">654</a> Diogenes indeed +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id= +"Page_259">259</a></span>used to go round begging to the statues in +the Ceramicus, and when people expressed their astonishment said he +was practising how to bear refusals. And we must practise ourselves +in small matters, and exercise ourselves in little things, with a +view to refusing people who importune us, or would receive from us +when inconvenient, that we may be able to avoid great miscarriages. +For no one, as Demosthenes says,<a name="FNanchor_655_655" id= +"FNanchor_655_655"></a><a href="#Footnote_655_655" class= +"fnanchor">655</a> if he expends his resources on unnecessary +things, will have means for necessary ones. And our disgrace is +greatly increased, if we are deficient in what is noble, and abound +in what is trivial.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> But bashfulness is not +only a bad and inconsiderate manager of money, but also in more +important matters makes us reject expediency and reason. For when +we are ill we do not call in the experienced doctor, because we +stand in awe of the family one; and instead of the best teachers +for our boys we select those that importune us;<a name= +"FNanchor_656_656" id="FNanchor_656_656"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_656_656" class="fnanchor">656</a> and in our suits at +law we frequently refuse the aid of some skilled advocate, to +oblige the son of some friend or relative, and give him a chance to +make a forensic display; and lastly, you will find many so-called +philosophers Epicureans or Stoics, not from deliberate choice or +conviction, but simply from bashfulness, to have the same views as +their friends and acquaintances. Since this is the case, let us +accustom ourselves betimes in small and everyday matters to employ +no barber or fuller merely from bashfulness, nor to put up at a +sorry inn, when a better is at hand, merely because the innkeeper +has on several occasions been extra civil to us, but for the +benefit of the habit to select the best even in a small matter; as +the Pythagoreans were careful never to put their left leg across +the right, nor to take an even number instead of an odd, all other +matters being indifferent. We must accustom ourselves also, at a +sacrifice or marriage or any entertainment of that kind, not to +invite the person who greets us and runs up to meet us, but the +friend who is serviceable to us. For he that has thus practised and +trained himself will be difficult to catch tripping, nay even +unassailable, in greater matters.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id= +"Page_260">260</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> Let +so much suffice for practice. And of useful considerations the +first is that which teaches and reminds us, that all passions and +maladies of the soul are accompanied by the very things which we +think we avoid through them. Thus infamy comes through too great +love of fame, and pain comes from love of pleasure, and plenty of +work to the idle, and to the contentious defeats and losses of +lawsuits. And so too it is the fate of bashfulness, in fleeing from +the smoke of ill-repute, to throw itself into the fire of it.<a +name="FNanchor_657_657" id="FNanchor_657_657"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_657_657" class="fnanchor">657</a> For the bashful, not +venturing to say No to those that press them hard, afterwards feel +shame at just rebuke, and, through standing in awe of slight blame, +frequently in the end incur open disgrace. For if a friend asks +some money of them, and through bashfulness they cannot refuse, a +little time after they are disgraced by the facts becoming known;<a +name="FNanchor_658_658" id="FNanchor_658_658"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_658_658" class="fnanchor">658</a> or if they have +promised to help friends in a lawsuit, they turn round and hide +their diminished heads, and run away from fear of the other side. +Many also, who have accepted on behalf of a daughter or sister an +unprofitable offer of marriage at the bidding of bashfulness, have +afterwards been compelled to break their word, and break off the +match.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> He that said all the +dwellers in Asia were slaves to one man because they could not say +the one syllable No, spoke in jest and not in earnest; but bashful +persons, even if they say nothing, can by raising or dropping their +eyebrows decline many disagreeable and unpleasant acts of +compliance. For Euripides says, "Silence is an answer to wise +men,"<a name="FNanchor_659_659" id="FNanchor_659_659"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_659_659" class="fnanchor">659</a> but we stand more in +need of it to inconsiderate persons, for we can talk over the +sensible. And indeed it is well to have at hand and frequently on +our lips the sayings<a name="FNanchor_660_660" id= +"FNanchor_660_660"></a><a href="#Footnote_660_660" class= +"fnanchor">660</a> of good and famous men to quote to those who +importune us, as that of Phocion to Antipater, "You cannot have me +both as a friend and flatterer;" or his remark to the Athenians, +when they applauded him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" +id="Page_261">261</a></span>and bade him contribute to the expenses +of a festival, "I am ashamed to contribute anything to you, till I +have paid yonder person my debts to him," pointing out his creditor +Callicles. For, as Thucydides says, "It is not disgraceful to admit +one's poverty, but it is very much so not to try to mend it."<a +name="FNanchor_661_661" id="FNanchor_661_661"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_661_661" class="fnanchor">661</a> But he who through +stupidity or softness is too bashful to say to anyone that +importunes him,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Stranger, no silver white is +in my caves,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>but goes bail for him as it were through his promises,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Is bound by fetters not of +brass but shame."<a name="FNanchor_662_662" id= +"FNanchor_662_662"></a><a href="#Footnote_662_662" class= +"fnanchor">662</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But Persæus,<a name="FNanchor_663_663" id= +"FNanchor_663_663"></a><a href="#Footnote_663_663" class= +"fnanchor">663</a> when he lent a sum of money to one of his +friends, had the fact duly attested by a banker in the +market-place, remembering belike that line in Hesiod,<a name= +"FNanchor_664_664" id="FNanchor_664_664"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_664_664" class="fnanchor">664</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"E'en to a brother, smiling, +bring you witness."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>And he wondering and saying, "Why all these legal forms, +Persæus?" he replied, "Ay, verily, that my money may be paid +back in a friendly way, and that I may not have to use legal forms +to get it back." For many, at first too bashful to see to security, +have afterwards had to go to law, and lost their friend.<a name= +"FNanchor_665_665" id="FNanchor_665_665"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_665_665" class="fnanchor">665</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> Plato again, giving +Helicon of Cyzicus a letter for Dionysius, praised the bearer as a +man of goodness and moderation, but added at the end of the letter, +"I write you this about a man, an animal by nature apt to change." +But Xenocrates, though a man of austere character, was prevailed +upon through his bashfulness to recommend to Polysperchon by +letter, one who was no good man as the event showed; for when the +Macedonian welcomed him, and inquired if he wanted any money, he +asked for a talent, and Polysperchon gave it him, but wrote to +Xenocrates advising him for the future to be more careful in the +choice of people he recommended. But Xenocrates knew not the +fellow's true character; we on the other <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_262" id="Page_262">262</a></span>hand very often when we +know that such and such men are bad, yet give them testimonials and +money, doing ourselves injury, and not getting any pleasure for it, +as people do get in the company of whores and flatterers, but being +vexed and disgusted at the importunity that has upset and forced +our reason. For the line</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I know that what I'm going to +do is bad,"<a name="FNanchor_666_666" id="FNanchor_666_666"></a><a +href="#Footnote_666_666" class="fnanchor">666</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>is especially applicable to people that importune us, when one +is going to perjure oneself, or deliver an unjust verdict, or vote +for a measure that is inexpedient, or borrow money for someone who +will never pay it back.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> And so repentance follows +more closely upon bashfulness than upon any emotion, and that not +afterwards, but in the very act. For we are vexed with ourselves +when we give, and ashamed when we perjure ourselves, and get +ill-fame from our advocacies, and are put to the blush, when we +cannot fulfil our promises. For frequently, from inability to say +No, we promise impossibilities to persevering applicants, as +introductions at court, and audiences with princes, from reluctance +or want of nerve to say, "The king does not know us, others have +his regard far more." But Lysander, when he was out of favour with +Agesilaus, though he was thought to have very great influence with +him owing to his great reputation, was not ashamed to dismiss +suitors, and bid them go and pay their court to others who had more +influence with the king. For not to be able to do everything +carries no disgrace with it, but to undertake and try and force +your way to what you are unable to do, or unqualified by nature +for, is in addition to the disgrace incurred a task full of +trouble.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> To take another element +into consideration, all seemly and modest requests we ought readily +to comply with, not bashfully but heartily, whereas in injurious or +unreasonable requests we ought ever to remember the conduct of +Zeno, who, meeting a young man he knew walking very quietly near a +wall, and learning from him that he was trying to get out of the +way of a friend who wanted him to perjure himself on his behalf, +said to him, "O stupid fellow, what do you tell me? Is he not +afraid or ashamed to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id= +"Page_263">263</a></span>press you to what is not right? And dare +not you stand up boldly against him for what is right?" For he that +said "villainy is no bad weapon against villainy"<a name= +"FNanchor_667_667" id="FNanchor_667_667"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_667_667" class="fnanchor">667</a> taught people the bad +practice of standing on one's defence against vice by imitating it; +but to get rid of those who shamelessly and unblushingly importune +us by their own effrontery, and not to gratify the immodest in +their disgraceful desires through false modesty, is the right and +proper conduct of sensible people.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> Moreover it is no great +task to resist disreputable and low and worthless fellows who +importune you, but some send such off with a laugh or a jest, as +Theocritus did, who, when two fellows in the public baths, one a +stranger, the other a well-known thief, wanted to borrow his +scraper,<a name="FNanchor_668_668" id="FNanchor_668_668"></a><a +href="#Footnote_668_668" class="fnanchor">668</a> put them both off +with a playful answer, "You, sir, I don't know, and you I know too +well." And Lysimache,<a name="FNanchor_669_669" id= +"FNanchor_669_669"></a><a href="#Footnote_669_669" class= +"fnanchor">669</a> the priestess of Athene Polias at Athens, when +some muleteers that bore the sacred vessels asked her to give them +a drink, answered, "I hesitate to do so from fear that you would +make a practice of it." And when a certain young man, the son of a +distinguished officer, but himself effeminate and far from bold, +asked Antigonus for promotion, he replied, "With me, young man, +honours are given for personal prowess, not for the prowess of +ancestors."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> But if the person that +importunes us be famous or a man of power, for such persons are +very hard to move by entreaty or to get rid of when they come to +sue for your vote and interest, it will not perhaps be easy or even +necessary to behave as Cato, when quite a young man, did to +Catulus. Catulus was in the highest repute at Rome, and at that +time held the office of censor, and went to Cato, who then held the +office of quæstor, and tried to beg off someone whom he had +fined, and was urgent and even violent in his petitions, till Cato +at last lost all patience, and said, "To have you, the censor, +removed by my officers against your will, Catulus, would not be a +seemly thing for you." So Catulus felt ashamed, and went off in a +rage. But see <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id= +"Page_264">264</a></span>whether the answers of Agesilaus and +Themistocles are not more modest and in better form. Agesilaus, +when he was asked by his father to pronounce sentence contrary to +the law, said, "Father, I was taught by you even from my earliest +years to obey the laws, so now I shall obey you and do nothing +contrary to law." And Themistocles, when Simonides asked him to do +something unjust, replied, "Neither would you be a good poet if +your lines violated the laws of metre, nor should I be a good +magistrate if I gave decisions contrary to law."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> And yet it is not on +account of want of metrical harmony in respect to the lyre, to +borrow the words of Plato, that cities quarrel with cities and +friends with friends, and do and suffer the worst woes, but on +account of deviations<a name="FNanchor_670_670" id= +"FNanchor_670_670"></a><a href="#Footnote_670_670" class= +"fnanchor">670</a> from law and justice. And yet some, who +themselves pay great attention to melody and letters and measures, +do not think it wrong for others to neglect what is right in +magistracies and judicial sentences and business generally. One +must therefore deal with them in the following manner. Does an +orator ask a favour of you when you are acting as juryman, or a +demagogue when you are sitting in council? Say you will grant his +request if he first utter a solecism, or introduce a barbarism into +his speech; he will refuse because of the shame that would attach +itself to him; at any rate we see some that will not in a speech +let two vowels come together. If again some illustrious and +distinguished person importune you to something bad, bid him come +into the market-place dancing or making wry faces, and if he refuse +you will have an opportunity to speak, and ask him which is more +disgraceful, to utter a solecism and make wry faces, or to violate +the law and one's oath, and contrary to justice to do more for a +bad than for a good man. Nicostratus the Argive, when Archidamus +offered him a large sum of money and any Lacedæmonian bride +he chose if he would deliver up Cromnum, said Archidamus could not +be a descendant of Hercules, for he travelled about and killed +evil-doers, whereas Archidamus tried to make evil-doers of <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">265</a></span>the +good. In like manner, if a man of good repute tries to force and +importune us to something bad, let us tell him that he is acting in +an ignoble way, and not as his birth and virtue would warrant.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> But in the case of +people of no repute you must see whether you can persuade the miser +by your importunity to lend you money without a bond, or the proud +man to yield you the better place, or the ambitious man to +surrender some office to you when he might take it himself. For +truly it would seem monstrous that, while such remain firm and +inflexible and unmoveable in their vicious propensities, we who +wish to be, and profess to be, men of honour and justice should be +so little masters of ourselves as to abandon and betray virtue. For +indeed, if those who importune us do it for glory and power, it is +absurd that we should adorn and aggrandize others only to get +infamy and a bad name ourselves; like unfair umpires in the public +games, or like people voting only to ingratiate themselves, and so +bestowing improperly offices and prizes<a name="FNanchor_671_671" +id="FNanchor_671_671"></a><a href="#Footnote_671_671" class= +"fnanchor">671</a> and glory on others, while they rob themselves +of respect and fair fame. And if we see that the person who +importunes us only does so for money, does it not occur to one that +it is monstrous to be prodigal of one's own fame and reputation +merely to make somebody else's purse heavier? Why the idea must +occur to most people, they sin with their eyes open; like people +who are urged hard to toss off big bumpers, and grunt and groan and +make wry faces, but at last do as they are told.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> Such weakness of mind +is like a temperament of body equally susceptible to heat and cold; +for if such people are praised by those that importune them they +are overcome and yield at once, whereas they are mortally afraid of +the blame and suspicions of those whose desires they do not comply +with. But we ought to be stout and resolute in either case, neither +yielding to bullying nor cajolery. Thucydides indeed tells us, +since envy necessarily follows ability, that "he is well advised +who incurs envy in matters of the highest importance."<a name= +"FNanchor_672_672" id="FNanchor_672_672"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_672_672" class="fnanchor">672</a> But we, thinking it +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id= +"Page_266">266</a></span>difficult to escape envy, and seeing that +it is altogether impossible not to incur blame or give offence to +those we live with, shall be well advised if we prefer the hatred +of the perverse to that of those who might justly find fault with +us for having iniquitously served their turn. And indeed we ought +to be on our guard against praise from those who importune us, +which is sure to be altogether insincere, and not to resemble +swine, readily allowing anyone that presses to make use of us from +our pleasure at itching and tickling, and submitting ourselves to +their will. For those that give their ears to flatterers differ not +a whit from such as let themselves be tripped up at wrestling, only +their overthrow and fall is more disgraceful; some forbearing +hostility and reproof in the case of bad men, that they may be +called merciful and humane and compassionate; and others on the +contrary persuaded to take up unnecessary and dangerous animosities +and charges by those who praise them as the only men, the only +people that never flatter, and go so far as to entitle them their +mouthpieces and voices. Accordingly Bio<a name="FNanchor_673_673" +id="FNanchor_673_673"></a><a href="#Footnote_673_673" class= +"fnanchor">673</a> compared such people to jars, that you could +easily take by the ears and turn about at your will. Thus it is +recorded that the sophist Alexinus in one of his lectures said a +good many bad things about Stilpo the Megarian, but when one of +those that were present said, "Why, he was speaking in your praise +only the other day," he replied, "I don't doubt it; for he is the +best and noblest of men." Menedemus on the contrary, having heard +that Alexinus<a name="FNanchor_674_674" id= +"FNanchor_674_674"></a><a href="#Footnote_674_674" class= +"fnanchor">674</a> frequently praised him, replied, "But I always +censure him, for that man is bad who either praises a bad man or is +blamed by a good." So inflexible and proof was he against such +flattery, and master of that advice which Hercules in Antisthenes<a +name="FNanchor_675_675" id="FNanchor_675_675"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_675_675" class="fnanchor">675</a> gave, when he ordered +his sons to be grateful to no one that praised them; which meant +nothing else than that they should not be dumbfoundered at it, nor +flatter again those who praised them. Very apt, I take it, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">267</a></span>was +the remark of Pindar to one who told him that he praised him +everywhere and to all persons, "I am greatly obliged to you, and +will make your account true by my actions."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xix.</span> A useful precept in +reference to all passions is especially valuable in the case of the +bashful. When they have been overcome by this infirmity, and +against their judgement have erred and been confounded, let them +fix it in their memories, and, remembering the pain and grief it +gave them, let them recall it to their mind and be on their guard +for a very long time. For as travellers that have stumbled against +a stone, or pilots that have been wrecked off a headland, if they +remember these occurrences, not only dread and are on their guard +continually on those spots, but also on all similar ones; so those +that frequently remember the disgrace and injury that bashfulness +brought them, and its sorrow and anguish, will in similar cases be +on their guard against their weakness, and will not readily allow +themselves to be subjugated by it again.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_636_636" id="Footnote_636_636"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_636_636"><span class="label">636</span></a> Or +<i>bashfulness</i>, <i>shamefacedness</i>, what the French call +<i>mauvaise honte</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_637_637" id="Footnote_637_637"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_637_637"><span class="label">637</span></a> Shakespeare +puts all this into one line: "Most subject is the fattest soil to +weeds."—<i>2 Henry IV.</i>, A. iv. Sc. iv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_638_638" id="Footnote_638_638"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_638_638"><span class="label">638</span></a> Or +<i>girls</i>. κόρη means both a girl, and the +pupil of the eye.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_639_639" id="Footnote_639_639"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_639_639"><span class="label">639</span></a> So +Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_640_640" id="Footnote_640_640"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_640_640"><span class="label">640</span></a> These lines +are quoted again "On Moral Virtue," <a href="#Page_104">§ +vi.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_641_641" id="Footnote_641_641"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_641_641"><span class="label">641</span></a> "Iliad," +xxiv. 44, 45.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_642_642" id="Footnote_642_642"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_642_642"><span class="label">642</span></a> Euripides, +"Bellerophon," Fragm., 313.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_643_643" id="Footnote_643_643"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_643_643"><span class="label">643</span></a> Soph., +Fragm., 736.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_644_644" id="Footnote_644_644"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_644_644"><span class="label">644</span></a> Surely it is +necessary to read +προδιαφθαρẽισα +τῷ +ἀκολάστῳ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_645_645" id="Footnote_645_645"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_645_645"><span class="label">645</span></a> See Plato, +"Charmides," 165 A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_646_646" id="Footnote_646_646"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_646_646"><span class="label">646</span></a> Euripides, +"Medea," 290, 291.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_647_647" id="Footnote_647_647"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_647_647"><span class="label">647</span></a> "Works and +Days," 342.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_648_648" id="Footnote_648_648"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_648_648"><span class="label">648</span></a> Reading with +Wyttenbach, μήδ᾽ +ὑπόλαβε +πιστεύειν, +δοκοῦντα.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_649_649" id="Footnote_649_649"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_649_649"><span class="label">649</span></a> See Horace's +very amusing "Satire," i. ix., on such tiresome fellows.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_650_650" id="Footnote_650_650"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_650_650"><span class="label">650</span></a> +ὲπιτρίβω is used in the same +sense by Demosthenes, p. 288.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_651_651" id="Footnote_651_651"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_651_651"><span class="label">651</span></a> On such +social pests see Juvenal, i. 1-14.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_652_652" id="Footnote_652_652"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_652_652"><span class="label">652</span></a> See +Pausanias, i. 2. Euripides left Athens about 409 B.C., and took up +his abode for good in Macedonia at the court of Archelaus, where he +died 406 B.C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_653_653" id="Footnote_653_653"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_653_653"><span class="label">653</span></a> For a +drachma was only worth 6 obols, or 9¾<i>d.</i> of our money, +nearly = Roman denarius.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_654_654" id="Footnote_654_654"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_654_654"><span class="label">654</span></a> A talent was +6,000 drachmæ, or 36,000 obols, about £243 15<i>s.</i> +of our money.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_655_655" id="Footnote_655_655"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_655_655"><span class="label">655</span></a> "Olynth." +iii. p. 33, § 19.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_656_656" id="Footnote_656_656"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_656_656"><span class="label">656</span></a> Compare "On +Education," <a href="#Page_5">§ vii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_657_657" id="Footnote_657_657"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_657_657"><span class="label">657</span></a> Our "Out of +the frying-pan into the fire." Cf. "Incidit in Scyllam cupiens +vitare Charybdim."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_658_658" id="Footnote_658_658"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_658_658"><span class="label">658</span></a> By their +having to borrow themselves.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_659_659" id="Footnote_659_659"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_659_659"><span class="label">659</span></a> Fragm. +947.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_660_660" id="Footnote_660_660"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_660_660"><span class="label">660</span></a> Or +apophthegms, of which Plutarch and Lord Verulam have both left us +collections.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_661_661" id="Footnote_661_661"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_661_661"><span class="label">661</span></a> Thucydides, +ii. 40. Pericles is the speaker.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_662_662" id="Footnote_662_662"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_662_662"><span class="label">662</span></a> A +slightly-changed line from Euripides' "Pirithous," Fragm. 591. +Quoted correctly "On Abundance of Friends," <a href= +"#Page_151">§ vii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_663_663" id="Footnote_663_663"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_663_663"><span class="label">663</span></a> "Zenonis +discipulus."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_664_664" id="Footnote_664_664"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_664_664"><span class="label">664</span></a> "Works and +Days," 371.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_665_665" id="Footnote_665_665"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_665_665"><span class="label">665</span></a> Cf. +Shakspere, "Hamlet," i. iii. 76.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_666_666" id="Footnote_666_666"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_666_666"><span class="label">666</span></a> Euripides, +"Medea," 1078.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_667_667" id="Footnote_667_667"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_667_667"><span class="label">667</span></a> Our "Set a +thief to catch a thief."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_668_668" id="Footnote_668_668"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_668_668"><span class="label">668</span></a> Or strigil. +See Otto Jahn's note on Persius, v. 126.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_669_669" id="Footnote_669_669"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_669_669"><span class="label">669</span></a> "Forsitan +illa quam nominat Pausanias, i. 27."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_670_670" id="Footnote_670_670"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_670_670"><span class="label">670</span></a> Literally +"want of tune in." We cannot well keep up the metaphor. Compare +with this passage, "That virtue may be taught," § ii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_671_671" id="Footnote_671_671"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_671_671"><span class="label">671</span></a> Literally +"crowns."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_672_672" id="Footnote_672_672"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_672_672"><span class="label">672</span></a> Thucydides, +ii. 64. Pericles is the speaker. Quoted again in "How one may +discern a flatterer from a friend," § xxxv.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_673_673" id="Footnote_673_673"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_673_673"><span class="label">673</span></a> "Est Bio +Borysthenita, de quo vide Diog. +Laërt."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_674_674" id="Footnote_674_674"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_674_674"><span class="label">674</span></a> "De Alexino +Eleo vide Diog. Laërt., ii. 109. Nostri p. 1063, +3."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_675_675" id="Footnote_675_675"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_675_675"><span class="label">675</span></a> Antisthenes +wrote a book called "Hercules." See Diogenes Laertius, vi. 16.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_267a" id="Page_267a">ON RESTRAINING ANGER.</a></h3> + +<h4>A DIALOGUE BETWEEN SYLLA AND FUNDANUS.</h4> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> <i>Sylla.</i> Those +painters, Fundanus, seem to me to do well who, before giving the +finishing touches to their paintings, lay them by for a time and +then revise them; because by taking their eyes off them for a time +they gain by frequent inspection a new insight, and are more apt to +detect minute differences, that continuous familiarity would have +hidden. Now since a human being cannot so separate himself from +himself for a time, and make a break in his continuity, and then +approach himself again—and that is perhaps the chief reason +why a man is a worse judge of himself than of others—the next +best thing will be for a man to inspect his friends after an +interval, and likewise offer himself to their scrutiny, not to see +whether he has aged quickly, or whether his bodily condition is +better or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id= +"Page_268">268</a></span> worse, but to examine his moral +character, and see whether time has added any good quality, or +removed any bad one. On my return then to Rome after an absence of +two years, and having been with you now five months, I am not at +all surprised that there has been a great increase and growth in +those good points which you formerly had owing to your admirable +nature; but when I see how gentle and obedient to reason your +former excessive impetuosity and hot temper has become, it cannot +but occur to me to quote the line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Ye gods, how much more mild +is he become!"<a name="FNanchor_676_676" id= +"FNanchor_676_676"></a><a href="#Footnote_676_676" class= +"fnanchor">676</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And this mildness has not wrought in you sloth or weakness, but +like cultivation of the soil it has produced a smoothness and depth +fit for action, instead of the former impetuosity and vehemence. +And so it is clear that your propensity to anger has not been +effaced by any declining vigour or through some chance, but has +been cured by good precepts. And indeed, for I will tell you the +truth, when our friend Eros<a name="FNanchor_677_677" id= +"FNanchor_677_677"></a><a href="#Footnote_677_677" class= +"fnanchor">677</a> reported this change in you to me, I suspected +that owing to goodwill he bare witness not of the actual state of +the case, but of what was becoming to all good and virtuous men, +although, as you know, he can never be persuaded to depart from his +real opinion to ingratiate himself with anyone. But now he is +acquitted of false witness, and do you, as your journey gives you +leisure, narrate to me the mode of cure you employed to make your +temper so under control, so natural, gentle and obedient to +reason.</p> + +<p><i>Fundanus.</i> Most friendly Sylla, take care that you do not +in your goodwill and affection to me rest under any misconception +of my real condition. For it is possible that Eros, not being able +always himself to keep his temper in its place in the obedience +that Homer speaks of,<a name="FNanchor_678_678" id= +"FNanchor_678_678"></a><a href="#Footnote_678_678" class= +"fnanchor">678</a> but sometimes carried away by his hatred of what +is bad, may think me grown milder than I really am, as in changes +of the scale in music the lowest notes become the highest.</p> + +<p><i>Sylla.</i> Neither of these is the case, Fundanus, but oblige +me by doing as I ask.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id= +"Page_269">269</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> +<i>Fundanus.</i> One of the excellent precepts then of Musonius +that I remember, Sylla, is this, that those who wish to be well +should diet themselves all their life long. For I do not think we +must employ reason as a cure, as we do hellebore, by purging it out +with the disease, but we must retain it in the soul, to restrain +and govern the judgement. For the power of reason is not like +physic, but wholesome food, which co-operates with good health in +producing a good habit of body in those by whom it is taken. But +admonition and reproof, when passion is at its height and swelling, +does little or no good, but resembles very closely those +strong-smelling substances, that are able to set on their legs +again those that have fallen in epileptic fits, but cannot rid them +of their disease. For although all other passions, even at the +moment of their acme, do in some sort listen to reason and admit it +into the soul, yet anger does not, for, as Melanthius says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Fell things it does when it +the mind unsettles,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>for it absolutely turns reason out of doors, and bolts it out, +and, like those persons who burn themselves and houses together, it +makes all the interior full of confusion and smoke and noise, so +that what would be advantageous can neither be seen nor heard. And +so an empty ship in a storm at open sea would sooner admit on board +a pilot from without, than a man in a tempest of rage and anger +would listen to another's advice, unless his own reason was first +prepared to hearken. But as those who expect a siege get together +and store up supplies, when they despair of relief from without, so +ought we by all means to scour the country far and wide to derive +aids against anger from philosophy, and store them up in the soul: +for, when the time of need comes, we shall find it no easy task to +import them. For either the soul doesn't hear what is said without +because of the uproar, if it have not within its own reason (like a +boatswain as it were) to receive at once and understand every +exhortation; or if it does hear, it despises what is uttered mildly +and gently, while it is exasperated by harsh censure. For anger +being haughty and self-willed and hard to be worked upon by +another, like a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id= +"Page_270">270</a></span> fortified tyranny, must have someone born +and bred within it<a name="FNanchor_679_679" id= +"FNanchor_679_679"></a><a href="#Footnote_679_679" class= +"fnanchor">679</a> to overthrow it.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> Now long-continued anger, +and frequent giving way to it, produces an evil disposition of +soul, which people call irascibility, and which ends in +passionateness, bitterness, and peevishness, whenever the mind +becomes sore and vexed at trifles and querulous at everyday +occurrences, like iron thin and beaten out too fine. But when the +judgement checks and suppresses at once the rising anger, it not +only cures the soul for the moment, but restores its tone and +balance for the future. It has happened to myself indeed twice or +thrice, when I strongly fought against anger, that I was in the +same plight as the Thebans, who after they had once defeated the +Lacedæmonians, whom they had hitherto thought invincible, +never lost a battle against them again. I then felt confident that +reason can win the victory. I saw also that anger is not only +appeased by the sprinkling of cold water, as Aristotle attested, +but is also extinguished by the action of fear; aye, and, as Homer +tells us, anger has been cured and has melted away in the case of +many by some sudden joy. So that I came to the conclusion that this +passion is not incurable for those who wish to be cured. For it +does not arise from great and important causes, but banter and +joking, a laugh or a nod, and similar trifles make many angry, as +Helen by addressing her niece,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Electra, maiden now for no +short time,"<a name="FNanchor_680_680" id="FNanchor_680_680"></a><a +href="#Footnote_680_680" class="fnanchor">680</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>provoked her to reply,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Your wisdom blossoms late, +since formerly</span> <span class="i0">You left your house in +shame;"<a name="FNanchor_681_681" id="FNanchor_681_681"></a><a +href="#Footnote_681_681" class="fnanchor">681</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and Callisthenes incensed Alexander, by saying, when a huge cup +was brought to him, "I will not drink to Alexander till I shall +require the help of Æsculapius."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> As then it is easy to put +out a flame kindled in the hair of hares and in wicks and rubbish, +but if it once gets hold of things solid and thick, it quickly +destroys and consumes them, "raging amidst the lofty work of the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id= +"Page_271">271</a></span>carpenters," as Æschylus<a name= +"FNanchor_682_682" id="FNanchor_682_682"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_682_682" class="fnanchor">682</a> says; so he that +observes anger in its rise, and sees it gradually smoking and +bursting forth into fire from some chatter or rubbishy scurrility, +need have no great trouble with it, but can frequently smother it +merely by silence and contempt. For as a person puts out a fire by +bringing no fuel to it, so with respect to anger, he that does not +in the beginning fan it, and stir up its rage in himself, keeps it +off and destroys it. And so, though Hieronymus has given us many +useful sayings and precepts, I am not pleased with his remark that +there is no perception of anger in its birth, but only in its +actual developement, so quick is it. For none of the passions when +stirred up and set in motion has so palpable a birth and growth as +anger. As indeed Homer skilfully shows us, where he represents +Achilles as seized at once with grief, when word was brought him +<i>of Patroclus' death</i>, in the line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Thus spake he, and grief's +dark cloud covered him;"<a name="FNanchor_683_683" id= +"FNanchor_683_683"></a><a href="#Footnote_683_683" class= +"fnanchor">683</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>whereas he represents him as waxing angry with Agamemnon slowly, +and as inflamed by his many words, which if either of them<a name= +"FNanchor_684_684" id="FNanchor_684_684"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_684_684" class="fnanchor">684</a> had abstained from, +their quarrel would not have attained such growth and magnitude. +And so Socrates, as often as he perceived any anger rising in him +against any of his friends, "setting himself like some ocean +promontory to break the violence of the waves," would lower his +voice, and put on a smiling countenance, and give his eye a gentler +expression, by inclining in the other direction and running counter +to his passion, thus keeping himself from fall and defeat.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> For the first way, my +friend, to overcome anger, like the putting down of some tyrant, is +not to obey or listen to it when it bids you speak loud, and look +fierce, and beat yourself, but to remain quiet, and not to make the +passion more intense, as one would a disease, by tossing about and +crying out. In love affairs indeed, such things as revellings, and +serenadings, and crowning the loved <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_272" id="Page_272">272</a></span>one's door with garlands, +may indeed bring some pleasant and elegant relief.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I went, but asked not who or +whose she was,</span> <span class="i0">I merely kissed her +door-post. If that be</span> <span class="i0">A crime, I do plead +guilty to the same."<a name="FNanchor_685_685" id= +"FNanchor_685_685"></a><a href="#Footnote_685_685" class= +"fnanchor">685</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>In the case of mourners also giving up to weeping and wailing +takes away with the tears much of the grief. But anger on the +contrary is much more fanned by what angry persons do and say. It +is best therefore to be calm, or to flee and hide ourselves and go +to a haven of quiet, when we feel the fit of temper coming upon us +as an epileptic fit, that we fall not, or rather fall not on +others, for it is our friends that we fall upon most and most +frequently. For we do not love all, nor envy all, nor fear all men; +but nothing is untouched or unassailed by anger; for we are angry +with friends and enemies, parents and children, aye, and with the +gods, and beasts, and even things inanimate, as was Thamyris,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Breaking his gold-bound horn, +breaking the music</span> <span class="i0">Of well-compacted +lyre;"<a name="FNanchor_686_686" id="FNanchor_686_686"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_686_686" class="fnanchor">686</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and Pandarus, who called down a curse upon himself, if he did +not burn his bow "after breaking it with his hands."<a name= +"FNanchor_687_687" id="FNanchor_687_687"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_687_687" class="fnanchor">687</a> And Xerxes inflicted +stripes and blows on the sea, and sent letters to Mount Athos, +"Divine Athos, whose top reaches heaven, put not in the way of my +works stones large and difficult to deal with, or else I will hew +thee down, and throw thee into the sea." For anger has many +formidable aspects, and many ridiculous ones, so that of all the +passions it is the most hated and despised. It will be well to +consider both aspects.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> To begin then, whether my +process was wrong or right I know not, but I began my cure of anger +by noticing its effects in others, as the Lacedæmonians study +the nature of drunkenness in the Helots. And in the first place, as +Hippocrates tells us that disease is most dangerous in which the +face of the patient is most unlike himself, so observing that +people beside themselves with anger <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_273" id="Page_273">273</a></span>change their face, colour, +walk, and voice, I formed an impression as it were of that aspect +of passion, and was very disgusted with myself if ever I should +appear so frightful and like one out of his mind to my friends and +wife and daughters, not only wild and unlike oneself in appearance, +but also with a voice savage and harsh, as I had noticed in some<a +name="FNanchor_688_688" id="FNanchor_688_688"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_688_688" class="fnanchor">688</a> of my acquaintance, +who could neither preserve for anger their ordinary behaviour, or +demeanour, or grace of language, or persuasiveness and gentleness +in conversation. Caius Gracchus, indeed, the orator, whose +character was harsh and style of oratory impassioned, had a +pitch-pipe made for him, such as musicians use to heighten or lower +their voices by degrees, and this, when he was making a speech, a +slave stood behind him and held, and used to give him a mild and +gentle note on it, whereby he lowered his key, and removed from his +voice the harsh and passionate element, charming and laying the +heat of the orator,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"As shepherds' wax-joined reed +sounds musically</span> <span class="i0">With sleep provoking +strain."<a name="FNanchor_689_689" id="FNanchor_689_689"></a><a +href="#Footnote_689_689" class="fnanchor">689</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For myself if I had some elegant and sprightly companion, I +should not be vexed at his showing me a looking-glass in my fits of +anger, as they offer one to some after a bath to little useful end. +For to behold oneself unnaturally distorted in countenance will +condemn anger in no small degree. The poets playfully tell us that +Athene when playing on the pipe was rebuked thus by a Satyr,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"That look no way becomes you, +take your armour,</span> <span class="i0">Lay down your pipes, and +do compose your cheeks,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and though she paid no attention to him, yet afterwards when she +saw her face in a river, she felt vexed and threw her pipes away, +although art had made melody a compensation for her unsightliness. +And Marsyas, it seems, by a sort of mouthpiece forcibly repressed +the violence of his breath, and tricked up and hid the contortion +of his face,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Around his shaggy temples put +bright gold,</span> <span class="i0">And o'er his open mouth thongs +tied behind."</span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id= +"Page_274">274</a></span>Now anger, that puffs up and distends the +face so as to look ugly, utters a voice still more harsh and +unpleasant,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Moving the mind's chords +undisturbed before."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>They say that the sea is cleansed when agitated by the winds it +throws up tangle and seaweed; but the intemperate and bitter and +vain words, which the mind throws up when the soul is agitated, +defile the speakers of them first of all and fill them with infamy, +as always having those thoughts within their bosom and being +defiled with them, but only giving vent to them in anger. And so +for a word which is, as Plato styles it, "a very small matter," +they incur a most heavy punishment, for they get reputed to be +enemies, and evil speakers, and malignant in disposition.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Seeing and observing all +this, it occurs to me to take it as a matter of fact, and record it +for my own general use, that if it is good to keep the tongue soft +and smooth in a fever, it is better to keep it so in anger. For if +the tongue of people in a fever be unnatural, it is a bad sign, but +not the cause of their malady; but the tongue of angry people, +being rough and foul, and breaking out into unseemly speeches, +produces insults that work irremediable mischief, and argue +deep-rooted malevolence within. For wine drunk neat does not +exhibit the soul in so ungovernable and hateful a condition as +temper does: for the outbreaks of the one smack of laughter and +fun, while those of the other are compounded with gall: and at a +drinking-bout he that is silent is burdensome to the company and +tiresome, whereas in anger nothing is more highly thought of than +silence, as Sappho advises,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"When anger's busy in the +brain</span> <span class="i0">Thy idly-barking tongue +restrain."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> And not only does the +consideration of all this naturally arise from observing ourselves +in the moments of anger, but we cannot help seeing also the other +properties of rage, how ignoble it is, how unmanly, how devoid of +dignity and greatness of mind! And yet to most people its noise +seems vigour, its threatening confidence, and its obstinacy force +of character; some even not wisely entitle its savageness +magnanimity, and its implacability firmness,<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">275</a></span> and its +morosity hatred of what is bad. For their actions and motions and +whole demeanour argue great littleness and meanness, not only when +they are fierce with little boys, and peevish with women, and think +it right to treat dogs and horses and mules with harshness, as +Ctesiphon the pancratiast thought fit to kick back a mule that had +kicked him, but even in the butcheries that tyrants commit their +littleness of soul is apparent in their savageness, and their +suffering in their action, so that they are like the bites of +serpents, that, when they are burnt and smart with pain, violently +thrust their venom on those that have hurt them. For as a swelling +is produced in the flesh by a heavy blow, so in softest souls the +inclination to hurt others gets its greater strength from greater +weakness. Thus women are more prone to anger than men, and people +ill than people well, and old men than men in their prime, and the +unfortunate than the prosperous; the miser is most prone to anger +with his steward, the glutton with his cook, the jealous man with +his wife, the vain man when he is spoken ill of; and worst of all +are those "men who are too eager in states for office, or to head a +faction, a manifest sorrow," to borrow Pindar's words. So from the +very great pain and suffering of the soul there arises mainly from +weakness anger, which is not like the nerves of the soul, as some +one defined it, but like its strainings and convulsions when it is +excessively vehement in its thirst for revenge.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> Such bad examples as these +were not pleasant to look at but necessary, but I shall now proceed +to describe people who have been mild and easy in dealing with +anger, conduct gratifying either to see or hear about, being +utterly disgusted<a name="FNanchor_690_690" id= +"FNanchor_690_690"></a><a href="#Footnote_690_690" class= +"fnanchor">690</a> with people who use such language as,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"You have a man wronged: shall +a man stand this?"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Put your heel upon his neck, +and dash his head against the ground,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and other provoking expressions such as these, by which some not +well have transferred anger from the woman's <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">276</a></span>side of +the house to the man's. For manliness in all other respects seems +to resemble justice, and to differ from it only in respect to +gentleness, with which it has more affinities. For it sometimes +happens to worse men to govern better ones, but to erect a trophy +in the soul against anger (which Heraclitus says it is difficult to +contend against, for whatever it wishes is bought at the price of +the soul), is a proof of power so great and victorious as to be +able to apply the judgement as if it were nerves and sinews to the +passions. So I always try to collect and peruse the remarks on this +subject not only of the philosophers, who foolish<a name= +"FNanchor_691_691" id="FNanchor_691_691"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_691_691" class="fnanchor">691</a> people say had no gall +in their composition, but still more of kings and tyrants. Such was +the remark of Antigonus to his soldiers, when they were abusing him +near his tent as if he were not listening, so he put his staff out, +and said, "What's to do? can you not go rather farther off to run +me down?" And when Arcadio the Achæan, who was always railing +against Philip, and advising people to flee</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Unto a country where they +knew not Philip,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>visited Macedonia afterwards on some chance or other, the king's +friends thought he ought to be punished and the matter not looked +over; but Philip treated him kindly, and sent him presents and +gifts, and afterwards bade inquiry to be made as to what sort of +account of him Arcadio now gave to the Greeks; and when all +testified that the fellow had become a wonderful praiser of the +king, Philip said, "You see I knew how to cure him better than all +of you." And at the Olympian games when there was defamation of +Philip, and some of his suite said to him, that the Greeks ought to +smart for it, because they railed against him when they were +treated well by him, he replied, "What will they do then if they +are treated badly by me?" Excellent also was the behaviour of +Pisistratus to Thrasybulus, and of Porsena to Mucius, and of Magas +to Philemon. As to Magas, after he had been publicly jeered at by +Philemon in one of his comedies at the theatre in the following +words,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id= +"Page_277">277</a></span> <span class="i0">"Magas, the king hath +written thee a letter,</span> <span class="i0">Unhappy Magas, since +thou can'st not read,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>after having taken Philemon, who had been cast on shore by a +storm at Parætonium, he commanded one of his soldiers only to +touch his neck with the naked sword and then to go away quietly, +and dismissed him, after sending him a ball and some dice as if he +were a silly boy. And Ptolemy on one occasion, flouting a +grammarian for his ignorance, asked him who was the father of +Peleus, and he answered, "I will tell you, if you tell me first who +was the father of Lagus." This was a jeer at the obscure birth of +the king, and all his courtiers were indignant at it as an +unpardonable liberty; but Ptolemy said, "If it is not kingly to +take a flout, neither is it kingly to give one." And Alexander was +more savage than usual in his behaviour to Callisthenes and Clitus. +So Porus, when he was taken captive, begged Alexander to use him as +a king. And on his inquiring, "What, nothing more?" he replied "No. +For everything is included in being used as a king." So they call +the king of the gods Milichius,<a name="FNanchor_692_692" id= +"FNanchor_692_692"></a><a href="#Footnote_692_692" class= +"fnanchor">692</a> while they call Ares Maimactes;<a name= +"FNanchor_693_693" id="FNanchor_693_693"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_693_693" class="fnanchor">693</a> and punishment and +torture they assign to the Erinnyes and to demons, not to the gods +or Olympus.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> As then a certain person +passed the following remark on Philip when he had razed Olynthus to +the ground, "He certainly could not build such another city," so we +may say to anger, "You can root up, and destroy, and throw down, +but to raise up and save and spare and tolerate is the work of +mildness and moderation, the work of a Camillus, a Metellus, an +Aristides, a Socrates; but to sting and bite is to resemble the ant +and horse-fly. For, indeed, when I consider revenge, I find its +angry method to be for the most part ineffectual, since it spends +itself in biting the lips and gnashing the teeth, and in vain +attacks, and in railings coupled with foolish threats, and +eventually resembles children running races, who from feebleness +ridiculously tumble down before they reach the goal they are +hastening to. So that speech of the Rhodian to a <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">278</a></span>lictor of +the Roman prætor who was shouting and talking insolently was +not inapt, "It is no matter to me what you say, but what your +master thinks."<a name="FNanchor_694_694" id= +"FNanchor_694_694"></a><a href="#Footnote_694_694" class= +"fnanchor">694</a> And Sophocles, when he had introduced +Neoptolemus and Eurypylus as armed for the battle, gives them this +high commendation,<a name="FNanchor_695_695" id= +"FNanchor_695_695"></a><a href="#Footnote_695_695" class= +"fnanchor">695</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"They rushed into the midst of +armed warriors."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Some barbarians indeed poison their steel, but bravery has no +need of gall, being dipped in reason, but rage and fury are not +invincible but rotten. And so the Lacedæmonians by their +pipes turn away the anger of their warriors, and sacrifice to the +Muses before commencing battle, that reason may abide with them, +and when they have routed a foe do not follow up the victory,<a +name="FNanchor_696_696" id="FNanchor_696_696"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_696_696" class="fnanchor">696</a> but relax their rage, +which like small daggers they can easily take back. But anger kills +myriads before it is glutted with revenge, as happened in the case +of Cyrus and Pelopidas the Theban. But Agathocles bore mildly the +revilings of those he was besieging, and when one of them cried +out, "Potter, how are you going to get money to pay your +mercenaries?" he replied laughingly, "Out of your town if I take +it." And when some of those on the wall threw his ugliness into the +teeth of Antigonus, he said to them, "I thought I was rather a +handsome fellow." But after he had taken the town, he sold for +slaves those that had flouted him, protesting that, if they +insulted him again, he would bring the matter before their masters. +I have noticed also that hunters and orators are very unsuccessful +when they give way to anger.<a name="FNanchor_697_697" id= +"FNanchor_697_697"></a><a href="#Footnote_697_697" class= +"fnanchor">697</a> And Aristotle tells us that the friends of +Satyrus stopped up his ears with wax when he was to plead a cause, +that he might not make any confusion in the case through rage at +the abuse of his enemies. And does it not frequently happen with +ourselves that a slave who has offended escapes punishment, because +they abscond in fear of our threats and harsh words? What nurses +then say to children, "Give up crying, and you shall have it," may +usefully be applied to anger, thus, "Do not be in a hurry, or bawl +out, or be vehement, and you will sooner <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_279" id="Page_279">279</a></span>and better get what you +want." For a father, seeing his boy trying to cut or cleave +something with a knife, takes the knife from him and does it +himself: and similarly a person, taking revenge out of the hand of +passion, does himself safely and usefully and without harm punish +the person who deserves punishment, and not himself instead, as +anger often does.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> Now though all the +passions need such discipline as by exercise shall tame and subdue +their unreasoning and disobedient elements, yet there is none which +we ought to keep under by such discipline so much as the exhibition +of anger to our servants. For neither envy, nor fear, nor rivalry +come into play between them and us; but our frequent displays of +anger to them, creating many offences and faults, make us to slip +as if on slippery ground owing to our autocracy with our servants, +which no one resists or prevents. For it is impossible to check +irresponsible power so as never to break out under the influence of +passion, unless one wields power with much meekness, and refuses to +listen to the frequent complaints of one's wife and friends +charging one with being too easy and lax with one's servants. And +by nothing have I been more exasperated against them, as if they +were being ruined for want of correction. At last, though late, I +got to see that in the first place it is better to make them worse +by forbearance, than by bitterness and anger to distort oneself for +the correction of others. In the next place I observed that many +for the very reason that they were not corrected were frequently +ashamed to be bad, and made pardon rather than punishment the +commencement of their reformation, aye, and made better slaves to +some merely at their nod silently and cheerfully than to others +with all their beatings and brandings, and so I came to the +conclusion that reason gets better obeyed than temper, for it is +not as the poet said,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Where there is fear, there +too is self-respect,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>but it is just the other way about, for self-respect begets that +kind of fear that corrects the behaviour. But perpetual and +pitiless beating produces not so much repentance for wrong-doing as +contrivances to continue in it without detection. In the third +place, ever remembering and reflecting <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_280" id="Page_280">280</a></span>within myself that, +just as he that teaches us the use of the bow does not forbid us to +shoot but only to miss the mark, so it will not prevent punishment +altogether to teach people to do it in season, and with moderation, +utility, and decorum, I strive to remove anger most especially by +not forbidding those who are to be corrected to speak in their +defence, but by listening to them. For the interval of time gives a +pause to passion, and a delay that mitigates it, and so judgement +finds out both the fit manner and adequate amount of punishment. +Moreover he that is punished has nothing to allege against his +correction, if he is punished not in anger but only after his guilt +is brought home to him. And the greatest disgrace will not be +incurred, which is when the servant seems to speak more justly than +the master. As then Phocion, after the death of Alexander, to stop +the Athenians from revolting and believing the news too soon, said +to them, "Men of Athens, if he is dead to-day, he will certainly +also be dead to-morrow and the next day," so I think the man who is +in a hurry to punish anyone in his rage ought to consider with +himself, "If this person has wronged you to-day, he will also have +wronged you to-morrow and the next day; and there will be no harm +done if he shall be punished somewhat late; whereas if he shall be +punished at once, he will always seem to you to have been innocent, +as has often happened before now." For which of us is so savage as +to chastise and scourge a slave because five or ten days before he +over-roasted the meat, or upset the table, or was somewhat tardy on +some errand? And yet these are the very things for which we put +ourselves out and are harsh and implacable, immediately after they +have happened and are recent. For as bodies seem greater in a mist, +so do little matters in a rage. We ought therefore to consider such +arguments as these at once, and if, when there is no trace of +passion left, the matter appear bad to calm and clear reason, then +it ought to be taken in hand, and the punishment ought not to be +neglected or abandoned, as we leave food when we have lost our +appetites. For nothing causes people to punish so much when their +anger is fierce, as that when it is appeased they do not punish at +all, but forget the matter entirely, and resemble lazy rowers,<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">281</a></span> who +lie in harbour when the sea is calm, and then sail out to their +peril when the wind gets up. So we, condemning reason for slackness +and mildness in punishing, are in a hurry to punish, borne along by +passion as by a dangerous gale. He that is hungry takes his food as +nature dictates, but he that punishes should have no hunger or +thirst for it, nor require anger as a sauce to stimulate him to it, +but should punish when he is as far as possible from having any +desire for it, and has to compel his reason to it. For we ought +not, as Aristotle tells us slaves in his time were scourged in +Etruria to the music of the flute, to go headlong into punishing +with a desire and zest for it, and to delight in punishing, and +then afterwards to be sorry at it—for the first is savage, +and the last womanish—but we should without either sorrow or +pleasure chastise at the dictates of reason, giving anger no +opportunity to interfere.