{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_78134/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_78134","id":"gutenberg_78134","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/78134","summary":null,"tags":["Classical literature","Essays","Ethics","Philosophy"],"text":"Transcriber\u2019s notes:\n\nItalic text is denoted _thus_.\n\nThe spelling, hyphenation, punctuation and accentuation are as the\noriginal, except for apparent typographical errors which have been\ncorrected.\n\n\n\n\n[Illustration: _Pandora\u2019s Box._\n\n_From the painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti._]\n\n\n\n\nPLUTARCH\u2019S ESSAYS AND MISCELLANIES\n\nComprising all his Works Collected under the Title of \u201cMorals\u201d \u00b7\nTranslated from the Greek by Several Hands Corrected and Revised by\nWILLIAM W. GOODWIN, Ph.D., Professor of Greek Literature in Harvard\nUniversity In Five Volumes \u00b7 Volume One\n\n\n[Illustration: HONOS ET VIRTVS]\n\n\n  BOSTON \u00b7 LITTLE, BROWN\n  AND COMPANY \u00b7 MCMXI\n\n\n  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, By LITTLE,\n  BROWN, AND COMPANY, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at\n  Washington.\n\n\n  Copyright, 1898, 1905, By LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.\n\n\n  Printers S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.\n\n\n\n\n  EDITOR\u2019S PREFACE.\n\n\nThe translation of Plutarch\u2019s Morals \u201cby Several Hands\u201d was first\npublished in London in 1684-1694. The fifth edition, \u201crevised and\ncorrected from the many errors of the former editions,\u201d published in\n1718, is the basis of the present translation. The earlier translation\nmade by Philemon Holland, Doctor of Physick, published in London in\n1603 and again in 1657, has often been of great use in the revision. It\nhardly need be stated, that the name \u201cMorals\u201d is used by tradition to\ninclude all the works of Plutarch except the Lives.\n\nThe original editions of the present work contained translations of\nevery grade of merit. Some of the essays were translated by eminent\nscholars like William Baxter (nephew of Richard Baxter) and Thomas\nCreech, whose work generally required merely such revision as every\ntranslation of such an age would now need. But a large number,\nincluding some of the longest and most difficult treatises, were\ntranslated by men whose ignorance of Greek\u2014or whatever language was\nthe immediate ancestor of their own version\u2014was only one of their\nmany defects as translators. Perhaps we may gain a better idea than we\nhave had of the scholars of Oxford whom Bentley delighted to torment,\nfrom these specimens of the learning of their generation; and it may\nhave been a fortunate thing for some of our translators that Bentley\nwas too much occupied with the wise heads of Christ Church to be able\nto notice the blunders of men who could write notes saying that the\nParthenon is \u201ca Promontory shooting into the Black Sea, where stood a\nChappel dedicated to some Virgin God-head, and famous for some Victory\nthereabout obtain\u2019d;\u201d or who could torture a plain statement that a\ncertain water when stirred produced _bubbles_ (\u03c0\u03bf\u03bc\u03c6\u03cc\u03bb\u03c5\u03b3\u03b5\u03c2) into a story\nof a new substance called _Pompholyx_, \u201cmade by Mixture of Brass with\nthe Air\u201d! See Vol. V. p. 337, and Vol. III. p. 517, of the original\ntranslation.\n\nBesides the great variety of scholarship and ignorance, each translator\nhad his own theory of translation. While some attempted a literal\nversion, so as even to bracket all words not actually represented\nin the Greek, others gave a mere paraphrase, which in one case\n(Mr. Pulleyn\u2019s \u201cCustoms of the Lacedaemonians\u201d) became an original\nessay on the subject, based on the facts supplied by Plutarch. The\npresent editor\u2019s duty, of course, changed with each new style of\ntranslation. It would have been impossible to bring the whole work to\na uniform standard of verbal correctness, unless essentially a new\ntranslation had been made. The original version was often so hopelessly\nincorrect that no revision was possible; and here the editor cannot\nflatter himself that he has succeeded in patching the English of the\nseventeenth century with his own without detriment. Fortunately,\nthe earlier translation of Holland supplied words, and even whole\nsentences, in many cases in which the other was beyond the help of mere\nrevision. The translation of Holland is generally more accurate than\nthe other, and, on the whole, a more conscientious work; its antiquated\nstyle and diffuseness, however, render it less fitted for republication\nat the present time. Notwithstanding all the defects of the translation\nwhich is here revised, it is beyond all question a more readable\nversion than could be made now; and the liveliness of its style will\nmore than make up to most readers for its want of literal correctness.\nIt need not be stated to professional scholars, that translations made\nin the seventeenth century cannot, even by the most careful revision,\nbe made to answer the demands of modern critical scholarship.\n\nOne of the greatest difficulties in preparing the present work has been\nto decide how much of the antiquated language of the old translation\nshould be retained. On this point the editor has fortunately been\nable to consult the wisest and most experienced advisers, to whose\naid he has been constantly indebted; but even the highest authorities\noccasionally disagree on the first principles. He is fully aware,\ntherefore, that he has dissatisfied a large number of the friends\nof Plutarch in this respect; but he is equally sure that he should\nhave dissatisfied an equal number by any other course which he might\nhave followed. The general principle adopted has been to retain such\nexpressions as were in good use when the translation was made, provided\nthe meaning is obvious or easy to be learned from a dictionary, and\nto discard such as would be unintelligible to ordinary readers. It\nhas, in some cases, been assumed that the use of a phrase of obvious\nmeaning in this translation is of itself authority for accepting it.\nOn these principles many words and expressions are retained, which\nare decidedly weaker than their modern equivalents, especially many\nLatinisms and Gallicisms which now seem pedantic. Even here consistency\nhas been impossible, where the duty of a reviser changed with every\nnew treatise. Perhaps the editor cannot state his own object more\ncorrectly, than by saying that he has tried to make each treatise what\nthe original translator would have made it if he had carried out his\nown purpose conscientiously and thoroughly. Where so many errors were\nto be corrected, it would be absurd to hope that many have not remained\nstill unnoticed.\n\nThe corrupt state of the Greek text of many parts of Plutarch\u2019s\nMorals must not be overlooked. No complete edition of the Greek has\nbeen published since Wyttenbach\u2019s (1795-1800), except the French one\nby D\u00fcbner in the Didot collection. The latter gives no manuscript\nreadings; and although it professes to be based partly on a new\ncollation of the manuscripts in the public library of Paris, nothing\ndistinguishes the changes made on this authority from conjectures of\nthe editor and his predecessors. A slight glance at Wyttenbach will\nshow that many parts of the text are restored by conjecture; and many\nof the conjectures, though plausible and ingenious, are not such as\nwould be accepted by modern scholarship if they were made in earlier\nclassic authors. A translator must accept many of these under silent\nprotest; to enumerate one-half of them would introduce a critical\ncommentary entirely out of place in a translation. In fact, no critical\ntranslation of these treatises is possible, until a thorough revision\nof the text, with the help of the best manuscripts, has been made; and\nthis is a task from which most scholars would shrink in dismay. In\nmany cases in this edition, blanks have been preferred to uncertain\nconjectures or traditional nonsense. The treatises on Music, on the\nProcreation of the Soul, and the two on the Stoics, have many of their\ndark corners made darker by the utter uncertainty of the Greek text.\n\nThe essays in this edition follow the same order as in the old\ntranslation; but those on Fortune, and on Virtue and Vice, with the\nConjugal Precepts, are transferred from the beginning of volume\nthird to the end of volume second. The sections have been numbered\nin accordance with the modern editions of the Greek text. References\nto most of the classic authors quoted by Plutarch are given in the\nfoot-notes, except where a quotation is a mere fragment of an unknown\nwork. The tragic fragments are numbered according to the edition of\nNauck (Leipsic, 1856). All notes (except these references) introduced\nby the editor are marked G. A few notes are taken from Holland; and all\nwhich are not otherwise marked are retained from the old translation.\n\nIn conclusion, the editor must express his warmest thanks to his\ncolleagues at the University and other friends who have kindly aided\nhim with their advice and skill. Without their help, the undertaking\nwould sometimes have seemed hopeless.\n\n  WILLIAM W. GOODWIN.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nIt is remarkable that of an author so familiar as Plutarch, not only\nto scholars, but to all reading men, and whose history is so easily\ngathered from his works, no accurate memoir of his life, not even the\ndates of his birth and death, should have come down to us. Strange that\nthe writer of so many illustrious biographies should wait so long for\nhis own. It is agreed that he was born about the year 50 A. D. He has\nbeen represented as having been the tutor of the Emperor Trajan, as\ndedicating one of his books to him, as living long in Rome in great\nesteem, as having received from Trajan the consular dignity, and as\nhaving been appointed by him the governor of Greece. He was a man whose\nreal superiority had no need of these flatteries. Meantime, the simple\ntruth is, that he was not the tutor of Trajan, that he dedicated no\nbook to him, was not consul in Rome, nor governor of Greece; appears\nnever to have been in Rome but on two occasions, and then on business\nof the people of his native city, Ch\u00e6ron\u00e6a; and though he found or made\nfriends at Rome, and read lectures to some friends or scholars, he did\nnot know or learn the Latin language there; with one or two doubtful\nexceptions, never quotes a Latin book; and though the contemporary in\nhis youth, or in his old age, of Persius, Juvenal, Lucan, and Seneca,\nof Quintilian, Martial, Tacitus, Suetonius, Pliny the Elder, and\nthe Younger, he does not cite them, and in return his name is never\nmentioned by any Roman writer. It would seem that the community of\nletters and of personal news was even more rare at that day than the\nwant of printing, of railroads and telegraphs, would suggest to us.\n\nBut this neglect by his contemporaries has been compensated by an\nimmense popularity in modern nations. Whilst his books were never\nknown to the world in their own Greek tongue, it is curious that the\n\u201cLives\u201d were translated and printed in Latin, thence into Italian,\nFrench, and English, more than a century before the original \u201cWorks\u201d\nwere yet printed. For whilst the \u201cLives\u201d were translated in Rome in\n1471, and the \u201cMorals,\u201d part by part, soon after, the first printed\nedition of the Greek \u201cWorks\u201d did not appear until 1572. Hardly current\nin his own Greek, these found learned interpreters in the scholars\nof Germany, Spain, and Italy. In France, in the middle of the most\nturbulent civil wars, Amyot\u2019s translation awakened general attention.\nHis genial version of the \u201cLives\u201d in 1559, of the \u201cMorals\u201d in 1572, had\nsignal success. King Henry IV. wrote to his wife, Marie de Medicis:\n\u201c_Vive Dieu._ As God liveth, you could not have sent me any thing which\ncould be more agreeable than the news of the pleasure you have taken\nin this reading. Plutarch always delights me with a fresh novelty.\nTo love him is to love me; for he has been long time the instructor\nof my youth. My good mother, to whom I owe all, and who would not\nwish, she said, to see her son an illustrious dunce, put this book\ninto my hands almost when I was a child at the breast. It has been\nlike my conscience, and has whispered in my ear many good suggestions\nand maxims for my conduct, and the government of my affairs.\u201d Still\nearlier, Rabelais cites him with due respect. Montaigne, in 1589, says:\n\u201cWe dunces had been lost, had not this book raised us out of the dirt.\nBy this favor of his we dare now speak and write. The ladies are able\nto read to schoolmasters. \u2019Tis our breviary.\u201d Montesquieu drew from him\nhis definition of law, and, in his _Pens\u00e9es_, declares, \u201cI am always\ncharmed with Plutarch; in his writings are circumstances attached to\npersons, which give great pleasure;\u201d and adds examples. Saint Evremond\nread Plutarch to the great Cond\u00e9 under a tent. Rollin, so long the\nhistorian of antiquity for France, drew unhesitatingly his history\nfrom him. Voltaire honored him, and Rousseau acknowledged him as his\nmaster. In England, Sir Thomas North translated the \u201cLives\u201d in 1579,\nand Holland the \u201cMorals\u201d in 1603, in time to be used by Shakspeare in\nhis plays, and read by Bacon, Dryden, and Cudworth.\n\nThen, recently, there has been a remarkable revival, in France, in\nthe taste for Plutarch and his contemporaries, led, we may say, by\nthe eminent critic Saint-Beuve. M. Octave Gr\u00e9ard, in a critical work\non the \u201cMorals,\u201d has carefully corrected the popular legends, and\nconstructed from the works of Plutarch himself his true biography. M.\nLev\u00e9que has given an exposition of his moral philosophy, under the\ntitle of \u201cA Physician of the Soul,\u201d in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_; and\nM. C. Martha, chapters on the genius of Marcus Aurelius, of Persius,\nand Lucretius, in the same journal; whilst M. Fustel de Coulanges has\nexplored from its roots in the Aryan race, then in their Greek and\nRoman descendants, the primeval religion of the household.\n\nPlutarch occupies a unique place in literature as an encyclop\u00e6dia of\nGreek and Roman antiquity. Whatever is eminent in fact or in fiction,\nin opinion, in character, in institutions, in science\u2014natural,\nmoral, or metaphysical, or in memorable sayings, drew his attention\nand came to his pen with more or less fulness of record. He is, among\nprose-writers, what Chaucer is among English poets, a repertory for\nthose who want the story without searching for it at first hand,\u2014a\ncompend of all accepted traditions. And all this without any supreme\nintellectual gifts. He is not a profound mind; not a master in any\nscience; not a lawgiver, like Lycurgus or Solon; not a metaphysician,\nlike Parmenides, Plato, or Aristotle; not the founder of any sect\nor community, like Pythagoras or Zeno; not a naturalist, like Pliny\nor Linn\u00e6us; not a leader of the mind of a generation, like Plato or\nGoethe. But if he had not the highest powers, he was yet a man of rare\ngifts. He had that universal sympathy with genius which makes all its\nvictories his own; though he never used verse, he had many qualities\nof the poet in the power of his imagination, the speed of his mental\nassociations, and his sharp, objective eyes. But what specially marks\nhim, he is a chief example of the illumination of the intellect by\nthe force of morals. Though the most amiable of boon-companions, this\ngenerous religion gives him _aper\u00e7us_ like Goethe\u2019s.\n\nPlutarch was well-born, well-taught, well-conditioned; a\nself-respecting, amiable man, who knew how to better a good education\nby travels, by devotion to affairs private and public; a master of\nancient culture, he read books with a just criticism; eminently social,\nhe was a king in his own house, surrounded himself with select friends,\nand knew the high value of good conversation; and declares in a letter\nwritten to his wife that \u201che finds scarcely an erasure, as in a book\nwell-written, in the happiness of his life.\u201d\n\nThe range of mind makes the glad writer. The reason of Plutarch\u2019s vast\npopularity is his humanity. A man of society, of affairs; upright,\npractical; a good son, husband, father, and friend,\u2014he has a taste\nfor common life, and knows the court, the camp, and the judgment-hall,\nbut also the forge, farm, kitchen, and cellar, and every utensil and\nuse, and with a wise man\u2019s or a poet\u2019s eye. Thought defends him from\nany degradation. He does not lose his way, for the attractions are from\nwithin, not from without. A poet in verse or prose must have a sensuous\neye, but an intellectual co-perception. Plutarch\u2019s memory is full, and\nhis horizon wide. Nothing touches man but he feels to be his; he is\ntolerant even of vice, if he finds it genial; enough a man of the world\nto give even the devil his due, and would have hugged Robert Burns,\nwhen he cried.\n\n    \u201cO wad ye tak\u2019 a thought and mend!\u201d\n\nHe is a philosopher with philosophers, a naturalist with naturalists,\nand sufficiently a mathematician to leave some of his readers, now and\nthen, at a long distance behind him, or respectfully skipping to the\nnext chapter. But this scholastic omniscience of our author engages a\nnew respect, since they hope he understands his own diagram.\n\nHe perpetually suggests Montaigne, who was the best reader he has ever\nfound, though Montaigne excelled his master in the point and surprise\nof his sentences. Plutarch had a religion which Montaigne wanted,\nand which defends him from wantonness; and though Plutarch is as\nplain-spoken, his moral sentiment is always pure. What better praise\nhas any writer received than he whom Montaigne finds \u201cfrank in giving\nthings, not words,\u201d dryly adding, \u201cit vexes me that he is so exposed\nto the spoil of those that are conversant with him.\u201d It is one of the\nfelicities of literary history, the tie which inseparably couples\nthese two names across fourteen centuries. Montaigne, whilst he grasps\n\u00c9tienne de la Bo\u00e8ce with one hand, reaches back the other to Plutarch.\nThese distant friendships charm us, and honor all the parties, and make\nthe best example of the universal citizenship and fraternity of the\nhuman mind.\n\nI do not know where to find a book\u2014to borrow a phrase of Ben\nJonson\u2019s\u2014\u201cso rammed with life,\u201d and this in chapters chiefly ethical,\nwhich are so prone to be heavy and sentimental. No poet could\nillustrate his thought with more novel or striking similes or happier\nanecdotes. His style is realistic, picturesque, and varied; his sharp\nobjective eyes seeing every thing that moves, shines, or threatens in\nnature or art, or thought or dreams. Indeed, twilights, shadows, omens,\nand spectres have a charm for him. He believes in witchcraft and the\nevil eye, in demons and ghosts,\u2014but prefers, if you please, to talk\nof these in the morning. His vivacity and abundance never leave him to\nloiter or pound on an incident. I admire his rapid and crowded style,\nas if he had such store of anecdotes of his heroes that he is forced to\nsuppress more than he recounts, in order to keep up with the hasting\nhistory.\n\nHis surprising merit is the genial facility with which he deals with\nhis manifold topics. There is no trace of labor or pain. He gossips of\nheroes, philosophers, and poets; of virtues and genius; of love and\nfate and empires. It is for his pleasure that he recites all that is\nbest in his reading: he prattles history. But he is no courtier, and\nno Boswell: he is ever manly, far from fawning, and would be welcome\nto the sages and warriors he reports, as one having a native right\nto admire and recount these stirring deeds and speeches. I find him\na better teacher of rhetoric than any modern. His superstitions are\npoetic, aspiring, affirmative. A poet might rhyme all day with hints\ndrawn from Plutarch, page on page. No doubt, this superior suggestion\nfor the modern reader owes much to the foreign air, the Greek wine,\nthe religion and history of antique heroes. Thebes, Sparta, Athens,\nand Rome charm us away from the disgust of the passing hour. But his\nown cheerfulness and rude health are also magnetic. In his immense\nquotation and allusion, we quickly cease to discriminate between what\nhe quotes and what he invents. We sail on his memory into the ports of\nevery nation, enter into every private property, and do not stop to\ndiscriminate owners, but give him the praise of all. \u2019Tis all Plutarch,\nby right of eminent domain, and all property vests in this emperor.\nThis facility and abundance make the joy of his narrative, and he is\nread to the neglect of more careful historians. Yet he inspires a\ncuriosity, sometimes makes a necessity, to read them. He disowns any\nattempt to rival Thucydides; but I suppose he has a hundred readers\nwhere Thucydides finds one, and Thucydides must often thank Plutarch\nfor that one. He has preserved for us a multitude\n\nof precious sentences, in prose or verse, of authors whose books are\nlost; and these embalmed fragments, through his loving selection alone,\nhave come to be proverbs of later mankind. I hope it is only my immense\nignorance that makes me believe that they do not survive out of his\npages,\u2014not only Thespis, Polemos, Euphorion, Ariston, Evenus, &c., but\nfragments of Menander and Pindar. At all events, it is in reading the\nfragments he has saved from lost authors that I have hailed another\nexample of the sacred care which has unrolled in our times, and still\nsearches and unrolls _papyri_ from ruined libraries and buried cities,\nand has drawn attention to what an ancient might call the politeness of\nFate,\u2014we will say, more advisedly, the benign Providence which uses\nthe violence of war, of earthquakes, and changed watercourses, to save\nunderground through barbarous ages the relics of ancient art, and thus\nallows us to witness the upturning of the alphabets of old races, and\nthe deciphering of forgotten languages, so to complete the annals of\nthe forefathers of Asia, Africa, and Europe.\n\nHis delight in poetry makes him cite with joy the speech of Gorgias,\n\u201cthat the tragic poet who deceived was juster than he who deceived not,\nand he that was deceived was wiser than he who was not deceived.\u201d\n\nIt is a consequence of this poetic trait in his mind, that I confess\nthat, in reading him, I embrace the particulars, and carry a faint\nmemory of the argument or general design of the chapter; but he is not\nless welcome, and he leaves the reader with a relish and a necessity\nfor completing his studies. Many examples might be cited of nervous\nexpression and happy allusion, that indicate a poet and an orator,\nthough he is not ambitious of these titles, and cleaves to the security\nof prose narrative, and only shows his intellectual sympathy with\nthese; yet I cannot forbear to cite one or two sentences which none who\nreads them will forget. In treating of the style of the Pythian Oracle,\nhe says,\u2014\n\n  \u201cDo you not observe, some one will say, what a grace there is in\n  Sappho\u2019s measures, and how they delight and tickle the ears and\n  fancies of the hearers? Whereas the Sibyl, with her frantic grimaces,\n  uttering sentences altogether thoughtful and serious, neither fucused\n  nor perfumed, continues her voice a thousand years through the favor\n  of the Divinity that speaks within her.\u201d\n\nAnother gives an insight into his mystic tendencies,\u2014\n\n  \u201cEarly this morning, asking Epaminondas about the manner of\n  Lysis\u2019s burial, I found that Lysis had taught him as far as the\n  incommunicable mysteries of our sect, and that the same D\u00e6mon that\n  waited on Lysis, presided over him, if I can guess at the pilot from\n  the sailing of the ship. The paths of life are large, but in few are\n  men directed by the D\u00e6mons. When Theanor had said this, he looked\n  attentively on Epaminondas, as if he designed a fresh search into his\n  nature and inclinations.\u201d\n\nAnd here is his sentiment on superstition, somewhat condensed in Lord\nBacon\u2019s citation of it: \u201cI had rather a great deal that men should say,\nThere was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say,\nthat there was one Plutarch that would eat up his children as soon as\nthey were born, as the poets speak of Saturn.\u201d\n\nThe chapter \u201cOn Fortune\u201d should be read by poets, and other wise men;\nand the vigor of his pen appears in the chapter \u201cWhether the Athenians\nwere more Warlike or Learned,\u201d and in his attack upon Usurers.\n\nThere is, of course, a wide difference of time in the writing of these\ndiscourses, and so in their merit. Many of them are mere sketches\nor notes for chapters in preparation, which were never digested or\nfinished. Many are notes for disputations in the lecture-room. His poor\nindignation against Herodotus was perhaps a youthful prize essay: it\nappeared to me captious and labored; or perhaps, at a rhetorician\u2019s\nschool, the subject of Herodotus being the lesson of the day, Plutarch\nwas appointed by lot to take the adverse side.\n\nThe plain-speaking of Plutarch, as of the ancient writers generally,\ncoming from the habit of writing for one sex only, has a great gain\nfor brevity, and, in our new tendencies of civilization, may tend to\ncorrect a false delicacy.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWe are always interested in the man who treats the intellect well.\nWe expect it from the philosopher,\u2014from Plato, Aristotle, Spinoza,\nand Kant; but we know that metaphysical studies in any but minds of\nlarge horizon and incessant inspiration have their dangers. One asks\nsometimes whether a metaphysician can treat the intellect well. The\ncentral fact is the superhuman intelligence pouring into us from its\nunknown fountain, to be received with religious awe, and defended\nfrom any mixture of our will. But this high Muse comes and goes; and\nthe danger is that, when the Muse is wanting, the student is prone to\nsupply its place with microscopic subtleties and logomachy. It is fatal\nto spiritual health to lose your admiration. \u201cLet others wrangle,\u201d said\nSt. Augustine: \u201cI will wonder.\u201d Plato and Plotinus are enthusiasts,\nwho honor the race; but the logic of the sophists and materialists,\nwhether Greek or French, fills us with disgust. Whilst we expect this\nawe and reverence of the spiritual power from the philosopher in his\ncloset, we praise it in the man of the world,\u2014the man who lives on\nquiet terms with existing institutions, yet indicates his perception of\nthese high oracles, as do Plutarch, Montaigne, Hume, and Goethe. These\nmen lift themselves at once from the vulgar, and are not the parasites\nof wealth. Perhaps they sometimes compromise, go out to dine, make and\ntake compliments; but they keep open the source of wisdom and health.\nPlutarch is uniformly true to this centre. He had not lost his wonder.\nHe is a pronounced idealist, who does not hesitate to say, like another\nBerkeley, \u201cMatter is itself privation;\u201d and again, \u201cThe Sun is the\ncause that all men are ignorant of Apollo, by sense withdrawing the\nrational intellect from that which is to that which appears.\u201d He thinks\nthat \u201csouls are naturally endowed with the faculty of prediction;\u201d he\ndelights in memory, with its miraculous power of resisting time. He\nthinks that \u201cAlexander invaded Persia with greater assistance from\nAristotle than from his father Philip.\u201d He thinks that \u201che who has\nideas of his own is a bad judge of another man\u2019s, it being true that\nthe Eleans would be the most proper judges of the Olympic games, were\nno Eleans gamesters.\u201d He says of Socrates, that he endeavored to bring\nreason and things together, and make truth consist with sober sense. He\nwonders with Plato at that nail of pain and pleasure which fastens the\nbody to the mind. The mathematics give him unspeakable pleasure, but he\nchiefly liked that proportion which teaches us to account that which is\njust, equal; and not that which is equal, just.\n\nOf philosophy he is more interested in the results than in the method.\nHe has a just instinct of the presence of a master, and prefers to\nsit as a scholar with Plato, than as a disputant; and, true to his\npractical character, he wishes the philosopher not to hide in a corner,\nbut to commend himself to men of public regards and ruling genius:\n\u201cfor, if he once possess such a man with principles of honor and\nreligion, he takes a compendious method, by doing good to one, to\noblige a great part of mankind.\u201d \u2019Tis a temperance, not an eclecticism,\nwhich makes him adverse to the severe Stoic, or the Gymnosophist, or\nDiogenes, or any other extremist. That vice of theirs shall not hinder\nhim from citing any good word they chance to drop. He is an eclectic\nin such sense as Montaigne was,\u2014willing to be an expectant, not a\ndogmatist.\n\nIn many of these chapters it is easy to infer the relation between\nthe Greek philosophers and those who came to them for instruction.\nThis teaching was no play nor routine, but strict, sincere, and\naffectionate. The part of each of the class is as important as that of\nthe master. They are like the base-ball players, to whom the pitcher,\nthe bat, the catcher, and the scout are equally important. And Plutarch\nthought, with Ariston, \u201cthat neither a bath nor a lecture served any\npurpose, unless they were purgative.\u201d Plutarch has such a keen pleasure\nin realities that he has none in verbal disputes; he is impatient of\nsophistry, and despises the Epicharmian disputations: as, that he who\nran in debt yesterday owes nothing to-day, as being another man; so, he\nthat was yesterday invited to supper, the next night comes an unbidden\nguest, for that he is quite another person.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nExcept as historical curiosities, little can be said in behalf of\nthe scientific value of the \u201cOpinions of the Philosophers,\u201d the\n\u201cQuestions,\u201d and the \u201cSymposiacs.\u201d They are, for the most part, very\ncrude opinions; many of them so puerile that one would believe that\nPlutarch in his haste adopted the notes of his younger auditors, some\nof them jocosely misreporting the dogma of the professor, who laid\nthem aside as _memoranda_ for future revision, which he never gave,\nand they were posthumously published. Now and then there are hints of\nsuperior science. You may cull from this record of barbarous guesses\nof shepherds and travellers statements that are predictions of facts\nestablished in modern science. Usually, when Thales, Anaximenes, or\nAnaximander are quoted, it is really a good judgment. The explanation\nof the rainbow, of the floods of the Nile, and of the _remora_, &c.,\nare just; and the bad guesses are not worse than many of Lord Bacon\u2019s.\n\nHis Natural History is that of a lover and poet, and not of a\nphysicist. His humanity stooped affectionately to trace the virtues\nwhich he loved in the animals also. \u201cKnowing and not knowing is the\naffirmative or negative of the dog; knowing you is to be your friend;\nnot knowing you, your enemy.\u201d He quotes Thucydides, saying, \u201cthat\nnot the desire of honor only never grows old, but much less also the\ninclination to society and affection to the State, which continue even\nin ants and bees to the very last.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nBut though curious in the questions of the schools on the nature and\ngenesis of things, his extreme interest in every trait of character,\nand his broad humanity, lead him constantly to Morals, to the study of\nthe Beautiful and Good. Hence his love of heroes, his rule of life,\nand his clear convictions of the high destiny of the soul. La Harpe\nsaid \u201cthat Plutarch is the genius the most naturally moral that ever\nexisted.\u201d\n\n\u2019Tis almost inevitable to compare Plutarch with Seneca, who, born fifty\nyears earlier, was for many years his contemporary, though they never\nmet, and their writings were perhaps unknown to each other. Plutarch\nis genial, with an endless interest in all human and divine things;\nSeneca, a professional philosopher, a writer of sentences, and, though\nhe keep a sublime path, is less interesting, because less humane;\nand when we have shut his book, we forget to open it again. There is\na certain violence in his opinions, and want of sweetness. He lacks\nthe sympathy of Plutarch. He is tiresome through perpetual didactics.\nHe is not happily living. Cannot the simple lover of truth enjoy the\nvirtues of those he meets, and the virtues suggested by them, so to\nfind himself at some time purely contented? Seneca was still more a man\nof the world than Plutarch; and, by his conversation with the Court\nof Nero, and his own skill, like Voltaire\u2019s, of living with men of\nbusiness, and emulating their address in affairs by great accumulation\nof his own property, learned to temper his philosophy with facts. He\nventured far\u2014apparently too far\u2014for so keen a conscience as he inly\nhad. Yet we owe to that wonderful moralist illustrious maxims; as\nif the scarlet vices of the times of Nero had the natural effect of\ndriving virtue to its loftiest antagonisms. \u201cSeneca,\u201d says L\u2019Estrange,\n\u201cwas a pagan Christian, and is very good reading for our Christian\npagans.\u201d He was Buddhist in his cold abstract virtue, with a certain\nimpassibility beyond humanity. He called \u201cpity, that fault of narrow\nsouls.\u201d Yet what noble words we owe to him: \u201cGod divided man into men,\nthat they might help each other;\u201d and again, \u201cThe good man differs from\nGod in nothing but duration.\u201d His thoughts are excellent, if only he\nhad a right to say them. Plutarch, meantime, with every virtue under\nheaven, thought it the top of wisdom to philosophize, yet not appear to\ndo it, and to reach in mirth the same ends which the most serious are\nproposing.\n\nPlutarch thought \u201ctruth to be the greatest good that man can receive,\nand the goodliest blessing that God can give.\u201d \u201cWhen you are persuaded\nin your mind that you cannot either offer or perform any thing more\nagreeable to the gods than the entertaining a right notion of them, you\nwill then avoid superstition as a no less evil than atheism.\u201d He cites\nEuripides to affirm, \u201cIf gods do aught dishonest, they are no gods,\u201d\nand the memorable words of Antigone, in Sophocles, concerning the moral\nsentiment:\u2014\n\n    \u201cFor neither now nor yesterday began\n    These thoughts, which have been ever, nor yet can\n    A man be found who their first entrance knew.\u201d\n\nHis faith in the immortality of the soul is another measure of his deep\nhumanity. He reminds his friends that the Delphic oracles have given\nseveral answers the same in substance as that formerly given to Corax\nthe Naxian:\u2014\n\n    \u201cIt sounds profane impiety\n    To teach that human souls e\u2019er die.\u201d\n\nHe believes that the doctrine of the Divine Providence, and that of the\nimmortality of the soul, rest on one and the same basis. He thinks it\nimpossible either that a man beloved of the gods should not be happy,\nor that a wise and just man should not be beloved of the gods. To him\nthe Epicureans are hateful, who held that the soul perishes when it is\nseparated from the body. \u201cThe soul, incapable of death, suffers in the\nsame manner in the body, as birds that are kept in a cage.\u201d He believes\n\u201cthat the souls of infants pass immediately into a better and more\ndivine state.\u201d\n\nI can easily believe that an anxious soul may find in Plutarch\u2019s\nchapter called \u201cPleasure not attainable by Epicurus,\u201d and his \u201cLetter\nto his Wife Timoxena,\u201d a more sweet and reassuring argument on the\nimmortality than in the Ph\u00e6do of Plato; for Plutarch always addresses\nthe question on the human side, and not on the metaphysical; as Walter\nScott took hold of boys and young men, in England and America, and\nthrough them of their fathers. His grand perceptions of duty lead him\nto his stern delight in heroism; a stoic resistance to low indulgence;\nto a fight with fortune; a regard for truth; his love of Sparta, and\nof heroes like Aristides, Phocion, and Cato. He insists that the\nhighest good is in action. He thinks that the inhabitants of Asia came\nto be vassals to one only, for not having been able to pronounce one\nsyllable; which is, No. So keen is his sense of allegiance to right\nreason, that he makes a fight against Fortune whenever she is named. At\nRome he thinks her wings were clipped: she stood no longer on a ball,\nbut on a cube as large as Italy. He thinks it was by superior virtue\nthat Alexander won his battles in Asia and Africa, and the Greeks\ntheirs against Persia.\n\nBut this Stoic in his fight with Fortune, with vices, effeminacy, and\nindolence, is gentle as a woman when other strings are touched. He is\nthe most amiable of men. \u201cTo erect a trophy in the soul against anger\nis that which none but a great and victorious puissance is able to\nachieve.\u201d\u2014\u201cAnger turns the mind out of doors, and bolts the door.\u201d\nHe has a tenderness almost to tears when he writes on \u201cFriendship,\u201d\non \u201cMarriage,\u201d on \u201cthe Training of Children,\u201d and on the \u201cLove of\nBrothers.\u201d \u201cThere is no treasure,\u201d he says, \u201cparents can give to their\nchildren, like a brother; \u2019tis a friend given by nature, a gift nothing\ncan supply; once lost, not to be replaced. The Arcadian prophet, of\nwhom Herodotus speaks, was obliged to make a wooden foot in place\nof that which had been chopped off. A brother, embroiled with his\nbrother, going to seek in the street a stranger who can take his place,\nresembles him who will cut off his foot to give himself one of wood.\u201d\n\nAll his judgments are noble. He thought, with Epicurus, that it is more\ndelightful to do than to receive a kindness. \u201cThis courteous, gentle,\nand benign disposition and behavior is not so acceptable, so obliging\nor delightful to any of those with whom we converse, as it is to those\nwho have it.\u201d There is really no limit to his bounty: \u201cIt would be\ngenerous to lend our eyes and ears, nay, if possible, our reason and\nfortitude to others, whilst we are idle or asleep.\u201d His excessive and\nfanciful humanity reminds one of Charles Lamb, whilst it much exceeds\nhim. When the guests are gone, he \u201cwould leave one lamp burning, only\nas a sign of the respect he bore to fires, for nothing so resembles\nan animal as fire. It is moved and nourished by itself, and by its\nbrightness, like the soul, discovers and makes every thing apparent,\nand in its quenching shows some power that seems to proceed from a\nvital principle, for it makes a noise and resists, like an animal\ndying, or violently slaughtered;\u201d and he praises the Romans, who, when\nthe feast was over, \u201cdealt well with the lamps, and did not take away\nthe nourishment they had given, but permitted them to live and shine by\nit.\u201d\n\nI can almost regret that the learned editor of the present\nrepublication has not preserved, if only as a piece of history,\nthe preface of Mr. Morgan, the editor and in part writer of this\nTranslation of 1718. In his dedication of the work to the Archbishop\nof Canterbury, Wm. Wake, he tells the Primate that \u201cPlutarch was the\nwisest man of his age, and, if he had been a Christian, one of the\nbest too; _but it was his severe fate to flourish in those days of\nignorance, which, \u2019tis a favorable opinion to hope that the Almighty\nwill sometime wink at; that our souls may be with these philosophers\ntogether in the same state of bliss_.\u201d The puzzle in the worthy\ntranslator\u2019s mind between his theology and his reason well re-appears\nin the puzzle of his sentence.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI know that the chapter of \u201cApothegms of Noble Commanders\u201d is rejected\nby some critics as not a genuine work of Plutarch; but the matter is\ngood, and is so agreeable to his taste and genius, that if he had found\nit, he would have adopted it. If he did not compile the piece, many,\nperhaps most, of the anecdotes were already scattered in his works.\nIf I do not lament that a work not his should be ascribed to him, I\nregret that he should have suffered such destruction of his own. What\na trilogy is lost to mankind in his Lives of Scipio, Epaminondas, and\nPindar!\n\nHis delight in magnanimity and self-sacrifice has made his books, like\nHomer\u2019s Iliad, a bible for heroes; and wherever the Cid is relished,\nthe legends of Arthur, Saxon Alfred, and Richard the Lion-hearted,\nRobert Bruce, Sydney, Lord Herbert of Cherbury, Cromwell, Nelson,\nBonaparte, and Walter Scott\u2019s Chronicles in prose or verse,\u2014there will\nPlutarch, who told the story of Leonidas, of Agesilaus, of Aristides,\nPhocion, Themistocles, Demosthenes, Epaminondas, C\u00e6sar, Cato, and\nthe rest, sit as the bestower of the crown of noble knighthood, and\nlaureate of the ancient world.\n\nThe chapters \u201cOn the Fortune of Alexander,\u201d in the \u201cMorals,\u201d are\nan important appendix to the portrait in the \u201cLives.\u201d The union in\nAlexander of sublime courage with the refinement of his pure tastes,\nmaking him the carrier of civilization into the East, are in the\nspirit of the ideal hero, and endeared him to Plutarch. That prince\nkept Homer\u2019s poems, not only for himself under his pillow in his tent,\nbut carried these for the delight of the Persian youth, and made them\nacquainted also with the tragedies of Euripides and Sophocles. He\npersuaded the Sogdians not to kill, but to cherish their aged parents;\nthe Persians to reverence, not marry their mothers; the Scythians to\nbury, and not eat their dead parents. What a fruit and fitting monument\nof his best days was his city Alexandria to be the birthplace or home\nof Plotinus, St. Augustine, Synesius, Posidonius, Ammonius, Jamblichus,\nPorphyry, Origen, Aratus, Apollonius, and Apuleius.\n\nIf Plutarch delighted in heroes, and held the balance between the\nsevere Stoic and the indulgent Epicurean, his humanity shines not less\nin his intercourse with his personal friends. He was a genial host and\nguest, and delighted in bringing chosen companions to the supper-table.\nHe knew the laws of conversation and the laws of good-fellowship quite\nas well as Horace, and has set them down with such candor and grace as\nto make them good reading to-day. The guests not invited to a private\nboard by the entertainer, but introduced by a guest as his companions,\nthe Greeks called _shadows_; and the question is debated whether it\nwas civil to bring them, and he treats it candidly, but concludes:\n\u201cTherefore, when I make an invitation, since it is hard to break the\ncustom of the place, I give my guests leave to bring shadows; but when\nI myself am invited as a shadow, I assure you I refuse to go.\u201d He\nhas an objection to the introduction of music at feasts. He thought\nit wonderful that a man having a muse in his own breast, and all the\npleasantness that would fit an entertainment, would have pipes and\nharps play, and by that external noise destroy all the sweetness that\nwas proper and his own.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nI cannot close these notes without expressing my sense of the valuable\nservice which the Editor has rendered to his Author and to his\nreaders. Professor Goodwin is a silent benefactor to the book, wherever\nI have compared the editions. I did not know how careless and vicious\nin parts the old book was, until in recent reading of the old text, on\ncoming on any thing absurd or unintelligible, I referred to the new\ntext, and found a clear and accurate statement in its place. It is the\nvindication of Plutarch. The correction is not only of names of authors\nand of places grossly altered or misspelled, but of unpardonable\nliberties taken by the translators, whether from negligence or freak.\n\nOne proof of Plutarch\u2019s skill as a writer is that he bears translation\nso well. In spite of its carelessness and manifold faults, which, I\ndoubt not, have tried the patience of its present learned editor and\ncorrector, I yet confess my enjoyment of this old version for its\nvigorous English style. The work of some forty or fifty University men,\nsome of them imperfect in their Greek, it is a monument of the English\nlanguage at a period of singular vigor and freedom of style. I hope the\nCommission of the Philological Society in London, charged with the duty\nof preparing a Critical Dictionary, will not overlook these volumes,\nwhich show the wealth of their tongue to greater advantage than many\nbooks of more renown as models. It runs through the whole scale of\nconversation in the street, the market, the coffee-house, the law\ncourts, the palace, the college, and the church. There are, no doubt,\nmany vulgar phrases, and many blunders of the printer; but it is the\nspeech of business and conversation, and in every tone, from lowest to\nhighest.\n\nWe owe to these translators many sharp perceptions of the wit and humor\nof their author, sometimes even to the adding of the point. I notice\none, which, although the translator has justified his rendering in a\nnote, the severer criticism of the Editor has not retained. \u201cWere there\nnot a sun, we might, for all the other stars, pass our days in Reverend\nDark, as Heraclitus calls it.\u201d I find a humor in the phrase which might\nwell excuse its doubtful accuracy.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nIt is a service to our Republic to publish a book that can force\nambitious young men, before they mount the platform of the county\nconventions, to read the \u201cLaconic Apothegms\u201d and the \u201cApothegms of\nGreat Commanders.\u201d If we could keep the secret, and communicate it\nonly to a few chosen aspirants, we might confide that, by this noble\ninfiltration, they would easily carry the victory over all competitors.\nBut, as it was the desire of these old patriots to fill with their\nmajestic spirit all Sparta or Rome, and not a few leaders only, we\nhasten to offer them to the American people.\n\nPlutarch\u2019s popularity will return in rapid cycles. If over-read in\nthis decade, so that his anecdotes and opinions become commonplace,\nand to-day\u2019s novelties are sought for variety, his sterling values\nwill presently recall the eye and thought of the best minds, and his\nbooks will be reprinted and read anew by coming generations. And thus\nPlutarch will be perpetually rediscovered from time to time as long as\nbooks last.\n\n  RALPH WALDO EMERSON\n\n\n\n\n  CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST.\n\n  WITH THE TRANSLATORS\u2019 NAMES.\n\n\n  A DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN.\n\n  BY SIMON FORD, D.D.\n\n  Effect on children of impurity in the parents, 3; of intemperance\n  in the parents, 4. Instruction and training necessary, 5. Training\n  must assist nature, 5. Defective natural parts may be improved by\n  instruction, 5, 6. Diligent effort may supply native deficiencies,\n  6. A virtuous character partly the effect of custom and habit, 7.\n  Mothers should nurse their own children, 7, 8. Manners of children\n  to be well-formed from the beginning, 8. Care to be taken of their\n  associates, 9. Teachers of children to be carefully chosen, 9,\n  10. Moral character of teachers to be carefully regarded, 10, 11.\n  Unhappy consequences of the ill-training of children, 11, 12. A good\n  education preferable to the gifts of fortune, 12, 13. Learning better\n  than bodily strength, 13. Children should be trained to think before\n  they speak, 14, 15. A pompous style of speech to be avoided, 16.\n  Tameness of speech to be avoided, 16. The principal study of youth\n  should be philosophy, 17, 18. Bodily exercise not to be neglected,\n  19. Gymnastic and military exercises, 19. Corporal and disgraceful\n  punishments not to be used, 20. Motives to be addressed to the\n  understanding and conscience, 20. Severe tasks not to be imposed\n  on children, 21. Relaxation to be allowed them, 21. Memory to be\n  cultivated, 22. A courteous manner of speaking to be inculcated.\n  22. Self-control to be taught, 23, 24. Restraint of the tongue,\n  23, 24. Sotades punished for free speech, 25. Severity to children\n  unwise, 26. Young men to be restrained from vicious company, 28, 29.\n  Flatterers to be avoided, 29. Allowance should be made for youthful\n  impetuosity, 30. Marriage a security for young men, 31. Fathers not\n  to be severe and harsh, but examples to their children, 30, 31.\n\n\n  CONCERNING THE CURE OF ANGER.\n\n  BY WILLIAM DILLINGHAM, D.D.\n\n  How may a tendency to anger be overcome? i. 34. Not by the\n  interference of other persons, 35. The mind being then under the\n  influence of stormy passion, 36. The aid of reason and judgment is\n  more effectual, 37. Resist the beginning of anger, 37. When inclined\n  to anger, try to be quiet and composed, 38, 39. Anger is unreasonable\n  and foolish, 39. It disfigures the countenance, 40. Tends to one\u2019s\n  dishonor and discredit, 41. Produces absurd and insulting speeches,\n  42. Is disingenuous and unmanly, 42. Indicates a weak mind, 42.\n  Discovers meanness of spirit, 43. Fortitude consists with a mild\n  temper, 44. Anger can destroy, it cannot restore, 46. It often\n  overreaches itself, 47. Excessive urgency often fails of success, 47.\n  Forbearance towards servants urged, 48. Anger towards servants makes\n  them worse, 48. Never punish in anger, 49. Allow anger to cool, 49.\n  No harm arises from deferring anger, 49. Causes of anger examined;\n  we think we incur contempt without it, 50; it arises from self-love,\n  52; and a spirit of fault-finding, 52. The absence of these makes a\n  man gentle towards others, 53, 54. Nobody can dwell with an angry\n  man, 54. Anger, the essence of all bad passions, 56. Good temper in\n  us will disarm others, 55. Moderate expectations prevent anger, 56.\n  Knowledge of human nature softens anger, 57. Make trial for a few\n  days of abstinence from anger, 59.\n\n\n  OF BASHFULNESS.\n\n  BY THOMAS HOY, FELLOW OF ST. JOHN\u2019S COLLEGE IN OXFORD.\n\n  Bashfulness defined, 60. Two extremes: too much or too little\n  modesty; both to be avoided, 61. Bashfulness, an excess of modesty,\n  61, 62. It is injurious, 62; leaves a person at the mercy of others,\n  63; a bashful person is liable to imposition, 63; many are thus\n  ruined, 64. Deny an unreasonable request, 65. The fear of giving\n  offence\u2014bashfulness\u2014hinders the proper care of our health, and of\n  our property, 67, 68; exposes to the very evils it seeks to avoid,\n  69. The people of Asia are slaves, because they cannot say, \u201cNo,\u201d 69.\n  Deny recommendation to those not known to be worthy, 71. Undertake\n  no services to which you are not competent, 72. Cheerfully render\n  good offices to those that deserve them, 72; but deny them to the\n  unworthy, 73. We may not violate law and justice to please anybody,\n  74. Men who would dread to blunder in a matter of literature,\n  often violate law, 74. Err not from the right, either from fear or\n  flattery, 76. Remember what bashfulness has cost us, 77.\n\n\n  THAT VIRTUE MAY BE TAUGHT.\n\n  BY MR. PATRICK, OF THE CHARTERHOUSE.\n\n  If men may be taught to sing, dance, and read; to be skilful\n  husbandmen and good riders,\u2014why not to order their lives aright?\n  78. The practice of virtue is immensely more important than graceful\n  speech and manners, 79. If things of trifling moment may be taught,\n  much more things of the deepest concern, 80.\n\n\n  THE ACCOUNT OF THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS.\n\n  BY MR. JOHN PULLEYN, OF TRINITY COLLEGE IN CAMBRIDGE.\n\n  Institutions of Lycurgus, 82. The citizens ate at one table, 82.\n  Conversation at the table, 82. The food: black broth, 83; spare diet,\n  84. Learning, philosophy, mechanic trades, theatrical performances,\n  utterly banished, 85. Scanty apparel, 86; hard beds, 86; social\n  attachments, 86. A strict watch kept over the young, 87. Respect to\n  the aged, 88. Control by the aged of other people\u2019s children, 88, 89.\n  Children allowed to steal, if the theft were carefully concealed,\n  89. The Spartan poetry and music, 90; martial music, 91. Tenacity\n  of ancient customs, 92. Funerals, 92, 93; inscriptions, 93. Foreign\n  travel prohibited, 98. A community of children, 93; and of goods and\n  estates, 94. Their warlike expeditions, 94. Their religious worship,\n  95. The Helots, when drunk, exhibited before the children, 96. None\n  but grave poetry allowed, 96. Meekness and forgiveness of injuries\n  not tolerated, 97. A laconic style of speaking practised, 98.\n  Whipping of boys annually before the altar of Diana, 98. Neglect of\n  maritime affairs, 99. Gold and silver banished, 99. Final overthrow\n  of the institutions of Lycurgus, 100.\n\n\n  CONCERNING MUSIC.\n\n  BY JOHN PHILIPS, GENT.\n\n  Principles of Greek music: the tetrachord, heptachord, octachord;\n  scale of fifteen notes, 102, 103, _note_. History of music, 104,\n  _et seq._ The lyre, 105. Amphion, Linus, Anthes, Pierus, Philammon,\n  Thamyras, &c., 105. Terpander, an inventor, 105, 106, 109, 112, 122.\n  Olympus, 107, 109, 123; Hyagnis, 107; Clonas, 107. History of wind\n  instruments, 108; the flute, _ib._ Three musical moods,\u2014the Dorian,\n  the Phrygian, the Lydian, 109. Makers of paeans, 110. The enharmonic\n  species of music, 110. Its relations to the diatonic and chromatic,\n  111. Varieties of rhythm, 112. The harp an invention of Apollo, 113.\n  His statue at Delos a proof of this, _ib._ Manly and grave music\n  used by the ancients for its worth, 114. The moderns have introduced\n  an inferior sort, 114. The Lydian mood, 114; the Dorian, 115. The\n  chromatic more ancient than the enharmonic scale, 116; though many\n  of the ancient musicians did not use it, 117. Plato\u2019s remarks\n  on harmony, 118. Music a mathematical science, 119. Harmony as\n  related to the senses, 121. Why the Greeks were so careful to teach\n  their children music, 121. The high purposes of music, 121, 122.\n  Archilochus, his improvements, 122, 123. Improvements of Polymnestus,\n  107, 123. Improvements of Lasus, 123. Decline of the ancient music,\n  123-125. To learn music, philosophy is needful, 126. Music too\n  much a thing of chance, 126. A sound judgment is necessary, 127. A\n  perfect judgment of music not derived from a partial knowledge, 129.\n  Degeneracy of modern music, 130. Benefits of a proper acquaintance\n  with music, 132; facts in proof of this, 133.\n\n\n  OF THE TRANQUILLITY OF THE MIND.\n\n  BY MATTHEW MORGAN, A.M., OF ST. JOHN\u2019S COLLEGE IN OXFORD.\n\n  Plutarch salutes his friend Paccius, 136. Worldly honor or wealth\n  cannot procure quietness of mind, 137. We should fortify ourselves\n  against trouble, _ib._ Tranquillity of mind not to be procured by\n  neglect of public or private duty, _ib._ Idleness is to many an\n  affliction, 138. Changes in life do not remove causes of disquiet,\n  140. The mind itself renders life pleasant or otherwise, 141. Make\n  the best of our circumstances, 142. Wise men derive benefit even\n  from affliction, 142. No trouble can arise, but good may come of it,\n  143. Be not soured with the perverseness of others, 144; nor fret at\n  their failings, 145. A consideration of the good we enjoy may help\n  us bear our afflictions, 146. Thus balancing one against the other,\n  147. Consider what the loss would be of our present enjoyments, 148.\n  Cultivate a contented mind, 148, 149. The want of which creates\n  suffering, 149. Look at those worse off than ourselves, 150. Every\n  one has his particular trouble, 151; therefore give no place to envy,\n  _ib._ Do not repine because some things are beyond your reach, 152.\n  Let every man know what he can do and be contented with doing it,\n  154. Let alone what you are not capable of, 155. It is wise to call\n  to mind past enjoyment, 156. Do not distress yourself by dwelling\n  on past sorrows, nor give way to despondency of the future, 157,\n  158. Neither be too sanguine in your hopes, 159. Afflictions come\n  as a matter of necessity, 161. Outward sufferings do not reach our\n  nobler part, the mind, 162. Death not a real, ultimate evil, 163. The\n  wise man may look down on things terrible to the vulgar, 164. Guilt\n  produces remorse, 165. A clear conscience a rich possession, 165.\n  Life should be full of joy, 166. That it is not to some is their own\n  fault, 167.\n\n\n  OF SUPERSTITION, OR INDISCREET DEVOTION.\n\n  BY WILLIAM BAXTER, GENT.\n\n  Ignorance respecting God may lead either to atheism or superstition,\n  168. Atheism and superstition compared, 168, _et seq._ Atheism tends\n  to indifference, superstition to terror, 169. Superstition infuses\n  into the mind a constant alarm and dread, 170. Superstition allows\n  of no escape from fear, it permits no hope, 172. It perverts the\n  moral sense, 173, 174. The atheist may be fretful and impatient; the\n  superstitious man charges all his misfortunes and troubles to God,\n  175. Is full of unreasonable apprehensions, 176. Converts tolerable\n  evils into fatal ones, 177. Misinterprets the course of nature, 177.\n  Is afraid of things that will not hurt him, 177. Allows himself no\n  enjoyment, 178. Entertains dishonorable thoughts of God, 180; and\n  thus is morally wrong, 181. He secretly hates God, and would have\n  no God, 181. Superstition affords an apology for atheism, 152.\n  Superstition of the Gauls, Scythians, and Carthaginians; they offered\n  human sacrifices, 182, 183. In avoiding superstition do not fall into\n  atheism, 184.\n\n\n  THE APOPHTHEGMS OR REMARKABLE SAYINGS OF KINGS AND GREAT COMMANDERS,\n  185-250.\n\n  BY E. HINTON, OF WITNEY IN OXFORDSHIRE.\n\n\n  RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.\n\n  BY MATTHEW POOLE, D.D., OF NORTHAMPTON.\n\n  Introduction, 251. The hands to be kept always warm, 252. Accustom\n  yourself in health to the food proper in sickness, 253. Avoid\n  all excess in eating and drinking, especially at feasts, 254. Be\n  prepared to excuse yourself if invited to drink to excess, 255.\n  Partake of agreeable food and drink, when needful; otherwise not,\n  256. Lean to the side of moderation and abstinence, rather than the\n  gratification of appetite, 257. Intemperance is as destructive of\n  pleasure as of health, 258. Sickness may be avoided by the use of a\n  moderate diet, 259. A luxurious course of living adds to the force\n  of other causes of disease, 260. Be especially careful of what you\n  do, when threatened with illness, 261. When the body is out of order,\n  things that are otherwise pleasant become disgusting, 262. Extreme\n  carefulness in our diet should be avoided, 263. Disturbed sleep and\n  distressing dreams show a diseased state of body, 264. Avoid things\n  which have proved causes of disease to others, 264, 265. Reading or\n  speaking aloud is to a scholar conducive to health, 266. Yet this\n  must not be carried to excess, 267. The cold bath not to be used\n  after exercise; use the warm bath, 268. Use solid food cautiously\n  and sparingly; light food more freely, 268. Drink wine diluted with\n  water, or water simply, 269, 270. After supper, there should be a\n  considerable interval, to be occupied with gentle exercise either\n  of body or mind, 271, 272. Sufferers from gluttony or excess should\n  not attempt to relieve themselves by physic but by abstinence, 273.\n  Do not fast when there is no need, 274. Idleness is not conducive to\n  health, 275. After severe labor, allow the body to rest, even from\n  pleasure, 276. A man should well study his own case, and know what he\n  can bear, 277. The body and the mind must deal carefully with each\n  other, 278, 279.\n\n\n  HOW A MAN MAY RECEIVE ADVANTAGE AND PROFIT FROM HIS ENEMIES.\n\n  BY JOHN HARTCLIFFE, FELLOW OF KING\u2019S COLLEGE IN CAMBRIDGE.\n\n  Ill-will always to be expected, 280. It is not enough that our\n  enemies do us no harm, 281. We may not be able to change bad men into\n  good men, 282. But it is possible to derive good even from bad men,\n  283. An enemy, in order to discover our failings, carefully watches\n  all our movements and affairs, 283. Learn from this to be wary and\n  circumspect, 284. Learn to be discreet and sober, and to give offence\n  to nobody, 285. Live above reproach, 286, 287. When censured and\n  accused, examine if there be just cause for it, 288. Be willing\n  to hear the truth even from the lips of enemies, 289. If accused\n  unjustly, avoid even the appearance of the supposed wrong, 290.\n  Have you given any occasion for the false accusation? 291. Learn to\n  keep the tongue in subjection, 292. Be magnanimous and kind to your\n  enemy, 293. Indulge no malignant passion, 294. Envy not your enemy\u2019s\n  success, 297.\n\n\n  CONSOLATION TO APOLLONIUS.\n\n  BY MATTHEW MORGAN, A.M., OF ST. JOHN\u2019S COLLEGE IN OXFORD.\n\n  The son of Apollonius had died, 299. Apathy and excessive grief are\n  alike unnatural and improper, 300. Avoid both of these extremes,\n  300. Uninterrupted happiness is not to be expected, 302. Every thing\n  is subject to change, 303. Evil is to be expected, 304, 305. Sorrow\n  will not remove suffering, 306, 307, Others are in trouble besides\n  ourselves, 308. Why should death be considered so great an evil?\n  308. Death is but the debt of nature, 309. Death is inevitable, and\n  the termination of all human calamity, 310. Death is the brother of\n  sleep, 311. Death divests us of the body, and thus frees us from\n  great evil, 312. The gods have often sent death as a reward for\n  distinguished piety; illustrated by the cases of Biton and Cleobis,\n  of Agamedes and Trophonius, of Pindar and Euthynous, 313, 314. Even\n  if death be the extinction of our being, it is no evil, and why,\n  315. Even untimely death may shield from evil, 317. Not long life,\n  but virtuous is desirable, 317, 318. Sorrow for the dead may proceed\n  from selfish considerations, 319. Does the mourner intend to cherish\n  grief as long as he lives? 320. Excessive grief is unmanly, 321.\n  An untimely death differs not much from that which is timely, 322.\n  It may be desirable, 323, 324. Excessive grief is unreasonable,\n  325. The state of the dead is better than that of the living, 326.\n  The evil in the world far exceeds the good, 327. Life is a loan,\n  soon to be recalled, 327. Some people are querulous and can never\n  be satisfied, 329. Death is fixed by fate, 331. Life is short, and\n  should not be wasted in unavailing sorrow, 332. Derive comfort from\n  the example of those who have borne the death of their sons bravely,\n  332, 333. Providence wisely disposes, 335. Your son died at the\n  best time for him, 335. He is now numbered with the blest, 336. The\n  conclusion; a touching appeal to Apollonius, 339.\n\n\n  CONCERNING THE VIRTUES OF WOMEN.\n\n  BY ISAAC CHAUNCY, OF THE COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS, LONDON.\n\n  It is right to praise virtuous women, 340. Virtue in man and woman is\n  the same, 340; even as the poetic art in man and woman is the same,\n  341. There may be variety, yet unity, 341. Virtue of the Trojan women\n  after landing in Italy, 342. Of the Phocian women in the war with the\n  Thessalians, 343. Of the women of Chios, 344. Of the Argive women and\n  their repulse of the Spartan army, 346. Of the Persian women, 347.\n  Of the Celtic women, 347. Of the Melian women, 348. Of the Tyrrhene\n  women, 349. Of the Lycian women, 351. Of the women of Salmantica in\n  Spain, 352. Of the maidens of Miletus, bent on self-murder, and how\n  this was prevented, 354. Of the maids of Cios, 354. Of the women of\n  Phocis during the Sacred War, 355. Of the Roman Lucretia, Valeria,\n  and Cloelia, 355-357. Of Micca and Megisto, and other women of Elis,\n  during the tyranny of Aristotimus, 357-363. Of Pieria and other women\n  of Myus, at Miletus, 363, 364. Of Polycrita in the war between Naxos\n  and Miletus, 364-366. Of Lampsace, 366. Of Aretaphila, and how she\n  delivered Cyrene from tyranny, 367-371. Of Camma the Galatian, 372.\n  Of Stratonica of Galatia, 373. Of Chiomara of Galatia, 374. Of the\n  women of Pergamus, 374. Of Timoclea at the taking of Thebes, 376.\n  Of Eryxo of Cyrene, 378. Of Xenocrita of Cumae, 380. Of Pythes the\n  Lydian and his wife, 382.\n\n\n  LACONIC APOPHTHEGMS; OR, REMARKABLE SAYINGS OF THE SPARTANS.\n\n  BY THOMAS CREECH, A.M., OF WADHAM COLLEGE IN OXFORD.\n\n\n  OF HEARING.\n\n  BY THOMAS HOY, FELLOW OF ST. JOHN\u2019S COLLEGE IN OXFORD.\n\n  Introduction, addressed to Nicander, a young man, 441. Remarks on\n  hearing in general, 442. Of the sense of hearing, as an inlet of\n  thought and feeling, 442. A guard to be placed over it, 443. How\n  to hear with benefit, 443. Faults to be avoided, 444. In hearing\n  a discourse, hear with attention to the close, 445. Guard against\n  envy and ill-nature, 445, 446. Hear with calmness and candor, 446.\n  Endeavor to reap advantage from the speaker\u2019s faults, 447. Yield not\n  to undue admiration, 448. Examine the argument of the speaker apart\n  from his expression, 449. Separate the substance of a discourse from\n  its accessories, 450, 451. Interrupt not the speaker with trifling\n  questions, 452. Propose no impertinent questions, 453. Wait till\n  the proper time for asking, 453. Withhold not praise when it is\n  due, 454. Yet bestow not inordinate praise, 455. Something worthy\n  of praise may be found in every discourse, 456. The hearer owes a\n  duty to the speaker no less than the speaker to the hearer, 457. Be\n  not indiscriminate in your praises, 458. Bear admonition in a proper\n  spirit, 459. If you find difficulties in the lecturer\u2019s instructions,\n  ask him to explain, 460, 461. Concluding exhortation, 462, 463.\n\n\n  OF LARGE ACQUAINTANCE: OR, AN ESSAY TO PROVE THE FOLLY OF SEEKING\n  MANY FRIENDS.\n\n  BY W. G.\n\n  True friendship a thing of rare occurrence, 464. In the early times,\n  friends went in pairs, Orestes and Pylades, &c., 465. True friendship\n  cannot embrace a multitude, 466. If we have numerous acquaintances,\n  there should be one eminently a friend, 466. The requisites to a\n  true friendship, 467. The difficulty of finding a true friend, 467.\n  Be not hasty in getting friends, 468. Admit none to your confidence\n  without long and thorough trial, 468. As true friendship cements two\n  hearts into one, so a large acquaintance divides and distracts the\n  heart, 469. We cannot discharge the obligations of friendship to\n  a multitude, 470; therefore do not attempt it, 471. Joining one\u2019s\n  self intimately to another involves one in his calamities, 472. Real\n  friendship always has its origin in likeness, even in brutes, 472.\n  There must be a substantial oneness, 473. Therefore it is next to a\n  miracle to find a constant and sure friend, 474.\n\n\n  CONCERNING THE FORTUNE OR VIRTUE OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.\n\n  BY JOHN PHILIPS, GENT.\n\n  Did he receive his empire as the gift of Fortune? By no means, 475.\n  It was acquired at the expense of many severe wounds, 476, 507; of\n  many hardships and much daring, 477; as the issue of his training\n  under Aristotle, 478. He was himself a great philosopher, 479. He\n  was the great civilizer of Asia, 480. He realized the dreams of\n  philosophers by making the world his country, 481. Uniting the Greeks\n  and the barbarians, 482. Gaining the affection of the vanquished,\n  483. Aiming to establish universal brotherhood, 484. His philosophy\n  as exhibited in his recorded sayings, 485-489. His generous conduct,\n  490. His patronage of learned men, 491. So different from other\n  monarchs, 492. His magnanimity, 495. Such a man owes little to\n  Fortune, 496. Contrasted with Sardanapalus, 497. His greatness as\n  seen in the confusion which followed his death, 498. Fortune cannot\n  make an Alexander, 499. His silly imitators attest his greatness,\n  501. His self-government, 502. The Persian empire was overthrown, not\n  by Fortune, but by the superior genius and virtue of Alexander, 503.\n  Alexander owed nothing to Fortune, 506. His wisdom, his prowess, his\n  many wounds, his constancy and energy, procured his great success,\n  507-511. Compared with the ablest men of antiquity, he is superior\n  to all, 512, 513. His daring courage, great dangers, and marvellous\n  escape, while besieging a town of the Oxydracae, 513-516.\n\n  INDEX\n\n\n\n\n  PLUTARCH\u2019S MORALS.\n\n  VOL. I.\n\n\n\n\n  PLUTARCH\u2019S MORALS.\n\n\n\n\n  A DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE TRAINING OF CHILDREN.\n\n\n1. The course which ought to be taken for the training of free-born\nchildren, and the means whereby their manners may be rendered\nvirtuous, will, with the reader\u2019s leave, be the subject of our present\ndisquisition.\n\n2. In the management of which, perhaps it may be expedient to take\nour rise from their very procreation. I would therefore, in the first\nplace, advise those who desire to become the parents of famous and\neminent children, that they keep not company with all women that they\nlight on; I mean such as harlots, or concubines. For such children\nas are blemished in their birth, either by the father\u2019s or the\nmother\u2019s side, are liable to be pursued, as long as they live, with\nthe indelible infamy of their base extraction, as that which offers a\nready occasion to all that desire to take hold of it of reproaching and\ndisgracing them therewith. So that it was a wise speech of the poet who\nsaid,\u2014\n\n    Misfortune on that family\u2019s entailed,\n    Whose reputation in its founder failed.[1]\n\nWherefore, since to be well born gives men a good stock of confidence,\nthe consideration hereof ought to be of no small value to such as\ndesire to leave behind them a lawful issue. For the spirits of men who\nare alloyed and counterfeit in their birth are naturally enfeebled and\ndebased; as rightly said the poet again,\u2014\n\n    A bold and daring spirit is often daunted.\n    When with the guilt of parents\u2019 crimes \u2019tis haunted.[2]\n\nSo, on the contrary, a certain loftiness and natural gallantry of\nspirit is wont to fill the breasts of those who are born of illustrious\nparents. Of which Diophantus, the young son of Themistocles, is a\nnotable instance; for he is reported to have made his boast often and\nin many companies, that whatsoever pleased him pleased also all Athens:\nfor whatever he liked, his mother liked; and whatever his mother liked,\nThemistocles liked; and whatever Themistocles liked, all the Athenians\nliked. Wherefore it was gallantly done of the Lacedaemonian States,\nwhen they laid a round fine on their king Archidamus for marrying a\nlittle woman, giving this reason for their so doing: that he meant to\nbeget for them not kings, but kinglings.\n\n3. The advice which I am, in the next place, about to give, is, indeed,\nno other than what hath been given by those who have undertaken this\nargument before me. You will ask me what is that? It is this: that no\nman keep company with his wife for issue\u2019s sake but when he is sober,\nhaving drunk either no wine, or at least not such a quantity as to\ndistemper him; for they usually prove wine-bibbers and drunkards, whose\nparents begot them when they were drunk. Wherefore Diogenes said to a\nstripling somewhat crack-brained and half-witted: Surely, young man,\nthy father begot thee when he was drunk. Let this suffice to be spoken\nconcerning the procreation of children: and let us pass thence to their\neducation.\n\n4. And here, to speak summarily, what we are wont to say of arts\nand sciences may be said also concerning virtue: that there is a\nconcurrence of three things requisite to the completing thereof in\npractice,\u2014which are nature, reason, and use. Now by reason here I\nwould be understood to mean learning; and by use, exercise. Now the\nprinciples come from instruction, the practice comes from exercise,\nand perfection from all three combined. And accordingly as either\nof the three is deficient, virtue must needs be defective. For if\nnature be not improved by instruction, it is blind; if instruction\nbe not assisted by nature, it is maimed; and if exercise fail of the\nassistance of both, it is imperfect as to the attainment of its end.\nAnd as in husbandry it is first requisite that the soil be fertile,\nnext that the husbandman be skilful, and lastly that the seed he sows\nbe good; so here nature resembles the soil, the instructor of youth the\nhusbandman, and the rational principles and precepts which are taught,\nthe seed. And I would peremptorily affirm that all these met and\njointly conspired to the completing of the souls of those universally\ncelebrated men, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, together with all\nothers whose eminent worth hath gotten them immortal glory. And happy\nis that man certainly, and well-beloved of the Gods, on whom by the\nbounty of any of them all these are conferred.\n\nAnd yet if any one thinks that those in whom Nature hath not thoroughly\ndone her part may not in some measure make up her defects, if they be\nso happy as to light upon good teaching, and withal apply their own\nindustry towards the attainment of virtue, he is to know that he is\nvery much, nay, altogether, mistaken. For as a good natural capacity\nmay be impaired by slothfulness, so dull and heavy natural parts may\nbe improved by instruction; and whereas negligent students arrive not\nat the capacity of understanding the most easy things, those who are\nindustrious conquer the greatest difficulties. And many instances we\nmay observe, that give us a clear demonstration of the mighty force\nand successful efficacy of labor and industry. For water continually\ndropping will wear hard rocks hollow; yea, iron and brass are worn out\nwith constant handling. Nor can we, if we would, reduce the felloes of\na cart-wheel to their former straightness, when once they have been\nbent by force; yea, it is above the power of force to straighten the\nbended staves sometimes used by actors upon the stage. So far is that\nwhich labor effects, though against nature, more potent than what is\nproduced according to it. Yea, have we not many millions of instances\nmore which evidence the force of industry? Let us see in some few that\nfollow. A man\u2019s ground is of itself good; yet, if it be unmanured, it\nwill contract barrenness; and the better it was naturally, so much\nthe more is it ruined by carelessness, if it be ill-husbanded. On\nthe other side, let a man\u2019s ground be more than ordinarily rough and\nrugged; yet experience tells us that, if it be well manured, it will be\nquickly made capable of bearing excellent fruit. Yea, what sort of tree\nis there which will not, if neglected, grow crooked and unfruitful;\nand what but will, if rightly ordered, prove fruitful and bring its\nfruit to maturity? What strength of body is there which will not lose\nits vigor and fall to decay by laziness, nice usage, and debauchery?\nAnd, on the contrary, where is the man of never so crazy a natural\nconstitution, who cannot render himself far more robust, if he will\nonly give himself to exercises of activity and strength? What horse\nwell managed from a colt proves not easily governable by the rider? And\nwhere is there one to be found which, if not broken betimes, proves not\nstiff-necked and unmanageable? Yea, why need we wonder at any thing\nelse when we see the wildest beasts made tame and brought to hand by\nindustry? And lastly, as to men themselves, that Thessalian answered\nnot amiss, who, being asked which of his countrymen were the meekest,\nreplied: Those that have received their discharge from the wars.\n\nBut what need of multiplying more words in this matter, when even the\nnotion of the word \u1f26\u03b8\u03bf\u03c2 in the Greek language imports continuance,\nand he that should call moral virtues customary virtues would seem to\nspeak not incongruously? I shall conclude this part of my discourse,\ntherefore, with the addition of one only instance. Lycurgus, the\nLacedaemonian lawgiver, once took two whelps of the same litter, and\nordered them to be bred in a quite different manner; whereby the one\nbecame dainty and ravenous, and the other of a good scent and skilled\nin hunting; which done, a while after he took occasion thence in an\nassembly of the Lacedaemonians to discourse in this manner: Of great\nweight in the attainment of virtue, fellow-citizens, are habits,\ninstruction, precepts, and indeed the whole manner of life,\u2014as I will\npresently let you see by example. And, withal, he ordered the producing\nthose two whelps into the midst of the hall, where also there were set\ndown before them a plate and a live hare. Whereupon, as they had been\nbred, the one presently flies upon the hare, and the other as greedily\nruns to the plate. And while the people were musing, not perfectly\napprehending what he meant by producing those whelps thus, he added:\nThese whelps were both of one litter, but differently bred; the one,\nyou see, has turned out a greedy cur, and the other a good hound. And\nthis shall suffice to be spoken concerning custom and different ways of\nliving.\n\n5. The next thing that falls under our consideration is the nursing\nof children, which, in my judgment, the mothers should do themselves,\ngiving their own breasts to those they have borne. For this office\nwill certainly be performed with more tenderness and carefulness by\nnatural mothers, who will love their children intimately, as the saying\nis, from their tender nails.[3] Whereas, both wet and dry nurses, who\nare hired, love only for their pay, and are affected to their work\nas ordinarily those that are substituted and deputed in the place of\nothers are. Yea, even Nature seems to have assigned the suckling and\nnursing of the issue to those that bear them; for which cause she hath\nbestowed upon every living creature that brings forth young, milk to\nnourish them withal. And, in conformity thereto, Providence hath also\nwisely ordered that women should have two breasts, that so, if any of\nthem should happen to bear twins, they might have two several springs\nof nourishment ready for them. Though, if they had not that furniture,\nmothers would still be more kind and loving to their own children.\nAnd that not without reason; for constant feeding together is a great\nmeans to heighten the affection mutually betwixt any persons. Yea, even\nbeasts, when they are separated from those that have grazed with them,\ndo in their way show a longing for the absent. Wherefore, as I have\nsaid, mothers themselves should strive to the utmost to nurse their own\nchildren. But if they find it impossible to do it themselves, either\nbecause of bodily weakness (and such a case may fall out), or because\nthey are apt to be quickly with child again, then are they to choose\nthe honestest nurses they can get, and not to take whomsoever they have\noffered them. And the first thing to be looked after in this choice\nis, that the nurses be bred after the Greek fashion. For as it is\nneedful that the members of children be shaped aright as soon as they\nare born, that they may not afterwards prove crooked and distorted, so\nit is no less expedient that their manners be well fashioned from the\nvery beginning. For childhood is a tender thing, and easily wrought\ninto any shape. Yea, and the very souls of children readily receive the\nimpressions of those things that are dropped into them while they are\nyet but soft; but when they grow older, they will, as all hard things\nare, be more difficult to be wrought upon. And as soft wax is apt to\ntake the stamp of the seal, so are the minds of children to receive\nthe instructions imprinted on them at that age. Whence, also, it seems\nto me good advice which divine Plato gives to nurses, not to tell all\nsorts of common tales to children in infancy, lest thereby their minds\nshould chance to be filled with foolish and corrupt notions.[4] The\nlike good counsel Phocylides, the poet, seems to give in this verse of\nhis:\u2014\n\n    If we\u2019ll have virtuous children, we should choose\n    Their tenderest age good principles to infuse.\n\n6. Nor are we to omit taking due care, in the first place, that those\nchildren who are appointed to attend upon such young nurslings, and\nto be bred with them for play-fellows, be well-mannered, and next\nthat they speak plain, natural Greek; lest, being constantly used to\nconverse with persons of a barbarous language and evil manners, they\nreceive corrupt tinctures from them. For it is a true proverb, that if\nyou live with a lame man, you will learn to halt.\n\n7. Next, when a child is arrived at such an age as to be put under the\ncare of pedagogues, great care is to be used that we be not deceived in\nthem, and so commit our children to slaves or barbarians or cheating\nfellows. For it is a course never enough to be laughed at which many\nmen nowadays take in this affair; for if any of their servants be\nbetter than the rest, they dispose some of them to follow husbandry,\nsome to navigation, some to merchandise, some to be stewards in their\nhouses, and some, lastly, to put out their money to use for them. But\nif they find any slave that is a drunkard or a glutton, and unfit\nfor any other business, to him they assign the government of their\nchildren; whereas, a good pedagogue ought to be such a one in his\ndisposition as Phoenix, tutor to Achilles, was.\n\nAnd now I come to speak of that which is a greater matter, and of more\nconcern than any that I have said. We are to look after such masters\nfor our children as are blameless in their lives, not justly reprovable\nfor their manners, and of the best experience in teaching. For the very\nspring and root of honesty and virtue lies in the felicity of lighting\non good education. And as husbandmen are wont to set forks to prop up\nfeeble plants, so do honest schoolmasters prop up youth by careful\ninstructions and admonitions, that they may duly bring forth the buds\nof good manners. But there are certain fathers nowadays who deserve\nthat men should spit on them in contempt, who, before making any proof\nof those to whom they design to commit the teaching of their children,\neither through unacquaintance, or, as it sometimes falls out, through\nunskilfulness, intrust them to men of no good reputation, or, it may\nbe, such as are branded with infamy. Although they are not altogether\nso ridiculous, if they offend herein through unskilfulness; but it\nis a thing most extremely absurd, when, as oftentimes it happens,\nthough they know and are told beforehand, by those who understand\nbetter than themselves, both of the inability and rascality of certain\nschoolmasters, they nevertheless commit the charge of their children\nto them, sometimes overcome by their fair and flattering speeches,\nand sometimes prevailed on to gratify friends who entreat them. This\nis an error of like nature with that of the sick man, who, to please\nhis friends, forbears to send for the physician that might save his\nlife by his skill, and employs a mountebank that quickly dispatcheth\nhim out of the world; or of him who refuses a skilful shipmaster, and\nthen, at his friend\u2019s entreaty, commits the care of his vessel to one\nthat is therein much his inferior. In the name of Jupiter and all\nthe Gods, tell me how can that man deserve the name of a father, who\nis more concerned to gratify others in their requests, than to have\nhis children well educated? Or, is not that rather fitly applicable\nto this case, which Socrates, that ancient philosopher, was wont to\nsay,\u2014that, if he could get up to the highest place in the city, he\nwould lift up his voice and make this proclamation thence: \u201cWhat mean\nyou, fellow-citizens, that you thus turn every stone to scrape wealth\ntogether, and take so little care of your children, to whom, one day,\nyou must relinquish it all?\u201d\u2014to which I would add this, that such\nparents do like him that is solicitous about his shoe, but neglects the\nfoot that is to wear it. And yet many fathers there are, who so love\ntheir money and hate their children, that, lest it should cost them\nmore than they are willing to spare to hire a good schoolmaster for\nthem, they rather choose such persons to instruct their children as are\nof no worth; thereby beating down the market, that they may purchase\nignorance cheap. It was, therefore, a witty and handsome jeer which\nAristippus bestowed on a sottish father, who asked him what he would\ntake to teach his child. He answered, A thousand drachms. Whereupon\nthe other cried out: O Hercules, what a price you ask! for I can buy\na slave at that rate. Do so, then, said the philosopher, and thou\nshalt have two slaves instead of one,\u2014thy son for one, and him thou\nbuyest for another. Lastly, how absurd it is, when thou accustomest thy\nchildren to take their food with their right hands, and chidest them if\nthey receive it with their left, yet thou takest no care at all that\nthe principles that are infused into them be right and regular.\n\nAnd now I will tell you what ordinarily is like to befall such\nprodigious parents, when they have had their sons ill nursed and worse\ntaught. For when such sons are arrived at man\u2019s estate, and, through\ncontempt of a sound and orderly way of living, precipitate themselves\ninto all manner of disorderly and servile pleasures, then will those\nparents dearly repent of their own neglect of their children\u2019s\neducation, when it is too late to amend it; and vex themselves,\neven to distraction, at their vicious courses. For then do some of\nthose children acquaint themselves with flatterers and parasites, a\nsort of infamous and execrable persons, the very pests that corrupt\nand ruin young men; others maintain mistresses and harlots, insolent\nand extravagant; others waste their substance; others, again, come\nto shipwreck on gaming and revelling. And some venture on still more\naudacious crimes, committing adultery and joining in the orgies of\nBacchus, being ready to purchase one bout of debauched pleasure at\nthe price of their lives. If now they had but conversed with some\nphilosopher, they would never have enslaved themselves to such courses\nas these; though possibly they might have learned at least to put in\npractice the precept of Diogenes, delivered by him indeed in rude\nlanguage, but yet containing, as to the scope of it, a great truth,\nwhen he advised a young man to go to the public stews, that he might\nthen inform himself, by experience, how things of greatest value and\nthings of no value at all were there of equal worth.\n\n8. In brief therefore I say (and what I say may justly challenge the\nrepute of an oracle rather than of advice), that the one chief thing\nin this matter\u2014which compriseth the beginning, middle, and end of\nall\u2014is good education and regular instruction; and that these two\nafford great help and assistance towards the attainment of virtue and\nfelicity. For all other good things are but human and of small value,\nsuch as will hardly recompense the industry required to the getting\nof them. It is, indeed, a desirable thing to be well descended; but\nthe glory belongs to our ancestors. Riches are valuable; but they are\nthe goods of Fortune, who frequently takes them from those that have\nthem, and carries them to those that never so much as hoped for them.\nYea, the greater they are, the fairer mark are they for those to aim\nat who design to make our bags their prize; I mean evil servants and\naccusers. But the weightiest consideration of all is, that riches may\nbe enjoyed by the worst as well as the best of men. Glory is a thing\ndeserving respect, but unstable; beauty is a prize that men fight to\nobtain, but, when obtained, it is of little continuance; health is a\nprecious enjoyment, but easily impaired; strength is a thing desirable,\nbut apt to be the prey of diseases and old age. And, in general, let\nany man who values himself upon strength of body know that he makes a\ngreat mistake; for what indeed is any proportion of human strength,\nif compared to that of other animals, such as elephants and bulls\nand lions? But learning alone, of all things in our possession, is\nimmortal and divine. And two things there are that are most peculiar\nto human nature, reason and speech; of which two, reason is the master\nof speech, and speech is the servant of reason, impregnable against\nall assaults of fortune, not to be taken away by false accusation, nor\nimpaired by sickness, nor enfeebled by old age. For reason alone grows\nyouthful by age; and time, which decays all other things, increaseth\nknowledge in us in our decaying years. Yea, war itself, which like a\nwinter torrent bears down all other things before it and carries them\naway with it, leaves learning alone behind. Whence the answer seems\nto me very remarkable, which Stilpo, a philosopher of Megara, gave\nto Demetrius, who, when he levelled that city to the ground and made\nall the citizens bondmen, asked Stilpo whether he had lost any thing.\nNothing, said he, for war cannot plunder virtue. To this saying that\nof Socrates also is very agreeable; who, when Gorgias (as I take it)\nasked him what his opinion was of the king of Persia, and whether he\njudged him happy, returned answer, that he could not tell what to\nthink of him, because he knew not how he was furnished with virtue and\nlearning,\u2014as judging human felicity to consist in those endowments,\nand not in those which are subject to fortune.\n\n9. Moreover, as it is my advice to parents that they make the breeding\nup of their children to learning the chiefest of their care, so I here\nadd, that the learning they ought to train them up unto should be sound\nand wholesome, and such as is most remote from those trifles which suit\nthe popular humor. For to please the many is to displease the wise. To\nthis saying of mine that of Euripides himself bears witness:\u2014\n\n    I\u2019m better skilled to treat a few, my peers,\n    Than in a crowd to tickle vulgar ears;\n    Though others have the luck on\u2019t, when they babble\n    Most to the wise, then most to please the rabble.[5]\n\nBesides, I find by my own observation, that those persons who make it\ntheir business to speak so as to deserve the favor and approbation\nof the scum of the people, ordinarily live at a suitable rate,\nvoluptuously and intemperately. And there is reason for it. For they\nwho have no regard to what is honest, so they may make provision for\nother men\u2019s pleasures, will surely not be very propense to prefer what\nis right and wholesome before that which gratifies their own inordinate\npleasures and luxurious inclinations, and to quit that which humors\nthem for that which restrains them.\n\nIf any one ask what the next thing is wherein I would have children\ninstructed, and to what further good qualities I would have them\ninured, I answer, that I think it advisable that they neither speak nor\ndo any thing rashly; for, according to the proverb, the best things\nare the most difficult. But extemporary discourses are full of much\nordinary and loose stuff, nor do such speakers well know where to\nbegin or where to make an end. And besides other faults which those\nwho speak suddenly are commonly guilty of, they are commonly liable to\nthis great one, that they multiply words without measure; whereas,\npremeditation will not suffer a man to enlarge his discourse beyond a\ndue proportion. To this purpose it is reported of Pericles, that, being\noften called upon by the people to speak, he would not, because (as he\nsaid) he was unprepared. And Demosthenes also, who imitated him in the\nmanagery of public affairs, when the Athenians urged him to give his\ncounsel, refused it with this answer: I have not yet prepared myself.\nThough it may be that this story is a mere fiction, brought down to us\nby uncertain tradition, without any credible author. But Demosthenes,\nin his oration against Midias, clearly sets forth the usefulness of\npremeditation. For there he says: \u201cI confess, O ye Athenians! that\nI came hither provided to speak; and I will by no means deny that\nI have spent my utmost study upon the composing this oration. For\nit had been a pitiful omission in me, if, having suffered and still\nsuffering such things, I should have neglected that which in this\ncause was to be spoken by me.\u201d[6] But here I would not be understood\naltogether to condemn all readiness to discourse extempore, nor yet\nto allow the use of it upon such occasions as do not require it; but\nwe are to use it only as we do physic. Still, before a person arrives\nat complete manhood, I would not permit him to speak upon any sudden\nincident occasion; though, after he has attained a radicated faculty\nof speaking, he may allow himself a greater liberty, as opportunity is\noffered. For as they who have been a long time in chains, when they are\nat last set at liberty, are unable to walk, on account of their former\ncontinual restraint, and are very apt to trip, so they who have been\nused to a fettered way of speaking a great while, if upon any occasion\nthey be enforced to speak on a sudden, will hardly be able to express\nthemselves without some tokens of their former confinement. But to\npermit those that are yet children to speak extemporally is to give\nthem occasion for extremely idle talk. A wretched painter, they say,\nshowing Apelles a picture, told him withal that he had taken a very\nlittle time to paint it. If thou hadst not told me so, said Apelles, I\nsee cause enough to believe it was a hasty draught; but I wonder that\nin that space of time thou hast not painted many more such pictures.\n\nI advise therefore (for I return now to the subject that I have\ndigressed from) the shunning and avoiding, not merely of a starched,\ntheatrical, and over-tragical form of speaking, but also of that which\nis too low and mean. For that which is too swelling is not fit for the\nmanagery of public affairs; and that, on the other side, which is too\nthin is very inapt to work any notable impression upon the hearers.\nFor as it is not only requisite that a man\u2019s body be healthy, but also\nthat it be of a firm constitution, so ought a discourse to be not only\nsound, but nervous also. For though such as is composed cautiously may\nbe commended, yet that is all it can arrive at; whereas that which hath\nsome adventurous passages in it is admired also. And my opinion is the\nsame concerning the affections of the speaker\u2019s mind. For he must be\nneither of a too confident nor of a too mean and dejected spirit; for\nthe one is apt to lead to impudence, the other to servility; and much\nof the orator\u2019s art, as well as great circumspection, is required to\ndirect his course skilfully betwixt the two.\n\nAnd now (whilst I am handling this point concerning the instruction\nof children) I will also give you my judgment concerning the frame of\na discourse; which is this, that to compose it in all parts uniformly\nnot only is a great argument of a defect in learning, but also is apt,\nI think, to nauseate the auditory when it is practised; and in no case\ncan it give lasting pleasure. For to sing the same tune, as the saying\nis, is in every thing cloying and offensive; but men are generally\npleased with variety, as in speeches and pageants, so in all other\nentertainments.\n\n10. Wherefore, though we ought not to permit an ingenuous child\nentirely to neglect any of the common sorts of learning, so far as\nthey may be gotten by lectures or from public shows; yet I would\nhave him to salute these only as in his passage, taking a bare taste\nof each of them (seeing no man can possibly attain to perfection in\nall), and to give philosophy the pre-eminence of them all. I can\nillustrate my meaning by an example. It is a fine thing to sail round\nand visit many cities, but it is profitable to fix our dwelling in\nthe best. Witty also was the saying of Bias, the philosopher, that,\nas the wooers of Penelope, when they could not have their desire of\nthe mistress, contented themselves to have to do with her maids, so\ncommonly those students who are not capable of understanding philosophy\nwaste themselves in the study of those sciences that are of no value.\nWhence it follows, that we ought to make philosophy the chief of all\nour learning. For though, in order to the welfare of the body, the\nindustry of men hath found out two arts,\u2014medicine, which assists to\nthe recovery of lost health, and gymnastics, which help us to attain\na sound constitution,\u2014yet there is but one remedy for the distempers\nand diseases of the mind, and that is philosophy. For by the advice and\nassistance thereof it is that we come to understand what is honest,\nand what dishonest; what is just, and what unjust; in a word, what we\nare to seek, and what to avoid. We learn by it how we are to demean\nourselves towards the Gods, towards our parents, our elders, the laws,\nstrangers, governors, friends, wives, children, and servants. That is,\nwe are to worship the Gods, to honor our parents, to reverence our\nelders, to be subject to the laws, to obey our governors, to love our\nfriends, to use sobriety towards our wives, to be affectionate to our\nchildren, and not to treat our servants insolently; and (which is the\nchiefest lesson of all) not to be overjoyed in prosperity nor too much\ndejected in adversity; not to be dissolute in our pleasures, nor in\nour anger to be transported with brutish rage and fury. These things\nI account the principal advantages which we gain by philosophy. For to\nuse prosperity generously is the part of a man; to manage it so as to\ndecline envy, of a well governed man; to master our pleasures by reason\nis the property of wise men; and to moderate anger is the attainment\nonly of extraordinary men. But those of all men I count most complete,\nwho know how to mix and temper the managery of civil affairs with\nphilosophy; seeing they are thereby masters of two of the greatest good\nthings that are,\u2014a life of public usefulness as statesmen, and a life\nof calm tranquillity as students of philosophy. For, whereas there are\nthree sorts of lives,\u2014the life of action, the life of contemplation,\nand the life of pleasure,\u2014the man who is utterly abandoned and a slave\nto pleasure is brutish and mean-spirited; he that spends his time\nin contemplation without action is an unprofitable man; and he that\nlives in action and is destitute of philosophy is a rustical man, and\ncommits many absurdities. Wherefore we are to apply our utmost endeavor\nto enable ourselves for both; that is, to manage public employments,\nand withal, at convenient seasons, to give ourselves to philosophical\nstudies. Such statesmen were Pericles and Archytas the Tarentine; such\nwere Dion the Syracusan and Epaminondas the Theban, both of whom were\nof Plato\u2019s familiar acquaintance.\n\nI think it not necessary to spend many more words about this point,\nthe instruction of children in learning. Only it may be profitable at\nleast, or even necessary, not to omit procuring for them the writings\nof ancient authors, but to make such a collection of them as husbandmen\nare wont to do of all needful tools. For of the same nature is the use\nof books to scholars, as being the tools and instruments of learning,\nand withal enabling them to derive knowledge from its proper fountains.\n\n11. In the next place, the exercise of the body must not be neglected;\nbut children must be sent to schools of gymnastics, where they may have\nsufficient employment that way also. This will conduce partly to a more\nhandsome carriage, and partly to the improvement of their strength.\nFor the foundation of a vigorous old age is a good constitution of\nthe body in childhood. Wherefore, as it is expedient to provide those\nthings in fair weather which may be useful to the mariners in a storm,\nso is it to keep good order and govern ourselves by rules of temperance\nin youth, as the best provision we can lay in for age. Yet must they\nhusband their strength, so as not to become dried up (as it were) and\ndestitute of strength to follow their studies. For, according to Plato,\nsleep and weariness are enemies to the arts.[7]\n\nBut why do I stand so long on these things? I hasten to speak of that\nwhich is of the greatest importance, even beyond all that has been\nspoken of; namely, I would have boys trained for the contests of wars\nby practice in the throwing of darts, shooting of arrows, and hunting\nof wild beasts. For we must remember in war the goods of the conquered\nare proposed as rewards to the conquerors. But war does not agree with\na delicate habit of body, used only to the shade; for even one lean\nsoldier that hath been used to military exercises shall overthrow\nwhole troops of mere wrestlers who know nothing of war. But, somebody\nmay say, whilst you profess to give precepts for the education of all\nfree-born children, why do you carry the matter so as to seem only to\naccommodate those precepts to the rich, and neglect to suit them also\nto the children of poor men and plebeians? To which objection it is\nno difficult thing to reply. For it is my desire that all children\nwhatsoever may partake of the benefit of education alike; but if yet\nany persons, by reason of the narrowness of their estates, cannot make\nuse of my precepts, let them not blame me that give them, but Fortune,\nwhich disableth them from making the advantage by them they otherwise\nmight. Though even poor men must use their utmost endeavor to give\ntheir children the best education; or, if they cannot, they must bestow\nupon them the best that their abilities will reach. Thus much I thought\nfit here to insert in the body of my discourse, that I might the\nbetter be enabled to annex what I have yet to add concerning the right\ntraining of children.\n\n12. I say now, that children are to be won to follow liberal studies\nby exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced\nthereto by whipping or any other contumelious punishments. I will not\nurge that such usage seems to be more agreeable to slaves than to\ningenuous children; and even slaves, when thus handled, are dulled and\ndiscouraged from the performance of their tasks, partly by reason of\nthe smart of their stripes, and partly because of the disgrace thereby\ninflicted. But praise and reproof are more effectual upon free-born\nchildren than any such disgraceful handling; the former to incite them\nto what is good, and the latter to restrain them from that which is\nevil. But we must use reprehensions and commendations alternately, and\nof various kinds according to the occasion; so that when they grow\npetulant, they may be shamed by reprehension, and again, when they\nbetter deserve it, they may be encouraged by commendations. Wherein\nwe ought to imitate nurses, who, when they have made their infants\ncry, stop their mouths with the nipple to quiet them again. It is also\nuseful not to give them such large commendations as to puff them up\nwith pride; for this is the ready way to fill them with a vain conceit\nof themselves, and to enfeeble their minds.\n\n13. Moreover, I have seen some parents whose too much love to their\nchildren hath occasioned, in truth, their not loving them at all. I\nwill give light to this assertion by an example to those who ask\nwhat it means. It is this: while they are over-hasty to advance their\nchildren in all sorts of learning beyond their equals, they set them\ntoo hard and laborious tasks, whereby they fall under discouragement;\nand this, with other inconveniences accompanying it, causeth them\nin the issue to be ill affected to learning itself. For as plants\nby moderate watering are nourished, but with over-much moisture are\nglutted, so is the spirit improved by moderate labors, but overwhelmed\nby such as are excessive. We ought therefore to give children some\ntime to take breath from their constant labors, considering that\nall human life is divided betwixt business and relaxation. To which\npurpose it is that we are inclined by nature not only to wake, but to\nsleep also; that as we have sometimes wars, so likewise at other times\npeace; as some foul, so other fair days; and, as we have seasons of\nimportant business, so also the vacation times of festivals. And, to\ncontract all in a word, rest is the sauce of labor. Nor is it thus in\nliving creatures only, but in things inanimate too. For even in bows\nand harps, we loosen their strings, that we may bend and wind them up\nagain. Yea, it is universally seen that, as the body is maintained by\nrepletion and evacuation, so is the mind by employment and relaxation.\n\nThose parents, moreover, are to be blamed who, when they have committed\ntheir sons to the care of pedagogues or schoolmasters, never see or\nhear them perform their tasks; wherein they fail much of their duty.\nFor they ought, ever and anon, after the intermission of some days, to\nmake trial of their children\u2019s proficiency; and not intrust their hopes\nof them to the discretion of a hireling. For even that sort of men will\ntake more care of the children, when they know that they are regularly\nto be called to account. And here the saying of the king\u2019s groom is\nvery applicable, that nothing made the horse so fat as the king\u2019s eye.\n\nBut we must most of all exercise and keep in constant employment the\nmemory of children; for that is, as it were, the storehouse of all\nlearning. Wherefore the mythologists have made Mnemosyne, or Memory,\nthe mother of the Muses, plainly intimating thereby that nothing doth\nso beget or nourish learning as memory. Wherefore we must employ it to\nboth those purposes, whether the children be naturally apt or backward\nto remember. For so shall we both strengthen it in those to whom Nature\nin this respect hath been bountiful, and supply that to others wherein\nshe hath been deficient. And as the former sort of boys will thereby\ncome to excel others, so will the latter sort excel themselves. For\nthat of Hesiod was well said,\u2014\n\n    Oft little add to little, and the account\n      Will swell: heapt atoms thus produce a mount.[8]\n\nNeither, therefore, let the parents be ignorant of this, that the\nexercising of memory in the schools doth not only give the greatest\nassistance towards the attainment of learning, but also to all the\nactions of life. For the remembrance of things past affords us examples\nin our consults about things to come.\n\n14. Children ought to be made to abstain from speaking filthily,\nseeing, as Democritus said, words are but the shadows of actions.\nThey are, moreover, to be instructed to be affable and courteous in\ndiscourse. For as churlish manners are always detestable, so children\nmay be kept from being odious in conversation, if they will not be\npertinaciously bent to maintain all they say in dispute. For it is\nof use to a man to understand not only how to overcome, but also how\nto give ground when to conquer would turn to his disadvantage. For\nthere is such a thing sometimes as a Cadmean victory; which the wise\nEuripides attesteth, when he saith,\u2014\n\n    Where two discourse, if the one\u2019s anger rise,\n      The man who lets the contest fall is wise.[9]\n\nAdd we now to these things some others of which children ought to have\nno less, yea, rather greater care; to wit, that they avoid luxurious\nliving, bridle their tongues, subdue anger, and refrain their hands.\nOf how great moment each of these counsels is, I now come to inquire;\nand we may best judge of them by examples. To begin with the last:\nsome men there have been, who, by opening their hands to take what\nthey ought not, have lost all the honor they got in the former part\nof their lives. So Gylippus the Lacedaemonian,[10] for unsewing the\npublic money-bags, was condemned to banishment from Sparta. And to be\nable also to subdue anger is the part of a wise man. Such a one was\nSocrates; for when a hectoring and debauched young man rudely kicked\nhim, so that those in his company, being sorely offended, were ready to\nrun after him and call him to account for it, What, said he to them,\nif an ass had kicked me, would you think it handsomely done to kick\nhim again? And yet the young man himself escaped not unpunished; for\nwhen all persons reproached him for so unworthy an act, and gave him\nthe nickname of \u039b\u03b1\u03ba\u03c4\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03ae\u03c2, or the kicker, he hanged himself. The same\nSocrates,\u2014when Aristophanes, publishing his play which he called the\nClouds, therein threw all sorts of the foulest reproaches upon him,\nand a friend of his, who was present at the acting of it, repeated to\nhim what was there said in the same comical manner, asking him withal,\nDoes not this offend you, Socrates?\u2014replied: Not at all, for I can as\nwell bear with a fool in a play as at a great feast. And something of\nthe same nature is reported to have been done by Archytas of Tarentum\nand Plato. Archytas, when, upon his return from the war, wherein he\nhad been a general, he was informed that his land had been impaired\nby his bailiff\u2019s negligence, sent for him, and said only thus to him\nwhen he came: If I were not very angry with thee, I would severely\ncorrect thee. And Plato, being offended with a gluttonous and debauched\nservant, called to him Speusippus, his sister\u2019s son, and said unto him:\nGo beat thou this fellow; for I am too much offended with him to do it\nmyself.\n\nThese things, you will perhaps say, are very difficult to be imitated.\nI confess it; but yet we must endeavor to the utmost of our power,\nby setting such examples before us, to repress the extravagancy of\nour immoderate, furious anger. For neither are we able to rival the\nexperience or virtue of such men in many other matters; but we do,\nnevertheless, as sacred interpreters of divine mysteries and priests\nof wisdom, strive to follow these examples, and, as it were, to enrich\nourselves with what we can nibble from them.\n\nAnd as to the bridling of the tongue, concerning which also I am\nobliged to speak, if any man think it a small matter or of mean\nconcernment, he is much mistaken. For it is a point of wisdom to\nbe silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though\nnever so well. And, in my judgment, for this reason the ancients\ninstituted mystical rites of initiation in religion, that, being in\nthem accustomed to silence, we might thence transfer the fear we have\nof the Gods to the fidelity required in human secrets. Yea, indeed,\nexperience shows that no man ever repented of having kept silence; but\nmany that they have not done so. And a man may, when he will, easily\nutter what he hath by silence concealed; but it is impossible for him\nto recall what he hath once spoken. And, moreover, I can remember\ninfinite examples that have been told me of those that have procured\ngreat damages to themselves by intemperance of the tongue; one or two\nof which I will give, omitting the rest. When Ptolemaeus Philadelphus\nhad taken his sister Arsinoe to wife, Sotades for breaking an obscene\njest[11] upon him lay languishing in prison a great while; a punishment\nwhich he deserved for his unseasonable babbling, whereby to provoke\nlaughter in others he purchased a long time of mourning to himself.\nMuch after the same rate, or rather still worse, did Theocritus the\nSophist both talk and suffer. For when Alexander commanded the Grecians\nto provide him a purple robe, wherein, upon his return from the wars,\nhe meant to sacrifice to the Gods in gratitude for his victorious\nsuccess against the barbarians, and the various states were bringing in\nthe sums assessed upon them, Theocritus said: I now see clearly that\nthis is what Homer calls purple death, which I never understood before.\nBy which speech he made the king his enemy from that time forwards.\nThe same person provoked Antigonus, the king of Macedonia, to great\nwrath, by reproaching him with his defect, as having but one eye. Thus\nit was. Antigonus commanded Eutropion his master-cook (then in waiting)\nto go to this Theocritus and settle some accounts with him. And when\nhe announced his errand to Theocritus, and called frequently about the\nbusiness, the latter said: I know that thou hast a mind to dish me up\nraw to that Cyclops; thus reproaching at once the king with the want of\nhis eye, and the cook with his employment. To which Eutropion replied:\nThen thou shalt lose thy head, as the penalty of thy loquacity and\nmadness. And he was as good as his word; for he departed and informed\nthe king, who sent and put Theocritus to death.\n\nBesides all these things, we are to accustom children to speak the\ntruth, and to account it, as indeed it is, a matter of religion for\nthem to do so. For lying is a servile quality, deserving the hatred of\nall mankind; yea, a fault for which we ought not to forgive our meanest\nservants.\n\n15. Thus far have I discoursed concerning the good breeding of\nchildren, and the sobriety requisite to that age, without any\nhesitation or doubt in my own mind concerning any thing that I have\nsaid. But in what remains to be said, I am dubious and divided in my\nown thoughts, which, as if they were laid in a balance, sometimes\nincline this, and sometimes that way. I am therefore loath to persuade\nor dissuade in the matter. But I must venture to answer one question,\nwhich is this: whether we ought to admit those that make love to our\nsons to keep them company, or whether we should not rather thrust them\nout of doors, and banish them from their society. For when I look upon\nthose straightforward parents, of a harsh and austere temper, who think\nit an outrage not to be endured that their sons should have any thing\nto say to lovers, I am tender of being the persuader or encourager of\nsuch a practice. But, on the other side, when I call to mind Socrates,\nand Plato, and Xenophon, and Aeschines, and Cebes, with an whole troop\nof other such men, who have approved those masculine loves, and still\nhave brought up young men to learning, public employments, and virtuous\nliving, I am again of another mind, and am much influenced by my zeal\nto imitate such great men. And the testimony also of Euripides is\nfavorable to their opinion, when he says,\u2014\n\n    Another love there is in mortals found;\n    The love of just and chaste and virtuous souls.[12]\n\nAnd yet I think it not improper here to mention withal that saying of\nPlato, spoken betwixt jest and earnest, that men of great eminence must\nbe allowed to show affection to what beautiful objects they please.[13]\nI would decide then that parents are to keep off such as make beauty\nthe object of their affection, and admit altogether such as direct\nthe love to the soul; whence such loves are to be avoided as are in\nThebes and Elis, and that sort which in Crete they call ravishment\n(\u1f01\u03c1\u03c0\u03b1\u03b3\u03bc\u03cc\u03c2);[14] and such are to be imitated as are in Athens and Sparta.\n\n16. But in this matter let every man follow his own judgment. Thus\nfar have I discoursed concerning the right ordering and decent\ncarriage of children. I will now pass thence, to speak somewhat\nconcerning the next age, that of youth. For I have often blamed the\nevil custom of some, who commit their boys in childhood to pedagogues\nand teachers, and then suffer the impetuosity of their youth to range\nwithout restraint; whereas boys of that age need to be kept under a\nstricter guard than children. For who does not know that the errors\nof childhood are small, and perfectly capable of being amended; such\nas slighting their pedagogues, or disobedience to their teachers\u2019\ninstructions. But when they begin to grow towards maturity, their\noffences are oftentimes very great and heinous; such as gluttony,\npilfering money from their parents, dicing, revellings, drunkenness,\ncourting of maidens, and defiling of marriage-beds. Wherefore it is\nexpedient that such impetuous heats should with great care be kept\nunder and restrained. For the ripeness of that age admits no bounds\nin its pleasures, is skittish, and needs a curb to check it; so that\nthose parents who do not hold in their sons with great strength about\nthat time find to their surprise that they are giving their vicious\ninclinations full swing in the pursuit of the vilest actions. Wherefore\nit is a duty incumbent upon wise parents, in that age especially, to\nset a strict watch upon them, and to keep them within the bounds of\nsobriety by instructions, threatenings, entreaties, counsels, promises,\nand by laying before them examples of those men (on one side) who\nby immoderate love of pleasures have brought themselves into great\nmischief, and of those (on the other) who by abstinence in the pursuit\nof them have purchased to themselves very great praise and glory. For\nthese two things (hope of honor, and fear of punishment) are, in a\nsort, the first elements of virtue; the former whereof spurs men on the\nmore eagerly to the pursuit of honest studies, while the latter blunts\nthe edge of their inclinations to vicious courses.\n\n17. And in sum, it is necessary to restrain young men from the\nconversation of debauched persons, lest they take infection from their\nevil examples. This was taught by Pythagoras in certain enigmatical\nsentences, which I shall here relate and expound, as being greatly\nuseful to further virtuous inclinations. Such are these. Taste not of\nfish that have black tails; that is, converse not with men that are\nsmutted with vicious qualities. Stride not over the beam of the scales;\nwherein he teacheth us the regard we ought to have for justice, so as\nnot to go beyond its measures. Sit not on a choenix; wherein he forbids\nsloth, and requires us to take care to provide ourselves with the\nnecessaries of life. Do not strike hands with every man; he means we\nought not to be over hasty to make acquaintances or friendships with\nothers. Wear not a tight ring; that is, we are to labor after a free\nand independent way of living, and to submit to no fetters. Stir not\nup the fire with a sword; signifying that we ought not to provoke a\nman more when he is angry already (since this is a most unseemly act),\nbut we should rather comply with him while his passion is in its heat.\nEat not thy heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them\nwith vexatious cares. Abstain from beans; that is, keep out of public\noffices, for anciently the choice of the officers of state was made by\nbeans. Put not food in a chamber-pot; wherein he declares that elegant\ndiscourse ought not to be put into an impure mind; for discourse is the\nfood of the mind, which is rendered unclean by the foulness of the man\nwho receives it. When men are arrived at the goal, they should not turn\nback; that is, those who are near the end of their days, and see the\nperiod of their lives approaching, ought to entertain it contentedly,\nand not to be grieved at it.\n\nBut to return from this digression,\u2014our children, as I have said, are\nto be debarred the company of all evil men, but especially flatterers.\nFor I would still affirm what I have often said in the presence of\ndivers fathers, that there is not a more pestilent sort of men than\nthese, nor any that more certainly and speedily hurry youth into\nprecipices. Yea, they utterly ruin both fathers and sons, making the\nold age of the one and the youth of the other full of sorrow, while\nthey cover the hook of their evil counsels with the unavoidable bait\nof voluptuousness. Parents, when they have good estates to leave\ntheir children, exhort them to sobriety, flatterers to drunkenness;\nparents exhort to continence, these to lasciviousness; parents to\ngood husbandry, these to prodigality; parents to industry, these to\nslothfulness. And they usually entertain them with such discourses as\nthese: The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it\ntherefore while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose. Why should\nyou so much regard the displeasure of your father?\u2014an old doting fool,\nwith one foot already in the grave, and \u2019tis to be hoped it will not\nbe long ere we carry him thither altogether. And some of them there\nare who procure young men foul harlots, yea, prostitute wives to them;\nand they even make a prey of those things which the careful fathers\nhave provided for the sustenance of their old age. A cursed tribe!\nTrue friendship\u2019s hypocrites, they have no knowledge of plain dealing\nand frank speech. They flatter the rich, and despise the poor; and\nthey seduce the young, as by a musical charm. When those who feed them\nbegin to laugh, then they grin and show their teeth. They are mere\ncounterfeits, bastard pretenders to humanity, living at the nod and\nbeck of the rich; free by birth, yet slaves by choice, who always think\nthemselves abused when they are not so, because they are not supported\nin idleness at others\u2019 cost. Wherefore, if fathers have any care for\nthe good breeding of their children, they ought to drive such foul\nbeasts as these out of doors. They ought also to keep them from the\ncompanionship of vicious school-fellows, for these are able to corrupt\nthe most ingenuous dispositions.\n\n18. These counsels which I have now given are of great worth and\nimportance; what I have now to add touches certain allowances that are\nto be made to human nature. Again therefore I would not have fathers\nof an over-rigid and harsh temper, but so mild as to forgive some\nslips of youth, remembering that they themselves were once young.\nBut as physicians are wont to mix their bitter medicines with sweet\nsyrups, to make what is pleasant a vehicle for what is wholesome, so\nshould fathers temper the keenness of their reproofs with lenity.\nThey may occasionally loosen the reins, and allow their children to\ntake some liberties they are inclined to, and again, when it is fit,\nmanage them with a straighter bridle. But chiefly should they bear\ntheir errors without passion, if it may be; and if they chance to be\nheated more than ordinary, they ought not to suffer the flame to burn\nlong. For it is better that a father\u2019s anger be hasty than severe;\nbecause the heaviness of his wrath, joined with unplacableness, is no\nsmall argument of hatred towards the child. It is good also not to\ndiscover the notice they take of divers faults, and to transfer to\nsuch cases that dimness of sight and hardness of hearing that are wont\nto accompany old age; so as sometimes not to hear what they hear, nor\nto see what they see, of their children\u2019s miscarriages. We use to bear\nwith some failings in our friends, and it is no wonder if we do the\nlike to our children, especially when we sometimes overlook drunkenness\nin our very servants. Thou hast at times been too straight-handed to\nthy son; make him at other whiles a larger allowance. Thou hast, it\nmay be, been too angry with him; pardon him the next fault to make\nhim amends. He hath made use of a servant\u2019s wit to circumvent thee in\nsomething; restrain thy anger. He hath made bold to take a yoke of oxen\nout of the pasture, or he hath come home smelling of his yesterday\u2019s\ndrink; take no notice of it; and if of ointments too, say nothing.\nFor by this means the wild colt sometimes is made more tame. Besides,\nfor those who are intemperate in their youthful lusts, and will not\nbe amended by reproof, it is good to provide wives; for marriage is\nthe strongest bond to hamper wild youth withal. But we must take care\nthat the wives we procure for them be neither of too noble a birth\nnor of too great a portion to suit their circumstances; for it is a\nwise saying, drive on your own track.[15] Whereas men that marry women\nvery much superior to themselves are not so truly husbands to their\nwives, as they are unawares made slaves to their portions. I will add\na few words more, and put an end to these advices. The chiefest thing\nthat fathers are to look to is, that they themselves become effectual\nexamples to their children, by doing all those things which belong to\nthem and avoiding all vicious practices, that in their lives, as in a\nglass, their children may see enough to give them an aversion to all\nill words and actions. For those that chide children for such faults\nas they themselves fall into unconsciously accuse themselves, under\ntheir children\u2019s names. And if they are altogether vicious in their own\nlives, they lose the right of reprehending their very servants, and\nmuch more do they forfeit it towards their sons. Yea, what is more than\nthat, they make themselves even counsellors and instructors to them in\nwickedness. For where old men are impudent, there of necessity must the\nyoung men be so too. Wherefore we are to apply our minds to all such\npractices as may conduce to the good breeding of our children. And here\nwe may take example from Eurydice of Hierapolis, who, although she was\nan Illyrian, and so thrice a barbarian, yet applied herself to learning\nwhen she was well advanced in years, that she might teach her children.\nHer love towards her children appears evidently in this Epigram of\nhers, which she dedicated to the Muses:\u2014\n\n    Eurydice to the Muses here doth raise\n    This monument, her honest love to praise;\n    Who her grown sons that she might scholars breed,\n    Then well in years, herself first learned to read.\n\nAnd thus have I finished the precepts which I designed to give\nconcerning this subject. But that they should all be followed by any\none reader is rather, I fear, to be wished than hoped. And to follow\nthe greater part of them, though it may not be impossible to human\nnature, yet will need a concurrence of more than ordinary diligence\njoined with good fortune.\n\n\n\n\nCONCERNING THE CURE OF ANGER.\n\nA DIALOGUE.\n\n\nSYLLA, FUNDANUS.\n\n1. SYLLA. Those painters, O Fundanus, in my opinion do very wisely, who\nnever finish any piece at the first sitting, but take a review of it\nat some convenient distance of time; because the eye, being relieved\nfor a time, renews its power by making frequent and fresh judgments,\nand becomes able to observe many small and critical differences which\ncontinual poring and familiarity would prevent it from noticing. Now,\nbecause it cannot be that a man should stand off from himself and\ninterrupt his consciousness, and then after some interval return to\naccost himself again (which is one principal reason why a man is a\nworse judge of himself than of other men), the next best course that a\nman can take will be to inspect his friends after some time of absence,\nand also to offer himself to their examination, not to see whether he\nbe grown old on the sudden, or whether the habit of his body be become\nbetter or worse than it was before, but that they may take notice of\nhis manner and behavior, whether in that time he hath made any advance\nin goodness, or gained ground of his vices. Wherefore, being after\ntwo years\u2019 absence returned to Rome, and having since conversed with\nthee here again for these five months, I think it no great matter of\nwonder that those good qualities which, by the advantage of a good\nnatural disposition, you were formerly possessed of, have in this time\nreceived so considerable an increase. But truly, when I behold how that\nvehement and fiery disposition which you had to anger is now through\nthe conduct of reason become so gentle and tractable, my mind prompts\nme to say, with Homer,\u2014\n\n    O wonder! how much gentler is he grown![16]\n\nNor hath this gentleness produced in thee any laziness or irresolution;\nbut, like cultivation in the earth, it hath caused an evenness and a\nprofundity very effectual unto fruitful action, instead of thy former\nvehemency and over-eagerness. And therefore it is evident that thy\nformer proneness to anger hath not been withered in thee by any decay\nof vigor which age might have effected, or spontaneously; but that it\nhath been cured by making use of some mollifying precepts.\n\nAnd indeed, to tell you the truth, when I heard our friend Eros say\nthe same thing, I had a suspicion that he did not report the thing as\nit was, but that out of mere good-will he testified those things of\nyou which ought to be found in every good and virtuous man. And yet\nyou know he cannot be easily induced to depart from what he judges to\nbe true, in order to favor any man. But now, truly, as I acquit him of\nhaving therein made any false report of thee, so I desire thee, being\nnow at leisure from thy journey, to declare unto us the means and (as\nit were) the medicine, by use whereof thou hast brought thy mind to be\nthus manageable and natural, thus gentle and obedient unto reason.\n\nFUNDANUS. But in the mean while, O most kind Sylla, you had best\nbeware, lest you also through affection and friendship may be somewhat\ncareless in making an estimate of my affairs. For Eros, having himself\nalso a mind oft-times unable to keep its ground and to contain\nitself within that obedience which Homer mentions, but subject to be\nexasperated through an hatred of men\u2019s wickedness, may perhaps think\nI am grown more mild; just as in music, when the key is changed, that\nnote which before was the base becomes a higher note with respect to\nothers which are now below it.\n\nSYLLA. Neither of these is so, Fundanus; but, I pray you, gratify us\nall by granting the request I made.\n\n2. FUNDANUS. This then, O Sylla, is one of those excellent rules given\nby Musonius which I bear in memory,\u2014that those who would be in sound\nhealth must physic themselves all their lives. Now I do not think that\nreason cures, like hellebore, by purging out itself together with\nthe disease it cures, but by keeping possession of the soul, and so\ngoverning and guarding its judgments. For the power of reason is not\nlike drugs, but like wholesome food; and, with the assistance of a good\nnatural disposition, it produceth a healthful constitution in all with\nwhom it hath become familiar.