Plutarch's Morals
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,[493] striving to rouse Achilles, says he is not
angry about his supper,[494] 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,
"I know what 'tis you shun: 'tis not ill fame:
But Hector's near, it is not safe to beard him."
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 for downright plainness and truth. Besides we see that enemies
censure one another for what they have done amiss, as Diogenes
said,[495] 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.
Sec. XXXVII. 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[496] 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.
[348] Plato, "Laws," v. p. 731 D, E.
[349] "Laws," v. p. 730 C.
[350] Inscribed in the vestibule of the temple of Apollo
at Delphi. See Pausanias, x. 24.
[351] Used here apparently proverbially for poverty or
low position in life.
[352] Wyttenbach well compares Cicero, "De Amicitia,"
xviii.: "Accedat huc suavitas quaedam oportet sermonum
atque morum, haudquaquam mediocre condimentum amicitiae.
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."
[353] Hesiod, "Theogony," 64.
[354] Euripides, "Ion," 732.
[355] Our author assigns this saying to Prodicus, "De
Sanitate Praecepta," Sec. viii. But to Evenus, "Quaest.
Conviv." Lib. vii. Prooemium, and "Platonicae
Quaestiones," x. Sec. iii.
[356] As was usual. See Homer, "Odyssey," i. 146. Cf.
Plautus, "Persa," v. iii. 16: "Hoc age, accumbe: hunc
diem suavem meum natalem agitemus amoenum: date aquam
manibus: apponite mensam."
[357] From a play of Eupolis called "The Flatterers."
Cf. Terence, "Eunuchus," 489-491.
[358] See Athenaeus, 256 D. Compare also Valerius Maximus,
ix. 1.
[359] "Videatur Casaubonus ad Athenaeum, vi. p. 243
A."--_Wyttenbach._
[360] "Republic," p. 361 A.
[361] See Herodotus, iii. 78.
[362] See Erasmus, "Adagia," p. 1883.
[363] "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."--_Wyttenbach._
[364] Compare Sallust, "De Catilinae Conjuratione," cap.
xx.: "Nam idem velle atque idem nolle, ea demum firma
amicitia est."
[365] "Proverbiale, quo utitur Plutarchus in Alcibiade,
p. 203 D. Iambus Tragici esse videtur, ad Neoptolemum
dictus."--_Wyttenbach._
[366] As the polypus, or chameleon.
[367] Plato, "Phaedrus," p. 239 D.
[368] Wyttenbach compares Juvenal, iii. 100-108.
[369] See my note "On Abundance of Friends," Sec. ix.
Wyttenbach well points out the felicity of the
expression here, "siquidem parasitus est [Greek: aoikos
kai anestios]."
[370] Euripides, "Hippolytus," 219, 218. Cf. Ovid,
"Heroides," iv. 41, 42.
[371] Compare "How one may be aware of one's progress in
virtue," Sec. x. Cf. also Horace, "Satires," ii. iii. 35;
Quintilian, xi. 1.
[372] "Odyssey," xxii. 1.
[373] The demagogue is a kind of flatterer. See
Aristotle, "Pol." iv. 4.
[374] Cf. Aristophanes, "Acharnians," 153, [Greek: hoper
machimotaton thrakon ethnos].
[375] Plato was somewhat of a traveller, he three times
visited Syracuse, and also travelled in Egypt.
[376] As to the polypus, see "On Abundance of Friends,"
Sec. ix.
[377] As "Fumum et opes _strepitumque_ Romae."--Horace,
"Odes," iii. 29. 12.
[378] Homer, "Odyssey," xvi. 181.
[379] Sophocles, "Antigone," 523.
[380] As to these traits in Plato and Aristotle, compare
"De Audiendis Poetis," Sec. 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," Sec. ii.
[381] "De Chamaeleonte Aristoteles 'Hist. Animal.' i. 11;
'Part. Animal.' iv. 11; Theophrastus Eclog. ap. Photium
edit. Aristot. Sylburg. T. viii. p. 329: [Greek:
metaballei de ho chamaileon eis panta ta chromata; plen
ten eis to leukon kai to eruthron ou dechetai metabolen.]
Similiter Plinius 'Hist. Nat.' viii. 51."--_Wyttenbach._
[382] See Athenaeus, 249 F; 435 E.
[383] Cf. Juv. iii. 113; "Scire volunt secreta domus,
atque inde timeri."
[384] Cf. Menander apud Stob. p. 437: [Greek: Ta deuter
aiei ten gynaika dei legein, Ten d' egemonian ton olon
ton andr' echein].
[385] As Lord Stowell used to say that "dinners
lubricated business."