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> But this perhaps will not +appear a cure of anger so much as a putting away and avoiding such +faults as men commit in anger. And yet, though the swelling of the +spleen is only a symptom of fever, the fever is assuaged by its +abating, as Hieronymus tells us. Now when I contemplated the origin +of anger itself, I observed that, though different persons fell +into it for different reasons, yet in nearly all of them was the +idea of their being despised and neglected to be found. So we ought +to help those who try to get rid of anger, by removing as far as +possible from them any action savouring of contempt or contumely, +and by looking upon their anger as folly or necessity, or emotion, +or mischance, as Sophocles says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"In those that are +unfortunate, O king,</span> <span class="i0">No mind stays firm, +but all their balance lose."<a name="FNanchor_698_698" id= +"FNanchor_698_698"></a><a href="#Footnote_698_698" class= +"fnanchor">698</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And so Agamemnon, ascribing to Ate his carrying off Briseis, yet +says to Achilles,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I wish to please you in +return, and give</span> <span class="i0">Completest +satisfaction."<a name="FNanchor_699_699" id= +"FNanchor_699_699"></a><a href="#Footnote_699_699" class= +"fnanchor">699</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For suing is not the action of one who shews his contempt, and +when he that has done an injury is humble he removes <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">282</a></span>all idea +of slighting one. But the angry person must not expect this, but +rather take to himself the answer of Diogenes, who, when it was +said to him, "These people laugh at you," replied, "But I am not +one to be laughed at," and not think himself despised, but rather +despise the person who gave the offence, as acting from weakness, +or error, or rashness, or heedlessness, or illiberality, or old +age, or youth. Nor must we entertain such notions with regard to +our servants and friends. For they do not despise us as void of +ability or energy, but owing to our evenness and good-nature, some +because we are mild, and others presuming on our affection for +them. But as it is we not only fly into rages with wife and slaves +and friends, as if we were slighted by them, but we also +frequently, from forming the same idea of being slighted, fall foul +of innkeepers and sailors and muleteers, and are vexed at dogs that +bark and asses that are in our way: like the man who was going to +beat an ass-driver, but when he cried out he was an Athenian, he +said to the ass, "You are not an Athenian anyway," and beat it with +many stripes.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> Moreover those +continuous and frequent fits of anger that gather together in the +soul by degrees, like a swarm of bees or wasps, are generated +within us by selfishness and peevishness, luxury and softness. And +so nothing causes us to be mild to our servants and wife and +friends so much as easiness and simplicity, and the learning to be +content with what we have, and not to require a quantity of +superfluities.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He who likes not his meat if +over-roast</span> <span class="i0">Or over-boiled, or under-roast +or under-boiled,</span> <span class="i0">And never praises it +however dressed,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>but will not drink unless he have snow to cool his drink, nor +eat bread purchased in the market, nor touch food served on cheap +or earthenware plates, nor sleep upon any but a feather bed that +rises and falls like the sea stirred up from its depths, and with +rods and blows hastens his servants at table, so that they run +about and cry out and sweat as if they were bringing poultices to +sores, he is slave to a weak querulous and discontented mode of +life, and, like one who has a continual cough or various ailments, +whether he is aware of it or not, he is in an<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">283</a></span> ulcerous +and catarrh-like condition as regards his proneness to anger. We +must therefore train the body to contentment by plain living, that +it may be easily satisfied: for they that require little do not +miss much; and it is no great hardship to begin with our food, and +take it silently whatever it is, and not by being choleric and +peevish to thrust upon ourselves and friends the worst sauce to +meat, anger.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"No more unpleasant supper +could there be"<a name="FNanchor_700_700" id= +"FNanchor_700_700"></a><a href="#Footnote_700_700" class= +"fnanchor">700</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>than that wherein the servants are beaten, and the wife scolded, +because something is burnt or smoked or not salt enough, or because +the bread is too cold. Arcesilaus was once entertaining some +friends and strangers, and when dinner was served, there was no +bread, through the servants having neglected to buy any. In such a +case as this which of us would not have broken the walls with +vociferation? But he only smiled and said, "How unfit a sage is to +give an entertainment!" And when Socrates once took Euthydemus home +with him from the wrestling-school, Xanthippe was in a towering +rage, and scolded, and at last upset the table, and Euthydemus rose +and went away full of sorrow. But Socrates said to him, "Did not a +hen at your house the other day fly in and act in the very same +way? And we did not put ourselves out about it." We ought to +receive our friends with gaiety and smiles and welcome, not +knitting our brows, or inspiring fear and trembling in the +attendants. We ought also to accustom ourselves to the use of any +kind of ware at table, and not to stint ourselves to one kind +rather than another, as some pick out a particular tankard or horn, +as they say Marius did, out of many, and will not drink out of +anything else; and some act in the same way with regard to +oil-flasks and scrapers,<a name="FNanchor_701_701" id= +"FNanchor_701_701"></a><a href="#Footnote_701_701" class= +"fnanchor">701</a> being content with only one out of all, and so, +if such an article is broken or lost, they are very much put out +about it, and punish with severity. He then that is prone to anger +should not use rare and dainty things, such as choice cups and +seals and precious stones: for if they are lost they put a man +beside <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id= +"Page_284">284</a></span>himself much more than the loss of +ordinary and easily got things would do. And so when Nero had got +an eight-cornered tent constructed, a wonderful object both for its +beauty and costliness, Seneca said to him, "You have now shown +yourself to be poor, for if you should lose this, you will not be +able to procure such another." And indeed it did so happen that the +tent was lost by shipwreck, but Nero bore its loss patiently, +remembering what Seneca had said. Now this easiness about things +generally makes a man also easy and gentle to his servants, and if +to them, then it is clear he will be so to his friends also, and to +all that serve under him in any capacity. So we observe that +newly-purchased slaves do not inquire about the master who has +bought them, whether he is superstitious or envious, but only +whether he is a bad-tempered man: and generally speaking we see +that neither can men put up with chaste wives, nor wives with +loving husbands, nor friends with one another, if they be +ill-tempered to boot. So neither marriage nor friendship is +bearable with anger, though without anger even drunkenness is a +small matter. For the wand of Dionysus punishes sufficiently the +drunken man, but if anger be added it turns wine from being the +dispeller of care and inspirer of the dance into a savage and fury. +And simple madness can be cured by Anticyra,<a name= +"FNanchor_702_702" id="FNanchor_702_702"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_702_702" class="fnanchor">702</a> but madness mixed with +anger is the producer of tragedies and dreadful narratives.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> So we ought to give anger +no vent, either in jest, for that draws hatred to friendliness; or +in discussion, for that turns love of learning into strife; or on +the judgement-seat, for that adds insolence to power; or in +teaching, for that produces dejection and hatred of learning: or in +prosperity, for that increases envy; or in adversity, for that +deprives people of compassion, when they are peevish and run +counter to those who condole with them, like Priam,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"A murrain on you, worthless +wretches all,</span> <span class="i0">Have you no griefs at home, +that here you come</span> <span class="i0">To sympathize with +me?"<a name="FNanchor_703_703" id="FNanchor_703_703"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_703_703" class="fnanchor">703</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id= +"Page_285">285</a></span>Good temper on the other hand is useful in +some circumstances, adorns and sweetens others, and gets the better +of all peevishness and anger by its gentleness. Thus Euclides,<a +name="FNanchor_704_704" id="FNanchor_704_704"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_704_704" class="fnanchor">704</a> when his brother said +to him in a dispute between them, "May I perish, if I don't have my +revenge on you!" replied, "May I perish, if I don't persuade you!" +and so at once turned and changed him. And Polemo, when a man +reviled him who was fond of precious stones and quite crazy for +costly seal-rings, made no answer, but bestowed all his attention +on one of his seal-rings, and eyed it closely; and he being +delighted said, "Do not look at it so, Polemo, but in the light of +the sun, and it will appear to you more beautiful." And Aristippus, +when there was anger between him and Æschines, and somebody +said, "O Aristippus, where is now your friendship?" replied, "It is +asleep, but I will wake it up," and went to Æschines, and +said to him, "Do I seem to you so utterly unfortunate and incurable +as to be unworthy of any consideration?" And Æschines +replied, "It is not at all wonderful that you, being naturally +superior to me in all things, should have been first to detect in +this matter too what was needful."</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For not a woman only, but +young child</span> <span class="i0">Tickling the bristly boar with +tender hand,</span> <span class="i0">Will lay him prostrate sooner +than an athlete."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But we that tame wild beasts and make them gentle, and carry in +our arms young wolves and lions' whelps, inconsistently repel our +children and friends and acquaintances in our rage, and let loose +our temper like some wild beast on our servants and +fellow-citizens, speciously trying to disguise it not rightly under +the name of hatred of evil, but it is, I suppose, as with the other +passions and diseases of the soul, we cannot get rid of any of them +by calling one prudence, and another liberality, and another +piety.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> And yet, as Zeno said the +seed was a mixture and compound drawn from all the faculties of the +soul, so anger seems a universal seed from all the passions. For it +is drawn from pain and pleasure and haughtiness, and from envy it +gets its property of malignity—and it is even <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">286</a></span>worse than +envy,<a name="FNanchor_705_705" id="FNanchor_705_705"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_705_705" class="fnanchor">705</a> for it does not mind +its own suffering if it can only implicate another in +misery—and the most unlovely kind of desire is innate in it, +namely the appetite for injuring another. So when we go to the +houses of spendthrifts we hear a flute-playing girl early in the +morning, and see "the dregs of wine," as one said, and fragments of +garlands, and the servants at the doors reeking of yesterday's +debauch; but for tokens of savage and peevish masters these you +will see by the faces, and marks, and manacles of their servants: +for in the house of an angry man</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The only music ever heard is +wailing,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>stewards being beaten within, and maids tortured, so that the +spectators even in their jollity and pleasure pity these victims of +passion.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> Moreover those to whom it +happens through their genuine hatred of what is bad to be +frequently overtaken by anger, can abate its excess and acerbity by +giving up their excessive confidence in their intimates. For +nothing swells the anger more, than when a good man is detected of +villainy, or one who we thought loved us falls out and jangles with +us. As for my own disposition, you know of course how mightily it +inclines to goodwill and belief in mankind. As then people walking +on empty space,<a name="FNanchor_706_706" id= +"FNanchor_706_706"></a><a href="#Footnote_706_706" class= +"fnanchor">706</a> the more confidently I believe in anybody's +affection, the more sorrow and distress do I feel if my estimate is +a mistaken one. And indeed I could never divest myself of my ardour +and zeal in affection, but as to trusting people I could perhaps +use Plato's caution as a curb. For he said he so praised Helicon +the mathematician, because he was by nature a changeable animal, +but that he was afraid of those that were well educated in the +city, lest, being human beings and the seed of human beings, they +should reveal by some trait or other the weakness of human nature. +But Sophocles' line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Trace out most human acts, +you'll find them base,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>seems to trample on human nature and lower its merits too <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id= +"Page_287">287</a></span>much. Still such a peevish and +condemnatory verdict as this has a tendency to make people milder +in their rage, for it is the sudden and unexpected that makes +people go distracted. And we ought, as Panætius somewhere +said, to imitate Anaxagoras, and as he said at the death of his +son, "I knew that I had begotten a mortal," so ought every one of +us to use the following kind of language in those contretemps that +stir up our anger, "I knew that the slave I bought was not a +philosopher," "I knew that the friend I had was not perfect," "I +knew that my wife was but a woman." And if anyone would also +constantly put to himself that question of Plato, "Am I myself all +I should be?" and look at home instead of abroad, and curb his +propensity to censoriousness, he would not be so keen to detect +evil in others, for he would see that he stood in need of much +allowance himself. But now each of us, when angry and punishing, +quote the words of Aristides and Cato, "Do not steal, Do not tell +lies," and "Why are you lazy?" And, what is most disgraceful of +all, we blame angry people when we are angry ourselves, and +chastise in temper faults that were committed in temper, unlike the +doctors who</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"With bitter physic purge the +bitter bile,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>for we rather increase and aggravate the disease. Whenever then +I busy myself with such considerations as these, I try also to +curtail my curiosity. For to scrutinize and pry into everything too +minutely, and to overhaul every business of a servant, or action of +a friend, or pastime of a son, or whisper of a wife, produces +frequent, indeed daily, fits of anger, caused entirely by +peevishness and harshness of character. Euripides says that the +Deity</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"In great things intervenes, +but small things leaves</span> <span class="i0">To fortune;"<a +name="FNanchor_707_707" id="FNanchor_707_707"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_707_707" class="fnanchor">707</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>but I am of opinion that a prudent man should commit nothing to +fortune, nor neglect anything, but should put some things in his +wife's hands to manage, others in the <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_288" id="Page_288">288</a></span>hands of his servants, +others in the hands of his friends, (as a governor has his +stewards, and financiers, and controllers), while he himself +superintends the most important and weighty matters. For as small +writing strains the eyes, so small matters even more strain and +bother people, and stir up their anger, which carries this evil +habit to greater matters. Above all I thought that saying of +Empedocles, "Fast from evil,"<a name="FNanchor_708_708" id= +"FNanchor_708_708"></a><a href="#Footnote_708_708" class= +"fnanchor">708</a> a great and divine one, and I approved of those +promises and vows as not ungraceful or unphilosophical, to abstain +for a year from wine and Venus, honouring the deity by continence, +or for a stated time to give up lying, taking great heed to +ourselves to be truthful always whether in play or earnest. With +these I compared my own vow, as no less pleasing to the gods and +holy, first to abstain from anger for a few days, like spending +days without drunkenness or even without wine at all, offering as +it were wineless offerings of honey.<a name="FNanchor_709_709" id= +"FNanchor_709_709"></a><a href="#Footnote_709_709" class= +"fnanchor">709</a> Then I tried for a month or two, and so in time +made some progress in forbearance by earnest resolve, and by +keeping myself courteous and without anger and using fair language, +purifying myself from evil words and absurd actions, and from +passion which for a little unlovely pleasure pays us with great +mental disturbance and the bitterest repentance. In consequence of +all this my experience, and the assistance of the deity, has made +me form the view, that courtesy and gentleness and kindliness are +not so agreeable, and pleasant, and delightful, to any of those we +live with as to ourselves, that have those qualities.<a name= +"FNanchor_710_710" id="FNanchor_710_710"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_710_710" class="fnanchor">710</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_676_676" id="Footnote_676_676"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_676_676"><span class="label">676</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xxii. 373.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_677_677" id="Footnote_677_677"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_677_677"><span class="label">677</span></a> Alluded to +again "On the tranquillity of the mind," § i.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_678_678" id="Footnote_678_678"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_678_678"><span class="label">678</span></a> The allusion +is to Homer's "Odyssey," xx. 23.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_679_679" id="Footnote_679_679"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_679_679"><span class="label">679</span></a> Reading +ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ with +Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_680_680" id="Footnote_680_680"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_680_680"><span class="label">680</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 72.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_681_681" id="Footnote_681_681"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_681_681"><span class="label">681</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 99.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_682_682" id="Footnote_682_682"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_682_682"><span class="label">682</span></a> Fragment +361.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_683_683" id="Footnote_683_683"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_683_683"><span class="label">683</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xvii. 591.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_684_684" id="Footnote_684_684"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_684_684"><span class="label">684</span></a> The reading +of the MSS. is αὐτῶν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_685_685" id="Footnote_685_685"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_685_685"><span class="label">685</span></a> Lines of +Callimachus. φλιήν is the admirable +emendation of Salmasius.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_686_686" id="Footnote_686_686"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_686_686"><span class="label">686</span></a> Sophocles, +"Thamyras," Fragm. 232.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_687_687" id="Footnote_687_687"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_687_687"><span class="label">687</span></a> "Iliad," v. +214-216.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_688_688" id="Footnote_688_688"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_688_688"><span class="label">688</span></a> Reading +ἐνίοις, as Wyttenbach +suggests.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_689_689" id="Footnote_689_689"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_689_689"><span class="label">689</span></a> Aeschylus, +"Prometheus," 574, 575.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_690_690" id="Footnote_690_690"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_690_690"><span class="label">690</span></a> It will be +seen I adopt the reading and punctuation of Xylander.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_691_691" id="Footnote_691_691"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_691_691"><span class="label">691</span></a> This is the +reading of Reiske and Dübner.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_692_692" id="Footnote_692_692"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_692_692"><span class="label">692</span></a> That is +<i>mild</i>. Zeus is so called, Pausanias, i. 37; ii. 9, 20.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_693_693" id="Footnote_693_693"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_693_693"><span class="label">693</span></a> That is, +<i>fierce</i>, <i>furious</i>. It will be seen I adopt the +suggestion of Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_694_694" id="Footnote_694_694"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_694_694"><span class="label">694</span></a> Literally +"is silent about." It is like the saying about Von Moltke that he +can be silent in six or seven languages.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_695_695" id="Footnote_695_695"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_695_695"><span class="label">695</span></a> Adopting +Reiske's reading.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_696_696" id="Footnote_696_696"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_696_696"><span class="label">696</span></a> Compare +Pausanias, iv. 8.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_697_697" id="Footnote_697_697"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_697_697"><span class="label">697</span></a> Dübner +puts this sentence in brackets.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_698_698" id="Footnote_698_698"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_698_698"><span class="label">698</span></a> Sophocles, +"Antigone," 563, 564.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_699_699" id="Footnote_699_699"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_699_699"><span class="label">699</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xix. 138.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_700_700" id="Footnote_700_700"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_700_700"><span class="label">700</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xx. 392.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_701_701" id="Footnote_701_701"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_701_701"><span class="label">701</span></a> Or +strigils.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_702_702" id="Footnote_702_702"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_702_702"><span class="label">702</span></a> Anticyra was +famous for its hellebore, which was prescribed in cases of madness. +See Horace, "Satires," ii. 3. 82, 83.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_703_703" id="Footnote_703_703"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_703_703"><span class="label">703</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xxiv. 239, 240.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_704_704" id="Footnote_704_704"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_704_704"><span class="label">704</span></a> A +philosopher of Megara, and disciple of Socrates. Compare our +author, "De Fraterno Amore," § xviii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_705_705" id="Footnote_705_705"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_705_705"><span class="label">705</span></a> So Reiske. +Dübner reads φόβου. The MSS. +have φόνου, which Wyttenbach retains, +but is evidently not quite satisfied with the text. Can +φθόνου—ἑτερον +be an account of +ἐπιχαιρεκακια?</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_706_706" id="Footnote_706_706"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_706_706"><span class="label">706</span></a> Up in the +clouds. Cf. +ἀεροβατέω.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_707_707" id="Footnote_707_707"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_707_707"><span class="label">707</span></a> Horace, +remembering these lines no doubt, says "De Arte Poetica," 191, +192,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Nec deus intersit nisi dignus +vindice nodus</span> <span class="i0">Inciderit."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_708_708" id="Footnote_708_708"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_708_708"><span class="label">708</span></a> It is quite +likely that the delicious poet Robert Herrick borrowed hence his +"To starve thy sin not bin, That is to keep thy Lent." For we know +he was a student of the "Moralia" when at the University of +Cambridge.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_709_709" id="Footnote_709_709"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_709_709"><span class="label">709</span></a> See +Æschylus, "Eumenides," 107. Sophocles, "Œdipus +Colonæus," 481. See also our author's "De Sanitate +Præcepta," § xix.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_710_710" id="Footnote_710_710"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_710_710"><span class="label">710</span></a> Jeremy +Taylor has closely imitated parts of this Dialogue in his "Holy +Living," chapter iv. sect. viii., "Twelve remedies against anger, +by way of exercise," "Thirteen remedies against anger, by way of +consideration." Such a storehouse did he make of the "Moralia."</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id= +"Page_289">289</a></span></p> + +<h3>ON CONTENTEDNESS OF MIND.<a name="FNanchor_711_711" id= +"FNanchor_711_711"></a><a href="#Footnote_711_711" class= +"fnanchor">711</a></h3> + +<h4>PLUTARCH SENDS GREETING TO PACCIUS.</h4> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> It was late when I received +your letter, asking me to write to you something on contentedness +of mind, and on those things in the Timæus that require an +accurate explanation. And it so fell out that at that very time our +friend Eros was obliged to set sail at once for Rome, having +received a letter from the excellent Fundanus, urging haste +according to his wont. And not having as much time as I could have +wished to meet your request, and yet not thinking for one moment of +letting my messenger go to you entirely empty-handed, I copied out +the notes that I had chanced to make on contentedness of mind. For +I thought that you did not desire this discourse merely to be +treated to a subject handled in fine style, but for the real +business of life. And I congratulate you that, though you have +friendships with princes, and have as much forensic reputation as +anybody, yet you are not in the same plight as the tragic Merops, +nor have you like him by the felicitations of the multitude been +induced to forget the sufferings of humanity; but you remember, +what you have often heard, that a patrician's slipper<a name= +"FNanchor_712_712" id="FNanchor_712_712"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_712_712" class="fnanchor">712</a> is no cure for the +gout, nor a costly ring for a whitlow, nor a diadem for the +headache. For how can riches, or fame, or power at court help us to +ease of mind or a calm life, unless we enjoy them when present, but +are not for ever pining after them when absent? And what else +causes this but the long exercise and practice of reason, which, +when the unreasoning and emotional part of the soul breaks out of +bounds, curbs it quickly, and does not allow it to be carried away +headlong from its actual position? And as Xenophon<a name= +"FNanchor_713_713" id="FNanchor_713_713"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_713_713" class="fnanchor">713</a> advised that we should +remember and honour the gods most especially in prosperity, that +so, when we should be in any strait, we might confidently call upon +them as already our well-wishers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" +id="Page_290">290</a></span> and friends; so sensible men +would do well before trouble comes to meditate on remedies how to +bear it, that they may be the more efficacious from being ready for +use long before. For as savage dogs are excited at every sound, and +are only soothed by a familiar voice, so also it is not easy to +quiet the wild passions of the soul, unless familiar and well-known +arguments be at hand to check its excitement.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> He then that said, that +the man that wished to have an easy mind ought to have little to do +either public or private, first of all makes ease of mind a very +costly article for us, if it is to be bought at the price of doing +nothing, as if he should advise every sick person,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Lie still, poor wretch, in +bed."<a name="FNanchor_714_714" id="FNanchor_714_714"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_714_714" class="fnanchor">714</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And indeed stupor is a bad remedy for the body against +despair,<a name="FNanchor_715_715" id="FNanchor_715_715"></a><a +href="#Footnote_715_715" class="fnanchor">715</a> nor is he any +better physician of the soul who removes its trouble and anxiety by +recommending a lazy and soft life and a leaving our friends and +relations and country in the lurch. In the next place, it is false +that those that have little to do are easy in mind. For then women +would be easier in mind than men, since they mostly stay at home in +inactivity, and even now-a-days it is as Hesiod says,<a name= +"FNanchor_716_716" id="FNanchor_716_716"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_716_716" class="fnanchor">716</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The North Wind comes not near +a soft-skinned maiden;"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>yet griefs and troubles and unrest, proceeding from jealousy or +superstition or ambition or vanity, inundate the women's part of +the house with unceasing flow. And Laertes, though he lived for +twenty years a solitary life in the country,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"With an old woman to attend +on him,</span> <span class="i0">Who duly set on board his meat and +drink,"<a name="FNanchor_717_717" id="FNanchor_717_717"></a><a +href="#Footnote_717_717" class="fnanchor">717</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and fled from his country and house and kingdom, yet had sorrow +and dejection<a name="FNanchor_718_718" id= +"FNanchor_718_718"></a><a href="#Footnote_718_718" class= +"fnanchor">718</a> as a perpetual companion with leisure. And some +have been often thrown into sad unrest merely from inaction, as the +following,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"But fleet Achilles, +Zeus-sprung, son of Peleus,</span> <span class="i0">Sat by the +swiftly-sailing ships and fumed,</span> <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_291" id="Page_291">291</a></span><span class="i0">Nor +ever did frequent th' ennobling council,</span> <span class= +"i0">Nor ever join the war, but pined in heart,</span> <span class= +"i0">Though in his tent abiding, for the fray."<a name= +"FNanchor_719_719" id="FNanchor_719_719"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_719_719" class="fnanchor">719</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And full of emotion and distress at this state of things he +himself says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"A useless burden to the earth +I sit</span> <span class="i0">Beside the ships."<a name= +"FNanchor_720_720" id="FNanchor_720_720"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_720_720" class="fnanchor">720</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>So even Epicurus thinks that those who are desirous of honour +and glory should not rust in inglorious ease, but use their natural +talents in public life for the benefit of the community at large, +seeing that they are by nature so constituted that they would be +more likely to be troubled and afflicted at inaction, if they did +not get what they desired. But he is absurd in that he does not +urge men of ability to take part in public life, but only the +restless. But we ought not to estimate ease or unrest of mind by +our many or few actions, but by their fairness or foulness. For the +omission of fair actions troubles and distresses us, as I have said +before, quite as much as the actual doing of foul actions.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> As for those who think +that one kind of life is especially free from trouble, as some +think that of farmers, others that of bachelors, others that of +kings, Menander sufficiently exposes their error in the following +lines:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Phania, I thought those rich +who need not borrow,</span> <span class="i0">Nor groan at nights, +nor cry out 'Woe is me,'</span> <span class="i0">Kicked up and down +in this untoward world,</span> <span class="i0">But sweet and +gentle sleep they may enjoy."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>He then goes on to remark that he saw the rich suffering the +same as the poor,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Trouble and life are truly +near akin.</span> <span class="i0">With the luxurious or the +glorious life</span> <span class="i0">Trouble consorts, and in the +life of poverty</span> <span class="i0">Lasts with it to the +end."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But just as people on the sea, timid and prone to sea-sickness, +think they will suffer from it less on board a merchantman than on +a boat, and for the same reason shift their quarters to a trireme, +but do not attain anything by these changes, for they take with +them their timidity and qualmishness, so changes of life do not +remove the sorrows and troubles <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_292" id="Page_292">292</a></span>of the soul; which proceed +from want of experience and reflection, and from inability or +ignorance rightly to enjoy the present. These afflict the rich as +well as the poor; these trouble the married as well as the +unmarried; these make people shun the forum, but find no happiness +in retirement; these make people eagerly desire introductions at +court, though when got they straightway care no more about +them.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The sick are peevish in their +straits and needs."<a name="FNanchor_721_721" id= +"FNanchor_721_721"></a><a href="#Footnote_721_721" class= +"fnanchor">721</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For the wife bothers them, and they grumble at the doctor, and +they find the bed uneasy, and, as Ion says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The friend that visits them +tires their patience,</span> <span class="i0">And yet they do not +like him to depart."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But afterwards, when the illness is over, and a sounder +condition supervenes, health returns and makes all things pleasant +and acceptable. He that yesterday loathed eggs and cakes of finest +meal and purest bread will to-day eat eagerly and with appetite +coarsest bread with a few olives and cress.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Such contentedness and +change of view in regard to every kind of life does the infusion of +reason bring about. When Alexander heard from Anaxarchus of the +infinite number of worlds, he wept, and when his friends asked him +what was the matter, he replied, "Is it not a matter for tears +that, when the number of worlds is infinite, I have not conquered +one?" But Crates, who had only a wallet and threadbare cloak, +passed all his life jesting and laughing as if at a festival. +Agamemnon was troubled with his rule over so many subjects,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"You look on Agamemnon, +Atreus' son,</span> <span class="i0">Whom Zeus has plunged for ever +in a mass</span> <span class="i0">Of never-ending cares."<a name= +"FNanchor_722_722" id="FNanchor_722_722"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_722_722" class="fnanchor">722</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But Diogenes when he was being sold sat down and kept jeering at +the auctioneer, and would not stand up when he bade him, but said +joking and laughing, "Would you tell a fish you were selling to +stand up?" And Socrates in prison played the philosopher and +discoursed with his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id= +"Page_293">293</a></span>friends. But Phäethon,<a name= +"FNanchor_723_723" id="FNanchor_723_723"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_723_723" class="fnanchor">723</a> when he got up to +heaven, wept because nobody gave to him his father's horses and +chariot. As therefore the shoe is shaped by the foot, and not the +foot by the shoe, so does the disposition make the life similar to +itself. For it is not, as one said, custom that makes the best life +seem sweet to those that choose it, but it is sense that makes that +very life at once the best and sweetest. Let us cleanse therefore +the fountain of contentedness, which is within us, that so external +things may turn out for our good, through our putting the best face +on them.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Events will take their +course, it is no good</span> <span class="i0">Our being angry at +them, he is happiest</span> <span class="i0">Who wisely turns them +to the best account."<a name="FNanchor_724_724" id= +"FNanchor_724_724"></a><a href="#Footnote_724_724" class= +"fnanchor">724</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Plato compared human life +to a game at dice, wherein we ought to throw according to our +requirements, and, having thrown, to make the best use of whatever +turns up. It is not in our power indeed to determine what the throw +will be, but it is our part, if we are wise, to accept in a right +spirit whatever fortune sends, and so to contrive matters that what +we wish should do us most good, and what we do not wish should do +us least harm. For those who live at random and without judgement, +like those sickly people who can stand neither heat nor cold, are +unduly elated by prosperity, and cast down by adversity; and in +either case suffer from unrest, but 'tis their own fault, and +perhaps they suffer most in what are called good circumstances. +Theodorus, who was surnamed the Atheist, used to say that he held +out arguments with his right hand, but his hearers received them +with their left; so awkward people frequently take in a clumsy +manner the favours of fortune; but men of sense, as bees extract +honey from thyme which is the strongest and driest of herbs,<a +name="FNanchor_725_725" id="FNanchor_725_725"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_725_725" class="fnanchor">725</a> so from the least +auspicious circumstances frequently derive advantage and +profit.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> We ought then to cultivate +such a habit as this, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id= +"Page_294">294</a></span>like the man who threw a stone at his dog, +and missed it, but hit his step-mother, and cried out, "Not so +bad." Thus we may often turn the edge of fortune when things turn +not out as we wish. Diogenes was driven into exile; "not so bad;" +for his exile made him turn philosopher. And Zeno of Cittium,<a +name="FNanchor_726_726" id="FNanchor_726_726"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_726_726" class="fnanchor">726</a> when he heard that the +only merchantman he had was wrecked, cargo and all, said, "Fortune, +you treat me handsomely, since you reduce me to my threadbare cloak +and piazza."<a name="FNanchor_727_727" id="FNanchor_727_727"></a><a +href="#Footnote_727_727" class="fnanchor">727</a> What prevents our +imitating such men as these? Have you failed to get some office? +You will be able to live in the country henceforth, and manage your +own affairs. Did you court the friendship of some great man, and +meet with a rebuff? You will live free from danger and cares. Have +you again had matters to deal with that required labour and +thought? "Warm water will not so much make the limbs soft by +soaking," to quote Pindar,<a name="FNanchor_728_728" id= +"FNanchor_728_728"></a><a href="#Footnote_728_728" class= +"fnanchor">728</a> as glory and honour and power make "labour +sweet, and toil to be no toil."<a name="FNanchor_729_729" id= +"FNanchor_729_729"></a><a href="#Footnote_729_729" class= +"fnanchor">729</a> Or has any bad luck or contumely fallen on you +in consequence of some calumny or from envy? The breeze is +favourable that will waft you to the Muses and the Academy, as it +did Plato when his friendship with Dionysius came to an end. It +does indeed greatly conduce to contentedness of mind to see how +famous men have borne the same troubles with an unruffled mind. For +example, does childlessness trouble you? Consider those kings of +the Romans, none of whom left his kingdom to a son. Are you +distressed at the pinch of poverty? Who of the Bœotians would +you rather prefer to be than Epaminondas, or of the Romans than +Fabricius? Has your wife been seduced? Have you never read that +inscription at Delphi,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Agis the king of land and sea +erected me;"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and have you not heard that his wife Timæa was seduced by +Alcibiades, and in her whispers to her handmaidens called the child +that was born Alcibiades? Yet this did not prevent Agis from being +the most famous and greatest <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_295" id="Page_295">295</a></span>of the Greeks. Neither again +did the licentiousness of his daughter prevent Stilpo from leading +the merriest life of all the philosophers that were his +contemporaries. And when Metrocles reproached him with her life, he +said, "Is it my fault or hers?" And when Metrocles answered, "Her +fault, but your misfortune," he rejoined, "How say you? Are not +faults also slips?" "Certainly," said he. "And are not slips +mischances in those matters wherein we slip?" Metrocles assented. +"And are not mischances misfortunes in those matters wherein we +mischance?" By this gentle and philosophical argument he +demonstrated the Cynic's reproach to be an idle bark.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> But most people are +troubled and exasperated not only at the bad in their friends and +intimates, but also in their enemies. For railing and anger and +envy and malignity and jealousy and ill-will are the bane of those +that suffer from those infirmities, and trouble and exasperate the +foolish: as for example the quarrels of neighbours, and peevishness +of acquaintances, and the want of ability in those that manage +state affairs. By these things you yourself seem to me to be put +out not a little, as the doctors in Sophocles, who</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"With bitter physic purge the +bitter bile,"<a name="FNanchor_730_730" id= +"FNanchor_730_730"></a><a href="#Footnote_730_730" class= +"fnanchor">730</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>so vexed and bitter are you at people's weaknesses and +infirmities, which is not reasonable in you. Even your own private +affairs are not always managed by simple and good and suitable +instruments, so to speak, but very frequently by sharp and crooked +ones. Do not think it then either your business, or an easy matter +either, to set all these things to rights. But if you take people +as they are, as the surgeon uses his bandages and instruments for +drawing teeth, and with cheerfulness and serenity welcome all that +happens, as you would look upon barking dogs as only following +their nature, you will be happier in the disposition you will then +have than you will be distressed at other people's disagreeableness +and shortcomings. For you will forget to make a collection of +disagreeable things,<a name="FNanchor_731_731" id= +"FNanchor_731_731"></a><a href="#Footnote_731_731" class= +"fnanchor">731</a> which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" +id="Page_296">296</a></span>now inundate, as some hollow and +low-lying ground, your littleness of mind and weakness, which fills +itself with other people's bad points. For seeing that some of the +philosophers censure compassion to the unfortunate (on the ground +that it is good to help our neighbours, and not to give way to +sentimental sympathy in connection with them), and, what is of more +importance, do not allow those that are conscious of their errors +and bad moral disposition to be dejected and grieved at them, but +bid them cure their defects without grief at once, is it not +altogether unreasonable, look you, to allow ourselves to be peevish +and vexed, because all those who have dealings with us and come +near us are not good and clever? Let us see to it, dear Paccius, +that we do not, whether we are aware of it or not, play a part, +really looking<a name="FNanchor_732_732" id= +"FNanchor_732_732"></a><a href="#Footnote_732_732" class= +"fnanchor">732</a> not at the universal defects of those that +approach us, but at our own interests through our selfishness, and +not through our hatred of evil. For excessive excitement about +things, and an undue appetite and desire for them, or on the other +hand aversion and dislike to them, engender suspiciousness and +peevishness against persons, who were, we think, the cause of our +being deprived of some things, and of being troubled with others. +But he that is accustomed to adapt himself to things easily and +calmly is most cheerful and gentle in his dealings with people.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Wherefore let us resume +our argument. As in a fever everything seems bitter and unpleasant +to the taste, but when we see others not loathing but fancying the +very same eatables and drinkables, we no longer find the fault to +be in them but in ourselves and our disease, so we shall cease to +blame and be discontented with the state of affairs, if we see +others cheerfully and without grief enduring the same. It also +makes for contentedness, when things happen against our wish, not +to overlook our many advantages and comforts, but by looking at +both good and bad to feel that the good preponderate. When our eyes +are dazzled with things too bright we turn them away, and ease them +by looking at flowers or grass, while we keep the eyes of our mind +strained on disagreeable things, and force <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_297" id="Page_297">297</a></span>them to dwell on bitter +ideas, well-nigh tearing them away by force from the consideration +of pleasanter things. And yet one might apply here, not unaptly, +what was said to the man of curiosity,<a name="FNanchor_733_733" +id="FNanchor_733_733"></a><a href="#Footnote_733_733" class= +"fnanchor">733</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Malignant wretch, why art so +keen to mark</span> <span class="i0">Thy neighbour's fault, and +seest not thine own?"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Why on earth, my good sir, do you confine your view to your +troubles, making them so vivid and acute, while you do not let your +mind dwell at all on your present comforts? But as cupping-glasses +draw the worst blood from the flesh, so you force upon your +attention the worst things in your lot: acting not a whit more +wisely than that Chian, who, selling much choice wine to others, +asked for some sour wine for his own supper; and one of his slaves +being asked by another, what he had left his master doing, replied, +"Asking for bad when good was by." For most people overlook the +advantages and pleasures of their individual lives, and run to +their difficulties and grievances. Aristippus, however, was not +such a one, for he cleverly knew as in a scale to make the better +preponderate over the worse. So having lost a good farm, he asked +one of those who made a great show of condolence and sympathy, +"Have you not only one little piece of ground, while I have three +fields left?" And when he admitted that it was so, he went on to +say, "Ought I not then to condole with you rather than you with +me?" For it is the act of a madman to distress oneself over what is +lost, and not to rejoice at what is left; but like little children, +if one of their many playthings be taken away by anyone, throw the +rest away and weep and cry out, so we, if we are assailed by +fortune in some one point, wail and mourn and make all other things +seem unprofitable in our eyes.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> Suppose someone should +say, What blessings have we? I would reply, What have we not? One +has reputation, another a house, another a wife, another a good +friend. When Antipater of Tarsus was reckoning up on his death-bed +his various pieces of good fortune, he did not <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">298</a></span>even pass +over his favourable voyage from Cilicia to Athens. So we should not +overlook, but take account of everyday blessings, and rejoice +that we live, and are well, and see the sun, and that no war or +sedition plagues our country, but that the earth is open to +cultivation, the sea secure to mariners, and that we can speak or +be silent, lead a busy or an idle life, as we choose. We shall get +more contentedness from the presence of all these blessings, if we +fancy them as absent, and remember from time to time how people ill +yearn for health, and people in war for peace, and strangers and +unknown in a great city for reputation and friends, and how painful +it is to be deprived of all these when one has once had them. For +then each of these blessings will not appear to us only great and +valuable when it is lost, and of no value while we have it. For not +having it cannot add value to anything. Nor ought we to amass +things we regard as valuable, and always be on the tremble and +afraid of losing them as valuable things, and yet, when we have +them, ignore them and think little of them; but we ought to use +them for our pleasure and enjoyment, that we may bear their loss, +if that should happen, with more equanimity. But most people, as +Arcesilaus said, think it right to inspect minutely and in every +detail, perusing them alike with the eyes of the body and mind, +other people's poems and paintings and statues, while they neglect +to study their own lives, which have often many not unpleasing +subjects for contemplation, looking abroad and ever admiring other +people's reputations and fortunes, as adulterers admire other men's +wives, and think cheap of their own.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> And yet it makes much for +contentedness of mind to look for the most part at home and to our +own condition, or if not, to look at the case of people worse off +than ourselves, and not, as most people do, to compare ourselves +with those who are better off. For example, those who are in chains +think those happy who are freed from their chains, and they again +freemen, and freemen citizens, and they again the rich, and the +rich satraps, and satraps kings, and kings the gods, content with +hardly anything short of hurling thunderbolts and lightning. And so +they ever<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id= +"Page_299">299</a></span> want something above them, and are never +thankful for what they have.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I care not for the wealth of +golden Gyges,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I never had or envy or +desire</span> <span class="i0">To be a god, or love for mighty +empire,</span> <span class="i0">Far distant from my eyes are all +such things."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But this, you will say, was the language of a Thasian. But you +will find others, Chians or Galatians or Bithynians, not content +with the share of glory or power they have among their +fellow-citizens, but weeping because they do not wear senators' +shoes; or, if they have them, that they cannot be prætors at +Rome; or, if they get that office, that they are not consuls; or, +if they are consuls, that they are only proclaimed second and not +first. What is all this but seeking out excuses for being +unthankful to fortune, only to torment and punish oneself? But he +that has a mind in sound condition, does not sit down in sorrow and +dejection if he is less renowned or rich than some of the countless +myriads of mankind that the sun looks upon, "who feed on the +produce of the wide world,"<a name="FNanchor_734_734" id= +"FNanchor_734_734"></a><a href="#Footnote_734_734" class= +"fnanchor">734</a> but goes on his way rejoicing at his fortune and +life, as far fairer and happier than that of myriads of others. In +the Olympian games it is not possible to be the victor by choosing +one's competitors. But in the race of life circumstances allow us +to plume ourselves on surpassing many, and to be objects of envy +rather than to have to envy others, unless we pit ourselves against +a Briareus or a Hercules. Whenever then you admire anyone carried +by in his litter as a greater man than yourself, lower your eyes +and look at those that bear the litter. And when you think the +famous Xerxes happy for his passage over the Hellespont, as a +native of those parts<a name="FNanchor_735_735" id= +"FNanchor_735_735"></a><a href="#Footnote_735_735" class= +"fnanchor">735</a> did, look too at those who dug through Mount +Athos under the lash, and at those whose ears and noses were cut +off because the bridge was broken by the waves, consider their +state of mind also, for they think your life and fortunes happy. +Socrates, when he heard one of his friends saying, "How <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">300</a></span>dear +this city is! Chian wine costs one mina,<a name="FNanchor_736_736" +id="FNanchor_736_736"></a><a href="#Footnote_736_736" class= +"fnanchor">736</a> a purple robe three, and half a pint of honey +five drachmæ," took him to the meal market, and showed him +half a peck of meal for an obol, then took him to the olive market, +and showed him a peck of olives for two coppers, and lastly showed +him that a sleeveless vest<a name="FNanchor_737_737" id= +"FNanchor_737_737"></a><a href="#Footnote_737_737" class= +"fnanchor">737</a> was only ten drachmæ. At each place +Socrates' friend exclaimed, "How cheap this city is!" So also we, +when we hear anyone saying that our affairs are bad and in a woful +plight, because we are not consuls or governors, may reply, "Our +affairs are in an admirable condition, and our life an enviable +one, seeing that we do not beg, nor carry burdens, nor live by +flattery."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_300a" id="Page_300a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">xi.</span> But since through our folly we are accustomed to +live more with an eye to others than ourselves, and since nature is +so jealous and envious that it rejoices not so much in its own +blessings as it is pained by those of others, do not look only at +the much-cried-up splendour of those whom you envy and admire, but +open and draw, as it were, the gaudy curtain of their pomp and +show, and peep within, you will see that they have much to trouble +them, and many things to annoy them. The well-known Pittacus,<a +name="FNanchor_738_738" id="FNanchor_738_738"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_738_738" class="fnanchor">738</a> whose fame was so +great for fortitude and wisdom and uprightness, was once +entertaining some guests, and his wife came in in a rage and upset +the table, and as the guests were dismayed he said, Every one of +you has some trouble, and he who has mine only is not so bad +off.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Happy is he accounted at the +forum,</span> <span class="i0">But when he opens the door of his own +house</span> <span class="i0">Thrice miserable; for his wife rules +all,</span> <span class="i0">Still lords it over him, and is ever +quarrelling.</span> <span class="i0">Many griefs has he that I wot +not of."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Many such cases are there, unknown to the public, for family +pride casts a veil over them, to be found in wealth and glory and +even in royalty.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"O happy son of Atreus, child +of destiny,</span> <span class="i0">Blessed thy lot;"<a name= +"FNanchor_739_739" id="FNanchor_739_739"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_739_739" class="fnanchor">739</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>congratulation like this comes from an external view, from a +halo of arms and horses and the pomp of war, but the inward voice +of emotion testifies against all this vain glory;</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id= +"Page_301">301</a></span><span class="i0">"A heavy fate is laid on +me by Zeus</span> <span class="i0">The son of Cronos."<a name= +"FNanchor_740_740" id="FNanchor_740_740"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_740_740" class="fnanchor">740</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Old man, I think your lot one +to be envied,</span> <span class="i0">As that of any man who free +from danger</span> <span class="i0">Passes his life unknown and in +obscurity."<a name="FNanchor_741_741" id="FNanchor_741_741"></a><a +href="#Footnote_741_741" class="fnanchor">741</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>By such reflections as these one may wean oneself from that +discontent with one's fortune, which makes one's own condition look +low and mean from too much admiring one's neighbour's.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_301a" id="Page_301a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">xii.</span> Another thing, which is a great hindrance to +peace of mind, is not to proportion our desires to our means, but +to carry too much sail, as it were, in our hopes of great things +and then, if unsuccessful, to blame destiny and fortune, and not +our own folly. For he is not unfortunate who wishes to shoot with a +plough, or hunt the hare with an ox; nor has he an evil genius +opposed to him, who does not catch deer with fishing nets, but +merely is the dupe of his own stupidity and folly in attempting +impossibilities. Self-love is mainly to blame, making people fond +of being first and aspiring in all matters, and insatiably desirous +to engage in everything. For people not only wish at one and the +same time to be rich, and learned, and strong, and boon-companions, +and agreeable, and friends of kings, and governors of cities, but +they are also discontented if they have not dogs and horses and +quails and cocks of the first quality. Dionysius the elder was not +content with being the most powerful monarch of his times, but +because he could not beat Philoxenus the poet in singing, or +surpass Plato in dialectics, was so angry and exasperated that he +put the one to work in his stone quarries, and sent the other to +Ægina and sold him there. Alexander was of a different +spirit, for when Crisso the famous runner ran a race with him, and +seemed to let the king outrun him on purpose, he was greatly +displeased. Good also was the spirit of Achilles in Homer, who, +when he said,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"None of the Achæan +warriors is a match</span> <span class="i0">For me in +war,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id= +"Page_302">302</a></span>added,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0"><span style= +"margin-left: 8.5em;">"Yet in the council hall</span></span> <span +class="i0">Others there are who better are than me."