\n\nAnd as for those good exhortations and admonitions which are applied\nto passions while they swell and are at their height, they work but\nslowly and with small success; and they differ in nothing from those\nstrong-smelling things, which indeed do serve to put those that have\nthe falling sickness upon their legs again after they are fallen, but\nare not able to remove the disease. For whereas other passions, even\nwhen they are in their ruff and acme, do in some sort yield and admit\nreason into the soul, which comes to help it from without; anger does\nnot, as Melanthius says,\u2014\n\n    Displace the mind, and then act dismal things;\n\nbut it absolutely turns the mind out of doors, and bolts the door\nagainst it; and, like those who burn their houses and themselves within\nthem, it makes all things within full of confusion, smoke, and noise,\nso that the soul can neither see nor hear any thing that might relieve\nit. Wherefore sooner will an empty ship in a storm at sea admit of a\npilot from without, than a man tossed with anger and rage listen to\nthe advice of another, unless he have his own reason first prepared to\nentertain it.\n\nBut as those who expect to be besieged are wont to gather together and\nlay in provisions of such things as they are like to need, not trusting\nto hopes of relief from without, so ought it to be our special concern\nto fetch in from philosophy such foreign helps as it affords against\nanger, and to store them up in the soul beforehand, seeing that it\nwill not be so easy a matter to provide ourselves when the time is\ncome for using them. For either the soul cannot hear what is spoken\nwithout, by reason of the tumult, unless it have its own reason (like\nthe director of the rowers in a ship) ready to entertain and understand\nwhatsoever precept shall be given; or, if it do chance to hear, yet\nwill it be ready to despise what is patiently and mildly offered, and\nto be exasperated by what shall be pressed upon it with more vehemency.\nFor, since wrath is proud and self-conceited, and utterly averse from\ncompliance with others, like a fortified and guarded tyranny, that\nwhich is to overthrow it must be bred within it and be of its own\nhousehold.\n\n3. Now the continuance of anger and frequent fits of it produce an evil\nhabit in the soul called wrathfulness, or a propensity to be angry,\nwhich oft-times ends in choleric temper, bitterness, and moroseness.\nThen the mind becomes ulcerated, peevish, and querulous, and like a\nthin, weak plate of iron, receives impression and is wounded by even\nthe least occurrence; but when the judgment presently seizes upon\nwrathful ebullitions and suppresses them, it not only works a cure\nfor the present, but renders the soul firm and not so liable to such\nimpressions for the future. And truly, when I myself had twice or\nthrice made a resolute resistance unto anger, the like befell me that\ndid the Thebans; who, having once foiled the Lacedaemonians, that\nbefore that time had held themselves invincible, never after lost so\nmuch as one battle which they fought against them. For I became fully\nassured in my mind, that anger might be overcome by the use of reason.\nAnd I perceived that it might not only be quieted by the sprinkling of\ncold water, as Aristotle relates, but also be extinguished by putting\none into a fright. Yea, according to Homer, many men have had their\nanger melted and dissipated by sudden surprise of joy. So that I came\nto this firm resolution, that this passion is not altogether incurable\nto such as are but willing to be cured; since the beginnings and\noccasions of it are not always great or forcible; but a scoff, or a\njest, or the laughing at one, or a nod only, or some other matter of\nno great importance, will put many men into a passion. Thus Helen, by\naddressing her niece in the words beginning,\u2014\n\n    O my Electra, now a virgin stale,\n\nprovoked her to make this nipping return:\u2014\n\n    Thou\u2019rt wise too late, thou shouldst have kept at home.[17]\n\nAnd so did Callisthenes provoke Alexander by saying, when the great\nbowl was going round, I will not drink so deep in honor of Alexander,\nas to make work for Aesculapius.\n\n4. As therefore it is an easy matter to stop the fire that is kindled\nonly in hare\u2019s wool, candle-wick, or a little chaff, but if it have\nonce taken hold of matter that hath solidity and thickness, it soon\ninflames and consumes, as Aeschylus says,\u2014\n\n    With youthful vigor the carpenter\u2019s lofty work;\n\nso he that observes anger while it is in its beginning, and sees it\nby degrees smoking and taking fire from some speech or chaff-like\nscurrility, need take no great pains to extinguish it, but oftentimes\ncan put an end to it only by silence or neglect. For as he that adds\nno fuel to the fire hath already as good as put it out, so he that\ndoth not feed anger at the first, nor blow the fire in himself,\nhath prevented and destroyed it. Wherefore Hieronymus, although he\ntaught many other useful things, yet hath given me no satisfaction in\nsaying that anger is not perceptible in its birth, by reason of its\nsuddenness, but only after its birth and while it lives; for there is\nno other passion, while it is gathering and stirring up, which hath its\nrise and increase so conspicuous and observable. This is very skilfully\ntaught by Homer, by making Achilles suddenly surprised with grief as\nsoon as ever the word fell on his ear, saying of him,\u2014\n\n    This said, a sable cloud of grief covered him o\u2019er;[18]\n\nbut making Agamemnon grow angry slowly and need many words to inflame\nhim, so that, if these had been stopped and forbidden when they began,\nthe contest had never grown to that degree and greatness which it did.\nWherefore Socrates, as oft as he perceived any fierceness of spirit\nto rise within him towards any of his friends, setting himself like a\npromontory to break the waves, would speak with a lower voice, bear\na smiling countenance, and look with a more gentle eye; and thus, by\nbending the other way and moving contrary to the passion, he kept\nhimself from falling or being worsted.\n\n5. For the first way, my friend, to suppress anger, as you would a\ntyrant, is not to obey or yield to it when it commands us to speak\nhigh, to look fiercely, and to beat ourselves; but to be quiet, and\nnot increase the passion, as we do a disease, by impatient tossing and\ncrying out. It is true that lovers\u2019 practices, such as revelling,\nsinging, crowning the door with garlands, have a kind of alleviation in\nthem which is neither rude nor unpleasing:\u2014\n\n    Coming, I asked not who or whose she was,\n    But kissed her door full sweetly,\u2014that I wot;\n    If this be sin, to sin I can but choose.\n\nSo the weeping and lamentation which we permit in mourners doubtless\ncarry forth much of the grief together with the tears. But anger, quite\non the contrary, is more inflamed by what the angry persons say or do.\n\nThe best course then is for a man to compose himself, or else to run\naway and hide himself and retreat into quiet, as into an haven, as if\nhe perceived a fit of epilepsy coming on, lest he fall, or rather fall\nupon others; and truly we do most and most frequently fall upon our\nfriends. For we neither love all, nor envy all, nor fear all men; but\nthere is nothing untouched and unset upon by anger. We are angry with\nour foes and with our friends; with our own children and our parents;\nnay, with the Gods above, and the very beasts below us, and instruments\nthat have no life, as Thamyras was,\u2014\n\n    His horn, though bound with gold, he brake in\u2019s ire,\n    He brake his melodious and well-strung lyre;[19]\n\nand Pandarus, wishing a curse upon himself if he did not burn his bow.\n\n    First broken by his hands.[20]\n\nBut Xerxes dealt blows and marks of his displeasure to the sea itself,\nand sent his letters to the mountain in the style ensuing: \u201cO thou\nwretched Athos, whose top now reaches to the skies, I charge thee, put\nnot in the way of my works stones too big and difficult to be wrought.\nIf thou do, I will cut thee into pieces, and cast thee into the sea.\u201d\n\nFor anger hath many terrible effects, and many also that are\nridiculous; and therefore of all passions, this of anger is most hated\nand most contemned, and it is good to consider it in both respects.\n\n6. I therefore, whether rightly or not I know not, began this cure\nwith learning the nature of anger by beholding it in other men, as the\nLacedaemonians learned what drunkenness was by seeing it in the Helots.\nAnd, in the first place, as Hippocrates said that that was the most\ndangerous disease which made the sick man\u2019s countenance most unlike\nto what it was, so I observed that men transported with anger also\nexceedingly change their visage, color, gait, and voice. Accordingly\nI formed a kind of image of that passion to myself, withal conceiving\ngreat indignation against myself if I should at any time appear to my\nfriends, or to my wife and daughters, so terrible and discomposed,\nnot only with so wild and strange a look, but also with so fierce and\nharsh a voice, as I had met with in some others of my acquaintance,\nwho by reason of anger were not able to observe either good manners\nor countenance or graceful speech, or even their persuasiveness and\naffability in conversation.\n\nWherefore Caius Gracchus, the orator, being of a rugged disposition\nand a passionate kind of speaker, had a pipe made for him, such as\nmusicians use to vary their voice higher or lower by degrees; and with\nthis pipe his servant stood behind him while he pronounced, and gave\nhim a mild and gentle note, whereby he took him down from his loudness,\nand took off the harshness and angriness of his voice, assuaging and\ncharming the anger of the orator,\n\n    As their shrill wax-joined reed who herds do keep\n    Sounds forth sweet measures, which invite to sleep.[21]\n\nFor my own part, had I a careful and pleasant companion who would show\nme my angry face in a glass, I should not at all take it ill. In like\nmanner, some are wont to have a looking-glass held to them after\nthey have bathed, though to little purpose; but to behold one\u2019s self\nunnaturally disguised and disordered will conduce not a little to the\nimpeachment of anger. For those who delight in pleasant fables tell\nus, that Minerva herself, playing on a pipe was thus admonished by a\nsatyr:\u2014\n\n    That look becomes you not, lay down your pipes,\n    And take your arms, and set your cheeks to rights;\n\nbut would not regard it; yet, when by chance she beheld the mien of her\ncountenance in a river, she was moved with indignation, and cast her\npipes away; and yet here art had the delight of melody to comfort her\nfor the deformity. And Marsyas, as it seems, did with a kind of muzzle\nand mouth-piece restrain by force the too horrible eruption of his\nbreath when he played, and so corrected and concealed the distortion of\nhis visage:\u2014\n\n    With shining gold he girt his temples rough,\n    And his wide mouth with thongs that tied behind.\n\nNow anger doth swell and puff up the countenance very indecently, and\nsends forth a yet more indecent and unpleasant voice,\u2014\n\n    Moving the heart-strings, which should be at rest.\n\nFor when the sea is tossed and troubled with winds, and casts up moss\nand sea-weed, they say it is purged; but those impure, bitter, and\nvain words which anger throws up when the soul has become a kind of\nwhirlpool, defile the speakers, in the first place, and fill them with\ndishonor, arguing them to have always had such things in them and to\nbe full of them, only now they are discovered to have them by their\nanger. So for a mere word, the lightest of things (as Plato says),\nthey undergo the heaviest of punishments, being ever after accounted\nenemies, evil speakers, and of a malignant disposition.\n\n7. While now I see all this and bear it in mind, the thought occurs to\nme, and I naturally consider by myself, that as it is good for one in a\nfever, so much better is it for one in anger, to have his tongue soft\nand smooth. For if the tongue in a fever be unnaturally affected, it is\nindeed an evil symptom, but not a cause of harm; but when the tongue of\nangry men becomes rough and foul, and breaks out into absurd speeches,\nit produces insults which work irreconcilable hatred, and proves that a\npoisonous malevolence lies festering within. For wine does not make men\nvent any thing so impure and odious as anger doth; and, besides, what\nproceeds from wine is matter for jest and laughter, but that from anger\nis mixed with gall and bitterness. And he that is silent in his cups is\ncounted a burthen, and a bore to the company, whereas in anger there is\nnothing more commended than peace and silence; as Sappho adviseth,\u2014-\n\n    When anger once is spread within thy breast,\n    Shut up thy tongue, that vainly barking beast.\n\n8. Nor doth the constant observation of ourselves in anger minister\nthese things only to our consideration, but it also gives us to\nunderstand another natural property of anger, how disingenuous and\nunmanly a thing it is, and how far from true wisdom and greatness of\nmind. Yet the vulgar account the angry man\u2019s turbulence to be his\nactivity, his loud threats to argue boldness, and his refractoriness\nstrength; as also some mistake his cruelty for an undertaking of great\nmatters, his implacableness for a firmness of resolution, and his\nmorosity for an hatred of that which is evil. For, in truth, both the\ndeeds and motions and the whole mien of angry men do accuse them of\nmuch littleness and infirmity, not only when they vex little children,\nscold silly women, and think dogs and horses and asses worthy of their\nanger and deserving to be punished (as Ctesiphon the Pancratiast, who\nvouchsafed to kick the ass that had kicked him first); but even in\ntheir tyrannical slaughters, their mean-spiritedness appearing in their\nbitterness, and their suffering exhibited outwardly in their actions,\nare but like to the biting of serpents who, when they themselves become\nburnt and full of pain, violently thrust the venom that inflames them\nfrom themselves into those that have hurt them. For as a great blow\ncauses a great swelling in the flesh, so in the softest souls the\ngiving way to a passion for hurting others, like a stroke on the soul,\ndoth make it to swell with anger; and all the more, the greater is its\nweakness.\n\nFor this cause it is that women are more apt to be angry than men are,\nand sick persons than the healthful, and old men than those who are in\ntheir perfect age and strength, and men in misery than such as prosper.\nFor the covetous man is most prone to be angry with his steward, the\nglutton with his cook, the jealous man with his wife, the vain-glorious\nperson with him that speaks ill of him; but of all men there are none\nso exceedingly disposed to be angry as those who are ambitious of\nhonor, and affect to carry on a faction in a city, which (according\nto Pindar) is but a splendid vexation. In like manner, from the great\ngrief and suffering of the soul, through weakness especially, there\nariseth anger, which is not like the nerves of the soul (as one spake),\nbut like its straining and convulsive motions when it vehemently stirs\nitself up in its desires and endeavors of revenge.\n\n9. Indeed such evil examples as these afford us speculations which are\nnecessary, though not pleasant. But now, from those who have carried\nthemselves mildly and gently in their anger, I shall present you with\nmost excellent sayings and beautiful contemplations; and I begin to\ncontemn such as say, You have wronged a man indeed, and is a man\nto bear this?\u2014Stamp on his neck, tread him down in the dirt,\u2014and\nsuch like provoking speeches, whereby some do very unhandsomely\ntranslate and remove anger from the women\u2019s to the men\u2019s apartment.\nFor fortitude, which in other respects agrees with justice, seems\nonly to disagree in respect of mildness, which she claims as more\nproperly her own. For it sometimes befalls even worser men to bear\nrule over those who are better than themselves; but to erect a trophy\nin the soul against anger (which Heraclitus says it is an hard thing\nto fight against, because whatever it resolves to have, it buys at no\nless a price than the soul itself) is that which none but a great and\nvictorious power is able to achieve, since that alone can bind and curb\nthe passions by its decrees, as with nerves and tendons.\n\nWherefore I always strive to collect and read not only the sayings and\ndeeds of philosophers, who (wise men say) had no gall in them, but\nespecially those of kings and tyrants. Of this sort was the saying of\nAntigonus to his soldiers, when, as some were reviling him near his\ntent supposing that he had not heard them, he stretched his staff out\nof the tent, and said: What! will you not stand somewhere farther off,\nwhile you revile me? So was that of Arcadio the Achaean, who was ever\nspeaking ill of Philip, exhorting men to flee\n\n    Till they should come where none would Philip know.\n\nWhen afterwards by some accident he appeared in Macedonia, Philip\u2019s\nfriends were of opinion that he ought not to be suffered, but be\npunished; but Philip meeting him and speaking courteously to him, and\nthen sending him gifts, particularly such as were wont to be given to\nstrangers, bade him learn for the time to come what to speak of him\nto the Greeks. And when all testified that the man was become a great\npraiser of Philip, even to admiration, You see, said Philip, I am a\nbetter physician than you. And when he had been reproached at the\nOlympic solemnities, and some said it was fit to make the Grecians\nsmart and rue it for reviling Philip, who had dealt well with them,\nWhat then, said he, will they do, if I make them smart? Those things\nalso which Pisistratus did to Thrasybulus, and Porsena to Mutius, were\nbravely done; and so was that of Magas to Philemon, for having been\nby him exposed to laughter in a comedy on the public stage, in these\nwords:\u2014\n\n    Magas, the king hath sent thee letters:\n    Unhappy Magas, thou dost know no letters.\n\nAnd having taken Philemon as he was by a tempest cast on shore at\nParaetonium, he commanded a soldier only to touch his neck with his\nnaked sword and to go quietly away; and then having sent him a ball\nand huckle-bones, as if he were a child that wanted understanding, he\ndismissed him. Ptolemy was once jeering a grammarian for his want of\nlearning, and asked him who was the father of Peleus: I will answer you\n(quoth he) if you will tell me first who was the father of Lagus. This\njeer gave the king a rub for the obscurity of his birth, whereat all\nwere moved with indignation, as a thing not to be endured. But, said\nPtolemy, if it is not fit for a king to be jeered, then no more is it\nfit for him to jeer others. But Alexander was more severe than he was\nwont in his carriage towards Calisthenes and Clitus. Wherefore Porus,\nbeing taken captive by him, desired him to treat him like a king; and\nwhen Alexander asked him if he desired no more, he answered, When I say\nlike a king, I have comprised all. And hence it is that they call the\nking of the Gods Meilichius, while the Athenians, I think, call him\nMaimactes; but the office of punishing they ascribe to the Furies and\nevil Genii, never giving it the epithet of divine or heavenly.\n\n10. As therefore one said of Philip, when he razed the city of\nOlynthus, But he is not able to build such another city; so may it\nbe said to anger, Thou canst overthrow, and destroy, and cut down;\nbut to restore, to save, to spare, and to bear with, is the work of\ngentleness and moderation, of a Camillus, a Metellus, an Aristides,\nand a Socrates; but to strike the sting into one and to bite is the\npart of pismires and horse-flies. And truly, while I well consider\nrevenge, I find that the way which anger takes for it proves for the\nmost part ineffectual, being spent in biting the lips, gnashing the\nteeth, vain assaults, and railings fall of silly threats; and then it\nacts like children in a race, who, for want of governing themselves,\ntumble down ridiculously before they come to the goal towards which\nthey are hastening. Hence that Rhodian said not amiss to the servant of\nthe Roman general, who spake loudly and fiercely to him, It matters not\nmuch what thou sayest, but what this your master in silence thinks. And\nSophocles, having introduced Neoptolemus and Eurypylus in full armor,\ngave a high commendation of them when he said,\u2014\n\n    Into the hosts of brazen-armed men\n    Each boldly charged, but ne\u2019er reviled his foe.\n\nSome indeed of the barbarians poison their swords; but true valor has\nno need of choler, as being dipped in reason; but anger and fury are\nweak and easily broken. Wherefore the Lacedaemonians are wont by the\nsounding of pipes to take off the edge of anger from their soldiers,\nwhen they fight; and before they go to battle, to sacrifice to the\nMuses, that they may have the steady use of their reason; and when\nthey have put their enemies to flight, they pursue them not, but sound\na retreat (as it were) to their wrath, which, like a short dagger,\ncan easily be handled and drawn back. But anger makes slaughter of\nthousands before it can avenge itself, as it did of Cyrus and Pelopidas\nthe Theban. Agathocles, being reviled by some whom he besieged, bore it\nwith mildness; and when one said to him, O Potter, whence wilt thou\nhave pay for thy mercenary soldiers? he answered with laughter, From\nyour city, if I can take it. And when some one from the wall derided\nAntigonus for his deformity, he answered, I thought surely I had a\nhandsome face: and when he had taken the city, he sold those for slaves\nwho had scoffed at him, protesting that, if they reviled him so again,\nhe would call them to account before their masters.\n\nFurthermore, I observe that hunters and orators are wont to be much\nfoiled by anger. Aristotle reports that the friends of Satyrus once\nstopped his ears with wax, when he was to plead a cause, that so\nhe might not confound the matter through anger at the revilings of\nhis enemies. Do we not ourselves oftentimes miss of punishing an\noffending servant, because he runs away from us in fright when he\nhears our threatening words? That therefore which nurses say to little\nchildren\u2014Do not cry, and thou shalt have it\u2014-may not unfitly be\napplied to our mind when angry. Be not hasty, neither speak too loud,\nnor be too urgent, and so what you desire will be sooner and better\naccomplished. For as a father, when he sees his son about to cleave or\ncut something with an hatchet, takes the hatchet himself and doth it\nfor him; so one taking the work of revenge out of the hand of anger\ndoth himself, without danger or hurt, yea, with profit also, inflict\npunishment on him that deserves it, and not on himself instead of him,\nas anger oft-times doth.\n\n11. Now, whereas all passions do stand in need of discipline, which by\nexercise tames and subdues their unreasonableness and stubbornness,\nthere is none about which we have more need to be exercised in\nreference to servants than that of anger. For neither do we envy nor\nfear them, nor have we any competition for honor with them; but we\nhave frequent fits of anger with them, which cause many offences and\nerrors, by reason of the very power possessed by us as masters, and\nwhich bring us easily to the ground, as if we stood in a slippery\nplace with no one standing by to save us. For it is impossible to keep\nan irresponsible power from offending in the excitement of passion,\nunless we gird up that great power with gentleness, and can slight\nthe frequent speeches of wife and friends accusing us of remissness.\nAnd indeed I myself have by nothing more than by such speeches been\nincensed against my servants, as if they were spoiled for want of\nbeating. And truly it was late before I came to understand, that it\nwas better that servants should be something the worse by indulgence,\nthan that one should distort himself through wrath and bitterness\nfor the amendment of others. And secondly, observing that many by\nthis very impunity have been brought to be ashamed to be wicked, and\nhave begun their change to virtue more from being pardoned than from\nbeing punished, and that they have obeyed some upon their nod only,\npeaceably, and more willingly than they have done others with all their\nbeating and scourging, I became persuaded of this, that reason was\nfitter to govern with than anger. For it is not as the poet said,\u2014\n\n    Wherever fear is, there is modesty;\n\nbut, on the contrary, it is in the modest that that fear is bred which\nproduces moderation, whereas continual and unmerciful beating doth\nnot make men repent of doing evil, but only devise plans for doing it\nwithout being detected. And in the third place I always remember and\nconsider with myself, that as he who taught us the art of shooting did\nnot forbid us to shoot, but only to shoot amiss, so no more can it be\nany hindrance from punishing to teach us how we may do it seasonably\nand moderately, with benefit and decency. I therefore strive to put\naway anger, especially by not denying the punished a liberty to plead\nfor themselves, but granting them an hearing. For time gives a\nbreathing-space unto passion, and a delay which mitigates and dissolves\nit; and a man\u2019s judgment in the mean while finds out both a becoming\nmanner and a proportionable measure of punishing. And moreover hereby,\nhe that is punished hath not any pretence left him to object against\nthe correction given him, if he is punished not out of anger, but being\nfirst himself convinced of his fault. And finally we are here saved\nfrom the greatest disgrace of all, for by this means the servant will\nnot seem to speak more just things than his master.\n\nAs therefore Phocion after the death of Alexander, to hinder the\nAthenians from rising too soon or believing it too hastily, said: O\nAthenians, if he is dead to-day, he will be so to-morrow, and on the\nnext day after that; in like manner do I judge one ought to suggest to\nhimself, who through anger is making haste to punish: If it is true\nto-day that he hath thus wronged thee, it will be true to-morrow, and\non the next day, also. Nor will there any inconvenience follow upon\nthe deferring of his punishment for a while; but if he be punished all\nin haste, he will ever after seem to have been innocent, as it hath\noftentimes fallen out heretofore. For which of us all is so cruel as\nto torment or scourge a servant because, five or ten days before, he\nburnt the meat, or overturned the table, or did not soon enough what\nhe was bidden? And yet it is for just such things as these, while they\nare fresh and newly done, that we are so disordered, and become cruel\nand implacable. For as bodies through a mist, so actions through anger\nseem greater than they are. Wherefore we ought speedily to recall such\nconsiderations as these are to our mind; and when we are unquestionably\nout of passion, if then to a pure and composed reason the deed do\nappear to be wicked, we ought to animadvert, and no longer neglect or\nabstain from punishment, as if we had lost our appetite for it. For\nthere is nothing to which we can more justly impute men\u2019s punishing\nothers in their anger, than to a habit of not punishing them when their\nanger is over, but growing remiss, and doing like lazy mariners, who in\nfair weather keep loitering within the haven, and then put themselves\nin danger by setting sail when the wind blows strong. So we likewise,\ncondemning the remissness and over-calmness of our reason in punishing,\nmake haste to do it while our anger is up, pushing us forward like a\ndangerous wind.\n\nHe that useth food doth it to gratify his hunger, which is natural; but\nhe that inflicts punishment should do it without either hungering or\nthirsting after it, not needing anger, like sauce, to whet him on to\npunish; but when he is farthest off from desiring it, then he should\ndo it as a deed of necessity under the guidance of reason. And though\nAristotle reports, that in his time servants in Etruria were wont to\nbe scourged while the music played, yet they who punish others ought\nnot to be carried on with a desire of punishing, as of a thing they\ndelight in, nor to rejoice when they punish, and then repent of it\nwhen they have done,\u2014whereof the first is savage, the last womanish;\nbut, without either sorrow or pleasure, they should inflict just\npunishment when reason is free to judge, leaving no pretence for anger\nto intermeddle.\n\n12. But this perhaps may seem to be not a cure of anger, but only a\nthrusting by and avoiding of such miscarriages as some men fall into\nwhen they are angry. And yet, as Hieronymus tells us, although the\nswelling of the spleen is but a symptom of the fever, the assuaging\nthereof abates the disease. But, considering well the origin of anger\nitself, I have observed that divers men fall into anger for different\ncauses; and yet in the minds of all of them was probably an opinion\nof being despised and neglected. We must therefore assist those who\nwould avoid anger, by removing the act which roused their anger as\nfar as possible from all suspicion of contempt or insult, and by\nimputing it rather to folly or necessity or disorder of mind, or to the\nmisadventure of those that did it. Thus Sophocles in Antigone:\u2014\n\n    The best resolved mind in misery\n    Can\u2019t keep its ground, but suffers ecstasy.[22]\n\nAnd so Agamemnon, ascribing to Ate the taking away of Briseis, adds:\u2014\n\n    Since I so foolish was as thee to wrong,\n    I\u2019ll please thee now, and give thee splendid gifts.[23]\n\nFor supplication is an act of one who is far from contemning; and when\nhe that hath done an injury appears submissive, he thereby removes all\nsuspicion of contempt. But he that is moved to anger must not expect or\nwait for such a submission, but must rather take to himself the saying\nof Diogenes, who, when one said to him, They deride thee, O Diogenes,\nmade answer, But I am not derided; and he must not think himself\ncontemned, but rather himself contemn that man that offends him, as one\nacting out of weakness or error, rashness or carelessness, rudeness or\ndotage, or childishness. But, above all, we must bear with our servants\nand friends herein; for surely they do not despise us as being impotent\nor slothful, but they think less of us by reason of our very moderation\nor good-will towards them, some because we are gentle, others because\nwe are loving towards them. But now, alas! out of a surmise that we\nare contemned, we not only become exasperated against our wives, our\nservants, and friends, but we oftentimes fall out also with drunken\ninnkeepers, and mariners and ostlers, and all out of a suspicion that\nthey despise us. Yea, we quarrel with dogs because they bark at us, and\nasses if they chance to rush against us; like him who was going to beat\na driver of asses, but when the latter cried out, I am an Athenian,\nfell to beating the ass, saying, Thou surely art not an Athenian too,\nand so accosted him with many a bastinado.\n\n13. And especially self-love and morosity, together with luxury and\neffeminacy, breed in us long and frequent fits of anger, which by\nlittle and little are gathered together into our souls, like a swarm of\nbees or wasps. Wherefore there is nothing more conducing to a gentle\nbehavior towards our wife and servants and friends than contentedness\nand simplicity, if we can be satisfied with what we have, and not stand\nin need of many superfluities. Whereas the man described in the poet,\u2014\n\n    Who never is content with boiled or roast,\n    Nor likes his meat, what way soever drest,\u2014\n\nwho can never drink unless he have snow by him, or eat bread if it\nbe bought in the market, or taste victuals out of a mean or earthen\nvessel, or sleep on a bed unless it be swelled and puffed up with\nfeathers, like to the sea when it is heaved up from the bottom; but\nwho with cudgels and blows, with running, calling, and sweating doth\nhasten his servitors that wait at table, as if they were sent for\nplasters for some inflamed ulcer, he being slave to a weak, morose, and\nfault-finding style of life,\u2014doth, as it were by a continual cough\nor many buffetings, breed in himself, before he is aware, an ulcerous\nand defluxive disposition unto anger. And therefore the body is to be\naccustomed to contentment by frugality, and so be made sufficient for\nitself. For they who need but few things are not disappointed of many;\nand it is no hard matter, beginning with our food, to accept quietly\nwhatever is sent to us, and not by being angry and querulous at every\nthing, to entertain ourselves and our friends with the most unpleasant\ndish of all, which is anger. And surely\n\n    Than that supper nought can more unpleasant be,[24]\n\nwhere the servants are beaten and the wife railed at, because something\nis burnt or smoked or not salt enough, or because the bread is too\ncold. Arcesilaus was once entertaining his friends and some strangers\nat a feast; the supper was set on the board, but there wanted bread,\nthe servants having, it seems, neglected to buy any. Now, on such an\noccasion, which of us would not have rent the very walls with outcries?\nBut he smiling said only: What a fine thing it is for a philosopher to\nbe a jolly feaster! Once also when Socrates took Euthydemus from the\nwrestling-house home with him to supper, his wife Xanthippe fell upon\nhim in a pelting chase, scolding him, and in conclusion overthrew the\ntable. Whereupon Euthydemus rose up and went his way, being very much\ntroubled at what had happened. But Socrates said to him: Did not a\nhen at your house the other day come flying in, and do the like? and\nyet I was not troubled at it. For friends are to be entertained by\ngood-nature, by smiles, and by a hospitable welcome; not by knitting\nbrows, or by striking horror and trembling into those that serve.\n\nWe must also accustom ourselves to the use of any cups indifferently,\nand not to use one rather than another, as some are wont to single\nsome one cup out of many (as they say Marius used to do) or else a\ndrinking-horn, and to drink out of none but that; and they do the same\nwith oil-glasses and brushes, affecting one above all the rest, and\nwhen any one of these chances to be broken or lost, then they take it\nheinously, and punish severely those that did it. And therefore he\nthat is prone to be angry should refrain from such things as are rare\nand curiously wrought, such as cups and seals and precious stones; for\nsuch things distract a man by their loss more than cheap and ordinary\nthings are apt to do. Wherefore when Nero had made an octagonal tent,\na wonderful spectacle for cost and beauty, Seneca said to him: You\nhave proved yourself to be a poor man; for if you chance to lose\nthis, you cannot tell where to get such another. And indeed it so fell\nout that the ship was sunk, and this tent was lost with it. But Nero,\nremembering the words of Seneca, bore the loss of it with greater\nmoderation.\n\nBut this contentedness in other matters doth make a man good-tempered\nand gentle towards his servants; and if towards servants, then\ndoubtless towards friends and subjects also. We see also that newly\nbought servants enquire concerning him that bought them, not whether he\nbe superstitious or envious, but whether he be an angry man or not; and\nthat universally, neither men can endure their wives, though chaste,\nnor women their husbands, though kind, if they be ill-tempered withal;\nnor friends the conversation of one another. And so neither wedlock\nnor friendship with anger is to be endured; but if anger be away, even\ndrunkenness itself is counted a light matter for the ferule of Bacchus\nis a sufficient chastiser of a drunken man, if the addition of anger\ndo not change the God of wine from Lyaeus and Choraeus (the looser of\ncares and the leader of dances) to the savage and furious deity. And\nAnticyra (with its hellebore) is of itself able to cure simple madness;\nbut madness mixed with anger furnishes matter for tragedies and dismal\nstories.\n\n14. Neither ought any, even in their playing and jesting, to give way\nto their anger, for it turns good-will into hatred; nor when they\nare disputing, for it turns a desire of knowing truth into a love of\ncontention; nor when they sit in judgment, for it adds violence to\nauthority; nor when they are teaching, for it dulls the learner, and\nbreeds in him a hatred of all learning; nor if they be in prosperity,\nfor it increases envy; nor if in adversity, for it makes them to\nbe unpitied, if they are morose and apt to quarrel with those who\ncommiserate them, as Priam did:\u2014\n\n    Be gone, ye upbraiding scoundrels, haven\u2019t ye at home\n    Enough, that to help bear my grief ye come?[25]\n\nOn the other hand, good temper doth remedy some things, put an ornament\nupon others, and sweeten others; and it wholly overcomes all anger and\nmoroseness, by gentleness. As may be seen in that excellent example of\nEuclid, who, when his brother had said in a quarrel, Let me perish if I\nbe not avenged of you, replied, And let me perish if I do not persuade\nyou into a better mind; and by so saying he straightway diverted him\nfrom his purpose, and changed his mind. And Polemon, being reviled by\none that loved precious stones well and was even sick with the love\nof costly signets, answered nothing, but noticed one of the signets\nwhich the man wore, and looked wistfully upon it. Whereat the man being\npleased said: Not so, Polemon, but look upon it in the sunshine, and\nit will appear much better to you. And Aristippus, when there happened\nto be a falling out between him and Aeschines, and one said to him, O\nAristippus, what is now become of the friendship that was between you\ntwo? answered, It is asleep, but I will go and awaken it. Then coming\nto Aeschines, he said to him, What? dost thou take me to be so utterly\nwretched and incurable as not to be worth thy admonition? No wonder,\nsaid Aeschines, if thou, by nature so excelling me in every thing,\ndidst here also discern before me what was right and fitting to be done.\n\n    A woman\u2019s, nay a little child\u2019s soft hand,\n    With gentle stroking easier doth command,\n    And make the bristling boar to couch and fall,\n    Than any boisterous wrestler of them all.\n\nBut we that can tame wild beasts and make them gentle, carrying young\nwolves and the whelps of lions in our arms, do in a fit of anger\ncast our own children, friends, and companions out of our embraces;\nand we let loose our wrath like a wild beast upon our servants and\nfellow-citizens. And we but poorly disguise our rage when we give it\nthe specious name of zeal against wickedness; and it is with this, I\nsuppose, as with other passions and diseases of the soul,\u2014although we\ncall one forethought, another liberality, another piety, we cannot so\nacquit and clear ourselves of any of them.\n\n15. And as Zeno has said that the seed was a mixture drawn from all\nthe powers of the soul, in like manner anger seems to be a kind of\nuniversal seed extracted from all the passions. For it is taken from\ngrief and pleasure and insolence; and then from envy it hath the evil\nproperty of rejoicing at another\u2019s adversity; and it is even worse than\nmurder itself, for it doth not strive to free itself from suffering,\nbut to bring mischief to itself, if it may thereby but do another man\nan evil turn. And it hath the most odious kind of desire inbred in it,\nif the appetite for grieving and hurting another may be called a desire.\n\nWherefore, when we go to the houses of drunkards, we may hear a wench\nplaying the flute betimes in the morning, and behold there, as one\nsaid, the muddy dregs of wine, and scattered fragments of garlands,\nand servants drunk at the door; and the marks of angry and surly\nmen may be read in the faces, brands, and fetters of the servants.\n\u201cBut lamentation is the only bard that is always to be heard beneath\nthe roof\u201d of the angry man, while his stewards are beaten and his\nmaid-servants tormented; so that the spectators, in the midst of their\nmirth and delight, cannot but pity those sad effects of anger.\n\n16. And even those who, out of a real hatred of wickedness, often\nhappen to be surprised with anger, can abate the excess and vehemence\nof it so soon as they give up their excessive confidence in those with\nwhom they converse. For of all causes this doth most increase anger\nwhen one proves to be wicked whom we took for a good man, or when one\nwho we thought had loved us falls into some difference and chiding with\nus.\n\nAs for my own disposition, thou knowest very well with how strong\ninclinations it is carried to show kindness to men and to confide\nin them; and therefore, like those who miss their step and tread on\nnothing, when I most of all trust to men\u2019s love and, as it were, prop\nmyself up with it, I do then most of all miscarry, and, finding myself\ndisappointed, am troubled at it. And indeed I should never succeed\nin freeing myself from this too great eagerness and forwardness in\nmy love; but against excessive confidence perhaps I can make use of\nPlato\u2019s caution for a bridle. For he said that he so commended Helicon,\nthe mathematician, because he thought him a naturally versatile animal;\nbut that he had a jealousy of those who had been well educated in\nthe city, lest, being men and the offspring of men, they should in\nsomething or other discover the infirmity of their nature. But when\nSophocles says, If you search the deeds of mortals, you will find the\nmost are base, he seems to insult and disparage us over much. Still\neven such a harsh and censorious judgment as this may make us more\nmoderate in our anger; for it is the sudden and the unexpected which do\nmost drive us to frenzy. But we ought, as Panaetius somewhere said, to\nimitate Anaxagoras; and as he said upon the death of his son, I knew\nbefore that I had begotten but a mortal, so should every one of us use\nexpressions like these of those offences which stir up to anger: I\nknew, when I bought my servant, that I was not buying a philosopher; I\nknew that I did not get a friend that had no passions; I knew that I\nhad a wife that was but a woman. But if every one would always repeat\nthe question of Plato to himself, But am not I perhaps such a one\nmyself? and turn his reason from abroad to look into himself, and put\nrestraint upon his reprehension of others, he would not make so much\nuse of his hatred of evil in reproving other men, seeing himself to\nstand in need of great indulgence. But now every one of us, when he is\nangry and punishing, can bring the words of Aristides and of Cato: Do\nnot steal, Do not lie, and Why are ye so slothful? And, what is most\ntruly shameful of all, we do in our anger reprove others for being\nangry, and what was done amiss through anger we punish in our passion,\ntherein not acting like physicians, who\n\n    Purge bitter choler with a bitter pill,[26]\n\nbut rather increasing and exasperating the disease which we pretend to\ncure.\n\nWhile therefore I am thus reasoning with myself, I endeavor also to\nabate something of my curiosity; because for any one over curiously\nto enquire and pry into every thing, and to make a public business of\nevery employment of a servant, every action of a friend, every pastime\nof a son, every whispering of a wife, causes great and long and daily\nfits of anger, whereof the product and issue is a peevish and morose\ndisposition. Wherefore God, as Euripides says,\n\n    Affairs of greatest weight himself directeth,\n    But matters small to Fortune he committeth.[27]\n\nBut I think a prudent man ought not to commit any thing at all to\nFortune, nor to neglect any thing, but to trust and commit some\nthings to his wife, some things to his servants, and some things to\nhis friends (as a prince to certain vicegerents and accountants and\nadministrators), while he himself is employing his reason about the\nweightiest matters, and those of greatest concern.\n\nFor as small letters hurt the sight, so do small matters him that is\ntoo much intent upon them; they vex and stir up anger, which begets\nan evil habit in him in reference to greater affairs. But above all\nthe rest, I look on that of Empedocles as a divine thing, \u201cTo fast\nfrom evil.\u201d And I commended also those vows and professions made in\nprayers, as things neither indecent in themselves nor unbecoming a\nphilosopher,\u2014for a whole year to abstain from venery and wine, serving\nGod with temperance all the while; or else again, for a certain time\nto abstain from lying, minding and watching over ourselves, that we\nspeak nothing but what is true, either in earnest or in jest. After\nthe manner of these vows then I made my own, supposing it would be\nno less acceptable to God and sacred than theirs; and I set myself\nfirst to observe a few sacred days also, wherein I would abstain from\nbeing angry, as if it were from being drunk or from drinking wine,\ncelebrating a kind of Nephalia and Melisponda[28] with respect to my\nanger. Then, making trial of myself little by little for a month or\ntwo, I by this means in time made some good progress unto further\npatience in bearing evils, diligently observing and keeping myself\ncourteous in language and behavior, free from anger, and pure from all\nwicked words and absurd actions, and from passion, which for a little\n(and that no grateful) pleasure brings with itself great perturbations\nand shameful repentance. Whence experience, not without some divine\nassistance, hath, I suppose, made it evident that that was a very\ntrue judgment and assertion, that this courteous, gentle, and kindly\ndisposition and behavior is not so acceptable, so pleasing, and so\ndelightful to any of those with whom we converse, as it is to those\nthat have it.\n\n\n\n\nOF BASHFULNESS.\n\n\n1. Some plants there are, in their own nature wild and barren, and\nhurtful to seed and garden-sets, which yet among able husbandmen pass\nfor infallible signs of a rich and promising soil. In like manner, some\npassions of the mind not good in themselves yet serve as first shoots\nand promises of a disposition which is naturally good, and also capable\nof much improvement by cultivation. Among these I rank bashfulness, the\nsubject of our present discourse; no ill sign indeed, but the cause\nand occasion of a great deal of harm. For the bashful oftentimes run\ninto the same enormities as the most hardened and impudent, with this\ndifference only, that the former feel a regret for such miscarriages,\nbut the latter take a pleasure and satisfaction therein. The shameless\nperson is without sense of grief for his baseness, and the bashful\nis in distress at the very appearance of it. For bashfulness is only\nmodesty in the excess, and is aptly enough named \u03b4\u03c5\u03c3\u03c9\u03c0\u03af\u03b1 (_the being\nput out of countenance_), since the face is in some sense confused and\ndejected with the mind. For as that grief which casts down the eyes is\ntermed dejection, so that kind of modesty which cannot look another in\nthe face is called bashfulness. The orator, speaking of a shameless\nfellow, said he carried harlots, not virgins, in his eyes;[29] on the\nother hand, the sheepishly bashful betrays no less the effeminacy\nand softness of his mind in his looks, palliating his weakness, which\nexposes him to the mercy of impudence, with the specious name of\nmodesty. Cato indeed was wont to say of young persons, he had a greater\nopinion of such as were subject to color than of those that looked\npale; teaching us thereby to look with greater apprehension on the\nheinousness of an action than on the reprimand which might follow, and\nto be more afraid of the suspicion of doing an ill thing than of the\ndanger of it. However, too much anxiety and timidity lest we may do\nwrong is also to be avoided; because many men have become cowards and\nbeen deterred from generous undertakings, no less for fear of calumny\nand detraction than by the danger or difficulty of such attempts.\n\n2. While therefore we must not suffer the weakness in the one case\nto pass unnoticed, neither must we abet or countenance invincible\nimpudence in the other, such as is reported of Anaxarchus,\u2014\n\n    Whose dog-like carriage and effrontery,\n    Despising infamy, out-faced disgrace.\n\nA convenient mien between both is rather to be endeavored after, by\nrepressing the over impudent, and animating the too meek temper. But as\nthis kind of cure is difficult, so is the restraining such excesses not\nwithout danger; for as a gardener, in stubbing up some wild or useless\nbushes, makes at them carelessly with his spade, or burns them off the\nground, but in dressing a vine, or grafting an apple, or pruning an\nolive, carries his hand with the greatest wariness and deliberation,\nthat he may not unluckily injure the tree; so a philosopher, in\nremoving envy, that useless and untractable plant or covetousness\nor immoderate love of pleasure from the mind of youth, may cut deep\nsafely, and make a large scar; but if he be to apply his discourse to\nsome more sensible or delicate part, such as the restraining excess\nof bashfulness, it lies upon him to be very careful not to cut off\nor eradicate modesty with the contrary vice. For nurses who too often\nwipe away the dirt from their infants are apt to tear their flesh and\nput them to pain. And in like manner we must not so far extirpate all\nbashfulness in youth as to leave them careless or impudent; but as\nthose that pull down private houses adjoining to the temples of the\nGods prop up such parts as are contiguous to them, so in undermining\nbashfulness, due regard is to be had to adjacent modesty, good nature,\nand humanity. And yet these are the very qualities by which bashfulness\ninsinuates itself and becomes fixed in a man, flattering him that\nhe is good-natured, courteous, and civil, and has common sense, and\nthat he is not obstinate and inexorable. The Stoics, therefore, in\ntheir discourses of modesty, distinguish all along betwixt that and\nbashfulness, leaving not so much as ambiguity of terms for a pretence\nto the vice. However, asking their good leave, we shall make bold to\nuse such words indifferently in either sense; or rather we shall follow\nthe example of Homer, whose authority we have for it, that\n\n    Much harm oft-times from modesty befalls,\n    Much good oft-times.[30]\n\nAnd it was not done amiss of him to make mention of the hurtfulness of\nit first, because modesty becomes profitable only through reason, which\ncuts off what is superfluous and leaves a just mean behind.\n\n3. In the first place, therefore, the bashful man must be persuaded\nand satisfied that that distemper of the mind is prejudicial to him,\nand that nothing which is so can be eligible. And withal, he must be\ncautious how he suffers himself to be cajoled and led by the nose with\nthe titles of courteous or sociable, in exchange for those of grave,\ngreat, and just; nor like Pegasus in Euripides, who, when Bellerophon\nmounted him,\n\n    With trembling stooped more than his lord desired,[31]\n\nmust he debase himself and yield to all who make their addresses to\nhim, for fear of appearing hard and ungentle.\n\nIt is recorded of Bocchoris, king of Egypt, a man of a very cruel\nnature, that the goddess Isis sent a kind of a serpent (called aspis),\nwhich winding itself about his head cast a shadow over him from above,\nand was a means to him of determining causes according to equity. But\nbashfulness, on the contrary, happening upon remiss and spirit less\ntempers, suffers them not to express their dislike of any thing or to\nargue against it, but perverts many times the sentence of arbitrators,\nand stops the mouths of skilful pleaders, forcing them often to act\nand speak contrary to their conviction. And the most reckless man will\nalways tyrannize and domineer over such a one, forcing his bashfulness\nby his own strength of impudence. Upon this account it is that\nbashfulness, like a low piece of soft ground, can make no resistance\nand decline no encounter but is exposed to the meanest actions and\nvilest passions. But, above all, this is the worst guardian of raw and\ninexperienced youth. For, as Brutus said, he seems to have had but an\nill education that has not learned to deny any thing. And no better\noverseer is it of the marriage-bed or the woman\u2019s apartment; as the\nrepentant lady in Sophocles accuses the spark that had debauched her,\u2014\n\n    Thy tongue, thy flattering tongue prevailed.[32]\n\nSo this vice, happening upon a disposition inclinable to debauchery,\nprepares and opens the way, and leaves all things easy and accessible\nto such as are ready to prefer their wicked designs. Presents and\ntreats are irresistible baits for common mercenary creatures; but\nimportunity, befriended with bashfulness on their side, has sometimes\nundone the modestest women. I omit what inconveniences this kind of\nmodesty occasions, when it obliges men to lend their money to such\nwhose credit is blown upon in the world, or to give bail for those they\ndare not trust; we do this, it is true, with an ill-will, and in our\nheart reflect upon that old saying, Be bail, and pay for it, yet cannot\nmake use of it in our practice.\n\n4. How many this fault has ruined, it is no easy thing to recount.\nCreon in the play gave a very good lesson for others to follow, when he\ntold Medea,\u2014\n\n    \u2019Tis better now to brave thy direst hate,\n    Than curse a foolish easiness too late.[33]\n\nYet afterwards, being wrought upon through his bashfulness to grant\nher but one day longer, he ruined himself and family by it. For the\nsame reason, some, suspecting designs against them of murder or\npoisoning, have neglected to provide for their safety. Thus Dion could\nnot be ignorant of the treachery of Callippus, yet thought it unfit\nto entertain such thoughts of his pretended friend and guest, and so\nperished. So again, Antipater, the son of Cassander, having entertained\nDemetrius at supper, and being engaged by him for the next night,\nbecause he was unwilling to distrust one who had trusted him, went, and\nhad his throat cut after supper. Polysperchon had promised Cassander\nfor an hundred talents to murder Hercules, the son of Alexander by\nBarsine. Upon this he invites him to sup; but the young man, having\nsome suspicion of the thing, pretends himself indisposed. Polysperchon\ncoming to him said: Sir, above all things endeavor after your father\u2019s\ncourteous behavior and obliging way to his friends, unless haply you\nlook on us with suspicion as if we were compassing your health. The\nyoung man out of mere modesty was prevailed upon to go, and was\nstrangled as he sat at meat. It is not therefore (as some will have us\nbelieve) insignificant or ridiculous, but on the contrary very wise\nadvice, which Hesiod gives,\u2014\n\n    Welcome a friend, but never call thy foe.[34]\n\nBe not bashful and mealy-mouthed in refusing him that you are satisfied\nhas a pique against you; but never reject him that seemeth to put his\ntrust in you. For if you invite, you must expect to be invited again;\nand some time or other your entertainment will be repaid you, if\nbashfulness have once softened or turned the edge of that diffidence\nwhich ought to be your guard.\n\n5. To the end therefore that we may get the better of this disease,\nwhich is the cause of so many evils, we must make our first attempts\n(as our custom is in other things) upon matters of no great difficulty.\nAs, if one drink to you after you have taken what is sufficient, be\nnot so foolishly modest to do violence to your nature, but rather\nventure to pass the glass. Another, it may be, would tempt you to play\nat dice while drinking; be not over-persuaded into a compliance, for\nfear of being the subject of his drollery, but reply with Xenophanes,\nwhen Lasus of Hermione called him coward because he refused to play\nat dice: Yes, said he, I confess myself the greatest coward in the\nworld, for I dare not do an ill thing. Again, you light upon an\nimpertinent talker, that sticks upon you like a burr; don\u2019t be bashful,\nbut break off the discourse, and pursue your business. These evasions\nand repulses, whereby our resolution and assurance are exercised in\nmatters of less moment, will accustom us to it by degrees in greater\noccasions. And here it will be but seasonable to give you a passage,\nas it is recorded of Demosthenes. The Athenians having one time been\nmoved to send succors to Harpalus, and themselves to engage in a war\nagainst Alexander, it happened that Philoxenus, Alexander\u2019s admiral,\nunexpectedly arrived on their coast; and the people being so astonished\nas to be speechless for very fear, Demosthenes cried out: How would\nthey endure the sun, who are not able to look against a lamp! Or how\nwould you comport yourself in weightier concerns, while your prince or\nthe people had an awe over you, if you cannot refuse a glass of wine\nwhen an acquaintance offers it, or turn off an impertinent babbler,\nbut suffer the eternal trifler to walk over you without telling him,\nAnother time, good sir, at present I am in haste.\n\n6. Besides all this, the exercising such a resolution is of great use\nin praising others. If one of my friend\u2019s harpers play lewdly, or a\ncomedian he has hired at a great rate murder a piece of Menander in the\nacting, although the vulgar clap their hands and admire, I think it\nno moroseness or ill-breeding to sit silently all the while, without\nservilely joining in the common applauses contrary to my judgment.\nFor if you scruple to deal openly with him in these cases, what will\nyou do, should he repeat to you an insipid composition of his own,\nor submit to your revisal a ridiculous oration? You will applaud,\nof course, and enter yourself into the list of common parasites and\nflatterers! But how then can you direct him impartially in the greatest\nadministrations of his life? how be free with him where he fails in any\nduties of his trust or marriage, or neglects the offices incumbent on\nhim as a member of the community? I must confess, I cannot by any means\napprove of the reply Pericles made to a friend who besought him to give\nfalse evidence, and that too upon oath, when he thus answered: As far\nas the altar I am wholly at your service. Methinks he went too far. But\nhe that has long before accustomed himself not to commend any thing\nagainst his judgment, or applaud an ill voice, or seem pleased with\nindecent scurrilities, will never suffer things to come to that issue;\nnor will any one be so bold as to solicit him in this manner: Swear on\nmy side, give false evidence, or bring in an unjust verdict.\n\n7. After the same manner we may learn to refuse such as come to borrow\nconsiderable sums of us, if we have used to deny in little matters\nwhere refusal is easy. As Archelaus, king of Macedon, sat at supper,\none of his retinue, a fellow who thought there was nothing so honest\nas to receive, begged of him a golden cup. But the king commanded a\nwaiter to give it immediately to Euripides: For you, sir, said he, are\nfit indeed to ask any thing, but to receive nothing; and he deserves to\nreceive, though he lacks the confidence to ask. Thus wisely did he make\nhis judgment, and not bashful timidity, his guide in bestowing favors.\nYet we oftentimes, when the honesty, nearness, and necessities of our\nfriends and relations are not motives sufficient to prevail with us to\ntheir relief, can give profusely to impudence and importunity, not out\nof any willingness to bestow our money so ill, but merely for want of\nconfidence and resolution to deny. This was the case of Antigonus the\nelder. Being wearied out with the importunity of Bias, Give, said he\nto his servants, one talent to Bias and necessity. Yet at other times\nhe was as expert at encountering such addresses as any prince, and\ndismissed them with as remarkable answers. Thus a certain Cynic one\nday begging of him a groat, he made answer, That is not for a prince\nto give. And the poor man replying, Then bestow a talent, he reparteed\nbriskly, Nor that for a Cynic (or, for a dog) to receive. Diogenes\nwent about begging to all the statues in the Ceramicus; and his answer\nto some that wondered at his fancy in it was, he was practising how\nto bear a repulse. But indeed it chiefly lies upon us to exercise\nourselves in smaller matters to refuse an unreasonable request, that\nwe may not be at loss how to refuse on occasions of greater magnitude.\nFor no one, as Demosthenes says, who has spent all the money that he\nhad in unnecessary expenses, will have plenty of money that he has\nnot for his necessary expenses.[35] And our disgrace is increased many\nfold, if we want what is necessary or decent, and abound in trifles and\nfopperies.\n\n8. Yet bashfulness is not only a bad steward of our estate, but even\nin weightier concerns it refuses to hearken to the wholesome advice\nof right reason. Thus, in a dangerous fit of sickness, we send not to\nthe ablest physician, for fear of giving offence to another of our\nacquaintance. Or, in taking tutors and governors for our children, we\nmake choice of such as obtrude themselves upon us, not such as are\nbetter qualified for that service. Or, in our lawsuits, we regard not\nto obtain counsel learned in the law, because we must gratify the\nson of some friend or relation, and give him an opportunity to show\nhimself in the world. Nay, lastly, you shall find some that bear the\nname of philosophers, who call themselves Epicureans or Stoics, not out\nof choice, or upon the least conviction, but merely to oblige their\nfriends or acquaintance, who have taken advantage of their modesty.\nSince then the case is so with us, we ought to prepare and exercise\nourselves in things that we daily meet with and of course, not so much\nas indulging that foolish weakness in the choice of a barber or fuller,\nor in lodging in a paltry inn when better accommodation is to be had,\nto oblige the landlord who has cringed to us. But if it be merely\nto break ourselves of such follies, in those cases still we should\nmake use of the best, though the difference be but inconsiderable; as\nthe Pythagoreans were strict in observing not to cross their right\nknee with the left, or to use an even number with an odd, though all\nthings else were indifferent. We must observe also, when we celebrate\na sacrifice or keep a wedding or make a public entertainment, to\ndeny ourselves so far as not to invite any that have been extremely\ncomplacent to us or that put themselves upon us, before those who\nare known for their good-humor or whose conversation is like to prove\nbeneficial. For he that has accustomed himself thus far will hardly be\ncaught and surprised, nay, rather he shall not so much as be tempted,\nin greater instances.\n\n9. And thus much may suffice concerning exercising ourselves. My\nfirst use of what has been said is to observe, that all passions and\ndistempers of the mind are still accompanied with those very evils\nwhich by their means we hoped to avoid. Thus disgrace pursues ambition;\npain and indisposition, sensuality; softness and effeminacy are fretted\nwith troubles; contentiousness with disappointment and defeats.\nBut this is nowhere more conspicuous than in bashfulness, which,\nendeavoring to avoid the smoke of reproach, throws itself into the\nfire. Such men, wanting confidence to withstand those that unreasonably\nimportune them, afterwards feel shame before those who justly accuse\nthem, and for fear of a slight private rebuke incur more public\ndisgrace. For example, not having the heart to deny a friend that\ncomes to borrow, in short time they are reduced to the same extremity\nthemselves, and exposed openly. Some again, after promising to help\nfriends in a lawsuit, are ashamed to face the opposite party, and are\nforced to hide their heads and run away. Many have been so unreasonably\nweak in this particular as to accept of disadvantageous proposals of\nmarriage for a daughter or sister, and upon second thoughts have been\nforced to bring themselves off with an arrant lie.\n\n10. One made this observation of the people of Asia, that they were\nall slaves to one man, merely because they could not pronounce that\nsyllable No; but he spake only in raillery. But now the bashful man,\nthough he be not able to say one word, has but to raise his brows or\nnod downward, as if he minded not, and he may decline many ungrateful\nand unreasonable offices. Euripides was wont to say, Silence is an\nanswer to a wise man;[36] but we seem to have greater occasion for\nit in our dealings with fools and unreasonable persons, for men of\nbreeding and sense will be satisfied with reason and fair words. Upon\nthis account we should be always provided with some notable sayings\nand choice apothegms of famous and excellent men, to repeat to the\nbashful,\u2014such as that of Phocion to Antipater, You cannot have me for\nboth a friend and a flatterer; and that of his to the Athenians, when\nthey called upon him to come in for his share to defray the expenses of\na festival; I am ashamed, said he, pointing to Callicles his creditor,\nto contribute towards your follies, without paying this man his due.\nFor, as Thucydides says, It is an ill thing to be ashamed of one\u2019s\npoverty, but much worse not to make use of lawful endeavors to avoid\nit.[37] But he that is so foolishly good-natured that he cannot answer\none that comes to borrow,\u2014\n\n    My friend, no silver white have I in all my caves,\u2014\n\nbut gives him a promise to be better provided,\u2014\n\n    The wretch has made himself a slave to shame,\n    And drags a tiresome, though an unforged chain.[38]\n\nPersaeus, being about to accommodate a friend with a sum of money, paid\nit publicly in the market, and made the conditions before a banker,\nremembering, it may be, that of Hesiod,\u2014\n\n    Seem not thy brother\u2019s honesty to doubt;\n    Yet, smiling, call a witness to his hand.[39]\n\nBut when his friend marvelled and asked, How now, so formally and\naccording to law? Yea, quoth he, because I would receive my money again\nas a friend, and not have to trouble the law to recover it. For many\nout of bashfulness, not taking care to have good security at first,\nhave been forced afterwards to break with their friends, and to have\nrecourse to law for their money.\n\n11. Again, Plato writing to Dionysius, by Helicon of Cyzicus, gives\nthe bearer a good character for honesty and moderation, but withal in\nthe postscript tells him, Yet this I write of a man, who, as such, is\nby nature an animal subject to change. Xenocrates, though a man of\nrigid morals, was prevailed upon by this kind of modesty to recommend\nto Polysperchon a person, as it proved in the end, not so honest as\nhe was reputed. For when the Macedonian in compliment bade him call\nfor whatever he wanted, he presently desired a talent of silver.\nPolysperchon ordered it accordingly to be paid him, but despatched\naway letters immediately to Xenocrates, advising him for the future\nto be better acquainted with those he recommended. Now all this came\nto pass through Xenocrates\u2019s ignorance of his man; but we oftentimes\ngive testimonials and squander away our money to advance such as we\nare very well satisfied have no qualification or desert to recommend\nthem, and this too with the forfeiture of our reputation, and without\nthe pleasure that men have who are profuse upon whores and flatterers,\nbut all the while in an agony, and struggling with that impudence which\ndoes violence to our reason. Whereas, if at any time, that verse can\nhere be properly used,\u2014\n\n    I know the dreadful consequence, and fear,[40]\n\nwhen such persons are at a man to forswear himself, or to give a wrong\nsentence, or to vote for an unjust bill, or lastly to be bound for one\nthat will never be able to pay the debt.\n\n12. All passions of the mind have repentance still pursuing them\nclosely, but it overtakes this of bashfulness in the very act. For\nwe give with regret, and we are in confusion while we bear false\nwitness; our reputation is questioned when we engage for others, and\nwhen we fail we are condemned by all men. From this imperfection also\nit proceeds, that many things are imposed upon us not in our power to\nperform, as to recommend such a man to court, or to carry up an address\nto the governor, because we dare not, or at least we will not, confess\nthat we are unknown to the prince or that another has more of his ear.\nLysander, on the other hand, when he was in disgrace at court, but yet\nfor his great services was thought to preserve something of his former\nesteem with Agesilaus, made no scruple to dismiss suitors, directing\nthem to such as were more powerful with the king. For it is no disgrace\nnot to be able to do every thing; but to undertake or pretend to what\nyou are not made for is not only shameful, but extremely troublesome\nand vexatious.\n\n13. But to proceed to another head, we must perform all reasonable and\ngood offices to those that deserve them, not forced thereto by fear of\nshame, but cheerfully and readily. But where any thing prejudicial or\nunhandsome is required of us, we ought to remember the story that is\nrelated of Zeno. Meeting a young man of his acquaintance that slunk\naway under a wall, as if he would not be seen, and having learned from\nhim that he withdrew from a friend that importuned him to perjure\nhimself, What, replied he, you novice! is that fellow not afraid\nor ashamed to require of thee what is unreasonable and unjust, and\ndarest thou not stand against him in that which is just and honest?\nFor he that first started that doctrine, that knavery is the best\ndefence against a knave, was but an ill teacher, advising us to keep\noff wickedness by imitating it. But for such as presume upon our\nmodesty, to keep them off with their own weapons, and not gratify their\nunreasonable impudence with an easy compliance, is but just and good,\nand the duty of every wise man.\n\n14. Neither is it a hard matter to put off some mean and ordinary\npeople, which will be apt to prove troublesome to you in that nature.\nSome shift them off with a jest or a smart repartee; as Theocritus,\nbeing asked in the bath to lend his flesh-brush by two persons, whereof\none was a stranger to him, and the other a notorious thief, made\nanswer: You, sir, I know not well enough, and you I know too well.\nAnd Lysimache, the priestess of Minerva Polias in Athens, when the\nmuleteers that brought the provision for the festival desired her to\nlet them drink, replied, No; for I fear it may grow into a custom.\nSo again, when a captain\u2019s son, a young fluttering bully but a great\ncoward, petitioned Antigonus for promotion, the latter answered Sir, it\nis my way to reward my soldiers for their valor, not their parentage.\n\n15. But if he that is importunate with us prove a man of great honor\nor interest (and such persons are not easily answered with excuses,\nwhen they come for our vote in the senate or judicial cases), at such a\ntime perhaps it will be neither easy nor necessary to behave ourselves\nto them as Cato did towards Catulus. Catulus, a person of the highest\nrank among the Romans, and at that time censor, once waited on Cato,\nwho was then quaestor and still a young man, on behalf of a friend whom\nCato had fined; and when he had used a great deal of importunity to no\npurpose, yet would not be denied, Cato grew out of patience, and told\nhim, It would be an unseemly sight to have the censor dragged hence by\nmy officers. Catulus at this went away, out of countenance and very\nangry. But consider whether the answers of Agesilaus and Themistocles\nhave not in them much more of candor and equity. Agesilaus, being\nbidden by his own father to give sentence contrary to law, replied: I\nhave been always taught by you to be observant of the laws, and I shall\nendeavor to obey you at this time, by doing nothing contrary to them.\nAnd Themistocles, when Simonides tempted him to commit a piece of\ninjustice, said: You would be no good poet, should you break the laws\nof verse; and should I judge against the law, I should make no better\nmagistrate.\n\n16. For it is not because of blunders in metre in lyric songs, as Plato\nobserves, that cities and friends are set at variance to their utter\nruin and destruction, but because of their blunders with regard to law\nand justice. Yet there are a sort of men that can be very curious and\ncritical in their verses and letters and lyric measures, and yet would\npersuade others to neglect that justice and honesty which all men ought\nto observe in offices, in passing judgments, and in all actions. But\nthese men are to be dealt with after the following manner. An orator\nperhaps presses you to show him favor in a cause to be heard before\nyou, or a demagogue importunes you when you are a senator: tell him you\nare ready to please him, on condition that he make a solecism in the\nbeginning of his oration, or be guilty of some barbarous expression\nin his narration. These terms, for shame, he will not accept; for\nsome we see so superstitiously accurate as not to allow of two vowels\nmeeting one another. Again, you are moved by a person of quality to\nsomething of ill reputation: bid him come over the market-place at full\nnoon dancing, or making buffoon-like grimaces; if he refuse, question\nhim once more, whether he think it a more heinous offence to make a\nsolecism or a grimace, than to break a law or to perjure one\u2019s self,\nor to show more favor to a rascal than to an honest man. Nicostratus\nthe Argive, when Archidamus promised him a vast sum of money and his\nchoice of the Spartan ladies in marriage, if he would deliver up the\ntown Cromnum into his hands, returned him this answer: He could no\nlonger believe him descended from Hercules, he said, because Hercules\ntraversed the world to destroy wicked men, but Archidamus made it his\nbusiness to debauch those that were good. In like manner, if one\nthat stands upon his quality or reputation presses us to do any thing\ndishonorable, we must tell him freely, he acts not as becomes a person\nof his character in the world.\n\n17. But if it be a man of no quality that shall importune you, you may\nenquire of the covetous man, whether he would lend you a considerable\nsum without any other security than your word; desire the proud man to\ngive you the higher seat; or the ambitious, to quit his pretensions\nto some honor that lies fair for him. For, to deal plainly, it is a\nshameful thing that these men should continue so stiff, so resolute,\nand so unmoved in their vicious habits, while we, who profess ourselves\nlovers of justice and honesty, have too little command of ourselves not\nto give up and betray basely the cause of virtue. If they that would\npractise upon our modesty do this out of desire of glory or power,\nwhy should we contract disgrace or infamy to ourselves, to advance\nthe authority or set off the reputation of others?\u2014like those who\nbestow the reward wrongfully in public games, or betray their trust in\ncollecting the poll, who confer indeed garlands and honors upon other\nmen, but at the same time forfeit their own reputation and good word.\nBut suppose it be matter of interest only that puts them upon it; why\nshould it not appear an unreasonable piece of service for us to forego\nour reputation and conscience to no other purpose than to satisfy\nanother man\u2019s avarice or make his coffers the heavier? After all, these\nI am afraid are the grand motives with most men in such cases, and they\nare even conscious that they are guilty; as men that are challenged and\ncompelled to take too large a glass raise an hundred scruples and make\nas many grimaces before they drink.\n\n18. This weakness of the mind may be compared to a constitution of body\nthat can endure neither heat nor cold. For let them be praised by those\nthat thus impudently set upon them, and they are at once mollified and\nbroken by the flattery; but let them be blamed or so much as suspected\nby the same men after their suit has been refused, and they are ready\nto die for woe and fear. We ought therefore to prepare and fortify\nourselves against both extremes, so as to be made a prey neither to\nsuch as pretend to frighten, nor to such as would cajole us. Thucydides\nis of opinion, since there is a necessary connection between envy and\ngreat undertakings, that he takes the wisest counsel who incurs envy\nby aiming the highest.[41] But we who esteem it less difficult to\navoid the envy of all men than to escape the censure of those we live\namong, ought to order things so as rather to grapple with the unjust\nhatred of evil men, than to deserve their just accusation after we have\nserved their base ends. We ought to go armed against that false and\ncounterfeit praise such men are apt to fling upon us, not suffering\nourselves like swine to be scratched and tickled by them, till, having\ngot the advantage of us, they use us after their own pleasure. For they\nthat reach out their ears to flatterers differ very little from such as\nstand fair and quiet to be tripped up, excepting that the former catch\nthe more disgraceful fall. These put up with the affronts and forbear\nthe correction of wicked men, to get the reputation of good-natured or\nmerciful; or else are drawn into needless and perilous quarrels at the\ninstance of flatterers, who bear them in hand all the while for the\nonly men of judgment, the only men not to be caught with flattery, and\ncall them the only men who have mouths and voices. Bion used to compare\nthese men to pitchers: Take them, said he, by the ears, and you may\nmove them as you please. Thus Alexinus, the sophist, was reporting many\nscandalous things in the lyceum of Stilpo the Megarian; but when one\npresent informed him that Stilpo always spake very honorably of him,\nWhy truly, says he, he is one of the most obliging and best of men.\nBut now Menedemus, when it was told him that Alexinus often praised\nhim, replied: That may be, but I always talk against him; for he must\nbe bad who either praises a bad man or is blamed by an honest one. So\nwary was he of being caught by such baits, agreeably to that precept of\nHercules in Antisthenes,[42] who cautioned his sons not to be thankful\nto such as were used to praise them,\u2014thereby meaning no more than that\nthey should be so far from being wheedled thereby as not even to return\ntheir flatteries. That of Pindar was very apposite, and enough to be\nsaid in such a case: when one told him, I cry you up among all men, and\nspeak to your advantage on all occasions; and I, replied he, am always\nvery thankful, in that I take care you shall not tell a lie.\n\n19. I shall conclude with one general rule, of sovereign use against\nall the passions and diseases of the mind, but particularly beneficial\nto such as labor under the present distemper, bashfulness. And it is\nthis: whenever they have given way to this weakness, let them store\nup carefully such failings in their memory, and taking therein deep\nand lively impressions of what remorse and disquiet they occasioned,\nbestow much time in reflecting upon them and keeping them fresh. For\nas travellers that have got a dangerous fall against such a stone,\nor sailors shipwrecked upon a particular promontory, keeping the\nimage of their misfortune continually before them, appear fearful\nand apprehensive not only of the same but even the like dangers; so\nthey that keep in mind the disgraceful and prejudicial effects of\nbashfulness will soon be enabled to restrain themselves in like cases,\nand will not easily slip again on any occasion.\n\n\n\n\nTHAT VIRTUE MAY BE TAUGHT.\n\n\n1. Men deliberate and dispute variously concerning virtue, whether\nprudence and justice and the right ordering of one\u2019s life can be\ntaught. Moreover, we marvel that the works of orators, shipmasters,\nmusicians, carpenters, and husbandmen are infinite in number, while\ngood men are only a name, and are talked of like centaurs, giants, and\nthe Cyclops, and that as for any virtuous action that is sincere and\nunblamable, and manners that are without any touch and mixture of bad\npassions and affections, they are not to be found; but if Nature of its\nown accord should produce any thing good and excellent, so many things\nof a foreign nature mix with it (just as wild and impure productions\nwith generous fruit) that the good is scarce discernible. Men learn\nto sing, dance, and read, and to be skilful in husbandry and good\nhorsemanship; they learn how to put on their shoes and their garments;\nthey have those that teach them how to fill wine, and to dress and cook\ntheir meat; and none of these things can be done as they ought, unless\nthey be instructed how to do them. And will ye say, O foolish men! that\nthe skill of ordering one\u2019s life well (for the sake of which are all\nthe rest) is not to be taught, but to come of its own accord, without\nreason and without art?\n\n2. Why do we, by asserting that virtue is not to be taught, make it\na thing that does not at all exist? For if by its being learned it\nis produced, he that hinders its being learned destroys it. And now,\nas Plato[43] says, we never heard that because of a blunder in metre\nin a lyric song, therefore one brother made war against another, nor\nthat it put friends at variance, nor that cities hereupon were at such\nenmity that they did to one another and suffered one from another the\nextremest injuries. Nor can any one tell us of a sedition raised in a\ncity about the right accenting or pronouncing of a word,\u2014as whether\nwe are to say \u03a4\u03b5\u03bb\u03c7\u1fd6\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2 or \u03a4\u03ad\u03bb\u03c7\u03b9\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2,\u2014nor that a difference arose in\na family betwixt man and wife about the woof and the warp in cloth.\nYet none will go about to weave in a loom or to handle a book or a\nharp, unless he has first been taught, though no great harm would\nfollow if he did, but only the fear of making himself ridiculous (for,\nas Heraclitus says, it is a piece of discretion to conceal one\u2019s\nignorance); and yet a man without instruction presumes himself able to\norder a family, a wife, or a commonwealth, and to govern very well.\nDiogenes, seeing a youth devouring his victuals too greedily, gave his\ntutor a box on the ear, and that deservedly, as judging it the fault\nof him that had not taught, not of him that had not learned better\nmanners. And what? is it necessary to begin to learn from a boy how to\neat and drink handsomely in company, as Aristophanes expresses it,\u2014\n\n    Not to devour their meat in haste, nor giggle,\n    Nor awkwardly their feet across to wriggle,[44]\n\nand yet are men fit to enter into the fellowship of a family, city,\nmarried estate, private conversation, or public office, and to manage\nit without blame, without any previous instruction concerning good\nbehavior in conversation?\n\nWhen one asked Aristippus this question, What, are you everywhere?\nhe laughed and said, I throw away the fare of the waterman, if I am\neverywhere. And why canst not thou also answer, that the salary given\nto tutors is thrown away and lost, if none are the better for their\ndiscipline and instruction. But, as nurses shape and form the body\nof a child with their hands, so these masters, when the nurses have\ndone with them, first receive them into their charge, in order to the\nforming of their manners and directing their steps into the first\ntracks of virtue. To which purpose the Lacedaemonian, that was asked\nwhat good he did to the child of whom he had the charge, answered well:\nI make good and honest things pleasant to children. These masters also\nteach them to bend down their heads as they go along, to touch salt\nfish with one finger only, but fresh fish, bread, and flesh with two;\nthus to scratch themselves, and thus to tuck up their garments.\n\n3. Now he that says that the art of physic may be proper for a tetter\nor a whitlow, but not to be made use of for a pleurisy, a fever, or\na frenzy, in what does he differ from him that should say that it\nis fit there should be schools, and discourses, and precepts, to\nteach trifling and childish things, but that all skill in greater\nand more manly things comes from use without art and from accidental\nopportunity? For as he would be ridiculous who should say, that one\nwho never learned to row ought not to lay hand on the oar, but that\nhe might guide the helm who was never taught it; so is he that gives\nleave for men to be instructed in other arts, but not in virtue.\nHe seems to be quite contrary to the practice of the Scythians,\nwho, as Herodotus[45] tells us, put out their servants\u2019 eyes, to\nprevent them from running away; but he puts the eye of reason into\nthese base and slavish arts, and plucks it from virtue. But the\ngeneral Iphicrates\u2014when Callias, the son of Chabrias, asked him,\nWhat art thou? Art thou an archer or a targeteer, a trooper or a\nfoot-soldier?\u2014answered well, I am none of all these, but one that\ncommands them all. He therefore would be ridiculous that should say\nthat the skill of drawing a bow, of handling arms, of throwing with\na sling, and of good horsemanship, might indeed be taught, but the\nskill of commanding and leading an army came as it happened, one knew\nnot how. And would not he be still more ridiculous who should say that\nprudence only could not be taught, without which all those arts are\nuseless and unprofitable? When she is the governess, ranking all things\nin due place and order, every thing is assigned to become useful; for\ninstance, how ungraceful would a feast be, though all concerned were\nskilful and enough practised in cookery, in dressing and serving up the\nmeat, and in filling the wine as they ought, if all things were not\nwell disposed and ordered among those that waited at the table?...\n\n\n\n\nTHE ACCOUNT OF THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF THE LACEDAEMONIANS.[46]\n\n\n1. It was a singular instance of the wisdom of this nation, in that\nthey took the greatest care they could, by an early sober education,\nto instil into their youth the principles of virtue and good manners,\nthat so, by a constant succession of prudent and valiant men, they\nmight the better provide for the honor and security of their state, and\nlay in the minds of every one a solid and good foundation of love and\nfriendship, of prudence and knowledge, of temperance and frugality,\nof courage and resolution. And therefore their great lawgiver thought\nit necessary for the ends of government to institute several distinct\nsocieties and conventions of the people; amongst which was that of\ntheir solemn and public living together at one table, where their\ncustom was to admit their youth into the conversation of their wise\nand elderly men, that so by daily eating and drinking with them they\nmight insensibly, as it were, be trained up to a right knowledge\nof themselves, to a just submission to their superiors, and to the\nlearning of whatever might conduce to the reputation of their laws\nand the interest of their country. For here they were taught all the\nwholesome rules of discipline, and daily instructed how to demean\nthemselves from the example and practice of their great ones; and\nthough they did not at this public meeting confine themselves to set\nand grave discourses concerning the civil government, but allowed\nthemselves a larger freedom, by mingling sometimes with their politics\nthe easy and familiar entertainments of mirth and satire, yet this was\never done with the greatest modesty and discretion, not so much to\nexpose the person of any one, as to reprove the fault he had committed.\nWhatever was transacted at these stated and common feasts was to be\nlocked up in every one\u2019s breast with the greatest silence and secrecy,\ninsomuch as the eldest among them at these assemblies, pointing to the\ndoor, acquainted him who entered the room that nothing of what was done\nor spoken there was to be talked of afterwards.\n\n2. At all these public meetings they used a great deal of moderation,\nthey being designed only for schools of temperance and modesty, not\nfor luxury and indecency; their chief dish and only delicacy being a\nsort of pottage (called by them their black broth, and made of some\nlittle pieces of flesh, with a small quantity of blood, salt, and\nvinegar), and this the more ancient among them generally preferred\nto any sort of meat whatsoever, as the more pleasing entertainment\nand of a more substantial nourishment. The younger sort contented\nthemselves with flesh and other ordinary provisions, without tasting of\nthis dish, which was reserved only for the old men. It is reported of\nDionysius, the Sicilian tyrant, that having heard of the great fame and\ncommendation of this broth, he hired a certain cook of Lacedaemon, who\nwas thoroughly skilled in the make and composition of it, to furnish\nhis table every day with so great and curious a dainty; and that he\nmight have it in the greatest perfection, enjoined him to spare no cost\nin the making it agreeable and pleasant to his palate. But it seems\nthe end answered not the pains he took in it; for after all his care\nand niceness, the king, as soon as he had tasted of it, found it both\nfulsome and nauseous to his stomach, and spitting it out with great\ndistaste, as if he had taken down a vomit, sufficiently expressed his\ndisapprobation of it. But the cook, not discouraged at this dislike of\nhis master, told the tyrant that he humbly conceived the reason of this\ndisagreeableness to him was not in the pottage, but rather in himself,\nwho had not prepared his body for such food according to the Laconic\nmode and custom. For hard labors and long exercises and moderate\nabstinence (the best preparatives to a good and healthy appetite) and\nfrequent bathings in the river Eurotas were the only necessaries for a\nright relish and understanding of the excellency of this entertainment.\n\n3. \u2019Tis true, their constant diet was very mean and sparing; not what\nmight pamper their bodies or make their minds soft and delicate, but\nsuch only as would barely serve to supply the common necessities of\nnature. This they accustomed themselves to, that so they might become\nsober and governable, active and bold in the defence of their country;\nthey accounting only such men serviceable to the state, who could best\nendure the extremes of hunger and cold, and with cheerfulness and vigor\nrun through the fatigues of labor and the difficulties of hardship.\nThose who could fast longest after a slender meal, and with the least\nprovision satisfy their appetites, were esteemed the most frugal and\ntemperate, and most sprightly and healthful, the most comely and well\nproportioned; nature, through such a temperance and moderation of\ndiet, not suffering the constitution to run out into an unwieldy bulk\nor greatness of body (the usual consequence of full tables and too\nmuch ease), but rather rendering it thereby nervous and sinewy, of a\njust and equal growth, and consolidating and knitting together all the\nseveral parts and members of it. A very little drink did serve their\nturn, who never drank but when an extreme thirst provoked them to\nit; for at all their common entertainments they studied the greatest\nmeasures of sobriety, and took care they should be deprived of all\nkinds of compotations whatsoever. And at night when they returned home,\nthey went cheerfully to their sleep, without the assistance of any\nlight to direct them to their lodging; that being prohibited them as\nan indecent thing, the better to accustom them to travel in the dark,\nwithout any sense of fear or apprehensions of danger.\n\n4. They never applied their minds to any kind of learning, further\nthan what was necessary for use and service; nature indeed having\nmade them more fit for the purposes of war than for the improvements\nof knowledge. And therefore for speculative sciences and philosophic\nstudies, they looked upon them as foreign to their business and\nunserviceable to their ends of living, and for this reason they would\nnot tolerate them amongst them, nor suffer the professors of them to\nlive within their government. They banished them their cities, as\nthey did all sorts of strangers, esteeming them as things that did\ndebase the true worth and excellency of virtue, which they made to\nconsist only in manly actions and generous exercises, and not in vain\ndisputations and empty notions. So that the whole of what their youth\nwas instructed in was to learn obedience to the laws and injunctions\nof their governors, to endure with patience the greatest labors, and\nwhere they could not conquer, to die valiantly in the field. For this\nreason likewise it was, that all mechanic arts and trades, all vain\nand insignificant employments, such as regarded only curiosity or\npleasure, were strictly prohibited them, as things that would make\nthem degenerate into idleness and covetousness, would render them vain\nand effeminate, useless to themselves, and unserviceable to the state;\nand on this account it was that they would never suffer any scenes or\ninterludes, whether of comedy or tragedy, to be set up among them, lest\nthere should be any encouragement given to speak or act any thing that\nmight savor of contempt or contumely against their laws and government,\nit being customary for the stage to assume an indecent liberty of\ntaxing the one with faults and the other with imperfections.\n\n5. As to their apparel, they were as thinly clad as they were dieted,\nnever exceeding one garment, which they wore for the space of a\nwhole year. And this they did, the better to inure them to hardship\nand to bear up against all the injuries of the weather, that so the\nextremities of heat and cold should have no influence at all upon their\nconstitution. They were as regardless of their selves as they were\nnegligent of their clothes, denying themselves (unless it were at some\nstated time of the year) the use of ointments and bathings to keep them\nclean and sweet, as too expensive and signs of a too soft and delicate\ntemper of body.\n\n6. Their youth, as they were instructed and ate in public together, so\nat night slept in distinct companies in one common chamber, and on no\nother beds than what were made of reeds, which they had gathered out of\nthe river Eurotas, near the banks of which they grew. This was the only\naccommodation they had in the summer, but in winter they mingled with\nthe reeds a certain soft and downy thistle, having much more of heat\nand warmth in it than the other.\n\n7. It was freely allowed them to place an ardent affection upon\nthose whose excellent endowments recommended them to the love\nand consideration of any one; but then this was always done with\nthe greatest innocency and modesty, and every way becoming the\nstrictest rules and measures of virtue, it being accounted a base and\ndishonorable passion in any one to love the body and not the mind, as\nthose did who in their young men preferred the beauty of the one before\nthe excellency of the other. Chaste thoughts and modest discourses were\nthe usual entertainments of their loves; and if any one was accused at\nany time either of wanton actions or impure discourse, it was esteemed\nby all so infamous a thing, that the stains it left upon his reputation\ncould never be wiped out during his whole life.\n\n8. So strict and severe was the education of their youth, that whenever\nthey were met with in the streets by your grave and elderly persons,\nthey underwent a close examination; it being their custom to enquire\nof them upon what business and whither they were going, and if they\ndid not give them a direct and true answer to the question demanded\nof them, but shamed them with some idle story or false pretence,\nthey never escaped without a rigorous censure and sharp correction.\nAnd this they did to prevent their youth from stealing abroad upon\nany idle or bad design, that so, through the uneasy fears of meeting\nthese grave examiners, and the impossibility of escaping punishment\nupon their false account and representations of things, they might\nbe kept within due compass, and do nothing that might entrench upon\ntruth or offend against the rules of virtue. Nor was it expected\nonly from their superiors to censure and admonish them upon any\nmiscarriage or indecency whatsoever, but it was strictly required of\nthem under a severe penalty; for he who did not reprove a fault that\nwas committed in his presence, and showed not his just resentments\nof it by a verbal correction, was adjudged equally culpable with the\nguilty, and obnoxious to the same punishment. For they could not\nimagine that person had a serious regard for the honor of their laws\nand the reputation of their government, who could carelessly pass by\nany immorality and patiently see the least corruption of good manners\nin their youth; by which means they took away all occasions of\nfondness, partiality, and indulgence in the aged, and all presumption,\nirreverence, and disobedience, and especially all impatiency of\nreproof, in the younger sort. For not to endure the reprehension of\ntheir superiors in such cases was highly disgraceful to them, and ever\ninterpreted as an open renunciation of their authority, and a downright\nopposing of the justice of their proceedings.\n\n9. Besides, when any was surprised in the commission of some notorious\noffence, he was presently sentenced to walk round a certain altar in\nthe city, and publicly to shame himself by singing an ingenious satire,\ncomposed by himself, upon the crime and folly he had been guilty of,\nthat so the punishment might be inflicted by the same hand which had\ncontracted the guilt.\n\n10. Their children were brought up in a strict obedience to their\nparents, and taught from their infancy to pay a profound reverence\nto all their dictates and commands. And no less were they enjoined\nto show an awful regard and observance to all their superiors in age\nand authority, so as to rise up before the hoary head, and to honor\nthe face of the old man, to give him the way when they met him in the\nstreets, and to stand still and remain silent till he was passed by;\ninsomuch as it was indulged them, as a peculiar privilege due to their\nage and wisdom, not only to have a paternal authority over their own\nchildren, servants, and estates, but over their neighbors too, as if\nthey were a part of their own family and propriety; that so in general\nthere might be a mutual care, and an united interest, zealously carried\non betwixt them for the private good of every one in particular, as\nwell as for the public good of the communities they lived in. By this\nmeans they never wanted faithful counsellors to assist with good advice\nin all their concerns, nor hearty friends to prosecute each other\u2019s\ninterest as it were their own; by this means they never wanted careful\ntutors and guardians for their youth, who were always at hand to\nadmonish and instruct them in the solid principles of virtue.\n\n11. No one durst show himself refractory to their instructions, nor at\nthe least murmur at their reprehensions; insomuch that, whenever any of\ntheir youth had been punished by them for some ill that had been done,\nand a complaint thereupon made by them to their parents of the severity\nthey had suffered, hoping for some little relief from their indulgence\nand affection, it was accounted highly dishonorable in them not to add\nto their punishment by a fresh correction for the folly and injustice\nof their complaint. For by the common interest of discipline, and that\ngreat care that every one was obliged to take in the education of their\nyouth, they had a firm trust and assurance in one another, that they\nnever would enjoin their children the performance of any thing that was\nin the least unnecessary or unbecoming them.\n\n12. Though it might seem very strange and unaccountable in this wise\nnation, that any thing which had the least semblance of baseness or\ndishonesty should be universally approved, commended, and encouraged\nby their laws, yet so it was in the case of theft, whereby their young\nchildren were allowed to steal certain things, as particularly the\nfruit of their orchards or their messes at their feasts. But then this\nwas not done to encourage them to the desires of avarice and injustice,\nbut to sharpen their wits, and to make them crafty and subtle, and\nto train them up in all sorts of wiles and cunning, watchfulness and\ncircumspection, whereby they were rendered more apt to serve them\nin their wars, which was upon the matter the whole profession of\nthis commonwealth. And if at any time they were taken in the act of\nstealing, they were most certainly punished with rods and the penance\nof fasting; not because they esteemed the stealth criminal, but because\nthey wanted skill and cunning in the management and concealing of\nit.[47]\n\n14. They spent a great part of their studies in poetry and music,\nwhich raised their minds above the ordinary level, and by a kind of\nartificial enthusiasm inspired them with generous heats and resolutions\nfor action. Their compositions, consisting only of very grave and moral\nsubjects, were easy and natural, in a plain dress, and without any\npaint or ornament, containing nothing else but the just commendations\nof those great personages whose singular wisdom and virtue had made\ntheir lives famous and exemplary, and whose courage in defence of their\ncountry had made their deaths honorable and happy. Nor were the valiant\nand virtuous only the subject of these songs; but the better to make\nmen sensible of what rewards and honors are due to the memory of such,\nthey made invectives in them upon those who were signally vicious and\ncowards, as men who died with as much contempt as they had lived with\ninfamy. They generally concluded their poem with a solemn profession of\nwhat they would be, boasting of their progress in virtue, agreeable to\nthe abilities of their nature and the expectations of their age.\n\n15. At all their public festivals these songs were a great part of\ntheir entertainment, where there were three companies of singers,\nrepresenting the three several ages of nature. The old men made up the\nfirst chorus, whose business was to present what they had been after\nthis manner:\u2014\n\n    That active courage youthful blood contains\n    Did once with equal vigor warm our veins.\n\nTo which the chorus, consisting of young men only, thus answers:\u2014\n\n    Valiant and bold we are, let who will try:\n    Who dare accept our challenge soon shall die.\n\nThe third, which were of young children, replied to them in this\nmanner:\u2014\n\n    Those seeds which Nature in our breast did sow\n    Shall soon to generous fruits of virtue grow;\n    Then all those valiant deeds which you relate\n    We will excel, and scorn to imitate.[48]\n\n16. They made use of a peculiar measure in their songs, when their\narmies were in their march towards an enemy, which being sung in a\nfull choir to their flutes seemed proper to excite in them a generous\ncourage and contempt of death. Lycurgus was the first who brought this\nwarlike music into the field, that so he might moderate and soften\nthe rage and fury of their minds in an engagement by solemn musical\nmeasures, and that their valor (which should be no boisterous and\nunruly thing) might always be under the government of their reason, and\nnot of passion. To this end it was always their custom before the fight\nto sacrifice to the Muses, that they might behave themselves with as\nmuch good conduct as with courage, and do such actions as were worthy\nof memory, and which might challenge the applauses and commendations of\nevery one.\n\n17. And indeed so great an esteem and veneration had they for the\ngravity and simplicity of their ancient music, that no one was allowed\nto recede in the least from the established rules and measures of it,\ninsomuch as the Ephori, upon complaint made to them, laid a severe\nmulct upon Terpander (a musician of great note and eminency for his\nincomparable skill and excellency in playing upon the harp, and who,\nas he had ever professed a great veneration for antiquity, so ever\ntestified by his eulogiums and commendations the esteem he always had\nof virtuous and heroic actions), depriving him of his harp, and (as\na peculiar punishment) exposing it to the censure of the people, by\nfixing it upon a nail, because he had added one string more to his\ninstrument than was the usual and stated number, though done with no\nother design and advantage than to vary the sound, and to make it more\nuseful and pleasant. That music was ever accounted among them the best,\nwhich was most grave, simple, and natural. And for this reason too,\nwhen Timotheus in their Carnean feasts, which were instituted in honor\nof Apollo, contended for a preference in his art, one of the Ephori\ntook a knife in his hand, and cut the strings of his harp, for having\nexceeded the number of seven in it. So severely tenacious were they of\ntheir ancient customs and practices, that they would not suffer the\nleast innovation, though in things that were indifferent and of no\ngreat importance, lest an indulgence in one thing might have introduced\nanother, till at length by gradual and insensible alterations the whole\nbody of their laws might be disregarded and contemned, and so the main\npillar which did support the fabric of their government be weakened and\nundermined.\n\n18. Lycurgus took away that superstition, which formerly indeed had\nbeen the practice among them, concerning their sepulchre and funeral\nsolemnities, by permitting them to bury the remains of their departed\nfriends within the city, that so they might the better secure them\nfrom the rude and barbarous violence of an enemy, and to erect their\nmonuments for them in separated places joining to their temples; that,\nhaving their graves and tombs always before their eyes, they might\nnot only remember but imitate the worthy actions they had done, and\nso lessen the fears and apprehensions of death with the consideration\nof those honors they paid their memories when they put off their\nmortalities. He took away those pollutions which they formerly looked\nupon as arising from their dead bodies, and prohibited all costly\nand sumptuous expenses at their funerals, it being very improper for\nthose who while alive generally abstained from whatever was vain and\ncurious to be carried to the grave with any pomp and magnificence.\nTherefore without the use of drugs and ointments, without any rich\nodors and perfumes, without any art or curiosity, save only the little\nornament of a red vestment and a few olive-leaves, they carried him\nto the place of burying, where he was, without any formal sorrows and\npublic lamentations, honorably and securely laid up in a decent and\nconvenient sepulchre. And here it was lawful for any one who would be\nat the trouble to erect a monument for the person deceased, but not to\nengrave the least inscription on it; this being the peculiar reward of\nsuch only who had signalized themselves in war, and died gallantly in\ndefence of their country.\n\n19, 20. It was not allowed any of them to travel into foreign\ncountries, lest their conversation should be tinctured with the customs\nof those places, and they at their return introduce amongst them new\nmodes and incorrect ways of living, to the corruption of good manners\nand the prejudice of their own laws and usage; for which reason they\nexpelled all strangers from Sparta, lest they should insinuate their\nvices and their folly into the affections of the people, and leave in\nthe minds of their citizens the bad principles of softness and luxury,\nease and covetousness.\n\n21. Nothing could sooner forfeit the right and privilege of a citizen,\nthan refusing their children that public education which their\nlaws and country demanded of them. For as none of them were on any\naccount exempt from obedience to their laws, so, if any one out of an\nextraordinary tenderness and indulgence would not suffer his sons to be\nbrought up according to their strict discipline and institutions, he\nwas straightways disfranchised. For they could not think that person\ncould ever prove serviceable to their government, who had not been\neducated with the same care and severity with his fellow-subjects. And\nit was no less a shame and reproach to the parents themselves, who\ncould be of such mean and abject spirits as to prefer the love of their\nchildren to the love of their country, and the satisfaction of a fond\nand imprudent passion to the honor and security of their state.\n\n23. Nay further, as there was a community of children, so there was of\ntheir goods and estates, it being free for them in case of necessity\nto make use of their neighbor\u2019s servants, as if they were their own;\nand not only so, but of their horses and dogs too, unless the owners\nstood in need of them themselves, whenever they designed the diversion\nof hunting, an exercise peculiar to this nation, and to which they were\naccustomed from their youth. And if upon any extraordinary occasion any\none was pressed with the want of what his neighbors were possessed of,\nhe went freely to them and borrowed, as though he had been the right\nproprietary of their storehouses; and being supplied answerably to his\nnecessities, he carefully sealed them up again and left them secure.\n\n24. In all their warlike expeditions they generally clothed themselves\nwith a garment of a purple color, as best becoming the profession of\nsoldiers, and carrying in them a signification of that blood they\nwere resolved to shed in the service of their country. It was of use\nlikewise, not only to cast a greater terror into their adversaries\nand to secure from their discovery the wounds they should receive,\nbut likewise for distinction\u2019s sake, that in the heat and fury of the\nbattle they might discriminate each other from the enemy. They always\nfought with consideration and cunning, craft being many times of more\nadvantage to them than downright blows; for it is not the multitude\nof men, nor the strongest arm and the sharpest sword, that make men\nmasters of the field.\n\n25. Whenever a victory was gained through a well-contrived stratagem,\nand thereby with little loss of men and blood, they always sacrificed\nan ox to Mars; but when the success was purely owing to their valor\nand prowess, they only offered up a cock to him; it being in their\nestimation more honorable for their generals and commanders to overcome\ntheir enemies by policy and subtlety than by mere strength and courage.\n\n26, 27. One great part of their religion lay in their solemn prayers\nand devotion, which they daily offered up to their Gods, heartily\nrequesting of them to enable them to bear all kinds of injuries with\na generous and unshaken mind, and to reward them with honor and\nprosperity, according to their performances of piety and virtue.\n\n28. Besides, it was a great part of that honor they paid their Gods,\nof whatever sex they were, to adorn them with military weapons and\narmor, partly out of superstition and an extraordinary reverence they\nhad for the virtue of fortitude, which they preferred to all others,\nand which they looked upon as an immediate gift of the Gods, as being\nthe greatest lovers and patrons of those who were endued with it; and\npartly to encourage every one to address his devotions to them for\nit; insomuch as Venus herself, who in other nations was generally\nrepresented naked, had her armor too, as well as her particular altars\nand worshippers.\n\n29. Whenever they take any business of moment in hand, they generally\npray to Fortune in a set form of words for their success in it;[49] it\nbeing no better in their esteem than profaneness and irreverence to\ntheir Gods to invoke them upon slight and trivial emergencies.\n\n30. No discovery of what is bad and vicious comes with greater evidence\nto the spirits and apprehensions of children, who are unable to bear\nthe force of reason, than that which is offered to them by way of\nexample. Therefore the Spartan discipline did endeavor to preserve\ntheir youth (on whom philosophical discourses would have made but\nsmall impression) from all kinds of intemperance and excess of wine,\nby presenting before them all the indecencies of their drunken Helots,\npersons indeed who were their slaves, and employed not only in all\nkinds of servile offices, but especially in tilling of their fields\nand manuring of their ground, which was let out to them at reasonable\nrates, they paying in every year their returns of rent, according to\nwhat was anciently established and ordained amongst them at the first\ngeneral division of their lands. And if any did exact greater payments\nfrom them, it was esteemed an execrable thing amongst them; they being\ndesirous that the Helots might reap gain and profit from their labors,\nand thereupon be obliged faithfully to serve their masters as well\nas their own interest with greater cheerfulness and industry. And\ntherefore their lords never required more of them than what bare custom\nand contracts exacted of them.\n\n33. They adjudged it necessary for the preservation of that gravity\nand seriousness of manners which was required of their youth for the\nattainments of wisdom and virtue, never to admit of any light and\nwanton, any ludicrous or effeminate poetry; which made them allow of\nno poets among them but such only who for their grave and virtuous\ncompositions were approved by the public magistrate; that being hereby\nunder some restraint, they might neither act nor write any thing to\nthe prejudice of good manners, or to the dishonor of their laws and\ngovernment.\n\n34. And therefore it was, that when they heard of Archilochus\u2019s arrival\nat Sparta (though a Lacedaemonian, and of an excellent wit), yet they\npresently commanded him to depart the city, having understood how that\nin a poem of his he had affirmed it was greater wisdom for a man to\nthrow his arms away and secure himself by flight, than to stand to his\nown defence with the hazard of his life, or therein to die valiantly in\nthe field. His words were after this manner:\u2014\n\n    Let who will boast their courage in the field,\n    I find but little safety from my shield.\n    Nature\u2019s not Honor\u2019s laws we must obey;\n    This made me cast my useless shield away,\n    And by a prudent flight and cunning save\n    A life, which valor could not, from the grave.\n    A better buckler I can soon regain,\n    But who can get another life again?[50]\n\n35. It was a received opinion amongst many nations, that some of their\nGods were propitious only to their men, and others only to their women,\nwhich made them sometimes prohibit the one and sometimes the other\nfrom being present at their sacred rites and solemnities. But the\nLacedaemonians took away this piece of superstition by not excluding\neither sex from their temples and religious services; but, as they\nwere always bred up to the same civil exercises, so they were to the\nsame common performances of their holy mysteries, so that by an early\nknowledge of each other there might be a real love and friendship\nestablished betwixt them, which ever stood most firm upon the basis of\nreligion.\n\n36. Their virtuous man, as he was to do no wrong, so likewise was not\nto suffer any without a due sense and modest resentment of it; and\ntherefore the Ephori laid a mulct upon Sciraphidas, because he could\nso tamely receive the many injuries and affronts that were offered\nhim,\u2014concluding that he who was so insensible of his own interest as\nnot to stand up in a bold and honest vindication of himself from the\nwrongs and injustice that may be done to his good name and honor,\nwould without all doubt be as dull and listless, when an opportunity\nshould invite him to it, in appearing for the defence of the fame and\nreputation of his country.\n\n39. Action and not speaking was the study and commendation of a\nSpartan, and therefore polite discourses and long harangues were\nnot with them the character of a wise or learned man, their speech\nbeing always grave and sententious, without any ornament or tedious\nargumentation. They accustomed themselves to brevity, and upon every\nsubject to express themselves in the finest words, with as much satire\nand smartness as possible; insomuch as they had a law among them for\nthe instruction of their youth, by which they were enjoined to practise\na close and compendious style in all their orations; which made them\nbanish one Cephisophon, a talkative rhetorician, for boasting publicly\nthat he could upon any subject whatsoever entertain his auditory for\na whole day together; alleging this as a sufficient reason for their\njustification, that it was the part of a good orator to adjust his\ndiscourse according to the weight and dignity of the matter he was to\ntreat of.\n\n40. There was indeed a strange and unnatural custom amongst them,\nannually observed at the celebration of the bloody rites of Diana\nOrthia, where there was a certain number of children, not only of the\nvulgar sort but of the gentry and nobility, who were whipped almost\nto death with rods before the altar of the goddess; their parents and\nrelations standing by, and all the while exhorting them to patience\nand constancy in suffering. Although this ceremony lasted for the\nspace of a whole day, yet they underwent this barbarous rite with such\na prodigious cheerfulness and resolution of mind as never could be\nexpected from the softness and tenderness of their age. They did not so\nmuch as express one little sigh or groan during the whole solemnity,\nbut out of a certain emulation and desire of glory there was a\ngreat contention among them, who should excel his companions in the\nconstancy of enduring the length and sharpness of their pains; and he\nwho held out the longest was ever the most esteemed and valued person\namongst them, and the glory and reputation wherewith they rewarded his\nsufferings rendered his after life much more eminent and illustrious.\n\n42. They had a very slight regard to maritime affairs, on the account\nof an ancient law amongst them, whereby they were prohibited from\napplying of themselves to the becoming of good seamen or engaging\nthemselves in any sea-fight. Afterwards indeed, through the necessity\nof affairs and the security of their country, they judged it\nconvenient, when they were invaded by the Athenians and other nations,\nto furnish themselves with a navy; by which it was that Lysander, who\nwas then the general in that expedition, obtained a great victory\nover the Athenians, and thereby for a considerable time secured the\nsovereignty of the seas to themselves. But finding afterwards this\ngrievance arising from it, that there was a very sensible corruption\nof good manners and decay of discipline amongst them, from the\nconversation of their rude and debauched mariners, they were obliged\nto lay this profession wholly aside, and by a revival of this law\nendeavor to retrieve their ancient sobriety, and, by turning the bent\nand inclinations of the people into their old channel again, to make\nthem tractable and obedient, modest and virtuous. Though indeed they\ndid not long hold to their resolution herein, any more than they were\nwont to do in other matters of moment, which could not but be variable,\naccording to the circumstances of affairs and the necessities of their\ngovernment. For though great riches and large possessions were things\nthey hated to death, it being a capital crime and punishment to have\nany gold or silver in their houses, or to amass up together heaps of\nmoney (which was generally made with them of iron or leather),\u2014for\nwhich reason several had been put to death, according to that law which\nbanished covetousness out of the city, on the account of an answer of\ntheir oracle to Alcamenes and Theopompus, two of their Spartan kings,\n\n    That the love of money should be the ruin of Sparta,\u2014\n\nyet notwithstanding the severe penalty annexed to the heaping up much\nwealth, and the example of those who had suffered for it, Lysander\nwas highly honored and rewarded for bringing in a great quantity of\ngold and silver to Lacedaemon, after the victory he had gained over\nthe Athenians, and the taking of the city of Athens itself, wherein an\ninestimable treasure was found. So that what had been a capital crime\nin others was a meritorious act in him. It is true indeed that as long\nas the Spartans did adhere closely to the observation of the laws and\nrules of Lycurgus, and keep their oath religiously to be true to their\nown government, they outstripped all the other cities of Greece for\nprudence and valor, and for the space of five hundred years became\nfamous everywhere for the excellency of their laws and the wisdom of\ntheir policy. But when the honor of these laws began to lessen and\ntheir citizens grew luxurious and exorbitant, when covetousness and\ntoo much liberty had softened their minds and almost destroyed the\nwholesome constitution of their state, their former greatness and power\nbegan by little and little to decay and dwindle in the estimation\nof men. And as by reason of these vices and ill customs they proved\nunserviceable to themselves, so likewise they became less formidable\nto others; insomuch as their several allies and confederates, who had\nwith them jointly carried on their common good and interest, were\nwholly alienated from them. But although their affairs were in such a\nlanguishing posture, when Philip of Macedon, after his great victory at\nChaeronea, was by the Grecians declared their general both by land and\nsea, as likewise his son Alexander after the conquest of the Thebans;\nyet the Lacedaemonians, though their cities had no other walls for\ntheir security, but only their own courage, though by reason of their\nfrequent wars they were reduced to low measures and small numbers of\nmen, and thereby become so weak as to be an easy prey to any powerful\nenemy, yet retaining amongst them some reverence for those few remains\nof Lycurgus\u2019s institution and government, they could not be brought\nto assist these two, or any other of their Macedonian kings in their\nwars and expeditions; neither could they be prevailed with to assist\nat their common assemblies and consults with them, nor pay any tribute\nor contributions to them. But when all those laws and customs (which\nare the main pillars that support a state) enacted by Lycurgus, and so\nhighly approved of by the government, were now universally despised\nand unobserved, they immediately became a prey to the ambition and\nusurpation, to the cruelty and tyranny of their fellow-citizens; and\nhaving no regard at all to their ancient virtues and constitution, they\nutterly lost their ancient glory and reputation, and by degrees, as\nwell as weaker nations, did in a very little time everywhere degenerate\ninto poverty, contempt, and servitude; being at present subject to the\nRomans, like all the other cities of Greece.\n\n\n\n\nCONCERNING MUSIC.[51]\n\n\nONESICRATES, SOTERICHUS, LYSIAS.\n\n1. The wife of Phocion the just was always wont to maintain that her\nchiefest glory consisted in the warlike achievements of her husband.\nFor my part, I am of opinion that all my glory, not only that peculiar\nto myself, but also what is common to all my familiar friends and\nrelations, flows from the care and diligence of my master that taught\nme learning. For the most renowned performances of great commanders\ntend only to the preservation of some few private soldiers or the\nsafety of a single city or nation, but make neither the soldiers nor\nthe citizens nor the people any thing the better. But true learning,\nbeing the essence and body of felicity and the source of prudence, we\nfind to be profitable and beneficial, not only to one house or city or\nnation, but to all the race of men. Therefore by how much the more the\nbenefit and advantage of learning transcends the profits of military\nperformances, by so much the more is it to be remembered and mentioned,\nas most worthy your study and esteem.\n\n2. For this reason, upon the second day of the Saturnalian festival,\nthe famous Onesicrates invited certain persons, the best skilled in\nmusic, to a banquet; by name Soterichus of Alexandria, and Lysias,\none of those to whom he gave a yearly pension. After all had done and\nthe table was cleared,\u2014To dive, said he, most worthy friends, into\nthe nature and reason of the human voice is not an argument proper\nfor this merry meeting, as being a subject that requires a more sober\nscrutiny. But because our chiefest grammarians define the voice to be\na percussion of the air made sensible to the ear, and for that we were\nyesterday discoursing of Grammar,\u2014which is an art that can give the\nvoice form and shape by means of letters, and store it up in the memory\nas a magazine,\u2014let us consider what is the next science to this which\nmay be said to relate to the voice. In my opinion, it must be music.\nFor it is one of the chiefest and most religious duties belonging to\nman, to celebrate the praise of the Gods, who gave to him alone the\nmost excelling advantage of articulate discourse, as Homer has observed\nin the following verses:\u2014\n\n    With sacred hymns and songs that sweetly please,\n    The Grecian youth all day the Gods appease;\n    Their lofty paeans bright Apollo hears,\n    And still the charming sounds delight his ears.[52]\n\nNow then, you that are of the grand musical chorus, tell your friends,\nwho was the first that brought music into use; what time has added for\nthe advantage of the science; who have been the most famous of its\nprofessors; and lastly, for what and how far it may be beneficial to\nmankind.\n\n3. This the scholar propounded; to which Lysias made reply. Noble\nOnesicrates, said he, you desire the solution of a hard question, that\nhas been by many already proposed. For of the Platonics the most, of\nthe Peripatetic philosophers the best, have made it their business to\ncompile several treatises concerning the ancient music and the reasons\nwhy it came to lose its pristine perfection. Nay, the very grammarians\nand musicians themselves who arrived to the height of education have\nexpended much time and study upon the same subject, whence has arisen\ngreat variety of discording opinions among the several writers.\nHeraclides in his Compendium of Music asserts, that Amphion, the son\nof Jupiter and Antiope, was the first that invented playing on the\nharp and lyric poesy, being first instructed by his father; which is\nconfirmed by a small manuscript, preserved in the city of Sicyon,\nwherein is set down a catalogue of the priests, poets, and musicians\nof Argos. In the same age, he tells us, Linus the Euboean composed\nseveral elegies; Anthes of Anthedon in Boeotia was the first author of\nhymns, and Pierus of Pieria the first that wrote in the praise of the\nMuses. Philammon also, the Delphian, set forth in verse a poem in honor\nof the nativity of Latona, Diana, and Apollo, and was the first that\ninstituted dancing about the temple of Delphi. Thamyras, of Thracian\nextraction, had the best voice and the neatest manner of singing of\nany of his time; so that the poets feigned him to be a contender with\nthe Muses. He is said to have described in a poem the Titans\u2019 war\nagainst the Gods. There was also Demodocus the Corcyraean, who is said\nto have written the Destruction of Troy, and the Nuptials of Vulcan\nand Venus; and then Phemius of Ithaca composed a poem, entitled The\nReturn of those who came back with Agamemnon from Troy. Not that any\nof these stories before cited were compiled in a style like prose\nwithout metre; they were rather like the poems of Stesichorus and other\nancient lyric poets, who composed in heroic verse and added a musical\naccompaniment. The same Heraclides writes that Terpander, the first\nthat instituted the lyric _nomes_,[53] set verses of Homer as well as\nhis own to music according to each of these nomes, and sang them at\npublic trials of skill. He also was the first to give names to the\nlyric nomes. In imitation of Terpander, Clonas, an elegiac and epic\npoet, first instituted nomes for flute-music, and also the songs called\nProsodia.[54] And Polymnestus the Colophonian in later times used the\nsame measure in his compositions.\n\n4. Now the measures appointed by these persons, noble Onesicrates,\nin reference to such songs as are to be sung to the flutes or pipes,\nwere distinguished by these names,\u2014Apothetus, Elegiac, Comarchius,\nSchoenion, Cepion, Tenedius, and Trimeles (or of three parts).\n\nTo these succeeding ages added another sort, which were called\nPolymnastia. But the measures set down for those that played and\nsung to the harp, being the invention of Terpander, were much more\nancient than the former. To these he gave the several appellations\nof Boeotian, Aeolian, Trochaean, the Acute, Cepion, Terpandrian, and\nTetraoedian.[55] And Terpander made preludes to be sung to the lyre in\nheroic verse. Besides, Timotheus testifies how that the lyric nomes\nwere anciently appropriated to epic verses. For Timotheus merely\nintermixed the dithyrambic style with the ancient nomes in heroic\nmeasure, and thus sang them, that he might not seem to make too sudden\nan innovation upon the ancient music. But as for Terpander, he seems to\nhave been the most excellent composer to the harp of his age, for he is\nrecorded to have been four times in succession a victor at the Pythian\ngames. And certainly he was one of the most ancient musicians in the\nworld; for Glaucus the Italian in his treatise of the ancient poets and\nmusicians asserts him to have lived before Archilochus, affirming him\nto be the second next to those that first invented wind-music.