[386] Homer, "Iliad," xi. 643.
[387] Homer, "Odyssey," iv. 178, 179.
[388] Perhaps the poley-germander. See Pliny, "Nat.
Hist," xxi. 84. The line is from Nicander Theriac. 64.
[389] "Iliad," viii. 281, 282.
[390] "Iliad," x. 243.
[391] "Iliad," vii. 109, 110.
[392] Xenophon, "Agesilaus," xi. 5. p. 673 C.
[393] 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. Sec. iv.: "Segetem ne defrudet," sc.
villicus.
[394] Thucydides, iii. 82.
[395] Plato, "Republic," v. p. 474 E. Compare also
Lucretius, iv. 1160-1170; Horace, "Satires," i. 3. 38
sq.
[396] 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.
[397] This was Ptolemy Auletes, as the former was
Ptolemy Philopator.
[398] See Suetonius, "Nero," ch. 21.
[399] "Plerumque _minuta voce
cantillare_."--_Wyttenbach._ What Milton would have
called "a lean and flashy song."
[400] Naso suspendit adunco, as Horace, "Sat." i. 6. 5.
[401] See Athenaeus, p. 434 C.
[402] As Gnatho in Terence, "Eunuch." 496-498.
[403] Reading [Greek: Helon], as Courier, Hercher.
[404] "Iliad," x. 249. They are words of Odysseus.
[405] This was carrying flattery rather far.
"Mithridatis medicinae scientia multis memorata
veterum."--_Wyttenbach._
[406] Euripides, "Alcestis," 1159.
[407] Our author gives this definition to Simonides, "De
Gloria Atheniensium," Sec. iii.
[408] So our author again, "On Contentedness of Mind," Sec.
xii.
[409] See Herodotus, i. 30, 33; Juvenal, x. 274, 275;
and Pausanias, ii. 20.
[410] "Nobile Stoae 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; Praecipue sanus,
nisi quum pituita molesta est."--_Wyttenbach._
[411] See also "On Contentedness of Mind," Sec. xii.
[412] Homer, "Iliad," xvi. 141. See the context also
from 130 sq.
[413] Our author has used this illustration again in
"Phocion," p. 742 B.
[414] Namely in Sec. xxvii. where [Greek: parrhesia] is
discussed.
[415] Contrary to the severe training he ought to
undergo, well expressed by Horace, "De Arte Poetica,"
412-414.
[416] Reading with Hercher [Greek: apotympanizontos kai
streblountos]. This was Ptolemy Physcon.
[417] "Unus ex Alexandri adulatoribus: memoratus Curtio
viii. 5, 6."--_Wyttenbach._
[418] A common proverb among the ancients. See "Conjugal
Precepts," Sec. xl.; Erasmus, "Adagia," pp. 1222, 1838.
[419] A line out of AEschylus' "Myrmidons." Quoted again
by our author, "Of Love," Sec. V.
[420] Cleopatra.
[421] 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."
[422] See Lucretius, iv. 1079-1085.
[423] So Pliny, "Hist. Nat." xxv. 95: "Remedio est
(cicutae), priusquam perveniat ad vitalia, vini natura
excalfactoria: sed in vino pota irremediabilis
existimatur."
[424] Assigned to Pittacus by our author, "Septem
Sapientum Convivium," Sec. ii.
[425] So Wyttenbach, who reads [Greek: enstaseis], and
translates, "et libertate loquendi in nobis
reprehendendis utitur, quando nos cupiditatibus
morbisque animi nostri non indulgere, sed resistere,
volumus."
[426] "Phoenissae," 469-472.
[427] Like Juvenal's "Graeculus esuriens in caelum,
jusseris, ibit."--Juvenal, iii, 78.
[428] 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.
[429] Probably lines from "The Flatterer" of Menander.
[430] From the "Ino" of Euripides.
[431] From the "Erechtheus" of Euripides.
[432] We know from Athenaeus, p. 420 D, that Apelles and
Arcesilaus were friends.
[433] An allusion to Hesiod, "Works and Days," 235. Cf.
Horace, "Odes," iv. 5. 23.
[434] See the beautiful story of Baucis and Philemon,
Ovid, "Metamorphoses," viii. 626-724: "Cura pii dis
sunt, et qui coluere coluntur."
[435] Compare Terence, "Andria," 43, 44. So too Seneca,
"De Beneficiis," ii. 10: "Haec enim beneficii inter duos
lex est: alter statim oblivisci debet dati, alter
accepti nunquam. Lacerat animum et premit frequens
meritorum commemoratio."
[436] A similar story about the Samians and