<a name= +"FNanchor_742_742" id="FNanchor_742_742"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_742_742" class="fnanchor">742</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And when Megabyzus the Persian visited the studio of Apelles, +and began to chatter about art, Apelles stopped him and said, +"While you kept silence you seemed to be somebody from your gold +and purple, but now these lads that are grinding colours are +laughing at your nonsense." But some who think the Stoics only talk +idly, in styling their wise man not only prudent and just and brave +but also orator and general and poet and rich man and king, yet +claim for themselves all those titles, and are indignant if they do +not get them. And yet even among the gods different functions are +assigned to different personages; thus one is called the god of +war, another the god of oracles, another the god of gain, and +Aphrodite, as she has nothing to do with warlike affairs, is +despatched by Zeus to marriages and bridals.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_302a" id="Page_302a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">xiii.</span> And indeed there are some pursuits which +cannot exist together, but are by their very nature opposed. For +example oratory and the study of the mathematics require ease and +leisure; whereas political ability and the friendship of kings +cannot be attained without mixing in affairs and in public life. +Moreover wine and indulgence in meat make the body indeed strong +and vigorous, but blunt the intellect; and though unremitting +attention to making and saving money will heap up wealth, yet +despising and contemning riches is a great help to philosophy. So +that all things are not within any one's power, and we must obey +that saying inscribed in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, <i>Know +thyself</i>,<a name="FNanchor_743_743" id="FNanchor_743_743"></a><a +href="#Footnote_743_743" class="fnanchor">743</a> and adapt +ourselves to our natural bent, and not drag and force nature to +some other kind of life or pursuit. "The horse to the chariot, and +the ox to the plough, and swiftly alongside the ship scuds the +dolphin, while he that meditates destruction for the boar must find +a staunch hound."<a name="FNanchor_744_744" id= +"FNanchor_744_744"></a><a href="#Footnote_744_744" class= +"fnanchor">744</a> But he that chafes and is grieved that he is not +at one and the same time "a lion reared on the mountains, exulting +in his strength,"<a name="FNanchor_745_745" id= +"FNanchor_745_745"></a><a href="#Footnote_745_745" class= +"fnanchor">745</a> and a little Maltese <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_303" id="Page_303">303</a></span>lap-dog<a name= +"FNanchor_746_746" id="FNanchor_746_746"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_746_746" class="fnanchor">746</a> reared in the lap of a +rich widow, is out of his senses. And not a whit wiser is he who +wishes to be an Empedocles, or Plato, or Democritus, and write +about the world and the real nature of things, and at the same time +to be married like Euphorion to a rich wife, or to revel and drink +with Alexander like Medius; and is grieved and vexed if he is not +also admired for his wealth like Ismenias, and for his virtue like +Epaminondas. But runners are not discontented because they do not +carry off the crowns of wrestlers, but rejoice and delight in their +own crowns. "You are a citizen of Sparta: see you make the most of +her." So too said Solon:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"We will not change our virtue +for their wealth,</span> <span class="i0">For virtue never dies, +but wealth has wings,</span> <span class="i0">And flies about from +one man to another."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>And Strato the natural philosopher, when he heard that Menedemus +had many more pupils than he had, said, "Is it wonderful at all +that more wish to wash than to be anointed?" And Aristotle, writing +to Antipater, said, "Not only has Alexander a right to plume +himself on his rule over many subjects, but no less legitimate is +satisfaction at entertaining right opinions about the gods." For +those that think so highly of their own walk in life will not be so +envious about their neighbours'. We do not expect a vine to bear +figs, nor an olive grapes, yet now-a-days, with regard to +ourselves, if we have not at one and the same time the privilege of +being accounted rich and learned, generals and philosophers, +flatterers and outspoken, stingy and extravagant, we slander +ourselves and are dissatisfied, and despise ourselves as living a +maimed and imperfect life. Furthermore, we see that nature teaches +us the same lesson.<a name="FNanchor_747_747" id= +"FNanchor_747_747"></a><a href="#Footnote_747_747" class= +"fnanchor">747</a> For as she provides different kinds of beasts +with different kinds of food, and has not made all carnivorous, or +seed-pickers, or root-diggers, so she has given to mankind various +means of getting a livelihood, "one by keeping sheep, another by +ploughing, another by fowling,"<a name="FNanchor_748_748" id= +"FNanchor_748_748"></a><a href="#Footnote_748_748" class= +"fnanchor">748</a> and another by catching the fish of the sea. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id= +"Page_304">304</a></span>We ought each therefore to select the +calling appropriate for ourselves and labour energetically in it, +and leave other people to theirs, and not demonstrate Hesiod as +coming short of the real state of things when he said,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Potter is wroth with potter, +smith with smith."<a name="FNanchor_749_749" id= +"FNanchor_749_749"></a><a href="#Footnote_749_749" class= +"fnanchor">749</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For not only do people envy those of the same trade and manner +of life, but the rich envy the learned, and the famous the rich, +and advocates sophists, aye, and freemen and patricians admire and +think happy comedians starring it at the theatres, and dancers, and +the attendants at kings' courts, and by all this envy give +themselves no small trouble and annoyance.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> But that every man has in +himself the magazines of content or discontent, and that the jars +containing blessings and evils are not on the threshold of Zeus,<a +name="FNanchor_750_750" id="FNanchor_750_750"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_750_750" class="fnanchor">750</a> but lie stored in the +mind, is plain from the differences of men's passions. For the +foolish overlook and neglect present blessings, through their +thoughts being ever intent on the future; but the wise make the +past clearly present to them through memory. For the present giving +only a moment of time to the touch, and then evading our grasp, +does not seem to the foolish to be ours or to belong to us at all. +And like that person<a name="FNanchor_751_751" id= +"FNanchor_751_751"></a><a href="#Footnote_751_751" class= +"fnanchor">751</a> painted as rope-making in Hades and permitting +an ass feeding by to eat up the rope as fast as he makes it, so the +stupid and thankless forgetfulness of most people comes upon them +and takes possession of them, and obliterates from their mind every +past action, whether success, or pleasant leisure, or society, or +enjoyment, and breaks the unity of life which arises from the past +being blended with the present; for detaching to-day from both +yesterday and to-morrow, it soon makes every event as if it had +never happened from lack of memory. For as those in the schools, +who deny the growth of our bodies by reason of the continual flux +of substance, make each of us in theory different from himself and +another man, so those who do not keep or recall to their memory +former things, but let them drift, actually empty them<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">305</a></span>selves +daily, and hang upon the morrow, as if what happened a year ago, or +even yesterday and the day before yesterday, had nothing to do with +them, and had hardly occurred at all.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> This is one great +hindrance to contentedness of mind, and another still greater is +whenever, like flies that slide down smooth places in mirrors, but +stick fast in rough places or where there are cracks, men let +pleasant and agreeable things glide from their memory, and pin +themselves down to the remembrance of unpleasant things; or rather, +as at Olynthus they say beetles, when they get into a certain place +called Destruction-to-beetles, cannot get out, but fly round and +round till they die, so men will glide into the remembrance of +their woes, and will not give themselves a respite from sorrow. +But, as we use our brightest colours in a picture, so in the mind +we ought to look at the cheerful and bright side of things, and +hide and keep down the gloomy, for we cannot altogether obliterate +or get rid of it. For, as the strings of the bow and lyre are +alternately tightened and relaxed, so is it with the order of the +world; in human affairs there is nothing pure and without alloy. +But as in music there are high and low notes, and in grammar vowels +and mutes, but neither the musician nor grammarian decline to use +either kinds, but know how to blend and employ them both for their +purpose, so in human affairs which are balanced one against +another,—for, as Euripides says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"There is no good without ill +in the world,</span> <span class="i0">But everything is mixed in +due proportion,"—</span></div> +</div> + +<p>we ought not to be disheartened or despondent; but as musicians +drown their worst music with the best, so should we take good and +bad together, and make our chequered life one of convenience and +harmony. For it is not, as Menander says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Directly any man is born, a +genius</span> <span class="i0">Befriends him, a good guide to him +for life,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>but it is rather, as Empedocles states, two fates or genii take +hold of each of us when we are born and govern us. "There were +Chthonia and far-seeing Heliope, and cruel Deris, and grave +Harmonia, and Callisto, and Æschra, and<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">306</a></span> Thoosa, +and Denæa, and charming Nemertes, and Asaphea with the black +fruit."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> And as<a name= +"FNanchor_752_752" id="FNanchor_752_752"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_752_752" class="fnanchor">752</a> at our birth we +received the mingled seeds of each of these passions, which is the +cause of much irregularity, the sensible person hopes for better +things, but expects worse, and makes the most of either, +remembering that wise maxim, <i>Not too much of anything.</i> For +not only will he who is least solicitous about to-morrow best enjoy +it when it comes, as Epicurus says, but also wealth, and renown, +and power and rule, gladden most of all the hearts of those who are +least afraid of the contrary. For the immoderate desire for each, +implanting a most immoderate fear of losing them, makes the +enjoyment of them weak and wavering, like a flame under the +influence of a wind. But he whom reason enables to say to fortune +without fear or trembling,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"If you bring any good I +gladly welcome it,</span> <span class="i0">But if you fail me +little does it trouble me,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>he can enjoy the present with most zest through his confidence, +and absence of fear of the loss of what he has, which would be +unbearable. For we may not only admire but also imitate the +behaviour of Anaxagoras, which made him cry out at the death of his +son, "I knew I had begot a mortal," and apply it to every +contingency. For example, "I know that wealth is ephemeral and +insecure; I know that those who gave power can take it away again; +I know that my wife is good, but still a woman; and that my friend, +since a human being, is by nature a changeable animal, to use +Plato's expression." For such a prepared frame of mind, if anything +happens unwished for but not unexpected, not admitting of such +phrases as "I shouldn't have dreamed of it," or "I expected quite a +different lot," or "I didn't look for this," abates the violent<a +name="FNanchor_753_753" id="FNanchor_753_753"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_753_753" class="fnanchor">753</a> beatings and +palpitations of the heart, and quickly causes wild unrest to +subside. Carneades indeed reminds us that in great matters the +unexpected makes the sum total of grief and dejection. Certainly +the kingdom of Macedonia was many times smaller than the Roman +Empire, but when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id= +"Page_307">307</a></span>Perseus lost Macedonia, he not only +himself bewailed his wretched fate, but seemed to all men the most +unfortunate and unlucky of mankind; yet Æmilius who conquered +him, though he had to give up to another the command both by land +and sea, yet was crowned, and offered sacrifice, and was justly +esteemed happy. For he knew that he had taken a command which he +would have to give up, but Perseus lost his kingdom without +expecting it. Well also has the poet<a name="FNanchor_754_754" id= +"FNanchor_754_754"></a><a href="#Footnote_754_754" class= +"fnanchor">754</a> shown the power of anything that happens +unexpectedly. For Odysseus wept bitterly at the death of his dog, +but was not so moved when he sat by his wife who wept, for in the +latter case he had come fully determined to keep his emotion under +the control of reason, whereas in the former it was against his +expectation, and therefore fell upon him as a sudden blow.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> And since generally +speaking some things which happen against our will pain and trouble +us by their very nature, while in the case of most we accustom +ourselves and learn to be disgusted with them from fancy, it is not +unprofitable to counteract this to have ever ready that line of +Menander,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"You suffer no dread thing but +in your fancy."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>For what, if they touch you neither in soul nor body, are such +things to you as the low birth of your father, or the adultery of +your wife, or the loss of some prize or precedence, since even by +their absence a man is not prevented from being in excellent +condition both of body and soul. And with respect to the things +that seem to pain us by their very nature, as sickness, and +anxieties, and the deaths of friends and children, we should +remember, that line of Euripides,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Alas! and why alas? we only +suffer</span> <span class="i0">What mortals must +expect."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>For no argument has so much weight with emotion when it is borne +down with grief, as that which reminds it of the common and natural +necessity to which man is exposed owing to the body, the only +handle which he gives to fortune, for in his most important and +influential part<a name="FNanchor_755_755" id= +"FNanchor_755_755"></a><a href="#Footnote_755_755" class= +"fnanchor">755</a> he is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" +id="Page_308">308</a></span>secure against external things. When +Demetrius captured Megara, he asked Stilpo if any of his things had +been plundered, and Stilpo answered, "I saw nobody carrying off +anything of mine."<a name="FNanchor_756_756" id= +"FNanchor_756_756"></a><a href="#Footnote_756_756" class= +"fnanchor">756</a> And so when fortune has plundered us and +stripped us of everything else, we have that within ourselves</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Which the Achæans ne'er +could rob us of."<a name="FNanchor_757_757" id= +"FNanchor_757_757"></a><a href="#Footnote_757_757" class= +"fnanchor">757</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>So that we ought not altogether to abase and lower nature, as if +she had no strength or stability against fortune; but on the +contrary, knowing that the rotten and perishable part of man, +wherein alone he lies open to fortune, is small, while we ourselves +are masters of the better part, wherein are situated our greatest +blessings, as good opinions and teaching and virtuous precepts, all +which things cannot be abstracted from us or perish, we ought to +look on the future with invincible courage, and say to fortune, as +Socrates is supposed to have said to his accusers Anytus and +Melitus before the jury, "Anytus and Melitus can kill me, but they +cannot hurt me." For fortune can afflict us with disease, take away +our money, calumniate us to the people or king, but cannot make a +good and brave and high-souled man bad and cowardly and low and +ignoble and envious, nor take away that disposition of mind, whose +constant presence is of more use for the conduct of life than the +presence of a pilot at sea. For the pilot cannot make calm the wild +wave or wind, nor can he find a haven at his need wherever he +wishes, nor can he await his fate with confidence and without +trembling, but as long as he has not despaired, but uses his skill, +he scuds before the gale, "lowering his big sail, till his lower +mast is only just above the sea dark as Erebus," and sits at the +helm trembling and quaking. But the disposition of a wise man gives +calm even to the body, mostly cutting off the causes of diseases by +temperance and plain living and moderate exercise; but if some +beginning of trouble arise from without, as we avoid a sunken rock, +so he passes by it with furled sail, as Asclepiades puts it; but if +some unexpected <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id= +"Page_309">309</a></span> and tremendous gale come upon him and +prove too much for him, the harbour is at hand, and he can swim +away from the body, as from a leaky boat.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> For it is the fear of +death, and not the desire of life, that makes the foolish person to +hang to the body, clinging to it, as Odysseus did to the fig-tree +from fear of Charybdis that lay below,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Where the wind neither let +him stay, or sail,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>so that he was displeased at this, and afraid of that. But he +who understands somehow or other the nature of the soul, and +reflects that the change it will undergo at death will be either to +something better or at least not worse, he has in his fearlessness +of death no small help to ease of mind in life. For to one who can +enjoy life when virtue and what is congenial to him have the upper +hand, and that can fearlessly depart from life, when uncongenial +and unnatural things are in the ascendant, with the words on his +lips,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The deity shall free me, when +I will,"<a name="FNanchor_758_758" id="FNanchor_758_758"></a><a +href="#Footnote_758_758" class="fnanchor">758</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>what can we imagine could befall such a man as this that would +vex him and wear him and harass him? For he who said, "I have +anticipated you, O fortune, and cut off all your loopholes to get +at me," did not trust to bolts or keys or walls, but to +determination and reason, which are within the power of all persons +that choose. And we ought not to despair or disbelieve any of these +sayings, but admiring them and emulating them and being +enthusiastic about them, we ought to try and test ourselves in +smaller matters with a view to greater, not avoiding or rejecting +that self-examination, nor sheltering ourselves under the remark, +"Perhaps nothing will be more difficult." For inertia<a name= +"FNanchor_759_759" id="FNanchor_759_759"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_759_759" class="fnanchor">759</a> and softness are +generated by that self-indulgence which ever occupies itself only +with the easiest tasks, and flees from the disagreeable to what is +most pleasant. But the soul that accustoms itself to face steadily +sickness and grief and exile, and calls in reason to its help in +each case, will find in what appears so sore and <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">310</a></span>dreadful +much that is false, empty, and rotten, as reason will show in each +case.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xix.</span> And yet many shudder at +that line of Menander,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"No one can say, I shall not +suffer this or that,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>being ignorant how much it helps us to freedom from grief to +practise to be able to look fortune in the face with our eyes open, +and not to entertain fine and soft fancies, like one reared in the +shade on many hopes that always yield and never resist. We can, +however, answer Menander's line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"No one can say, I shall not +suffer this or that,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>for a man can say, "I will not do this or that, I will not lie, +I will not play the rogue, I will not cheat, I will not scheme." +For this is in our power, and is no small but great help to ease of +mind. As on the contrary</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"The consciousness of having +done ill deeds,"<a name="FNanchor_760_760" id= +"FNanchor_760_760"></a><a href="#Footnote_760_760" class= +"fnanchor">760</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>like a sore in the flesh, leaves in the mind a regret which ever +wounds it and pricks it. For reason banishes all other griefs, but +itself creates regret when the soul is vexed with shame and +self-tormented. For as those who shudder in ague-fits or burn in +fevers feel more trouble and distress than those who externally +suffer the same from cold or heat, so the grief is lighter which +comes externally from chance, but that lament,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"None is to blame for this but +I myself,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>coming from within on one's own misdeeds, intensifies one's +bitterness by the shame felt. And so neither costly house, nor +quantity of gold, nor pride of race, nor weighty office, nor grace +of language, nor eloquence, impart so much calm and serenity to +life, as a soul pure from evil acts and desires, having an +imperturbable and undefiled character as the source of its life; +whence good actions flow, producing an enthusiastic and cheerful +energy accompanied by loftiness of thought, and a memory sweeter +and more lasting than that hope which Pindar says is the support of +old age. Censers do not, as Carneades said, after they are emptied, +long retain their sweet smell; but in the mind of the wise man good +actions always leave a fresh and fragrant memory, by which joy is +watered and flourishes, and <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_311" id="Page_311">311</a></span>despises those who wail over +life and abuse it as a region of ills, or as a place of exile for +souls in this world.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xx.</span> I am very taken with +Diogenes' remark to a stranger at Lacedæmon, who was dressing +with much display for a feast, "Does not a good man consider every +day a feast?" And a very great feast too, if we live soberly. For +the world is a most holy and divine temple, into which man is +introduced at his birth, not to behold motionless images made by +hands, but those things (to use the language of Plato) which the +divine mind has exhibited as the visible representations of +invisible things, having innate in them the principle of life and +motion, as the sun moon and stars, and rivers ever flowing with +fresh water, and the earth affording maintenance to plants and +animals. Seeing then that life is the most complete initiation into +all these things, it ought to be full of ease of mind and joy; not +as most people wait for the festivals of Cronos<a name= +"FNanchor_761_761" id="FNanchor_761_761"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_761_761" class="fnanchor">761</a> and Dionysus and the +Panathenæa and other similar days, that they may joy and +refresh themselves with bought laughter, paying actors and dancers +for the same. On such occasions indeed we sit silently and +decorously, for no one wails when he is initiated, or groans when +he beholds the Pythian games, or when he is drinking at the +festival of Cronos:<a href="#Footnote_761_761" class= +"fnanchor">761</a> but men shame the festivals which the deity +supplies us with and initiates us in, passing most of their time in +lamentation and heaviness of heart and distressing anxiety. And +though men delight in the pleasing notes of musical instruments, +and in the songs of birds, and behold with joy the animals playing +and frisking, and on the contrary are distressed when they roar and +howl and look savage; yet in regard to their own life, when they +see it without smiles and dejected, and ever oppressed and +afflicted by the most wretched sorrows and toils and unending +cares, they do not think of trying to procure alleviation and ease. +How is this? Nay, they will not even listen to others' exhortation, +which would enable them to acquiesce in the present without +repining, and to remember the past with thankfulness, and to meet +the future hopefully and cheerfully without fear or suspicion.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_711_711" id="Footnote_711_711"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_711_711"><span class="label">711</span></a> Or +cheerfulness, or tranquillity of mind. Jeremy Taylor has largely +borrowed again from this treatise in his "Holy Living," ch. ii. +§ 6, "Of Contentedness in all Estates and Accidents."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_712_712" id="Footnote_712_712"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_712_712"><span class="label">712</span></a> Reading with +Salmasius κάλτιος +πατρίκιος.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_713_713" id="Footnote_713_713"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_713_713"><span class="label">713</span></a> "Locus +Xenophontis est Cyropæd.," l. i. p. +52.—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_714_714" id="Footnote_714_714"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_714_714"><span class="label">714</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 258.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_715_715" id="Footnote_715_715"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_715_715"><span class="label">715</span></a> So +Wyttenbach, Dübner. Vulgo +ἀναισθησίας—ἀπονία.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_716_716" id="Footnote_716_716"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_716_716"><span class="label">716</span></a> "Works and +Days," 519.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_717_717" id="Footnote_717_717"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_717_717"><span class="label">717</span></a> "Odyssey," +i. 191, 192.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_718_718" id="Footnote_718_718"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_718_718"><span class="label">718</span></a> I read +κατηφείαν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_719_719" id="Footnote_719_719"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_719_719"><span class="label">719</span></a> "Iliad," i. +488-492.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_720_720" id="Footnote_720_720"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_720_720"><span class="label">720</span></a> "Iliad," +xviii. 104.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_721_721" id="Footnote_721_721"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_721_721"><span class="label">721</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 232.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_722_722" id="Footnote_722_722"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_722_722"><span class="label">722</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," x. 88, 89.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_723_723" id="Footnote_723_723"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_723_723"><span class="label">723</span></a> The story of +Phäethon is a very well-known one, and is recorded very fully +by Ovid in the "Metamorphoses," Book ii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_724_724" id="Footnote_724_724"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_724_724"><span class="label">724</span></a> Euripides, +"Bellerophon." Fragm. 298.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_725_725" id="Footnote_725_725"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_725_725"><span class="label">725</span></a> Supplying +φυτῶν with Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_726_726" id="Footnote_726_726"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_726_726"><span class="label">726</span></a> In Cyprus. +Zeno was the founder of the Stoics.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_727_727" id="Footnote_727_727"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_727_727"><span class="label">727</span></a> Zeno and his +successors taught in the Piazza at Athens called the Painted +Piazza. See Pausanias, i. 15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_728_728" id="Footnote_728_728"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_728_728"><span class="label">728</span></a> Pindar, Nem. +iv. 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_729_729" id="Footnote_729_729"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_729_729"><span class="label">729</span></a> Euripides, +"Bacchæ," 66.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_730_730" id="Footnote_730_730"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_730_730"><span class="label">730</span></a> Quoted again +by our author "On Restraining Anger," § xvi.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_731_731" id="Footnote_731_731"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_731_731"><span class="label">731</span></a> As will be +seen, I follow Wyttenbach's guidance in this very corrupt passage, +which is a true crux.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_732_732" id="Footnote_732_732"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_732_732"><span class="label">732</span></a> Reading +δεδορκότες.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_733_733" id="Footnote_733_733"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_733_733"><span class="label">733</span></a> See "On +Curiosity," <a href="#Page_238a">§ i.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_734_734" id="Footnote_734_734"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_734_734"><span class="label">734</span></a> +Simonides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_735_735" id="Footnote_735_735"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_735_735"><span class="label">735</span></a> See +Herodotus, vii. 56.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_736_736" id="Footnote_736_736"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_736_736"><span class="label">736</span></a> A mina was +100 drachmæ (<i>i.e.</i> £4. 1<i>s.</i> 3<i>d.</i>), +and 600 obols.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_737_737" id="Footnote_737_737"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_737_737"><span class="label">737</span></a> A slave's +ordinary dress.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_738_738" id="Footnote_738_738"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_738_738"><span class="label">738</span></a> One of the +Seven Wise Men.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_739_739" id="Footnote_739_739"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_739_739"><span class="label">739</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," iii. 182.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_740_740" id="Footnote_740_740"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_740_740"><span class="label">740</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," ii. 111.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_741_741" id="Footnote_741_741"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_741_741"><span class="label">741</span></a> Words of +Agamemnon to the House Porter. Euripides, "Iphigenia in Aulis," +17-19.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_742_742" id="Footnote_742_742"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_742_742"><span class="label">742</span></a> "Iliad," +xviii. 105, 106.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_743_743" id="Footnote_743_743"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_743_743"><span class="label">743</span></a> See +Pausanias, x. 24.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_744_744" id="Footnote_744_744"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_744_744"><span class="label">744</span></a> Pindar, +Fragm., 258. Quoted "On Moral Virtue," § xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_745_745" id="Footnote_745_745"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_745_745"><span class="label">745</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xvii. 61; "Odyssey," vi. 130.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_746_746" id="Footnote_746_746"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_746_746"><span class="label">746</span></a> A famous +breed of dogs from the island Melita, near Dalmatia. See Pliny, +"Hist. Nat.," iii. 26, extr. § 30; xxx. 5, extr. § +14.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_747_747" id="Footnote_747_747"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_747_747"><span class="label">747</span></a> That <i>Non +omnia possumus omnes</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_748_748" id="Footnote_748_748"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_748_748"><span class="label">748</span></a> Pindar, +"Isthm.," i. 65-70.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_749_749" id="Footnote_749_749"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_749_749"><span class="label">749</span></a> Hesiod, +"Works and Days," 25. Our "two of a trade seldom agree."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_750_750" id="Footnote_750_750"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_750_750"><span class="label">750</span></a> An allusion +to "Iliad," xxiv. 527-533.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_751_751" id="Footnote_751_751"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_751_751"><span class="label">751</span></a> Ocnus. See +Pausanias, x. 29.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_752_752" id="Footnote_752_752"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_752_752"><span class="label">752</span></a> So +Wyttenbach, who reads Ὡς δὲ +τούτων.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_753_753" id="Footnote_753_753"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_753_753"><span class="label">753</span></a> Reading +οἷα with Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_754_754" id="Footnote_754_754"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_754_754"><span class="label">754</span></a> Homer to +wit.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_755_755" id="Footnote_755_755"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_755_755"><span class="label">755</span></a> The +soul.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_756_756" id="Footnote_756_756"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_756_756"><span class="label">756</span></a> The reading +here is rather doubtful. That I have adopted is Reiske's and +Wyttenbach's.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_757_757" id="Footnote_757_757"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_757_757"><span class="label">757</span></a> "Iliad," v. +484.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_758_758" id="Footnote_758_758"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_758_758"><span class="label">758</span></a> Euripides, +"Bacchæ," 498. Compare Horace, "Epistles," i. xvi. 78, +79.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_759_759" id="Footnote_759_759"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_759_759"><span class="label">759</span></a> Reading with +Dübner ἀργίαν. Reiske has +ἀτονίαν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_760_760" id="Footnote_760_760"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_760_760"><span class="label">760</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 396.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_761_761" id="Footnote_761_761"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_761_761"><span class="label">761</span></a> The +<i>Saturnalia</i> (as the Romans called this feast) was well known +as a festival of merriment and license.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id= +"Page_312">312</a></span></p> + +<h3>ON ENVY AND HATRED.</h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Outwardly there seems no +difference between hatred and envy, but they seem identical. For +generally speaking, as vice has many hooks, and is swayed hither +and thither by the passions that hang on it, there are many points +of contact and entanglement between them, for as in the case of +illnesses there is a sympathy between the various passions. Thus +the prosperous man is equally a source of pain to hate and envy. +And so we think benevolence the opposite of both these passions, +being as it is a wish for our neighbour's good, and we think hate +and envy identical, for the desire of both is the very opposite of +benevolence. But since their similarities are not so great as their +dissimilarities, let us investigate and trace out these two +passions from their origin.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> Hatred then is generated +by the fancy that the person hated is either bad generally or bad +to oneself. For those who think they are wronged naturally hate +those who they think wrong them, and dislike and are on their guard +against those who are injurious or bad to others;<a name= +"FNanchor_762_762" id="FNanchor_762_762"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_762_762" class="fnanchor">762</a> but people envy merely +those they think prosperous. So envy seems illimitable, being, like +ophthalmia, troubled at everything bright, whereas hatred is +limited, since it settles only on what seems hostile.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> In the second place +people feel hatred even against the brutes; for some hate cats and +beetles and toads and serpents. Thus Germanicus could not bear the +crowing or sight of a cock, and the Persian magicians kill their +mice, not only hating them themselves but thinking them hateful to +their god, and the Arabians and Ethiopians abominate them as much. +Whereas we envy only human beings.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Indeed among the brutes it +is not likely that there should be any envy, for they have no +conception of prosperity or adversity, nor have they any idea of +reputation or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id= +"Page_313">313</a></span>want of reputation, which are the things +that mainly excite envy; but they hate one another, and are hostile +to one another, and fight with one another to the death, as eagles +and dragons, crows and owls, titmice and finches, insomuch that +they say that even the blood of these creatures will not mix, and +if you try to mix it it will immediately separate again. It is +likely also that there is strong hatred between the cock and the +lion, and the pig and the elephant, owing to fear. For what people +fear they naturally hate. We see also from this that envy differs +from hatred, for the animals are capable of the one, but not of the +other.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Moreover envy against +anyone is never just, for no one wrongs another by his prosperity, +though that is what he is envied for; but many are hated with +justice, for we even think others<a name="FNanchor_763_763" id= +"FNanchor_763_763"></a><a href="#Footnote_763_763" class= +"fnanchor">763</a> worthy of hatred, if they do not flee from such, +and are not disgusted and vexed at them. A great indication of this +is that some people admit they hate many, but declare they envy +nobody. Indeed hatred of evil is reckoned among praiseworthy +things; and when some were praising Charillus, the nephew of +Lycurgus and king of Sparta, for his mildness and gentleness, his +colleague said, "How can Charillus be good, who is not even harsh +to the bad?" And so the poet described the bodily defects of +Thersites at much length, whereas he expressed his vile moral +character most shortly and by one remark, "He was most hateful both +to Achilles and Odysseus."<a name="FNanchor_764_764" id= +"FNanchor_764_764"></a><a href="#Footnote_764_764" class= +"fnanchor">764</a> For to be hated by the most excellent is the +height of worthlessness. But people deny that they are envious, +and, if they are charged with being so, they put forward ten +thousand pleas, saying they are angry with the man or fear him or +hate him, suggesting any other passion than envy, and concealing it +as the only disorder of the soul which is abominable.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> Of necessity then these +two passions cannot, like plants, be fed and nourished and grow on +the same roots; for they are by nature different.<a name= +"FNanchor_765_765" id="FNanchor_765_765"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_765_765" class="fnanchor">765</a> For we hate people +more as they grow worse, but they are envied only the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">314</a></span>more the +more they advance in virtue. And so Themistocles, when quite a lad, +said he had done nothing remarkable, for he was not yet envied. For +as insects attack most ripe corn and roses in their bloom, so envy +fastens most on the good and on those who are growing in virtue and +good repute for moral character. Again extreme badness intensifies +hatred. So hated indeed and loathed were the accusers of Socrates, +as guilty of extreme vileness, by their fellow-citizens, that they +would neither supply them with fire, nor answer their questions, +nor touch the water they had bathed in, but ordered the servants to +pour it away as polluted, till they could bear this hatred no +longer and hung themselves. But splendid and exceptional success +often extinguishes envy. For it is not likely that anyone envied +Alexander or Cyrus, after their conquests made them lords of the +world. But as the sun, when it is high over our heads and sends +down its rays, makes next to no shadow, so at those successes that +attain such a height as to be over its head envy is humbled, and +retires completely dazzled. So Alexander had none to envy him, but +many to hate him, by whom he was plotted against till he died. So +too misfortunes stop envy, but they do not remove hatred. For +people hate their enemies even when they lie prostrate at their +feet, but no one envies the unfortunate. But the remark of one of +the sophists of our day is true, that the envious are very prone to +pity; so here too there is a great difference between these two +passions, for hatred abandons neither the fortunate nor +unfortunate, whereas envy is mitigated in the extreme of either +fortune.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Let as look at the same +again from opposite points of view. Men put an end to their enmity +and hatred, either if persuaded they have not been wronged, or if +they come round to the view that those they hated are good men and +not bad, or thirdly if they receive a kindness. For, as Thucydides +says, the last favour conferred, even though a smaller one, if it +be seasonable, outweighs a greater offence.<a name= +"FNanchor_766_766" id="FNanchor_766_766"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_766_766" class="fnanchor">766</a> Yet the persuasion +that they have not been wronged does not put an end to envy, for +people envy although absolutely persuaded that they have not been +wronged; and the two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id= +"Page_315">315</a></span>other cases actually increase envy; for +people look with an evil eye even more on those they think good, as +having virtue, which is the greatest blessing; and if they are +treated kindly by the prosperous it grieves them, for they envy +both their will and power to do kindnesses, the former proceeding +from their goodness, the latter from their prosperity, but both +being blessings. Thus envy is a passion altogether different from +hatred, seeing that what abates the one pains and exasperates the +other.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Let us now look at the +intent of each of these passions. The intent of the person who +hates is to do as much harm as he can, so they define hatred to be +a disposition and intent on the watch for an opportunity to do +harm. But this is altogether foreign to envy.<a name= +"FNanchor_767_767" id="FNanchor_767_767"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_767_767" class="fnanchor">767</a> For those who envy +their relations and friends would not wish them to come to ruin, or +fall into calamity, but are only annoyed at their prosperity; and +would hinder, if they could, their glory and renown, but they would +not bring upon them irremediable misfortunes: they are content to +remove, as in the case of a lofty house, what stands in their +light.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_762_762" id="Footnote_762_762"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_762_762"><span class="label">762</span></a> +ἄλλως MSS. Wyttenbach +ἄλλων. Malo +ἄλλοις.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_763_763" id="Footnote_763_763"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_763_763"><span class="label">763</span></a> So +Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_764_764" id="Footnote_764_764"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_764_764"><span class="label">764</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," ii. 220.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_765_765" id="Footnote_765_765"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_765_765"><span class="label">765</span></a> So +Wyttenbach. The reading in this passage is very doubtful.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_766_766" id="Footnote_766_766"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_766_766"><span class="label">766</span></a> Thucydides, +i. 42.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_767_767" id="Footnote_767_767"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_767_767"><span class="label">767</span></a> Reading +ἄπεστιν +ὅλως. Οἱ +γὰρ +φθονοῦντες. +What can be made of +πολλοὺς here?</p> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_315a" id="Page_315a">HOW ONE CAN PRAISE ONESELF +WITHOUT EXCITING ENVY.</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> To speak to other people +about one's own importance or ability, Herculanus, is universally +declared to be tiresome and illiberal, but in fact not many even of +those who censure it avoid its unpleasantness. Thus Euripides, +though he says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"If words had to be bought by +human beings,</span> <span class="i0">No one would wish to trumpet +his own praises.</span> <span class="i0">But since one can get +words <i>sans</i> any payment</span> <span class="i0">From lofty +ether, everyone delights</span> <span class="i0">In speaking truth +or falsehood of himself,</span> <span class="i0">For he can do it +with impunity;"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>yet uses much tiresome boasting, intermixing with the passion +and action of his plays irrelevant matter about himself. Similarly +Pindar says, that "to boast unseason<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_316" id="Page_316">316</a></span>ably is to play an +accompaniment to madness,"<a name="FNanchor_768_768" id= +"FNanchor_768_768"></a><a href="#Footnote_768_768" class= +"fnanchor">768</a> yet he does not cease to talk big about his own +merit, which indeed is well worthy of encomium, who would deny it? +But those who are crowned in the games leave it to others to +celebrate their victories, to avoid the unpleasantness of singing +their own praises. So we are with justice disgusted at Timotheus<a +name="FNanchor_769_769" id="FNanchor_769_769"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_769_769" class="fnanchor">769</a> for trumpeting his own +glory inelegantly and contrary to custom in the inscription for his +victory over Phrynis, "A proud day for you, Timotheus, was it when +the herald cried out, 'The Milesian Timotheus is victorious over +the son of Carbo and his Ionic notes.'" As Xenophon says, "Praise +from others is the pleasantest thing a man can hear,"<a name= +"FNanchor_770_770" id="FNanchor_770_770"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_770_770" class="fnanchor">770</a> but to others a man's +self-praise is most nauseous. For first we think those impudent who +praise themselves, since modesty would be becoming even if they +were praised by others; secondly, we think them unjust in giving +themselves what they ought to receive from others; thirdly, if we +are silent we seem to be vexed and to envy them, and if we are +afraid of this imputation, we are obliged to heap praise upon them +contrary to our real opinion, and to bear them out, undertaking a +task more befitting gross flattery than honour.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> And yet, in spite of all +this, there are occasions when a statesman may venture to speak in +his own praise, not to cry up his own glory and merit, but when the +time and matter demand that he should speak the truth about +himself, as he would about another; especially when it is mentioned +that another has done good and excellent things,<a name= +"FNanchor_771_771" id="FNanchor_771_771"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_771_771" class="fnanchor">771</a> there is no need for +him to suppress the fact that he has done as well. For such +self-praise bears excellent fruit, since much more and better +praise springs from it as from seed. For the statesman does not ask +for reputation as a reward or consolation, nor is he merely pleased +at its attending upon his actions, but he values it because credit +and character give him opportunities to do good on a larger scale. +For it is both easy and pleasant to benefit those who <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">317</a></span>believe in +us and are friendly to us, but it is not easy to act virtuously +against suspicion and calumny, and to force one's benefits on those +that reject them. Let us now consider, if there are any other +reasons warranting self-praise in a statesman, what they are, that, +while we avoid vain glory and disgusting other people, we may not +omit any useful kind of self-praise.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> That is vain glory then +when men seem to praise themselves that they may call forth the +laudation of others; and it is especially despised because it seems +to proceed from ambition and an unseasonable opinion of oneself. +For as those who cannot obtain food are forced to feed on their own +flesh against nature, and that is the end of famine, so those that +hunger after praise, if they get no one else to praise them, +disgrace themselves by their anxiety to feed their own vanity. But +when, not merely content with praising themselves, they vie with +the praise of others, and pit their own deeds and actions against +theirs, with the intent of outshining them, they add envy and +malignity to their vanity. The proverb teaches us that to put our +foot into another's dance is meddlesome and ridiculous; we ought +equally to be on our guard against intruding our own panegyric into +others' praises out of envy and spite, nor should we allow others +either to praise us then, but we should make way for those that are +being honoured, if they are worthy of honour, and even if they seem +to us undeserving of honour and worthless, we ought not to strip +them of their praise by self-laudation, but by direct argument and +proof that they are not worthy of all these encomiums. It is plain +then that we ought to avoid all such conduct as this.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> But self-praise cannot be +blamed, if it is an answer to some charge or calumny, as those +words of Pericles, "And yet you are angry with such a man as me, a +man I take it inferior to no one either in knowledge of what should +be done, or in ability to point out the same, and a lover of my +country to boot, and superior to bribes."<a name="FNanchor_772_772" +id="FNanchor_772_772"></a><a href="#Footnote_772_772" class= +"fnanchor">772</a> For not only did he avoid all swagger and +vain-glory and ambition in talking thus loftily about himself, but +he also exhi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id= +"Page_318">318</a></span>bited the spirit and greatness of his +virtue, which could abase and crush envy because it could not be +abased itself. For people will hardly condemn such men, for they +are elevated and cheered and inspired by noble self-laudation such +as this, if it have a true basis, as all history testifies. Thus +the Thebans, when their generals were charged with not returning +home, and laying down their office of Bœotarchs when their +time had expired, but instead of that making inroads into Laconia, +and helping Messene, hardly acquitted Pelopidas, who was submissive +and suppliant, but for Epaminondas,<a name="FNanchor_773_773" id= +"FNanchor_773_773"></a><a href="#Footnote_773_773" class= +"fnanchor">773</a> who gloried in what he had done, and at last +said that he was ready to die, if they would confess that he had +ravaged Laconia, and restored Messene, and made Arcadia one state, +against the will of the Thebans, they would not pass sentence upon +him, but admired his heroism, and with rejoicing and smiles set him +free. So too we must not altogether find fault with Sthenelus in +Homer saying,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"We boast ourselves far better +than our fathers,"<a name="FNanchor_774_774" id= +"FNanchor_774_774"></a><a href="#Footnote_774_774" class= +"fnanchor">774</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>when we remember the words of Agamemnon,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"How now? thou son of brave +horse-taming Tydeus,</span> <span class="i0">Why dost thou crouch +for fear, and watch far off</span> <span class="i0">The lines of +battle? How unlike thy father!"<a name="FNanchor_775_775" id= +"FNanchor_775_775"></a><a href="#Footnote_775_775" class= +"fnanchor">775</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For it was not because he was defamed himself, but he stood up +for his friend<a name="FNanchor_776_776" id= +"FNanchor_776_776"></a><a href="#Footnote_776_776" class= +"fnanchor">776</a> that was abused, the occasion giving him a +reasonable excuse for self-commendation. So too the Romans were far +from pleased at Cicero's frequently passing encomiums upon himself +in the affair of Catiline, yet when Scipio said they ought not to +try him (Scipio), since he had given them the power to try anybody, +they put on garlands, and accompanied him to the Capitol, and +sacrificed with him. For Cicero was not compelled to praise +himself, but only did so for glory, whereas the danger in which +Scipio stood removed envy from him.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> And not only on one's trial +and in danger, but also in misfortune, is tall talk and boasting +more suitable than in prosperity. For in prosperity people seem to +clutch as it were at glory and enjoy it, and so gratify their +ambition; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id= +"Page_319">319</a></span>but in adversity, being far from ambition +owing to circumstances, such self-commendation seems to be a +bearing up and fortifying the spirit against fortune, and an +avoidance altogether of that desire for pity and condolence, and +that humility, which we often find in adversity. As then we esteem +those persons vain and without sense who in walking hold themselves +very erect and with a stiff neck, yet in boxing or fighting we +commend such as hold themselves up and alert, so the man struggling +with adversity, who stands up straight against his fate, "in +fighting posture like some boxer,"<a name="FNanchor_777_777" id= +"FNanchor_777_777"></a><a href="#Footnote_777_777" class= +"fnanchor">777</a> and instead of being humble and abject becomes +through his boasting lofty and dignified, seems to be not offensive +and impudent, but great and invincible. This is why, I suppose, +Homer has represented Patroclus modest and without reproach in +prosperity, yet at the moment of death saying grandiloquently,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Had twenty warriors fought me +such as thou,</span> <span class="i0">All had succumbed to my +victorious spear."<a name="FNanchor_778_778" id= +"FNanchor_778_778"></a><a href="#Footnote_778_778" class= +"fnanchor">778</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And Phocion, though in other respects he was gentle, yet after +his sentence exhibited his greatness of soul to many others, and +notably to one of those that were to die with him, who was weeping +and wailing, to whom he said, "What! are you not content to die +with Phocion?"</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> Not less, but still more, +lawful is it for a public man who is wronged to speak on his own +behalf to those who treat him with ingratitude. Thus Achilles +generally conceded glory to the gods, and modestly used such +language as,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i11">"If ever Zeus</span> <span +class="i0">Shall grant to me to sack Troy's well-built town;"<a +name="FNanchor_779_779" id="FNanchor_779_779"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_779_779" class="fnanchor">779</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>but when insulted and outraged contrary to his deserts, he +utters in his rage boastful words,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Alighting from my ships +twelve towns I sacked,"<a name="FNanchor_780_780" id= +"FNanchor_780_780"></a><a href="#Footnote_780_780" class= +"fnanchor">780</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For they will never dare to +face my helmet</span> <span class="i0">When it gleams near."<a +name="FNanchor_781_781" id="FNanchor_781_781"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_781_781" class="fnanchor">781</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id= +"Page_320">320</a></span>For frank outspokenness, when it is part +of one's defence, admits of boasting. It was in this spirit no +doubt that Themistocles, who neither in word nor deed had given any +offence, when he saw the Athenians were tired of him and treating +him with neglect, did not abstain from saying, "My good sirs, why +do you tire of receiving benefits so frequently at the same hands?" +and<a name="FNanchor_782_782" id="FNanchor_782_782"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_782_782" class="fnanchor">782</a> "When the storm is on +you fly to me for shelter as to a tree, but when fine weather comes +again, then you pass by and strip me of my leaves."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> They then that are +wronged generally mention what they have done well to those who are +ungrateful. And the person who is blamed for what he has done well +is altogether to be pardoned, and not censured, if he passes +encomiums on his own actions: for he is in the position of one not +scolding but making his defence. This it was that made Demosthenes' +freedom of speech splendid, and prevented people being wearied out +by the praise which in all his speech <i>On the Crown</i> he +lavished on himself, pluming himself on those embassies and decrees +in connection with the war with which fault had been found.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> Not very unlike this is +the grace of antithesis, when a person shows that the opposite of +what he is charged with is base and low. Thus Lycurgus when he was +charged at Athens with having bribed an informer to silence, +replied, "What kind of a citizen do you think me, who, having had +so long time the fingering of your public money, am detected in +giving rather than taking unjustly?" And Cicero, when Metellus told +him that he had destroyed more as a witness than he had got +acquitted as an advocate, answered, "Who denies that my honesty is +greater than my eloquence?" Compare such sayings of Demosthenes as, +"Who would not have been justified in killing me, had I tried in +word only to impair the ancient glory of our city?"<a name= +"FNanchor_783_783" id="FNanchor_783_783"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_783_783" class="fnanchor">783</a> And, "What think you +these wretches would have said, if the states had departed, when I +was curiously discussing these points?"<a name="FNanchor_784_784" +id="FNanchor_784_784"></a><a href="#Footnote_784_784" class= +"fnanchor">784</a> And indeed the whole of that speech <i>On the +Crown</i> most ingeniously introduces his own <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">321</a></span>praises in +his antitheses, and answers to the charges brought against him.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> However it is worth while +to notice in his speech that he most artistically inserts praise of +his audience in the remarks about himself, and so makes his speech +less egotistical and less likely to raise envy. Thus he shows how +the Athenians behaved to the Eubœans and to the Thebans, and +what benefits they conferred on the people of Byzantium and on the +Chersonese, claiming for himself only a subordinate part in the +matter. Thus he cunningly insinuates into the audience with his own +praises what they will gladly hear, for they rejoice at the +enumeration of their successes,<a name="FNanchor_785_785" id= +"FNanchor_785_785"></a><a href="#Footnote_785_785" class= +"fnanchor">785</a> and their joy is succeeded by admiration and +esteem for the person to whom the success was due. So also +Epaminondas, when Meneclidas once jeered at him as thinking more of +himself than Agamemnon ever did, replied, "It is your fault then, +men of Thebes, by whose help alone I put down the power of the +Lacedæmonians in one day."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> But since most people very +much dislike and object to a man's praising himself, but if he +praises some one else are on the contrary often glad and readily +bear him out, some are in the habit of praising in season those +that have the same pursuits business and characters as themselves, +and so conciliate and move the audience in their own favour; for +the audience know at the moment such a one is speaking that, though +he is speaking about another, yet his own similar virtue is worthy +of their praise.