\n\n5. Alexander in his Collections of Phrygia says, that Olympus was the\nfirst that brought into Greece the manner of touching the strings\nwith a quill; and next to him were the Idaean Dactyli; Hyagnis was\nthe first that sang to the pipe; after him his son Marsyas, then\nOlympus; that Terpander imitated Homer in his verses and Orpheus in his\nmusical compositions; but that Orpheus never imitated any one, since\nin his time there were none but such as composed to the pipe, which\nwas a manner quite different from that of Orpheus. Clonas, a composer\nof nomes for flute-music, and somewhat later than Terpander, as the\nArcadians affirm, was born in Tegea or, as the Boeotians allege, at\nThebes. After Terpander and Clonas flourished Archilochus; yet there\nare some writers who affirm, that Ardalus the Troezenian taught the\nmanner of composing to wind-music before Clonas. There was also the\npoet Polymnestus, the son of Meles the Colophonian, who invented the\nPolymnestian measures. They farther write that Clonas invented the\nnomes Apothetus and Schoenion. Of Polymnestus mention is made by Pindar\nand Alcman, both lyric poets; but of several of the lyric nomes said to\nbe instituted by Terpander they make Philammon (the ancient Delphian)\nauthor.\n\n6. Now the music appropriated to the harp, such as it was in the time\nof Terpander, continued in all its simplicity, till Phrynis grew into\nesteem. For it was not the ancient custom to make lyric poems in the\npresent style, or to intermix measures and rhythms. For in each nome\nthey were careful to observe its own proper pitch; whence came the\nexpression _nome_ (from \u03bd\u03cc\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2, _law_), because it was unlawful to\nalter the pitch appointed for each one. At length, falling from their\ndevotion to the Gods, they began to sing the verses of Homer and other\npoets. This is manifest by the proems of Terpander. Then for the form\nof the harp, it was such as Cepion, one of Terpander\u2019s scholars, first\ncaused to be made, and it was called the Asian harp, because the\nLesbian harpers bordering upon Asia always made use of it. And it is\nsaid that Periclitus, a Lesbian by birth, was the last harper who won a\nprize by his skill, which he did at one of the Spartan festivals called\nCarneia; but he being dead, that succession of skilful musicians, which\nhad so long continued among the Lesbians, expired. Some there are who\nerroneously believe that Hipponax was contemporary with Terpander, when\nit is plain that Hipponax lived after Periclitus.\n\n7. Having thus discoursed of the several nomes appropriated to the\nstringed as well as to the wind instruments, we will now speak\nsomething in particular concerning those peculiar to the wind\ninstruments. First they say, that Olympus, a Phrygian player upon\nthe flute, invented a certain nome in honor of Apollo, which he\ncalled Polycephalus,[56] or of many heads. This Olympus, they say,\nwas descended from the first Olympus, the scholar of Marsyas, who\ninvented several forms of composition in honor of the Gods; and he,\nbeing a boy beloved of Marsyas, and by him taught to play upon the\nflute, first brought into Greece the laws of harmony. Others ascribe\nthe Polycephalus to Crates, the scholar of Olympus; though Pratinas\nwill have Olympus the younger to be the author of it. The Harmatian\nnome is also said to be invented by Olympus, the scholar of Marsyas.\nThis Marsyas was by some said to be called Masses; which others deny,\nnot allowing him any other name but that of Marsyas, the son of that\nHyagnis who invented the art of playing upon the pipe. But that\nOlympus was the author of the Harmatian nome is plainly to be seen in\nGlaucus\u2019s treatise of the ancient poets; and that Stesichorus of Himera\nimitated neither Orpheus nor Terpander nor Antilochus nor Thales, but\nOlympus, and that he made use of the Harmatian nome and the dactylic\ndance, which some rather apply to the Orthian mood, while others aver\nit to have been the invention of the Mysians, for that some of the\nancient pipers were Mysians.\n\n8. There was also another mood in use among the ancients, called\nCradias, which Hipponax says Mimnermus always delighted in. For\nformerly they that played upon the flute sang also elegies at the same\ntime set to notes. Which the description of the Panathenaea concerning\nthe musical combat makes manifest. Among the rest, Sacadas of Argos\nset several odes and elegies to music, he himself being also a good\nflute-player and thrice a victor at the Pythian games. Of him Pindar\nmakes mention. Now whereas in the time of Polymnestus and Sacadas there\nexisted three musical moods, the Dorian, Phrygian, and Lydian, it is\nsaid that Sacadas composed a strophe in every one of those moods, and\nthen taught the choruses to sing the first after the Dorian manner,\nthe second according to the Phrygian, and the third after the Lydian\nmanner; and this nome was called Trimeres (or threefold) by reason of\nthe shifting of the moods, although in the Sicyonian catalogue of the\npoets Clonas is said to be the inventor of this name.\n\n9. Music then received its first constitution from Terpander at Sparta.\nOf the second constitution, Thaletas the Gortinean, Xenodamus the\nCytherean, Xenocritus the Locrian, Polymnestus the Colophonian, and\nSacadas the Argive were deservedly acknowledged to be the authors. For\nthese, having introduced the Gymnopaediae into Lacedaemon, settled the\nso-called Apodeixeis (or Exhibitions) among the Arcadians, and the\nEndymatia in Argos. Now Thaletas, Xenodamus, and Xenocritus, and their\nscholars, were poets that addicted themselves altogether to making\nof paeans; Polymnestus was all for the Orthian or military strain,\nand Sacadas for elegies. Others, and among the rest Pratinas, affirm\nXenodamus to have been a maker of songs for dances (Hyporchemes), and\nnot of paeans; and a tune of Xenodamus is preserved, which plainly\nappears to have been composed for a dance. Now that a paean differs\nfrom a song made for a dance is manifest from the poems of Pindar, who\nmade both.\n\n10. Polymnestus also composed nomes for flute-music; but in the\nOrthian nome he made use of his lyric vein, as the students in harmony\ndeclare. But in this we cannot be positive, because we have nothing\nof certainty concerning it from antiquity; and whether Thaletas of\nCrete was a composer of hymns is much doubted. For Glaucus, asserting\nThaletas to be born after Archilochus, says that he imitated the odes\nof Archilochus, only he made them longer, and used the Paeonic and\nCretic rhythm, which neither Archilochus nor Orpheus nor Terpander\never did; for Thaletas learned these from Olympus, and became a good\npoet besides. As for Xenocritus the Locrian from Italy, it is much\nquestioned whether he was a maker of paeans or not, as being one that\nalways took heroic subjects with dramatic action for his verses, for\nwhich reason some there were who called his arguments Dithyrambic.\nMoreover, Glaucus asserts Thaletas to have preceded him in time.\n\n11. Olympus, by the report of Aristoxenus, is supposed by the musicians\nto have been the inventor of the enharmonic species of music; for\nbefore him there was no other than the diatonic and chromatic. And\nit is thought that the invention of the enharmonic species was thus\nbrought to pass:[57] for that Olympus before altogether composing\nand playing in the diatonic species, and having frequent occasion\nto shift to the diatonic parhypate, sometimes from the paramese and\nsometimes from the mese, skipping the diatonic lichanos, he found\nthe beauty that appeared in the new character; and thus, admiring a\nconjunction or scheme so agreeable to proportion, he made this new\nspecies in the Doric mood. For now he held no longer to what belonged\neither to the diatonic or to the chromatic, but he was already come to\nthe enharmonic. And the first foundations of enharmonic music which\nhe laid were these: in enharmonics the first thing that appears is\nthe spondiasmus,[58] to which none of the divisions of the tetrachord\nseems properly to belong, unless any one will take the more intense\nspondiasmus to be diatonic. But he that maintained this would maintain\na falsehood and an absurdity in harmony; a falsehood, because it would\nbe less by a diesis than is required by the leading note; an absurdity\nin harmony, because, even if we should place the proper nature of the\nmore intense spondiasmus in the simple chromatic, it would then come to\npass, that two double tones would follow in order, the one compounded,\nthe other uncompounded. For the thick enharmonic now used in the middle\nnotes does not seem to be the invention of the fore-mentioned author.\nBut this is more easily understood by hearing any musician play in the\nancient style; for then you shall find the semi-tone in the middle\nparts to be uncompounded.\n\nThese were the beginnings of enharmonic music; afterwards the semitone\nwas also divided, as well in the Phrygian as Lydian moods. But Olympus\nseems to have advanced music by producing something never known or\nheard of before, and to have gained to himself the honor of being the\nmost excellent, not only in the Grecian but in all other music.\n\n12. Let us now proceed to rhythms; for there were several varieties\nof these, as well in musical as in rhythmical composition. And here\nTerpander, among all those novelties with which he adorned music,\nintroduced an elegant manner, that gave it much life. After him, beside\nthe Terpandrian, which he did not relinquish, Polymnestus brought in\nuse another of his own, retaining however the former elegant manner,\nas did also Thaletas and Sacadas. Other innovations were also made by\nAlkman and Stesichorus, who nevertheless receded not from the ancient\nforms. But Crexus, Timotheus, and Philoxenus, and those other poets of\nthe same age, growing more arrogant and studious of novelty, affected\nthose other manners now called Philanthropic and Thematic. For now the\nfewness of strings and the plainness and majesty of the old music are\nlooked upon as absolutely out of date.\n\n13. And now, having discoursed to the best of my ability of the ancient\nmusic and the first inventors of it, and how succeeding ages brought\nit to more and more perfection, I shall make an end, and give way to\nmy friend Soterichus, not only greatly skilled in music but in all\nthe rest of the sciences. For we have always labored rather on the\npractical than the contemplative part. Which when Lysias had said, he\nforbare speaking any farther; but then Soterichus thus began.\n\n14. Most noble Onesicrates, said he, since you have engaged us to\nspeak our knowledge concerning the most venerable excellencies of\nmusic, which is most pleasing to the Gods, I cannot but approve the\nlearning of our master Lysias, and his great memory in reciting all the\ninventors of the ancient music, and those who have written concerning\nit. But I must needs say, that he has given us this account, trusting\nonly to what he has found recorded. We on the other side have not\nheard of any man that was the inventor of the benefits of music, but\nof the God Apollo, adorned with all manner of virtue. The flute was\nneither the invention of Marsyas nor Olympus nor Hyagnis; nor was the\nharp Apollo\u2019s invention only, but as a God he was the inventor of all\nthe music both of the flute and harp. This is manifest from the dances\nand sacrifices which were solemnized to Apollo, as Alcaeus and others\nin their hymns relate. His statue also placed in the Temple of Delos\nholds in his right hand a bow; at his left the Graces stand, with every\none a musical instrument in her hands, one carrying a harp, another a\nflute, another with a shepherd\u2019s pipe set to her lips. And that this\nis no conceit of mine appears from this, that Anticles and Ister have\ntestified the same in their commentaries upon these things. And the\nstatue is reported to be so ancient, that the artificers were said to\nhave lived in the time of Hercules. The youth also that carries the\nTempic laurel into Delphi is accompanied by one playing upon the flute.\nAnd the sacred presents of the Hyperboreans were sent of old to Delos,\nattended with flutes, pipes, and harps. Some have thought that the God\nhimself played upon the flute, as the best of lyrics, Alcman, relates.\nCorinna also asserts that Apollo was by Minerva taught to pipe.\nVenerable is therefore music altogether, as being the invention of the\nGods.\n\n15. The ancients made use of it for its worth, as they did all other\nbeneficial sciences. But our men of art, contemning its ancient\nmajesty, instead of that manly, grave, heaven-born music, so acceptable\nto the Gods, have brought into the theatres a sort of effeminate\nmusical tattling, mere sound without substance; which Plato utterly\nrejects in the third book of his commonwealth, refusing the Lydian\nharmony as fit only for lamentations. And they say that this was first\ninstituted for doleful songs. Aristoxenus, in his first book of music,\ntells us how that Olympus sang an elegy upon the death of Python in the\nLydian mood, though some will have Menalippides to be the author of\nthat song. Pindar, in his paean on the nuptials of Niobe, asserts that\nthe Lydian harmony was first used by Anthippus. Others affirm, that\nTorebus was the first that made use of that sort of harmony; among the\nrest, Dionysius the iambic writer.\n\n16. The mixed Lydian moves the affections, and is fit for tragedies.\nThis mood, as Aristoxenus alleges, was invented by Sappho, from whom\nthe tragedians learned it and joined it with the Doric. The one becomes\na majestic, lofty style, the other mollifies and stirs to pity; both\nwhich are the properties of tragedy. The history of music, however,\nmade Pythoclides the flute-player to be the author of it; and Lysis\nreports that Lamprocles the Athenian, finding that the diazeuxis (or\nseparation of two tetrachords) was not where almost all others thought\nit had been, but toward the treble, made such a scheme as is now from\nparamese to the highest hypate. But for the softer Lydian, being\ncontrary to the mixed Lydian and like the Ionian, they say it was\ninvented by Damon the Athenian.\n\n17. But as for those sorts of harmony, the one being sad and doleful,\nthe other loose and effeminate, Plato deservedly rejected them, and\nmade choice of the Dorian, as more proper for sober and warlike men;\nnot being ignorant, however (as Aristoxenus discourses in his second\nbook of music), that there might be something advantageous in the rest\nto a circumspect and wary commonwealth. For Plato gave much attention\nto the art of music, as being the hearer of Draco the Athenian and\nMetellus the Agrigentine; but considering, as we have intimated before,\nthat there was much more majesty in the Dorian mood, it was that\nhe preferred. He knew moreover that Aleman, Pindar, Simonides, and\nBacchylides had composed several Parthenia in the Doric mood; and that\nseveral Prosodia (or supplications to the Gods), several hymns and\ntragical lamentations, and now and then love verses, were composed to\nthe same melody. But he contented himself with such songs as were made\nin honor of Mars or Minerva, or else such as were to be sung at solemn\nofferings, called Spondeia. For these he thought sufficient to fortify\nand raise the mind of a sober person; not being at all ignorant in the\nmean time of the Lydian and Ionian, of which he knew the tragedians\nmade use.\n\n18. Moreover, the ancients well understood all the sorts of styles,\nalthough they used but few. For it was not their ignorance that\nconfined them to such narrow instruments and so few strings; nor was it\nout of ignorance that Olympus and Terpander and those that came after\nthem would not admit of larger instruments and more variety of strings.\nThis is manifest from the poems of Olympus and Terpander and all those\nthat were their imitators. For, being plain and without any more than\nthree strings, these so far excelled those that were more numerously\nstrung, insomuch that none could imitate Olympus\u2019s play; and they were\nall inferior to him when they betook themselves to their polychords.\n\n19. Then again, that the ancients did not through ignorance abstain\nfrom the third string in the spondaic style, their use of it in play\nmakes apparent. For had they not known the use of it, they would never\nhave struck it in harmony with parhypate; but the elegancy and gravity\nthat attended the spondaic style by omitting the third string induced\nthem to transfer the music to paranete. The same reason may serve for\nnete; for this in play they struck in concord to mese, but in discord\nto paranete, although in song it did not seem to them proper to the\nslow spondaic motion. And not only did they do this, but they did the\nsame with nete of the conjunct heptachords; for in play they struck\nit in concord to mese and lichanos, and in discord to paranete and\nparhypate;[59] but in singing those touches were no way allowable, as\nbeing ungrateful to the ear and shaming the performer. As certain it is\nfrom the Phrygians that Olympus and his followers were not ignorant of\nthe third string; for they made use of it not only in pulsation, but in\ntheir hymns to the Mother of the Gods and several other Phrygian songs.\nNor is it less apparent, with regard to the \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, that they never\nabstained for want of skill from that tetrachord in the Dorian mood;\nindeed in other moods they knowingly made use of it, but removed it\nfrom the Dorian mood to preserve its elegant gravity.\n\n20. The same thing was done also by the tragedians. For the tragedians\nhave never to this day used either the chromatic or the enharmonic\nscale; while the lyre, many generations older than tragedy, used them\nfrom the very beginning. Now that the chromatic was more ancient than\nthe enharmonic is plain. For we must necessarily account it of greater\nantiquity, according to the custom and use of men themselves; otherwise\nit cannot be said that any of the differences and distinctions were\nancienter the one than the other. Therefore, if any one should allege\nthat Aeschylus or Phrynichus abstained from the chromatic out of\nignorance, would he not be thought to maintain a very great absurdity?\nSuch a one might as well aver that Pancrates lay under the same\nblindness, who avoided it in most, but made use of it in some things;\ntherefore he forebore not out of ignorance, but judgment, imitating\nPindar and Simonides and that which is at present called the ancient\nmanner.\n\n21. The same may be said of Tyrtaeus the Mantinean, Andreas the\nCorinthian, Thrasyllus the Phliasian, and several others, who, as we\nwell know, abstained by choice from the chromatic, from transition,\nfrom the increased number of strings, and many other common forms of\nrhythms, tunes, diction, composition, and expression. Telephanes of\nMegara was so great an enemy to the pipe made of reed (called syrinx),\nthat he would not suffer the instrument maker to join it to the flute\n(pipe made of wood or horn), and chiefly for that reason forbore to\ngo to the Pythian games. In short, if a man should be thought to be\nignorant of that which he makes no use of, there would be found a great\nnumber of ignorant persons in this age. For we see that the admirers of\nthe Dorian composition make no use of the Antiginedian; the followers\nof the Antiginedian reject the Dorian; and other musicians refuse to\nimitate Timotheus, being almost all bewitched with the trifles and the\nidle poems of Polyidus. On the other side, if we dive into the business\nof variety and compare antiquity with the present times, we shall find\nthere was great variety then, and that frequently made use of. For then\nthe variation of rhythm was more highly esteemed, and the change of\ntheir manner of play more frequent. We are now lovers of fables, they\nwere then lovers of rhythm. Plain it is therefore, that the ancients\ndid not refrain from broken measures out of ignorance, but out of\njudgment. And yet what wonder is this, when there are so many other\nthings necessary to human life which are not unknown, though not made\nuse of by those who have no occasion to use them? But they are refused,\nand the use of them is altogether neglected, as not being found proper\non many occasions.\n\n22. Having already shown that Plato neither for want of skill nor\nfor ignorance blamed all the other moods and casts of composition,\nwe now proceed to show that he really was skilled in harmony. For in\nhis discourse concerning the procreation of the soul, inserted into\nTimaeus, he has made known his great knowledge in all the sciences,\nand of music among the rest, in this manner: \u201cAfter this,\u201d saith he,\n\u201che filled up the double and treble intervals, taking parts from\nthence, and adding them to the midst between them, so that there were\nin every interval two middle terms.\u201d[60] This proem was the effect of\nhis experience in music, as we shall presently make out. The means\nfrom whence every mean is taken are three, arithmetical, enharmonical,\ngeometrical. Of these the first exceeds and is exceeded in number,\nthe second in proportion, the third neither in number nor proportion.\nPlato therefore, desirous to show the harmony of the four elements in\nthe soul, and harmonically also to explain the reason of that mutual\nconcord arising from discording and jarring principles, undertakes to\nmake out two middle terms of the soul in every interval, according to\nharmonical proportion. Thus in a musical octave there happen to be\ntwo middle distances, whose proportion we shall explain. As for the\noctaves, they keep a double proportion between their two extremes. For\nexample, let the double arithmetical proportion be 6 and 12, this being\nthe interval between the \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03c9\u03bd and the \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 \u03b4\u03b9\u03b5\u03b6\u03b5\u03c5\u03b3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd; 6\ntherefore and 12 being the two extremes, the former note contains the\nnumber 6, and the latter 12. To these are to be added the intermediate\nnumbers, to which the extremes must hold the proportion, the one of one\nand a third, and the other of one and a half. These are the numbers 8\nand 9. For as 8 contains one and a third of 6, so 9 contains one and\na half of 6; thus you have one extreme. The other is 12, containing 9\nand a third part of 9, and 8 and half 8. These then being the numbers\nbetween 6 and 12, and the interval of the octave consisting of a\ndiatessaron and diapente, it is plain that the number 8 belongs to\nmese, and the number 9 to paramese; which being so, it follows that\nhypate is to mese as paramese to nete of the disjunct tetrachords; for\nit is a fourth from the first term to the second of this proportion,\nand the same interval from the third term to the fourth. The same\nproportion will be also found in the numbers. For as 6 is to 8, so is 9\nto 12; and as 6 is to 9, so is 8 to 12. For 8 is one and a third part\nof 6, and 12 of 9; while 9 is one and a half part of 6, and 12 of 8.\nWhat has been said may suffice to show how great was Plato\u2019s zeal and\nlearning in the liberal sciences.\n\n23. Now that there is something of majesty, something great and\ndivine in music, Aristotle, who was Plato\u2019s scholar, thus labors to\nconvince the world: \u201cHarmony,\u201d saith he, \u201cdescended from heaven, and\nis of a divine, noble, and angelic nature; but being fourfold as to\nits efficacy, it has two means,\u2014the one arithmetical, the other\nenharmonical. As for its members, its dimensions, and its excesses of\nintervals, they are best discovered by number and equality of measure,\nthe whole art being contained in two tetrachords.\u201d These are his\nwords. The body of it, he saith, consists of discording parts, yet\nconcording one with another; whose means nevertheless agree according\nto arithmetical proportion. For the upper string being fitted to the\nlowest in the ratio of two to one produces a perfect diapason. Thus, as\nwe said before, nete consisting of twelve units, and hypate of six, the\nparamese accords with hypate according to the sesquialter proportion,\nand has nine units, whilst mese has eight units. So that the chiefest\nintervals through the whole scale are the diatessaron (which is the\nproportion of 4:3), the diapente (which is the proportion of 3:2), and\nthe diapason (which is the proportion of 2:1); while the proportion\nof 9:8 appears in the interval of a tone. With the same inequalities\nof excess or diminution, all the extremes are differenced one from\nanother, and the means from the means, either according to the quantity\nof the numbers or the measure of geometry; which Aristotle thus\nexplains, observing that nete exceeds mese by a third part of itself,\nand hypate is exceeded by paramese in the same proportion, so that the\nexcesses stand in proportion. For by the same parts of themselves they\nexceed and are exceeded; that is, the extremes (nete and hypate) exceed\nand are exceeded by mese and paramese in the same proportions, those\nof 4:3 and of 3:2. Now these excesses are in what is called harmonic\nprogression. But the distances of nete from mese and of paramese from\nhypate, expressed in numbers, are in the same proportion (12:8 = 9:6);\nfor paramese exceeds mese by one-eighth of the latter. Again, nete is\nto hypate as 2:1; paramese to hypate as 3:2; and mese to hypate as 4:3.\nThis, according to Aristotle, is the natural constitution of harmony,\nas regards its parts and its numbers.\n\n24. But, according to natural philosophy, both harmony and its parts\nconsist of even, odd, and also even-odd. Altogether it is even, as\nconsisting of four terms; but its parts and proportions are even, odd,\nand even-odd. So nete is even, as consisting of twelve units; paramese\nis odd, of nine; mese even, of eight; and hypate even-odd, of six\n(i.e., 2 x 3). Whence it comes to pass, that music\u2014herself and her\nparts\u2014being thus constituted as to excesses and proportion, the whole\naccords with the whole, and also with each one of the parts.\n\n25. But now as for the senses that are created within the body,\nsuch as are of celestial and heavenly extraction, and which by\ndivine assistance affect the understanding of men by means of\nharmony,\u2014namely, sight and hearing,\u2014do by the very light and voice\nexpress harmony. And others which are their attendants, so far as they\nare senses, likewise exist by harmony; for they perform none of their\neffects without harmony; and although they are inferior to the other\ntwo, they are not independent of them. Nay, those two also, since they\nenter into human bodies at the very same time with God himself, claim\nby reason a vigorous and incomparable nature.\n\n26. Manifest from hence therefore it is, why the ancient Greeks, with\nmore reason than others, were so careful to teach their children music.\nFor they deemed it requisite by the assistance of music to form and\ncompose the minds of youth to what was decent, sober, and virtuous;\nbelieving the use of music beneficially efficacious to incite to all\nserious actions, especially to the adventuring upon warlike dangers.\nTo which purpose they made use of pipes or flutes when they advanced\nin battle array against their enemies; like the Lacedaemonians, who\nupon the same occasion caused the Castorean melody to be played before\ntheir battalions. Others inflamed their courage with harps, playing the\nsame sort of harmony when they went to look danger in the face, as the\nCretans did for a long time. Others, even to our own times, continue\nto use the trumpet. The Argives made use of flutes at their wrestling\nmatches called Stheneia; which sort of sport was first instituted in\nhonor of Danaus, but afterwards consecrated to Jupiter Sthenius, or\nJupiter the Mighty. And now at this day it is the custom to make use\nof flutes at the games called Pentathla, although there is now nothing\nexquisite or antique, nothing like what was customary among men of old\ntime, like the song composed by Hierax for this very game; still, even\nthough it is sorry stuff and nothing exquisite, it is accompanied by\nflute-music.\n\n27. But among the more ancient Greeks, music in theatres was never\nknown, for they employed their whole musical skill in the worship of\nthe Gods and the education of youth; at which time, there being no\ntheatres erected, music was yet confined within the walls of their\ntemples, as being that with which they worshipped the supreme Deity\nand sang the praises of virtuous men. And it is probable that the word\n\u03b8\u03ad\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd, at a later period, and \u03b8\u03b5\u03c9\u03c1\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd (_to behold_) much earlier,\nwere derived from \u03b8\u03b5\u03cc\u03c2 (_God_). But in our age is such another face of\nnew inventions, that there is not the least remembrance or care of that\nuse of music which related to education; for all our musicians make\nit their business to court the theatre Muses, and study nothing but\ncompositions for the stage.\n\n28. But some will say, Did the ancients invent nothing themselves?\nYes, say I, they did invent, but their inventions were grave and\ndecent. For they who have written the history of music attribute to\nTerpander the addition of the Dorian nete, which before was not in\nuse. Even the whole Mixolydian mood is a new invention. Such were\nalso the Orthian manner of melody with Orthian rhythms, and also the\nTrochaeus Semantus.[61] And if we believe Pindar, Terpander was the\ninventor of the Scolion (or roundelay). Archilochus also invented the\nrhythmic composition of the iambic trimeter, the change to rhythms\nof different character, the melo-dramatic delivery,[62] and the\naccompaniment proper to each of these. He is also presumed to be the\nauthor of epodes, tetrameters, the Cretic and the prosodiac rhythms,\nand the augmentation of the heroic verse. Some make him author also of\nthe elegiac measure, as likewise of the extending the iambic to the\npaeon epibatus, the prolonged and heroic to the prosodiac and Cretic.\nAnd Archilochus is first said to have taught how iambics could be\npartly recited to the stroke of the lyre and partly sung; from him the\ntragedians learned it, and from them Crexus took it, and made use of\nit in dithyrambics. It is thought that he invented also playing on the\nlyre at intervals in the song, whereas the ancients played only during\nthe singing.\n\n29. Of the Hypolydian mood they make Polymnestus the inventor, and\nthe first that taught the lowering and raising of the voice (\u1f14\u03ba\u03bb\u03c5\u03c3\u03b9\u03c2\nand \u1f10\u03ba\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u03ae). To the same Olympus to whom they also ascribe the first\ninvention of Grecian and well-regulated nomic music they attribute\nlikewise the finding out the enharmonic music, the prosodiac measure\nto which is composed the hymn to Mars, and the chorean measure which\nhe used in the hymns to the Mother of the Gods. Some report him to be\nthe author also of the bacchius. And every one of the ancient songs\nshow that this is so. But Lasus of Hermione, transferring the rhythms\nto suit the dithyrambic time, and making use of an instrument with many\nnotes, made an absolute innovation upon the ancient music, by the use\nof more notes, and those more widely distributed.\n\n30. In like manner Menalippides the lyric poet, Philoxenus and\nTimotheus, all forsook the ancient music. For whereas until the time of\nTerpander the Antissaean the harp had only seven strings, he[63] added\na greater number, and gave its notes a wider range. The wind-music\nalso exchanged its ancient plainness for a more copious variety. For\nin ancient times, till Menalippides the dithyrambic came into request,\nthe wind-music received salaries from the poets, poetry holding\nthe first rank and the musicians being in the service of the poet.\nAfterwards that custom grew out of date; insomuch that Pherecrates the\ncomedian brings in Music in woman\u2019s habit, all bruised and battered,\nand then introduces Justice asking the reason; to which Music thus\nreplies:\u2014\n\n    MUSIC. \u2019Tis mine to speak, thy part to hear,\n    And therefore lend a willing ear;\n    Much have I suffered, long opprest\n    By Menalippides, that beast;\n    He haled me from Parnassus\u2019 springs,\n    And plagued me with a dozen strings.\n    His rage howe\u2019er sufficed not yet,\n    To make my miseries complete.\n    Cinesias, that cursed Attic,\n    A mere poetical pragmatic,\n    Such horrid strophes in mangled verse\n    Made the unharmonious stage rehearse,\n    That I, tormented with the pains\n    Of cruel dithyrambic strains,\n    Distorted lay, that you would swear\n    The right side now the left side were.\n    Nor did my miseries end here;\n    For Phrynis with his whirlwind brains,\n    Wringing and racking all my veins,\n    Ruined me quite, while nine small wires\n    With harmonies twice six he tires.\n    Yet might not he so much be blamed,\n    From all his errors soon reclaimed;\n    But then Timotheus with his freaks\n    Furrowed my face, and ploughed my cheeks.\n\n    JUSTICE. Say which of them so vile could be?\n\n    MUSIC. Milesian Pyrrhias, that was he,\n    Whose fury tortured me much more\n    Than all that I have named before;\n    Where\u2019er I walk the streets alone,\n    If met by him, the angry clown,\n    With his twelve cat-guts strongly bound,\n    He leaves me helpless on the ground.[64]\n\nAristophanes the comic poet, making mention of Philoxenus, complains of\nhis introducing lyric verses among the cyclic choruses, where he brings\nin Music thus speaking:\u2014\n\n    He filled me with discordant measures airy,\n    Wicked Hyperbolaei and Niglari;\n    And to uphold the follies of his play,\n    Like a lank radish bowed me every way.\n\nOther comedians have since set forth the absurdity of those who have\nbeen slicers and manglers of music.\n\n31. Now that the right moulding or ruin of ingenuous manners and civil\nconduct lies in a well-grounded musical education, Aristoxenus has made\napparent. For, of those that were contemporary with him, he gives an\naccount of Telesias the Theban, who in his youth was bred up in the\nnoblest excellences of music, and moreover studied the works of the\nmost famous lyrics, Pindar, Dionysius the Theban, Lamprus, Pratinas,\nand all the rest who were accounted most eminent; who played also to\nperfection upon the flute, and was not a little industrious to furnish\nhimself with all those other accomplishments of learning; but being\npast the prime of his age, he was so bewitched with the theatre\u2019s\nnew fangles and the innovations of multiplied notes, that despising\nthose noble precepts and that solid practice to which he had been\neducated, he betook himself to Philoxenus and Timotheus, and among\nthose delighted chiefly in such as were most depraved with diversity\nof notes and baneful innovation. And yet, when he made it his business\nto make verses and labor both ways, as well in that of Pindar as that\nof Philoxenus, he could have no success in the latter. And the reason\nproceeded from the truth and exactness of his first education.\n\n32. Therefore, if it be the aim of any person to practise music with\nskill and judgment, let him imitate the ancient manner; let him also\nadorn it with those other sciences and make philosophy his tutor,\nwhich is sufficient to judge what is in music decent and useful. For\nmusic being generally divided into three parts, diatonic, chromatic,\nand enharmonie, it behooves one who comes to learn music to understand\npoetry, which uses these three parts, and to know how to express his\npoetical inventions in proper musical form.\n\nFirst therefore we are to consider that all musical learning is a sort\nof habituation, which does not teach the reason of her precepts at\none and the same time to the learner. Moreover, we are to understand\nthat to such an education there is not requisite an enumeration of\nits several divisions, but every one learns by chance what either\nthe master or scholar, according to the authority of the one and the\nliberty of the other, has most affection for. But the more prudent sort\nreject this chance-medley way of learning, as the Lacedaemonians of\nold, the Mantineans, and Pallenians, who, making choice either of one\nsingle method or else but very few styles, used only that sort of music\nwhich they deemed most proper to regulate the inclinations of youths.\n\n33. This will be apparent, if any one shall examine every one of the\nparts, and see what is the subject of their several contemplations. For\nharmony takes cognizance of intervals, systems, classes of harmonious\nsounds, notes, tones, and systematical transmutations. Farther than\nthis it goes not. And therefore it would be in vain to enquire of\nharmony, whether the poet have rightly and (so to speak) musically\nchosen the Dorian for the beginning, the mixed Lydian and Dorian for\nthe end, or the Hypophrygian and Phrygian for the middle. For the\nindustry of harmony reaches not to these, and it is defective in many\nother things, as not understanding the force and extent of elegant\naptness and proper concinnity. Neither did ever the chromatic or\nenharmonic species arrive to such force of aptitude as to discover\nthe nature and genius of the poem; for that is the work of the poet.\nIt is as plain, that the sound of the system is different from the\nsound of the descant sung in the same system; which, however, does not\nbelong to the consideration of harmonical studies. There is the same\nto be said concerning rhythms, for no rhythm can claim to itself the\nforce of perfect aptitude. For we call a thing apt and proper when\nwe consider the nature of it. The reason of this, we say, is either\na certain plain and mixed composure, or both; like the enharmonic\nspecies of Olympus, by him set in the Phrygian mood and mixed with\nthe paeon epibatos, which rendered the beginning of the key naturally\nelegant in what is called the nome of Minerva. For having made choice\nof his key and measure, he only changed the paeon epibatos for the\ntrochee, which produced his enharmonic species. However, the enharmonic\nspecies and Phrygian tone remaining together with the whole system,\nthe elegancy of the character was greatly altered. For that which was\ncalled harmony in the nome of Minerva was quite another thing from that\nin the introduction. He then that has both judgment as well as skill\nis to be accounted the most accurate musician. For he that understands\nthe Dorian mood, not being able withal to discern by his judgment what\nis proper to it and when it is fit to be made use of, shall never know\nwhat he does; nay, he shall quite mistake the nature and custom of the\nkey. Indeed it is much questioned among the Dorians themselves, whether\nthe enharmonic composers be competent judges of the Dorian songs. The\nsame is to be said concerning the knowledge of rhythm. For he that\nunderstands a paeon may not understand the proper use of it, though\nhe know the measure of which it consists. Because it is much doubted\namong those that make use of paeons, whether the bare knowledge make a\nman capable to determine concerning the proper use of those rhythms;\nor, as others say, whether it aspire to presume so far. Therefore it\nbehooves that person to have two sorts of knowledge, who will undertake\nto judge of what is proper and what improper; first, of the custom\nand manner of elegancy for which such a composition was intended, and\nnext of those things of which the composition consists. And thus, that\nneither the bare knowledge of harmony, nor of rhythm, nor of any other\nthings that singly by themselves are but a part of the whole body of\nmusic, is sufficient to judge and determine either of the one or the\nother, what has been already said may suffice to prove.\n\n34. [Now then, there being three species into which all harmony is\ndivided, equal in the magnitude of systems or intervals and force\nof notes and tetrachords, we find that the ancients never disputed\nabout any more than one; for they never troubled themselves with the\nchromatic or diatonic, but differed only about the enharmonic; and\nthere no farther than about the great interval called the diapason. The\nfurther subdivision indeed caused some little variance, but they nearly\nall agreed that harmony itself is but one.[65]] Therefore he must never\nthink to be a true artist in the understanding and practice of music,\nwho advances no farther than the single knowledge of this or that\nparticular; but it behooves him to trace through all the particular\nmembers of it, and so to be master of the whole body, by understanding\nhow to mix and join all the divided members. For he that understands\nonly harmony is confined to a single manner. Wherefore, in short, it is\nrequisite that the sense and understanding concur in judging the parts\nof music; and that they should neither be too hasty, like those senses\nwhich are rash and forward, nor too slow, like those which are dull\nand heavy; though it may happen sometimes, through the inequality of\nNature, that the same senses may be too slow and too quick at the same\ntime. Which things are to be avoided by a sense and judgment that would\nrun an equal course.\n\n35. For there are three things at least that at the same instant strike\nthe ear,\u2014the note, the time, and the word or syllable. By the note we\njudge of the harmony, by the time of the rhythm, and by the word of the\nmatter or subject of the song. As these proceed forth altogether, it\nis requisite the sense should give them entrance at the same moment.\nBut this is certain, where the sense is not able to separate every one\nof these and consider the effects of each apart, there it can never\napprehend what is well or what is amiss in any. First therefore let\nus discourse concerning coherence. For it is necessary that coherence\naccompany the discerning faculty. For judgment of good or bad is not\nto be made from notes disjoined, broken time, and shattered words, but\nfrom coherence. For there is in practice a certain commixture of parts\nwhich commonly are not compounded. So much as to coherence.\n\n36. We are next to consider whether the masters of music are\nsufficiently capable of being judges of it. Now I aver the negative.\nFor it is impossible to be a perfect musician and a good judge of music\nby the knowledge of those things that seem to be but parts of the whole\nbody, as by excellency of hand upon the instrument, or singing readily\nat first sight, or exquisiteness of the ear, so far as this extends to\nthe understanding of harmony and time. Neither does the knowledge of\ntime and harmony, pulsation or elocution, or whatever else falls under\nthe same consideration, perfect their judgment. Now for the reasons why\na musician cannot gain a perfect judgment from any of these, we must\nendeavor to make them clear. First then it must be granted that, of\nthings about which judgment is to be made, some are perfect and others\nimperfect. Those things which are perfect are the compositions in\ngeneral, whether sung or played, and the expression of those, whether\nupon the instruments or by the voice, with the rest of the same nature.\nThe imperfect are the things to these appertaining, and for whose sake\nthey are made use of. Such are the parts of expression. A second reason\nmay be found in poetry, with which the case is the same. For a man that\nhears a consort of voices or instruments can judge whether they sing or\nplay in tune, and whether the language be plain or not. But every one\nof these are only parts of instrumental and vocal expression; not the\nend itself, but for the sake of the end. For by these and things of the\nsame nature shall the elegancy of elocution be judged, whether it be\nproper to the poem which the performer undertakes to sing. The same is\nto be said of the several passions expressed in the poetry.\n\n37. The ancients now made principal account of the moral impression,\nand therefore preferred that fashion of the antique music which was\ngrave and least affected. Therefore the Argives are said to have\npunished deviation from the ancient music, and to have imposed a fine\nupon such as first adventured to play with more than seven strings,\nand to introduce the Mixolydian mood.[66] Pythagoras, that grave\nphilosopher, rejected the judging of music by the senses, affirming\nthat the virtue of music could be appreciated only by the intellect.\nAnd therefore he did not judge of music by the ear, but by the\nharmonical proportion, and thought it sufficient to fix the knowledge\nof music within the compass of the diapason.\n\n38. But our musicians nowadays have so utterly exploded the most noble\nof all the moods, which the ancients greatly admired for its majesty,\nthat hardly any among them make the least account of enharmonic\ndistances. And so negligent and lazy are they grown, as to believe\nthe enharmonic diesis to be too contemptible to fall under the\napprehension of sense, and they therefore exterminate it out of their\ncompositions, deeming those to be triflers that have any esteem for\nit or make use of the mood itself. For proof of which they think they\nbring a most powerful argument, which rather appears to be the dulness\nof their own senses; as if whatever fled their apprehensions were to\nbe rejected as useless and of no value. And then again they urge that\nits magnitude cannot be perceived through its concord, like that of\nthe semitone, tone, and other distances; not understanding, that at\nthe same time they throw out the third, fifth, and seventh, of which\nthe one consists of three, the other of five, and the last of seven\ndieses. And on the same principle all the intervals that are odd should\nbe rejected as useless, inasmuch as none of them is perceptible through\nconcord; and this would include all which by means of even the smallest\ndiesis are measured by odd numbers. Whence it necessarily follows, that\nno division of the tetrachord would be of use but that which is to be\nmeasured by all even intervals, as in the syntonic diatonic, and in the\ntoniaean chromatic.\n\n39. But these opinions are not only contrary to appearance, but\nrepugnant one to another. For they themselves chiefly make use of\nthose divisions of tetrachords in which most of the intervals are\neither unequal or irrational. To which purpose they always soften both\nlichanos and paranete, and lower even some of the standing sounds by an\nirrational interval, bringing the trite and paranete to approach them.\nAnd especially they applaud the use of those systems in which most of\nthe intervals are irrational, by relaxing not only those tones which\nare by nature movable, but also some which are properly fixed; as it is\nplain to those that rightly understand these things.\n\n40. Now for the advantages that accrue to men from the use of music,\nthe famous Homer has taught it us, introducing Achilles, in the height\nof his fury toward Agamemnon, appeased by the music which he learned\nfrom Chiron, a person of great wisdom. For thus says he:\u2014\n\n    Amused at ease, the god-like man they found,\n    Pleased with the solemn harp\u2019s harmonious sound.\n    The well-wrought harp from conquered Thebe came;\n    Of polished silver was its costly frame.\n    With this he soothes his angry soul, and sings\n    The immortal deeds of heroes and of kings.[67]\n\nLearn, says Homer, from hence the true use of music. For it became\nAchilles, the son of Peleus the Just, to sing the famous acts and\nachievements of great and valiant men. Also, in teaching the most\nproper time to make use of it, he found out a profitable and pleasing\npastime for one\u2019s leisure hours. For Achilles, being both valiant\nand active, by reason of the disgust he had taken against Agamemnon\nwithdrew from the war. Homer therefore thought he could not do better\nthan by the laudable incitements of music and poetry to inflame the\nhero\u2019s courage for those achievements which he afterwards performed.\nAnd this he did, calling to mind the great actions of former ages.\nSuch was then the ancient music, and such the advantages that made it\nprofitable. To which end and purpose we read that Hercules, Achilles,\nand many others made use of it; whose master, wisest Chiron, is\nrecorded to have taught not only music, but morality and physic.\n\n41. In brief therefore, a rational person will not blame the sciences\nthemselves, if any one make use of them amiss, but will adjudge such a\nfailing to be the error of those that abuse them. So that whoever he\nbe that shall give his mind to the study of music in his youth, if he\nmeet with a musical education, proper for the forming and regulating\nhis inclinations, he will be sure to applaud and embrace that which is\nnoble and generous, and to rebuke and blame the contrary, as well in\nother things as in what belongs to music. And by that means he will\nbecome clear from all reproachful actions, for now having reaped the\nnoblest fruit of music, he may be of great use, not only to himself\nbut to the commonwealth; while music teaches him to abstain from\nevery thing indecent both in word and deed, and to observe decorum,\ntemperance, and regularity.\n\n42. Now that those cities which were governed by the best laws took\ncare always of a generous education in music, many testimonies may be\nproduced. But for us it shall suffice to have instanced Terpander, who\nappeased a sedition among the Lacedaemonians, and Thaletas the Cretan,\nof whom Pratinas writes that, being sent for by the Lacedaemonians by\nadvice of the oracle, he freed the city from a raging pestilence. Homer\ntells that the Grecians stopped the fury of another noisome pestilence\nby the power and charms of the same noble science:\u2014\n\n    With sacred hymns and songs that sweetly please,\n    The Grecian youth all day the Gods appease.\n    Their lofty paeans bright Apollo hears,\n    And still the charming sounds delight his ears.\n\nThese verses, most excellent master, I thought requisite to add as\nthe finishing stone to my musical discourse, which were by you cited\nbefore[68] to show the force of harmony. For indeed the chiefest and\nsublimest end of music is the graceful return of our thanks to the\nGods, and the next is to purify and bring our minds to a sober and\nharmonious temper. Thus, said Soterichus, most excellent master, I have\ngiven you what may be called an encyclic discourse of music.\n\n43. Nor was Soterichus a little admired for what he had spoken, as\none that both by his countenance and speech had shown his zeal and\naffection for that noble science. After all, said Onesicrates, I must\nneeds applaud this in both of you, that you have kept within your own\nspheres and observed your proper limits. For Lysias, not insisting any\nfurther, undertook only to show us what was necessary to the making a\ngood hand, as being an excellent performer himself. But Soterichus has\nfeasted us with a discovery of the benefit, the theory, the force, and\nright end of music. But one thing I think they have willingly left for\nme to say; for I cannot think them guilty of so much bashfulness that\nthey should be ashamed to bring music into banquets, where certainly,\nif anywhere, it cannot but be very useful, which Homer also confirms to\nbe true:\u2014\n\n    Song and the merry dance, the joy of feasts.[69]\n\nNot that I would have any one believe from these words, that Homer\nthought music useful only for pleasure and delight, there being a\nprofounder meaning concealed in the verse. For he brought in music to\nbe present at the banquets and revels of the ancients, as believing\nit then to be of greatest use and advantage to repel and mitigate the\ninflaming power of the wine. To which our Aristoxenus agrees, who\nalleges that music was introduced at banquets for this reason, that as\nwine intemperately drunk weakens both the body and mind, so music by\nits harmonious order and symmetry assuages and reduces them to their\nformer constitution. And therefore it was that Homer reports that the\nancients made use of music at their solemn festivals.\n\n44. But for all this, my most honored friends, methinks you have\nforgot the chiefest thing of all, and that which renders music most\nmajestic. For Pythagoras, Archytas, Plato, and many others of the\nancient philosophers, were of opinion, that there could be no motion of\nthe world or rolling of the spheres without the assistance of music,\nsince the Supreme Deity created all things harmoniously. But it would\nbe unseasonable now to enter upon such a discourse, especially at this\ntime, when it would be absurd for Music to transgress her highest and\nmost musical office, which is to give the laws and limits of time and\nmeasure to all things. Therefore after he had sung a paean, and offered\nto Saturn and his offspring, with all the other Gods and the Muses, he\ndismissed the company.\n\n\n\n\nOF THE TRANQUILLITY OF THE MIND.\n\n\nPLUTARCH WISHETH ALL HEALTH TO HIS PACCIUS.\n\n1. It was late before I received your letter, wherein you make it your\nrequest that I would write something to you concerning the tranquillity\nof the mind, and of those things in the Timaeus which require a more\nperspicuous interpretation. At the same time a very urgent occasion\ncalled upon our common friend and companion Eros to sail directly to\nRome; that which quickened him to a greater expedition was a dispatch\nhe received from Fundanus, that best of men, who, as his custom is,\nalways enjoins the making haste. Therefore, wanting full leisure to\nconsummate those things justly which you requested, and being on the\nother side unwilling to send one from me to your dear self empty\nhanded, I have transcribed my commonplace book, and hastily put\ntogether those collections which I had by me concerning this subject;\nfor I thought you a man that did not look after flourishes of style\nand the affected elegance of language, but only required what was\ninstructive in its nature and useful to us in the conduct of our\nlives. And I congratulate that bravery of temper in you, that though\nyou are admitted into the confidence of princes, and have obtained so\ngreat a vogue of eloquence at the bar that no man hath exceeded you,\nyou have not, like the tragic Merops, suffered yourself to be puffed\nup with the applause of the multitude, and transported beyond those\nbounds which are prescribed to our passions; but you call to mind\nthat which you have so often heard, that a rich slipper will not cure\nthe gout, a diamond ring a whitlow, nor will an imperial diadem ease\nthe headache. For what advantage is there in honor, riches, or an\ninterest at court, to remove all perturbations of mind and procure an\nequal tenor of life, if we do not use them with decency when they are\npresent to our enjoyment, and if we are continually afflicted by their\nloss when we are deprived of them? And what is this but the province\nof reason, when the sensual part of us grows turbulent and makes\nexcursions, to check its sallies and bring it again within the limits\nit hath transgressed, that it may not be carried away and so perverted\nwith the gay appearances of things. For as Xenophon gives advice, we\nought to remember the Gods and pay them particular devotions when our\naffairs are prosperous, that so when an exigency presseth us we may\nmore confidently invoke them, now we have conciliated their favor and\nmade them our friends. So wise men always ruminate upon those arguments\nwhich have any efficacy against the troubles of the mind before their\ncalamities happen, that so the remedies being long prepared, they may\nacquire energy, and work with a more powerful operation. For as angry\ndogs are exasperated by every one\u2019s rating them, and are flattered\nto be quiet only by his voice to which they are accustomed; so it is\nnot easy to pacify the brutish affections of the soul but by familiar\nreasons, and such as are used to be administered in such inward\ndistempers.\n\n2. Besides, he that affirmed that whosoever would enjoy tranquillity of\nmind must disengage himself from all private and public concerns, would\nmake us pay dear for our tranquillity by buying it with idleness; as if\nhe should prescribe thus to a sick man:\u2014\n\n    Lie still, poor wretch, and keep thy bed.[70]\n\nNow stupefaction is a bad remedy for desperate pain in the body, and\nverily he would be no better physician for the soul who should order\nidleness, softness, and neglect of friends, kinsfolk, and country, in\norder to remove its trouble and grief. It is likewise a false position\nthat those live most contentedly who have the least to do; for then by\nthis rule women should be of more sedate dispositions than men, since\nthey only sit at home and mind their domestic affairs. Whereas in fact,\nas Hesiod expresseth it,\u2014\n\n    The virgins\u2019 tender limbs are kept from cold;\n    Not the least wind to touch them is so bold;[71]\n\nbut nevertheless we see that grief and troubles and discontentments,\narising from jealousy or superstition or vain opinions, flow as it were\nwith a torrent into the apartments of the females. And though Laertes\nlived twenty years in the fields secluded from the world, and\n\n    Only a toothless hag did make his bed,\n    Draw him his drink, and did his table spread,[72]\n\nthough he forsook his house and country, and fled from a kingdom, yet\ngrief with his sloth and sadness still kept him company. There are some\nto whom idleness hath been an affliction; as for instance,\u2014\n\n    But raging still, amidst his navy sat\n    The stern Achilles, steadfast in his hate;\n    Nor mix\u2019d in combat, nor in council join\u2019d;\n    But wasting cares lay heavy on his mind:\n    In his black thoughts revenge and slaughter roll,\n    And scenes of blood rise dreadful in his soul.[73]\n\nAnd he himself complains of it, being mightily disturbed, after this\nmanner:\u2014\n\n    I live an idle burden to the ground.[74]\n\nHence it is that Epicurus adviseth those who aspire to glory not to\nstagnate in their ambition, but be in perpetual motion, and so obey\nthe dictates of their genius in managing the commonwealth; because they\nwould be more tormented and would suffer greater damages by idleness,\nif they were disappointed of that they were in the eager pursuit of.\nBut the philosopher is absurd in this, that he doth not excite men who\nhave abilities to qualify themselves for charges in the government,\nbut only those who are of a restless and unquiet disposition. For the\ntranquillity and perturbation of the mind are not to be measured by the\nfewness or multitude of our actions, but by their beauty or turpitude;\nsince the omission of what is good is no less troublesome than the\ncommission of evil.\n\n3. As for those who think there is one positive state of life, which\nis always serene,\u2014some fancying it to be of the husbandmen, others of\nthose which are unmarried, and some of kings,\u2014Menander clearly shows\nthem their error in these verses:\u2014\n\n    I thought those men, my Phania, always best,\n    Who take no money up at interest;\n    Who disengaged from business spend the day,\n    And in complaints don\u2019t sigh the night away,\n    Who, troubled, lamentable groans don\u2019t fetch,\n    Thus breathing out, Ah! miserable wretch!\n    Those whom despairing thoughts don\u2019t waking keep,\n    But without startings sweetly take their sleep.\n\nHe goes on and observes to us, that the same lot of misfortune falls to\nthe rich as well as the poor:\u2014\n\n    These neighbors slender confines do divide,\u2014\n    Sorrow and human life are still allied.\n    It the luxurious liver doth infest,\n    And robs the man of honor of his rest;\n    In stricter ties doth with the poor engage,\n    With him grows old to a decrepit age.\n\nBut as timorous and raw sailors in a boat, when they grow sick with the\nworking of the waves, think they shall overcome their pukings if they\ngo on board of a ship, but there being equally out of order, go into a\ngalley, but are therefore never the better, because they carry their\nnauseousness and fear along with them; so the several changes of life\ndo only shift and not wholly extirpate the causes of our trouble. And\nthese are only our want of experience, the weakness of our judgment,\nand a certain impotence of mind which hinders us from making a right\nuse of what we enjoy. The rich man is subject to this uneasiness of\nhumor as well as the poor; the bachelor as well as the man in wedlock.\nThis makes the pleader withdraw from the bar, and then his retirement\nis altogether as irksome. And this infuseth a desire into others to be\npresented at court; and when they come there, they presently grow weary\nof the life.\n\n    Poor men when sick do peevishly complain,\n    The sense of want doth aggravate their pain.[75]\n\nFor then the wife grows officious in her attendance, the physician\nhimself is a disease, and the bed is not made easy enough to his mind;\neven his friend importunes him with his visits:\u2014\n\n    He doth molest him when he first doth come,\n    And when he goes away he\u2019s troublesome,\n\nas Ion expresseth it. But when the heat of the disease is over and the\nformer temperature of the body is restored, then health returns, and\nbrings with it all those pleasant images which sickness chased away; so\nthat he that yesterday refused eggs and delicate cakes and the finest\nmanchets will now snap eagerly at a piece of household bread, with an\nolive and a few water-cresses.\n\n4. So reason makes all sorts of life easy, and every change pleasant.\nAlexander wept when he heard from Anaxarchus that there was an infinite\nnumber of worlds, and his friends asking him if any accident had\nbefallen him, he returns this answer: Do not you think it a matter\nworthy of lamentation, that, when there is such a vast multitude of\nthem, we have not yet conquered one? But Crates with only his scrip\nand tattered cloak laughed out his life jocosely, as if he had been\nalways at a festival. The great power and command of Agamemnon gave him\nan equal disturbance:\u2014\n\n    Look upon Agamemnon, Atreus\u2019s son,\n    What mighty loads of trouble he hath on.\n    He is distracted with perpetual care;\n    Jove that inflicts it gives him strength to bear.[76]\n\nDiogenes, when he was exposed to sale in the market and was commanded\nto stand up, not only refused to do it, but ridiculed the auctioneer,\nwith this piece of raillery: What! if you were selling a fish, would\nyou bid it rise up? Socrates was a philosopher in the prison, and\ndiscoursed with his friends, though he was fettered. But Phaeton, when\nhe climbed up into heaven, thought himself unhappy there, because\nnobody would give him his father\u2019s chariot and the horses of the sun.\nAs therefore the shoe is twisted to the shape of the foot and not in\nthe opposite way, so do the affections of the mind render the life\nconformable to themselves. For it is not custom, as one observed, which\nmakes even the best life pleasant to those who choose it, but it must\nbe prudence in conjunction with it, which makes it not only the best\nfor its kind, but sweetest in its enjoyment. The fountain therefore of\ntranquillity being in ourselves, let us cleanse it from all impurity\nand make its streams limpid, that all external accidents, by being made\nfamiliar, may be no longer grievous to us, since we shall know how to\nuse them well.\n\n    Let not these things thy least concern engage;\n    For though thou fret, they will not mind thy rage.\n    Him only good and happy we may call\n    Who rightly useth what doth him befall.[77]\n\n5. For Plato compared our life to a game at dice, where we ought to\nthrow for what is most commodious for us, but when we have thrown, to\nmake the best of our casts. We cannot make what chances we please turn\nup, if we play fair; this lies out of our power. That which is within\nour power, and is our duty if we are wise, is to accept patiently what\nFortune shall allot us, and so to adjust things in their proper places,\nthat what is our own may be disposed of to the best advantage, and what\nhath happened against our will may offend us as little as possible.\nBut as to men who live without measures and with no prudence, like\nthose whose constitution is so sickly and infirm that they are equally\nimpatient both of heats and colds, prosperity exalts them above their\ntemper, and adversity dejects them beneath it; indeed each fortune\ndisturbs them, or rather they raise up storms to themselves in either,\nand they are especially querulous under good circumstances. Theodorus,\nwho was called the Atheist, was used to say, that he reached out his\ninstructions with the right hand, and his auditors received them with\ntheir left hands. So men of no education, when Fortune would even be\ncomplaisant to them, are yet so awkward in their observance, that they\ntake her addresses on the wrong side. On the contrary, men that are\nwise, as the bees draw honey from the thyme, which is a most unsavory\nand dry herb, extract something that is convenient and useful even from\nthe most bitter afflictions.\n\n6. This therefore let us learn and have inculcated upon us; like the\nman who threw a stone at a bitch, but hit his step-mother, on which\nhe exclaimed, Not so bad. So we may often turn the direction of what\nFortune obtrudes upon us contrary to our desires. Diogenes was driven\ninto banishment, but it was \u201cnot so bad\u201d for him; for of an exile he\nbecame a philosopher. Zeno of Citium, when he heard that the only ship\nhe had left was sunk by an unmerciful tempest, with all the rich cargo\nthat was in her, brake out into this exclamation: Fortune, I applaud\nthy contrivance, who by this means hast reduced me to a threadbare\ncloak and the piazza of the Stoics. What hinders then but that\nthese examples should be the patterns of our imitation? Thou stoodst\ncandidate for a place in the government, and wast baulked in thy hopes;\nconsider that thou wilt live at ease in thy own country, following thy\nown affairs. Thou wast ambitious to be the confidant of some great\nperson, and sufferedst a repulse; thou wilt gain thus much by it, that\nthou wilt be free from danger and disembarrassed from business. Again,\nhast thou managed any affairs full of intricacy and trouble? Hot water\ndoth not so much cherish the soft members of the body, as Pindar[78]\nexpresseth it, as glory and honor joined with power sweeten all our\ntoils and make labor easy. Hast thou met with any unfortunate success?\nHath calumny bit, or envy hissed at thee? There is yet a prosperous\ngale, which sits fair to convey thee to the port of the Muses and\nland thee at the Academy. This Plato did, after he made shipwreck of\nthe friendship of Diogenes. And indeed it highly conduceth to the\ntranquillity of the mind, to look back upon illustrious men and see\nwith what temper they have borne their calamities. For instance, doth\nit trouble thee that thou wantest children? Consider that kings of the\nRomans have died without them,\u2014had kingdoms to leave, but no heirs.\nDoth poverty and low condition afflict thee? It is put to thy option,\nwouldst thou not rather of all the Boeotians be Epaminondas, and of\nall the Romans Fabricius? But thy bed is violated, and thy wife is an\nadulteress. Didst thou never read this inscription at Delphi?\u2014\n\n    Here am I set by Agis\u2019 royal hand,\n    Who both the earth and ocean did command.\n\nAnd yet did the report never arrive thee that Alcibiades debauched this\nking\u2019s wife, Timaea?\u2014and that she herself whispered archly to her\nmaids, that the child was not the genuine offspring of her husband,\nbut a young Alcibiades? Yet this did not obstruct the glory of the\nman; for, notwithstanding his being a cuckold, he was the greatest and\nmost famous among the Greeks. Nor did the dissolute manners of his\ndaughter hinder Stilpo from enlivening his humor and being the jolliest\nphilosopher of his time; for when Metrocles upbraided him with it, he\nasked him whether he was the offender or his mad girl. He answered,\nthat it was her sin but his misfortune. To which Stilpo replied: But\nare not sins lapses? No doubt of it, saith Metrocles. And is not that\nproperly called lapse, when we fall off from the attainment of those\nthings we were in the pursuit of? He could not deny it. He pursued\nhim further with this question: And are not these unlucky traverses\nmisfortunes to them who are thus disappointed? Thus by a pleasant and\nphilosophical reasoning he turned the discourse, and showed the Cynic\nthat his calumny was idle and he barked in vain.\n\n7. But there are some whom not only the evil dispositions of their\nfriends and domestics, but those of their enemies, give disturbance to.\nFor a proneness to speak evil of another, anger, envy, ill-nature, a\njealous and perverse temper, are the pests of those who are infected\nwith them. And these serve only to trouble and exasperate fools, like\nthe brawls of scolding neighbors, the peevishness of our acquaintance,\nand the iniquity or want of qualifications in those who administer\nthe government. But thou seemest to me to be especially concerned\nwith affairs of this nature; for, like the physicians mentioned by\nSophocles,\u2014\n\n    Who bitter choler cleanse and scour\n    With drugs as bitter and as sour,\u2014\n\nthou dost let other men\u2019s enormities sour thy blood; which is highly\nirrational. For, even in matters of private management, thou dost\nnot always employ men of wit and address, which are the most proper\nfor such an execution, but sometimes those of rough and crooked\ndispositions; and to animadvert upon them for every peccadillo thou\nmust not think belongs to thee, nor is it easy in the performance.\nBut if thou makest that use of them, as chirurgeons do of forceps to\npull out teeth or ligatures to bind wounds, and so appear cheerful\nwhatever falls out, the satisfaction of thy mind will delight thee\nmore than the concern at other men\u2019s pravity and malicious humor will\ndisturb thee. Otherwise, as dogs bark at all persons indifferently,\nso, if thou persecutest everybody that offends thee, thou wilt bring\nthe matter to this pass by thy imprudence, that all things will flow\ndown into this imbecility of thy mind, as a place void and capable of\nreceiving them, and at last thou wilt be filled with nothing but other\nmen\u2019s miscarriages. For if some of the philosophers inveigh against\ncompassion which others\u2019 calamities affect us with, as a soft affection\n(saying, that we ought to give real assistance to those in distress,\nand not to be dejected or sympathize with them), and if\u2014which is a\nthing of higher moment\u2014they discard all sadness and uneasiness when\nthe sense of a vice or a disease is upon us, saying that we ought\nto cure the indisposition without being grieved; is it not highly\nconsonant to reason, that we should not storm or fret, if those we\nhave to do with are not so wise and honest as they should be? Let us\nconsider the thing truly, my Paccius, lest, whilst we find fault with\nothers, we prove partial in our own respect through inadvertency,\nand lest our censuring their failings may proceed not so much from a\nhatred of their vices as from love of ourselves. We should not have\nour passions moved at every provocation, nor let our desires grow\nexorbitant beyond what is just; for these little aversions of our\ntemper engender suspicions, and infuse moroseness into us, which makes\nus surly to those who precluded the way to our ambition, or who made us\nfall into those disastrous events we would willingly have shunned. But\nhe that hath a smoothness in his nature and a talent of moderation can\ntransact and converse with mankind easily and with mildness.\n\n8. Let us recapitulate therefore what we have said. When we are in\na fever, every thing that we taste is not only unsavory but bitter;\nbut when we see others relish it without any disgust, we do not then\nlay the blame either upon the meat or drink, but conclude that only\nourselves and the disease are in fault. In like manner we shall cease\nto bear things impatiently, if we see others enjoy them with alacrity\nand humor. And this likewise is a great promoter of the tranquillity\nof the mind, if, amongst those ill successes which carry a dismal\nappearance, we look upon other events which have a more beautiful\naspect, and so blend them together that we may overcome the bad by the\nmixture of the good. But although, when our eyes are dazzled with too\nintense a splendor, we refresh our sight by viewing something that\nis green and florid, yet we fix the optics of our minds upon doleful\nobjects, and compel them to dwell upon the recital of our miseries,\nplucking them perforce, as it were, from the consideration of what is\nbetter. And here we may insert that which was said to a pragmatical\nfellow, handsomely enough:\u2014\n\n    Why so quick sighted others\u2019 faults to find,\n    But to thy own so partially art blind?\n    \u2019Tis malice that exasperates thy mind.\n\nBut why, my friend, art thou so acute to discern even thy own\nmisfortunes, and so industrious to renew them and set them in thy\nsight, that they may be the more conspicuous, while thou never turnest\nthy consideration to those good things which are present with thee and\nthou dost enjoy? But as cupping-glasses draw the impurest blood out\nof the body, so thou dost extract the quintessence of infelicity to\nafflict thyself. In this thou art no better than the Chian merchant,\nwho, while he sold abundance of his best and most generous wine to\nothers, called for some that was pricked and vapid to taste at supper;\nand one of his servants asking another what he left his master doing,\nhe made this answer, that he was calling for bad when the good was\nby him. For most men leave the pleasant and delectable things behind\nthem, and run with haste to embrace those which are not only difficult\nbut intolerable. Aristippus was not of this number, for he knew, even\nto the niceness of a grain, to put prosperous against adverse fortune\ninto the scale, that the one might outweigh the other. Therefore when\nhe lost a noble farm, he asked one of his dissembled friends, who\npretended to be sorry, not only with regret but impatience, for his\nmishap: Thou hast but one piece of land, but have I not three farms yet\nremaining? He assenting to the truth of it: Why then, saith he, should\nI not rather lament your misfortune, since it is the raving only of a\nmad man to be concerned at what is lost, and not rather rejoice in what\nis left? Thus, as children, if you rob them of one of their play-games,\nwill throw away the rest, and cry and scream; so, if Fortune infest us\nonly in one part, we grow fearful and abandon ourselves wholly to her\nattacks.\n\n9. But somebody will object to me, What is it that we have? Rather,\nWhat is it that we have not? One is honorable, the other is master\nof a family; this man hath a good wife, the other a faithful friend.\nAntipater of Tarsus, when he was upon his death-bed and reckoning up\nall the good events which had befallen him, would not omit a prosperous\nvoyage which he had when he sailed from Cilicia to Athens. Even the\ntrite and common blessings are not to be despised, but ought to take up\na room in our deliberations. We should rejoice that we live, and are\nin health, and see the sun; that there are no wars nor seditions in\nour country; that the earth yields to cultivation, and that the sea is\nopen to our traffic; that we can talk, be silent, do business, and be\nat leisure, when we please. They will afford us greater tranquillity\nof mind present, if we form some just ideas of them when they are\nabsent; if we often call to our remembrance how solicitous the sick man\nis after health, how acceptable peace is to put out a war, and what a\ncourtesy it will do us to gain credit and acquire friends in a city of\nnote, where we are strangers and unknown; and contrariwise, how great a\ngrief it is to forego these things when we once have them. For surely\na thing does not become great and precious when we have lost it, while\nit is of no account so long as we possess it; for the value of a thing\ncannot be increased by its loss. But we ought not to take pains to\nacquire things as being of great value, and to be in fear and trembling\nlest we may lose them, as if they were precious, and then all the time\nthey are safe in our possession, to neglect them as if they were of no\nimportance. But we are so to use them that we may reap satisfaction\nand gain a solid pleasure from them, that so we may be the better\nenabled to endure their loss with evenness of temper. But most men, as\nArcesilaus observed, think they must be critics upon other men\u2019s poems,\nsurvey their pictures with a curious eye, and examine their statues\nwith all the delicacy of sculpture, but in the meanwhile transiently\npass over their own lives, though there be some things in them which\nwill not only detain but please their consideration. But they will\nnot restrain the prospect to themselves, but are perpetually looking\nabroad, and so become servile admirers of other men\u2019s fortune and\nreputation; as adulterers are always gloating upon other men\u2019s wives\nand contemning their own.\n\n10. Besides, this is a thing highly conducing to the tranquillity of\nthe mind, for a man chiefly to consider himself and his own affairs.\nBut if this always cannot take place, he should not make comparisons\nwith men of a superior condition to himself; though this is the\nepidemical frenzy of the vulgar. As for instance, slaves who lie in\nfetters applaud their good fortune whose shackles are off; those who\nare loosed from their bonds would be free men by manumission; these\nagain aspire to be citizens; the citizen would be rich; the wealthy\nman would be a governor of a province; the haughty governor would be\na king, and the king a God, hardly resting content unless he can hurl\nthunderbolts and dart lightning. So all are eager for what is above\nthem, and are never content with what they have.\n\n    The wealth of golden Gyges has no delight for me.\n\nLikewise,\u2014\n\n    No emulation doth my spirits fire,\n    The actions of the Gods I don\u2019t admire.\n    I would not, to be great, a tyrant be;\n    The least appearances I would not see.\n\nBut one of Thasis, another of Chios, one of Galatia, and a fourth of\nBithynia, not contenting themselves with the rank they enjoyed amongst\ntheir fellow-citizens, where they had honor and commands, complain\nthat they have not foreign characters and are not made patricians of\nRome; and if they attain that dignity, that they are not praetors; and\nif they arrive even to that degree, they still think themselves ill\ndealt with that they are not consuls; and when promoted to the fasces,\nthat they were declared the second, and not the first. And what is all\nthis but ungratefully accusing Fortune, and industriously picking out\noccasions to punish and torment ourselves? But he that is in his right\nsenses and wise for his own advantage, out of those many millions which\nthe sun looks upon,\n\n    Who of the products of the earth do eat,[79]\n\nif he sees any one in the mighty throng who is more rich and honorable\nthan himself, he is neither dejected in his mind nor countenance, nor\ndoth he pensively sit down deploring his unhappiness, but he walks\nabroad publicly with an honest assurance. He celebrates his own good\ngenius, and boasts of his good fortune in that it is happier than a\nthousand other men\u2019s which are in the world. In the Olympic games you\ncannot gain the victory choosing your antagonist. But in human life\naffairs allow thee to excel many and to bear thyself aloft, and to\nbe envied rather than envious; unless indeed thou dost match thyself\nunequally with a Briareus or a Hercules. Therefore, when thou art\nsurprised into a false admiration of him who is carried in his sedan,\ncast thy eyes downward upon the slaves who support his luxury. When\nthou art wondering at the greatness of Xerxes crossing the Hellespont,\nconsider those wretches who are digging through Mount Athos, who are\nurged to their labor with blows, blood being mixed with their sweat;\ncall to mind that they had their ears and noses cut off, because the\nbridge was broken by the violence of the waves; think upon that secret\nreflection they have, and how happy they would esteem thy life and\ncondition. Socrates hearing one of his friends crying out, How dear\nthings are sold in this city! the wine of Chios costs a mina, the\npurple fish three, and a half pint of honey five drachms,\u2014he brought\nhim to the meal-shop, and showed him that half a peck of flour was\nsold for a penny. \u2019Tis a cheap city, said he. Then he brought him to\nthe oil-man\u2019s, and told him he might have a quart of olives for two\nfarthings. At last he went to the salesman\u2019s, and convinced him that\nthe purchase of a sleeveless jerkin was only ten drachms. \u2019Tis a cheap\ncity, he repeated. So, when we hear others declare that our condition\nis afflicted because we are not consuls and in eminent command, let\nus then look upon ourselves as living not only in a bare happiness\nbut splendor, in that we do not beg our bread, and are not forced to\nsubsist by carrying of burthens or by flattery.\n\n11. But such is our folly, that we accustom ourselves rather to live\nfor other men\u2019s sakes than our own; and our dispositions are so prone\nto upbraidings and to be tainted with envy, that the grief we conceive\nat others\u2019 prosperity lessens the joy we ought to take in our own. But\nto cure thee of this extravagant emulation, look not upon the outside\nof these applauded men, which is so gay and brilliant, but draw the\ngaudy curtain and carry thy eyes inward, and thou shalt find most\ngnawing disquiets to be dissembled under these false appearances. When\nthe renowned Pittacus, who got him so great a name for his fortitude,\nwisdom, and justice, was entertaining his friends at a noble banquet,\nand his spouse in an angry humor came and overturned the table; his\nguests being extremely disturbed at it, he told them: Every one of you\nhath his particular plague, and my wife is mine; and he is very happy\nwho hath this only.\n\n    The pleading lawyer\u2019s happy at the bar;\n    But the scene opening shows a civil war.\n    For the good man hath a domestic strife,\n    He\u2019s slave to that imperious creature, wife.\n    Scolding without doors doth to him belong,\n    But she within them doth claim all the tongue.\n    Pecked by his female tyrant him I see,\n    Whilst from this grievance I myself am free.\n\nThese are the secret stings which are inseparable from honor,\nriches, and dominion, and which are unknown to the vulgar, because a\ncounterfeit lustre dazzleth their sight.\n\n    All pleasant things Atrides doth adorn;\n    The merry genius smiled when he was born.[80]\n\nAnd they compute this happiness from his great stores of ammunition,\nhis variety of managed horses, and his battalions of disciplined men.\nBut an inward voice of sorrow seems to silence all this ostentation\nwith mournful accents:\u2014\n\n    Jove in a deep affliction did him plunge.[81]\n\nObserve this likewise:\u2014\n\n    Old man, I reverence thy aged head,\n    Who to a mighty length hast spun thy thread;\n    Safe from all dangers, to the grave goest down\n    Ingloriously, because thou art unknown.[82]\n\nSuch expostulations as these with thyself will serve to dispel this\nquerulous humor, which makes thee fondly applaud other people\u2019s\nconditions and depreciate thy own.\n\n12. This likewise greatly obstructs the tranquillity of the mind,\nthat our desires are immoderate and not suited to our abilities of\nattainment, which, like sails beyond the proportion of the vessel,\nhelp only to overset it; so that, being blown up with extravagant\nexpectations, if ill success frustrates our attempts, we presently\ncurse our stars and accuse Fortune, when we ought rather to lay the\nblame upon our enterprising folly. For we do not reckon him unfortunate\nwho will shoot with a ploughshare, and let slip an ox at a hare. Nor\nis he born under an unlucky influence who cannot catch a buck with a\nsling or drag-net; for it was the weakness and perverseness of his mind\nwhich inflamed him on to impossible things. The partial love of himself\nis chiefly in fault, which infuseth a vicious inclination to arrogate,\nand an insatiable ambition to attempt every thing. For they are not\ncontent with the affluence of riches and the accomplishments of the\nmind, that they are robust, have a complaisance of humor and strength\nof brain for company, that they are privadoes to princes and governors\nof cities, unless they have dogs of great sagacity and swiftness,\nhorses of a generous strain, nay, unless their quails and cocks are\nbetter than other men\u2019s. Old Dionysius, not being satisfied that he\nwas the greatest potentate of his time, grew angry, even to a frenzy,\nthat Philoxenus the poet exceeded him in the sweetness of his voice,\nand Plato in the subtleties of disputation; therefore he condemned one\nto the quarries, and sold the other into Aegina. But Alexander was of\nanother temper; for when Criso the famous runner contended with him\nfor swiftness, and seemed to be designedly lagging behind and yielding\nthe race, he was in a great rage with him. And Achilles in Homer spake\nvery well, when he said:\u2014\n\n    None of the Greeks for courage me excel;\n    Let others have the praise of speaking well.[83]\n\nWhen Megabyzus the Persian came into the shop of Apelles, and began\nto ask some impertinent questions concerning his art, the famous\npainter checked him into silence with this reprimand: As long as thou\ndidst hold thy peace, thou didst appear to be a man of condition, and\nI paid a deference to the eclat of thy purple and the lustre of thy\ngold; but now, since thou art frivolous, thou exposest thyself to the\nlaughter even of my boys that mix the colors. Some think the Stoics\nvery childish, when they hear them affirm that the wise man must not\nonly deserve that appellation for his prudence, be of exact justice\nand great fortitude, but must likewise have all the flowers of a\nrhetorician and the conduct of a general, must have the elegancies of\na poet, be very wealthy, and called a king; but these good men claim\nall these titles for themselves, and if they do not receive them, they\ngrow peevish and are presently out of temper. But the qualifications of\nthe Gods themselves are different; for the one is styled the deity of\nwar, another of the oracle, a third of traffic; and Jupiter makes Venus\npreside over marriages and be goddess of the nuptial bed, the delicacy\nof her sex being unapt for martial affairs.\n\n13. And there are some things which carry a contrariety in their\nnature, and cannot be consistent. As for instance, the study of the\nmathematics and practice in oratory are exercises which require a\ngreat leisure and freedom from other concerns; but the intrigues of\npolitics cannot be managed, and the favor of princes cannot be attained\nor cultivated, without severe application and being involved in\naffairs of high moment. Then the indulging ourselves to drink wine\nand eat flesh makes the body strong, but it effeminates the mind.\nIndustry to acquire and care to preserve our wealth do infinitely\nincrease it; but the contempt of riches is the best refreshment in our\nphilosophic journey. Hence it is very manifest that there is a wide\ndifference in things, and that we ought to obey the inscription of the\nPythian oracle, that every man should know himself, that he should not\nconstrain his genius but leave it to its own propensions, and then that\nhe should apply himself to that to which he is most adapted, and not do\nviolence to Nature by dragging her perforce to this or that course of\nlife.\n\n    With generous provender they the horse do feed,\n    That he may win the race with strength and speed.\n    The mighty ox is fitted to the yoke,\n    And by his toil the fertile clods are broke.\n    The dolphin, when a ship he doth espy,\n    Straight the good-natured fish his fins doth ply;\n    By the ship\u2019s motion he his own doth guide,\n    And lovingly swims constant to her side.\n    And if you\u2019d apprehend the foaming boar,\n    The monster by a mastiff must be tore.[84]\n\nBut he is stupid in his wishes who takes it amiss that he is not a lion,\n\n    Who with a proud insulting air doth tread,\n    Rough as the mountains where he first was bred;[85]\n\nor that he is not a Malta-shock, delicately brought up in the lap of a\nfond widow. He is not a jot more rational who would be an Empedocles,\na Plato, or a Democritus, and write about the universe and the reality\nof things therein, and at the same time would sleep by the dry side of\nan old woman, because she is rich, as Euphorion did; or be admitted to\ndebauch with Alexander amongst his club of drunkards, as Medius was;\nor be concerned that he is not in as high a vogue of admiration as\nIsmenias was for his riches and Epaminondas for his virtue. For those\nwho run races do not think they have injury done them if they are\nnot crowned with those garlands which are due to the wrestlers, but\nthey are rather transported with joy at their own rewards. \u201cSparta has\nfallen to thy lot; honor and adorn her.\u201d Solon hath expressed himself\nto this purpose:\u2014\n\n    Virtue for sordid wealth shall not be sold;\n    It\u2019s beauty far outshines the miser\u2019s gold.\n    This without Fortune\u2019s shocks doth still endure;\n    But that\u2019s possession is insecure.[86]\n\nAnd Strato, who wrote of physics, when he heard that Menedemus had\na great number of scholars, asked: What wonder is it, if more come\nto wash than to be anointed? And Aristotle, writing to Antipater,\ndeclared, that Alexander was not the only one who ought to think\nhighly of himself because his dominion extended over many subjects,\nsince they had a right to think as well of themselves who entertained\nbecoming sentiments of the Gods. So that, by having a just opinion of\nour own excellences, we shall be disturbed with the less envy against\nthose of other men. But now, although in other cases we do not expect\nfigs from the vine nor grapes from the olive-tree, yet, if we have not\nthe complicated titles of being rich and learned, philosophers in the\nschools and commanders in the field, if we cannot flatter, and have the\nfacetious liberty to speak what we please, nay, if we are not counted\nparsimonious and splendid in our expenses at the same time, we grow\nuneasy to ourselves, and despise our life as maimed and imperfect.\nBesides, Nature seems to instruct us herself; for, as she ministers\ndifferent sorts of food to her animals, and hath endowed them with\ndiversity of appetites,\u2014some to eat flesh, others to pick up seed, and\nothers to dig up roots for their nourishment,\u2014so she hath bestowed\nupon her rational creatures various sorts of accommodations to sustain\ntheir being. The shepherd hath one distinct from the ploughman; the\nfowler hath another peculiar to himself; and the fourth lives by the\nsea. So that in common equity we ought to labor in that vocation which\nis appointed and most commodious for us, and let alone the rest; and so\nnot to prove that Hesiod fell short of the truth when he spake after\nthis manner:\u2014\n\n    The potter hates another of the trade,\n    If by his hands a finer dish is made;\n    The smith his brother smudge with scorn doth treat,\n    If he his iron strikes with brisker heat.[87]\n\nAnd this emulation is not confined to mechanics and those who follow\nthe same occupations; but the rich man envies the learned. He that hath\na bright reputation envies the miser\u2019s guineas, and the pettifogger\nthinks he is outdone in talking by the sophister. Nay, by Heaven, he\nthat is born free sottishly admires the servile attendance of him who\nis of the household to a king; and the man that hath patrician blood\nin his veins calls the comedian happy who acts his part gracefully\nand with humor, and applauds even the mimic who pleaseth with farce\nand scaramouchy gestures; thus by a false estimate of happiness they\ndisturb and perplex themselves.\n\n14. Now that every man hath a storehouse of trouble and contentment\nin his own bosom, and that the vessels which contain good and evil\nare not placed at Jupiter\u2019s threshold,[88] but in the recesses of the\nmind, the variety of our passions is an abundant demonstration. The\nfool doth not discern, and consequently cannot mind, the good that is\nobvious to him, for his thoughts are still intent upon the future; but\nthe prudent man retrieves things that were lost out of their oblivion,\nby strength of recollection renders them perspicuous, and enjoys them\nas if they were present. Happiness having only a few coy minutes to be\ncourted in, the man that hath no intellect neglects this opportunity,\nand so it slides away from his sense and no more belongs to him. But\nlike him that is painted in hell twisting a rope, and who lets the ass\nthat is by him devour all the laborious textures as fast as he makes\nthem, so most men have such a lethargy of forgetfulness upon them,\nthat they lose the remembrance of all great actions, and no more call\nto mind their pleasant intervals of leisure and repose. The relish\nof their former banquets is grown insipid, and delight hath left no\npiquant impression upon their palates; by this means they break as it\nwere the continuity of life, and destroy the union of present things to\nthe past; and dividing yesterday from to-day and to-day from to-morrow,\nthey utterly efface all events, as if they had never been. For, as\nthose who are dogmatical in the schools, and deny the augmentation of\nbodies by reason of the perpetual flux of all substance, do strip us\nout of ourselves and make no man to be the same to-day that he was\nyesterday; so those who bury all things that have preceded them in\noblivion, who lose all the notices of former times and let them all be\nshattered carelessly out of their minds, do every day make themselves\nvoid and empty; and they become utterly dependent on the morrow, as if\nthose things which happened last year and yesterday and the day before\nwere not to affect their cognizance and be occurrences worthy their\nobservation.\n\n15. This is a great impediment to the tranquillity of the mind. But\nthat which is its more sensible disturbance is this, that as flies\nupon a mirror easily slide down the smooth and polished parts of it,\nbut stick to those which are rugged and uneven and fall into its\nflaws, so men let what is cheerful and pleasant flow from them, and\ndwell only upon sad melancholy remembrances. Nay, as those of Olynthus\ncarry beetles into a certain place, which from the destruction of them\nis called their slaughter-house, where, all passages being stopped\nagainst their escape, they are killed by the weariness of perpetual\nflying about; so when men have once fallen upon the memory of their\nformer sorrows, no consolation can take them off from the mournful\ntheme. But as in a landscape we draw the most beautiful colors, so\nwe ought to fill the prospect of our minds with the most agreeable\nand sprightly images; that, if we cannot utterly abolish those which\nare dark and unpleasant, we may at least obscure them by more gay and\nlively representations. For as the strings of a lute or bow, so is the\nharmony of the world alternately tightened and relaxed by vicissitude\nand change; and in human affairs there is nothing that is unmixed,\nnothing that is unallied. But as in music there are some sounds which\nare flat and some sharp, and in grammar some letters that are vocal and\nsome mute, but neither the man of concord nor syntax doth industriously\ndecline one sort, but with the fineness of his art mixeth them\ntogether; so in things in this world which carry a direct opposition in\ntheir nature one to another,\u2014when, as Euripides expresseth it,\n\n    The good things with the evil still are joined,\n    And in strict union mutually combined;\n    The chequered work doth beautiful appear,\n    For what is sweet allays the more severe;\u2014\n\nyet we ought not to be discouraged or have any despondencies. But in\nthis case let us imitate the musicians, who drown the harsh cadences\nwith others that more caress the ear; so, by tempering our adverse\nfortune with what is more prosperous, let us render our lives pleasant\nand of an equal tone. For that is not true which Menander tells us:\u2014\n\n    Soon as an infant doth salute the day,\n    A genius his first cryings doth obey,\n    And to his charge comes hastily away;\n    The daemon doth assist the tender lad,\n    Shows him what\u2019s good, and saves him from the bad.\n\nBut the opinion of Empedocles deserves more our approbation, who\nsaith that, as soon as any one is born, he is carefully taken up and\ngoverned by two guardian spirits. \u201cThere were Chthonia and far-seeing\nHeliope, and bloody Deris and grave-faced Harmonia, Kallisto and\nAeschra, Tho\u00f6sa and Denaea, with lovely Nemertes and black-fruited\nAsaphaea.\u201d\n\n16. By this diversity of characters is expressed only the variety of\nour passions; and these are the seeds of discontent we brought into\nthe world with us. Since now these disorder our lives and make them\nunequal, he that is master of himself wishes for the better, but\nexpects the worse; but he useth them both with a moderation suitable\nto that injunction, Do not any thing too much. For, as Epicurus said,\nnot only does he that is least impatient after to-morrow enjoy it most\nwhen it comes; but honor, riches, and power give those the greatest\ncomplacency who are not tormented with any apprehensions that the\ncontrary will befall them. For an immoderate craving after things\nof this nature infuseth a fear of losing them, equal to the first\nintemperate desire. This deadens the fruition, and makes the pleasure\nas weak and unstable as flame driven by the wind. But he to whom his\nreason hath given the assurance that he can boldly say to Fortune,\n\n    Welcome to me, if good thou bringest aught.\n    And if thou fail, I will take little thought,\u2014\n\nthis is the man who can confidently enjoy what is present with him,\nand who is not afflicted with such cowardice of thoughts as to be in\nconstant alarms lest he should lose his possessions, which would be\nan intolerable grievance. But let us not only admire but imitate that\ntemper of mind in Anaxagoras, which made him express himself in these\nwords upon the death of his son:\u2014\n\n    I knew that I had begotten a mortal.\n\nAnd let us apply it to all the casualties of our life after this\nmanner. I know my riches have only the duration of a day; I know\nthat the same hand which bestowed authority upon me could spoil me of\nthose ornaments and take it away again; I know my wife to be the best\nof women, but still a woman; my friend to be faithful, yet the cement\nmight be broken, for he was a man,\u2014which, as Plato saith, is a very\ninconstant creature. These previous expostulations and preparations,\nif any thing fall out which is against our mind but not contrary to\nour expectation, will cure the palpitation of our hearts, make our\ndisturbances settle and go down, and bring our minds to a consistence;\nnot indulging us in these lazy exclamations, Who would have thought\nit?\u2014I looked for better, and did not expect this. Carneades gives us\na short memoir concerning great things, that the cause from whence all\nour troubles proceed is that they befall unexpectedly. The kingdom of\nMacedon compared with the Roman empire sank in the competition, for\nit was only an inconsiderable part of it; yet when Perseus lost it,\nhe not only deplored his own misfortune, but he was thought by all\nthe most abject and miserable of mankind. Yet Aemilius that conquered\nhim, when he delivered up the command of sea and land into the hands\nof a successor, was crowned and did sacrifice, and was esteemed happy.\nFor he knew, when he received his honor, that it was but temporary,\nand that he must lay down the authority he had taken up. But Perseus\nwas stripped of his dominions by surprise. The poet hath prettily\nillustrated what it is for a thing to fall out unexpectedly. For\nUlysses, when his dog died, could not forbear crying, yet would not\nsuffer himself to weep when his wife sate by him crying, but stopped\nhis tears; for here he came strengthened with reason and beforehand\nacquainted with the accident, but before it was the suddenness of the\ndisaster which raised his sorrow and threw him into complaints.\n\n17. Generally speaking, those things which happen to us against our\nwill afflict us partly by a pungency that is in their nature, and\npartly custom and opinion so effeminate us that we are impatient under\nthem. But against all contingencies we should have that of Menander in\nreadiness:\u2014\n\n    Afflictions to thyself thou dost create,\n    Thy fancy only is unfortunate.\n\nFor what are afflictions to thee, if they touch neither thy body\nnor thy soul? Of this sort is the low extraction of thy father, the\nadultery of thy wife, the loss of a garland, or being deprived of the\nupper seat in an assembly. And with all these crosses thou mayest have\nease of mind and strength of body. But to those things which in their\nown nature excite our grief,\u2014such as sickness, pains of the body,\nand the death of our friends and children,\u2014we ought to apply that of\nEuripides:\u2014\n\n    Alas! alas! and well-a-day!\n    But why _alas_ and _well away_?\n    Naught else to us hath yet been dealt,\n    But that which daily men have felt.\n\nThere is no reasoning more effectual to restrain our passions and\nhinder our minds from falling into despair, than that which sets before\nus a physical necessity and the common lot of nature. And it is our\nbodies only that lie exposed to this destiny, and which we offer (as\nit were) as a handle to Fortune; but the fort-royal is still secure,\nwhere our strength lies and our most precious things are treasured up.\nWhen Demetrius took Megara, he asked Stilpo whether he had not suffered\nparticular damage in the plundering; to which he made this answer,\nthat he saw nobody that could rob him. So when Fate hath made all the\ndepredations upon us it possibly can and hath left us naked, yet there\nis something still within us which is out of the reach of the pirate,\u2014\n\n    Which conquering Greece could never force away.[89]\n\nTherefore we ought not so to vilify and depress our nature as if it\ncould not get the ascendant over Fortune, and had nothing of firmness\nand stability in it. But we ought rather to consider that, if any part\nof us is obnoxious to this, it is only that which is the smallest, and\nthe most impure and sickly too; whilst the better and more generous\nwe have the most absolute dominion of, and our chiefest goods are\nplaced in it, such as true discipline, a right notion of things, and\nreasonings which in their last results bring us unto virtue; which are\nso far from being abolished, that they cannot be corrupted. We ought\nlikewise, with an invincible spirit and a bold security as regards\nfuturity, to answer Fortune in those words which Socrates retorted upon\nhis judges: Anytus and Meletus may kill, but they cannot hurt me. So\nshe can afflict me with a disease, can spoil me of my riches, disgrace\nme with my prince, and bring me under a popular odium; but she cannot\nmake a good man wicked, or the brave man a mean and degenerate coward;\nshe cannot cast envy upon a generous temper, or destroy any of those\nhabits of the mind which are more useful to us in the conduct of our\nlives, when they are within the command of our wills, than the skill of\na pilot in a storm. For the pilot cannot mitigate the billows or calm\nthe winds; he cannot sail into the haven as often as he has occasion,\nor without fear and trembling abide any danger that may befall him;\nbut after having used all his efforts, he at last recommits himself to\nthe fury of the storm, pulls down all his sails by the board, whilst\nthe lower mast is within an inch of the abyss, and sits trembling at\nthe approaching ruin. But the affections of the mind in a wise man\nprocure tranquillity even to the body. For he prevents the beginnings\nof disease by temperance, a spare diet, and moderate exercise; but if\nan evil begin more visibly to show itself, as we sometimes steer our\nship by rocks which lie in the water, he must then furl in his sails\nand pass by it, as Asclepiades expresseth it; but if the waves grow\nturbulent and the sea rougher, the port is at hand, and he may leave\nthis body, as he would a leaky vessel, and swim ashore.\n\n18. For it is not so much the desire of life as the fear of death,\nwhich makes the fool have such a dependence upon the body, and stick so\nfast to its embraces. So Ulysses held fast by the fig-tree, dreading\nCharybdis that lay under him,\u2014\n\n    Where the wind would not suffer him to stay.\n    Nor would it serve to carry him away,[90]\n\nso that on this side was but a slender support, and there was\ninevitable danger on the other. But he who considers the nature of the\nsoul, and that death will transport it to a condition either far better\nor not much worse than what he now enjoys, hath contempt of death to\nsustain him as he travelleth on in this pilgrimage of his life, no\nsmall _viaticum_ towards tranquillity of mind. For as to one that can\nlive pleasantly so long as virtue and the better part of mankind are\npredominant, and can depart fearlessly so soon as hostile and unnatural\nprinciples prevail, saying to himself,\u2014\n\n    Fate shall release me when I please myself;[91]\n\nwhat in the whole scope of the creation can be thought of that can\nraise a tumult in such a man, or give him the least molestation?\nCertainly, he that threw out that brave defiance to Fortune in these\nwords, \u201cI have prevented thee, O Fortune, and have shut up all thy\navenues to me,\u201d did not speak it confiding in the strength of walls or\nbars, or the security of keys; but it was an effect of his learning,\nand the challenge was a dictate of his reason. And these heights of\nresolution any men may attain to if they are willing; and we ought\nnot to distrust, or despair of arriving to the courage of saying\nthe same things. Therefore we should not only admire, but be kindled\nwith emulation, and think ourselves touched with the impulse of a\ndivine instinct, which piques us on to the trial of ourselves in\nmatters of less importance; that thereby we may find how our tempers\nbear to be qualified for greater, and so may not incuriously decline\nthat inspection we ought to have over ourselves, or take refuge in\nthe saying, Perchance nothing will be more difficult than this. For\nthe luxurious thinker, who withdraws himself from severe reflections\nand is conversant about no objects but what are easy and delectable,\nemasculates his understanding and contracts a softness of spirit; but\nhe that makes grief, sickness, and banishment the subjects of his\nmeditation, who composeth his mind sedately, and poiseth himself with\nreason to sustain the burthen, will find that those things are vain,\nempty, and false which appear so grievous and terrible to the vulgar,\nas his own reasonings will make out to him in every particular.\n\n19. But many are shocked at this saying of Menander,\u2014\n\n    No man can tell what will himself befall,\u2014\n\nin the mean while being monstrously ignorant what a noble expedient\nthis is to disperse our sorrows, to contemplate upon and to be able\nto look Fortune steadily in the face; and not to cherish delicate and\neffeminate apprehensions of things, like those bred up in the shade,\nunder false and extravagant hopes which have not strength to resist\nthe first adversity. But to the saying of Menander we may make this\njust and serious reply: It is true that a man while he lives can never\nsay, This will never befall me; but he can say this, I will not do this\nor that; I will scorn to lie; I will not be treacherous or do a thing\nungenerously; I will not defraud or circumvent any one. And to do this\nlies within the sphere of our performance, and conduceth extremely\nto the tranquillity of the mind. Whereas, on the contrary, the being\nconscious of having done a wicked action[92] leaves stings of remorse\nbehind it, which, like an ulcer in the flesh, makes the mind smart\nwith perpetual wounds; for reason, which chaseth away all other pains,\ncreates repentance, shames the soul with confusion, and punisheth it\nwith torment. But as those who are chilled with an ague or that burn\nwith a fever feel acuter griefs than those who are scorched with the\nsun or frozen up with the severity of the weather, so those things\nwhich are casual and fortuitous give us the least disturbance, because\nthey are external accidents. But the man whom the truth of this makes\nuneasy,\u2014\n\n    Another did not run me on this shelf;\n    I was the cause of all the ills myself,[93]\n\nwho laments not only his misfortunes but his crimes, finds his agonies\nsharpened by the turpitude of the fact. Hence it comes to pass, that\nneither rich furniture nor abundance of gold, not a descent from an\nillustrious family or greatness of authority, not eloquence and all\nthe charms of speaking can procure so great a serenity of life as a\nmind free from guilt, kept untainted not only from actions but purposes\nthat are wicked. By this means the soul will be not only unpolluted\nbut undisturbed; the fountain will run clear and unsullied; and the\nstreams that flow from it will be just and honest deeds, ecstasies of\nsatisfaction, a brisk energy of spirit which makes a man an enthusiast\nin his joy, and a tenacious memory sweeter than hope, which (as Pindar\nsaith) with a virgin warmth cherisheth old age.[94] For as censers,\neven after they are empty, do for a long time after retain their\nfragrancy, as Carneades expresseth it, so the good actions of a wise\nman perfume his mind, and leave a rich scent behind them; so that joy\nis, as it were, watered with these essences, and owes its flourishing\nto them. This makes him pity those who not only bewail but accuse\nhuman life, as if it were only a region of calamities and a place of\nbanishment appointed for their souls.\n\n20. That saying of Diogenes extremely pleaseth me, who, seeing one\nsprucing himself up very neatly to go to a great entertainment, asked\nhim whether every day was not a festival to a good man. And certainly,\nthat which makes it the more splendid festival is sobriety. For the\nworld is a spacious and beautiful temple; this a man is brought into as\nsoon as he is born, where he is not to be a dull spectator of immovable\nand lifeless images made by human hands, but is to contemplate sublime\nthings, which (as Plato tells us) the divine mind has exhibited to\nour senses as likenesses of things in the ideal world, having the\nprinciples of life and motion in themselves; such as are the sun,\nmoon, and stars; rivers which are still supplied with fresh accessions\nof water; and the earth, which with a motherly indulgence suckles\nthe plants and feeds her sensitive creatures. Now since life is the\nintroduction and the most perfect initiation into these mysteries, it\nis but just that it should be full of cheerfulness and tranquillity.\nFor we are not to imitate the little vulgar, who wait impatiently for\nthe jolly days which are consecrated to Saturn, Bacchus, and Minerva,\nthat they may be merry with hired laughter, and pay such a price to\nthe mimic and stage-dancer for their diversions. At all these games\nand ceremonies we sit silent and composed; for no man laments when he\nis initiated in the rites, when he beholds the games of Apollo, or\ndrinks in the Saturnalia. But when the Gods order the scenes at their\nown festivals, or initiate us into their own mysteries, the enjoyment\nbecomes sordid to us; and we wear out our wretched lives in care,\nheaviness of spirit, and bitter complaints.\n\nMen are delighted with the harmonious touches of an instrument; they\nare pleased likewise with the melody of the birds; and it is not\nwithout some recreation that they behold the beasts frolicsome and\nsporting; but when the frisk is over and they begin to bellow and curl\ntheir brows, the ungrateful noise and their angry looks offend them.\nBut as for their own lives, they suffer them to pass away without a\nsmile, to boil with passions, be involved in business, and eaten out\nwith endless cares. And to ease them of their solicitudes, they will\nnot seek out for remedies themselves, nor will they even hearken to the\nreasons or admit the consolations of their friends. But if they would\nonly give ear to these, they might bear their present condition without\nfault-finding, remember the past with joy and gratitude, and live\nwithout fear or distrust, looking forward to the future with a joyful\nand lightsome hope.\n\n\n\n\nOF SUPERSTITION OR INDISCREET DEVOTION.\n\n\n1. Our great ignorance of the Divine Beings most naturally runs in two\nstreams; whereof the one in harsh and coarse tempers, as in dry and\nstubborn soils, produces atheism, and the other in the more tender and\nflexible, as in moist and yielding grounds, produces superstition.\nIndeed, every wrong judgment, in matters of this nature especially, is\na great unhappiness to us; but it is here attended with a passion, or\ndisorder of the mind, of a worse consequence than itself. For every\nsuch passion is, as it were, an error inflamed. And as a dislocation\nis the more painful when it is attended with a bruise, so are the\nperversions of our understandings, when attended with passion. Is a\nman of opinion that atoms and a void were the first origins of things?\nIt is indeed a mistaken conceit, but makes no ulcer, no shooting, no\nsearching pain. But is a man of opinion that wealth is his last good?\nThis error contains in it a canker; it preys upon a man\u2019s spirits, it\ntransports him, it suffers him not to sleep, it makes him horn-mad,\nit carries him over headlong precipices, strangles him, and makes him\nunable to speak his mind. Are there some again, that take virtue and\nvice for substantial bodies? This may be sottish conceit indeed, but\nyet it bespeaks neither lamentations nor groans. But such opinions and\nconceits as these,\u2014\n\n    Poor virtue! thou wast but a name, and mere jest,\n    And I, choust fool, did practise thee in earnest,\n\nand for thee have I quitted injustice, the way to wealth, and excess,\nthe parent of all true pleasure,\u2014these are the thoughts that call at\nonce for our pity and indignation; for they will engender swarms of\ndiseases, like fly-blows and vermin, in our minds.\n\n2. To return then to our subject, atheism, which is a false persuasion\nthat there are no blessed and incorruptible beings, tends yet, by its\ndisbelief of a Divinity, to bring men to a sort of unconcernedness\nand indifferency of temper; for the design of those that deny a God\nis to ease themselves of his fear. But superstition appears by its\nappellation to be a distempered opinion and conceit, productive\nof such mean and abject apprehensions as debase and break a man\u2019s\nspirit, while he thinks there are divine powers indeed, but withal\nsour and vindictive ones. So that the atheist is not at all, and\nthe superstitious is perversely, affected with the thoughts of\nGod; ignorance depriving the one of the sense of his goodness, and\nsuperadding to the other a persuasion of his cruelty. Atheism then is\nbut false reasoning single, but superstition is a disorder of the mind\nproduced by this false reasoning.\n\n3. Every distemper of our minds is truly base and ignoble; yet some\npassions are accompanied with a sort of levity, that makes men appear\ngay, prompt, and erect; but none, we may say, are wholly destitute of\nforce for action. But the common charge upon all sorts of passions\nis, that they excite and urge the reason, forcing it by their\nviolent stings. Fear alone, being equally destitute of reason and\naudacity, renders our whole irrational part stupid, distracted, and\nunserviceable. Therefore it is called \u03b4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bc\u03b1 because it _binds_, and\n\u03c4\u03ac\u03c1\u03b2\u03bf\u03c2 because it _distracts_ the mind.[95] But of all fears, none\nso dozes and confounds as that of superstition. He fears not the sea\nthat never goes to sea; nor a battle, that follows not the camp; nor\nrobbers, that stirs not abroad; nor malicious informers, that is a poor\nman; nor emulation, that leads a private life; nor earthquakes, that\ndwells in Gaul; nor thunderbolts, that dwells in Ethiopia: but he that\ndreads divine powers dreads every thing, the land, the sea, the air,\nthe sky, the dark, the light, a sound, a silence, a dream. Even slaves\nforget their masters in their sleep; sleep lightens the irons of the\nfettered; their angry sores, mortified gangrenes, and pinching pains\nallow them some intermission at night.\n\n    Dear sleep, sweet easer of my irksome grief,\n    Pleasant thou art! how welcome thy relief![96]\n\nSuperstition will not permit a man to say this. That alone will give\nno truce at night, nor suffer the poor soul so much as to breathe or\nlook up, or respite her sour and dismal thoughts of God a moment;\nbut raises in the sleep of the superstitious, as in the place of the\ndamned, certain prodigious forms and ghastly spectres, and perpetually\ntortures the unhappy soul, chasing her out of sleep into dreams,\nlashed and tormented by her own self, as by some other, and charged by\nherself with dire and portentous injunctions. Neither have they, when\nawake, enough sense to slight and smile at all this, or to be pleased\nwith the thought that nothing of all that terrified them was real; but\nthey still fear an empty shadow, that could never mean them any ill,\nand cheat themselves afresh at noonday, and keep a bustle, and are at\nexpense upon the next fortune-teller or vagrant that shall but tell\nthem:\u2014\n\n    If in a dream hobgoblin thou hast seen,\n    Or felt\u2019st the rambling guards o\u2019 th\u2019 Fairy Queen,\n\nsend for some old witch who can purify thee, go dip thyself in the sea,\nand then sit down upon the bare ground the rest of the day.\n\n    O that our Greeks should found such barbarous rites,[97]\n\nas tumbling in mire, rolling themselves in dunghills, keeping of\nSabbaths, monstrous prostrations, long and obstinate sittings in a\nplace, and vile and abject adorations, and all for vain superstition!\nThey that were careful to preserve good singing used to direct the\npractisers of that science to sing with their mouths in their true and\nproper postures. Should not we then admonish those that would address\nthemselves to the heavenly powers to do that also with a true and\nnatural mouth, lest, while we are so solicitous that the tongue of a\nsacrifice be pure and right, we distort and abuse our own with silly\nand canting language, and thereby expose the dignity of our divine\nand ancient piety to contempt and raillery? It was not unpleasantly\nsaid somewhere by the comedian to those that adorned their beds with\nthe needless ornaments of silver and gold: Since the Gods have given\nus nothing gratis except sleep, why will you make that so costly? It\nmight as well be said to the superstitious bigot: Since the Gods have\nbestowed sleep on us, to the intent we may take some rest and forget\nour sorrows, why will you needs make it a continual irksome tormentor,\nwhen you know your poor soul hath ne\u2019er another sleep to betake herself\nto? Heraclitus saith: They who are awake have a world in common amongst\nthem; but they that are asleep are retired each to his own private\nworld. But the frightful visionary hath ne\u2019er a world at all, either\nin common with others or in private to himself; for neither can he use\nhis reason when awake, nor be free from his fears when asleep; but he\nhath his reason always asleep, and his fears always awake; nor hath he\neither an hiding-place or refuge.\n\n4. Polycrates was formidable at Samos, and so was Periander at Corinth;\nbut no man ever feared either of them that had made his escape to an\nequal and free government. But he that dreads the divine government, as\na sort of inexorable and implacable tyranny, whither can he remove?\nWhither can he fly? What land, what sea can he find where God is not?\nWretched and miserable man! in what corner of the world canst thou so\nhide thyself, as to think thou hast now escaped him? Slaves are allowed\nby the laws, when they despair of obtaining their freedom, to demand\na second sale, in hopes of kinder masters. But superstition allows of\nno change of Gods; nor could he indeed find a God he would not fear,\nthat dreads his own and his ancestors\u2019 guardians, that quivers at his\npreservers and benign patrons, and that trembles and shakes at those of\nwhom we ask wealth, plenty, concord, peace, and direction to the best\nwords and actions. Slaves again account it their misfortune to become\nsuch, and can say,\u2014\n\n    Both man and wife in direful slavery,\n    And with ill masters too! Fate\u2019s worst decree!\n\nBut how much less tolerable, think you, is their condition, that can\nnever possibly run away, escape, or desert? A slave may fly to an\naltar, and many temples afford sanctuary to thieves; and they that are\npursued by an enemy think themselves safe if they can catch hold on a\nstatue or a shrine. But the superstitious fears, quivers, and dreads\nmost of all there, where others when fearfullest take greatest courage.\nNever hale a superstitious man from the altar. It is his place of\ntorment; he is there chastised. In one word, death itself, the end of\nlife, puts no period to this vain and foolish dread; but it transcends\nthose limits, and extends its fears beyond the grave, adding to it the\nimagination of immortal ills; and after respite from past sorrows, it\nfancies it shall next enter upon never-ending ones. I know not what\ngates of hell open themselves from beneath, rivers of fire together\nwith Stygian torrents present themselves to view; a gloomy darkness\nappears full of ghastly spectres and horrid shapes, with dreadful\naspects and doleful groans, together with judges and tormentors, pits\nand caverns, full of millions of miseries and woes. Thus does wretched\nsuperstition bring inevitably upon itself by its fancies even those\ncalamities which it has once escaped.\n\n5. Atheism is attended with none of this. True indeed, the ignorance\nis very lamentable and sad. For to be blind or to see amiss in matters\nof this consequence cannot but be a fatal unhappiness to the mind, it\nbeing then deprived of the fairest and brightest of its many eyes,\nthe knowledge of God. Yet this opinion (as hath been said) is not\nnecessarily accompanied with any disordering, ulcerous, frightful,\nor slavish passion. Plato thinks the Gods never gave men music, the\nscience of melody and harmony, for mere delectation or to tickle the\near, but in order that the confusion and disorder in the periods and\nharmonies of the soul, which often for want of the Muses and of grace\nbreak forth into extravagance through intemperance and license, might\nbe sweetly recalled, and artfully wound up to their former consent and\nagreement.\n\n    No animal accurst by Jove\n    Music\u2019s sweet charms can ever love,[98]\n\nsaith Pindar. For all such will rave and grow outrageous straight. Of\nthis we have an instance in tigers, which (as they say), if they hear\nbut a tabor beat near them, will rage immediately and run stark mad,\nand in fine tear themselves in pieces. They certainly suffer the less\ninconvenience of the two, who either through defect of hearing or utter\ndeafness are wholly insensible of music, and therefore unmoved by it.\nIt was a great misfortune indeed to Tiresias, that he wanted sight to\nsee his friends and children; but a far greater to Athamas and Agave,\nto see them in the shape of lions and bucks. And it had been happier\nfor Hercules, when he was distracted, if he could have neither seen nor\nknown his children, than to have used like the worst of enemies those\nhe so tenderly loved.\n\n6. Well then, is not this the very case of the atheist, compared with\nthe superstitious? The former sees not the Gods at all, the latter\nbelieves that he really sees them; the former wholly overlooks them,\nbut the latter mistakes their benignity for terror, their paternal\naffection for tyranny, their providence for cruelty, and their frank\nsimplicity for savageness and brutality.\n\nAgain, the workman in copper, stone, and wax can persuade such that\nthe Gods are in human shape; for so they make them, so they draw them,\nand so they worship them. But they will not hear either philosophers\nor statesmen that describe the majesty of the Divinity as accompanied\nby goodness, magnanimity, benignity, and beneficence. The one\ntherefore hath neither a sense nor belief of that divine good he might\nparticipate of; and the other dreads and fears it. In a word, atheism\nis an absolute insensibility to God (or _want of passion_), which does\nnot recognize goodness; while superstition is a blind heap of passions,\nwhich imagine the good to be evil. They are afraid of their Gods, and\nyet run to them; they fawn upon them, and reproach them; they invoke\nthem, and accuse them. It is the common destiny of humanity not to\nenjoy uninterrupted felicity.\n\n    Nor pains, nor age, nor labor they e\u2019er bore,\n    Nor visited rough Acheron\u2019s hoarse shore,\n\nsaith Pindar of the Gods; but human passions and affairs are liable to\na strange multiplicity of uncertain accidents and contingencies.\n\n7. Consider well the atheist, and observe his behavior first in things\nnot under the disposal of his will. If he be otherwise a man of good\ntemper, he is silent under his present circumstances, and is providing\nhimself with either remedies or palliatives for his misfortunes.\nBut if he be a fretful and impatient man, his whole complaint is\nagainst Fortune. He cries out, that nothing is managed here below\neither after the rules of a strict justice or the orderly course of a\nprovidence, and that all human affairs are hurried and driven without\neither premeditation or distinction. This is not the demeanor of the\nsuperstitious; if the least thing do but happen amiss to him, he\nsits him down plunged in sorrow, and raises himself a vast tempest\nof intolerable and incurable passions, and presents his fancy with\nnothing but terrors, fears, surmises, and distractions, until he hath\noverwhelmed himself with groans and fears. He blames neither man, nor\nFortune, nor the times, nor himself; but charges all upon God, from\nwhom he fancies a whole deluge of vengeance to be pouring down upon\nhim; and, as if he were not only unfortunate but in open hostility\nwith Heaven, he imagines that he is punished by God and is now making\nsatisfaction for his past crimes, and saith that his sufferings are\nall just and owing to himself. Again, when the atheist falls sick,\nhe reckons up and calls to his remembrance his several surfeits and\ndebauches, his irregular course of living, excessive labors, or\nunaccustomed changes of air or climate. Likewise, when he miscarries in\nany public administration, and either falls into popular disgrace or\ncomes to be ill presented to his prince, he searches for the causes in\nhimself and those about him, and asks,\n\n    Where have I erred? What have I done amiss?\n    What should be done by me that undone is?[99]\n\nBut the fanciful superstitionist accounts every little distemper\nin his body or decay in his estate, the death of his children, and\ncrosses and disappointments in matters relating to the public, as\nthe immediate strokes of God and the incursions of some vindictive\ndaemon. And therefore he dares not attempt to remove or relieve his\ndisasters, or to use the least remedy or to oppose himself to them,\nfor fear he should seem to struggle with God and to make resistance\nunder correction. If he be sick, he thrusts away the physician; if he\nbe in any grief, he shuts out the philosopher that would comfort and\nadvise him. Let me alone, saith he, to pay for my sins: I am a cursed\nand vile offender, and detestable both to God and angels. Now suppose\na man unpersuaded of a Divinity in never so great sorrow and trouble,\nyou may yet possibly wipe away his tears, cut his hair, and force away\nhis mourning; but how will you come at this superstitious penitentiary,\neither to speak to him or to bring him any relief? He sits him down\nwithout doors in sackcloth, or wrapped up in foul and nasty rags; yea,\nmany times rolls himself naked in mire, repeating over I know not what\nsins and transgressions of his own; as, how he did eat this thing and\ndrink the other thing, or went some way prohibited by his Genius. But\nsuppose he be now at his best, and laboring under only a mild attack of\nsuperstition; you shall even then find him sitting down in the midst of\nhis house all becharmed and bespelled, with a parcel of old women about\nhim, tugging all they can light on, and hanging it upon him as (to use\nan expression of Bion\u2019s) upon some nail or peg.\n\n8. It is reported of Teribazus that, being seized by the Persians, he\ndrew out his scimitar, and being a very stout person, defended himself\nbravely; but when they cried out and told him he was apprehended by\nthe king\u2019s order, he immediately put up his sword, and presented his\nhands to be bound. Is not this the very case of the superstitious?\nOthers can oppose their misfortunes, repel their troubles, and furnish\nthemselves with retreats, or means of avoiding the stroke of things\nnot under the disposal of their wills; but the superstitious person,\nwithout anybody\u2019s speaking to him,\u2014but merely upon his own saying\nto himself, This thou undergoest, vile wretch, by the direction of\nProvidence, and by Heaven\u2019s just appointment,\u2014immediately casts away\nall hope, surrenders himself up, and shuns and affronts his friends\nthat would relieve him. Thus do these sottish fears oftentimes convert\ntolerable evils into fatal and insupportable ones. The ancient Midas\n(as the story goes of him), being much troubled and disquieted by\ncertain dreams, grew so melancholy thereupon, that he made himself away\nby drinking bull\u2019s blood. Aristodemus, king of Messenia, when a war\nbroke out betwixt the Lacedaemonians and the Messenians, upon some dogs\nhowling like wolves, and grass coming up about his ancestors\u2019 domestic\naltar, and his divines presaging ill upon it, fell into such a fit of\nsullenness and despair that he slew himself. And perhaps it had been\nbetter if the Athenian general, Nicias, had been eased of his folly the\nsame way that Midas and Aristodemus were, than for him to sit still\nfor fear of a lunar eclipse, while he was invested by an enemy, and so\nbe himself made a prisoner, together with an army of forty thousand\nmen (that were all either slain or taken), and die ingloriously. There\nwas nothing formidable in the inter-position of the earth betwixt the\nsun and the moon, neither was there any thing dreadful in the shadow\u2019s\nmeeting the moon at the proper time: no, the dreadfulness lay here,\nthat the darkness of ignorance should blind and befool a man\u2019s reason\nat a time when he had most occasion to use it.