{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_58567/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_58567","id":"gutenberg_58567","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/58567","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Classics of Literature","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Punishment -- Early works to 1800"],"text":"Produced by Turgut Dincer, Lisa Reigel, and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Notes: Words in italics in the original are surrounded\nwith _underscores_. In the main body of the text, words in mixed case\nand all cap small caps are in capital letters.\n\nA Table of Contents has been added by the transcriber.\n\n  Synopsis.\n  Introduction.\n  Plutarch on the Delay of the Divine Justice.\n  Index.\n\nA complete list of corrections as well as other notes follows the text.\n\n\n\n\n                               PLUTARCH\n\n                                ON THE\n\n                     DELAY OF THE DIVINE JUSTICE.\n\n\n                              TRANSLATED\n\n                                 WITH\n\n                      AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES.\n\n\n                                  BY\n\n                          ANDREW P. PEABODY.\n\n\n                                BOSTON:\n                      LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.\n                                 1885.\n\n\n\n\n    _Copyright, 1885_,\n    By Andrew P. Peabody.\n\n\n    University Press:\n    John Wilson and Son, Cambridge.\n\n\n\n\nSYNOPSIS.\n\n\n    \u00a7 1. The dialogue opens with comments on the cavils against\n        the Divine Providence by a person who is supposed to have\n        just departed.\n\n    2. The alleged encouragement to the guilty by the delay of\n        punishment, while the sufferers by the guilt of others\n        are disheartened by failing to see the wrong-doers duly\n        punished.\n\n    3. The guilty themselves, it is said, do not recognize\n        punishment when it comes late, but think it mere misfortune.\n\n    4. Plutarch answers the objections to the course of\n        Providence. In the first place, man must not be too\n        confident of his ability to pass judgment on things divine.\n        There are many things in human legislation undoubtedly\n        reasonable, yet with no obvious reason. How much more in\n        the administration of the universe by the Supreme Being!\n\n    5. God by the delay of punishment gives man the example of\n        forbearance, and rebukes his yielding to the first impulses\n        of anger and of a vindictive temper.\n\n    6. God has reference, in the delay of punishment, to the\n        possible reformation of the guilty, and to the services\n        which, when reformed, they may render to their country or\n        their race. Instances cited.\n\n    7. The wicked often have their punishment postponed till after\n        they have rendered some important service in which they\n        are essential agents, and sometimes that, before their own\n        punishment, they may serve as executioners for other guilty\n        persons or communities.\n\n    8. There is frequently a peculiar timeliness and\n        appropriateness in delayed punishment.\n\n    9. Punishment is delayed only in appearance, but commences\n        when the guilt is incurred, so that it seems slow because\n        it is long.\n\n    10. Instances of punishment in visions, apprehensions, and\n        inward wretchedness, while there was no outward infliction\n        of penalty.\n\n    11. There is really no need that punishment be inflicted; guilt\n        is in the consciousness of the guilty its own adequate\n        punishment.\n\n    12. Objection is made by one of the interlocutors to the\n        justice of punishing children or posterity for the guilt\n        of fathers or ancestors, and he heaps up an incongruous\n        collection of cases in which he mingles confusedly the\n        action of the Divine Providence and that of human caprice\n        or malignity.\n\n    13. In answer to the objection, Plutarch first adduces as a\n        precisely parallel order of things, with which no one finds\n        fault, that by which children or posterity derive enduring\n        benefit and honor from a parent\u2019s or ancestor\u2019s virtues and\n        services.\n\n    14. There are alike in outward and in human nature occult and\n        subtle transmissions of qualities and properties, both in\n        time and in space. Those in space are so familiar that they\n        excite no wonder; those in time, though less liable to\n        attract notice, are no more wonderful.\n\n    15. A city has a continuous life, a definite and permanent\n        character, and an individual unity, so that its moral\n        responsibility may long outlast the lives of those who\n        first contracted a specific form of guilt.\n\n    16. The same is to be said of a family or a race; and,\n        moreover, the punishment for inherited guilt may often have\n        a curative, or even a preventive efficacy, so that children\n        or posterity may refrain from guilt because the ancestral\n        penalty falls upon them before they become guilty.\n\n    17. The immortality of the soul asserted, on the ground that\n        God would not have deemed a race doomed to perish after a\n        brief earthly life worth rewarding or punishing.\n\n    18. Punishments in a future state of being are out of sight,\n        and are liable to be disbelieved. Therefore it is\n        necessary, in order to deter men from guilt, that there\n        should be visible punishments in this life.\n\n    19. The remedial efficacy of the penal consequences of parental\n        or ancestral guilt reaffirmed, and illustrated by analogies\n        in the treatment of disease.\n\n    20. God often punishes latent and potential vice, visible only\n        to Omniscience.\n\n    21. If a child has no taint of a father\u2019s vices, he remains\n        unpunished. But moral qualities, equally with physical\n        traits, often lapse in the first generation, and reappear\n        in the second or third, and even later.\n\n    22. The story of Thespesius, who\u2014apparently killed, but really\n        in a trance, in consequence of a fall\u2014went into the\n        infernal regions, beheld the punishments there inflicted,\n        and came back to the body and its life, converted from a\n        profligate into a man of pre-eminent virtue and excellence.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.[vii:1]\n\n\nPlutarch[vii:2] was born, about the middle of the first Christian\ncentury, at Cheroneia in Boeotia, where he spent the greater part\nof his life, and where he probably died. The precise dates of his\nbirth and death are unknown; but he can hardly have been born earlier\nthan A. D. 45, and he must have lived nearly or quite till\nA. D. 120, as some of his works contain references to events\nthat cannot have taken place earlier than the second decade of the\nsecond century. We know little of him from other sources, much from\nhis own writings. There may have been many such men in his time; but\nantiquity has transmitted to us no record like his. He reminds one\nof such men as were to be found half a century ago in many of our\nAmerican country towns. Those potentially like them have now, for the\nmost part, emigrated to the large cities, and have become very unlike\ntheir prototypes. Cheroneia, with its great memories, was a small and\ninsignificant town, and Plutarch was a country gentleman, superior, as\nin culture so in serviceableness, to all his fellow citizens, holding\nthe foremost place in municipal affairs, liberal, generous, chosen to\nall local offices of honor, and especially of trust and responsibility,\nassociating on the most pleasant terms with the common people, always\nready to give them his advice and aid, and evidently respected and\nbeloved by all. He belonged to an old and distinguished family, and\nseems always to have possessed a competency for an affluent, though\nsober, domestic establishment and style of living, and for an unstinted\nhospitality. He was probably the richest man in his native city; for\nhe assigns as a reason for not leaving it and living at some centre\nof intellectual activity, that Cheroneia could not afford to lose the\nproperty which he would take with him in case of his removal.\n\nHe had what corresponds to our university education, at Athens, under\nthe Peripatetic philosopher Ammonius. He also visited Alexandria, then\na renowned seat of learning; but how long he stayed there, or whether\nhe extended his Egyptian travel beyond that city, we have no means of\nknowing. There is no proof of his having been in Rome or in Italy more\nthan once, and that was when he was about forty years of age. He went\nto Rome on public business, probably in behalf of his native city,\nand remained there long enough to become acquainted with some eminent\nmen, to make himself known as a scholar and an ethical philosopher,\nand to deliver lectures that attracted no little public notice. This\nvisit seems to have been the great event of his life, as a winter spent\nin Boston or New York used to be in the life of one of our country\ngentlemen before the time of railways.\n\nHe had a wife, who appears to have been of a character kindred to his\nown; at least five children, of whom two sons, if not more, lived to\nbe themselves substantial citizens and worthy members of society;\nand two brothers, who seem to have possessed his full confidence and\nwarm affection. He was singularly happy in his relations to a large\ncircle of friends, especially in Athens, for which he had the lifelong\nlove that students in our time acquire for a university town. He was\narchon, or mayor, of Cheroneia, probably more than once,\u2014the office\nhaving doubtless been annual and elective,\u2014and in this capacity he\nentered, like a veritable country magistrate, into material details of\nthe public service, superintending, as he says, the measuring of tiles\nand the delivery of stone and mortar for municipal uses. He officiated\nfor many years as priest of Apollo at Delphi, and as such gave several\nsumptuous entertainments. Indeed, hospitality of this sort appears, so\nfar as we can see, to have been the sole or chief duty of his priestly\noffice. As an adopted citizen of one of the Athenian tribes, he was not\ninfrequently a guest at civic banquets and semi-civic festivals.\n\nAs regards Plutarch\u2019s philosophy, it is easier to say to which of\nthe great schools he did not belong than to determine by what name\nhe would have preferred to be called. He probably would have termed\nhimself a Platonist, but not, like Cicero, of the New Academy, which\nhad incorporated Pyrrhonism with the provisional acceptance of the\nPlatonic philosophy. At the same time, he was a closer follower and\na more literal interpreter of Plato than were the Neo-Platonists of\nAlexandria, who had not yet become a distinctly recognized sect, and\nwho in many respects were the precursors of the mysticism of the\nReformation era. Plutarch, with Plato, recognized two eternities: that\nof the Divine Being, supremely good and purely spiritual; and that of\nmatter, as, if not intrinsically evil, the cause, condition, and seat\nof all evil, and as at least opposing such obstacles to its own best\nideal manipulation that the Divine Being could not embody his pure and\nperfect goodness, unalloyed by evil, in any material form. Herein the\nPlatonists were at variance with both the Stoics and the Epicureans.\nThe Stoics regarded matter as virtually an emanation from the Supreme\nBeing, who is not only the universal soul and reason, but the creative\nfire, which, transformed into air and water,\u2014part of the water becoming\nearth,\u2014is the source of the material universe, which must at the end of\na certain cosmical cycle be re-absorbed into the divine essence, whence\nwill emanate in endless succession new universes to replace those that\npass away. The Epicureans, on the other hand, believed in the existence\nof matter only, and regarded mind and soul as the ultimate product of\nmaterial organization.\n\nIn one respect Plutarch transcends Plato, and, so far as I know, all\npre-Christian philosophers. Plato\u2019s theism bears a close kindred\nto pantheism. His God, if I may be permitted the phrase, is only\nsemi-detached. He becomes the creator rather by blending his essence\nwith eternal matter, than by shaping that matter to his will. He is\nrather in all things than above all things, rather the Soul of the\nuniverse than its sovereign Lord. But in Plutarch\u2019s writings the\nSupreme Being is regarded as existing independently of material things;\nthey, as subject to his will, not as a part of his essence.\n\nPlutarch was, like Plato, a realist. He regarded the ideas or patterns\nof material things, that is, _genera_, or kinds of objects, as having\nan actual existence (where or how it is hard to say), as projected from\nthe Divine Mind, floating somewhere in ethereal spaces between the\nDeity and the material universe,\u2014the models by which all things in the\nuniverse are made.\n\nAs to Plutarch\u2019s theology, he was certainly a monotheist. He probably\nhad some vague belief in inferior deities (_daemons_ he would have\ncalled them), as holding a place like that filled by angels and by\nevil spirits in the creed of most Christians; yet it is entirely\nconceivable that his occasional references to these deities are due\nmerely to the conventional rhetoric of his age. His priesthood of the\nDelphian Apollo can hardly be said to have been a religious office.\nIt was rather a post of dignity and honor, which a gentleman of\nrespectable standing, courteous manners, and hospitable habits might\ncreditably fill, even though he had no faith in Apollo. But that\nPlutarch had a serious, earnest, and efficient faith in the one Supreme\nGod, in the wise and eternal Providence, and in the Divine wisdom,\npurity, and holiness, we have in his writings an absolute certainty.\nNor can we find, even in Christian literature, the record of a firmer\nbelief than his in human immortality, and in a righteous retribution\nbeginning in this world and reaching on into the world beyond death.\n\nBut Plutarch was, most of all, an ethical philosopher. Yet here again\nhe cannot be classed as belonging to any school. For Epicureanism he\nhas an intense abhorrence, and regards the doctrines of that sect\nas theoretically absurd and practically demoralizing. He maintains\nthat the disciples of Epicurus, as such, utterly fail in the quest\nof pleasure, or what according to their master is still better,\npainlessness: for the condition of those who, as he says, \u201cswill the\nmind with the pleasures of the body, as hogherds do their swine,\u201d\ncannot entirely smother the sense of vacuity and need; nor is it\npossible by any appliances of luxury to cut off even sources of bodily\ndisquietude, which are only the more fatal to the happiness of him\nwho seeks bodily well-being alone; while the prospect of annihilation\nat death deprives those necessarily unhappy in this life of their\nonly solace, and gives those who live happily here the discomfort of\nanticipating the speedy and entire loss of all that has ministered to\ntheir enjoyment.\n\nIn Plutarch\u2019s moderation, his avoidance of extreme views, and his\njust estimate of happiness as an end, though not the supreme end, of\nbeing, he is in harmony with the Peripatetics, among whom his Athenian\npreceptor was the shining light of his age; but his ethical system was\nmuch more strict and uncompromising than theirs, and I cannot find that\nhe quotes them or refers to them as a distinct school of philosophy.\nIn matters appertaining to physical science he indeed often cites\nAristotle, but not, I think, in a single instance, as to any question\nin morals.\n\nAs regards the Stoics, Plutarch writes against them, but chiefly\nagainst dogmas which in his time had become nearly obsolete,\u2014namely,\nthat all acts not in accordance with the absolute right are equally\nbad; that all virtuous acts are equally good; that there is no\nintermediate moral condition between that of the wise or perfectly good\nman and that of the utterly vicious; and that outward circumstances\nneither enhance nor diminish the happiness of the truly wise man.\nThese extravagances do not appear in the writings of Seneca, nor in\nEpictetus as reported by Arrian, and Plutarch in reasoning against them\nis controverting Zeno rather than his later disciples. He is in full\nsympathy with the Stoics as to their elevated moral standard, though\nwithout the sternness and rigidness which had often characterized\ntheir professed beliefs and their public teaching, yet of which there\nremained few vestiges among his contemporaries. With the utmost\nmildness and gentleness, he manifests everywhere an inflexibility\nof principle and a settled conviction as to the rightfulness or\nwrongfulness of specific acts which might satisfy the most rigid\nStoic, and in which he plants himself as firmly on the ground of the\neternal Right as if his philosophy had been founded on a distinctively\nChristian basis.\n\nIndeed, Plutarch is so often decidedly Christian in spirit, and in many\npassages of his writings there is such an almost manifest transcript\nof the thought of the Divine Founder of our religion, that it has been\nfrequently maintained that he drew from Christian sources. This, I\nmust believe, is utterly false in the sense in which it is commonly\nasserted, yet in a more recondite sense true. If Plutarch had known\nanything about Christians or the Christian Scriptures, he could not\nhave failed to refer to them; for he is constantly making references\nto contemporary persons and objects, sects and opinions. We know\nof no Christian church at Cheroneia in that age, and indeed it is\nexceedingly improbable that there should have been one in so small a\ntown. The circulation of thought, and consequently the diffusion of a\nnew religion from the great centres of population to outlying districts\nor villages, was infinitesimally slow. Our word _pagan_ is an enduring\nwitness of this tardiness of transmission. It had its birth (in its\npresent sense) after Christianity had become the legally established\nreligion of the Empire, and had supplanted heathen temples and rites\nin the cities, while in the _pagi_, or villages, the old gods were\nstill in the ascendant. There were indeed Christian churches in Athens\nand in Rome; but they would most probably have eluded the curiosity\nand escaped the knowledge of a temporary resident, especially as most\nof their chief members were either Jews or slaves. Yet I cannot doubt\nthat an infusion of Christianity had somehow infiltrated itself into\nPlutarch\u2019s ethical opinions and sentiments, as into those of Seneca,\nwho has been represented as an acquaintance and correspondent of St.\nPaul, though it is historically almost impossible that the two men ever\nsaw or heard of each other.\n\nIn one respect, the metaphor by which we call the Author of our\nreligion the Sun of Righteousness has a special aptness. The sun,\nunlike lesser luminaries, lights up sheltered groves and grottos that\nare completely dark under the full moon, and sends its rays through\nevery chink and cranny of roof or wall. In like manner there seems to\nhave been an indirect and tortuous transmission of Christian thought\ninto regions where its source was wholly unknown. In the ethical\nwritings of the post-Christian philosophers, of Plutarch, Seneca,\nEpictetus, and Marcus Aurelius, there may be traced a loftiness,\nprecision, delicacy, tenderness, breadth of human sympathy, and\nrecognition of holiness in the Divine Being as the archetype of human\npurity, transcending all that is most admirable in pre-Christian\nmoralists. Thus, while I cannot but regard Cicero\u2019s \u201cDe Officiis\u201d as in\nmany respects the world\u2019s master-work in ethical philosophy, containing\nfewer unchristian sentences than I could number on the fingers of one\nhand, there is nothing in it that reminds me of the Gospels; while\nthese others often shape their thoughts in what seem to be evangelic\nmoulds.\n\nNow I think that we may account for the large diffusion of Christian\nthought and sentiment among persons who knew not Christianity even\nby name. The new religion was very extensively embraced among slaves\nin all parts of the Roman Empire, and _slave_ then meant something\nvery different from what it means now. It is an open question whether\nthere was not, at least out of Greece, more of learning, culture, and\nrefinement in the slave than in the free population of the Empire.