<a name="FNanchor_786_786" id= +"FNanchor_786_786"></a><a href="#Footnote_786_786" class= +"fnanchor">786</a> For as one who throws in another's teeth things +of which he is guilty himself must know that he upbraids himself +most, so the good in paying honour to the good remind those who +know their character of themselves, so that their hearers cry out +at once, "Are not you such a one yourself?" Thus Alexander +honouring Hercules, and Androcottus again honouring Alexander, got +themselves honoured on the same grounds. Dionysius on the contrary +pulling Gelon to pieces, and calling him the Gelos<a name= +"FNanchor_787_787" id="FNanchor_787_787"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_787_787" class="fnanchor">787</a> of Sicily, was not +aware that through his envy he was weakening the importance and +dignity of his own authority.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id= +"Page_322">322</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> +These things then a public man must generally know and observe. But +those that are compelled to praise themselves do so less +offensively if they do not ascribe all the honour to themselves, +but, being aware that their glory will be tiresome to others, set +it down partly to fortune, partly to the deity. So Achilles said +well,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Since the gods granted us to +kill this hero."<a name="FNanchor_788_788" id= +"FNanchor_788_788"></a><a href="#Footnote_788_788" class= +"fnanchor">788</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Well also did Timoleon, who erected a temple at Syracuse to the +goddess of Fortune after his success, and dedicated his house to +the Good Genius. Excellently again did Pytho of Ænos, (when +he came to Athens after killing Cotys, and when the demagogues vied +with one another in praising him to the people, and he observed +that some were jealous and displeased,) in coming forward and +saying, "Men of Athens, this is the doing of one of the gods, I +only put my hands to the work." Sulla also forestalled envy by ever +praising fortune, and eventually he proclaimed himself as under the +protection of Aphrodite.<a name="FNanchor_789_789" id= +"FNanchor_789_789"></a><a href="#Footnote_789_789" class= +"fnanchor">789</a> For men would rather ascribe their defeat to +fortune than the enemy's valour, for in the former case they +consider it an accident, whereas in the latter case they would have +to blame themselves and set it down to their own shortcomings. So +they say the legislation of Zaleucus pleased the Locrians not +least, because he said that Athene visited him from time to time, +and suggested to him and taught him his laws, and that none of +those he promulgated were his own idea and plan.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> Perhaps this kind of +remedy by talking people over must be contrived for those who are +altogether crabbed or envious; but for people of moderation it is +not amiss to qualify excessive praise. Thus if anyone should praise +you as learned, or rich, or influential, it would be well to bid +him not talk about you in that strain, but say that you were good +and harmless and useful. For the person that acts so does not +introduce his own praise but transfers it, nor does he seem to +rejoice in people passing encomiums upon him, but rather to be +vexed at their praising him inappropriately and on wrong grounds, +and he seems to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id= +"Page_323">323</a></span>hide bad traits by better ones, not +wishing to be praised, but showing how he ought to be praised. Such +seems the intent of such words as the following, "I have not +fortified the city with stones or bricks, but if you wish to see +how I have fortified it, you will find arms and horses and +allies."<a name="FNanchor_790_790" id="FNanchor_790_790"></a><a +href="#Footnote_790_790" class="fnanchor">790</a> Still more in +point are the last words of Pericles. For as he was dying, and his +friends very naturally were weeping and wailing, and reminded him +of his military services and his power, and the trophies and +victories and towns he had won for Athens, and was leaving as a +legacy, he raised himself up a little and blamed them as praising +him for things common to many, and some of them the results of +fortune rather than merit, while they had passed over the best and +greatest of his deeds and one peculiarly his own, that he had never +been the cause of any Athenian's wearing mourning. This gives the +orator an example, if he be a good man, when praised for his +eloquence, to transfer the praise to his life and character, and +the general who is admired for his skill and good fortune in war to +speak with confidence about his gentleness and uprightness. And +again, if any very extravagant praise is uttered, such as many +people use in flattery which provokes envy, one can reply,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I am no god; why do you liken +me</span> <span class="i0">To the immortals?"<a name= +"FNanchor_791_791" id="FNanchor_791_791"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_791_791" class="fnanchor">791</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>If you really know me, praise my integrity, or my sobriety, or +my kindheartedness, or my philanthropy. For even envy is not +reluctant to give moderate praise to one that deprecates excessive +praise, and true panegyric is not lost by people refusing to accept +idle and false praise. So those kings who would not be called gods +or the sons of gods, but only fond of their brothers or mother, or +benefactors,<a name="FNanchor_792_792" id="FNanchor_792_792"></a><a +href="#Footnote_792_792" class="fnanchor">792</a> or dear to the +gods, did not excite the envy of those that honoured them by those +titles, that were noble but still such as men might claim. Again, +people dislike those writers or speakers who entitle themselves +wise, but they wel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id= +"Page_324">324</a></span>come those who content themselves with +saying that they are lovers of philosophy, and have made some +progress, or use some such moderate language about themselves as +that, which does not excite envy. But rhetorical sophists, who +expect to hear "Divine, wonderful, grand," at their declamations, +are not even welcomed with "Pretty fair, so so."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> Moreover, as people +anxious not to injure those who have weak eyes, draw a shade over +too much light, so some people make their praise of themselves less +glaring and absolute, by pointing out some of their small defects, +or miscarriages, or errors, and so remove all risk of making people +offended or envious. Thus Epeus, who boasts very much of his skill +in boxing, and says very confidently,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I can your body crush, and +break your bones,"<a name="FNanchor_793_793" id= +"FNanchor_793_793"></a><a href="#Footnote_793_793" class= +"fnanchor">793</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>yet says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Is't not enough that I'm in +fight deficient?"<a name="FNanchor_794_794" id= +"FNanchor_794_794"></a><a href="#Footnote_794_794" class= +"fnanchor">794</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But Epeus is perhaps a ridiculous instance, excusing his +bragging as an athlete by his confession of timidity and want of +manliness. But agreeable and graceful is that man who mentions his +own forgetfulness, or ignorance, or ambition, or eager desire for +knowledge and conversation. Thus Odysseus of the Sirens,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"My heart to listen to them +did incline,</span> <span class="i0">I bade my comrades by a nod to +unloose me."<a name="FNanchor_795_795" id="FNanchor_795_795"></a><a +href="#Footnote_795_795" class="fnanchor">795</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And again of the Cyclops,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I did not hearken (it had +been far better),</span> <span class="i0">I wished to see the +Cyclops, and to taste</span> <span class="i0">His hospitality."<a +name="FNanchor_796_796" id="FNanchor_796_796"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_796_796" class="fnanchor">796</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And generally speaking the admixture with praise of such faults +as are not altogether base and ignoble stops envy. Thus many have +blunted the point of envy by admitting and introducing, when they +have been praised, their past poverty and straits, aye, and their +low origin. So Agathocles pledging his young men in golden cups +beautifully chased, ordered some earthenware pots to be brought in, +and said, "See the fruits of perseverance, labour, and bravery! +Once I produced pots like these, but now golden cups." <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">325</a></span>For +Agathocles it seems was so low-born and poor that he was brought up +in a potter's shop, though afterwards he was king of almost all +Sicily.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> These are external +remedies against self-praise. There are other internal ones as it +were, such as Cato applied, when he said "he was envied, because he +had to neglect his own affairs, and lie awake every night for the +interests of his country." Compare also the following lines,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"How should I boast? who could +with ease have been</span> <span class="i0">Enrolled among the many +in the army,</span> <span class="i0">And had a fortune equal to the +wisest;"<a name="FNanchor_797_797" id="FNanchor_797_797"></a><a +href="#Footnote_797_797" class="fnanchor">797</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I shrink from squandering +past labours' grace,</span> <span class="i0">Nor do I now reject +all present toil."<a href="#Footnote_797_797" class= +"fnanchor">797</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For as it is with house and farm, so also is it with glory and +reputation, people for the most part envy those who have got them +easily or for nothing, not those who have bought them at the cost +of much toil and danger.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> Since then we can praise +ourselves not only without causing pain or envy but even usefully +and advantageously, let us consider, that we may not seem to have +only that end in view but some other also, if we might praise +ourselves to excite in our hearers emulation and ambition. For +Nestor, by reciting his battles and acts of prowess, stirred up +Patroclus and nine others to single combat with Hector. For the +exhortation that adds deed to word and example and proper emulation +is animating and moving and stimulating, and with its impulse and +resolution inspires hope that the things we aim at are attainable +and not impossible. That is why in the choruses at Lacedæmon +the old men sing,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"We once were young and +vigorous and strong,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and then the boys,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"We shall be stronger far than +now we are,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and then the youths,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"We now are strong, look at us +if you like."</span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id= +"Page_326">326</a></span> In this wise and statesmanlike manner did +the legislator exhibit to the young men the nearest and dearest +examples of what they should do in the persons of those who had +done so.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> Moreover it is not amiss +sometimes, to awe and repress and take down and tame the impudent +and bold, to boast and talk a little big about oneself. As Nestor +did, to mention him again,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For I have mixed ere now with +better men</span> <span class="i0">Than both of you, and ne'er did +they despise me."<a name="FNanchor_798_798" id= +"FNanchor_798_798"></a><a href="#Footnote_798_798" class= +"fnanchor">798</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>So also Aristotle told Alexander that not only had they that +were rulers over many subjects a right to think highly of +themselves, but also those that had right views about the gods. +Useful too against our enemies and foes is the following line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Ill-starred are they whose +sons encounter me."<a name="FNanchor_799_799" id= +"FNanchor_799_799"></a><a href="#Footnote_799_799" class= +"fnanchor">799</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Compare also the remark of Agesilaus about the king of the +Persians, who was called great, "How is he greater than me, if he +is not also more upright?" And that also of Epaminondas to the +Lacedæmonians who were inveighing against the Thebans, +"Anyhow we have made you talk at greater length than usual." But +these kind of remarks are fitting for enemies and foes; but our +boasting is also good on occasion for friends and fellow-citizens, +not only to abate their pride and make them more humble, but also +when they are in fear and dejection to raise them up again and give +them confidence. Thus Cyrus talked big in perils and on +battle-fields, though at other times he was no boaster. And the +second Antigonus, though he was on all other occasions modest and +far from vanity, yet in the sea-fight off Cos, when one of his +friends said to him, "See you not how many more ships the enemy +have got than we have?" answered, "How many do you make me equal to +then?" This Homer also seems to have noticed. For he has +represented Odysseus, when his comrades were dreadfully afraid of +the noise and whirlpool of Charybdis, reminding them of his former +cleverness and valour;</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"We are in no worse plight +than when the Cyclops</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">327</a></span> +<span class="i0">By force detained us +in his hollow cave;</span> <span class="i0">But even then, thanks +to my valour, judgement,</span> <span class="i0">And sense, we did +escape."<a name="FNanchor_800_800" id="FNanchor_800_800"></a><a +href="#Footnote_800_800" class="fnanchor">800</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For such is not the self-praise of a demagogue or sophist, or of +one that asks for clapping or applause, but of one who makes his +valour and experience a pledge of confidence to his friends. For in +critical conjunctures the reputation and credit of one who has +experience and capacity in command plays a great part in insuring +safety.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> As I have said before, +to pit oneself against another's praise and reputation is by no +means fitting for a public man: however, in important matters, +where mistaken praise is injurious and detrimental, it is not amiss +to confute it, or rather to divert the hearer to what is better by +showing him the difference between true and false merit. Anyone +would be glad, I suppose, when vice was abused and censured, to see +most people voluntarily keep aloof from it; but if vice should be +well thought of, and honour and reputation come to the person who +promoted its pleasures or desires, no nature is so well constituted +or strong that it would not be mastered by it. So the public man +must oppose the praise not of men but of bad actions, for such +praise is corrupting, and causes people to imitate and emulate what +is base as if it were noble. But it is best refuted by putting it +side by side with the truth: as Theodorus the tragic actor is +reported to have said once to Satyrus the comic actor, "It is not +so wonderful to make an audience laugh as to make them weep and +cry." But what if some philosopher had answered him, "To make an +audience weep and cry is not so noble a thing as to make them +forget their sorrows." This kind of self-laudation benefits the +hearer, and changes his opinion. Compare the remark of Zeno in +reference to the number of Theophrastus' scholars, "His is a larger +body, but mine are better taught." And Phocion, when Leosthenes was +still in prosperity, being asked by the orators what benefit he had +conferred on the city, replied, "Only this, that during my period +of office there has been no funeral oration, but all <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">328</a></span>the dead +have been buried in their fathers' sepulchres." Wittily also did +Crates parody the lines,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Eating and wantonness and +love's delights</span> <span class="i0">Are all I +value,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>with</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Learning and those grand +things the Muses teach one</span> <span class="i0">Are all I +value."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Such self-praise is good and useful and teaches people to admire +and love what is valuable and expedient instead of what is vain and +superfluous. Let so much suffice on the question proposed.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> It remains to me now to +point out, what our subject next demands and calls for, how +everyone may avoid unseasonable self-praise. For there is a +wonderful incentive to talking about oneself in self-love, which is +frequently strongly implanted in those who seem to have only +moderate aspirations for fame. For as it is one of the rules to +preserve good health to avoid altogether places where sickness is, +or to exercise the greatest precaution if one must go there, so +talking about oneself has its slippery times and places that draw +it on on any pretext. For first, when others are praised, as I said +before, ambition makes people talk about themselves, and a certain +desire and impulse for fame which is hard to check bites and +tickles that ambition, especially if the other person is praised +for the same things or less important things than the hearer thinks +he is a proficient in. For as hungry people have their appetite +more inflamed and sharpened by seeing others eat, so the praise of +one's neighbours makes those who eagerly desire fame to blaze out +into jealousy.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xix.</span> In the second place the +narration of things done successfully and to people's mind entices +many unawares to boasting and bragging in their joy; for falling +into conversation about their victories, or success in state +affairs, or their words or deeds commended by great men, they +cannot keep themselves within bounds. With this kind of +self-laudation you may see that soldiers and sailors are most +taken. To be in this state of mind also frequently happens to those +who have returned from important posts and responsible duties, for +in their mention of illustrious<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_329" id="Page_329">329</a></span> men and men of royal rank +they insert the encomiums they have passed on themselves, and do +not so much think they are praising themselves as merely repeating +the praises of others about themselves. Others think their hearers +do not detect them at all of self-praise, when they recount the +greeting and welcome and kindness they have received from kings and +emperors, but only imagine them to be enumerating the courtesy and +kindliness of those great personages. So we must be very much on +our guard in praising others to free ourselves from all suspicion +of self-love and self-recommendation, and not to seem to be really +praising ourselves "under pretext of Patroclus."<a name= +"FNanchor_801_801" id="FNanchor_801_801"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_801_801" class="fnanchor">801</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xx.</span> Moreover that kind of +conversation that mainly consists of censuring and running down +others is dangerous as giving opportunity for self-laudation to +those who pine for fame. A fault into which old men especially +fall, when they are led to scold others and censure their bad ways +and faulty actions, and so extol themselves as being remarkably the +opposite. In old men we must allow all this, especially if to age +they add reputation and merit, for such fault-finding is not +without use, and inspires those who are rebuked with both emulation +and love of honour.<a name="FNanchor_802_802" id= +"FNanchor_802_802"></a><a href="#Footnote_802_802" class= +"fnanchor">802</a> But all other persons must especially avoid and +fear that roundabout kind of self-praise. For since generally +speaking censuring one's neighbours is disagreeable and barely +tolerable and requires great wariness, he that mixes up his own +praise with blame of another, and hunts for fame by defaming +another, is altogether tiresome and inspires disgust, for he seems +to wish to get credit through trying to prove others unworthy of +credit.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxi.</span> Furthermore, as those +that are naturally prone and inclined to laughter must be +especially on their guard against tickling and touching, such as +excites that propensity by contact with the smoothest parts of the +body, so those that have a great passion for reputation ought to be +especially advised to abstain from praising themselves when they +are praised by others. For a person ought to blush when praised, +and not to be past blushing from <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_330" id="Page_330">330</a></span>impudence, and ought to +check those who extol him too highly, and not to rebuke them for +praising him too little; though very many people do so, themselves +prompting and reminding their praisers of others of their own acts +and virtues, till by their own praise they spoil the effect of the +praise that others give them. For some tickle and puff themselves +up by self-praise, while others, malignantly holding out the small +bait of eulogy, provoke others to talk about themselves, while +others again ask questions and put inquiries, as was done to the +soldier in Menander, merely to poke fun at him;</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"'How did you get this wound?' +'Sir, by a javelin.'</span> <span class="i0">'How in the name of +Heaven?' 'I was on</span> <span class="i0">A scaling ladder +fastened to a wall.'</span> <span class="i0">I show my wound to +them in serious earnest,</span> <span class="i0">But they for their +part only mock at me."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxii.</span> As regards all these +points then we must be on our guard as much as possible not to +launch out into praise of ourselves, or yield to it in consequence +of questions put to us to draw us. And the best caution and +security against this is to pay attention to others who praise +themselves, and to consider how disagreeable and objectionable the +practice is to everybody, and that no other conversation is so +offensive and tiring. For though we cannot say that we suffer any +other evil at the hands of those who praise themselves, yet being +naturally bored by the practice, and avoiding it, we are anxious to +get rid of them and breathe again; insomuch that even the flatterer +and parasite and needy person in his distress finds the rich man or +satrap or king praising himself hard to bear and wellnigh +intolerable; and they say that having to listen to all this is +paying a very large shot to their entertainment, like the fellow in +Menander;</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"To hear their foolish<a name= +"FNanchor_803_803" id="FNanchor_803_803"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_803_803" class="fnanchor">803</a> saws, and soldier +talk,</span> <span class="i0">Such as this cursed braggart bellows +forth,</span> <span class="i0">Kills me; I get lean even at their +feasts."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>For as we may use this language not only about soldiers or men +who have newly become rich,<a name="FNanchor_804_804" id= +"FNanchor_804_804"></a><a href="#Footnote_804_804" class= +"fnanchor">804</a> who spin us a long <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_331" id="Page_331">331</a></span>yarn of their great and +grand doings, being puffed up with pride and talking big about +themselves; if we remember that the censure of others always +follows our self-praise, and that the end of this vain-glory is a +bad repute, and that, as Demosthenes says,<a name= +"FNanchor_805_805" id="FNanchor_805_805"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_805_805" class="fnanchor">805</a> the result will be +that we shall only tire our hearers, and not be thought what we +profess ourselves to be, we shall cease talking about ourselves, +unless by so doing we can bestow great benefit on ourselves or our +hearers.</p> + + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_768_768" id="Footnote_768_768"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_768_768"><span class="label">768</span></a> Pindar, +"Olymp." ix. 57, 58.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_769_769" id="Footnote_769_769"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_769_769"><span class="label">769</span></a> Mentioned by +Pausanias, iii. 12; viii. 50.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_770_770" id="Footnote_770_770"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_770_770"><span class="label">770</span></a> +"Memorabilia," ii. l. 31.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_771_771" id="Footnote_771_771"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_771_771"><span class="label">771</span></a> Reading as +Wyttenbach suggests, μάλιστα +δὲ ὅταν +λέγηται τὰ +ἄλλῳ +πεπραγμένα +<i>sq.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_772_772" id="Footnote_772_772"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_772_772"><span class="label">772</span></a> Thucydides, +ii. 60.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_773_773" id="Footnote_773_773"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_773_773"><span class="label">773</span></a> See +Pausanias, ix. 14, 15.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_774_774" id="Footnote_774_774"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_774_774"><span class="label">774</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," iv. 405.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_775_775" id="Footnote_775_775"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_775_775"><span class="label">775</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," iv. 370, 371.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_776_776" id="Footnote_776_776"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_776_776"><span class="label">776</span></a> Diomede.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_777_777" id="Footnote_777_777"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_777_777"><span class="label">777</span></a> Sophocles, +"Trachiniæ," 442.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_778_778" id="Footnote_778_778"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_778_778"><span class="label">778</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xvi. 847, 848. Plutarch only quotes the first line. I have +added the second for the English reader, as necessary for the +sense.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_779_779" id="Footnote_779_779"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_779_779"><span class="label">779</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," i. 128, 129.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_780_780" id="Footnote_780_780"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_780_780"><span class="label">780</span></a> "Iliad," ix. +328.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_781_781" id="Footnote_781_781"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_781_781"><span class="label">781</span></a> "Iliad," +xvi. 70, 71.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_782_782" id="Footnote_782_782"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_782_782"><span class="label">782</span></a> So +Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_783_783" id="Footnote_783_783"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_783_783"><span class="label">783</span></a> Demosthenes, +"De Corona," p. 260.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_784_784" id="Footnote_784_784"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_784_784"><span class="label">784</span></a> "De Corona," +p. 307.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_785_785" id="Footnote_785_785"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_785_785"><span class="label">785</span></a> After +Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_786_786" id="Footnote_786_786"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_786_786"><span class="label">786</span></a> After +Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_787_787" id="Footnote_787_787"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_787_787"><span class="label">787</span></a> That is, +laughing-stock. A play on the word Gelon.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_788_788" id="Footnote_788_788"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_788_788"><span class="label">788</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xxii. 379. He speaks of Hector.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_789_789" id="Footnote_789_789"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_789_789"><span class="label">789</span></a> Others take +it "as fortune's favourite."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_790_790" id="Footnote_790_790"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_790_790"><span class="label">790</span></a> Words of +Demosthenes, "De Corona," p. 325. Plutarch condenses them.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_791_791" id="Footnote_791_791"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_791_791"><span class="label">791</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xvi. 187.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_792_792" id="Footnote_792_792"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_792_792"><span class="label">792</span></a> Titles of +the Ptolemies, Philadelphus Philometor, Euergetes.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_793_793" id="Footnote_793_793"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_793_793"><span class="label">793</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xxiii. 673.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_794_794" id="Footnote_794_794"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_794_794"><span class="label">794</span></a> Ibid. +670.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_795_795" id="Footnote_795_795"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_795_795"><span class="label">795</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xii. 192-194.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_796_796" id="Footnote_796_796"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_796_796"><span class="label">796</span></a> Ibid. ix. +228, 229.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_797_797" id="Footnote_797_797"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_797_797"><span class="label">797</span></a> Fragments +from the "Philoctetes" of Euripides.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_798_798" id="Footnote_798_798"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_798_798"><span class="label">798</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," i. 260, 261.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_799_799" id="Footnote_799_799"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_799_799"><span class="label">799</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," vi. 127.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_800_800" id="Footnote_800_800"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_800_800"><span class="label">800</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," xii. 209-212.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_801_801" id="Footnote_801_801"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_801_801"><span class="label">801</span></a> An allusion +to Homer, "Iliad," xix. 302.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_802_802" id="Footnote_802_802"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_802_802"><span class="label">802</span></a> Adopting the +reading of Dübner.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_803_803" id="Footnote_803_803"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_803_803"><span class="label">803</span></a> Adopting the +reading of Salmasius.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_804_804" id="Footnote_804_804"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_804_804"><span class="label">804</span></a> <i>Nouveaux +riches, novi homines</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_805_805" id="Footnote_805_805"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_805_805"><span class="label">805</span></a> Demosthenes, +"De Corona," p. 270.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_331a" id="Page_331a" />ON THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHED +BY THE DEITY LATE.</h3> + +<p><i>A discussion between Patrocleas, Plutarch, Timon, and +Olympicus.</i></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> When Epicurus had made +these remarks, Quintus, and before any of us who were at the end of +the porch<a name="FNanchor_806_806" id="FNanchor_806_806"></a><a +href="#Footnote_806_806" class="fnanchor">806</a> could reply, he +went off abruptly. And we, marvelling somewhat at his rudeness, +stood still silently but looked at one another, and then turned and +pursued our walk as before. And Patrocleas was the first to speak. +"Are we," said he, "to leave the question unanswered, or are we to +reply to his argument in his absence as if he were present?" Then +said Timon, "Because he went off the moment he had thrown his +missile at us, it would not be good surely to leave it sticking in +us; for we are told that Brasidas plucked the javelin that had been +thrown at him out of his body, and with it killed the hurler of it; +but there is of course no need for us to avenge ourselves so on +those that have launched on us an absurd or false argument, it will +be enough to dislodge the notion before it gets fixed in us." Then +said I, "Which of his words has moved you <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_332" id="Page_332">332</a></span>most? For the fellow +seemed to rampage about, in his anger and abusive language, with a +long disconnected and rambling rhapsody drawn from all sources, and +at the same time inveighed against Providence."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_332a" id="Page_332a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">ii.</span> Then said Patrocleas, "The slowness and delay of +the deity in punishing the wicked used to seem<a name= +"FNanchor_807_807" id="FNanchor_807_807"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_807_807" class="fnanchor">807</a> to me a very dreadful +thing, but now in consequence of his speech I come as it were new +and fresh to the notion. Yet long ago I was vexed when I heard that +line of Euripides,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He does delay, such is the +Deity</span> <span class="i0">In nature."<a name="FNanchor_808_808" +id="FNanchor_808_808"></a><a href="#Footnote_808_808" class= +"fnanchor">808</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For indeed it is not fitting that the deity should be slow in +anything, and least of all in the punishment of the wicked, seeing +that they are not slow or sluggish in doing evil, but are hurried +by their passions into crime at headlong speed. Moreover, as +Thucydides<a name="FNanchor_809_809" id="FNanchor_809_809"></a><a +href="#Footnote_809_809" class="fnanchor">809</a> says, when +punishment follows as closely as possible upon wrong-doing, it +blocks up the road at once for those who would follow up their +villainy if it were successful. For no debt so much as that of +justice paid behind time damps the hopes and dejects the mind of +the wronged person, and aggravates the audacity and daring of the +wrong-doer; whereas the punishment that follows crime immediately +not only checks future outbreaks but is also the greatest possible +comfort to the injured. And so I am often troubled when I consider +that remark of Bias, who told, it seems, a bad man that he was not +afraid that he would escape punishment, but that he would not live +to see it. For how did the Messenians who were killed long before +derive any benefit from the punishment of Aristocrates? For he had +been guilty of treason at the battle of <i>The Great Trench</i>, +but had reigned over the Arcadians for more than twenty years +without being found out, but afterwards was detected and paid the +penalty, but they were no longer alive.<a name="FNanchor_810_810" +id="FNanchor_810_810"></a><a href="#Footnote_810_810" class= +"fnanchor">810</a> Or what consolation was brought to the people of +Orchomenus, who lost their sons and friends and relatives in +consequence of the treason of <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_333" id="Page_333">333</a></span>Lyciscus, by the disease +which settled upon him long afterwards and spread all over his +body? For he used to go and dip and soak his feet in the river, and +uttered imprecations and prayed that they might rot off if he was +guilty of treason or crime. Nor was it permitted to the children's +children of those that were slain to see at Athens the tearing out +of their graves the bodies of those atrocious criminals that had +killed them, and the carrying them beyond their borders. And so it +seems strange in Euripides using the following argument to deter +people from vice:</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Fear not, for vengeance will +not strike at once</span> <span class="i0">Your heart, or that of +any guilty wretch,</span> <span class="i0">But silently and with +slow foot it moves,<a name="FNanchor_811_811" id= +"FNanchor_811_811"></a><a href="#Footnote_811_811" class= +"fnanchor">811</a></span> <span class="i0">And when their time's +come will the wicked reach."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>This is no doubt the very reason why the wicked incite and cheer +themselves on to commit lawless acts, for crime shows them a fruit +visible and ripe at once, but a punishment late, and long +subsequent to the enjoyment."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> When Patrocleas had said +thus much, Olympicus interfered, "There is another consideration, +Patrocleas, the great absurdity involved in these delays and +long-suffering of the deity. For the slowness of punishment takes +away belief in providence, and the wicked, observing that no evil +follows each crime except long afterwards, attribute it when it +comes to mischance, and look upon it in the light more of accident +than punishment, and so receive no benefit from it, being grieved +indeed when the misfortune comes, but feeling no remorse for what +they have done amiss. For, as in the case of a horse, the whipping +or spurring that immediately follows upon a stumble or some other +fault is a corrective and brings him to his duty, but pulling and +backing him with the bit and shouting at him long afterwards seems +to come from some other motive than a desire to teach him, for he +is put to pain without being shown his fault; so the vice which +each time it stumbles or offends is at once punished and checked by +correction is most likely<a name="FNanchor_812_812" id= +"FNanchor_812_812"></a><a href="#Footnote_812_812" class= +"fnanchor">812</a> to come to itself and be humble <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">334</a></span>and stand +in awe of the deity, as one that beholds men's acts and passions +and does not punish behind time; whereas that justice that, +according to Euripides, "steals on silently and with slow foot," +and falls upon the wicked some time or other, seems to resemble +more chance than providence by reason, of its uncertainty, delay, +and irregularity. So that I do not see what benefit there is in +those mills of the gods that are said to grind late,<a name= +"FNanchor_813_813" id="FNanchor_813_813"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_813_813" class="fnanchor">813</a> since they obscure the +punishment, and obliterate the fear, of evil-doing."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> When Olympicus had done +speaking, and I was musing with myself on the matter, Timon said, +"Am I to put the finishing touch of difficulty on our subject, or +am I to let him first contend earnestly against these views?" Then +said I, "Why should we bring up the third wave<a name= +"FNanchor_814_814" id="FNanchor_814_814"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_814_814" class="fnanchor">814</a> and drown the +argument, if he is not able to refute or evade the charges already +brought? To begin then with the domestic hearth, as the saying +is,<a name="FNanchor_815_815" id="FNanchor_815_815"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_815_815" class="fnanchor">815</a> let us imitate that +cautious manner of speaking about the deity in vogue among the +Academic philosophers, and decline to speak about these things as +if we thoroughly understood them. For it is worse in us mortals +than for people ignorant of music to discuss music, or for people +ignorant of military matters to discuss the art of war, to examine +too closely into the nature of the gods and demons, like people +with no knowledge of art trying to get at the intention of artists +from opinion and fancy and probabilities. For if<a name= +"FNanchor_816_816" id="FNanchor_816_816"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_816_816" class="fnanchor">816</a> it is no easy matter +for anyone not a professional to conjecture why the surgeon +performed an operation later rather than sooner, or why he ordered +his patient to take a bath to-day rather than yesterday, how is it +easy or safe for a mortal to say anything else about the deity than +that he knows best the time to cure vice, and applies to each his +punishment as the doctor administers a drug, and that a punishment +not of the same magnitude, or applied at the same time, in all +cases. For that the cure of the soul, which is called justice, is +the greatest of all arts is testified <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_335" id="Page_335">335</a></span>by Pindar as well as by +ten thousand others, for he calls God, the ruler and lord of all +things, the greatest artificer as the creator of justice, whose +function it is to determine when, and how, and how far, each bad +man is to be punished. And Plato says that Minos, the son of Zeus, +was his father's pupil in this art, not thinking it possible that +any one could succeed in justice, or understand how to succeed in +it, without he had learned or somehow got that science. For the +laws which men make are not always merely reasonable, nor is their +meaning always apparent, but some injunctions seem quite +ridiculous, for example, the Ephors at Lacedæmon make +proclamation, directly they take office, that no one is to let his +moustache grow, but that all are to obey the laws, that they be not +grievous to them. And the Romans lay a light rod on the bodies of +those they make freemen, and when they make their wills, they +nominate some as their heirs, while to others they sell the +property, which, seems strange. But strangest of all is that +ordinance of Solon, that the citizen who, when his city is in +faction, will not side with either party is to lose his civic +rights. And generally one might mention many absurdities in laws, +if one did not know the mind of the legislator, or understand the +reason for each particular piece of legislation. How is it +wonderful then, if human affairs are so difficult to comprehend, +that it is no easy task to say in connection with the gods, why +they punish some offenders early, and others late?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> This is not a pretext for +evading the subject, but merely a request for lenient judgement, +that our discourse, looking as it were for a haven and place of +refuge, may rise to the difficulty with greater confidence basing +itself on probability. Consider then first that, according to +Plato, god, making himself openly a pattern of all things good, +concedes human virtue, which is in some sort a resemblance to +himself, to those who are able to follow him. For all nature, being +in disorder, got the principle of change and became order<a name= +"FNanchor_817_817" id="FNanchor_817_817"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_817_817" class="fnanchor">817</a> by a resemblance to +and participation in the nature and virtue of the deity. The same +Plato also tells us that nature put eyesight into us, in order that +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id= +"Page_336">336</a></span>the soul by beholding and admiring the +heavenly bodies might accustom itself to welcome and love harmony +and order, and might hate disorderly and roving propensities, and +avoid aimless reliance on chance, as the parent of all vice and +error. For man can enjoy no greater blessing from god than to +attain to virtue by the earnest imitation of the noblest qualities +of the divine nature. And so he punishes the wicked leisurely and +long after, not being afraid of error or after repentance through +punishing too hastily, but to take away from us that eager and +brutish thirst for revenge, and to teach us that we are not to +retaliate on those that have offended us in anger, and when the +soul is most inflamed and distorted with passion and almost beside +itself for rage, like people satisfying fierce thirst or hunger, +but to imitate the mildness and long-suffering of the deity, and to +avenge ourselves in an orderly and decent manner, only when we have +taken counsel with time long enough to give us the least possible +likelihood of after repentance. For it is a smaller evil, as +Socrates said, to drink dirty water when excessively thirsty, than, +when one's mind is disturbed and full of rage and fury, before it +is settled and becomes pure, to glut our revenge on the person of a +relation and kinsman. For it is not the punishment that follows as +closely as possible upon wrong-doing, as Thucydides said,<a name= +"FNanchor_818_818" id="FNanchor_818_818"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_818_818" class="fnanchor">818</a> but that which is more +remote, that observes decorum. For as Melanthius says of anger,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Fell things it does when it +the mind unsettles,"<a name="FNanchor_819_819" id= +"FNanchor_819_819"></a><a href="#Footnote_819_819" class= +"fnanchor">819</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>so also reason acts with justice and moderation, when it +banishes rage and passion. So also people are made milder by the +example of other men, as when they hear that Plato, when he held +his stick over his slave to correct him, waited some time, as he +himself has told us, to compose his anger; and that Archytas, +having learned of some wrong or disorderly action on the part of +some of his farm labourers, knowing that at the time he was in a +very great rage and highly incensed at them, did nothing to them, +but merely departed, saying, "You may thank your stars that I am in +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id= +"Page_337">337</a></span>a rage with you." If then the remembrance +of the words and recorded acts of men abates the fierceness and +intensity of our rage, much more likely is it that we (observing +that the deity, though without either fear or repentance in any +case, yet puts off his punishments and defers them for some time) +shall be reserved in our views about such matters, and shall think +that mildness and long-suffering which the god exhibits a divine +part of virtue, reforming a few by speedy punishment, but +benefiting and correcting many by a tardy one.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> Let us consider in the +second place that punishments inflicted by men for offences regard +only retaliation, and, when the offender is punished, stop and go +no further; so that they seem to follow offences yelping at them +like a dog, and closely pursuing at their heels as it were. But it +is likely that the deity would look at the state of any guilty soul +that he intended to punish, if haply it might turn and repent, and +would give<a name="FNanchor_820_820" id="FNanchor_820_820"></a><a +href="#Footnote_820_820" class="fnanchor">820</a> time for +reformation to all whose vice was not absolute and incurable. For +knowing how great a share of virtue souls come into the world with, +deriving it from him, and how strong and lasting is their nobility +of nature, and how it breaks out into vice against its natural +disposition through the corruption of bad habits and companions, +and afterwards in some cases reforms itself, and recovers its +proper position, he does not inflict punishment on all persons +alike; but the incorrigible he at once removes from life and cuts +off, since it is altogether injurious to others, but most of all to +a man's own self, to live in perpetual vice, whereas to those who +seem to have fallen into wrong-doing, rather from ignorance of what +was good than from deliberate choice of what was bad, he gives time +to repent. But if they persist in vice he punishes them too, for he +has no fear that they will escape him. Consider also how many +changes take place in the life and character of men, so that the +Greeks give the names τρόπος and +ἦθος to the character, the first word +meaning <i>change</i>, and the latter the immense force and power +of <i>habit</i>. I think also that the ancients called Cecrops half +man and half dragon<a name="FNanchor_821_821" id= +"FNanchor_821_821"></a><a href="#Footnote_821_821" class= +"fnanchor">821</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id= +"Page_338">338</a></span>not because, as some say, he became from a +good king wild and dragon-like, but contrariwise because he was +originally perverse and terrible, and afterwards became a mild and +humane king. And if this is uncertain, at any rate we know that +Gelon and Hiero, both Sicilians, and Pisistratus the son of +Hippocrates, though they got their supreme power by bad means, yet +used it for virtuous ends, and though they mounted the throne in an +irregular way, yet became good and useful princes. For by good +legislation and by encouraging agriculture they made the citizens +earnest and industrious instead of scoffers and chatterers. As for +Gelon, after fighting valiantly and defeating the Carthaginians in +a great battle, he would not conclude with them the peace they +asked for until they inserted an article promising to cease +sacrificing their sons to Cronos. And Lydiades was tyrant in +Megalopolis, yet in the very height of his power changing his ideas +and being disgusted with injustice, he restored their old +constitution to the citizens,<a name="FNanchor_822_822" id= +"FNanchor_822_822"></a><a href="#Footnote_822_822" class= +"fnanchor">822</a> and fell gloriously, fighting against the enemy +in behalf of his country. And if any one had slain prematurely +Miltiades the tyrant of the Chersonese, or had prosecuted and got a +conviction against Cimon for incest with his sister, or had +deprived Athens of Themistocles for his wantonness and revellings +and outrages in the market, as in later days Athens lost +Alcibiades, by an indictment, should we not have had to go without +the glory of Marathon, and Eurymedon, and beautiful Artemisium, +"where the Athenian youth laid the bright base of liberty?"<a name= +"FNanchor_823_823" id="FNanchor_823_823"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_823_823" class="fnanchor">823</a> For great natures +produce nothing little, nor can their energy and activity rust +owing to their keen intellect, but they toss to and fro as at sea +till they come to a settled and durable character. As then one +inexperienced in farming, seeing a spot full of thick bushes and +rank growth, full of wild beasts and streams and mud, would not +think much of it, while to one who has learnt how to discriminate +and discern between different kind of soils all these are various +tokens of the richness and goodness of the land, so great natures +break out into many strange excesses, which exasperate us at first +beyond bearing, so that we think it right to cut off such offenders +and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id= +"Page_339">339</a></span>stop their career at once, whereas a +better judge, seeing the good and noble even in these, waits for +age and the season which nature appoints for gathering fruit to +bring sense and virtue.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> So much for this point. +Do you not think also that some of the Greeks did well to adopt +that Egyptian law which orders a pregnant woman condemned to death +not to suffer the penalty till after she has given birth?" +"Certainly," said all the company. I continued, "Put the case not +of a woman pregnant, but of a man who can in process of time bring +to light and reveal some secret act or plan, point out some unknown +evil, or devise some scheme of safety, or invent something useful +and necessary, would it not be better to defer his execution, and +wait the result of his meditation? That is my opinion, at least." +"So we all think," said Patrocleas. "Quite right," said I. "For do +but consider, had Dionysius had vengeance taken on him at the +beginning of his tyranny, none of the Greeks would have dwelt in +Sicily, which was laid waste by the Carthaginians. Nor would the +Greeks have dwelt in Apollonia, or Anactorium, or the peninsula of +the Leucadians, had not Periander's chastisement been postponed for +a long time. I think also that Cassander's punishment was deferred +that Thebes might be repeopled. And of the mercenaries that +plundered this very temple most crossed over into Sicily with +Timoleon, and after they had conquered the Carthaginians and put +down their authority, perished miserably, miserable wretches that +they were. For no doubt the deity makes use of some wicked men, as +executioners, to punish others, and so I think he crushes as it +were most tyrants. For as the gall of the hyena and rennet of the +seal, both nasty beasts in all other respects, are useful in +certain diseases, so when some need sharp correction, the deity +casts upon them the implacable fury of some tyrant, or the savage +ferocity of some prince, and does not remove the bane and trouble +till their fault be got rid of and purged. Such a potion was +Phalaris to the Agrigentines, and Marius to the Romans. And to the +people of Sicyon the god distinctly foretold that their city needed +a scourge, when they took away from the Cleonæans (as if he +was a Sicyonian) the lad Teletias, who was crowned<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">340</a></span> in the +Pythian games, and tore him to pieces. As for the Sicyonians, +Orthagoras became their tyrant, and subsequently Myro and +Clisthenes, and these three checked their wanton outbreaks; but the +Cleonæans, not getting such a cure, went to ruin. You have of +course heard Homer's lines,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"'From a bad father sprang a +son far better,</span> <span class="i0">Excelling in all virtue;'<a +name="FNanchor_824_824" id="FNanchor_824_824"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_824_824" class="fnanchor">824</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and yet that son of Copreus never performed any brilliant or +notable action: but the descendants of Sisyphus and Autolycus and +Phlegyas nourished in the glory and virtues of great kings. +Pericles also sprang of a family under a curse,<a name= +"FNanchor_825_825" id="FNanchor_825_825"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_825_825" class="fnanchor">825</a> and Pompey the Great +at Rome was the son of Pompeius Strabo, whose dead body the Roman +people cast out and trampled upon, so great was their hatred of +him. How is it strange then, since the farmer does not cut down the +thorn till he has taken his asparagus, nor do the Libyans burn the +twigs till they have gathered the ledanum, that god does not +exterminate the wicked and rugged root of an illustrious and royal +race till it has produced its fit fruit? For it would have been +better for the Phocians to have lost ten thousand of the oxen and +horses of Iphitus, and for more gold and silver to have gone from +Delphi, than that Odysseus and Æsculapius should not have +been born, nor those others who from bad and wicked men became good +and useful."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> "And do you not all +think that it is better that punishment should take place at the +fitting time and in the fitting manner rather than quickly and on +the spur of the moment? Consider the case of Callippus, who with +the very dagger with which he slew Dion, pretending to be his +friend, was afterwards slain by his own friends. And when Mitius +the Argive was killed in a tumult, a brazen statue in the +market-place fell on his murderer and killed him during the public +games. And of course, Patrocleas, you know all about Bessus the +Pæonian, and about Aristo the Œtæan leader of +mercenaries." "Not I, by Zeus," said Patrocleas, "but I should like +to hear." "Aristo," I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id= +"Page_341">341</a></span>continued, "at the permission of the +tyrants removed the necklace of Eriphyle<a name="FNanchor_826_826" +id="FNanchor_826_826"></a><a href="#Footnote_826_826" class= +"fnanchor">826</a> which was hung up in this temple, and took it to +his wife as a present; but his son being angry with his mother for +some reason or other, set the house on fire, and burnt all that +were in it. As for Bessus, it seems he had killed his father, +though his crime was long undiscovered. But at last going to sup +with some strangers, he knocked down a nest of swallows, pricking +it with his lance, and killed all the young swallows. And when the +company said, as it was likely they would, 'Whatever makes you act +in such a strange manner?' 'Have they not,' he replied, 'been long +bearing false witness against me, crying out that I had killed my +father?' And the company, astonished at his answer, laid the matter +before the king, and the affair was inquired into, and Bessus +punished."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> "These cases," I +continued, "we cite supposing, as has been laid down, that there is +a deferring of punishment to the wicked; and, for the rest, I think +we ought to listen to Hesiod, who tells us—not like Plato, +who asserts that punishment is a condition that follows +crime—that it is contemporaneous with it, and grows with it +from the same source and root. For Hesiod says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Evil advice is worst to the +adviser;"<a name="FNanchor_827_827" id="FNanchor_827_827"></a><a +href="#Footnote_827_827" class="fnanchor">827</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He who plots mischief 'gainst +another brings</span> <span class="i0">It first on his own pate."<a +name="FNanchor_828_828" id="FNanchor_828_828"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_828_828" class="fnanchor">828</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>The cantharis is said to have in itself the antidote to its own +sting, but wickedness, creating its own pain and torment, pays the +penalty of its misdeeds not afterwards but at the time of its +ill-doing. And as every malefactor about to pay the penalty of his +crime in his person bears his cross, so vice fabricates for itself +each of its own torments, being the terrible author of its own +misery in life, wherein in addition to shame it has frequent fears +and fierce passions and endless remorse and anxiety. But some are +just <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id= +"Page_342">342</a></span>like children, who, seeing malefactors in +the theatres in golden tunics and purple robes with crowns on and +dancing, admire them and marvel at them, thinking them happy, till +they see them goaded and lashed and issuing fire from their gaudy +but cheap garments.<a name="FNanchor_829_829" id= +"FNanchor_829_829"></a><a href="#Footnote_829_829" class= +"fnanchor">829</a> For most wicked people, though they have great +households and conspicuous offices and great power, are yet being +secretly punished before they are seen to be murdered or hurled +down rocks, which is rather the climax and end of their punishment +than the punishment itself. For as Plato tells us that Herodicus +the Selymbrian having fallen into consumption, an incurable +disease, was the first of mankind to mix exercise with the art of +healing, and so prolonged his own life and that of others suffering +from the same disease, so those wicked persons who seem to avoid +immediate punishment, receive a longer and not slower punishment, +not later but extending over a wider period; for they are not +punished in their old age, but rather grow old in perpetual +punishment. I speak of course of long time as a human being, for to +the gods all the period of man's life is as nothing, and so to them +'now and not thirty years ago' means no more than with us torturing +or hanging a malefactor in the evening instead of the morning would +mean; especially as man is shut up in life as in a prison from +which there is no egress or escape, and though doubtless during his +life he has much feasting and business and gifts and favours and +amusement, yet, just like people playing at dice or draughts in a +prison, the rope is all the time hanging over his head."<a name= +"FNanchor_830_830" id="FNanchor_830_830"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_830_830" class="fnanchor">830</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> "And indeed what prevents +our asserting that people in prison under sentence of death are not +punished till their heads are cut off, or that the person who has +taken hemlock, and walks about till he feels it is getting into his +legs, suffers not at all till he is deprived of sensation by the +freezing and curdling of his blood, if we consider the last moment +of punishment all the punishment, and ignore all the intermediate +sufferings and fears and anxiety and remorse, the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">343</a></span>destiny of +every guilty wretch? That would be arguing that the fish that has +swallowed the hook is not caught, till we see it boiled by the cook +or sliced at table. For every wrong-doer is liable to punishment, +and soon swallows the pleasantness of his wrong-doing like a bait, +while his conscience still vexes and troubles him,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"As through the sea the +impetuous tunny darts."