\n\n    Glaucus, behold!\n    The sea with billows deep begins to roll;\n    The seas begin in azure rods to lie;\n    A teeming cloud of pitch hangs on the sky\n    Right o\u2019er Gyre rocks; there is a tempest nigh;[100]\n\nwhich as soon as the pilot sees, he falls to his prayers and invokes\nhis tutelar daemons, but neglects not in the mean time to hold to the\nrudder and let down the mainyard; and so,\n\n    By gathering in his sails, with mighty pain,\n    Escapes the hell-pits of the raging main.\n\nHesiod[101] directs his husbandman, before he either plough or sow, to\npray to the infernal Jove and the venerable Ceres, but with his hand\nupon the plough-tail. Homer acquaints us how Ajax, being to engage in\na single combat with Hector, bade the Grecians pray to the Gods for\nhim; and while they were at their devotions, he was putting on his\narmor. Likewise, after Agamemnon had thus prepared his soldiers for the\nfight,\u2014\n\n    Each make his spear to glitter as the sun,\n    Each see his warlike target well hung on,\u2014\n\nhe then prayed,\u2014\n\n    Grant me, great Jove, to throw down Priam\u2019s roof.[102]\n\nFor God is the brave man\u2019s hope, and not the coward\u2019s excuse. The\nJews indeed once sat on their tails,\u2014it being forsooth their Sabbath\nday,\u2014and suffered their enemies to rear their scaling-ladders and\nmake themselves masters of their walls, and so lay still until\nthey were caught like so many trout in the drag-net of their own\nsuperstition.[103]\n\n9. Such then is the behavior of superstition in times of adversity,\nand in things out of the power of man\u2019s will. Nor doth it a jot excel\natheism in the more agreeable and pleasurable part of our lives.\nNow what we esteem the most agreeable things in human life are our\nholidays, temple-feasts, initiatings, processionings, with our public\nprayers and solemn devotions. Mark we now the atheist\u2019s behavior here.\n\u2019Tis true, he laughs at all that is done, with a frantic and sardonic\nlaughter, and now and then whispers to a confidant of his, The devil\nis in these people sure, that can imagine God can be taken with these\nfooleries, but this is the worst of his disasters. But now the\nsuperstitious man would fain be pleasant and gay, but cannot for his\nheart. The whole town is filled with odors of incense and perfumes, and\nat the same time a mixture of hymns and sighs fills his poor soul.[104]\nHe looks pale with a garland on his head, he sacrifices and fears,\nprays with a faltering tongue, and offers incense with a trembling\nhand. In a word, he utterly baffles that saying of Pythagoras, that we\nare then best when we come near the Gods. For the superstitious person\nis then in his worst and most pitiful condition, when he approaches the\nshrines and temples of the Gods.\n\n10. So that I cannot but wonder at those that charge atheism with\nimpiety, and in the mean time acquit superstition. Anaxagoras was\nindicted of blasphemy for having affirmed the sun to be a red-hot\nstone; yet the Cimmerians were never much blamed for denying his being.\nWhat? Is he that holds there is no God guilty of impiety, and is not he\nthat describes him as the superstitious do much more guilty? I, for my\nown part, had much rather people should say of me, that there neither\nis nor ever was such a man as Plutarch, than they should say: \u201cPlutarch\nis an unsteady, fickle, froward, vindictive, and touchy fellow; if\nyou invite others to sup with you, and chance to leave out Plutarch,\nor if some business falls out that you cannot wait at his door with\nthe morning salute, or if when you meet with him you don\u2019t speak to\nhim, he\u2019ll fasten upon you somewhere with his teeth and bite the part\nthrough, or catch one of your children and cane him, or turn his beast\ninto your corn and spoil your crop.\u201d When Timotheus the musician was\none day singing at Athens an hymn to Diana, in which among other things\nwas this,\u2014\n\n    Mad, raving, tearing, foaming Deity,\u2014\n\nCinesias, the lyric poet, stood up from the midst of the spectators,\nand spoke aloud: I wish thee with all my heart such a Goddess to thy\ndaughter, Timotheus. Such like, nay worse, are the conceits of the\nsuperstitious about this Goddess Diana:\u2014\n\n    Thou dost on the bed-clothes jump,\n    And there liest like a lump.\n    Thou dost tantalize the bride,\n    When love\u2019s charms by thee are tied.\n    Thou look\u2019st grim and full of dread,\n    When thou walk\u2019st to find the dead.\n    Thou down chairs and tables rumbl\u2019st,\n    When with Oberon thou tumbl\u2019st.[105]\n\nNor have they any milder sentiments of Apollo, Juno, or Venus; for they\nare equally scared with them all. Alas! what could poor Niobe ever say\nthat could be so reflecting upon the honor of Latona, as that which\nsuperstition makes fools believe of her? Niobe, it seems, had given her\nsome hard words, for which she fairly shot her\n\n    Six daughters, and six sons full in their prime;[106]\n\nso impatient was she, and insatiate with the calamities of another.\nNow if the Goddess was really thus choleric and vindictive and so\nhighly incensed with bad language, and if she had not the wisdom to\nsmile at human frailty and ignorance, but suffered herself to be thus\ntransported with passion, I much marvel she did not shoot them too\nthat told this cruel story of her, and charged her both in speech and\nwriting with so much spleen and rancor. We oft accuse Queen Hecuba of\nbarbarous and savage bitterness, for having once said in Homer,\u2014\n\n    Would God I had his liver \u2019twixt my teeth;[107]\n\nyet the superstitious believe, if a man taste of a minnow or bleak,\nthe Syrian Goddess will eat his shins through, fill his body with\nsores, and dissolve his liver.\n\n11. Is it a sin then to speak amiss of the Gods, and is it not to\nthink amiss of them? And is not thinking the cause of speaking ill?\nFor the only reason of our dislike to detraction is that we look upon\nit as a token of ill-will to us; and we therefore take those for our\nenemies that misrepresent us, because we look upon them as untrusty\nand disaffected. You see then what the superstitious think of the\ndivinity, while they fancy the Gods such heady, faithless, fickle,\nrevengeful, cruel, and fretful things. The consequence of which is\nthat the superstitious person must needs both fear and hate them at\nonce. And indeed, how can he otherwise choose, while he thinks the\ngreatest calamities he either doth now or must hereafter undergo are\nwholly owing to them? Now he that both hates and fears the Gods must\nof necessity be their enemy. And if he trembles, fears, prostrates,\nsacrifices, and sits perpetually in their temples, that is no marvel at\nall. For the very worst of tyrants are complimented and attended, yea,\nhave statues of gold erected to them, by those who in private hate them\nand wag their heads. Hermolaus waited on Alexander, and Pausanias was\nof Philip\u2019s guard, and so was Chaerea of Caligula\u2019s; yet every one of\nthese said, I warrant you, in his heart as he went along,\u2014\n\n    Had I a power as my will is good,\n    Know this, bold tyrant, I would have thy blood.[108]\n\nThe atheist believes there are no Gods; the superstitious would have\nnone, but is a believer against his will, and would be an infidel if\nhe durst. He would be as glad to ease himself of the burthen of his\nfear, as Tantalus would be to slip his head from under the great stone\nthat hangs over him, and would bless the condition of the atheist as\nabsolute freedom, compared with his own. The atheist now has nothing\nto do with superstition; while the superstitious is an atheist in his\nheart, but is too much a coward to think as he is inclined.\n\n12. Moreover, atheism hath no hand at all in causing superstition;\nbut superstition not only gave atheism its first birth, but serves it\never since by giving it its best apology for existing, which, although\nit be neither a good nor a fair one, is yet the most specious and\ncolorable. For men were not at first made atheists by any fault they\nfound in the heavens or stars, or in the seasons of the year, or in\nthose revolutions or motions of the sun about the earth that make the\nday and night; nor yet by observing any mistake or disorder either in\nthe breeding of animals or the production of fruits. No, it was the\nuncouth actions and ridiculous and senseless passions of superstition,\nher canting words, her foolish gestures, her charms, her magic, her\nfreakish processions, her taborings, her foul expiations, her vile\nmethods of purgation, and her barbarous and inhuman penances, and\nbemirings at the temples,\u2014it was these, I say, that gave occasion to\nmany to affirm, it would be far happier there were no Gods at all than\nfor them to be pleased and delighted with such fantastic toys, and to\nthus abuse their votaries, and to be incensed and pacified with trifles.\n\n13. Had it not been much better for the so much famed Gauls and\nScythians to have neither thought nor imagined nor heard any thing of\ntheir Gods, than to have believed them such as would be pleased with\nthe blood of human sacrifices, and would account such for the most\ncomplete and meritorious of expiations? How much better had it been\nfor the Carthaginians to have had either a Critias or a Diagoras for\ntheir first lawmaker, that so they might have believed in neither God\nnor spirits, than to make such offerings to Saturn as they made?\u2014not\nsuch as Empedocles speaks of, where he thus touches the sacrifices of\nbeasts:\u2014\n\n    The sire lifts up his dear beloved son,\n    Who first some other form and shape did take;\n    He doth him slay and sacrifice anon,\n    And therewith vows and foolish prayers doth make.\n\nBut they knowingly and wittingly themselves devoted their own children;\nand they that had none of their own bought of some poor people, and\nthen sacrificed them like lambs or pigeons, the poor mother standing by\nthe while without either a sigh or tear; and if by chance she fetched\na sigh or let fall a tear, she lost the price of her child, but it was\nnevertheless sacrificed. All the places round the image were in the\nmean time filled with the noise of hautboys and tabors, to drown the\npoor infants\u2019 crying. Suppose we now the Typhons and Giants should\ndepose the Gods and make themselves masters of mankind, what sort of\nsacrifices, think you, would they expect? Or what other expiations\nwould they require? The queen of King Xerxes, Amestris, buried twelve\nmen alive, as a sacrifice to Pluto to prolong her own life; and yet\nPlato saith, This God is called in Greek Hades, because he is placid,\nwise, and wealthy, and retains the souls of men by persuasion and\noratory. That great naturalist Xenophanes, seeing the Egyptians beating\ntheir breasts and lamenting at the solemn times of their devotions,\ngave them this pertinent and seasonable admonition: If they are Gods\n(said he), don\u2019t cry for them; and if they are men, don\u2019t sacrifice to\nthem.\n\n14. There is certainly no infirmity belonging to us that contains\nsuch a multiplicity of errors and fond passions, or that consists of\nsuch incongruous and incoherent opinions, as this of superstition\ndoth. It behooves us therefore to do our utmost to escape it; but\nwithal, we must see we do it safely and prudently, and not rashly and\ninconsiderately, as people run from the incursions of robbers or from\nfire, and fall into bewildered and untrodden paths full of pits and\nprecipices. For so some, while they would avoid superstition, leap over\nthe golden mean of true piety into the harsh and coarse extreme of\natheism.\n\n\n\n\nTHE APOPHTHEGMS OR REMARKABLE SAYINGS OF KINGS AND GREAT COMMANDERS.\n\n\nPLUTARCH TO TRAJAN THE EMPEROR WISHETH PROSPERITY.\n\nArtaxerxes, King of Persia, O Caesar Trajan, greatest of princes,\nesteemed it no less royal and bountiful kindly and cheerfully to accept\nsmall, than to make great presents; and when he was in a progress,\nand a common country laborer, having nothing else, took up water with\nboth his hands out of the river and presented it to him, he smiled\nand received it pleasantly, measuring the kindness not by the value\nof the gift, but by the affection of the giver. And Lycurgus ordained\nin Sparta very cheap sacrifices, that they might always worship the\nGods readily and easily with such things as were at hand. Upon the\nsame account, when I bring a mean and slender present of the common\nfirst-fruits of philosophy, accept also (I beseech you) with my good\naffection these short memorials, if they may contribute any thing to\nthe knowledge of the manners and dispositions of great men, which\nare more apparent in their words than in their actions. My former\ntreatise contains the lives of the most eminent princes, lawgivers,\nand generals, both Romans and Grecians; but most of their actions\nadmit a mixture of fortune, whereas such speeches and answers as\nhappened amidst their employments, passions, and events afford us (as\nin a looking-glass) a clear discovery of each particular temper and\ndisposition. Accordingly Siramnes the Persian, to such as wondered\nthat he usually spoke like a wise man and yet was unsuccessful in his\ndesigns, replied: I myself am master of my words, but the king and\nfortune have power over my actions. In the former treatise speeches\nand actions are mingled together, and require a reader that is at\nleisure; but in this the speeches, being as it were the seeds and the\nillustrations of those lives, are placed by themselves, and will not\n(I think) be tedious to you, since they will give you in a few words a\nreview of many memorable persons.\n\nCYRUS. The Persians affect such as are hawk-nosed and think them most\nbeautiful, because Cyrus, the most beloved of their kings, had a\nnose of that shape. Cyrus said that those that would not do good for\nthemselves ought to be compelled to do good for others; and that nobody\nought to govern, unless he was better than those he governed. When the\nPersians were desirous to exchange their hills and rocks for a plain\nand soft country, he would not suffer them, saying that both the seeds\nof plants and the lives of men resemble the soil they inhabit.\n\nDARIUS. Darius the father of Xerxes used to praise himself, saying\nthat he became even wiser in battles and dangers. When he laid a tax\nupon his subjects, he summoned his lieutenants, and asked them whether\nthe tax was burthensome or not? When they told him it was moderate,\nhe commanded them to pay half as much as was at first demanded. As he\nwas opening a pomegranate, one asked him what it was of which he would\nwish for a number equal to the seeds thereof. He said, Of men like\nZopyrus,\u2014who was a loyal person and his friend. This Zopyrus, after\nhe had maimed himself by cutting off his nose and ears, beguiled the\nBabylonians; and being trusted by them, he betrayed the city to Darius,\nwho often said that he would not have had Zopyrus maimed to gain a\nhundred Babylons.\n\nSEMIRAMIS. Semiramis built a monument for herself, with this\ninscription: Whatever king wants treasure, if he open this tomb, he\nmay be satisfied. Darius therefore opening it found no treasure, but\nanother inscription of this import: If thou wert not a wicked person\nand of insatiable covetousness, thou wouldst not disturb the mansions\nof the dead.\n\nXERXES. Arimenes came out of Bactria as a rival for the kingdom with\nhis brother Xerxes, the son of Darius. Xerxes sent presents to him,\ncommanding those that brought them to say: With these your brother\nXerxes now honors you; and if he chance to be proclaimed king, you\nshall be the next person to himself in the kingdom. When Xerxes was\ndeclared king, Arimenes immediately did him homage and placed the crown\nupon his head; and Xerxes gave him the next place to himself. Being\noffended with the Babylonians, who rebelled, and having overcome them,\nhe forbade them weapons, but commanded they should practise singing and\nplaying on the flute, keep brothel-houses and taverns, and wear loose\ncoats. He refused to eat Attic figs that were brought to be sold, until\nhe had conquered the country that produced them. When he caught some\nGrecian scouts in his camp, he did them no harm, but having allowed\nthem to view his army as much as they pleased, he let them go.\n\nARTAXERXES. Artaxerxes, the son of Xerxes, surnamed Longimanus (or\n_Long-hand_) because he had one hand longer than the other, said, it\nwas more princely to add than to take away. He first gave leave to\nthose that hunted with him, if they would and saw occasion, to throw\ntheir darts before him. He also first ordained that punishment for\nhis nobles who had offended, that they should be stripped and their\ngarments scourged instead of their bodies; and whereas their hair\nshould have been plucked out, that the same should be done to their\nturbans. When Satibarzanes, his chamberlain, petitioned him in an\nunjust matter, and he understood he did it to gain thirty thousand\npieces of money, he ordered his treasurer to bring the said sum, and\ngave them to him, saying: O Satibarzanes! take it; for when I have\ngiven you this, I shall not be poorer, but I had been more unjust if I\nhad granted your petition.\n\nCYRUS THE YOUNGER. Cyrus the Younger, when he was exhorting the\nLacedaemonians to side with him in the war, said that he had a stronger\nheart than his brother, and could drink more wine unmixed than he, and\nbear it better; that his brother, when he hunted, could scarce sit\nhis horse, or when ill news arrived, his throne. He exhorted them to\nsend him men, promising he would give horses to footmen, chariots to\nhorsemen, villages to those that had farms, and those that possessed\nvillages he would make lords of cities; and that he would give them\ngold and silver, not by tale but by weight.\n\nARTAXERXES MNEMON. Artaxerxes, the brother of Cyrus the Younger, called\nMnemon, did not only give very free and patient access to any that\nwould speak with him, but commanded the queen his wife to draw the\ncurtains of her chariot, that petitioners might have the same access\nto her also. When a poor man presented him with a very fair and great\napple, By the Sun, said he, \u2019tis my opinion, if this person were\nentrusted with a small city, he would make it great. In his flight,\nwhen his carriages were plundered, and he was forced to eat dry figs\nand barley-bread, Of how great pleasure, said he, have I hitherto lived\nignorant!\n\nPARYSATIS. Parysatis, the mother of Cyrus and Artaxerxes, advised him\nthat would discourse freely with the king, to use words of fine linen.\n\nORONTES. Orontes, the son-in-law of King Artaxerxes, falling into\ndisgrace and being condemned, said: As arithmeticians count sometimes\nmyriads on their fingers, sometimes units only; in like manner the\nfavorites of kings sometimes can do every thing with them, sometimes\nlittle or nothing.\n\nMEMNON. Memnon, one of King Darius\u2019s generals against Alexander, when a\nmercenary soldier excessively and impudently reviled Alexander, struck\nhim with his spear, adding, I pay you to fight against Alexander, not\nto reproach him.\n\nEGYPTIAN KINGS. The Egyptian kings, according unto their law, used to\nswear their judges that they should not obey the king when he commanded\nthem to give an unjust sentence.\n\nPOLTYS. Poltys king of Thrace, in the Trojan war, being solicited both\nby the Trojan and Grecian ambassadors, advised Alexander to restore\nHelen, promising to give him two beautiful women for her.\n\nTERES. Teres, the father of Sitalces, said, when he was out of the army\nand had nothing to do, he thought there was no difference between him\nand his grooms.\n\nCOTYS. Cotys, when one gave him a leopard, gave him a lion for it. He\nwas naturally prone to anger, and severely punished the miscarriages\nof his servants. When a stranger brought him some earthen vessels,\nthin and brittle, but delicately shaped and admirably adorned with\nsculptures, he requited the stranger for them, and then brake them\nall in pieces, Lest (said he) my passion should provoke me to punish\nexcessively those that brake them.\n\nIDATHYRSUS. Idathyrsus, King of Scythia, when Darius invaded him,\nsolicited the Ionian tyrants that they would assert their liberty by\nbreaking down the bridge that was made over the Danube: which they\nrefusing to do because they had sworn fealty to Darius, he called them\ngood, honest, lazy slaves.\n\nATEAS. Ateas wrote to Philip: You reign over the Macedonians, men\nthat have learned fighting; and I over the Scythians, which can fight\nwith hunger and thirst. As he was rubbing his horse, turning to the\nambassadors of Philip, he asked whether Philip did so or not. He took\nprisoner Ismenias, an excellent piper, and commanded him to play; and\nwhen others admired him, he swore it was more pleasant to hear a horse\nneigh.\n\nSCILURUS. Scilurus on his death-bed, being about to leave fourscore\nsons surviving, offered a bundle of darts to each of them, and bade\nthem break them. When all refused, drawing out one by one, he easily\nbroke them; thus teaching them that, if they held together, they would\ncontinue strong, but if they fell out and were divided, they would\nbecome weak.\n\nGELO. Gelo the tyrant, after he had overcome the Carthaginians at\nHimera, made peace with them, and among other articles compelled\nthem to subscribe this,\u2014that they should no more sacrifice their\nchildren to Saturn. He often marched the Syracusans out to plant their\nfields, as if it had been to war, that the country might be improved\nby husbandry, and they might not be corrupted by idleness. When he\ndemanded a sum of money of the citizens, and thereupon a tumult was\nraised, he told them he would but borrow it; and after the war was\nended, he restored it to them again. At a feast, when a harp was\noffered, and others one after another tuned it and played upon it, he\nsent for his horse, and with an easy agility leaped upon him.\n\nHIERO. Hiero, who succeeded Gelo in the tyranny, said he was not\ndisturbed by any that freely spoke against him. He judged that those\nthat revealed a secret did an injury to those to whom they revealed it;\nfor we hate not only those who tell, but them also that hear what we\nwould not have disclosed. One upbraided him with his stinking breath,\nand he blamed his wife that never told him of it; but she said, I\nthought all men smelt so. To Xenophanes the Colophonian, who said he\nhad much ado to maintain two servants, he replied: But Homer, whom you\ndisparage, maintains above ten thousand, although he is dead. He fined\nEpicharmus the comedian, for speaking unseemly when his wife was by.\n\nDIONYSIUS. Dionysius the Elder, when the public orators cast lots to\nknow in what order they should speak, drew as his lot the letter M. And\nwhen one said to him, \u039c\u03c9\u03c1\u03bf\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2, You will make a foolish speech, O\nDionysius, You are mistaken, said he, \u039c\u03bf\u03bd\u03b1\u03c1\u03c7\u03ae\u03c3\u03c9, I shall be a monarch.\nAnd as soon as his speech was ended, the Syracusans chose him general.\nIn the beginning of his tyranny, the citizens rebelled and besieged\nhim; and his friends advised him to resign the government, rather\nthan to be taken and slain by them. But he, seeing a cook butcher an\nox and the ox immediately fall down dead, said to his friends: Is\nit not a hateful thing, that for fear of so short a death we should\nresign so great a government? When his son, whom he intended to make\nhis successor in the government, had been detected in debauching a\nfreeman\u2019s wife, he asked him in anger, When did you ever know me guilty\nof such a crime? But you, sir, replied the son, had not a tyrant for\nyour father. Nor will you, said he, have a tyrant for your son, unless\nyou mend your manners. And another time, going into his son\u2019s house and\nseeing there abundance of silver and gold plate, he cried out: Thou art\nnot capable of being a tyrant, who hast made never a friend with all\nthe plate I have given thee. When he exacted money of the Syracusans,\nand they lamenting and beseeching him pretended they had none, he still\nexacted more, twice or thrice renewing his demands, until he heard them\nlaugh and jeer at him as they went to and fro in the market-place,\nand then he gave over. Now, said he, since they contemn me, it is a\nsign they have nothing left. When his mother, being ancient, requested\nhim to find a husband for her, I can, said he, overpower the laws of\nthe city, but I cannot force the laws of Nature. Although he punished\nother malefactors severely, he favored such as stole clothes, that\nthe Syracusans might forbear feasting and drunken clubs. A certain\nperson told him privately, he could show him a way how he might know\nbeforehand such as conspired against him. Let us know, said he, going\naside. Give me, said the person, a talent, that everybody may believe\nthat I have taught you the signs and tokens of plotters; and he gave it\nhim, pretending he had learned them, much admiring the subtilty of the\nman. Being asked whether he was at leisure, he replied: God forbid that\nit should ever befall me. Hearing that two young men very much reviled\nhim and his tyranny in their cups, he invited both of them to supper;\nand perceiving that one of them prattled freely and foolishly, but the\nother drank warily and sparing, he dismissed the first as a drunken\nfellow whose treason lay no deeper than his wine, and put the other\nto death as a disaffected and resolved traitor. Some blaming him for\nrewarding and preferring a wicked man, and one hated by the citizens;\nI would have, said he, somebody hated more than myself. When he gave\npresents to the ambassadors of Corinth, and they refused them because\ntheir law forbade them to receive gifts from a prince to whom they\nwere sent in embassy, he said they did very ill to destroy the only\nadvantage of tyranny, and to declare that it was dangerous to receive\na kindness from a tyrant. Hearing that a citizen had buried a quantity\nof gold in his house, he sent for it; and when the party removed to\nanother city, and bought a farm with part of his treasure which he had\nconcealed, Dionysius sent for him and bade him take back the rest,\nsince he had now begun to use his money, and was no longer making a\nuseful thing useless.\n\nDIONYSIUS THE YOUNGER said that he maintained many Sophists; not that\nhe admired them, but that he might be admired for their sake. When\nPolyxenus the logician told him he had baffled him; Yes, said he,\nin words, but I have caught you in deeds; for you, leaving your own\nfortune, attend me and mine. When he was deposed from his government,\nand one asked him what he got by Plato and philosophy, he answered,\nThat I may bear so great a change of fortune patiently. Being asked how\nit came to pass that his father, a private and poor man, obtained the\ngovernment of Syracuse, and he already possessed of it, and the son of\na tyrant, lost it,\u2014My father, said he, entered upon affairs when the\ndemocracy was hated, but I, when tyranny was become odious. To another\nthat asked him the same question, he replied: My father bequeathed to\nme his government, but not his fortune.\n\nAGATHOCLES was the son of a potter. When he became lord and was\nproclaimed king of Sicily, he was wont to place earthen and golden\nvessels together, and show them to young men, telling them, Those I\nmade first, but now I make these by my valor and industry. As he was\nbesieging a city, some from the walls reviling him, saying, Do you\nhear, potter, where will you have money to pay your soldiers?\u2014he\ngently answered, I\u2019ll tell you, if I take this city. And having taken\nit by storm, he sold the prisoners, telling them, If you reproach me\nagain, I will complain to your masters. Some inhabitants of Ithaca\ncomplained of his mariners, that making a descent on the island they\nhad taken away some cattle; But your king, said he, came to Sicily, and\ndid not only take away sheep, but put out the shepherd\u2019s eyes, and went\nhis way.\n\nDION. Dion, that deposed Dionysius from the tyranny, when he heard\nCallippus, whom of all his friends and attendants he trusted most,\nconspired against him, refused to question him for it, saying: It is\nbetter for him to die than to live, who must be weary not only of his\nenemies, but of his friends too.\n\nARCHELAUS. Archelaus, when one of his companions (and none of the\nbest) begged a golden cup of him, bade the boy give it Euripides; and\nwhen the man wondered at him, You, said he, are worthy to ask, but\nhe is worthy to receive it without asking. A prating barber asked him\nhow he would be trimmed. He answered, In silence. When Euripides at a\nbanquet embraced fair Agatho and kissed him, although he was no longer\nbeardless, he said, turning to his friends: Do not wonder at it, for\nthe beauty of such as are handsome lasts after autumn.\n\nTimotheus the harper, receiving of him a reward less than his\nexpectation, twitted him for it not obscurely; and once singing the\nshort verse of the chorus, You commend earth-born silver, directed it\nto him. And Archelaus answered him again singing, But you beg it. When\none sprinkled water upon him, and his friends would have had him punish\nthe man, You are mistaken, said he, he did not sprinkle me, but some\nother person whom he took me to be.\n\nPHILIP. Theophrastus tells us that Philip, the father of Alexander,\nwas not only greater in his port and success, but also freer from\nluxury than other kings of his time. He said the Athenians were happy,\nif they could find every year ten fit to be chosen generals, since in\nmany years he could find but one fit to be a general, and that was\nParmenio. When he had news brought him of divers and eminent successes\nin one day, O Fortune, said he, for all these so great kindnesses do me\nsome small mischief. After he had conquered Greece, some advised him\nto place garrisons in the cities. No, said he, I had rather be called\nmerciful a great while, than lord a little while. His friends advised\nhim to banish a railer his court. I will not do it, said he, lest he\nshould go about and rail in many places. Smicythus accused Nicanor for\none that commonly spoke evil of King Philip; and his friends advised\nhim to send for him and punish him. Truly, said he, Nicanor is not the\nworst of the Macedonians; we ought therefore to consider whether we\nhave given him any cause or not. When he understood therefore that\nNicanor, being slighted by the king, was much afflicted with poverty,\nhe ordered a boon should be given him. And when Smicythus reported\nthat Nicanor was continually abounding in the king\u2019s praises, You see\nthen, said he, that whether we will be well or ill spoken of is in\nour own power. He said he was beholden to the Athenian orators, who\nby reproaching him made him better both in speech and behavior; for\nI will endeavor, said he, both by my words and actions to prove them\nliars. Such Athenians as he took prisoners in the fight at Chaeronea he\ndismissed without ransom. When they also demanded their garments and\nquilts, and on that account accused the Macedonians, Philip laughed and\nsaid, Do ye not think these Athenians imagine we beat them at cockal?\nIn a fight he broke his collar-bone, and the surgeon that had him in\ncure requested him daily for his reward. Take what you will, said he,\nfor you have the key.[109] There were two brothers called Both and\nEither; perceiving Either was a good understanding busy fellow and\nBoth a silly fellow and good for little, he said: Either is Both, and\nBoth is Neither. To some that advised him to deal severely with the\nAthenians he said: You talk absurdly, who would persuade a man that\nsuffers all things for the sake of glory, to overthrow the theatre of\nglory. Being arbitrator betwixt two wicked persons, he commanded one to\nfly out of Macedonia and the other to pursue him. Being about to pitch\nhis camp in a likely place, and hearing there was no hay to be had for\nthe cattle, What a life, said he, is ours, since we must live according\nto the convenience of asses! Designing to take a strong fort, which\nthe scouts told him was exceeding difficult and impregnable, he asked\nwhether it was so difficult that an ass could not come at it laden with\ngold. Lasthenes the Olynthian and his friends being aggrieved, and\ncomplaining that some of Philip\u2019s retinue called them traitors, These\nMacedonians, said he, are a rude and clownish people, that call a spade\na spade. He exhorted his son to behave himself courteously toward the\nMacedonians, and to acquire influence with the people, while he could\nbe affable and gracious during the reign of another. He advised him\nalso to make friends of men of interest in the cities, both good and\nbad, that afterwards he might make use of these, and suppress those.\nTo Philo the Theban, who had been his host and given him entertainment\nwhile he remained an hostage at Thebes, and afterwards refused to\naccept any present from him, he said: Do not take from me the title of\ninvincible, by making me inferior to you in kindness and bounty. Having\ntaken many prisoners, he was selling them, sitting in an unseemly\nposture, with his tunic tucked up; when one of the captives to be sold\ncried out, Spare me, Philip, for our fathers were friends. When Philip\nasked him, Prithee, how or from whence? Let me come nearer, said he,\nand I\u2019ll tell you. When he was come up to him, he said: Let down your\ncloak a little lower, for you sit indecently. Whereupon said Philip:\nLet him go, in truth he wisheth me well and is my friend, though I\ndid not know him. Being invited to supper, he carried many he took up\nby the way along with him; and perceiving his host troubled (for his\nprovision was not sufficient), he sent to each of his friends, and\nbade them reserve a place for the cake. They, believing and expecting\nit, ate little, and so the supper was enough for all. It appeared he\ngrieved much at the death of Hipparchus the Euboean. For when somebody\nsaid it was time for him to die,\u2014For himself, said he, but he died\ntoo soon for me, preventing me by his death from returning him the\nkindness his friendship deserved. Hearing that Alexander blamed him\nfor having children by several women, Therefore, saith he to him,\nsince you have many rivals with you for the kingdom, be just and\nhonorable, that you may not receive the kingdom as my gift, but by\nyour own merit. He charged him to be observant of Aristotle, and study\nphilosophy, That you may not, said he, do many things which I now\nrepent of doing. He made one of Antipater\u2019s recommendation a judge;\nand perceiving afterwards that his hair and beard were colored, he\nremoved him, saying, I could not think one that was faithless in his\nhair could be trusty in his deeds. As he sate judge in the cause of one\nMachaetas, he fell asleep, and for want of minding his arguments, gave\njudgment against him. And when being enraged he cried out, I appeal;\nTo whom, said he, wilt thou appeal? To you yourself, O king, said he,\nwhen you are awake to hear me with attention. Then Philip rousing and\ncoming to himself, and perceiving Machaetas was injured, although he\ndid not reverse the sentence, he paid the fine himself. When Harpalus,\nin behalf of Crates his kinsman and intimate friend, who was charged\nwith disgraceful crimes, begged that Crates might pay the fine and so\ncause the action to be withdrawn and avoid public disgrace;\u2014It is\nbetter, said he, that he should be reproached upon his own account,\nthan we for him. His friends being enraged because the Peloponnesians,\nto whom he had shown favor, hissed at him in the Olympic games, What\nthen, said he, would they do if we should abuse them? Awaking after\nhe had overslept himself in the army; I slept, said he, securely, for\nAntipater watched. Another time, being asleep in the day-time, while\nthe Grecians fretting with impatience thronged at the gates; Do not\nwonder, said Parmenio to them, if Philip be now asleep, for while you\nslept he was awake. When he corrected a musician at a banquet, and\ndiscoursed with him concerning notes and instruments, the musician\nreplied: Far be that dishonor from your majesty, that you should\nunderstand these things better than I do. While he was at variance with\nhis wife Olympia and his son, Demaratus the Corinthian came to him, and\nPhilip asked him how the Grecians held together. Demaratus replied:\nYou had need to enquire how the Grecians agree, who agree so well\nwith your nearest relations. Whereupon he let fall his anger, and was\nreconciled to them. A poor old woman petitioned and dunned him often\nto hear her cause; and he answered, I am not at leisure; the old woman\nbawled out, Do not reign then. He admired the speech, and immediately\nheard her and others.\n\nALEXANDER. While Alexander was a boy, Philip had great success in\nhis affairs, at which he did not rejoice, but told the children that\nwere brought up with him, My father will leave me nothing to do. The\nchildren answered, Your father gets all this for you. But what good,\nsaith he, will it do me, if I possess much and do nothing? Being\nnimble and light-footed, his father encouraged him to run in the\nOlympic race; Yes, said he, if there were any kings there to run with\nme. A wench being brought to lie with him late in the evening, he\nasked why she tarried so long. She answered, I staid until my husband\nwas abed; and he sharply reproved his pages, because through their\ncarelessness he had almost committed adultery. As he was sacrificing\nto the Gods liberally, and often offered frankincense, Leonidas his\ntutor standing by said, O son, thus generously will you sacrifice, when\nyou have conquered the country that bears frankincense. And when he\nhad conquered it, he sent him this letter: I have sent you an hundred\ntalents of frankincense and cassia, that hereafter you may not be\nniggardly towards the Gods, when you understand I have conquered the\ncountry in which perfumes grow. The night before he fought at the river\nGranicus, he exhorted the Macedonians to sup plentifully and to bring\nout all they had, as they were to sup the next day at the charge of\ntheir enemies. Perillus, one of his friends, begged of him portions for\nhis daughters; and he ordered him to receive fifty talents. And when he\nsaid, Ten were enough, Alexander replied: Enough for you to receive,\nbut not for me to give. He commanded his steward to give Anaxarchus\nthe philosopher as much as he should ask for. He asketh, said the\nsteward, for an hundred talents. He doth well, said he, knowing he\nhath a friend that both can and will bestow so much on him. Seeing at\nMiletus many statues of wrestlers that had overcome in the Olympic and\nPythian games, And where, said he, were these lusty fellows when the\nbarbarians assaulted your city? When Ada queen of Caria was ambitious\noften to send him sauces and sweetmeats delicately prepared by the best\ncooks and artists, he said, I have better confectioners of my own,\nviz., my night-travelling for my breakfast, and my spare breakfast for\nmy dinner. All things being prepared for a fight, his captains asked\nhim whether he had any thing else to command them. Nothing, said he,\nbut that the Macedonians should shave their beards. Parmenio wondering\nat it, Do you not know, said he, there is no better hold in a fight\nthan the beard? When Darius offered him ten thousand talents, and to\ndivide Asia equally with him; I would accept it, said Parmenio, were I\nAlexander. And so truly would I, said Alexander, if I were Parmenio.\nBut he answered Darius, that the earth could not bear two suns, nor\nAsia two kings. When he was going to fight for the world at Arbela,\nagainst ten hundred thousand enemies set in array against him, some of\nhis friends came to him, and told him the discourse of the soldiers\nin their tents, who had agreed that nothing of the spoils should be\nbrought into the treasury, but they would have all themselves. You tell\nme good news, said he, for I hear the discourse of men that intend to\nfight, and not to run away. Several of his soldiers came to him and\nsaid: O King! be of good courage, and fear not the multitude of your\nenemies, for they will not be able to endure the very stink of our\nsweat. The army being marshalled, he saw a soldier fitting his thong\nto his javelin, and dismissed him as a useless fellow, for fitting his\nweapons when he should use them. As he was reading a letter from his\nmother, containing secrets and accusations of Antipater, Hephaestion\nalso (as he was wont) read it along with him. Alexander did not hinder\nhim; but when the letter was read, he took his ring off his finger, and\nlaid the seal of it upon Hephaestion\u2019s mouth. Being saluted as the son\nof Jupiter in the temple of Ammon by the chief priest; It is no wonder,\nsaid he, for Jupiter is by nature the father of all, and calls the best\nmen his sons. When he was wounded with an arrow in the ankle, and many\nran to him that were wont to call him a God, he said smiling: That is\nblood, as you see, and not, as Homer saith,\u2014\n\n    Such humor as distils from blessed Gods.[110]\n\nTo some that commended the frugality of Antipater, whose diet was sober\nand without luxury; Outwardly, said he, Antipater wears white clothes,\nbut within he is all purple. In a cold winter day one of his friends\ninvited him to a banquet, and there being a little fire on a small\nhearth, he bid him fetch either wood or frankincense. Antipatridas\nbrought a beautiful singing woman to supper with him; Alexander, being\ntaken with her visage, asked Antipatridas whether she was his miss\nor not. And when he confessed she was; O villain, said he, turn her\nimmediately out from the banquet. Again, when Cassander forced a kiss\nfrom Pytho, a boy beloved by Evius the piper, and Alexander perceived\nthat Evius was concerned at it, he was extremely enraged at Cassander,\nand said with a loud voice, It seems nobody must be loved if you can\nhelp it. When he sent such of the Macedonians as were sick and maimed\nto the sea, they showed him one that was in health and yet subscribed\nhis name among the sick; being brought into the presence and examined,\nhe confessed he used that pretence for the love of Telesippa, who was\ngoing to the sea. Alexander asked, of whom he could make inquiries\nabout this Telesippa, and hearing she was a free woman, he said.\nTherefore, my Antigenes, let us persuade her to stay with us, for to\nforce her to do so when she is a free woman is not according to my\ncustom. Of the mercenary Grecians that fought against him he took many\nprisoners. He commanded the Athenians should be kept in chains, because\nthey served for wages when they were allowed a public maintenance; and\nthe Thessalians, because when they had a fruitful country they did not\ntill it; but he set the Thebans free, saying, To them only I have left\nneither city nor country. He took captive an excellent Indian archer\nthat said he could shoot an arrow through a ring, and commanded him\nto show his skill; and when the man refused to do this, he commanded\nhim in a rage to be put to death. The man told them that led him to\nexecution that, not having practised for many days, he was afraid he\nshould miss. Alexander, hearing this, wondered at him and dismissed\nhim with rewards, because he chose rather to die than show himself\nunworthy of his reputation. Taxiles, one of the Indian kings, met\nAlexander, and advised him not to make war nor fight with him, but if\nhe were a meaner person than himself, to receive kindness from him, or\nif he were a better man, to show kindness to him. He answered, that\nwas the very thing they must fight for, who should exceed the other\nin bounty. When he heard the rock called Aornus in India was by its\nsituation impregnable, but the commander of it was a coward; Then, said\nhe, the place is easy to be taken. Another, commanding a rock thought\nto be invincible, surrendered himself and the rock to Alexander, who\ncommitted the said rock and the adjacent country to his government,\nsaying: I take this for a wise man, who chose rather to commit himself\nto a good man than to a strong place. When the rock was taken, his\nfriends said that it exceeded the deeds of Hercules. But I, said he, do\nnot think my actions and all my empire to be compared with one word of\nHercules. He fined some of his friends whom he caught playing at dice\nin earnest. Of his chief and most powerful friends, he seemed most to\nrespect Craterus, and to love Hephaestion. Craterus, said he, is the\nfriend of the king; but Hephaestion is the friend of Alexander. He sent\nfifty talents to Xenocrates the philosopher, who would not receive\nthem, saying he was not in want. And he asked whether Xenocrates had\nno friend either; For as to myself, said he, the treasure of Darius\nis hardly sufficient for me to bestow among my friends. He demanded\nof Porus, after the fight, how he should treat him. Royally, said he,\nlike a king. And being again asked, what farther he had to request;\nAll things, said he, are in that word _royally_. Admiring his wisdom\nand valor, he gave him a greater government than he had before. Being\ntold a certain person reviled him, To do good, said he, and to be evil\nspoken of is kingly. As he was dying, looking upon his friends, I\nsee, said he, my funeral tournament will be great. When he was dead,\nDemades the rhetorician likened the Macedonian army without a general\nto Polyphemus the Cyclops when his eye was put out.\n\nPTOLEMY. Ptolemy, the son of Lagus, frequently supped with his friends\nand lay at their houses; and if at any time he invited them to supper,\nhe made use of their furniture, sending for vessels, carpets, and\ntables; for he himself had only things that were of constant use about\nhim, saying it was more becoming a king to make others rich than to be\nrich himself.\n\nANTIGONUS. Antigonus exacted money severely. When one told him that\nAlexander did not do so, It may be so, said he; Alexander reaped Asia,\nand I but glean after him. Seeing some soldiers playing at ball in\nhead-pieces and breast-plates, he was pleased, and sent for their\nofficers, intending to commend them; but when he heard the officers\nwere drinking, he bestowed their commands on the soldiers. When all\nmen wondered that in his old age his government was mild and easy;\nFormerly, said he, I sought for power, but now for glory and good-will.\nTo Philip his son, who asked him in the presence of many when the\narmy would march, What, said he, are you afraid that you only should\nnot hear the trumpet? The same young man being desirous to quarter at\na widow\u2019s house that had three handsome daughters, Antigonus called\nthe quartermaster to him: Prithee, said he, help my son out of these\nstraits. Recovering from a slight disease, he said: No harm; this\ndistemper puts me in mind not to aim at great things, since we are\nmortal. Hermodotus in his poems called him Son of the Sun. He that\nattends my close-stool, said he, sings me no such song. When one said,\nAll things in kings are just and honorable,\u2014Indeed, said he, for\nbarbarian kings; but for us only honorable things are honorable, and\nonly just things are just. Marsyas his brother had a cause depending,\nand requested him it might be examined at his house. Nay, said he, it\nshall be heard in the judgment-hall, that all may hear whether we do\nexact justice or not. In the winter being forced to pitch his camp\nwhere necessaries were scarce, some of his soldiers reproached him, not\nknowing he was near. He opened the tent with his cane, saying: Woe be\nto you, unless you get you farther off when you revile me. Aristodemus,\none of his friends, supposed to be a cook\u2019s son, advised him to\nmoderate his gifts and expenses. Thy words, said he, Aristodemus, smell\nof the apron. The Athenians, out of a respect to him, gave one of his\nservants the freedom of their city. And I would not, said he, have any\nAthenian whipped by my command. A youth, scholar to Anaximenes the\nrhetorician, spoke in his presence a prepared and studied speech; and\nhe asking something which he desired to learn, the youth was silent.\nWhat do you say, said he, is all that you have said written in your\ntable-book? When he heard another rhetorician say, The snow-spread\nseason makes the country fodder spent; Will you not stop, said he,\nprating to me as you do to the rabble? Thrasyllus the Cynic begged a\ndrachm of him. That, said he, is too little for a king to give. Why\nthen, said the other, give me a talent. And that, said he, is too much\nfor a Cynic (or for a _dog_) to receive. Sending his son Demetrius with\nships and land-forces to make Greece free; Glory, said he, from Greece,\nas from a watch-tower, will shine throughout the world. Antagoras the\npoet was boiling a conger, and Antigonus, coming behind him as he was\nstirring his skillet, said: Do you think, Antagoras, that Homer boiled\ncongers, when he wrote the deeds of Agamemnon? Antagoras replied: Do\nyou think, O King, that Agamemnon, when he did such exploits, was a\npeeping in his army to see who boiled congers? After he had seen in a\ndream Mithridates mowing a golden harvest, he designed to kill him,\nand acquainted Demetrius his son with his design, making him swear to\nconceal it. But Demetrius, taking Mithridates aside and walking with\nhim by the seaside, with the pick of his spear wrote on the shore,\n\u201cFly, Mithridates;\u201d which he understanding, fled into Pontus, and there\nreigned until his death.\n\nDEMETRIUS. Demetrius, while he was besieging Rhodes, found in one of\nthe suburbs the picture of Ialysus made by Protogenes the painter.\nThe Rhodians sent a herald to him, beseeching him not to deface the\npicture. I will sooner, said he, deface my father\u2019s statues, than such\na picture. When he made a league with the Rhodians, he left behind him\nan engine, called the City Taker, that it might be a memorial of his\nmagnificence and of their courage. When the Athenians rebelled, and\nhe took the city, which had been distressed for want of provision, he\ncalled an assembly and gave them corn. And while he made a speech to\nthem concerning that affair, he spoke improperly; and when one that\nsat by told him how the word ought to be spoken, he said: For this\ncorrection I bestow upon you five thousand bushels more.\n\nANTIGONUS THE SECOND. Antigonus the Second\u2014when his father was a\nprisoner, and sent one of his friends to admonish him to pay no regard\nto any thing that he might write at the constraint of Seleucus, and to\nenter into no obligation to surrender up the cities\u2014wrote to Seleucus\nthat he would give up his whole kingdom, and himself for an hostage,\nthat his father might be set free. Being about to fight by sea with the\nlieutenants of Ptolemy, and the pilot telling him the enemy outnumbered\nhim in ships, he said: But how many ships do you reckon my presence to\nbe worth? Once when he gave ground, his enemies pressing upon him, he\ndenied that he fled; but he betook himself (as he said) to an advantage\nthat lay behind him. To a youth, son of a valiant father, but himself\nno very great soldier, petitioning he might receive his father\u2019s\npay; Young man, said he, I pay and reward men for their own, not for\ntheir fathers\u2019 valor. When Zeno of Citium, whom he admired beyond all\nphilosophers, died, he said, The theatre of my actions is fallen.\n\nLYSIMACHUS. Lysimachus, when he was overcome by Dromichaetas in Thrace\nand constrained by thirst, surrendered himself and his army. When\nhe was a prisoner, and had drunk; O Gods, said he, for how small a\nsatisfaction have I made myself a slave from a king! To Philippides the\ncomedian, his friend and companion, he said. What have I that I may\nimpart to you? He answered, What you please, except your secrets.\n\nANTIPATER. Antipater, hearing that Parmenio was slain by Alexander,\nsaid: If Parmenio conspired against Alexander, whom may we trust? but\nif he did not, what is to be done? Of Demades the rhetorician, now\ngrown old, he said: As of sacrifices when finished, so there is nothing\nleft of him but his belly and tongue.\n\nANTIOCHUS THE THIRD. Antiochus the Third wrote to the cities, that if\nhe should at any time write for any thing to be done contrary to the\nlaw, they should not obey, but suppose it to be done out of ignorance.\nWhen he saw the Priestess of Diana, that she was exceeding beautiful,\nhe presently removed from Ephesus, lest he should be swayed, contrary\nto his judgment, to commit some unholy act.\n\nANTIOCHUS HIERAX. Antiochus, surnamed the Hawk, warred with his brother\nSeleucus for the kingdom. After Seleucus was overcome by the Galatians,\nand was not to be heard of, but supposed to be slain in the fight, he\nlaid aside his purple and went into mourning. A while after, hearing\nhis brother was safe, he sacrificed to the Gods for the good news, and\ncaused the cities under his dominion to put on garlands.\n\nEUMENES. Eumenes was thought to be slain by a conspiracy of Perseus.\nThat report being brought to Pergamus, Attalus his brother put on\nthe crown, married his wife, and took upon him the kingdom. Hearing\nafterwards his brother was alive and upon the way, he met him, as he\nused to do, with his life-guard, and a spear in his hand. Eumenes\nembraced him kindly, and whispered in his ear:\u2014\n\n    If a widow you will wed,\n    Wait till you\u2019re sure her husband\u2019s dead.[111]\n\nBut he never afterwards did or spake any thing that showed any\nsuspicion all his lifetime; but when he died, he bequeathed to him his\nqueen and kingdom. In requital of which, his brother bred up none of\nhis own children, although he had many; but when the son of Eumenes was\ngrown up, he bestowed the kingdom on him in his own lifetime.\n\nPYRRHUS THE EPIROT. Pyrrhus was asked by his sons, when they were boys,\nto whom he would leave the kingdom. To him of you, saith he, that hath\nthe sharpest sword. Being asked whether Pytho or Caphisius was the\nbetter piper, Polysperchon, said he, is the best general. He joined in\nbattle with the Romans, and twice overcame them, but with the loss of\nmany friends and captains. If I should overcome the Romans, said he,\nin another fight, I were undone. Not being able to keep Sicily (as he\nsaid) from them, turning to his friends he said: What a fine wrestling\nring do we leave to the Romans and Carthaginians! His soldiers called\nhim Eagle; And I may deserve the title, said he, while I am borne\nupon the wings of your arms. Hearing some young men had spoken many\nreproachful words of him in their drink, he summoned them all to appear\nbefore him next day; when they appeared, he asked the foremost whether\nthey spake such things of him or not. The young man answered: Such\nwords were spoken, O King, and more we had spoken, if we had had more\nwine.\n\nANTIOCHUS. Antiochus, who twice made an inroad into Parthia, as he\nwas once a hunting, lost his friends and servants in the pursuit, and\nwent into a cottage of poor people who did not know him. As they were\nat supper, he threw out discourse concerning the king; they said for\nthe most part he was a good prince, but overlooked many things he left\nto the management of debauched courtiers, and out of love of hunting\noften neglected his necessary affairs; and there they stopped. At break\nof day the guard arrived at the cottage, and the king was recognized\nwhen the crown and purple robes were brought. From the day, said he,\non which I first received these, I never heard truth concerning myself\ntill yesterday. When he besieged Jerusalem, the Jews, in respect of\ntheir great festival, begged of him seven days\u2019 truce; which he not\nonly granted, but preparing oxen with gilded horns, with a great\nquantity of incense and perfumes, he went before them to the very\ngates, and having delivered them as a sacrifice to their priests, he\nreturned back to his army. The Jews wondered at him, and as soon as\ntheir festival was finished, surrendered themselves to him.\n\nTHEMISTOCLES. Themistocles in his youth was much given to wine and\nwomen. But after Miltiades the general overcame the Persian at\nMarathon, Themistocles utterly forsook his former disorders; and to\nsuch as wondered at the change, he said, The trophy of Miltiades will\nneither suffer me to sleep nor to be idle. Being asked whether he would\nrather be Achilles or Homer,\u2014And pray, said he, which would you rather\nbe, a conqueror in the Olympic games, or the crier that proclaims who\nare conquerors? When Xerxes with that great navy made a descent upon\nGreece, he fearing, if Epicydes (a popular, but a covetous, corrupt,\nand cowardly person) were made general, the city might be lost, bribed\nhim with a sum of money to desist from that pretence. Adimantus was\nafraid to hazard a sea-fight, whereunto Themistocles persuaded and\nencouraged the Grecians. O Themistocles, said he, those that start\nbefore their time in the Olympic games are always scourged. Aye; but,\nAdimantus, said the other, they that are left behind are not crowned.\nEurybiades lifted up his cane at him, as if he would strike him.\nStrike, said he, but hear me. When he could not persuade Eurybiades to\nfight in the straits of the sea, he sent privately to Xerxes, advising\nhim that he need not fear the Grecians, for they were running away.\nXerxes upon this persuasion, fighting in a place advantageous for the\nGrecians, was worsted; and then he sent him another message, and bade\nhim fly with all speed over the Hellespont, for the Grecians designed\nto break down his bridge; that under pretence of saving him he might\nsecure the Grecians. A man from the little island Seriphus told him,\nhe was famous not upon his own account but through the city where he\nlived. You say true, said he, for if I had been a Seriphian, I had not\nbeen famous; nor would you, if you had been an Athenian. To Antiphatus,\na beautiful person that avoided and despised Themistocles when he\nformerly loved him, but came to him and flattered him when he was in\ngreat power and esteem; Hark you, lad, said he, though late, yet both\nof us are wise at last. To Simonides desiring him to give an unjust\nsentence, You would not be a good poet, said he, if you should sing\nout of tune; nor I a good governor, if I should give judgment contrary\nto law. When his son was a little saucy towards his mother, he said\nthat this boy had more power than all the Grecians, for the Athenians\ngoverned Greece, he the Athenians, his wife him, and his son his wife.\nHe preferred an honest man that wooed his daughter, before a rich man.\nI would rather, said he, have a man that wants money, than money that\nwants a man. Having a farm to sell, he bid the crier proclaim also\nthat it had a good neighbor. When the Athenians reviled him; Why do\nyou complain, said he, that the same persons so often befriend you?\nAnd he compared himself to a row of plane-trees, under which in a\nstorm passengers run for shelter, but in fair weather they pluck the\nleaves off and abuse them. Scoffing at the Eretrians, he said, Like\nthe sword-fish, they have a sword indeed, but no heart. Being banished\nfirst out of Athens and afterwards out of Greece, he betook himself\nto the king of Persia, who bade him speak his mind. Speech, he said,\nwas like to tapestry; and like it, when it was spread, it showed\nits figures, but when it was folded up, hid and spoiled them. And\ntherefore he requested time until he might learn the Persian tongue,\nand could explain himself without an interpreter. Having there received\ngreat presents, and being enriched of a sudden; O lads, said he to his\nsons, we had been undone if we had not been undone.\n\nMYRONIDES. Myronides summoned the Athenians to fight against the\nBoeotians. When the time was almost come, and the captains told him\nthey were not near all come out; They are come, said he, all that\nintend to fight. And marching while their spirits were up, he overcame\nhis enemies.\n\nARISTIDES. Aristides the Just always managed his offices himself, and\navoided all political clubs, because power gotten by the assistance of\nfriends was an encouragement to the unjust. When the Athenians were\nfully bent to banish him by an ostracism, an illiterate country fellow\ncame to him with his shell, and asked him to write in it the name of\nAristides. Friend, said he, do you know Aristides? Not I, said the\nfellow, but I do not like his surname of Just. He said no more, but\nwrote his name in the shell and gave it him. He was at variance with\nThemistocles, who was sent on an embassy with him. Are you content,\nsaid he, Themistocles, to leave our enmity at the borders? and if you\nplease, we will take it up again at our return. When he levied an\nassessment upon the Greeks, he returned poorer by so much as he spent\nin the journey.\n\nAeschylus wrote these verses on Amphiaraus:\u2014\n\n    His shield no emblem bears; his generous soul\n    Wishes to be, not to appear, the best;\n    While the deep furrows of his noble mind\n    Harvests of wise and prudent counsel bear.[112]\n\nAnd when they were pronounced in the theatre, all turned their eyes\nupon Aristides.\n\nPERICLES. Whenever he entered on his command as general, while he was\nputting on his war-cloak, he used thus to bespeak himself: Remember,\nPericles, you govern freemen, Grecians, Athenians. He advised the\nAthenians to demolish Aegina, as a dangerous eyesore to the haven of\nPiraeus. To a friend that wanted him to bear false witness and to bind\nthe same with an oath, he said: I am a friend only as far as the altar.\nWhen he lay on his death-bed, he blessed himself that no Athenian ever\nwent into mourning upon his account.\n\nALCIBIADES. Alcibiades while he was a boy, wrestling in a ring, seeing\nhe could not break his adversary\u2019s hold, bit him by the hand; who cried\nout, You bite like a woman. Not so, said he, but like a lion. He had a\nvery handsome dog, that cost him seven thousand drachmas; and he cut\noff his tail, that, said he, the Athenians may have this story to tell\nof me, and may concern themselves no farther with me. Coming into a\nschool, he called for Homer\u2019s Iliads; and when the master told him he\nhad none of Homer\u2019s works, he gave him a box on the ear, and went his\nway. He came to Pericles\u2019s gate, and being told he was busy a preparing\nhis accounts to be given to the people of Athens, Had he not better,\nsaid he, contrive how he might give no account at all? Being summoned\nby the Athenians out of Sicily to plead for his life, he absconded,\nsaying, that criminal was a fool who studied a defence when he might\nfly for it. But, said one, will you not trust your country with your\ncause? No, said he, nor my mother either, lest she mistake and cast a\nblack pebble instead of a white one. When he heard death was decreed\nto him and his associates, Let us convince them, said he, that we are\nalive. And passing over to Lacedaemon, he stirred up the Decelean war\nagainst the Athenians.\n\nLAMACHUS. Lamachus chid a captain for a fault; and when he had said he\nwould do so no more, Sir, said he, in war there is no room for a second\nmiscarriage.\n\nIPHICRATES. Iphicrates was despised because he was thought to be a\nshoemaker\u2019s son. The exploit that first brought him into repute was\nthis: when he was wounded himself, he caught up one of the enemies and\ncarried him alive and in his armor to his own ship. He once pitched his\ncamp in a country belonging to his allies and confederates, and yet he\nfortified it exactly with a trench and bulwark. Said one to him, What\nare ye afraid of? Of all speeches, said he, none is so dishonorable\nfor a general, as I should not have thought it. As he marshalled his\narmy to fight with barbarians, I am afraid, said he, they do not\nknow Iphicrates, for his very name used to strike terror into other\nenemies. Being accused of a capital crime, he said to the informer:\nO fellow! what art thou doing, who, when war is at hand, dost advise\nthe city to consult concerning me, and not with me? To Harmodius,\ndescended from the ancient Harmodius, when he reviled him for his mean\nbirth, My nobility, said he, begins in me, but yours ends in you. A\nrhetorician asked him in an assembly, who he was that he took so much\nupon him,\u2014horseman, or footman, or archer, or shield-bearer. Neither\nof them, said he, but one that understands how to command all those.\n\nTIMOTHEUS. Timotheus was reputed a successful general, and some that\nenvied him painted cities falling under his net of their own accord,\nwhile he was asleep. Said Timotheus, If I take such cities when I am\nasleep, what do you think I shall do when I am awake? A confident\ncommander showed the Athenians a wound he had received. But I, said\nhe, when I was your general in Samos, was ashamed that a dart from an\nengine fell near me. The orators set up Chares as one they thought fit\nto be general of the Athenians. Not to be general, said Timotheus, but\nto carry the general\u2019s baggage.\n\nCHABRIAS. Chabrias said, they were the best commanders who best\nunderstood the affairs of their enemies. He was once indicted for\ntreason with Iphicrates, who blamed him for exposing himself to danger,\nby going to the place of exercise, and dining at his usual hour. If\nthe Athenians, said he, deal severely with us, you will die all foul\nand gut-foundered; I\u2019ll die clean and anointed, with my dinner in my\nbelly. He was wont to say, that an army of stags, with a lion for their\ncommander, was more formidable than an army of lions led by a stag.\n\nHEGESIPPUS. When Hegesippus, surnamed Crobylus (i.e. _Top-knot_),\ninstigated the Athenians against Philip, one of the assembly cried\nout, You would not persuade us to a war? Yes, indeed, would I, said\nhe, and to mourning clothes and to public funerals and to funeral\nspeeches, if we intend to live free and not submit to the pleasure of\nthe Macedonians.\n\nPYTHEAS. Pytheas, when he was a young man, stood forth to oppose the\ndecrees made concerning Alexander. One said: Have you, young man, the\nconfidence to speak in such weighty affairs? And why not? said he:\nAlexander, whom you voted a God, is younger than I am.\n\nPHOCION. Phocion the Athenian was never seen to laugh or cry. In an\nassembly one told him, You seem to be thoughtful, Phocion. You guess\nright, said he, for I am contriving how to contract what I have to\nsay to the people of Athens. The Oracle told the Athenians, there was\none man in the city of a contrary judgment to all the rest; and the\nAthenians in a hubbub ordered search to be made, who this should be.\nI, said Phocion, am the man; I alone am pleased with nothing the common\npeople say or do. Once when he had delivered an opinion which pleased\nthe people, and perceived it was entertained by a general consent,\nhe turned to his friend, and said: Have I not unawares spoken some\nmischievous thing or other? The Athenians gathered a benevolence for a\ncertain sacrifice; and when others contributed to it, he being often\nspoken to said: I should be ashamed to give to you, and not to pay this\nman,\u2014pointing to one of his creditors. Demosthenes the orator told\nhim, If the Athenians should be mad, they would kill you. Like enough,\nsaid he, me if they were mad, but you if they were wise. Aristogiton\nthe informer, being condemned and ready to be executed in prison,\nentreated that Phocion would come to him. And when his friends would\nnot suffer him to go to so vile a person; And where, said he, would you\ndiscourse with Aristogiton more pleasantly? The Athenians were offended\nwith the Byzantines, for refusing to receive Chares into their city,\nwho was sent with forces to assist them against Philip. Said Phocion,\nYou ought not to be displeased with the distrust of your confederates,\nbut with your commanders that are not to be trusted. Whereupon he was\nchosen general, and being trusted by the Byzantines, he forced Philip\nto return without his errand. King Alexander sent him a present of a\nhundred talents; and he asked those that brought it, what it should\nmean that, of all the Athenians, Alexander should be thus kind to him.\nThey answered, because he esteemed him alone to be a worthy and upright\nperson. Pray therefore, said he, let him suffer me to seem as well as\nto be so. Alexander sent to them for some ships, and the people calling\nfor Phocion by name, bade him speak his opinion. He stood up and told\nthem: I advise you either to conquer yourselves, or else to side with\nthe conqueror. An uncertain rumor happened, that Alexander was dead.\nImmediately the orators leaped into the pulpit, and advised them to\nmake war without delay; but Phocion entreated them to tarry awhile\nand know the certainty: For, said he, if he is dead to-day, he will\nbe dead to-morrow, and so forwards. Leosthenes hurried the city into\na war, with fond hopes conceited at the name of liberty and command.\nPhocion compared his speeches to cypress-trees; They are tall, said\nhe, and comely, but bear no fruit. However, the first attempts were\nsuccessful; and when the city was sacrificing for the good news, he was\nasked whether he did not wish he had done this himself. I would, said\nhe, have done what has been done, but have advised what I did. When the\nMacedonians invaded Attica and plundered the seacoasts, he drew out\nthe youth. When many came to him and generally persuaded him by all\nmeans to possess himself of such an ascent, and thereon to marshal his\narmy, O Hercules! said he, how many commanders do I see, and how few\nsoldiers? Yet he fought and overcame, and slew Nicion, the commander\nof the Macedonians. But in a short time the Athenians were overcome,\nand admitted a garrison sent by Antipater. Menyllus, the governor of\nthat garrison, offered money to Phocion, who was enraged thereby and\nsaid: This man is no better than Alexander; and what I refused then I\ncan with less honor receive now. Antipater said, of the two friends he\nhad at Athens, he could never persuade Phocion to accept a present, nor\ncould he ever satisfy Demades with presents. When Antipater requested\nhim to do some indirect thing or other, Antipater, said he, you cannot\nhave Phocion for your friend and flatterer too. After the death of\nAntipater, democracy was established in Athens, and the assembly\ndecreed the death of Phocion and his friends. The rest were led weeping\nto execution; but as Phocion passed silently, one of his enemies met\nhim and spat in his face. But he turned himself to the magistrates,\nand said, Will nobody restrain this insolent fellow? One of those that\nwere to suffer with him lamented and took on: Why, Euippus, said he,\nare you not pleased that you die with Phocion? When the cup of hemlock\nwas brought to him, being asked whether he had any thing to say to\nhis son; I command you, said he, and entreat you not to think of any\nrevenge upon the Athenians.\n\nPISISTRATUS. Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, when some of his party\nrevolted from him and possessed themselves of Phyle, came to them\nbearing his baggage on his back. They asked him what he meant by it.\nEither, said he, to persuade you to return with me, or if I cannot\npersuade you, to tarry with you; and therefore I come prepared\naccordingly. An accusation was brought to him against his mother, that\nshe was in love and used secret familiarity with a young man, who\nout of fear for the most part refused her. This young man he invited\nto supper, and as they were at supper asked him how he liked his\nentertainment. He answered, Very well. Thus, said he, you shall be\ntreated daily, if you please my mother. Thrasybulus was in love with\nhis daughter, and as he met her, kissed her; whereupon his wife would\nhave incensed him against Thrasybulus. If, said he, we hate those that\nlove us, what shall we do to them that hate us?\u2014and he gave the maid\nin marriage to Thrasybulus. Some lascivious drunken persons by chance\nmet his wife, and used unseemly speech and behavior to her; but the\nnext day they begged his pardon with tears. As for you, said he, learn\nto be sober for the future; but as for my wife, yesterday she was not\nabroad at all. He designed to marry another wife, and his children\nasked him whether he could blame them for any thing. By no means, said\nhe, but I commend you, and desire to have more such children as you\nare.\n\nDEMETRIUS PHALEREUS. Demetrius Phalereus persuaded King Ptolemy to get\nand study such books as treated of government and conduct; for those\nthings are written in books which the friends of kings dare not advise.\n\nLYCURGUS. Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian brought long hair into fashion\namong his countrymen, saying that it rendered those that were handsome\nmore beautiful, and those that were deformed more terrible. To one\nthat advised him to set up a democracy in Sparta, Pray, said he, do\nyou first set up a democracy in your own house. He ordained that\nhouses should be built with saws and axes only, thinking they would be\nashamed to bring plate, tapestry, and costly tables into such pitiful\nhouses. He forbade them to contend at boxing or in the double contest\nof boxing and wrestling, that they might not accustom themselves to\nbe conquered, no, not so much as in jest. He forbade them also to war\noften against the same people, lest they should make them the more\nwarlike. Accordingly, many years after, when Agesilaus was wounded,\nAntalcidas told him the Thebans had rewarded him worthily for teaching\nand accustoming them to war, whether they would or no.\n\nCHARILLUS. King Charillus, being asked why Lycurgus made so few laws,\nanswered, They who use few words do not need many laws. When one of the\nHelots behaved rather too insolently towards him, By Castor and Pollux,\nsaid he, I would kill you, were I not angry. To one that asked him why\nthe Spartans wore long hair, Because, said he, of all ornaments that is\nthe cheapest.\n\nTELECLUS. King Teleclus, when his brother inveighed against the\ncitizens for not giving him that respect which they did to the king,\nsaid to him, No wonder, you do not know how to bear injury.\n\nTHEOPOMPUS. Theopompus, to one that showed him the walls of a city and\nasked him if they were not high and beautiful, answered, No, not even\nif they are built for women.\n\nARCHIDAMUS. Archidamus, in the Peloponnesian war, when his allies\nrequested him to appoint them their quota of tributes, replied, War has\na very irregular appetite.\n\nBRASIDAS. Brasidas caught a mouse among his dried figs, which bit him,\nand he let it go. Whereupon, turning to the company, Nothing, said\nhe, is so small which may not save itself, if it have the valor to\ndefend itself against its aggressors. In a fight he was shot through\nhis shield, and plucking the spear out of his wound, with the same he\nslew his adversary. When he was asked how he came to be wounded, My\nshield, said he, betrayed me. It was his fortune to be slain in battle,\nas he endeavored to liberate the Grecians that were in Thrace. These\nsent an embassy to Lacedaemon, which made a visit to his mother, who\nfirst asked them whether Brasidas died honorably. When the Thracians\npraised him, and affirmed that there would never be such another man,\nMy friends, said she, you are mistaken; Brasidas indeed was a valiant\nman, but Lacedaemon hath many more valiant men than he.\n\nAGIS. King Agis said, The Lacedaemonians are not wont to ask how many,\nbut where the enemy are. At Mantinea he was advised not to fight the\nenemy that exceeded him in number. It is necessary, said he, for him to\nfight with many, who would rule over many. The Eleans were commended\nfor managing the Olympic games honorably. What wonder, said he, do they\ndo, if one day in four years they do justice? When the same persons\nenlarged in their commendation, What wonder is it, said he, if they use\njustice honorably, which is an honorable thing? To a lewd person, that\noften asked who was the best man among the Spartans, he answered, He\nthat is most unlike you. When another asked what was the number of the\nLacedaemonians,\u2014Sufficient, said he, to defend themselves from wicked\nmen. To another that asked him the same question, If you should see\nthem fight, said he, you would think them to be many.\n\nLYSANDER. Dionysius the Tyrant presented Lysander\u2019s daughters with rich\ngarments, which he refused to accept, saying he feared they would seem\nmore deformed in them. To such as blamed him for managing much of his\naffairs by stratagems, which was unworthy of Hercules from whom he was\ndescended, he answered, Where the lion\u2019s skin will not reach, it must\nbe pieced with the fox\u2019s. When the citizens of Argos seemed to make out\na better title than the Lacedaemonians to a country that was in dispute\nbetween them, drawing his sword, He that is master of this, said he,\ncan best dispute about bounds of countries. When the Lacedaemonians\ndelayed to assault the walls of Corinth, and he saw a hare leap out of\nthe trench; Do you fear, said he, such enemies as these, whose laziness\nsuffers hares to sleep on their walls? To an inhabitant of Megara, that\nin a parley spoke confidently unto him, Your words, said he, want the\nbreeding of the city.\n\nAGESILAUS. Agesilaus said that the inhabitants of Asia were bad freemen\nand good servants. When they were wont to call the king of Persia\nthe Great King, Wherein, said he, is he greater than I, if he is not\nmore just and wise than I am? Being asked which was better, valor or\njustice, he answered, We should have no need of valor, if we were\nall just. When he broke up his camp suddenly by night in the enemy\u2019s\ncountry, and saw a lad he loved left behind by reason of sickness,\nand weeping, It is a hard thing, said he, to be pitiful and wise at\nthe same time. Menecrates the physician, surnamed Jupiter, inscribed\na letter to him thus: Menecrates Jupiter to King Agesilaus wisheth\njoy. And he returned in answer: King Agesilaus to Menecrates wisheth\nhis wits. When the Lacedaemonians overcame the Athenians and their\nconfederates at Corinth, and he heard the number of the enemies that\nwere slain; Alas, said he, for Greece, who hath destroyed so many of\nher men as were enough to have conquered all the barbarians together.\nHe had received an answer from the Oracle of Jupiter in Olympia, which\nwas to his satisfaction. Afterwards the Ephori bade him consult Apollo\nin the same case; and to Delphi he went, and asked that God whether\nhe was of the same mind with his father. He interceded for one of his\nfriends with Idrieus of Caria, and wrote to him thus: If Nicias has not\noffended, set him free; but if he is guilty, set him free for my sake;\nby all means set him free. Being exhorted to hear one that imitated\nthe voice of a nightingale, I have often, said he, heard nightingales\nthemselves. The law ordained that such as ran away should be disgraced.\nAfter the fight at Leuctra, the Ephori, seeing the city void of men,\nwere willing to dispense with that disgrace, and empowered Agesilaus to\nmake a law to that purpose. But he standing in the midst commanded that\nafter the next day the laws should remain in force as before. He was\nsent to assist the king of Egypt, with whom he was besieged by enemies\nthat outnumbered his own forces; and when they had entrenched their\ncamp, the king commanded him to go out and fight them. Since, said he,\nthey intend to make themselves equal to us, I will not hinder them.\nWhen the trench was almost finished, he drew up his men in the void\nspace, and so fighting with equal advantage he overcame them. When he\nwas dying, he charged his friends that no fiction or counterfeit (so he\ncalled statues) should be made for him; For if, said he, I have done\nany honorable exploit, that is my monument; but if I have done none,\nall your statues will signify nothing.\n\nARCHIDAMUS. When Archidamus, the son of Agesilaus, beheld a dart to\nbe shot from an engine newly brought out of Sicily, he cried out, O\nHercules! the valor of man is at an end.\n\nAGIS THE YOUNGER. Demades said, the Laconians\u2019 swords were so small,\nthat jugglers might swallow them. That may be, said Agis, but the\nLacedaemonians can reach their enemies very well with them. The Ephori\nordered him to deliver his soldiers to a traitor. I will not, said he,\nentrust him with strangers, who betrayed his own men.\n\nCLEOMENES. To one that promised to give him hardy cocks, that would die\nfighting, Prithee, said he, give me cocks that will kill fighting.\n\nPAEDARETUS. Paedaretus, when he was not chosen among the Three Hundred\n(which was the highest office and honor in the city), went away\ncheerfully and smiling, saying, he was glad if the city had three\nhundred better citizens than himself.\n\nDAMONIDAS. Damonidas, being placed by him that ordered the chorus in\nthe last rank of it, said: Well done, you have found a way to make this\nplace also honorable.\n\nNICOSTRATUS. Archidamus, general of the Argives, enticed Nicostratus\nto betray a fort, by promises of a great sum, and the marriage of what\nLacedaemonian lady he pleased except the king\u2019s daughters. He answered,\nthat Archidamus was none of the offspring of Hercules, for he went\nabout to punish wicked men, but Archidamus to corrupt honest men.\n\nEUDAEMONIDAS. Eudaemonidas beholding Xenocrates, when he was old, in\nthe Academy reading philosophy to his scholars, and being told he was\nin quest of virtue, asked: And when does he intend to practise it?\nAnother time, when he heard a philosopher arguing that only the wise\nman can be a good general, This is a wonderful speech, said he, but he\nthat saith it never heard the sound of trumpets.\n\nANTIOCHUS. Antiochus being Ephor, when he heard Philip had given the\nMessenians a country, asked whether he had granted them that they\nshould be victorious when they fought for that country.\n\nANTALCIDAS. To an Athenian that called the Lacedaemonians unlearned,\nTherefore we alone, said Antalcidas, have learned no mischief of\nyou. To another Athenian that told him, Indeed, we have often driven\nyou from the Cephissus, he replied, But we never drove you from the\nEurotas. When a Sophist was beginning to recite the praise of Hercules;\nAnd who, said he, ever spoke against him?\n\nEPAMINONDAS. No panic fear ever surprised the army of the Thebans while\nEpaminondas was their general. He said, to die in war was the most\nhonorable death, and the bodies of armed men ought to be exercised,\nnot as wrestlers, but in a warlike manner. Wherefore he hated fat\nmen, and dismissed one of them, saying, that three or four shields\nwould scarce serve to secure his belly, which would not suffer him\nto see his members. He was so frugal in his diet that, being invited\nby a neighbor to supper, and finding there dishes, ointments, and\njunkets in abundance, he departed immediately, saying: I thought you\nwere sacrificing, and not displaying your luxury. When his cook gave\nan account to his colleagues of the charges for several days, he was\noffended only at the quantity of oil; and when his colleagues wondered\nat him, I am not, said he, troubled at the charge, but that so much\noil should be received into my body. When the city kept a festival,\nand all gave themselves to banquets and drinking, he was met by one of\nhis acquaintance unadorned and in a thoughtful posture. He wondering\nasked him why he of all men should walk about in that manner. That all\nof you, said he, may be drunk and revel securely. An ill man, that\nhad committed no great fault, he refused to discharge at the request\nof Pelopidas; when his miss entreated for him, he dismissed him,\nsaying: Whores are fitting to receive such presents, and not generals.\nThe Lacedaemonians invaded the Thebans, and oracles were brought to\nThebes, some that promised victory, others that foretold an overthrow.\nHe ordered those to be placed on the right hand of the judgment seat,\nand these on the left. When they were placed accordingly, he rose up\nand said: If you will obey your commanders and unanimously resist your\nenemies, these are your oracles,\u2014pointing to the better; but if you\nplay the cowards, those,\u2014pointing to the worser. Another time, as he\ndrew nigh to the enemy, it thundered, and some that were about him\nasked him what he thought the Gods would signify by it. They signify,\nsaid he, that the enemy is thunderstruck and demented, since he pitches\nhis camp in a bad place, when he was nigh to a better. Of all the\nhappy and prosperous events that befell him, he said that in this he\ntook most satisfaction, that he overcame the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra\nwhile his father and mother, that begot him, were living. Whereas he\nwas wont to appear with his body anointed and a cheerful countenance,\nthe day after that fight he came abroad meanly habited and dejected;\nand when his friends asked him whether any misfortune had befallen\nhim, No, said he, but yesterday I was pleased more than became a wise\nman, and therefore to-day I chastise that immoderate joy. Perceiving\nthe Spartans concealed their disasters, and desiring to discover the\ngreatness of their loss, he did not give them leave to take away\ntheir dead altogether, but allowed each city to bury its own; whereby\nit appeared that above a thousand Lacedaemonians were slain. Jason,\nmonarch of Thessaly, was at Thebes as their confederate, and sent two\nthousand pieces of gold to Epaminondas, then in great want; but he\nrefused the gold, and when he saw Jason, he said: You are the first to\ncommit violence. And borrowing fifty drachms of a citizen, with that\nmoney to supply his army he invaded Peloponnesus. Another time, when\nthe Persian king sent him thirty thousand darics, he chid Diomedon\nseverely, asking him whether he sailed so far to bribe Epaminondas;\nand bade him tell the king, as long as he wished the prosperity of\nthe Thebans, Epaminondas would be his friend gratis, but when he was\notherwise minded, his enemy. When the Argives were confederates with\nthe Thebans, the Athenian ambassadors then in Arcadia complained of\nboth, and Callistratus the orator reproached the cities with Orestes\nand Oedipus. But Epaminondas stood up and said: We confess there hath\nbeen one amongst us that killed his father, and among the Argives one\nthat killed his mother; but we banished those that did such things,\nand the Athenians entertained them. To some Spartans that accused the\nThebans of many and great crimes, These indeed, said he, are they that\nhave put an end to your short dialect. The Athenians made friendship\nand alliance with Alexander the tyrant of Pherae, who was an enemy to\nthe Thebans, and who had promised to furnish them with flesh at half\nan obol a pound. And we, said Epaminondas, will supply them with wood\nto that flesh gratis; for if they grow meddlesome, we will make bold\nto cut all the wood in their country for them. Being desirous to keep\nthe Boeotians, that were grown rusty by idleness, always in arms, when\nhe was chosen their chief magistrate, he used to exhort them, saying:\nYet consider what you do, my friends; for if I am your general, you\nmust be my soldiers. He called their country, which was plain and open,\nthe stage of war, which they could keep no longer than their hands\nwere upon their shields. Chabrias, having slain a few Thebans near\nCorinth, that engaged too hotly near the walls, erected a trophy, which\nEpaminondas laughed at, saying, it was not a trophy, but a statue of\nTrivia, which they usually placed in the highway before the gates. One\ntold him that the Athenians had sent an army into Peloponnesus adorned\nwith new armor. What then? said he, doth Antigenidas sigh because\nTelles hath got new pipes? (Now Antigenidas was an excellent piper, but\nTelles a vile one.) Understanding his shield-bearer had taken a great\ndeal of money from a prisoner, Come, said he, give me the shield, and\nbuy you a victualling-house to live in; for now you are grown rich\nand wealthy, you will not hazard your life as you did formerly. Being\nasked whether he thought himself or Chabrias or Iphicrates the better\ngeneral, It is hard, said he, to judge while we live. After he returned\nout of Laconia, he was tried for his life, with his fellow-commanders,\nfor continuing Boeotarch four months longer than the law allowed. He\nbade the other commanders lay the blame upon him, as if he had forced\nthem, and for himself, he said, his actions were his best speech; but\nif any thing at all were to be answered to the judges, he entreated\nthem, if they put him to death, to write his fault upon his monument,\nthat the Grecians might know that Epaminondas compelled the Thebans\nagainst their will to plunder and fire Laconia,\u2014which in five hundred\nyears before had never suffered the like,\u2014to build Messene two\nhundred and thirty years after it was sacked, to unite the Arcadians,\nand to restore liberty to Greece; for those things were done in that\nexpedition. Whereupon the judges arose with great laughter, and refused\neven to receive the votes against him. In his last fight, being wounded\nand carried into his tent, he called for Diaphantes and after him for\nIollidas; and when he heard they were slain, he advised the Thebans\nto make their peace with the enemy, since they had never a general\nleft them; as by the event proved true. So well did he understand his\ncountrymen.\n\nPELOPIDAS. Pelopidas, Epaminondas\u2019s colleague, when his friends told\nhim that he neglected a necessary business, that was the gathering of\nmoney, replied: In good deed money is necessary for this Nicomedas,\npointing to a lame man that could not go. As he was going out to fight,\nhis wife beseeched him to have a care of himself. To others you may\ngive this advice, said he; but a commander and general you must advise\nthat he should save his countrymen. A soldier told him, We are fallen\namong the enemies. Said he, How are we fallen among them, more than\nthey among us? When Alexander, the tyrant of Pherae, broke his faith\nand cast him into prison, he reviled him; and when the other told him\nhe did but hasten his death, That is my design, said he, that the\nThebans may be exasperated against you, and be revenged on you the\nsooner. Thebe, the wife of the tyrant, came to him, and told him she\nwondered to see him so merry in chains. He answered, he wondered more\nat her, that she could endure Alexander without being chained. When\nEpaminondas caused him to be released, he said: I thank Alexander, for\nI have now found by trial that I have not only courage to fight, but to\ndie.\n\n\n\n\nROMAN APOPHTHEGMS.\n\n\nM.\u2019 CURIUS. When some blamed M.\u2019 Curius for distributing but a small\npart of a country he took from the enemy, and preserving the greater\npart for the commonwealth, he prayed there might be no Roman who would\nthink that estate little which was enough to maintain him. The Samnites\nafter an overthrow came to him to offer him gold, and found him boiling\nrape-roots. He answered the Samnites that he that could sup so wanted\nno gold, and that he had rather rule over those who had gold than have\nit himself.\n\nC. FABRICIUS. C. Fabricius, hearing Pyrrhus had overthrown the\nRomans, told Labienus, it was Pyrrhus, not the Epirots, that beat the\nRomans. He went to treat about exchange of prisoners with Pyrrhus,\nwho offered him a great sum of gold, which he refused. The next day\nPyrrhus commanded a very large elephant should secretly be placed\nbehind Fabricius, and discover himself by roaring; whereupon Fabricius\nturned and smiled, saying, I was not astonished either at your gold\nyesterday or at your beast to-day. Pyrrhus invited him to tarry with\nhim, and to accept of the next command under him: That, said he, will\nbe inconvenient for you; for, when the Epirots know us both, they will\nrather have me for their king than you. When Fabricius was consul,\nPyrrhus\u2019s physician sent him a letter, wherein he promised him that, if\nhe commanded him, he would poison Pyrrhus. Fabricius sent the letter\nto Pyrrhus, and bade him conclude that he was a very bad judge both\nof friends and enemies. The plot was discovered; Pyrrhus hanged his\nphysician, and sent the Roman prisoners he had taken without ransom\nas a present to Fabricius. He, however, refused to accept them, but\nreturned the like number, lest he might seem to receive a reward.\nNeither did he disclose the conspiracy out of kindness to Pyrrhus, but\nthat the Romans might not seem to kill him by treachery, as if they\ndespaired to conquer him in open war.\n\nFABIUS MAXIMUS. Fabius Maximus would not fight, but chose to spin away\nthe time with Hannibal,\u2014who wanted both money and provision for his\narmy,\u2014by pursuing and facing him in rocky and mountainous places.\nWhen many laughed at him and called him Hannibal\u2019s schoolmaster, he\ntook little notice of them, but pursued his own design, and told his\nfriends: He that is afraid of scoffs and reproaches is more a coward\nthan he that flies from the enemy. When Minucius, his fellow-consul,\nupon routing a party of the enemy, was highly extolled as a man worthy\nof Rome; I am more afraid, said he, of Minucius\u2019s success than of\nhis misfortune. And not long after he fell into an ambush, and was\nin danger of perishing with his forces, until Fabius succored him,\nslew many of the enemy, and brought him off. Whereupon Hannibal told\nhis friends: Did I not often presage that cloud on the hills would\nsome time or other break upon us? After the city received the great\noverthrow at Cannae, he was chosen consul with Marcellus, a daring\nperson and much desirous to fight Hannibal, whose forces, if nobody\nfought him, he hoped would shortly disperse and be dissolved. Therefore\nHannibal said, he feared fighting Marcellus less than Fabius who would\nnot fight. He was informed of a Lucanian soldier that frequently\nwandered out of the camp by night after a woman he loved, but otherwise\nan admirable soldier; he caused his mistress to be seized privately and\nbrought to him. When she came, he sent for the soldier and told him:\nIt is known you lie out a nights, contrary to the law; but your former\ngood behavior is not forgotten, therefore your faults are forgiven to\nyour merits. Henceforwards you shall tarry with me, for I have your\nsurety. And he brought out the woman to him. Hannibal kept Tarentum\nwith a garrison, all but the castle; and Fabius drew the enemy far\nfrom it, and by a stratagem took the town and plundered it. When his\nsecretary asked what was his pleasure as to the holy images, Let us\nleave, said he, the Tarentines their offended Gods. When M. Livius, who\nkept a garrison in the castle, said he took Tarentum by his assistance,\nothers laughed at him; but said Fabius, You say true, for if you had\nnot lost the city, I had not re-took it. When he was ancient, his son\nwas consul, and as he was discharging his office publicly with many\nattendants, he met him on horseback. The young man sent a sergeant to\ncommand him to alight; when others were at a stand, Fabius presently\nalighted, and running faster than for his age might be expected,\nembraced his son. Well done, son, said he, I see you are wise, and know\nwhom you govern, and the grandeur of the office you have undertaken.\n\nSCIPIO THE ELDER. Scipio the Elder spent on his studies what leisure\nthe campaign and government would allow him, saying, that he did most\nwhen he was idle. When he took Carthage by storm, some soldiers took\nprisoner a very beautiful virgin, and came and presented her to him. I\nwould receive her, said he, with all my heart, if I were a private man\nand not a governor. While he was besieging the city of Badia, wherein\nappeared above all a temple of Venus, he ordered appearances to be\ngiven for actions to be tried before him within three days in that\ntemple of Venus; and he took the city, and was as good as his word.\nOne asked him in Sicily, on what confidence he presumed to pass with\nhis navy against Carthage. He showed him three hundred disciplined men\nin armor, and pointed to a high tower on the shore; There is not one\nof these, said he, that would not at my command go to the top of that\ntower, and cast himself down headlong. Over he went, landed, and burnt\nthe enemy\u2019s camp, and the Carthaginians sent to him, and covenanted to\nsurrender their elephants, ships, and a sum of money. But when Hannibal\nwas sailed back from Italy, their reliance on him made them repent of\nthose conditions. This coming to Scipio\u2019s ear, Nor will I, said he,\nstand to the agreement if they will, unless they pay me five thousand\ntalents more for sending for Hannibal. The Carthaginians, when they\nwere utterly overthrown, sent ambassadors to make peace and league\nwith him; he bade those that came return immediately, as refusing to\nhear them before they brought L. Terentius with them, a good man,\nwhom the Carthaginians had taken prisoner. When they brought him, he\nplaced him in the council next himself, on the judgment-seat, and then\nhe transacted with the Carthaginians and put an end to the war. And\nTerentius followed him when he triumphed, wearing the cap of one that\nwas made free; and when he died, Scipio gave wine mingled with honey\nto those that were at the funeral, and performed other funeral rites\nin his honor. But these things were done afterwards. King Antiochus,\nafter the Romans invaded him, sent to Scipio in Asia for peace; That\nshould have been done before, said he, not now when you have received\na bridle and a rider. The senate decreed him a sum of money out of the\ntreasury, but the treasurers refused to open it on that day. Then, said\nhe, I will open it myself, for the moneys with which I filled it caused\nit to be shut. When Paetilius and Quintus accused him of many crimes\nbefore the people,\u2014On this very day, said he, I conquered Hannibal and\nCarthage; I for my part am going with my crown on to the Capitol to\nsacrifice; and let him that pleaseth stay and pass his vote upon me.\nHaving thus said, he went his way; and the people followed him, leaving\nhis accusers declaiming to themselves.\n\nT. QUINCTIUS. T. Quinctius was eminent so early, that before he had\nbeen tribune, praetor, or aedile, he was chosen consul. Being sent\nas general against Philip, he was persuaded to come to a conference\nwith him. And when Philip demanded hostages of him, because he was\naccompanied with many Romans while the Macedonians had none but\nhimself; You, said Quinctius, have created this solitude for yourself,\nby killing your friends and kindred. Having overcome Philip in battle,\nhe proclaimed in the Isthmian games that the Grecians were free and to\nbe governed by their own laws. And the Grecians redeemed all the Roman\nprisoners that in Hannibal\u2019s days were sold for slaves in Greece, each\nof them with two hundred drachms, and made him a present of them; and\nthey followed him in Rome in his triumph, wearing caps on their heads\nsuch as they use to wear who are made free. He advised the Achaeans,\nwho designed to make war upon the Island Zacynthus, to take heed lest,\nlike a tortoise, they should endanger their head by thrusting it out\nof Peloponnesus. When King Antiochus was coming upon Greece with great\nforces, and all men trembled at the report of his numbers and equipage,\nhe told the Achaeans this story: Once I dined with a friend at Chalcis,\nand when I wondered at the variety of dishes, said my host, \u201cAll these\nare pork, only in dressing and sauces they differ.\u201d And therefore be\nnot you amazed at the king\u2019s forces, when you hear talk of spearmen and\nmen-at-arms and choice footmen and horse-archers, for all these are but\nSyrians, with some little difference in their weapons. Philopoemen,\ngeneral of the Achaeans, had good store of horses and men-at-arms, but\ncould not tell what to do for money; and Quinctius played upon him,\nsaying, Philopoemen had arms and legs, but no belly; and it happened\nhis body was much after that shape.\n\nCNEUS DOMITIUS. Cneus Domitius,\u2014whom Scipio the Great sent in his\nstead to attend his brother Lucius in the war against Antiochus,\u2014when\nhe had viewed the enemy\u2019s army, and the commanders that were with him\nadvised him to set upon them presently, said to them: We shall scarce\nhave time enough now to kill so many thousands, plunder their baggage,\nreturn to our camp, and refresh ourselves too; but we shall have time\nenough to do all this to-morrow. The next day he engaged them, and slew\nfifty thousand of the enemy.\n\nPUBLIUS LICINIUS. Publius Licinius, consul and general being worsted\nin a horse engagement by Perseus king of Macedon, with what were slain\nand what were took prisoners, lost two thousand eight hundred men.\nPresently after the fight, Perseus sent ambassadors to make peace and\nleague with him; and although he was overcome, yet he advised the\nconqueror to submit himself and his affairs to the pleasure of the\nRomans.\n\nPAULUS AEMILIUS. Paulus Aemilius, when he stood for his second\nconsulship, was rejected. Afterwards, the war with Perseus and the\nMacedonians being prolonged by the ignorance and effeminacy of the\ncommanders, they chose him consul. I thank, said he, the people for\nnothing; they choose me general, not because I want the office, but\nbecause they want an officer. As he returned from the hall to his own\nhouse, and found his little daughter Tertia weeping, he asked her what\nshe cried for? Perseus, said she (so her little dog was called), is\ndead. Luckily hast thou spoken, girl, said he, and I accept the omen.\nWhen he found in the camp much confident prating among the soldiers,\nwho pretended to advise him and busy themselves as if they had been all\nofficers, he bade them be quiet and only whet their swords, and leave\nother things to his care.\n\nHe ordered night-guards should be kept without swords or spears, that\nthey might resist sleep, when they had nothing wherewith to resist the\nenemy. He invaded Macedonia by the way of the mountains; and seeing the\nenemy drawn up, when Nasica advised him to set upon them presently,\nhe replied: So I should, if I were of your age; but long experience\nforbids me, after a march, to fight an army marshalled regularly.\nHaving overcome Perseus, he feasted his friends for joy of the victory,\nsaying, it required the same skill to make an army very terrible to the\nenemy, and a banquet very acceptable to our friends. When Perseus was\ntaken prisoner, he told Paulus that he would not be led in triumph.\nThat, said he, is as you please,\u2014meaning he might kill himself. He\nfound an infinite quantity of money, but kept none for himself; only\nto his son-in-law Tubero he gave a silver bowl that weighed five\npounds, as a reward of his valor; and that, they say, was the first\npiece of plate that belonged to the Aemilian family. Of the four sons\nhe had, he parted with two that were adopted into other families;\nand of the two that lived with him, one of them died at the age of\nfourteen years, but five days before his triumph; and five days after\nthe triumph, at the age of twelve years died the other. When the people\nthat met him bemoaned and compassionated his calamities, Now, said he,\nmy fears and jealousies for my country are over, since Fortune hath\ndischarged her revenge for our success on my house, and I have paid for\nall.\n\nCATO THE ELDER. Cato the Elder, in a speech to the people, inveighed\nagainst luxury and intemperance. How hard, said he, is it to persuade\nthe belly, that hath no ears? And he wondered how that city was\npreserved wherein a fish was sold for more than an ox! Once he scoffed\nat the prevailing imperiousness of women: All other men, said he,\ngovern their wives; but we command all other men, and our wives us.\nHe said he had rather not be rewarded for his good deeds than not\npunished for his evil deeds; and at any time he could pardon all other\noffenders besides himself. He instigated the magistrates to punish all\noffenders, saying, that they that did not prevent crimes when they\nmight encouraged them. Of young men, he liked them that blushed better\nthan those who looked pale; and hated a soldier that moved his hands\nas he walked and his feet as he fought, and whose sneeze was louder\nthan his outcry when he charged. He said, he was the worst governor\nwho could not govern himself. It was his opinion that every one ought\nespecially to reverence himself; for every one was always in his own\npresence. When he saw many had their statues set up, I had rather, says\nhe, men should ask why Cato had no statue, than why he had one. He\nexhorted those in power to be sparing of exercising their power, that\nthey might continue in power. They that separate honor from virtue,\nsaid he, separate virtue from youth. A governor, said he, or judge\nought to do justice without entreaty, not injustice upon entreaty. He\nsaid, that injustice, if it did not endanger the authors, endangered\nall besides. He requested old men not to add the disgrace of wickedness\nto old age, which was accompanied with many other evils. He thought\nan angry man differed from a madman only in the shorter time which\nhis passion endured. He thought that they who enjoyed their fortunes\ndecently and moderately, were far from being envied; For men do not\nenvy us, said he, but our estates. He said, they that were serious in\nridiculous matters would be ridiculous in serious affairs. Honorable\nactions ought to succeed honorable sayings; Lest, said he, they lose\ntheir reputation. He blamed the people for always choosing the same men\nofficers; For either you think, said he, the government little worth,\nor very few fit to govern. He pretended to wonder at one that sold an\nestate by the seaside, as if he were more powerful than the sea; for he\nhad drunk up that which the sea could hardly drown. When he stood for\nthe consulship, and saw others begging and flattering the people for\nvotes, he cried out aloud: The people have need of a sharp physician\nand a great purge; therefore not the mildest but the most inexorable\nperson is to be chosen. For which word he was chosen before all others.\nEncouraging young men to fight boldly, he oftentimes said, The speech\nand voice terrify and put to flight the enemy more than the hand and\nsword. As he warred against Baetica, he was outnumbered by the enemy,\nand in danger. The Celtiberians offered for two hundred talents to send\nhim a supply, and the Romans would not suffer him to engage to pay\nwages to barbarians. You are out, said he; for if we overcome, not we\nbut the enemy must pay them; if we are routed, there will be nobody to\ndemand nor to pay either. Having taken more cities, as he saith, than\nhe stayed days in the enemies\u2019 country, he reserved no more of the prey\nfor himself than what he ate or drank. He distributed to every soldier\na round of silver, saying, It was better many should return out of the\ncampaign with silver than a few with gold; for governors ought to gain\nnothing by their governments but honor. Five servants waited on him in\nthe army, whereof one had bought three prisoners; and understanding\nCato knew it, before he came into his presence he hanged himself. Being\nrequested by Scipio Africanus to befriend the banished Achaeans, that\nthey might return to their own country, he made as if he would not be\nconcerned in that business; but when the matter was disputed in the\nsenate, rising up, he said: We sit here, as if we had nothing else to\ndo but to argue about a few old Grecians, whether they shall be carried\nto their graves by our bearers or by those of their own country.\nPosthumus Albinus wrote a history in Greek, and in it begs the pardon\nof his readers. Said Cato, jeering him, If the Amphictyonic Council\ncommanded him to write it, he ought to be pardoned.\n\nSCIPIO JUNIOR. It is reported that Scipio Junior never bought nor sold\nnor built any thing for the space of fifty-four years, and so long as\nhe lived; and that of so great an estate, he left but thirty-three\npounds of silver, and two of gold behind him, although he was lord\nof Carthage, and enriched his soldiers more than other generals. He\nobserved the precept of Polybius, and endeavored never to return from\nthe forum, until by some means or other he had engaged some one he\nlighted on to be his friend or companion. While he was yet young, he\nhad such a repute for valor and knowledge, that Cato the Elder, being\nasked his opinion of the commanders in Africa, of whom Scipio was one,\nanswered in that Greek verse,\u2014\n\n    Others like shadows fly;\n    He only is wise.[113]\n\nWhen he came from the army to Rome, the people preferred him, not\nto gratify him, but because they hoped by his assistance to conquer\nCarthage with more ease and speed. After he was entered the walls,\nthe Carthaginians defended themselves in the castle, separated by the\nsea, not very deep. Polybius advised him to scatter caltrops in the\nwater, or planks with iron spikes, that the enemy might not pass over\nto assault their bulwark. He answered, that it was ridiculous for those\nwho had taken the walls and were within the city to contrive how they\nmight not fight with the enemy. He found the city full of Greek statues\nand presents brought thither from Sicily, and made proclamation that\nsuch as were present from those cities might claim and carry away what\nbelonged to them. When others plundered and carried away the spoil, he\nwould not suffer any that belonged to him, either slave or freeman, to\ntake, nor so much as to buy any of it. He assisted C. Laelius, his most\nbeloved friend, when he stood to be consul, and asked Pompey (who was\nthought to be a piper\u2019s son) whether he stood or not. He replied, No;\nand besides promised to join with them in going about and procuring\nvotes, which they believed and expected, but were deceived; for news\nwas brought that Pompey was in the forum, fawning on and soliciting the\ncitizens for himself; whereat others being enraged, Scipio laughed.\nWe may thank our own folly for this, said he, that, as if we were not\nto request men but the Gods, we lose our time in waiting for a piper.\nWhen he stood to be censor, Appius Claudius, his rival, told him that\nhe could salute all the Romans by their names, whereas Scipio scarce\nknew any of them. You say true, said he, for it hath been my care not\nto know many, but that all might know me. He advised the city, which\nthen had an army in Celtiberia, to send them both to the army, either\nas tribunes or lieutenants, that thus the soldiers might be witnesses\nand judges of the valor of each of them. When he was made censor, he\ntook away his horse from a young man, who, in the time while Carthage\nwas besieged, made a costly supper, in which was a honey-cake, made\nafter the shape of that city, which he named Carthage and set before\nhis guests to be plundered by them; and when the young man asked the\nreason why he took his horse from him, he said, Because you plundered\nCarthage before me. As he saw C. Licinius coming towards him, I\nknow, said he, that man is perjured; but since nobody accuses him, I\ncannot be his accuser and judge too. The senate sent him thrice, as\nClitomachus saith, to take cognizance of men, cities, and manners, as\nan overseer of cities, kings, and countries. As he came to Alexandria\nand landed, he went with his head covered, and the Alexandrians running\nabout him entreated he would gratify them by uncovering and showing\nthem his desirable face. When he uncovered his head, they clapped\ntheir hands with a loud acclamation. The king, by reason of his\nlaziness and corpulency, making a hard shift to keep pace with them,\nScipio whispered softly to Panaetius: The Alexandrians have already\nreceived some benefit of our visit, for upon our account they have\nseen their king walk. There travelled with him one friend, Panaetius\nthe philosopher, and five servants, whereof one dying in the journey,\nhe would not buy another, but sent for one to Rome. The Numantines\nseemed invincible, and having overcome several generals, the people\nthe second time chose Scipio general in that war. When great numbers\nstrived to list them in his army, even that the senate forbade, as if\nItaly thereby would be left destitute. Nor did they allow him money\nthat was in bank, but ordered him to receive the revenues of tributes\nthat were not yet payable. As to money, Scipio said he wanted none,\nfor of his own and by his friends he could be supplied; but of the\ndecree concerning the soldiers he complained, for the war (he said) was\na hard and difficult one, whether their defeat had been caused by the\nvalor of the enemy or by the cowardice of their own men. When he came\nto the army, he found there much disorder, intemperance, superstition,\nand luxury. Immediately he drove away the soothsayers, priests, and\npanders. He ordered them to send away their household stuff, all except\nkettles, a spit, and an earthen cup. He allowed a silver cup, weighing\nnot more than two pounds, to such as desired it. He forbade them to\nbathe; and those that anointed themselves were to rub themselves too;\nfor horses wanted another to rub them, he said, only because they had\nno hand of their own. He ordered them to eat their dinner standing, and\nto have only such food as was dressed without fire; but they might sit\ndown at supper, to bread, plain porridge, and flesh boiled or roasted.\nHe himself walked about clothed in a black cassock, saying, he mourned\nfor the disgrace of the army. He met by chance with the pack-horses of\nMemmius, a tribune that carried wine-coolers set with precious stones,\nand the best Corinthian vessels. Since you are such a one, said he, you\nhave made yourself useless to me and to your country for thirty days,\nbut to yourself all your life long. Another showed him a shield well\nadorned. The shield, said he, young man, is a fine one, but it becomes\na Roman to have his confidence placed rather in his right hand than\nin his left. To one that was building the rampart, saying his burthen\nwas very heavy, And deservedly, said he, for you trust more to this\nwood than to your sword. When he saw the rash confidence of the enemy,\nhe said that he bought security with time; for a good general, like a\ngood physician, useth iron as his last remedy. And yet he fought when\nhe saw it convenient, and routed the enemy. When they were worsted,\nthe elder men chid them, and asked why they fled from those they had\npursued so often. It is said a Numantine answered, The sheep are the\nsame still, but they have another shepherd. After he had taken Numantia\nand triumphed a second time, he had a controversy with C. Gracchus\nconcerning the senate and the allies; and the abusive people made a\ntumult about him as he spake from the pulpit; The outcry of the army,\nsaid he, when they charge, never disturbed me, much less the clamor\nof a rabble of new-comers, to whom Italy is a step-mother (I am well\nassured) and not a mother. And when they of Gracchus\u2019s party cried out,\nKill the Tyrant,\u2014No wonder, said he, that they who make war upon their\ncountry would kill me first; for Rome cannot fall while Scipio stands,\nnor can Scipio live when Rome is fallen.\n\nCAECILIUS METELLUS. Caecilius Metellus designing to reduce a strong\nfort, a captain told him he would undertake to take it with the loss\nonly of ten men; and he asked him, whether he himself would be one of\nthose ten. A young colonel asked him what design he had in the wheel.\nIf I thought my shirt knew, said he, I would pluck it off and burn it.\nHe was at variance with Scipio in his lifetime, but he lamented at his\ndeath, and commanded his sons to assist at the hearse; and said, he\ngave the Gods thanks in the behalf of Rome, that Scipio was born in no\nother country.\n\nC. MARIUS. C. Marius was of obscure parentage, pursuing offices by his\nvalor. He pretended to the chief aedileship, and perceiving he could\nnot reach it, the same day he stood for the lesser, and missing of that\nalso, yet for all that he did not despair of being consul. Having a wen\non each leg, he suffered one to be cut, and endured the surgeon without\nbinding, not so much as sighing or once contracting his eyebrows; but\nwhen the surgeon would cut the other, he did not suffer him, saying\nthe cure was not worth the pain. In his second consulship, Lucius his\nsister\u2019s son offered unchaste force to Trebonius, a soldier, who slew\nhim; when many pleaded against him, he did not deny but confessed he\nkilled the colonel, and told the reason why. Hereupon Marius called for\na crown, the reward of extraordinary valor, and put it upon Trebonius\u2019s\nhead. He had pitched his camp, when he fought against the Teutons, in\na place where water was wanting; when the soldiers told him they were\nthirsty, he showed them a river running by the enemy\u2019s trench. Look\nyou, said he, there is water for you, to be bought for blood; and they\ndesired him to conduct them to fight, while their blood was fluent and\nnot all dried up with thirst. In the Cimbrian war, he gave a thousand\nvaliant Camertines the freedom of Rome, which no law did allow; and\nto such as blamed him for it he said, I could not hear the laws for\nthe clash of arrows. In the civil war, he lay patiently entrenched and\nbesieged, waiting for a fit opportunity; when Popedius Silon called to\nhim, Marius, if you are so great a general come down and fight. And\ndo you, said he, if you are so great a commander, force me to fight\nagainst my will, if you can.\n\nLUTATIUS CATULUS. Lutatius Catulus in the Cimbrian war lay encamped by\nthe side of the river Athesis, and his soldiers, seeing the barbarians\nattempting to pass the river, gave back; when he could not make them\nstand, he hastened to the front of them that fled, that they might not\nseem to fly from their enemies but to follow their commander.\n\nSYLLA. Sylla, surnamed the Fortunate, reckoned these two things as the\nchiefest of his felicities,\u2014the friendship of Metellus Pius, and that\nhe had spared and not destroyed the city of Athens.\n\nC. POPILIUS. C. Popilius was sent to Antiochus with a letter from\nthe senate, commanding him to withdraw his army out of Egypt, and\nto renounce the protection of that kingdom during the minority of\nPtolemy\u2019s children. When he came towards him in his camp, Antiochus\nkindly saluted him at a distance, but without returning his salutation\nhe delivered his letter; which being read, the king answered, that he\nwould consider, and give his answer. Whereupon Popilius with his wand\nmade a circle round him, saying, Consider and answer before you go\nout of this place; and when Antiochus answered that he would give the\nRomans satisfaction, then at length Popilius saluted and embraced him.\n\nLUCULLUS. Lucullus in Armenia, with ten thousand foot in armor and a\nthousand horse, was to fight Tigranes and his army of a hundred and\nfifty thousand, the day before the nones of October, the same day on\nwhich formerly Scipio\u2019s army was destroyed by the Cimbrians. When one\ntold him, The Romans dread and abominate that day; Therefore, said\nhe, let us fight to-day valiantly, that we may change this day from a\nblack and unlucky one to a joyful and festival day for the Romans. His\nsoldiers were most afraid of their men-at-arms; but he bade them be of\ngood courage, for it was more labor to strip than to overcome them. He\nfirst came up to their counterscarp, and perceiving the confusion of\nthe barbarians, cried out, Fellow-soldiers, the day\u2019s our own! And when\nnobody stood him, he pursued, and, with the loss of five Romans, slew\nabove a hundred thousand of them.\n\nCN. POMPEIUS. Cn. Pompeius was as much beloved by the Romans as his\nfather was hated. When he was young, he wholly sided with Sylla, and\nbefore he had borne many offices or was chosen into the senate, he\nenlisted many soldiers in Italy. When Sylla sent for him, he returned\nanswer, that he would not muster his forces in the presence of his\ngeneral, unfleshed and without spoils; nor did he come before that\nin several fights he had overcome the captains of the enemy. He was\nsent by Sylla lieutenant-general into Sicily, and being told that the\nsoldiers turned out of the way and forced and plundered the country,\nhe sealed the swords of such as he sent abroad, and punished all other\nstragglers and wanderers. He had resolved to put the Mamertines, that\nwere of the other side, all to the sword; but Sthenius the orator told\nhim, He would do injustice if he should punish many that were innocent\nfor the sake of one that was guilty; and that he himself was the person\nthat persuaded his friends and forced his enemies to side with Marius.\nPompey admired the man, and said, he could not blame the Mamertines\nfor being inveigled by a person who preferred his country beyond his\nown life; and forgave both the city and Sthenius too. When he passed\ninto Africa against Domitius and overcame him in a great battle, the\nsoldiers saluted him Imperator. He answered, he could not receive\nthat honor, so long as the fortification of the enemy\u2019s camp stood\nundemolished; upon this, although it rained hard, they rushed on and\nplundered the camp. At his return, among other courtesies and honors\nwherewith Sylla entertained him, he styled him The Great; yet when he\nwas desirous to triumph, Sylla would not consent, because he was not\nyet chosen into the senate. But when Pompey said to those that were\nabout him, Sylla doth not know that more worship the rising than the\nsetting sun, Sylla cried aloud, Let him triumph. Hereat Servilius, one\nof the nobles, was displeased; the soldiers also withstood his triumph,\nuntil he had bestowed a largess among them. But when Pompey replied, I\nwould rather forego my triumph than flatter them,\u2014Now, said Servilius,\nI see Pompey is truly great and worthy of a triumph. It was a custom\nin Rome, that knights who had served in the wars the time appointed by\nthe laws should bring their horse into the forum before the censors,\nand there give an account of their warfare and the commanders under\nwhom they had served. Pompey, then consul, brought also his horse\nbefore the censors, Gellius and Lentulus; and when they asked him, as\nthe manner is, whether he had served all his campaigns, All, said he,\nand under myself as general. Having gotten into his hands the writings\nof Sertorius in Spain, among which were letters from several leading\nmen in Rome, inviting Sertorius to Rome to innovate and change the\ngovernment, he burnt them all, by that means giving opportunity to\nill-affected persons to repent and mend their manners. Phraates, king\nof Parthia, sent to him requesting that the river Euphrates might be\nhis bounds. He answered, the Romans had rather the right should be\ntheir bounds towards Parthia. L. Lucullus, after he left the army,\ngave himself up to pleasure and luxury, jeering at Pompey for busying\nhimself in affairs unsuitable to his age. He answered, that government\nbecame old age better than luxury. In a fit of sickness, his physician\nprescribed him to eat a thrush; but when none could be gotten, because\nthey were out of season, one said, that Lucullus had some, for he kept\nthem all the year. It seems then, said he, Pompey must not live, unless\nLucullus play the glutton; and dismissing the physician, he ate such\nthings as were easy to be gotten. In a great dearth at Rome, he was\nchosen by title overseer of the market, but in reality lord of sea and\nland, and sailed to Africa, Sardinia, and Sicily. Having procured great\nquantities of wheat, he hastened back to Rome; and when by reason of a\ngreat tempest the pilots were loath to hoist sail, he went first aboard\nhimself, and commanding the anchor to be weighed, cried out aloud,\nThere is a necessity of sailing, but there is no necessity of living.\nWhen the difference betwixt him and Caesar broke out, and Marcellinus,\none of those whom he had preferred, revolted to Caesar and inveighed\nmuch against Pompey in the senate; Art thou not ashamed, said he,\nMarcellinus, to reproach me, who taught you to speak when you were\ndumb, and fed you full even to vomiting when you were starved? To Cato,\nwho severely blamed him because, when he had often informed him of the\ngrowing power of Caesar, such as was dangerous to a democracy, he took\nlittle notice of it, he answered, Your counsels were more presaging,\nbut mine more friendly. Concerning himself he freely professed, that\nhe entered all his offices sooner than he expected, and resigned them\nsooner than was expected by others. After the fight at Pharsalia, in\nhis flight towards Egypt, as he was going out of the ship into the\nfisher-boat the king sent to attend him, turning to his wife and son,\nhe said nothing to them beside those two verses of Sophocles:\n\n    Whoever comes within a tyrant\u2019s door\n    Becomes his slave, though he were free before.\n\nAs he came out of the boat, when he was struck with a sword, he said\nnothing; but gave one groan, and covering his head submitted to the\nmurderers.\n\nCICERO. Cicero the orator, when his name was played upon and his\nfriends advised him to change it, answered, that he would make the name\nof Cicero more honorable than the name of the Catos, the Catuli, or the\nScauri. He dedicated to the Gods a silver cup with a cover, with the\nfirst letters of his other names, and instead of Cicero a chick-pea\n(_cicer_) engraven. Loud bawling orators, he said, were driven by their\nweakness to noise, as lame men to take horse. Verres had a son that\nin his youth had not well secured his chastity; yet he reviled Cicero\nfor his effeminacy, and called him catamite. Do you not know, said he,\nthat children are to be rebuked at home within doors? Metellus Nepos\ntold him he had slain more by his testimony than he had saved by his\npleadings. You say true, said he, my honesty exceeds my eloquence.\nWhen Metellus asked him who his father was, Your mother, said he,\nhath made that question a harder one for you to answer than for me.\nFor she was unchaste, while Metellus himself was a light, inconstant,\nand passionate man. The same Metellus, when Diodotus his master in\nrhetoric died, caused a marble crow to be placed on his monument; and\nCicero said, he returned his master a very suitable gratuity, who had\ntaught him to fly but not to declaim. Hearing that Vatinius, his enemy\nand otherwise a lewd person, was dead, and the next day that he was\nalive, A mischief on him, said he, for lying. To one that seemed to be\nan African, who said he could not hear him when he pleaded, And yet,\nsaid he, your ears are of full bore. He had summoned Popilius Cotta,\nan ignorant blockhead that pretended to the law, as a witness in a\ncause; and when he told the court he knew nothing of the business, On\nmy conscience, I\u2019ll warrant you, said Cicero, he thinks you ask him\na question in the law. Verres sent a golden sphinx as a present to\nHortensius the orator, who told Cicero, when he spoke obscurely, that\nhe was not skilled in riddles. That\u2019s strange, said he, since you have\na sphinx in your house. Meeting Voconius with his three daughters that\nwere hard favored, he told his friends softly that verse,\u2014\n\n    Children he hath got,\n    Though Apollo favored not.\n\nWhen Faustus the son of Sylla, being very much in debt, set up a\nwriting that he would sell his goods by auction, he said, I like this\nproscription better than his father\u2019s. When Pompey and Caesar fell\nout, he said, I know whom to fly from, but I know not whom to fly to.\nHe blamed Pompey for leaving the city, and for imitating Themistocles\nrather than Pericles, when his affairs did not resemble the former\u2019s\nbut the latter\u2019s. He changed his mind and went over to Pompey, who\nasked him where he left his son-in-law Piso. He answered, With your\nfather-in-law Caesar. To one that went over from Caesar to Pompey,\nsaying that in his haste and eagerness he had left his horse behind\nhim, he said, You have taken better care of your horse than of\nyourself. To one that brought news that the friends of Caesar looked\nsourly, You do as good as call them, said he, Caesar\u2019s enemies. After\nthe battle in Pharsalia, when Pompey was fled, one Nonius said they had\nseven eagles left still, and advised to try what they would do. Your\nadvice, said he, were good, if we were to fight with jackdaws. Caesar,\nnow conqueror, honorably restored the statues of Pompey that were\nthrown down; whereupon Cicero said, that Caesar by erecting Pompey\u2019s\nstatues had secured his own. He set so high a value on oratory, and\ndid so lay out himself especially that way, that having a cause to\nplead before the centumviri, when the day approached and his slave Eros\nbrought him word it was deferred until the day following, he presently\nmade him free.\n\nC. CAESAR. Caius Caesar, when he was a young man, fled from Sylla, and\nfell into the hands of pirates, who first demanded of him a sum of\nmoney; and he laughed at the rogues for not understanding his quality,\nand promised them twice as much as they asked him. Afterwards, when he\nwas put into custody until he raised the money, he commanded them to\nbe quiet and silent while he slept. While he was in prison, he made\nspeeches and verses which he read to them, and when they commended them\nbut coldly, he called them barbarians and blockheads, and threatened\nthem in jest that he would hang them. But after a while he was as\ngood as his word; for when the money for his ransom was brought and\nhe discharged, he gathered men and ships out of Asia, seized the\npirates and crucified them. At Rome he stood to be chief priest against\nCatulus, a man of great interest among the Romans. To his mother, who\nbrought him to the gate, he said, To-day, mother, you will have your\nson high priest or banished. He divorced his wife Pompeia, because she\nwas reported to be over familiar with Clodius; yet when Clodius was\nbrought to trial upon that account, and he was cited as a witness,\nhe spake no evil against his wife; and when the accuser asked him,\nWhy then did you divorce her?