\nWe must remember how many illustrious names in Greek and Roman\nliterature\u2014such names as those of Aesop, Terence, Epictetus\u2014belonged to\nslaves. Tiro, Cicero\u2019s slave, was not only one of his dearest friends,\nbut foremost among his literary confidants and advisers. Most of the\nrich men who had any love of literature owned their librarians and\ntheir copyists, and the teachers of the children were generally the\nproperty of the father. Among Christian slaves there were undoubtedly\nmany who felt no call to martyrdom, (which can have been incumbent\non them only when the alternative was apostasy and denial of their\nfaith,) who therefore made no open profession of their religion,\nwhile in precept, conversation, and life they were imbued with its\nspirit,\u2014a spirit as subtile in its penetrating power as it is refining\nand purifying in its influence. From the lips of Christian slaves\nmany children, no doubt, received in classic forms moral precepts\nredolent of the aroma breathed from the Sermon on the Mount. If the\nsocial medium which Plutarch represents is a fair specimen of the\nbest rural society of the Empire in his time, there must have been a\nready receptivity for the highest style of ethical teaching,\u2014a genial\nsoil for the germination of a truly evangelic righteousness of moral\nconception, maxim, and principle.\n\nProbably no book except the Bible has had more readers than Plutarch\u2019s\nLives. These biographies have been translated into every language\nof the civilized world; they have been among the earliest and\nmost fascinating books for children and youth of many successive\ngenerations; and down to the present time, when fiction seems to\nhave almost superseded history and biography, and to have destroyed\nthe once universal appetency for them among young people, they have\nexercised to a marvellous degree a shaping power over character. They\nare, indeed, underrated by the exact historian, because modern research\nhas discovered here and there some mistake in the details of events.\nBut such mistakes were in that age inevitable. Historical criticism was\nthen an unknown science. Documents and traditions covering the same\nground were deemed of equal value when they were in harmony, and when\nthey differed an author followed the one which best suited his taste,\nor his purpose for the time being. Thus Cicero, in one case, in the\nsame treatise gives three different versions of the same story. Thus,\ntoo, there were several stories afloat about the fate of Regulus; but\nRoman writers took that which Niebuhr thinks farthest from the truth,\nyet which threw the greatest odium on the hated name of Carthage. Now\nI have no doubt that, whenever there were two or more versions of the\nsame act or event, Plutarch chose that which would best point his\nmoral. But it is only in few and unimportant particulars that he has\nbeen proved to be inaccurate.\n\nIt has been also objected to Plutarch, that he attaches less importance\nto the achievements of his heroes in war and in civic life, than to\ntraits and anecdotes illustrative of their characters. This seems to me\na feature which adds not only to the charm of these Lives, but even\nmore to their historical value. The events of history are at once the\noutcome and the procreant cradle of character, and we know nothing of\nany period or portion of history except as we know the men who made\nit and the men whom it made. Biography is the soul; history the body,\nwhich it tenants and animates, and which, when not thus tenanted, is a\nheap of very dry bones. The most thorough knowledge of the topography\nof Julius Caesar\u2019s battles in Gaul, the minutest description of the\ncampaign that terminated in Pharsalia, the official journal of the\nSenate during his dictatorship, would tell us very little about him\nand his time. But a vivid sketch of his character, with well-chosen\ncharacteristic anecdotes, would give us a very distinct and realizing\nconception of the antecedent condition of things that made a life like\nhis possible, and of his actual influence for good and for evil on his\ncountry and his age.\n\nNor is the value of such a biography affected in the least by any\ndoubts that we may entertain as to the authenticity of incidents,\ntrivial except as illustrative of character, which occupy a large\nspace in Plutarch\u2019s Lives. Indeed, the least authentic may be of the\ngreatest historical value. An anecdote may be literally true, and yet\nsome peculiar combination of circumstances may have led him of whom it\nis told to speak or act out of character. But a mythical anecdote of\na man, coming down from his own time and people, must needs owe its\norigin and complexion to his known character.\n\nIt is perfectly easy to see throughout these biographies the author\u2019s\ndidactic aim. If I may use sacred words, here by no means misapplied,\nhis prime object was \u201creproof, correction, and instruction in\nrighteousness.\u201d He evidently felt and mourned the degeneracy of his\nage, was profoundly aware of the worth of teaching by example, and\nwas solicitous to bring from the past such elements of ethical wisdom\nas the records of illustrious men could be made to render up. True to\nthis purpose, he measures the moral character of such transactions as\nhe relates by the highest standard of right which he knows, and there\nis not a person or deed that fails to bear the stamp, clear-cut, yet\nseldom obtrusive, of his approval or censure.\n\nThe Lives, though the best known of Plutarch\u2019s writings, are but a\nsmall part of them, and hardly half of those still extant. His other\nworks are generally grouped under the title of \u201cMoralia,\u201d[xx:1] or\nMorals, though among them there are many treatises that belong to the\ndepartment of history or biography, some to that of physics. Most of\nthese works are short; a few, of considerable length. Some of them\nmay have been lectures; some are letters of advice or of consolation;\nsome are in a narrative form; many are in the form of dialogue, which,\nsanctioned by the prestige of Plato\u2019s pre-eminence, was very largely\nemployed by philosophers of later times, possessing, as it does, the\ngreat advantage of putting opposite and diverse opinions in the mouths\nof interlocutors, and thus giving to the treatise the vivacity and\nthe dramatic interest of oral discussion. Some of these dialogues\nhave a _symposium_, or supper party, for their scene, and introduce a\nnumerous corps of speakers. In these Plutarch himself commonly sustains\na prominent part, and the members of his family often have their share\nin the conversation, or are the subjects of kindly mention. In several\ninstances the occasion, circumstances, and conversation are described\nso naturally as to make it almost certain that the author simply wrote\nout from memory what was actually said. At any rate, these festive\ndialogues present very clearly his idea of what a _symposium_ ought\nto be, and in its entire freedom from excess and extravagance of any\nkind it would bear the strictest ordeal with all modern moralists, the\nextreme ascetics alone excepted.\n\nHad not the Lives been written, I am inclined to believe that the\nMoralia alone would have given Plutarch as high a place as he now\nholds, not only in the esteem of scholars, but in the interest and\ndelight of all readers of good books; and I am sure that there is\nno loving reader of the Lives who will not be thankful to have his\nattention drawn to the Moralia. They exhibit throughout the same\nmoral traits which their author shows as a biographer. He treats,\nindeed, incidentally, of some subjects which a purer ethical taste\nin the public mind might have excluded. He recognizes the existence\nof immoralities, which, not discreditable in the best society of\nunevangelized Greece and Rome, have almost lost their place and name in\nChristendom. Some of his dialogues have among the interlocutors those\nwith whom as good a man as he would in our time associate only in the\nhope of converting them. But his own opinion and feeling on all moral\nquestions are uniformly and explicitly in behalf of all that is pure,\nand true, and right, and reverent.\n\nMany of these Moralia are on what are commonly, yet wrongly, called\nthe minor morals, that is, on the evils that most of all infest and\ndestroy the happiness of families and the peace of society, and on the\nopposite virtues,\u2014on such subjects, for instance, as \u201cIdle Talking,\u201d\n\u201cCuriosity,\u201d \u201cSelf-Praise,\u201d and the like. Others are on such grave\ntopics as \u201cThe Benefits that a Man may derive from his Enemies,\u201d and\n\u201cThe Best Means of Self-Knowledge.\u201d There is in all these treatises a\nlarge amount of blended common sense and keen ethical insight; and so\nlittle does human nature change with its surroundings that the greater\npart of Plutarch\u2019s cautions, counsels, and precepts are as closely\napplicable to our own time as if they had been written yesterday.\n\nOne of the most remarkable writings in this collection is Plutarch\u2019s\nletter to his wife on the death of a daughter two years old, during\nhis absence from home. It not only expresses sweetly and lovingly the\ntopics of consolation which would most readily occur to a Christian\nfather; it gives us also a charming picture of a household united by\nties of spiritual affinity, and living in a purer, higher medium than\nthat of affluence and luxury. A few sentences may convey something\nof the tone and spirit of this epistle. \u201cSince our little daughter\nafforded us the sweetest and most charming pleasure, so ought we to\ncherish her memory, which will conduce in many ways, or rather many\nfold, more to our joy than our grief.\u201d \u201cThey who were present at the\nfuneral report this with admiration, that you neither put on mourning,\nnor disfigured yourself or any of your maids, neither were there any\ncostly preparations nor magnificent pomp; but all things were managed\nwith silence and moderation, in the presence of our relatives alone.\u201d\n\u201cSo long as she is gone to a place where she feels no pain, why should\nwe grieve for her?\u201d \u201cThis is the most troublesome thing in old age,\nthat it makes the soul weak in its remembrance of divine things, and\ntoo earnest for things relating to the body.\u201d \u201cBut that which is\ntaken away in youth, being more soft and tractable, soon returns to\nits native vigor and beauty.\u201d \u201cIt is good to pass the gates of death\nbefore too great a love of bodily and earthly things be engendered in\nthe soul.\u201d \u201cIt is an impious thing to lament for those whose souls\npass immediately into a better and more divine state.\u201d \u201cWherefore let\nus comply with custom in our outward and public behavior, and let our\ninterior be more unpolluted, pure and holy.\u201d\n\nNow, when I remember that in the pre-Christian Greek and Roman world\nthe strongest utterances about immortality had been by Socrates, if\nPlato reported him aright, when he expressed strong hope of life beyond\ndeath, yet warned his friends not to be too confident about a matter\nso wrapped in uncertainty,\u2014and by Cicero, who, when his daughter died,\nconfessed that his reasonings had left no conviction in his own mind,\u2014I\ncannot doubt that some Easter morning rays had pierced the dense\nBoeotian atmosphere, and that the risen Saviour had in that lovely\nCheroneian household those whom he designates as \u201cother sheep, not of\nthis fold.\u201d\n\nThere is among the Moralia another letter of consolation, to Apollonius\non the death of his son, longer, more elaborate, and evidently intended\nas a literary composition, to be preserved with the author\u2019s other\nworks, which breathes the same spirit of submission and trust.\n\nAnother of the Moralia, which has a special interest as regards the\nauthor\u2019s own family, is on the \u201cTraining of Children,\u201d\u2014a series of\ncounsels\u2014including the careful heed of the parents to their own moral\ncondition and habits\u2014to which the experience of these intervening\ncenturies has little to add, while it could find nothing to take away.\n\nIn one sense, the miscellanies brought together under the name\nof \u201cMoralia\u201d bear that title not inappropriately; for, as I have\nintimated, Plutarch could not but be didactic in whatever he wrote,\nand the ethical feeling, spirit, and purpose are perpetually, yet\nnever ostentatiously or inappropriately, coming to the surface on all\nkinds of subjects. But there is a great deal in the collection not\nprofessedly or directly ethical. There are many scraps of history\nand biography, and a very large number and variety of characteristic\nanecdotes, both of well-known personages, and of others who are made\nknown to us almost as vividly by a single trait, deed, or saying as\nif we had their entire life-record. There is an invaluable series of\n\u201cApophthegms\u201d[xxv:1] of kings and great commanders,[xxv:2] and another\nof \u201cLaconic [or Spartan] Apophthegms,\u201d which are much more than their\nname implies, some of them being condensed memoirs. There are, also,\nseveral papers that give us more definite notions than can be found\nanywhere else of the science and natural history of the author\u2019s time.\nWithal, we have here so many references to manners, customs, and\nhabits, such pictures of home with all that could give it the sweetness\nand grace that belong to it, such views of society, both in city and\nin country, in ordinary intercourse and on festive occasions, that\none can learn more of life in that age in the Roman Empire from these\nvolumes than from any other single author; and the writer of a book\nlike Becker\u2019s \u201cGallus\u201d might find here almost all the materials that\nhe would need, except for the delineation of the night-side of Roman\nextravagance, gluttony, drunkenness, debauchery, and depravity, which\ncame not within Plutarch\u2019s experience.\n\nThe most remarkable of all Plutarch\u2019s writings, the most valuable\nequally in a philosophical and an ethical point of view, and the most\nredolent of what we almost involuntarily call Christian sentiment, is\nthat \u201cOn the Delay of the Divine Justice,\u201d or, to give a more literal\ntranslation of the original title, \u201cConcerning those who are punished\nslowly by the Divine [Being].\u201d[xxvi:1] It treats of what from the\nearliest time has been a mystery to serious minds, and has been urged\nequally by malignant irreligion and by honest scepticism against the\nsupremacy of the Divine justice in the government of the world; namely,\nthe postponement of the penal consequences of guilt, sometimes till\nthere are no witnesses of the crime left to behold the punishment,\nsometimes till the offender himself has lost the thread between the\nevil that he did and its retribution, sometimes till the sinner has\ngone to the grave in peace, and left innocent posterity to suffer for\nhis sins. Plutarch, with his unquestioning faith in immortality,\ndoubts not that guilt, unpunished in this life, will be overtaken by\njust retribution in the life to come. But, as he says, retribution,\nthough it may be consummated only in the future life, is not delayed\ntill then. It seems late, because it lasts long. The sentence is passed\nupon the guilt when it is committed; and, however its visible execution\nmay be postponed, the sinner is from that moment a prisoner of the\nDivine justice, awaiting execution. He may give splendid suppers, and\nlive luxuriously; yet still he is within prison walls from which there\nis no escape.\n\nThis is undoubtedly true, and yet there are many cases, and those of\nthe worst kind, in which it seems to be not true. A moderately bad man,\nin most instances, feels profoundly the shame and misery that he has\nbrought upon himself. But a thoroughly wicked man takes contentedly\na position which we may fitly term sub-human. If we suppose a man\npossessed of a magnificent house, luxuriously and tastefully furnished,\nwho yet chooses never to ascend a stair, and lives in the basement\nshabbily and meanly, with the coarsest appliances of physical comfort,\nwe might take him as the type of not a few bad men who seem entirely\nat their ease. They live in the basement. They have thrown away the\nkey to the upper rooms. They have lost all appreciation of the higher,\nbetter modes of human living, and they are contented and satisfied\nas a well-fed beast is, in the absence of all spiritual cravings and\nambitions. But this life, poor and mean as it is at the best, becomes\nstill more narrow and sordid with the lapse of time. Many have looked\nwith envy on prosperous guilt early or midway in its career; none\ncan have witnessed its lengthened age without pity and loathing.\nEspecially is this the case with the several forms of sensual vice. As\nage advances, the power of enjoyment wanes, while the morbid craving\ngrows, even under the consciousness of added misery with its continued\nindulgence. The body becomes the soul\u2019s dungeon, and its walls thicken\ninward and close up the wonted entrances of enjoyment. The senses,\ndeadened on the side of pleasure, no longer avenues of beauty or of\nharmony, seem to serve only as means of prolonging a death in life, and\nas open inlets of discomfort and pain.\n\nBut the suspense of sentence has in not a few cases, according to\nPlutarch, a directly merciful purpose. As the most fertile soil may\nbefore tillage produce the rankest weeds, so in the soul most capable\nof good there may be, prior to culture, a noisome crop of evil, and\nyet God may spare the sinner for the good that is in him, and for\nthe signal service which, when reclaimed, he may render to mankind.\nThen, too, by the delay of visible judgment God gives men in his own\nexample the lesson of long-suffering, and rebukes their promptness in\nresentment and revenge. Still further, when penalty appears to fall\non the posterity or successors of the guilty, and a race, a people, a\ncity, or a family seems punished for the iniquity of its progenitors,\nPlutarch brings out very fully and clearly the absolutely essential\nand necessary solidarity of the family or the community, which can\nhardly fail so to inherit of its ancestors in disposition and character\nas to invite upon itself, to merit for itself, or at best to need as\npreventive or cure, the penal consequences of ancestral guilt.\n\nThis essay is all the more valuable because not written by a Christian.\nIt shows that the intense stress laid by Christian teaching on a\nrighteous retribution lasting on beyond the death-change is not a mere\ndogma of the sacred records of our religion, but equally the postulate\nof the unsophisticated reason and conscience of developed humanity.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMy translation is not literal, in the common meaning of that term. If\nit were so, it would be unintelligible; for Plutarch\u2019s style lacks\nsimplicity, and his sentences, though seldom obscure, are often\ninvolved and intricate, sometimes elliptical. I have, however, given a\nfaithful transcript in English of what I understand Plutarch to have\nwritten, omitting no thought or shade of thought that I suppose to be\nhis, and inserting none of my own.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI have used Wyttenbach\u2019s edition of the Moralia, departing from his\ntext in but a single instance, and that, one in which he pronounces\nthe reading in the text impossible, and suggests a conjectural reading\nas necessary to the sense of the passage. I have also made constant\nreference to the late Professor Hackett\u2019s edition of this treatise,\nwhich it is superfluous to commend where he was known; for not only\nwas he confessedly among the foremost scholars of his time, but his\nexacting conscientiousness would not suffer him to put less than his\nbest and most thorough work into whatever came from his hands.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[vii:1] A large part of this Introduction is reprinted, by permission\nof the editors, from an article of mine on \u201cPlutarch and his Times,\u201d in\nthe Andover Review, November, 1884.\n\n[vii:2] \u03a0\u03bb\u03bf\u03cd\u03c4\u03b1\u03c1\u03c7\u03bf\u03c2.\n\n[xx:1] \u03a4\u1f70 \u1f20\u03b8\u03b9\u03ba\u03ac.\n\n[xxv:1] \u1f08\u03c0\u03bf\u03c6\u03b8\u03ad\u03b3\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1.\n\n[xxv:2] The genuineness of this series has been called in question; but\nthe internal evidence seems decisive in its favor. It is, throughout,\nso entirely in Plutarch\u2019s vein, that one is tempted to ask, Who else\ncould have written it?\n\n[xxvi:1] \u03a0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76 \u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f51\u03c0\u1f78 \u03c4\u03bf\u1fe6 \u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b2\u03c1\u03b1\u03b4\u03ad\u03c9\u03c2 \u03c4\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u03c1\u03bf\u03c5\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd.\n\n\n\n\nPLUTARCH\n\nON THE DELAY OF THE DIVINE JUSTICE.\n\n\n1. EPICURUS,[1:1] having said such things, O Cinius,[1:2]\nbefore any one could reply, while we were at the farther end of\nthe porch, went hastily away. But we, somewhat amazed at the man\u2019s\nrudeness, stood still, looking at one another without speaking, and\nthen turned and resumed our walk.