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>For the recklessness and audacity of vice is strong and rampant +till the crime is committed, but afterwards, when the passion +subsides like a storm, it becomes timid and dejected and a prey to +fears and superstitions. So that Stesichorus in his account of +Clytæmnestra's dream may have represented the facts and real +state of the case, where he says, "A dragon seemed to appear to her +with its lofty head smeared all over with blood, and out of it +seemed to come king Orestes the grandson of Plisthenes." For +visions in dreams, and apparitions during the day, and oracles, and +lightning, and whatever is thought to come from the deity, bring +tempests of apprehension to the guilty. So they say that one time +Apollodorus in a dream saw himself flayed by the Scythians, and +then boiled, and that his heart out of the caldron spoke to him in +a low voice and said, "I am the cause of this;" and at another time +he dreamed that he saw his daughters running round him in a circle +all on fire and in flames. And Hipparchus the son of Pisistratus, a +little before his death, dreamt that Aphrodite threw some blood on +his face out of a certain phial. And the friends of Ptolemy +Ceraunus dreamed that he was summoned for trial by Seleucus, and +that the judges were vultures and wolves, who tore his flesh and +distributed it wholesale among his enemies. And Pausanias at +Byzantium, having sent for Cleonice a free-born maiden, intending +to outrage her and pass the night with her, being seized with some +alarm or suspicion killed her, and frequently saw her in his dreams +saying to him, "Come near for judgement, lust is most assuredly a +grievous bane to men," and as this apparition did not cease, he +sailed, it seems, to Heraclea to the place where the souls of the +dead could be summoned, and by propitiations and sacrifices called +up the soul of the maiden, and she appeared to him<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">344</a></span> and told +him that this trouble would end when he got to Lacedæmon, and +directly he got there he died."<a name="FNanchor_831_831" id= +"FNanchor_831_831"></a><a href="#Footnote_831_831" class= +"fnanchor">831</a></p> + +<p><a name="Page_344a" id="Page_344a" />§ <span class= +"smcap">xi.</span> "And so, if nothing happens to the soul after +death, but that event is the end of all enjoyment or punishment, +one would be rather inclined to say that the deity was lax and +indulgent in quickly punishing the wicked and depriving them of +life. For even if we were to say that the wicked had no other +trouble in a long life, yet, when their wrong-doing was proved to +bring them no profit or enjoyment, no good or adequate return for +their many and great anxieties, the consciousness of that would be +quite enough to throw<a name="FNanchor_832_832" id= +"FNanchor_832_832"></a><a href="#Footnote_832_832" class= +"fnanchor">832</a> their mind off its balance. So they record of +Lysimachus that he was so overcome by thirst that he surrendered +himself and his forces to the Getæ for some drink, but after +he had drunk and bethought him that he was now a captive, he said, +"Alas! How guilty am I for so brief a gratification to lose so +great a kingdom!" And yet it is very difficult to resist a +necessity of nature. But when a man, either for the love of money, +or for political place or power, or carried away by some amorous +propensity, does some lawless and dreadful deed, and, after his +eager desire is satisfied, sees in process of time that only the +base and terrible elements of his crime remain, while nothing +useful, or necessary, or advantageous has flowed from it, is it not +likely that the idea would often present itself to him that, moved +by vain-glory, or for some illiberal and unlovely pleasure, he had +violated the greatest and noblest rights of mankind, and had filled +his life with shame and trouble? For as Simonides used to say +playfully that he always found his money-chest full but his +gratitude-chest empty,<a name="FNanchor_833_833" id= +"FNanchor_833_833"></a><a href="#Footnote_833_833" class= +"fnanchor">833</a> so the wicked contemplating their own vice soon +find out that their gratification is joyless and hopeless,<a name= +"FNanchor_834_834" id="FNanchor_834_834"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_834_834" class="fnanchor">834</a> and ever attended by +fears and griefs and gloomy memories, and suspicions about the +future, and distrust about the present. Thus we hear Ino, repenting +for what she had done, saying on the stage,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id= +"Page_345">345</a></span> <span class="i0">"Dear women, would that +I could now inhabit</span> <span class="i0">For the first time the +house of Athamas,</span> <span class="i0">Guiltless of any of my +awful deeds!"<a name="FNanchor_835_835" id= +"FNanchor_835_835"></a><a href="#Footnote_835_835" class= +"fnanchor">835</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>It is likely that the soul of every wicked person will meditate +in this way, and consider how it can escape the memory of its +ill-deeds, and lay its conscience to sleep, and become pure, and +live another life over again from the beginning. For there is no +confidence, or reality, or continuance, or security, in what +wickedness proposes to itself, unless by Zeus we shall say that +evil-doers are wise, but wherever the greedy love of wealth or +pleasure or violent envy dwells with hatred and malignity, there +will you also see and find stationed superstition, and remissness +for labour, and cowardice in respect to death, and sudden caprice +in the passions, and vain-glory and boasting. Those that censure +them frighten them, and they even fear those that praise them as +wronged by their deceit, and as most hostile to the bad because +they readily praise those they think good. For as in the case of +ill-tempered steel the hardness of vice is rotten, and its strength +easily shattered. So that in course of time, understanding their +real selves, they are vexed and disgusted with their past life and +abhor it. For if a bad man who restores property entrusted to his +care, or becomes surety for a friend, or contributes very +generously and liberally to his country out of love of glory or +honour, at once repents and is sorry for what he has done from the +fickleness and changeableness of his mind; and if men applauded in +the theatres directly afterwards groan, their love of glory +subsiding into love of money; shall we suppose that those who +sacrificed men to tyrannies and conspiracies as Apollodorus did, or +that those who robbed their friends of money as Glaucus the son of +Epicydes did,<a name="FNanchor_836_836" id= +"FNanchor_836_836"></a><a href="#Footnote_836_836" class= +"fnanchor">836</a> never repented, or loathed themselves, or +regretted their past misdeeds? For my part, if it is lawful to say +so, I do not think evil-doers need any god or man to punish them, +for the marring and troubling of all their life by vice is in +itself adequate punishment."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_345a" id="Page_345a"></a>§ <span class= +"smcap">xii.</span> "But consider now whether I have not spoken too +long." Then Timon said, "Perhaps you have, considering <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">346</a></span>what +remains and the time it will take. For now I am going to start the +last question, as if it were a combatant in reserve, since the +other two questions have been debated sufficiently. For as to the +charge and bold accusation that Euripides brings against the gods, +for visiting the sins of the parents upon the children, consider +that even those of us who are silent agree with Euripides. For if +the guilty were punished themselves there would be no further need +to punish the innocent, for it is not fair to punish even the +guilty twice for the same offence, whereas if the gods through +easiness remit the punishment of the wicked, and exact it later on +from the innocent, they do not well to compensate for their +tardiness by injustice. Such conduct resembles the story told of +Æsop's coming to this very spot,<a name="FNanchor_837_837" +id="FNanchor_837_837"></a><a href="#Footnote_837_837" class= +"fnanchor">837</a> with money from Crœsus, to offer a +splendid sacrifice to the god, and to give four minæ to each +of the Delphians. And some quarrel or difference belike ensuing +between him and the Delphians here, he offered the sacrifice, but +sent the money back to Sardis, as though the Delphians were not +worthy to receive that benefit, so they fabricated against him a +charge of sacrilege, and put him to death by throwing him headlong +down yonder rock called Hyampia. And in consequence the god is said +to have been wroth with them, and to have brought dearth on their +land, and all kinds of strange diseases, so that they went round at +the public festivals of the Greeks, and invited by proclamation +whoever wished to take satisfaction of them for Æsop's death. +And three generations afterwards came Idmon<a name= +"FNanchor_838_838" id="FNanchor_838_838"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_838_838" class="fnanchor">838</a> a Samian, no relation +of Æsop's, but a descendant of those who had purchased +Æsop as a slave at Samos, and by giving him satisfaction the +Delphians got rid of their trouble. And it was in consequence of +this, they say, that the punishment of those guilty of sacrilege +was transferred from Hyampia to Nauplia.<a name="FNanchor_839_839" +id="FNanchor_839_839"></a><a href="#Footnote_839_839" class= +"fnanchor">839</a> And even great lovers of Alexander, as we are, +do not praise his destroying the city of the Branchidæ and +putting everybody in it to death because their great-grandfathers +betrayed the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id= +"Page_347">347</a></span>temple at Miletus.<a name= +"FNanchor_840_840" id="FNanchor_840_840"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_840_840" class="fnanchor">840</a> And Agathocles, the +tyrant of Syracuse, laughing and jeering at the Corcyræans +for asking him why he wasted their island, replied, "Because, by +Zeus, your forefathers welcomed Odysseus." And when the people of +Ithaca likewise complained of his soldiers carrying off their +sheep, he said, "Your king came to us, and actually put out the +shepherd's eye to boot."<a name="FNanchor_841_841" id= +"FNanchor_841_841"></a><a href="#Footnote_841_841" class= +"fnanchor">841</a> And is it not stranger still in Apollo punishing +the present inhabitants of Pheneus, by damming up the channel dug +to carry off their water,<a name="FNanchor_842_842" id= +"FNanchor_842_842"></a><a href="#Footnote_842_842" class= +"fnanchor">842</a> and so flooding the whole of their district, +because a thousand years ago, they say, Hercules carried off to +Pheneus the oracular tripod? and in telling the Sybarites that the +only end of their troubles would be propitiating by their ruin on +three occasions the wrath of Leucadian Hera? And indeed it is no +long time since the Locrians have ceased sending maidens<a name= +"FNanchor_843_843" id="FNanchor_843_843"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_843_843" class="fnanchor">843</a> to Troy,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Who without upper garments +and barefooted,</span> <span class="i0">Like slave-girls, in the +early morning swept</span> <span class="i0">Around Athene's altar +all unveiled,</span> <span class="i0">Till old age came upon them +with its burdens,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>all because Ajax violated Cassandra. Where is the reason or +justice in all this? Nor do we praise the Thracians who to this +day, in honour of Orpheus, mark their wives;<a name= +"FNanchor_844_844" id="FNanchor_844_844"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_844_844" class="fnanchor">844</a> nor the barbarians on +the banks of the Eridanus who, they say, wear mourning for +Phäethon. And I think it would be still more ridiculous if the +people living at the time Phäethon perished had neglected him, +and those who lived five or ten generations after his tragic death +had begun the practice of wearing mourning and grieving for him. +And yet this would be only folly, there would be nothing dreadful +or fatal about it, but what should make the anger of the gods +subside at once and then afterwards, like some rivers, burst out +against others till they completely ruin them?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id= +"Page_348">348</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> +Directly he left off, fearing that if he began again he would +introduce more and greater absurdities, I asked him, "Well, do you +believe all this to be true?" And he replied, "If not all, but only +some, of it is true, do you not think that the subject presents the +same difficulty?" "Perhaps," said I, "it is as with those in a +raging fever, whether they have few or many clothes on the bed they +are equally hot or nearly so, yet to ease them we shall do well to +remove some of the clothes; but let us waive this point, if you +don't like the line of argument, though a good deal of what you +have said seems myth and fable, and let us recall to our minds the +recent festival in honour of Apollo called Theoxenia,<a name= +"FNanchor_845_845" id="FNanchor_845_845"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_845_845" class="fnanchor">845</a> and the noble share in +it which the heralds expressly reserve for the descendants of +Pindar, and how grand and pleasant it seemed to you." "Who could +help being pleased," said he, "with such a delightful honour, so +Greek and breathing the simple spirit of antiquity, had he not, to +use Pindar's own phrase, 'a black heart forged when the flame was +cold?'" "I pass over then," said I, "the similar proclamation at +Sparta, 'After the Lesbian singer,' in honour and memory of old +Terpander, for it is a similar case. But you yourselves certainly +lay claim to be better than other Bœotians as descended from +Opheltes,<a name="FNanchor_846_846" id="FNanchor_846_846"></a><a +href="#Footnote_846_846" class="fnanchor">846</a> and than other +Phocians because of your ancestor Daiphantus,<a name= +"FNanchor_847_847" id="FNanchor_847_847"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_847_847" class="fnanchor">847</a> and you were the first +to give me help and assistance in preserving for the Lycormæ +and Satilæi their hereditary privilege of wearing crowns as +descendants of Hercules, when I contended that we ought to confirm +the honours and favours of the descendants of Hercules more +especially because, though he was such a benefactor to the Greeks, +he had had himself no adequate favour or return." "You remind me," +he said, "of a noble effort, and one well worthy of a philosopher." +"Dismiss then," said I, "my dear fellow, your vehement accusation +against the gods, and do not be so vexed that some of a bad or evil +stock are punished by them, or else do not joy in and approve of +the honour paid to descent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" +id="Page_349">349</a></span>from a good stock. For it is +unreasonable, if we continue to show favour to a virtuous stock, to +think punishment wrong in the case of a criminal stock, or that it +should not correspond with the adequate reward of merit. And he +that is glad to see the descendants of Cimon honoured at Athens, +but is displeased and indignant that the descendants of Lachares or +Aristo are in exile, is too soft and easy, or rather too +fault-finding and peevish with the gods, accusing them if the +descendants of a bad and wicked man are fortunate, and accusing +them also if the progeny of the bad are wiped off the face of the +earth; thus finding fault with the deity alike, whether the +descendants of the good or bad father are unfortunate."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> "Let these remarks," I +continued, "be your bulwarks as it were against those excessively +bitter and railing accusations. And taking up again as it were the +initial clue to our subject, which as it is about the deity is dark +and full of mazes and labyrinths, let us warily and calmly follow +the track to what is probable and plausible, for certainty and +truth are things very difficult to find even in every-day life. For +example, why are the children of those that have died of +consumption or dropsy bidden to sit with their feet in water till +the dead body is burnt? For that is thought to prevent the disease +transferring itself to them. Again, when a she-goat takes a bit of +eringo into her mouth, why do the whole herd stand still, till the +goatherd comes up and takes it out of her mouth? There are other +properties that have connection and communication, and that +transfer themselves from one thing to another with incredible<a +name="FNanchor_848_848" id="FNanchor_848_848"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_848_848" class="fnanchor">848</a> quickness and over +immense distances. But we marvel more at intervals of time than +place. And yet is it more wonderful that Athens should have been +smitten with a plague<a name="FNanchor_849_849" id= +"FNanchor_849_849"></a><a href="#Footnote_849_849" class= +"fnanchor">849</a> that started in Arabia, and of which Pericles +died and Thucydides fell sick, than that, when the Delphians and +Sybarites became wicked, vengeance should have fallen on their +descendants.<a name="FNanchor_850_850" id="FNanchor_850_850"></a><a +href="#Footnote_850_850" class="fnanchor">850</a> For properties +have relations and connections between ends and <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id= +"Page_350">350</a></span>beginnings, and although the reason of +them may not be known by us, they silently perform their +errand."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> "Moreover the public +punishments of cities by the gods admits of a just defence. For a +city is one continuous entity, a sort of creature that never +changes from age, or becomes different by time, but is ever +sympathetic with and conformable to itself, and is answerable for +whatever it does or has done for the public weal, as long as the +community by its union and federal bonds preserves its unity. For +he that would make several, or rather any quantity of, cities out +of one by process of time would be like a person who made one human +being several, by regarding him now as an old man, now as a young +man, now as a stripling. Or rather this kind of reasoning resembles +the arguments of Epicharmus, from whom the sophists borrowed the +piled-up method of reasoning,<a name="FNanchor_851_851" id= +"FNanchor_851_851"></a><a href="#Footnote_851_851" class= +"fnanchor">851</a> for example, he incurred the debt long ago, so +he does not owe it now, being a different person, or, he was +invited to dinner yesterday, but he comes uninvited to-day, for he +is another person. And yet age produces greater changes in any +individual than it does commonly in cities. For any one would +recognize Athens again if he had not seen it for thirty years, for +the present habits and feelings of the people there, their +business, amusements, likes and dislikes, are just what they were +long ago; whereas a man's friend or acquaintance meeting him after +some time would hardly recognize his appearance, for the change of +character easily introduced by every thought and deed, feeling and +custom, produce a wonderful strangeness and novelty in the same +person. And yet a man is reckoned to be the same person from birth +to death, and similarly we think it right for a city always +remaining the same to be liable to reproach for the ill deeds of +its former inhabitants, on the same principle as it enjoys its +ancient glory and power; or shall we, without being aware of it, +throw everything into Heraclitus' river, into which he says a +person cannot step twice,<a name="FNanchor_852_852" id= +"FNanchor_852_852"></a><a href="#Footnote_852_852" class= +"fnanchor">852</a> since nature is ever changing and altering +everything?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id= +"Page_351">351</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> "If +then a city is one continuous entity, so of course is a race that +starts from one beginning, that can trace back intimate union and +similarity of faculties, for that which is begot is not, like some +production of art, unlike the begetter, for it proceeds from him, +and is not merely produced by him, so that it appropriately +receives his share, whether that be honour or punishment. And if I +should not seem to be trifling, I should say that the bronze statue +of Cassander melted down by the Athenians, and the body of +Dionysius thrown out of their territory by the Syracusans after his +death, were treated more unjustly than punishing their posterity +would have been. For there was none of the nature of Cassander in +the statue, and the soul of Dionysius had left his dead body before +this outrage, whereas Nysæus and Apollocrates,<a name= +"FNanchor_853_853" id="FNanchor_853_853"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_853_853" class="fnanchor">853</a> Antipater and +Philip,<a name="FNanchor_854_854" id="FNanchor_854_854"></a><a +href="#Footnote_854_854" class="fnanchor">854</a> and similarly +other sons of wicked parents had innate in them a good deal of +their fathers, and that no listless or inactive element, but one by +which they lived and were nourished, and by which their ideas were +controlled. Nor is it at all strange or absurd that some should +have their fathers' characteristics. And to speak generally, as in +surgery whatever is useful is also just, and that person would be +ridiculous who should say it was unjust to cauterize the thumb when +the hip-joints were in pain, and to lance the stomach when the +liver was inflamed, or when oxen were tender in their hoofs to +anoint the tips of their horns, so he that looks for any other +justice in punishment than curing vice, and is dissatisfied if +surgery is employed to one part to benefit another, as surgeons +open a vein to relieve ophthalmia, can see nothing beyond the +evidence of the senses, and does not remember that even a +schoolmaster by correcting one lad admonishes others, and that by +decimation a general makes his whole army obey. And so not only by +one part to another comes benefit, but also to the soul through the +soul, even more often than to the body through the body, come +certain dispositions, and vices or improvement of character. For +just as it is likely in the case of the body that the same feelings +and changes will take place, so the soul, being worked upon by +fancies, naturally <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" +id="Page_352">352</a></span>becomes better or worse according as it has more +confidence or fear."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> While I was thus +speaking, Olympicus interposed, and said, "You seem in your +argument to assume the important assumption of the permanence of +the soul." I replied, "You too concede it, or rather did concede +it. For that the deity deals with everyone according to his merit +has been the assumption of our argument from the beginning." Then +said he, "Do you think that it follows, because the gods notice our +actions and deal with us accordingly, that souls are either +altogether imperishable, or for some time survive dissolution?" +Then said I, "Not exactly so, my good sir, but is the deity so +little and so attached to trifles, if we have nothing divine in +ourselves, nothing resembling him, nothing lasting or sure, but +that we all do fade as a leaf, as Homer<a name="FNanchor_855_855" +id="FNanchor_855_855"></a><a href="#Footnote_855_855" class= +"fnanchor">855</a> says, and die after a brief life, as to take the +trouble—like women that tend and cultivate their gardens of +Adonis<a name="FNanchor_856_856" id="FNanchor_856_856"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_856_856" class="fnanchor">856</a> in pots—to +create souls to flourish in a delicate body having no stability +only for a day, and then to be annihilated at once<a name= +"FNanchor_857_857" id="FNanchor_857_857"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_857_857" class="fnanchor">857</a> by any occasion? And +if you please, leaving the other gods out of the question, consider +the case of our god here.<a name="FNanchor_858_858" id= +"FNanchor_858_858"></a><a href="#Footnote_858_858" class= +"fnanchor">858</a> Does it seem likely to you that, if he knew that +the souls of the dead perish immediately, and glide out of their +bodies like mist or smoke, he would enjoin many propitiatory +offerings for the departed and honours for the dead, merely +cheating and beguiling those that believed in him? For my own part, +I shall never abandon my belief in the permanence of the soul, +unless some second Hercules<a name="FNanchor_859_859" id= +"FNanchor_859_859"></a><a href="#Footnote_859_859" class= +"fnanchor">859</a> shall come and take away the tripod of the +Pythian Priestess, and abolish and destroy the oracle. For as long +as many such oracles are still given, as was said to be given to +Corax of Naxos formerly, it is impious to declare that the soul +dies." Then said Patrocleas, "What oracle do you refer to? Who was +this Corax? To me both the occurrence and name are quite strange." +"That cannot be," said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id= +"Page_353">353</a></span>I, "but I am to blame for using the +surname instead of the name. For he that killed Archilochus in +battle was called Calondes, it seems, but his surname was Corax. He +was first rejected by the Pythian Priestess, as having slain a man +sacred to the Muses, but after using many entreaties and prayers, +and urging pleas in defence of his act, he was ordered to go to the +dwelling of Tettix, and appease the soul of Archilochus. Now this +place was Tænarum, for there they say Tettix the Cretan had +gone with a fleet and founded a city, and dwelt near the place +where departed souls were conjured up. Similarly also, when the +Spartans were bidden by the oracle to appease the soul of +Pausanias, the necromancers were summoned from Italy, and, after +they had offered sacrifice, they got the ghost out of the +temple."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xviii.</span> "It is one and the same +argument," I continued, "that confirms the providence of the deity +and the permanence of the soul of man, so that you cannot leave one +if you take away the other. And if the soul survives after death, +it makes the probability stronger that rewards or punishments will +be assigned to it. For during life the soul struggles, like an +athlete, and when the struggle is over, then it gets its deserts. +But what rewards or punishments the soul gets when by itself in the +unseen world for the deeds done in the body has nothing to do with +us that are alive, and is perhaps not credited by us, and certainly +unknown to us; whereas those punishments that come on descendants +and on the race are evident to all that are alive, and deter and +keep back many from wickedness. For there is no more disgraceful or +bitter punishment than to see our children in misfortune through +our faults, and if the soul of an impious or lawless man could see +after death, not his statues or honours taken from him, but his +children or friends or race in great adversity owing to him, and +paying the penalty for his misdeeds, no one would ever persuade +him, could he come to life again, to be unjust and licentious, even +for the honours of Zeus. I could tell you a story on this head, +which I recently heard, but I hesitate to do so, lest you should +regard it only as a myth; I confine myself therefore to +probability." "Pray don't," said Olympicus, "let us have your +story." And as the others made<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_354" id="Page_354">354</a></span> the same request, I said, +"Permit me first to finish my discourse according to probability, +and then, if you like, I will set my myth a going, if it is a +myth.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xix.</span> Bion says the deity in +punishing the children of the wicked for their fathers' crimes is +more ridiculous than a doctor administering a potion to a son or +grandson for a father's or grandfather's disease. But the cases, +though in some respects similar and like, are in others dissimilar. +For to cure one person of a disease does not cure another, nor is +one any better, when suffering from ophthalmia or fever, by seeing +another anointed or poulticed. But the punishments of evil-doers +are exhibited to everybody for this reason, that it is the function +of justice, when it is carried out as reason dictates, to check +some by the punishment of others. So that Bion did not see in what +respect his comparison touched our subject. For sometimes, when a +man falls into a grievous but not incurable malady, which +afterwards by intemperance and negligence ruins his constitution +and kills him, is not his son, who is not supposed to be suffering +from the same malady but only to have a predisposition for it, +enjoined to a careful manner of living by his medical man, or +friend, or intelligent trainer in gymnastics, or honest guardian, +and recommended to abstain from fish and pastry, wine and women, +and to take medicine frequently, and to go in for training in the +gymnasiums, and so to dissipate and get rid of the small seeds of +what might be a serious malady, if he allowed it to come to a head? +Do we not indeed give advice of this kind to the children of +diseased fathers or mothers, bidding them take care and be cautious +and not to neglect themselves, but at once to arrest the first +germ, of the malady, nipping it in the bud while removable, and +before it has got a firm footing in the constitution?" "Certainly +we do," said all the company. "We are not then," I continued, +"acting in a strange or ridiculous but in a necessary and useful +way, in arranging their exercise and food and physic for the sons +of epileptic or atrabilious or gouty people, not when they are ill, +but to prevent their becoming so. For the offspring of a poor +constitution does not require punishment, but it does require +medical treatment and care, and if any one stigmatizes this, +because it curtails pleasure and involves some self-denial<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">355</a></span> and +pain, as a punishment inflicted by cowardice and timidity, we care +not for his opinion. Can it be right to tend and care for the body +that has an hereditary predisposition to some malady, and are we to +neglect the growth and spread in the young character of hereditary +taint of vice, and to dally with it, and wait till it be plainly +mixed up with the feelings, and, to use the language of Pindar, +"produce malignant fruit in the heart?"</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xx.</span> Or is the deity in this +respect no wiser than Hesiod, who exhorts and advises, "not to +beget children on our return from a sad funeral, but after a +banquet with the gods,"<a name="FNanchor_860_860" id= +"FNanchor_860_860"></a><a href="#Footnote_860_860" class= +"fnanchor">860</a> as though not vice or virtue only, but sorrow or +joy and all other propensities, came from generation, to which the +poet bids us come gay and agreeable and sprightly. But it is not +Hesiod's function, or the work of human wisdom, but it belongs to +the deity, to discern and accurately distinguish similarities and +differences of character, before they become obvious by resulting +in crime through the influence of the passions. For the young of +bears and wolves and apes manifest from their birth the nature +innate in them in all its naked simplicity; whereas mankind, under +the influence of customs and opinions and laws, frequently conceal +their bad qualities and imitate what is good, so as altogether to +obliterate and escape from the innate taint of vice, or to be +undetected for a long time, throwing the veil of craft round their +real nature, so that we are scarce conscious of their villainy till +we feel the blow or smart of some unjust action, so that we are in +fact only aware that there is such a thing as injustice when men +act unjustly, or as vice when men act viciously, or as cowardice +when men run away, just as if one were to suppose that scorpions +had a sting only when they stung us, or that vipers were venomous +only when they bit us, which would be a very silly idea. For every +bad man is not bad only when he breaks out into crime, but he has +the seeds of vice in his nature, and is only vicious in act when he +has opportunity and means, as opportunity makes the thief steal,<a +name="FNanchor_861_861" id="FNanchor_861_861"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_861_861" class="fnanchor">861</a> and the tyrant violate +the laws. But the deity is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" +id="Page_356">356</a></span>not ignorant of the nature and +disposition of every man, inasmuch as by his very nature he can +read the soul better than the body, and does not wait to punish +violence in the act, or shamelessness in the tongue, or +lasciviousness in the members. For he does not retaliate upon the +wrong-doer as having been ill-treated by him, nor is he angry with +the robber as having been plundered by him, nor does he hate the +adulterer as having himself suffered from his licentiousness, but +it is to cure him that he often punishes the adulterous or +avaricious or unjust man in embryo, before he has had time to work +out all his villainy, as we try to stop epileptic fits before they +come on.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxi.</span> Just now we were +dissatisfied that the wicked were punished late and tardily, +whereas at present we find fault with the deity for correcting the +character and disposition of same before they commit crime, from +our ignoring that the future deed may be worse and more dreadful +than the past, and the hidden intention than the overt act; for we +are not able fully to understand the reasons why it is better to +leave some alone in their ill deeds, and to arrest others in the +intention; just as no doubt medicine is not appropriate in the case +of some patients, which would be beneficial to others not ill, but +yet perhaps in a more dangerous condition still. And so the gods do +not visit all the offences of parents on their children, but if a +good man is the son of a bad one, as the son of a sickly parent is +sometimes of a good constitution, he is exempt from the punishment +of his race, as not being a participator in its viciousness. But if +a young man imitates his vicious race it is only right that he +should inherit the punishment of their ill deeds, as he would their +debts. For Antigonus was not punished for Demetrius, nor, of the +old heroes,<a name="FNanchor_862_862" id="FNanchor_862_862"></a><a +href="#Footnote_862_862" class="fnanchor">862</a> Phyleus for +Augeas, or Nestor for Neleus, for though their sires were bad they +were good, but those whose nature liked and approved the vices of +their ancestors, these justice punished, taking vengeance on their +similarity in viciousness. For as the warts and moles and freckles +of parents often skip a generation, and reappear in the grandsons +and granddaughters, and as a Greek woman, <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_357" id="Page_357">357</a></span>that had a black baby +and so was accused of adultery, found out that she was the great +granddaughter of an Ethiopian,<a name="FNanchor_863_863" id= +"FNanchor_863_863"></a><a href="#Footnote_863_863" class= +"fnanchor">863</a> and as the son of Pytho the Nisibian who +recently died, and who was said to trace his descent to the +Sparti,<a name="FNanchor_864_864" id="FNanchor_864_864"></a><a +href="#Footnote_864_864" class="fnanchor">864</a> had the birthmark +on his body of the print of a spear the token of his race, which +though long dormant had come up again as out of the deep, so +frequently earlier generations conceal and suppress the mental +idiosyncrasies and passions of their race, which afterwards nature +causes to break out in other members of the family, and so displays +the family bent either to vice or virtue."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xxii.</span> When I had said thus +much I was silent, but Olympicus smiled and said, "We do not praise +you, lest we should seem to forget your promised story, as though +what you had advanced was adequate proof enough, but we will give +our opinion when we have heard it." Then I began as follows. +"Thespesius of Soli, an intimate friend of that Protogenes<a name= +"FNanchor_865_865" id="FNanchor_865_865"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_865_865" class="fnanchor">865</a> who lived in this city +with us for some time, had been very profligate during the early +part of his life, and had quickly run through his property, and for +some time owing to his straits had given himself up to bad +practices, when repenting of his old ways, and following the +pursuit of riches, he resembled those profligate husbands that pay +no attention to their wives while they live with them, but get rid +of them, and then, after they have married other men, do all they +can wickedly to seduce them. Abstaining then from nothing +dishonourable that could bring either enjoyment or gain, in no long +time he got together no great amount of property, but a very great +reputation for villainy. But what most damaged his character was +the answer he received from the oracle of Amphilochus.<a name= +"FNanchor_866_866" id="FNanchor_866_866"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_866_866" class="fnanchor">866</a> For he sent it seems a +messenger to consult the god whether he would live the rest of his +life better, and the answer was he would do better after his death. +And indeed this happened in a sense not long after. For he fell +headlong down from a great height, and though he had received no +wound <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id= +"Page_358">358</a></span>nor even a blow, the fall did for him, but +three days after (just as he was about to be buried) he recovered. +He soon picked up his strength again, and went home, and so changed +his manner of life that people would hardly credit it. For the +Cilicians say that they know nobody who was in those days more +fairdealing in business, or more devout to the deity, or more +disagreeable to his enemies, or more faithful to his friends; +insomuch that all who had any dealings with him desired to hear the +reason of this change, not thinking that so great a reformation of +character could have proceeded from chance, and their idea was +correct, as his narrative to Protogenes and others of his great +friends showed. For he told them that, when his soul left the body, +the change he first underwent was as if he were a pilot thrown +violently into the sea out of a ship. Then raising himself up a +little, he thought he recovered the power of breathing again +altogether, and looked round him in every direction, as if one eye +of the soul was open. But he saw none of the things he had ever +seen before, but stars enormous in size and at immense distance +from one another, sending forth a wonderful and intense brightness +of colour, so that the soul was borne along and moved about +everywhere quickly and easily, like a ship is fair weather. But +omitting most of the sights he saw, he said that the souls of the +dead mounted into the air, which yielded to them and formed fiery +bubbles, and then, when each bubble quietly broke, they assumed +human forms, light in weight but with different kinds of motion, +for some leapt about with wonderful agility and darted straight +upwards, while others like spindles flitted round all together in a +circle, some in an upward direction, some in a downward, with mixed +and confused motion, hardly stopping at all, or only after a very +long time. As to most of these he was ignorant who they were, but +he saw two or three that he knew, and tried to approach them and +talk with them, but they would not listen to him, and did not seem +to be in their right minds, but out of their senses and distraught, +avoiding every sight and touch, and at first turned round and round +alone, but afterwards meeting many other souls whirling round and +in the same condition as themselves, they moved about promiscuously +with no particular object in view, and uttered<span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">359</a></span> +inarticulate sounds, like yells, mixed with wailing and terror. +Other souls in the upper part of the air seemed joyful, and +frequently approached one another in a friendly way, and avoided +those troubled souls, and seemed to mark their displeasure by +keeping themselves to themselves, and their joy and delight by +extension and expansion. At last he said he saw the soul of a +relation, that he thought he knew but was not quite sure, as he +died when he was a boy, which came up to him and said to him, +"Welcome, Thespesius." And he wondering, and saying that his name +was not Thespesius but Aridæus, the soul replied, "That was +your old name, but henceforth it will be Thespesius. For assuredly +you are not dead, but by the will of the gods are come here with +your intellect, for the rest of your soul you have left in the body +like an anchor; and as a proof of what I say both now and hereafter +notice that the souls of the dead have no shadow and do not move +their eyelids." Thespesius, on hearing these words, pulled himself +somewhat more together again, and began to use his reason, and +looking more closely he noticed that an indistinct and shadow-like +line was suspended over him, while the others shone all round and +were transparent, but were not all alike; for some were like the +full-moon at its brightest, throwing out one smooth even and +continuous colour, others had spots or light marks here and there, +while others were quite variegated and strange to the sight, with +black spots like snakes, while others again had dim scratches.</p> + +<p>Then the kinsman of Thespesius (for there is nothing to prevent +our calling the souls by the name of the persons), pointed out +everything, and told him that Adrastea, the daughter of Necessity +and Zeus, was placed in the highest position to punish all crimes, +and no criminal was either so great or so small as to be able to +escape her either by fraud or violence. But, as there were three +kinds of punishment, each had its own officer and administering +functionary. "For speedy Vengeance undertakes the punishment of +those that are to be corrected at once in the body and through +their bodies, and she mildly passes by many offences that only need +expiation; but if the cure of vice demands further pains, then the +deity hands over such criminals after death to Justice, and those +whom Justice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id= +"Page_360">360</a></span> rejects as altogether incurable, Erinnys +(the third and fiercest of Adrastea's officers), pursues as they +are fleeing and wandering about in various directions, and with +pitiless severity utterly undoes them all, and thrusts them down to +a place not to be seen or spoken about. And, of all these +punishments, that which is administered in this life by Vengeance +is most like those in use among the barbarians. For as among the +Persians they pluck off and scourge the garments and tiaras of +those that are to be punished, while the offenders weep and beg +them to cease, so most punishments by fine or bodily chastisement +have no sharp touch, nor do they reach vice itself, but are only +for show and sentiment. And whoever goes from this world to that +incorrigible and impure, Justice takes him aside, naked as he is in +soul, and unable to veil or hide or conceal his villainy, but +descried all round and in all points by everybody, and shows him +first to his good parents, if such they were, to let them see what +a wretch he is and how unworthy of his ancestors; but if they were +wicked too, seeing them punished and himself being seen by them, he +is chastised for a long time till he is purged of each of his bad +propensities by sufferings and pains, which as much exceed in +magnitude and intensity all sufferings in the flesh, as what is +real is more vivid than a dream. But the scars and marks of the +stripes for each bad propensity are more visible in some than in +others. Observe also, he continued, the different and various +colours of the souls. That dark dirty-brown colour is the pigment +of illiberality and covetousness, and the blood-red the sign of +cruelty and savageness, and where the blue is there sensuality and +love of pleasure are not easily eradicated, and that violet and +livid colour marks malice and envy, like the dark liquid ejected by +the cuttle fish. For as during life vice produces these colours by +the soul being acted upon by passions and reacting upon the body, +so here it is the end of purification and correction when they are +toned down, and the soul becomes altogether bright and one colour. +But as long as these colours remain, there are relapses of the +passions accompanied by palpitation and throbbing of the heart, in +some faint and soon suppressed, in others more violent and lasting. +And some of these souls by being again and again corrected<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">361</a></span> +recover their proper disposition and condition, while others again +by their violent ignorance and excessive love of pleasure<a name= +"FNanchor_867_867" id="FNanchor_867_867"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_867_867" class="fnanchor">867</a> are carried into the +bodies of animals; for one by weakness of reasoning power, and +slowness of contemplation, is impelled by the practical element in +him to generation, while another, lacking an instrument to satisfy +his licentiousness, desires to gratify his passions immediately, +and to get that gratification through the medium of the body; for +here there is no real fruition, but only an imperfect shadow and +dream of incomplete pleasure."</p> + +<p>After he had said this, Thespesius' kinsman hurried him at great +speed through immense space, as it seemed to him, though he +travelled as easily and straight as if he were carried on the wings +of the sun's rays. At last he got to an extensive and bottomless +abyss, where his strength left him, as he found was the case with +the other souls there: for keeping together and making swoops, like +birds, they flitted all round the abyss, but did not venture to +pass over it. To internal view it resembled the caverns of Bacchus, +being beautiful throughout<a name="FNanchor_868_868" id= +"FNanchor_868_868"></a><a href="#Footnote_868_868" class= +"fnanchor">868</a> with trees and green foliage and flowers of all +kinds, and it breathed a soft and gentle air, laden with scents +marvellously pleasant, and producing the effect that wine does on +those who are topers; for the souls were elevated by its fragrance, +and gay and blithe with one another: and the whole spot was full of +mirth and laughter, and such songs as emanate from gaiety and +enjoyment. And Thespesius' kinsman told him that this was the way +Dionysus went up to heaven by, and by which he afterwards took up +Semele, and it was called the place of Oblivion. But he would not +let Thespesius stay there, much as he wished, but forcibly dragged +him away, instructing and telling him that the intellect was melted +and moistened by pleasure, and that the irrational and corporeal +element being watered and made flesh stirs up the memory of the +body, from which comes a yearning and strong desire for generation, +so called from being an inclination to the earth,<a name= +"FNanchor_869_869" id="FNanchor_869_869"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_869_869" class="fnanchor">869</a> when the soul is +weighed down with moisture.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id= +"Page_362">362</a></span>Next Thespesius travelled as far in +another direction, and seemed to see a great crater into which +several rivers emptied themselves, one whiter than the foam of the +sea or snow, another like the purple of the rainbow, and others of +various hues whose brightness was apparent at some distance, but +when he got nearer the air became thinner and the colours grew dim, +and the crater lost all its gay colours but white. And he saw three +genii sitting together in a triangular position, mixing the rivers +together in certain proportions. Then the guide of Thespesius' soul +told him, that Orpheus got as far as here, when he came in quest of +the soul of his wife,<a name="FNanchor_870_870" id= +"FNanchor_870_870"></a><a href="#Footnote_870_870" class= +"fnanchor">870</a> and from not exactly remembering what he had +seen spread a false report among mankind, that the oracle at Delphi +was common to Apollo and Night, though Apollo had no communion with +Night: but this, pursued the guide, is an oracle common to Night +and the Moon, that utters forth its oracular knowledge in no +particular part of the world, nor has it any particular seat, but +wanders about everywhere in men's dreams and visions. Hence, as you +see, dreams receive and disseminate a mixture<a name= +"FNanchor_871_871" id="FNanchor_871_871"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_871_871" class="fnanchor">871</a> of simple truth with +deceit and error. But the oracle of Apollo you do not know, nor can +you see it, for the earthiness of the soul does not suffer it to +soar upwards, but keeps it down in dependence on the body. And +taking him nearer his guide tried to show him the light from the +tripod, which, as he said, shone as far as Parnassus through the +bosom of Themis, but though he desired to see it he could not for +its brightness, but as he passed by he heard the shrill voice of a +woman speaking in verse several things, among others, he thought, +telling the time of his death. That, said the genius, was the voice +of the Sibyl, who sang about the future as she was being borne +about in the Orb of the moon. Though desirous then to hear more, he +was conveyed into another direction by the violent motion of the +moon, as if he had been in the eddies of a whirlpool, so that he +heard very little more, only a prophecy about Mt. Vesuvius and that +Dicæarchia<a name="FNanchor_872_872" id= +"FNanchor_872_872"></a><a href="#Footnote_872_872" class= +"fnanchor">872</a> would be destroyed by fire, and a short piece +about the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id= +"Page_363">363</a></span>Emperor then reigning,<a name= +"FNanchor_873_873" id="FNanchor_873_873"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_873_873" class="fnanchor">873</a> that "though he was +good he would lose his empire through sickness."</p> + +<p>After this Thespesius and his guide turned to see those that +were undergoing punishment. And at first they saw only distressing +and pitiable sights, but after that, Thespesius, little expecting +it, found himself among his friends and acquaintances and kinsfolk +who were being punished, and undergoing dreadful sufferings and +hideous and bitter tortures, and who wept and wailed to him. And at +last he descried his father coming up out of a certain gulf covered +with marks and scars, stretching out his hands, and not allowed to +keep silence, but compelled by those that presided over his torture +to confess that he had been an accursed wretch and poisoned some +strangers that had gold, and during his lifetime had escaped the +detection of everybody; but had been found out here, and his guilt +brought home to him, for which he had already suffered much, and +was being dragged on to suffer more. So great was his consternation +and fear that he did not dare to intercede or beg for his father's +release, but wishing to turn and flee he could no longer see his +gentle and kind guide, but he was thrust forward by some persons +horrible to look at, as if some dire necessity compelled him to go +through with the business, and saw that the shades of those that +had been notorious criminals and punished in their life-time were +not so severely tortured here or like the others, but had an +incomplete<a name="FNanchor_874_874" id="FNanchor_874_874"></a><a +href="#Footnote_874_874" class="fnanchor">874</a> though toilsome +punishment for their irrational passions.<a name="FNanchor_875_875" +id="FNanchor_875_875"></a><a href="#Footnote_875_875" class= +"fnanchor">875</a> Whereas those who under the mask and show of +virtue had lived all their lives in undetected vice were forced by +their torturers with labour and pain to turn their souls inside +out, unnaturally wriggling and writhing about, like the +sea-scolopendras who, when they have swallowed the hook, turn +themselves inside out; but some of them their torturers flayed and +crimped so as to show their various inward vices which were only +skinned over, which were deep in their soul the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">364</a></span>principal +part of man. And he said he saw other souls, like snakes two or +three or even more twined together, devouring one another in +malignity and malevolence for what they had suffered or done in +life. He said also that there were several lakes running parallel, +one of boiling gold, another most cold of lead, another hard of +iron, and several demons were standing by, like smiths, who lowered +down and drew up by turns with instruments the souls of those whose +criminality lay in insatiable cupidity. For when they were red-hot +and transparent through their bath in the lake of gold, the demons +thrust them into the lake of lead and dipped them in that; and when +they got congealed in it and hard as hail, they dipped them into +the lake of iron, and there they became wonderfully black, and +broken and crushed by the hardness of the iron, and changed their +appearance, and after that they were dipped again in the lake of +gold, after suffering, he said, dreadful agony in all these changes +of torment. But he said those souls suffered most piteously of all +that, when they seemed to have escaped justice, were arrested +again, and these were those whose crimes had been visited on their +children or descendants. For whenever one of these latter happened +to come up, he fell into a rage and cried out, and showed the marks +of what he had suffered, and upbraided and pursued the soul of the +parent, that wished to fly and hide himself but could not. For +quickly did the ministers of torture pursue them, and hurry them +back again to Justice,<a name="FNanchor_876_876" id= +"FNanchor_876_876"></a><a href="#Footnote_876_876" class= +"fnanchor">876</a> wailing all the while on account of their +fore-knowledge of what their punishment would be. And to some of +them he said many of their posterity clung at once, and just like +bees or bats stuck to them, and squeaked and gibbered<a name= +"FNanchor_877_877" id="FNanchor_877_877"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_877_877" class="fnanchor">877</a> in their rage at the +memory of what they had suffered owing to them. Last of all he saw +the souls of those that were to come into the world a second time, +forcibly moulded and transformed into various kinds of animals by +artificers appointed for the very purpose with instruments and +blows, who broke off all the limbs of some, and only wrenched off +some of others, and polished others down or <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id= +"Page_365">365</a></span>annihilated them altogether, to fit them +for other habits and modes of life. Among them he saw the soul of +Nero tortured in other ways, and pierced with red-hot nails. And +the artificers having taken it in hand and converted it into the +semblance of a Pindaric viper, which gets its way to life by +gnawing through its mother's womb, a great light, he said, suddenly +shone, and a voice came out of the light, ordering them to change +it into something milder, so they devised of it the animal that +croaks about lakes and marshes, for he had been punished +sufficiently for his crimes, and now deserved some favour at the +hands of the gods, for he had freed Greece, the noblest nation of +his subjects and the best-beloved of the gods.<a name= +"FNanchor_878_878" id="FNanchor_878_878"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_878_878" class="fnanchor">878</a> So much did Thespesius +behold, but as he intended to return a horrible dread came upon +him. For a woman, marvellous in appearance and size, took hold of +him and said to him, "Come here that you may the better remember +everything you have seen." And she was about to strike him with a +red-hot iron pin, such as the encaustic painters use,<a name= +"FNanchor_879_879" id="FNanchor_879_879"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_879_879" class="fnanchor">879</a> when another woman +prevented her; and he was suddenly sucked up, as through<a name= +"FNanchor_880_880" id="FNanchor_880_880"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_880_880" class="fnanchor">880</a> a pipe, by a strong +and violent wind, and lit upon his own body, and woke up and found +that he was close to his tomb.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_806_806" id="Footnote_806_806"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_806_806"><span class="label">806</span></a> In the +temple at Delphi, the scene of the discussion, as we see later on, +§§ vii. xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_807_807" id="Footnote_807_807"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_807_807"><span class="label">807</span></a> Reading +ἐδόκει with Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_808_808" id="Footnote_808_808"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_808_808"><span class="label">808</span></a> Euripides, +"Orestes," 420. Cf. "Ion," 1615.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_809_809" id="Footnote_809_809"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_809_809"><span class="label">809</span></a> Thucydides, +iii. 38.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_810_810" id="Footnote_810_810"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_810_810"><span class="label">810</span></a> See the +circumstances in Pausanias, iv. 17 and 22.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_811_811" id="Footnote_811_811"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_811_811"><span class="label">811</span></a> Compare +Petronius, "Satyricon," 44: "Dii pedes lanatos habent." Compare +also "Tibullus," i. 9. 4: "Sera tamen tacitis Pœna venit +pedibus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_812_812" id="Footnote_812_812"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_812_812"><span class="label">812</span></a> Reading +μάλιστα (for +μόλις) with Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_813_813" id="Footnote_813_813"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_813_813"><span class="label">813</span></a> An allusion +to the proverb Ὄψε θεῶν +ἀλέουσι +μύλοι, +ἀλέουσι +δὲ λεπτά. See Erasmus, +"Adagia," p. 1864.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_814_814" id="Footnote_814_814"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_814_814"><span class="label">814</span></a> Cf. Plato, +"Republic," 472 A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_815_815" id="Footnote_815_815"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_815_815"><span class="label">815</span></a> See Note, +"On Abundance of Friends," <a href="#Page_146a">§ ii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_816_816" id="Footnote_816_816"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_816_816"><span class="label">816</span></a> Reading +εἰ γὰρ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_817_817" id="Footnote_817_817"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_817_817"><span class="label">817</span></a> Or <i>a +world</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_818_818" id="Footnote_818_818"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_818_818"><span class="label">818</span></a> See above, +<a href="#Page_332a">§ ii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_819_819" id="Footnote_819_819"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_819_819"><span class="label">819</span></a> Quoted also +in "On restraining Anger," <a href="#Page_269">§ ii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_820_820" id="Footnote_820_820"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_820_820"><span class="label">820</span></a> It seems +necessary to read either +πορίζειν with Mez, or +ὁρίζειν with Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_821_821" id="Footnote_821_821"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_821_821"><span class="label">821</span></a> Compare +Aristophanes, "Vespæ," 438.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_822_822" id="Footnote_822_822"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_822_822"><span class="label">822</span></a> See +Pausanias, viii. 27.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_823_823" id="Footnote_823_823"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_823_823"><span class="label">823</span></a> Pindar.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_824_824" id="Footnote_824_824"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_824_824"><span class="label">824</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," xv. 641, 642.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_825_825" id="Footnote_825_825"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_825_825"><span class="label">825</span></a> See +Thucydides, i. 127.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_826_826" id="Footnote_826_826"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_826_826"><span class="label">826</span></a> See +Pausanias, v. 17; viii. 24; ix. 41; x. 29.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_827_827" id="Footnote_827_827"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_827_827"><span class="label">827</span></a> Hesiod, +"Works and Days," 266.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_828_828" id="Footnote_828_828"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_828_828"><span class="label">828</span></a> Ibid. 265. +Compare Pausanias, ii. 9; Ovid, A. A. i. 655, 656.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_829_829" id="Footnote_829_829"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_829_829"><span class="label">829</span></a> "Significat +martyres Christianos, in tunica molesta +fumantes."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_830_830" id="Footnote_830_830"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_830_830"><span class="label">830</span></a> Like the +sword of Damocles. See Horace, "Odes," iii. 1. 17, 21.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_831_831" id="Footnote_831_831"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_831_831"><span class="label">831</span></a> See also +Pausanias, iii. 17.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_832_832" id="Footnote_832_832"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_832_832"><span class="label">832</span></a> Surely +ἄν ἀνατρέποι +must be read.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_833_833" id="Footnote_833_833"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_833_833"><span class="label">833</span></a> Compare "On +Curiosity," § x.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_834_834" id="Footnote_834_834"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_834_834"><span class="label">834</span></a> The reading +is very doubtful. I adopt +ἡδονῆς μὲν +εὐθὑς +κενιν χάριν, +ἐλπίδος +ἔρημον +εὑρίσκουσι.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_835_835" id="Footnote_835_835"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_835_835"><span class="label">835</span></a> Euripides, +"Ino."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_836_836" id="Footnote_836_836"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_836_836"><span class="label">836</span></a> See +Herodotus, vi. 86; Juvenal, xiii, 199-207.