\u2014Because, said he, Caesar\u2019s wife ought\nto be free even from suspicion. As he was reading the exploits of\nAlexander, he wept and told his friends, He was of my age when he\nconquered Darius, and I hitherto have done nothing. He passed by a\nlittle inconsiderable town in the Alps, and his friends said, they\nwondered whether there were any contentions and tumults for offices in\nthat place. He stood, and after a little pause answered, I had rather\nbe the first in this town than second in Rome. He said, great and\nsurprising enterprises were not to be consulted upon, but done. And\ncoming against Pompey out of his province of Gaul, he passed the river\nRubicon, saying, Let every die be thrown. After Pompey fled to sea\nfrom Rome, he went to take money out of the treasury: when Metellus,\nwho had the charge of it, forbade him and shut it against him, he\nthreatened to kill him; whereupon Metellus being astonished, he said\nto him, This, young man, is harder for me to say than to do. When his\nsoldiers were having a tedious passage from Brundisium to Dyrrachium,\nunknown to all he went aboard a small vessel, and attempted to pass the\nsea; and when the vessel was in danger of being overset, he discovers\nhimself to the pilot, crying out, Trust Fortune, and know that you\ncarry Caesar. But the tempest being vehement, his soldiers coming\nabout him and expostulating passionately with him, asking whether he\ndistrusted them and was looking for another army, would not suffer him\nto pass at that time. They fought, and Pompey had the better of it;\nbut instead of following his blow he retreated to his camp. To-day,\nsaid Caesar, the enemy had the victory, but none of them know how to\nconquer. Pompey commanded his army to stand in array at Pharsalia in\ntheir place, and to receive the charge from the enemy. In this Caesar\nsaid he was out, thereby suffering the eagerness of his soldiers\u2019\nspirits, when they were up and inspired with rage and success, in the\nmidst of their career to languish and expire. After he routed Pharnaces\nPonticus at the first assault, he wrote thus to his friends, I came, I\nsaw, I conquered.[114] After Scipio was worsted in Africa and fled, and\nCato had killed himself, he said: I envy thee thy death, O Cato! since\nthou didst envy me the honor of saving thee. Antonius and Dolabella\nwere suspected by his friends, who advised him to secure them; he\nanswered, I fear none of those fat and lazy fellows, but those pale\nand lean ones,\u2014meaning Brutus and Cassius. As he was at supper, the\ndiscourse was of death, which sort was the best. That, said he, which\nis unexpected.\n\nCAESAR AUGUSTUS. Caesar, who was the first surnamed Augustus, being\nyet young, demanded of Antony the twenty-five millions of money[115]\nwhich he had taken out of the house of Julius Caesar when he was slain,\nthat he might pay the Romans the legacies he had left them, every man\nseventy-five drachms. But when Antony detained the money, and bade him,\nif he were wise, let fall his demand, he sent the crier to offer his\nown paternal estate for sale, and therewith discharged the legacies;\nby which means he procured a general respect to himself, and to Antony\nthe hatred of the Romans. Rymetalces, king of Thrace, forsook Antony\nand went over to Caesar; but bragging immoderately in his drink, and\nnauseously reproaching his new confederates, Caesar drank to one of the\nother kings, and told him, I love treason but do not commend traitors.\nThe Alexandrians, when he had taken their city, expected great severity\nfrom him; but when he came upon the judgment-seat, he placed Arius the\nAlexandrian by him, and told them: I spare this city, first because\nit is great and beautiful, secondly for the sake of its founder,\nAlexander, and thirdly for the sake of Arius my friend. When it was\ntold him that Eros, his steward in Egypt, having bought a quail that\nbeat all he came near and was never worsted by any, had roasted and\neaten it, he sent for him; and when upon examination he confessed the\nfact, he ordered him to be nailed on the mast of the ship. He removed\nTheodorus, and in his stead made Arius his factor in Sicily, whereupon\na petition was presented to him, in which was written, Theodorus of\nTarsus is either a baldpate or a thief, what is your opinion? Caesar\nread it, and subscribed, I think so. Mecaenas, his intimate companion,\npresented him yearly on his birthday with a piece of plate. Athenodorus\nthe philosopher, by reason of his old age, begged leave that he might\nretire from court, which Caesar granted; and as Athenodorus was taking\nhis leave of him, Remember, said he, Caesar, whenever you are angry, to\nsay or do nothing before you have repeated the four-and-twenty letters\nto yourself. Whereupon Caesar caught him by the hand and said, I have\nneed of your presence still; and he kept him a year longer, saying, The\nreward of silence is a secure reward. He heard Alexander at the age of\nthirty-two years had subdued the greatest part of the world and was at\na loss what he should do with the rest of his time. But he wondered\nAlexander should not think it a lesser labor to gain a great empire\nthan to set in order what he had gotten. He made a law concerning\nadulterers, wherein was determined how the accused were to be tried and\nhow the guilty were to be punished. Afterwards, meeting with a young\nman that was reported to have been familiar with his daughter Julia,\nbeing enraged he struck him with his hands; but when the young man\ncried out, O Caesar! you have made a law, he was so troubled at it that\nhe refrained from supper that day. When he sent Caius his daughter\u2019s\nson into Armenia, he begged of the Gods that the favor of Pompey, the\nvalor of Alexander, and his own fortune might attend him. He told\nthe Romans he would leave them one to succeed him in the government\nthat never consulted twice in the same affair, meaning Tiberius. He\nendeavored to pacify some young men that were imperious in their\noffices; and when they gave little heed to him, but still kept a stir,\nYoung men, said he, hear an old man to whom old men hearkened when\nhe was young. Once, when the Athenians had offended him, he wrote to\nthem from Aegina: I suppose you know I am angry with you, otherwise I\nhad not wintered at Aegina. Besides this, he neither said nor did any\nthing to them. One of the accusers of Eurycles prated lavishly and\nunreasonably, proceeding so far as to say, If these crimes, O Caesar,\ndo not seem great to you, command him to repeat to me the seventh book\nof Thucydides; wherefore Caesar being enraged commanded him to prison.\nBut afterwards, when he heard he was descended from Brasidas, he sent\nfor him again, and dismissed him with a moderate rebuke. When Piso\nbuilt his house from top to bottom with great exactness, You cheer my\nheart, said he, who build as if Rome would be eternal.\n\n\n\n\nPLUTARCH\u2019S RULES FOR THE PRESERVATION OF HEALTH.\n\nA DIALOGUE.\n\n\nMOSCHIO, ZEUXIPPUS.\n\n1. MOSCHIO. And you, Zeuxippus, diverted Glaucus the physician from\nentering into a philosophical discourse with you yesterday.\n\nZEUXIPPUS. I did not hinder him in the least, friend Moschio, it was he\nthat would not discourse in philosophy. But I feared and avoided giving\nso contentious a man any opportunity of discourse; for though in physic\nthe man has (as Homer[116] expresses it) an excellency before most of\nhis profession, yet in philosophy he is not altogether so candid, but\nindeed so rude in all his disputations, that he is hardly to be borne\nwith, flying (as it were) at us open mouthed. So that it is neither an\neasy nor indeed a just thing, that we should bear those confusions in\nterms he makes, when we are disputing about a wholesome diet. Besides,\nhe maintains that the bounds of philosophy and medicine are as distinct\nas those of the Mysians and Phrygians. And taking hold of some of those\nthings we were discoursing of, perhaps not with all exactness, yet not\nwithout some profit, he made scurrilous reflections on them.\n\nMOSCHIO. But I am ready, Zeuxippus, to hear those and the other things\nyou shall discourse of, with a great deal of pleasure.\n\nZEUXIPPUS. You have naturally a philosophical genius, Moschio, and\nare troubled to see a philosopher have no kindness for the study of\nmedicine. You are uneasy that he should think it concerns him more to\nstudy geometry, logic, and music, than to be desirous to understand\n\n    What in his house is well or ill-designed,[117]\n\nhis house being his own body. You shall see many spectators at that\nplay where their charges are defrayed out of the public stock, as\nthey do at Athens. Now among all the liberal arts, medicine not only\ncontains so neat and large a field of pleasure as to give place to\nnone, but she pays plentifully the charges of those who delight in the\nstudy of her by giving them health and safety; so that it ought not to\nbe called transgressing the bounds of a philosopher to dispute about\nthose things which relate to health, but rather, all bounds being laid\naside, we ought to pursue our studies in the same common field, and so\nenjoy both the pleasure and the profit of them.\n\nMOSCHIO. But to pass by Glaucus, who with his pretended gravity would\nbe thought to be so perfect as not to stand in need of philosophy,\u2014do\nyou, if you please, run through the whole discourse, and first, those\nthings which you say were not so exactly handled and which Glaucus\ncarped at.\n\n2. ZEUXIPPUS. A friend of ours then heard one alleging that to keep\none\u2019s hands always warm and never suffer them to be cold did not a\nlittle conduce to health; and, on the contrary, keeping the extreme\nparts of the body cold drives the heat inward, so that you are always\nin a fever or the fear of one. But those things which force the heat\noutwards do distribute and draw the matter to all parts, with advantage\nto our health. If in any work we employ our hands, we are able to keep\nin them that heat which is induced by their motion. But when we do not\nwork with our hands, we should take all care to keep our extreme parts\nfrom cold.\n\n3. This was one of those things he ridiculed. The second, as I\nremember, was touching the food allowed the sick, which he advises us\nsometimes both to touch and taste when we are in good health, that so\nwe may be used to it, and not be shy of it, like little children, or\nhate such a diet, but by degrees make it natural and familiar to our\nappetite; that in our sickness we may not nauseate wholesome diet, as\nif it were physic, nor be uneasy when we are prescribed any insipid\nthing, that lacks both the smell and taste of a kitchen. Wherefore we\nneed not squeamishly refuse to eat before we wash, or to drink water\nwhen we may have wine, or to take warm drink in summer when there is\nsnow at hand. We must, however, lay aside all foppish ostentation and\nsophistry as well as vain-glory in this abstinence, and quietly by\nourselves accustom our appetite to obey reason with willingness, that\nthus we may wean our minds long beforehand from that dainty contempt of\nsuch food which we feel in time of sickness, and that we may not then\neffeminately bewail our condition, as if we were fallen from great and\nbeloved pleasures into a low and sordid diet. It was well said, Choose\nout the best condition you can, and custom will make it pleasant to\nyou. And this will be beneficial in most things we undertake, but more\nespecially as to diet; if, in the height of our health, we introduce\na custom whereby those things may be rendered easy, familiar, and,\nas it were, domestics of our bodies, remembering what some suffer\nand do in sickness, who fret, and are not able to endure warm water\nor gruel or bread when it is brought to them, calling them dirty and\nunseemly things, and the persons who would urge them to them base\nand troublesome. The bath hath destroyed many whose distemper at the\nbeginning was not very bad, only because they could not endure to\neat before they washed; among whom Titus the emperor was one, as his\nphysicians affirm.\n\n4. This also was said, that a thin diet is the healthfulest to the\nbody. But we ought chiefly to avoid all excess in meat or drink or\npleasure, when there is any feast or entertainment at hand, or when\nwe expect any royal or princely banquet, or solemnity which we cannot\npossibly avoid; then ought the body to be light and in readiness to\nreceive the winds and waves it is to meet with. It is a hard matter\nfor a man at a feast or collation to keep that mediocrity or bounds\nhe has been used to, so as not to seem rude, precise, or troublesome\nto the rest of the company. Lest we should add fire to fire, as the\nproverb is, or one debauch or excess to another, we should take care to\nimitate that ingenious droll of Philip, which was this. He was invited\nto supper by a countryman, who supposed he would bring but few friends\nwith him; but when he saw him bring a great many, there not being much\nprovided, he was much concerned at it: which when Philip perceived,\nhe sent privately to every one of his friends, that they should leave\na corner for cake; they believing this and still expecting, ate so\nsparingly that there was supper enough for them all. So we ought\nbeforehand to prepare ourselves against all unavoidable invitations,\nthat there may be room left in our body, not only for the meal and\nthe dessert, but for drunkenness itself, by bringing in a fresh and a\nwilling appetite along with us.\n\n5. But if such a necessity should surprise you when you are already\nloaded or indisposed, in the presence either of persons of quality\nor of strangers that come in upon you unawares, and you cannot for\nshame but go and drink with them that are ready for that purpose,\nthen you ought to arm yourself against that modesty and prejudicial\nshame-facedness with that of Creon in the tragedy, who says,\u2014\n\n    \u2019Tis better, sirs, I should you now displease,\n    Than by complying next day lose my ease.[118]\n\nHe who throws himself into a pleurisy or frenzy, to avoid being\ncensured as an uncivil person, is certainly no well-bred man, nor has\nhe sense of understanding enough to converse with men, unless in a\ntavern or a cook-shop. Whereas an excuse ingeniously and dexterously\nmade is no less acceptable than compliance. He that makes a feast,\nthough he be as unwilling to taste of it himself as if it was a\nsacrifice, yet if he be merry and jocund over his glass at table,\njesting and drolling upon himself, seems better company than they\nwho are drunk and gluttonized together. Among the ancients, he made\nmention of Alexander, who after hard drinking was ashamed to resist\nthe importunity of Medius, who invited him afresh to the drinking of\nwine, of which he died; and of our time, of Regulus the wrestler, who,\nbeing called by break of day by Titus Caesar to the bath, went and\nwashed with him, and drinking but once (as they say) was seized with\nan apoplexy, and died immediately. These things Glaucus in laughter\nobjected to as pedantic. He was not over-fond of hearing farther, nor\nindeed were we of discoursing more. But do you give heed to every thing\nthat was said.\n\n6. First, Socrates advises us to beware of such meats as persuade a man\nto eat them though he be not hungry, and of those drinks that would\nprevail with a man to drink them when he is not thirsty. Not that he\nabsolutely forbade us the use of them; but he taught that we might use\nthem where there was occasion for it, suiting the pleasure of them to\nour necessity, as cities converted the money which was designed for the\nfestivals into a supply for war. For that which is agreeable by nature,\nso long as it is a part of our nourishment, is proper for us. He that\nis hungry should eat necessary food and find it pleasant; but when he\nis freed from his common appetite, he ought not to raise up a fresh\none. For, as dancing was no unpleasant exercise to Socrates himself,\nso he that can make his meal of sweetmeats or a second course receives\nthe less damage. But he that has taken already what may sufficiently\nsatisfy his nature ought by all means to avoid them. And concerning\nthese things, indecorum and ambition are no less to be avoided than\nthe love of pleasure or gluttony. For these often persuade men to eat\nwithout hunger or drink without thirst, possessing them with base and\ntroublesome fancies, as if it were indecent not to taste of every\nthing which is either a rarity or of great price, as udder, Italian\nmushrooms, Samian cakes, or snow in Egypt. Again, these often incite\nmen to eat things rare and much talked of, they being led to it, as it\nwere, by the scent of vain-glory, and making their bodies to partake of\nthem without any necessity of it, that they may have something to tell\nothers, who shall admire their having eaten such rare and superfluous\nthings. And thus it is with them in relation to fine women; when they\nare in bed with their own wives, however beautiful and loving they\nmay be, they are no way concerned; but on Phryne or Lais they bestow\ntheir money, inciting an infirm and unfit body, and provoking it to\nintemperate pleasures, and all this out of a vain-glorious humor.\nPhryne herself said in her old age, that she sold her lees and dregs\nthe dearer because she had been in such repute when she was young.\n\n7. It is indeed a great and miraculous thing that, if we allow the\nbody all the pleasures which nature needs and can bear,\u2014or rather, if\nwe struggle against its appetites on most occasions and put it off,\nand are at last brought with difficulty to yield to its necessities,\nor (as Plato saith) give way when it bites and strains itself,\u2014after\nall we should come off without harm. But, on the other hand, those\ndesires which descend from the mind into the body, and urge and force\nit to obey and accompany them in all their motions and affections,\nmust of necessity leave behind them the greatest and severest ills, as\nthe effects of such infirm and dark delights. The desire of our mind\nought no ways to incite our bodies to any pleasure, for the beginning\nof this is against nature. And as the tickling of one\u2019s armpits forces\na laughter, which is neither moderate nor merry, nor indeed properly\na laughter, but rather troublesome and like convulsions; so those\npleasures which the molested and disturbed body receives from the mind\nare furious, troublesome, and wholly strangers to nature. Therefore\nwhen any rare or noble dish is before you, you will get more honor\nby refraining from it than partaking of it. Remember what Simonides\nsaid, that he never repented that he had held his tongue, but often\nthat he had spoken; so we shall not repent that we have refused a good\ndish or drunk water instead of Falernian, but the contrary. We are not\nonly to commit no violence on Nature; but when any of those things are\noffered to her, even if she has a desire for them, we ought oftentimes\nto direct the appetite to a more innocent and accustomed diet, that\nshe may be used to it and acquainted with it; for as the Theban said\n(though not over honestly), If the law must be violated, it looks best\nwhen it is done for an empire.[119] But we say better, if we are to\ntake pride in any such thing, it is best when it is in that moderation\nwhich conduces to our health. But a narrowness of soul and a stingy\nhumor compel some men to keep under and defraud their genius at home,\nwho, when they enjoy the costly fare of another man\u2019s table, do cram\nthemselves as eagerly as if it were all plunder; then they are taken\nill, go home, and the next day find the crudity of their stomachs\nthe reward of their unsatiableness. Wherefore Crates, supposing\nthat luxury and prodigality were the chief cause of seditions and\ninsurrections in a city, in a droll advises that we should never go\nbeyond a lentil in our meals, lest we bring ourselves into sedition.\nBut let every one exhort himself not to increase his meal beyond a\nlentil, and not to pass by cresses and olives and fall upon pudding and\nfish, that he may not by his over-eating bring his body into tumults,\ndisturbances, and diarrhoeas; for a mean diet keeps the appetite within\nits natural bounds, but the arts of cooks and confectioners, with their\nelaborate dishes and aromatic sauces, do (according to the comedian)\npush forward and enlarge the bounds of pleasure, and entrench upon\nthose of our profit. I know not how it comes to pass that we should\nabominate and hate those women that either bewitch or give philters\nto their husbands, and yet give our meat and drink to our slaves and\nhirelings, to all but corrupt and poison them. For though that may\nseem too severe which was said by Arcesilaus against lascivious and\nadulterous persons, that it signifies little which way one goes about\nsuch beastly work;[120] yet it is not much from our purpose. For what\ndifference is there (to speak ingenuously) whether satyrion moves and\nwhets my lust, or my taste is irritated by the scent of the meat or the\nsauce, so that, like a part infected with itch, it shall always need\nscratching and tickling?\n\n8. But we shall perhaps discourse against pleasures in another place,\nand show the beauty and dignity that temperance has within itself;\nbut our present discourse is in praise of many and great pleasures.\nFor diseases do not either rob or spoil us of so much business, hope,\njourneys, or exercise, as they do of pleasure; so that it is no way\nconvenient for those who would follow their pleasure to neglect their\nhealth. There are diseases which will permit a man to study philosophy\nand to exercise any military office, nay, to act the kingly part. But\nthe pleasures and enjoyments of the body are such as cannot be born\nalive in the midst of a distemper; or if they are, the pleasures they\nafford are not only short and impure, but mixed with much alloy, and\nthey bear the marks of that storm and tempest out of which they rise.\nVenus herself delights not in a gorged, but in a calm and serene body;\nand pleasure is the end of that, as well as it is of meat and drink.\nHealth is to pleasure as still weather to the halcyon, giving it a\nsafe and commodious birth and nest. Prodicus seems elegantly enough to\nhave said, that of all sauces fire was the best; but most true it is\nto say, that health gives things the most divine and grateful relish.\nFor meat, whether it be boiled, roasted, or stewed, has no pleasure\nor gusto in it to a sick, surfeited, or nauseous stomach. But a clean\nand undebauched appetite renders every thing sweet and delightful to a\nsound body, and (as Homer expresses it) devourable.\n\n9. As Demades told the Athenians, who unseasonably made war, that\nthey never treated of peace but in mourning, so we never think of\na moderate and slender diet but when we are in a fever or under a\ncourse of physic. But when we are in these extremities, we diligently\nconceal our enormities, though we remember them well enough; yet as\nmany do, we lay the blame of our illness now upon the air, now upon\nthe unhealthfulness of the place or the length of a journey, to take\nit off from that intemperance and luxury which was the cause of it.\nAs Lysimachus, when he was among the Scythians and constrained by\nhis thirst, delivered up himself and his army into captivity, but\nafterwards, drinking cold water, cried out, O ye Gods! for how short\na pleasure have I thrown away a great felicity!\u2014so in our sickness,\nwe ought to consider with ourselves that, for the sake of a draught of\ncold water, an unseasonable bath, or good company, we spoil many of our\ndelights as well as our honorable business, and lose many pleasant\ndiversions. The remorse that arises from these considerations wounds\nthe conscience, and sticks to us in our health like a scar, to make\nus more cautious as to our diet. For a healthful body does not breed\nany enormous appetite, or such as we cannot prevail with or overcome.\nBut we ought to put on resolution against our extravagant desires or\nefforts towards enjoyment, esteeming it a low and childish thing to\ngive ear to their complaints and murmurings; for they cease as soon as\nthe cloth is taken away, and will neither accuse you of injustice, nor\nthink you have done them wrong; but on the contrary, you will find them\nthe next day pure and brisk, no way clogged or nauseating. As Timotheus\nsaid, when he had had a light philosophic dinner the other day with\nPlato in the Academy, They who dine with Plato never complain the next\nmorning. It is reported that Alexander said, when he had turned off his\nusual cooks, that he carried always better with him; for his journeys\nby night recommended his dinner to him, and the slenderness of his\ndinner recommended his supper.\n\n10. I am not ignorant that fevers seize men upon a fatigue or excess\nof heat or cold. But as the scent of flowers, which in itself is but\nfaint, if mixed with oil is more strong and fragrant; so an inward\nfulness gives, as it were, a body and substance to external causes and\nbeginnings of sickness. For without this they could do no hurt, but\nwould vanish and fade away if there were lowness of blood and pureness\nof spirit to receive the motion, which in fulness and superabundance,\nas in disturbed mud, makes all things polluted, troublesome, and hardly\nrecoverable. We ought not to imitate the good mariner who out of\ncovetousness loads his ship hard and afterwards labors hard to throw\nout the salt water, by first clogging and overcharging our bodies and\nendeavoring afterwards to clear them by purges and clysters; but we\nought to keep our bodies in right order, that if at any time they\nshould be oppressed, their lightness may keep them up like a cork.\n\n11. We ought chiefly to be careful in all predispositions and\nforewarnings of sickness. For all distempers do not invade us, as\nHesiod expresses it,\u2014\n\n    In silence,\u2014for the Gods have struck them dumb;[121]\n\nbut the most of them have ill digestion and a kind of a laziness,\nwhich are the forerunners and harbingers that give us warning. Sudden\nheaviness and weariness tell us a distemper is not far off, as\nHippocrates affirms, by reason (it seems) of that fulness which doth\noppress and load the spirit in the nerves. Some men, when their bodies\nall but contradict them and invite them to a couch and repose, through\ngluttony and love of pleasure throw themselves into a bath or make\nhaste to some drinking meeting, as if they were laying in for a siege;\nbeing mightily in fear lest the fever should seize them before they\nhave dined. Those who pretend to more elegance are not caught in this\nmanner, but foolishly enough; for, being ashamed to own their qualms\nand debauch or to keep house all day, when others call them to go with\nthem to the gymnasium, they arise and pull off their clothes with them,\ndoing the same things which they do that are in health. Intemperance\nand effeminacy make many fly for patronage to the proverb, Wine is\nbest after wine, and one debauch is the way to drive out another. This\nexcites their hopes, and persuades and urges them to rise from their\nbeds and rashly to fall to their wonted excesses. Against which hope\nhe ought to set that prudent advice of Cato, when he says that great\nthings ought to be made less, and the lesser to be quite left off;\nand that it is better to abstain to no purpose and be at quiet, than\nto run ourselves into hazard by forcing ourselves either to bath or\ndinner. For if there be any ill in it, it is an injury to us that we\ndid not watch over ourselves and refrain; but if there be none, it is\nno inconvenience to your body to have abstained and be made more pure\nby it. He is but a child who is afraid lest his friends and servants\nshould perceive that he is sick either of a surfeit or a debauch. He\nthat is ashamed to confess the crudity of his stomach to-day will\nto-morrow with shame confess that he has either a diarrhoea, a fever,\nor the griping in the guts. You think it is a disgrace to want, but it\nis a greater disgrace to bear the crudity, heaviness, and fulness of\nyour body, when it has to be carried into the bath, like a rotten and\nleaky boat into the sea. As some seamen are ashamed to live on shore\nwhen there is a storm at sea, yet when they are at sea lie shamefully\ncrying and retching to vomit; so in any suspicion or tendency of the\nbody to any disease, they think it an indecorum to keep their bed one\nday and not to have their table spread, yet most shamefully for many\ndays together are forced to be purged and plastered, flattering and\nobeying their physicians, asking for wine or cold water, being forced\nto do and say many unseasonable and absurd things, by reason of the\npain and fear they are in. Those therefore who cannot govern themselves\non account of pleasures, but yield to their lusts and are carried away\nby them, may opportunely be taught and put in mind that they receive\nthe greatest share of their pleasures from their bodies.\n\n12. And as the Spartans gave the cook vinegar and salt, and bade him\nlook for the rest in the victim, so in our bodies, the best sauce to\nwhatsoever is brought before us is that our bodies are pure and in\nhealth. For any thing that is sweet or costly is so in its own nature\nand apart from any thing else; but it becomes sweet to the taste only\nwhen it is in a body which is delighted with it and which is disposed\nas nature doth require. But in those bodies which are foul, surfeited,\nand not pleased with it, it loses its beauty and convenience.\nWherefore we need not be concerned whether fish be fresh or bread fine,\nor whether the bath be warm or your she-friend a beauty; but whether\nyou are not squeamish and foul, whether you are not disturbed and do\nnot feel the dregs of yesterday\u2019s debauch. Otherwise it will be as when\nsome drunken revellers break into a house where they are mourning,\nbringing neither mirth nor pleasure with them, but increasing the\nlamentation. So Venus, meats, baths, and wines, in a body that is crazy\nand out of order, mingled with what is vitiated and corrupted, stir\nup phlegm and choler, and create great trouble; neither do they bring\nany pleasure that is answerable to their expectations, or worth either\nenjoying or speaking of.\n\n13. A diet which is very exact and precisely according to rule puts\none\u2019s body both in fear and danger; it hinders the gallantry of our\nsoul itself, makes it suspicious of every thing or of having to do\nwith any thing, no less in pleasures than in labors; so that it dares\nnot undertake any thing boldly and courageously. We ought to do by our\nbody as by the sail of a ship in fair and clear weather:\u2014we must not\ncontract it and draw it in too much, nor be too remiss or negligent\nabout it when we have any suspicion upon us, but give it some allowance\nand make it pliable (as we have said), and not wait for crudities and\ndiarrhoeas, or heat or drowsiness, by which some, as by messengers and\napparitors, are frighted and moderate themselves when a fever is at\nhand; but we must long beforehand guard against the storm, as if the\nnorth wind blew at sea.\n\n14. It is absurd, as Democritus says, by the croaking of ravens, the\ncrowing of a cock, or the wallowing of a sow in the mire, carefully to\nobserve the signs of windy or rainy weather, and not to prevent and\nguard ourselves against the motions and fluctuations of our bodies or\nthe indication of a distemper, nor to understand the signs of a storm\nwhich is just ready to break forth within ourselves. So that we are\nnot only to observe our bodies as to meat and exercise, whether they\nuse them more sluggishly or unwillingly than they were wont; or whether\nwe be more thirsty and hungry than we use to be; but we are also to\ntake care as to our sleep, whether it be continued and easy, or whether\nit be irregular and convulsive. For absurd dreams and irregular and\nunusual fantasies show either abundance or thickness of humors, or\nelse a disturbance of the spirits within. For the motions of the soul\nshow that the body is nigh a distemper. For there are despondencies of\nmind and fears that are without reason or any apparent cause, which\nextinguish our hopes on a sudden. Some there are that are sharp and\nprone to anger, whom a little thing makes sad; and these cry and are\nin great trouble when ill vapors and fumes meet together and (as Plato\nsays) are intermingled in the ways and passages of the soul. Wherefore\nthose to whom such things happen must consider and remember, that even\nif there be nothing spiritual, there is some bodily cause which needs\nto be brought away and purged.\n\n15. Besides, it is profitable for him who visits his friends in their\nsickness to enquire after the causes of it. Let us not sophistically\nor impertinently discourse about lodgements, irruptions of blood,\nand commonplaces, merely to show our skill in the terms of art which\nare used in medicine. But when we have with diligence heard such\ntrivial and common things discoursed of as fulness or emptiness,\nweariness, lack of sleep, and (above all) the diet which the patient\nkept before he fell sick, then,\u2014as Plato used to ask himself, after\nthe miscarriage of other men he had been with, Am not I also such a\none?\u2014so ought we to take care by our neighbor\u2019s misfortunes, and\ndiligently to beware that we do not fall into them, and afterwards cry\nout upon our sick-bed, How precious above all other things is health!\nWhen another is in sickness, let it teach us how valuable a treasure\nhealth is, which we ought to keep and preserve with all possible care.\nNeither will it be amiss for every man to look into his own diet. If\ntherefore we have been eating, drinking, laboring, or doing any thing\nto excess, and our bodies give us no suspicion or hint of a distemper,\nyet ought we nevertheless to stand upon our guard and take care of\nourselves,\u2014if it be after venery and labor, by giving of ourselves\nrest and quiet; if after drinking of wine and feasting, by drinking of\nwater; but especially, after we have fed on flesh or solid meats or\neaten divers things, by abstinence, that we may leave no superfluity\nin our bodies; for these very things, as they are the cause of many\ndiseases, likewise administer matter and force to other causes.\nWherefore it was very well said, that to eat\u2014but not to satiety, to\nlabor\u2014but not to weariness, and to keep in nature, are of all things\nthe most healthful. For intemperance in venery takes away that by which\nvigor our nourishment is elaborated, and causes more superfluity and\nredundance.\n\n16. But we shall begin and treat of each of these, and first we shall\ndiscourse of those exercises which are proper for a scholar. And as\nhe that said he should prescribe nothing for the teeth to them that\ndwelt by the seaside taught them the benefit of the sea-water, so one\nwould think that there was no need of writing to scholars concerning\nexercise. For it is wonderful what an exercise the daily use of speech\nis, not only as to health but even to strength. I mean not fleshly and\nathletic health, or such as makes one\u2019s external parts firm, like the\noutside of a house, but such as gives a right tone and inward vigor to\nthe vital and noble parts. And that the vital spirit increases strength\nis made plain by them who anointed the wrestlers, who commanded them,\nwhen their limbs were rubbed, to withstand such frictions in some sort,\nin holding their wind, observing carefully those parts of the body\nwhich were smeared and rubbed.[122] Now the voice, being a motion of\nthe spirit, not superficially but firmly seated in the bowels, as it\nwere in a fountain, increases the heat, thins the blood, purges every\nvein, opens all the arteries, neither does it permit the coagulation or\ncondensation of any superfluous humor, which would settle like dregs\nin those vessels which receive and work our nourishment. Wherefore we\nought by much speaking to accustom ourselves to this exercise, and\nmake it familiar to us; and if we suspect that our bodies are weaker\nor more tired than ordinary, by reading or reciting. For what riding\nin a coach is compared with bodily exercise, that is reading compared\nwith disputing, if you carry your voice softly and low, as it were\nin the chariot of another man\u2019s words. For disputes bring with them\na vehemence and contention, adding the labor of the mind to that of\nthe body. All passionate noise, and such as would force our lungs,\nought to be avoided; for irregular and violent strains of our voice\nmay break something within us, or bring us into convulsions. But when\na student has either read or disputed, before he walks abroad, he\nought to make use of a gentle and tepid friction, to open the pores\nof his body, as much as is possible, even to his very bowels, that so\nhis spirits may gently and quietly diffuse themselves to the extreme\nparts of his body. The bounds that this friction ought not to exceed\nare, that it be done no longer than it is pleasant to our sense and\nwithout pain. For he that so allays the disturbance which is within\nhimself and the agitation of his spirits will not be troubled by that\nsuperfluity which remains in him; and if it be unseasonable for to\nwalk, or if his business hinder him, it is no great matter; for nature\nhas already received satisfaction. Whether one be at sea or in a public\ninn, it is not necessary that he should be silent, though all the\ncompany laugh at him. For where it is no shame to eat, it is certainly\nno shame to exercise yourself; but it is worse to stand in awe of and\nbe troubled with seamen, carriers, and innkeepers, that laugh at you\nnot because you play at ball or fight a shadow, but because in your\ndiscourse you exercise yourself by teaching others, or by enquiring\nand learning something yourself, or else by calling to mind something.\nFor Socrates said, he that uses the exercise of dancing had need\nhave a room big enough to hold seven beds; but he that makes either\nsinging or discourse his exercise may do it either standing or lying\nin any place. But this one thing we must observe, that when we are\nconscious to ourselves that we are too full, or have been concerned\nwith Venus, or labored hard, we do not too much strain our voice, as\nso many rhetoricians and readers in philosophy do, some of whom out\nof glory and ambition, some for reward or private contentions, have\nforced themselves beyond what has been convenient. Our Niger, when he\nwas teaching philosophy in Galatia, by chance swallowed the bone of\na fish; but a stranger coming to teach in his place, Niger, fearing\nhe might run away with his repute, continued to read his lectures,\nthough the bone still stuck in his throat; from whence a great and hard\ninflammation arising, he, being unable to undergo the pain, permitted\na deep incision to be made, by which wound the bone was taken out; but\nthe wound growing worse, and rheum falling upon it, it killed him. But\nthis may be mentioned hereafter in its proper place.\n\n17. After exercise to use a cold bath is boyish, and has more\nostentation in it than health; for though it may seem to harden our\nbodies and make them not so subject to outward accidents, yet it\ndoes more prejudice to the inward parts, by hindering transpiration,\nfixing the humors, and condensing those vapors which love freedom and\ntranspiration. Besides, necessity will force those who use cold baths\ninto that exact and accurate way of diet they would so much avoid, and\nmake them take care they be not in the least extravagant, for every\nsuch error is sure to receive a bitter reproof. But a warm bath is much\nmore pardonable, for it does not so much destroy our natural vigor\nand strength as it does conduce to our health, laying a soft and easy\nfoundation for concoction, preparing those things for digestion which\nare not easily digested without any pain (if they be not very crude\nand deep lodged), and freeing us from all inward weariness. But when\nwe do sensibly perceive our bodies to be indifferent well, or as they\nought to be, we should omit bathing, and anoint ourselves by the fire;\nwhich is better if the body stand in need of heat, for it dispenses a\nwarmth throughout. But we should make use of the sun more or less, as\nthe temper of the air permits. So much may suffice to have been said\nconcerning exercises.\n\n18. As for what has been said of diet before, if any part of it be\nprofitable in instructing us how we should allay and bring down our\nappetites, there yet remains one thing more to be advised: that if\nit be troublesome to treat one\u2019s belly like one broke loose, and to\ncontend with it though it has no ears (as Cato said), then ought we\nto take care that the quality of what we eat may make the quantity\nmore light; and we should eat cautiously of such food as is solid and\nmost nourishing (for it is hard always to refuse it), such as flesh,\ncheese, dried figs, and boiled eggs; but more freely of those things\nwhich are thin and light, such as moist herbs, fowl, and fish if it\nbe not too fat; for he that eats such things as these may gratify his\nappetite, and yet not oppress his body. But ill digestion is chiefly to\nbe feared after flesh, for it presently very much clogs us and leaves\nill relics behind it. It would be best to accustom one\u2019s self to eat\nno flesh at all, for the earth affords plenty enough of things fit not\nonly for nourishment, but for delight and enjoyment; some of which you\nmay eat without much preparation, and others you may make pleasant by\nadding divers other things to them. But since custom is almost a second\nnature, we may eat flesh, but not to the cloying of our appetites, like\nwolves or lions, but only to lay as it were a foundation and bulwark\nfor our nourishment,\u2014and then come to other meats and sauces which\nare more agreeable to the nature of our bodies and do less dull our\nrational soul, which seems to be enlivened by a light and brisk diet.\n\n19. As for liquids, we should never make milk our drink, but rather\ntake it as food, it yielding much solid nourishment. As for wine, we\nmust say to it what Euripides said to Venus:\u2014\n\n    Thy joys with moderation I would have,\n    And that I ne\u2019er may want them humbly crave.\n\nFor wine is the most beneficial of all drinks, the pleasantest\nmedicine in the world, and of all dainties the least cloying to the\nappetite, provided more regard be given to the opportunity of the\ntime of drinking it than even to its being properly mixed with water.\nWater, not only when it is mixed with wine, but also if it be drunk by\nitself between mixed wine and water, makes the mingled wine the less\nhurtful. We should accustom ourselves therefore in our daily diet to\ndrink two or three glasses of water, which will allay the strength of\nthe wine, and make drinking of water familiar to our body, that so\nin a case of necessity it may not be looked on as a stranger, and we\nbe offended at it. It so falls out, that some have then the greatest\ninclination for wine when there is most need they should drink water;\nfor such men, when they have been exposed to great heat of the sun, or\nhave fallen into a chill, or have been speaking vehemently, or have\nbeen more than ordinarily thoughtful about any thing, or after any\nfatigue or labor, are of the opinion that they ought to drink wine,\nas if nature required some repose for the body and some diversion\nafter its labors. But nature requires no such repose (if you will\ncall pleasure repose), but desires only such an alteration as shall\nbe between pleasure and pain; in which case we ought to abate of our\ndiet, and either wholly abstain from wine, or drink it allayed with\nvery much mixture of water. For wine, being sharp and fiery, increases\nthe disturbances of the body, exasperates them, and wounds the parts\naffected; which stand more in need of being comforted and smoothed,\nwhich water does the best of any thing. If, when we are not thirsty,\nwe drink warm water after labor, exercise, or heat, we find our inward\nparts loosened and smoothed by it; for the moisture of water is gentle\nand not violent, but that of wine carries a great force in it, which is\nno ways agreeable in the fore-mentioned cases. And if any one should\nbe afraid that abstinence would bring upon the body that acrimony and\nbitterness which some say it will, he is like those children who think\nthemselves much wronged because they may not eat just before the fit\nof a fever. The best mean between both these is drinking of water. We\noftentimes sacrifice to Bacchus himself without wine, doing very well\nin accustoming ourselves not to be always desirous of wine. Minos made\nthe pipe and the crown be laid aside at the sacrifice when there was\nmourning. And yet we know an afflicted mind is not at all affected by\neither the pipe or crown; but there is no body so strong, to which, in\ncommotion or a fever, wine does not do a great deal of injury.\n\n20. The Lydians are reported in a famine to have spent one day in\neating, and the next in sports and drollery. But a lover of learning\nand a friend to the Muses, when at any time he is forced to sup later\nthan ordinary, will not be so much a slave to his belly as to lay\naside a geographical scheme when it is before him, or his book, or his\nlyre; but strenuously turning himself, and taking his mind off from\neating, he will in the Muses\u2019 name drive away all such desires, as so\nmany Harpies, from his table. Will not the Scythian in the midst of his\ncups oftentimes handle his bow and twang the string, thereby rousing up\nhimself from that drunkenness in which he was immersed? Will a Greek be\nafraid, because he is laughed at, by books and letters gently to loosen\nand unbend any blind and obstinate desire? The young men in Menander,\nwhen they were drinking, were trepanned by a bawd, which brought in to\nthem a company of handsome and richly attired women; but every one, as\nhe said,\n\n    Cast down his eyes and fell to junketing,\u2014\n\nnot one daring to look upon them. Lovers of learning have many fair\nand pleasant diversions, if they can no other way keep in their canine\nand brutish appetites when they see the table spread. The bawling of\nsuch fellows as anoint wrestlers, and the opinion of pedagogues that it\nhinders our nourishment and dulls one\u2019s head to discourse of learning\nat table, are indeed of some force then, when we are called upon to\nsolve a fallacy like the _Indus_ or to dispute about the _Kyrieuon_\nat a feast. For though the pith of the palm-tree is very sweet, yet\nthey say it will cause the headache. To discourse of logic at meals is\nnot indeed a very delicious banquet, is rather troublesome, and pains\none\u2019s head; but if there be any who will not give us leave to discourse\nphilosophically or ask any question or read any thing at table, though\nit be of those things which are not only decent and profitable but\nalso pleasantly merry, we will desire them not to trouble us, but to\ntalk in this style to the athletes in the Xystum and the Palaestra,\nwho have laid aside their books and are wont to spend their whole time\nin jeers and scurrilous jests, being, as Aristo wittily expresses it,\nsmooth and hard, like the pillars in the gymnasium. But we must obey\nour physicians, who advise us to keep some interval between supper and\nsleep, and not to heap up together a great deal of victuals in our\nstomachs and so shorten our breath (lest we presently by crude and\nfermenting aliment overcharge our digestion), but rather to take some\nspace and breathing-time before we sleep. As those who have a mind to\nexercise themselves after supper do not do it by running or wrestling,\nbut rather by gentle exercise, such as walking or dancing; so when we\nintend to exercise our minds after supper, we are not to do it with any\nthing of business or care, or with those sophistical disputes which\nbring us into a vain-glorious and violent contention. But there are\nmany questions in natural philosophy which are easy to discuss and to\ndecide; there are many disquisitions which relate to manners, which\nplease the mind (as Homer expresses it) and do no way discompose it.\nQuestions in history and poetry have been by some ingeniously called\na second course to a learned man and a scholar. There are discourses\nwhich are no way troublesome; and, besides, fables may be told. Nay, it\nis easier to discourse of the pipe and lyre, or hear them discoursed\nof, than it is to hear either of them played on. The quantity of time\nallowed for this exercise is till our meat be gently settled within us,\nso that our digestion may have power enough to master it.\n\n21. Aristotle is of opinion that to walk after supper stirs up our\nnatural heat; but to sleep, if it be soon after, chokes it. Others\nagain say that rest aids digestion, and that motion disturbs it. Hence\nsome walk immediately after supper; others choose rather to keep\nthemselves still. But that man seems to obtain the design of both, who\ncherishes and keeps his body quiet, not immediately suffering his mind\nto become heavy and idle, but (as has been said) gently distributing\nand lightening his spirits by either hearing or speaking some pleasant\nthing, such as will neither molest nor oppress him.\n\n22. Medicinal vomits and purges, which are the bitter reliefs of\ngluttony, are not to be attempted without great necessity. The manner\nof many is to fill themselves because they are empty, and again,\nbecause they are full, to empty themselves contrary to nature, being\nno less tormented with being full than being empty; or rather, they\nare troubled at their fulness, as being a hindrance of their appetite,\nand are always emptying themselves, that they may make room for new\nenjoyment. The damage in these cases is evident; for the body is\ndisordered and torn by both these. It is an inconvenience that always\nattends a vomit, that it increases and gives nourishment to this\ninsatiable humor. For it engenders hunger, as violent and turbulent\nas a roaring torrent, which continually annoys a man, and forces him\nto his meat, not like a natural appetite that calls for food, but\nrather like inflammation that calls for plasters and physic. Wherefore\nhis pleasures are short and imperfect, and in the enjoyment are very\nfurious and unquiet; upon which there come distentions, and affections\nof the pores, and retentions of the spirits, which will not wait for\nthe natural evacuations, but run over the surface of the body, so that\nit is like an overloaded ship, where it is more necessary to throw\nsomething overboard than to take any thing more in. Those disturbances\nin our bellies which are caused by physic corrupt and consume our\ninward parts, and do rather increase our superfluous humors than bring\nthem away; which is as if one that was troubled at the number of Greeks\nthat inhabited the city, should call in the Arabians and Scythians.\n\nSome are so much mistaken that, in order that they may void their\ncustomary and natural superfluities, they take Cnidian-berries or\nscammony, or some other harsh and incongruous physic, which is more fit\nto be carried away by purge than it is able to purge us. It is best\ntherefore by a moderate and regular diet to keep our body in order,\nso that it may command itself as to fulness or emptiness. If at any\ntime there be a necessity, we may take a vomit, but without physic or\nmuch tampering, and such a one as will not cause any great disturbance,\nonly enough to save us from indigestion by casting up gently what is\nsuperfluous. For as linen cloths, when they are washed with soap and\nnitre, are more worn out than when they are washed with water only, so\nphysical vomits corrupt and destroy the body. If at any time we are\ncostive, there is no medicine better than some sort of food which will\npurge you gently and with ease, the trial of which is familiar to all,\nand the use without any pain. But if it will not yield to those, we may\ndrink water for some days, or fast, or take a clyster, rather than take\nany troublesome purging physic; which most men are inclined to do, like\nthat sort of women which take things on purpose to miscarry, that they\nmay be empty and begin afresh.\n\n23. But to be done with these, there are some on the other side who are\ntoo exact in enjoining themselves to periodical and set fasts, doing\namiss in teaching nature to want coercion when there is no occasion\nfor it, and making that abstinence necessary which is not so, and\nall this at times when nature requires her accustomed way of living.\nIt is better to use those injunctions we lay upon our bodies with\nmore freedom, even when we have no ill symptom or suspicion upon us;\nand so to order our diet (as has been said), that our bodies may be\nalways obedient to any change, and not be enslaved or tied up to one\nmanner of living, nor so exact in regarding the times, numbers, and\nperiods of our actions. For it is a life neither safe, easy, politic,\nnor like a man, but more like the life of an oyster or the trunk of a\ntree, to live so without any variety, and in restraint as to our meat,\nabstinence, motion, and rest; casting ourselves into a gloomy, idle,\nsolitary, unsociable, and inglorious way of living, far remote from the\nadministration of the state,\u2014at least (I may say) in my opinion.\n\n24. For health is not to be purchased by sloth and idleness, for those\nare chief inconveniences of sickness; and there is no difference\nbetween him who thinks to enjoy his health by idleness and quiet, and\nhim who thinks to preserve his eyes by not using them, and his voice\nby not speaking. For such a man\u2019s health will not be any advantage\nto him in the performance of many things he is obliged to do as a\nman. Idleness can never be said to conduce to health, for it destroys\nthe very end of it. Nor is it true that they are the most healthful\nthat do least. For Xenocrates was not more healthful than Phocion, or\nTheophrastus than Demetrius. It signified nothing to Epicurus or his\nfollowers, as to that so much talked of good habit of body, that they\ndeclined all business, though it were never so honorable. We ought to\npreserve the natural constitution of our bodies by other means, knowing\nevery part of our life is capable of sickness and health.\n\nThe contrary advice to that which Plato gave his scholars is to be\ngiven to those who are concerned in public business. For he was wont to\nsay, whenever he left his school; Go to, my boys, see that you employ\nyour leisure in some honest sport and pastime. Now to those that are in\npublic office our advice is, that they bestow their labor on honest and\nnecessary things, not tiring their bodies with small or inconsiderable\nthings. For most men upon accident torment themselves with watchings,\njourneyings, and running up and down, for no advantage and with no good\ndesign, but only that they may do others an injury, or because they\nenvy them or are competitors with them, or because they hunt after\nunprofitable and empty glory. To such as these I think Democritus\nchiefly spoke, when he said, that if the body should summon the soul\nbefore a court on an action for ill-treatment, the soul would lose\nthe case. And perhaps on the other hand Theophrastus spoke well, when\nhe said metaphorically, that the soul pays a dear house-rent to its\nlandlord the body. But still the body is very much more inconvenienced\nby the soul, when it is used beyond reason and there is not care enough\ntaken of it. For when it is in passion, action, or any concern, it does\nnot at all consider the body. Jason, being some-what out of humor,\nsaid, that in little things we ought not to stand upon justice, so that\nin greater things we may be sure to do it. We, and that in reason,\nadvise any public man to trifle and play with little things, and in\nsuch cases to indulge himself, so that in worthy and great concerns he\nmay not bring a dull, tired, and weary body, but one that is the better\nfor having lain still, like a ship in the dock, that when the soul has\noccasion again to call it into business, \u201cit may run with her, like a\nsucking colt with the mare.\u201d\n\n25. Upon which account, when business gives us leave, we ought to\nrefresh our bodies, grudging them neither sleep nor dinner nor that\nease which is the medium between pain and pleasure; not taking that\ncourse which most men do, who thereby wear out their bodies by the many\nchanges they expose them to, making them like hot iron thrown into cold\nwater, by softening and troubling them with pleasures, after they have\nbeen very much strained and oppressed with labor. And on the other\nside, after they have opened their bodies and made them tender either\nby wine or venery, they exercise them either at the bar or at court,\nor enter upon some other business which requires earnest and vigorous\naction. Heraclitus, when he was in a dropsy, desired his physician to\nbring a drought upon his body, for it had a glut of rain. Most men are\nvery much in the wrong who, after being tired or having labored or\nfasted, moisten (as it were) and dissolve their bodies in pleasure,\nand again force and distend them after those pleasures. Nature does\nnot require that we should make the body amends at that rate. But an\nintemperate and slavish mind, so soon as it is free from labor, like a\nsailor, runs insolently into pleasures and delights, and again falls\nupon business, so that nature can have no rest or leave to enjoy that\ntemper and calmness which it does desire, but is troubled and tormented\nby all this irregularity. Those that have any discretion never so\nmuch as offer pleasure to the body when it is laboring,\u2014for at such\ntimes they do not require it at all,\u2014nor do they so much as think of\nit, their minds being intent upon that employ they are in, either the\ndelight or diligence of the soul getting the mastery over all other\ndesires. Epaminondas is reported wittily to have said of a good man\nthat died about the time of the battle of Leuctra, How came he to have\nso much leisure as to die, when there was so much business stirring?\nIt may truly be asked concerning a man that is either of public employ\nor a scholar, What time can such a man spare, either to debauch his\nstomach or be drunk or lascivious? For such men, after they have done\ntheir business, allow quiet and repose to their bodies, reckoning not\nonly unprofitable pains but unnecessary pleasures to be enemies to\nnature, and avoiding them as such.\n\n26. I have heard that Tiberius Caesar was wont to say, that he was a\nridiculous man that held forth his hand to a physician after sixty. But\nit seems to me to be a little too severely said. But this is certain,\nthat every man ought to have skill in his own pulse, for it is very\ndifferent in every man; neither ought he to be ignorant of the temper\nof his own body, as to heat and cold, or what things do him good, and\nwhat hurt. For he has no sense, and is both a blind and lame inhabitant\nof his body, that must learn these things from another, and must ask\nhis physicians whether it is better with him in winter or summer;\nor whether moist or dry things agree best with him, or whether his\npulse be frequent or slow. For it is necessary and easy to know such\nthings by custom and experience. It is convenient to understand more\nwhat meats and drinks are wholesome than what are pleasant, and to\nhave more skill in what is good for the stomach than in what seems\ngood to the mouth, and in those things that are easy of digestion than\nin those that gratify our palate. For it is no less scandalous to\nask a physician what is easy and what is hard of digestion, and what\nwill agree with your stomach and what not, than it is to ask what is\nsweet, and what bitter, and what sour. They nowadays correct their\ncooks, being able well enough to tell what is too sweet, too salt, or\ntoo sour, but themselves do not know what will be light or easy of\ndigestion, and agreeable to them. Therefore in the seasoning of broth\nthey seldom err, but they do so scurvily pickle themselves every day\nas to afford work enough for the physician. For that pottage is not\naccounted best that is the sweetest, but they mingle bitter and sweet\ntogether. But they force the body to partake of many, and those cloying\npleasures, either not knowing, or not remembering, that to things that\nare good and wholesome nature adds a pleasure unmingled with any regret\nor repentance afterward. We ought also to know what things are cognate\nand convenient to our bodies, and be able to direct a proper diet to\nany one upon any change of weather or other circumstance.\n\n27. As for those inconveniences which sordidness and poverty bring upon\nmany, as gathering of fruit, continual labor, and running about, and\nwant of rest, which fall heavy upon the weaker parts of the body and\nsuch as are inwardly infirm, we need not fear that any man of employ or\nscholar\u2014to whom our present discourse belongs\u2014should be troubled with\nthem. But there is a severe sort of sordidness as to their studies,\nwhich they ought to avoid, by which they are forced many times to\nneglect their body, oftentimes denying it a supply when it has done\nits work, making the mortal part of us do its share in work as well as\nthe immortal, and the earthly part as much as the heavenly. But, as\nthe ox said to his fellow-servant the camel, when he refused to ease\nhim of his burthen, It won\u2019t be long before you carry my burthen and\nme too: which fell out to be true, when the ox died. So it happens to\nthe mind, when it refuses that little relaxation and comfort which it\nneeds in its labor; for a little while after a fever or vertigo seizes\nus, and then reading, discoursing, and disputing must be laid aside,\nand it is forced to partake of the body\u2019s distemper. Plato therefore\nrightly exhorts us not to employ the mind without the body, nor the\nbody without the mind, but to drive them equally like a pair of horses;\nand when at any time the body toils and labors with the mind, then to\nbe the more careful of it, and thus to gain its well-beloved health,\nbelieving that it obliges us with the best of things when it is no\nimpediment to our knowledge and enjoyment of virtue, either in business\nor discourse.\n\n\n\n\nHOW A MAN MAY RECEIVE ADVANTAGE AND PROFIT FROM HIS ENEMIES.\n\n\n1. Not to mention, Cornelius Pulcher, your gentle as well as skilful\nadministration of public affairs, for which goodness and humanity\nyou have gotten an interest in mankind, we clearly perceive that in\nyour private conversation you have made a quiet and peaceable way\nof living your choice and continual practice. By this means you are\njustly esteemed a useful member of the commonwealth in general, and\nalso a friendly affable companion to those who familiarly converse\nwith you, as being a person free from all sour, rough, and peevish\nhumors. For, as it is said of Crete, we may by great chance discover\none single region of the world that never afforded any dens or coverts\nfor wild beasts. But through the long succession of ages, even to this\ntime, there scarce ever was a state or kingdom that hath not suffered\nunder envy, hatred, emulation, the love of strife, fierce and unruly\npassions, of all others the most productive of enmity and ill-will\namong men. Nay, if nothing else will bring it to pass, familiarity will\nat last breed contempt, and the very friendship of men doth frequently\ndraw them into quarrels, that prove sharp and sometimes implacable.\nWhich that wise man Chilo did well understand, who, when he heard\nanother assert that he had no enemy, asked him very pertinently whether\nhe had no friend. In my judgment therefore it is absolutely necessary\nthat a man, especially if he sit at the helm and be engaged to steer\nthe government, should watchfully observe every posture and motion of\nhis enemy, and subscribe to Xenophon\u2019s opinion in this case; who hath\nset it down as a maxim of the greatest wisdom, that a man should make\nthe best advantage he can of him that is his adversary.\n\nWherefore, having lately determined to write somewhat on this argument,\nI have now gathered together all my scattered thoughts and meditations\nupon it, which I have sent to you, digested into as plain a method as\nI could; forbearing all along to mention those observations I have\nheretofore made and written in my Political Precepts, because I know\nyou have that treatise at your hand, and often under your eye.\n\n2. Our ancestors were well satisfied and content if they could safely\nguard themselves from the violent incursions of wild beasts, and this\nwas the end and object of all their contests with these creatures.\nBut their posterity have laid down their weapons of defence, and have\ninvented a quite contrary use of them, making them serviceable to some\nof the chief ends of human life. For their flesh serves for food, and\ntheir hair for clothing; medicines and antidotes are devised out of\ntheir entrails; and their skins are converted into armor. So that we\nmay upon good grounds fear that, if these supplies should fail, their\nmanner of life would appear savage, destitute of convenient food and\nraiment, barbarous and naked.\n\nAlthough we receive these benefits and comforts from the very beasts,\nyet some men suppose themselves happy and secure enough, provided they\nescape all harm from enemies, not regarding Xenophon\u2019s judgment, whom\nthey ought to credit in this matter, that every man endowed with common\nsense and understanding may, if he please, make his opposites very\nuseful and profitable to him.\n\nBecause then we cannot live in this world out of the neighborhood of\nsuch as will continually labor to do us injury or oppose us, let us\nsearch out some way whereby this advantage and profit from enemies may\nbe acquired.\n\nThe best experienced gardener cannot so change the nature of every\ntree, that it shall yield pleasant and well-tasted fruit; neither\ncan the craftiest huntsman tame every beast. One therefore makes the\nbest use he can of his trees, the other of his beast; although the\nfirst perhaps are barren and dry, the latter wild and ungovernable.\nSo seawater is unwholesome and not to be drunk; yet it affords\nnourishment to all sorts of fish, and serves as it were for a chariot\nto convey those who visit foreign countries. The Satyr would have\nkissed and embraced the fire the first time he saw it; but Prometheus\nbids him take heed, else he might have cause to lament the loss of\nhis beard,[123] if he came too near that which burns all it touches.\nYet this very fire is a most beneficial thing to mankind; it bestows\nupon us the blessings both of light and heat, and serves those who\nknow how to use it for the most excellent instrument of mechanic arts.\nDirected by these examples, we may be able to take right measures of\nour enemies, considering that by one handle or other we may lay hold of\nthem for the use and benefit of our lives; though otherwise they may\nappear very untractable and hurtful to us.\n\nThere are many things which, when we have obtained them by much labor\nand sweat, become nauseous, ungrateful, and directly contrary to our\ninclinations; but there are some (you know) who can turn the very\nindispositions of their bodies into an occasion of rest and freedom\nfrom business. And hard pains that have fallen upon many men have\nrendered them only the more robust through vigorous exercise. There\nare others who, as Diogenes and Crates did, have made banishment from\ntheir native country and loss of all their goods a means to pass out\nof a troublesome world into the quiet and serene state of philosophy\nand mental contemplation. So the Stoic Zeno welcomed the good fortune,\nwhen he heard the ship was broken wherein his adventures were, because\nshe had reduced him to a torn coat, to the safety and innocence of a\nmean and low condition. For as some creatures of strong constitutions\neat serpents and digest them well,\u2014nay, there are some whose stomachs\ncan by a strange powerful heat concoct shells or stones,\u2014while on\nthe contrary, there are the weak and diseased, who loathe even bread\nand wine, the most agreeable and best supports of human life; so the\nfoolish and inconsiderate spoil the very friendships they are engaged\nin, but the wise and prudent make good use of the hatred and enmity of\nmen.\n\n3. To those then who are discreet and cautious, the most malignant\nand worst part of enmity becomes advantageous and useful. But what\nis this you talk of all this while? An enemy is ever diligent and\nwatchful to contrive stratagems and lay snares for us, not omitting any\nopportunity whereby he may carry on his malicious purposes. He lays\nsiege to our whole life, and turns spy into the most minute action\nof it; not as Lynceus is said to look into oaks and stones, but by\narts of insinuation he gets to the knowledge of our secrets, by our\nbosom friend, domestic servant, and intimate acquaintance. As much as\npossibly he can, he enquires what we have done, and labors to dive into\nthe most hidden counsels of our minds. Nay, our friends do often escape\nour notice, either when they die or are sick, because we are careless\nand neglect them; but we are apt to examine and pry curiously almost\ninto the very dreams of our enemies.\n\nNow our enemy (to gratify his ill-will towards us) doth acquaint\nhimself with the infirmities both of our bodies and mind, with the\ndebts we have contracted, and with all the differences that arise\nin our families, all which he knows as well, if not better, than\nourselves. He sticks fast to our faults, and chiefly makes his\ninvidious remarks upon them. Nay, our most depraved affections, that\nare the worst distempers of our minds, are always the subjects of his\ninquiry; just as vultures pursue putrid flesh, noisome and corrupted\ncarcasses, because they have no perception of those that are sound and\nin health. So our enemies catch at our failings, and then they spread\nthem abroad by uncharitable and ill-natured reports.\n\nHence we are taught this useful lesson for the direction and management\nof our conversations in the world, that we be circumspect and wary in\nevery thing we speak or do, as if our enemy always stood at our elbow\nand overlooked every action. Hence we learn to lead blameless and\ninoffensive lives. This will beget in us vehement desires and earnest\nendeavors of restraining disorderly passions. This will fill our minds\nwith good thoughts and meditations, and with strong resolutions to\nproceed in a virtuous and harmless course of life.\n\nFor as those commonwealths and cities know best how to value the\nhappiness of having good and wholesome laws, and most admire and love\nthe safety of a quiet and peaceable constitution of things, which have\nbeen harassed by wars with their neighbors or by long expeditions;\nso those persons who have been brought to live soberly by the fear\nand awe of enemies, who have learned to guard against negligence and\nidleness, and to do every thing with a view to some profitable end,\nare by degrees (they know not how) drawn into a habit of living so as\nto offend nobody, and their manners are composed and fixed in their\nobedience to virtue by custom and use, with very little help from the\nreason. For they always carry in their minds that saying of Homer, if\nwe act any thing amiss,\n\n    Priam will laugh at us, and all his brood;\n\nour enemies will please themselves and scoff at our defects; therefore\nwe will do nothing that is ridiculous, sinful, base, or ignoble, lest\nwe become a laughing-stock to such as do not love us.\n\nIn the theatre we often see great artists in music and singing very\nsupine and remiss, doing nothing as they should, whilst they play or\nsing alone; but whenever they challenge one another and contend for\nmastery, they do not only rouse up themselves, but they tune their\ninstruments more carefully, they are more curious in the choice of\ntheir strings, and they try their notes in frequent and more harmonious\nconsorts. Just so a man who hath an adversary perpetually to rival\nhim in the well ordering of his life and reputation is thereby\nrendered more prudent in what he does, looks after his actions more\ncircumspectly, and takes as much care of the accurateness of them as\nthe musician does of his lute or organ. For evil hath this peculiar\nquality in it, that it dreads an enemy more than a friend. For this\ncause Nasica, when some thought the Roman affairs were established for\never in peace and safety, after they had razed Carthage and enslaved\nGreece, declared that even then they were in the greatest danger of all\nand most likely to be undone, because there were none left whom they\nmight still fear and stand in some awe of.\n\n4. And here may be inserted that wise and facetious answer of Diogenes\nto one that asked him how he might be revenged of his enemy: The only\nway, says he, to gall and fret him effectually is for yourself to\nappear a good and honest man. The common people are generally envious\nand vexed in their minds, as oft as they see the cattle of those they\nhave no kindness for, their dogs, or their horses, in a thriving\ncondition; they sigh, fret, set their teeth, and show all the tokens\nof a malicious temper, when they behold their fields well tilled, or\ntheir gardens adorned and beset with flowers. If these things make\nthem so restless and uneasy, what dost thou think they would do, what\na torment would it be to them, if thou shouldst demonstrate thyself\nin the face of the world to be in all thy carriage a man of impartial\njustice, a sound understanding, unblamable integrity, of a ready and\neloquent speech, sincere and upright in all your dealings, sober and\ntemperate in all that you eat or drink;\n\n    While from the culture of a prudent mind,\n    Harvests of wise and noble thought you reap.[124]\n\nThose that are conquered, saith Pindar, must seal up their lips; they\ndare not open their mouths, no, not even to mutter.[125] But all men\nin these circumstances are not so restrained; but such chiefly as come\nbehind their opposites in the practice of diligence, honesty, greatness\nof mind, humanity, and beneficence. These are beautiful and glorious\nvirtues, as Demosthenes[126] says, that are too pure and great to be\ntouched by an ill tongue, that stop the mouths of backbiters, choke\nthem and command them to be silent. Make it thy business therefore to\nsurpass the base; for this surely thou canst do.[127] If we would vex\nthem that hate us, we must not reproach our adversary for an effeminate\nand debauched person, or one of a boorish and filthy conversation;\nbut instead of throwing this dirt, we ourselves must be remarkable\nfor a steady virtue and a well-governed behavior; we must speak the\ntruth, and carry ourselves civilly and justly towards all who hold any\ncorrespondence or maintain any commerce with us. But if at any time a\nman is so transported by passion as to utter any bitter words, he must\ntake heed that he himself be not chargeable for those crimes for which\nhe upbraids others; he must descend into himself, examine and cleanse\nhis own breast, that no putrefaction nor rottenness be lodged there;\notherwise he will be condemned as the physician is by the tragedian:\u2014\n\n    Wilt thou heal others, thou thyself being full of sores?[128]\n\nIf a man should jeer you and say that you are a dunce and illiterate,\nupon this motive you ought to apply your mind to the taking of pains\nin the study of philosophy and all kinds of learning. If he abuses you\nfor a coward, then raise up your mind to a courageous manliness and\nan undaunted boldness of spirit. If he tells you you are lascivious\nand wanton, this scandal may be wiped off by having your mind barred\nup against all impressions of lust, and your discourse free from the\nleast obscenity. These are allowable returns, and the most cutting\nstrokes you can give your enemy; there being nothing that carries in it\nmore vexation and disgrace, than that scandalous censures should fall\nback upon the head of him who was the first author of them. For as the\nbeams of the sun reverberated do most severely affect and punish weak\neyes, so those calumnies are most vexatious and intolerable which truth\nretorts back upon their first broachers. For as the north-east wind\ngathers clouds, so does a vicious life gather unto itself opprobrious\nspeeches.\n\n5. Insomuch that Plato, when he was in company with any persons that\nwere guilty of unhandsome actions, was wont thus to reflect upon\nhimself and ask this question, Am I of the like temper and disposition\nwith these men? In like manner, whosoever passes a hard censure upon\nanother man\u2019s life should presently make use of self-examination, and\nenquire what his own is; by which means he will come to know what\nhis failings are, and how to amend them. Thus the very censures and\nbackbitings of his enemy will redound to his advantage, although in\nitself this censorious humor is a very vain, empty, and useless thing.\nFor every one will laugh at and deride that man who is humpbacked and\nbaldpated, while at the same time he makes sport with the natural\ndeformities of his brethren; it being a very ridiculous unaccountable\nthing to scoff at another for those very imperfections for which you\nyourself may be abused. As Leo Byzantinus replied upon the humpbacked\nman, who in drollery reflected on the weakness of his eyes, You mock me\nfor a human infirmity, but you bear the marks of divine vengeance on\nyour own back.\n\nWherefore no man should arraign another of adultery, when he himself\nis addicted to a more bestial vice. Neither may one man justly accuse\nanother of extravagance or looseness, when he himself is stingy and\ncovetous. Alcmaeon told Adrastus, that he was near akin to a woman\nthat killed her husband; to which Adrastus gave a very pat and sharp\nanswer,\u2014Thou with thy own hands didst murder thy mother.[129] After\nthe same sarcastical way of jesting did Domitius ask Crassus whether\nhe did not weep for the death of the lamprey that was bred in his\nfish-pond; to which Crassus makes this present reply,\u2014But have I not\nheard that you did not weep when you carried out three wives to their\nburial.\n\nWhence we may infer that it behooves every man who takes upon him to\ncorrect or censure another not to be too clamorous or merry upon his\nfaults, but to be guilty of no such crime as may expose him to the\nchastisement and reproach of others. For the great God seems to have\ngiven that commandment of _Know thyself_ to those men more especially\nwho are apt to make remarks upon other men\u2019s actions and forget\nthemselves. So, as Sophocles hath well observed, They often hear that\nwhich they would not, because they allow themselves the liberty of\ntalking what they please.\n\n6. This is the use that may be lawfully made of censuring and judging\nour enemies; that we may be sure we are not culpable for the same\nmisdemeanors which we condemn in them. On the contrary, we may reap\nno less advantage from our being judged and censured by our enemies.\nIn this case Antisthenes spake incomparably well, that if a man\nwould lead a secure and blameless life, it was necessary that he\nshould have either very ingenuous and honest friends, or very furious\nenemies, because the first would keep him from sinning by their kind\nadmonitions, the latter by their evil words and vehement invectives.\n\nBut for as much as in these times friendship is grown almost\nspeechless, and hath left off that freedom it did once use, since it is\nloquacious in flattery and dumb in admonition, therefore we must expect\nto hear truth only from the mouths of enemies. As Telephus, when he\ncould find no physician that he could confide in as his friend, thought\nhis adversary\u2019s lance would most probably heal his wound; so he that\nhath no friend to give him advice and to reprove him in what he acts\namiss must bear patiently the rebukes of an enemy, and thereby learn to\namend the errors of his ways; considering seriously the object which\nthese severe censures aim at, and not what the person is who makes\nthem. For as he who designed the death of Prometheus the Thessalian,\ninstead of giving the fatal blow, only lanced a swelling that he had,\nwhich did really preserve his life and free him from the hazard of\napproaching death; just so may the harsh reprehensions of enemies\ncure some distempers of the mind that were before either unknown or\nneglected, though these angry speeches do originally proceed from\nmalice and ill-will. But many, when they are accused of a crime, do not\nconsider whether they are guilty of the matter alleged against them,\nbut are rather solicitous whether the accuser hath nothing that may be\nlaid to his charge; like the combatants in a match at wrestling, they\ntake no care to wipe off the dirt that sticks upon them, but they go on\nto besmear one another, and in their mutual strugglings they wallow and\ntumble into more dirt and filthiness.\n\nIt is a matter of greater importance and concern to a man when he is\nlashed by the slanders of an enemy, by living virtuously to prevent\nand avert all objections that may be made against his life, than it\nis to scour the spots out of his clothes when they are shown him. And\neven if any man with opprobrious language object to you crimes you\nknow nothing of, you ought to enquire into the causes and reasons\nof such false accusations, that you may learn to take heed for the\nfuture and be very wary, lest unwittingly you should commit those\noffences that are unjustly attributed to you, or something that comes\nnear them. Lacydes, king of the Argives, was abused as an effeminate\nperson, because he wore his hair long, used to dress himself neatly,\nand his mien was finical. So Pompey, though he was very far from any\neffeminate softness, yet was reflected upon and jeered for being used\nto scratch his head with one of his fingers. Crassus also suffered\nmuch in the like kind, because sometimes he visited a vestal virgin\nand showed great attention to her, having a design to purchase of her\na little farm that lay conveniently for him. So Postumia was suspected\nof unchaste actions, and was even brought to trial, because she would\noften be very cheerful and discourse freely in men\u2019s company. But she\nwas found clear of all manner of guilt in that nature. Nevertheless at\nher dismission, Spurius Minucius the Pontifex Maximus gave her this\ngood admonition, that her words should be always as pure, chaste,\nand modest as her life was. Themistocles, though he had offended in\nnothing, yet was suspected of treachery with Pausanias, because he\ncorresponded familiarly with him, and used every day to send him\nletters and messengers.\n\n7. Whenever then any thing is spoken against you that is not true, do\nnot pass it by or despise it because it is false, but forthwith examine\nyourself, and consider what you have said or done, what you have ever\nundertaken, or what converse you have ever had that may have given\nlikelihood to the slander; and when this is discovered, decline for the\nfuture all things that may provoke any reproachful or foul language\nfrom others.\n\nFor if troubles and difficulties, into which some men fall either by\nchance or through their own inadvertency and rashness, may teach others\nwhat is fit and safe for them to do,\u2014as Merope says.\n\n    Fortune hath taken for her salary\n    My dearest goods, but wisdom she hath given;[130]\n\nwhy should not we take an enemy for our tutor, who will instruct us\ngratis in those things we knew not before? For an enemy sees and\nunderstands more in matters relating to us than our friends do; because\nlove is blind, as Plato[131] says, in discerning the imperfections of\nthe thing beloved. But spite, malice, ill-will, wrath, and contempt\ntalk much, are very inquisitive and quick-sighted. When Hiero was\nupbraided by his enemy for having a stinking breath, he returned home\nand demanded of his wife why she had not acquainted him with it. The\ninnocent good woman makes this answer: I thought all men\u2019s breath had\nthat smell. For those things in men that are conspicuous to all are\nsooner understood from the information of enemies than from that of\nfriends and acquaintance.\n\n8. Furthermore, an exact government of the tongue is a strong evidence\nof a good mind, and no inconsiderable part of virtue. But since every\nman naturally is desirous to propagate his conceits, and without a\npainful force can not smother his resentments, it is no easy task to\nkeep this unruly member in due subjection, unless such an impetuous\naffection as anger be thoroughly subdued by much exercise, care, and\nstudy. For such things as \u201csaying let fall against our will,\u201d or \u201ca\nword flying by the range of our teeth,\u201d[132] or \u201ca speech escaping us\nby accident,\u201d are all likely to happen to those whose ill-exercised\nminds (as it were) fall and waste away, and whose course of life\nis licentious; and we may attribute this to hasty passion or to\nunsettled judgment. For divine Plato tells us that for a word, which\nis the lightest of all things, both Gods and men inflict the heaviest\npenalties.[133] But silence, which can never be called to account,\ndoth not only, as Hippocrates hath observed, extinguish thirst, but it\nbears up against all manner of slanders with the constancy of Socrates\nand the courage of Hercules, who was no more concerned than a fly at\nwhat others said or did. Now it is certainly not grander or better than\nthis for a man to bear silently and quietly the revilings of an enemy,\ntaking care not to provoke him, as if he were swimming by a dangerous\nrock; but the practice is better. For whosoever is thus accustomed to\nendure patiently the scoffs of an enemy will, without any disturbance\nor trouble, bear with the chidings of a wife, the rebukes of a friend,\nor the sharper reproofs of a brother. When a father or mother corrects\nyou, you will not be refractory or stubborn under the rod. Xanthippe,\nthough she was a woman of a very angry and troublesome spirit, could\nnever move Socrates to a passion. By being used to bear patiently this\nheavy sufferance at home, he was ever unconcerned, and not in the least\nmoved by the most scurrilous and abusive tongues he met withal abroad.\nFor it is much better to overcome boisterous passions and to bring the\nmind into a calm and even frame of spirit, by contentedly undergoing\nthe scoffs, outrages, and affronts of enemies, than to be stirred up to\ncholer or revenge by the worst they can say or do.\n\n9. Thus we may show a meek and gentle temper and a submissive bearing\nof evil in our enmities; and even integrity, magnanimity, and goodness\nof disposition are also more conspicuous here than in friendship. For\nit is not so honorable and virtuous to do a friend a kindness, as it is\nunworthy and base to omit this good office when he stands in need; but\nit is an eminent piece of humanity, and a manifest token of a nature\ntruly generous, to put up with the affronts of an enemy when you have a\nfair opportunity to revenge them. For if any one sympathizes with his\nenemy in his affliction, relieves him in his necessities, and is ready\nto assist his sons and family if they desire it, any one that will\nnot love this man for his compassion, and highly commend him for his\ncharity, \u201cmust have a black heart made of adamant or iron,\u201d as Pindar\nsays.\n\nWhen Caesar made an edict that the statues of Pompey which were\ntumbled down should be rebuilt and restored to their former beauty and\nmagnificence, Tully tells him that by setting up again Pompey\u2019s statues\nhe has erected one for himself, an everlasting monument of praise and\nhonor to after ages. So that we must give to every one his due, to an\nenemy such respect and honor as he truly deserves. Thus a man that\npraises his enemy for his real deserts shall himself obtain the more\nhonor by it; and whenever he shall correct or censure him, he will be\ncredited in what he does, because every one will believe that he does\nit out of a dislike and just abhorrence of his vice and not of his\nperson.\n\nBy this practice we shall be brought at length to perform the most\nhonorable and worthy actions; for he who is wont to praise and speak\nthe best things of his enemies will never repine at the prosperity or\nsuccess of his friends and acquaintance; he is never troubled, but\nrather rejoices, when they thrive and are happy. And what virtue can\nany man exercise that will be more profitable and delightful to him\nthan this, which takes away from him the bitterness of malice, and doth\nnot only break the teeth of envy, but, by teaching him to rejoice at\nanother man\u2019s felicity, doth double his own enjoyment and satisfaction.\nAs in war many things, although they are bad and evil in themselves,\nyet have become necessary, and by long custom and prescription have\nobtained the validity of a law, so that it is not easy to root them\nout, even by those who thereby suffer much harm; just so doth enmity\nusher in the mind a long train of vices, meagre envy coupled with\ngrim hatred, restless jealousy and suspicion, unnatural joy at other\nmen\u2019s miseries, and a long remembrance of injuries. Fraud, deceit,\nand snares, joined to these forces of wickedness, work infinite\nmischief in the world, yet they appear as no evils at all when they\nare exerted against an enemy. By this means they make a deep entrance\ninto the mind; they get fast hold of it, and are hardly shaken off. So\nthat, unless we forbear the practice of these ill qualities towards\nour enemies, they will by frequent acts become so habitual to us,\nthat we shall be apt to make use of them to the manifest wrong and\ninjury of our friends. Wherefore, if Pythagoras was highly esteemed\nfor instructing his disciples to avoid all manner of cruelty against\nbeasts themselves,\u2014so that he himself would redeem them out of their\ncaptivity in either the fowler\u2019s or the fisherman\u2019s net, and forbade\nhis followers to kill any creature,\u2014it is surely much better and more\nmanly in our differences with men to show ourselves generous, just,\nand detesters of all falsehood, and to moderate and correct all base,\nunworthy, and hurtful passions; that in all our conversation with our\nfriends we may be open-hearted, and that we may not seek to overreach\nor deceive others in any of our dealings.\n\nFor Scaurus was a professed enemy and an open accuser of Domitius;\nwhereupon a treacherous servant of Domitius comes to Scaurus before\nthe cause was to be heard, and tells him that he has a secret to\ncommunicate to him in relation to the present suit, which he knows\nnot of, and which may be very advantageous on his side. Yet Scaurus\nwould not permit him to speak a word, but apprehended him, and sent\nhim back to his master. And when Cato was prosecuting Murena for\nbribery, and was collecting evidence to support his charge, he was\naccompanied (according to custom) by certain persons in the interest\nof the defendant, who watched his transactions. These often asked him\nin the morning, whether he intended on that day to collect evidence or\nmake other preparation for the trial; and so soon as he told them he\nshould not, they put such trust in him that they went their way. This\nwas a plain demonstration of the extraordinary deference and honor they\npaid to Cato; but a far greater testimony, and one surpassing all the\nrest, is it to prove that, if we accustom ourselves to deal justly and\nuprightly with our enemies, then we shall not fail to behave ourselves\nso towards our friends.\n\n10. Simonides was wont to say that there was no lark without its\ncrest; so the disposition of men is naturally pregnant with strife,\nsuspicion, and envy, which last (as Pindar observes) is \u201cthe companion\nof empty-brained men.\u201d Therefore no man can do any thing that will tend\nmore to his own profit and the preservation of his peace than utterly\nto purge out of his mind these corrupt affections, and cast them off as\nthe very sink of all iniquity, that they may create no more mischief\nbetween him and his friends. This Onomademus, a judicious and wise\nman, understood well, who, when he was of the prevailing side in a\ncivil commotion at Chios, gave this counsel to his friends, that they\nshould not quite destroy or drive away those of the adverse party,\nbut let some abide there, for fear they should begin to fall out among\nthemselves as soon as their enemies were all out of the way. Therefore,\nif these uneasy dispositions of the mind be spent and consumed upon\nenemies, they would never molest or disquiet our friends. Neither doth\nHesiod approve of one potter or one singer\u2019s envying another, or that\na neighbor or relation or brother should resent it ill that another\nprospers and is successful in the world.[134] But if there be no other\nway whereby we may be delivered from emulation, envy, or contention,\nwe may suffer our minds to vent these passions upon the prosperity of\nour enemies, and whet the edge and sharpen the point of our anger upon\nthem. For as gardeners that have knowledge and experience in plants\nexpect their roses and violets should grow the better by being set\nnear leeks and onions,\u2014because all the sour juices of the earth are\nconveyed into these,\u2014so an enemy by attracting to himself our vicious\nand peevish qualities, may render us less humorsome and more candid and\ningenuous to our friends that are in a better or more happy state than\nourselves.\n\nWherefore let us enter the lists with our enemies, and contend with\nthem for true glory, lawful empire, and just gain. Let us not so much\ndebase ourselves as to be troubled and fret at any possessions they\nenjoy more than we have. Let us rather carefully observe those good\nqualities wherein our enemies excel us, so that by these motives we may\nbe excited to outdo them in honest diligence, indefatigable industry,\nprudent caution, and exemplary sobriety; as Themistocles complained\nthat the victory Miltiades got at Marathon would not let him sleep.\nBut whosoever views his adversary exalted far above him in dignities,\nin pleading of great causes, in administration of state affairs, or\nin favor and friendship with princes, and doth not put forth all\nhis strength and power to get before him in these things,\u2014this man\ncommonly pines away, and by degrees sinks into the sloth and misery\nof an envious and inactive life. And we may observe, that envy and\nhatred do raise such clouds in the understanding, that a man shall not\nbe able to pass a right judgment concerning things which he hates;\nbut whosoever with an impartial eye beholds, and with a sincere mind\njudges, the life and manners, discourses, and actions of his enemy,\nwill soon understand that many of those things that raise his envy were\ngotten by honest care, a discreet providence, and virtuous deeds. Thus\nthe love of honorable and brave actions may be kindled and advanced in\nhim, and an idle and lazy course of life may be contemned and forsaken.\n\n11. But if our enemies arrive at high places in the courts of princes\nby flattery or frauds, by bribery or gifts, we should not be troubled\nat it, but should rather be pleased in comparing our undisguised and\nhonest way of living with theirs which is quite contrary. For Plato,\nwho was a competent judge, was of opinion that virtue was a more\nvaluable treasure than all the riches above the earth or all the mines\nbeneath it. And we ought evermore to have in readiness this saying of\nSolon:[135] But we will not give up our virtue in exchange for their\nwealth. So will we never give up our virtue for the applause of crowded\ntheatres, which may be won by a feast, nor for the loftiest seats among\neunuchs, concubines, and royal satraps. For nothing that is worth any\none\u2019s appetite, nothing that is handsome or becoming a man, can proceed\nfrom that which is in itself evil and base. But, as Plato repeats once\nand again, the lover cannot see the faults of the thing or person that\nhe loves, and we apprehend soonest what our enemies do amiss; therefore\nwe must let neither our joy at their miscarriages nor our sorrow at\ntheir successes be idle and useless to ourselves, but we are bound to\nconsider in both respects, how we may render ourselves better than they\nare, by avoiding what is faulty and vicious in them, and how we may not\nprove worse than they, if we imitate them in what they do excel.\n\n\n\n\nCONSOLATION TO APOLLONIUS.\n\n\n1. As soon, Apollonius, as I heard the news of the untimely death\nof your son, who was very dear to us all, I fell sick of the same\ngrief with you, and shared your misfortune with all the tenderness of\nsympathy. For he was a sweet and modest young man, devout towards the\nGods, obedient to his parents, and obliging to his friends; indeed\ndoing all things that were just. But when the tears of his funeral were\nscarcely dry, I thought it a time very improper to call upon you and\nput you in mind that you should bear this accident like a man; for when\nthis unexpected affliction made you languish both in body and mind,\nI considered then that compassion was more seasonable than advice.\nFor the most skilful physicians do not put a sudden stop to a flux of\nhumors, but give them time to settle, and then foment the swelling by\nsoftening and bringing it to a head with medicines outwardly applied.\n\n2. So now that a competent time is past\u2014time which brings all things\nto maturity\u2014since the first surprise of your calamity, I believed I\nshould do an acceptable piece of friendship, if I should now comfort\nyou with those reasons which may lessen your grief and silence your\ncomplaints.\n\n    Soft words alleviate a wounded heart,\n    If you in time will mitigate the smart.[136]\n\nEuripides hath said wisely to this purpose:\u2014\n\n    Our applications should suited be\n    Unto the nature of the malady;\n    Of sorrow we should wipe the tender eyes,\n    But the immoderate weeper should chastise.\n\nFor of all the passions which move and afflict the mind of man, sorrow\nin its nature is the most grievous; in some they say it hath produced\nmadness, others have contracted incurable diseases, and some out of the\nvehemence of it have laid violent hands upon themselves.\n\n3. Therefore to be sad, even to an indisposition, for the death of a\nson proceeds from a principle of nature, and it is out of our power to\nprevent it. I dislike those who boast so much of hard and inflexible\ntemper which they call apathy, it being a disposition which never\nhappens and never could be of use to us; for it would extinguish that\nsociable love we ought to have for one another, and which it is so\nnecessary above all things to preserve. But to mourn excessively and\nto accumulate grief I do affirm to be altogether unnatural, and to\nresult from a depraved opinion we have of things; therefore we ought\nto shun it as destructive in itself, and unworthy of a virtuous man;\nbut to be moderately affected by grief we cannot condemn. It were to be\nwished, saith Crantor the Academic, that we could not be sick at all;\nbut when a distemper seizeth us, it is requisite we should have sense\nand feeling in case any of our members be plucked or cut off. For that\ntalked-of apathy can never happen to a man without great detriment; for\nas now the body, so soon the very mind would be wild and savage.\n\n4. Therefore in such accidents, it is but reasonable that they who are\nin their right senses should avoid both extremes, of being without\nany passion at all and of having too much; for as the one argues a\nmind that is obstinate and fierce, so the other doth one that is\nsoft and effeminate. He therefore hath cast up his accounts the\nbest, who, confining himself within due bounds, hath such ascendant\nover his temper, as to bear prosperous and adverse fortune with the\nsame equality, whichsoever it is that happens to him in this life.\nHe puts on those resolutions as if he were in a popular government\nwhere magistracy is decided by lot; if it luckily falls to his share,\nhe obeys his fortune, but if it passeth him, he doth not repine at\nit. So we must submit to the dispensation of human affairs, without\nbeing uneasy and querulous. Those who cannot do this want prudence\nand steadiness of mind to bear more happy circumstances; for amongst\nother things which are prettily said, this is one remarkable precept of\nEuripides:\u2014\n\n    If Fortune prove extravagantly kind,\n    Above its temper do not raise thy mind;\n    If she disclaims thee like a jilting dame,\n    Be not dejected, but be still the same,\n    Like gold unchanged amidst the hottest flame.\n\nFor it is the part of a wise and well-educated man, not to be\ntransported beyond himself with any prosperous events, and so, when the\nscene of fortune changeth, to observe still the comeliness and decency\nof his morals. For it is the business of a man that lives by rule,\neither to prevent an evil that threatens him, or, when it is come, to\nqualify its malignity and make it as little as he can, or put on a\nmasculine brave spirit and so resolve to endure it. For there are four\nways that prudence concerns herself about any thing that is good; she\nis either industrious to acquire or careful to preserve, she either\naugments or useth it well. These are the measures of prudence, and\nconsequently those of all other virtues, by which we ought to square\nourselves in either fortune.\n\n    For no man lives who always happy is.[137]\n\nAnd, by Jove, you should not hinder what ought to be done,\u2014\n\n    Those things which in their nature ought to be.[138]\n\n5. For, as amongst trees some are very thick with fruit, and some bear\nnone at all; amongst living creatures some are very prolific, and some\nbarren; and as in the sea there is alternate vicissitude of calms and\ntempests, so in human life there are many and various circumstances\nwhich distract a man into divers changes of fortune. One considering\nthis matter hath not said much from the purpose:\u2014\n\n    Think not thyself, O Atreus\u2019 son, forlorn;\n    Thou always to be happy wast not born.\n    Even Agamemnon\u2019s self must be a shade,\n    For thou of frail materials art made.\n    Sorrow and joy alternately succeed;\n    \u2019Spite of thy teeth, the Gods have so decreed.[139]\n\nThese verses are Menander\u2019s.\n\n    If thou, O Trophimus, of all mankind,\n    Uninterrupted happiness couldst find;\n    If when thy mother brought thee forth with pain,\n    Didst this condition of thy life obtain,\n    That only prosperous gales thy sails should fill,\n    And all things happen \u2019cording to thy will;\n    If any of the Gods did so engage,\n    Such usage justly might provoke thy rage,\n    Matter for smart resentment might afford,\n    For the false Deity did break his word.\n    But if thou unexcepted saw\u2019st the light,\n    Without a promise of the least delight,\n    I say to thee (gravely in tragic style)\n    Thou ought to be more patient all the while.\n    In short,\u2014and to say more there\u2019s no one can,\u2014\n    Which is a name of frailty, thou\u2019rt a man;\n    A creature more rejoicing is not found,\n    None more dejected creeps upon the ground.\n    Though weak, yet he in politics refines,\n    Involves himself in intricate designs;\n    With nauseous business he himself doth cloy,\n    And so the pleasure of his life destroy.\n    In great pursuits thou never hast been cross\u2019d\n    No disappointments have thy projects lost;\n    Nay, such hath been the mildness of thy fate,\n    Hast no misfortune had of any rate;\n    If Fortune is at any time severe,\n    Serene and undisturbed thou must appear.\n\nBut though this be the state of all sublunary things, yet such is the\nextravagant pride and folly of some men, that if they are raised above\nthe common by the greatness of their riches or functions of magistracy,\nor if they arrive to any eminent charge in the commonwealth, they\npresently swell with the titles of their honor, and threaten and\ninsult over their inferiors; never considering what a treacherous\nGoddess Fortune is, and how easy a revolution it is for things that are\nuppermost to be thrown down from their height and for humble things to\nbe exalted, and that these changes of Fortune are performed quickly and\nin the swiftest moments of time. To seek for any certainty therefore in\nthat which is uncertain is the part of those who judge not aright of\nthings:\u2014\n\n    Like to a wheel that constantly goes round,\n    One part is up whilst t\u2019other\u2019s on the ground.\n\n6. But the most sovereign remedy against sorrow is our reason, and\nout of this arsenal we may arm ourselves with defence against all the\ncasualties of life; for every one ought to lay down this as a maxim,\nthat not only is he himself mortal in his nature, but life itself\ndecays, and things are easily changed into quite the contrary to what\nthey are; for our bodies are made up of perishing ingredients. Our\nfortunes and our passions too are subject to the same mortality; indeed\nall things in this world are in perpetual flux,\u2014\n\n    Which no man can avoid with all his care.[140]\n\nIt is an expression of Pindar, that we are held to the dark bottom of\nhell by necessities as hard as iron. And Euripides says:\u2014\n\n    No worldly wealth is firm and sure;\n    But for a day it doth endure.[141]\n\nAnd also:\u2014\n\n    From small beginnings our misfortunes grow,\n    And little rubs our feet do overthrow;\n    A single day is able down to cast\n    Some things from height, and others raise as fast.[142]\n\nDemetrius Phalereus affirms that this was truly said, but that the poet\nhad been more in the right if for a single day he had put only a moment\nof time.\n\n    For earthly fruits and mortal men\u2019s estate\n    Turn round about in one and selfsame rate;\n    Some live, wax strong, and prosper day by day,\n    While others are cast down and fade away.[143]\n\nAnd Pindar hath it in another place,\n\n    What are we, what are we not?\n    Man is but a shadow\u2019s dream.[144]\n\nHe used an artificial and very perspicuous hyperbole to draw human life\nin its genuine colors; for what is weaker than a shadow? Or what words\ncan be found out whereby to express a shadow\u2019s dream? Crantor hath\nsomething consonant to this, when, condoling Hippocles upon the loss of\nhis children, he speaks after this manner:\u2014\n\n\u201cThese are the things which all the old philosophers talk of and have\ninstructed us in; which though we do not agree to in every particular,\nyet this hath too sharp a truth in it, that our life is painful and\nfull of difficulties; and if it doth not labor with them in its own\nnature, yet we ourselves have infected it with that corruption. For the\ninconstancy of Fortune joined us at the beginning of our journey, and\nhath accompanied us ever since; so that it can produce nothing that is\nsound or comfortable unto us; and the bitter potion was mingled for us\nas soon as we were born. For the principles of our nature being mortal\nis the cause that our judgment is depraved, that diseases, cares, and\nall those fatal inconveniences afflict mankind.\u201d\n\nBut what need of this digression? Only that we may be made sensible\nthat it is no unusual thing if a man be unfortunate; but we are all\nsubject to the same calamity. For as Theophrastus saith, Fortune\nsurpriseth us unawares, robs us of those things we have got by the\nsweat of our industry, and spoils the gaudy appearance of a prosperous\ncondition; and this she doth when she pleaseth, not being stinted to\nany periods of time. These and things of the like nature it is easy for\na man to ponder with himself, and to hearken to the sayings of ancient\nand wise men; among whom divine Homer is the chief, who sung after this\nmanner:\u2014\n\n    Of all that breathes or grovelling creeps on earth,\n    Most man is vain! calamitous by birth:\n    To-day, with power elate, in strength he blooms;\n    The haughty creature on that power presumes:\n    Anon from Heaven a sad reverse he feels;\n    Untaught to bear, \u2019gainst Heaven the wretch rebels.\n    For man is changeful, as his bliss or woe;\n    Too high when prosperous, when distress\u2019d too low.[145]\n\nAnd in another place:\u2014\n\n    What or from whence I am, or who my sire\n    (Replied the chief), can Tydeus\u2019 son enquire?\n    Like leaves on trees the race of man is found,\n    Now green in youth, now withering on the ground;\n    Another race the following spring supplies;\n    They fall successive, and successive rise.\n    So generations in their course decay;\n    So flourish these, when those are past away.[146]\n\nHow prettily he managed this image of human life appears from what he\nhath said in another place:\u2014\n\n    For what is man? Calamitous by birth,\n    They owe their life and nourishment to earth;\n    Like yearly leaves, that now with beauty crown\u2019d,\n    Smile on the sun, now wither on the ground.[147]\n\nWhen Pausanias the king of Sparta was frequently bragging of his\nperformances, and bidding Simonides the lyric poet in raillery to\ngive him some wise precept, he, knowing the vain-glory of him that\nspoke, admonished him to remember that he was a man. Philip the\nking of Macedon, when he had received three despatches of good news\nat the same time, of which the first was that his chariots had\nwon the victory in the Olympic games, the second, that his general\nParmenio had overcome the Dardanians in fight, and the third, that\nhis wife Olympias had brought him forth an heir,\u2014lifting up his eyes\nto heaven, he passionately cried out, Propitious Daemon! let the\naffliction be moderate by which thou intendest to be even with me for\nthis complicated happiness. Theramenes, one of the thirty tyrants of\nAthens, when he alone was preserved from the ruins of a house that\nfell upon the rest of his friends as they were sitting at supper, and\nall came about him to congratulate him on his escape,\u2014broke out in an\nemphatical accent, Fortune! for what calamity dost thou reserve me? And\nnot long after, by the command of his fellow-tyrants, he was tormented\nto death.\n\n7. But Homer seems to indicate a particular praise to himself, when he\nbrings in Achilles speaking thus to Priam, who was come forth to ransom\nthe body of Hector:\u2014\n\n    Rise then; let reason mitigate our care:\n    To mourn avails not: man is born to bear.\n    Such is, alas! the Gods\u2019 severe decree:\n    They, only they, are blest, and only free.\n    Two urns by Jove\u2019s high throne have ever stood,\n    The source of evil one, and one of good;\n    From thence the cup of mortal man he fills,\n    Blessings to these, to these distributes ills;\n    To most he mingles both; the wretch decreed\n    To taste the bad unmix\u2019d is cursed indeed;\n    Pursued by wrongs, by meagre famine driven,\n    He wanders, outcast both of earth and heaven.[148]\n\nHesiod, who was the next to Homer both in respect of time and\nreputation, and who professed to be a disciple of the Muses, fancied\nthat all evils were shut up in a box, and that Pandora opening it\nscattered all sorts of mischiefs through both the earth and seas:\u2014\n\n    The cover of the box she did remove,\n    And to fly out the crowding mischief strove;\n    But slender hope upon the brims did stay,\n    Ready to vanish into air away;\n    She with retrieve the haggard in did put,\n    And on the prisoner close the box did shut;\n    But plagues innumerable abroad did fly,\n    Infecting all the earth, the seas, and sky.\n    Diseases now with silent feet do creep,\n    Torment us waking, and afflict our sleep.\n    These midnight evils steal without a noise,\n    For Jupiter deprived them of their voice.[149]\n\n8. After these the comedian, talking of those who bear afflictions\nuneasily, speaks consonantly to this purpose:\u2014\n\n    If we in wet complaints could quench our grief,\n    At any rate we\u2019d purchase our relief;\n    With proffered gold would bribe off all our fears,\n    And make our eyes distil in precious tears.\n    But the Gods mind not mortals here below,\n    Nor the least thought on our affairs bestow;\n    But with an unregarding air pass by,\n    Whether our cheeks be moist, or whether dry.\n    Unhappiness is always sorrow\u2019s root,\n    And tears do hang from them like crystal fruit.\n\nAnd Dictys comforts Danae, who was bitterly taking on, after this\nmanner:\u2014\n\n    Dost think that thy repinings move the grave,\n    Or from its jaws thy dying son can save?\n    If thou would\u2019st lessen it, thy grief compare;\u2014\n    Consider how unhappy others are;\n    How many bonds of slavery do hold;\n    How many of their children robbed grow old;\n    How sudden Fate throws off th\u2019 usurped crown,\n    And in the dirt doth tread the tyrant down.\n    Let this with deep impression in thee sink,\n    And on these revolutions often think.[150]\n\nHe bids her consider the condition of those who have suffered equal\nor greater afflictions, and by such a parallel to comfort up her own\ndistempered mind.\n\n9. And here that opinion of Socrates comes in very pertinently, who\nthought that if all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap,\nwhence every one must take an equal portion, most people would be\ncontented to take their own and depart. After this manner Antimachus\nthe poet allayed his grief when he lost his wife Lyde, whom he\ntenderly loved; for he writ an elegy upon her, which he called by\nher own name, and in it he numbered up all the calamities which have\nbefallen great men; and so by the remembrance of other men\u2019s sorrows he\nassuaged his own. By this it may appear, that he who comforts another\nwho is macerating himself with grief, and demonstrates to him, by\nreckoning up their several misfortunes, that he suffers nothing but\nwhat is common to him with other men, takes the surest way to lessen\nthe opinion he had of his condition, and brings him to believe that it\nis not altogether so bad as he took it to be.\n\n10. Aeschylus also doth justly reprimand those who think death to be an\nevil, declaring after this manner:\u2014\n\n    Some as a thing injurious death do fly;\n    But of all mischiefs \u2019tis the remedy.\n\nAnd he who spoke thus very nicely imitated him:\u2014\n\n    Come, with impatience I expect thee, Death;\n    And stop with thy obliging hand my breath:\n    To thee as a physician all resort,\n    And we through tempests sail into thy port.\n\nAnd it is great to speak this sentence with courage:\u2014\n\n    Where is the slave who never fears to die?[151]\n\nOr this:\u2014\n\n    And shadows never scare me, thanks to hell.\n\nBut what is it at length in death, that is so grievous and troublesome?\nFor I know not how it comes to pass that, when it is so familiar and\nas it were related to us, it should seem so terrible. How can it be\nrational to wonder, if that cleaves asunder which is divisible, if that\nmelts whose nature is liquefaction, if that burns which is combustible,\nand so, by a parity of reason, if that perisheth which by nature is\nperishable? For when is it that death is not in us? For, as Heraclitus\nsaith, it is the same thing to be dead and alive, asleep and awake,\na young man and decrepit; for these alternately are changed one into\nanother. For as a potter can form the shape of an animal out of his\nclay and then as easily deface it, and can repeat this backwards\nand forwards as often as he pleaseth, so Nature too out of the same\nmaterials fashioned first our grandfathers, next our fathers, then\nus, and in process of time will engender others, and again others\nupon these. For as the flood of our generation glides on without any\nintermission and will never stop, so in the other direction the stream\nof our corruption flows eternally on, whether it be called Acheron or\nCocytus by the poets. So that the same cause which first showed us the\nlight of the sun carries us down to infernal darkness. And in my mind,\nthe air which encompasseth us seems to be a lively image of the thing;\nfor it brings on the vicissitudes of night and day, life and death,\nsleeping and waking. For this cause it is that life is called a fatal\ndebt, which our fathers contracted and we are bound to pay; which is to\nbe done calmly and without any complaint, when the creditor demands it;\nand by this means we shall show ourselves men of sedate passions.\n\n11. And I believe Nature, knowing the confusion and shortness of our\nlife, hath industriously concealed the end of it from us, this making\nfor our advantage. For if we were sensible of it beforehand, some would\npine away with untimely sorrow, and would die before their death came.\nFor she saw the woes of this life, and with what a torrent of cares it\nis overflowed,\u2014which if thou didst undertake to number, thou wouldst\ngrow angry with it, and confirm that opinion which hath a vogue amongst\nsome, that death is more desirable than life. Simonides hath glossed\nupon it after this manner:\u2014\n\n    Our time is of a short and tender length,\n    Cares we have many, and but little strength;\n    Labors in crowds push one another on,\n    And cruel destiny we cannot shun.\n    The casting of these lots is very just,\n    For good and bad lie in one common dust.\n\nPindar hath it so:\u2014\n\n    The Gods unequal have us mortals vexed,\n    For to one good, two evils are annexed:\n    They pay a single joy with double care,\n    And fools such dispensations cannot bear.[152]\n\nSophocles so:\u2014\n\n    Why at a mortal\u2019s death dost thou complain?\n    Thou know\u2019st not what may be his future gain.\n\nAnd Euripides so:\u2014\n\n    Dost thou not know the state of human things?\n    A faithful monitor thy instruction brings.\n    Inevitable death hangs o\u2019er our head,\n    And threatens falling by a doubtful thread.\n    There\u2019s no man can be certain over night,\n    If he shall live to see to-morrow\u2019s light.\n    Life without any interruption flows,\n    And the results of fate there\u2019s no man knows.[153]\n\nIf then the condition of human life is such as they speak of, why do we\nnot rather applaud their good fortunes who are freed from the drudgery\nof it, than pity and deplore them, as some men\u2019s folly prompts them to\ndo?\n\n12. Socrates said that death was like either to a very deep sleep, or\nto a journey taken a great way and for a long time, or else to the\nutter extinction of soul and body; and if we examine each of these\ncomparisons, he said, we shall find that death is not an evil upon any\naccount. For if death is sleep, and no hurt happens to those who are in\nthat innocent condition, it is manifest that neither are the dead ill\ndealt with. To what purpose should I talk of that which is so tritely\nknown amongst all, that the most profound sleep is always the sweetest?\nHomer[154] particularly attests it:\u2014\n\n    His senses all becalmed, he drew his breath,\n    His sleep was sound, and quiet like to death.\n\nAnd in many places he saith thus,\u2014\n\n    She met Death\u2019s brother, Sleep.\u2014\n\nAnd again,\u2014\n\n    Twin brothers, Sleep and Death,\u2014\n\nthereby representing the similitude (as it were) to the sight, for\ntwins especially indicate similarity. And in another place he saith,\nDeath is brazen sleep, thereby intimating to us that it is insensible.\nNeither hath he spoken much amiss who calls sleep the lesser mysteries\nof death; for sleep is really the first initiation into the mysteries\nof death.\n\nDiogenes the Cynic, when a little before his death he fell into a\nslumber, and his physician rousing him out of it asked him whether\nany thing ailed him, wisely answered, Nothing, sir, only one brother\nanticipates another,\u2014Sleep before Death.\n\n13. If death be like a journey, neither upon this account is it an\nevil, but rather the contrary; for certainly it is the emphasis of\nhappiness to be freed from the incumbrances of the flesh and all those\ntroublesome passions which attend it, which serve only to darken the\nunderstanding, and over-spread it with all the folly that is incident\nto human nature.\n\n\u201cThe very body,\u201d saith Plato, \u201cprocures us infinite disquiet only\nto supply its daily necessities with food; but if any diseases are\ncoincident, they hinder our contemplations, and stop us in our\nresearches after truth. Besides, it distracts us with irregular\ndesires, fears, and vain amours, setting before us so many fantastic\nimages of things, that the common saying is here most true, that\non account of the body we can never become wise. For wars, popular\nseditions, and shedding of blood by the sword are owing to no other\noriginal than this care of the body and gratifying its licentious\nappetites; for we fight only to get riches, and these we acquire\nonly to please the body; so that those who are thus employed have not\nleisure to be philosophers. And after all, when we have retrieved an\ninterval of time to seek after truth, the body officiously interrupts\nus, is so troublesome and importune, that we can by no means discern\nits nature. Therefore it is evident that, if we will clearly know any\nthing, we must divest ourselves of the body, and behold things as they\nare in themselves with the mind itself, that at last we may attain what\nwe so much desire, and what we do profess ourselves the most partial\nadmirers of, which is wisdom. And this we cannot consummately enjoy\ntill after death, as reason teacheth us. For if so be that we can\nunderstand nothing clearly as long as we are clogged with flesh, one of\nthese things must needs be, either that we shall never arrive at that\nknowledge at all, or only when we die; for then the soul will exist\nby itself, separate from the body; and whilst we are in this life, we\nshall make the nearest advances towards it, if we have no more to do\nwith the body than what decency and necessity require, if we break off\nall commerce with it, and keep ourselves pure from its contagion, till\nGod shall give us a final release, and then being pure and freed from\nall its follies, we shall converse (it is likely) with intelligences\nas pure as ourselves, with our unaided vision beholding perfect\npurity,\u2014and this is truth itself. For it is not fit that what is pure\nshould be apprehended by what is impure.\u201d[155]\n\nTherefore, if death only transports us to another place, it is not to\nbe looked upon as an evil, but rather as an exceeding good, as Plato\nhath demonstrated. The words of Socrates to his judges seem to me to\nbe spoken even with inspiration: \u201cTo fear death, gentlemen, is nothing\nelse than to counterfeit the being wise, when we are not so. For he\nthat fears death pretends to know what he is ignorant of; for no man\nis certain whether death be not the greatest good that can befall a\nman, but they positively dread it as if they were sure it was the\ngreatest of evils.\u201d Agreeably to this said one after this manner:\u2014\n\n    Let no man fear what doth his labors end;\u2014\n\nand death sets us free even from the greatest evils.\n\n14. The Gods themselves bear witness to the truth of this, for many\nhave obtained death as a gratuity from them. The less famous instances\nI will pass by, that I may not be prolix, and only mention those who\nare the most celebrated and in all men\u2019s mouths. And in the first\nplace, I will relate what befell Biton and Cleobis, two young men of\nArgos. They report that their mother being the priestess of Juno, and\nthe time being come that she was to go up to the temple to perform\nthe rites of the Goddess, and those whose office it was to draw her\nchariot tarrying longer than usual, these two young men harnessed\nthemselves and took it up, and so carried their mother to the temple.\nShe, being extremely taken with the piety of her sons, petitioned the\nGoddess that she would bestow upon them the best present that could\nbe given to men; accordingly she cast them into that deep sleep out\nof which they never awoke, taking this way to recompense their filial\nzeal with death. Pindar writes of Agamedes and Trophonius, that after\nthey had built a temple at Delphi, they requested of Apollo a reward\nfor their work. It was answered them that they should have it within\nseven days, but in the mean while they were commanded to live freely\nand indulge their genius; accordingly they obeyed the dictate, and the\nseventh night they died in their beds. It is said also of Pindar, that\nwhen the deputies of the Boeotians were sent to consult the oracle, he\ndesired them to enquire of it which was the best thing amongst men,\nand that the Priestess of the tripod gave them this answer,\u2014that he\ncould not be ignorant of it, if he was the author of those writings\nconcerning Agamedes and Trophonius; but if he desired personally to\nknow, it should in a little time be made manifest to him; and that\nPindar hearing this prepared himself for the stroke of Fate, and died\nin a short time after. Of Euthynous the Italian there is this memorable\nstory, that he died suddenly, without anybody\u2019s knowing the cause of\nhis death. His father was Elysius the Terinean, who was a man of the\nfirst condition for his estate and virtue, being rich and honorable,\nand this being his only son and heir to all his fortune, which was very\ngreat, he had a strong jealousy upon him that he was poisoned, and not\nknowing how he should come to the information of it, he went into the\nvault where they invoke the dead, and after having offered sacrifice,\nas it is enjoined by the law, he slept in the place; when all things\nwere in a midnight silence, he had this vision. His father appeared\nto him, to whom after having related his lamentable misfortune, he\nearnestly desired the ghost that he would assist him in finding out the\ncause. He answered that he was come on purpose to do it. But first,\nsaith he, receive from this one what he hath brought thee, and thereby\nthou wilt understand the reason of all thy sorrow. The person that the\nfather meant was very like to Euthynous both for years and stature; and\nthe question being put to him who he was, he answered, I am the genius\nof thy son; and at the same time he reached out a book to him, which he\nopened and found these verses written therein:\u2014\n\n    \u2019Tis ignorance makes wretched men to err;\n    Fate did to happiness thy son prefer.\n    By destined death Euthynous seized we see;\n    So \u2019twas the better both for him and thee.\n\nThese are the stories which the ancients tell us.\n\n15. But lastly, if death be the entire dissipation of soul and body\n(which was the third part of Socrates\u2019s comparison), even then it\ncannot be an evil. For this would produce a privation of sense, and\nconsequently a complete freedom from all solicitude and care; and if\nno good, so no evil would befall us. For good and evil alike must by\nnature inhere in that which has existence and essence; but to that\nwhich is nothing, and wholly abolished out of the nature of things,\nneither of the two can belong. Therefore, when men die, they return to\nthe same condition they were in before they were born. For as, before\nwe came into the world, we were neither sensible of good nor afflicted\nwith evil, so it will be when we leave it; and as those things which\npreceded our birth did not concern us, so neither will those things\nwhich are subsequent to our death:\u2014\n\n    The dead secure from sorrow safe do lie,\n    \u2019Tis the same thing not to be born and die.[156]\n\nFor it is the same state of existence after death as it was before we\nwere born. Unless perhaps you will make a difference between having\nno being at all and the utter extinction of it, after the same manner\nthat you make a distinction between an house and a garment after they\nare ruined and worn out, and at the time before the one was built and\nthe other made. And if in this case there is no difference, it is plain\nthat there is none between the state before we were born and that after\nwe are dead. It is elegantly said by Arcesilaus, that death, which is\ncalled an evil, hath this peculiarly distinct from all that are thought\nso, that when it is present it gives us no disturbance, but when remote\nand in expectation only, it is then that it afflicts us. And indeed\nmany out of the poorness of their spirit, having entertained most\ninjurious opinions of it, have died even to prevent death. Epicharmus\nhath said excellently to this purpose: \u201cIt was united, it is now\ndissolved; it returns back whence it came,\u2014earth to earth, the spirit\nto regions above. What in all this is grievous? Nothing at all.\u201d But\nthat which Cresphontes in Euripides saith of Hercules,\u2014\n\n    For if he dwells below, beneath the earth,\n    With those whose life is gone, his strength is nought,\n\nI would have changed into these words,\u2014\n\n    For if he dwells below, beneath the earth,\n    With those whose life is gone, his woes are o\u2019er.\n\nThis Laconic too is very noble:\u2014\n\n    Others before and after us will be,\n    Whose age we\u2019re not permitted e\u2019er to see.\n\nAnd again:\u2014\n\n    These neither did live handsomely nor die,\n    Though both should have been done with decency.\n\nBut Euripides hath spoken incomparably well of those who labor under\ndaily indispositions:\u2014\n\n    I hate the man who studies to defeat\n    The power of death with artificial meat,\n    To baffle and prevent his fate does think,\n    And lengthens out his life with magic drink.\n    Whereas, when he a burden doth become,\n    Then he should die, because he\u2019s troublesome.\n    Old age in modesty should then give place,\n    And so make way unto a brisker race.[157]\n\nBut Merope moved the passion of the theatre with these masculine\nexpressions:\u2014\n\n    My sons by death are ravished from my side,\n    And I\u2019m a widow, who was once a bride.\n    I am not thus selected to be crossed,\n    Others their sons and husbands too have lost.[158]\n\nAnd we may not incongruously add these:\u2014\n\n    What is become of that magnificence?\n    Where is King Croesus with his opulence?\n    Or where is Xerxes with his mighty pride,\n    Who with a bridge did curb the raging tide?\n    Inhabitants of darkness they became,\n    And now are living only in their fame.