\n\nThen PATROCLEAS[2:1] commenced the conversation, saying,\u2014What\nthen? Do you see fit to drop the discussion? or will you answer his\nargument as if he were present, though he has taken himself away?\n\nTIMON[2:2] then said,\u2014If he threw a javelin[2:3] at us as he\nwent away, it certainly would not be well for us to take no notice of\nthe weapon still sticking in our sides. Brasidas,[2:4] indeed, as we\nare told, drew out the spear from his own body, and killed with it the\nman who had hurled it at him. But it is no concern of ours to retaliate\non those who fling at us misplaced and false reasoning; it is enough\nfor them if we reject their arguments before they affect our belief.\n\nThen I said,\u2014Which of the arguments that he urged moved you the most?\nFor the man, as if inspired both by wrath and by scorn, brought\ntogether against the Divine Providence many things heaped up in\nconfusion, yet no well-ordered reasons, but such miscellaneous cavils\nas could be gathered here and there.\n\n2. PATROCLEAS then said,\u2014The slowness and procrastination\nof the Deity in the punishment of the wicked seem to me the most\nmysterious of all things; and now, under these arguments, I find myself\na new and fresh adherent to the doctrine in behalf of which they are\nurged. Indeed, I used a long time ago to be vexed by that saying of\nEuripides:\u2014\n\n    \u201cHe lingers; such the nature of the gods.\u201d[3:1]\n\nWhile in no respect, least of all toward wicked men, is it fitting\nthat God should be dilatory; for they are in no wise dilatory or\nslow in ill-doing, but are hurried on to evil by their passions with\nthe utmost impetuosity. Indeed, as Thucydides says,[3:2] punishment\nclose at hand bars the way to those who most hope to gain by guilt.\nMoreover, no debt overdue, equally with the delay of due punishment,\nrenders the person wronged utterly hopeless and depressed, while it\nconfirms the evil-doer in boldness and audacity. On the other hand,\npunishments directly inflicted on those who are bold in evil are at\nonce preventive of future crimes, and a source of great consolation to\nthose who have suffered wrong. I am therefore troubled by the saying\nof Bias,[4:1] which often recurs to me, when he told a man of bad\ncharacter that he had no fear that he would go unpunished, but feared\nthat he himself might not live to see him punished. What good, indeed,\ndid the punishment of Aristocrates[4:2] do to the Messenians who were\nslain before it came upon him? He betrayed them in the battle of\nTaphrus, yet, not being found out for twenty years, he reigned over the\nArcadians all that time, till at length his treachery was discovered\nand met with its due penalty; but the victims of his crime had ceased\nto be. Again, what comfort did any of the Orchomenians[4:3] who lost\nchildren, friends, and kindred by the treachery of Lyciscus derive\nfrom the disease that many years afterward seized him and consumed his\nbody, while he, when he dipped and washed his feet in the river, always\nprayed, with oaths and curses, that his limbs might rot if he had ever\nbeen guilty of treason and injustice? Indeed, not even the children\u2019s\nchildren of those who were then murdered could have witnessed at\nAthens the snatching of the contaminated bodies of the murderers from\ntheir graves, and their transportation beyond the boundaries of the\nstate.[5:1] Hence, Euripides is absurd, when, to dissuade from crime,\nhe says:\u2014\n\n    \u201cNo haste has Justice; dread not her approach;\n     She strikes no mortal heart with sudden blow;\n     But noiseless, with slow step, she glides along,\n     To smite the guilty when their hour has come.\u201d[5:2]\n\nIt seems to me that it is no other considerations than these that lead\nbad men to encourage themselves, and to give themselves free scope for\nguilty enterprise, inasmuch as the fruit of wrong-doing is quickly ripe\nand in full sight, while punishment is late, and lingers far behind the\nenjoyment derived from the guilt.\n\n3. When Patrocleas had thus spoken, OLYMPICUS,[6:1] taking\nup the thread of his discourse, said,\u2014It should also be observed,\nPatrocleas, how exceedingly great is the mischief resulting from the\ndelay and procrastination of the Deity about these matters, since the\ntardiness of retribution takes away faith in Providence; and because\nchastisement for the wicked does not ensue immediately upon the\nperformance of an evil deed, but comes upon them afterward, they place\nit to the account of misfortune, call it ill-luck and not punishment,\nand so are in no wise profited by it,\u2014being grieved indeed for what\nbefalls them, but not led to repentance for their ill-doing. For as the\npunishment of the whip and the spur immediately on a horse\u2019s stumbling\nor shying corrects him and puts him on right behavior, while beating\nand twitching of the reins and shouting at him at a later period seem\nto him for some other purpose than discipline, and thus annoy him\nwithout teaching him, so guilt rebuked and checked by punishment after\neach of its wrong-doings and transgressions might gradually become\nconscience-stricken, and be brought to the fear of God, as presiding\nover the affairs and experiences of men with a justice that does not\nlinger; but justice hesitating and slow-paced, as Euripides describes\nit, and falling upon the wicked as if by chance, being vague, untimely,\nand out of due order, seems like a merely fortuitous event rather than\nordained by Providence. Thus, I do not see what use there is in those\nmills of the gods said to grind so late[7:1] as to render punishment\nhard to be recognized, and to make wickedness fearless.\n\n4. These things having been uttered, and I being wrapped in thought,\nTIMON said,\u2014Shall I now put the climax to this reasoning on\nthe side of scepticism, or shall I rather suffer Plutarch[7:2] to argue\nagainst what has already been brought forward?\n\nThen I said,\u2014What need is there of bringing on the third wave,[7:3]\nand utterly whelming the subject in doubt and difficulty, if one is\nnot able to refute what was urged at the outset, and to set aside the\nobjections already offered? First, then, taking our start from the\nhome-altar of reverence for all that is divine,\u2014the heritage of the\nphilosophers of the Academy,\u2014we shall piously refrain from speaking\nabout these things as if we had certain knowledge of them. For it\nis less presumptuous for one unskilled in music to discourse about\nit, or for one not versed in military science to give his judgment\nin matters relating to the conduct of war, than for us to pretend to\nlook through the things that appertain to God and to superior spirits,\nmere men as we are, like unskilled observers who should undertake to\npass sentence on the skill of artists by their own conjectures and\nsurmises. It is not easy, indeed, for a common person to comprehend\na physician\u2019s reasons for using the knife later, and not earlier, or\nfor ordering a bath, not yesterday, but to-day; and still less is it\neasy or safe for a mortal to say of God anything except that he, best\nknowing the fit time for the curing of wickedness, applies to every\nevil-doer punishment as the appropriate medicine, and this not of the\nsame intensity, nor at one and the same interval of time, for all. Now\nthat the medical treatment of souls, termed punishment and justice,\nis the greatest of all arts, Pindar,[8:1] with myriads of others,\ntestifies, calling God, the chief and lord of all, the supremely good\nartificer, as being the author of justice, to whom it belongs to allot\nto each of the guilty the time, mode, and measure of his punishment.\nMoreover, Plato says that Minos, although the son of Zeus, became his\ndisciple in this art, so that it is not possible for one who has not\nbeen a learner in it and acquired skill in it, to proceed aright in the\nadministration of justice, or to pass an intelligent judgment on its\nadministration by another. Even the laws which men make do not always\nhave a justifying reason that is simple and generally manifest; but\nsome of their enactments seem very ridiculous. Thus, in Lacedaemon,\nthe Ephori when they come into office make immediate proclamation\nthat no man shall let the beard on the upper lip grow,[9:1] and that\nthe laws must be so obeyed that they shall never be annoying to the\ncitizens. Thus too, the Romans strike the slaves whom they are going to\nemancipate with a slender twig.[9:2] They also, when they make their\nwills, appoint certain persons their heirs, and sell their property\nto other persons,[9:3] which appears absurd. But the most absurd of\nall seems that enactment of Solon, that, in case of an insurrection in\nthe city, he who does not attach himself to either party, or act on\neither side, shall be branded with civic infamy.[10:1] In fine, one\nwho understood not the purpose of the lawgiver, nor comprehended the\nreasons for the individual statutes, might enumerate many instances of\nfoolish legislation. What wonder is it then, if, while human affairs\nare so difficult to be understood, it is not easy to say concerning the\ngods why they punish some transgressors later, some earlier?\n\n5. These things I say, not as a pretence for getting rid of the\nsubject, but as an apology for the liberty which I crave in discussing\nit, that my discourse, as if looking to some ultimate harbor or\nrefuge,[10:2] may proceed with the greater assurance to resolve\nthe doubt. But first see how, as Plato says, God, making himself\nconspicuous as the example of all things good, bestows human virtue,\nin some sort his own likeness, on those who are able to be followers\nof God. For nature throughout, being first in a state of chaos, had\nthe beginning of its change, and of its becoming an orderly universe,\nby means of a resemblance to and a participation in the Divine idea\nand the Divine virtue. The same author says that nature kindled sight\nin us, that the soul by seeing and admiring the heavenly bodies,\naccustoming itself to behold and admire what is becoming and orderly,\nmight hate unseemly and vagrant passions, and might shun rash and\nhaphazard conduct, as the source of all wickedness and vice. For it has\nfallen to man\u2019s lot to enjoy from God no greater gift than the capacity\nof being formed to virtue by the imitation of those things in God that\nare beautiful and good. Thus also to bad men he appoints punishment\nwith a lingering and leisurely stroke, not because he fears mistake or\nreason for repentance were he to punish more promptly, but in order\nto expel from us the brutish and impetuous element that there is in\npunishment, and to teach us not to fall upon those who have injured us\nwith anger, nor when\n\n    \u201cRevenge, outleaping all restraint of reason,\u201d[11:1]\n\nblazes and rages, as if we were bent on appeasing thirst or hunger,\nbut, imitating his clemency and long-suffering, to proceed to\nchastisement deliberately and cautiously, choosing, as helping us to\ntake the wiser counsel, the time that shall give us the least reason\nfor repentance. As Socrates said, it is not so bad to drink turbid\nwater to excess as for a temper agitated and overwhelmed by anger and\nrage, before it can be settled and clarified, to satiate itself in the\npunishment of a kinsman or a neighbor. For it is not, as Thucydides\nsays, the retribution nearest in time to the injury received, but that\nwhich lies the farthest from it, that obeys the law of fitness. As\nanger, according to Melanthius,[12:1]\n\n    \u201cBy deeds depraved and dire casts reason out,\u201d\n\nso reason performs right and moderate deeds, putting anger and\nresentment to flight. Hence it is that men are made meek by the\nexamples of other men; as when they hear how Plato, having lifted\nhis staff over his servant\u2019s head, stood still for a long time,\npunishing his own anger, as he said; and how Archytas, learning of\nsome misconduct and disorder of his laborers in the field, conscious\nthat he was becoming resentful and bitter in his feeling toward them,\ndid nothing except to say, as he left them, \u201cIt is fortunate for you\nthat I am angry.\u201d But if the reported sayings and doings of men can\ntone down the harshness and severity of anger, how much more fitting\nis it that we\u2014seeing that God, to whom there is no need of delay nor\npossibility of repentance, yet puts off punishment into the future,\nand awaits its fitting time\u2014should ourselves be circumspect in these\nmatters, and should regard as a Divine part of virtue the clemency and\nlong-suffering which God manifests, reforming few indeed by punishment,\nbut by the slowness of punishment benefiting and admonishing many![12:2]\n\n6. Let us next consider, in the second place, that punishments\ninflicted by men have no purpose but retaliation, terminating in the\nsuffering of the wrong-doer, and going no farther. They thus follow\nhard upon the offences, as a dog barking at the offender\u2019s heels,\nand pursue evil deeds close in their rear. But God probably sees\nthrough the dispositions of the diseased souls to which he draws nigh\nin judgment, knows whether they show an inclination to repentance,\nand grants time for reformation to those whose guilt has not been\nexcessive or irreclaimable. For, aware what endowment of virtue souls\nbring from him when they come into the world, and how strong and\nimperishable in them is this native nobleness, which, though\u2014corrupted\nby bad association and nurture\u2014it may blossom into evil contrary to\nnature, yet when cured restores some men entirely to proper habits of\nlife, he therefore does not punish all alike; but the incurable he\nspeedily takes out of being, and cuts them off, inasmuch as it is not\nonly harmful to others, but, most of all, injurious to the sinner\u2019s\nown self, to be always conversant with wickedness. On the other hand,\nto those whose sins probably proceeded rather from ignorance of the\ngood than from preference for what is vile, he gives time for a change\nof character; but if they continue as they are, he executes justice\non them too, and there is no danger of their escaping. Now see what\nchanges have taken place in the habits and lives of men. Therefore\nthe changeable part of the life or character is designated by a word\ndenoting _turn_,[14:1] and also by a word denoting _habit_,[14:2]\nbecause habit constitutes a large part of the character, and, when\nadopted, has commanding influence. I am inclined to think, indeed,\nthat the ancients ascribed to Cecrops[14:3] a double nature, not, as\nsome say, because from a good king he became a fierce and dragon-like\ntyrant, but, on the other hand, because, having been in the beginning\nperverse and an object of terror, he afterward ruled with meekness\nand kindness. But if this is an open question, we know concerning\nGelon[14:4] and Hieron[14:5] of Sicily, and Peisistratus,[15:1] the\nson of Hippocrates, that, getting possession of absolute power by foul\nmeans, they used it to good purpose. Gaining the ascendency unlawfully,\nthey governed with moderation and for the public welfare. Indeed,\nthey made excellent laws, gave great encouragement to agriculture,\nand converted their subjects from scoffers and babblers into sober\ncitizens and industrious men. Gelon also, being an excellent military\ncommander and conquering the Carthaginians in a great battle, refused\nto conclude the peace which they sought, till he had procured the\ninsertion in the treaty of a promise on their part to cease offering\nchildren to Cronus.[15:2] Lydiades[15:3] at first exercised a\ntyrannical sway in Megalopolis; but during his reign becoming a\ndifferent man, and inspired with hatred for injustice, he restored\nlaws to the citizens, and then, fighting with their enemies, fell\ngloriously in his country\u2019s cause. If one had killed Miltiades[16:1]\nwhen he was a tyrant in Chersonesus, or had prosecuted and slain Cimon\nwhen he was living with his sister as his wife,[16:2] or had the people\nbanished Themistocles[16:3] from the city when he went about making\nriot and doing mischief, and showed his insolence in the market-place,\nsentencing him to exile as Alcibiades was afterward sentenced, would\nnot the Marathons have been lost to us? and the Eurymedons? and the\nbeautiful\n\n    \u201cEuboean headland,[17:1] where the sons of Athens\n     Laid the fair corner-stone of liberty?\u201d[17:2]\n\nGreat natures, indeed, produce nothing small. Because of the intensity\nof their impulses, what is strong and efficient in them does not remain\nidle; but they are tossed to and fro as on an ocean before attaining\nto a fixed and established character. Therefore, as one unskilled in\nhusbandry, seeing a tract of country full of prickly shrubs and weeds,\nabounding in vermin, and having much stagnant water and a great deal\nof mud, would not make choice of it, while to one who has learned to\ndiscriminate and judge, these very things indicate strength and all\nother good qualities in the soil, and show that it can be ploughed\nwithout resistance, so in like manner there are great natures that\nbring forth many things annoying and blameworthy, the roughness and\nthorniness of which so put us out of patience that we might think it\nbest to cut them off and to prevent all further growth; while the\nbetter Judge, discerning from these very tokens the excellence and\nnobleness that lie beneath them, awaits maturity as the coadjutor of\nreason and virtue, and the period when the nature once so wild shall\nyield fruit that is not wild.\n\n7. Enough has been said on this point. To pass to another\nconsideration, do you not think that it was wise in some of the Greek\nstates to copy the Egyptian law, that a woman with child under sentence\nof death shall have her sentence suspended till her child is born?\n\nWe think so,\u2014they all said.\n\nThen I continued,\u2014If one cannot bear children, yet will be able\nin process of time to bring forth into the light some clandestine\ntransaction or conspiracy, or will disclose some lurking evil, or will\nbecome the author of some salutary counsel, or will invent a supply for\nsome urgent need, is not he who awaits the benefit that will accrue\nfrom delay in punishing such a man wiser than he who would put the\noffender out of the way at once? So I think.\n\nAnd so do we, said PATROCLEAS.\n\nYou are right, said I. For consider that, if Dionysius[18:1] had been\npunished in the beginning of his tyrannical reign, none of Greek\ndescent would ever have lived again in Sicily after its devastation by\nthe Carthaginians. Nor, if Periander[19:1] had been speedily punished,\nwould Greeks have again inhabited Apollonia, or Anactorium, or the\npeninsula of the Leucadians.[19:2] I think, too, that Cassander\u2019s\npunishment was delayed, that Thebes might be repeopled.[19:3] The\nlarger part of the strangers that had plundered the temple,[19:4] and\nafterwards went to Sicily with Timoleon, perished wretchedly in their\nguilt, but not till they had conquered the Carthaginians, and put an\nend to their oppressive rule.[20:1] Indeed, the Deity uses some bad\nmen as public executioners to punish others, and then destroys the\nexecutioners themselves. This, I think, has been the case with most\ntyrants. For as the gall of the hyena, and the saliva of the sea-calf,\nand other parts of loathsome beasts, have a certain virtue in the cure\nof diseases, so upon some who need severe chastisement God inflicts\nthe implacable bitterness of a tyrant or the annoying oppression of\na chieftain, and removes not what pains and troubles them till the\ndisease is cured and purged away. Such a medicine was Phalaris[20:2]\nto the people of Agrigentum, and Marius to the Romans.[20:3] God\nindeed expressly foretold to the people of Sicyon that they would\nof necessity be severely scourged, for seizing as of their own city\nTeletias, a Cleonaean youth, who had been crowned in the Pythian games,\nand then tearing him in pieces.[21:1] Accordingly Orthagoras, and after\nhim Myron and Cleisthenes and their satellites, put an end to their\nlawlessness. But the Cleonaeans, not chancing to have the same curative\ntreatment, came to naught.[21:2] Hear also Homer, when he says,\n\n    \u201cA son endowed with every virtue sprang\n     From parentage that gave no sign of virtue.\u201d\n\nThis son of Copreus, of whom he thus speaks, achieved indeed no\nsplendid or noble deeds; but the posterity of Sisyphus, and that of\nAutolycus, and that of Phlegyas, bloomed forth in the glories and\nvirtues that belong to great kings. Pericles sprang from an infamous\nAthenian family,[21:3] and Pompey the Great in Rome was the son of\nStrabo,[21:4] whom the Roman people so hated that they cast his dead\nbody out of doors and trod it under foot. What wonder is it then, if,\nas the farmer does not cut down the thorn-bush till he has taken from\nit the green shoots which he uses as salad, nor do the Libyans burn the\ncistus till they have collected the balsam which it yields, so God does\nnot destroy the evil and thorny root of an honorable and royal race\ntill the appropriate fruit springs from it? For it was better for the\nPhocians to have lost ten thousand of the cattle and horses of Iphitus,\nand a larger amount of gold and silver than was ever abstracted from\nDelphi, than that Odysseus[22:1] or Aesculapius[22:2] should not\nhave been born, or that the world should have failed of the good and\neminently useful men who have been the sons of wicked and depraved\nfathers.