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_837_837" id="Footnote_837_837"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_837_837"><span class="label">837</span></a> The company +are in the temple at Delphi, be it remembered.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_838_838" id="Footnote_838_838"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_838_838"><span class="label">838</span></a> Called +Iadmon in Herodotus, ii. 134, where this story is also told.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_839_839" id="Footnote_839_839"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_839_839"><span class="label">839</span></a> Wyttenbach +suggests Daulis.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_840_840" id="Footnote_840_840"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_840_840"><span class="label">840</span></a> To +Xerxes.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_841_841" id="Footnote_841_841"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_841_841"><span class="label">841</span></a> The allusion +is to the well-known story of Odysseus and the Cyclops Polyphemus, +who is supposed to have dwelt in the island of Sicily, where +Agathocles was tyrant.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_842_842" id="Footnote_842_842"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_842_842"><span class="label">842</span></a> See +Pausanias, viii. 14.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_843_843" id="Footnote_843_843"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_843_843"><span class="label">843</span></a> Two were to +be sent for 1,000 continuous years. So the Oracle.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_844_844" id="Footnote_844_844"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_844_844"><span class="label">844</span></a> See +Pausanias ix. 30; Herodotus, v. 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_845_845" id="Footnote_845_845"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_845_845"><span class="label">845</span></a> See +Pausanias, vii. 27; Athenæus, 372 A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_846_846" id="Footnote_846_846"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_846_846"><span class="label">846</span></a> A former +king of Thebes. See Pausanias, ix. 5.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_847_847" id="Footnote_847_847"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_847_847"><span class="label">847</span></a> Called +Daiphantes, Pausanias, x. 1.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_848_848" id="Footnote_848_848"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_848_848"><span class="label">848</span></a> Reading +ἀπίστοις with +Xylander.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_849_849" id="Footnote_849_849"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_849_849"><span class="label">849</span></a> The famous +plague. See Thucydides, ii. 47-54.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_850_850" id="Footnote_850_850"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_850_850"><span class="label">850</span></a> The allusion +is to the circumstances mentioned in § xii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_851_851" id="Footnote_851_851"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_851_851"><span class="label">851</span></a> "Videtur +idem cum <i>sorita</i> esse."—<i>Reiske.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_852_852" id="Footnote_852_852"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_852_852"><span class="label">852</span></a> Compare our +author, "De EI apud Delphos," § xviii. See also Seneca, +"Epist.," lviii. p. 483; and Plato, "Cratylus," 402 A.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_853_853" id="Footnote_853_853"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_853_853"><span class="label">853</span></a> Sons of +Dionysius.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_854_854" id="Footnote_854_854"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_854_854"><span class="label">854</span></a> Sons of +Cassander.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_855_855" id="Footnote_855_855"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_855_855"><span class="label">855</span></a> "Iliad," vi. +146-149.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_856_856" id="Footnote_856_856"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_856_856"><span class="label">856</span></a> Compare +Plato, "Phædrus," 276 B. These gardens of Adonis were what we +might call flowerpot gardens. See Erasmus, "Adagia."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_857_857" id="Footnote_857_857"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_857_857"><span class="label">857</span></a> +εὐθὺς seems the best reading, +ἀεὶ is flat.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_858_858" id="Footnote_858_858"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_858_858"><span class="label">858</span></a> Apollo.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_859_859" id="Footnote_859_859"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_859_859"><span class="label">859</span></a> See <a href= +"#Page_345a">§ xii.</a></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_860_860" id="Footnote_860_860"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_860_860"><span class="label">860</span></a> Hesiod, +"Works and Days," 735, 736.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_861_861" id="Footnote_861_861"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_861_861"><span class="label">861</span></a> Compare the +French Proverb, "L'occasion fait le larron." And Juvenal's "Nemo +repente fuit turpissimus."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_862_862" id="Footnote_862_862"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_862_862"><span class="label">862</span></a> So Reiske +very ingeniously.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_863_863" id="Footnote_863_863"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_863_863"><span class="label">863</span></a> A rather +far-fetched pedigree.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_864_864" id="Footnote_864_864"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_864_864"><span class="label">864</span></a> See +Pausanias, viii. 11; ix. 5, 10. See also Ovid, "Metamorphoses," +Book iii. 100-130.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_865_865" id="Footnote_865_865"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_865_865"><span class="label">865</span></a> Compare "On +Love," § ii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_866_866" id="Footnote_866_866"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_866_866"><span class="label">866</span></a> At Mallus, +in Cilicia. See Pausanias, i. 34.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_867_867" id="Footnote_867_867"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_867_867"><span class="label">867</span></a> Reading +φιληδονίασ +with Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_868_868" id="Footnote_868_868"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_868_868"><span class="label">868</span></a> Reading +διαπεποικιλμένον +ὄν with Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_869_869" id="Footnote_869_869"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_869_869"><span class="label">869</span></a> A +paronomasia on γένεσις as +if ἐπὶ γὴν +νεῦσις. We cannot English +it.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_870_870" id="Footnote_870_870"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_870_870"><span class="label">870</span></a> +Eurydice.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_871_871" id="Footnote_871_871"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_871_871"><span class="label">871</span></a> +"μιγνύμενον, Turn, +et Bong.," <i>Reiske</i>. Surely the right reading.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_872_872" id="Footnote_872_872"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_872_872"><span class="label">872</span></a> Latin +Puteoli.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_873_873" id="Footnote_873_873"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_873_873"><span class="label">873</span></a> Vespasian. +See Suetonius, "Vespasian," ch. 24, as to the particulars of his +death.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_874_874" id="Footnote_874_874"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_874_874"><span class="label">874</span></a> The reading +is very doubtful. I have followed Wyttenbach in reading +τριβομένην +τριβὴν +ἀτελῆ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_875_875" id="Footnote_875_875"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_875_875"><span class="label">875</span></a> Such as that +of the Danaides. So Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_876_876" id="Footnote_876_876"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_876_876"><span class="label">876</span></a> Adopting the +arrangement of Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_877_877" id="Footnote_877_877"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_877_877"><span class="label">877</span></a> Compare +Homer, "Odyssey," xxiv. 5-10.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_878_878" id="Footnote_878_878"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_878_878"><span class="label">878</span></a> See +Pausanias, vii. 17, for a sneaking kindness for Nero.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_879_879" id="Footnote_879_879"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_879_879"><span class="label">879</span></a> See +Athenæus, 687 B.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_880_880" id="Footnote_880_880"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_880_880"><span class="label">880</span></a> Reading +διὰ with Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<h3>AGAINST BORROWING MONEY<a name="Page_365a" id= +"Page_365a" />.</h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> Plato in his Laws<a name= +"FNanchor_881_881" id="FNanchor_881_881"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_881_881" class="fnanchor">881</a> does not permit +neighbours to use one another's water, unless they have first dug +for themselves as far as the clay, and reached ground that is +unsuitable for a well. For clay, having a rich and compact nature, +absorbs the water it receives, and does not let it pass through. +But he allows people that cannot make a well of their own to use +their neighbour's water, for the law ought to relieve necessity. +Ought there not also to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" +id="Page_366">366</a></span>be a law about money, that people +should not borrow of others, nor go to other people's sources of +income, until they have first examined their own resources at home, +and collected, as by drops, what is necessary for their use? But +nowadays from luxury and effeminacy and lavish expenditure people +do not use their own resources, though they have them, but borrow +from others at great interest without necessity. And what proves +this very clearly is the fact that people do not lend money to the +needy, but only to those who, wanting an immediate supply, bring a +witness and adequate security for their credit, so that they can be +in no actual necessity of borrowing.<a name="FNanchor_882_882" id= +"FNanchor_882_882"></a><a href="#Footnote_882_882" class= +"fnanchor">882</a></p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> Why pay court to the +banker or trader? Borrow from your own table. You have cups, silver +dishes, pots and pans. Use them in your need. Beautiful Aulis or +Tenedos will furnish you with earthenware instead, purer than +silver, for they will not smell strongly and unpleasantly of +interest, a kind of rust that daily soils your sumptuousness, nor +will they remind you of the calends and the new moon, which, though +the most holy of days, the money-lenders make ill-omened and +hateful. For those who instead of selling them put their goods out +at pawn cannot be saved even by Zeus the Protector of Property: +they are ashamed to sell, they are not ashamed to pay interest on +their goods when out at pawn. And yet the famous Pericles made the +ornament of Athene, which weighed forty talents of fine gold, +removable at will, for "so," he said, "we can use the gold in war, +and at some other time restore as costly a one." So should we too +in our necessities, as in a siege, not receive a garrison imposed +on us by a hostile money-lender, nor allow our goods to go into +slavery; but stripping our table, our bed, our carriages, and our +diet, of superfluities, we should keep ourselves free, intending to +restore all those things again, if we have good luck.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> So the Roman matrons +offered their gold and ornaments as first-fruits to Pythian Apollo, +out of which a golden cup was made and sent to Delphi;<a name= +"FNanchor_883_883" id="FNanchor_883_883"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_883_883" class="fnanchor">883</a> and the Carthaginian +matrons had their heads shorn, and with the <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">367</a></span>hair cut +off made cords for the machines and engines to be used in defence +of their country.<a name="FNanchor_884_884" id= +"FNanchor_884_884"></a><a href="#Footnote_884_884" class= +"fnanchor">884</a> But we being ashamed of independence enslave +ourselves to covenants and conditions, when we ought to restrict +and confine ourselves to what is useful, and dock or sell useless +superfluities, to build a temple of liberty for ourselves, our +wives, and children. The famous Artemis at Ephesus gives asylum and +security from their creditors to debtors, when they take refuge in +her temple; but the asylum and sanctuary of frugality is everywhere +open to the sober-minded, affording them joyful and honourable and +ample space for much ease. For as the Pythian Priestess told the +Athenians at the time of the Median war that the god had given them +wooden walls,<a name="FNanchor_885_885" id= +"FNanchor_885_885"></a><a href="#Footnote_885_885" class= +"fnanchor">885</a> and they left the region and city, their goods +and houses, and took refuge in their ships for liberty, so the god +gives us a wooden table, and earthenware plate, and coarse +garments, if we wish to live free. Care not for fine horses or +chariots with handsome harness, adorned with gold<a name= +"FNanchor_886_886" id="FNanchor_886_886"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_886_886" class="fnanchor">886</a> and silver, which +swift interest will catch up and outrun, but mounted on any chance +donkey or nag flee from the hostile and tyrannical money-lender, +not demanding like the Mede land and water,<a name= +"FNanchor_887_887" id="FNanchor_887_887"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_887_887" class="fnanchor">887</a> but interfering with +your liberty, and lowering your status. If you pay him not, he duns +you; if you offer the money, he won't have it; if you are selling +anything, he cheapens the price; if you don't want to sell, he +forces you; if you sue him, he comes to terms with you; if you +swear, he hectors; if you go to his house, he shuts the door in +your face; whereas if you stay at home, he billets himself on you, +and is ever rapping at your door.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> How did Solon benefit the +Athenians by ordaining that debtors should no longer have to pay in +person? For they are slaves to all money-lenders,<a name= +"FNanchor_888_888" id="FNanchor_888_888"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_888_888" class="fnanchor">888</a> and not to them only, +what would there be so monstrous in that? but to their <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">368</a></span>slaves, +who are insolent and savage barbarians, such as Plato represents +the fiery torturers and executioners in Hades who preside over the +punishment of the impious. For they make the forum a hell for +wretched debtors, and like vultures devour and rend them limb from +limb, "piercing into their bowels,"<a name="FNanchor_889_889" id= +"FNanchor_889_889"></a><a href="#Footnote_889_889" class= +"fnanchor">889</a> and stand over others and prevent their tasting +their own grapes or crops, as if they were so many Tantaluses. And +as Darius sent Datis and Artaphernes to Athens with manacles and +chains in their hands for their captives, so they bring into Greece +boxes full of bonds and agreements, like fetters, and visit the +towns and scour the country round, sowing not like Triptolemus +harmless corn, but planting the toilsome and prolific and +never-ending roots of debts, which grow and spread all round, and +ruin and choke cities. They say that hares at once give birth and +suckle and conceive again, but the debts of these knaves and +barbarians give birth before they conceive; for at the very moment +of giving they ask back, and take up what they laid down, and lend +what they take for lending.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> It is a saying among the +Messenians, that "there is a Pylos before Pylos, and another Pylos +too." So it may be said with respect to these money-lenders, "there +is interest before interest, and other interest too." Then of +course they laugh at those natural philosophers who say that +nothing can come of nothing, for they get interest on what neither +is nor was; and they think it disgraceful to farm out the taxes, +though the law allows it, while they themselves against the law +exact tribute for what they lend, or rather, if one is to say the +truth, defraud as they lend, for he who receives less than he signs +his name for is defrauded. The Persians indeed think lying a +secondary crime, but debt a principal one, for lying frequently +follows upon debt, but money-lenders tell more lies, for they make +fraudulent entries in their account-books, writing down that they +have given so-and-so so much, when they have really given less. And +the only excuse for their lying is covetousness, not necessity, not +utter poverty, but insatiable greediness, the outcome of which is +without enjoyment and useless to <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_369" id="Page_369">369</a></span>themselves, and fatal to +their victims. For neither do they farm the fields which they rob +their debtors of, nor do they inhabit their houses when they have +thrust them out, nor use their tables or apparel, but first one is +ruined, and then a second is hunted down, for whom the first one +serves as a decoy. For the bane spreads and grows like a fire, to +the destruction and ruin of all who fall into their clutches, for +it consumes one after another; and the money-lender, who fans and +feeds this flame to ensnare many, gets no more advantage from it +but that some time after he can take his account-book and read how +many he has sold up, how many turned out of house and home, and +track the sources of his wealth, which is ever growing into a +larger pile.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> And do not think I say +this as an enemy proclaiming war against the money-lenders,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For never did they lift my +cows or horses,"<a name="FNanchor_890_890" id= +"FNanchor_890_890"></a><a href="#Footnote_890_890" class= +"fnanchor">890</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>but merely to prove to those who too readily borrow money what +disgrace and servitude it brings with it, and what extreme folly +and weakness it is. Have you anything? do not borrow, for you are +not in a necessitous condition. Have you nothing? do not borrow, +for you will never be able to pay back. Let us consider either case +separately. Cato said to a certain old man who was a wicked fellow, +"My good sir, why do you add the shame that comes from wickedness +to old age, that has so many troubles of its own?" So too do you, +since poverty has so many troubles of its own, not add the terrible +distress that comes from borrowing money and from debt; and do not +take away from poverty its only advantage over wealth, its freedom +from corroding care. For the proverb that says, "I cannot carry a +goat, put an ox on my shoulder," has a ridiculous ring. Unable to +bear poverty, are you going to put on your back a money-lender, a +weight hard to carry even for a rich man? How then, will you say, +am I to maintain myself? Do you ask this, having two hands, two +legs, and a tongue, in short, being a man, to love and be loved, to +give and receive benefits? Can you not be a schoolmaster<span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">370</a></span> or +tutor, or porter, or sailor, or make coasting voyages? Any of these +ways of getting a livelihood is less disgraceful and difficult than +to always have to hear, "Pay me that thou owest."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> The well-known Rutilius +went up to Musonius at Rome, and said to him, "Musonius, Zeus +Soter, whom you imitate and emulate, does not borrow money." And +Musonius smilingly answered, "Neither does he lend." For you must +know Rutilius, himself a lender, was bantering Musonius for being a +borrower. What Stoic inflatedness was all this! What need was there +to bring in Zeus Soter? For all nature teaches the same lesson. +Swallows do not borrow money, nor do ants, although nature has +given them no hands, or reason, or profession. But men have +intellect in excess, and so ingenious are they that they keep near +them horses, and dogs, and partridges, and jackdaws. Why then do +you despair, who are as impressible as a jackdaw, have as much +voice as a partridge, and are as noble as a dog, of getting some +person to befriend you, by looking after him, winning his +affections, guarding him, fighting his battles? Do you not see how +many opportunities there are both on land and sea? As Crates +says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Miccylus and his wife, to +ward off famine</span> <span class="i0">In these bad times, I saw +both carding wool."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>And King Antigonus asked Cleanthes, when he saw him at Athens +after a long interval, "Do you still grind, Cleanthes?" And he +replied, "I do, O king, but for my living, yet so as not to desert +philosophy." Such was the admirable spirit of the man who, coming +from the mill and kneading-trough, wrote with the hand that had +baked and ground about the gods, and the moon, and stars, and the +sun. But those kinds of labour are in our view servile! And so that +we may appear free we borrow money, and flatter and dance +attendance on slaves, and give them dinners and presents, and pay +taxes as it were to them, not on account of our poverty (for no one +lends money to a poor man), but from our love of lavish +expenditure. For if we were content with things necessary for +subsistence, the race of money-lenders would be as extinct as +Centaurs and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id= +"Page_371">371</a></span> Gorgons are; it is luxury that has +created them as much as goldsmiths, and silversmiths, and +perfumers, and dyers in bright colours. For we do not owe money for +bread and wine, but for estates, and slaves, and mules, and +dining-rooms, and tables, and for our lavish public entertainments, +in our unprofitable and thankless ambition. And he that is once +involved in debt remains in it all his time, like a horse bitted +and bridled that takes one rider after another, and there is no +escape to green pastures and meadows, but they wander about like +those demons who were driven out of heaven by the gods who are thus +described by Empedocles:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Into the sea the force of +heaven thrusts them,</span> <span class="i0">The sea rejects them +back upon the land;</span> <span class="i0">To the sun's rays th' +unresting earth remits them;</span> <span class="i0">The sun anon +whirls them to heaven again."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>So one after another usurer or trader gets hold of the poor +wretch, hailing either from Corinth, or Patræ, or Athens, +till he gets set on to by them all, and torn to bits, and cut into +mince-meat as it were for his interest. For as a person who is +fallen into the mire must either get up out of it or remain in it, +and if he turns about in it, and wallows in it, and bedabbles his +body all over in it, he contracts only the greater defilement, so +by borrowing from one person to pay another and changing their +money-lenders they contract and incur fresh interest, and get into +greater liabilities, and closely resemble sufferers from cholera, +whose case does not admit of cure because they evacuate everything +they are ordered to take, and so ever add to the disease. So these +will not get cleansed from the disease of debt, but at regular +times in the year pay their interest with pain and agony, and then +immediately another creditor presents his little account, so again +their heads swim and ache, when they ought to have got rid of their +debts altogether, and regained their freedom.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> I now turn my attention +to those who are rich and luxurious, and use language like the +following, "Am I then to go without slaves and hearth and home?" As +if any dropsical person, whose body was greatly swollen and who was +very weak, should say to his doctor, "Am I then to become lean and +empty?" And why not, to get well?<span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_372" id="Page_372">372</a></span> And do you too go without a +slave, not to be a slave yourself; and without chattels, not to be +another man's chattel. Listen to a story about two vultures; one +was vomiting and saying it would bring its inside up, and the other +who was by said, "What harm if you do? For it won't be your inside +you bring up, but that dead body we devoured lately." And so any +debtor does not sell his own estate, or his own house, but his +creditor's, for he has made him by law master of them. Nay, but by +Zeus, says one, my father left me this field. Yes, and your father +also left you liberty and a status in the community, which you +ought to value more than you do. And your father begot you with +hand and foot, but should either of them mortify, you pay the +surgeon to cut it off. Thus Calypso clad and "dressed" Odysseus "in +raiment smelling sweet,"<a name="FNanchor_891_891" id= +"FNanchor_891_891"></a><a href="#Footnote_891_891" class= +"fnanchor">891</a> like the body of an immortal, as a gift and +token of her affection for him; but when his vessel was upset and +he himself immersed, and owing to this wet and heavy raiment could +hardly keep himself on the top of the waves, he threw it off and +stripped himself, and covered his naked breast with Ino's veil,<a +name="FNanchor_892_892" id="FNanchor_892_892"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_892_892" class="fnanchor">892</a> and "swam for it +gazing on the distant shore,"<a name="FNanchor_893_893" id= +"FNanchor_893_893"></a><a href="#Footnote_893_893" class= +"fnanchor">893</a> and so saved his life, and lacked neither food +nor raiment. What then? have not poor debtors storms, when the +money-lender stands over them and says, <i>Pay</i>?</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Thus spoke Poseidon, and the +clouds did gather,</span> <span class="i0">And lashed the sea to +fury, and at once</span> <span class="i0">Eurus and Notus and the +stormy Zephyr</span> <span class="i0">Blew all together."<a name= +"FNanchor_894_894" id="FNanchor_894_894"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_894_894" class="fnanchor">894</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Thus interest rolls on interest as wave upon wave, and he that +is involved in debt struggles against the load that bears him down, +but cannot swim away and escape, but sinks to the bottom, and +carries with him to ruin his friends that have gone security for +him. But Crates the Theban, though he had neither duns nor debts, +and was only disgusted at the distracting cares of housekeeping, +gave up a property worth eight talents, and assumed the +philosopher's threadbare cloak and wallet, and took refuge <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">373</a></span>in +philosophy and poverty. And Anaxagoras left his sheep-farm. But why +need I mention these? since the lyric poet Philoxenus, obtaining by +lot in a Sicilian colony much substance and a house abounding in +every kind of comfort, but finding that luxury and pleasure and +absence of refinement was the fashion there, said, "By the gods +these comforts shall not undo me, I will give them up," and he left +his lot to others, and sailed home again. But debtors have to put +up with being dunned, subjected to tribute, suffering slavery, +passing debased coin, and like Phineus, feeding certain winged +Harpies, who carry off and lay violent hands on their food, not at +the proper season, for they get possession of their debtors' corn +before it is sown, and they traffic for oil before the olives are +ripe; and the money-lender says, "I have wine at such and such a +price," and takes a bond for it, when the grapes are yet on the +vine waiting for Arcturus to ripen them.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_881_881" id="Footnote_881_881"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_881_881"><span class="label">881</span></a> Page 844, A. +B. C.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_882_882" id="Footnote_882_882"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_882_882"><span class="label">882</span></a> Reading with +Wyttenbach διδοῦσι and +ἔχουσι.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_883_883" id="Footnote_883_883"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_883_883"><span class="label">883</span></a> See Livy, v. +25.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_884_884" id="Footnote_884_884"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_884_884"><span class="label">884</span></a> See Appian, +lv. 26.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_885_885" id="Footnote_885_885"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_885_885"><span class="label">885</span></a> See +Herodotus, vii. 141-143; viii. 51.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_886_886" id="Footnote_886_886"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_886_886"><span class="label">886</span></a> Reading with +Reiske +κατάχρυσα.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_887_887" id="Footnote_887_887"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_887_887"><span class="label">887</span></a> The +technical term for submission to an enemy. See Pausanias, iii. 12; +x. 20. Herodotus, v. 17, 18; vii. 133.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_888_888" id="Footnote_888_888"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_888_888"><span class="label">888</span></a> Reading with +Reiske +δανεισταῖς. +Perhaps +ἀφανισταῖς +originally came after +ἀγρίοις, and got somehow +displaced.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_889_889" id="Footnote_889_889"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_889_889"><span class="label">889</span></a> See Homer, +"Odyssey," xi. 578, 579, and context.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_890_890" id="Footnote_890_890"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_890_890"><span class="label">890</span></a> Homer, +"Iliad," i. 154.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_891_891" id="Footnote_891_891"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_891_891"><span class="label">891</span></a> "Odyssey," +v. 264.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_892_892" id="Footnote_892_892"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_892_892"><span class="label">892</span></a> "Odyssey," +v. 333-375.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_893_893" id="Footnote_893_893"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_893_893"><span class="label">893</span></a> "Odyssey," +v. 439.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_894_894" id="Footnote_894_894"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_894_894"><span class="label">894</span></a> "Odyssey," +v. 291-295.</p> +</div> + +<h3>WHETHER "LIVE UNKNOWN" BE A WISE PRECEPT.<a name="Page_373a" +id="Page_373a" /></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> He who uttered this +precept<a name="FNanchor_895_895" id="FNanchor_895_895"></a><a +href="#Footnote_895_895" class="fnanchor">895</a> certainly did not +wish to live unknown, for he uttered it to let all the world know +he was a superior thinker, and to get to himself unjust glory by +exhorting others to shun glory.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I hate the wise man for +himself not wise."<a name="FNanchor_896_896" id= +"FNanchor_896_896"></a><a href="#Footnote_896_896" class= +"fnanchor">896</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>They say that Philoxenus the son of Eryxis and Gnatho the +Sicilian, being exceedingly greedy where good fare was going, would +blow their nose in the dishes, to disgust all others at the table, +that they alone might take their fill of the choicest dishes. So +those that are insatiable pursuers of glory calumniate glory to +others who are their rivals, that they may get it without +antagonists. In this they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" +id="Page_374">374</a></span>resemble rowers, who face the stern of +the vessel but propel it ahead, that by the recoil from the stroke +of their oars they may reach port, so those that give vent to +precepts like this pursue glory with their face turned in the +opposite direction. For otherwise what need was there to utter a +precept like this, or to write and hand it down to posterity, if he +wished to live unknown to his own generation, who did not wish to +live unknown to posterity?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> Look at the matter in the +following way.<a name="FNanchor_897_897" id= +"FNanchor_897_897"></a><a href="#Footnote_897_897" class= +"fnanchor">897</a> Has not that "live unknown" a villainous ring, +as though one had broken open graves? Is your life so disgraceful +that we must all be ignorant of it? For my part I should say, Even +if your life be bad do not live unknown, but be known, reform, +repent; if you have virtue, be not utterly useless in life; if you +are vicious, do not continue unreformed. Point out then and define +to whom you recommend this precept. If to an ignorant or wicked or +senseless person, you resemble one who should say to a person in a +fever or delirium, "Be unknown. Don't let the doctor know your +condition. Go and throw yourself into some dark place, that you and +your ailments may be unknown." So you say to a vicious man, "Go off +with your vice, and hide your deadly and irremediable disease from +your friends, fearful to show your superstitious fears, +palpitations as it were, to those who could admonish you and cure +you." Our remote ancestors paid public attention to the sick, and +if any one had either had or cured a similar complaint, he +communicated his experience to the patient, and so they say medical +art became great by these contributions from experience. We ought +also in the same way to expose to everyone diseased lives and the +passions of the soul, and to handle them, and to examine the +condition of each,<a name="FNanchor_898_898" id= +"FNanchor_898_898"></a><a href="#Footnote_898_898" class= +"fnanchor">898</a> and say, Are you a passionate man? Be on your +guard against anger. Are you of a jealous turn? Look to it. Are you +in love? I myself was in love once, but I had to repent. But +nowadays people deny and conceal and cloak their vices, and so fix +them deeper in themselves.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> Moreover if you advise +men of worth to live un<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id= +"Page_375">375</a></span>known and in obscurity, you say to +Epaminondas, Do not be a general; and to Lycurgus, Do not be a +legislator; and to Thrasybulus, Do not be a tyrannicide; and to +Pythagoras, Do not teach; and to Socrates, Do not discourse; and +first and foremost you bid yourself, Epicurus, to refrain from +writing letters to your friends in Asia, and from enrolling +Egyptian strangers among your disciples, and from dancing +attendance on the youths of Lampsacus, and sending books to all +quarters to display your wisdom to all men and all women, and +leaving directions in your will about your funeral. What is the +meaning of those common tables of yours? what that crowd of friends +and handsome youths? Why those many thousand lines written and +composed so laboriously on Metrodorus, and Aristobulus, and +Chæredemus, that they may not be unknown even in death, if<a +name="FNanchor_899_899" id="FNanchor_899_899"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_899_899" class="fnanchor">899</a> you ordain for virtue +oblivion, for art inactivity, for philosophy silence, and for +success that it should be speedily forgotten?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> But if you exclude all +knowledge about life, like putting the lights out at a supper +party, that you may go from pleasure to pleasure undetected,<a +name="FNanchor_900_900" id="FNanchor_900_900"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_900_900" class="fnanchor">900</a> then "live unknown." +Certainly if I am going to pass my life with the harlot Hedeia, or +my days with Leontium, and spurn at virtue, and put my <i>summum +bonum</i> in sensual gratifications, these are ends that require +darkness and night, on these oblivion and ignorance are rightly +cast. But if any one in nature sings the praises of the deity and +justice and providence, and in morals upholds the law and society +and the constitution, and in the constitution what is honourable +and not expedient, why should he "live unknown"? Is it that he +should instruct nobody, inspire in nobody an emulation for virtue, +and be to nobody a pattern in good?<a name="FNanchor_901_901" id= +"FNanchor_901_901"></a><a href="#Footnote_901_901" class= +"fnanchor">901</a> Had Themistocles been unknown at Athens, Greece +would not have repelled Xerxes; had Camillus been unknown at Rome, +Rome would not have remained a state; had Plato been unknown to +Dion, Sicily would not have won its freedom. And as light, I take +it, makes us not only visible <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_376" id="Page_376">376</a></span>but useful to one another, +so knowledge gives not only glory but impetus to virtue. +Epaminondas in obscurity up to his fortieth year was no use to the +Thebans, but when his merits became known and he was put into +power, he saved his state from ruin, and liberated Greece from +slavery, making his abilities efficacious in emergency through his +reputation like the bright shining of a light. For Sophocles' +words,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Brightly shines brass in use, +but when unused</span> <span class="i0">It groweth dull in time, +and mars the house,"<a name="FNanchor_902_902" id= +"FNanchor_902_902"></a><a href="#Footnote_902_902" class= +"fnanchor">902</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>are also appropriate to the character of a man, which gets rusty +and senile by not mixing in affairs but living in obscurity. For +mute inglorious ease, and a sedentary life devoted to leisure, not +only injure the body but also the soul: and as hidden waters +overshadowed and stagnant get foul because they have no outlet, so +the innate powers of unruffled lives, that neither imbibe nor pass +on anything, even if they had any useful element in them once, seem +to be effete and wasted.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> Have you never noticed how +when night comes on a tired languor seizes the body, and inactive +torpor overpowers the soul, and reason shrinks within itself like a +fire going out, and feeling quite worn out is gently agitated by +disordered fancies, only just indicating that the man is alive? But +when the sun rises and scares away deceitful dreams, and brings on +as it were the everyday world<a name="FNanchor_903_903" id= +"FNanchor_903_903"></a><a href="#Footnote_903_903" class= +"fnanchor">903</a> and with its light rouses and stimulates the +thoughts and actions of everybody, then, as Democritus says, "men +form new ideas for the day," and betake themselves to their various +pursuits with mutual impetuosity, as if drawn by a strong +impulse.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> And I think that life +itself, and the way we come into the world, is so ordained by the +deity that we should know one another. For everyone comes into this +great universe obscure and unknown casually and by degrees, but +when he mixes with his fellows and grows to maturity he shines +forth, and becomes well-known instead of obscure, <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">377</a></span>and +conspicuous instead of unknown. For knowledge is not the road to +being, as some say, but being to knowledge, for being does not +create but only exhibits things, as death is not the reducing of +existence to non-existence, but rather the result of dissolution is +obscurity. So people considering the Sun as Apollo according to +hereditary and ancient institutions, call him Delius<a name= +"FNanchor_904_904" id="FNanchor_904_904"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_904_904" class="fnanchor">904</a> and Pythius; whereas +the lord of the world of darkness, whether god or demon, they call +Hades<a name="FNanchor_905_905" id="FNanchor_905_905"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_905_905" class="fnanchor">905</a> (for when we die we go +into an unseen and invisible place), and the lord of dark night and +idle sleep. And I think our ancestors called man himself by a word +meaning light,<a name="FNanchor_906_906" id= +"FNanchor_906_906"></a><a href="#Footnote_906_906" class= +"fnanchor">906</a> because by their relationship to light all have +implanted in them a strong and vehement desire to know and to be +known. And some philosophers think that the soul itself is light in +its essence, inferring so on other grounds and because it can least +endure ignorance about facts, and hates<a name="FNanchor_907_907" +id="FNanchor_907_907"></a><a href="#Footnote_907_907" class= +"fnanchor">907</a> everything obscure, and is disturbed at +everything dark, which inspires fear and suspicion in it, whereas +light is so dear and welcome to it that it thinks nothing otherwise +delightful bearable without it, as indeed light makes every +pleasure pastime and enjoyment gay and cheerful, like the +application of some sweet and general flavour. But the man who +thrusts himself into obscurity, and wraps himself up in darkness +and buries himself alive, is like one who is dissatisfied with his +birth, and renounces his being.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> And yet <i>Pindar</i> +tells us<a name="FNanchor_908_908" id="FNanchor_908_908"></a><a +href="#Footnote_908_908" class="fnanchor">908</a> that the abode of +the blest is a glorious existence, where the sun shines bright +through the entire night in meadows red with roses, an extensive +plain full of shady trees ever in bloom never in fruit, watered by +gentle purling streams, and there the blest ones pass their time +away in thinking and talking about the past and present in social +converse....<a name="FNanchor_909_909" id="FNanchor_909_909"></a><a +href="#Footnote_909_909" class="fnanchor">909</a> But the third +road is of those who have lived unholy and lawless lives, that +thrusts their souls to Erebus and the bottomless pit, where +sluggish streams of murky night belch forth endless darkness, which +receive those that are to be punished <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_378" id="Page_378">378</a></span>and conceal them in +forgetfulness and oblivion. For vultures do not always prey on the +liver of wicked persons lying on the ground,<a name= +"FNanchor_910_910" id="FNanchor_910_910"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_910_910" class="fnanchor">910</a> for it is destroyed by +fire or has rolled away; nor does the carrying of heavy burdens +press upon and tire out the bodies of those that undergo +punishment,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"For their strength has no +longer flesh and bones,"<a name="FNanchor_911_911" id= +"FNanchor_911_911"></a><a href="#Footnote_911_911" class= +"fnanchor">911</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>nor have the dead any vestige of body that can receive the +infliction of punishment that can make impression; but in reality +the only punishment of those who have lived ill is infamy and +obscurity and utter annihilation, which hurries them off to the +dark river of oblivion,<a name="FNanchor_912_912" id= +"FNanchor_912_912"></a><a href="#Footnote_912_912" class= +"fnanchor">912</a> and plunges them into the abyss of a fathomless +sea, involving them in uselessness and idleness, ignorance and +obscurity.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_895_895" id="Footnote_895_895"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_895_895"><span class="label">895</span></a> Probably +Epicurus, as we infer from the very personal § iii.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_896_896" id="Footnote_896_896"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_896_896"><span class="label">896</span></a> Euripides, +Fragm. 930.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_897_897" id="Footnote_897_897"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_897_897"><span class="label">897</span></a> Reading with +Wyttenbach, Ἀλλὰ +τοῦτο μὲν +ταύτῃ.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_898_898" id="Footnote_898_898"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_898_898"><span class="label">898</span></a> Reading +ἑκάστου for +ἕκαστον. Reiske proposed +ὲκάστων.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_899_899" id="Footnote_899_899"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_899_899"><span class="label">899</span></a> Reading +εἰ (for ἵνα) with Xylander and +Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_900_900" id="Footnote_900_900"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_900_900"><span class="label">900</span></a> Reading with +Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_901_901" id="Footnote_901_901"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_901_901"><span class="label">901</span></a> Adopting the +suggestion of Wyttenbach, "Forte +καλοῦ, at Amiot."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_902_902" id="Footnote_902_902"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_902_902"><span class="label">902</span></a> Frag. +742.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_903_903" id="Footnote_903_903"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_903_903"><span class="label">903</span></a> "Dormiens +quisque in peculiarem abest mumdum, expergefactus in communem +redit."—<i>Xylander</i>. Compare Herrick's Poem, +"<i>Dreames</i>."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_904_904" id="Footnote_904_904"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_904_904"><span class="label">904</span></a> Bright.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_905_905" id="Footnote_905_905"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_905_905"><span class="label">905</span></a> +Invisible.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_906_906" id="Footnote_906_906"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_906_906"><span class="label">906</span></a> +φώς.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_907_907" id="Footnote_907_907"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_907_907"><span class="label">907</span></a> Reading with +Wyttenbach +ἐχθαίρει.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_908_908" id="Footnote_908_908"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_908_908"><span class="label">908</span></a> Reading +φησίν for φύσιν.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_909_909" id="Footnote_909_909"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_909_909"><span class="label">909</span></a> Hiatus hic +valde deflendus.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_910_910" id="Footnote_910_910"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_910_910"><span class="label">910</span></a> As was +fabled about Tityus, "Odyssey," xi. 576-579.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_911_911" id="Footnote_911_911"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_911_911"><span class="label">911</span></a> "Odyssey," +xi. 219.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_912_912" id="Footnote_912_912"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_912_912"><span class="label">912</span></a> So Reiske, +ποταμὶν τῆς +λήθης.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_378a" id="Page_378a">ON EXILE</a></h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> They say those discourses, +like friends, are best and surest that come to our refuge and aid +in adversity, and are useful. For many who come forward do more +harm than good in the remarks they make to the unfortunate, as +people unable to swim trying to rescue the drowning get entangled +with them and sink to the bottom together. Now the discourse that +ought to come from friends and people disposed to be helpful should +be consolation, and not mere assent with a man's sad feelings. For +we do not in adverse circumstances need people to weep and wail +with us like choruses in a tragedy, but people to speak plainly to +us and instruct us, that grief and dejection of mind are in all +cases useless and idle and senseless; and that where the +circumstances themselves, when examined by the light of reason, +enable a man to say to himself that his trouble is greater in fancy +than in reality, it is quite ridiculous not to inquire of the body +what it has suffered, nor of the mind if it is any the worse for +what has happened, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id= +"Page_379">379</a></span>but to employ external sympathizers to +teach us what our grief is.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> Therefore let us examine +alone by ourselves the weight of our misfortunes, as if they were +burdens. For the body is weighed down by the burden of what presses +on it, but the soul often adds to the real load a burden of its +own. A stone is naturally hard, and ice naturally cold, but they do +not receive these properties and impressions from without; whereas +with regard to exile and loss of reputation or honours, as also +with regard to their opposites, as crowns and office and position, +it is not their own intrinsic nature but our opinion of them that +is the gauge of their real joy or sorrow, so that each person makes +them for himself light or heavy, easy to bear or hard to bear. When +Polynices was asked</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"What is't to be an exile? Is +it grievous?"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>he replied to the question,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Most grievous, and in deed +worse than in word."<a name="FNanchor_913_913" id= +"FNanchor_913_913"></a><a href="#Footnote_913_913" class= +"fnanchor">913</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Compare with this the language of Alcman, as the poet has +represented him in the following lines. "Sardis, my father's +ancient home, had I had the fortune to be reared in thee, I should +have been dressed in gold as a priest of Cybele,<a name= +"FNanchor_914_914" id="FNanchor_914_914"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_914_914" class="fnanchor">914</a> and beaten the fine +drums; but as it is my name is Alcman, and I am a citizen of +Sparta, and I have learned to write Greek poetry, which makes me +greater than the tyrants Dascyles or Gyges." Thus the very same +thing one man's opinion makes good, like current coin, and +another's bad and injurious.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> But let it be granted +that exile is, as many say and sing, a grievous thing. So some food +is bitter, and sharp, and biting to the taste, yet by an admixture +with it of sweet and agreeable food we take away its +unpleasantness. There are also some colours unpleasant to look at, +that quite confuse and dazzle us by their intensity and excessive +force. If then we can relieve this by a mixture of shadow, or by +diverting the eye to green or some agreeable colour, so too can we +deal with misfortunes, mixing up <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_380" id="Page_380">380</a></span>with them the advantages and +pleasant things we still enjoy, as wealth, or friends, or leisure, +and no deficiency in what is necessary for our subsistence. For I +do not think that there are many natives of Sardis who would not +choose your fortune even with exile, and be content to live as you +do in a strange land, rather than, like snails who have no other +home than their shells, enjoy no other blessing but staying at home +in ease.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> As then he in the comedy +that was exhorting an unfortunate friend to take courage and bear +up against fortune, when he asked him "how," answered "as a +philosopher," so may we also play the philosopher's part and bear +up against fortune manfully. How do we do when it rains, or when +the North Wind doth blow? We go to the fire, or the baths, or the +house, or put on another coat: we don't sit down in the rain and +cry. So too can you more than most revive and cheer yourself for +the chill of adversity, not standing in need of outward aid, but +sensibly using your actual advantages. The surgeon's +cupping-glasses extract the worst humours from the body to relieve +and preserve the rest of it, whereas the melancholy and querulous +by ever dwelling on their worst circumstances, and thinking only of +them, and being engrossed by their troubles, make even useful +things useless to them, at the very time when the need is most +urgent. For as to those two jars, my friend, that Homer<a name= +"FNanchor_915_915" id="FNanchor_915_915"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_915_915" class="fnanchor">915</a> says are stored in +Heaven, one full of good fortunes, one of bad, it is not Zeus that +presides as the dispenser of them, giving to some a gentle and even +portion, and to others unmixed streams of evils, but ourselves. For +the sensible make their life pleasanter and more endurable by +mitigating their sorrows with the consideration of their blessings, +while most people, like sieves, let the worst things stick to them +while the best pass through.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> And so, if we fall into any +real trouble or evil, we ought to get cheerfulness and ease of mind +from the consideration of the actual blessings that are still left +to us, mitigating outward trouble by private happiness. And as to +those things which are not really evil in their nature, <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">381</a></span>but +only so from imagination and empty fancy, we must act as we do with +children who are afraid of masks: by bringing them near, and +putting them in their hands, and turning them about, we accustom +them never to heed them at all: and so we by bringing reason to +bear on it may discover the rottenness and emptiness and +exaggeration of our fancy. As a case in point let us take your +present exile from what you deem your country. For in nature no +country, or house, or field, or smithy, as Aristo said, or surgery, +is peculiarly ours, but all such things exist or rather take their +name in connection with the person who dwells in them or possesses +them. For man, as Plato says, is not an earthly and immovable but +heavenly plant, the head making the body erect as from a root, and +turned up to heaven.<a name="FNanchor_916_916" id= +"FNanchor_916_916"></a><a href="#Footnote_916_916" class= +"fnanchor">916</a> And so Hercules said well,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Argive or Theban am I, I +vaunt not</span> <span class="i0">To be of one town only, every +tower</span> <span class="i0">That does to Greece belong, that is +my country."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>But better still said Socrates, that he was not an Athenian or +Greek, but a citizen of the world (as a man might say he was a +Rhodian or Corinthian), for he did not confine himself to Sunium, +or Tænarum, or the Ceraunian mountains.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"See you the boundless reach +of sky above,</span> <span class="i0">And how it holds the earth in +its soft arms?"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>These are the boundaries of our country, nor is there either +exile or stranger or foreigner in these, where there is the same +fire, water and air, the same rulers controllers and presidents, +the sun the moon and the morning star, the same laws to all, under +one appointment and ordinance the summer and winter solstices, the +equinoxes, Pleias and Arcturus, the seasons of sowing and planting; +where there is one king and ruler, God, who has under his +jurisdiction the beginning and middle and end of everything, and +travels round and does everything in a regular way in accordance +with nature; and in his wake to punish all transgressions of the +divine law follows Justice, whom <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_382" id="Page_382">382</a></span>all men naturally invoke in +dealing with one another as fellow citizens.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> As to your not dwelling at +Sardis, that is nothing. Neither do all the Athenians dwell at +Colyttus, nor all the Corinthians at Craneum, nor all the +Lacedæmonians at Pitane. Do you consider all those Athenians +strangers and exiles who removed from Melita to Diomea, where they +call the month Metageitnion,<a name="FNanchor_917_917" id= +"FNanchor_917_917"></a><a href="#Footnote_917_917" class= +"fnanchor">917</a> and keep the festival Metageitnia to commemorate +their migration, and gladly and gaily accept and are content with +their neighbourhood with other people? Surely you would not. What +part of the inhabited world or of the whole earth is very far +distant from another part, seeing that mathematicians teach us that +the whole earth is a mere point compared to heaven? But we, like +ants or bees, if we get banished from one ant-hill or hive are in +sore distress and feel lost, not knowing or having learnt to make +and consider all things our own, as indeed they are. And yet we +laugh at the stupidity of one who asserts that the moon shines +brighter at Athens than at Corinth, though in a sort we are in the +same case ourselves, when in a strange land we look on the earth, +the sea, the air, the sky, as if we doubted whether or not they +were different from those we had been accustomed to. For nature +makes us free and unrestrained, but we bind and confine immure and +force ourselves into small and scanty space. Then too we laugh at +the Persian kings, who, if the story be true, drink only of the +water of the Choaspes, thus making the rest of the world waterless +as far as they are concerned, but when we migrate to other places, +we desire the water of the Cephisus, or we yearn for the Eurotas, +or Taygetus, or Parnassus, and so make the whole world for +ourselves houseless and homeless.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vii.</span> Some Egyptians, who +migrated to Ethiopia because of the anger and wrath of their king, +to those who begged them to return to their wives and children very +immodestly exposed their persons, saying that they would never be +in want of wives or children while so provided. It is far more +becoming and less low to say that whoever <span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_383" id="Page_383">383</a></span>has the good fortune to +be provided with the few necessaries of life is nowhere a stranger, +nowhere without home and hearth, only he must have besides these +prudence and sense, as an anchor and helm, that he may be able to +moor himself in any harbour. For a person indeed who has lost his +wealth it is not easy quickly to get another fortune, but every +city is at once his country to the man who knows how to make it +such, and has the roots by which he can live and thrive and get +acclimatized in every place, as was the case with Themistocles and +Demetrius of Phalerum. The latter after his banishment became a +great friend of Ptolemy at Alexandria, and not only passed his days +in abundance, but also sent gifts to the Athenians. And +Themistocles, who was publicly entertained at the king's expense, +is stated to have said to his wife and children, "We should have +been ruined, if we had not been ruined." And so Diogenes the Cynic +to the person who said to him, "The people of Sinope have condemned +you to banishment from Pontus," replied, "And I have condemned them +to stay in Pontus, 'by the high cliffs of the inhospitable sea.'"<a +name="FNanchor_918_918" id="FNanchor_918_918"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_918_918" class="fnanchor">918</a>[918] And Stratonicus +asked his host at Seriphus, for what offence exile was the +appointed punishment, and being told that they punished rogues by +exile, said, "Why then are not you a rogue, to escape from this +hole of a place?" For the comic poet says they get their crop of +figs down there with slings, and that the island is very barely +supplied with the necessaries of life.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">viii.</span> For if you look at the +real facts and shun idle fancy, he that has one city is a stranger +and foreigner in all others. For it does not seem to such a one +fair and just to leave his own city and dwell in another. "It has +been your lot to be a citizen of Sparta, see that you adorn your +native city," whether it be inglorious, or unhealthy, or disturbed +with factions, or has its affairs in disorder. But the person whom +fortune has deprived of his own city, she allows to make his home +in any he fancies. That was an excellent precept of Pythagoras, +"Choose the best kind of life, custom will make it easy." So too it +is wise and profitable to say here, "Choose the best and +pleasantest <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id= +"Page_384">384</a></span>city, time will make it your country, and +a country that will not always distract you and trouble you and +give you various orders such as, 'Contribute so much money, Go on +an embassy to Rome, Entertain the prefect, Perform public duties.'" +If a person in his senses and not altogether silly were to think of +these things, he would prefer to live in exile in some island, like +Gryarus or Cinarus,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Savage, and fruitless, ill +repaying tillage,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>and that not in dejection and wailing, or using the language of +those women in Simonides,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I am shut in by the dark +roaring sea</span> <span class="i0">That foams all +round,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>but he will rather be of the mind of Philip, who when he was +thrown in wrestling, and turned round, and noticed the mark his +body made in the dust, said, "O Hercules, what a little part of the +earth I have by nature, though I desire all the world!"