\n\nTheir riches have perished with their bodies.\n\n16. Yes, we may say, but an untimely death from many doth extort groans\nand passionate complaints. But the way to dry up these sorrows is so\nexpedite and easy, that every vulgar poet hath prescribed it. Consider\nwhat consolation a comedian puts in the mouth of one who comforts\nanother upon so sad an occasion:\u2014\n\n    If this with certainty thou could\u2019st have known,\n    That Fortune always would have kindness shown,\n    That nothing but what\u2019s good would him befall,\n    His death thou justly might\u2019st untimely call.\n    But if calamities were imminent,\n    And Death the fatal mischief did prevent,\n    To give to things the character that\u2019s due,\n    Death was the most obliging of the two.\n\nIt therefore being uncertain whether it was for his advantage that he\ndeparted this life and was freed from all the miseries that attend it,\nwe had thereby lost all that we fancied we could enjoy in him whilst\nhe was living. And Amphiaraus in the poet doth not do amiss when he\nconsoles the mother of Archemorus, who was even sick with grief for the\nuntimely death of her infant son. He speaks:\u2014\n\n    There is no man whom sorrow doth not seize;\n    Our children die while others we beget.\n    At last we die ourselves, and mortals grieve\n    As they give dust to dust; but human life\n    Must needs be reaped like a full crop of corn.\n    One man must live, another die: why weep\n    For this, which by necessity must be?\n    There is no hardship in necessity.[159]\n\n17. In general, every one should meditate seriously with himself,\nand have the concurrence of other men\u2019s opinions with his own, that\nit is not the longest life which is the best, but that which is the\nmost virtuous. For that musician is not to be commended who plays\nupon variety of instruments, nor that orator that makes multiplicity\nof speeches, nor the pilot that conducts many ships, but he of each\nfaculty that doth one of them well; for the beauty of a thing doth not\nconsist in length of time, but in the virtue and seasonable moderation\nwherewith it is transacted. This is that which is called happy and\ngrateful to the Gods. And for this reason it is that poets celebrate\nthose who have died before they have become old, and propose them for\nexamples, as the most excellent men and of divine extraction, as him\nfor instance,\n\n    Beloved by Jove and him who gilds the skies,\n    Yet short his date of life.[160]\n\nAnd we see in every thing that preference is not given so much to age\nas to maturity. For amongst trees and plants, those are accounted\nthe most generous which bring forth abundance of fruit, and that\nearly ripe. And amongst living creatures too, those are the most\nvalued which supply us with the accommodations of life in a short\ntime, besides, if we compare the space of our life with eternity, we\nshall find no difference betwixt long and short; for according to\nSimonides, thousands and millions of years are but as a point to what\nis infinite, or rather the smallest part of that point. They report\nthat about Pontus there are some creatures of such an extempore being\nthat the whole term of their life is confined within the space of a\nday; for they are brought forth in the morning, are in the prime of\ntheir existence at noon, grow old at night, and then die. Dost thou not\nthink that if these had the soul and reason of a man, they would be so\naffected, and that things would happen to them after the same manner as\nto us?\u2014that those who died before the meridian would be lamented with\ntears and groans?\u2014and that we should call them happy who lived their\nday out? For the measure of a man\u2019s life is the well spending of it,\nand not the length.\n\n18. But such exclamations as this, \u201cthe young man ought not to be taken\noff so abruptly in the vigor of his years,\u201d are very frivolous, and\nproceed from a great weakness of mind; for who is it that can say what\na thing ought to be? But things have been, are, and will be done,\nwhich somebody or other will say ought not to be done. But we do not\ncome into this life to be dogmatical and prescribe to it; but we must\nobey the dictates of the Gods who govern the world, and submit to the\nestablishments of Fate and Providence.\n\n19. But when they mourn over those who die so untimely, do they do it\nupon their own account, or upon that of the deceased? If upon their\nown, because they have lost that pleasure they thought they should\nhave enjoyed in them, or are deprived of that profit they expected or\nthat relief they flattered themselves they should receive from them\nin their old age, then self-love and personal interest prescribe the\nmeasures of their sorrow; so that upon the result they do not love\nthe dead so much as themselves and their own interest. But if they\nlament upon the account of the deceased, that is a grief easily to be\nshaken off, if they only consider that by their very death they will\nbe out of the sphere of any evil that can reach them, and believe\nthe wise and ancient saying, that we should always augment what is\ngood, and extenuate the evil. Therefore if grief is a good thing,\nlet us enlarge and make it as great as we can; but if it is numbered\namongst the evils, as in truth it ought to be, let us endeavor all we\ncan to suppress it, make it as inconsiderable as we can, and at last\nutterly efface it. How easy this is to be done, I will make appear\nby an illustrious example of consolation. They say that an ancient\nphilosopher came to the Queen Arsinoe, who was then sorrowful for the\ndeath of her son, and discoursed her after this manner: \u201cAt the time\nthat Jupiter distributed honors amongst his under-deities, it happened\nthat Grief was absent; but he came at last when all the dignities were\ndisposed of, and then desired that he might have some share in the\npromotions. Jupiter, having no better vacancies left, bestowed upon\nhim sorrow and funeral tears.\u201d He made this inference from the story:\n\u201cTherefore,\u201d saith he, \u201cas other daemons love and frequent those who\ngive them hospitable reception, so sadness will never come near you,\nif you do not give it encouragement; but if you caress it with those\nparticular honors which it challengeth as its due, which are sighs\nand tears, it will have an unlucky affection for you, and will always\nsupply you with fresh occasion that the observance may be continued.\u201d\nBy this plausible speech he seems in a wonderful manner to have buoyed\nthis great woman out of her tears, and to have made her cast off her\nveil.\n\n20. In short, I would ask the mourner whether he designs to put an end\nto his grief, or to allow the anguish to have the same duration with\nhis life. If this thou hast resolved, I must say thou hast cut out\nfor thyself the most bitter infelicity in the world, and all through\nthe stupidity and softness of thy mind; but if thou wilt ever make a\nchange, why dost thou not make it now, and so free thyself from misery?\nApply now the same reasons thou must use a great while hence, to\nunburden thy mind and ease thy afflictions; and as in bodily distempers\nthe quickest remedy is the best, so bestow the advantage thou must\notherwise allow to time upon reason and instruction, and so cease to be\nunhappy.\n\n21. But it is objected, the calamity was sudden, and I did not expect\nit. But thou oughtest to have done it, and considered the vanity and\nuncertainty of human affairs, that thy enemies might not have come\nsuddenly upon thee and taken thee unawares. Theseus in Euripides seems\nto be excellently well prepared for events of this nature, for he saith\nthus\u2014\n\n    This wholesome precept from the wise I learn,\n    To think of misery without concern.\n    My meditating thoughts are always spent\n    Either on death or else on banishment.\n    Foresight of evils doth employ my mind,\n    That me without defence they may not find;\n    And though in ambuscade the mischief lies,\n    Kill me it may, but shall not me surprise.[161]\n\nBut those who are of a degenerate and thoughtless spirit never apply\ntheir mind to any thing that is either useful or becoming; but they\ngrow exorbitant in their sorrows, and afflict the innocent body, making\nit sick for company, as Achaeus expresseth it.\n\n22. Therefore Plato[162] doth rightly instruct us to acquiesce in\ncases of this nature, when it is not manifest whether they be good or\nevil, and when we get nothing by being uneasy under them; for grief is\nthe greatest obstacle to deliberation as to what is best to be done.\nTherefore he commands us, as in the casting of dice, to accommodate\nourselves to what befalls us, in the way which reason shows us to\nbe best; and when any thing ails us, not to imitate the folly of\nchildren, who presently cry out and clap their hands to the place\naffected, but to accustom our minds to seek at once for remedies which\nmay restore the part that is diseased to its first tone of health,\nmaking lamentation give place to the healing art. He that instituted\nlaws for the Lycians commanded the citizens that when they mourned\nthey should put on women\u2019s apparel, intimating thereby that sorrow was\nan effeminate thing, and therefore was not fit for men of temper and\nliberal education. For it is indeed a weak and unmanly passion, and\nwomen are more subject to it than men, the barbarians more than the\nGreeks, and the dregs of mankind more than the refined part of them;\nand even amongst the barbarians, the brave-spirited Celts and Gauls\nhave not a propensity to it, or any that have generous sentiments; but\nthe Egyptians, the Syrians, and the Lydians, and those who resemble\nthem in the softness of their disposition. They report that some of\nthese will hide themselves in retirements under ground, and refuse\nto behold that sun of which their lamented friend is deprived. Ion,\nthe tragedian, who heard something of this extravagance, introduceth a\nperson speaking after this manner:\u2014\n\n    Your blooming children\u2019s nurse, I have come forth\n    A suppliant from the caves where I have mourned.\n\nSome of these barbarians have deformed their bodies by cutting\noff their noses, ears, and other parts of themselves, thinking to\ngratify the dead by these mutilations, when in doing so they deviated\nexcessively from that moderation which Nature prescribes us.\n\n23. And, by Jove, we meet with some persons who affirm that the death\nof every one is not to be lamented, but only of those who die untimely;\nfor they have not tasted of those things which we call enjoyments in\nthe world, as a nuptial bed, proficiency in learning, the coming up\nto an height in any thing, the honor of magistracy and charges in the\ngovernment. It is for the sake of these things that we condole with\nthose who lose friends by untimely death, because they were frustrated\nof their hopes; but in the meanwhile we are ignorant that a sudden\ndeath doth not at all differ from any other, considering the condition\nof human nature. For as when a journey is enjoined into a remote\ncountry, and there is a necessity for every one to undertake it, and\nnone hath liberty to refuse, though some go before and others follow,\nyet all must arrive at the same stage at last; so when we all lie under\nan obligation of discharging the same debt, it is not material whether\nwe pay sooner or later. But if any one\u2019s death may be called untimely,\nand consequently an evil, that appellation suits only with that of\nchildren and infants, and especially of those who are newly born. But\nthis we bear steadfastly and with patience; but when those that are\ngrown up die, we take on heavily, because we fondly hoped that when\ntheir years were full blown they would then have an uninterrupted\nstate of health. Now if the age of man were limited to the space of\ntwenty years, we should not think that he who had arrived to fifteen\ndied an untimely death, but that he had filled up a just measure of\nliving; but one that had attained twenty, or at least had approached\nvery near it, we should applaud for his good fortune, as if he had\nenjoyed the most happy and perfect life in the world. So if life were\nprolonged to two hundred years as its fixed period, and any one died at\na hundred, we should howl over him as if he had been hastily cut off.\n\n24. It is manifest then, by what hath been said now and what hath\nbeen mentioned before, that the death we call untimely is capable of\nconsolation; and the saying is true, that \u201cTroilus wept less than\nPriam,\u201d[163] perishing as he did in his youth, while his father\u2019s\nkingdom flourished and his riches abounded, which Priam afterwards\nlaments as most deplorably lost. For observe what he saith to his son\nHector, when he entreats him to decline the battle he was going to\nfight against Achilles:\u2014\n\n    Yet shun Achilles! enter yet the wall;\n    And spare thyself, thy father, spare us all!\n    Save thy dear life; or, if a soul so brave\n    Neglect that thought, thy dearer glory save.\n    Pity, while yet I live, these silver hairs;\n    While yet thy father feels the woes he bears,\n    Yet curst with sense! a wretch whom in his rage\n    All trembling on the verge of helpless age\n    Great Jove has placed, sad spectacle of pain!\n    The bitter dregs of Fortune\u2019s cup to drain:\n    To fill with scenes of death his closing eyes\n    And number all his days by miseries!\n    My heroes slain, my bridal bed o\u2019erturn\u2019d,\n    My daughters ravish\u2019d, and my city burn\u2019d,\n    My bleeding infants dash\u2019d against the floor;\n    These I have yet to see, perhaps yet more!\n    Perhaps even I, reserv\u2019d by angry Fate,\n    The last sad relic of my ruin\u2019d state,\n    (Dire pomp of sovereign wretchedness!) must fall,\n    And stain the pavement of my regal hall;\n    Where famish\u2019d dogs, late guardians of my door,\n    Shall lick their mangled master\u2019s spatter\u2019d gore.\n    But when the Fates, in fulness of their rage,\n    Spurn the hoar head of unresisting age,\n    In dust the reverend lineaments deform,\n    And pour to dogs the life-blood scarcely warm:\n    This, this is misery! the last, the worst,\n    That man can feel,\u2014man, fated to be cursed!\n      He said, and acting what no words can say,\n    Rent from his head the silver locks away.\n    With him the mournful mother bears a part;\n    Yet all her sorrows turn not Hector\u2019s heart.[164]\n\nHaving then so many examples of this kind before thine eyes, thou\noughtest to make thyself sensible that not a few have been saved by\ndeath from those calamities they would certainly have fallen into had\nthey lived longer. Contenting myself with those I have related already,\nI will omit the rest, that I may not seem tedious; and these are\nsufficient to show that we ought not to abandon ourselves to violent\nsorrow, beyond temper and the bounds of nature.\n\n25. Crantor saith, To be innocent is the greatest comfort in\nafflictions. I assent to him, and affirm that it is the noblest\nremedy. Besides, the indication of our love to the deceased consists\nnot in grieving ourselves for him, but in paying respect to his fame\nby honorable remembrance. For no good man deserves elegies, but\npanegyrics; and we should rather celebrate his loss by an honorable\nremembrance, than lament it; and offer up rather first-fruits of joy\nto the Gods, and not tears which sorrow extorts from us. For he who\nceaseth to be amongst men becomes partaker of a divine life, is free\nfrom the servitude of the body, and all those solicitous cares which\nthey who are embarrassed with a mortal life of necessity must undergo\ntill they have finished the course which Providence hath marked out for\nthem; and this life Nature hath not given us as a perpetual possession,\nbut hath clogged it with restrictions and conditions of fate.\n\n26. Those therefore who are the masters of their reason ought not to be\ntransported by the death of friends beyond the limits of nature and a\njust moderation unto unprofitable and barbarous complaints, and so wait\ntill that comes upon them which hath happened to many, to have their\nvital moisture exhausted before their tears, and to be carried to their\nown graves in those mourning weeds they put on for others, where their\nsorrow must lie buried with those evils they provoked upon themselves\nby their own imprudence. To whom that of Homer may be appositely\napplied:\u2014\n\n    Whilst others they lament with weeping eyes,\n    The darkness of the night doth them surprise.[165]\n\nWherefore in this case we should often thus reason with ourselves:\nShall we put an end to our sorrow, or shall we grieve all the days of\nour life? To make it infinite is the last degree of infatuation; for we\nhave seen those who have been in the deepest circumstances of dejection\nto be so mitigated by time, that they have banqueted upon those tombs\nwhich before they could not endure the sight of without screeching out\nand beating their breasts, but which they can now dance round with\nmusic and all the postures of jollity. Therefore to be obstinate in our\ngrief is the resolution of madness. If then thou hast purposed within\nthyself that it shall have an end, join this consideration with it,\nthat time will assuage it too; for what is once done even the Deity\nhimself cannot unravel; therefore that which hath happened to us beyond\nour hope and contrary to our opinion hath palpably shown us what is\nwont from the same causes to befall others. What\u2019s the result then?\nCannot any discipline teach us, nor cannot we reason with ourselves,\nthat\u2014\n\n    The earth with evils doth abound;\n    As many in the sea are found?[166]\n\nAnd thus likewise:\u2014\n\n    The Fates have so encompassed men with ills,\n    That even the wind can find no entrance?\n\n27. For many, as Crantor tells us, and those very wise men, not now\nbut long ago have deplored the condition of human nature, esteeming\nlife a punishment, and to be born a man the highest pitch of calamity;\nthis, Aristotle tells us, Silenus declared when he was brought captive\nto Midas. I think it best to quote the expressions of the philosopher\nhimself, in his book entitled Eudemus, or Of the Soul, wherein he\nspeaks after this manner:\u2014\n\n\u201cWherefore, thou best and happiest of mankind, if we think those\nblessed and happy who have departed this life, then it is not only\nunlawful but even blasphemy to speak any thing that is false or\ncontumelious of them, since they are now changed into a better and\nmore refined nature. And this my opinion is so old, that the original\nand author of it is utterly unknown; but it hath been derived down to\nus even from eternity, so established is the truth of it. Besides,\nthou seest what is so familiar in men\u2019s mouths, and hath been for many\nyears a trite expression. What is that, saith he? He answered him: It\nis best not to be born at all; and next to that, it is more eligible\nto die than to live; and this is confirmed even by divine testimony.\nPertinently to this they say that Midas, after hunting, asked his\ncaptive Silenus somewhat urgently, what was the most desirable thing\namongst men. At first he would return no answer, but was obstinately\nsilent. At last, when Midas would not give over importuning him, he\nbroke out into these words, though very unwillingly: \u2018Thou seed of an\nevil genius and precarious offspring of hard fortune, whose life is\nbut for a day, why dost thou compel me to tell thee those things it is\nbetter thou wert ignorant of? For those live the least disturbed who\nknow not their misfortunes; but for men, the best for them is not to\nbe born at all, nor to be made partakers of the most excellent nature;\nnot to be is best for both sexes. This should have the first place in\nour choice; and the next to this is, when we are born, to die as soon\nas we can.\u2019 It is plain therefore, that he declared the condition of\nthe dead to be better than that of the living.\u201d\n\nI could bring millions of examples to justify this topic, but I will\nnot be long.\n\n28. We are not therefore to lament those who die in the bloom of their\nyears, as if they were spoiled of things which we call enjoyments in a\nlonger life; for it is uncertain, as we have often said, whether they\nare deprived of good or evil, for the evil in the world far exceeds\nthe good. The good we obtain hardly and with anxious endeavor, but\nthe evil easily befalls us; for they say evils are linked together,\nand by a mutual dependence of causes follow one another, but the good\nlie scattered and disjoined, and with great difficulty are brought\nwithin the compass of our life. Therefore we seem to have forgot our\ncondition; for not only is it true, as Euripides hath it, that\n\n    The things we do possess are not our own;[167]\n\nbut in general no man can claim a strict propriety in any thing he\nhath:\u2014\n\n    When Gods do riches lend, it is but just\n    That when they please we should resign our trust.\n\nWe ought not therefore to take it amiss if they demand those things\nwhich they lent us only for a small time; for even your common brokers,\nunless they are unjust, will not be displeased if they are called upon\nto refund their pawns, and if one of them is not altogether so ready\nto deliver them, thou mayst say to him without any injury, Hast thou\nforgot that thou receivedst them upon the condition to restore them?\nThe same parity of reason holds amongst all men. The Gods have put life\ninto our hands by a fatal necessity, and there is no prefixed time\nwhen what is so deposited will be required of us, as the brokers know\nnot when their pawns will be demanded. If therefore any one is angry\nwhen he is dying himself, or resents the death of his children, is it\nnot very plain, that he hath forgot that he himself is a man and that\nhe hath begotten children as frail as himself? For a man that is in his\nwits cannot be ignorant that he is a mortal creature, and born to this\nvery end that he must die. If Niobe, as it is in the fable, had had\nthis sentence always at hand, that she must at length die, and could not\n\n    In the ever-flowering bloom of youth remain,\n    Nor loaded with children, like a fruitful tree,\n    Behold the sun\u2019s sweet light,\u2014\n\nshe would never have sunk to such a degree of desperation as to desire\nto throw off her life to ease the burthen of her sorrow, and call\nupon the Gods to hurry her into the utmost destruction. There are\ntwo sentences inscribed upon the Delphic oracle, hugely accommodated\nto the usages of man\u2019s life, KNOW THYSELF, and NOTHING TOO MUCH; and\nupon these all other precepts depend. And they themselves accord and\nharmonize with each other, and each seems to illustrate the energy of\nthe other; for in _Know thyself_ is included _Nothing too much_; and so\nagain in the latter is comprised _Know thyself_. And Ion hath spoken of\nit thus:\u2014\n\n    This sentence, _Know thyself_, is but a word;\n    But only Jove himself could do the thing.\n\nAnd thus Pindar:\u2014\n\n    This sentence brief, Do nothing to excess,\n    Wise men have always praised exceedingly.\n\n29. He therefore that hath these impressed upon his mind as the\nprecepts of the Pythian oracle, can easily conform himself to all the\naffairs of life, and bear them handsomely; considering his nature, so\nthat he is neither lifted up to arrogance upon a prosperous event,\nnor when an adverse happens, is dejected into complaint through\npusillanimity and that fear of death which is so congenial to us;\nboth which proceed from the ignorance of those things which fall out\nin human life by necessity and fatal decree. The Pythagoreans speak\nhandsomely to this purpose:\u2014\n\n    Against those evils thou shouldest not repine,\n    Which are inflicted by the powers divine.\n\nThus the tragedian Aeschylus:\u2014\n\n    He store of wisdom and of virtue hath,\n    Whom nothing from the Gods provokes to wrath.\n\nEuripides thus:\u2014\n\n    He that is passive when the Fates command\n    Is wise, and all the Gods doth understand.\n\nIn another place so:\u2014\n\n    He that can bear those things which men befall,\n    Him wise and modest we may justly call.\n\n30. But many there are who blame all things; and whatsoever\nunexpectedly happens to them, they think is procured them by the\nmalignity of Fortune and the spite of some evil genius. Wherefore they\nare querulous and cry out upon every occasion, inveighing against\nthe bitterness of their mishaps. Their complaints we may not unfitly\nobviate with this expression,\u2014\n\n    The Gods do hurt thee not, but thou thyself,\u2014\n\neven thou thyself through perverseness and want of good instruction.\nAnd by reason of this false and deceiving opinion they accuse any kind\nof death; for if one die upon his travel, they exclaim after this\nmanner:\u2014\n\n    The wretch, his father being absent, dies;\n    Nor did his aged mother close his eyes.[168]\n\nIf he die in his own country, with his parents about him, they lament\nthat he is ravished out of their hands, and hath left them nothing but\nregret for his loss. If he die silent, giving them no instructions at\nparting, they complain thus:\u2014\n\n    His tender dying words I did not hear,\n    Which I in my remembrance still should bear.[169]\n\nIf he spoke any thing before he breathed out his soul, they keep those\nlast accents as fuel to maintain their sorrow still kindled. If he die\na sudden death, they cry out that he is snatched away; if chronical\npains waste him, they will tell you that the slow distemper hath\nemaciated him to death. Thus every appearance, take it which way you\nwill, is sufficient to stir up your complaints. These things the poets\nhave introduced, and the chiefest among them, Homer, who sung after\nthis manner:\u2014\n\n    As a poor father, helpless and undone,\n    Mourns o\u2019er the ashes of an only son,\n    Takes a sad pleasure the last bones to burn,\n    And pours in tears ere yet they close the urn.[170]\n\nAnd whether these things are justly lamented doth not yet appear. But\nsee what he elsewhere sings:\u2014\n\n    Born in his elder years, his only boy,\n    Who was designed his riches to enjoy.[171]\n\n31. Who knows but that the Deity, with a fatherly providence and out of\ntenderness to mankind, foreseeing what would happen, hath taken some\npurposely out of this life by an untimely death? So we should think\nthat nothing has befallen them which they should have sought to shun,\u2014\n\n    For nought that cometh by necessity is hard,[172]\n\nneither of those things which fall out by a precedent ratiocination\nor a subsequent. And many by a timely death have been withdrawn from\ngreater calamities; so that it hath been good for some never to have\nbeen born at all; for others, that as soon as life hath been blown in\nit should be extinguished; for some, that they should live a little\nlonger; and for others again, that they should be cropped in the\nprime of their youth. These several sorts of deaths should be taken\nin good part, since Fate is inevitable. Therefore it becomes men well\neducated to consider that those who have paid their debt to mortality\nhave only gone before us a little time; that the longest life is but\nas a point in respect of eternity, and that many who have indulged\ntheir sorrow to excess have themselves followed in a small while\nthose that they have lamented, having reaped no profit out of their\ncomplaints, but macerated themselves with voluntary afflictions. Since\nthen the time of our pilgrimage in this life is but short, we ought\nnot to consume ourselves with sordid grief, and so render ourselves\nunhappy by afflicting our minds and tormenting our bodies; but we\nshould endeavor after a more manly and rational sort of life, and not\nassociate ourselves with those who will be companions in grief and by\nflattering our tears will only excite them the more, but rather with\nthose who will diminish our grief by solemn and generous consolation.\nAnd we ought to hear and keep in our remembrance those words of Homer\nwherewith Hector answers Andromache, comforting her after this manner:\u2014\n\n    Andromache, my soul\u2019s far better part,\n    Why with untimely sorrows heaves thy heart?\n    No hostile hand can antedate my doom,\n    Till Fate condemns me to the silent tomb.\n    Fix\u2019d is the term to all the race of earth,\n    And such the hard condition of our birth:\n    No force can then resist, no flight can save,\n    All sink alike, the fearful and the brave.[173]\n\nWhich the poet expresseth in another place thus.\n\n    The thread which at his birth for him was spun.[174]\n\n32. Having these things fixed in our minds, all vain and fruitless\nsorrow will be superseded; the time that we have all to live being but\nvery short, we ought to spare and husband it, and not lay it out too\nprodigally upon sorrow, but rather spend it in tranquillity, deserting\nthe mournful colors, and so take care of our own bodies, and consult\nthe safety of those who live with us. It is requisite that we should\ncall to mind what reasons we urged to our kinsmen and friends when\nthey were in the like calamities, when we exhorted them to suffer\nthese usual accidents of life with a common patience, and bear mortal\nthings with humanity; lest being prepared with instructions for other\nmen\u2019s misfortunes, we reap no benefit ourselves out of the remembrance\nof those consolations, and so do not cure our minds by the sovereign\napplication of reason. For in any thing a delay is less dangerous than\nin sorrow; and when by every one it is so tritely said, that he that\nprocrastinates in an affair contests with destruction, I think the\ncharacter will more fitly sit upon him who defers the removing his\ntroubles and the perturbations of his mind.\n\n33. We ought also to cast our eyes upon those conspicuous examples\nwho have borne the deaths of their sons generously and with a great\nspirit; such as were Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, Demosthenes of Athens,\nDion of Syracuse, King Antigonus, and many others who have lived\neither in our times or in the memory of our fathers. They report of\nAnaxagoras that, when he was reading natural philosophy to his pupils\nand reasoning with them, sudden news was brought him of the death of\nhis son. He presently stopped short in his lecture, and said this to\nhis auditors, I knew that I begot my son mortal. And of Pericles, who\nwas surnamed Olympius for his wisdom and the strength of his eloquence,\nwhen he heard that both his sons were dead, Paralus and Xanthippus,\nhow he behaved himself upon this accident Protagoras tells us in these\nwords. \u201cWhen his sons,\u201d saith he, \u201cbeing in the first verdure of their\nyouth and handsome lads, died within eight days, he bore the calamity\nwithout any repining; for he was of a pacific temper, from whence\nthere was every day an accession of advantages towards the making\nhim happy, the being free from grief, and thereby acquiring a great\nreputation amongst his fellow-citizens. For every one that saw him bear\nthis calamity with so brave a resolution thought him magnanimous, and\nindeed entertained an higher opinion of him than he strictly deserved;\nfor he was conscious to himself of some weakness and defects in cases\nof this nature.\u201d Now after he had received the news of the death of\nhis sons, he put on a garland according to the custom of his country,\nand being clothed in white, he made an harangue to the people, was the\nauthor of safe and rational counsels, and stirred up the courage of\nhis Athenians to warlike expeditions. Chronicles tell us, that when\nan express came out of the field to Xenophon the Socratic as he was\nsacrificing, which acquainted him that his son perished in the fight,\nhe pulled the garland from his head, and enquired after what manner\nhe fell; and it being told him that he died gallantly, making a great\nslaughter of his enemies, after he had paused awhile to recollect\nhis thoughts and quiet his first emotion of concern with reason, he\nadorned his head again, finished the sacrifice, and spoke thus to the\nmessengers: I did not make it my request to the Gods, that my son\nmight be immortal or long-lived, for it is not manifest whether this\nwas convenient for him or not, but that he might have integrity in his\nprinciples and be a lover of his country; and now I have my desire.\nDion of Syracuse, as he was consulting with his friends concerning some\naffairs, heard a great noise; and crying out and asking what was the\nmatter, he was told the accident, that his son was killed with a fall\nfrom the top of the house. He was not at all surprised or astonished\nat the disaster, but commanded the dead body to be delivered to the\nwomen, that they might bury it according to custom. But he went on with\nhis first deliberations, and re-assumed his discourse in that part\nwhere this accident had broken it off. It is said that Demosthenes the\norator imitated him upon the loss of his only and dearest daughter;\nabout which Aeschines, thinking to upbraid him, spoke after this\nmanner: Within seven days after the death of his daughter, before he\nhad performed the decencies of sorrow, and paid those common rites to\nthe memory of the deceased, he put on a garland, clothed himself in\nwhite, and sacrificed, thereby outraging decency, though he had lost\nhis only daughter, the one which had first called him father.[175]\nThus did Aeschines with the strokes of his oratory accuse Demosthenes,\nnot knowing that he rather deserved a panegyric upon this occasion,\nwhen he rejected his sorrow and preferred the love of his country to\nthe tenderness and compassion he ought to have for his relations. King\nAntigonus, when he heard the death of his son Alcyoneus who was slain\nin battle, looking steadily upon the messengers of these sad tidings,\nafter a little interval of silence and with a modest countenance,\nspoke thus: O Alcyoneus, thou hast fallen later than I thought thou\nwouldst, so brisk wast thou to run upon the thickest of thy enemies,\nhaving no regard either to thy own safety or to my admonitions. Every\none praiseth these men for the bravery of their spirit, but none can\nimitate what they have done, through the weakness of their minds which\nproceeds from want of good instruction. But although there are many\nexamples extant, both in the Greek and Roman stories, of those who have\nborne the death of their relations not only with decency but courage,\nI think these that I have related to be a sufficient motive to thee to\nkeep tormenting grief at a distance, and so ease thyself of that labor\nwhich hath no profit in it and is all in vain.\n\n34. For that virtuous men die in the prime of their years by the\nkindness of the Gods, to whom they are peculiarly dear, I have already\ntold thee in the former part of my discourse, and will give a short\nhint of it now, bearing witness to that which is so prettily said by\nMenander:\u2014\n\n    He whom the Gods do love dies young.\n\nBut perhaps, my dear Apollonius, thou wilt thus object to me: My young\nApollonius was blessed by fortune in his life, and I ought first to\nhave died that he might bury me; for this is according to nature.\nAccording to our human nature, I confess; but Providence hath other\nmeasures, and that supreme order which governs the world is very\ndifferent; for thy son being now made happy, it was not requisite\naccording to nature that he should tarry in this life longer than\nthe time prefixed him, but that, having consummated the term of his\nduration, he should perform his fatal journey, Nature recalling him to\nherself. But he died untimely, you may say. Upon that account he is the\nhappier, not having been sensible of those evils which are incident to\nlife. For Euripides said truly:\u2014\n\n    The time of being here we style amiss;\n    We call it life, but truly labor \u2019tis.\n\nThy Apollonius died in the beautiful flower of his years, a youth in\nall points perfect, who gained the love, and provoked the emulation\nof all his contemporaries. He was dutiful to his father and mother,\nobliging to his domestics, was a scholar, and (to comprehend all in\na word) he was a lover of mankind. He had a veneration for the old\nmen that were his friends, as if they had been his parents, had an\naffection for his companions and equals, reverenced his instructors,\nwas hospitable and mild to his guests and strangers, gracious to all,\nand beloved by all, as well for his attractive countenance as for his\nlovely affability. Therefore, being accompanied with the applauses of\nthy piety and his own, he hath only made a digression from this mortal\nlife to eternity, as if he had withdrawn from the entertainment before\nhe grew absurd, and before the staggerings of drunkenness came upon\nhim, which are incident to a long old age. Now if the sayings of the\nold philosophers and poets are true, as there is probability to think,\nthat honors and high seats of dignity are conferred upon the righteous\nafter they are departed this life, and if, as it is said, a particular\nregion is appointed for their souls to dwell in, you ought to cherish\nvery fair hopes that your son stands numbered amongst those blest\ninhabitants.\n\n35. Of the state of the pious after death, Pindar discourseth after\nthis manner:\u2014\n\n    There the sun shines with an unsullied light,\n    When all the world below is thick with night.\n    There all the richly scented plants do grow,\n    And there the crimson-colored roses blow;\n    Each flower blooming on its tender stalk,\n    And all these meadows are their evening walk.\n    There trees peculiarly delight the sense,\n    With their exhaled perfumes of frankincense.\n    The boughs their noble burdens cannot hold,\n    The weight must sink them when the fruit is gold.\n    Some do the horse unto the manege bring,\n    Others unto the tuneful lute do sing;\n    There\u2019s plenty to excess of every thing.\n    The region always doth serene appear,\n    The sun and pious flames do make it clear,\n    Where fragrant gums do from the altars rise,\n    When to the Gods they offer sacrifice.\n\nAnd proceeding farther, in another lamentation he spake thus concerning\nthe soul:\u2014\n\n    Just we that distribution may call,\n    Which to each man impartially doth fall.\n    It doth decide the dull contentious strife,\n    And easeth the calamities of life.\n    Death doth its efforts on the body spend;\n    But the aspiring soul doth upwards tend.\n    Nothing can damp that bright and subtile flame,\n    Immortal as the Gods from whence it came.\n    But this sometimes a drowsy nap will take,\n    When all the other members are awake.\n    Fancy in various dreams doth to it show,\n    What punishments unto each crime is due;\n    What pleasures are reserved for pious deeds,\n    And with what scourges the incestuous bleeds.\n\n36. Divine Plato hath spoken many things of the immortality of the soul\nin that book which he calls his Phaedo; not a few in his Republic,\nhis Menon, and his Gorgias; and hath some scattered expressions in\nthe rest of his dialogues. The things which are written by him in his\nDialogue concerning the Soul I will send you by themselves, illustrated\nwith my commentaries upon them, according to your request. I will now\nonly quote those which are opportune and to the present purpose, and\nthey are the words of Socrates to Callicles the Athenian, who was the\ncompanion and scholar of Gorgias the rhetorician. For so saith Socrates\nin Plato:\u2014\n\n\u201cHear then,\u201d saith he, \u201ca most elegant story, which you, I fancy, will\nthink to be a fable, but I take it to be a truth, for the things which\nI shall tell you have nothing but reality in them. Jupiter, Neptune,\nand Pluto, as Homer tells us, divided amongst themselves the kingdom\nwhich they received by inheritance from their father; but there was a\nlaw established concerning men in the reign of Saturn, which was then\nvalid and still remains in force amongst the Gods, that that mortal\nwhich had led a just and pious life should go, when he died, into the\nfortunate islands of the blest, and there dwell in happiness, free from\nall misery; but he that had lived impiously and in contempt of the Gods\nshould be shackled with vengeance, and be thrust into that prison which\nthey call Tartarus. In the time of Saturn, and in the first beginning\nof Jove\u2019s empire, the living judged the living, and that the same day\nthat they were to die; whereupon the decisions of the bench were not\nrightly managed. Therefore Pluto and his curators under him came out of\nthese fortunate islands, and complained to Jupiter that men were sent\nto both places who were not worthy. I, saith Jupiter, will take care\nthat this thing be not practised for the future; for the reason that\nthe sentences are now unjustly passed is that the guilty come clothed\nto the tribunal, and whilst they are yet alive. For some of profligate\ndispositions are yet palliated with a beautiful outside, with riches,\nand titles of nobility; and so when they come to be arraigned, many\nwill offer themselves as witnesses to swear that they have lived very\npious lives. The judges are dazzled with these appearances, and they\nsit upon them too in their robes; so that their minds are (as it\nwere) covered and obscured with eyes and ears, and indeed with the\nencumbrance of the whole body. The judges and the prisoners being\nclothed is thus a very great impediment. Therefore in the first place\nthe foreknowledge of death is to be taken away; for now they see the\nend of their line, and Prometheus has been commanded to see that this\nbe no longer allowed. Next they ought to be divested of all dress\nand ornament, and come dead to the tribunal. The judge himself is to\nbe naked and dead too, that with his own soul he may view the naked\nsoul of each one so soon as he is dead, when he is now forsaken of\nhis relations, and has left behind him all his gayeties in the other\nworld; and so justice will be impartially pronounced. Deliberating on\nthis with myself before I received your advice, I have constituted my\nsons judges, Minos and Rhadamanthus from Asia, and Aeacus from Europe;\nthese therefore, after they have departed this life, shall assume their\ncharacter, and exercise it in the field, and in the road where two\nways divide themselves, the one leading to the fortunate islands, and\nthe other to the deep abyss; so Rhadamanthus shall judge the Asians,\nand Aeacus the Europeans. But to Minos I will grant the authority of a\nfinal appeal, that if any thing hath escaped the notice of the others,\nit shall be subjected to his cognizance, as to the last resort of a\nsupreme judge; that so it may be rightly decided what journey every one\nought to take. These are the things, Callicles, which I have heard and\nthink to be true; and I draw this rational inference from them, that\ndeath in my opinion is nothing else but the separation of two things\nnearly united, which are soul and body.\u201d[176]\n\n37. These collections, my dear Apollonius, I have joined together with\nall the accuracy I could, and out of them composed this consolatory\nletter I now send thee, which is very necessary to dispel thy\nmelancholy humor and put a period to thy sighs. I have paid likewise\nthat deference which became me to the ashes of thy son, who is the\ndarling of the Gods, such an honor being most acceptable to those whom\nfame hath consecrated to immortality. Thou wilt therefore do handsomely\nto believe the reasons I have urged to thee, and gratify thy deceased\nson, by shaking off this unprofitable sorrow, which eats into thy mind\nand afflicts thy body, and again returning to that course of humor\nwhich nature hath chalked out and the former customs of thy life have\nmade familiar to thee. For as, when thy son lived amongst us, he could\nnot without the deepest regret see thee or his mother sad, so now that\nhe is amongst the Gods enjoying the intimacy of their conversation,\nsuch a prospect from thence must be much more displeasing. Therefore\ntake up the resolutions of a good and generous man and of one who loved\nhis son, and so extricate thyself, the mother of the lad, thy kinsmen\nand friends at once from this great infelicity. Betake thyself to a\nmore tranquil sort of life; which, as it will be acceptable to thy son,\nwill also be extremely pleasing to all of us who have that concern for\nthee that we ought to have.\n\n\n\n\nCONCERNING THE VIRTUES OF WOMEN.\n\n\nConcerning the virtues of women, O Clea, I am not of the same mind with\nThucydides. For he would prove that she is the best woman concerning\nwhom there is the least discourse made by people abroad, either to her\npraise or dispraise; judging that, as the person, so the very name of\na good woman ought to be retired and not gad abroad. But to us Gorgias\nseems more accurate, who requires that not only the face but the fame\nof a woman should be known to many. For the Roman law seems exceeding\ngood, which permits due praises to be given publicly both to men and\nwomen after death. Wherefore when Leontis, a most excellent woman,\ndeparted this life, immediately we made a long oration to thee about\nher, and truly not devoid of philosophical consolation; and now (as\nthou didst desire) I send thee in writing the rest of my speech and\nconversation, carrying with it an historical demonstration that the\nvirtue of a man and woman is one and the same. And although it be\nnot composed for the tickling of the ear, yet if there be jucundity\nin the nature of an example to him that is persuaded of the truth\nof it, my narration fails not of that grace which works conviction;\nneither is it ashamed of commixing the Graces with the Muses in the\nsweetest harmony (as Euripides saith), while it engageth confidence\nespecially through that part of the soul which is studious of grace\nand beauty. For surely, if, whilst we asserted the art of painting to\nbe the same, whether performed by men or women, we produced the same\nsort of draughts wrought by women which Apelles, Zeuxis, or Nicomachus\nhath left, is there any one who would reprehend us as attempting\nrather to humor and cajole men than to convince them? Verily I do not\nthink it. Moreover, if, whilst we go to make appear that the poetic\nor comic art is not one thing in men and another in women, we compare\nSappho\u2019s verses with Anacreon\u2019s, or the Sibylline oracles with those of\nBacis, can any one justly blame this way of argumentation, because it\ninsinuates a credence into the pleased and delighted hearers? No one\nsurely would say this. Neither can a man truly any way better learn the\nresemblance and the difference between feminine and virile virtue than\nby comparing together lives with lives, exploits with exploits, as the\nproducts of some great art; duly considering whether the magnanimity\nof Semiramis carries with it the same character and impression with\nthat of Sesostris, or the cunning of Tanaquil the same with that of\nKing Servius, or the discretion of Porcia the same with that of Brutus,\nor that of Pelopidas with Timoclea,\u2014regarding that quality of these\nvirtues wherein lie their chiefest point and force. Moreover, virtues\ndo admit some other differences, like peculiar colors, by reason of\nmen\u2019s dispositions, and are assimilated to the manners and temperaments\nof the bodies wherein they are, yea, to the education and manner of\ndiet. Achilles was courageous in one manner, Ajax in another; the\nsubtlety of Ulysses was not like that of Nestor, neither were Cato and\nAgesilaus just after the same manner; neither was Eirene a lover of her\nhusband as Alcestis was; neither was Cornelia magnanimous in the same\nway with Olympias. But, for all this, we do not say that there are many\nkinds of fortitude, prudence, and justice specifically distinct, so\nlong as their individual dissimilitudes exclude none of them from the\nspecific definitions.\n\nThose things now which are very commonly discoursed of, and of which I\nknow thou hast had the exact history and knowledge from solid books, I\nwill at present omit, unless there be some public and recorded matters\nworth your hearing, which have escaped the historians of former times.\n\nAnd seeing that many worthy things, both public and private, have been\ndone by women, it is not amiss to give a brief historical account of\nthose that are public, in the first place.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 1. _Of the Trojan Women._\n\nOf those that escaped at the taking of Troy the most part were\nexercised with much tempestuous weather, and being inexperienced in\nnavigation and unacquainted with the sea, they were wafted over into\nItaly; and about the river Tiber they made a very narrow escape by\nputting into such ports and havens as they could meet with. Whilst\nthe men went about the country to enquire after pilots, there fell\nout a discourse among the women, that for a people as fortunate and\nhappy as they had been, any fixed habitation on the land was better\nthan perpetual wandering over the sea; and that they must make a new\ncountry for themselves, seeing it was impossible to recover that which\nthey had lost. Upon this, complotting together, they set fire on the\nships, Roma (as they say) being one of the first in the attempt. But\nhaving done these things, they went to meet their husbands, who were\nrunning towards the sea to the relief of the ships; and fearing their\nindignation, they laid hold some of them on their husbands, and some on\ntheir kinsfolk, and fell a kissing them soundly; by which carriage they\nobtained their charitable reception. Wherefore it hath been formerly,\nand now remains to be a custom among the Romans, for the women to\nsalute their kinsfolk that come unto them by kissing.\n\nThe Trojans as it seems, being sensible of the strait they were in, and\nhaving also made some experience of the natives entertaining them with\nmuch bounty and humanity, applauded the exploit of the women, and sat\ndown by the Latins.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 2. _Of the Phocian Women._\n\nThe action of the women of Phocis hath not fallen under the cognizance\nof any noted writer of that age, and yet there was never a more\nmemorable deed of virtue wrought by women,\u2014the which is attested by\nthose famous sacred rites performed by the Phocians at Hyampolis,\nand by ancient decrees. The total history of the transaction is\nparticularly recorded in the Life of Daiphantus.\n\nThe story of those women is this. There was an implacable war between\nthe Thessalians and the Phocians. For these (the Phocians) slew all\nthe Thessalian governors and magistrates in the cities of Phocis in\none day. Whereupon they (the Thessalians) slew two hundred and fifty\nPhocian hostages, and with their whole host marched up against them\nthrough Locris, publishing their resolution to spare no men that were\nof age, and to sell the women and children for slaves. Daiphantus\ntherefore, the son of Bathyllius, a triumvir, governor of Phocis,\npersuaded the Phocian men themselves to go to meet the Thessalians in\nbattle; but as for the women, together with their children, that they\nshould assemble them from all the parts of Phocis into one place, which\nthey should pile round with combustible matter, and should leave a\nwatch, to whom they should give in charge, that if he perceived that\nthe men were conquered, he should immediately set fire to the pile and\nburn all the bodies to ashes. The counsels were agreed to by some, but\none stands up and saith: It is just that these things be consented to\nby the women also, and if they do not cheerfully submit to it, they\nshould have no force offered to them. The account of this discourse\nbeing come to the women, they assembled together by themselves, and\ncarried it by vote, and applauded Daiphantus as a man that best\nconsulted the affairs of Phocis; they say also, that the children\nmeeting together privately voted the same things. These matters being\nthus settled, the Phocians joining battle at Cleonae, a town of\nHyampolis, got the victory. Hence the Grecians call this vote of the\nPhocian women Aponoia (the desperate resolve). And of all the festivals\nthis of the Elaphebolia is the greatest, which they observe to Diana in\nHyampolis to this day, in remembrance of this victory.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 3. _Of the Women of Chios._\n\nThe people of Chios possessed themselves of Leuconia upon this\noccasion following. A certain famous man of the nobles of Chios was\nmarried; whilst the bride was drawn in her chariot, King Hippoclus,\nan intimate friend of the bridegroom\u2019s, being present with the rest,\nand also fuddled and merry, leaped into the chariot, not designing any\nincivility, but only to keep up the usual custom and to make sport.\nHowever, the bridegroom\u2019s friends slew him. The effects of divine\ndispleasure appearing against the people of Chios, and the oracle\ncommanding them to slay the slayers of Hippoclus, they replied, We have\nall of us slain Hippoclus. The oracle commanded them all therefore\nto depart the city, if all did partake of the guilt. So that at\nlength the principals, accessories, and abettors of the murder by any\nmeans whatsoever, being not a few in number nor feeble for strength,\ntransplanted themselves into Leuconia, which the Chians had once\ntaken from the Coroneans by the aid of the Erythraeans. Afterward a\nwar arising between them and the Erythraeans, by far the most potent\npeople among the Ionians, when the latter invaded Leuconia, the men of\nChios were not able to defend themselves, and came to an agreement to\ndepart upon these terms, that every one should take with him only one\ncloak and one coat, and nothing else. But the women of Chios upbraided\nthem as mean-spirited men, that they would lay down their weapons and\ngo naked men through their enemies. And when they made answer that\nthey were sworn so to do, they charged them not to leave their weapons\nbehind them, but to say to their adversaries, that the spear is a cloak\nand the buckler a coat to every man of courage. The men of Chios being\npersuaded to these things, and emboldening themselves courageously\nagainst the Erythraeans, and showing their weapons, the Erythraeans\nwere amazed at their audacity, and none opposed or hindered them, but\nwere glad of their departure. These men therefore, being taught courage\nby the women in this manner, made a safe escape.\n\nMany years after this there was another exploit, nothing inferior\nto this in fortitude, performed by the women of Chios. When Philip,\nthe son of Demetrius, besieged the city, he set forth a barbarous\nand insolent proclamation, inviting the servants to a defection upon\npromise of liberty and marriage of their mistresses, saying that he\nwould give them their masters\u2019 wives into their possession. At this the\nwomen were dreadfully and outrageously incensed; and also the servants\nwere no less provoked to indignation, and were ready to assist.\nTherefore they rushed forth furiously and ascended the wall, bringing\nstones and darts, encouraging and animating the soldiers; so that in\nthe end these women discomfited and repulsed the enemy, and caused\nPhilip to raise his siege, while not so much as one servant fell off to\nhim.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 4. _Of the Argive Women._\n\nOf all the renowned actions performed by women, none was more famous\nthan the fight with Cleomenes in the country of Argos, whom Telesilla\nthe poetess by her influence defeated. This woman they say was of an\nhonorable family, but had a sickly body; she therefore sent to consult\nthe oracle concerning her health. Answer was made, that she must be a\nservant to the Muses. Accordingly she becomes obedient to the Goddess,\napplying herself to poetry and music; her distempers left her, and she\nbecame the mirror of women in the art of poetry. Now when Cleomenes,\nking of the Spartans, having slain many Argives (but not so many as\nsome fabulously reported, to wit, 7,777), marched up against the city,\nthe youthful women were (as it were) divinely inspired with desperate\nresolution and courage to repulse the enemies out of their native\ncountry.\n\nThey take arms under the conduct of Telesilla, they place themselves\nupon the battlements, they crown the walls, even to the admiration of\nthe enemy; they by a sally beat off Cleomenes, with the slaughter of\nmany of his men; and as for the other king, Demaratus (as Socrates\nsaith), he having entered the city and possessed him of the so-called\nPamphyliacum, they beat him out. In this manner the city being\npreserved, those women that were slain in the engagement they buried by\nthe Argive road; to them that escaped they gave the honor of erecting\nthe statue of Mars, in perpetual memorial of their bravery. Some say\nthis fight was on the seventh day of the month; others say it was on\nthe first day of the month, which is now called the fourth and was\nanciently called Hermaeus by the Argives; upon which day, even to\nthis time, they perform their Hybristica (i.e., their sacred rites of\nincivility), clothing the women with men\u2019s coats and cloaks, but the\nmen with women\u2019s veils and petticoats. To repair the scarcity of men,\nthey admitted not slaves, as Herodotus saith, but the best sort of the\nadjacent inhabitants to be citizens, and married them to the widows;\nand these the women thought meet to reproach and undervalue at bed and\nboard, as worse than themselves; whence there was a law made, that\nmarried women should wear beards when they lay with their husbands.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 5. _Of the Persian Women._\n\nCyrus, causing the Persians to revolt from King Astyages and the\nMedes, was overcome in battle; and the Persians retreating by flight\ninto the city, the enemy pursued so close that they had almost fallen\ninto the city with them. The women ran out to meet them before the\ncity, plucking up their petticoats to their middle, saying, Ye vilest\nvarlets among men, whither so fast? Ye surely cannot find a refuge in\nthese parts, from whence ye came forth. The Persians blushing for shame\nat the sight and speech, and rebuking themselves, faced about, and\nrenewing the fight routed their enemies. Hence a law was enacted, that\nwhen the king enters the city, every woman should receive a piece of\ngold; and this law Cyrus made. And they say that Ochus, being in other\nkinds a naughty and covetous king, would always, when he came, compass\nthe city and not enter it, and so deprive the women of their largess;\nbut Alexander entered twice, and gave all the women with child a double\nbenevolence.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 6. _Of the Celtic Women._\n\nThere arose a very grievous and irreconcilable contention among the\nCelts, before they passed over the Alps to inhabit that tract of Italy\nwhich now they inhabit, which proceeded to a civil war. The women\nplacing themselves between the armies, took up the controversies,\nargued them so accurately, and determined them so impartially, that an\nadmirable friendly correspondence and general amity ensued, both civil\nand domestic. Hence the Celts made it their practice to take women into\nconsultation about peace or war, and to use them as mediators in any\ncontroversies that arose between them and their allies. In the league\ntherefore made with Hannibal, the writing runs thus: If the Celts take\noccasion of quarrelling with the Carthaginians, the governors and\ngenerals of the Carthaginians in Spain shall decide the controversy;\nbut if the Carthaginians accuse the Celts, the Celtic women shall be\njudges.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 7. _Of the Melian Women._\n\nThe Melians standing in need of a larger country constituted\nNymphaeus, a handsome man and marvellously comely, the commander for\nthe transplanting of the colony. The oracle enjoined them to continue\nsailing till they cast away their ships, and there to pitch their\ncolony. It happened that, when they arrived at Caria and went ashore,\ntheir ships were broken to pieces by a storm. Some of the Carians which\ndwelt at Cryassus, whether commiserating their distressed condition or\ndreading their resolution, invited them to dwell in their neighborhood,\nand bestowed upon them a part of their country; but then observing\ntheir marvellous increase in a little time, they conspired to cut them\noff by treachery, and provided a feast and great entertainment for that\nend and purpose. But it came to pass that a certain virgin in Caria,\nwhose name was Caphene, fell in love with Nymphaeus. While these things\nwere in agitation, she could not endure to connive at the destruction\nof her beloved Nymphaeus, and therefore acquainted him privately with\nthe conspiracy of the citizens against him. When the Cryassians came\nto invite them, Nymphaeus made this answer: It is not the custom of\nthe Greeks to go to a feast without their wives. The Carians hearing\nthis requested them also to bring their wives; and so explaining the\nwhole transaction to the Melians, he charged the men to go without\narmor in plain apparel, but that every one of the women should carry\na dagger stuck in her bosom, and that each should take her place by\nher husband. About the middle of supper, their signal token was given\nto the Carians; the point of time also the Grecians were sensible of.\nAccordingly the women laid open their bosoms, and the men laid hold\nof the daggers, and sheathing them in the barbarians, slew them all\ntogether. And possessing themselves of the country, they overthrew that\ncity, and built another, which they called New Cryassus. Moreover,\nCaphene being married to Nymphaeus received due honor and grateful\nacknowledgments becoming her good services. Here the taciturnity and\ncourage of women is worthy of admiration, that none of them among so\nmany did so much as unwittingly, by reason of fear, betray their trust.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 8. _Of the Tyrrhene Women._\n\nAt the time when the Tyrrhenians inhabited the islands Lemnos and\nImbros, they violently seized upon some Athenian women from Brauron, on\nwhom they begat children, which children the Athenians banished from\nthe islands as mixed barbarians. But these arriving at Taenarum were\nserviceable to the Spartans in the Helotic war, and therefore obtained\nthe privilege of citizens and marriage, but were not dignified with\nmagistracies or admitted to the senate; for they had a suspicion that\nthey would combine together in order to some innovation, and conceived\nthey might shake the present established government. Wherefore the\nLacedaemonians, seizing on them and securing them, shut them up close\nprisoners, seeking to take them off by evident and strong convictions.\nBut the wives of the prisoners, gathering together about the prison,\nby many supplications prevailed with the jailers that they might be\nadmitted to go to salute their husbands and speak with them. As soon as\nthey came in, they required them to change their clothes immediately\nand leave them to their wives; while the men, apparelled in their\nwives\u2019 habits, should go forth. These things being effected, the women\nstayed behind, prepared to endure all hard usages of the prison, but\nthe deluded keepers let out the men as if they had been their wives.\nWhereupon they seized upon Taygeta, exciting the Helotic people to\nrevolt, and taking them to their aid; but the Spartans, alarmed by\nthese things into a great consternation, by a herald proclaimed a\ntreaty of peace. And they were reconciled upon these conditions, that\nthey should receive their wives again, and furnished with ships and\nprovisions should make an expedition by sea, and possessing themselves\nof a land and a city elsewhere should be accounted a colony and allies\nof the Lacedaemonians. These things did the Pelasgians, taking Pollis\nfor their captain and Crataedas his brother, both Lacedaemonians, and\none part of them took up their seat in Melos; but the most part of\nthem, which were shipped with Pollis, sailed into Crete, trying the\ntruth of the oracles, by whom they were told that, when they should\nlose their Goddess and their anchor, then they should put an end to\ntheir roving and there build a city. Wherefore, putting into harbor on\nthat part of Crete called Chersonesus, panic fears fell upon them by\nnight, at which coming under a consternation, they leaped tumultuously\non board their ships, leaving on shore for haste the statue of Diana,\nwhich was their patrimony brought from Brauron to Lemnos, and from\nLemnos carried about with them wherever they went. The tumult being\nappeased, when they had set sail, they missed this statue; and at the\nsame time Pollis, finding that his anchor had lost one of its beards\n(for the anchor, having been dragged, as appeared, through some rocky\nplace, was accidentally torn), said that the oracular answer of the\nPythia was accomplished. Therefore he gave a sign to tack about, and\naccordingly made an inroad into that country, conquered those that\nopposed him in many battles, sat down at Lyctus, and brought many\nother cities to be tributary to him. And now they repute themselves\nto be akin to the Athenians on their mothers\u2019 side, and to be Spartan\ncolonies.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 9. _Of the Lycian Women._\n\nThat which is reported to have fallen out in Lycia, although it be\nfabulous, hath yet common fame attesting it. Amisodarus, as they say,\nwhom the Lycians call Isaras, came from a colony of the Lycians about\nZeleia, bringing with him pirate ships, which Chimarrhus, a warlike\nman, who was also savage and brutish, was commander of. He sailed in a\nship which had a lion carved on her head and a dragon on her stern. He\ndid much mischief to the Lycians, so that they could not sail on the\nsea nor inhabit the towns nigh the sea-coast.\n\nThis man Bellerophon pursued with his Pegasus and slew him, and also\ndefeated the Amazons, for which he obtained no due requital, but\nIobates the king was most unjust to him; upon which Bellerophon went\nto the seashore, and made earnest supplication by himself to Neptune\nthat he would render that country barren and unfruitful; and having\nsaid his prayers, he faced about. Upon which the waves of the sea\narose and overwhelmed the land, and it was a dreadful sight to behold\nthe lofty billows following Bellerophon and drowning the plain. And\nnow, when the men by their deprecation, laboring to put a stop to\nBellerophon, availed nothing at all, the women plucking up their\npetticoats met him full butt; upon which confounded with shame he\nturned back again, and the flood, as they say, returned with him. But\nsome unriddle the fabulous part of this story, by telling us that it\nwas not by execrations that he brought up the sea; but the fattest part\nof the plain lying lower than the sea, and a certain ridge extending\nitself all along the shore which beat off the sea, Bellerophon broke\nthrough this, so that the sea forcibly flowed in and overwhelmed the\nplain; and when the men by their humble addresses obtained nothing,\nthe women assembling about him in multitudes gained respect from him\nand pacified his wrath. Some tell us that the celebrated Chimaera\nwas a mountain opposite to the sun, which caused reflections of the\nsun\u2019s beams, and in summer ardent and fiery heats, which spread over\nthe plain and withered the fruits; and Bellerophon, finding out the\nreason of the mischief, cut through the smoothest part of the cliff,\nwhich especially caused these reflections. But on seeing that he was\ntreated ungratefully, his indignation was excited to take vengeance on\nthe Lycians, but was appeased by the women. The reason which Nymphis\n(in the fourth book concerning Heraclea) doth assign is to me not at\nall fabulous; for he saith, when Bellerophon slew a certain wild boar,\nwhich destroyed the cattle and fruits in the province of the Xanthians,\nand received no due reward of his service, he prayed to Neptune for\nvengeance, and obtained that all the fields should cast forth a salt\ndew and be universally corrupted, the soil becoming bitter; which\ncontinued till he, condescendingly regarding the women suppliants,\nprayed to Neptune, and removed his wrath from them. Hence there was a\nlaw among the Xanthians, that they should not for the future derive\ntheir names from their fathers, but from their mothers.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 10. _Of the Women of Salmantica._\n\nWhen Hannibal, the son of Barca, besieged the great city Salmantica\nin Spain, before he fought against the Romans, at the first assault\nthe besieged citizens were surprised with fear, insomuch that they\nconsented to grant him his demands, and to give him three hundred\ntalents of silver and three hundred hostages. Upon which he raised his\nsiege; when they changed their minds, and would not perform any thing\nthat they had promised. Wherefore returning again to his siege, he\ngave command to his soldiers to take the city by storm, and fall to\nthe plundering their goods. At this the barbarians, struck universally\ninto a panic fear, came to terms of composition, for the free citizens\nto depart the city with their clothes to their backs, but to leave\ntheir weapons, goods, slaves, and city behind them. Now the women\nsupposed that, although the enemies would strictly search every man\nas he departed, yet the women would go untouched. Accordingly, taking\nscimitars and hiding them under their coats, they fell in with the men\nas they marched out. When they were all gone out of the city, Hannibal\nsets a guard of Masaesylian soldiers, fixing their post without the\ngate, but the rest of his army fell promiscuously into the city to\nplunder. But the Masaesylians, seeing them busy in carrying away much\nspoil, were not able any longer to refrain or to mind the charge of\ntheir watch, taking it heinously that that was their lot, and therefore\nleft their post and went to take their share of the booty. Upon this\nthe women raised a shout to animate their husbands, and delivered the\nscimitars into their hands, and they themselves some of them fell upon\nthe sentinels; insomuch that one of them, snatching away the spear of\nBanon the interpreter, smote him with it, though he was armed with a\nbreastplate. And as for the rest, the men routed and put some to flight\nand slew others, making their escape by charging through them in a\ngreat body together with the women. Hannibal, being made acquainted\nwith these things, pursued them, and those he took he slew; but some\nbetaking themselves to the mountains easily made their escape, and\nafterwards, sending in their humble supplications, were admitted by\nhim into the city, obtaining indemnity and civil usage.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 11. _Of the Women of Milesia._\n\nA certain dreadful and monstrous distemper did seize the Milesian\nmaids, arising from some hidden cause. It is most likely the air had\nacquired some infatuating and venomous quality, that did influence\nthem to this change and alienation of mind; for all on a sudden an\nearnest longing for death, with furious attempts to hang themselves,\ndid attack them, and many did privily accomplish it. The arguments and\ntears of parents and the persuasion of friends availed nothing, but\nthey circumvented their keepers in all their contrivances and industry\nto prevent them, still murdering themselves. And the calamity seemed to\nbe an extraordinary divine stroke and beyond human help, until by the\ncounsel of a wise man a decree of the senate was passed, enacting that\nthose maids who hanged themselves should be carried naked through the\nmarket-place. The passage of this law not only inhibited but quashed\ntheir desire of slaying themselves. Note what a great argument of good\nnature and virtue this fear of disgrace is; for they who had no dread\nupon them of the most terrible things in the world, death and pain,\ncould not abide the imagination of dishonor and exposure to shame even\nafter death.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 12. _Of the Women of Cios._\n\nIt was a custom among the maids of Cios to assemble together in the\npublic temples, and to pass the day together in good fellowship; and\nthere their sweethearts had the felicity to behold how prettily they\nsported and danced about. In the evening this company went to the house\nof every particular maid in her turn, and waited upon each other\u2019s\nparents and brethren very officiously, even to the washing of their\nfeet. It oftentimes so fell out that many young men fell in love with\none maid; but they carried it so decently and civilly that, when the\nmaid was espoused to one, the rest presently gave off courting of her.\nThe effect of this good order among the women was that no mention was\nmade of any adultery or fornication among them for the space of seven\nhundred years.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 13. _Of the Phocian Women._\n\nWhen the tyrants of Phocis had taken Delphi, and the Thebans undertook\nthat war against them which was called the Holy War, certain women\ndevoted to Bacchus (which they call Thyades) fell frantic and went a\ngadding by night, and mistaking their way they came to Amphissa; and\nbeing very much tired and not as yet in their right wits, they flung\ndown themselves in the market-place, and fell asleep as they lay\nscattered up and down here and there. But the wives of the Amphisseans,\nfearing, because that city was engaged to aid the Phocians in the\nwar and abundance of the tyrants\u2019 soldiery were present in the city,\nthe Thyades might have some indignity put upon them, ran forth all\nof them into the market-place and stood silently round about them,\nneither would offer them any disturbance whilst they slept; but when\nthey were awake, they attended their service particularly and brought\nthem refreshments; and in fine, by persuasions obtained leave of their\nhusbands to accompany them and escort them in safety to their own\nborders.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 14. _Valeria and Cloelia._\n\nThe injury done to Lucretia and her great virtue were the causes of\nbanishing Tarquinius Superbus, the seventh Roman king from Romulus,\nshe being married to an illustrious man, one of the royal race. She\nwas ravished by one of Tarquin\u2019s sons, who was in a way of hospitality\nentertained by her: and after she had acquainted her friends and\nfamily with the abuse offered her, she immediately slew herself.\nTarquinius having fallen from his dominion, after many battles that he\nfought in attempting to regain his kingly government, at last prevailed\nwith Porsena, prince of the Etrurians, to encamp against Rome with\na powerful army. Whereupon the Romans, being pressed with war and\nfamine at the same time, likewise knowing that Porsena was not only\na great soldier but a just and civil person, resolved to refer the\nmatters against Tarquinius to him as a judge. This proposal Tarquinius\nobstinately refused to consent unto, saying that Porsena could not be a\njust arbitrator if he did not remain constant to his military alliance.\nWhereupon Porsena left him to himself, and made it his endeavor to\ndepart a friend to the Romans, on condition of having restored to\nhim the tracts of land they had cut off from the Etrurians and the\ncaptives they had taken. Upon these accepted conditions hostages being\ngiven,\u2014ten male children, and ten females (among whom was Valeria, the\ndaughter of Publicola the consul),\u2014he immediately ceased his warlike\npreparations before the articles of agreement were quite finished. Now\nthe virgin hostages going down to the river, as if they intended only\nto wash themselves a little further than ordinary from the camp, there,\nby the instigation of one of them whose name was Cloelia, wrapping\ntheir garments about their heads, they cast themselves into that great\nriver Tiber, and assisting one another, swam through those vast depths\nwith much labor and difficulty. There are some who say that Cloelia\ncompassing a horse got upon him, and passing over gently before, the\nrest swimming after her, conducted, encouraged, and assisted them; the\nargument they use for this we shall declare anon.\n\nAs soon as the Romans saw the maids had made such a clever escape, they\nadmired indeed their fortitude and resolution, but did not approve\nof their return, not abiding to be worse in their faith than any\none man; therefore they charged the maids to return back, and sent\nthem away with a safe conduct. Tarquinius laid wait for them as they\npassed the river, and wanted but little of intercepting the virgins.\nBut Valeria with three of her household servants made her flight to\nthe camp of Porsena; and as for the rest, Aruns, Porsena\u2019s son, gave\nthem speedy help and delivered them from the enemies. When they were\nbrought, Porsena looking upon them commanded them to tell him which\nof them advised and first attempted this enterprise; all of them\nbeing surprised with fear, except Cloelia, were silent, but she said,\nthat she was the author of it; at which Porsena, mightily surprised,\ncommanded an horse curiously adorned with trappings should be brought,\nwhich he gave to Cloelia, and dismissed them all with much generosity\nand civility; and this is the ground which many make of saying that\nCloelia passed through the river on horseback. Others deny this story,\nbut yet say that Porsena admiring the undauntedness and confidence\nof the maid, as being beyond what is commonly in a woman, bestowed a\npresent on her becoming a man champion. It is certain that there is the\nstatue of a woman on horseback by the side of the Sacred Way, which\nsome say represents Cloelia, others, Valeria.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 15. _Of Micca and Megisto._\n\nAristotimus having usurped tyranny over the people of Elis in\nPeloponnesus, against whom he prevailed by the aid of King Antigonus,\nused not his power with any meekness or moderation. For he was\nnaturally a savage man; and being in servile fear of a band of mixed\nbarbarians, who guarded his person and his government, he connived\nat many injurious and cruel things which his subjects suffered at\ntheir hands, among which was the calamity of Philodemus. This man had\na beautiful daughter, whose name was Micca. This maid one of the\ntyrant\u2019s captains of auxiliaries, called Lucius, attempted to lie with,\nmore out of a design to debauch her than for any love he had to her;\nand for this end he sent to fetch her to him. The parents verily seeing\nthe strait they were in advised her to go; but the maid, being of a\ngenerous and courageous spirit, clasped about her father, beseeching\nhim with earnest entreaties that he would rather see her put to death\nthan that her virginity should be filthily and wickedly violated. Some\ndelay being made, Lucius himself starts up in the midst of his cups,\nenraged with wrath and lust, and drunk with wine; and finding Micca\nlaying her head on her father\u2019s knees, he instantly commanded her to go\nalong with him; but she refusing, he rent off her clothes, and whipped\nher stark naked, she stoutly enduring the smart in silence. When her\nfather and mother perceived that by their tears they could not avail\nor bring any succor to her, they turned to imploring the help of both\nGods and men, as persons that were oppressed by the most cruel and\nunrighteous proceedings. But this barbarous fellow, drunk and raging\nevery way with madness, ran the maid through as she lay with her face\nin her father\u2019s bosom. Neither was the tyrant affected with these\ncruelties, but slew many and sent more into exile; for they say eight\nhundred took their flight into Aetolia, petitioning the tyrant that\ntheir wives and children might come to them. A little after he made\nproclamation, permitting the women that would to go to their husbands,\ncarrying with them all their household goods that they pleased; but\nwhen he perceived that all the women received the proclamation with\npleasure (for the number was above six hundred), he charged them all\nto go in great companies on the appointed day, as if he intended to\nconsult for their safety. When the day came, they crowded at the gates\nwith their goods packed up, carrying their children, some in their arms\nand some in carts, and stayed for one another. All on a sudden many\nof the tyrant\u2019s creatures made towards them in great haste, crying\naloud to them to stay, while they were yet at great distance from\nthem; and as they approached, they charged the women to return back.\nLikewise turning about their chariots and carts, they forced them upon\nthem, drove the horses through the midst of them without fear or wit,\nsuffering the women neither to follow nor to stay, nor to reach forth\nany help to the perishing infants, some of whom were killed falling out\nof the carts, others run over by the carts. So they drove them in (as\nso many sheep which butchers drive along), hauling and whipping them\nas they thronged upon one another, till they had crowded them all into\na prison; but their goods they returned to Aristotimus. The people of\nElis taking these things very heinously, the priestesses devoted to\nBacchus (which they call the Sixteen), taking with them their suppliant\nboughs and wreaths belonging to the service of their God, went to meet\nAristotimus in the market-place; the guards, out of a reverential awe,\nstood off and gave way to their approach. These priestesses stood still\nat first with silence, solemnly reaching forth their supplicatory\nrods; but as soon as they appeared as petitioners and deprecators of\nhis wrath against the women, he fell into a great rage at the guards,\nexclaiming against them that they had suffered the priestesses to\napproach his presence, and he caused some to be thrust away, others\nto be beaten and dragged through the market-place, and fined them two\ntalents apiece.\n\nThese things being transacted in this manner, one Hellanicus moved a\nconspiracy against this tyrant. He was a man who, by reason of old age\nand the loss of two sons by death, was unsuspected of the tyrant, as\nbeing altogether unlikely for action. In the mean time also the exiles\nwaft themselves over from Aetolia, and take Amymona, a very convenient\nplace on the borders to entrench a camp in, where they received great\nnumbers of the citizens who made their escape by flight from Elis.\nAristotimus being startled at these things went in to the imprisoned\nwomen, and thinking to work them to his pleasure more by fear than by\nfavor, charged them to send letters to their husbands, enjoining them\nto depart out of the coasts; if they would not write, he threatened\nthem to slay their children before their eyes, and then put them (the\nmothers) to death by torments. Whilst he was long provoking and urging\nthem to declare whether they would obey his mandates or not, most of\nthem answered him nothing, but looked with silence one upon another,\nsignifying by nods and gestures that they were not at all affrighted\nat his threat. But Megisto the wife of Timocleon, who both in respect\nof her husband and her own excellent accomplishments carried the port\nof a princess among them, would not vouchsafe to rise off her seat to\nhim nor permit the rest so to do, but as she sat, she gave him this\nanswer:\u2014\n\n\u201cVerily if thou wert a discreet man, thou wouldst not after this manner\ndiscourse with women about their husbands, but wouldst send to them as\nto our lords, finding out better language than that by which thou hast\ndeluded us. But if thou thyself despairest to prevail with them, and\ntherefore undertakest to trepan them by our means, do not hope to put\na cheat upon us again. And may they never be guilty of such baseness,\nthat for the saving their wives and little ones they will desert that\nliberty of their native country; for it is not so great a prejudice\nto them to lose us, whom even now they are deprived of, as it will be\nbenefit to set the subjects at liberty from thy cruelty and oppression.\u201d\n\nAristotimus, being not able to refrain himself at this speech of\nMegisto, required that her son should be brought, as if it were to\nslay him before her eyes; but whilst the officer was seeking out the\nchild, that was in the company of other children playing and wrestling\ntogether, his mother called him by his name, and said: Come hither, my\nchild; before thou hast any sense and understanding, be thou delivered\nfrom bitter tyranny; for it would be much more grievous to me to see\nthee basely enslaved than to see thee die. At which Aristotimus drawing\nhis sword upon the mother herself, and transported with rage, was going\nto fall upon her, when one of his favorites, Cylon by name (esteemed\nhis trusty confidant, but in reality a hater of him, and a confederate\nwith Hellanicus in the conspiracy), put a stop to him, and averted him\nin an humble manner, telling him: This is an ignoble and woman-like\ncarriage, not at all becoming a person of a princely mind and a\nstatesman. Hereupon Aristotimus scarcely coming to his senses departed.\nNow observe what an ominous prodigy happened to him. It was about noon,\nwhen he was taking some repose, his wife sitting by; and whilst his\nservants were providing dinner, an eagle was seen in the air floating\nover the house, which did, as it were considerately and on purpose,\nlet fall a stone of an handsome bigness upon that part of the roof of\nthe house which was over the apartment where Aristotimus lay. At the\nsame time there was also a great rattling from above, together with an\noutcry made by the people that were abroad looking upon the bird. Upon\nwhich Aristotimus, falling into a great consternation and examining\nthe matter, sent and called his soothsayer which he usually consulted\nin his public concerns, and being in great perplexity, desired to be\nsatisfied what that prodigy meant. The soothsayer bade him be of good\ncheer, for it signified that Jupiter now wakened and assisted him. But\nto the citizens that he could confide in he said, that vengeance would\nno longer be delayed from falling on the tyrant\u2019s head. Wherefore it\nwas concluded by Hellanicus and his friends not to defer any longer,\nbut to bring matters to an issue the next day. At night Hellanicus\nimagined in his sleep that he saw one of his dead sons stand by him\nsaying, What is the matter with thee, O father! that thou sleepest?\nTo-morrow thou shalt be governor of this city. Being animated by his\nvision, he encouraged the rest concerned with him. Now Aristotimus\nwas informed that Craterus, coming to his aid with great forces, was\nencamped in Olympia; upon which he became so confidently secure, that\nhe ventured to go without his guards into the market-place, Cylon only\naccompanying him. Wherefore Hellanicus, observing this opportunity,\ndid not think good to give the signal to those that were to undertake\nthe enterprise with him, but with a clear voice and lifting up both\nhis hands, he spake saying: O ye good men! why do ye delay? Here is a\nfair theatre in the midst of your native country for you to contend in\nfor the prize of valor. Whereupon Cylon in the first place drawing his\nsword smote one of Aristotimus\u2019s waiting gentlemen; but Thrasybulus and\nLampis making a brisk opposition, Aristotimus escaped by flight into\nthe temple of Jupiter. Here slaying him, they dragged forth his corpse\ninto the market-place, and proclaimed liberty to the citizens. Neither\nwere the men there much before the women, who immediately ran forth\nwith joyful acclamations, environing the men and binding triumphant\ngarlands about their heads. The multitude presently rushed on upon the\ntyrant\u2019s palace, where his wife shutting herself into her bed-chamber\nhanged herself. He had also two daughters, maidens of most beautiful\ncomplexions, ripe for marriage. Those they laid hands on, and haled\nforth, with a desperate resolution to slay them, but first to torment\nand abuse them. But Megisto, with the rest of the women, meeting them\ncalled out with a loud voice: Will they perpetrate such enormities\nwho reckon themselves a free people, in imitation of the practices\nof audacious and libidinous tyrants? The multitude reverencing the\ngravity of this matron, pleading with them so undauntedly as also\naffectionately with tears, they resolved to lay aside this opprobrious\nway of proceeding, and to cause them to die by their own hands. As\nthey were therefore returned into the chamber, they required the maids\nimmediately to be their own executioners. Muro, the eldest, untying\nher girdle and tying it about her neck, saluted her sister, and\nexhorted her to be careful and do whatever she saw her do; lest (as\nshe said) we come to our death in a base and unworthy manner. But the\nyounger desiring it might be her lot to die first, she delivered her\nthe girdle, saying: I did never deny thee any thing thou didst ever\ndesire, neither will I now; take this favor also. I am resolved to\nbear and endure that which is more grievous than death to me, to see\nmy most dear sister die before me. Upon this, when she had instructed\nher sister how to put the girdle so as to strangle her, and perceived\nher dead, she took her down and covered her. And now the eldest sister,\nwhose turn was next, besought Megisto to take care of her, and not\nsuffer her to lie indecently after she was dead. So that there was not\nany one present that was so bitter and vehement a tyrant-hater that he\ndid not lament and compassionate these maidens upon their brave and\nvirtuous behavior.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOf the innumerable famous exploits performed by women, these examples\nmay suffice. But as for their particular virtues, we will describe\nthem according as they offer themselves scattered here and there, not\nsupposing that our present history doth necessarily require an exact\norder of time.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 16. _Of Pieria._\n\nSome of the Ionians who came to dwell at Miletus, falling into\ncontention with the sons of Neleus, departed to Myus, and there\ntook up their situation, where they suffered many injuries from the\nMilesians; for they made war upon them by reason of their revolt\nfrom them. This war was not indeed without truces or commerce, but\nupon certain festival days the women of Myus went to Miletus. Now\nthere was at Myus Pythes, a renowned man among them, who had a wife\ncalled Iapygia, and a daughter Pieria. Pythes, when there was a time\nof feasting and sacrificing to Diana among the Milesians, which they\ncalled Neleis, sent his wife and daughter, who desired to participate\nof the said feast; when one of the most potent sons of Neleus, Phrygius\nby name, fell in love with Pieria. He desired to know what service he\ncould do which might be most acceptable to her. She told him, that he\nshould bring it to pass that she with many others might have their\nfrequent recourse thither. Hence Phrygius understood that she desired\nfriendship and peace with the citizens of Miletus; accordingly he\nfinished the war. Whence arose that great honor and renown of Pieria in\nboth cities; insomuch that the Milesian women do to this day make use\nof this benediction to new married wives, that their husbands may love\nthem so as Phrygius loved Pieria.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 17. _Of Polycrita._\n\nA war arose between the Naxians and Milesians upon the account of\nNeaera, the wife of Hypsicreon, a Milesian. For she fell in love\nwith Promedon a Naxian, who was Hypsicreon\u2019s guest. Promedon lies\nwith his beloved Neaera; and she, fearing her husband\u2019s displeasure,\ntook shipping with her Promedon, who carried her over into Naxos and\nplaced her a supplicant to Vesta. The Naxians not restoring her upon\ndemand, for the sake of Promedon and making her devotion to Vesta their\npretence, a war arose. To the assistance of the Milesians came in many\nothers; and of the Ionians the Erythraeans were most ready. So that\nthis war was of long continuance, and had great calamities attending\nit. But as it was begun by the lewdness of a woman, so it was ended by\na woman\u2019s policy. Diognetus, a colonel of the Erythraeans, holding a\nfortification committed to his keeping, which was cast up against the\nNaxians, lying naturally to great advantage and well furnished with\nammunition, took great spoils from the Naxians; yea, he captivated both\nfree married women and virgins; with one of which, called Polycrita,\nhe fell in love, and treated her not as a captive but after the manner\nof a married wife. Now a festival coming in turn to be celebrated\namong the Milesians in the camp, and all of them given to their cups\nand luxury, Polycrita petitioned Diognetus that he would be pleased\nto permit her to send some part of the cakes to her brethren. He\npermitting and bidding her do it, she thrust into a cake a piece of\nlead engraven with writing, and commanded the bearer to say to her\nbrethren that they alone by themselves should eat up what she had sent.\nAccordingly they met with the plate of lead, and read Polycrita\u2019s\nhand-writing, advising them that night to fall upon their enemies,\nwho, by reason of excess caused by their feastings, were overcome with\nwine and therefore in a careless secure condition. They acquainted the\nofficers with it, and urged them to accompany them forth against the\nenemies. Upon engagement the stronghold being gotten and many slain,\nPolycrita by entreaty of her countrymen obtained the life of Diognetus\nand preserved him. But she being met by her countrymen at the gate,\nwho received her with acclamations of joy and garlands, and greatly\napplauded her deed, could not bear the greatness of the joy, but died,\nfalling down at the gate of the citadel, where she was buried; and\nit is called the Sepulchre of Envy, as though some envious fortune\nhad grudged Polycrita the fruition of so great honor. And thus do the\nNaxian writers declare the history. But Aristotle saith, that Polycrita\nwas not taken captive, but that by some other way or means Diognetus\nseeing her fell in love with her, and was ready to give and do all that\nhe could for the enjoying her. Polycrita promised to consent to him,\nprovided she might obtain one only thing of him; concerning which,\nas the philosopher saith, she required an oath of Diognetus. When he\nhad sworn, she required Delium to be delivered up to her (for the\nstronghold was called Delium), otherwise she would not yield to go with\nhim. He, being besotted with lust and for his oath\u2019s sake, delivered up\nthe place into the hands of Polycrita, and she to her countrymen. From\nhenceforward they adjusted matters so equally, that the Naxians had\nfree converse, as they pleased, with the Milesians.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 18. _Of Lampsace._\n\nThere were two brethren, Phobus and Blepsus, twins of the stock of\nCodrus, natives of Phocaea; of which two Phobus, the elder, threw\nhimself from the Leucadian rocks into the sea, as Charon of Lampsacus\nhath told us in history. This Phobus, having potency and royal dignity,\ntook a voyage into Parium upon the account of his own private concerns;\nand becoming a friend and guest to Mandron king of the Bebrycians, the\nsame that were called Pituo\u00ebssans, he aided and assisted him in the war\nagainst those of the bordering inhabitants that molested him. So that\nwhen Phobus was returning back by sea, Mandron showed great civility to\nhim, promising to give him a part of his country and city, if he would\nbring over the Phocaeans and plant them as inhabitants in Pituo\u00ebssa.\nPhobus therefore persuading his countrymen sent his brother to conduct\nthem over as planters, and likewise the obligation was performed on\nMandron\u2019s part according to expectation. But the Phocaeans taking great\nbooty, prey, and spoils from the neighboring barbarians, were first\nenvied, and afterwards became a terror to the Bebrycians; and therefore\nthey desired to be rid of them. As for Mandron, being an honest and\nrighteous person, they could not possess him against the Grecians;\nbut he taking a long journey, they provided to destroy the Phocaeans\nby treachery. Mandron had a daughter called Lampsace, a virgin, who\nwas acquainted with the plot; and first she endeavored to take off\nher friends and familiars from it, admonishing them what a dreadful\nand ungodly enterprise they were going upon,\u2014to murder men that were\nbenefactors, military auxiliaries, and now citizens. But when she could\nnot prevail with them, she declared to the Grecians secretly what was\nplotting, and wished them to stand upon their guard. Upon this, the\nPhocaeans provided a sacrifice and feast, and invited the Pituo\u00ebssans\ninto the suburbs; on which, dividing themselves into two parts, with\none they surprised the walls of the city, with the other they slew the\nmen. Thus taking the city, they sent to Mandron, desiring him to join\nwith their own rulers in the government. As for Lampsace, she died of a\nsickness, and they buried her sumptuously, and called the city Lampsace\nafter her name. But when Mandron, avoiding all suspicion of betraying\nhis people, refused to come to dwell among them, and desired this favor\nat their hands, that they would send him the wives and children of the\ndeceased, the Phocaeans most readily sent them, offering them no injury\nat all. And ascribing in the first place heroic renown to Lampsace, in\nthe last place they decreed a sacrifice to her as a Goddess, which they\ncontinue yearly to offer.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 19. _Aretaphila._\n\nAretaphila, a Cyrenaean, was not of ancient time, but lived in\nthe time of the Mithridatic war. She arrived at such a degree of\nfortitude and experience in counsel as might be compared with the\nconduct of any heroic ladies. She was the daughter of Aeglator and\nthe wife of Phaedimus, both renowned men. She was a great beauty,\nexcelling in discretion, and was not unacquainted with the most knotty\npieces of policy; but the common disasters of her native country\nrendered her famous. Nicocrates, having then usurped the tyranny\nover the Cyrenaeans, not only murdered many other citizens, but also\nassassinated Melanippus, a priest of Apollo, with his own hand, and\nheld the priesthood himself. He slew also Phaedimus, the husband of\nAretaphila, and married Aretaphila against her will. Unto a thousand\nother villainies he added this, that he set guards at the gates, who\nmangled the dead corpses as they were carrying forth, pricking them\nwith their daggers and clapping hot irons to them, lest any citizen\nshould be carried out privily under pretence of being a dead corpse.\nAretaphila\u2019s own proper calamities were very grievous to her, although\nthe tyrant, for the love that he bare to her, suffered her to enjoy\na great part of his regal power; for his love had subdued him unto\nher, and to her alone was he gentle and manageable, being very rude\nand savage in his behavior to others. But that which troubled her\nmore than other things was to see her miserable country suffering\nsuch horrid things in so base a manner; one citizen being slaughtered\nafter another, without any hopes of a vindictive justice from any.\nThe exiles also were altogether enfeebled, affrighted, and scattered\nhere and there. Aretaphila therefore supposed herself to be the only\nhope remaining for the state; and emulating the famous and brave\nenterprises of Thebe of Pherae, although she was destitute of the\nfaithful friends and helpers which circumstances afforded to Thebe,\nshe laid a plan to despatch her husband by poison. But in setting\nherself about it, providing the materials, and trying many experiments\nwith poisons, the matter could not be hid, but was discovered; and\nthere being proof made of the attempt, Calbia, Nicocrates\u2019s mother,\nbeing naturally of a murdering implacable spirit, presently adjudged\nAretaphila to torments and then to death. But love abated the rage of\nNicocrates, and put him upon delay; and the vigorous manner in which\nAretaphila met the accusation and defended herself gave some plausible\nground for his hesitation. But when she was convicted by the clearest\nproofs, and the preparation she had made for the poison was even in\nsight, admitting no denial, she confessed that she provided poison,\nbut not deadly poison. But truly, O sir, she said, I am contending for\nmatters of great concern, no less indeed than the honor and power which\nby thy gracious favor I reap the fruit of. I am maligned by many ill\nwomen, whose poisons and treacheries I stand in fear of, and therefore\nhave been persuaded to contrive something on the other side in my own\ndefence. These are haply foolish and woman-like plots, but not such\nas deserve death, unless it seem good to thee as judge to take away\nthy wife\u2019s life on account of love-potions and charms, which she has\nused because she wishes to be loved by thee more than thou wouldst\nhave her. Notwithstanding this defence which Aretaphila had made for\nherself, Nicocrates thought good to commit her to torments; and Calbia\npresided in the judicature, rigid and inexorable. But Aretaphila bore\nup invincibly under her tortures, till Calbia herself was tired, sore\nagainst her will. But Nicocrates being pacified discharged her, and\nwas sorry he had tortured her. And it was not very long ere he went in\nagain unto her, being highly transported with affection, renewing his\nfavor towards her with honors and courteous behavior. But she would\nnot be brought under by flattery, who had held out so stoutly under\ntortures and pains; and an emulation of victory, conjoined with the\nlove of honesty, made her betake herself to other measures.\n\nShe had a daughter marriageable, an excellent beauty. Her she\npresented for a bait to the tyrant\u2019s brother, a young stripling and\nlasciviously addicted. There was a report, that Aretaphila used\nsuch enchantments and witchcrafts towards the maid, that she plainly\ncharmed and destroyed the young man\u2019s reason. He was called Leander.\nAfter he was entangled, he petitioned his brother and accomplished the\nmarriage. Now the maid, being instructed by her mother, instigated\nand persuaded him to set the city at liberty, insinuating that he\nhimself could not live long free under an arbitrary government, nor\ncould he marry a wife or reserve her to himself. Also some friends,\nAretaphila\u2019s favorites, suggested to him continually some accusations\nor surmises concerning his brother. But as soon as he perceived that\nAretaphila was counselling and aiding in these matters, he undertook\nthe business, and excited Daphnis a household servant, who slew\nNicocrates by his command. In what followed, he attended not so much\nto Aretaphila, but presently manifested by his actions that he was\nrather a fratricide than a tyrannicide; for he managed his affairs\nperversely and foolishly. But yet he had some honor for Aretaphila,\nand she had some influence with him; neither did she manage any enmity\nor open opposition against him, but ordered her affairs privily. First\nof all, she stirred up an African war against him, and incited Anabus,\na certain duke, to invade his borders and approach the city; and\nthen she buzzed into Leander\u2019s head suspicions against the favorites\nand officers, saying that they were not forward to fight but rather\nambitious of peace and tranquillity, which indeed (she said) the state\nof affairs and the security of his dominion required of him if he\nwould hold his subjects in firm subjection; and she would effect a\ncessation of arms and bring Anabus to a parley with him, if he would\npermit it, before an incurable war should break forth. Leander gave\nher commission. First she treated with the African, and with the\npromise of great presents and treasures begged that he would seize\nLeander when he came to treat with him. The African was persuaded,\nbut Leander was backward to it; only for the respect that he bore to\nAretaphila, who said that she would be present, he went unarmed and\nunguarded. But as he came nigh and saw Anabus, he made a halt, and\nwould have waited the coming of his guards; only Aretaphila being\npresent sometimes encouraged him, sometimes reviled him. But at last,\nwhen he still hesitates, she undauntedly lays hold on him, and dragging\nhim resolutely along, delivers him to the barbarian. He was immediately\nseized, confined, and bound, and kept prisoner by the African, until\nAretaphila\u2019s friends, with other citizens, procured the treasures\npromised. Many people acquainted with this ran forth to the parley; and\nas soon as they saw Aretaphila, they were so transported that they had\nlike to have forgot their indignation against the tyrant, and reckoned\nthe punishing him of no great concern. But the first work after the\nenjoyment of their liberty was the saluting Aretaphila, between\nacclamations of joy and weeping, and falling down before her, as before\nthe statue of one of the Gods. And the people flocked in one after\nanother, so that they scarcely had time that evening to receive Leander\nagain and return into the city. When they had satisfied themselves\nin honoring and applauding Aretaphila, they turned themselves to the\ntyrants; and Calbia they burnt alive, Leander they sewed up in a sack\nand threw him into the sea, but they voted that Aretaphila should bear\nher share in the government together with the statesmen, and be taken\ninto counsel. But she, by great sufferings having acted a tragi-comedy\nconsisting of various parts, and at last obtained the reward of the\ngarland, as soon as she saw the city set at liberty, betook herself to\nher private apartment; and casting off all multiplicity of business,\nshe led the rest of her time in spinning, and finished her days in\ntranquillity among her friends and acquaintance.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 20. _Camma._\n\nThere were two most potent persons among the tetrarchs of Galatia,\nallied by kin to each other, Sinatus and Synorix; one of which,\nSinatus, took a maid to wife, Camma by name, very comely to behold\nfor person and favor, but principally to be admired for virtue. For\nshe was not only modest and loving to her husband, but discreet\nand of a generous mind. And by reason of her gentle and courteous\nbehavior she was extremely acceptable to her inferiors; yea, that\nwhich rendered her more eminently renowned was, that being a priest\nof Diana (for the Galatians worship that goddess most) she did always\nappear magnificently adorned in all sacred processions and at the\nsacrifices. Wherefore Synorix, falling in love with her, could not\nprevail either by persuasions or violence, whilst her husband lived.\nHe commits a horrid crime,\u2014he slays Sinatus treacherously,\u2014and not\nlong after accosts Camma, whilst she abode within the temple, and bore\nSynorix\u2019s crime not in an abject and despondent manner, but with a\nmind intent upon revenge on Synorix, and only waiting an opportunity.\nHe was importunate in his humble addresses, neither did he seem to\nuse arguments that were without all show of honesty. For as in other\nthings he pretended that he far excelled Sinatus, so he slew him for\nthe love he bare to Camma and for no other wicked design. The woman\u2019s\ndenials were at first not very peremptory, and then by little and\nlittle she seemed to be softened towards him. Her familiars and friends\nalso lay at her in the service and favor of Synorix, who was a man\nof great power, persuading and even forcing her. In fine therefore\nshe consented, and accordingly sent for him to come to her, that the\nmutual contract and covenant might be solemnized in the presence\nof the Goddess. When he came, she received him with much courtesy,\nand bringing him before the altar and pouring out some of the\ndrink-offering upon the altar out of the bowls, part of the remainder\nshe drank herself and part she gave him to drink. The cup was poisoned\nmead. As she saw him drink it all up, she lifted up a shrill loud\nvoice, and fell down and worshipped her Goddess, saying: I call thee\nto witness, O most reverend Divinity! that for this very day\u2019s work\u2019s\nsake I have over-lived the murder of Sinatus, no otherwise taking any\ncomfort in this part of my life but in the hope of revenge that I\nhave had. And now I go down to my husband. And for thee, the lewdest\nperson among men, let thy relations prepare a sepulchre, instead of a\nbride-chamber and nuptials. When the Galatian heard these things, and\nperceived the poison to wamble up and down and indispose his body, he\nascended his chariot, hoping to be relieved by the jogging and shaking.\nBut he presently alighted, and put himself into a litter, and died that\nevening. Camma continued all that night, and being told that he had\nended his life, she comfortably and cheerfully expired.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 21. _Stratonica._\n\nGalatia also produced Stratonica the wife of Deiotarus, and Chiomara\nthe wife of Ortiagon, both of them women worth remembrance. Stratonica\nknowing that her husband wanted children of his own body to succeed in\nhis kingdom, she being barren persuaded him to beget a child on another\nwoman, and subject it to her tutelage. Deiotarus admiring her proposal,\ncommitted all to her care upon that account. She provided a comely\nvirgin for him from among the captives, Electra by name, and brought\nher to lie with Deiotarus. The children begotten of her she educated\nvery tenderly and magnificently, as if they had been her own.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 22. _Chiomara._\n\nIt fell out that Chiomara, the wife of Ortiagon, was taken captive with\nother women, in the time when the Romans under Cneus Manlius overcame\nthe Galatians of Asia in battle. The centurion that took her made\nuse of his fortune soldier-like and defiled her; for he was, as to\nvoluptuousness and covetousness, an ill-bred and insatiable man, over\nwhom avarice had gotten an absolute conquest. A great quantity of gold\nbeing promised by the woman for her ransom, in order to her redemption\nhe brought her to a certain bank of a river. As the Galatians passed\nover and paid him the money in gold, and received Chiomara into their\npossession, she gave an intimation of her pleasure to one of them by\nnod,\u2014to smite the Roman while he was kissing and taking his leave of\nher. He obeyed her commands and cut off his head. She takes it, wraps\nit up in her apron, and carries it with her; and as she comes to her\nhusband, she casts down the head before him, at which being startled he\nsaid, O wife! thy fidelity is noble. Yea, verily, replied she, it is a\nnobler thing that there is now but one man alive that hath ever lain\nwith me. Polybius saith that he discoursed with this woman at Sardis,\nand admired her prudence and discretion.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 23. _Of the Woman of Pergamus._\n\nWhen Mithridates sent for sixty noblemen of Galatia as friends, he\nseemed to carry himself abusively and imperiously towards them, which\nthey were all mightily provoked at. Poredorix, a man of a robust\nbody and lofty mind, who was no less than tetrarch of the Tosiopae,\ndesigned to lay hold on Mithridates, seizing him when he should be\ndetermining causes on the bench of judicature in the gymnasium, and\nto force him bench and all into the ditch; but by a certain chance\nhe went not up to the place of judicature that day, but sent for the\nGalatians to come home to him to his house. Poredorix encouraged them\nall to be of good courage, and when they should be all come together\nthere, to fall upon him on every side, slay him, and cut his body in\npieces. This conspiracy was not unknown to Mithridates, an intimation\nof it being given him; accordingly he delivers up the Galatians one\nby one to be slain. But calling to mind a young man among them, who\nexcelled in comeliness and beauty all whom he knew, he commiserated him\nand repented himself and was apparently grieved, supposing him slain\namong the first, and also sent his command, that if he were alive he\nshould remain so. The young man\u2019s name was Bepolitanus. There was a\nstrange accident befell this man. When he was apprehended, he had on\nvery gay and rich apparel, which the executioner desired to preserve\nclean from being stained with blood; and undressing the young man\nleisurely, he saw the king\u2019s messengers running to him and calling\nout the name of the youth. So that covetousness, which is the ruin of\nmany, unexpectedly saved the life of Bepolitanus. But Poredorix being\nslain was cast forth unburied, and none of his friends did dare to\ncome near him; only a certain woman of Pergamus, that was conversant\nwith him while he lived at Galatia, attempted to cover his corpse and\nbury it. But when the guards perceived her, they laid hold on her and\nbrought her before the king. And it is reported that Mithridates was\nmuch affected at the sight of her, the young maid seeming altogether\nharmless, and the more so, as it seemed, because he knew that love was\nthe reason of her attempt. He gave her leave therefore to take away\nthe corpse and bury it, and to take grave-clothes and ornaments at his\ncost.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 24. _Timoclea._\n\nTheagenes the Theban, who held the same sentiments with regard to\nhis country\u2019s welfare with Epaminondas, Pelopidas, and the other\nmost worthy Thebans, was slain in Chaeronea, in the common disaster\nof Greece, even then when he had conquered his enemies and was in\npursuit of them. For it was he that answered one who cried out aloud\nto him, How far wilt thou pursue? Even (saith he) to Macedonia. When\nhe was dead, his sister survived him, who gave testimony that he was\nnobly descended, and that he was naturally a great man and excellently\naccomplished. Moreover, this woman was so fortunate as to reap a\ngreat benefit by her prowess, so that the more public calamities\nfell upon her, so much the easier she bore them. For when Alexander\ntook Thebes and the soldiers fell a plundering, some in one part and\nsome in another, it happened that a man, neither civil nor sober but\nmischievous and mad, took up his quarters in Timoclea\u2019s house. He was\na captain to a Thracian company, and the king\u2019s namesake, but nothing\nlike him; for he having no regard either to the family or estate\nof this woman, when he had swilled himself in wine after supper,\ncommanded her to come and lie with him. Neither ended he here, but\nenquired for gold and silver, whether she had not some hid by her;\nsometimes threatening as if he would kill her, sometimes flattering as\nif he would always repute her in the place of a wife. She, taking the\noccasion offered by him, said: \u201cWould God I had died before this night\ncame, rather than lived to it; that though all other things had been\nlost, I might have preserved my body free from abuse. But now seeing it\nis thus come to pass, and Divine Providence hath thus disposed of it\nthat I must repute thee my guardian, lord, and husband, I will not hold\nany thing from thee that is thine own. And as for myself, I see I am\nat thy disposition. As for corporeal enjoyments, the world was mine, I\nhad silver bowls, I had gold, and some money; but when this city was\ntaken, I commanded my maids to pack it up altogether, and threw it,\nor rather put it for security, into a well that had no water in it.\nNeither do many know of it, for it hath a covering, and nature hath\nprovided a shady wood round about it. Take then these things, and much\ngood may they do thee; and they shall lie by thee, as certain tokens\nand marks of the late flourishing fortune and splendor of our family.\u201d\n\nWhen the Macedonian heard these things, he stayed not for day, but\npresently went to the place by Timoclea\u2019s conduct, commanding the\ngarden-door to be shut, that none might perceive what they were about.\nHe descended in his morning vestment. But the revengeful Clotho brought\ndreadful things upon him by the hand of Timoclea, who stood on the\ntop of the well; for as soon as she perceived by his voice that he\nreached the bottom, she threw down abundance of stones upon him, and\nher maids rolled in many and great ones, till they had dashed him to\npieces and buried him under them. As soon as the Macedonians came to\nunderstand this and had taken up the corpse, there having been late\nproclamation that none of the Thebans should be slain, they seized her\nand carried her before the king and declared her audacious exploit;\nbut the king, who by the gravity of her countenance and stateliness\nof her behavior did perceive in her something that savored of the\ngreatest worth and nobility, asked her first, What woman art thou? She\ncourageously and undauntedly answered: Theagenes was my brother, who\nwas a commander at Chaeronea, and lost his life fighting against you\nin defence of the Grecian liberty, that we might not suffer any such\nthing; and seeing I have suffered things unworthy of my rank, I refuse\nnot to die; for it is better so to do than to experience another such\na night as the last, which awaits me unless thou forbid it. All the\nmost tender-spirited persons that were present broke out into tears;\nbut Alexander was not for pitying her, as being a woman above pity. But\nhe admired her fortitude and eloquence, which had taken strong hold on\nhim, and charged his officers to have a special care and look to the\nguards, lest any such abuse be offered again to any renowned family;\nand dismissed Timoclea, charging them to have a special regard to her\nand all that should be found to be of her family.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 25. _Eryxo._\n\nArcesilaus was the son of Battus who was surnamed Felix, not at all\nlike to his father in his conversation. His father, when he lived, laid\na fine of a talent upon him for making fortifications about his house.\nAfter his father\u2019s death, he being of a rugged disposition (therefore\nsurnamed the Severe), and following the counsels of Laarchus, an ill\nfriend, became a tyrant instead of a king. For Laarchus affecting\nthe government for himself, either banished or slew the noblemen of\nCyrene, and charged the fault upon Arcesilaus; and at last casting\nhim into a wasting and grievous disease, by giving him the sea-hare\nin his drink, he deprived him of his life. So that Laarchus assumed\nthe government, under pretence of being protector to Arcesilaus\u2019s\nyoung son Battus; but the youth, by reason either of his lameness or\nyouthful age, was contemned. As for his mother, many made addresses\nto her, being a modest and courteous woman, and she had many of the\ncommons and nobility at her devotion. Therefore Laarchus, pretending\nto be her humble servant, would needs marry her, and thereby take\nBattus to the dignity of being son and then allow him a share in the\ngovernment. But Eryxo (for that was the woman\u2019s name), taking counsel\nof her brethren, bade Laarchus treat with them as if she had designed\nmarriage; Laarchus accordingly treating with Eryxo\u2019s brethren, they\non purpose delay and prolong the business. Eryxo sends one of her\nmaid-servants acquainting him, that for the present her brethren did\noppose the match, but if they could but accomplish it so as to lie\ntogether once, her brethren would cease arguing the matter any farther,\nand would give their consent. He should therefore come to her by\nnight, if he pleased; an entrance being once made in a business, the\nrest will succeed well enough. These things were mighty pleasing to\nLaarchus, and he was much inflamed by the woman\u2019s obliging carriage\ntowards him, and declared that he would come to whatever place she\nshould command him. These things Eryxo transacted with the privity\nof Polyarchus, her eldest brother. A time being now appointed for\nthe congress, Polyarchus placed himself in his sister\u2019s bed-chamber,\ntogether with two young men that were sword-men, all out of sight, to\nrevenge the death of his father, whom Laarchus had lately murdered.\nEryxo sending at the time to acquaint him, he entered without his\nguard, and the young men falling upon him, he was wounded with the\nsword and died; the corpse immediately they threw over the wall. Battus\nthey brought forth and proclaimed king over his father\u2019s dominions, and\nPolyarchus restored to the Cyrenaeans their ancient constitution of\ngovernment. There were present at that time many soldiers of Amasis,\nthe Egyptian king; whom Laarchus had employed and found faithful, and\nby whose means he had been not a little formidable to the citizens.\nThese sent messengers to accuse Polyarchus and Eryxo to Amasis. At\nthis the king was greatly incensed, and determined to make war upon\nthe Cyrenaeans. But it happened that his mother died, and while he\nwas solemnizing her funeral, ambassadors came and brought the news of\nhis intentions to Cyrene. Wherefore it was thought best by Polyarchus\nto go and apologize for himself. Eryxo would not desert him, but was\nresolved to accompany him and run the same hazard with him. Nor would\nhis mother Critola leave him, though she was an old woman; for great\nwas her dignity, she being the sister of old Battus, surnamed Felix.\nAs soon as they came into Egypt, as others with admiration approved\nof the exploit, so even Amasis himself did not a little applaud the\nchastity and fortitude of Eryxo, honoring her with presents and royal\nattendance, with which he sent back Polyarchus and the ladies into\nCyrene.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 26. _Xenocrita._\n\nXenocrita of Cumae deserves no less to be admired for her exploits\nagainst Aristodemus the tyrant, whom some have supposed to be surnamed\nthe Effeminate, being ignorant of the true story. He was called by the\nbarbarians Malakos (that is soft and effeminate) with regard merely to\nhis youth; because, when he was a mere stripling, with other companions\nof the same age who wore long hair (whence they were called Coronistae,\nas it seems from their long hair), he became famous in the war against\nthe barbarians. He was also not only renowned for resolution and\nactivity, but very exceedingly remarkable for his discretion and\nprovidence; insomuch that being admired by the citizens he proceeded\nto the highest dominion among them. He was to bring aid to the Romans\nwhen they were in war with the Etrurians, who engaged to restore\nTarquinius Superbus to his kingdom; in all which expedition, that was\nvery long, he managed all affairs so as to ingratiate himself with the\nmilitary part of the citizens, aiming more at the making himself head\nof a popular faction than general of the army. He accordingly prevails\nwith them to join with him in attacking the senate, and in casting out\nthe citizens of highest rank and most potent into exile. Afterwards\nbecoming tyrant, he was flagitious in his carriage towards women and\nfree-born youth, and exceeded even himself in vileness. For history\nreports of him how that he accustomed the boys to wear their hair\nlong and set with golden ornaments, and the girls he compelled to be\npolled round, and to wear youths\u2019 jerkins and short-tailed petticoats.\nNotwithstanding, he had a peculiar affection for Xenocrita, a girl of\nCumae, left behind by her exiled father. Her he kept, but could not\nbring over to his humor by any insinuations or persuasions, neither had\nhe gained her father\u2019s consent; however, he reckoned the maid would be\nbrought to love him by constant conversation with him, since she would\nbe envied and reputed very happy by the citizens. But these things did\nnot at all besot the maid; but she took it heinously that she must be\nconstrained to dwell with him, not espoused or married. Neither did she\nless long for the liberty of her native country than did those who were\nhated by the tyrant.\n\nIt happened about that time that Aristodemus was casting up an\nentrenchment about the borders of Cumae, a work neither necessary nor\nprofitable, only because he was resolved to tire out the citizens with\nhard toil and labor; for every one was required to carry out a stinted\nnumber of baskets of earth daily, in order to the delving this ditch.\nA certain maid, as she saw Aristodemus approaching, ran aside and\ncovered her face with her apron; but when Aristodemus was withdrawn,\nthe young men would sport and jest with her, asking her whether out\nof modesty she avoided only the sight of Aristodemus and was not so\naffected towards other men. She made answer designedly, rather than\notherwise, that of the Cumaeans Aristodemus was the only man. This\nsentence thus spoken verily touched them all very near, for it provoked\nthe generous-minded men among them for very shame to the recovering\nof their liberties. And it is said that Xenocrita was heard to say,\nthat she had rather carry earth for her father, if he were at home,\nthan participate in the great luxury and pomp of Aristodemus. These\nthings added courage to them that were about to make an insurrection\nagainst Aristodemus, which Thymoteles had the chief management of;\nfor Xenocrita providing them safe admittance, they easily rushed in\nupon Aristodemus, unarmed and unguarded, and slew him. In this manner\nthe city of Cumae gained its liberty, by the virtue of two women; one\nby suggesting and invigorating the enterprise, the other by bringing\nit to an issue. When honors and great presents were tendered to\nXenocrita, she refused all; but requested one thing, that she might\nbury the corpse of Aristodemus. This they delivered her, and made her a\npriestess of Ceres; reckoning that, as it was a deserved honor bestowed\non her, so she would be no less acceptable to the Goddess.\n\n\nEXAMPLE 27. _The Wife of Pythes._\n\nIt is reported that the wife of Pythes, who lived at the time of\nXerxes, was a wise and courteous woman. Pythes, as it seems, finding\nby chance some gold mines, and falling vastly in love with the riches\ngot out of them, was insatiably and beyond measure exercised about\nthem; and he brought down likewise the citizens, all of whom alike he\ncompelled to dig or carry or refine the gold, doing nothing else; many\nof them dying in the work, and all being quite worn out. Their wives\nlaid down their petition at his gate, addressing themselves to the wife\nof Pythes. She bade them all depart and be of good cheer; but those\ngoldsmiths which she confided most in she required to wait upon her,\nand confining them commanded them to make up golden loaves, all sorts\nof junkets and summer-fruits, all sorts of fish and flesh meats, in\nwhich she knew Pythes was most delighted. All things being provided,\nPythes coming home then (for he happened to go a long journey) and\nasking for his supper, his wife set a golden table before him, having\nno edible food upon it, but all golden. Pythes admired the workmanship\nfor its imitation of nature. When, however, he had sufficiently fed his\neyes, he called in earnest for something to eat; but his wife, when he\nasked for any sort, brought it of gold. Whereupon being provoked, he\ncried out, I am an hungered. She replied: Thou hast made none other\nprovisions for us; every skilful science and art being laid aside, no\nman works in husbandry; but neglecting sowing, planting, and tilling\nthe ground, we delve and search for useless things, killing ourselves\nand our subjects. These things moved Pythes, but not so as to give\nover all his works about the mine; for he now commanded a fifth part\nof the citizens to that work, the rest he converted to husbandry and\nmanufactures. But when Xerxes made an expedition into Greece, Pythes,\nbeing most splendid in his entertainments and presents, requested a\ngracious favor of the king, that since he had many sons, one might be\nspared from the camp to remain with him, to cherish his old age. At\nwhich Xerxes in a rage slew this son only which he desired, and cut him\nin two pieces, and commanded the army to march between the two parts\nof the corpse. The rest he took along with him, and all of them were\nslain in the wars. At which Pythes fell into a despairing condition, so\nthat he fell under the like suffering with many wicked men and fools.\nHe dreaded death, but was weary of his life; yea, he was willing not to\nlive, but could not cast away his life. He had this project. There was\na great mound of earth in the city, and a river running by it, which\nthey called Pythopolites. In that mound he prepared him a sepulchre,\nand diverted the stream so as to run just by the side of the mound, the\nriver lightly washing the sepulchre. These things being finished, he\nenters into the sepulchre, committing the city and all the government\nthereof to his wife; commanding her not to come to him, but to send\nhis supper daily laid on a sloop, till the sloop should pass by the\nsepulchre with the supper untouched; and then she should cease to send,\nas supposing him dead. He verily passed in this manner the rest of his\nlife; but his wife took admirable care of the government, and brought\nin a reformation of all things amiss among the people.\n\n\n\n\nLACONIC APOPHTHEGMS; OR REMARKABLE SAYINGS OF THE SPARTANS.\n\n\n_Of Agasicles._\n\nAgasicles the Spartan king, when one wondered why, since he was a great\nlover of instruction, he would not admit Philophanes the Sophist,\nfreely said, I ought to be their scholar whose son I am. And to one\nenquiring how a governor should be secure without guards, he replied,\nIf he rules his subjects as fathers do their sons.