\n\n8. But must we not think it better that punishments should take place\nin fitting time and way, than that they should be inflicted speedily\nand promptly? There was a fitness in the case of Callippus, who with\nthe very same dagger with which he had procured the death of Dion\nwhile feigning to be his friend was himself killed by the friends of\nDion;[23:1] and in that of the murderer of Mitius of Argos, who was\nkilled in a riot, and whose brazen statue in the market-place fell with\nfatal issue on the man who had killed him. You, Patrocleas, must, I\nam sure, know about Bessus the Paeonian, and Aristo the Oetaean, the\ncommander of the foreign soldiers.\n\nNo, by Zeus, said PATROCLEAS, I do not know, but I want to\nknow about them.\n\nAristo,[23:2] said I, by leave of the tyrants,[23:3] took away the\nornaments of Eriphyle deposited here,[23:4] and carried them as a\npresent to his wife; but his son, being for some reason angry with\nhis mother, set the house on fire, and burned all that were in it.\nBessus, it is said, killed his father, and escaped detection for a long\ntime. But at length, going to supper among strangers, he shook down a\nswallow\u2019s nest with his spear, and killed the young birds; and when\nthose present asked, as was natural, what had provoked him to do so\nstrange a thing, he said, \u201cDo they not, even of old, bear false witness\nagainst me, and cry out that I killed my father?\u201d Those who heard him,\nmarvelling at what he said, told the king, and, on investigation,\nBessus suffered due punishment.\n\n9. What I have said thus far has been said on the supposition that, as\nis generally thought, there is an actual delay in the punishment of\nthe wicked. But as to what may yet be said on this point, it may be\nwell for us to listen to Hesiod, who maintains, not, with Plato, that\npunishment is a suffering that follows wrong-doing, but that it is a\ntwin birth with wrong-doing, springing from the same soil and the same\nroot; for he says,\n\n    \u201cBad counsel does most harm to him who gives it,\u201d\n\nand,\n\n    \u201cWho does another wrong himself most wrongs.\u201d\n\nThe cantharis,[24:1] by a certain contrast in the elements of its\nphysical structure, is said to contain within itself the antidote for\nthe wound which it makes. But\u2014the converse of this\u2014guilt, bringing\nwith itself into being its own pain and punishment, not subsequently\nto, but in the very act of wrong-doing receives its penalty. The\nmalefactor who is to be crucified carries his cross with his own\nbody; and in like manner wickedness creates from itself, to be borne\nby itself, each several form of chastisement, being, so to speak, an\nexpert artificer of a wretched life, attended by thronging fears and\ndistressing emotions, by ceaseless remorse and constant perturbation.\nBut some persons are like children, who, often seeing in the theatres\nmalefactors in gold-embroidered tunics and purple mantles, crowned and\ndancing, admire and applaud them as happy beings, until they appear on\nthe stage goaded and scourged, and with fire streaming from their gay\nand finely wrought apparel.[25:1] For many of the wicked, surrounded by\nlarge families, and possessed of places of high command and extended\nauthority, are not visibly punished till they are seen slain or hurled\ndown a precipice, which ought to be called, not punishment, but the\nend or consummation of punishment. As Plato says that Herodicus, the\nSelymbrian, being attacked with phthisis, an incurable disease, and\nbeing the first to unite gymnastics with the healing art, made death\nlong for himself and for those similarly affected; so too such of the\nwicked as seem to escape immediate punishment receive, not after a long\ntime, but during a long time, not a slower, but a longer punishment;\nnor are they punished when they grow old, but they grow old in a state\nof punishment. Yet it is only to you that I speak of a long time; for\nto the gods any period of human life is as nothing, and \u201cnow, not\nthirty years hence,\u201d is to them as it would be to us for a malefactor\nto be put to torture or hanged this evening, and not to-morrow morning.\nBesides, one is kept in life as in a prison that has no outlet or mode\nof escape; yet he may enjoy frequent feasts, may transact business, may\nreceive presents and kindnesses, like the men who play with dice or at\ndraughts in prison, with the rope hanging over their heads.\n\n10. Indeed, why may I not say that those under sentence of death are\nnot punished till their heads are cut off,\u2014and that he who has been\ncondemned to drink hemlock, and then goes about and remains unaffected\ntill his legs grow heavy, is not punished until he is overpowered by\nthe deadening of the muscles and the congealing of the blood, combined\nwith the loss of consciousness,\u2014if we confine the name of punishment\nto the last stage of punishment, and leave out of the account the\nsufferings, and terrors, and apprehension, and remorse, which in the\nmean while prey upon every guilty soul? As well might we maintain that\na fish that has swallowed the hook is not caught till we see it roasted\nby the cook or cut up on the table. For every wrong-doer is in the\ngrasp of justice so soon as he has swallowed as a bait the pleasure\nconnected with his sin, having a conscience resting heavily upon him,\nand driven hither and thither in the endeavor to expiate his guilt,\n\n    \u201cAs the impetuous tunny ploughs the sea.\u201d\n\nUp to the time when the crime is committed, the well-known assurance\nand audacity of guilt are strong and efficient; but afterward the\nexcitement subsides like a wind that dies away, and the mind, enfeebled\nand dispirited, becomes subject to fears and superstitions,\u2014so that\nClytemnestra\u2019s dream, as related by Stesichorus, is in conformity with\nexperience and truth. The verses are:\n\n    \u201cA dragon seemed to come with blood-smeared head,\n     And took the form of King Pleisthenides.\u201d[27:1]\n\nIndeed, visions in sleep, noonday apparitions, oracles, peals of\nthunder, and whatever events can seem to take place by the agency\nof God, are fraught with tempests and terrors for those who are in\nthis condition. Thus, it is said that Apollodorus[28:1] once in\nhis sleep saw himself flayed by Scythians, then boiled, and his own\nheart speaking out of the caldron, and saying, \u201cI have brought all\nthis upon thee\u201d; and again, that he saw his daughters on fire, their\nbodies in flames, running round him in a circle. It is said, too,\nthat Hipparchus,[28:2] the son of Peisistratus, shortly before his\ndeath, saw Aphrodite sprinkling blood upon his face from a vial.\nThe friends of Ptolemy surnamed Ceraunus[28:3] saw him summoned to\nthe tribunal by Seleucus, with vultures and wolves for his judges,\nwhile he was distributing large portions of flesh to his enemies.\nPausanias,[28:4] having sent to seize by force Cleonice, a free-born\nmaiden in Byzantium, that he might have her company by night, and then,\nin consequence of some unaccountable mental disturbance or suspicion,\nkilling her when she arrived, often saw her in his dreams, saying to\nhim,\n\n    \u201cCome quick to judgment; lust works woe to man.\u201d\n\nThe vision not being discontinued, it is said, he set sail for the\noracle of the dead at Heracleia, and there, by fitting propitiatory\nsacrifices and libations, he called up the maiden\u2019s soul;[29:1] and\nshe, coming into his presence, told him that he should rest from these\ntroubles on his arrival at Lacedaemon. As soon as he arrived there, he\ndied.\n\n11. Thus, if there is nothing for the soul after death, that is, if\ndeath is the end of all reward and punishment, one might be disposed\nto say that the Deity deals indulgently and leniently with those of\nthe wicked who are soon punished and die early. For were it maintained\nthat in their lifetime the wicked incur no other evil than the\nconviction that wrong-doing is utterly fruitless and graceless, and\nfor the many and great conflicts of mind that it costs confers no\nbenefit nor anything worthy of endeavor, the perception of this alone\nis fatal to the soul\u2019s happiness. It is with the evil-doer as with\nLysimachus,[30:1] who, compelled by thirst to surrender his person and\nhis command to the Getae, having quenched his thirst and being at the\nsame time made a prisoner, exclaimed, \u201cAlas for my guilt in suffering\nmyself to be deprived of so great a kingdom for so brief a pleasure!\u201d\nIt is, indeed, in a case like this, exceedingly difficult to resist\nthe necessity created by a natural appetite. But when a man, either\nfrom inordinate desire for wealth, or from envy of those possessed of\ncivic honor and power, or for the sake of some sensual gratification,\ncommits an unlawful and abominable deed, and, after the thirst and\nmadness of passion have subsided, sees in due time the vile and fearful\ntraits of character which lead to crime established permanently within\nhim, while he can discern in himself nothing useful, or serviceable,\nor profitable, is it not probable that the thought often occurs to\nhim that for vainglory or for slavish and fruitless pleasure, he has\nset at naught the greatest and best things that are accounted right\namong men, and thus whelmed his life in shame and trouble? For as\nSimonides[30:2] said in jest that he found the chest of money always\nfull, that of thanks empty, so the wicked, having a clear view of their\nown guilt, find it\u2014after the indulgence which yields for the moment\nan empty pleasure\u2014utterly devoid of hope, and always laden with fears\nand griefs, with cheerless memories, suspicion of what the future may\nbring, and distrust of the present. Thus, as we hear Ino say on the\nstage, repenting of what she has done,\u2014\n\n    \u201cDear women, tell me how, as at the first,\n     As if this deed of mine were uncommitted,\n     The house of Athamas may be my home,\u201d[31:1]\u2014\n\nso it is probable that the soul of every evil-doer discusses these\nthings within itself, and considers how it can by any possibility evade\nthe memory of its misdeeds, cast out from itself the consciousness of\nthem, and, becoming pure, start as if from the beginning on a new life.\nFor wickedness manifests neither courage, nor modesty, nor consistency,\nnor steadfastness in the objects of its preference,\u2014unless, by Zeus,\nwe admit that evil-doers are wise; but where avarice, and eager\nvoluptuousness, and implacable envy, are associated with malice and\ndepravity, there also, on examination, you may see beneath the surface\nsuperstition, and effeminate indolence, and dread of death, and an\nabrupt vacillation of impulses, and an arrogant pretence to undeserved\nhonor. Men of this character fear those who blame them, and at the same\ntime dread those who praise them, as those whom they have wronged by\ntheir hypocrisy, and as persons especially hostile to the wicked, as\nis evinced in their cordial commendation of those who seem to be good.\nIndeed, the hardness in depravity, as in bad iron, is brittle, and\nwhat seems in it to have the greatest power of resistance is easily\nbroken in pieces. Hence, in process of time, as bad men come to the\nknowledge of themselves, they are depressed, and grow peevish, and\nhold their own manner of life in abhorrence. When a mean man restores\na deposit intrusted to his care, or gives security for a friend, or\nwith honorable ambition confers gifts and services on his country, and\nimmediately repents and is in trouble for what he has done, because\nof the utter instability and vacillation of his mind,\u2014and when some\nwho are applauded in the theatre for their generosity groan as their\nlove of glory is merged in their love of money,\u2014can it be that those\nwho, like Apollodorus,[32:1] sacrifice men in the interest of their\ntyrannies and conspiracies, or like Glaucus,[33:1] the son of Epicydes,\nplunder the property of their friends, do not feel remorse, nor hate\nthemselves, nor suffer grief, for the crimes that they have committed?\nI, indeed, if it is not irreverent thus to speak, do not think that\nthose who work iniquity need any avenger among gods or men; but their\nown life suffices for their punishment, being utterly corrupted and\nkept in constant agitation by their guilt.\n\n12. Consider now whether our discussion has exceeded a reasonable time.\n\nTIMON replied,[33:2]\u2014Perhaps so, with reference to the time\nthat will yet be required; for I am going to bring forward the last\ndoubt as a combatant held in reserve, since the others have been fairly\nconquered. What Euripides with the utmost boldness of speech inveighs\nagainst the gods for doing, namely, visiting the sins of the fathers\nupon the children, account us as tacitly charging upon them. Certainly,\nif those who have done wrong were themselves punished, there is no\njustice in chastising those who have done no wrong; for it is not\nright to punish even the evil-doers in their own person twice for the\nsame offence; and if the gods, in their remissness failing to punish\nthe guilty, afterward inflict penalties on the innocent, they do not\nfittingly make amends for their slow doing by unrighteous doing. Take\nthe case of Aesop.[34:1] It is said that he came hither with money\nfurnished by Croesus, intending to offer a magnificent sacrifice to the\ngod of the temple, and to distribute among the citizens of Delphi four\nminas[34:2] apiece. But, as it is reported, having become disaffected\ntoward the people here on account of some affront or quarrel, he made\nthe sacrifice indeed, but sent the rest of the money back to Sardis,\nnot thinking the men of Delphi worthy of the gift. They then raised\nagainst him the charge of sacrilege, and put him to death by throwing\nhim from yonder cliff, which they call Hyampeia. From that time it is\nsaid that the god was angry with them, and made their soil unfruitful,\nand sent among them all kinds of strange diseases, so that they went\nround among the public assemblies of the Grecian cities, proclaiming\nwith earnest entreaty that whoever would demand justice of them in\nbehalf of Aesop should receive full satisfaction. But not until the\nthird generation came Idmon, the Samian, not related to Aesop, except\nas the descendant of those who had bought him at Samos, and to him the\nDelphians made satisfaction in the ways prescribed, and were freed\nfrom their calamities. It was on that account, it is said, that the\npeople changed the place of punishment for sacrilege from Hyampeia to\nthe cliff called Nauplia. Now those who hold the memory of Alexander\nin the fondest regard, of whom I am one, do not approve of his sacking\nthe city of Branchidae,[35:1] and destroying its inhabitants of all\nages, because their great-grandfathers had treacherously delivered\nup the temple of Miletus. So Agathocles, the tyrant of Syracuse,\nderided and teased the Corcyraeans,[36:1] when they asked him why he\nravaged their island, saying, \u201cBy Zeus, because your fathers showed\nhospitality to Odysseus.\u201d Again, when the people of Ithaca complained\nthat his soldiers were stealing their sheep, he replied, \u201cYour king not\nonly did the like, but put out the shepherd\u2019s[36:2] eye.\u201d But is not\nApollo more unreasonable than these men whom I have named, if he is\nnow ruining the Pheneatae by stopping up the outlet of their streams,\nand putting their whole country under water,[36:3] because Hercules\nis said a thousand years ago to have stolen the oracular tripod and\ncarried it to Pheneus? And was he less unreasonable in announcing to\nthe Sybarites that they should see the end of their calamities, when\nby three destructive visitations they should have appeased the wrath\nof the Leucadian Hera?[37:1] Nor is it so very long a time since the\nLocrians ceased sending virgins to Troy.\n\n    \u201cWith naked limbs, bare feet, and servile guise,\n     At early dawn they sweep Athene\u2019s temple,\n     Unveiled, while age remorseless steals upon them.\u201d\n\nAnd all this because of the licentiousness of Ajax.[37:2] Now where is\nthe reasonableness or rightfulness of these things? Equally little\ncan we commend the Thracians[38:1] for still tattooing their wives,\nto avenge Orpheus; or the barbarians about the Po, who wear black, as\nthey say, in mourning for Phaethon, which seems all the more ridiculous\nwhen we consider that, while those who lived when Phaethon perished\ncared nothing at all about the matter, their posterity of the fifth\nor the tenth generation are changing their garments and mourning for\nhim.[38:2] Yet this is merely foolish, not atrocious or intolerable.\nBut on what justifiable ground does the anger of the gods, suddenly\ndisappearing, as some rivers do, break out again in a different place,\non other people than the evil-doers, terminating only in extreme\ncalamity?\n\n13. As soon as Timon came to a pause, fearing that with a fresh start\nhe might bring forth more and greater absurdities, I instantly asked\nhim,\u2014Do you really think that all these things are true?\n\nIf not all, said he, yet if some of them be true, do you not think that\nthe discussion labors under the same difficulty?\n\nPerhaps, said I; and so to persons in a high fever, whether they\nchance to wear one garment, or to be wrapped in many, the burning heat\nis nearly or quite the same, and yet it contributes to their relief to\nremove the multitude of coverings. But if the patient is unwilling to\nhave this done, let him have his own way. Yet most of these stories\nseem like myths and fictions. But recall to mind the religious\nfestival lately held here, when you saw the magnificent portion of the\nviands[39:1] which the heralds took from the table, proclaiming that it\nwas due to the posterity of Pindar, and remember how solemn and sweet\nthis token of honor seemed to you.\n\nBut, said he, who would not be delighted by the gracefulness of a\ncommemoration so entirely Grecian and so simply archaic? unless he had,\nto borrow Pindar\u2019s own words, a black heart forged in a cold fire.\n\nThere is then no need, said I, of my citing a similar proclamation\nmade in Sparta, \u201cAfter the Lesbian singer,\u201d[39:2] in honor and\nremembrance of the ancient Terpander; for the principle is the\nsame. But you,[40:1] I suppose, think yourselves superior to other\nBoeotians, as being of the race of the Opheltiadae;[40:2] you make\nsimilar claims among the Phocians[40:3] by virtue of your descent from\nDaiphantus;[40:4] and you, indeed, were the first to stand by me and\nhelp me in preserving for the Lycormaeans and the Satilaeans[40:5]\ntheir hereditary honor, and the right to wear crowns in public which\nbelongs to the posterity of Hercules,\u2014maintaining that lasting honors\nand favors are due to those descended from Hercules, because he, though\na great benefactor to the Greeks, never received his due of gratitude,\nor any fitting recompense.\n\nYou remind us, said TIMON, of a truly noble contest, and of\none in which it was especially becoming for a philosopher to take part.\n\nRelax then, my friend, said I, the severity of your accusation, and do\nnot take it so hard if some of the descendants of wicked and depraved\npeople are punished; or else do not welcome or commend the honor\nrendered to worthy parentage. For if we would retain the reward of\nvirtue in the posterity of the virtuous, we cannot reasonably think\nthat punishments for misdoings ought to fail and cease, but must\nsuppose that they will run on at even pace with the rewards, giving\nretribution in each case in proportion to desert. But he who gladly\nsees the posterity of Cimon honored in Athens, yet is vexed and angry\nat the exile of the descendants of Lachares[41:1] or of Ariston,[41:2]\nis very stupid and feeble-minded, or rather has the presumption to take\nthe place of a wrangler and railer against the Divine Being,\u2014accusing\nhim, forsooth, if the children\u2019s children of an unrighteous and wicked\nman seem to prosper, and again accusing him if the posterity of bad\nancestors are suffered to decline and to become extinct,\u2014indeed,\nfinding equal fault with God when the children of a good father or\nthose of a bad father fare ill.\n\n14. Let these considerations serve you as defences against those who\nare so excessively bitter and objurgatory. But taking up again the\nbeginning of the thread in our discussion concerning God,\u2014obscure,\nindeed, and with many turnings and windings,\u2014let us direct our way\ndiscreetly and deliberately toward what is probable and credible.