</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ix.</span> I think also you have seen +Naxos, or at any rate Hyria, which is close here. But the former +was the home of Ephialtes and Otus, and the latter was the +dwelling-place of Orion. And Alcmæon, when fleeing from the +Furies, so the poets tell us, dwelt in a place recently formed by +the silting of the Achelous;<a name="FNanchor_919_919" id= +"FNanchor_919_919"></a><a href="#Footnote_919_919" class= +"fnanchor">919</a> but I think he chose that little spot to dwell +in ease and quiet, merely to avoid political disturbances and +factions, and those furies informers. And the Emperor Tiberius +lived the last seven years of his life in the island of +Capreæ, and the sacred governing power of the world enclosed +in his breast during all that time never changed its abode. But the +incessant and constant cares of empire, coming from all sides, made +not that island repose of his pure and complete. But he who can +disembark on a small island, and get rid of great troubles, is a +miserable man, if he cannot often say and sing to himself those +lines of Pindar, "To love the slender cypress, and to leave the +Cretan pastures lying near Ida. I have but little land, where I +grow strong, and have nothing to do with sorrow or faction,"<a +name="FNanchor_920_920" id="FNanchor_920_920"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_920_920" class="fnanchor">920</a> or the ordinances of +princes, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id= +"Page_385">385</a></span>or public duties in political emergencies, +or state functions hard to get off.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">x.</span> For if that seems a good +saying of Callimachus, "Do not measure wisdom by a Persian rope," +much less should we measure happiness by ropes and parasangs, and +if we inhabit an island containing 200 furlongs only, and not (like +Sicily) four days' sail round, ought we to wail and lament as if we +were very unfortunate? For how does plenty of room bring about an +easy life? Have you not heard Tantalus saying in the play,<a name= +"FNanchor_921_921" id="FNanchor_921_921"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_921_921" class="fnanchor">921</a></p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I sow a field that takes +twelve days to travel round,</span> <span class="i0">The +Berecyntian region,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>but shortly after he says,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"My fortunes, that were once +as high as heaven,</span> <span class="i0">Now to the ground are +fallen, and do say to me,</span> <span class="i0">'Learn not to +make too much of earthly things.'"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>And Nausithous leaving the spacious Hyperia because of the +proximity of the Cyclopes, and migrating to an island "far from all +enterprising men,"<a name="FNanchor_922_922" id= +"FNanchor_922_922"></a><a href="#Footnote_922_922" class= +"fnanchor">922</a> and living an unsocial life,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Apart from men beside the +stormy sea,"<a name="FNanchor_923_923" id="FNanchor_923_923"></a><a +href="#Footnote_923_923" class="fnanchor">923</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>yet contrived to make the life of his citizens very pleasant. +And the Cyclades were first inhabited by the sons of Minos, and +afterwards by the sons of Codrus and Neleus, though foolish people +now think they are punished if they are exiled to them. And yet +what island used as a place of exile is not of larger extent than +Scillus, where Xenophon after his military service saw a +comfortable old age?<a name="FNanchor_924_924" id= +"FNanchor_924_924"></a><a href="#Footnote_924_924" class= +"fnanchor">924</a> And the Academy, a small place bought for only +3,000 drachmæ,<a name="FNanchor_925_925" id= +"FNanchor_925_925"></a><a href="#Footnote_925_925" class= +"fnanchor">925</a> was the domicile of Plato and Xenocrates and +Polemo, who taught and lived there all their lives, except one day +every year, when Xenocrates went to Athens to grace the festival of +Dionysus, so they said, and to see the new plays exhibited. And +Theocritus of Chios twitted <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_386" id="Page_386">386</a></span>Aristotle with loving to +live at the courts of Philip and Alexander, and preferring to dwell +at the mouth of the Borborus to dwelling in the Academy. For there +is a river near Pella that the Macedonians call Borborus. As to +islands Homer seems to sing their praise, and recommend them to us +as if on purpose, as</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"She came to Lemnos, town of +sacred Thoas;"<a name="FNanchor_926_926" id= +"FNanchor_926_926"></a><a href="#Footnote_926_926" class= +"fnanchor">926</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"What Lesbos has, the seat of +the immortals;"<a name="FNanchor_927_927" id= +"FNanchor_927_927"></a><a href="#Footnote_927_927" class= +"fnanchor">927</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"He captured lofty Scyros, +citadel</span> <span class="i0">Of Enyeus;"<a name= +"FNanchor_928_928" id="FNanchor_928_928"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_928_928" class="fnanchor">928</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"And those who from Dulichium +came, and from</span> <span class="i0">The sacred islands called +th' Echinades,</span> <span class="i0">That lie across the sea +opposite Elis;"<a name="FNanchor_929_929" id= +"FNanchor_929_929"></a><a href="#Footnote_929_929" class= +"fnanchor">929</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and of the illustrious men that dwelt in islands he mentions +Æolus the favourite of the gods, and Odysseus most wise, and +Ajax most brave, and Alcinous most kind to strangers.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xi.</span> When Zeno learned that the +only ship he had left was with all its freight lost at sea, he +said, "Fortune, you deal kindly with me, confining me to my +threadbare cloak and the life of a philosopher." And a man not +altogether silly, or madly in love with crowds, might, I think, not +blame fortune for confining him in an island, but might even praise +her for relieving him from weariness and anxiety, and wanderings in +foreign countries, and perils by sea, and the uproar of the forum, +and for giving him truly a secure, quiet, undistracted and private +life, putting him as it were inside a circle in which everything +necessary for him was contained. For what island has not a house, a +promenade, a bath, and fish and hares for those who love fishing +and field-sports? And the greatest blessing, quiet, which others +frequently pant for, you can freely enjoy.<a name= +"FNanchor_930_930" id="FNanchor_930_930"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_930_930" class="fnanchor">930</a> And whereas in the +world,<a href="#Footnote_930_930" class="fnanchor">930</a> when men +are playing at dice or otherwise enjoying the privacy of their +homes, informers and busybodies hunt them up and pursue them from +their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id= +"Page_387">387</a></span>houses and gardens in the suburbs, and +drag them by force to the forum and court, in an island no one +comes to bother one or dun one or to borrow money, or to beg one to +be surety for him or canvass for him: only one's best friends and +intimates come to visit one out of good will and affection, and the +rest of one's life is a sort of holy retirement to whoever wishes +or has learnt to live the life of leisure. But he who thinks those +happy who are always scouring the country, and pass most of their +lives in inns and ferryboats, is like a person who thinks the +planets happier than fixed stars. And yet every planet keeps its +order, rolling in one sphere, as in an island. For, as Heraclitus +says, the sun will never deviate from its bounds, for if it did, +the Furies, who are the ministers of Justice, would find it +out.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xii.</span> Let us use such and +similar language, my friend, and harp upon it, to those who are +banished to an island, and are debarred all access with others</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"By the sea waves, which many +keep apart."<a name="FNanchor_931_931" id="FNanchor_931_931"></a><a +href="#Footnote_931_931" class="fnanchor">931</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But you who are not tied down to one spot, but only forbidden to +live in one, have by that prohibition liberty to go to all others. +Moreover to the considerations, I am not in office, or a member of +the senate, or an umpire in the games, you may oppose these, I do +not belong to any faction, I have no large sums to spend, I have +not to dance attendance at the doors of the prefect, it is no odds +to me who has got by lot the province, whether he is hot-tempered +or an objectionable person. But just as Archilochus overlooked the +fruitful fields and vineyards of Thasos, and abused that island as +rocky and uneven, and said of it,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"It stands like donkey's chine +crowned with wild forest,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>so we, fixing our eyes only on one aspect of exile, its +inglorious state, overlook its freedom from cares, its leisure, its +liberty. And yet people thought the kings of Persia happy, because +they passed their winter in Babylon, their summer in Media, and the +pleasant season of spring at Susa. So can the exile be present at +the Eleusinian mysteries, at the festival of Dionysus at Athens, at +the Nemean <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id= +"Page_388">388</a></span>games at Argos, at the Pythian games at +Delphi, and can pass on and be a spectator of the Isthmian and +Corinthian games, if he is fond of sight-seeing; and if not, he has +leisure, can walk about, read, sleep without being disturbed, and +can say like Diogenes, "Aristotle has to dine when Philip thinks +fit, Diogenes can dine at any time he himself chooses," having no +business, or magistrate, or prefect, to put him out of his general +habits of living.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xiii.</span> And so it is that you +will find few of the wisest and most intelligent men buried in +their own countries, but most (even without any compulsion) have +themselves weighed anchor, and transferred their course, and +removed, some to Athens, some from it. For who ever bestowed such +encomium upon his country as Euripides did in the following +lines?</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"First we are not a race +brought in from other parts,</span> <span class="i0">But are +indigenous, when all other cities</span> <span class="i0">Are, +draughts-men like, transferred from place to place,</span> <span +class="i0">And are imported from elsewhere. And, lady,</span> <span +class="i0">If it is not beside the mark to boast,</span> <span +class="i0">We have above us a well-tempered sky,</span> <span +class="i0">A climate not too hot, nor yet too cold.</span> <span +class="i0">And all the finest things in Greece or Asia</span> <span +class="i0">We do procure as an attraction here."<a name= +"FNanchor_932_932" id="FNanchor_932_932"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_932_932" class="fnanchor">932</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>And yet the author of these lines went to Macedonia, and lived +all the latter part of his life at the court of Archelaus. And of +course you have heard the following epitaph;</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Here lies Euphorion's son, +Athenian Æschylus,</span> <span class="i0">To whom death came +in corn-producing Gela."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>For he, like Simonides before him, went to Sicily. And many have +changed the commencing words of Herodotus, "This is the setting +forth of the history of Herodotus of Halicarnassus" into "Herodotus +of Thurii." For he migrated to Thurii, and participated in that +colony. As to the divine and sacred spirit of the Muses, the poet +of the Trojan war, Homer, did not many cities claim him as theirs, +because he did not cry up one city only? And Hospitable Zeus has +many great honours.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id= +"Page_389">389</a></span>§ <span class="smcap">xiv.</span> And +if anyone shall say that these pursued glory and honour, go to the +philosophers, and their schools and lectures, consider those at the +Lyceum, the Academy, the Porch, the Palladium, the Odeum. If you +admire and prefer the Peripatetic school, Aristotle was a native of +Stagira, Theophrastus of Eresus, Strato of Lampsacus, Glyco of +Troas, Aristo of Ceos, Critolaus of Phaselis. If you prefer the +Stoic school, Zeno was a native of Cittium, Cleanthes of Assus, +Chrysippus of Soli, Diogenes of Babylon, Antipater of Tarsus; and +the Athenian Archidemus migrated to the country of the Parthians, +and left at Babylon a succession of the Stoic school. Who exiled +these men? Nobody; it was their own pursuit of quiet, of which no +one who is famous or powerful can get much at home, that made them +teach us this by their practice, while they taught us other things +by their precepts. And even nowadays most excellent and renowned +persons live in strange lands, not in consequence of being expelled +or banished, but at their own option, to avoid business and +distracting cares, and the want of leisure which their own country +would bring them. For it seems to me that the Muses aided our old +writers to complete their finest and most esteemed works by calling +in exile as a fellow-worker. Thus Thucydides the Athenian wrote the +history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians in +Thrace near the forest of Scapte, Xenophon wrote at Scillus in +Elis, Philistus in Epirus, Timæus of Tauromenium at Athens, +Androtion of Athens at Megara, and Bacchylides the poet<a name= +"FNanchor_933_933" id="FNanchor_933_933"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_933_933" class="fnanchor">933</a> in Peloponnesus. All +these and many more, though exiled from their country, did not +despair or give themselves up to dejection, but so happy was their +disposition that they considered exile a resource given them by +fortune, whereby they obtained universal fame after their deaths, +whereas no memorial is left of those who were factious against them +and banished them.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xv.</span> He therefore is ridiculous +who thinks that any ignominy attaches itself to exile. What say +you? Was Diogenes without glory, whom Alexander saw basking in the +sun, and stopped to ask if he wanted anything, and when he <span +class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id= +"Page_390">390</a></span>answered, "Nothing, but that you would get +a little out of my light," Alexander, astonished at his spirit, +said to his friends, "If I were not Alexander, I would be +Diogenes." Was Camillus without glory when banished from Rome, of +which he is now accounted the second founder? And indeed +Themistocles did not lose by his exile the glory he had obtained +among the Greeks, but he added to it among the barbarians, and +there is no one so without honour, so ignoble, who would prefer to +be Leobates who indicted him rather than Themistocles the exile, or +Clodius who banished Cicero rather than the banished one, or +Aristophon the accuser rather than Timotheus who got driven by him +from his country.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvi.</span> But since a good many are +moved by the lines of Euripides, who seems to bring a strong +indictment against exile, let us see what it is he says in each +question and answer about it.</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0"><i>Jocasta.</i> What is't to +be an exile? Is it grievous?</span> <span class= +"i0"><i>Polynices.</i> Most grievous, and in deed worse than in +word.</span> <span class="i0"><i>Jocasta.</i> What is its aspect? +What is hard for exiles?</span> <span class="i0"><i>Polynices.</i> +This is the greatest, that they have no freedom.</span> <span +class="i0"><i>Jocasta.</i> This is a slave's life not to speak +one's thoughts!</span> <span class="i0"><i>Polynices.</i> Then one +must put up with one's masters' follies.<a name="FNanchor_934_934" +id="FNanchor_934_934"></a><a href="#Footnote_934_934" class= +"fnanchor">934</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But this is not a right or true estimate.<a name= +"FNanchor_935_935" id="FNanchor_935_935"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_935_935" class="fnanchor">935</a> For first of all, not +to say out all one thinks is not the action of a slave but of a +sensible man, in times and matters that require reticence and +silence, as Euripides himself has said elsewhere better,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i2">"Be silent where 'tis meet, +speak where 'tis safe."</span></div> +</div> + +<p>Then as for the follies of one's masters, one has to put up with +them just as much in one's own country as in exile. Indeed, more +frequently have the former reason to fear that the powerful in +cities will act unjustly to them either through calumny or +violence. But his greatest and absurdest error is that he takes +away from exiles freedom of speech. It is wonderful, if Theodorus +had no freedom of speech, that when Lysimachus the king said to +him, "Did <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id= +"Page_391">391</a></span>not your country cast you out because of +your character?" replied, "Yes, as Semele cast out Dionysus, when +unable to bear him any longer." And when he showed him Telesphorus +in a cage,<a name="FNanchor_936_936" id="FNanchor_936_936"></a><a +href="#Footnote_936_936" class="fnanchor">936</a> with his eyes +scooped out, and his nose and ears and tongue cut off, and said to +him, "This is how I treat those that act ill to me." * *<a name= +"FNanchor_937_937" id="FNanchor_937_937"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_937_937" class="fnanchor">937</a> And had not Diogenes +freedom of speech, who, when he visited Philip's camp just as he +was on the eve of offering battle to the Greeks, and was taken +before the king as a spy, told him he had come to see his +insatiable folly, who was going shortly to stake his dominions and +life on a mere die. And did not Hannibal the Carthaginian use +freedom of speech to Antiochus, though he was an exile, and +Antiochus a king? For as a favourable occasion presented itself he +urged the king to attack the enemy, and when after sacrifice he +reported that the entrails forbade it, Hannibal chided him and +said, "You listen rather to what flesh tells you than to the +instruction of a man of experience." Nor does exile deprive +geometricians or grammarians of their freedom of speech, or prevent +their discussing what they know and have learnt. Why should it then +good and worthy men? It is meanness everywhere that stops a man's +speech, ties and gags his tongue, and forces him to be silent. But +what are the next lines of Euripides?</p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0"><i>Jocasta.</i> Hopes feed the +hearts of exiles, so they say.</span> <span class= +"i0"><i>Polynices.</i> Hopes have a flattering smile, but still +delay.<a name="FNanchor_938_938" id="FNanchor_938_938"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_938_938" class="fnanchor">938</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>But this is an accusation against folly rather than exile. For +it is not those who have learnt and know how to enjoy the present, +but those who ever hang on the future, and hope after what they +have not, that float as it were on hope as on a raft, though they +never get beyond the walls.<a name="FNanchor_939_939" id= +"FNanchor_939_939"></a><a href="#Footnote_939_939" class= +"fnanchor">939</a></p> + +<div class="poem2"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0"><i>Jocasta.</i> But did your +father's friends do nothing for you?</span> <span class= +"i0"><i>Polynices.</i> Be fortunate! Friends are no use in +trouble.</span> <span class="i0"><i>Jocasta.</i> Did not your good +birth better your condition?</span> <span class= +"i0"><i>Polynices.</i> 'Tis bad to want. Birth brought no bread to +me.<a name="FNanchor_940_940" id="FNanchor_940_940"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_940_940" class="fnanchor">940</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id= +"Page_392">392</a></span> But it was ungrateful in Polynices thus +to rail against exile as discrediting his good birth and robbing +him of friends, for it was on account of his good birth that he was +deemed worthy of a royal bride though an exile, and he came to +fight supported by a band of friends and allies, a great force, as +he himself admits a little later,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i2">"Many of the princes of the +Danai</span> <span class="i0">And from Mycenæ are with me, +bestowing</span> <span class="i0">A sad but necessary kindness on +me."<a name="FNanchor_941_941" id="FNanchor_941_941"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_941_941" class="fnanchor">941</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>Nor was there any more justice in the lament of his +mother:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"I never lit for you the +nuptial torch</span> <span class="i0">In marriage customary, nor +did Ismenus</span> <span class="i0">Furnish you with the usual +solemn bath."<a name="FNanchor_942_942" id= +"FNanchor_942_942"></a><a href="#Footnote_942_942" class= +"fnanchor">942</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>She ought to have been pleased and content to hear that her son +dwelt in such a palace <i>as that at Argos</i>, and in lamenting +that the nuptial torch was not lit, and that he had not had the +usual bath in the river Ismenus, as though there was no water or +fire at Argos for wedded people, she lays on exile the evils really +caused by pride and stupidity.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">xvii.</span> But exile, you will say, +is a matter of reproach. It may be among fools, who also jeer at +the beggar, the bald man, the dwarf, aye, and even the stranger and +resident alien. But those who are not carried away in that manner +admire good men, whether they are poor, or strangers or exiles. Do +we not see that all men adore the temple of Theseus as well as the +Parthenon and Eleusinium? And yet Theseus was an exile from Athens, +though it was owing to him that Athens is now inhabited, and he was +banished from a city which he did not merely dwell in, but had +himself built. And what glory is left to Eleusis, if we are ashamed +of Eumolpus, who migrated from Thrace, and taught the Greeks (as he +still teaches them) the mysteries? And who was the father of Codrus +that reigned at Athens? Was it not Melanthus, an exile from +Messene? And do you not praise the answer of Antisthenes to the +person who told him that his mother was a Phrygian, "So also is the +mother of the gods." If you <span class='pagenum'><a name= +"Page_393" id="Page_393">393</a></span>are twitted then with exile, +why do you not answer, "The father of the glorious victor Hercules +was an exile." And Cadmus, the grandfather of Dionysus, when he was +sent from home to find Europa, and never came back, "though a +Phœnician born he changed his country,"<a name= +"FNanchor_943_943" id="FNanchor_943_943"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_943_943" class="fnanchor">943</a> and migrated to +Thebes, and became<a name="FNanchor_944_944" id= +"FNanchor_944_944"></a><a href="#Footnote_944_944" class= +"fnanchor">944</a> the grandfather of "Dionysus, who rejoices in +the cry of Evoe, the exciter of women, who delights in frantic +honours." As for what Æschylus obscurely hints at in the +line,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Apollo the chaste god, exile +from heaven,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>let me keep a religious silence, as Herodotus<a name= +"FNanchor_945_945" id="FNanchor_945_945"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_945_945" class="fnanchor">945</a> says. And Empedocles +commences his system of philosophy as follows, "It is an ordinance +of necessity, an ancient decree of the gods, when anyone stains his +hands with crime and murder, the long-lived demons get hold of him, +so that he wanders away from the gods for thirty thousand years. +Such is my condition now, that of an exile and wanderer from the +gods." In these words he not only speaks of himself, but points out +that all of us men similarly are strangers and foreigners and +exiles in this world. For he says, "O men, it is not blood or a +compounded spirit that made the being or beginning of the soul, but +it is your earth-born and mortal body that is made up of these." He +calls speciously by the mildest of names the birth of the soul that +has come from elsewhere a living in a strange country. But the +truth is the soul is an exile and wanderer, being driven about by +the divine decrees and laws, and then, as in some sea-girt island, +gets joined to the body like an oyster to its shell, as Plato says, +because it cannot call to mind or remember from what honour and +greatness of happiness it migrated, not from Sardis to Athens, nor +from Corinth to Lemnos or Scyros, but exchanging heaven and the +moon for earth and life upon earth, if it shifts from place to +place for ever so short a time it is put out and feels strange, and +fades away like a dying plant. But although one soil is more +suitable to a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id= +"Page_394">394</a></span>plant than another, and it thrives and +grows better on such a soil, yet no situation can rob a man of his +happiness or virtue or sense. It was in prison that Anaxagoras +wrote his squaring of the circle, and that Socrates, even after +drinking the hemlock, talked philosophically, and begged his +friends to be philosophers, and was esteemed happy by them. On the +other hand, Phaëthon and Tantalus, though they got up to +heaven, fell into the greatest misfortunes through their folly, as +the poets tell us.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_913_913" id="Footnote_913_913"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_913_913"><span class="label">913</span></a> Euripides, +"Phœnissæ," 388, 389.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_914_914" id="Footnote_914_914"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_914_914"><span class="label">914</span></a> Reading +βακέλας. <i>Gallus</i> +in Latin.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_915_915" id="Footnote_915_915"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_915_915"><span class="label">915</span></a> "Iliad," +xxiv. 527-533.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_916_916" id="Footnote_916_916"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_916_916"><span class="label">916</span></a> Plato, +"Timæus," p. 90 A. Compare Ovid, "Metamorphoses," i. +84-86.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_917_917" id="Footnote_917_917"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_917_917"><span class="label">917</span></a> Derived from +μετὰ, +γείτον, because then people +flitted and changed their neighbours.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_918_918" id="Footnote_918_918"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_918_918"><span class="label">918</span></a> Euripides, +"Iphigenia in Tauris," 253.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_919_919" id="Footnote_919_919"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_919_919"><span class="label">919</span></a> See also +Pausanias, viii. 24.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_920_920" id="Footnote_920_920"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_920_920"><span class="label">920</span></a> Pindar, +Fragm. 126.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_921_921" id="Footnote_921_921"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_921_921"><span class="label">921</span></a> +Æschylus, "Niobe," Fragm. 146.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_922_922" id="Footnote_922_922"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_922_922"><span class="label">922</span></a> "Odyssey," +vi. 8. I read ἀνδρῶν as Wyttenbach.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_923_923" id="Footnote_923_923"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_923_923"><span class="label">923</span></a> "Odyssey," +vi. 204.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_924_924" id="Footnote_924_924"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_924_924"><span class="label">924</span></a> See +Pausanias, v. 6.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_925_925" id="Footnote_925_925"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_925_925"><span class="label">925</span></a> In our money +about £121 17<i>s.</i> 6<i>d.</i></p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_926_926" id="Footnote_926_926"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_926_926"><span class="label">926</span></a> "Iliad," +xiv. 230.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_927_927" id="Footnote_927_927"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_927_927"><span class="label">927</span></a> "Iliad," +xxiv. 544.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_928_928" id="Footnote_928_928"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_928_928"><span class="label">928</span></a> "Iliad," ix. +668.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_929_929" id="Footnote_929_929"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_929_929"><span class="label">929</span></a> "Iliad," ii. +625, 626.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_930_930" id="Footnote_930_930"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_930_930"><span class="label">930</span></a> So +Reiske.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_931_931" id="Footnote_931_931"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_931_931"><span class="label">931</span></a> "Iliad," +xxi. 59.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_932_932" id="Footnote_932_932"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_932_932"><span class="label">932</span></a> Euripides, +Fragm. 950.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_933_933" id="Footnote_933_933"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_933_933"><span class="label">933</span></a> Reiske +suggests +Βακχυλίδης +ὁ Κεῖος. A very probable +suggestion.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_934_934" id="Footnote_934_934"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_934_934"><span class="label">934</span></a> Euripides, +"Phœnissæ," 388-393.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_935_935" id="Footnote_935_935"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_935_935"><span class="label">935</span></a> Omitting +πρώτος, which probably got in from +πρῶτον following, and for which Reiske +conjectured ὁρᾷς ώς.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_936_936" id="Footnote_936_936"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_936_936"><span class="label">936</span></a> Such as +Cardinal Balue was shut up by Louis XI. in for fourteen years.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_937_937" id="Footnote_937_937"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_937_937"><span class="label">937</span></a> The answer +of Theodorus is wanting.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_938_938" id="Footnote_938_938"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_938_938"><span class="label">938</span></a> Euripides, +"Phœnissæ," 396, 397.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_939_939" id="Footnote_939_939"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_939_939"><span class="label">939</span></a> That is, +they never get any further.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_940_940" id="Footnote_940_940"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_940_940"><span class="label">940</span></a> Euripides, +"Phœnissæ," 402-405.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_941_941" id="Footnote_941_941"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_941_941"><span class="label">941</span></a> Euripides, +"Phœnissæ," 430-432.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_942_942" id="Footnote_942_942"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_942_942"><span class="label">942</span></a> Ibid. +344-346.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_943_943" id="Footnote_943_943"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_943_943"><span class="label">943</span></a> "Reading +χθονὸς. "Sic mutandum censet +Valckenarius."—<i>Wyttenbach</i>.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_944_944" id="Footnote_944_944"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_944_944"><span class="label">944</span></a> Through his +daughter Semele.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_945_945" id="Footnote_945_945"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_945_945"><span class="label">945</span></a> Herodotus, +ii. 171.</p> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="Page_394a" id="Page_394a" />ON FORTUNE.</h3> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">i.</span> "Fortune, not wisdom, rules +the affairs of mortals."<a name="FNanchor_946_946" id= +"FNanchor_946_946"></a><a href="#Footnote_946_946" class= +"fnanchor">946</a> And does not justice, and fairness, and +sobriety, and decorum rule the affairs of mortals? Was it of +fortune or owing to fortune that Aristides persevered in his +poverty, when he might have been lord of much wealth? And that +Scipio after taking Carthage neither saw nor received any of the +spoil? Was it of fortune or owing to fortune that Philocrates spent +on harlots and fish the money he had received from Philip? And that +Lasthenes and Euthycrates lost Olynthus, measuring happiness by +their belly and lusts? Was it of fortune that Alexander the son of +Philip not only himself abstained from the captive women, but +punished others that outraged them? Was it under the influence of +an evil genius and fortune that Alexander,<a name= +"FNanchor_947_947" id="FNanchor_947_947"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_947_947" class="fnanchor">947</a> the son of Priam, +intrigued with the wife of his host and ran away with her, and +filled two continents with war and evils? For if all these things +are due to fortune, what hinders our saying that cats and goats and +apes are under the influence of fortune in respect of greediness, +and lust, and ribaldry?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">ii.</span> And if there are such +things as sobriety and justice and fortitude, with what reason can +we deny the existence of prudence, and if prudence exists, how can +we deny the existence of wisdom? For sobriety is a kind of +prudence, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id= +"Page_395">395</a></span>as people say, and justice also needs the +presence of prudence. Nay more, we call the wisdom and prudence +that makes people good in regard to pleasure self-control and +sobriety, and in dangers and hardships endurance and fortitude, and +in dealings between man and man and in public life equity and +justice. And so, if we are to ascribe to fortune the acts of +wisdom, let us ascribe justice and sobriety to fortune also, aye, +and let us put down to fortune stealing, and picking pockets, and +lewdness, and let us bid farewell to argument, and throw ourselves +entirely on fortune, as if we were, like dust or refuse, borne +along and hurried away by a violent wind. For if there be no +wisdom, it is not likely that there is any deliberation or +investigation of matters, or search for expediency, but Sophocles +only talked nonsense when he said,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Whate'er is sought is found, +what is neglected</span> <span class="i0">Escapes our notice;"<a +name="FNanchor_948_948" id="FNanchor_948_948"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_948_948" class="fnanchor">948</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>and again in dividing human affairs,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"What can be taught I learn, +what can be found out</span> <span class="i0">Duly investigate, and +of the gods</span> <span class="i0">I ask for what is to be got by +prayer."<a name="FNanchor_949_949" id="FNanchor_949_949"></a><a +href="#Footnote_949_949" class="fnanchor">949</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>For what can be found out or learnt by men, if everything is due +to fortune? And what deliberative assembly of a state is not +annulled, what council of a king is not abrogated, if all things +are subject to fortune? whom we abuse as blind because we ourselves +are blind in our dealings with her. Indeed, how can it be +otherwise, seeing that we repudiate wisdom, which is like plucking +out our eyes, and take a blind guide of our lives?</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iii.</span> Supposing any of us were +to assert that seeing is a matter of fortune, not of eyesight, nor +of the eyes that give light, as Plato says, and that hearing is a +matter of fortune, and not the imbibing of a current of air through +the ear and brain, it would be well for us then to be on our guard +against the evidence of our senses. But indeed <span class= +'pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">396</a></span>nature has +given us sight and hearing and taste and smell, and all other parts +of the body and their functions, as ministers of wisdom and +prudence. For "it is the mind that sees, and the mind that hears, +everything else is deaf and blind." And just as, if there were no +sun, we should have perpetual night for all the stars, as +Heraclitus says, so man for all his senses, if he had no mind or +reason, would be little better than the beasts. But as it is, it is +not by fortune or chance that we are superior to them and masters +of them, but Prometheus, that is reason, is the cause of this,</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Presenting us with bulls, +horses, and asses,</span> <span class="i0">To ease us of our toil, +and serve instead,"</span></div> +</div> + +<p>as Æschylus says.<a name="FNanchor_950_950" id= +"FNanchor_950_950"></a><a href="#Footnote_950_950" class= +"fnanchor">950</a> For as to fortune and natural condition, most of +the beasts are better off than we are. For some are armed with +horns and tusks and stings, and as for the hedgehog, as Empedocles +says, it has its back all rough with sharp bristles, and some are +shod and protected by scales and fur and talons and hoofs worn +smooth by use, whereas man alone, as Plato says, is left by nature +naked, unarmed, unshod, and uncovered. But by one gift, that of +reason and painstaking and forethought, nature compensates for all +these deficiencies. "Small indeed is the strength of man, but by +the versatility of his intellect he can tame the inhabitants of the +sea, earth, and air."<a name="FNanchor_951_951" id= +"FNanchor_951_951"></a><a href="#Footnote_951_951" class= +"fnanchor">951</a> Nothing is more agile and swift than horses, yet +they run for man; the dog is a courageous and high-spirited +creature, yet it guards man; fish is most pleasant to the taste, +the pig the fattest of all animals, yet both are food and +delicacies for man. What is huger or more formidable in appearance +than the elephant? Yet it is man's plaything, and a spectacle at +public shows, and learns to dance and kneel. And all these things +are not idly introduced, but to the end that they may teach us to +what heights reason raises man, and what things it sets him above, +and how it makes him master of everything.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id= +"Page_397">397</a></span> <span class="i0">"For we are not good +boxers, nor good wrestlers,</span> <span class="i0">Nor yet swift +runners,"<a name="FNanchor_952_952" id="FNanchor_952_952"></a><a +href="#Footnote_952_952" class="fnanchor">952</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>for in all these points we are less fortunate than the beasts. +But by our experience and memory and wisdom and cunning, as +Anaxagoras says, we make use of them, and get their honey and milk, +and catch them, and drive and lead them about at our will. And +there is nothing of fortune in this, it is all the result of wisdom +and forethought.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">iv.</span> Moreover the labours of +carpenters and coppersmiths and house-builders and statue-makers +are affairs of mortals, and we see that no success in such trades +is got by fortune or chance. For that fortune plays a very small +part in the life of a wise man, whether coppersmith or +house-builder, and that the greatest works are wrought by art +alone, is shown by the poet in the following lines:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"All handicraftsmen go into +the street,</span> <span class="i0">Ye that with fan-shaped baskets +worship Ergane,</span> <span class="i0">Zeus' fierce-eyed +daughter;"<a name="FNanchor_953_953" id="FNanchor_953_953"></a><a +href="#Footnote_953_953" class="fnanchor">953</a></span></div> +</div> + +<p>for Ergane<a name="FNanchor_954_954" id= +"FNanchor_954_954"></a><a href="#Footnote_954_954" class= +"fnanchor">954</a> and Athene, and not Fortune, do the trades +regard as their patrons. They do indeed say that Nealces,<a name= +"FNanchor_955_955" id="FNanchor_955_955"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_955_955" class="fnanchor">955</a> on one occasion +painting a horse, was quite satisfied with his painting in all +other respects, but that some foam on the bridle from the horse's +breath did not please him, so that he frequently tried to rub it +out; at last in his anger he threw his sponge (just as it was, full +of colours) at the picture, and this very wonderfully produced +exactly the effect he desired. This is the only fortunate accident +in art that history records. Artificers everywhere use rules and +weights and measures, that none of their work may be done at random +and anyhow. And indeed the arts may be considered as wisdom on a +small scale, or rather as emanations from and fragments of wisdom +scattered about among the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" +id="Page_398">398</a></span>necessities of life; as the fire of +Prometheus is riddled to have been divided and scattered about in +all quarters of the world. For thus small particles and fragments +of wisdom, breaking up as it were and getting divided into pieces, +have formed into order.</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">v.</span> It is strange then that the +arts do not require fortune to attain to their ends, and yet that +the most important and complete of all the arts, the sum total of +man's glory and merit, should be so completely powerless. Why, +there is a kind of wisdom even in the tightening or slackening of +chords, which people call music, and in the dressing of food, which +we call the art of cooking, and in cleaning clothes, which we call +the art of the fuller, and we teach boys how to put on their shoes +and clothes generally, and to take their meat in the right hand and +their bread in the left, since none of these things come by +fortune, but require attention and care. And are we to suppose that +the most important things which make so much for happiness do not +call for wisdom, and have nothing to do with reason and +forethought? Why, no one ever yet wetted earth with water and then +left it, thinking it would become bricks by fortune and +spontaneously, or procured wool and leather, and sat down and +prayed Fortune that it might become clothes and shoes; nor does +anyone getting together much gold and silver and a quantity of +slaves, and living in a spacious hall with many doors, and making a +display of costly couches and tables, believe that these things +will constitute his happiness, and give him a painless happy life +secure from changes, unless he be wise also. A certain person asked +the general Iphicrates in a scolding way who he was, as he seemed +neither a heavy-armed soldier, nor a bowman, nor a targeteer, and +he replied, "I am the person who rule and make use of all +these."</p> + +<p>§ <span class="smcap">vi.</span> So wisdom is neither gold, +nor silver, nor fame, nor wealth, nor health, nor strength, nor +beauty. What is it then? It is what can use all these well, and +that by means of which each of these things becomes pleasant and +esteemed and useful, and without which they are useless; and +unprofitable and injurious, and a burden and disgrace to their +possessor. So Hesiod's Prometheus gives very good advice to +Epimetheus, "not to receive gifts from<span class='pagenum'><a +name="Page_399" id="Page_399">399</a></span> Olympian Zeus but to +send them back,"<a name="FNanchor_956_956" id= +"FNanchor_956_956"></a><a href="#Footnote_956_956" class= +"fnanchor">956</a> meaning external things and things of fortune. +For as if he urged one who knew nothing of music not to play on the +pipe, or one who knew nothing of letters not to read, or one who +was not used to horses not to ride, so he advised him not to take +office if he were foolish, nor to grow rich if he were illiberal, +nor to marry if likely to be ruled by his wife. For success beyond +their merit is to foolish persons a cause of folly, as Demosthenes +said,<a name="FNanchor_957_957" id="FNanchor_957_957"></a><a href= +"#Footnote_957_957" class="fnanchor">957</a> and good fortune +beyond their merit is to those who are not sensible a cause of +misfortune.<a name="FNanchor_958_958" id="FNanchor_958_958"></a><a +href="#Footnote_958_958" class="fnanchor">958</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_946_946" id="Footnote_946_946"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_946_946"><span class="label">946</span></a> A line from +Chæremon.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_947_947" id="Footnote_947_947"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_947_947"><span class="label">947</span></a> Better known +as Paris.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_948_948" id="Footnote_948_948"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_948_948"><span class="label">948</span></a> +"Œdipus Tyrannus," 110, 111. Wyttenbach compares Terence, +"Heauton Timorumenos," 675. "Nil tam difficilest, quin +quærende investigari possiet."</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_949_949" id="Footnote_949_949"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_949_949"><span class="label">949</span></a> Soph., Frag. +723.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_950_950" id="Footnote_950_950"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_950_950"><span class="label">950</span></a> +Æschylus, Fragm. 180. Reading +ἀντιδουλα with +Reiske and the MSS.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_951_951" id="Footnote_951_951"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_951_951"><span class="label">951</span></a> Euripides, +"Æolus," Fragm. 27.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_952_952" id="Footnote_952_952"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_952_952"><span class="label">952</span></a> Homer, +"Odyssey," viii. 246, 247.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_953_953" id="Footnote_953_953"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_953_953"><span class="label">953</span></a> Soph., Frag. +724.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_954_954" id="Footnote_954_954"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_954_954"><span class="label">954</span></a> "The +Worker." Generally a title of Athene, as Pausanias, i. 24; iii. 17; +v. 14; vi. 26; viii. 32; ix. 26. Gataker thinks +καὶ τὴν should be expunged. Hercher +omits καὶ τὴν +Ἀθηνᾶν altogether.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_955_955" id="Footnote_955_955"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_955_955"><span class="label">955</span></a> So Hercher +after Madvig. See Pliny, "Hist. Nat.," XXXV. 36, 20.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_956_956" id="Footnote_956_956"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_956_956"><span class="label">956</span></a> Hesiod, +"Works and Days," 86, 87.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_957_957" id="Footnote_957_957"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_957_957"><span class="label">957</span></a> "Olynth.," +i. 23.</p> +</div> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a name="Footnote_958_958" id="Footnote_958_958"></a><a href= +"#FNanchor_958_958"><span class="label">958</span></a> The whole of +this essay reminds one of the well-known lines of Juvenal, twice +repeated—namely, x. 365, 366; and xiv. 315, 316:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"><span class="i0">"Nullum numen habes, si sit +prudentia; nos te,</span> <span class="i0">Nos facimus, Fortuna, +deam caeloque locamus."</span></div> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id= +"Page_400">400</a></span></p> + +<hr style="width: 35%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id= +"Page_401">401</a></span></p> + +<h3>INDEX.</h3> + +<ul class="IX"> +<li>Abrotonus, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li>Absence, the test of affection, <a href= +"#Page_122">122</a>.</li> + +<li>Academy, the, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li> + +<li>Achilles, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, +<a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href= +"#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href= +"#Page_200">200</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href= +"#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_291">291</a>, <a href= +"#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>.</li> + +<li>Acropolis, statue of Leæna in the, <a href= +"#Page_221">221</a>.</li> + +<li>Admetus, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Adonis, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href= +"#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li>Adultery, the fruit of curiosity, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Love of change, <a href="#Page_298">298</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Æschines, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href= +"#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_285">285</a>. +</li><li> +Æschylus, quoted or referred to, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, +<a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>. +</li><li> +Æsculapius, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>. +</li><li> +Æsop, fables of alluded to, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href="#Page_88">88</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>. +</li><li> +Agamemnon, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>. +</li><li> +Agathoclea, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li>Agathocles, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href= +"#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href= +"#Page_347">347</a>.</li> + +<li>Agave, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>.</li> + +<li>Agesilaus, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href= +"#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href= +"#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href= +"#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>.</li> + +<li>Agis, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + +<li>Aglaonice, her knowledge of eclipses, <a href= +"#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>Ajax, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_347">347</a>.</li> + +<li>Alcæus, <a href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href= +"#Page_59">59</a>.</li> + +<li>Alcestis, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li>Alcibiades, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href= +"#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href= +"#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href= +"#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li>Alcman, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> + +<li>Alexander, the Great, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href= +"#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>, <a href= +"#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href= +"#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>, <a href= +"#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>, <a href= +"#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href= +"#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href= +"#Page_280">280</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href= +"#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href= +"#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href= +"#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href= +"#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + +<li>Alexinus, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> + +<li>Ammonius, Plutarch's master, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>.</li> + +<li>Amœbeus, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li>Amphictyones, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href= +"#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + +<li>Anacharsis, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href= +"#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li>Anacreon, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>.</li> + +<li>Anaxagoras, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href= +"#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href= +"#Page_394">394</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li> + +<li>Anaxarchus, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href= +"#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_253">253</a>, <a href= +"#Page_292">292</a>.</li> + +<li>Anger, how to restrain, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>-288.</li> + +<li>Animals, appeal to, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-25. + +<ul> +<li>Use of, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Answers, three different kinds of, <a href= +"#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + +<li>Anticyra, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> + +<li>Antigonus, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href= +"#Page_38">38</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href= +"#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href= +"#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href= +"#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li>Antileon, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li>Antimachus, poet, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>.</li> + +<li>Antipater, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href= +"#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href= +"#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href= +"#Page_297">297</a>.</li> + +<li>Antipatridas, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li>Antiphanes, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>.</li> + +<li>Antiphon, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>.</li> + +<li>Antisthenes, <a href="#Page_266">266</a>.</li> + +<li>Antony, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</li> + +<li>Anytus, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href= +"#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + +<li>Apelles, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href= +"#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + +<li>Aphrodite, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href= +"#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href= +"#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href= +"#Page_78">78</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href= +"#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li>Apollo, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href= +"#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + +<li>Araspes, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + +<li>Arcadio, <a href="#Page_276">276</a>.</li> + +<li>Arcesilaus, <a href="#Page_180">180</a>, <a href= +"#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + +<li>Archelaus, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href= +"#Page_388">388</a>.</li> + +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id= +"Page_402">402</a></span> Archidamus, king, <a href= +"#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>.</li> + +<li>Archilochus, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href= +"#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li> + +<li>Archytas, of Tarentum, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href= +"#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_336">336</a>.</li> + +<li>Ares, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a +href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + +<li>Argus, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristæus (the <i>Saint Hubert</i> of the Middle Ages), <a +href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristides, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href= +"#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristippus, <a href="#Page_6">6</a>, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, +<a href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href= +"#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href= +"#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_297">297</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristo, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href= +"#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristocrates, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristogiton, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href= +"#Page_67">67</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href= +"#Page_220">220</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristomenes, the hero, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristomenes, tutor of Ptolemy Epiphanes, <a href= +"#Page_195">195</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristonica, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristophanes, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href= +"#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href= +"#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href= +"#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li>Aristotle, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href= +"#Page_101">101</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href= +"#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href= +"#Page_215">215</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href= +"#Page_278">278</a>, <a href="#Page_281">281</a>, <a href= +"#Page_303">303</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href= +"#Page_386">386</a>.</li> + +<li>Arisinoe, sister and wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus, <a href= +"#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li>Artemis, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li>Asopichus, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Ass-driver, story of Athenian, <a href= +"#Page_282">282</a>.</li> + +<li>Athene, ornament of, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Athene and the Satyr, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + +<li>Athene Chalciœcus, <a href="#Page_228">228</a>.</li> + +<li>Called Ergane, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Athenians, oracle given to the, <a href= +"#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li>Attis, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>.</li> + +<li>Augustus, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href= +"#Page_224">224</a>, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> + +<li>Aulis, famous for earthenware, <a href= +"#Page_366">366</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Bacchis, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li>Barbers, a talkative race, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a +href="#Page_227">227</a>.</li> + +<li>Baxter, Richard, and Plutarch, Preface, <a href= +"#Page_viii">viii</a>, note.</li> + +<li>Belestiche, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li>Bellerophon, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href= +"#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + +<li>Bessus, story about, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>.</li> + +<li>Bias, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, +<a href="#Page_332">332</a>.</li> + +<li>Bion, <a href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a +href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href= +"#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_354">354</a>.</li> + +<li>Bocchoris, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>.</li> + +<li>Books, value of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + +<li>Boys, not to be overworked, <a href="#Page_13">13</a>. + +<ul> +<li>To be taught to speak the truth, <a href= +"#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li>Love of, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>, +<a href="#Page_33">33</a>-35, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href= +"#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href= +"#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href= +"#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>, <a href= +"#Page_67">67</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Brasidas, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href= +"#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>.</li> + +<li>Briareus, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href= +"#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + +<li>Brides, custom of in Bœotia, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>, +<a href="#Page_71">71</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Custom of at Leptis in Libya, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Caeneus, his change of sex, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>.</li> + +<li>Cæsar, Julius, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>.</li> + +<li>Callimachus, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href= +"#Page_385">385</a>.</li> + +<li>Callisthenes, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + +<li>Callixenus, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + +<li>Camma, story about, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href= +"#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + +<li>Carneades, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href= +"#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>, <a href= +"#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>.</li> + +<li>Cassander, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href= +"#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_351">351</a>.</li> + +<li>Cassandra, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> + +<li>Cato, <a href="#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a +href="#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href= +"#Page_263">263</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href= +"#Page_369">369</a>.