\n\n\n_Of Agesilaus the Great._\n\nAgesilaus the Great, being once chosen steward of a feast, and asked by\nthe butler how much wine he allowed every guest, returned: If you have\na great deal provided, as much as every one calls for; if but a little,\ngive them all an equal share. When he saw a malefactor resolutely\nendure his torments, How great a rascal is this fellow, he cried out,\nthat uses patience, bravery, and courage, in such an impious and\ndishonest case! To one commending an orator for his skill in amplifying\npetty matters he said, I don\u2019t think that shoemaker a good workman\nthat makes a great shoe for a little foot. When one in discourse said\nto him, Sir, you have assented to such a thing already, and repeated\nit very often, he replied, Yes, if it is right; but if not, I said so\nindeed but never assented. And the other rejoining, But, sir, a king is\nobliged to perform whatever he hath granted by his nod;[177] No more,\nhe returned, than those that petition him are bound to make none but\ngood and just requests, and to consider all circumstances of time and\nwhat befits a king. When he heard any praise or censure, he thought it\nas necessary to enquire into the character of those that spake as of\nthose of whom they spake. While he was a boy, at a certain solemnity\nof naked dancing, the person that ordered that affair put him in a\ndishonorable place; and he, though already declared king, endured it,\nsaying, I\u2019ll show that it is not the places that grace men, but men\nthe places. To a physician prescribing him a nice and tedious course\nof physic, he said, By Castor and Pollux, unless I am destined to live\nat any rate, I surely shall not if I take all this. Whilst he stood by\nthe altar of Minerva Chalcioecus sacrificing an ox, a louse bit him.\nAt this he never blushed, but cracked him before the whole company,\nadding these words, By all the Gods, it is pleasant to kill a plotter\nat the very altar. Another time seeing a boy pull a mouse by the tail\nout of his hole, and the mouse turn and bite the boy\u2019s fingers and so\nescape; he bade his companions take notice of it, saying, If so little\na creature will oppose injurious violence, what think ye that men ought\nto do?\n\nBeing eager for war against the Persians to free the Asiatic Greeks,\nhe consulted the oracle of Jupiter at Dodona; and that telling him to\ngo on as he designed, he brought the answer to the Ephors, upon which\nthey ordered him to go to Delphi and put the same question. He went,\nand put it in this form: Apollo, are you of the same mind with your\nfather? And the oracle agreeing, he was chosen general and the war\nbegan. Now Tissaphernes, at first being afraid of Agesilaus, came to\narticles, and agreed that the Greek cities should be free and left to\ntheir own laws; but afterward procuring a great army from the king, he\ndeclared war against him unless he should presently leave Asia. Glad\nof this treachery of Tissaphernes, he marched as if his design was\nto make an inroad upon Caria; but when Tissaphernes had brought his\ntroops thither, he turned upon Phrygia, and took a great many cities\nand abundance of rich spoil, saying to his friend: To break one\u2019s\npromise is indeed impious; but to outwit an enemy is not only just and\nglorious, but profitable and sweet. Being inferior to the enemy in\nhorse, he retreated to Ephesus, and ordered all the wealthy to provide\neach a man and horse, which should excuse them from personal service\nin his wars. By which means, in the room of rich cowards, he was soon\nfurnished with stout men and able horses; and this he said he did in\nimitation of Agamemnon, who agreed for a serviceable mare to discharge\na wealthy coward. When he ordered the captives to be sold naked and the\nchapmen came, a thousand bid money for the clothes, but all derided\nthe bodies of the men, which were tender and white by reason of their\ndelicate breeding, as useless and worth nothing. He said to his\nsoldiers, Look, those are the things for which ye fight, and these are\nthe things with whom ye fight. Having beaten Tissaphernes in Lydia and\nkilled many of his men, he wasted the territories of the king; and the\nking sending money and desiring a peace, Agesilaus replied: To grant\npeace is in the power only of the commonwealth. I delight to enrich my\nsoldiers rather than myself, and think it agreeable to the honor of the\nGreeks not to receive gifts from their enemies but to take spoils.\n\nMegabates the son of Spithridates, a very pretty boy, who thought\nhimself very well beloved, coming to him to offer a kiss and an\nembrace, he turned away his head. But when the boy had not appeared a\nlong time, Agesilaus enquired after him; and his friends replied, that\nit was his own fault, since he derided the kiss of the pretty boy, and\nthe youth was afraid to come again. Agesilaus, standing silent and\nmusing a pretty while, said: Well, I will use no persuasions, for\nmethinks I had rather conquer such desires than take the most popular\ncity of my enemies; for it is better to preserve our own than rob\nothers of their liberty. In all things else he was very exact, and a\nstrict observer of the law; but in his friends\u2019 concerns he thought\nthat to be too scrupulous was a bare pretence to cloak unwillingness to\nuse his interest. And agreeable to this, there is extant a small note\nof his, interceding for a friend to one Idrieus a Carian: If Nicias is\nnot guilty, discharge him; if he is, discharge him for my sake; but by\nall means pray let him be discharged. This was his usual humor in his\nfriends\u2019 concerns, yet sometimes profit and convenience was preferred;\nfor once breaking up his camp in disorder, and leaving one that he\nloved behind him sick, when he begged and beseeched him with tears to\nhave compassion, he turned and said, How hard it is to be pitiful and\nwise at once! His diet was the same with that of his attendants; he\nnever fed to satisfy, nor drank himself drunk; he used sleep not as a\nmaster, but as a servant to his affairs; and was so fitted to endure\nheat or cold, that he alone was undisturbed at the change of seasons.\nHe lodged amongst his soldiers, and his bed was as mean as any; and\nthis he had always in his mouth: It befits a governor to excel private\nmen not in delicacy and softness, but in bravery and courage. And\ntherefore when one asked him what good Lycurgus\u2019s laws had brought to\nSparta, he replied, Contempt of pleasure. And to one that wondered at\nhis and the other Lacedaemonians\u2019 mean fare and poor attire, he said,\nFrom this course of life, sir, we reap liberty. And to one advising\nhim to indulge more, saying, Chance is uncertain, and you may never\nhave the opportunity again, he replied, I accustom myself so that, let\nwhatever change happen, I shall need no change. When he was grown old,\nhe continued the same course; and to one asking him why at his age in\nvery cold weather he would not wear a coat, he replied, that the youth\nmay imitate, having the old men and governors for example.\n\nThe Thasians, when he marched through their country, presented him with\ncorn, geese, sweetmeats, honey-cakes, and all sorts of delicacies,\nboth of meat and drink; he accepted the corn, but commanded them to\ncarry back the rest, as useless and unprofitable to him. But they\nimportunately pressing him to take all, he ordered them to be given\nto the Helots; and when some asked the reason, he replied, They that\nprofess bravery ought not to meddle with such delicacies; and whatever\ntakes with slaves cannot be agreeable to the free. Another time the\nThasians, after considerable benefits received, made him a God and\ndedicated temples to his honor, and sent an embassy to compliment him\non that occasion. When he had read over the honors the ambassadors had\nbrought him, Well, said he, and can your country make men Gods? And\nthey affirming, Go to, he rejoined, make yourselves all Gods first;\nand when that is done, I\u2019ll believe you can make me one. The Greeks\nin Asia decreeing him statues, he wrote thus to them: Let there be no\nrepresentation of me, either painted, founded, or engraved. In Asia,\nseeing a house roofed with square beams, he asked the master whether\ntrees in their country were grown square. And he replying, No, but\nround; What then, said he, if they grew square, would you make them\nround? Being asked how far Sparta\u2019s bounds extended, shaking a spear he\nreplied, As far as this will reach. And to another enquiring why Sparta\nwas without walls, he showed the citizens in arms, saying, Look, these\nare the walls of Sparta. And to another that put the same question he\nreplied, Cities should be walled not with stones and timber, but with\nthe courage of the inhabitants; and his friends he advised to strive to\nbe rich not in money, but in bravery and virtue. When he would have his\nsoldiers do any thing quickly, he before them all put the first hand\nto it; he was proud that he wrought as much as any, and valued himself\nmore upon ruling his own desires than upon being king. When one saw a\nlame Spartan marching to the war, and endeavored to procure a horse for\nhim, How, said he, don\u2019t you know that war needs those that will stay,\nnot those that will fly? Being asked how he got this great reputation,\nhe replied, By contemning death. And another time, one enquiring why\nthe Spartans used pipes and music when they fought, he said, When all\nmove in measure, it may be known who is brave and who a coward. When he\nheard one magnifying the king of Persia\u2019s happiness, who was but young,\nYes, said he, Priam himself was not unhappy at that age.\n\nWhen he had conquered a great part of Asia, he designed to march\nagainst the King himself, to break his quiet and hinder him from\ncorrupting the popular men amongst the Greeks; but being recalled by\nthe Ephors to oppose the designs which the other Greek states, bought\nwith the King\u2019s gold, were forming against Sparta, he said, A good\nruler should be governed by the laws,\u2014and sailed away from Asia,\nleaving the Greeks there extremely sorry at his departure. And because\nthe stamp of the Persian money was an archer, he said, when he broke\nup his camp, that he was driven out of Asia by thirty thousand of the\nKing\u2019s archers. For so many pieces of gold being carried to Thebes and\nAthens by Timocrates, and distributed amongst the popular men, the\npeople were excited to war upon the Spartans. And this epistle he sent\nto the Ephors:\u2014\n\n\n  AGESILAUS _to the_ EPHORS, _Greeting._\n\n  We have subdued a great part of Asia, driven out the barbarians,\n  and furnished Ionia with arms. But since you command me back, I\n  follow, nay almost come before this epistle; for I am not governor\n  for myself, but for the commonwealth. And then a king truly rules\n  according to justice, when he is governed by the laws, the Ephors, or\n  others that are in authority in the commonwealth.\n\nPassing the Hellespont, he marched through Thrace, but made no\napplications to any of the barbarians, only sending to know whether he\nmarched through the country of an enemy or a friend. All the others\nreceived him as friends and guided him in his march; only the Troadians\n(of whom, as story says, even Xerxes bought his passage) demanded\nof Agesilaus a hundred talents of silver and as many women. But he\nscoffingly replied, Why then do not you come presently to receive\nwhat you demand? And leading on his army, he fought them; and having\ndestroyed a considerable number, he marched through. To the king of\nMacedon he sent the same question; and he replying that he would\nconsider of it. Let him consider, saith he, and we will be marching\non. Upon which the king, surprised at his daring temper and afraid of\nhis force, admitted him as a friend. The Thessalians having assisted\nhis enemies, he wasted their country, and sent Xenocles and Scythes to\nLarissa in order to make a treaty. These being seized and detained,\nall others stomached it extremely, and were of opinion that Agesilaus\nshould besiege and storm Larissa. But he replying that he would not\ngive either of their lives for all Thessaly, he had them delivered\nupon articles. Hearing of a battle fought near Corinth, in which very\nfew of the Spartans, but many of the Corinthians, Athenians, and their\nallies were slain, he did not appear joyful, or puffed up with his\nvictory, but fetching a deep sigh cried out, Unhappy Greece, that hath\ndestroyed herself men enough to have conquered all the barbarians! The\nPharsalians pressing upon him and distressing his forces with five\nhundred horse, he charged them, and after the rout raised a trophy at\nthe foot of Narthacium. And this victory pleased him more than all the\nothers he had won, because with his single cavalry he had beaten those\nthat vaunted themselves as the best horsemen in the world. Diphridas\nbringing him commands immediately upon his march to make an inroad into\nBoeotia,\u2014though he designed the same thing in a short time, when he\nshould be better prepared,\u2014he obeyed, and sending for twenty thousand\nmen from the camp at Corinth, marched into Boeotia; and at Coronea\njoining battle with the Thebans, Athenians, Argives, Corinthians, and\nLocrians altogether, he won, though desperately wounded himself, the\ngreatest battle (as Xenophon affirms) that was fought in his age. And\nyet when he returned, after so much glory and so many victories, he\nmade no alteration in his course of life.\n\nWhen he saw some of the citizens think themselves brave fellows for\nbreeding horses for the race, he persuaded his sister Cunisca to\nget into a chariot and put in for the prize at the Olympian games,\nintending by that way to convince the Greeks that it was no argument\nof bravery, but of wealth and profuse expense. Having Xenophon the\nphilosopher at his house, and treating him with great consideration, he\nurged him to send for his children and have them brought up in Sparta,\nwhere they might learn the most excellent of arts, how to govern and\nhow to be governed. And at another time being asked by what means the\nLacedaemonians flourished above others, Because, says he, they are\nmore studious than others how to rule and how to obey. When Lysander\nwas dead, he found a strong faction, which Lysander upon his return\nfrom Asia had associated against him, and was very eager to show the\npeople what manner of citizen Lysander was whilst he lived. And finding\namong Lysander\u2019s papers an oration composed by Cleon of Halicarnassus,\nabout new designs and changing the government, which Lysander was\nto speak to the people, he resolved to publish it. But when an old\npolitician, perusing the discourse and fearing its effect upon the\npeople, advised him not to dig up Lysander but rather bury the speech\nwith him, he followed the advice, and made no more of it. Those of the\ncontrary faction he did not openly molest, but by cunning contrivance\nhe got some of them into office, and then showed them to be rascals\nwhen in power. And then defending them or getting their pardon when\naccused, he brought them over to his own side, so that he had no enemy\nat last. To one desiring him to write to his acquaintance in Asia, that\nhe might have justice done him, he replied, My acquaintance will do\nthee justice, though I do not write. One showed him the wall of a city\nstrongly built and well fortified, and asked him whether he did not\nthink it a fine thing. Yes, by heaven, he replied, for women, but not\nfor men to live in. To a Megarian talking great things of his city he\nsaid, Youth, thy words want an army.\n\nWhat he saw others admire he seemed not so much as to know; and when\nCallipides, a man famous among the Greeks for acting tragedies and\ncaressed by all, met him and saluted him, and then impudently intruding\namongst his companions showed himself, supposing that Agesilaus\nwould take notice of him and begin some familiar discourse, and at\nlast asked, Doth not your majesty know me? Have not you heard who I\nam?\u2014he looked upon him and said, Art not thou Callipides, the Merry\nAndrew?[178] (For that is the name the Lacedaemonians give an actor.)\nBeing once desired to hear a man imitate a nightingale, he refused,\nsaying, I have often heard the bird itself. Menecrates the physician,\nfor his good success in some desperate diseases, was called Jupiter;\nand priding himself in the name, he presumed to write to Agesilaus\nthus: Menecrates Jupiter to King Agesilaus wisheth good health.\nReading no more, he presently wrote back: King Agesilaus to Menecrates\nwisheth a sound mind.\n\nWhen Conon and Pharnabazus with the king\u2019s navy were masters of\nthe sea and wasted the coasts of Laconia, and Athens\u2014Pharnabazus\ndefraying the charges\u2014was surrounded with a wall, the Lacedaemonians\nmade a peace with the Persian; and sending Antalcidas, one of their\ncitizens, to Tiribazus, they agreed to deliver into the King\u2019s hands\nall the Asiatic Greeks, for whose freedom Agesilaus fought. Upon\nwhich account Agesilaus was not at all blemished by this dishonorable\ntreaty; for Antalcidas was his enemy, and clapped up a peace on purpose\nbecause the war raised Agesilaus and got him glory. When one said,\nThe Lacedaemonians are becoming medized, he replied, Rather the Medes\nare becoming laconized. And being asked which was the better virtue,\ncourage or justice, he said: Courage would be good for nothing, if\nthere were no justice; and if all men were just, there would be no\nneed of courage. The Asians being wont to style the king of Persia The\nGreat; How, said he, is he greater than I am, if he is not more just\nor temperate? And he used to say, The Greeks in Asia are mean-spirited\nfreemen, but stout slaves. And being asked how one might get the\ngreatest reputation amongst men, he replied, By speaking the best\nand doing the bravest things. And he had this saying commonly in his\nmouth, A commander should be daring against his enemy, and kind and\ngood-natured to his own soldiers. When one asked him what boys should\nlearn; That, said he, which they shall use when men. When he sat judge\nupon a cause, the accuser spake floridly and well; but the defendant\nmeanly and ever now and then repeated these words, Agesilaus, a king\nshould assist the laws. What, said he, dost thou think, if any one dug\ndown thy house or took away thy coat, a mason or a weaver would assist\nthee?\n\nA letter being brought him from the king of Persia by a Persian\nthat came with Callias the Spartan, after the peace was concluded,\noffering him friendship and kind entertainment, he would not receive\nit, bidding the messenger tell the king that there was no need to\nsend private letters to him; for if he was a friend to Sparta and\nmeant well to Greece, he would do his best to be his friend; but if he\ndesigned upon their liberty, he might know that, though he received\na thousand letters from him, he would be his enemy. He was very fond\nof his children; and it is reported that once toying with them he got\nastride upon a reed as upon a horse, and rode about the room; and being\nseen by one of his friends, he desired him not to speak of it till he\nhad children of his own. When he had fought often with the Thebans\nand was wounded in the battle, Antalcidas, as it is reported, said to\nhim: Indeed, sir, you have received a very fair reward for instructing\nthe Thebans, whom, when ignorant and unwilling, you have forced to\nlearn the art of war. For story tells us, the Lacedaemonians at that\ntime by frequent skirmishes had made the Thebans better soldiers than\nthemselves. And therefore Lycurgus, the old lawgiver, forbade them to\nfight often with the same nation, lest the enemy should learn their\ndiscipline. When he understood that the allies took it very ill, that\nin their frequent expeditions they, being great in number, followed\nthe Spartans that were but few; designing to show their mistake about\nthe number, he ordered all the allies to sit down in one body and the\nLacedaemonians in another by themselves. Then he made proclamation\nthat all the potters should rise first; and when they stood up, the\nbraziers next; then the carpenters, next the masons, and so all other\ntraders in order. Now almost all the allies stood up and not one of the\nSpartans, for their law forbids them all mechanical employments. Then\nsaid Agesilaus, with a smile, See now how many soldiers we provide more\nthan you. When at the battle of Leuctra many of the Spartans fled and\nupon that account were obnoxious to the laws, the Ephors, seeing the\ncity had but few men and stood in great need of soldiers at that time,\nwould free them from the infamy and yet still keep the laws in force.\nUpon that account they put the power of making laws into the hands of\nAgesilaus; and he coming into the assembly said, I will make no new\nlaws, nor will I add any thing to those you already have, nor take\ntherefrom, nor change them in any wise; but I will order that the laws\nyou already have be in force from to-morrow.\n\nEpaminondas rushing on with a torrent and tide of force, and the\nThebans and their allies being puffed up with this victory, though he\nhad but an inconsiderable number, Agesilaus repulsed them from the city\nand forced them to retreat. In the battle at Mantinea, he advised the\nSpartans to neglect the others and fight Epaminondas only, saying: The\nwise alone is the stout man, and the cause of victory; and therefore\nif we take him off, we shall quickly have the rest; for they are fools\nand worth nothing. And it happened accordingly; for Epaminondas having\nthe better of the day and the Spartans being routed, as he turned about\nand encouraged his soldiers to pursue, a Lacedaemonian gave him his\ndeath-wound. He falling, the Spartans that fled with Agesilaus rallied\nand turned the victory; the Thebans appearing to have much the worse,\nand the Spartans the better of the day. When Sparta had a great many\nhired soldiers in pay, and wanted money to carry on the war, Agesilaus,\nupon the king of Egypt\u2019s desire, went to serve him for money. But the\nmeanness of his habit brought him into contempt with the people of\nthat country; for they, according to their bad notions of princes,\nexpected that the king of Sparta should appear like the Persian,\ngaudily attired. But in a little time he sufficiently convinced them\nthat majesty and glory were to be gotten by prudence and courage. When\nhe found his men discouraged at the number of the enemy (for they were\n200,000) and their own fewness, just before the engagement, without any\nman\u2019s privity, he contrived how to encourage them: in the hollow of his\nleft hand he wrote VICTORY, and taking the liver from the priest, he\nput it into that hand, and held it a pretty while, pretending he was\nin doubt and perplexity at some appearance, till the characters were\nimprinted on the flesh; and then he showed it to the soldiers, telling\nthem the Gods gave certain signs of victory by these characters. Upon\nwhich, thinking they had sure evidence of good success, they marched\nresolutely to the battle. When the enemy much exceeded them in number\nand were making an entrenchment round his camp, and Nectabius, whom\nthen he assisted, urged him to fight; I would not, said he, hinder our\nenemies from making their number as small as ours. And when the trench\nwas almost drawn round, ordering his army to the space between, and so\nfighting upon equal terms, with those few soldiers he had he routed and\nkilled abundance of the enemy, and sent home a great treasure. Dying\non his voyage from Egypt, he commanded his attendants not to make any\nfigure or representation of his body; For, said he, if I have done any\nbrave action, that will preserve my memory; if not, neither will a\nthousand statues, the works of base mechanics.\n\n\n_Of Agesipolis the Son of Cleombrotus._\n\nAgesipolis the son of Cleombrotus, when one told him that Philip had\nrazed Olynthus in a few days, said, Well, but he is not able to build\nsuch another in twice that time. To one saying that whilst he was king\nhe himself was an hostage with some other youths, and not their wives\nor children, he replied, Very good, for it is fit we ourselves should\nsuffer for our own faults. When he designed to send for some whelps\nfrom home, and one said, Sir, none must be carried out of the country,\nhe replied, Nor men heretofore, but now they may.\n\n\n_Of Agesipolis the Son of Pausanias._\n\nAgesipolis the son of Pausanias, when the Athenians appealed to the\nMegarians as arbitrators of the differences between them, said, It is\na shame, Athenians, that those who were once the lords of all Greece\nshould understand what is right and just less than the people of Megara.\n\n\n_Of Agis the Son of Archidamus._\n\nAgis the son of Archidamus, when the Ephors gave orders, Go take the\nyouth, and follow this man into his own country, and he shall guide\nthee to the very citadel, said: How can it be prudent to trust so\nmany youths to the fidelity of him who betrays his own country? Being\nasked what art was chiefly learned in Sparta, To know, he replied,\nhow to govern and to be governed. He used to say, The Spartans do\nnot enquire how many the enemy are, but where they are. At Mantinea,\nbeing advised not to fight the enemy, who exceeded him in number, he\nsaid, It is necessary for him to fight a great many that would rule\na great many. To one enquiring how many the Spartans were, Enough,\nhe replied, to keep rascals at a distance. Marching by the walls of\nCorinth, and perceiving them to be high and strong and stretching out\nto a great length, he said, What women live there? To an orator that\nsaid speech was the best thing, he rejoined, You then, when you are\nsilent, are worth nothing. When the Argives, after they had been once\nbeaten, faced him more boldly than before; on seeing many of the allies\ndisheartened, he said, Courage, sirs! for when we conquerors shake,\nwhat do you think is the condition of the conquered? To an ambassador\nfrom the Abderites, after he had ended his long speech, enquiring what\nanswer he should carry to his city, he replied, This: As long as you\ntalked, so long I quietly heard. Some commending the Eleans for exact\njustice in determining the prizes at the Olympian games, he said,\nWhat great wonder is it, that in four years they can be just one day?\nTo some that told him he was envied by the heirs of the other royal\nfamily, Well, said he, their own misfortunes will torment them, and my\nown and my friends\u2019 success besides. When one advised him to give the\nflying enemy room to run, he said, How shall we fight those that stand\nto it and resist, if we dare not engage those whom their cowardice\nmakes fly? When one proposed a way to free Greece, well contrived\nindeed but hard to be brought about, he said, Friend, thy words want\nan army and a treasure. To one saying, Philip won\u2019t let you set foot\nupon any other part of Greece, he returned, Sir, we have room enough\nin our own country. An ambassador from Perinthus to Lacedaemon, after\na long tedious speech, asking what answer he should carry back to the\nPerinthians, he said, What but this?\u2014that thou couldst hardly find\nan end to thy talk, and I kept silent. He went by himself ambassador\nto Philip; and Philip saying, What! but one? he replied, I am an\nambassador but to one. An old man, observing that the ancient laws\nwere neglected and that new evil customs crept in, said to him, when\nhe was now grown old himself, All things here at Sparta are turned\ntopsy-turvy. He replied with a joke: If it is so, it is agreeable to\nreason; for when I was a boy, I heard my father say that all things\nwere then topsy-turvy; and he heard his father say the same; and it is\nno wonder if succeeding times are worse than the preceding; but it is\na wonder if they happen to be better, or but just as good. Being asked\nhow a man could be always free, he replied, If he contemns death.\n\n\n_Of Agis the Younger._\n\nAgis the Younger, when Demades said, The Spartans\u2019 swords are so short\nthat our jugglers can easily swallow them, replied, Yet the Spartans\ncan reach their enemies with these swords. A base fellow often asking\nwho was the bravest of the Spartans, he said, He that is most unlike\nthee.\n\n\n_Of Agis the Last._\n\nAgis, the last king of Lacedaemon, being taken and condemned by the\nEphors without hearing, as he was led to the gallows, saw one of the\nofficers weeping. Do not weep for me, he said, who, being so unjustly,\nso barbarously condemned, am in a better condition than my murderers.\nAnd having spoken thus, he quietly submitted himself to the halter.\n\n\n_Of Acrotatus._\n\nAcrotatus, when his parents commanded him to join in some unjust\naction, refused for some time; but when they grew importunate, he said:\nWhen I was under your power I had no notion of justice, but now you\nhave delivered me to my country and her laws, and to the best of your\npower have taught me loyalty and justice, I shall endeavor to follow\nthese rather than you. And since you would have me to do that which is\nbest, and since just actions are best for a private man and much more\nfor a governor, I shall do what you would have me, and refuse what you\ncommand.\n\n\n_Of Alcamenes the Son of Teleclus._\n\nAlcamenes the son of Teleclus, being asked how a ruler might best\nsecure his government, replied, By slighting gain. And to another\nenquiring why he refused the presents the Messenians made him he said,\nBecause, if I had taken them, I and the laws could never have agreed.\nWhen one said that though he had wealth enough he lived but meanly, he\nreplied, Well, it is a glory for one that hath abundance to live as\nreason not as appetite directs.\n\n\n_Of Alexandridas._\n\nAlexandridas, the son of Leo, said to one that was much concerned at\nhis banishment from the city, Good sir, be not concerned that you must\nleave the city, but that you have left justice. To one that talked to\nthe Ephors very pertinently but a great deal too much he said, Sir,\nyour discourse is very good, but ill-timed. And when one asked him why\nthey let their Helot slaves cultivate the fields, and did not take\ncare of them themselves, he replied, Because we acquired our land not\ncaring for it but for ourselves. Another saying, Desire of reputation\ncauses abundance of mischief, and those are happy that are free from\nit; Then, he subjoined, it follows that villains are happy; for do you\nthink that he that commits sacrilege or doth an injury takes any care\nfor credit and reputation? Another asking why in a battle the Spartans\nventure so boldly into danger, Because, said he, we train ourselves\nto have a reverential regard for our lives, not, as others do, to\ntremble for them. Another demanding why the judges took so many days\nto pass sentence in a capital cause, and why he that was acquitted\nstill remained liable to be brought to trial, he replied: They consult\nso long, because if they make a mistake in judgment and condemn a man\nto death, they cannot correct their judgment; and the accused still\nremains liable, because this provision might enable them to give even a\nbetter judgment than before.\n\n\n_Of Anaxander the Son of Eurycrates._\n\nAnaxander, the son of Eurycrates, to one asking him why the Spartans\nlaid up no money in the exchequer, replied, that the keepers of it\nmight not be tempted to be knaves.\n\n\n_Of Anaxilas._\n\nAnaxilas, when one wondered for what reason the Ephors did not rise up\nto the king, since the kings made them, said, It is for the same reason\nfor which they are appointed Ephors (or overseers).\n\n\n_Of Androclidas._\n\nAndroclidas a Spartan, being maimed in his leg, enlisted in the army;\nand when some refused him because he was maimed, he said, It must not\nbe those that can run away, but those that can stand to it, that must\nfight the enemy.\n\n\n_Of Antalcidas._\n\nAntalcidas, when he was to be initiated in the Samothracian mysteries,\nand was asked by the priest what great sin he had committed in all\nhis life, replied, If I have committed any, the Gods know it already.\nTo an Athenian that called the Lacedaemonians illiterate he said,\nTrue; for we alone have learned no ill from you. Another Athenian\nsaying, We have often beat you back from the Cephissus, he subjoined,\nBut we never repulsed you from the Eurotas. To another demanding how\none might please most men, he replied, By speaking what delights,\nand doing what profits them. A Sophist being about to read him an\nencomium of Hercules, he said, Why, who has blamed him? To Agesilaus,\nwhen he was wounded in a battle by the Thebans, he said, Sir, you\nhave a fine reward for forcing them to learn the art of war; for, by\nthe many skirmishes Agesilaus had with them, they learned discipline\nand became good soldiers. He said, The youth are the walls of Sparta,\nand the points of their spears its bounds. To one enquiring why the\nLacedaemonians fought with such short swords, he replied, We come up\nclose to our enemies.\n\n\n_Of Antiochus._\n\nAntiochus, one of the Ephors, when he heard Philip had bestowed some\nlands on the Messenians, said, Well, but hath Philip also given them\nforces, that they may be able to defend his gift?\n\n\n_Of Aregeus._\n\nAregeus, when some praised not their own but other men\u2019s wives, said:\nFaith, about virtuous women there should be no common talk; and what\nbeauty they have none but their own husbands should understand. As he\nwas walking through Selinus, a city of Sicily, he saw this epitaph upon\na tomb,\u2014\n\n    Those that extinguished the tyrannic flame,\n    Surprised by war and hasty fate,\n    Though they are still alive in lasting fame,\n    Lie buried near Selinus\u2019 gate;\u2014\n\nand said: You died deservedly for quenching it when already in a flame;\nfor you should have hindered it from coming to a blaze.\n\n\n_Of Ariston._\n\nAriston, when one commended the saying of Cleomenes,\u2014who, being asked\nwhat a good king should do, replied, Good turns to his friends, and\nevil to his enemies,\u2014said: How much better is it, sir, to do good to\nour friends, and make our enemies our friends! Though upon all hands it\nis agreed Socrates spoke this first, yet he hath the credit of it too.\nTo one asking how many the Spartans were in number he replied, Enough\nto chase our enemies. An Athenian making a funeral oration in praise of\nthose that fell by the hand of the Lacedaemonians, he said, What brave\nfellows then were ours, that conquered these!\n\n\n_Of Archidamidas._\n\nArchidamidas said to one commending Charilas for being kind to all\nalike, How can he deserve commendation, that is gentle to the wicked\nand unjust? When one was angry with Hecataeus the Sophist because when\nadmitted to the public entertainment he said nothing, he said, Sir, you\nseem not to understand that he that knows how to speak knows also when\nto speak.\n\n\n_Of Archidamus the Son of Zeuxidamus._\n\nArchidamus the son of Zeuxidamus, when one asked him who were governors\nat Sparta, replied, The laws, and the magistrates according to those\nlaws. To one that praised a fiddler and admired his skill he said,\nHow must you prize brave men, when you can give a fiddler such a\ncommendation! When one recommending a musician to him said, This man\nplays well upon the harp, he returned, And we have this man who makes\nbroth well;\u2014as if it were no more to raise pleasure and tickle with\na sound than with meats and broths. To one that promised to make his\nwine sweet he said, To what purpose? for we shall spend the more, and\nruin our public mess. When he besieged Corinth, seeing some hares\nstarted under the very walls, he said to his soldiers, Our enemies may\nbe easily surprised. Two choosing him arbitrator, he brought them both\ninto the temple of Minerva of the Brazen House, and made them swear to\nstand to his determination; and when they had both sworn, he said, I\ndetermine that you shall not go out of this temple, till you have ended\nall the differences between you. Dionysius the Sicilian tyrant sending\nhis daughters some very rich apparel, he refused it, saying, When this\nis on, I am afraid they will look ugly and deformed. When he saw his\nson rashly engaging the Athenians, he said, Pray get more strength or\nless spirit.\n\n\n_Of Archidamus the Son of Agesilaus._\n\nArchidamus the son of Agesilaus, when Philip after the battle at\nChaeronea sent him a haughty letter, returned this answer, If you\nmeasure your shadow, you will find it no greater than before the\nvictory. And being asked how much land the Spartans possessed, he\nsaid, As much as their spears reach. Periander, a physician, being\nwell skilled in his profession and of good credit, but writing very\nbad poems, he said to him, Why, Periander, instead of a good physician\nare you eager to be called a bad poet? In the war with Philip, when\nsome advised him to fight at some distance from his own country, he\nreplied, Let us not mind that, but whether we shall fight bravely and\nbeat our enemies. To some who commended him for routing the Arcadians\nhe said, It had been better if we had been too hard for them in policy\nrather than in strength. When he invaded Arcadia, understanding that\nthe Eleans were ready to oppose him, he wrote thus: Archidamus to the\nEleans; It is good to be quiet. The allies in the Peloponnesian war\nconsulting what treasure would be sufficient to carry on the war,\nand desiring to set the tax, he said, War cannot be put on a certain\nallowance. As soon as ever he saw a dart shot out of an engine brought\nfrom Sicily, he cried out, Good God! true valor is gone for ever. When\nthe Greeks refused to obey him or to stand to those conditions which\nhe had made with Antigonus and Craterus the Macedonians, but would be\nfree, alleging that the Spartans would prove more rigorous lords than\nthe Macedonians, he said: A sheep always uses the same voice, but a man\nvarious and many, till he hath perfected his designs.\n\n\n_Of Astycratidas._\n\nAstycratidas, after Agis the king was beaten by Antigonus at\nMegalopolis, was asked, What will you Spartans do? will you serve the\nMacedonians? He replied, Why so, can Antipater hinder us from dying in\nthe defence of Sparta?\n\n\n_Of Bias._\n\nBias being surprised by an ambush that Iphicrates the Athenian general\nhad laid, and his soldiers demanding what must be done, he replied, You\nmust provide for your own safety, and I must fight manfully and die.\n\n\n_Of Brasidas._\n\nBrasidas catching a mouse amongst some dry figs, the mouse bit him;\nupon which he let her go, and said to his companions, There is nothing\nso little but it may preserve itself, if it dares resist the invaders.\nIn a battle, being shot through the shield into the body, he drew the\ndart out and with it killed the enemy. And one asking how his wound\ncame, he replied, By the treachery of my shield. As he was leading\nforth his army, he wrote to the Ephors, I will accomplish what I\nwish in this war, or I will die for it. Being killed as he fought to\nfree the Greeks in Thrace, the ambassadors that were sent to Sparta\nto condole his loss made a visit to his mother Argileonis. And the\nfirst question she asked was, whether Brasidas died bravely. And the\nThracians extolling him and saying there was no such man in the world;\nYou mistake, sir, said she, it is true, Brasidas was a good man, but\nSparta can show many who are better.\n\n\n_Of Damonidas._\n\nDamonidas, when the master of the festival set him in the lowest place\nin the choral dance, said, Well, sir, you have found a way to make this\nplace, which was infamous before, noble and honorable.\n\n\n_Of Damis._\n\nDamis to some letters that were sent to him by Alexander, intimating\nthat he should vote Alexander a God, returned this answer: We are\ncontent that Alexander (if he will) be called a God.\n\n\n_Of Damindas._\n\nDamindas, when Philip invaded Peloponnesus, and one said that the\nSpartans would suffer great mischiefs unless they accepted his\nproposals, said, Thou woman-man, what misery can we suffer that despise\ndeath?\n\n\n_Of Dercyllidas._\n\nDercyllidas, being sent ambassador to Pyrrhus,\u2014who was then with his\narmy on the borders of Sparta, and required them either to receive\ntheir king Cleonymus, or he would make them know they were no better\nthan other men,\u2014replied, If he is a God, we do not fear him, for we\nhave committed no fault; if a man, we are as good as he.\n\n\n_Of Demaratus._\n\nDemaratus,\u2014when Orontes talked very roughly to him, and one said,\nDemaratus, Orontes uses you very roughly,\u2014replied, I have no reason\nto be angry, for those that speak to please do the mischief, not those\nthat talk out of malice. To one enquiring why they disgrace those\nthat lose their shields in a battle and not those that lose their\nhead-pieces or breastplates, he answered, Because these serve for\ntheir private safety only, but their shield for the common defence and\nstrength of the whole army. Hearing one play upon the harp, he said,\nThe man seems to play the fool well. In a certain assembly, when he\nwas asked whether he held his tongue because he was a fool or for want\nof words, he replied, A fool cannot hold his tongue. When one asked\nhim why being king he fled Sparta, he answered, Because the laws rule\nthere. A Persian having by many presents enticed the boy that he loved\nfrom him, and saying, Spartan, I have caught your love; No, faith, he\nanswered, but you have bought him. One having revolted from the king of\nPersia, and by Demaratus\u2019s persuasion returning again to his obedience,\nand the king designing his death, Demaratus said: It is dishonorable,\nO king, whilst he was an enemy not to be able to punish him for his\nrevolt, and to kill him now he is a friend. To a parasite of the king\nthat often jeered him about his exile he said: Sir, I will not fight\nyou, for you have lost your post in life.[179]\n\n\n_Of Emprepes._\n\nEmprepes, one of the Ephors, cut out two of the nine strings of Phrynis\nthe musician\u2019s harp with a hatchet, saying, Do not abuse music.\n\n\n_Of Epaenetus._\n\nEpaenetus said that liars were the cause of all villanies and injustice\nin the world.\n\n\n_Of Euboidas._\n\nEuboidas, hearing some commend another man\u2019s wife, disliked it and\nsaid, Strangers who are not of the house should never speak of the\nmanner of any woman.\n\n\n_Of Eudamidas the Son of Archidamus._\n\nEudamidas, the son of Archidamus and brother of Agis, seeing\nXenocrates, now grown old, philosophizing in the Academy with some of\nhis acquaintance, asked what old man that was. And it being answered,\nHe is a wise man, and one of those that seek after virtue; he replied,\nWhen will he use it, if he is seeking of it now? Another time, when\nhe heard a philosopher discoursing that none but a learned man could\nbe a good general, he said, Indeed the discourse is admirable, but\nhe that makes it is of no credit in this matter, for he hath never\nheard a trumpet sound. Just as Xenocrates had finished his discourse,\nEudamidas came into his school, and when one of his companions said,\nAs soon as we came he ended; So he ought, he replied, if he had spoken\nall that was needful on the subject. And the other saying, Yet it were\na pleasant thing to hear him, he replied, If we visited one that had\nsupped already, should we desire him to sit down again? When one asked\nhim why, when all the citizens voted a war with the Macedonians, he\nappeared for peace, he answered, Because I have no mind to convince\nthem of their mistake. And when another encouraged them to this war,\nmentioning their various victories over the Persians, he said, Sir, you\nappear not to see that this would be as absurd as to set upon fifty\nwolves because you have beaten a thousand sheep. A musician playing\nvery well, some asked him what manner of man he was in his opinion, and\nhe answered, A great seducer in a small matter. Hearing one commending\nAthens, he said, Who could have reason to praise that city which no\nman ever loved because he had been made better in it? An Argive saying\nthat the Spartans being taken from their own customs grew worse by\ntravel, he replied, But you, when you come into Sparta, do not return\nworse, but much better. When Alexander ordered by public proclamation\nin the Olympic games, that all exiles whatever, except the Thebans,\nhad free liberty to return to their own country, Eudamidas said: This\nis a woful proclamation to you Thebans, but yet honorable; for of all\nthe Grecians Alexander fears only you. Being asked why before a battle\nthey sacrificed to the Muses, he replied, That our brave actions may be\nworthily recorded.\n\n\n_Of Eurycratidas the Son of Anaxandridas._\n\nEurycratidas the son of Anaxandridas, when one asked him why the Ephor\nsat every day to determine causes about contracts, replied, That we may\nlearn to keep our word even with our enemies.\n\n\n_Of Zeuxidamus._\n\nZeuxidamus, when one asked him why they did not set down all their\nlaws concerning bravery and courage in writing and let the young men\nread them, answered, Because they should be accustomed to mind valiant\nactions, rather than books and writings. An Aetolian saying that war\nwas better than peace for those that would be brave men, No, faith,\nsaid he, but death is better than life.\n\n\n_Of Herondas._\n\nHerondas, when one at Athens was condemned for idleness, being informed\nof it desired one to show him the man that had been convicted of so\ngentlemanly an offence.\n\n\n_Of Thearidas._\n\nThearidas whetting his sword, being asked, Is it sharp, Thearidas?\nreplied, Yes, sharper than a slander.\n\n\n_Of Themisteas._\n\nThemisteas the prophet foretold to King Leonidas his own and his\nsoldiers\u2019 destruction at Thermopylae, and being commanded by Leonidas\nto return to Sparta, under pretence of informing the state how affairs\nstood, but really that he might not perish with the rest, he refused,\nsaying, I was sent as a soldier, not as a courier to carry news.\n\n\n_Of Theopompus._\n\nTheopompus, when one asked him how a monarch may be safe, replied, If\nhe will give his friends just freedom to speak the truth, and to the\nbest of his power not allow his subjects to be oppressed. To a guest of\nhis that said, In my own country I am called a lover of the Spartans,\nhe replied, It would be more honorable for you to be called a lover of\nyour citizens than a lover of the Spartans. An ambassador from Elis\nsaying that his city sent him because he was the only man amongst\nthem that admired and followed the Spartan way of living, Theopompus\nasked, And pray, sir, which way is best, yours or the other citizens?\nAnd the ambassador replying, Mine; he subjoined, How then can that\ncity stand, in which amongst so many inhabitants there is but one good\nman? When one said that Sparta was preserved because the kings knew\nhow to govern; No, he replied, but because the citizens know how to be\ngoverned. The Pylians voting him greater honors, he wrote to them thus,\nModerate honors time augments, but it defaces the immoderate.\n\n\n_Of Thorycion._\n\nThorycion on his return from Delphi, seeing Philip\u2019s army possessed of\nthe narrow passage at the Isthmus, said, Peloponnesus hath very bad\nporters in you Corinthians.\n\n\n_Of Thectamenes._\n\nThectamenes, when the Ephors condemned him to die, went away smiling;\nand one of the company asked him whether he despised the judicial\nproceedings of Sparta. No, said he, but I am glad that I am ordered to\npay a fine which I can pay out of my own stock, without being beholden\nto any man or taking up money upon interest.\n\n\n_Of Hippodamus._\n\nHippodamus, when Agis was joined in command with Archidamus, being sent\nwith Agis to Sparta to look after affairs there, said, But shall I not\ndie a more glorious death fighting valiantly in defence of Sparta? He\nwas above fourscore years of age, yet he put on his armor, fought on\nthe right hand of the king, and died bravely.\n\n\n_Of Hippocratidas._\n\nHippocratidas, when the governor of Caria sent him word that he had\na Spartan in his hands who concealed a conspiracy that he was privy\nto, and asked how he should deal with him, returned this answer: If\nyou have done him any great kindness, kill him; if not, banish him as\na base fellow, too mean-spirited to be good. A youth whom his lover\nfollowed meeting him and blushing at the encounter, he said: You should\nkeep such company that, whoever sees you, you will have no reason to\nchange color.\n\n\n_Of Callicratidas._\n\nCallicratidas the admiral, when some of Lysander\u2019s friends desired him\nto permit them to kill one of the enemy, and offered fifty talents\nfor the favor, though he wanted money extremely to buy provision for\nhis soldiers, refused; and when Cleander urged him, and said, Sir, I\nwould have taken the money if I were you, he replied, So would I, were\nI Cleander. When he came to Sardis to Cyrus the Younger, who was then\nan ally of the Lacedaemonians, about a sum of money to equip his navy,\non the first day he ordered his officers to tell Cyrus that he desired\naudience; but being told that he was drinking, Well, said he, I shall\nstay till he hath done. But understanding that he could not be admitted\nthat day, he presently left the court, and thereupon was thought a\nrude and uncivil fellow. On the next day, when he received the same\nanswer and could not be admitted, he said, I must not be so eager for\nmoney as to do any thing unbecoming Sparta. And presently he returned\nto Ephesus, cursing those who had first endured the insolence of the\nbarbarians, and had taught them to rely upon their wealth and abuse\nothers; and he swore to his companions that as soon as ever he came to\nSparta, he would do all that lay in his power to reconcile the Greek\nstates, that they might be more dreadful to the barbarians, and not\nforced to seek assistance from them to ruin one another. Being asked\nwhat manner of men the Ionians were, he replied, Bad freemen, but good\nslaves. When Cyrus sent his soldiers their pay, and some particular\npresents to himself, he received the pay, but sent back the presents,\nsaying that there was no need of any private friendship between them,\nfor the common league with the Lacedaemonians included him. Designing\nto engage near Arginusae, when Hermon the pilot said, It is advisable\nto tack about, for the Athenians exceed us in number; he exclaimed:\nWhat then! it is base and dishonorable to Sparta to fly, but to stand\nto it and die or conquer is brave and noble. As he was sacrificing\nbefore the battle, when he heard the priest presaging that the army\nwould conquer but the captain fall, undauntedly he said: Sparta doth\nnot depend on one man; my country will receive no great loss by my\ndeath, but a considerable one by my yielding to the enemy. And ordering\nCleander to succeed as admiral, he readily engaged, and died in the\nbattle.\n\n\n_Of Cleombrotus the Son of Pausanias._\n\nCleombrotus, the son of Pausanias, when a friend of his contended with\nhis father which was the best man, said, Sir, my father must be better\nthan you, till you get a son as well as he.\n\n\n_Of Cleomenes the Son of Anaxandridas._\n\nCleomenes, the son of Anaxandridas, was wont to say that Homer was the\npoet of the Lacedaemonians, Hesiod of the Helots; for one taught the\nart of war, and the other husbandry. Having made a truce for seven\ndays with the Argives, he watched his opportunity the third night,\nand perceiving them secure and negligent by reason of the truce, he\nfell upon them whilst they were asleep, killed some, and took others\nprisoners. Upon this being upbraided for breach of articles, he said\nthat his oath did not extend to night as well as day, and to hurt a\nman\u2019s enemies any way, both before God and man, was much better than to\nbe just. It happened that he missed taking Argos, in hopes of which he\nbroke his oath; for the women taking the old arms out of the temples\ndefended the city. And afterwards running stark mad, he seized a knife,\nand ripped himself up from the very ankles to the vital parts, and\nthus died grinning and laughing. The priest advising him not to march\nto Argos,\u2014for he would be forced to a dishonorable retreat,\u2014when he\ncame near the city and saw the gates shut and the women upon the walls,\nhe said: What, sir priests, will this be a dishonorable retreat, when,\nthe men being all lost, the women have shut the gates? When some of the\nArgives railed at him as an impious and forsworn wretch, he said, Well,\nit is in your power to rail at me, and in mine to mischief you. The\nSamian ambassadors urging him to make war on the tyrant Polycrates, and\nmaking long harangues on that account, he said: The beginning of your\nspeech I don\u2019t remember, and therefore I cannot understand the middle,\nand the last I don\u2019t like. A pirate spoiling the country, and when he\nwas taken saying, I had no provision for my soldiers, and therefore\nwent to those who had store and would not give it willingly, to force\nit from them; Cleomenes said, True villainy goes the shortest way to\nwork. A base fellow railing at him, he said, Well, I think thou railest\nat everybody, that being employed to defend ourselves, we may have no\ntime to speak of thy baseness.\n\nOne of the citizens saying that a good king should be always mild\nand gracious, True, said he, as long as he doth not make himself\ncontemptible. Being tormented with a long disease, he consulted the\npriests and expiators, to whom he formerly gave no credit; and when a\nfriend of his wondered at the action, Why dost thou wonder, said he,\nfor I am not the same man I was then; and since I am not the same,\nI do not approve the same things. A Sophist discoursing of courage,\nhe laughed exceedingly; and the Sophist saying, Why do you laugh,\nCleomenes, when you hear one treat of courage, especially since you are\na king? Because, sir, said he, if a swallow should discourse of it, I\nshould laugh; but if an eagle, I should hearken attentively.\n\nWhen the Argives boasted that they would retrieve their defeat by a\nnew battle, he said, I wonder if the addition of two syllables[180]\nhas made you braver than you were before. When one railed at him, and\nsaid, Thou art luxurious, Cleomenes; Well, he replied, that is better\nthan to be unjust; but thou art covetous, although thou art master of\nabundance of superfluities. A friend willing to recommend a musician to\nhim, besides other large commendations, said he was the best musician\nin all Greece. Cleomenes, pointing to one that stood by, said, Faith,\nsir, that fellow is my best cook. Maeander the Samian tyrant, flying\nto Sparta upon the invasion of the Persian, discovering what treasure\nhe had brought, and offering Cleomenes as much as he would have,\nCleomenes refused, and beside took care that he should not give any\nof the citizens a farthing; but going to the Ephors, told them that\nit would be good for Sparta to send that Samian guest of his out of\nPeloponnesus, lest he should persuade any of the Lacedaemonians to be\na knave. And they taking his advice ordered Maeander to be gone that\nvery day. One asking why, since they had beaten the Argives so often,\nthey did not totally destroy them, he replied, That we may have some to\nexercise our youth. One demanding why the Spartans did not dedicate\nthe spoils of their enemies to the Gods, Because, said he, they are\ntaken from cowards; and such things as are betrayed to us by the\ncowardice of the possessors are fit neither for our youth to see, nor\nto be dedicated to the Gods.\n\n\n_Of Cleomenes the Son of Cleombrotus._\n\nCleomenes, the son of Cleombrotus, to one that presented him some\ngame-cocks, and said, Sir, these will die before they run, returned:\nPray let me have some of that breed which will kill these, for\ncertainly they are the better of the two.\n\n\n_Of Labotus._\n\nLabotus said to one that made a long discourse: Why such great\npreambles to so small a matter? A speech should be no bigger than the\nsubject.\n\n\n_Of Leotychidas._\n\nLeotychidas the First, when one said he was very inconstant, replied,\nMy inconstancy proceeds from the variety of times, and not as yours\nfrom innate baseness. And to another asking him what was the best\nway to secure his present happiness, he answered, Not to trust all\nto Fortune. And to another enquiring what free-born boys should\nprincipally learn, That, said he, which will profit them when they\nare grown men. And to another asking why the Spartans drink little,\nhe replied, That we may consult concerning others, and not others\nconcerning us.\n\n\n_Of Leotychidas the Son of Aristo._\n\nLeotychidas the son of Aristo, when one told him that Demaratus\u2019s sons\nspake ill of him, replied, Faith, no wonder, for not one of them can\nspeak well. A serpent twisting about the key of his inmost door, and\nthe priests declaring it a prodigy; I cannot think it so, said he, but\nit had been one if the key had twisted round the serpent. To Philip, a\npriest of Orpheus\u2019s mysteries, in extreme poverty, saying that those\nwhom he initiated were very happy after death, he said, Why then, you\nsot, don\u2019t you die quickly, and bewail your poverty and misery no more?\n\n\n_Of Leo the Son of Eucratidas._\n\nLeo the son of Eucratidas, being asked in what city a man might live\nwith the greatest safety, replied, In that where the inhabitants\nhave neither too much nor too little; where justice is strong and\ninjustice weak. Seeing the racers in the Olympian games very solicitous\nat starting to get some advantage of one another, he said, How much\nmore careful are these racers to be counted swift than just! To one\ndiscoursing of some profitable matters out of due season he said, Sir,\nyou do a very good thing at a very bad time.\n\n\n_Of Leonidas the Son of Anaxandridas._\n\nLeonidas, the son of Anaxandridas and brother to Cleomenes, when one\nsaid to him, Abating that you are king, you are no better than we,\nreplied, But unless I had been better than you, I had not been king.\nHis wife Gorgo, when he went forth to Thermopylae to fight the Persian,\nasked him what command he left with her; and he replied, Marry brave\nmen, and bear them brave children. The Ephors saying, You lead but few\nto Thermopylae; They are many, said he, considering on what design we\ngo. And when they again asked him whether he had any other enterprise\nin his thought, he replied, I pretend to go to hinder the barbarians\u2019\npassage, but really to die fighting for the Greeks. When he was at\nThermopylae, he said to his soldiers: They report the enemy is at\nhand, and we lose time; for we must either beat the barbarian or die\nourselves. And to another saying, What, the flights of the Persian\narrows will darken the very sun, he said, Therefore it will be pleasant\nfor us to fight in the shade. And another saying, What, Leonidas, do\nyou come to fight so great a number with so few?\u2014he returned: If you\nesteem number, all Greece is not able to match a small part of that\narmy; if courage, this number is sufficient. And to another discoursing\nafter the same manner he said, I have enough, since they are to be\nkilled. When Xerxes wrote to him thus, Sir, you may forbear to fight\nagainst the Gods, but may follow my interest and be lord of all Greece,\nhe answered: If you understood wherein consisted the happiness of life,\nyou would not covet other men\u2019s; but know that I would rather die for\nthe liberty of Greece than be a monarch over my countrymen. And Xerxes\nwriting to him again thus, Send me thy arms, he returned, Come and take\nthem. When he resolved to fall upon the enemy, and his captains of the\nwar told him he must stay till the forces of the allies had joined\nhim, he said: Do you think all those that intend to fight are not here\nalready? Or do you not understand that those only fight who fear and\nreverence their kings? And he ordered his soldiers so to dine, as if\nthey were to sup in another world. And being asked why the bravest\nmen prefer an honorable death before an inglorious life, he replied,\nBecause they believe one is the gift of Nature, while the other is\npeculiarly their own. Being desirous to save the striplings that were\nwith him, and knowing very well that if he dealt openly with them none\nwould accept his kindness, he gave each of them privately letters to\ncarry to the Ephors. He desired likewise to save three of those that\nwere grown men; but they having some notice of his design refused the\nletters. And one of them said, I came, sir, to be a soldier, and not a\ncourier; and the second, I shall be a better man if here than if away;\nand the third, I will not be behind these, but the first in the fight.\n\n\n_Of Lochagus._\n\nLochagus the father of Polyaenides and Siron, when one told him one of\nhis sons was dead, said, I knew long ago that he must die.\n\n\n_Of Lycurgus the Lawgiver._\n\nLycurgus the lawgiver, designing to reclaim his citizens from their\nformer luxury and bring them to a more sober course of life and make\nthem brave men (for they were then loose and delicate), bred up two\nwhelps of the same litter; one he kept at home, bred him tenderly, and\nfed him well; but the other he taught to hunt, and used him to the\nchase. Both these dogs he brought out into the public assembly, and\nsetting down some scraps of meat and letting go a hare at the same\ntime, each of the dogs ran greedily to what they had been accustomed.\nAnd the hunter catching the hare, Lycurgus said: See, countrymen, how\nthese two, though of the same litter, by my breeding them are become\nvery different; and that custom and exercise conduces more than Nature\nto make things brave and excellent. Some say that he did not bring\nout two whelps of the same kind, but one a house dog and the other a\nhunter; the former of which (though the baser kind) he had accustomed\nto the woods, and the other (though more noble) kept lazily at home;\nand when in public, each of them pursuing his usual delight, he had\ngiven a clear evidence that education is of considerable force in\nraising bad or good inclinations, he said: Therefore, countrymen, our\nhonorable extraction, that idol of the crowd, though from Hercules\nhimself, profits us little, unless we learn and exercise all our life\nin such famous exploits as made him accounted the most noble and the\nmost glorious in the world.\n\nWhen he made a division of the land, giving each man an equal portion,\nit is reported that some while after, in his return from a journey, as\nhe past through the country in harvest time and saw the cocks of wheat\nall equal and lying promiscuously, he was extremely pleased, and with\na smile said to his companions, All Sparta looks like the possession\nof many loving brothers who have lately divided their estate. Having\ndischarged every man from his debts, he endeavored likewise to divide\nall movables equally amongst all, that he might have no inequality in\nhis commonwealth. But seeing that the rich men would hardly endure this\nopen and apparent spoil, he cried down all gold and silver coin, and\nordered nothing but iron to be current; and rated every man\u2019s estate\nand defined how much it was worth upon exchange for that money. By\nthis means all injustice was banished Sparta; for none would steal,\nnone take bribes, none cheat or rob any man of that which he could\nnot conceal, which none would envy, which could not be used without\ndiscovery, or carried into other countries with advantage. Besides,\nthis contrivance freed them from all superfluous arts; for no merchant,\nSophist, fortune-teller, or mountebank would live amongst them; no\ncarver, no contriver ever troubled Sparta; because he cried down all\nmoney that was advantageous to them, and permitted none but this iron\ncoin, each piece of which was an Aegina pound in weight, and less\nthan a penny in value.[181] Designing farther to check all luxury and\ngreediness after wealth, he instituted public meals, where all the\ncitizens were obliged to eat. And when some of his friends demanded\nwhat he designed by this institution and why he divided the citizens,\nwhen in arms, into small companies, he replied: That they may more\neasily hear the word of command; and if there are any designs against\nthe state, the conspiracy may join but few; and besides, that there may\nbe an equality in the provision, and that neither in meat nor drink,\nseats, tables, or any furniture, the rich may be better provided than\nthe poor. When he had by this contrivance made wealth less desirable,\nit being unfit both for use and show, he said to his familiars, What\na brave thing is it, my friends, by our actions to make Plutus appear\n(as he is indeed) blind! He took care that none should sup at home and\nafterwards, when they were full of other victuals, come to the public\nentertainments; for all the rest reproached him that did not feed\nwith them as a glutton and of too delicate a palate for the public\nprovision; and when he was discovered, he was severely punished. And\ntherefore Agis the king, when after a long absence he returned from the\ncamp (the Athenians were beaten in the expedition), willing to sup at\nhome with his wife once, sent a servant for his allowance; the officers\nrefused, and the next day the Ephors fined him for the fault.\n\nThe wealthy citizens being offended at these constitutions made a\nmutiny against him, abused, threw stones, and designed to kill him.\nThus pursued, he ran through the market-place towards the temple of\nMinerva of the Brazen House, and reached it before any of the others;\nonly Alcander pursuing close struck him as he turned about, and beat\nout one eye. Afterward the commonwealth delivered up this Alcander to\nhis mercy; but he neither inflicted any punishment nor gave him an\nill word, but kindly entertained him at his own house, and brought\nhim to be his friend, an admirer of his course of life, and very well\naffected to all his laws. Yet he built a monument of this sad disaster\nin the temple of Minerva, naming it Optiletis,\u2014for the Dorians in that\ncountry call eyes _optiloi_. Being asked why he used no written laws,\nhe replied, Because those that are well instructed are able to suit\nmatters to the present occasion. And another time, when some enquired\nwhy he had ordained that the timber which roofed the houses should\nbe wrought with the axe only, and the doors with no other instrument\nbut the saw, he answered: That my citizens might be moderate in every\nthing which they bring into their houses, and possess nothing which\nothers so much prize and value. And hence it is reported that King\nLeotychides the First, supping with a friend and seeing the roof\ncuriously arched and richly wrought, asked him whether in that country\nthe trees grew square. And some demanding why he forbade them to war\noften with the same nation, he replied, Lest being often forced to\nstand on their defence, they should get experience and be masters of\nour art. And therefore it was a great fault in Agesilaus, that by his\nfrequent incursions into Boeotia he made the Thebans a match for the\nLacedaemonians. And another asking why he exercised the virgins\u2019 bodies\nwith racing, wrestling, throwing the bar, and the like, he answered:\nThat the first rooting of the children being strong and firm, their\ngrowth might be proportionable; and that the women might have strength\nto bear and more easily undergo the pains of travail, or, if necessity\nshould require, be able to fight for themselves, their country, and\ntheir children. Some being displeased that the virgins went about naked\nat certain solemnities, and demanding the reason of that custom, he\nreplied: That using the same exercises with men, they might equal them\nin strength and health of body and in courage and bravery of mind, and\nbe above that mean opinion which the vulgar had of them. And hence goes\nthe story of Gorgo, wife of Leonidas, that when a stranger, a friend of\nhers, said, You Spartan women alone rule men, she replied, Good reason,\nfor we alone bear men. By ordering that no bachelor should be admitted\na spectator of these naked solemnities and fixing some other disgrace\non them, he made them all eager to be married and get children;\nbesides, he deprived them of that honor and observance which the young\nmen were bound to pay their elders. And upon that account none can\nblame what was said to Dercyllidas, though a brave captain; for as he\napproached, one of the young men refused to rise up and give him place,\nsaying, You have not begotten any to give place to me.\n\nWhen one asked him why he allowed no dowry to be given with a maid,\nhe answered, that none might be slighted for their poverty or courted\nfor their wealth, but that every one, considering the manners of the\nmaid, might choose for the sake of virtue. And for the same reason he\nforbade all painting of the face and curiousness in dress and ornament.\nTo one that asked him why he made a law that before such an age neither\nsex should marry, he answered, that the children might be lusty, being\nborn of persons of full age. And to one wondering why he would not\nsuffer the husband to lie all night with his wife, but commanded them\nto be most of the day and all the night with their fellows, and creep\nto their wives cautiously and by stealth, he said: I do it that they\nmay be strong in body, having never been satiated and surfeited with\npleasure; that they may be always fresh in love, and their children\nmore strong and lusty. He forbade all perfumes, as nothing but good\noil corrupted, and the dyer\u2019s art, as a flatterer and enticer of the\nsense; and he ejected all skilled in ornament and dressing, as those\nwho by their lewd devices corrupt the true arts of decency and living\nwell. At that time the women were so chaste and such strangers to that\nlightness to which they were afterwards addicted, that adultery was\nincredible; and there goes a saying of Geradatas, one of the ancient\nSpartans, who being asked by a stranger what punishment the Spartans\nappointed for adulterers (for Lycurgus mentioned none), he said, Sir,\nwe have no adulterers amongst us. And he replying, But suppose there\nshould be? Geradatas made the same reply; For how (said he) could there\nbe an adulterer in Sparta, where wealth, delicacy, and all ornaments\nare disesteemed, and modesty, neatness, and obedience to the governors\nonly are in request? When one desired him to establish a democracy in\nSparta, he said, Pray, sir, do you first set up that form in your own\nfamily. And to another demanding why he ordered such mean sacrifices he\nanswered, That we may always be able to honor the Gods. He permitted\nthe citizens those exercises only in which the hand is not stretched\nout; and one demanding his reason, he replied, That none in any labor\nmay be accustomed to be weary. And another enquiring why he ordered\nthat in a war the camp should be often changed, he answered, That we\nmay damage our enemies the more. Another demanding why he forbade to\nstorm a castle, he said, Lest my brave men should be killed by a woman,\na boy, or some man of as mean courage.\n\nWhen the Thebans asked his advice about the sacrifices and lamentation\nwhich they instituted in honor of Leucothea, he gave them this: If you\nthink her a Goddess, do not lament; if a woman, do not sacrifice to her\nas a Goddess. To some of the citizens enquiring, How shall we avoid\nthe invasions of enemies, he replied, If you are poor, and one covets\nno more than another. And to others demanding why he did not wall his\ncity he said, That city is not unwalled which is encompassed with men\nand not brick. The Spartans are curious in their hair, and tell us\nthat Lycurgus said, It makes the handsome more amiable, and the ugly\nmore terrible. He ordered that in a war they should pursue the routed\nenemy so far as to secure the victory, and then retreat, saying, it was\nunbecoming the Grecian bravery to butcher those that fled; and beside,\nit was useful, for their enemies, knowing that they spared all that\nyielded and cut in pieces the opposers, would easily conclude that it\nwas safer to fly than to stand stoutly to it and resist. When one asked\nhim why he charged his soldiers not to meddle with the spoil of their\nslain enemies, he replied, Lest while they are eager on their prey they\nneglect their fighting, but also that they may keep their order and\ntheir poverty together.\n\n\n_Of Lysander._\n\nLysander, when Dionysius sent him two gowns, and bade him choose which\nhe would to carry to his daughter, said, She can choose best; and so\ntook both away with him. This Lysander being a very crafty fellow,\nfrequently using subtle tricks and notable deceits, placing all\njustice and honesty in profit and advantage, would confess that truth\nindeed was better than a lie, but the worth and dignity of either was\nto be defined by their usefulness to our affairs. And to some that\nwere bitter upon him for these deceitful practices, as unworthy of\nHercules\u2019s family, and owing his success to little mean tricks and\nnot plain force and open dealing, he answered with a smile, When the\nlion\u2019s skin cannot prevail, a little of the fox\u2019s must be used. And\nto others that upbraided him for breaking his oaths made at Miletus\nhe said, Boys must be cheated with cockal-bones, and men with oaths.\nHaving surprised the Athenians by an ambush near the Goat Rivers and\nrouted them, and afterwards by famine forced the city to surrender,\nhe wrote to the Ephors, Athens is taken. When the Argives were in a\ndebate with the Lacedaemonians about their confines and seemed to have\nthe better reasons on their side, drawing his sword, he said, He that\nhath this is the best pleader about confines. Leading his army through\nBoeotia, and finding that state wavering and not fixed on either party,\nhe sent to know whether he should march through their country with his\nspears up or down. At an assembly of the states of Greece, when a\nMegarian talked saucily to him, he said, Sir, your words want a city.\nThe Corinthians revolting, and he approaching to the walls that he saw\nthe Spartans not eager to storm, while at the same time hares were\nskipping over the trenches of the town; Are not you ashamed (said he)\nto be afraid of those enemies whose slothfulness suffers even hares\nto sleep upon their walls? At Samothrace, as he was consulting the\noracle, the priests ordered him to confess the greatest crime he had\nbeen guilty of in his whole life. What, said he, is this your own,\nor the God\u2019s command? And the priests replying, The God\u2019s; said he,\nDo you withdraw, and I will tell them, if they make any such demand.\nA Persian asking him what polity he liked, That, he replied, which\nassigns stout men and cowards suitable rewards. To one that said, Sir,\nI always commend you and speak in your behalf,\u2014Well, said he, I have\ntwo oxen in the field, and though neither says one word, I know very\nwell which is the laborious and which the lazy. To one that railed at\nhim he said, Speak, sir, let us have it all fast, if thou canst empty\nthy soul of those wicked thoughts which thou seemest full of. Some time\nafter his death, there happening a difference between the Spartans and\ntheir allies, Agesilaus went to Lysander\u2019s house to inspect some papers\nthat lay in his custody relating to that matter; and there found an\noration composed for Lysander concerning the government, setting forth\nthat it was expedient to set aside the families of the Europrotidae\nand Agidae, to admit all to an equal claim, and choose their king out\nof the worthiest men, that the crown might be the reward not of those\nthat shared in the blood of Hercules, but of those who were like him\nfor virtue and courage, that virtue that exalted him into a God. This\noration Agesilaus was resolved to publish, to show the Spartans how\nmuch they were mistaken in Lysander and to discredit his friends; but\nthey say, Cratidas the president of the Ephors fearing this oration,\nif published, would prevail upon the people, advised Agesilaus to be\nquiet, telling him that he should not dig up Lysander, but rather bury\nthat oration with him, being so cunningly contrived, so powerful to\npersuade. Those that courted his daughters, and when at his death he\nappeared to be poor forsook them, the Ephors fined, because whilst they\nthought him rich they caressed him, but scorned him when by his poverty\nthey knew him to be just and honest.\n\n\n_Of Namertes._\n\nNamertes being on an embassy, when one of that country told him he was\na happy man in having so many friends, asked him if he knew any certain\nway to try whether a man had many friends or not; and the other being\nearnest to be told, Namertes replied, Adversity.\n\n\n_Of Nicander._\n\nNicander, when one told him that the Argives spake very ill of him,\nsaid, Well, they suffer for speaking ill of good men. And to one\nthat enquired why they wore long hair and long beards, he answered,\nBecause man\u2019s natural ornaments are the handsomest and the cheapest.\nAn Athenian saying, Nicander, you Spartans are extremely idle; You\nsay true, he answered, but we do not busy ourselves like you in every\ntrifle.\n\n\n_Of Panthoidas._\n\nWhen Panthoidas was ambassador in Asia and some showed him a strong\nfortification, Faith, said he, it is a fine cloister for women. In the\nAcademy, when the philosophers had made a great many and excellent\ndiscourses, and asked Panthoidas how he liked them; Indeed, said he, I\nthink them very good, but of no profit at all, since you yourselves do\nnot use them.\n\n\n_Of Pausanias the Son of Cleombrotus._\n\nPausanias the son of Cleombrotus, when the Delians pleaded their\ntitle to the island against the Athenians, and urged that according\nto their law no women were ever brought to bed or any carcass buried\nin the isle, said, How then can that be your country, in which not\none of you was born or shall ever lie? The exiles urging him to march\nagainst the Athenians, and saying that, when he was proclaimed victor\nin the Olympic games, these alone hissed; How, says he, since they\nhissed whilst we did them good, what do you think they will do when\nabused? When one asked him why they made Tyrtaeus the poet a citizen,\nhe answered, That no foreigner should be our captain. A man of a weak\nand puny body advising to fight the enemy both by sea and land; Pray,\nsir, says he, will you strip and show what a man you are who advise\nto engage? When some amongst the spoils of the barbarians admired the\nrichness of their clothes; It had been better, he said, that they had\nbeen men of worth themselves than that they should possess things\nof worth. After the victory over the Medes at Plataea, he commanded\nhis officers to set before him the Persian banquet that was already\ndressed; which appearing very sumptuous, By heaven, quoth he, the\nPersian is an abominable glutton, who, when he hath such delicacies at\nhome, comes to eat our barley-cakes.\n\n\n_Of Pausanias the Son of Plistoanax._\n\nPausanias the son of Plistoanax replied to one that asked him why it\nwas not lawful for the Spartans to abrogate any of their old laws,\nBecause men ought to be subject to laws, and not the laws to men. When\nbanished and at Tegea, he commended the Lacedaemonians. One said to\nhim, Why then did you not stay at Sparta? And he returned, Physicians\nare conversant not amongst the healthy, but the diseased. To one\nasking him how they should conquer the Thracians, he replied, If we\nmake the best man our captain. A physician, after he had felt his\npulse and considered his constitution, saying, He ails nothing; It\nis because, sir, he replied, I use none of your physic. When one of\nhis friends blamed him for giving a physician an ill character, since\nhe had no experience of his skill nor received any injury from him;\nNo, faith, said he, for had I tried him, I had not lived to give this\ncharacter. And when the physician said, Sir, you are an old man; That\nhappens, he replied, because you were never my doctor. And he was used\nto say, that he was the best physician, who did not let his patients\nrot above ground, but quickly buried them.\n\n\n_Of Paedaretus._\n\nPaedaretus, when one told him the enemies were numerous, said,\nTherefore we shall get the greater reputation, for we shall kill\nthe more. Seeing a man soft by nature and a coward commended by the\ncitizens for his lenity and good disposition, he said, We should not\npraise men that are like women, nor women that are like men, unless\nsome extremity forceth a woman to stand upon her guard. When he was\nnot chosen into the three hundred (the chief order in the city), he\nwent away laughing and very jocund; and the Ephors calling him back and\nasking why he laughed, Why, said he, I congratulate the happiness of\nthe city, that enjoys three hundred citizens better than myself.\n\n\n_Of Plistarchus._\n\nPlistarchus the son of Leonidas, to one asking him why they did not\ntake their names from the first kings, replied, Because the former were\nrather captains than kings, but the later otherwise. A certain advocate\nusing a thousand little jests in his pleading; Sir, said he, you do not\nconsider that, as those that often wrestle are wrestlers at last, so\nyou by often exciting laughter will become ridiculous yourself. When\none told him that an notorious railer spoke well of him; I\u2019ll lay my\nlife, said he, somebody hath told him I am dead, for he can speak well\nof no man living.\n\n\n_Of Plistoanax._\n\nPlistoanax the son of Pausanias, when an Athenian orator called the\nLacedaemonians unlearned fellows, said, \u2019Tis true, for we alone of all\nthe Greeks have not learned any ill from you.\n\n\n_Of Polydorus._\n\nPolydorus the son of Alcamenes, when one often threatened his enemies,\nsaid to him, Do not you perceive, sir, that you waste a great part of\nyour revenge? As he marched his army against Messene, a friend asked\nhim if he would fight against his brothers? No, said he, but I put in\nfor an estate to which none, as yet, hath any good title. The Argives\nafter the fight of the three hundred being totally routed in a set\nbattle, the allies urged him not to let the opportunity slip, but storm\nand take the city of the enemy; for it would be very easy, now all\nthe men were destroyed and none but women left. He replied: I love to\nvanquish my enemies when I fight on equal terms; nor do I think it just\nin him who was commissioned to contest about the confines of the two\nstates, to desire to be master of the city; for I came only to recover\nour own territories and not to seize theirs. Being asked once why the\nSpartans ventured so bravely in battle; Because, said he, we have\nlearned to reverence and not fear our leaders.\n\n\n_Of Polycratidas._\n\nPolycratidas being joined with others in an embassy to the lieutenants\nof the king, being asked whether they came as private or public\npersons, returned, If we obtain our demands, as public; if not, as\nprivate.\n\n\n_Of Phoebidas._\n\nPhoebidas, just before the battle at Leuctra, when some said, This day\nwill show who is a brave man, replied, \u2019Tis a fine day indeed that can\nshow a brave man alive.\n\n\n_Of Soos._\n\nIt is reported of Soos that, when his army was shut up by the\nClitorians in a disadvantageous strait and wanted water, he agreed to\nrestore all the places he had taken, if all his men should drink of the\nneighboring fountain. Now the enemy had secured the spring and guarded\nit. These articles being sworn to, he convened his soldiers, and\npromised to give him the kingdom who would forbear drinking; but none\naccepting it, he went to the water, sprinkled himself, and so departed,\nwhilst the enemies looked on; and he therefore refused to restore the\nplaces, because he himself had not drunk.\n\n\n_Of Telecrus._\n\nTelecrus, to one reporting that his father spake ill of him, replied,\nHe would not speak so unless he had reason for it. When his brother\nsaid, The citizens have not that kindness for me they have for you, but\nuse me more coarsely, though born of the same parents, he replied, You\ndo not know how to bear an injury, and I do. Being asked what was the\nreason of that custom among the Spartans for the younger to rise up\nin reverence to the elder, Because, said he, by this behavior towards\nthose to whom they have no relation, they may learn to reverence their\nparents more. To one enquiring what wealth he had, he returned, No more\nthan enough.\n\n\n_Of Charillus._\n\nCharillus being asked why Lycurgus made so few laws; Because, he\nreplied, those whose words are few need but few laws. Another enquiring\nwhy their virgins appear in public unveiled, and their wives veiled;\nBecause, said he, virgins ought to find husbands, married women keep\nthose they have. To a slave saucily opposing him he said, I would kill\nthee if I were not angry. And being asked what polity he thought best;\nThat, said he, in which most of the citizens without any disturbance\ncontend about virtue. And to a friend enquiring why amongst them all\nthe images of the Gods were armed he replied, That those reproaches we\ncast upon men for their cowardice may not reflect upon the Gods, and\nthat our youth may not supplicate the Deities unarmed.\n\n\n\n\nTHE REMARKABLE SPEECHES OF SOME OBSCURE MEN AMONGST THE SPARTANS.\n\n\nWhen the Samian ambassadors had made a long harangue, the Spartans\nanswered, We have forgot the first part, and so cannot understand the\nlast. To the Thebans violently contesting with them about something\nthey replied, Your spirit should be less, or your forces greater. A\nLacedaemonian being asked why he kept his beard so long; That seeing\nmy gray hairs, he replied, I may do nothing but what becomes them.\nOne commending the best warriors, a Spartan that overheard said, At\nTroy. Another, hearing that some forced their guests to drink after\nsupper, said, What! not to eat too? Pindar in his poems having called\nAthens the prop of Greece, a Spartan said, Greece would soon fall if it\nleaned on such a prop. When one, seeing the Athenians pictured killing\nthe Spartans, said, The Athenians are stout fellows; Yes, subjoined a\nSpartan, in a picture. To one that was very attentive to a scandalous\naccusation a Spartan said, Pray, sir, be not prodigal of your ears\nagainst me. And to one under correction that cried out, I offend\nagainst my will, another said, Therefore suffer against thy will. One\nseeing some journeying in a chariot said, God forbid that I should sit\nwhere I cannot rise up to reverence my elders. Some Chian travellers\nvomiting after supper in the consistory, and dunging in the very seats\nof the Ephors, first they made strict inquiry whether the offenders\nwere citizens or not; but finding they were Chians, they publicly\nproclaimed that they gave the Chians leave to be filthy and uncivil.\n\nWhen one saw a merchant sell hard almonds at double the price that\nothers were usually sold at, he said, Are stones scarce? Another\npulling a nightingale, and finding but a very small body, said, Thou\nart voice and nothing else. Another Spartan, seeing Diogenes the Cynic\nin very cold weather embrace a brazen statue, asked whether he was\nnot very cold; and he replying, No, he rejoined, What great matter\nthen is it that you do? A Metapontine, being jeered by a Spartan for\ncowardice, replied, Nay, sir, we are masters of some of the territories\nof other states; Then, said the Spartan, you are not only cowards but\nunjust. A traveller at Sparta, standing long upon one leg, said to a\nLacedaemonian, I do not believe you can do as much; True, said he,\nbut every goose can. To one valuing himself upon his skill in oratory\na Spartan said, By heaven, there never was and never can be any art\nwithout truth. An Argive saying, We have the tombs of many Spartans\namongst us; a Spartan replied, But we cannot show the grave of one\nArgive; meaning that they had often invaded Argos, but the Argives\nnever Sparta. A Spartan that was taken captive and to be sold,\u2014when\nthe crier said, Here\u2019s a Spartan to be sold,\u2014stopped his mouth,\nsaying, Cry a captive. One of the soldiers of Lysimachus, being asked\nby him whether he was a true Spartan or one of the Helot slaves,\nreplied, Do you imagine a Lacedaemonian would serve you for a groat a\nday? The Thebans, having beaten the Lacedaemonians at Leuctra, marched\nto the river Eurotas itself, where one of them boasting said, Where are\nthe Spartans now? To whom a captive replied, They are not at hand, sir,\nfor if they had been, you had not come so far. The Athenians, having\nsurrendered their own city to the Spartans, requested that they might\nbe permitted to enjoy Samos only; upon which the Spartans said, When\nyou are not at your own disposal, would you be lords of others? And\nhence came that proverb, He that is not master of himself begs Samos.\n\nWhen the Lacedaemonians had taken a town by storm, the Ephors said, The\nexercise of our youth is lost, for now they will have none to contend\nwith them. The Persian offering to raze a city that had frequent\nquarrels and skirmishes with the Spartans, they desired him to forbear\nand not take away the whetstone of their youth. They appointed no\nmasters to instruct their boys in wrestling, that they might contend\nnot in sleights of art and little tricks, but in strength and courage;\nand therefore Lysander, being asked by what means Charon was too hard\nfor him, replied, By sleights and cunning. When Philip, having entered\ntheir territories, sent to know whether he should come as an enemy or\na friend, the Spartans returned, Neither. Hearing that the ambassador\nthey had sent to Antigonus the son of Demetrius had called him king,\nthey fined him, though he had obtained of him in a time of scarcity a\nbushel of wheat for every person in the city. A vicious person giving\nexcellent good counsel, they received it, but took it from him and\nattributed it to another, a man regular and of a good life. When some\nbrothers differed, they fined the father for neglecting his sons and\nsuffering them to be at strife. They fined likewise a musician that\ncame amongst them, for playing the harp with his fingers. Two boys\nfighting, one wounded the other mortally with a hook. And when his\nacquaintance, just as he was dying, vowed to revenge his death and\nhave the blood of him that killed him; By no means, saith he, it is\nunjust, for I had done the same thing if I had been stout and more\nspeedy in my stroke. Another boy, at the time when freemen\u2019s sons are\nallowed to steal what they can and it is a disgrace to be discovered,\nwhen some of his companions had stolen a young fox and delivered it\nto him, and the owners came to search, hid it under his gown; and\nthough the angry little beast bit through his side to his very guts, he\nendured it quietly, that he might not be discovered. When the searchers\nwere gone and the boys saw what had happened, they chid him roundly,\nsaying, It had been better to produce the fox, than thus to conceal\nhim by losing your own life; No, no! he replied, it is much better\nto die in torments, than to let my softness betray me and suffer a\nlife that had been scandalous. Some meeting certain Spartans upon the\nroad said, Sirs, you have good luck, for the robbers are just gone.\nFaith, they replied, they have good luck that they did not meet with\nus. A Lacedaemonian, being asked what he knew, answered, To be free.\nA Spartan boy, being taken by Antigonus and sold, obeyed his master\nreadily in every thing that he thought not below a freeman to do; but\nwhen he was commanded to bring a chamber-pot, unable to contain he\nsaid, I will not serve; but his master pressing him, he ran to the\ntop of the house, and saying, You shall find what you have bought,\nthrew himself down headlong and died. Another being to be sold, when\nthe chapman asked him, Wilt thou be towardly if I buy thee? Yes, he\nreturned, and if you do not buy me. Another captive, when the crier\nsaid, Here\u2019s a slave to be sold, cried out, You villain, why not a\ncaptive? A Spartan, who had a fly engraven on his shield no bigger than\nNature hath made that creature, when some jeered him as if he did it on\npurpose that he might not be taken notice of, replied: It is that I may\nbe known; for I advance so near my enemies that they can well perceive\nmy impress, as little as it is. Another, when at an entertainment a\nharp was brought in, said, It is not the custom of the Spartans to play\nthe fool. A Spartan being asked whether the way to Sparta was safe or\nnot, replied: That is according as you go down thither; for lions that\napproach rue their coming, and hares we hunt in their very coverts. A\nSpartan wrestling, when he could not make his adversary that had got\nthe upper hand of him loose his hold, and was unable to avoid the fall,\nbit him by the arm; and the other saying, Spartan, thou bitest like a\nwoman; No, said he, but like a lion. A lame man, marching out to war\nand being laughed at, said, There is no need of those that can run\naway, but of those that can stand to it and defend their post. Another\nbeing shot through said with his last breath: It doth not trouble\nme that I die, but that I should be killed by a woman before I had\nperformed some notable exploit. One coming into an inn and giving the\nhost a piece of meat to make ready for him,\u2014when the host demanded\nsome cheese and oil besides,\u2014What! says the Spartan, if I had cheese\nshould I want meat? When one called Lampis of Aegina happy, because\nhe seemed a rich man, having many ships of his own at sea, a Spartan\nsaid, I do not like that happiness that hangs by a cord. One telling\na Spartan that he lied, the Spartan returned: True, for we are free;\nbut others, unless they speak truth, will suffer for it. When one had\nundertaken to make a carcass stand upright, and tried every way to no\npurpose; Faith, said he, there wants something within. Tynnichus bore\nhis son Thrasybulus\u2019s death very patiently, and there is this epigram\nmade upon him:\u2014\n\n    Stout Thrasybulus on his shield was brought\n    From bloody fields, where he had bravely fought,\n    The Argives beat, and as he stoutly prest,\n    Seven spears, and Death attending, pierced his breast.\n    The father took the corpse, and as he bled,\n    He laid it on the funeral pile, and said:\n    Be cowards mourned, I\u2019ll spend no tear nor groan,\n    Whilst thus I burn a Spartan and my son.\n\nThe keeper of the bath allowing more water than ordinary to Alcibiades\nthe Athenian, a Spartan said, What! is he more foul, that he wants more\nthan others? Philip making an inroad upon Sparta, and all the Spartans\nexpecting to be cut off, he said to one of them, Now what will you\nSpartans do? And he replied: What, but to die bravely? for only we of\nall the Greeks have learned to be free and not endure a yoke. When Agis\nwas beaten and Antipater demanded fifty boys for hostages, Eteocles,\none of the then Ephors, answered: Boys we will not give, lest swerving\nfrom the customs of their country they prove slothful and untoward,\nand so incapable of the privilege of citizens; but of women and old\nmen you shall have twice as many. And when upon refusal he threatened\nsome sharp afflictions, he returned: If you lay upon us somewhat worse\nthan death, we shall die the more readily. An old man in the Olympic\ngames being desirous to see the sport, and unprovided of a seat, went\nabout from place to place, was laughed and jeered at, but none offered\nhim the civility; but when he came to the Spartans\u2019 quarter, all the\nboys and some of the men rose from their seats, and made him room. At\nthis, all the Greeks clapped and praised their behavior; upon which\nthe good old man shaking his hoary hairs, with tears in his eyes, said:\nGood God! how well all the Greeks know what is good, and yet only the\nLacedaemonians practise it! And some say the same thing was done at\nAthens. For at the great solemnity of the Athenians, the Panathenaic\nfestival, the Attics abused an old man, calling him as if they designed\nto make room for him, and when he came putting him off again; and when\nafter this manner he had passed through almost all, he came to that\nquarter where the Spartan spectators sat, and all of them presently\nrose up and gave him place; the whole multitude, extremely taken with\nthis action, clapped and shouted; upon which one of the Spartans said:\nBy Heaven, these Athenians know what should be done, but are not much\nfor doing it. A beggar asking an alms of a Lacedaemonian, he said:\nWell, should I give thee any thing, thou wilt be the greater beggar,\nfor he that first gave thee money made thee idle, and is the cause of\nthis base and dishonorable way of living. Another Spartan, seeing a\nfellow gathering charity for the Gods\u2019 sake, said, I will never regard\nthose as Gods that are poorer than myself. Another, having taken one\nin adultery with an ugly whore, cried out, Poor man, how great was thy\nnecessity! Another, hearing an orator very lofty and swelling in his\nspeech, said, Faith, this is a brave man, how excellently he rolls his\ntongue about nothing! A stranger being at Sparta, and observing how\nmuch the young men reverenced the old, said, At Sparta alone it is\ndesirable to be old. A Lacedaemonian, being asked what manner of poet\nTyrtaeus was, replied, Excellent to whet the courage of our youth.\nAnother that had very sore eyes listed himself a soldier; when some\nsaid to him, Poor man, whither in that condition, and what wilt thou\ndo in a fight? He returned, If I can do nothing else, I shall blunt\nthe enemies\u2019 sword. Buris and Spertis, two Lacedaemonians, going\nvoluntarily to Xerxes the Persian to suffer that punishment which the\noracle had adjudged due to Sparta for killing those ambassadors the\nKing had sent, as soon as they came desired Xerxes to put them to death\nas he pleased, that they might make satisfaction for the Spartans. But\nhe, surprised at this gallantry, forgave the men and desired their\nservice in his court; to which they replied, How can we stay here, and\nleave our country, our laws, and those men for whom we came so far to\ndie? Indarnes the general pressing them to make peace, and promising\nthem equal honors with the King\u2019s greatest favorites, they returned,\nSir, you seem to be ignorant of the value of liberty, which no man in\nhis wits would change for the Persian empire. A Spartan in a journey,\nwhen a friend of his had purposely avoided him the day before, and the\nnext day, having obtained very rich furniture, splendidly received\nhim, trampled on his tapestry saying, This was the cause why I had not\nso much as a mat to sleep upon last night. Another coming to Athens,\nand seeing the Athenians crying salt-fish and dainties to sell up and\ndown the streets, others gathering taxes, keeping stews, and busied\nabout a thousand such dishonest trades, and looking on nothing as base\nand unbecoming; after his return, when his acquaintance enquired how\nthings were at Athens, he replied, All well; intimating by this irony\nthat all things there were esteemed good and commendable, and nothing\nbase. Another, being questioned about something, denied it; and the\nenquirer rejoining, Thou liest, he replied: And art not thou a fool to\nask me what you know yourself very well? Some Lacedaemonians being sent\nambassadors to the tyrant Lygdamis, pretending sickness he deferred\ntheir audience a long time. They said to one of his officers, Pray,\nsir, assure him that we did not come to wrestle but to treat with him.\nA priest initiating a Spartan in holy mysteries asked him what was the\ngreatest wickedness he was ever guilty of. And he replying, The Gods\nknow very well, and the priest pressing him the more and saying he\nmust needs discover, the Spartan asked, To whom? to thee or the God?\nAnd the priest saying, To the God, he rejoined, Then do you withdraw.\nAnother at night passing by a tomb and imagining he saw a ghost, made\ntowards it with his spear, and striking it through cried out, Whither\ndost thou fly, poor twice dead ghost? Another having vowed to throw\nhimself headlong from the Leucadian rock, when he came to the top and\nsaw the vast precipice, he went down again; upon which being jeered by\nan acquaintance, he said, I did not imagine that one vow needed another\nthat was greater. Another in a battle had his sword lifted up to kill\nhis enemy, but the retreat being sounded, he did not let the blow\nfall; and when one asked him why, when his enemy was at his mercy, he\ndid not use the advantage, Because, said he, it is better to obey my\nleader than kill my enemy. One saying to a Spartan that was worsted in\nthe Olympic games, Spartan, thy adversary was the better man; No, he\nreplied, but the better tripper.\n\n\n\n\nOF HEARING.\n\n\n_The Introduction._\n\n1. I have sent, Nicander, the reflections of some spare hours\nconcerning Hearing, digested into the following short essay, that\nbeing out of the hands of governors and come to man\u2019s estate, you may\nknow how to pay a proper attention to those who would advise you. For\nthat libertinism which some wild young fellows, for want of more happy\neducation, mistake for liberty, subjects them to harder tyrants than\ntheir late tutors and masters, even to their own vicious inclinations,\nwhich, as it were, break loose upon them. And as Herodotus observes of\nwomen, that they put off modesty with their shift,[182] so some young\nmen lay aside with the badges of minority all the sense of shame or\nfear, and divested of the garment of modesty which sat so well upon\nthem are covered with insolence. But you, who have often heard that\nto follow God and to obey reason are all one, cannot but believe that\nmen of best sense in passing from minority to manhood do not throw\noff the government, but simply change their governor. In the room of\nsome mercenary pedant, they receive that divine guide and governor\nof human life, reason, under whose subjection alone men are properly\nsaid to live in freedom. For they only live at their own will who have\nlearned to will as they ought; and that freedom of will which appears\nin unconstrained appetites and unreasonable actions is mean and narrow,\nand accompanied with much repentance.\n\n2. For as newly naturalized citizens who were entire strangers and\naliens are apt to disrelish many administrations of the government;\nwhile those who have previously lived in the country, bred up under\nthe constitution and acquainted with it, act without difficulty in\ntheir several stations, well satisfied with their condition; in like\nmanner, a man should for a long time have been bred up in philosophy,\nand accustomed from his earliest years to receive his lessons and\ninstruction mingled with philosophic reason, that so he may come at\nlast as a kind and familiar friend to philosophy, which alone can\narray young men in the perfect manly robes and ornaments of reason.\nTherefore, I believe, some directions concerning hearing will not be\nill received by you.\n\n\n_Remarks about Hearing in general._\n\nOf this Theophrastus affirms, that it is the most sensitive of all the\nsenses. For the several objects of sight, tasting, and feeling do not\nexcite in us so great disturbances and alterations as the sudden and\nfrightful noises which assault us only at the ears. Yet in reality this\nsense is more rational than sensitive. For there are many organs and\nother parts of the body which serve as avenues and inlets to the soul\nto give admission to vice; there is but one passage of virtue into\nyoung minds, and that is by the ears, provided they be preserved all\nalong free from the corruptions of flattery and untainted with lewd\ndiscourses. For this reason Xenocrates was of opinion that children\nought to have a defence fitted to their ears rather than fencers or\nprize-players, because the ears only of the latter suffered by the\nblows, but the morals of the former were hurt and maimed by words. Not\nthat he thereby recommended deafness, or forbade that they should be\nsuffered to hear at all; but he advised only that debauchery might be\nkept out, till better principles, like so many guardians appointed\nby philosophy, had taken charge of that part which is so liable to\nbe drawn aside and corrupted by discourse. And Bias of old, being\nordered by Amasis to send him the best and withal the worst part of\nthe sacrifice, sent the tongue; because the greatest benefits and\ndisadvantages are derived to us thereby. Thus again many diverting\nthemselves with children touch their ears, bidding them return the like\nagain; by which they seem to intimate to them that such best deserve\ntheir love and esteem whose obligations enter at the ears. This is\nevident, that he that has lain fallow all his days, without tasting\ninstruction, will not only prove barren and unfruitful of virtue,\nbut very inclinable to vice; for an uncultivated mind, like untilled\nground, will soon be overrun with weeds. For if that violent propensity\nof the mind to pleasure, and jealousy of all that carries any show of\npain,\u2014which proceed not from external causes or received prejudices,\nbut are the natural springs of evil affections and infinite diseases\nof the mind,\u2014are suffered to take their course, and not restrained,\nor diverted some other way by wholesome instructions, there can be no\nbeast so savage that it may not be called tame and civilized in respect\nof such a man.\n\n\n_More General Rules about Hearing._\n\n3. Since then it appears that hearing is of so great use and no less\ndanger to young men, I think it a very commendable thing for such a one\nto reflect continually with himself, and consult often with others, how\nhe may hear with benefit. And in this particular we may observe many to\nhave been mistaken, that they practise speaking before they have been\nused enough to hearing. Speaking they think will require some study\nand attention, but hearing cannot be a thing of any difficulty. Those\nindeed who play the game of tennis learn at the same time how to throw\nand how to catch the ball; but in the exercise of the tongue, we ought\nto practise how to talk well before we pretend to return, as conception\nand retention of the foetus precede childbirth. When fowls let fall\nwind-eggs, it is usually said that they are the rudiments of imperfect\nfruits which will never quicken and have life; and when young men\neither hear not at all or retain not what they hear, their discourse\ncomes from them altogether as useless and full of wind,\n\n    And vain and unregarded turns to air.\n\nIn filling one vessel from another, they take care to incline and\nturn it so that nothing be spilled, and that it may be really filling\nand not emptying; but they think it not worth the heeding to regulate\ntheir attention and apply themselves with advantage to a speaker, that\nnothing of importance may fall beside or escape them. Yet, what is\nbeyond comparison ridiculous, if they happen upon any one who has a\nknack at describing an entertainment or a show, or can relate his dream\nwell, or give an handsome account of a quarrel between himself and\nanother, such a one they hear with the greatest attention, they court\nhim to proceed, and importune him for every circumstance. Whereas, let\nanother call them about him for any thing useful, to exhort to what is\ndecent or reprehend what is irregular, or to make up a quarrel, they\nhave not temper enough to away with it, but they fight with all their\nmight to put him down by argument, if they are able, or if not, they\nhaste away to more agreeable fopperies; as if their ears, like faulty\nearthen vessels, might be filled with any thing but what is useful or\nvaluable. But as jockeys take great care in breeding horses to bring\nthem to rein right and endure the bit, so such as have the care of\neducating children should breed them to endure hearing, by allowing\nthem to speak little and hear much. And Spintharus, speaking in\ncommendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who\nknew more and spoke less. Some again make the observation, that Nature\nhas given every man two ears and but one tongue, as a secret intimation\nthat he ought to speak less than he hears.\n\n\n_Directions concerning Attention._\n\n4. Well then, silence is at all times a singular ornament of a youth,\nbut especially if he does not interrupt the speaker nor carp and except\nat every thing he says, but patiently expects the conclusion, though\nhis discourse be none of the best; and when he has done, if he does not\npresently come over him with an objection, but (as Aeschines directs)\nallows time to add, if he please, to what has been said, or to alter,\nor retract. Whereas such as turn too suddenly upon a speaker neither\nhear nor are heard themselves, but senselessly chatter to one another,\nand sin against the laws and rules of decorum. But he that brings along\nwith him a modest and unwearied attention has this advantage, that\nwhatever is beneficial in the discourse he makes his own, and he more\nreadily discovers what is false or impertinent, appearing all the while\na friend to truth rather than to squabbling or rashness. Therefore\nit was not ill said, that such as design to infuse goodness into\nthe minds of youth must first exclude thence pride and self-conceit\nmore carefully than we squeeze air out of bladders which we wish to\nfill with something useful; because, while they are puffed up with\narrogance, there is no room to admit any thing else.\n\n5. Thus again, envy and detraction and prejudice are in no case good,\nbut always a great impediment to what is so; yet nowhere worse than\nwhen they are made the bosom friends and counsellors of a hearer,\nbecause they represent the best things to him as unpleasant and\nimpertinent, and men in such circumstances are pleased with any thing\nrather than what deserves their applause. Yet he that grieves at the\nwealth, glory, or beauty of any is but simply envious, for he repines\nonly at the good of others; but he that is ill-natured to a good\nspeaker is an enemy to his own happiness. For discourse to an hearer,\nlike light to the eye, is a great benefit, if he will make the best use\nof it. Envy in all other instances carries this pretence with it, that\nit is to be referred to the depraved and ungovernable affections of\nthe mind, but that which is conceived against a speaker arises from an\nunjust presumption and vain-glorious affectation of praise.\n\nIn such a case, the man has not leisure to attend to what he hears;\nhis soul is in continual hurry and disturbance, at one time examining\nher own habits and endowments, if any way inferior to the speaker;\nanon, watching the behavior and inclination of others, if inclined to\npraise or admire his discourse; disordered at the praise and enraged\nat the company, if he meet with any encouragement. She easily lets\nslip and willingly forgets what has been said, because the remembrance\nis a pain and vexation to her; she hears what is to come with a great\ndeal of uneasiness and concern, and is never so desirous that the\nspeaker should hasten to an end, as when he discourses best. After all\nis over, she considers not what was said, but has respect only to the\ncommon vogue and disposition of the audience; she avoids and flies\nlike one distracted such as seem to be pleased, and herds among the\ncensorious and perverse. If she finds nothing to pervert, then she puts\nforward other speakers, who (as she asserts) have spoken better and\nwith greater force of argument on the same subject. Thus, by abusing\nand corrupting what was said, she defeats the use and effect of it on\nherself.\n\n6. He therefore who comes to hear must for the time come to a kind\nof truce and accommodation with vain-glory, and preserve the same\nevenness and cheerfulness of humor he would bring with him if he were\ninvited to a festival entertainment or the first-fruits\u2019 sacrifice,\napplauding the orator\u2019s power when he speaks to the purpose, and where\nhe fails receiving kindly his readiness to communicate what he knows\nand to persuade others by what wrought upon himself. Where he comes\noff with success, he must not impute it to chance or peradventure,\nbut attribute all to study and diligence and art, not only admiring\nbut studiously emulating the like; where he has done amiss, he must\npry curiously into the causes and origin of the mistake. For what\nXenophon says of discreet house-keepers, that they make an advantage\nof their enemies as well as their friends, is in some sort true of\nvigilant and attentive hearers, who reap no less benefit from an ill\nthan a good orator. For the meanness and poverty of a thought, the\nemptiness and flatness of an expression, the unseasonableness of a\nfigure, and the impertinence of falling into a foolish ecstasy of joy\nor commendation, and the like, are better discovered by a by-stander\nthan by the speaker himself. Therefore his oversight or indiscretion\nmust be brought home to ourselves, that we may examine if nothing of\nthe same kind has skulked there and imposed on us all the while. For\nthere is nothing in the world more easy than to discover the faults\nof others; but it is done to no effect if we do not make it useful to\nourselves in correcting and avoiding the like failures. When therefore\nyou animadvert upon other men\u2019s miscarriages, forget not to put that\nquestion of Plato to yourself, Am not I such another? We must trace out\nour own way of writing in the discourses of other men, as in another\u2019s\neyes we see the reflection of our own; that we may learn not to be too\nfree in censuring others, and may use more circumspection ourselves in\nspeaking. To this design the following method of comparison may be very\ninstrumental; if upon our return from hearing we take what seemed to\nus not well or sufficiently handled, and attempt it afresh ourselves,\nendeavoring to fill out one part or correct another, to vary this\nor model that into a new form from the very beginning. And thus\nPlato examined the oration of Lysias. For it is a thing of no great\ndifficulty to raise objections against another man\u2019s oration,\u2014nay,\nit is a very easy matter,\u2014but to produce a better in its place is a\nwork extremely troublesome; as the Spartan, who was told Philip had\ndemolished the city Olynthus, made this reply, But he cannot raise such\nanother. When then it appears, upon handling the same topic, that we do\nnot much excel those who undertook it before, this will abate much of\nour censorious humor, and our pride and self-conceit will be exposed\nand checked by such comparisons.\n\n\n_Caution about Admiration._\n\n7. To contempt is opposed admiration, which indeed argues a more\ncandid and better disposition; but even in this case no small care is\nto be observed, and perhaps even greater. For although such as are\ncontemptuous and self-conceited receive but little good from what they\nhear, yet the good-natured and such as are given to admire every thing\ntake a great deal of harm. And Heraclitus was not mistaken when he said\nthat a fool was put in a flutter at every thing he heard. We ought\nindeed to use all the candor imaginable in praising the speaker, yet\nwithal as great caution in yielding our assent to what he says; to look\nupon his expression and action with a favorable construction, but to\ninspect the usefulness and truth of his doctrine with the nicest and\nmost critical judgment; that speakers may cease to be malicious, and\nthat what they say may do no mischief. For many false and dangerous\nprinciples steal upon us through the authority of the speaker and our\nown credulity. The Spartan Ephors, approving the judgment of one of\nan ill conversation, ordered it to be communicated to the people by a\nperson of better life and reputation; thereby wisely and politicly\nusing them to give more deference to the morals than to the words of\nsuch as pretend to advise them. But now in philosophy the reputation\nof the speaker must be pulled off, and his words examined naked and\nwithout a mask; for in hearing as in war there are many false alarms.\nThe hoary head of the speaker or his gesture, his magisterial look\nor his assuming pride, and above all the noise and clapping of the\nauditory, bear great sway with a raw and inexperienced hearer, who is\neasily carried away with the tide. The very expression, if sweet and\nfull and representing things with some pomp and greatness, has a secret\npower to impose upon us. For, as many lapses in such as sing to an\ninstrument escape the hearers, so luxuriancy and pomp of style dazzle\nthe hearer so that he cannot see clearly the argument in hand. And\nMelanthius, as it is said, being asked his opinion concerning a tragedy\nof Diogenes, made answer that the words intercepted his sight of it.\nBut most Sophists in their declamations and speeches not only make use\nof words to veil and muffle their design; but with affected tone and\nsoftness of voice they draw aside and bewitch their followers, for the\nempty pleasure which they create reaping a more empty glory. So that\nthe saying of Dionysius is very applicable to them, who, being one day\nextremely pleased with an harper that played excellently well before\nhim, promised the fellow a great reward, yet afterwards would give him\nnothing, pretending he had kept his word; For, said he, as long as you\npleased me by your playing, so long were you pleased by hope of the\nreward. And such also is the reward this kind of harangues bring to the\nauthors. The hearers admire as long as they are pleased and tickled,\nbut the satisfaction on one hand and glory on the other conclude with\nthe oration; and the hearers lose their time idly, and the speakers\ntheir whole life.\n\n\n_How to separate the Useful Part of a Discourse._\n\n8. No, we must separate the trash and trumpery of an oration, that we\nmay come at the more fruitful and useful part; not imitating those\nwomen who busy themselves in gathering nosegays and making garlands,\nbut the more useful industry of bees. The former indeed plat and weave\ntogether the sweetest and gayest flowers, and their skill is mighty\npretty; but it lasts for one day only, and even then is of little or\nno use; whereas the bees, passing by the beds of violets and roses and\nhyacinth, fix on the prickly and biting thyme, and settle upon this\n\u201cintent on the yellow honey,\u201d[183] and taking thence what they need\nfor their work, they fly home laden. In like manner, a well-meaning\nsincere hearer ought to pass by the flowers of an oration, leaving\nthe gaudy show and theatrical part to entertain dronish Sophists;\nand, diving into the very mind of the speaker and the sense of his\nspeech, he must draw thence what is necessary for his own service;\nremembering withal that he is not come to the theatre or music-meeting,\nbut is present at the schools and auditories of philosophy, to learn\nto rectify his way of life by what he hears. In order thereunto, he\nought to inspect diligently and try faithfully the state and temper of\nhis mind after hearing, if any of his affections are more moderate, if\nany afflictions grow lighter, if his constancy and greatness of spirit\nare confirmed, if he feels any divine emotions or inward workings of\nvirtue and goodness upon his soul. For it becomes us but ill, when we\nrise from the barber\u2019s chair, to be so long in consulting the mirror,\nor to stroke our heads and examine so curiously the style in which our\nhair is trimmed and dressed, and then, at our return from hearing in\nthe schools, to think it needless to look into ourselves, or examine\nwhether our own mind has discharged any turbulent or unprofitable\naffections and is grown more sedate and serene. For, as Ariston was\nwont to say, The bath and a discourse are of no use unless they are\npurgative.\n\n9. Let then a young man be pleased and entertained with a discourse;\nbut let him not make his pleasure the only end of hearing, nor think\nhe may come from the school of a philosopher singing and sportive; nor\nlet him call for perfumes and essences when he has need of a poultice\nand fomentations. But let him learn to be thankful to him that purges\naway the darkness and stupidity of his mind, though (as we clear\nbeehives by smoking) with an offensive or unpalatable discourse. For\nthough it lies upon a speaker to take some care that his expression be\npleasing and plausible, yet a hearer ought not to make that the first\nthing he looks after. Afterward, indeed, when he has satisfied his\nappetite with the substance and has taken breath, he may be allowed\nthe curiosity of examining the style and expression, whether it has\nany thing delicate or extraordinary; as men quench their thirst before\nthey have time to admire the embossing of the bowl. But now such a one\nas is not intent on the subject-matter, but demands merely that the\nstyle shall be plain and pure Attic, is much of his foolish humor who\nrefuses an antidote unless it be mixed in Attic porcelain, or who will\nnot put on a coat in the winter because the cloth is not made of Attic\nwool; but who can yet sit still, doing nothing and stirring not, under\nsuch a thin and threadbare cloak as an oration of Lysias. That extreme\ndearth of judgment and good sense, and that abundance of subtilty\nand sophistry which is crept into the schools, is all owing to these\ncorruptions of the youngsters; who, observing neither the lives nor\npublic conversation of philosophers, mind nothing but words and jingle,\nand express themselves extravagantly upon what they think well said,\nwithout ever understanding or enquiring if it be useful and necessary,\nor needless and vain.\n\n\n_Of asking Questions._\n\n10. After this, it will be convenient to lay down some directions\ntouching asking of questions. For it is true, he that comes to a great\ncollation must eat what is set before him, not rudely calling for what\nis not to be had nor finding fault with the provision. But he that\nis invited to partake of a discourse, if it be with that proviso,\nmust hear with silence; for such disagreeable hearers as occasion\ndigressions by asking impertinent questions and starting foolish\ndoubts are an hindrance both to the speaker and the discourse, without\nbenefiting themselves. But when the speaker encourages them to propose\ntheir objections, he must take care that the question be of some\nconsequence. The suitors in Homer scorned and derided Ulysses.\u2014\n\n    To no brave prize aspired the worthless swain,\n    \u2019Twas but for scraps he asked, and asked in vain,[184]\n\nbecause they thought it required a great and heroic soul no less to\nask than to bestow great gifts. But there is much better reason to\nslight and laugh at such a hearer as can please himself in asking\nlittle trifling questions. Thus some young fellows, to proclaim their\nsmattering in logic and mathematics, upon all occasions enquire\nabout the divisibility of the infinite, or about motion through a\ndiagonal or upon the sides. But we may answer them with Philotimus,\nwho, being asked by a consumptive phthisical person for a remedy\nagainst a whitlow, and perceiving the condition he was in by his\ncolor and his shortness of breath, replied, Sir, you have no reason\nto be apprehensive of that. So we must tell them, You have no reason,\nyoung gentlemen, to trouble yourselves about these questions; but\nhow to shake off your conceit and arrogance, to have done with your\nintrigues and fopperies, and to settle immediately upon a modest and\nwell-governed course of life, is the question for you.\n\n11. Great regard is to be had also to the genius and talent of a\nspeaker, that we may enquire about such things as are in his way, and\nnot take him out of his knowledge; as if one should propose physical or\nmathematical queries to a moral philosophy reader, or apply himself to\none who prides himself on his knowledge of physics to give his opinion\non conditional propositions or to resolve a fallacy in logic. For,\nas he that goes about to cleave wood with a key or to unlock a door\nwith an axe does not so much mis-employ those instruments as deprive\nhimself of the proper use of them, so such as are not content with what\na speaker offers them, but call for such things as he is a stranger\nto, not only are disappointed, but incur the suspicion of malice and\nill-nature.\n\n12. Be cautious also how you ask questions yourself, or ask too often;\nfor that betrays somewhat of conceit and ostentation. But to wait\ncivilly while another proposes his scruples argues a studious spirit\nand willingness that others should be informed, unless some sudden\nperturbation of mind require to be repressed or some distemper to\nbe assuaged. For perhaps, as Heraclitus says, it is an ill thing to\nconceal even a man\u2019s ignorance; it must be laid open, that the remedy\nmay be applied. So also if anger or superstition or a violent quarrel\nwith your domestics or the mad passion of love,\u2014\n\n    Which doth the very heart-strings move,\n    That ne\u2019er were stirred before,\u2014\n\nexcite any commotion in your mind, you are not, for fear of being\ngalled by reproof, to fly to such as are treating of other arguments;\nbut you must frequent those places where your particular case is\nstating, and after lecture address yourself privately to the speaker\nfor better information and fuller satisfaction therein. On the\ncontrary, men commonly flatter themselves, and admire the philosopher\nso long as he discourses of indifferent things; but if he come home\nto themselves and deal freely with them about their real interests,\nthis they think is beyond all enduring, or at best a needless piece\nof supererogation. For they naturally think that they ought to\nhear philosophy in the schools, like actors on the stage, while in\nmatters out of the school they believe them to be no better men than\nthemselves; and, to confess the truth, they have but reason to think so\nof many Sophists, who, having once left the desk and laid aside their\nbooks, in the serious concerns of human life are utterly insignificant\nand even more ignorant than the vulgar. But they do not know that even\nthe austerity or raillery of real philosophers, their very nod or look,\ntheir smile or frown, and especially their admonitions directed to\nparticular persons, are of weighty importance to such as can brook or\nattend to them.\n\n\n_Directions concerning Praising._\n\n13. As for commendation, some caution and mean is to be observed in it;\nbecause to be either deficient or excessive in that particular shows\na base spirit. He is but a morose and rigid hearer whom no part of an\noration can work upon or move, one who is full of a secret presumptuous\nopinion of himself, and of an inbred conceit that he could do better\nthings himself; one who dares not alter his countenance as occasion\nrequires, or let fall the least word to testify his good wishes, but\nwith silence and affected gravity hunts after the reputation of a\nsagacious and profound person, and thinks that all the praise is lost\nto himself which he bestows on others, as if it were money. For many\nwrest that sentence of Pythagoras, who used to say that he had learned\nby philosophy to admire nothing; but these men think that to admire\nnobody and to honor nobody consists in despising everybody, and they\naim at seeming grave by being contemptuous. Philosophy indeed removes\nthat foolish admiration and surprise which proceeds from doubt or\nignorance, by laying open to us the causes of things, but endeavors not\nto destroy all good-nature and humanity. And those who are truly good\ntake it for their greatest honor and commendation to be just in paying\nhonor and commendation where it is due to others; and for a man to\nadorn another is a most glorious ornament, proceeding from a generous\nabundance of glory and honor in himself; while those who are niggardly\nin praising others only betray how poor and bare they are of praises at\nhome.\n\n\n_Not to be too prone to commend._\n\nYet to use no consideration at all, but to stand up and make a\nclamor at every word or syllable, is to offend in the other extreme.\nSuch fluttering fellows for the most part oblige not the speakers\nthemselves, and are always a plague and common grievance to the\nhearers, exciting them many times against their inclination, and\nforcing them for very shame to join in the tumult. In the end, he that\nraised the disturbance receives no benefit by the discourse, but goes\naway with the character of a scoffer or flatterer or novice. A judge,\nit is true, ought to hear and determine without favor or ill-will,\nregarding only what is just and equitable; but in philosophical\nproceedings the case is altered, where neither law nor oaths tie us up\nfrom being favorable to the speaker. And the ancients in their temples\nwere wont to place the statue of Mercury among the Graces, intimating\nthat orators ought to find a propitious and good-natured audience. For\nthey thought it passed all belief, that any man could prove so much a\nblockhead or come so wide of the purpose, that, though he should make\nno remarks of his own and quote none of others worthy taking notice\nof, or though the argument and design of his discourse might not be\ncommendable, yet at least the order and disposition or the style should\nnot deserve some applause;\u2014\n\n    As oft amidst the furze and thorny brakes\n    The tender violets more securely peep.\n\nFor if some have undertaken successfully to speak in commendation of\nvomiting or a fever, and have even made an encomium on a porridge-pot\nnot without some acceptance, certainly a discourse from one that has\nthe least pretence to philosophy cannot but afford some opportunity,\nthough it be a slight one, for commendation to a well-disposed\nauditory. Plato says that all who are in their bloom in some way\nexcite the amorous man;\u2014the fair are the children of the Gods, the\nblack are manly, the hook-nosed have a look of majesty, the flat-nose\ngives a graceful air, even the sallow complexion is complimented for\nlooking like honey; in spite of all their defects, he cherishes and\nloves them all.[185] Thus love, like ivy, must needs find something or\nother to lay hold on. But much more will a studious hearer and scholar\nbe sure to find some not unworthy reason for praising every speaker.\nFor Plato in an oration of Lysias, disliking the invention and utterly\ncondemning the disposition as confused, yet praised the style and\nelocution, because every word was wrought off cleverly and cleanly\nturned. Thus a man may see cause enough to disapprove the argument of\nArchilochus, the verse of Parmenides, the poverty of Phocylides, the\neternal talk of Euripides, and inequality of style in Sophocles; and\namong the orators, one has no manner, another is not moving, a third\nhas nothing of ornament; yet every one has his peculiar power of moving\nand exciting, for which he is praised. Some again do not require of\nus to testify our acceptance by the voice; a pleasing eye or cheerful\nlook, or a behavior without any thing of pain or uneasiness, is all\nthat they desire. For the following favors are nowadays bestowed of\ncourse upon every oration, though the speaker may speak to no purpose\nat all,\u2014sitting modestly without lolling from one side to the other,\nlooking earnestly on the speaker, in the posture of an attentive\nlistener, and with a countenance which betrays not only no contempt or\nill-will but not even a mind otherwise employed. For as the beauty and\nexcellence of every thing consists in the concurrence of many different\naccidents, which contribute to the symmetry and harmony of the whole,\nso that, if but one inconsiderable part be away or absurdly added,\ndeformity immediately follows; in like manner, not only a supercilious\nlook or forbidding mien or roving eyes or waving the body to and fro or\nindecent crossing of the legs, but even a nod, a whisper to another, a\nscornful smile, a sleepy yawn, hanging of the head, or the like, are\nall likewise great indecorums and to be avoided with particular care.