\nFor not even in the things which we ourselves do can we always state\nwith confidence the actual and true meaning. Thus we cannot tell why\nwe order the children of those who die of phthisis or of dropsy to\nsit with their feet in water till the corpse is buried, though it is\nbelieved that in this case they neither contract the disease at the\ntime nor are liable to it afterward. Nor, again, can we tell the reason\nwhy, when a goat takes into his mouth a piece of snakeroot,[42:1] the\nwhole flock stand still till the goatherd comes and takes it out of his\nmouth. There are properties of various objects that are transfused or\ntransmitted in ways incredible as to velocity and distance. In these\ncases we are indeed more surprised at remoteness of time than of space.\nYet it is really more amazing that Athens should have been infected\nthroughout with a pestilence[42:2] that began in Aethiopia, and that\nPericles should have died of it, and Thucydides should have been\nattacked by it, than that, if the Delphians and the Sybarites have been\nwicked, protracted punishment should come upon their posterity. For\nall properties of objects have mutual action and reaction from their\nvery beginning till now, and bear relations to one another of which,\nthough we are ignorant of the cause, it none the less produces its\nappropriate effect.\n\n15. Nevertheless, the public calamities of cities have obviously\ntheir reason in justice. For a city has unity and continuity like a\nliving creature, not devesting itself of identity by the changes that\noccur at successive periods of its life, nor becoming a different\nbeing from its former self by the lapse of time, but always retaining\na conscious selfhood with the peculiarities that belong to it, and\nreceiving the entire blame or praise of whatever it does or has done\nin its collective capacity, so long as the community which constitutes\nit and binds it together remains a unit. But dividing it by successive\nperiods of time so as to make of a single city many cities, or rather\nan infinite number of cities, is like making of one man many men,\nbecause he is now elderly, yet once was younger, and still earlier was\na mere stripling. This might remind one of the Epicharmians, from whom\nthe sophists derived the cumulative argument,[43:1] according to which\nhe who used to be in debt now owes nothing, having become a different\nman, and he who was yesterday invited to supper to-day comes uninvited,\nbeing another person. However, different periods of life make greater\nchanges in every one of us than they ordinarily make in cities. One who\nsees Athens would recognize it thirty years afterward; for the present\nmanners, sports, industries, likings, and resentments of the people\nclosely resemble those of former days. But after a considerable time,\nscarce a kinsman or friend would recognize a man\u2019s countenance and\nform; while the change of manners readily brought about in a person by\ndiffering fashions of intercourse, employment, experience, and legal\nobligation look strange and new even to one who has always known him.\nBut yet the man is said to be one and the same man from the beginning\nto the end. The city in like manner remaining the same, we regard it as\ninvolved in the disgrace of its ancestry by the very right by which it\nshares their glory and their power. Else we shall throw everything into\nthe river of Heracleitus, into which, he says, no one can enter twice,\nbecause changing nature is transposing and altering all things.\n\n16. But if a city is one continuous entity, equally so is a race that\nsprings from one original stock and carries along with it certain\ncommon tendencies derived from that stock; and that which is born is\nnot, like a manufactured article, separated from him who produced it;\nfor it exists from him, not merely by him, so that it possesses and\nbears within itself some part of him, which is properly the object of\nchastisement or of commendation. Not in mere sport I would say that\nit was more unjust for the Athenians to destroy the brazen statue of\nCassander,[45:1] and for the people of Syracuse to cast beyond their\nborders the body of Dionysius,[45:2] than for the posterity of those\nmen to suffer punishment. For there was nothing of the nature of\nCassander in the statue, and the soul of Dionysius had already left the\ncorpse; but in Nisaeus,[45:3] and Apollocrates,[45:4] and Antipater\nand Philip,[45:5] and equally in other sons of wicked parents, there\nwas implanted, and remains continuously, the part of their parents\nthat had the mastery over their lives, and in the children this is\nnot quiescent or inactive, but they live by it, and are nourished by\nit, and order their conduct by it, and think as it prompts. Nor is\nit at all marvellous or absurd that, being the children of such men,\nthey should possess their qualities. In fine, I would say that, as in\nthe healing art, whatever is beneficial is therefore right, and as he\nwould be ridiculous who should think it wrong in a case of hip-disease\nto cauterize the thumb, and when the liver is ulcerated to scarify\nthe upper part of the abdomen, and when the hoofs of oxen are tender\nto anoint the tips of their horns,[46:1] equally is he ridiculous who\nthinks in the matter of punishment that anything else than the cure of\nwickedness is right, and who is vexed when the remedy is applied to\nsome parts rather than to others, after the manner of those who open a\nvein to cure ophthalmia. Nor does such a person seem to look beyond\nthe range of his bodily senses; nor does he bear it in mind that a\nteacher in whipping one boy admonishes all, and that a general in the\ncapital punishment of one out of ten brings all the guilty men under\nhis command back to their duty. In truth not only is one part of the\nbody cured through another part, but there are certain dispositions of\nmind and conduct, equally those that are evil and those that tend to\nreformation, as to which soul is influenced by soul more than body is\naffected by body. For from body to body the same affection and the same\nchange seem to be transmitted; while in the case under consideration\nthe soul, through the influence of the imagination, becomes worse or\nbetter in a degree corresponding to the intensity of hope or fear.\n\n17. While I was still speaking, OLYMPICUS interrupted me,\nsaying,\u2014You seem to have, underlying this reasoning of yours, an\nhypothesis of prime importance,\u2014the continued existence of the soul.\n\nYes, said I, inasmuch as you yourselves admit it, or rather did admit\nit; for the argument from the very beginning proceeded from the\nsupposition that God deals with men according to their merits.\n\nOLYMPICUS replied,\u2014Do you think that it follows from God\u2019s\ndealing with us according to our merits, that souls are either\nabsolutely incorruptible, or destined at least to continue in being\nfor a certain period after death?[48:1]\n\nI replied,\u2014No, my good friend. God, forsooth, is so petty and so\ntrifling,[48:2] that\u2014as if we had nothing of the divine in us, nor\nanything closely resembling him, and stable and firm, but were,\nas Homer says, mere leaves, like those that wither and perish\naltogether\u2014he makes such account of us as the women do of their gardens\nof Adonis,[48:3] which they tend and cultivate in earthen pots,\u2014souls\nlasting for a day, blooming in a frail flesh that has no strong root\nof life, then at once extinguished by any casualty that may chance to\noccur. But if you choose, making no mention of other gods, look at this\none of ours here, and say whether you suppose that he, knowing that\nthe souls of the dying are instantly destroyed when they are exhaled\nfrom their bodies, like clouds or smoke-wreaths, should demand so many\npropitiations for those who die, and such tokens of great reverence and\nhonor for the dead, thus deceiving and deluding those who believe in\nhim. I therefore would not deny the continued existence of the soul,\nunless some one, like Hercules, should carry off the tripod of the\nPythian priestess, and abolish and destroy the oracle. For while even\ndown to our own time many such things are foretold by the oracle as are\nsaid to have been announced to Corax of Naxos,[49:1] it is unholy to\ndeem the soul capable of dying.\n\nThen PATROCLEAS said,\u2014What was that prediction, and who was\nthat Corax? Both the story and the name are unfamiliar to me.\n\nBy no means, said I; but I was to blame in using a by-name instead\nof the real name. For he who killed Archilochus in battle was named\nCalondas, as they say, and had Corax for a surname. He, having been\nfirst driven out of the temple by the Pythian priestess because he had\nkilled a man sacred to the Muses, then employing prayers and entreaties\nwith a statement of the case in his own justification, was ordered to\ngo to the residence of Tettix,[50:1] in order to propitiate the soul of\nArchilochus. This place was Taenarus;[50:2] for there it is said that\nTettix the Cretan arrived with a fleet, built a city, and established\nhimself hard by the oracle of the dead. In like manner, the Spartans\nwere ordered by the oracle to propitiate the soul of Pausanias, and\nthey sent for necromancers from Italy, who by their sacrifices drove\nthe apparition of Pausanias from the temple.[50:3]\n\n18. There is then, said I, one course of reasoning which confirms\nequally the providence of God and the continued life of the human\nsoul, and neither can remain credible if the other is taken away. But\nto the soul existing after death there is a stronger probability that\nrewards and punishments are rendered, than there is that they should be\nfully rendered in this life.[51:1] For during this life the soul is,\nlike an athlete, in perpetual conflict; but when the conflict is over,\nthen what the soul has deserved is allotted to it. Yet whatever favors\nor whatever chastisements the soul, being there by itself, receives,\nare of no concern to us living here, nay, they are disbelieved and\nthey are out of the field of our knowledge; but these penalties that\npass on through children and remoter posterity, being manifest to men\nliving here, check and restrain many of the wicked. There is, indeed,\nno punishment more shameful or more sorrowful than for men to see their\nposterity suffering on their account. Were the soul of an impious and\nlawless man to behold after death, not his statues overthrown, or any\nhonors that he had received cancelled, but his children, or friends,\nor kindred, or family, suffering great misfortunes and receiving\npunishment on his account, such a soul would not choose again to be\ndepraved and profligate,\u2014no, not even to obtain honors like those which\nbelong to Zeus. To show this I have a story to tell, which I lately\nheard; but I hesitate, lest you may think it a myth, while I want to\nconfine myself to what is reasonable.\n\nDo not hesitate by any means, said OLYMPICUS, but tell the\nstory.\n\nThe others made the same request.\n\nThen, said I, permit me to finish my reasoning, and afterward we will\ntake up the myth, if indeed it be a myth.\n\n19. Bion[52:1] says that God in punishing the children of the wicked\nis more ridiculous than a physician who should administer medicine to\na grandson or a son for his grandfather\u2019s or his father\u2019s illness. But\nthe two things are in some respects unlike, though in others alike and\nsimilar. It is true, indeed, that one person\u2019s being medically treated\ndoes not remove another\u2019s illness, nor is one who is suffering from\nophthalmia or from fever relieved by seeing another person anointed or\nplastered; but the punishments of the wicked are inflicted in the sight\nof all, because it is the office of justice reasonably administered\nto restrain some by means of the penalties endured by others. But the\npoint in which Bion\u2019s comparison really applies to the subject under\ndiscussion escaped his discernment. When a man seized with a stubborn,\nbut not necessarily incurable illness, yields up his body to the\ndisease by intemperance and effeminacy, and dies in consequence, if his\nson, though not seeming to be ill, yet barely has a tendency to the\nsame disease, his physician, or kinsman, or apothecary, or judicious\nmaster, putting him upon a rigid diet, taking from him stimulants,\ndelicacies, strong drinks, and opportunities for sensual indulgence,\nemploying medicaments continually, and disciplining his body by\ngymnastic exercises, excludes and expels the disease, not suffering the\nminute seed of a grievous bodily affection to grow into an appreciable\nmagnitude. Do we not thus give our advice, thinking it fitting for the\nchildren of diseased fathers and mothers to take care of themselves, to\nbe on their guard, and not to lose thought of their inherited liability\nto disease, but promptly taking the inborn malady in hand, to expel it\nat the beginning, while it is easily removed and has no fixed seat?\n\nThis is perfectly true, they say.\n\nYou grant then, I continue, that we do, not what is absurd, but what\nis necessary,\u2014not what is ridiculous, but what is beneficial,\u2014when we\nprescribe gymnastic exercises, diet, and medicine for the children\nof epileptics, or of hypochondriacs, or of sufferers from the gout,\nnot because they are ill, but to prevent them from being ill. For a\nbody born of a diseased body is deserving, not indeed of punishment,\nbut of medical treatment and of vigilance, which if any one sees fit\nto call the punishment of timidity and feebleness, his opinion is of\nno account. If then it is worth our while to cherish and to preserve\nthe body born of a diseased body, ought we to permit the congenital\nlikeness of wickedness to spring up and come to growth in a young\ncharacter, and to wait till, having its issue in vicious passions, it\nbecomes openly manifest, and, as Pindar says, displays the malignant\nfruit of the inmost soul?\n\n20. In this matter God in his wisdom does not even transcend the\nsentiment expressed by Hesiod,[54:1]\n\n    \u201cFrom suppers of the gods the marriage-bed\n     Approach, and not from rites funereal,\u201d\n\nimplying that not only wickedness or virtue, but sadness, and\nhappiness, and all other properties whatsoever, are transmitted from\nparents, so that those who would be responsible for bringing children\ninto the world should be cheerful, and sweet-tempered, and genial.\nHowever, it is not the result of Hesiod\u2019s maxim nor the work of human\nwisdom, but of God, to discern and discriminate likenesses and\ndifferences, before they become conspicuous by men\u2019s falling through\nthe force of passion into great transgressions. The young of bears and\nwolves and monkeys, indeed, show at once their inborn disposition,\nwithout cover or concealment. But a man\u2019s nature, conforming to\ncustoms, opinions, and laws, conceals what in it is evil, and often\nimitates the good, in such a way as either altogether to wipe off and\nget rid of the native plague-spot of wickedness, or else to keep it\nlong concealed, craftily veiling itself and escaping our notice, so\nthat we are scarcely aware of his depravity when assailed as with a\nblow or sting by successive instances of his wrong-doing,\u2014imagining,\nas is our wont, that men become wholly unrighteous when they first\nperform an unrighteous act, or licentious when they first gratify lust\nunlawfully, or cowards when they first flee from danger,\u2014a simplicity\nthat may be compared to one\u2019s thinking that the stings of scorpions\ngrow when they first use them, or that the poison is generated in\nvipers at the moment when they bite. No bad man becomes and first\nappears bad at the same time; but one has the evil in him from the\nbeginning, and puts it into practice, availing himself of opportunity\nand ability, the thief in stealing, the tyrant in exercising despotic\nrule. But God is not ignorant of any man\u2019s disposition and nature,\ninasmuch as he discerns the soul even more than the body; nor does\nhe wait to punish till violence has been committed by the hands,\neffrontery uttered by the voice, or lasciviousness actualized in\nfleshly deed. For he does not avenge himself on the wrong-doer as\nhimself suffering wrong, nor is he angry with the robber as having\nbeen himself robbed, nor does he hate the adulterer as injured in his\nown honor; but he often punishes beforehand the adulterers, and the\navaricious, and the unrighteous, to cure them, thus removing guilt, as\nphysicians attempt to cure epilepsy, before the fit seizes the patient.\n\n21. We were scandalized a little while ago because the punishment\nof the wicked is late and slow; yet now we equally call the Divine\nProvidence in question, because for some it checks the vicious\ntemperament and disposition before they become guilty; leaving it out\nof mind that the potential evil might be worse and more fearful than\nthe crimes that are actually committed, and that which is concealed,\nthan that which is in open view; and unable to comprehend the reasons\nwhy it is better to suffer some to do wrong, and to forestall others\nwho are also evilly disposed,\u2014just as medicines are unsuitable for\nsome sick persons, while they are beneficial to some even who are not\nill, yet in a more perilous condition than those who are. Nor do the\ngods visit all the transgressions of the fathers on the children;\nbut if a good man is the son of a bad man, as one in sound health\nmay be the son of an invalid, he is released from the penalty due to\nhis race, as one taken by adoption out of a guilty family. But for\na youth who becomes conformed to the likeness of a depraved race, it\nis certainly fitting that he should receive the punishment of guilt\nas a due heritage. On the other hand, Antigonus was not punished for\nthe sins of Demetrius,[57:1] nor, to cite other cases of bad men,\nwas Phyleus made to pay the penalty for Augeas,[57:2] nor Nestor for\nNeleus;[57:3] for they, though the children of bad men, were good men.\nBut as for those whose nature loves and cherishes the inborn evil,\njustice has its course, pursuing with penalty the sinful likeness that\nis in them. Moreover, as the warts and birth-stains and freckles of\nfathers, not appearing in their own children, crop out again in the\nchildren of their sons and daughters; as a certain Greek woman, giving\nbirth to a black child, when accused of adultery, discovered that she\nwas descended in the fourth generation from an Aethiopian; as among the\nchildren of Pytho the Nisibian, said to belong to the Sparti,[58:1]\nthe one who died lately bore the impress of a spear on his body,\u2014a\nrace-mark after so many ages rising and emerging as from the depths\nof the sea,\u2014so not infrequently earlier generations conceal and merge\nancestral habits and dispositions, while afterward and through later\ngenerations the inherited nature comes to flower, and reproduces the\nfamily tendency to vice or to virtue.[58:2]\n\n22. After saying these things, I was silent. But OLYMPICUS,\nsmiling, said,\u2014We are not ready to express our parting commendation of\nyour reasoning, lest we may seem fully satisfied with your arguments,\nand lose the story. When we have heard that, we will pronounce our\nfinal sentence.\n\nThen I spoke as follows:[59:1]\u2014The Solian,[59:2] Thespesius, an\nassociate and friend of that Protogenes who was here with us,[59:3]\nhaving led a very dissipated life in his youth, and in a short time\nsquandering his property, for a while on account of his impoverished\ncondition became desperately wicked, and, repenting of his\nwastefulness, sought in evil ways to become rich again, like those\nprofligates who, when they have wives, do not keep them, but after\ndivorcing them endeavor to corrupt them when they are married to other\nmen. Abstaining from nothing vile that promised pleasure or profit,\nhe got together in a short time a property by no means large, and the\nmost ample reputation for depravity. But he was most widely known in\nconnection with a certain response that was brought from the oracle\nof Amphilochus.[60:1] He sent thither, it is said, to ask the god\nwhether he should be better off[60:2] for the rest of his life. The\nreply was that he would do better after he died. And this event in some\nsort happened to him not long afterward. Falling from a precipice and\nstriking his neck on the ground, receiving no wound, but only a shock,\nhe became as one dead, and the third day had already arrived for his\nfuneral. But then, being suddenly aroused from his swoon and returning\nto himself, he made an incredible change in his manner of life; for\nthe Cilicians know of no other person in his time more honest than he\nin keeping his engagements, more religiously devout, more resolutely\nhostile to his enemies,[60:3] or more loyal to his friends, so that\nthose about him wanted to know the cause of the change, thinking that\nsuch a revolution in one\u2019s habits could not have taken place by chance.\nAnd they were right, as he told his story to Protogenes and to other\nequally intimate friends. When his body became unconscious, the feeling\nat first was such as a pilot would have if he were hurled from his ship\ninto the sea. Then, being somewhat recovered, he seemed to breathe\nwith entire freedom, and to look round in every direction, as if his\nsoul had been a single open eye. He saw nothing that he had ever seen\nbefore; but he beheld immensely large stars, at vast distances from one\nanother, emitting a lustre marvellous in tint, and shooting forth rays,\non which the soul was borne on the light as in a chariot, in perfect\nquietness, easily and swiftly.