</li> + +<li>Cebes, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>.</li> + +<li>Cephisocrates, <a href="#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + +<li>Cephisodorus, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Ceramicus, at Athens, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href= +"#Page_259">259</a>.</li> + +<li>Cestus of Aphrodite, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href= +"#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li>Chæron, son of Plutarch, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>.</li> + +<li>Chæron, and Chæronea, <a href= +"#Page_238">238</a>.</li> + +<li>Chæronea, Plutarch's native place, <a href= +"#Page_238">238</a>.</li> + +<li>Chalcis, people of, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> + +<li>Chameleon, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href= +"#Page_162">162</a>.</li> + +<li>Character, moral, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li>Childless, paid court to, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> + +<li>Chilo, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href= +"#Page_202">202</a>.</li> + +<li>Chrysippus, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href= +"#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_110">110</a>, <a href= +"#Page_113">113</a>, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href= +"#Page_115">115</a>.</li> + +<li>Cicero, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href= +"#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href= +"#Page_390">390</a>.</li> + +<li>Cimon, father of Miltiades, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href= +"#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Claudia, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li>Cleanthes, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li>Clearchus, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>.</li> + +<li>Cleomachus, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> + +<li>Cleonice, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href= +"#Page_344">344</a>.</li> + +<li>Clitus, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> + +<li>Clodius, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href= +"#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + +<li>Clytæmnestra, dream of, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> + +<li>Conjugal constancy, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Conjugal precepts, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-84.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Contentedness of mind, on, <a href= +"#Page_289">289</a>-311.</li> + +<li>Contracts, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> + +<li>Corax, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li>Cornelia, sister of Scipio, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li>Correction of servants, <a href="#Page_279">279</a>-281.</li> + +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id= +"Page_403">403</a></span> Crassus, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a +href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li>Crates, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, +<a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href= +"#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_328">328</a>, <a href= +"#Page_370">370</a>, <a href="#Page_372">372</a>.</li> + +<li>Creon, his daughter, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Crete, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>.</li> + +<li>Crisso, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>.</li> + +<li>Crœsus, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href= +"#Page_192">192</a>.</li> + +<li>Ctesiphon, <a href="#Page_275">275</a>.</li> + +<li>Curiosity, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>-252.</li> + +<li>Cybele, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, +<a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_379">379</a>.</li> + +<li>Cyclades, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li> + +<li>Cynic, story about, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>.</li> + +<li>Cynosarges, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, note.</li> + +<li>Cyrus, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>, +<a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href= +"#Page_326">326</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Danaus, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + +<li>Darius, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>, <a href= +"#Page_250">250</a>.</li> + +<li>Deity, on those who are punished late by the, <a href= +"#Page_331">331</a>-365.</li> + +<li>Demaratus, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>.</li> + +<li>Demetrius, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href= +"#Page_191">191</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> + +<li>Democritus, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href= +"#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href= +"#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href= +"#Page_377">377</a>.</li> + +<li>Demosthenes, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href= +"#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href= +"#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href= +"#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>, <a href= +"#Page_321">321</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href= +"#Page_331">331</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> + +<li>Diogenes, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a +href="#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href= +"#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href= +"#Page_127">127</a>, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, <a href= +"#Page_140">140</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href= +"#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_201">201</a>, <a href= +"#Page_203">203</a>, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>, <a href= +"#Page_248">248</a>, <a href="#Page_258">258</a>, <a href= +"#Page_259">259</a>, <a href="#Page_282">282</a>, <a href= +"#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href= +"#Page_301">301</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href= +"#Page_383">383</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href= +"#Page_389">389</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href= +"#Page_391">391</a>.</li> + +<li>Dion, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, +<a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href= +"#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>.</li> + +<li>Dionysius, the tyrant of Sicily, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a +href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href= +"#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href= +"#Page_163">163</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, <a href= +"#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href= +"#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href= +"#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href= +"#Page_294">294</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href= +"#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + +<li>Dionysius, a Corinthian poet, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>.</li> + +<li>Dionysus (the Latin <i>Bacchus</i>), <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, +<a href="#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href= +"#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>.</li> + +<li>Dioxippus, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>.</li> + +<li>Disease, the sacred, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, note.</li> + +<li>Disorders, of mind or body, which worse? <a href= +"#Page_142">142</a>, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> + +<li>Dolon, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_120">120</a>.</li> + +<li>Domitian, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + +<li>Domitius, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href= +"#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + +<li>Dorian measure, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> + +<li>Drink, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a +href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> + +<li>Dryads, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Earthenware, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.</li> + +<li>Education, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>-21.</li> + +<li>Egyptian, answer of an, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>.</li> + +<li>Emerson, on Plutarch, <i>see</i> Title-page, and Preface, p. +ix.</li> + +<li>Empedocles, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href= +"#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href= +"#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, <a href= +"#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_371">371</a>, <a href= +"#Page_393">393</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> + +<li>Empone, her devotion to her husband, <a href= +"#Page_67">67</a>-69.</li> + +<li>Enemies, how a man may be benefited by his, <a href= +"#Page_201">201</a>-213.</li> + +<li>Enthusiasm, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> + +<li>Envy, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, +<a href="#Page_243">243</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>. + +<ul> +<li>On envy and hatred, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>-315.</li> + +<li>How one can praise oneself without exciting envy, <a href= +"#Page_315">315</a>-331.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Epaminondas, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href= +"#Page_52">52</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href= +"#Page_161">161</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href= +"#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href= +"#Page_326">326</a>, <a href="#Page_376">376</a>.</li> + +<li>Ephesus, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li>Ephorus, <a href="#Page_236">236</a>.</li> + +<li>Epicharmus, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href= +"#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>.</li> + +<li>Epicureans, argued against, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-28, <a +href="#Page_373">373</a>-378.</li> + +<li>Epicurus, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href= +"#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_306">306</a>, <a href= +"#Page_373">373</a>, <a href="#Page_375">375</a>.</li> + +<li>Epitaphs, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href= +"#Page_248">248</a>.</li> + +<li>Erasistratus, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href= +"#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li>Ergane, name of Athene, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li> + +<li>Eumenes, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>.</li> + +<li>Euphemism, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href= +"#Page_143">143</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href= +"#Page_167">167</a>.</li> + +<li>Euphorion, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>.</li> + +<li>Eupolis, <a href="#Page_163">163</a>.</li> + +<li>Euripides, quoted or referred to, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a +href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href= +"#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href= +"#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href= +"#Page_40">40</a>, <a href="#Page_42">42</a>, <a href= +"#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href= +"#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href= +"#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href= +"#Page_60">60</a>, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href= +"#Page_79">79</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href= +"#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>, <a href= +"#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_112">112</a>, <a href= +"#Page_119">119</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href= +"#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_144">144</a>, <a href= +"#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href= +"#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href= +"#Page_155">155</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href= +"#Page_170">170</a>, <a href="#Page_178">178</a>, <a href= +"#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href= +"#Page_190">190</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href= +"#Page_194">194</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href= +"#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a>, <a href= +"#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href= +"#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href= +"#Page_214">214</a>, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>, <a href= +"#Page_222">222</a>, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a href= +"#Page_236">236</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href= +"#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href= +"#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_260">260</a>, <a href= +"#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>, <a href= +"#Page_270">270</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href= +"#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href= +"#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href= +"#Page_305">305</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>, <a href= +"#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href= +"#Page_315">315</a>, <a href="#Page_325">325</a>, <a href= +"#Page_332">332</a>, <a href="#Page_333">333</a>, <a href= +"#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_345">345</a>, <a href= +"#Page_346">346</a>, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>, <a href= +"#Page_379">379</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>, <a href= +"#Page_388">388</a>, <a href="#Page_390">390</a>, <a href= +"#Page_391">391</a>, <a href="#Page_392">392</a>, <a href= +"#Page_397">397</a>.</li> + +<li>Eurydice of Hierapolis, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + +<li>Eurydice, wife of Orpheus, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li>Euthydemus, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + +<li>Eutropio, cook to King Antigonus, <a href= +"#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li>Evenus, sayings of, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href= +"#Page_155">155</a>.</li> + +<li>Exercise, value of, <a href="#Page_12">12</a>.</li> + +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id= +"Page_404">404</a></span> Exile, <a href= +"#Page_378">378</a>-394.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Fabius Maximus, <a href="#Page_224">224</a>, <a href= +"#Page_225">225</a>.</li> + +<li>Fabricius, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + +<li>Family, defects and idiosyncrasies of, <a href= +"#Page_356">356</a>, <a href="#Page_357">357</a>.</li> + +<li>Fancy, power of, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li> + +<li>Fathers, not to be too strict, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>. + +<ul> +<li>To set a good example to their sons, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, +<a href="#Page_21">21</a>.</li> + +<li>The <i>jus trium liberorum</i>, <a href="#Page_22">22</a>.</li> + +<li>Saying of Evenus about fathers, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Favour, <i>the</i>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href= +"#Page_34">34</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Reminding of favours unpleasant, <a href= +"#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +</ul> + +Feast, every day a, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>.</li> + +<li>Fickleness, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> + +<li>Flatterers, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Saying of Phocion about, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href= +"#Page_182">182</a>.</li> + +<li>How to be discerned from friends, <a href= +"#Page_153">153</a>-201.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Flute-girls at marriages, <a href="#Page_40">40</a>.</li> + +<li>Fortune, not to be railed at, <a href="#Page_89">89</a>-91. + +<ul> +<li>Fortune's rope-dance, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> + +<li>Fortune and vice, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href= +"#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + +<li>On Fortune, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>-399.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Freedom of speech, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>-201.</li> + +<li>Friends, on abundance of, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>-153. + +<ul> +<li>Friendship going in pairs, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a +href="#Page_147">147</a>.</li> + +<li>Originated by similarity, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href= +"#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_159">159</a>.</li> + +<li>How friends are to be distinguished from flatterers, <a href= +"#Page_153">153</a>-201.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Galba, story about, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + +<li>Geese, ingenuity of, <a href="#Page_229">229</a>.</li> + +<li>Germanicus, idiosyncrasy of, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li>Glaucus, son of Epicydes, <a href="#Page_353">353</a>.</li> + +<li>Gobryas, <a href="#Page_157">157</a>.</li> + +<li>Gods considered as forces, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href= +"#Page_302">302</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Perform their benefits secretly, <a href= +"#Page_181">181</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Gorgias, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>.</li> + +<li>Gorgo, wife of Leonidas, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li>Gracchus, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + +<li>Great, the, especially open to flatterers, <a href= +"#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_185">185</a>.</li> + +<li>Grief, immoderate at death to be avoided, <a href= +"#Page_86">86</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a>, <a href= +"#Page_88">88</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Unexpected grief worst, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_306">306</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Gylippus, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Habit, force of, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href= +"#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_337">337</a>.</li> + +<li>Hannibal, remark of, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li> + +<li>Happiness, the mind the seat of, <a href= +"#Page_95">95</a>.</li> + +<li>Hares, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li> + +<li>Harmodius, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href= +"#Page_189">189</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>.</li> + +<li>Hatred, and envy, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>-315.</li> + +<li>Hegesias, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>.</li> + +<li>Helicon, Mount, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>, <a href= +"#Page_30">30</a>.</li> + +<li>Helots, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>.</li> + +<li>Hemlock, how affected by wine, <a href= +"#Page_228">228</a>.</li> + +<li>Heraclea, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> + +<li>Heraclitus, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>, <a href= +"#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a href= +"#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_350">350</a>, <a href= +"#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> + +<li>Hercules, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, +<a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_321">321</a>, <a href= +"#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href= +"#Page_352">352</a>.</li> + +<li>Heredity, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a +href="#Page_351">351</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>.</li> + +<li>Hermes, his functions, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Proverbial saying about, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Herodotus, <a href="#Page_72">72</a>, <a href= +"#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href= +"#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href= +"#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_299">299</a>, <a href= +"#Page_367">367</a>, <a href="#Page_388">388</a>, <a href= +"#Page_393">393</a>.</li> + +<li>Herophilus, <a href="#Page_244">244</a>.</li> + +<li>Herrick, and Plutarch, <i>see</i> Preface, <a href= +"#Page_viii">viii</a>, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, note.</li> + +<li>Hesiod, quoted or alluded to, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a +href="#Page_36">36</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href= +"#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_121">121</a>, <a href= +"#Page_123">123</a>, <a href="#Page_155">155</a>, <a href= +"#Page_180">180</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href= +"#Page_256">256</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href= +"#Page_290">290</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href= +"#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href= +"#Page_398">398</a>, <a href="#Page_399">399</a>.</li> + +<li>Hiero, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href= +"#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li>Hieronymus, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href= +"#Page_281">281</a>.</li> + +<li>Hipparchus, dream of, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>.</li> + +<li>Hippocrates, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href= +"#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> + +<li>Hippothorus, a tune, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> + +<li>Homer, alluded to or quoted, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a +href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24</a>, <a href= +"#Page_26">26</a>, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href= +"#Page_44">44</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href= +"#Page_48">48</a>, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>, <a href= +"#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href= +"#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_61">61</a>, <a href= +"#Page_65">65</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href= +"#Page_71">71</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href= +"#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_80">80</a>, <a href= +"#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href= +"#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href= +"#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href= +"#Page_110">110</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_117">117</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href= +"#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href= +"#Page_128">128</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href= +"#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href= +"#Page_139">139</a>, <a href="#Page_142">142</a>, <a href= +"#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_149">149</a>, <a href= +"#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href= +"#Page_165">165</a>, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href= +"#Page_172">172</a>, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>, <a href= +"#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>, <a href= +"#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>, <a href= +"#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_197">197</a>, <a href= +"#Page_199">199</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href= +"#Page_204">204</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href= +"#Page_216">216</a>, <a href="#Page_217">217</a>, <a href= +"#Page_218">218</a>, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href= +"#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href= +"#Page_223">223</a>, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>, <a href= +"#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href= +"#Page_239">239</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href= +"#Page_247">247</a>, <a href="#Page_254">254</a>, <a href= +"#Page_268">268</a>, <a href="#Page_270">270</a>, <a href= +"#Page_271">271</a>, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href= +"#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href= +"#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_290">290</a>, <a href= +"#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_292">292</a>, <a href= +"#Page_300">300</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>, <a href= +"#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>, <a href= +"#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_308">308</a>, <a href= +"#Page_309">309</a>, <a href="#Page_313">313</a>, <a href= +"#Page_318">318</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href= +"#Page_322">322</a>, <a href="#Page_323">323</a>, <a href= +"#Page_324">324</a>, <a href="#Page_326">326</a>, <a href= +"#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>, <a href= +"#Page_340">340</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href= +"#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_352">352</a>, <a href= +"#Page_368">368</a>, <a href="#Page_369">369</a>, <a href= +"#Page_372">372</a>, <a href="#Page_378">378</a>, <a href= +"#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>, <a href= +"#Page_387">387</a>, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>, <a href= +"#Page_398">398</a>.</li> + +<li>Hyperides, <a href="#Page_187">187</a>.</li> + +<li>Hypsipyle, her foster-child, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id= +"Page_405">405</a></span> Ibycus, story about, <a href= +"#Page_228">228</a>.</li> + +<li>Idæan Dactyli, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + +<li>Ignorance of self, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + +<li>Imagination, power of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href= +"#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li>Indian wives, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Indian sages, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href= +"#Page_141">141</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Infants, death of, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>.</li> + +<li>Iolaus, nephew of Hercules, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>, <a href= +"#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Iphicrates, answer of, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href= +"#Page_398">398</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Knowledge of self, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href= +"#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href= +"#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Labour, its power, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>.</li> + +<li>Lacydes, friend of Arcesilaus, <a href= +"#Page_181">181</a>.</li> + +<li>Lacydes, king of the Argives, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li>Lais, famous courtesan, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href= +"#Page_49">49</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> + +<li>Law, martial, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + +<li>Leæna, her heroism, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href= +"#Page_221">221</a>.</li> + +<li>Lemnos, the women of, <a href="#Page_41">41</a>.</li> + +<li>Leo of Byzantium, saying of, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>.</li> + +<li>Life, the three kinds of, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Like a game at dice, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>.</li> + +<li>Chequered, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li> + +<li>"Live unknown," whether a wise precept, <a href= +"#Page_373">373</a>-378.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Litigation, evil effects of, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> + +<li>Livia, wife of Augustus, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>.</li> + +<li>Liver, the seat of desire, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>.</li> + +<li>Locrians, custom of the, <a href="#Page_347">347</a>.</li> + +<li>Locris, authorities of, <a href="#Page_245">245</a>.</li> + +<li>Love, to one's offspring, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>-28. + +<ul> +<li>On love generally, <a href="#Page_29">29</a>-69.</li> + +<li>God of Love, his festival at Thespiæ, <a href= +"#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>.</li> + +<li>Pandemian and Celestial love, <a href="#Page_57">57</a>.</li> + +<li>No strong love without jealousy, <a href= +"#Page_135">135</a>.</li> + +<li>Lovers admire even the defects of their loves, <a href= +"#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href= +"#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href= +"#Page_213">213</a>.</li> + +<li>Love blind, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Loxias, name of Apollo, meaning of, <a href= +"#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + +<li>Lyciscus, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href= +"#Page_333">333</a>.</li> + +<li>Lycurgus, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, +<a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li> + +<li>Lydiades, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>.</li> + +<li>Lydian measure, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Lydian produce, <a href="#Page_145">145</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Lynceus, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + +<li>Lysander, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href= +"#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + +<li>Lysias, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>.</li> + +<li>Lysimache, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>.</li> + +<li>Lysimachus, king, <a href="#Page_225">225</a>, <a href= +"#Page_241">241</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href= +"#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Mæcenas, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + +<li>Magas, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> + +<li>Man, his wretchedness, <a href="#Page_26">26</a>, <a href= +"#Page_142">142</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Different views of men, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>.</li> + +<li>Man's various idiosyncrasies and fortunes, <a href= +"#Page_149">149</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Marriage, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href= +"#Page_31">31</a>-39, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>-69. + +<ul> +<li>Hesiod on the proper age for marriage, <a href= +"#Page_36">36</a>.</li> + +<li>No <i>Meum</i> and <i>Tuum</i> to exist in marriage, <a href= +"#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_74">74</a>, <a href= +"#Page_75">75</a>.</li> + +<li>Mutual respect a vital necessity in marriage, <a href= +"#Page_62">62</a>.</li> + +<li>Conjugal Precepts, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>-84.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Marsyas, <a href="#Page_273">273</a>.</li> + +<li>Means, various kinds of, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href= +"#Page_105">105</a>.</li> + +<li>Measures, Dorian and Lydian, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> + +<li>Median war, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li>Medius, <a href="#Page_184">184</a>, <a href= +"#Page_303">303</a>.</li> + +<li>Megabyzus, <a href="#Page_171">171</a>, <a href= +"#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + +<li>Megara, wife of Hercules, <a href="#Page_39">39</a>.</li> + +<li>Megarians, their sacrifice to Poseidon, <a href= +"#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + +<li>Melanippus, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li>Melanthius, <a href="#Page_81">81</a>, <a href= +"#Page_336">336</a>.</li> + +<li>Meleager, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Meletus, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href= +"#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + +<li>Memory, the storehouse of learning, <a href= +"#Page_14">14</a>.</li> + +<li>Menander, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, +<a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href= +"#Page_146">146</a>, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>, <a href= +"#Page_164">164</a>, <a href="#Page_173">173</a>, <a href= +"#Page_179">179</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>, <a href= +"#Page_291">291</a>, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>, <a href= +"#Page_307">307</a>, <a href="#Page_310">310</a>, <a href= +"#Page_330">330</a>.</li> + +<li>Menedemus, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href= +"#Page_130">130</a>, <a href="#Page_165">165</a>, <a href= +"#Page_303">303</a>.</li> + +<li>Metageitnion, <a href="#Page_382">382</a>.</li> + +<li>Metella, wife of Sulla, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li>Metellus, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href= +"#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li> + +<li>Metrocles, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href= +"#Page_295">295</a>.</li> + +<li>Metrodorus, saying of, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>.</li> + +<li>Mice, dislike to, <a href="#Page_312">312</a>.</li> + +<li>Miltiades, the son of Cimon, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a +href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li>Mirrors of the ancients, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, note. + +<ul> +<li>Comparison of wives to mirrors, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>.</li> + +<li>Proper use of the mirror, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + +<li>Comparison of the flatterer to a mirror, <a href= +"#Page_161">161</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Mithridates, <a href="#Page_170">170</a>, <a href= +"#Page_219">219</a>.</li> + +<li>Money, against borrowing, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>-373.</li> + +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id= +"Page_406">406</a></span> Montaigne, and Plutarch, Preface, <a +href="#Page_vii">vii</a>.</li> + +<li>Mothers, to be carefully selected, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>. + +<ul> +<li>To suckle their children, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Munychia, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li>Music, power of, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>.</li> + +<li>Musonius, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Nasica, saying of, <a href="#Page_205">205</a>.</li> + +<li>Nations, most warlike also most amorous, <a href= +"#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Natures, great, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li>Nealces, story about, <a href="#Page_397">397</a>.</li> + +<li>Neglect, not liked, <a href="#Page_150">150</a>.</li> + +<li>Neocles, father of Themistocles, <a href= +"#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + +<li>Nero, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>, +<a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href= +"#Page_284">284</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>.</li> + +<li>Nicostratus, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href= +"#Page_264">264</a>.</li> + +<li>Night, Greek word for, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>.</li> + +<li>Ninus and Semiramis, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href= +"#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li>Niobe, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li>No, saying, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href= +"#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_262">262</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Ocnus, <a href="#Page_304">304</a>.</li> + +<li>Odysseus, self-restraint of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a +href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li> + +<li>Œdipus, <a href="#Page_28">28</a>, <a href= +"#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_250">250</a>, <a href= +"#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + +<li>Œnanthe, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>.</li> + +<li>Old age querulous, <a href="#Page_329">329</a>.</li> + +<li>Olympia, remarkable portico at, <a href= +"#Page_214">214</a>.</li> + +<li>Olympias, wife of King Philip, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a +href="#Page_76">76</a>.</li> + +<li>Olynthus, <a href="#Page_305">305</a>.</li> + +<li>Onomademus, wise advice of, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>.</li> + +<li>Oratory, extempore and prepared, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a +href="#Page_10">10</a>, <a href="#Page_128">128</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Laconic oratory, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Orpheus, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Paley, F. A., on the Moralia, Preface, <a href= +"#Page_vii">vii</a>.</li> + +<li>Pan, <a href="#Page_47">47</a>.</li> + +<li>Panthea, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>.</li> + +<li>Parmenides, his Cosmogony, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>.</li> + +<li>Parmenio, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Parthian juice, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>.</li> + +<li>Passions, difference in, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_114">114</a>.</li> + +<li>Patroclus, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href= +"#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href= +"#Page_325">325</a>.</li> + +<li>Pausanias and Cleonice, <a href="#Page_343">343</a>, <a href= +"#Page_344">344</a>.</li> + +<li>Pederasty, <i>see</i> Boys, love of.</li> + +<li>Perfection, not in mortals, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>.</li> + +<li>Pericles, son of Xanthippus, <a href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href= +"#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href= +"#Page_258">258</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href= +"#Page_323">323</a>, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>, <a href= +"#Page_349">349</a>, <a href="#Page_366">366</a>.</li> + +<li>Perseus, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href= +"#Page_193">193</a>, <a href="#Page_307">307</a>.</li> + +<li>Persia, kings of, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href= +"#Page_124">124</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href= +"#Page_382">382</a>, <a href="#Page_387">387</a>.</li> + +<li>Phäethon, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href= +"#Page_347">347</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + +<li>Phalaris, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href= +"#Page_168">168</a>, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + +<li>Phayllus and his wife, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href= +"#Page_50">50</a>.</li> + +<li>Phidias, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>.</li> + +<li>Philip, King, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href= +"#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href= +"#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href= +"#Page_188">188</a>, <a href="#Page_193">193</a>, <a href= +"#Page_230">230</a>, <a href="#Page_247">247</a>, <a href= +"#Page_276">276</a>, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>, <a href= +"#Page_384">384</a>.</li> + +<li>Philippides, comic poet, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href= +"#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_241">241</a>.</li> + +<li>Philosophy, its importance, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href= +"#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Philosophers' dress, <a href="#Page_129">129</a>, <a href= +"#Page_141">141</a>, <a href="#Page_160">160</a>, <a href= +"#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + +<li>Birthplace of various philosophers, <a href= +"#Page_389">389</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Philotas, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Philotimus, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>.</li> + +<li>Philoxenus, <a href="#Page_373">373</a>.</li> + +<li>Phocion, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href= +"#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_182">182</a>, <a href= +"#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_280">280</a>, <a href= +"#Page_319">319</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href= +"#Page_328">328</a>.</li> + +<li>Phocylides, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>.</li> + +<li>Phœnix, tutor of Achilles, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a +href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + +<li>Phryne, <a href="#Page_38">38</a>, <a href= +"#Page_49">49</a>.</li> + +<li>Phrynis, <a href="#Page_134">134</a>.</li> + +<li>Pindar, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, +<a href="#Page_45">45</a>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a>, <a href= +"#Page_116">116</a>, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>, <a href= +"#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_190">190</a>, <a href= +"#Page_205">205</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href= +"#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_267">267</a>, <a href= +"#Page_275">275</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href= +"#Page_302">302</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href= +"#Page_310">310</a>, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>, <a href= +"#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href= +"#Page_339">339</a>, <a href="#Page_348">348</a>, <a href= +"#Page_355">355</a>, <a href="#Page_377">377</a>, <a href= +"#Page_384">384</a>.</li> + +<li>Pirithous, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Piso, Pupius, story about, <a href="#Page_231">231</a>, <a +href="#Page_232">232</a>.</li> + +<li>Pittacus, <a href="#Page_222">222</a>, <a href= +"#Page_300">300</a>.</li> + +<li>Plato, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a +href="#Page_7">7</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href= +"#Page_12">12</a>, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href= +"#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href= +"#Page_29">29</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href= +"#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href= +"#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href= +"#Page_74">74</a>, <a href="#Page_77">77</a>, <a href= +"#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href= +"#Page_93">93</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href= +"#Page_99">99</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href= +"#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_113">113</a>, <a href= +"#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115</a>, <a href= +"#Page_118">118</a>, <a href="#Page_120">120</a>, <a href= +"#Page_125">125</a>, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>, <a href= +"#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href= +"#Page_153">153</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href= +"#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_158">158</a>, <a href= +"#Page_160">160</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>, <a href= +"#Page_162">162</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href= +"#Page_187">187</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href= +"#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href= +"#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href= +"#Page_209">209</a>, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href= +"#Page_220">220</a>, <a href="#Page_230">230</a>, <a href= +"#Page_255">255</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href= +"#Page_264">264</a>, <a href="#Page_274">274</a>, <a href= +"#Page_286">286</a>, <a href="#Page_287">287</a>, <a href= +"#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href= +"#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, <a href= +"#Page_334">334</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href= +"#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_341">341</a>, <a href= +"#Page_342">342</a>, <a href="#Page_365">365</a>, <a href= +"#Page_385">385</a>, <a href="#Page_393">393</a>, <a href= +"#Page_395">395</a>, <a href="#Page_396">396</a>.</li> + +<li>Plutarch's wife, <i>see</i> Timoxena.</li> + +<li>Polemo, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>, <a href= +"#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li> + +<li>Polycletus, <a href="#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + +<li>Polypus, the, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href= +"#Page_158">158</a>, <a href="#Page_161">161</a>.</li> + +<li>Polysperchon, <a href="#Page_256">256</a>, <a href= +"#Page_261">261</a>.</li> + +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id= +"Page_407">407</a></span> Pompey, the Great, <a href= +"#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href= +"#Page_340">340</a>. + +<ul> +<li>His father Pompeius Strabo, <a href="#Page_340">340</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Portico, remarkable, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>.</li> + +<li>Porus, <a href="#Page_277">277</a>.</li> + +<li>Poseidon, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>.</li> + +<li>Postumia, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li>Praise of self, <a href="#Page_315">315</a>-331.</li> + +<li>Proteus, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> + +<li>Proverbs, <a href="#Page_4">4</a>, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>, <a +href="#Page_9">9</a>, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href= +"#Page_18">18</a>, <a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href= +"#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href= +"#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, <a href= +"#Page_80">80</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href= +"#Page_121">121</a>, <a href="#Page_146">146</a>, <a href= +"#Page_147">147</a>, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href= +"#Page_157">157</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href= +"#Page_183">183</a>, <a href="#Page_189">189</a>, <a href= +"#Page_212">212</a>, <a href="#Page_215">215</a>, <a href= +"#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_235">235</a>, <a href= +"#Page_260">260</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href= +"#Page_306">306</a>, <a href="#Page_317">317</a>, <a href= +"#Page_333">333</a>, <a href="#Page_334">334</a>, <a href= +"#Page_341">341</a>, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href= +"#Page_369">369</a>.</li> + +<li>Ptolemy Auletes, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li> + +<li>Ptolemy Epiphanes, <a href="#Page_195">195</a>.</li> + +<li>Ptolemy Philadelphus, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li>Ptolemy Philopator, <a href="#Page_168">168</a>.</li> + +<li>Ptolemy Physcon, <a href="#Page_174">174</a>.</li> + +<li>Punishment, on those that receive late punishment from the +Deity, <a href="#Page_331">331</a>-365.</li> + +<li>Puppies, differently trained, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a href= +"#Page_4">4</a>.</li> + +<li>Pydna, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>.</li> + +<li>Pyrrho, saying of, <a href="#Page_132">132</a>.</li> + +<li>Pythagoras, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>, +<a href="#Page_19">19</a>, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href= +"#Page_151">151</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href= +"#Page_211">211</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href= +"#Page_245">245</a>, <a href="#Page_383">383</a>.</li> + +<li>Pythian Priestess, <a href="#Page_233">233</a>, <a href= +"#Page_367">367</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Reason, power of, <a href="#Page_101">101</a>, <a href= +"#Page_133">133</a>, <a href="#Page_221">221</a>, <a href= +"#Page_289">289</a>.</li> + +<li>Remorse, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href= +"#Page_345">345</a>.</li> + +<li>Repartee, <a href="#Page_206">206</a>, <a href= +"#Page_207">207</a>.</li> + +<li>Respites, <a href="#Page_339">339</a>.</li> + +<li>Rusticus, <a href="#Page_251">251</a>.</li> + +<li>Rutilius, <a href="#Page_370">370</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Sabinus, story about, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>-69.</li> + +<li>Sappho, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, +<a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_130">130</a>, <a href= +"#Page_274">274</a>.</li> + +<li>Saturnalia, <a href="#Page_311">311</a>, note.</li> + +<li>Satyr, story about the, <a href="#Page_202">202</a>, <a href= +"#Page_203">203</a>.</li> + +<li>Scaurus, <a href="#Page_211">211</a>.</li> + +<li>Scilurus, and the bundle of sticks, <a href= +"#Page_231">231</a>.</li> + +<li>Scipio, <a href="#Page_318">318</a>.</li> + +<li>Sejanus, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Seleucus Callinicus, <a href="#Page_226">226</a>.</li> + +<li>Self, love of, <a href="#Page_153">153</a>, <a href= +"#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_301">301</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Ignorance of, <a href="#Page_143">143</a>.</li> + +<li>Knowledge of, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>, <a href= +"#Page_185">185</a>, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>, <a href= +"#Page_302">302</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Semiramis, <a href="#Page_37">37</a>, <a href= +"#Page_38">38</a>.</li> + +<li>Senator, story about Roman, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>, <a +href="#Page_224">224</a>.</li> + +<li>Seneca, <a href="#Page_284">284</a>.</li> + +<li>Sextius, <a href="#Page_123">123</a>.</li> + +<li>Shyness, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>-267.</li> + +<li>Silence, benefit of, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>-222, <a href= +"#Page_230">230</a>-232, <a href="#Page_237">237</a>.</li> + +<li>Simonides, <a href="#Page_23">23</a>, <a href= +"#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a>, <a href= +"#Page_126">126</a>, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href= +"#Page_154">154</a>, <a href="#Page_183">183</a>, <a href= +"#Page_184">184</a>, <a href="#Page_212">212</a>, <a href= +"#Page_237">237</a>, <a href="#Page_246">246</a>, <a href= +"#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_344">344</a>, <a href= +"#Page_384">384</a>.</li> + +<li>Sinatus, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href= +"#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + +<li>Sinorix, <a href="#Page_63">63</a>, <a href= +"#Page_64">64</a>.</li> + +<li>Socrates, <a href="#Page_2">2</a>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a +href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href= +"#Page_54">54</a>, <a href="#Page_76">76</a>, <a href= +"#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>, <a href= +"#Page_145">145</a>, <a href="#Page_188">188</a>, <a href= +"#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_194">194</a>, <a href= +"#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a href= +"#Page_232">232</a>, <a href="#Page_234">234</a>, <a href= +"#Page_235">235</a>, <a href="#Page_240">240</a>, <a href= +"#Page_250">250</a>, <a href="#Page_271">271</a>, <a href= +"#Page_277">277</a>, <a href="#Page_283">283</a>, <a href= +"#Page_292">292</a>, <a href="#Page_293">293</a>, <a href= +"#Page_299">299</a>, <a href="#Page_300">300</a>, <a href= +"#Page_308">308</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href= +"#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + +<li>Solon, <a href="#Page_33">33</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a>, <a +href="#Page_56">56</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href= +"#Page_171">171</a>, <a href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href= +"#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_303">303</a>, <a href= +"#Page_335">335</a>, <a href="#Page_367">367</a>. + +<ul> +<li>His legislation for husbands, <a href="#Page_65">65</a>.</li> + +<li>His direction to brides, <a href="#Page_70">70</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Sophocles, quoted or referred to, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, <a +href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>, <a href= +"#Page_47">47</a>, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href= +"#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_53">53</a>, <a href= +"#Page_62">62</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href= +"#Page_76">76</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href= +"#Page_122">122</a>, <a href="#Page_125">125</a>, <a href= +"#Page_134">134</a>, <a href="#Page_148">148</a>, <a href= +"#Page_150">150</a>, <a href="#Page_162">162</a>, <a href= +"#Page_197">197</a>, <a href="#Page_200">200</a>, <a href= +"#Page_207">207</a>, <a href="#Page_218">218</a>, <a href= +"#Page_227">227</a>, <a href="#Page_232">232</a>, <a href= +"#Page_242">242</a>, <a href="#Page_249">249</a>, <a href= +"#Page_251">251</a>, <a href="#Page_255">255</a>, <a href= +"#Page_272">272</a>, <a href="#Page_278">278</a>, <a href= +"#Page_281">281</a>, <a href="#Page_286">286</a>, <a href= +"#Page_295">295</a>, <a href="#Page_319">319</a>, <a href= +"#Page_376">376</a>, <a href="#Page_395">395</a>, <a href= +"#Page_397">397</a>.</li> + +<li>Sotades, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>.</li> + +<li>Speusippus, nephew of Plato, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a +href="#Page_192">192</a>, <a href="#Page_196">196</a>.</li> + +<li>Step-ladders, <a href="#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + +<li>Step-mothers, <a href="#Page_79">79</a>, note.</li> + +<li>Stilpo, <a href="#Page_8">8</a>, <a href="#Page_133">133</a>, +<a href="#Page_266">266</a>, <a href="#Page_295">295</a>, <a href= +"#Page_308">308</a>.</li> + +<li>Stoics, <a href="#Page_172">172</a>, <a href= +"#Page_254">254</a>, <a href="#Page_302">302</a>.</li> + +<li>Stratocles, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>.</li> + +<li>Suicide, always possible, <a href="#Page_309">309</a>.</li> + +<li>Sulla, <a href="#Page_219">219</a>, <a href= +"#Page_322">322</a>.</li> + +<li>Sycophant, origin of word, <a href="#Page_252">252</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Talkativeness, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>-238.</li> + +<li>Tantalus, <a href="#Page_49">49</a>, <a href= +"#Page_138">138</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>, <a href= +"#Page_394">394</a>.</li> + +<li>Tavern-frequenting, <a href="#Page_131">131</a>, note.</li> + +<li>Taylor, Jeremy, and Plutarch, Preface, <a href= +"#Page_vii">vii</a>, <a href="#Page_viii">viii</a>, <a href= +"#Page_84">84</a>, note, <a href="#Page_238">238</a>, note, <a +href="#Page_245">245</a>, note, <a href="#Page_288">288</a>, +note.</li> + +<li>Telephus, <a href="#Page_207">207</a>.</li> + +<li>Tenedos, famous for earthenware, <a href= +"#Page_366">366</a>.</li> + +<li>Theano, wife of Pythagoras, <a href="#Page_78">78</a>, <a href= +"#Page_84">84</a>.</li> + +<li><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id= +"Page_408">408</a></span> Thebans, and Lacedæmonians, <a +href="#Page_270">270</a>.</li> + +<li>Themistocles, and his son, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href= +"#Page_2">2</a>. + +<ul> +<li>His father Neocles, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + +<li>Themistocles and Miltiades, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a +href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_338">338</a>.</li> + +<li>Suspicion about, <a href="#Page_208">208</a>.</li> + +<li>Sayings of, <a href="#Page_264">264</a>, <a href= +"#Page_314">314</a>, <a href="#Page_320">320</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Theocritus, the Sophist, <a href="#Page_16">16</a>, <a href= +"#Page_263">263</a>.</li> + +<li>Theodorus, <a href="#Page_141">141</a>, <a href= +"#Page_293">293</a>, <a href="#Page_327">327</a>, <a href= +"#Page_390">390</a>, <a href="#Page_391">391</a>.</li> + +<li>Theognis, his advice, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>.</li> + +<li>Theophrastus, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href= +"#Page_327">327</a>.</li> + +<li>Thero, the Thessalian, <a href="#Page_52">52</a>.</li> + +<li>Theseus, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href= +"#Page_392">392</a>.</li> + +<li>Thespesius, of Soli, curious story about, <a href= +"#Page_357">357</a>-365.</li> + +<li>Thessalians, very pugnacious, <a href="#Page_3">3</a>, +note.</li> + +<li>Thessaly, famous for enchantments, <a href="#Page_75">75</a>, +note, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>.</li> + +<li>Thucydides, <a href="#Page_127">127</a>, <a href= +"#Page_152">152</a>, <a href="#Page_167">167</a>, <a href= +"#Page_195">195</a>, <a href="#Page_198">198</a>, <a href= +"#Page_208">208</a>, <a href="#Page_261">261</a>, <a href= +"#Page_265">265</a>, <a href="#Page_314">314</a>, <a href= +"#Page_317">317</a>, <a href="#Page_332">332</a>, <a href= +"#Page_336">336</a>, <a href="#Page_349">349</a>, <a href= +"#Page_389">389</a>.</li> + +<li>Tiberius, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>, <a href= +"#Page_174">174</a>, <a href="#Page_175">175</a>, <a href= +"#Page_225">225</a>, <a href="#Page_384">384</a>.</li> + +<li>Timæa, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>.</li> + +<li>Timesias, oracle given to, <a href="#Page_151">151</a>.</li> + +<li>Timoleon, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> + +<li>Timon, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>.</li> + +<li>Timotheus, <a href="#Page_316">316</a>.</li> + +<li>Timoxena, wife of Plutarch, consolatory letter to, <a href= +"#Page_85">85</a>-92.</li> + +<li>Timoxena, daughter of Plutarch, <a href= +"#Page_85">85</a>-92.</li> + +<li>Tongue, government of the, <a href="#Page_15">15</a>, <a href= +"#Page_16">16</a>, <a href="#Page_209">209</a>, <a href= +"#Page_210">210</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a>-238, <a href= +"#Page_274">274</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Barricaded by nature, <a href="#Page_216">216</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Training, power of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>-7.</li> + +<li>Triptolemus, <a href="#Page_368">368</a>.</li> + +<li>Truth, a divine thing, <a href="#Page_154">154</a>.</li> + +<li>Tutors, choice of, <a href="#Page_5">5</a>-7; + +<ul> +<li>Habits they teach boys, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Versatility, <a href="#Page_152">152</a>, <a href= +"#Page_153">153</a>.</li> + +<li>Vespasian, <a href="#Page_67">67</a>, <a href= +"#Page_69">69</a>.</li> + +<li>Vice, not got rid of as easily as a wife, <a href= +"#Page_96">96</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Uneasiness of, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href= +"#Page_97">97</a>, <a href="#Page_139">139</a>.</li> + +<li>Whether it is sufficient to cause unhappiness, <a href= +"#Page_138">138</a>-142.</li> + +<li>Vice in embryo, <a href="#Page_355">355</a>, <a href= +"#Page_356">356</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Virtue, its two elements, <a href="#Page_18">18</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Can be taught, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>-95.</li> + +<li>On virtue and vice, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>-98.</li> + +<li>On moral virtue, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>-118.</li> + +<li>On progress in virtue, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>-138.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Washing hands usual before dinner, <a href= +"#Page_156">156</a>.</li> + +<li>Wealth, has wings, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href= +"#Page_303">303</a>.</li> + +<li>Wives, to be carefully selected, <a href="#Page_1">1</a>. + +<ul> +<li>Rich wives, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href= +"#Page_138">138</a>.</li> + +<li>Indian wives, <a href="#Page_140">140</a>.</li> +</ul> +</li> + +<li>Words, winged, <a href="#Page_223">223</a>.</li> + +<li>Wyttenbach, his criticism on Reiske, Preface, <a href= +"#Page_viii">viii</a>, <a href="#Page_ix">ix</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Xanthippe, wife of Socrates, <a href="#Page_210">210</a>, <a +href="#Page_283">283</a>.</li> + +<li>Xanthippus, father of Pericles, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>.</li> + +<li>Xenocrates, <a href="#Page_66">66</a>, <a href= +"#Page_77">77</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118</a>, <a href= +"#Page_196">196</a>, <a href="#Page_248">248</a>, <a href= +"#Page_261">261</a>, <a href="#Page_385">385</a>.</li> + +<li>Xenophanes, <a href="#Page_55">55</a>, <a href= +"#Page_108">108</a>, <a href="#Page_257">257</a>.</li> + +<li>Xenophon, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, +<a href="#Page_166">166</a>, <a href="#Page_191">191</a>, <a href= +"#Page_202">202</a>, <a href="#Page_239">239</a>, <a href= +"#Page_250">250</a>, note, <a href="#Page_289">289</a>, <a href= +"#Page_316">316</a>, <a href="#Page_335">335</a>, <a href= +"#Page_389">389</a>.</li> + +<li>Xerxes, <a href="#Page_272">272</a>, <a href= +"#Page_299">299</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Youth, a ticklish period of life, <a href="#Page_17">17</a>, <a +href="#Page_18">18</a>.</li> + +<li> </li> + +<li>Zaleucus, <a href="#Page_322">322</a>.</li> + +<li>Zeno, founder of the Stoics, <a href="#Page_99">99</a>, <a +href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_124">124</a>, <a href= +"#Page_132">132</a>, <a href="#Page_203">203</a>, <a href= +"#Page_217">217</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a>, <a href= +"#Page_262">262</a>, <a href="#Page_263">263</a>, <a href= +"#Page_285">285</a>, <a href="#Page_294">294</a>, <a href= +"#Page_327">327</a>, <a href="#Page_386">386</a>.</li> + +<li>Zeuxis, his remark on painting, <a href= +"#Page_148">148</a>.</li> +</ul> + +<h5>CHISWICK PRESS:--C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY +LANE.</h5> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Plutarch's Morals, by Plutarch + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PLUTARCH'S MORALS *** + +***** This file should be named 23639-h.htm or 23639-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/6/3/23639/ + +Produced by Paul Murray, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> + |