\n\nBut\u2014omitting the greater part of what he saw\u2014he said that the souls\nof the dying rose from beneath like fiery bubbles through the parted\nair. Then, the bubbles gradually bursting, they came forth, having a\nhuman form, but of diminutive size. But they did not move alike; for\nsome sprang forth with wonderful agility, and mounted straight upward,\nwhile others, whirling round in a circle like spindles, tending now\ndownward and then again upward, were borne with a complicated and\nconfused movement that could hardly be arrested even in a very long\ntime. He did not, indeed, know who many of these souls were; but seeing\ntwo or three whom he recognized, he tried to join them and talk with\nthem. They, however, neither heard him, nor were in possession of their\nright mind; but, demented and shy, shrinking from sight and touch, they\nat first flitted round by themselves; then, meeting many souls in the\nsame condition and mingling with them, they moved in all directions\nwithout aim or purpose, and gave utterance to inarticulate sounds like\nbattle-cries mingled with strains of lamentation and terror. Others\nfrom above, in the zenith of the circumambient heavens, appeared\nrefulgent, and often approached one another in a kindly way, yet\navoiding those troubled souls; and they seemed to signify annoyance by\nshrinking within themselves, and pleasure and approval by the expansion\nand enlargement of the forms in which they moved.\n\nAmong these he said that he saw the soul of a kinsman of his, yet\nat first was not sure of his identity, as he himself was but a boy\nwhen this man died; but the soul, drawing near him, said, \u201cHail,\nThespesius.\u201d When he marvelled at this, and replied that his name was\nnot Thespesius, but Aridaeus, the soul said, \u201cIt was Aridaeus, but from\nhenceforth it is Thespesius;[62:1] for you are not yet dead; but by\na certain allotment of the gods you come hither with your perceptive\nfaculties, while you have left the rest of your soul, like an anchor,\nin your body. Let it be a token of this to you, both now and hereafter,\nthat the souls of the dead neither cast a shadow nor wink.\u201d[63:1]\n\nThespesius on hearing this became more self-collected in mind, and,\ntaking a closer look, he saw that there moved along with him a certain\ndim and shadowy line, while those about him were surrounded with light,\nand transparent within. However, they were not all equally so. Some,\nindeed, like the clearest full moon, emitted continuously a uniform and\nunflickering light; but of the others, some had their bodies streaked\nwith what looked like scales and flabby scourge-marks; some were very\nmuch discolored, and disgusting to the sight, like snakes branded\nall over with black spots; and others, still, had slight scars. The\nkinsman of Thespesius (for there is nothing to forbid one\u2019s giving\nhuman titles to disembodied souls), explaining these appearances\none by one, told him that Adrasteia, daughter of Necessity[63:2]\nand Zeus, holds the highest place of all, ordaining punishment for\nwrong-doings of every kind, and that of the guilty there was never\neither great or small that could escape her, whether by craft or by\nforce. But a different mode of punishment is assigned to each of the\nthree custodians and executive ministers that have the guilty in\ncharge. The first of these, swift Poena,[64:1] takes in hand those\nwho are punished at once while in the body and by means of their\nbodies, yet in a somewhat mild way, and passing over many things that\nneed cleansing. Those the cure of whose guilt is a heavier task the\nDeity gives over after death to Dice.[64:2] But as for those whom she\nrejects as utterly incurable, Erinnys,[64:3] the third and sternest\nof Adrasteia\u2019s subordinate ministers, chasing them as they wander and\nflee in different directions, removes them all from sight in misery and\nwretchedness, and plunges them into a destiny too horrible to be told\nor seen. Of the other chastisements, he compared that of Poena in the\nearthly life to certain modes of punishment practised by barbarians.\nFor as among the Persians they strip off and beat the clothes and\nthe turbans of those that are punished,[64:4] while the culprits beg\nwith tears that the scourge may be laid aside,\u2014so punishment by loss\nof wealth or by bodily suffering has not an intensely penetrating\npower, nor does it lay hold on the guilt in its own interior seat,\nbut is inflicted generally for appearance\u2019s sake, and to make an\nimpression on the bodily senses.[65:1] But him who comes hither from\nthese punishments uncorrected and uncleansed Dice takes in hand, open\nand naked as he is in soul, having nothing whereby to conceal or hide\nor cover his depravity, but beheld in every direction and by all and\nin his entire selfhood, and shows him first to his good parents, if\ngood they are, as being despicable to his progenitors and unworthy of\nthem. If they too are bad, he, seeing them punished, and being seen\nby them, is released only after having long expiated every one of\nhis crimes by pains and sufferings which in magnitude and severity\nexceed those which come through the body alone, as much as reality is\nmore substantial than a dream. But the scars and scourge-marks after\npunishment remain in some more conspicuous; in others, less so. \u201cSee,\u201d\nsaid he, \u201cthose motley colors of every kind in the souls,\u2014that dark and\nsqualid dye, the pigment of meanness and avarice,\u2014that blood-red and\nfiery hue, of cruelty and bitterness; where there is a bluish tint,\nintemperate indulgence in sensual pleasure has as yet hardly been\nrubbed off; while the malevolence that is united with envy discharges\nthat violet-colored and ulcerous secretion, as the cuttle-fish emits\nhis ink. For, as on the earth the wickedness of the soul controlled\nby the passions, while the soul controls the body, produces certain\nshades of complexion, so here such tints mark the last stage of the\nprocess of cleansing and correction, by which, the evil affections\nbeing altogether expelled, the soul becomes of clear complexion and\nof a uniform color. But so long as these evil affections remain in\na man, certain revivals of the passions take place, accompanied by\npalpitation and excitement, in some souls slight and soon quenched, in\nothers intensely strong. Of these last some, punished again and again,\nat length attain a suitable habit and disposition; but others by the\nforce of ignorance and the fascination of sensual pleasure are carried\nback earthward into the bodies of beasts. For they are inclined to seek\nthis new and lower birth by the predominance of the physical tendency,\nwhile reason is feeble, and their mental vision dull. Having in their\nspiritual state no longer the organs requisite for vicious indulgence,\nthey still crave to satisfy their desires by sensual pleasure, and to\ngive them full play by means of a body.[66:1] Here, indeed, there is\nnothing but a certain fruitless shadow and dream of sensual pleasure\nwhich has no realization.\u201d\n\nWhen the friend of Thespesius had thus spoken, he led him rapidly to\na certain place that appeared immense, toward which he moved directly\nand easily, transported on light-beams as on wings,\u2014until, coming to\na large and deep cavern, he was deserted by the force that had borne\nhim, and he saw other souls there in a like condition. Clustering\ntogether like birds, they flew round the chasm in a circle, but did\nnot dare to cross it. Within, it resembled the caves of Bacchus,[67:1]\nlike them diversified with boughs of trees, and living green, and\nflowers of every hue; and it exhaled a soft and mild breeze, wafting\nup odors of wonderful sweetness, and producing an effect similar to\nthat which wine has on those who drink it freely. The souls filled\nwith these sweet perfumes were dissolved in mirth, and kept embracing\none another, and jollity and laughter, and every Muse of sport and\ngladness, had possession of the place all around. The spirit said that\nby this opening Dionysus[67:2] went up to the gods, and afterward led\nSemele up by the same way, and that the place is called Lethe.[68:1]\nHe did not suffer Thespesius to remain there, though he wanted to\nstay, but took him away by force, teaching him at the same time, and\ntelling him how the mind is melted and soaked by sensual pleasure,\nwhile the unreasoning and body-like part of the soul, being thus\nnourished and made fleshly, calls up the remembrance of the body,\nand from that remembrance wakes a desire and longing that draw it\ntoward another birth, or genesis,[68:2] which is so called as being an\ninclination toward the earth in the soul that is thus weighed down and\nwater-logged. Then, passing in another direction by as long a route\nas that previously traversed, Thespesius seemed to see from afar a\nvast basin, and rivers pouring into it, one whiter than the sea-foam\nor snow, another purple like that which Iris paints on the rainbow,\nothers still with various tints, which, as beheld from a distance, had\neach its own peculiar lustre. But when he drew near, the circumambient\nair being more rarefied and the colors fading, the basin lost all of\nits surpassing beauty except its whiteness. He then saw three daemons\nsitting together in a triangle, mixing the rivers with one another in\ncertain proportions.\n\nThe spirit-guide of Thespesius told him, that Orpheus advanced thus\nfar when he was seeking his wife\u2019s soul, and, failing in memory,\ncarried back to men a false report that there was in Delphi an oracle\nthat was the common property of Apollo and Night, while in fact Night\nhas nothing in common with Apollo. \u201cBut the oracle here,\u201d said the\nspirit, \u201cis common to Night and the Moon, having no earthly limits,\nbut wandering everywhere among men in visions and spectres. From this\nare dispersed dreams, mingled, as you see, blending the simple and\nthe true with the false and the grotesque. But you do not see,\u201d said\nhe, \u201cthe oracle of Apollo, nor can you see it; for the earthly part\nof your soul cannot release or loose itself for an upward flight, but\ntends downward as not yet wholly undetached from the body.\u201d At the same\ntime, his guide, leading him on, attempted to show him the tripod,\nshining upon Parnassus through the bosom of Themis;[69:1] yet, though\nhe wanted to see it, he could get no distinct view of it because of its\nintense brilliancy. But, in passing, he heard the shrill voice of a\nwoman, uttering in rhythm among other things what sounded to him like\nthe prediction of the time of his own death. The spirit said that it\nwas the voice of a Sibyl,[69:2] who, borne round on the face of the\nmoon, sang of things to come. Then he, while he wished to hear more,\nwas forcibly driven, as on successive eddies, in a direction opposite\nto that in which the moon was rushing on her course. But among the\npredictions which he caught in passing was one about Vesuvius,[70:1]\nand about the destruction of Dicaearchia[70:2] by fire, and also a\nscrap of verse about the then reigning Emperor,[70:3]\u2014\n\n    \u201cGood though he be, disease shall soon dethrone him.\u201d\n\nAfter this, they turned to the inspection of those undergoing\npunishment, and indeed from the very outset they had only mournful and\npitiable spectacles. Thespesius, without expecting it, happened among\nfriends and kinsmen and associates under punishment, who in horrible\nsuffering, and under penalties equally shameful and painful, addressed\nto him their lamentations and wailings.\n\nAt length his eyes fell on his own father, coming up from an abyss,\ncovered with scars and scourge-marks, stretching out his hands to\nhim, and not permitted to keep silence, but forced by those presiding\nover his punishment to confess his blood-guiltiness in the case\nof certain guests of his who had money, and whom he had killed by\npoison. There, on earth, he had concealed the deed from all; but\nbeing here convicted, he was now enduring such sufferings as his son\nsaw, and they were leading him where he would suffer still more.\nFrom amazement and dread, Thespesius dared not offer supplication\nor intercession for his father; and desiring to return and flee, he\nno longer saw his gentle and familiar guide. But, forced forward by\ncertain fearful-looking beings, as if it were necessary for him to\nadvance, he saw that the shades of those who had been openly wicked\nor who had been punished in this world were not so severely dealt\nwith as others, nor in the same way, having been made aimlessly and\nslavishly vicious by the unreasoning and passion-driven element of the\nsoul; while as for such as had lived all their days in secret vice,\ndisguised under the pretence and reputation of virtue, others standing\nround them, as ministers of justice, compelled them with toil and pain\nto make the soul\u2019s interior outermost, which they did, wriggling and\ntwisting themselves in unnatural ways, as the sea-polyps, when they\nhave swallowed the hook, turn themselves inside out. Some of them the\ntormentors flayed, and then laid them open, showing them inwardly\nulcerated and scarred with the depravity in their minds and in the\ngoverning principles of their lives. Thespesius said that he saw other\nsouls interwreathed like vipers, two, three, or more together, and\ndevouring one another from remembered enmity and ill will for what they\nhad suffered or done in life.\n\nThere were also lakes lying side by side, one of boiling gold, one\nof lead intensely cold, another of rough iron; and certain daemons,\nlike metal-workers, with their instruments took up and thrust in the\nsouls of those who had been guilty through greed and cupidity. When\nin the gold they had become fiery and transparent by burning, these\ndaemons plunged them into the lake of lead; and when they had there\nbecome frozen like hail, they were transferred to the lake of iron.\nThere they were made horribly black, and were so fractured and bruised\nby the hardness of the iron, as to look like different beings; and\nthen in this deformed condition they were carried again to the lake of\ngold, enduring intense torment in these successive transportations.\nBut those suffered most horribly of all who thought that they had\nbeen at length released from the hands of justice, yet who were again\napprehended for fresh punishment. These were they the punishment of\nwhose guilt passed on to some of their children or descendants. When\none of these comes and meets them, he falls upon them with anger, and\ncries out against them, showing the tokens of his sufferings, reviling\nand pursuing the souls that long to escape and hide, yet are unable so\nto do; for the ministers of justice run after them to subject them to\nfresh chastisement, and push them on, while they from the beginning\nlament bitterly, well knowing the punishment that awaits them. He said\ntoo that some, indeed many, of the souls of the descendants of bad men\nclustered together, sustained in this posture like bees or bats, and\nventing in shrieks their indignation at the remembrance of what they\nhad suffered on account of their parents or ancestors.\n\nLast of all, he saw the souls destined to a second birth, by main\nforce, bent and transformed into all sorts of beasts by artificers who\nfashioned them by appropriate tools and by blows as upon an anvil,\ncompressing all their parts, reversing some, planing down some, and\nutterly destroying some, so as to fit them for habits and modes of\nlife other than human. Among these appeared the soul of Nero, having\nalready endured other torments, and now pierced with red-hot nails.\nThe artificers had taken this soul in hand, and given it the form\nof Pindar\u2019s viper,[73:1] a form in which the creature after being\nconceived eats its way to life through its mother\u2019s bowels; when, as\nThespesius said, a light suddenly shone forth, and from the light came\na voice commanding that he should be transformed into another more\ngentle brute,\u2014one of those croaking creatures that burrow about swamps\nand ponds;[73:2] for though he had been punished for his wrong-doings,\nyet something of mercy was due to him from the gods, because he had\nemancipated the Greeks,[74:1] of all his subjects the best race and\ndearest to the gods.\n\nThus far Thespesius saw; but when he was about to return to the earth,\nhe was in utter desperation through terror. For a certain woman, of\nmarvellous form and stature, laying hold of him, said, \u201cCome hither,\nthat you may remember these things the better,\u201d and she was about to\nstrike him with a red-hot wand such as the encaustic painters use, when\nanother woman prevented her. Then he, as if suddenly forced through\na tube by an intensely strong and powerful wind, alighted on his own\nbody, and awoke hard by his own tomb.\n\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n[1:1] A name probably chosen for this retreating collocutor because\nthe dialogue is anti-Epicurean in its dogmas and its spirit, and the\nsupposed arguments to be refuted were therefore such as an Epicurean\nwould have urged. Epicurus denied the Divine Providence, and maintained\nthat the gods did not concern themselves with human affairs.\n\n[1:2] Some commentators suppose this to be the second part of a\ndialogue, of which the first part is lost. But it is more probable\nthat the reader is, for dramatic effect, introduced into the midst of\na prepared scene. This was not an uncommon device in the philosophical\ndialogues that have come down to us from early time. Plato, Cicero, and\nLucian furnish instances of it, and two other of Plutarch\u2019s dialogues\nbegin in a similar way. _Cinius_ is a name that occurs nowhere else.\nA purely conjectural emendation of a single letter would give us the\nbetter known name, _Quintus_. The scene of this dialogue is the temple\nof Apollo at Delphi,\u2014the temple in which Plutarch officiated as priest.\n\n[2:1] Plutarch\u2019s son-in-law.\n\n[2:2] Plutarch\u2019s brother.\n\n[2:3] The figure by which arguments are called spears or javelins,\nand are said to be hurled when uttered\u2014in itself not unnatural\u2014occurs\nfrequently in the ancient classics. Indeed, the most authentic\nderivation of the Latin _dicere_, _to speak_, is from the Greek \u03b4\u03b9\u03ba\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd,\n_to hurl_. The French word _trait_ offers an analogy in point.\n\n[2:4] Brasidas, the most distinguished Spartan general, and the leader\nof the Spartan forces, in the earlier part of the Peloponnesian war,\nwas slain near Amphipolis, at the moment of victory. Cleon, the\nAthenian general, was killed at the same time. The incident referred to\nin the text has no record in history; but a scholiast on Aristophanes\nsays that Cleon and Brasidas killed each other, referring probably to\nthe tradition that they both were killed by Cleon\u2019s spear.\n\n[3:1] A verse from the _Orestes_,\u2014the reply of Orestes when asked\nwhether Apollo would give him no assistance in his troubles.\n\n[3:2] In a speech of Cleon in favor of the slaughter of the men and the\nenslavement of the women and children of Mytilene, for the attempt to\nrelease themselves from the sway of the Athenians.\n\n[4:1] One of the seven wise men of Greece, as also of the smaller\nnumber of four to whom alone the possession of pre-eminent wisdom was\nascribed by some authorities. He is said to have been the author of the\nselfish maxim, that one should love his friends as if he were at some\nfuture time going to hate them.\n\n[4:2] Aristocrates, king of Orchomenus in Arcadia, joined the\nMessenians in war against Sparta, and was bribed by the Lacedaemonians\nto betray his allies in the battle of Taphrus. Many years afterward,\nhis treachery became known, and he was stoned to death by his own\nsubjects.\n\n[4:3] There is no historical vestige of this transaction, or of the\nking implicated in it. The scene of the story was probably Orchomenus\nin Boeotia, and Plutarch, as a Boeotian, would naturally have been\nfamiliar with chapters of local history too remote in time or too\ninsignificant to have left any permanent record.\n\n[5:1] Probably, if not Lyciscus, those implicated with him in his\ncrime took refuge in Athens, and many years afterward, at some crisis\nwhich created superstitious alarm, their bodies were disinterred and\ntransported beyond the limits of the state,\u2014a not unusual mode of\nlustration in the early time.\n\n[5:2] This is from a lost tragedy.\n\n[6:1] This name occurs as that of an interlocutor in one of the\nSymposiacs.\n\n[7:1] The reference here is, undoubtedly, to an hexameter\nverse from some unknown poet, quoted by Sextus Empiricus in the third\ncentury:\u2014\n\n    \u1f48\u03c8\u1f72 \u03b8\u03b5\u1ff6\u03bd \u1f00\u03bb\u03ad\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9 \u03bc\u03cd\u03bb\u03bf\u03b9, \u1f00\u03bb\u03ad\u03bf\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9 \u03b4\u1f72 \u03bb\u03b5\u03c0\u03c4\u03ac.\n\n    \u201cThe mills of the gods grind late, but they grind fine.\u201d\n\n[7:2] \u0391\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd, evidently meaning Plutarch.\n\n[7:3] I doubt whether there is reference here to every third wave as\nhaving a fuller flow. Timon, though inclined at the outset to the other\nside, is represented as so affected by the arguments of Patrocleas and\nOlympicus that he is prepared to make a third speech against the Divine\nProvidence, yet is willing to yield place to his brother; and the\nspeech which Plutarch supersedes is the third wave.\n\n[8:1] In some poem not now extant.\n\n[9:1] We have evidence from other sources that the Spartans were\naccustomed to shave the upper lip, and in Sparta custom and law were\nidentical.\n\n[9:2] Slaves might be manumitted in Rome by having their names\ninscribed on the roll of taxable citizens with permission of their\nmasters, in which case they must have been possessed of some\n_peculium_,\u2014property of their own earning or given them by their\nmasters. They might also be made free by will. But the oldest mode of\nmanumission is that here referred to. The slave was brought before the\nmagistrate, whose lictor laid a rod or wand on his head, after which\nceremony the master pronounced him free.\n\n[9:3] In this, which was one of several modes in which wills were\nmade in Rome, the testator made a fictitious sale of his property to\na friend, who received his instructions as to the disposal of it. The\nperson thus made the purchaser filled very much the place that with us\nis held by the executor of a will.\n\n[10:1] Solon\u2019s theory was, that neutrality in a disturbed condition of\nthe state indicated either indifference to the public well-being or the\nmost sordid selfishness; while sedition might be sometimes justifiable,\nand at the worst was not inconsistent with honesty of purpose.\n\n[10:2] The \u201charbor or refuge\u201d is man\u2019s inevitable ignorance of Divine\nthings, which is often a sufficient answer for doubts or objections\nwhich man cannot solve or refute.\n\n[11:1] From an unknown poet.\n\n[12:1] A tragedian, of whom only a few fragments are preserved.\n\n[12:2] This whole section looks almost like a paraphrase of St. Paul\u2019s\nexhortation: \u201cBe ye kind, tender-hearted, forgiving one another,\neven as God [for Christ\u2019s sake] hath forgiven you. _Be ye_ therefore\n_followers of God_, as dear children; and walk in love.\u201d\n\n[14:1] \u03a4\u03c1\u03cc\u03c0\u03bf\u03c2, from \u03c4\u03c1\u03ad\u03c0\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, _to turn_. Our phrase _turn of mind_\nvirtually denotes a change, i. e. a direction of mind not native or\nnormal.\n\n[14:2] \u1f2e\u03b8\u03bf\u03c2, _habit_. Habits are not native, but always imply a change\nfrom a previous state in which they had not begun to be.\n\n[14:3] A man in the upper part of his body; in the lower, a dragon.\n\n[14:4] Gelon first obtained the sovereignty of Gela in Sicily, by\nsetting aside the minor sons of the late king, of whom he had been\nappointed guardian. He subsequently availed himself of dissensions in\nSyracuse, to obtain the sovereignty of that city, which rose to great\nprosperity and wealth under his reign.\n\n[14:5] Hieron was the brother and successor of Gelon, who left an\ninfant son. Some accounts say that he assumed the sovereignty in his\nnephew\u2019s name, and retained it as in his own right. He was tyrannical\nin his rule, but was successful in war, and was distinguished for his\npatronage of literature and of learned men. Aeschylus and Pindar were\namong his invited and permanent guests.\n\n[15:1] Peisistratus obtained supreme power in Athens no less than three\ntimes, and always by intrigue and violence. But his administration was\nwise and beneficent. He enriched Athens with several of the most costly\nand tasteful public edifices. He was a liberal patron of letters. He\nsettled the poor of the city in the outlying districts of Attica, and\nlaid the foundation for the agricultural prosperity of the state.\n\n[15:2] This treaty could have had only a temporary effect; for at a\nsubsequent period we read of two hundred children being burned at\nthe shrine of Cronus in Carthage, as a propitiatory sacrifice when a\nsuccessor of Gelon appeared in arms before the city. In the Hebrew\nScriptures we learn that this particular form of human sacrifice was\nlargely practised by the Canaanites,\u2014the stock of which the Phoenicians\nwho settled Carthage were an offshoot.\n\n[15:3] Lydiades rose from an obscure condition to a despotic\nsovereignty over Megalopolis, and probably with little scruple as to\nthe means of elevation; but, becoming convinced that it was for the\ninterest of the city to join the Achaean league as a free state, he\nabdicated the crown, and was chosen commander of the forces of the\nrepublic thus constituted. He died in battle.\n\n[16:1] We are reminded here of the stanza in Byron\u2019s song:\u2014\n\n    \u201cThe tyrant of the Chersonese\n       Was freedom\u2019s best and bravest friend;\n     That tyrant was Miltiades.\n       O that the present hour might send\n     Another despot of the kind!\n     Such chains as his were sure to bind.\u201d\n\n[16:2] Elpinice, whose first husband was Cimon, was his father\u2019s\ndaughter; but they had different mothers. In the earlier ages, for\nobvious reasons, kindred was reckoned only on the mother\u2019s side, and\nthe intermarriage of the children of the same father and different\nmothers was legal, and not unusual. We find traces of the lawfulness\nof such marriages in Hebrew history as late as the time of David.\nCimon\u2019s marriage was probably lawful; but public sentiment had then\nadvanced so far as to render such a union discreditable, if not\nabsolutely infamous. It is worthy of remark here that the Greek names\nfor _brother_ and _sister_, \u1f00\u03b4\u03b5\u03bb\u03c6\u03cc\u03c2 and \u1f00\u03b4\u03b5\u03bb\u03c6\u03ae, in their derivation and\noriginal use denote a relation on the mother\u2019s side alone.\n\n[16:3] The stories that have come down to us of the riotous living,\nrecklessness, and debauchery of Themistocles as a young man almost\ntranscend belief. It is related of him that he was once drawn in a\ncarriage through the thronged market-place by four shameless women\nharnessed like horses.\n\n[17:1] \u1f08\u03c1\u03c4\u03b5\u03bc\u03af\u03c3\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd, Artemisium. The first naval battle between the\nGrecian forces and Xerxes was fought off Artemisium. Themistocles\ncommanded the Athenian portion of the fleet, and the splendid victory\nwas ascribed, in great part, to his skill and prowess.\n\n[17:2] From Pindar,\u2014commemorative of this battle.\n\n[18:1] Before Dionysius the elder obtained the undisputed sovereignty\nof Syracuse, Sicily had been devastated by the Carthaginians, and\nseveral of its chief cities destroyed. In the first year of his reign,\nthe Carthaginian general, after a successful campaign, offered him\nterms of peace, solely because his own army had suffered severely\nfrom pestilence. But in subsequent wars Dionysius repeatedly defeated\nthe Carthaginians, and, whatever his demerits, he raised his kingdom\nto a high degree of prosperity, and rendered it attractive to the\nemigrants whom the over-peopled Greek cities were constantly sending to\nevery region where Greek enterprise, genius, and skill could hope for\nrecognition and reward.\n\n[19:1] Periander was the tyrant of Corinth in the seventh century\nbefore Christ. His history is obscure; but the traditions with regard\nto him relate many acts of violence and cruelty, and also very great\nmisfortunes, and his domestic life was overshadowed equally by crime\nand by misery. The three places named in this sentence were early\nCorinthian colonies, and they may have been settled by Periander\u2019s\nenterprise, or may have been places of refuge from his caprice and\noppression.\n\n[19:2] The island of Leucadia was a peninsula in Homer\u2019s time, and was\nprobably still so when the Corinthian colony was established.\n\n[19:3] Alexander destroyed Thebes; twenty years afterward Cassander\nrebuilt it. Plutarch very probably refers to the tradition that\nCassander poisoned Alexander. Not that he was free from other undoubted\ncrimes; for his whole life was marked by sporadic acts of violence. He\ncannot be said to have received any specific punishment; but he was\nkept in perpetual harassment by the quarrels among the successors of\nAlexander.\n\n[19:4] That is, this temple of Delphi, the scene of the dialogue.\n\n[20:1] In the Phocian war two Phocian leaders with their associates\nseized the treasure deposited in the temple at Delphi, and used it to\nhire foreign mercenaries. Those concerned in the robbery were wandering\nas outlaws in Peloponnesus, when Timoleon enlisted them for service\nin Sicily against the Carthaginians. They contributed largely to his\nsuccess; but after their dispersion most of them encountered such\ndisasters as were regarded as the normal penalty of sacrilege.\n\n[20:2] So little is really known about Phalaris that he is almost a\nmythical personage. His name, however, will always remain associated\nwith his brazen bull, and his trying his first experiment with it by\nroasting in it its inventor, who certainly best deserved the doom.\n\n[20:3] The readers of Roman history may doubt the medicinal virtue of\nMarius, who certainly served as a seton on the body politic.\n\n[21:1] History throws no light on this specific crime; but the\nSicyonians had the reputation of being a licentious and otherwise\nvicious people. The curative process under Orthagoras and the dynasty\nthat he founded lasted a full century.\n\n[21:2] Of Cleonae we know very little except that it was, and now is\nnot. Near its site is a hamlet of half a dozen houses that bears the\nname of Clenes. Nemea, where the Nemean games were held, was in its\nterritory.\n\n[21:3] One of his maternal ancestors had been cursed, and banished from\nAthens, a century and a half before his birth, for an insurrectionary\nenterprise.\n\n[21:4] He was killed by lightning, which the people regarded as a\nretributive bolt from heaven. He deserved hatred, Cicero says, for his\ncruelty, treachery, and avarice.\n\n[22:1] One tradition makes Odysseus the son of Sisyphus, and only the\nstep-son of Laertes, who, however, married Anticleia before her son was\nborn. Autolycus was the father of Anticleia, and it was he that stole\nthe cattle of Iphitus.\n\n[22:2] Aesculapius in Grecian fable was the son of Apollo by Coronis,\nthe daughter of Phlegyas, who, in what might seem righteous indignation\nagainst the wanton god, set fire to his Delphian temple, having of\ncourse first ravaged it.\n\n[23:1] Dion obtained supreme power in Syracuse, though not the title\nof King, on the expulsion of Dionysius the younger. Callippus, his\nprofessed friend, was the leader of the band of malcontents that\nkilled Dion, although he did not kill him with his own hand, perhaps\nshrinking from the act of murder on account of an oath which, when\nunder suspicion, he had sworn at the altar of Persephone, that he\nwould remain faithful to his friend. His aim was the place which Dion\nhad held. It was his but a little while, and then, after a series of\nmisfortunes and wanderings, he was killed at Rhegium with the same\nweapon that had been employed in the murder of Dion.\n\n[23:2] Eriphyle received a golden necklace as a reward for betraying\nher husband Amphiaraus, who secreted himself to avoid going to the\nTheban war in which it was predicted that he should perish. His son\nAlcmaeon avenged his father by killing his mother, and then made of\nthe necklace a sacred deposit in the temple at Delphi. Aristo was the\ncommander of one of the bands of mercenaries hired by the pillage of\nthe temple.\n\n[23:3] The Phocian leaders who committed this sacrilege.\n\n[23:4] In this temple.\n\n[24:1] The Spanish fly, which was used for medicinal purposes in very\nearly times, as it is now.\n\n[25:1] Such spectacles\u2014never, so far as we know, witnessed in\nGreece\u2014were not uncommon in Rome. Christians were thus exhibited\nand murdered on the stage in the sight of admiring and applauding\nmultitudes; and we have no reason to doubt that other reputed\nmalefactors were similarly dealt with. This treatise may have been\nwritten after Plutarch had been in Rome; at any rate, Roman customs\nwere well known throughout the empire.\n\n[27:1] Agamemnon, the husband of Clytemnestra, whom she murdered on\nhis return from Troy, was the son of Pleisthenes. Stesichorus wrote a\ntragedy entitled _Orestes_, from which, undoubtedly, these verses are\ntaken.\n\n[28:1] Apollodorus, king of the small state of Cassandreia, was\nregarded as having been unsurpassed in tyranny, cruelty, and\ndebauchery. The mention of his daughters in this vision makes it\nprobable that he was guilty of some horrible outrage of violence or\nlust of which they were the victims.\n\n[28:2] The crime or type of depravity of which Hipparchus was guilty\ncan be inferred only from the vision here reported.\n\n[28:3] Ptolemy Ceraunus was the eldest son of Ptolemy Soter; but,\non account of his violent passions and moral obliquity, his father\ndesignated a younger son as his successor. Ceraunus then emigrated to\nMacedonia, became intimate with Seleucus, murdered him treacherously,\nand himself assumed the sovereignty; but in less than a year he was\ndefeated by the Gauls who then first invaded that region, was taken\nprisoner, and was put to death with the utmost barbarity.\n\n[28:4] Plutarch tells this story with fuller details in his life of\nCimon. The Pausanias referred to is the Spartan viceroy and general of\nthat name. Byzantium, which had been a stronghold of the Persians, was\nheld by the Lacedaemonians, under Pausanias, at the time of the retreat\nof the Ten Thousand.\n\n[29:1] The rites differ; but the belief in necromancy has undergone no\nessential change from the days of the witch of Endor to the present\ntime, and there have probably been in every age, as now, ceremonies\nwhich have brought credulous men and women into imagined communion with\ndeparted spirits. The history of necromancy shows many resemblances,\nand still more analogies, in different countries, ages, and degrees of\nculture.\n\n[30:1] One of Alexander\u2019s generals, and after Alexander\u2019s death king of\nThrace.\n\n[30:2] Simonides is said to have been the first poet who eulogized the\nsubjects of his verse from mercenary motives. As his panegyrics had\ngreat poetical merit, and were much sought and well paid for, yet with\nfew expressions of gratitude, he was wont to say that his chest of\nmoney was full, the chest designed for thanks empty.\n\n[31:1] These verses are probably from a lost tragedy of Euripides.\nThe myths about Ino are various, and mutually inconsistent. According\nto some she killed, according to others she endeavored to kill, the\nchildren of her husband, Athamas, by a former wife. Still others charge\nher with the murder of her own son or sons. She at length leaped into\nthe sea, and emerged a goddess, under the name of Leucothea,\u2014certainly\na better name in heaven than she could have borne on earth.\n\n[32:1] Apollodorus is said to have bound his associates in some\nmovement for his own aggrandizement by bringing them together at a\nfestival, and at its close giving them evidence that they had been\nfeeding on human victims.\n\n[33:1] Glaucus, a Lacedaemonian, had a high reputation for integrity,\nand on the ground of it received from a foreigner a deposit of a large\nsum of money. When the owner\u2019s sons claimed the deposit, he disclaimed\nall knowledge of it. But a threat of the Delphian oracle led him to\nmake restitution afterward. Nevertheless the threat took effect, and he\nand his whole family perished.\n\n[33:2] In this section Timon seems to cite indiscriminately the cases\nof delayed or protracted punishment by men which are confessedly\nfoolish or wicked, and alleged instances of delayed punishment on the\npart of the gods. The _gravamen_ of the objection is, \u201cHow can that\nbe just or right for the gods to do, which when men do they encounter\neither ridicule or condemnation?\u201d\n\n[34:1] That Aesop was killed by the Delphians for the cause here stated\nthere seems to be no doubt; nor yet that Idmon, a descendant of the man\nof the same name who had owned and emancipated Aesop, received a large\nsum of money from the Delphians by way of expiation for their crime,\nto which they had probably in the mean time ascribed every bad harvest\nand every epidemic. It must be remembered that, before the rotation\nof crops became the habit of agriculturists, bad harvests were very\nfrequent, and that, in the absence of sanitary rules and precautions,\ndangerous epidemics prevailed at short intervals in all the cities of\nthe old world. It was not unnatural that these calamities should have\nbeen regarded as retributive judgments where a gross crime had been\ncommitted.\n\n[34:2] A _mina_ was about the metallic equivalent of twenty dollars,\nbut of course with a much larger purchasing power.\n\n[35:1] A small town in Central Asia, built by the Branchidae, who were\npriests and custodians of the temple of Apollo Didymeus in an Ionian\ncity bearing their name, near Miletus. The temple was burned by Darius,\nwas rebuilt, and was burned again by Xerxes, on his retreat from\nGreece. The priests surrendered the treasures under their charge to\nXerxes, followed him in his flight to escape punishment for sacrilege,\nand built the town which Alexander destroyed. His alleged motive for\nhis cruel treatment of the Branchidae was revenge for the sacrilege and\ntreason of their ancestors.\n\n[36:1] It was at Scheria, according to Homer, that Odysseus was kindly\nreceived by Nausicaa, entertained sumptuously by King Alcinous, her\nfather, and provided with the ship on board of which he reached Ithaca.\nThe inhabitants of Corcyra maintained that their island was the Homeric\nScheria, which very probably never existed except in the poet\u2019s brain.\n\n[36:2] Polyphemus.\n\n[36:3] The territory of Pheneus is so situated at the confluence of two\nmountain streams as to be of necessity liable to inundation. There was\nan old canal, said to have been constructed by Hercules, and designed\nto carry off any abnormal excess of water; but it had early become\nobstructed and useless, and Pliny says that there had been no less\nthan five periods when the region had been entirely devastated by the\noverflow of the rivers.\n\n[37:1] There were three occasions on which the Sybarites incurred\nthe special anger of Hera. Her statue was overturned in some civic\ncommotion. Afterward the people of Sybaris killed thirty members of a\ndelegation from their neighbors of Crotona, and cast out their bodies\nto be devoured by wild beasts. On this occasion, the goddess was seen\nby night with an angry and threatening mien. In the third place, a\nslave who had taken refuge at her altar was pursued and scourged by\nhis master, who held his father\u2019s tomb as so much more sacred than her\ntemple that he ceased beating the slave when he sought refuge there.\nSybaris is known to have been twice destroyed before Plutarch\u2019s time.\nThere may have been a third destruction of which we have no record; but\nthere is nothing in the text to forbid our so construing it as to leave\nthe threat still hanging over the city, and the third destruction still\nimpending.\n\n[37:2] The tradition was that Ajax was guilty of an outrage on\nCassandra, the priestess of Athene. He on his return voyage was\ndestroyed by shipwreck, and the Locrians were supposed to have suffered\non account of his crime visitations of pestilence and other dire\ncalamities. When they consulted the oracle, the reply was, that the\nguilt of Ajax could be expiated only by their sending annually to\nTroy, for a thousand years, two virgins to perform menial service in\nthe temple of Athene. The hero, the crime, and the expiation are, more\nprobably than not, all mythical.\n\n[38:1] The Thracian men were tattooed as well as the women, and it was\nprobably for both men and women a preferred mode of ornament.\n\n[38:2] I can find nowhere else any reference to this observance; but\nnothing is more probable than that Phaethon\u2019s name should have been\nattached to some religious anniversary in the region in which he was\nsaid to have perished.\n\n[39:1] \u201cOf the viands\u201d is an interpolation of my own. At a feast a\n\u201cportion\u201d was \u201ccarried off,\u201d and I know not what it could have been,\nif not a part of the food and wine on the table. If there were none\nof Pindar\u2019s posterity at hand to receive the portion, there were\nundoubtedly hungry officials ready in this behalf to represent them.\n\n[39:2] I suppose that the first place at a Spartan civic festival\nwas formally assigned to Terpander, long dead, and that the most\ndistinguished living guest was made to regard himself as second in\nhonor.\n\n[40:1] \u1f59\u03bc\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2. Plutarch is here addressing, not Timon alone, but two or\nall three of his interlocutors.\n\n[40:2] Descendants of Opheltes. He came from Thessaly to Thebes, and\nbrought with him a body of armed adherents. He founded a royal line in\nBoeotia.\n\n[40:3] Delphi being in Phocis, the claims on the score of Daiphantus\nwould be availing in all processions and festivities connected with the\ntemple service.\n\n[40:4] A victory that the Phocians under Daiphantus had gained five\nhundred years before was still celebrated in Plutarch\u2019s time.\n\n[40:5] I can find elsewhere no notice of these races, or families.\n\n[41:1] Lachares was a demagogue who early in the third century B. C.\nobtained virtually supreme power in Athens, plundered the Parthenon,\nstripped the statue of Athene of its ornaments, committed numerous\nacts of high-handed tyranny, and was finally expelled from the city on\nthe charge of having taken measures for betraying it into the hands of\nAntiochus.\n\n[41:2] Ariston was an Epicurean philosopher, who raised himself to a\nvirtual tyranny in Athens, but surrendered to Sulla when he besieged\nthe city.\n\n[42:1] \u1f28\u03c1\u03c5\u03b3\u03b3\u03af\u03c4\u03b7\u03bd, _eryngium_, now the name of a genus containing\nseveral species of snakeroot.\n\n[42:2] The plague that raged in Athens early in the Peloponnesian war,\nof which Thucydides gives so remarkable an account.\n\n[43:1] Plutarch gives an early specimen of this argument in his life\nof Theseus: \u201cThe ship wherein Theseus and the youth of Athens returned\n[from Crete] was preserved by the Athenians down even to the time of\nDemetrius Phalereus; for they took away the old planks as they decayed,\nputting new and stronger timber in their place, insomuch that this\nship became a standing example among the philosophers for the logical\nquestion, as to things that grow; one party holding that the ship\nremained the same, and the other contending that it was not the same.\u201d\n\n[45:1] Athens had been under the government of men who had been\nvirtually Cassander\u2019s viceroys. The city after his death came under the\nrule of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and it was probably by his order that\nthe statue of Cassander was destroyed.\n\n[45:2] Dionysius the elder.\n\n[45:3] Nisaeus was the son of Dionysius the elder, and was sovereign of\nSyracuse for a short time while his brother Dionysius the younger was\nin exile. Aelian names him in a chapter specially devoted to eminent\n\u03c6\u03b9\u03bb\u03bf\u03c0\u03cc\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, i. e. drunkards.\n\n[45:4] Apollocrates was the son of Dionysius the younger, and grandson\nof the elder. His father in going into exile left him in command of\nthe citadel of Syracuse, which he was soon compelled to surrender.\nHe holds the third place, as Nisaeus the second, in Aelian\u2019s list of\ndistinguished drunkards.\n\n[45:5] These were both sons of Cassander. Philip succeeded his father\nas king of Macedonia, but died almost immediately upon his accession to\nthe throne, leaving probably memory of his vices, of which Plutarch had\nknowledge, but no record of which has come down to our time. Antipater,\nhis next younger brother, in some sort succeeded him, first murdering\nhis mother, who favored the claims of her still younger son. He himself\nwas murdered before he could obtain undisturbed possession of his\nkingdom.\n\n[46:1] These obsolete modes of medical practice can now only provoke\na smile; but the argument is complete, if we will substitute for them\nthe treatment cited at the close of the sentence,\u2014blood-letting for\nophthalmia, which, if not in rule now, was so thirty years ago.\n\n[48:1] The reference in this last clause is to the opinion largely\nheld by the Stoics, that the soul is not immortal, but is destined to\nsurvive the body, and to live till the consummation of the existing\nuniverse, which, after completing a cycle of many thousands of years,\nwill be destroyed by fire.\n\n[48:2] This sentence is, as I believe, ironical. Some editors and\ntranslators make it interrogative; but the grammatical construction, as\nit seems to me, is opposed to this view.\n\n[48:3] This term, as applied to vessels or shallow earth-beds, where\nwhat is sown can only spring up and wither without coming to seed,\noccurs in Plato\u2019s Phaedrus. The very brief life and untimely end of\nAdonis may perhaps account for this peculiar use of his name.\n\n[49:1] Several hundred years ago. Archilochus, the earliest Ionian\nlyric poet, flourished, and was killed in battle, in the seventh\ncentury B. C. This entire passage may be regarded as an _argumentum de\nconcessis_, and as such it is perfectly legitimate. The inspiration of\nthe Delphian oracle and priestess was believed in by many of those for\nwhom Plutarch wrote; and to them he said, \u201cCan you believe that all\nthese oracular utterances about expiations for the dead and posthumous\nhonors to be paid to them have had reference to beings that ceased to\nexist when they ceased to breathe?\u201d\n\n[50:1] Or, \u201cthe home of the grasshopper\u201d; for _tettix_ (\u03c4\u03ad\u03c4\u03c4\u03b9\u03be) means\n_grasshopper_. The oracle, as usual, was ambiguous. Calondas, _alias_\nCorax, is represented as not understanding it at first, but finding\nout afterward that a Cretan named Tettix had settled at Taenarus, or\nTaenarum, he inferred that his home was designated by the oracle.\n\n[50:2] This place was on the southernmost cape of Greece, now Cape\nMatapan. The peninsula which forms this cape had a famous temple of\nPoseidon, was sacred to the infernal gods, and was the site of an\navenue, through a cave, to and from the infernal regions,\u2014the avenue by\nwhich Hercules dragged Cerberus to the light of day.\n\n[50:3] Pausanias, the Spartan, after a career of mingled glory and\nshame, being detected in treasonable intrigues, took refuge in the\ntemple of Athene. When he was nearly exhausted by hunger the Ephori\ndragged him out of the temple, and he died at its threshold. For their\nsacrilege the Delphian oracle ordered that he should be re-interred on\nthe spot where he died, and that two brazen statues should be erected\nin honor of the goddess in her temple at the public charge. Very\nnaturally, his ghost was supposed to haunt the sacred enclosure whence\nhe had been taken to die. See p. 28, n. 4.\n\n[51:1] The clause, \u201cthan there is that they should be fully rendered in\nthis life,\u201d has nothing in the original to correspond to it; but it is\nnecessary in order to convey the obvious meaning of the sentence.\n\n[52:1] Probably, as it seems to me, not Bion the poet, but a\nphilosopher of that name,\u2014a man of infamous character, an atheist\nin his professed belief, and remarkable for pithy and epigrammatic\nsayings, full of bitter humor and biting sarcasm, some of which are\nstill extant. Horace speaks of those who find pleasure in _Bioneis\nsermonibus et sale nigro_.\n\n[54:1] Or, \u201cIs not God wiser than Hesiod?\u201d With this interrogative\nconstruction, which the sentence will bear, the sense is,\u2014\u201cHesiod\nteaches the hereditary transmission of character as a fact; God, still\nmore, traces these inherited traits before they appear to human view.\u201d\nAccording to the rendering that I have given, the sense is,\u2014\u201cThe\ntransmission of character from father to son is recognized not only by\nGod in his providence, but equally by wise men, as, for instance, by\nHesiod.\u201d\n\n[57:1] Demetrius Poliorcetes, king of Macedonia, who was guilty of\ngreat crimes, and in a not over-virtuous age was distinguished for\nunbounded licentiousness. He died in captivity, having surrendered\nto Seleucus, king of Syria, after expulsion from his own kingdom\nand a series of consequent disasters. Antigonus, his son, was a man\nof eminent virtue, had a diversified, but on the whole a prosperous\ncareer, and died at the age of eighty, after a reign of nearly half a\ncentury.\n\n[57:2] Augeas, having made a contract with Hercules by which a tenth\npart of his cattle were to be the price for cleansing his stables in\na day, refused to pay the price; and Hercules waged with him a war in\nwhich he and all his sons but Phyleus perished. Hercules placed Phyleus\non his father\u2019s throne, as king of the Epeians in Elis. The father\u2019s\nstory is, of course, mythical, and the son hardly falls within the\ndomain of authentic history.\n\n[57:3] The chief offence charged in Grecian myth against Neleus was his\nrefusing to perform expiatory rites for Hercules after he had killed\nIphitus, whose father was the friend of Neleus. Hercules, according to\nsome traditions, made war on Pylos, the kingdom of Neleus, and killed\nhim, with all his sons except Nestor.\n\n[58:1] _Sparti_, from \u03c3\u03c0\u03b5\u03af\u03c1\u03c9, _the sown men_, i. e. the armed men that\nsprang from the teeth of the dragon sown by Cadmus, from whom the\noldest families in Thebes\u2014a large part of the Boeotian aristocracy\u2014were\nsaid to have descended. Something like this mythical birthmark had\nprobably made its appearance on the body of a member of one of these\nancient families. Nisibis was a Syrian city with an extensive commerce,\nwith many Greek, and probably some Boeotian immigrants.\n\n[58:2] It may be that, in cases where the inheritance of a morbid\nphysical constitution, or of proclivity to moral evil, seems to lapse\nin the first generation and to reappear in the second, the children of\nthe diseased or depraved father have the physical or moral traits of\ntheir father, but are made and kept vigilant and faithful in self-care\nand self-discipline by the memory of their father\u2019s infirmities or\nsins; while their children have the inheritance without the warning.\n\n[59:1] If Plutarch made this story, as he probably did, it was\nundoubtedly suggested by the story, unlike in its details, yet with not\ndissimilar purpose, which Plato tells of Er, the Pamphilian, in the\ntenth book of _The Republic_.\n\n[59:2] Soli was a considerable city in Cilicia.\n\n[59:3] \u039c\u03b5\u03b8\u2019 \u1f21\u03bc\u1fb6\u03c2, _after us_, is the reading in all the manuscripts and\nolder editions; \u03bc\u03b5\u03b8\u2019 \u1f21\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd, _with us_, is a conjectural emendation which\nthe sense seems to require.\n\n[60:1] Amphilochus was one of the heroes of the Trojan war. He was\nthe son of a seer, and was believed to be endowed with the gift of\nprophecy. The oracle bearing his name at Mallos in Cilicia was said\nto have been founded by him, and it had a wider and more enduring\nreputation for veracity than any other ancient oracle.\n\n[60:2] \u0395\u1f30 \u03b2\u03ad\u03bb\u03c4\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u03b2\u03b9\u03ce\u03c3\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9. The question related to his property,\u2014to\nhis means of comfortable living. I therefore use in translating it\nthe familiar colloquialism, _better off_. The answer has a moral\nsignificance. \u0392\u03ad\u03bb\u03c4\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd is an ambiguous word,\u2014applicable equally to\ncondition and to character.\n\n[60:3] \u201cThou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy,\u201d was sound\nethical doctrine, equally with Gentile and with Jew, until men saw in\nthe divine humanity of Jesus Christ the qualities of character which\nhad been most despised, transfigured and glorified.\n\n[62:1] Thespesius means _divine_.\n\n[63:1] Plutarch (Greek Questions, 39) writes: \u201cThe Pythagoreans say\nthat the souls of the dead neither give a shadow nor wink.\u201d\n\n[63:2] \u1f08\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03ba\u03b7. This mythical parentage may account for the name of\nAdrasteia, which is probably derived from \u03b4\u03b9\u03b4\u03c1\u03ac\u03c3\u03ba\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, _to escape_, with\nthe \u03b1 privative, and thus means _unescapable_.\n\n[64:1] _Punishment._\n\n[64:2] _Justice._\n\n[64:3] One of the Erinnyes, or Furies. There are different myths as to\ntheir number, though there were commonly said to be three. Their name\nis probably derived from \u1f10\u03c1\u03b9\u03bd\u03cd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, _to be in a rage_. They were in\nGrecian fable the type of implacable anger and unrelenting vengeance.\n\n[64:4] Plutarch in his _Apophthegms_, says of Artaxerxes Longimanus,\nwho was not an unwise, but an over-indulgent king: \u201cHe first ordained\nas a punishment for his nobles who had offended, that they should\nbe stripped and their garments scourged instead of their bodies;\nand whereas their hair should have been plucked out, that the same\nshould be done to their turbans.\u201d We do not learn that his example was\nfollowed by any of his successors, or that he employed this method as\nto criminals in general. But the illustration is a happy one.\n\n[65:1] In these forms of punishment, it is the soul\u2019s clothes, i. e.\nthe body, not the soul itself, that is punished.\n\n[66:1] The body of a brute.\n\n[67:1] There were in Naxos, on Parnassus, and elsewhere various caves\ndedicated to Bacchus, i. e. to mirth and jollity; and the mouths of\nthese caves were, of course, decked with all of verdure and bloom that\ncould make them charming and attractive.\n\n[67:2] Dionysus as the son of Zeus had a right to leave the abode of\nthe dead, and to claim his seat on Olympus. His mother Semele, being\na mortal woman, had no such right; but he rescued her from the dead,\nand bore her to Olympus, where she became a goddess under the name of\nThyone.\n\n[68:1] _Oblivion._\n\n[68:2] \u0393\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2. According to this derivation \u03b3\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2 comes from \u03b3\u1fc6,\n_the earth_, and \u03bd\u03b5\u03cd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd, _to incline toward_,\u2014a fanciful derivation,\nthe genuineness of which there is good reason to doubt.\n\n[69:1] Themis preceded Apollo as the inspirer of the Delphian oracle.\n\n[69:2] The ancients imagined, as we easily may, something like the\noutlines of a human face in the disk of the moon, and among their\nmyths, or rather poetical fancies, was this of a Sibyl revolving with\nthe moon, and singing, as she rides across the firmament, the fate of\nmen and nations.\n\n[70:1] The great eruption of A. D. 79.\n\n[70:2] The earlier name of Puteoli.\n\n[70:3] Vespasian, who died in A. D. 79.\n\n[73:1] Nero\u2019s matricide is here referred to. Plutarch, no doubt, had in\nhis mind some then well-known figure or description in a poem of Pindar\nnow lost.\n\n[73:2] Some interpreters suppose that this creature is a swan. I have\nno doubt that it is a frog. Even had not the empire passed entirely out\nof the possible reach of the Caesars, I do not believe that Plutarch\nwould have shown any tenderness to Nero\u2019s memory, and certainly\nthere was no conceivable motive for it under the reign of Titus or\nDomitian. There is a fine satire in this final destiny of Nero. He has\nbeen horribly punished, and has been tortured into the likeness of\nthe reptile regarded by the ancients as the only matricide in their\nzo\u00f6logy; and now for the one good act of his reign a little mercy is\nshown him. He had prided himself and annoyed his subjects as a singer,\nand now he is transformed into the singer that is a perpetual annoyance\nto all dwellers near swamps and ponds.\n\n[74:1] He freed the province of Achaia from taxes, and endowed it\nwith certain political rights and privileges. Vespasian restored the\nprovince to its previous condition.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\n    Adrasteia, presiding over the punishment of disembodied souls,\n        63.\n\n    Aesculapius, sprung from a vicious stock, 22.\n\n    Aesop, murder of, 34.\n\n    Ajax, crime of, 37 n.\n\n    Alexander, revenge of, on the Branchidae for the guilt of their\n        ancestors, 35.\n\n    Amphilochus, oracle of, 60 n.\n\n    Apollodorus, the prey of terrific visions, 28.\n      serving a cannibal feast to his associates in crime, 32.\n\n    Archytas, forbearance of, 12.\n\n    Aristo, punished for sacrilege, 23.\n\n    Aristocrates, treachery of, 4.\n\n    Artaxerxes Longimanus, penal discipline of, 64 n.\n\n\n    Bessus, the parricide, betraying his crime from remorse, 24.\n\n    Bion, the philosopher, cavils of, at the reality of inherited\n        punishment, 52.\n      character of, 52 n.\n\n    Brasidas, death of, 2.\n\n\n    Callippus, killed by the dagger with which he had procured Dion\u2019s\n        death, 22.\n\n    Calondas, expiating the slaughter of Archilochus, 49.\n\n    Cassander, not punished till he had restored Thebes, 7.\n\n    Character, hereditary, 44.\n\n    Children, inheriting the rewards and punishments due to their\n        fathers, 39.\n\n    Cimon, infamy and fame of, 16.\n\n\n    Dionysius, left unpunished for the good that he might do, 18.\n\n\n    Forbearance, the Divine, affording space for repentance, 13.\n\n\n    Gelon, reformation of, 14.\n\n    Glaucus, fraud and punishment of, 32.\n\n    God, in his slowness to punish, an example to man, 11.\n\n\n    Hereditary transmission of punishment no more mysterious than\n        transitions in space, 42.\n\n    Heritage of moral qualities lapsing in the first, and reappearing in\n        some subsequent generation, 58.\n\n    Hieron, reformation of, 14.\n\n    Hipparchus, punishment of, anticipated in vision, 28.\n\n\n    Immortality, made probable by God\u2019s retributive providence, 48.\n\n\n    Laws, human, often unintelligible, 9.\n\n    Lethe, cavern of, 67.\n\n    Lyciscus, treachery of, 5.\n\n    Lydiades, a tyrant, and afterward a patriot, 15.\n\n\n    Miltiades, a tyrant, yet a patriot, 16.\n\n    Mitius, the murderer of, punished, 23.\n\n    Municipal life and character, continuous, 43.\n\n\n    Nero, doom of, 73.\n\n\n    Odysseus, redeemed by his own virtues from the curse resting on his\n        father, 22.\n\n\n    Pausanias, haunted by the apparition of a victim of his lust and\n        cruelty, 29.\n      haunting the temple near which he died, 50.\n\n    Peisistratus, a usurper, yet a beneficent ruler, 15.\n\n    Periander, punishment of, deferred that he might first render\n        service, 17.\n\n    Pericles, of an accursed and infamous race, 28.\n\n    Plato, quoted as making God an example to man, 10.\n      forbearance of, 12.\n\n    Plutarch, birthplace and residence of, vii.\n      education of, viii.\n      family of, ix.\n      philosophy of, x.\n      theology of, xi.\n      ethics of, xii.\n      relation of, to Christianity, xiv.\n      \u201cLives\u201d of, xvii.\n      \u201cMoralia\u201d of, xx.\n      letter of, to his wife on the death of their child, xxii.\n      \u201cApophthegms\u201d of, xxv.\n      treatise of, on the Delay of the Divine Justice, xxvi.\n\n    Pompey the Great, son of a worthless father, 21.\n\n    Providence, the Divine, beyond man\u2019s full comprehension, 8.\n\n    Ptolemy Ceraunus, punishment of, foretold in dreams, 28.\n\n    Punishment, alleged to be not recognized as such, when delayed, 6.\n      for the children of bad men, preceding and preventing guilt, 55.\n\n\n    Sibyl in the moon, predictions of, 69.\n\n    Sicyon, the people of, punished for wantonness and cruelty, 21.\n\n    Slowness of retribution, alleged to be disheartening to those who\n        suffer wrong, 3.\n\n    Souls cast no shadow, 63.\n\n    Sybaris destroyed for the guilt of its inhabitants, 37.\n\n\n    Themistocles, early profligacy and subsequent public services of,\n        16.\n\n    Thespesius, story of, 59.\n\n    Transformation of men into beasts, 71.\n\n\n    Wicked men, preserved for services that they may render, 18.\n      employed by God as executioners before their own destruction, 20.\n      punished not late, but long, 24.\n      punished most severely of all in their children, 51.\n\n\nUniversity Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES\n\n\nIn the Synopsis, the first numbered paragraph on each page was preceded\nby a section symbol in the original. Only the first section symbol has\nbeen retained.\n\nVariations in spelling and hyphenation remain as in the original.\n\nThe following corrections have been made to the original text:\n\n    Page xxix: equally the postulate[original has \u201cpostulete\u201d] of\n    the unsophisticated reason\n\n    Page 6: they place it to the account of misfortune[original has\n    \u201cmisforfune\u201d]\n\n    [4:3] scene of the story was probably[original has \u201cpropably\u201d]\n    Orchomenus\n\n    [57:3] Hercules, according[original has \u201caccerding\u201d] to some\n    traditions","title":"Plutarch on the Delay of the Divine Justice","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":27536}