\n\n14. Yet some there are who can assign a speaker his part, and think no\nduty incumbent on themselves all the while; who will have him prepare\nand premeditate what he has to deliver, and yet throw themselves into\nan auditory without any preparation or consideration, as if they were\ninvited to a feast, to revel and take their pleasures at another\u2019s\ncost. Yet it is known that even a guest has some things required of him\nto make him suitable and agreeable, and certainly a hearer has much\nmore; because he ought to be a sharer in the discourse and an assistant\nto the speaker. Neither will it become him to be severe at all turns\nupon every slight miscarriage or perpetually putting the speaker\u2019s\nelocution and action to the test, while he himself is guilty of grosser\nenormities in hearing, without danger or control. But as at tennis he\nthat takes the ball turns and winds his body according to the motion\nof the server, so a kind of proportion is to be observed between the\nspeaker and the hearer, if both will discharge their several duties.\n\n\n_Care to be observed in Praising Persons of all Qualities._\n\n15. Neither ought we to use any expressions of praise indifferently.\nFor it is an ill thing which Epicurus relates, that, upon reading any\nepistles from his friends, those about him broke out into tumultuous\napplauses; and such as daily introduce new forms into our auditories,\nas Divinely said! Superhuman! Inimitable! (as if those used by\nPlato, Socrates, and Hyperides, Well! Wisely! Truly said! were not\nsufficiently expressive), exceed the bounds of decency and modesty,\nnay indeed, do but affront the speaker, as though he were fond of such\nextravagant praises. Nor are they less odious and troublesome who\nconfirm approbation with impertinent oaths, as if they were giving\ntheir testimony for a speaker in a court of judicature. And so likewise\nis it with such as observe not to give just deference to the quality\nof persons, who to a philosopher are apt to cry out, Smartly said! or\nto a reverend gentleman, Wittily! Floridly! applying to philosophy\nsuch trifles as are proper to scholastic exercises and declamations,\nand giving meretricious applause to a sober discourse,\u2014as if a man\nshould compliment the conqueror in the Olympic games with a garland of\nlilies or roses, instead of laurel or wild olive. Euripides the poet\none day at a rehearsal instructing the chorus in a part that was set\nto a serious air, one of the company unexpectedly fell out a laughing;\nSir, said he, unless you were very stupid and insensible, you could\nnot laugh while I sing in the grave mixolydian mood. In like manner a\nmaster of philosophy and politics may put a stop to the unseasonable\nlevity and pertness of a youngster, by telling him, You seem to be a\nmadman and unacquainted with all manner of civility, otherwise you\nwould not hum over your tunes or practise your new steps while I am\ndiscoursing of Gods, or the laws, or the supreme magistrate. For\nconsider seriously what a very scandalous thing it is that, while a\nphilosopher is in his discourse, the passengers in the street, from\nthe clamor and hooting of the hearers, should have reason to make it\na question whether some piper or harper or morris-dancer were got in\namong them.\n\n\n_Of bearing Admonitions and Reproofs._\n\n16. Admonitions and reprimands ought to be taken neither altogether\ninsensibly nor yet sheepishly. For such as carry off a disgrace from\na philosopher carelessly and without due concern, so as to grin at\nhis reprehensions or scoffingly to praise him for them, as sharping\nparasites applaud the scurrilous reflection of their cullies,\u2014such,\nI say, are shameless and insolent, and betray only their invincible\nimpudence, which is no good or true argument of courage. Yet to\nbear handsomely without passion an innocent jest in raillery is not\nunbecoming the breeding of a gentleman, but a good accomplishment and\naltogether worthy of a Spartan. But when an exhortation to amendment\nof manners, like a bitter potion, is made up of harsh and unpleasant\nwords, in such a case for a youth\u2014instead of hearing submissively\nand running into a sweat or being seized with dizziness, when the\nmind is on fire with shame and confusion\u2014to remain unmoved or sneer\nor dissemble his concernment is the certain sign of a dissolute and\nill-bred man, one whose soul, like callous flesh, being hardened with\na course of debauchery, will receive no scar or impression. Some young\nmen indeed there are of a contrary disposition, who having undergone\none rebuke fly off without ever looking back, turn renegades, and\nquite desert philosophy. These being naturally very modest have a\ngood disposition toward an healthful habit of mind, but vitiate it by\ntoo much tenderness and effeminacy, which disables them for bearing\na reproof or manfully submitting to a correction, and run after more\npleasing harangues wherewith some flatterers and Sophists soothe and\nbewitch them, without any benefit or advantage. For as he that flies\nfrom the surgeon after incision, and will not suffer the ligature to\nbe applied, endures that part of his skill only which is painful,\nrejecting what would give him ease; so such a one as being lanced and\nscarified by a sharp oration has not patience till the wound be skinned\nover, goes away from philosophy tortured and harassed, without that\nbenefit he might receive thereby. For not only Telephus\u2019s wound was\ncured by rusty filings of the spear (as Euripides has it), but whatever\npain philosophy may occasion to a meek disposition will be cured and\nremoved by the same discourse that gave the wound. He therefore that is\nreprehended must endure awhile and away with some pain, not presently\nbe discouraged or out of heart. Let him behave himself as though he\nwere to be initiated into the mysteries of philosophy, still hoping,\nafter the lustrations and more troublesome ceremonies are undergone,\nhe shall enjoy some considerable effect of his present troubles and\ninconveniences. Or suppose he be wrongfully chidden, it is but handsome\nto expect the conclusion; after that he may make his defence, and\ndesire that such freedom and violence may be reserved to repress some\nother misdemeanor which really deserves it.\n\n\n_The Difficulties in Philosophy vincible._\n\n17. But besides this,\u2014as in grammar, music, and the exercises of\nactivity, there are many things which to young beginners appear\ntroublesome, laborious, and obscure, which yet a fuller knowledge, like\nacquaintance among men, makes more agreeable, ready, and feasible,\u2014in\nlike manner, though philosophy in its first terms and notions may\nseem uncouth and strange, yet a man must not be so far discouraged at\nthe first elements as to throw it up altogether, but he must bid at\nall and ply his business hard and patiently expect that acquaintance\nwhich will make all easy and pleasant; and that will not be long in\ncoming, bringing great light into things and exciting ardent affections\nto virtue; without which to endure to live, after one has through\nhis own effeminacy fallen from philosophy, is an argument of a mean\nspirit and servile disposition. I must confess there is some difficulty\nin the things themselves which is not easily conquered by raw and\nunexperienced beginners; yet the greatest part of the difficulty they\nbring upon themselves by their own ignorance and inadvertency, falling\ninto the same error from two contrary causes. For some, out of a\nfoolish bashfulness and desire to be easy to the speaker, are loath to\nbe inquisitive or have the thing made plain to them, and so they nod\ntheir assent to every thing that is said, as if they fully comprehended\nit. And others out of unseasonable vain-glory, and vying with their\nfellows that they may vaunt their readiness of wit and quickness of\napprehension, pretend to understand things before they do, and never\nunderstand them at all. Now the consequence in both cases is this; the\nmodest go away in a great deal of anxiety and doubt, and are forced in\nthe end, with greater disgrace, to interrupt the speaker to be informed\nagain; and the vain-glorious are troubled to keep close and conceal the\nignorance they carry about them.\n\n18. Therefore all such sheepishness and self-conceit being set aside,\nlet us learn to lay up in our minds whatever is usefully said, enduring\nto be laughed at by such as set up for wits and railers. This course\ntook Cleanthes and Xenocrates, who being somewhat slower than their\nfellows did not therefore give over hearing or despond; but prevented\nthe jests of others, by comparing themselves to narrow-mouthed vessels\nand to copper plates; because, though they received learning with some\ndifficulty, yet they retained it surely. For he that will be a good man\nmust not only, as Phocylides says,\u2014\n\n    Expect much fraud, and many a time be caught,\u2014\n\nbut be laughed at and disgraced, and endure many scurrilous and\nvirulent reflections; he must also encounter ignorance and wrestle with\nit with all the strength of his mind, and subdue it too.\n\nNeither on the other hand must the faults be passed by which some\ntroublesome people commit out of mere laziness and negligence; such\nmen as will not bestow any pains in considering themselves, but asking\noften the same questions are a perpetual vexation to the speaker;\nlike callow birds always gaping at the bill of the old one, and still\nreaching after what has been prepared and worked over by others.\nAnother sort there are, who, affecting the reputation of quickness\nand attention, confound the speaker with their pragmatical curiosity\nand jargon, always haling in something unnecessary and requiring\ndemonstrations of things foreign to the business in hand.\n\n    Thus a short way is long and tedious made,\n\nas Sophocles[186] says, and that not only to themselves, but others\nalso. For by taking off the speaker with vain and unnecessary questions\nthey retard the progress of instruction, like travellers in the road,\nby impertinent halts and stops. Hieronymus compares these men to lazy\nand greedy curs, which within doors bite and tear the skins of wild\nanimals and lie tugging at their shaggy hair, but in the field dare not\nfasten upon beasts themselves.\n\n\n_A Concluding Exhortation._\n\nYet one exhortation let me leave with these people, that having\nreceived the general heads of things they would supply the rest by\ntheir own industry, making their memory a guide to their invention;\nand that, looking on the discourse of others only as a kind of first\nprinciple or seed, they would take care to cherish and increase it.\nFor the mind requires not like an earthen vessel to be filled up;\nconvenient fuel and aliment only will inflame it with a desire of\nknowledge and ardent love of truth. Now, as it would be with a man who,\ngoing to his neighbor\u2019s to borrow fire and finding there a great and\nbright fire, should sit down to warm himself and forget to go home; so\nis it with the one who comes to another to learn, if he does not think\nhimself obliged to kindle his own fire within and inflame his own mind,\nbut continues sitting by his master as if he were enchanted, delighted\nby hearing. Such a one, although he may get the name of a philosopher,\nas we get a bright color by sitting by the fire, will never clear\naway the mould and rust of his mind, and dispel the darkness of his\nunderstanding by the help of philosophy. In fine, if there is any\nother precept concerning hearing, it is briefly this, to be careful\nin observing the last exhortation,\u2014that is, to join the exercise of\nour invention to our hearing; that so, while we lay down the rule that\nhearing well is the first step to living well, we may not content\nourselves with a superficial commonplace knowledge, but endeavor after\nsuch a philosophical habit as shall be deeply imprinted on the mind.\n\n\n\n\nOF LARGE ACQUAINTANCE; OR, AN ESSAY TO PROVE THE FOLLY OF SEEKING MANY\nFRIENDS.\n\n\n1. Menon the Thessalian, a person who had no mean opinion of his\nown parts, who thought himself well accomplished in all the arts of\ndiscourse and to have reached (as Empedocles words it) the highest\npitch of wisdom, was asked by Socrates, What is virtue? And he answered\nreadily enough, and as impertinently, that there is one virtue\nbelonging to childhood, another to old age; that there are distinct\nvirtues in men and women, magistrates and private persons, masters and\nservants. Excellently well! replied Socrates in raillery, when you were\nasked about one virtue, you have raised, as it were, a whole swarm;\nconjecturing, not without reason, that the man therefore named many\nbecause he knew the nature of none. And may not we ourselves expect\nand deserve as justly to be scoffed and rallied, who having not yet\ncontracted one firm friendship seem nevertheless exceeding cautious of\ntoo many? It is almost the same thing as if one maimed and blind should\nappear solicitous lest like Briareus he may chance to be furnished\nwith a hundred hands, and become all over eyes like Argus. However, we\ncannot but extol the sense of that young man in Menander the poet, who\nsaid that he counted every man wonderfully honest and happy who had\nfound even the shadow of a friend.\n\n2. But all the difficulty lies in finding him; and the chiefest reason\nis that, instead of one choice true friend, nothing under a multitude\nwill content us; like women of the town who admit the embraces of all\ngallants that come, at the gay appearance of the last which comes we\nneglect and slight the former, and so are unable to hold them. Or\nrather, like the foster-child of Hypsipyle, who \u201cin a green meadow\nsat cropping the flowers one after another, snatching each prize\nwith delighted heart, insatiable in his childish joy,\u201d[187]\u2014so we\nof riper years, from an inbred affection of novelty and disdain of\nthings already possessed, take up presently with the first promising\naspect of every fresh and new-blooming friend, and lay all at once the\nfoundations of several acquaintances; but we leave each unfinished, and\nwhen we have scarce fixed on one, our love immediately palls there,\nwhile we passionately pursue some other.\n\nWherefore, in this affair,\u2014to begin at the beginning (at the domestic\naltar, as the saying is),\u2014let us ask the opinion and counsel of our\nforefathers, and consider what report the records of antiquity make\nconcerning true friends. They are, we find, always reckoned in pairs;\nas Theseus and Pirithous, Achilles and Patroclus, Orestes and Pylades,\nPhintias and Damon, Epaminondas and Pelopidas. Friendship (so to speak)\nis a creature sociable, but affects not a herd or a flock; and that we\nusually esteem a friend another self, and call him \u1f11\u03c4\u03b1\u1fd6\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 (companion)\nas much as to say \u1f15\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2 (the other one), is a convincing argument that\nthe number two is the adequate and complete measure of friendship. And\nin truth, a great number of friends or servants is not to be purchased\nat an easy rate. That which procures love and friendship in the world\nis a sweet and obliging temper of mind, a lively readiness in doing\ngood offices, together with a constant habit of virtue; than which\nqualifications nothing is more rarely found in nature. Therefore to\nlove and to be beloved much can have no place in a multitude; but the\nmost eager affection, if divided among numerous objects, like a river\ndivided into several channels, must needs flow at length very weak and\nlanguid. Upon this score, those animals love their young most which\ngenerate but one; and Homer, describing a beloved child, calls it the\nonly-begotten and born in old age,\u2014that is, at such a time when the\nparents neither have nor hope for another.[188]\n\n3. Yet I do not assert we ought to confine ourselves to one only\nfriend; but among the rest, there should be one eminently so, like\na well-beloved and only son, not casually picked up at a tavern or\neating-house or in a tennis-court, nor at a game of hazard, nor at an\naccidental meeting in the wrestling-place or the market,\u2014as is too\ncommon nowadays,\u2014but one chosen upon long and mature deliberation,\nwith whom (according to that celebrated proverb) we have eaten a bushel\nof salt.\n\nThe palaces of noble men and princes appear guarded with splendid\nretinues of diligent obsequious servants, and every room is crowded\nwith a throng of visitors, who caress the great man with all the\nendearing gestures and expressions that wit and breeding can invent;\nand it may be thought, I confess, at first sight, that such are very\nfortunate in having so many cordial, real friends at their command;\nwhereas it is all bare pageantry and show. Change the scene, and you\nmay observe a far greater number of flies as industriously busy in\ntheir kitchens; and as these would vanish, were the dishes empty and\nclean, so neither would that other sort of insect pay any farther\nrespect, were nothing to be got by it.\n\nThere are chiefly these requisites to a true friendship: virtue, as a\nthing lovely and desirable; familiarity, as pleasant; and advantage,\nas necessary. For we must first choose a friend upon a right judgment\nmade of his excellent qualities; having chosen him, we must perceive a\npleasure in his conversation, and upon occasion he must be useful to us\nin our concerns. All which (especially judgment in our choice, the main\npoint of all) are inconsistent with a numerous acquaintance.\n\nAnd first of all (to draw a parallel in other matters), if there is no\nsmall time required to select a great many persons together who can\ndance and sing in exact time to the same tune, manage oars with a like\nstrength and vigor, be fit stewards of our estates or tutors of our\nchildren, certainly we must acknowledge it much more difficult to meet\nwith a considerable number of friends, ready to enter with us the trial\nof all manner of fortune, of whom every one will\n\n    Of his good fortune yield thy part to thee,\n    And bear like part of thy calamity.\n\nEven a ship at sea runs not the risk of so many storms, nor are any\ncastles, forts, and havens secured with walls, ramparts, and dams\nagainst the apprehension of so many dangers, as are the misfortunes\nagainst which a constant approved friendship mutually undertakes to\nafford a defence and refuge. Whoever without due trial put themselves\nupon us for friends we examine as bad money; and the cheat being\ndiscovered, we are glad if of their own accord they withdraw; or if\nthey persist, at least we wish with great impatience fairly to get rid\nof them.[189] Yet we must own it is a hard and troublesome task to\ncast off a disagreeable acquaintance; for as unwholesome meats which\nnauseate the stomach can neither be retained without hazard of health,\nnor yet ejected sincere as they were taken, but wholly disguised and\ndefiled with other humors; so a mistaken false friend must either be\nstill entertained, and remain a mere vexation to us as well as uneasy\nto himself, or else by a kind of convulsion be thrown up like bile,\nleaving behind the continual torment of private grudgings and hatred.\n\n4. Therefore it highly concerns us not to be too rash in fastening on\nthe next that may accidentally offer, nor presently to affect every one\nthat pretends to be fond of our friendship. Let the search rather begin\non our own part, and our choice fix on those who approve themselves\nreally worthy of our respect. What is cheap and with ease obtained is\nbelow our notice; and we trample under foot bushes and brambles that\nreadily catch hold of us, while we diligently clear our way to the\nvine and olive; so it is always best not to admit to our familiarity\npersons who officiously stick and twist themselves about us, but we\nought rather of our own accord to court the friendship of those who are\nworthy of our regard, and who prove advantageous to ourselves.\n\n5. Therefore, as Zeuxis replied to some who blamed the slowness of his\npencil,\u2014that he therefore spent a long time in painting, because he\ndesigned his work should last for a long eternity,\u2014so he that would\nsecure a lasting friendship and acquaintance must first deliberately\njudge and thoroughly try its worth, before he settles it. Suppose then\nit is hard to make a right judgment in choosing many friends together,\nit may still be asked whether we may not maintain a familiarity with\nmany persons, or whether that too is impossible. Now familiarity and\nconverse are the genuine products and enjoyments of true friendship,\nand the highest pleasure the best friends aim at is continual\nintercourse and the daily frequenting one another\u2019s company.\n\n    No more shall meet Achilles and his friend;\n    No more our thoughts to those we loved make known,\n    Or quit the dearest, to converse alone.[190]\n\nAnd, as Menelaus says of Ulysses:\u2014\n\n    There with commutual zeal we both had strove\n    In acts of dear benevolence and love,\u2014\n    Brothers in peace, not rivals in command,\u2014\n    And death alone dissolved the friendly band.[191]\n\nNow much acquaintance has a clear contrary effect; and whereas single\nfriendship by kind discourses and good offices cements, unites, and\ncondenses as it were two parties,\u2014\n\n    As when the fig-tree\u2019s juice curdles and binds white milk,[192]\n\nas Empedocles says; this on the other hand unties, rends, and breaks\nthe bond, distracts our inclinations with too much variety; and the\nagreeable just mixture of affection, the very cement of true friends,\nis wholly lost in so loose and confused a conversation. Hence at once\narises great inequality with respect to the services of friendship,\nand a foolish diffidence in the performance of them. For multiplicity\nof friends renders those very parts of friendship vain and useless\nwhence advantage was most expected; neither can we hope it should be\notherwise, if we consider how \u201cone man is acted upon by his nature and\nanother by his cares and anxieties.\u201d Nature hath not bestowed the same\ninclinations on all, nor are we all born to the same fortune; and the\noccasions of our actions, like the wind, may often favor one of our\nacquaintance while they stand cross to another.\n\n6. However, suppose by great chance all should agree to crave\nassistance in the same affair, whether at a consult, exercise of a\npublic trust in the government, canvassing for preferment, entertaining\nguests, or the like; yet it is exceeding hard to satisfy all. But now\nif they are engaged in diverse concerns at the very same moment of\ntime, and every one should make his particular request to you, one\nto take a voyage with him, another to assist in pleading his cause, a\nthird to prosecute a criminal, a fourth to help in managing his trade,\nanother to celebrate his wedding, and another to attend a funeral,\u2014\n\n    And the whole city\u2019s filled with incense smoke,\n    And songs of triumph mixt with groans resound;[193]\n\nI say, in this case, it is utterly impossible to answer the requests\nof all, to gratify none is absurd, and to serve only one and disoblige\nthe rest is a thing grievous and intolerably rude;\u2014\u201cfor no one, when\nhe loves a friend, will bear to be neglected.\u201d[194] If indeed you could\npersuade that inadvertency was the cause of the omission, you might\nmore easily hope a pardon; and to plead forgetfulness is a sort of\nexcuse which perhaps might pass without much angering your friend; but\nto allege \u201cI could not be advocate in your cause, being of counsel for\nanother,\u201d or \u201cI could not visit you in a fever, because I was invited\nto a feast elsewhere,\u201d while it is thus confessed that we neglect one\nfriend to pay our respects to another, is so far from extenuating the\noffence, that it highly aggravates it, and adds all the jealousies of\nrivalry.\n\nBut commonly men overlook these and such like inconveniences of a\nnumerous acquaintance, and take only a prospect of its advantages, not\nin the least reflecting that whoever employs many assistants in his\naffairs must in gratitude repay his service to as many when they need\nit; and as Briareus, who with his hundred hands was daily obliged for\nhis bare subsistence to feed fifty stomachs, could thrive no better\nthan ourselves, who supply a single one with two hands, so a man of\nmany friends cannot boast any other privilege but that of being a slave\nto many, and of sharing in all the business, cares, and disquiet that\nmay befall them. Nor can Euripides help him by advising that\n\n                        Best suited to the state\n    Of mortal life are mutual friendships formed\n    With moderation, such as take not root\n    Deep in the soul, affections that with ease\n    May be relaxed, or closer bound at will,[195]\n\nthat is, we may pull in and let out our friendships like a sail, as the\nwind happens to blow. Let us rather, good Euripides, turn this saying\nof yours to enmity; for heats and animosities ought to be moderate, and\nnever reach the inmost recesses of the soul; hatred, anger, complaints,\nand jealousies may with good reason be readily appeased and forgotten.\nTherefore it is far more advisable, as Pythagoras directs, \u201cnot to\nshake hands with too many,\u201d\u2014that is, not to make many friends,\u2014nor to\naffect that popular kind of easiness which courts and embraces every\nacquaintance that occurs, but carries with it on the reverse a thousand\nmischiefs; among which (as was before hinted) to bear part of the same\ncares, to be affected with the same sorrows, and to be embroiled in the\nsame enterprises and dangers with any great number of friends will be a\nsort of life hardly tolerable even to the most ingenuous and generous\ntempers. What Chilon the wise man remarked to one who said he had no\nenemies, namely, \u201cThou seemest rather to have no friends,\u201d has a great\ndeal of truth; for enmities always keep pace and are interwoven with\nfriendships.\n\n7. And it is impossible any should be friends that resent not mutually\nthe affronts and injuries offered unto either, and that do not hate\nalike and in common. They also who are enemies to yourself will\npresently suspect and hate your friend; nay, your other friends too\nwill often envy, calumniate, and undermine him. Wherefore what the\noracle foretold Timesias concerning his planting a colony, that an hive\nof bees should be changed into a nest of wasps, may not impertinently\nbe applied to those who seek after a hive of friends, but light before\nthey know it upon a wasps-nest of enemies.\n\nBesides, we should do well to consider that the kindest affections\nof friends seldom compensate for the misfortunes that befall us from\nthe malice of enemies. It is well known how Alexander treated the\nfamiliars of Philotas and Parmenio; Dionysius, those of Dion; Nero,\nthose of Plautus; and Tiberius, those of Sejanus; all shared the same\nhard fate of being racked and tortured to death. For as the gold and\nriches Creon\u2019s daughter was adorned with could not secure the good old\nfather from being consumed in her flames, endeavoring too officiously\nto rescue her; so not a few partake of the calamities and ruin of\ntheir friends, before they have reaped the least advantage from their\nprosperity; a misfortune to which philosophers and the best-natured men\nare the most liable. This was the case of Theseus, who for the sake\nof his dear Pirithous shared his punishment, and was bound with him\nin the same eternal chains.[196] Thus in the plague of Athens, says\nThucydides,[197] the most generous and virtuous citizens, while without\nregard to their own safety they visited their sick, frequently perished\nwith their friends.\n\n8. Such accidents as these ought to admonish us not to be too prodigal\nof our virtue, nor inconsiderately to prostitute our perfections to the\nenjoyment of every little thing that pretends to be our humble admirer;\nrather let us reserve them for the worthy, for those who can love\nand share another\u2019s joys and sorrows like ourselves. And truly, this\nalone renders it most unlikely that many men should remain friends,\nthat real friendship has always its origin from likeness. For, we\nmay observe, even brute and inanimate beings affect their like, very\nreadily mixing and uniting with those of their own nature; while with\ngreat reluctance and a kind of indignation they shrink from and avoid\nwhatever differs from themselves, and force can scarce oblige them to\nthe loathed embraces. By what motive then can we imagine any league of\namity can be kept inviolable amidst a multitude, where manners admit of\nso much variety, where desires and humors will be perpetually jarring,\nwhere the several courses of life must needs be almost as unlike as\nconstitutions and faces? A musical concord consists of contrary sounds,\nand a due composition of flat and sharp notes makes a delightful tune;\nbut as for friendship, that is a sort of harmony all of a piece, and\nadmits not the least inequality, unlikeness, or discords of parts, but\nhere all discourses, opinions, inclinations, and designs serve one\ncommon interest, as if several bodies were acted and informed by the\nsame soul.\n\n9. Now is there any person living of that industrious, pliant, and\nuniversal humor, who can take the pains exactly to imitate all shapes,\nand will not rather deride the advice of Theognis[198] as absurd and\nimpossible, namely, to learn the craft of the polypus, which puts on\nthe hue of every stone it sticks to? However, the changes of this\nfish are only superficial, and the colors are produced in the skin,\nwhich by its closeness or its laxity receives various impressions from\nneighboring objects; whereas the resemblance betwixt friends must be\nfar more than skin-deep, must be substantial, such as may be traced in\nevery action of their lives, in all their affections, dispositions,\nwords and purposes, even to their most retired thoughts. To follow the\nadvice of Theognis would be a task worthy of a Proteus, who was neither\nvery fortunate nor very honest, but could by enchantment transform\nhimself in an instant from one shape to another. Even so, he that\nentertains many friends must be learned and bookish among the learned,\ngo into the arena with wrestlers, drudge cheerfully after a pack of\nhounds with gentlemen that love hunting, drink with debauchees, and sue\nfor office with politicians; in fine, he must have no proper principles\nof actions and humors of his own, but those of the present company\nhe converses with. Thus, as the first matter of the philosophers is\noriginally without shape or color, yet being the subject of all natural\nchanges takes by its own inherent forces the forms of fire, water, air,\nand solid earth; so a person that affects a numerous friendship must\npossess a mind full of folds and windings, subject to many passions,\ninconstant as water, and easy to be transformed into an infinite\nvariety of shapes. But real friendship requires a sedate, stable, and\nunalterable temper; so that it is a rare thing and next a miracle to\nfind a constant and sure friend.\n\n\n\n\nTHE FIRST ORATION OF PLUTARCH CONCERNING THE FORTUNE OR VIRTUE OF\nALEXANDER THE GREAT.\n\n\n1. This is the oration of Fortune, asserting and challenging Alexander\nto be her masterpiece, and hers alone. In contradiction to which it\nbehooves us to say something on the behalf of philosophy, or rather\nin the defence of Alexander himself, who cannot choose but spurn away\nthe very thought of having received his empire as a gift at the hands\nof Fortune, knowing that it was so dearly bought with the price of his\nlost blood and many wounds, and that in gaining it,\n\n    Full many a bloody day\n      In toilsome fight he spent,\n    And many a wakeful night\n      In battle\u2019s management;[199]\n\nand all this in opposition to armies almost irresistible, numberless\nnations, rivers before impassable, and rocks impenetrable; choosing,\nhowever, for his chiefest guides and counsellors prudence, endurance,\nfortitude, and steadiness of mind.\n\n2. And now, methinks, I hear him speaking thus to Fortune, when she\nsignalizes herself with his successes:\u2014\n\nEnvy not my virtue, nor go about to detract from my honor. Darius\nwas a fabric of thy own rearing, who of a servant and the king\u2019s\ncourier was by thee advanced to be monarch of all Persia. The same\nwas Sardanapalus, who from a comber of purple wool was raised by\nthee to wear the royal diadem. But I, subduing as I marched, from\nArbela forced my passage even to Susa itself. Cilicia opened me a\nbroad way into Egypt; and the Granicus, o\u2019er which I passed without\nresistance, trampling under foot the slain carcasses of Mithridates\nand Spithridates, opened the way into Cilicia. Pamper up thyself, and\nboast thy kings that never felt a wound nor ever saw a finger bleed;\nfor they were fortunate, it is true,\u2014thy Ochi and thy Artaxerxes,\u2014who\nwere no sooner born but they were by thee established in the throne\nof Cyrus. But my body carries many marks of Fortune\u2019s unkindness, who\nrather fought against me as an enemy than assisted me as her friend.\nFirst, among the Illyrians I was wounded in the head with a stone, and\nreceived a blow in the neck with an iron mace. Then, near the Granicus\nmy head was a second time gashed with a barbarian scimitar; at Issus\nI was run through the thigh with a sword; at Gaza I was shot in the\nankle with a dart; and not long after, falling heavy from my saddle, I\nforced my shoulder out of joint. Among the Maracadartae my shinbone was\nsplit with an arrow. The wounds I received in India and my strenuous\nacts of daring courage will declare the rest. Then among the Assacani\nI was shot through the shoulder with another arrow. Encountering the\nGandridae, my thigh was wounded; and one of the Mallotes drew his bow\nwith that force, that the well-directed arrow made way through my iron\narmor to lodge itself in my breast; besides the blow in my neck, when\nthe scaling-ladders brake that were set to the walls, and Fortune left\nme alone, to gratify with the fall of so great a person not a renowned\nor illustrious enemy, but ignoble and worthless barbarians. So that\nhad not Ptolemy covered me with his shield, and Limnaeus, after he had\nreceived a thousand wounds directed at my body, fallen dead before me;\nor if the Macedonians, breathing nothing but courage and their prince\u2019s\nrescue, had not opened a timely breach, that barbarous and nameless\nvillage might have proved Alexander\u2019s tomb.\n\n3. Take the whole expedition together, and what was it but a patient\nendurance of cold winters and parching droughts; depths of rivers,\nrocks inaccessible to the winged fowl, amazing sights of strange wild\nbeasts, savage diet, and lastly revolts and treasons of far-controlling\npotentates. As to what before the expedition befell me, it is well\nknown that all Greece lay gasping and panting under the fatal effects\nof the Philippic wars. But then the Thebans, raising themselves upon\ntheir feet again after so desperate a fall, shook from their arms the\ndust of Chaeronea; with them also joined the Athenians, reaching forth\ntheir helping hands. The treacherous Macedonians, studying nothing\nbut revenge, cast their eyes upon the sons of Aeropus; the Illyrians\nbrake out into an open war; and the Scythians hung in equal balance,\nseeing their neighbors meditating new revolutions; while Persian gold,\nliberally scattered among the popular leaders of every city, put all\nPeloponnesus into motion.\n\nKing Philip\u2019s treasuries were at that time empty, and besides he was\nin debt, as Onesicritus relates, two hundred talents. In the midst of\nso much pressing want and such menacing troubles, a youth but new past\nthe age of childhood durst aspire to the conquest of Babylon and Susa,\nor rather project in his thoughts supreme dominion over all mankind;\nand all this, trusting only to the strength of thirty thousand foot\nand four thousand horse. For so many there were, by the account which\nAristobulus gives; by the relation of King Ptolemy, there were five\nthousand horse; from both which Anaximenes varying musters up the\nfoot to three and forty thousand, and the horse to five thousand five\nhundred. Now the glorious and magnificent sum which Fortune had raised\nup to supply the necessities of so great an expedition was no more than\nseventy talents, according to Aristobulus; or, as Duris records it,\nonly thirty days\u2019 provision.\n\n4. You will say therefore that Alexander was too rash and daringly\ninconsiderate, with such a slender support to rush upon so vast an\nopposition. By no means: for who was ever better fitted than he\nfor splendid enterprises, with all the choicest and most excelling\nprecepts of magnanimity, consideration, wisdom, and virtuous\nfortitude, with which a philosophical education largely supplied him\nfor his expedition? So that we may properly affirm that he invaded\nPersia with greater assistance from Aristotle than from his father\nPhilip. As for those who write how Alexander was wont to say that\nthe Iliad and Odyssey had always followed him in his wars, in honor\nto Homer I believe them. Nevertheless, if any one affirm that the\nIliad and Odyssey were admitted of his train merely as the recreation\nof his wearied thoughts or pastime of his leisure hours, but that\nphilosophical learning, and commentaries concerning contempt of fear,\nfortitude, temperance, and nobleness of spirit, were the real cabinet\nprovision which he carried along for his personal use, we contemn\ntheir assertion. For he was not a person that ever wrote concerning\narguments or syllogisms; none of those who observed walks in the\nLyceum, or held disputes in the Academy; for they who thus circumscribe\nphilosophy believe it to consist in discoursing, not in action. And\nyet we find that neither Pythagoras nor Socrates, Arcesilaus nor\nCarneades, was ever celebrated for his writings, though they were the\nmost approved and esteemed among all the philosophers. Yet no such busy\nwars as these employed their time in civilizing wild and barbarous\nkings, in building Grecian cities among rude and unpolished nations,\nnor in settling government and peace among people that lived without\nhumanity or control of law. They only lived at ease, and surrendered\nthe business and trouble of writing to the more contentious Sophists.\nWhence then came it to pass that they were believed to be philosophers?\nIt was either from their sayings, from the lives they led, or from the\nprecepts which they taught. Upon these grounds let us take a prospect\nof Alexander, and we shall soon find him, by what he said, by what he\nacted, and by the lessons he taught, to be a great philosopher.\n\n5. And first, if you please, consider that which seems the farthest\ndistant of all from the common received opinion, and compare the\ndisciples of Alexander with the pupils of Plato and Socrates. The\nlatter instructed persons ingenuous, such as speak the same speech,\nwell understanding (if nothing else) the Grecian language. But there\nwere many with whom their precepts did not prevail; for men like\nCritias, Alcibiades, and Cleitophon shook off their doctrine like a\nbridle, and followed the conduct of their own inclinations.\n\nOn the other side, take a view of Alexander\u2019s discipline, and you shall\nsee how he taught the Hyrcanians the conveniency of wedlock, introduced\nhusbandry among the Arachosians, persuaded the Sogdians to preserve and\ncherish\u2014not to kill\u2014their aged parents; the Persians to reverence and\nhonor\u2014not to marry\u2014their mothers. Most admirable philosophy! which\ninduced the Indians to worship the Grecian Deities, and wrought upon\nthe Scythians to bury their deceased friends, not to feed upon their\ncarcasses. We admire the power of Carneades\u2019s eloquence, for forcing\nthe Carthaginian Clitomachus, called Asdrubal before, to embrace the\nGrecian customs. No less we wonder at the prevailing reason of Zeno, by\nwhom the Babylonian Diogenes was charmed into the love of philosophy.\nYet no sooner had Alexander subdued Asia, than Homer became an author\nin high esteem, and the Persian, Susian, and Gedrosian youth sang the\ntragedies of Euripides and Sophocles. Among the Athenians, Socrates,\nintroducing foreign Deities, was condemned to death at the prosecution\nof his accusers. But Alexander engaged both Bactria and Caucasus to\nworship the Grecian Gods, which they had never known before. Lastly,\nPlato, though he proposed but one single form of a commonwealth, could\nnever persuade any people to make use of it, by reason of the austerity\nof his government. But Alexander, building above seventy cities among\nthe barbarous nations, and as it were sowing the Grecian customs and\nconstitutions all over Asia, quite weaned them from their former wild\nand savage manner of living. The laws of Plato here and there a single\nperson may peradventure study, but myriads of people have made and\nstill make use of Alexander\u2019s. And they whom Alexander vanquished were\nmore greatly blessed than they who fled his conquests. For these had\nnone to deliver them from their ancient state of misery; the others the\nvictor compelled to better fortune. True therefore was that expression\nof Themistocles, when he was a fugitive from his native country, and\nthe king entertained him with sumptuous presents, assigning him three\nstipendiary cities to supply his table, one with bread, a second with\nwine, a third with all manner of costly viands; Ah! young men, said he,\nhad we not been undone, we had surely been undone. It may, however, be\nmore justly averred of those whom Alexander subdued, had they not been\nvanquished, they had never been civilized. Egypt had not vaunted her\nAlexandria, nor Mesopotamia her Seleucia; Sogdiana had not gloried in\nher Propthasia, nor the Indians boasted their Bucephalia, nor Caucasus\nits neighboring Grecian city; by the founding of all which barbarism\nwas extinguished and custom changed the worse into better.\n\nIf then philosophers assume to themselves their highest applause for\ncultivating the most fierce and rugged conditions of men, certainly\nAlexander is to be acknowledged the chiefest of philosophers, who\nchanged the wild and brutish customs of so many various nations,\nreducing them to order and government.\n\n6. It is true indeed that the so much admired commonwealth of Zeno,\nfirst author of the Stoic sect, aims singly at this, that neither\nin cities nor in towns we should live under laws distinct one from\nanother, but that we should look upon all men in general to be our\nfellow-countrymen and citizens, observing one manner of living and one\nkind of order, like a flock feeding together with equal right in one\ncommon pasture. This Zeno wrote, fancying to himself, as in a dream,\na certain scheme of civil order, and the image of a philosophical\ncommonwealth. But Alexander made good his words by his deeds; for he\ndid not, as Aristotle advised him, rule the Grecians like a moderate\nprince and insult over the barbarians like an absolute tyrant; nor did\nhe take particular care of the first as his friends and domestics, and\nscorn the latter as mere brutes and vegetables; which would have filled\nhis empire with fugitive incendiaries and perfidious tumults. But\nbelieving himself sent from Heaven as the common moderator and arbiter\nof all nations, and subduing those by force whom he could not associate\nto himself by fair offers, he labored thus, that he might bring all\nregions, far and near, under the same dominion. And then, as in a\nfestival goblet, mixing lives, manners, customs, wedlock, all together,\nhe ordained that every one should take the whole habitable world for\nhis country, of which his camp and army should be the chief metropolis\nand garrison; that his friends and kindred should be the good and\nvirtuous, and that the vicious only should be accounted foreigners. Nor\nwould he that Greeks and barbarians should be distinguished by long\ngarments, targets, scimitars, or turbans; but that the Grecians should\nbe known by their virtue and courage, and the barbarians by their vices\nand their cowardice; and that their habit, their diet, their marriage\nand custom of converse, should be everywhere the same, engaged and\nblended together by the ties of blood and pledges of offspring.\n\n7. Therefore it was that Demaratus the Corinthian, an acquaintance\nand friend of Philip, when he beheld Alexander in Susa, bursting into\ntears of more than ordinary joy, bewailed the deceased Greeks, who,\nas he said, had been bereaved of the greatest blessing on earth, for\nthat they had not seen Alexander sitting upon the throne of Darius.\nThough most assuredly, for my part, I do not envy the beholders this\nshow, which was only a thing of chance and a happiness of more ordinary\nkings. But I would gladly have been a spectator of those majestic\nand sacred nuptials, when, after he had betrothed together a hundred\nPersian brides and a hundred Macedonian and Greek bridegrooms, he\nplaced them all at one common table within the compass of one pavilion\nembroidered with gold, as being all of the same family; and then,\ncrowned with a nuptial garland, and being himself the first to sing an\nepithalamium in honor of the conjunction between two of the greatest\nand most potent nations in the world, of only one the bridegroom, of\nall the brideman, father, and moderator, he caused the several couples\nto be severally married. Had I but beheld this sight, ecstasied with\npleasure I should have then cried out: \u201cBarbarous and stupid Xerxes,\nhow vain was all thy toil to cover the Hellespont with a floating\nbridge! Thus rather wise and prudent princes join Asia to Europe. They\njoin and fasten nations together not with boards or planks, or surging\nbrigandines, not with inanimate and insensible bonds, but by the\nties of legitimate love, chaste nuptials, and the infallible gage of\nprogeny.\u201d\n\n8. But then, when he considered the Eastern garments, Alexander\npreferred the Persian before the Median habit, though much the\nmeaner and more frugal garb. Therefore rejecting the gaudy and\nscenical ornament of barbarian gallantry, such as were the tiara and\ncandys, together with the upper breeches, according to the report of\nEratosthenes, he ordered a mixture of the Macedonian and Persian modes\nto be observed in all the garments which he wore. As a philosopher,\nhe contented himself with mediocrity; but as the common chieftain of\nboth and as a mild and affable prince, he was willing to gain the\naffection of the vanquished by the esteem which he showed to the mode\nof the country; that so they might continue the more steadfast and\nloyal to the Macedonians, not hating them as their enemies, but loving\nthem as their princes and rulers. This behavior was contrary to that\nof persons insipid and puffed up with prosperity, who wedded to their\nown humors admire the single colored robe but cannot endure the tunic\nbordered with purple, or else are well pleased with the latter and hate\nthe former, like young children, in love with the mode in which, as\nanother nurse, their country\u2019s custom first apparelled them. And yet we\nsee that they who hunt wild beasts clothe themselves with their hairy\nskins; and fowlers make use of feathered jerkins; nor are others less\nwary how they show themselves to wild bulls in scarlet or to elephants\nin white; for those creatures are provoked and enraged at the sight of\nthese colors. If then this potent monarch, designing to reclaim and\ncivilize stubborn and warlike nations, took the same course to soften\nand allay their inbred fury which others take with wild beasts, and at\nlength brought them to be tame and tractable by making use of their\nfamiliar habits and by submitting to their customary course of life,\nthereby removing animosity from their breasts and sour looks from their\ncountenances, shall we blame his management; or rather must we not\nadmire the wisdom of him who by so slight a change of apparel ruled all\nAsia, subduing their bodies with his arms and vanquishing their minds\nwith his habit? It is a strange thing; we applaud Socratic Aristippus,\nbecause, being sometimes clad in a poor threadbare cloak, sometimes in\na Milesian robe, he kept a decency in both; but they censure Alexander,\nbecause he gave some respect to the garb and mode of those whom he had\nvanquished, as well as to that of his native country; not considering\nthat he was laying the foundation of vast achievements. It was not his\ndesign to ransack Asia like a robber, or to despoil and ruin it, as\nthe prey and rapine of unexpected good fortune, as afterwards Hannibal\npillaged Italy, and before him the Treres ravaged Ionia and the\nScythians harassed Media,\u2014but to subdue all the kingdoms of the earth\nunder one form of government, and to make one nation of all mankind.\nSo that if the same Deity which hither sent the soul of Alexander had\nnot too soon recalled it, one law had overlooked all the world, and one\nform of justice had been as it were the common light of one universal\ngovernment; while now that part of the earth which Alexander never saw\nremains without a sun.\n\n9. Thus, in the first place, the very scope and aim of Alexander\u2019s\nexpedition speaks him a philosopher, as one that sought not to gain for\nhimself luxurious splendor or riches, but to establish concord, peace,\nand mutual community among all men.\n\nNext, let us consider his sayings, seeing that the souls of other\nkings and potentates betray their conditions and inclinations by their\nexpressions. Antigonus the Aged, having heard a certain poet sing\nbefore him a short treatise concerning justice, said, Thou art a fool\nto mention justice to me, when thou seest me thundering down the cities\nbelonging to other people about their ears. Dionysius the Tyrant was\nwont to say that children were to be cheated with dice, but men with\noaths. Upon the monument of Sardanapalus this inscription is to be\nseen:\u2014\n\n    All I did eat and drink, and all that lust\n    To me vouchsafed, I have; all else is gone.\n\nWhat now can a man say of these apophthegms, but that the first denotes\ninjustice and immoderate desire of sovereignty; the next impiety; and\nthe third sensuality? But as for the sayings of Alexander, set aside\nhis diadem, his claimed descent from Ammon, and the nobility of his\nMacedonian extraction, and you would believe them to have been the\nsayings of Socrates, Plato, or Pythagoras. For we omit the swelling\nhyperboles of flattery which poets have inscribed under his images\nand statues, studying rather to extol the power of Alexander than his\nmoderation and temperance; as, for example,\u2014\n\n    The statue seems to look to Jove and say,\n    Take thou Olympus; me let Earth obey!\n\nand that other,\u2014\n\n    This is Alexander the son of Jove.\n\nBut these, as I said, were only the flashes of poetic adulation\nmagnifying his good success. Let us therefore come to such sentences\nas were really uttered by Alexander himself, beginning first with the\nearly blossoms of his childhood.\n\nIt is well known that for swiftness in running he exceeded all\nthat were of his years; for which reason some of his most familiar\nplay-fellows would have persuaded him to show himself at the Olympic\ngames. He asked them whether there were any kings to contend with him.\nAnd when they replied that there were none, he said, The contest then\nis unequal, for I can conquer only private men, while they may conquer\na king.\n\nHis father, King Philip, being run through the thigh in a battle\nagainst the Triballi, and, though he escaped the danger, being not a\nlittle troubled at the deformity of his limping; Be of good cheer,\nfather, said he, and show yourself in public, that you may be reminded\nof your bravery at every step.\n\nAre not these the products of a mind truly philosophical, which by an\ninspired inclination to what is noble already contemns the disfigurings\nof the body? Nor can we otherwise believe but that he himself gloried\nin his own wounds, which every time he beheld them called to his\nremembrance the conquered nation and the victory, what cities he had\ntaken, what kings had surrendered themselves; never striving to conceal\nor cover those indelible characters and scars of honor, which he\nalways carried about him as the engraven testimonies of his virtue and\nfortitude.\n\n10. Then again, if any dispute arose or judgment were to be given upon\nany of Homer\u2019s verses, either in the schools or at meals, this that\nfollows he always preferred above the rest,\u2014\n\n    Both a good king, and far renowned in war;[200]\n\nbelieving that the praise which another by precedency of time had\nanticipated was to be a law also to himself, and saying that Homer in\nthe same verse had extolled the fortitude of Agamemnon and prophesied\nof Alexander\u2019s. Crossing therefore the Hellespont, he viewed the city\nof Troy, revolving in his mind the heroic acts of antiquity. At this\ntime one of the chief citizens proffering to him Paris\u2019s harp, if he\npleased to accept it; I need it not, said he, for I have that with\nwhich Achilles pleased himself already,\n\n    When he the mighty deeds of heroes sung,\n    Whose fame so loudly o\u2019er the world has rung;[201]\n\nbut as for Paris, his soft and effeminate harmony was devoted only\nto the pleasures of amorous courtship. Now it is part of a true\nphilosopher\u2019s soul to love wisdom and chiefly to admire wise men;\nand this was Alexander\u2019s praise beyond all other princes. His high\nesteem for his master Aristotle we have already mentioned. No less\nhonor did he give to Anaxarchus the musician, whom he favored as one\nof his choicest friends. To Pyrrhon the Elean, the first time he saw\nhim, he gave a thousand crowns in gold. To Xenocrates, the companion\nof Plato, he sent an honorary present of fifty talents. Lastly, it is\nrecorded by several that he made Onesicratus, the disciple of Diogenes\nthe Cynic, chief of his pilots. But when he came to discourse with\nDiogenes himself at Corinth, he was struck in such a manner with wonder\nand astonishment at the course of life and sententious learning of\nthe person, that frequently calling him to mind he was wont to say,\nWere I not Alexander, I would be Diogenes. That is, I would have\ndevoted myself to the study of words, had I not been a philosopher in\ndeeds. He did not say, Were I not a king, I would be Diogenes; nor,\nWere I not opulent, an Argeades. For he did not prefer fortune before\nwisdom, nor the purple robe or regal diadem before the beggar\u2019s wallet\nand threadbare mantle; but he said, Were I not Alexander, I would be\nDiogenes. That is,\u2014\n\n\u201cHad I not designed to intermix barbarians and Greeks and to civilize\nthe earth as I marched forward, and had I not proposed to search the\nlimits of sea and land, and so, extending Macedon to the land-bounding\nocean, to have sown Greece in every region all along and to have\ndiffused justice and peace over all nations, I would not have sat\nyawning upon the throne of slothful and voluptuous power, but would\nhave labored to imitate the frugality of Diogenes. But now pardon us,\nDiogenes. We follow the example of Hercules, we emulate Perseus, and\ntread in the footsteps of Bacchus, our divine ancestor and founder\nof our race; once more we purpose to settle the victorious Greeks in\nIndia, and once more to put those savage mountaineers beyond Caucasus\nin mind of their ancient Bacchanalian revels. There, by report, live\ncertain people professing a rigid and austere philosophy, and more\nfrugal than Diogenes, as going altogether naked; pious men, governed\nby their own constitutions and devoted wholly to God. They have no\noccasion for scrip or wallet, for they never lay up provision, having\nalways fresh and new gathered from the earth. The rivers afford them\ndrink, and at night they rest upon the grass and the leaves that fall\nfrom the trees. By our means shall they know Diogenes, and Diogenes\nthem. But it behooves us also, as it were, to make a new coin, and to\nstamp a new face of Grecian civility upon the barbarian metal.\u201d\n\n11. Tell me now; can such generous acts of Alexander as these be\nthought to speak the spontaneous favors of Fortune, only an impetuous\ntorrent of success and strength of hand? Do they not rather demonstrate\nmuch of fortitude and justice, much of mildness and temperance, in\none who managed all things with decorum and consideration, with a\nsober and intelligent judgment? Not that I (believe me) go about to\ndistinguish between the several acts of Alexander, and to ascribe this\nto fortitude, that to humanity, another to temperance; but I take every\nact to be an act of all the virtues mixed together. This is conformable\nto that Stoic sentence, \u201cWhat a wise man does he does by the impulse\nof all the virtues together; only one particular virtue seems to\nhead every action, and calling the rest to her assistance drives on\nto the end proposed.\u201d Therefore we may behold in Alexander a warlike\nhumanity, a meek fortitude, a liberality poised with good husbandry,\nanger easily appeased, chaste amours, a busy relaxation of mind, and\nlabor not wanting recreation. Who ever like him mixed festivals with\ncombats, revels and jollity with expeditions, nuptials and bacchanals\nwith sieges and difficult attempts? To those that offended against the\nlaw who more severe? To the unfortunate who more pitiful? To those that\nmade resistance who more terrible? To suppliants who more merciful?\nThis gives me an occasion to insert here the saying of Porus. For he\nbeing brought a captive before Alexander, and by him being asked how\nhe expected to be treated, Royally, said he, O Alexander. And being\nfurther asked whether he desired no more, he replied, Nothing; for all\nthings are comprehended in that word \u201croyally.\u201d And for my part, I know\nnot how to give a greater applause to the actions of Alexander, than by\nadding the word \u201cphilosophically,\u201d for in that word all other things\nare included. Being ravished with the beauty of Roxana, the daughter\nof Oxyarthes, dancing among the captive ladies, he never assailed her\nwith injurious lust, but married her philosophically. Beholding Darius\nstuck to the heart with several arrows, he did not presently sacrifice\nto the Gods or sing triumphal songs to celebrate the end of so long a\nwar, but unclasping his own cloak from his shoulders he threw it over\nthe dead corpse philosophically, as it were to cover the shame of royal\ncalamity. Another time, as he was perusing a private letter sent him\nby his mother, he observed Hephaestion, who was sitting by him, to\nread it along with him, little understanding what he did. For which\nunwary act Alexander forbore to reprove him; only clapping his signet\nto his mouth, he thus kindly admonished him that his lips were then\nsealed up to silence by the friendly confidence which he reposed in\nhim,\u2014all this philosophically. And indeed if these were not acts done\nphilosophically, where shall we find them?\n\n12. Let us compare with his some few acts of those who are by all\nallowed to be philosophers. Socrates yielded to the lustful embraces\nof Alcibiades. Alexander, when Philoxenus, governor of the sea-coasts,\nwrote to him concerning an Ionian lad that had not his equal for\nyouthful beauty, and desired to know whether he should be sent to him\nor not, returned him this nipping answer: Vilest of men, when wast\nthou ever privy to any desires of mine, that thou shouldst think to\nflatter me with such abhorred allurements? We admire the abstinency\nof Xenocrates for refusing the gift of fifty talents which Alexander\nsent him; but do we take no notice of the munificence of the giver?\nOr is the bountiful person not to be thought as much a contemner of\nmoney as he that refuses it? Xenocrates needed not riches, by reason\nof his philosophy; but Alexander wanted wealth, by reason of the same\nphilosophy, that he might be more liberal to such persons.... How\noften has Alexander borne witness to this in the midst of a thousand\ndangers? It is true, we believe that it is in the power of all men to\njudge rightly of things; for nature guides us of herself to virtue and\nbravery. But herein philosophers excel all others, that they have by\neducation acquired a fixed and solid judgment to encounter whatever\ndangers they meet with. For most men have no such maxims to defend them\nas this in Homer,\u2014\n\n    Without a sign his sword the brave man draws,\n    And needs no omen but his country\u2019s cause.[202]\n\nAnd that other of Demosthenes,\u2014\n\n    Death is the certain end of all mankind.[203]\n\nBut sudden apparitions of imminent danger many times break our\nresolutions; and the fancy troubled with the imagination of approaching\nperil chases away true judgment from her seat. For fear not only\nastonishes the memory, according to the saying of Thucydides,[204]\nbut it dissipates all manner of consideration, sense of honor, and\nresolution; while philosophy binds and keeps them together....\n\n  NOTE.\u2014The text is defective at the end, and elsewhere in the last\n  chapter. The sense of the clause just preceding the quotation from\n  Homer is chiefly conjectural. A similar deficiency is found at the\n  end of the Second Oration on Alexander, which immediately follows.\n  (G.)\n\n\n\n\nTHE SECOND ORATION OF PLUTARCH CONCERNING THE FORTUNE OR VIRTUE OF\nALEXANDER THE GREAT.\n\n\n1. We forgot in our yesterday\u2019s discourse to tell you, that the age\nwherein Alexander flourished had the happiness to abound in sciences\nand in persons of transcending natural endowments. Yet this is not to\nbe ascribed to Alexander\u2019s but their own good fortune, which favored\nthem with such a judge and such a spectator of their particular\nexcellencies as was both able rightly to discern and liberally\nto reward their understood deserts. Therefore it is recorded of\nArchestratus, born some ages after, an elegant poet but buried in his\nown extreme poverty, that a certain person meeting him said, Hadst\nthou but lived when Alexander lived, for every verse he would have\ngratified thee with an island of Cyprus or a territory fair as that of\nPhoenicia. Which makes me of opinion that those former famous artists\nand soaring geniuses may not so properly be said to have lived in\nthe time of Alexander as by Alexander. For as the temperature of the\nseason and limpid thinness of the surrounding air produce plenty of\ngrain and fruit; so the favor, the encouragement, and benignity of a\nprince increase the number of aspiring geniuses, and advance perfection\nin sciences. And on the other side, by the envy, covetousness, and\ncontentiousness of those in power, whatever soars to the height of true\nbravery or invention is utterly quelled and extinguished. Therefore\nit is reported of Dionysius the Tyrant that, being pleased with the\nmusic of a certain player on a harp, he promised him a talent for\nhis reward; but when the musician claimed his promise the next day,\nYesterday, said he, by thee delighted, while thou sangest before me, I\ngave thee likewise the pleasure of thy hopes; and thence immediately\ndidst thou receive the reward of thy delightful pastime, enjoying at\nthe same time the charming expectation of my promise. In like manner\nAlexander tyrant of the Pheraeans (for it behooves us to distinguish\nhim by that addition, lest we should dishonor his namesake), sitting\nto see a tragedy, was so affected with delight at the acting, that he\nfound himself moved to a more than ordinary compassion. Upon which,\nleaping suddenly from his seat, as he hastily flung out of the theatre,\nHow poor and mean it would look, said he, if I, that have massacred\nso many of my own citizens and subjects, should be seen here weeping\nat the misfortunes of Hecuba and Polyxena! And it was an even lay but\nthat he had mischiefed the tragedian for having mollified his cruel\nand merciless disposition, like iron softened by fire. Timotheus also,\nsinging to Archelaus who seemed too parsimonious in remuneration,\nfrequently upbraided him with the following sarcasm:\u2014\n\n    Base earth-bred silver thou admirest.\n\nTo whom Archelaus not unwittily reparteed,\u2014\n\n    But thou dost beg it.\n\nAteas, king of the Scythians, having taken Ismenias the musician\nprisoner, commanded him to play during one of his royal banquets. And\nwhen all the rest admired and applauded his harmony, Ateas swore that\nthe neighing of a horse was more delightful to his ears. So great a\nstranger was he to the habitations of the Muses; as one whose soul\nlodged always in his stables, fitter however to hear asses bray than\nhorses neigh. Therefore, among such kings, what progress or advancement\nof noble sciences or esteem for learning can be expected? And surely\nno more can be expected from such as would themselves be rivals,\nwho therefore persecute real artists with all the hatred and envy\nimaginable. In the number of these was Dionysius before mentioned, who\ncondemned Philoxenus the poet to labor in the quarries, because, being\nby the tyrant commanded only to correct a tragedy by him written, he\nstruck out every line from the beginning to the end. Nay, I must needs\nsay that Philip, who became a student not till his latter years, in\nthese things descended beneath himself. For it being once his chance to\nenter into a dispute about sounds with a musician whom he thought he\nhad foiled in his art, the person modestly and with a smile replied,\nMay never so great a misfortune befall thee, O King, as to understand\nthese things better than I do.\n\n2. But Alexander, well considering of what persons and things it became\nhim to be the hearer and spectator, and with whom to contend and\nexercise his strength, made it his business to excel all others in the\nart of war, and according to Aeschylus, to be\n\n    A mighty warrior, terrible to his foes.\n\nFor having learned this art from his ancestors, the Aeacidae and\nHercules, he gave to other arts their due honor and esteem without\nthe least emulation; embracing and favoring what was in them noble\nand elegant, but never suffering himself to be carried away with the\npleasure of being a practitioner in any. In his time flourished the\ntwo tragedians, Thessalus and Athenodorus, who contending for the\nprize, the Cyprian kings supplied the charges of the theatre, and\nthe judges were to be the most renowned captains of the age. But at\nlength Athenodorus being adjudged the victor; I could have wished,\nsaid Alexander, rather to have lost a part of my kingdom than to\nhave seen Thessalus vanquished. Yet he neither interceded with the\njudges nor anywhere disapproved or blamed the judgment; believing it\nbecame him to be superior to all others, only to submit to justice.\nTo the comedian Lyco of Scarphe, who had inserted into one of his\nscenes certain verses in the nature of a begging petition, he gave\nten talents, laughing heartily at the conceit. Aristonicus was in the\nnumber of the most famous musicians of those times. This man being\nslain in battle, strenuously fighting to assist and save his friend,\nAlexander commanded his statue to be made in brass and set up in the\ntemple of Pythian Apollo, holding his harp in one hand and his spear\nupright in the other, not only in memory of the person, but in honor\nof music itself, as exciting to fortitude and inspiring those who are\nrightly and generously bred to it with a kind of supernatural courage\nand bravery.\n\nEven Alexander himself, when Antigenides played before him in the\nHarmatian mood, was so transported and warmed for battle by the charms\nof lofty airs, that leaping from his seat all in his clattering armor\nhe began to lay about him and attack those who stood next him, thereby\nverifying to the Spartans what was commonly sung among themselves,\u2014\n\n    The masculine touches of the well-tuned lyre\n    Unsheathe the sword and warlike rage inspire.[205]\n\nFurthermore, there were also Apelles the painter and Lysippus the\nstatuary both living under the reign of Alexander. The first of which\npainted him grasping Jupiter\u2019s thunderbolt in his hand, so artfully\nand in such lively colors, that it was said of the two Alexanders that\nPhilip\u2019s was invincible, but Apelles\u2019s inimitable. Lysippus, when he\nhad finished the first statue of Alexander looking up with his face to\nthe sky (as Alexander was wont to look, with his neck slightly bent),\nnot improperly added to the pedestal the following lines:\u2014\n\n    The statue seems to look to Jove and say,\n    Take thou Olympus; me let Earth obey!\n\nFor which Alexander gave to Lysippus the sole patent for making all his\nstatues; because he alone expressed in brass the vigor of his mind,\nand in his lineaments represented the lustre of his virtue; while\nothers, who strove to imitate the turning of his neck and softness and\nbrightness of his eyes, failed to observe the manliness and lion-like\nfierceness of his countenance.\n\nAmong the great artists of that time was Stasicrates, who never studied\nelegance nor what was sweet and alluring to the eye, but only bold and\nlofty workmanship and design, becoming the munificence of royal bounty.\nHe attended upon Alexander, and found fault with all the paintings,\nsculptures, and cast figures that were made of his person, as the works\nof mean and slothful artificers. \u201cBut I,\u201d said he, \u201cwill undertake\nto fix the likeness of thy body on matter incorruptible, such as has\neternal foundations and a ponderosity steadfast and immovable. For the\nmountain Athos in Thrace, where it rises largest and most conspicuous,\nhaving a just symmetry of breadth and height, with members, limbs, and\ndistances answerable to the shape of human body, may be so wrought\nand formed as to be, not only in imagination and fancy but really,\nthe effigy and statue of Alexander; with his feet reaching to the\nseas, grasping in his left hand a fair and populous city, and with his\nright pouring forth an ever-flowing river into the ocean from a bowl,\nas a perpetual drink-offering. But as for gold, brass, ivory, wood,\nstained figures, and little wax images, toys which may be bought or\nstolen, I despise them all.\u201d When Alexander heard this discourse, he\nadmired and praised the spirit and confidence of the artist; \u201cBut,\u201d\nsaid he, \u201clet Athos alone; for it is sufficient that it is the monument\nof the vanquished folly and presuming pride of one king already. Our\nportraiture the snowy Caucasus, and towering Emodon, Tanais, and the\nCaspian Sea shall draw. They shall remain eternal monuments of our\nrenown.\u201d\n\n3. But grant that so vast an undertaking should have been brought to\nperfection; is there any person living, do ye think, that would have\nbelieved such a figure, such a form, and so great a design, to be the\nspontaneous and accidental production of fantastic Nature? Certainly,\nnot one. What may we think of the statue representing him grasping\nthunder, and that other with his spear in his hand? Is it possible\nthat a Colossus of a statue should ever be made by Fortune without the\nhelp of art; nay, though she should profusely afford all the materials\nimaginable of gold, brass, ivory, or any other substance whatever?\nMuch more, is it probable that so great a personage, and indeed the\ngreatest of all who have ever lived, should be the workmanship of\nFortune without the assistance of virtue? And all this, perhaps,\nbecause she has made him the potent master of arms, horses, money, and\nwealthy cities?\u2014which he who knows not how to use shall rather find\nto be destructive and dangerous than aids to advance his power and\nmagnificence, as affording proofs of his weakness and pusillanimity.\nNoble therefore was the saying of Antisthenes, that we ought to wish an\nenemy all things beneficial to mankind except fortitude; for so these\nblessings will belong not to their possessors but to the conqueror.\nTherefore it was, they say, that Nature provided for the hart, one of\nthe most timorous of creatures, such large and branchy horns, to teach\nus that strength and weapons nothing avail where conduct and courage\nare wanting. In like manner, Fortune frequently bestowing wealth and\nempire upon princes simple and faint-hearted, who blemish their dignity\nby misgovernment, honors and more firmly establishes virtue, as being\nthat which alone makes a man most truly beautiful and majestic. For\nindeed, according to Epicharmus,\n\n    \u2019Tis the mind only sees, the mind\n    That hears; the rest are deaf and blind.\n\nFor as for the senses, they seem only to have their proper\nopportunities to act.\n\nBut that the mind alone is that which gives both assistance and\nornament, the mind that overcomes, that excels, and acts the kingly\npart, while those other blind, deaf, and inanimate things do but\nhinder, depress, and disgrace the possessors void of virtue, is easily\nmade manifest by experience. For Semiramis, but a woman, set forth\ngreat navies, raised mighty armies, built Babylon, covered the Red Sea\nwith her fleets and subdued the Ethiopians and Arabians. On the other\nside, Sardanapalus possessing the same power and dominion, though born\na man, spent his time at home combing purple wool, lying among his\nharlots in a lascivious posture upon his back, with his heels higher\nthan his head. After his decease, they made for him a statue of stone,\nresembling a woman dancing, who seemed to snap with her fingers as she\nheld them over her head, with this inscription,\u2014\n\n    Eat, drink, indulge thy lust; all other things are nothing.\n\nWhence it came to pass that Crates, seeing the golden statue of Phryne\nthe courtesan standing in the temple of Delphi, cried out, There\nstands a trophy of the Grecian luxury. But had he viewed the life or\nrather burial (for I find but little difference) of Sardanapalus,\nwould he have imagined that statue to have been a trophy of Fortune\u2019s\nindulgences? Shall we suffer the fortune of Alexander to be sullied by\nthe touch of Sardanapalus, or endure that the latter should challenge\nthe majesty and prowess of the former? For what did Sardanapalus enjoy\nthrough her favor, more than other princes receive at her hands\u2014arms,\nhorses, weapons, money, and guards of the body? Let Fortune, with\nall these assistances, make Aridaeus famous, if she can; let her, if\nshe can, advance the renown of Ochus, Amasis, Oarses, Tigranes the\nArmenian, or Nicomedes the Bithynian. Of which last two, the one,\ncasting his diadem at Pompey\u2019s feet, ignominiously surrendered up his\nkingdom a prey to the victor; and as for Nicomedes, he, after he had\nshaved his head and put on the cap of liberty, acknowledged himself no\nmore than a freed vassal of the Roman people.\n\n4. Rather let us therefore affirm that Fortune makes her favorites\nlittle, poor-spirited, and pusillanimous cowards. But it is not just\nto ascribe vice to misfortune, fortitude and wisdom to prosperity.\nFortune indeed was herself made great by Alexander\u2019s reign; for in him\nshe appeared illustrious, invincible, magnanimous, merciful, and just.\nInsomuch that after his decease Leosthenes likened this vast bulk of\npower\u2014wandering as in a mist, and sometimes violently rushing one part\nagainst the other\u2014to the giant Cyclops, who after he had lost his eye\nwent feeling and groping about with his hands before him, not knowing\nwhere to lay them. So strangely did that vast pile of dominion roll\nand tumble about in the dark of confusion, when shattered into anarchy\nby the loss of its supreme head. Or rather, as dead bodies, when the\nsoul takes her flight, no longer grow together, no longer act together,\nbut are broken up and dissolved, and are finally dissipated; thus\nAlexander\u2019s empire, wanting his enlivening conduct, panted, gasped,\nand boiled with fever, struggling with Perdiccas, Meleager, Seleucus,\nand Antigonus,\u2014as with vital spirits still remaining hot, and with\nirregular and intermittent pulses,\u2014till at length, totally corrupted\nand putrefied, it produced a sort of degenerate kings and faint-hearted\nprinces, like so many worms. This he himself seemed to prophesy,\nreproving Hephaestion for quarrelling with Craterus: What power, said\nhe, or signal achievement couldst thou pretend to, should any one\ndeprive thee of thy Alexander? The same will I be bold to say to the\nFortune of that time: Where would have been thy grandeur, where thy\nglory, where thy vast empire, thy invincibility, should any one have\nbereaved thee of thy Alexander?\u2014that is, should any one have deprived\nthee of thy skill and dexterity in war, thy magnificence in expense,\nthy moderation in the midst of so much affluence, thy prowess in the\nfield, thy meekness to the vanquished? Frame, if thou canst, another\npiece like him, that missing all his noble qualities shall neither be\nmagnificently liberal nor foremost in battle, that shall not regard nor\nesteem his friends, that shall not be compassionate to his captives,\nthat shall not moderate his pleasures, that shall not be watchful\nto take all opportunities, whom victory shall make inexorable and\nprosperity insolent; and try if thou canst make him another Alexander.\nWhat ruler ever obtained renown by folly and improbity? Separate virtue\nfrom the fortunate, and he everywhere appears little;\u2014among those\nthat deserve his bounty, for his close-handed illiberality; among the\nlaborious, for his effeminacy; among the Gods, for his superstition;\namong the good, for his envious conditions; among men, for his\ncowardice; among women, for his inordinate lust. For as unskilful\nworkmen, erecting small figures upon huge pedestals, betray the\nslightness of their own understandings; so Fortune, when she brings a\nperson of a poor and narrow soul upon the stage of weighty and glorious\nactions, does but expose and disgrace him, as a person whom the vanity\nof his own ill conduct has rendered worthless.\n\n5. So that true grandeur does not consist in the possession but in\nthe use of noble means. For new-born infants frequently inherit their\nfather\u2019s kingdoms and empires. Such an one was Charillus, whom Lycurgus\ncarried in his swaddling-bands to the public table, and resigning his\nown authority proclaimed king of Lacedaemon. Yet was not the infant\nthereby the more famous, but he who surrendered to the infant his\npaternal right, scorning fraud and usurpation. But who could make\nAridaeus great, whom Meleager seated in Alexander\u2019s throne, differing\nfrom a child only in having his swaddling-clothes of purple? Prudently\ndone, that so in a few days it might appear how men govern by virtue,\nand how by fortune. For after the true prince who swayed the empire,\nhe brought in a mere player; or rather he exposed the diadem of the\nhabitable world upon the brainless head of a mere mute on the stage.\n\n    Women may bear the burden of a crown,\n    When a renowned commander puts it on.[206]\n\nYet some may say, it is possible for women and children to confer\ndignity, riches, and empire upon others. Thus the eunuch Bagoas took\nthe diadem of Persia, and set it upon the head of Oarses and Darius.\nBut for a man to take upon him the burden of a vast dominion, and so\nto manage his ponderous affairs as not to suffer himself to sink and\nbe overwhelmed under the immense weight of wakeful cares and incessant\nlabor, that is the character which signalizes a person endued with\nvirtue, understanding, and wisdom. All these royal qualities Alexander\nhad, whom some accuse of being given to wine. But he was a really\ngreat man, who was always sober in action and never drunk with the\npride of his conquests and vast power; while others intoxicated with\nthe smallest part of his prosperity have ceased to be masters of\nthemselves. For, as the poet sings,\u2014\n\n    The vainer sort, that view their heaps of gold,\n    Or else advanced at court high places hold,\n    Grow wanton with those unexpected showers\n    That Fortune on their happy greatness pours.[207]\n\nThus Clitus, having sunk some three or four of the Grecians galleys\nnear the island Amorgus, called himself Neptune and carried a\ntrident. So Demetrius, to whom Fortune vouchsafed a small portion of\nAlexander\u2019s power, assumed the title of Kataibates (as if descended\nfrom heaven), to whom the several cities sent their ambassadors, by the\nname of God-consulters, and his determinations were called oracles.\nLysimachus, having made himself master of some part of the skirts of\nAlexander\u2019s empire, viz., the region about Thrace, swelled to such\nexcess of pride and vain-glory as to break forth into this ranting\nexpression: Now the Byzantines make their addresses to me, because I\ntouch heaven with my spear. At which words, Pasiades of Byzantium being\nthen present said, Let us be gone, lest he pierce heaven with the point\nof his lance.\n\nWhat shall we, in the next place, think of those who presumed, as\nimitators of Alexander, to have high thoughts of themselves? Clearchus,\nhaving made himself tyrant of Heraclea, carried a sceptre like that of\nJupiter\u2019s in his hand, and named one of his sons Thunderbolt. Dionysius\nthe Younger called himself the son of Apollo in this inscription:\u2014\n\n    The son of Doris, but from Phoebus sprung.\n\nHis father put to death above ten thousand of his subjects, betrayed\nhis brother out of envy to his enemies, and not enduring to expect the\nnatural death of his mother, at that time very aged, caused her to be\nstrangled, writing in one of his tragedies,\u2014\n\n    For tyranny is the mother of injustice.\n\nYet after all this, he named one of his daughters Virtue, another\nTemperance, and a third Justice. Others there were that assumed the\ntitles of benefactors, others of glorious conquerors, others of\npreservers, and others usurped the title of great and magnificent.\nBut should we go about to recount their promiscuous marriages like\nhorses, their continual herding among impudent and lawless women, their\ncontaminations of boys, their drumming among effeminate eunuchs, their\nperpetual gaming, their piping in theatres, their nocturnal revels, and\ndays consumed in riot, it would be a task too tedious to undertake.\n\n6. As for Alexander, he breakfasted by break of day, always sitting;\nand supped at the shutting in of the evening; he drank when he had\nsacrificed to the Gods. With his friend Medius he played for diversion\nwhen he was sick with a fever. He also played upon the road as he\nmarched, learning between whiles to throw a dart and leap from his\nchariot. He married Roxana merely for love; but Statira, the daughter\nof Darius, upon the account of state-policy, for such a conjunction of\nboth nations strengthened his conquest. As to the other Persian women,\nhe excelled them in chastity and continence as far as he surpassed\nthe men in valor. He never desired the sight of any virgin that was\nunwilling; and those he saw, he regarded less than if he had not seen\nthem; mild and affable to all others, proud and lofty only to fair\nyouth. As for the wife of Darius, a woman most beautiful, he never\nwould endure to hear a word spoken in commendation of her features.\nWhen she was dead, he graced her funeral with such a regal pomp, and\nbewailed her death so piteously, that his kindness cast discredit upon\nhis chastity, and his very courtesy incurred the obloquy of injustice.\nIndeed, Darius himself had been moved with suspicion at first, when he\nthought of the power and the youth of the conqueror; for he was one\nof those who thought Alexander to be only the darling of Fortune. But\nwhen he understood the truth, \u201cWell,\u201d said he, \u201cI do not yet perceive\nthe condition of the Persians so deplorable, since the world can never\ntax us now with imbecility or effeminacy, whose fate it was to be\nvanquished by such a person. Therefore my prayers shall be to the Gods\nfor his prosperity, and that he may be still victorious in war; to the\nend that in well-doing I may surpass Alexander. For my emulation and\nambition lead me in point of honor to show myself more cordial and\nfriendly than he. If then the Fates have otherwise determined as to me\nand mine, O Jupiter preserver of the Persians, and you, O Deities, to\nwhom the care of kings belongs, hear your suppliant, and suffer none\nbut Alexander to sit upon the throne of Cyrus.\u201d This was the manner in\nwhich Darius adopted Alexander, after he had called the Gods to witness\nthe act.\n\n7. So true it is that virtue is the victor still. But now, if you\nplease, let us ascribe to Fortune Arbela and Cilicia, and those other\nacts of main force and violence; say that Fortune thundered down the\nwalls of Tyre, and that Fortune opened the way into Egypt. Believe\nthat by Fortune Halicarnassus fell, Miletus was taken, Mazaeus left\nEuphrates unguarded, and the Babylonian fields were strewed with\nthe carcasses of the slain. Yet was not his prudence the gift of\nFortune, nor his temperance. Neither did Fortune, as it were empaling\nhis inclinations, preserve him impregnable against his pleasures or\ninvulnerable against the assaults of his fervent desires. These were\nthe weapons with which he overthrew Darius. Fortune\u2019s advantages, if\nso they may be called, were only the fury of armed men and horses,\nbattles, slaughters, and flights of routed adversaries. But the great\nand most undoubted victory which Darius lost was this, that he was\nforced to yield to virtue, magnanimity, prowess, and justice, while he\nbeheld with admiration his conqueror, who was not to be overcome by\npleasure or by labor, nor to be matched in liberality.\n\nTrue it is, that among the throngs of shields and spears, in the midst\nof warlike shouts and the clashing of weapons, Tarrias the son of\nDinomenes, Antigenes the Pellenian, and Philotas the son of Parmenio\nwere invincible; but in respect of their inordinate debauchery, their\nlove of women, their insatiable covetousness, they were nothing\nsuperior to the meanest of their captives. For the last of these vices\nTarrias was particularly noted; and when Alexander set the Macedonians\nout of debt and paid off all their creditors, Tarrias pretended among\nthe rest to owe a great sum of money, and brought a suborned person\nto demand the sum as due to him; but being discovered, he would have\nlaid violent hands upon himself, had not Alexander forgiven him and\nordered him the money, remembering that at the battle of Perinthus\nfought by Philip, being shot into the eye with a dart, he would not\nsuffer the head of it to be pulled out till the field was clear of\nthe enemy. Antigenes, when the sick and maimed soldiers were to be\nsent back into Macedon, made suit to be registered down in the number,\npretending himself utterly disabled in the wars; which very much\ntroubled Alexander, who was well acquainted with his valor and knew\nthat he wore the scars about him of many a bloody field. But the fraud\nbeing detected, that was concealed under some little present infirmity,\nAlexander asked him the reason of his design; and he answered, he did\nit for the love of Telesippe, that he might accompany her to the sea,\nnot being able to endure a separation from her. Presently the King\ndemanded to whom the wench belonged, and who was to be dealt with in\nregard to her. To which he replied, she was free from any tie. Well,\nthen, said the King, let us persuade her to stay, if promises or gifts\nwill prevail. So ready was he to pardon the dotages of love in others,\nso rigorous to himself. But Philotas the son of Parmenio exercised his\nincontinency after a more offensive manner. Antigona was a Pellaean\nvirgin among the captives taken about Damascus, a prisoner before to\nAutophradates, who took her going by sea into Samothrace. The beauty\nof this damsel was such as kept Philotas constant to her embraces.\nNay, she had so softened and mellowed this man of steel, I know not\nhow, that he was not master of himself in his enjoyments, but told her\nthe very secrets of his breast; among other things he said: What had\nPhilip been, but for Parmenio? And what would Alexander now be, but\nfor Philotas? What would become of Ammon and the dragons, should we be\nonce provoked? These words Antigona prattled to one of her companions,\nand she told them to Craterus. Craterus brings Antigona privately to\nAlexander, who forbore to offer her the least incivility, but by her\nmeans piercing into Philotas\u2019s breast, he detected the whole. Yet for\nseven years after he never discovered so much as the least sign of\njealousy, either in his wine or in his anger; nor did he ever disclose\nit to any friend, even to Hephaestion, from whom he never concealed\nthe most inward of his counsels and designs. For it is said that once,\nwhen Alexander had just opened a private letter from his mother and was\nquietly reading it, Hephaestion looked over his shoulder and began to\nread it likewise; but Alexander forbore to reprove him, and only took\noff his signet and clapped it to Hephaestion\u2019s mouth.\n\n8. These recitals may suffice, without being tedious, to show that\nhe exercised his authority according to all the most illustrious and\nroyal methods of government. To which grandeur if he arrived by the\nassistance of Fortune, he is to be acknowledged the greater, because\nhe made so glorious a use of her. So that the more any man extols his\nfortune, the more he advances his virtue, which made him worthy of such\nfortune.\n\nBut now I shall return to the beginnings of his advancement and the\nearly dawnings of his power, and endeavor to discover what was there\nthe great work of Fortune, which rendered Alexander so great by her\nassistance. First then, how came it to pass that some neighing barb did\nnot seat him in the throne of Cyrus, free from wounds, without loss of\nblood, without a toilsome expedition, as formerly it happened to Darius\nHystaspes? Or that some one flattered by a woman, as Darius by Atossa,\ndid not deliver up his diadem to him, as the other did to Xerxes, so\nthat the empire of Persia came home to him, even to his own doors? Or\nwhy did not some eunuch aid him, as Bagoas did the son of Parysatis,\nwho, only throwing off the habit of a messenger, immediately put on the\nroyal turban? Or why was he not elected on a sudden and unexpectedly by\nlot to the empire of the world, as at Athens the lawgivers and rulers\nare wont to be chosen? Would you know how men come to be kings by\nFortune\u2019s help? At Argos the whole race of the Heraclidae happened to\nbe extinct, to whom the sceptre of that kingdom belonged. Upon which\nconsulting the oracle, answer was made to them that an eagle should\ndirect them. Within a few days the eagle appeared towering aloft, but\nstooping he at length lighted upon Aegon\u2019s house; thereupon Aegon was\nchosen king. Another time in Paphos, the king that there reigned being\nan unjust and wicked tyrant, Alexander resolved to dethrone him, and\ntherefore sought out for another, the race of the Kinyradae seeming\nto be at an end. They told him there was one yet in being, a poor man\nand of no account, who lived miserable in a certain garden. Thereupon\nmessengers were sent, who found the poor man watering some few small\nbeds of pot-herbs. The miserable creature was strangely surprised to\nsee so many soldiers about him, but go he must; and so being brought\nbefore Alexander in his rags and tatters, he caused him presently to be\nproclaimed king and clad in purple; which done, he was admitted into\nthe number of those who were called the king\u2019s companions. The name of\nthis person was Alynomus. Thus Fortune creates kings suddenly, easily\nchanging the habits and altering the names of those that never expected\nor hoped for any such thing.\n\n9. All this while, what favors did Fortune shower upon Alexander\nbut what he merited, what he sweat for, what he bled for? What came\ngratis? What without the price of great achievements and illustrious\nactions? He quenched his thirst in rivers mixed with blood; he marched\nover bridges of slain carcasses; he grazed the fields to satisfy his\npresent hunger; he dug his way to nations covered with snow and cities\nlying under ground; he made the hostile sea submit to his fleets;\nand, marching over the thirsty and barren sands of the Gedrosians and\nArachosians, he discovered green at sea before he saw it at land. So\nthat if I might use the same liberty of speech for Alexander to Fortune\nas to a man, I would thus expostulate with her:\u2014\n\n\u201cInsulting Fortune, when and where didst thou make an easy way\nfor Alexander\u2019s vast performances? What impregnable rock was ever\nsurrendered to him without a bloody assault, by thy favor? What city\ndidst thou ever deliver unguarded into his hands? Or what unarmed\nbattalion of men? What faint-hearted prince, what negligent captain, or\nsleepy sentinels did he ever surprise? When didst thou ever befriend\nhim with so much as a fordable river, a mild winter, or an easy summer?\nGet thee to Antiochus the son of Seleucus, to Artaxerxes the brother of\nCyrus. Get thee to Ptolemy Philadelphus. Their fathers proclaimed them\nkings in their own lifetime; they won battles which no mothers wept\nfor; they spent their days in festivals, admiring the pomp of shows and\ntheatres; and still more happy, they prolonged their reigns till scarce\ntheir feeble hands could wield their sceptres. But if nothing else,\nbehold the body of Alexander wounded by the enemy, mangled, battered,\nbruised, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet,\n\n    With spears, and swords, and mighty stones.[208]\n\nAt the battle of the Granicus his helmet was cleft to his very scull;\nat Gaza he was wounded in the shoulder with a dart. Among the\nMaragandi he was shot in the shin so desperately, that the bone of\nhis shank was broken and started out of the skin. In Hyrcania he was\nstruck in the neck with a stone, which caused such a dimness in his\neyes that for many days he was in danger of losing his sight. Among the\nAssaracans he was wounded in the heel with an Indian dart; at which\ntime he thus derided his flatterers with a smiling countenance, saying,\nThis is blood, and no immortal ichor,\u2014\n\n    Such stream as issues from a wounded God.[209]\n\nAt Issus he was run through the thigh with a sword by Darius (as Chares\nrelates), who encountered him hand to hand. Alexander also himself,\nwriting the truth with all sincerity to Antipater, said, It was my\nfortune to be wounded with a poniard in the thigh, but no ill symptoms\nattended it either when it was newly done or afterwards during the\ncure. Another time, among the Malli he was wounded with an arrow two\ncubits in length, that went in at his breast and came out at his neck,\nas Aristobulus relates. Crossing the Tanais against the Scythians and\nwinning the field, he pursued the flying enemy a hundred and fifty\nfurlongs, though at the same time laboring with a dysentery\u201d.\n\n10. \u201cWell contrived, vain Fortune! to advance and aggrandize Alexander\nby lancing, broaching, boring every part of his body. Not like\nMinerva,\u2014who, to save Menelaus, directed the dart against the most\nimpenetrable parts of his armor, blunting the force of the weapon with\nhis breastplate, belt, and scarf, so that it only glanced upon his\nskin, and drew forth two or three drops of blood,\u2014but contrariwise,\nthou hast exposed his principal parts naked to mischief, driving the\nwounds through the very bones, rounding every corner of his body,\nbesieging the eyes, undermining the pursuing feet, stopping the\ntorrent of victory, and disappointing the prosecution of noble designs.\nFor my part, I know no prince to whom Fortune ever was more unkind,\nthough she has been envious and severe enough to several. However,\nother princes she destroyed with a swift and rapid destruction, as with\na whirlwind; but in her hatred against Alexander she prolonged her\nmalice, and persisted still implacable and inexorable, as she showed\nherself to Hercules. For what Typhons and monstrous giants did she not\noppose against him? Which of his enemies did she not fortify with store\nof arms, deep rivers, steep mountains, and the foreign strength of\nmassy elephants? Now had not Alexander been a personage of transcending\nwisdom, actuated by the impulse of a more than ordinary virtue, but had\nhe been supported only by Fortune, he would have trusted to her as her\nfavorite, and spared himself the labor and the turmoil of ranging so\nmany armies and fighting so many battles, the toil of so many sieges\nand pursuits, the vexations of revolting nations and haughty princes\nnot enduring the curb of foreign dominion, and all his tedious marches\ninto Bactria, Maracanda, and Sogdiana, among faithless and rebellious\nnations, who were ever breaking out afresh with new wars, like the\nHydra putting forth a new head so soon as one was cut off.\u201d\n\n11. And here I may seem to utter an absurdity, but I will venture to\nspeak it, as being an undoubted truth; that it was by Fortune that\nhe came very near losing the reputation of being the son of Jupiter\nAmmon. For who but one sprung from the Gods, Hercules excepted, would\never have undertaken and finished those hazardous and toilsome labors\nwhich he did? Yet what did Hercules do but terrify lions, pursue wild\nboars, and scare birds; enjoined thereto by one evil man, that he\nmight not have leisure for those greater actions of punishing Antaeus\nand putting an end to the murders of Busiris. But it was virtue that\nenjoined Alexander to undertake that godlike labor, not covetousness\nof the golden burden of ten thousand camels, not the possession of the\nMedian women or glorious ornaments of Persian luxury, not greediness of\nthe Chalybonian wine or the fish of Hyrcania, but that he might reduce\nall mankind as it were into one family, under one form of government\nand the same custom of intercourse and conversation. This love of\nvirtue was thoroughly inbred, and increased and ripened as he grew in\nyears; so that once being to entertain the Persian ambassadors in his\nfather\u2019s absence, he never asked them any questions that savored of\nboyish imbecility,\u2014never troubled them to answer any questions about\nthe golden vine, the pendent gardens, or what habit the king wore,\u2014but\nstill desired to be satisfied in the chiefest concerns of the empire,\nwhat force the Persians brought into the field, and in what part of the\narmy the king fought; as Ulysses asked,\n\n    Where are the magazines of arms? And where\n    The barbed steeds provided for the war?[210]\n\nHe also enquired which were the nearest roads for them that travelled\nfrom the sea up into the country; at all of which the ambassadors\nwere astonished, and said, This youth is a great prince, but ours a\nrich one. No sooner was Philip interred, but his resolution hurried\nhim to cross the sea; and having already grasped it in his hopes\nand preparations, he made all imaginable haste to set foot in Asia.\nBut Fortune opposed him, diverted him, and kept him back, creating\na thousand vexatious troubles to delay and stop him. First, she\ncontrived the Illyrian and Triballic wars, exciting to hostility the\nneighboring barbarians. But they, after many dangers run and many\nterrible encounters, being at length chased even as far as Scythia\nbeyond the river Ister, he returned back to prosecute his first\ndesign. But then again spiteful Fortune stirred up the Thebans against\nhim, and entangled him in the Grecian war, and in the dire necessity of\ndefending himself against his fellow-countrymen and relations with fire\nand sword and hideous slaughter. Which war being brought to a dreadful\nend, away he presently crossed into Asia,\u2014as Phylarchus relates, with\nonly thirty days\u2019 provision; as Aristobulus reports, with seventy\ntalents,\u2014having before sold and divided among his friends his own\nrevenues and those of his crown. Only Perdiccas refused what he offered\nhim, asking him at the same time what he had left for himself. And when\nAlexander replied, Nothing but hopes, Then, said he, we will be content\nwith the same; for it is not just to accept of thy goods, but we must\nwait for those of Darius.\n\n12. What were then the hopes with which Alexander passed into\nAsia? Not a vast power mustered out of populous cities, nor fleets\nsailing through mountains; not whips and fetters, the instruments of\nbarbarians\u2019 fury, to curb and manacle the sea. But in his small army\nthere was surpassing desire of glory, emulation among those of equal\nage, and a noble strife to excel in honor and virtue among friends.\nThen, as for himself, he carried with him all these great hopes,\u2014piety\ntowards the Gods, fidelity to his friends, generous frugality,\ntemperance, beneficence, contempt of death, magnanimity, humanity,\ndecent affability, candid integrity, constancy in counsel, quickness\nin execution, love of precedence in honor, and an effectual purpose\nto follow the steps of virtue. And though Homer, in describing the\nbeauty of Agamemnon, seems not to have observed the rules of decorum or\nprobability in any of his three similitudes,\u2014\n\n    Like thundering Jove\u2019s, his awful head and eyes\n    The gazing crowd with majesty surprise;\n    In every part with form celestial graced,\n    His breast like Neptune\u2019s, and like Mars his waist;[211]\n\nyet as for Alexander, if his celestial parents formed and composed\nhim of several virtues, may we not conclude that he had the wisdom of\nCyrus, the temperance of Agesilaus, the foresight of Themistocles, the\nskill of Philip, the daring courage of Brasidas, the shrewdness and\npolitical skill of Pericles? Certainly, if we compare him with the most\nancient heroes, he was more temperate than Agamemnon, who preferred\na captive before his lawful wife, though but newly wedded, while\nAlexander, before he was legally married, abstained from his prisoners.\nHe was more magnanimous than Achilles, who accepted a small sum of\nmoney for the redemption of Hector\u2019s dead body, while Alexander spared\nno expense to adorn the funeral of Darius. Achilles accepted gifts and\nbribes from his friends, as the atonement of his wrath; Alexander,\nwhen once a victor, enriched his enemies. He was much more pious than\nDiomede, who scrupled not to fight against the Gods, while Alexander\nascribed to Heaven all his successes. Finally, he was more bewailed\nof his relations than Ulysses, whose mother died for grief, while the\nmother of Alexander\u2019s enemy, out of affection, bare him company in his\ndeath.\n\n13. In short, if Solon proved so wise a ruler by Fortune, if Miltiades\nled his armies by Fortune, if Aristides was so renowned for his\njustice by Fortune, then there is nothing that can be called the\nwork of virtue. Then is virtue only an airy fiction, and a word that\npasses with some show of glory through the life of man, but feigned\nand magnified by Sophists and lawgivers. But if every one of these\nwhom we have mentioned was wealthy or poor, weak or strong, deformed\nor beautiful, long or short lived, by Fortune, but made himself a\ngreat captain, a great lawgiver, famous for governing kingdoms and\ncommonwealths, by virtue and reason; then in God\u2019s name let us compare\nAlexander with the best of them. Solon by a law made a great abatement\nupon the payment of the Athenians\u2019 private debts, which he called his\nburden-easing law; Alexander discharged the debts of his Macedonians at\nhis own expense. Pericles, laying a tax upon the Greeks, expended the\nmoney in building temples to beautify the citadel of Athens; Alexander\nsent home ten thousand talents out of the spoils of the barbarians, for\nthe building of temples to the Gods all over Greece. Brasidas advanced\nhis fame all over Greece, by breaking through the enemy\u2019s army lying\nencamped by the seaside near Methone; but when you read of that daring\njump of Alexander\u2019s (so astonishing to the hearers, much more to them\nthat beheld it) when he threw himself from the walls of the Oxydracian\nmetropolis among the thickest of the enemy, assailing him on every\nside with spears, darts, and swords, tell me where you meet with such\nan example of matchless prowess, or to what you can compare it but to\na gleam of lightning violently flashing from a cloud, and impetuously\ndriven by the wind? Such was the appearance of Alexander, as he leaped\nlike an apparition to the earth, glittering in his flaming armor. The\nenemy, at first amazed and struck with horror, retreated and fell back;\ntill seeing him single they came on again with a redoubled force.\n\nNow was not this a great and splendid testimony of Fortune\u2019s kindness,\nto throw him into an inconsiderable and barbarous town, and there\nto enclose and immure him a prey to worthless enemies? And when his\nfriends made haste to his assistance, to break the scaling-ladders,\nand to overthrow and cast them down? Of three that got upon the walls\nand flung themselves down in his defence, endearing Fortune presently\ndespatched one; the other, pierced and struck with a shower of darts,\ncould only be said to live. Without, the Macedonians foamed and filled\nthe air with helpless cries, having no engines at hand. All they could\ndo was to dig down the walls with their swords, tear out the stones\nwith their nails, and almost to rend them out with their teeth. All\nthis while, Alexander, Fortune\u2019s favorite, whom she always covered with\nher protection, like a wild beast entangled in a snare, stood deserted\nand destitute of all assistance, not laboring for Susa, Babylon,\nBactria, or to vanquish the mighty Porus. For to miscarry in great and\nglorious attempts is no reproach; but so malicious was Fortune, so kind\nto the barbarians, such a hater of Alexander, that she aimed not only\nat his life and body, but at bereaving him of his honor and sullying\nhis renown. For Alexander\u2019s fall had never been so much lamented had he\nperished near Euphrates or Hydaspes by the hand of Darius, or by the\nhorses, swords, and axes of the Persians fighting with all their might\nand main in defence of their king, or had he tumbled from the walls of\nBabylon, and all his hopes together. Thus Pelopidas and Epaminondas\nfell; whose death was to be ascribed to their virtue, not to such a\npoor misfortune as this. But what was the singular act of Fortune\u2019s\nfavor which we are now enquiring into? What indeed, but in the farthest\nnook of a barbarous country, on the farther side of a river, within\nthe walls of a miserable village, to pen up and hide the lord and\nking of the world, that he might there perish shamefully at the hands\nof barbarians, who should knock him down and pelt him with whatever\ncame next to hand? There the first blow he received with a battle-axe\ncleft his helmet and entered his skull; at the same time another shot\nhim with an Indian arrow in the breast near one of his paps, the head\nbeing four fingers broad and five in length, which, together with the\nweight of the shaft which projected from the wound, did not a little\ntorment him. But, what was worst of all, while he was thus defending\nhimself from his enemies before him, when he had laid a bold attempter\nthat approached his person sprawling upon the earth with his sword, a\nfellow from a mill close by came behind him, and with a great iron\npestle gave him such a bang upon the neck as deprived him for the\npresent both of his senses and his sight. However, his virtue did not\nyet forsake him, but supplied him still with courage, infusing strength\nwithal and speed into those about him. For Ptolemy, Limnaeus, and\nLeonnatus, and some others who had mounted or broken through the wall,\nmade to his succor, and stood about him like so many bulwarks of his\nvirtue; out of mere affection and kindness to their sovereign exposing\ntheir bodies, their faces, and their lives in his defence. For it is\nnot Fortune that overrules men to run the hazard of death for brave\nprinces; but the love of virtue allures them\u2014as natural affection\ncharms and entices bees\u2014to surround and guard their chief commander.\n\nWhat person then, at that time beholding in security this strange\nadventure, would not have confessed that he had seen a desperate combat\nof Fortune against virtue, and that the barbarians were undeservedly\nsuperior through Fortune\u2019s help, but that the Greeks resisted beyond\nimagination through the force of virtue? So that if the barbarians had\nvanquished, it had been the act of Fortune or of some evil genius or\ndivine retribution; but as the Greeks became the victors, they owed\ntheir conquest to their virtue, their prowess, their friendship and\nfidelity to each other. For these were all the life-guard Alexander had\nat that time; Fortune having interposed a wall between him and all his\nother forces, so that neither fleets nor armies, cavalry nor infantry,\ncould stand him in any stead. Therefore the Macedonians routed the\nbarbarians, and buried those that fell under the ruins of their own\ntown. But this little availed Alexander; for he was carried off with\nthe dart sticking in his breast, having now a war in his own bowels,\nwhile the arrow in his bosom was a kind of cord, or rather nail, that\nwas driven through his breast-plate and fastened it to his body. When\nthey went about to dress him, the forked shape of the iron head would\nnot permit the surgeons to draw it forth from the root of the wound,\nbeing fixed in the solid parts of the breast that fortify the heart.\nNor durst they attempt to cut away the shaft that stuck out, fearing\nthey should put him to an excess of torment by the motion of the iron\nin the cleft of the bone, and cause a new flux of blood not easy to be\nstopped. Alexander, observing their hesitation and delay, endeavored\nhimself with a little knife to cut off the shaft close to the skin;\nbut his hand failed him, being seized with a heavy numbness by reason\nof the inflammation of the wound. Thereupon he commanded the surgeons\nand those that stood about him to try the same thing themselves and not\nto be afraid, giving them all the encouragement he could. Those that\nwept he upbraided for their weakness; others he called deserters, that\nrefused him their assistance in such a time of need. At length, calling\nto his friends, he said: Let no one of you fear for me; for how shall I\nbelieve you to be contemners of death, when you betray yourselves to be\nafraid of mine?[212]\n\n\nEND OF VOL. I.\n\n\nFOOT-NOTES:\n\n[1] Eurip. Hercules Furens, 1261.\n\n[2] Eurip. Hippol. 424.\n\n[3] \u1f18\u03be \u1f40\u03bd\u03cd\u03c7\u03c9\u03bd \u1f01\u03c0\u03b1\u03bb\u1ff6\u03bd.\n\n[4] See Plato, Repub. II. p. 377 C.\n\n[5] Eurip. Hippol. 986.\n\n[6] Demosth. in Mid. p. 576, 16.\n\n[7] Plato, Repub. VII. p. 537, B.\n\n[8] Hesiod, Works and Days, 371.\n\n[9] From the Protesilaus of Euripides, Frag. 656.\n\n[10] The story is related by our author at large, in the Life of\nLysander. It is this: Lysander sent by Gylippus to the Ephori, or\nchief magistrates of Sparta, a great sum of money, sealed up in bags.\nGylippus unsews the bags at the bottom, and takes what he thinks fit\nout of each bag, and sews them up again; but was discovered, partly by\nthe notes which were put in the bags by Lysander, mentioning the sums\nin each bag; and partly by his own servant, who, when the magistrates\nwere solicitous to find what was become of the money that was wanting,\ntold them jestingly that there were a great many owls under the tiles\nat his master\u2019s house (for the money had that bird, as the badge of\nAthens, where it was coined, stamped on it); whither they sent, and\nfound it.\n\n[11] \u0395\u1f30\u03c2 \u03bf\u1f50\u03c7 \u1f41\u03c3\u03af\u03b7\u03bd \u03c4\u03c1\u03c5\u03bc\u03b1\u03bb\u03af\u03b7\u03bd \u03c4\u1f78 \u03ba\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd \u1f60\u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c2.\n\n[12] From the Dictys of Euripides, Frag. 342.\n\n[13] See Plato, Repub. V. p. 468, C.\n\n[14] See Strabo X. pp. 483, 484.\n\n[15] This saying, \u03a4\u1f74\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c3\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f14\u03bb\u03b1, is attributed to Pittacus of\nMitylene by Diogenes Laertius, I. 4, 8. See also Aristoph. Nub. 25, and\nAesch. Prom. 890. (G.)\n\n[16] Il. XXII. 373.\n\n[17] Eurip. Orestes, 72 and 99.\n\n[18] Il. XVII. 591.\n\n[19] From the Thamyras of Sophocles, Frag. 224.\n\n[20] Il. V. 216.\n\n[21] Aesch. Prometheus, 574.\n\n[22] Soph. Antig. 563.\n\n[23] Il. XIX. 188.\n\n[24] Odyss. XX. 392.\n\n[25] Il. XXIV. 239.\n\n[26] Sophocles, Frag. 769.\n\n[27] Euripides, Frag. 964.\n\n[28] _Nephalia_ (\u03bd\u03ae\u03c6\u03c9, _to be sober_) were wineless offerings, like\nthose to the Eumenides See Aesch. Eumen. 107: \u03a7\u03bf\u03ac\u03c2 \u03c4\u2019 \u1f00\u03bf\u03af\u03bd\u03bf\u03c5\u03c2, \u03bd\u03b7\u03c6\u03ac\u03bb\u03b9\u03b1\n\u03bc\u03b5\u03b9\u03bb\u03af\u03b3\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1. _Melisponda_ (\u03bc\u03ad\u03bb\u03b9) were offerings of honey. (G.)\n\n[29] \u039f\u1f50 \u03ba\u03cc\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u1f70 \u03c0\u03cc\u03c1\u03bd\u03b1\u03c2. \u039a\u03cc\u03c1\u03b7 means either _maiden_ or _the pupil of\nthe eye_. (G.)\n\n[30] Il. XXIV. 44\n\n[31] Eurip. Bellerophon, Frag. 311.\n\n[32] Sophocles, Frag. 772.\n\n[33] Eurip. Medea, 290.\n\n[34] Hesiod, Works and Days, 342.\n\n[35] Demosth. Olynth. III. p. 33, 25. \u00a7 19.\n\n[36] Eurip. Frag. 967. The verse is found also in Menander, Monos. 222.\n(G.)\n\n[37] Thucyd. II. 40.\n\n[38] Eurip. Pirithous, Frag. 598.\n\n[39] Hesiod, Works and Days, 371.\n\n[40] Eurip. Medea, 1078.\n\n[41] Thucyd. II. 64.\n\n[42] Antisthenes, in his tenth tome, had a book entitled _Hercules_\nor _De Prudentia_ or _De Robore_ (\u1f29\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03bb\u1fc6\u03c2 \u1f22 \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u1f76 \u03c6\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03ae\u03c3\u03b5\u03c9\u03c2 \u1f22 \u1f30\u03c3\u03c7\u03cd\u03bf\u03c2),\nmentioned by Diogenes Laertius in his life. See Diogenes Laert. VI. 1,\n9.\n\n[43] Plato, Clitophon, p. 407 C.\n\n[44] Aristoph. Nub. 983.\n\n[45] See Herod. IV. 2.\n\n[46] This is not a translation, but rather an essay by Mr. Pulleyn\nbased upon the text of Plutarch\u2019s brief notes on the customs of the\nLacedaemonians. It is therefore reprinted without essential changes.\nThe sections of the original are marked whenever this is possible. (G.)\n\n[47] \u00a7 13 of the original is included in the paraphrase with \u00a7 3. (G.)\n\n[48] The three songs were\u2014\u1f0c\u03bc\u03b5\u03c2 \u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u2019 \u1f26\u03bc\u03b5\u03c2 \u1f04\u03bb\u03ba\u03b9\u03bc\u03bf\u03b9 \u03bd\u03b5\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03b1\u03b9, _We once were\nvaliant youth_; \u1f0c\u03bc\u03b5\u03c2 \u03b4\u03ad \u03b3\u2019 \u1f10\u03c3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u00b7 \u03b1\u1f30 \u03b4\u1f72 \u03bb\u1fc6\u03c2, \u03b1\u1f50\u03b3\u03ac\u03c3\u03b4\u03b5\u03bf, _And we are now:\nIf you will, behold us_; \u1f0c\u03bc\u03b5\u03c2 \u03b4\u03ad \u03b3\u2019 \u1f10\u03c3\u03c3\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1 \u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03bb\u1ff7 \u03ba\u03ac\u03c1\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03b5\u03c2, _And we\nwill soon be far more valiant_. (G.)\n\n[49] Expressed by Plutarch in the proverb,\u2014\n\n  \u03a4\u1f70\u03bd \u03c7\u03b5\u1fd6\u03c1\u03b1 \u03c0\u03bf\u03c4\u03b9\u03c6\u03ad\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c4\u1f70\u03bd \u03c4\u03cd\u03c7\u03b1\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03bb\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd,\n  _As thou puttest thy hand to the work, invoke Fortune_. (G.)\n\n[50]\n\n  \u1f08\u03c3\u03c0\u03af\u03b4\u03b9 \u03bc\u1f72\u03bd \u03a3\u03b1\u0390\u03c9\u03bd \u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 \u1f00\u03b3\u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03b5\u03c4\u03b1\u03b9, \u1f23\u03bd \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u1f70 \u03b8\u03ac\u03bc\u03bd\u1ff3\n  \u1f1c\u03bd\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bc\u03ce\u03bc\u03b7\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u03ba\u03ac\u03bb\u03bb\u03b9\u03c0\u03bf\u03bd \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f10\u03b8\u03ad\u03bb\u03c9\u03bd\u00b7\n  [\u0391\u1f50\u03c4\u1f78\u03c2 \u03b4\u2019 \u1f10\u03be\u03ad\u03c6\u03c5\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd \u0398\u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03c4\u03bf\u03c5 \u03c4\u03ad\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2\u00b7] \u1f00\u03c3\u03c0\u1f76\u03c2 \u1f10\u03ba\u03b5\u03af\u03bd\u03b7\n  \u1f18\u1fe4\u1fe5\u03ad\u03c4\u03c9\u00b7 \u1f10\u03be\u03b1\u1fe6\u03c4\u03b9\u03c2 \u03ba\u03c4\u03ae\u03c3\u03bf\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9 \u03bf\u1f50 \u03ba\u03b1\u03ba\u03af\u03c9.\n\nArchilochus, Fr. 6 (Bergk). The passage in brackets is omitted by\nPlutarch. (G.)\n\n[51] No one will attempt to _study_ this treatise on music, without\nsome previous knowledge of the principles of Greek music, with its\nvarious moods, scales, and combinations of tetrachords. The whole\nsubject is treated by Boeckh, _De Metris Pindari_ (in Vol. I. 2 of his\nedition of Pindar); and more at length in Westphal\u2019s _Harmonik und\nMelop\u00f6ie der Griechen_ (in Rossbach and Westphal\u2019s _Metrik_, Vol. II.\n1).\n\nAn elementary explanation of the ordinary scale and of the names of the\nnotes (which are here retained without any attempt at translation) may\nbe of use to the reader.\n\nThe most ancient scale is said to have had only four notes,\ncorresponding to the four strings of the tetrachord. But before\nTerpander\u2019s time two forms of the heptachord (with seven strings) were\nalready in use. One of these was enlarged to an octachord (with eight\nstrings) by adding the octave (called \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7). This addition is ascribed\nto Terpander by Plutarch (\u00a7 28); but he is said to have been unwilling\nto increase the number of strings permanently to eight, and to have\ntherefore omitted the string called \u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7, thus reducing the octachord\nagain to a heptachord. The notes of the full octachord in this form, in\nthe ordinary diatonic scale, are as follows:\u2014\n\n  1. \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 _e_\n  2. \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03c5\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 _f_\n  3. \u03bb\u03b9\u03c7\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2 _g_\n  4. \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7 _a_\n  5. \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7 _b_\n  6. \u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7 _c_\n  7. \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 _d_\n  8. \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 _e_ (octave)\n\nThe note called \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 (_hypate_, or _highest_) is the lowest in tone,\nbeing named from its position. So \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 or \u03bd\u03b5\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 (_nete_, or _lowest_)\nis the highest in tone.\n\nThe other of the two heptachords mentioned above contained the octave,\nbut omitted the \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7 and had other changes in the higher notes. The\nscale is as follows:\u2014\n\n  1. \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 _e_\n  2. \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03c5\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 _f_\n  3. \u03bb\u03b9\u03c7\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2 _g_\n  4. \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7 _a_\n  5. \u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7 _b_\n  6. \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 _c_\n  7. \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 _d_\n\nThis is not to be confounded with the reduced octachord of Terpander.\nThis heptachord includes two tetrachords so united that the lowest\nnote of one is identical with the highest note of the other; while the\noctachord includes two tetrachords entirely separated, with each note\ndistinct. The former connection is called \u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b1\u03c6\u03ae\u03bd, the latter\n\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u1f70 \u03b4\u03b9\u03ac\u03b6\u03b5\u03c5\u03be\u03b9\u03bd. Of the eight notes of the octachord, the first four\n(counting from the lowest), \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03c5\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7, \u03bb\u03b9\u03c7\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2, and \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7, are the\nsame in the heptachord; \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7 is omitted in the heptachord; while\n\u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7, and \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 in the heptachord are designated as \u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7\n\u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b7\u03bc\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b7\u03bc\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd, and \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b7\u03bc\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd, to distinguish\nthem from the notes of the same name in the octachord, which sometimes\nhave the designation \u03b4\u03b9\u03b5\u03b6\u03b5\u03c5\u03b3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd, but generally are written simply\n\u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7, &c.\n\nThese simple scales were enlarged by the addition of higher and lower\nnotes, four at the bottom of the scale (i.e. before \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7), called\n\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03bb\u03b1\u03bc\u03b2\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2, \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 \u1f51\u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03c5\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 \u1f51\u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd, \u03bb\u03b9\u03c7\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2 \u1f51\u03c0\u03b1\u03c4\u1ff6\u03bd; and\nthree at the top (above \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7), called \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7, \u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7, each with\nthe designation \u1f51\u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b2\u03bf\u03bb\u03b1\u03af\u03c9\u03bd. The lowest three notes of the ordinary\noctachord are here designated by \u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03c9\u03bd, when the simple names are\nnot used. Thus a scale of fifteen notes was made; and we have one of\neighteen by including the two classes of \u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7, \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7, and \u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7\ndesignated by \u03c3\u03c5\u03bd\u03b7\u03bc\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd and \u03b4\u03b9\u03b5\u03b6\u03b5\u03c5\u03b3\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u03c9\u03bd.\n\nThe harmonic intervals, discovered by Pythagoras, are the _Octave_\n(\u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03c0\u03b1\u03c3\u1ff6\u03bd,) with its ratio of 2:1; the _Fifth_ (\u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03c0\u03ad\u03bd\u03c4\u03b5), with its\nratio of 3:2 (\u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f21\u03bc\u03b9\u03cc\u03bb\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 or _Sesquialter_); the _Fourth_ (\u03b4\u03b9\u1f70\n\u03c4\u03b5\u03c3\u03c3\u03ac\u03c1\u03c9\u03bd), with its ratio of 4:3 (\u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03af\u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 or _Sesquiterce_);\nand the _Tone_ (\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2), with its ratio of 9:8 (\u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f10\u03c0\u03cc\u03b3\u03b4\u03bf\u03bf\u03c2 or\n_Sesquioctave_). (G.)\n\n[52] Il. I. 472.\n\n[53] According to K. O. M\u00fcller (History of Greek Literature, Chap. XII.\n\u00a7 4), the _nomes_ were \u201cmusical compositions of great simplicity and\nseverity, something resembling the most ancient melodies of our church\nmusic.\u201d (G.)\n\n[54] \u03a0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03cc\u03b4\u03b9\u03b1 were songs sung to the music of flutes by processions, as\nthey marched to temples or altars; hence, songs of supplication. (G.)\n\n[55] See Rossbach and Westphal, II. 1, p. 84. (G.)\n\n[56] This seems to be the nome referred to by Pindar, Pyth. XII. 12, as\nthe invention of Pallas Athena. The Scholia on the passage of Pindar\ntell us that the goddess represented it in the lamentation of the two\nsurviving Gorgons for their sister Medusa slain by Perseus, and the\nhissing of the snakes which surrounded their heads,\u2014whence the name\n\u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03c5\u03ba\u03ad\u03c6\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2, or _many-headed_. (G.)\n\n[57] The relations of the enharmonic scale to the ordinary diatonic are\nthus stated by Westphal (pp. 124-126), _b_ being here substituted for\nthe German _h_:\u2014\n\n    Enharmonic.\t \t   Diatonic.\n   \u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7\t_e_\t|\t_e_\t\u1f51\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7\n\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03c5\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7 \u1f01\u03c1\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd.\t \u03b4\t|\n\u03bb\u03b9\u03c7\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2 \u1f01\u03c1\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd.\t_f_\t|\t_f_\t\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03c5\u03c0\u03ac\u03c4\u03b7\n \t        \t|\t_g_\t\u03bb\u03b9\u03c7\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2\n\u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7\t        _a_\t|\t_a_\t\u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7\n\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7\t_b_\t|\t_b_\t\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bc\u03ad\u03c3\u03b7\n\u03c4\u03c1\u03b9\u03c4\u03b7 \u1f01\u03c1\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd.\t \u03b4\t|\n\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7 \u1f01\u03c1\u03bc\u03bf\u03bd.\t_c_\t|\t_c_\t\u03c4\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7\n \t \t        |\t_d_\t\u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7\n\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7\t        _e_\t|\t_e_\t\u03bd\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7\n\nThe \u03b4 inserted between _e_ and _f_ and between _b_ and _c_ is called\n_diesis_, and represents a quarter-tone. The section in Westphal\ncontaining this scheme will greatly aid the interpretation of \u00a7 11 of\nPlutarch. (G.)\n\n[58] This is Volkmann\u2019s conjecture for \u201cspondee.\u201d It is defined by\nhim (according to Aristides Quintilianus) as the raising of the tone\nthrough three dieses (or quarter-tones). (G.)\n\n[59] See Westphal\u2019s interpretation of this difficult and probably\ncorrupt passage, II. 1, p. 89. (G.)\n\n[60] Plato, Timaeus, p. 36 A. See the whole passage in the treatise _Of\nthe Procreation of the Soul as discoursed in Timaeus_, Chap. XXIX. (G.)\n\n[61] See Rossbach, Griechische Rhythmik, p. 96, \u00a7 23. (G.)\n\n[62] So Rossbach and Westphal interpret \u03c0\u03b1\u03c1\u03b1\u03ba\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1\u03bb\u03bf\u03b3\u03ae. Metrik, III. pp.\n184, 554. (G.)\n\n[63] It is uncertain here to whom the pronoun _he_ refers. Volkmann\ntransfers the whole sentence to the end of Chap. XXIX., referring it to\nLasus of Hermione. (G.)\n\n[64] The original of this fragment of Pherecrates may be found in\nMeineke\u2019s _Poet Comic. Graec. Fragm._ II. p. 326; and in Didot\u2019s\nedition of the same fragments, p. 110. Meineke includes the verses\ncommonly assigned to Aristophanes in the extract from Pherecrates. (G.)\n\n[65] The passage in brackets is out of place here, and is generally\ntransferred to the middle of Chapter XXXVII. (G.)\n\n[66] See note on Chapter XXXIV.\n\n[67] Il. IX. 186.\n\n[68] See Section 2.\n\n[69] Odyss. I. 152\n\n[70] Eurip. Orestes, 258.\n\n[71] Hesiod, Works and Days, 519.\n\n[72] Odyss. I. 191.\n\n[73] Il. I. 488.\n\n[74] Il. XVII. 104.\n\n[75] Eurip. Orestes, 232.\n\n[76] Il. X. 88.\n\n[77] From Eurip. Bellerophon.\n\n[78] Pindar, Nem. IV. 6.\n\n[79] Simonides, 5, 17.\n\n[80] Il. III. 182.\n\n[81] Il. II. 111.\n\n[82] Eurip. Iph. Aul. 16.\n\n[83] Il. XVIII. 105.\n\n[84] Pindar, Frag. 258 (Boeckh).\n\n[85] Odyss. VI. 130; Il. XVII. 61.\n\n[86] Solon, Frag. 15.\n\n[87] Hesiod, Works and Days, 25.\n\n[88] See Il. XXIV. 527.\n\n[89] Il. V. 484.\n\n[90] Aesch. Philoct. Frag. 246.\n\n[91] Eurip. Bacchae, 498.\n\n[92] Eurip. Orestes, 396.\n\n[93] See Il. I. 335.\n\n[94] See Plato, Repub. I. p. 331 A.\n\n[95] Plutarch derives \u03b4\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bc\u03b1 from \u03b4\u03ad\u03c9, _to bind_, and \u03c4\u03ac\u03c1\u03b2\u03bf\u03c2 from\n\u03c4\u03b1\u03c1\u03ac\u03c3\u03c3\u03c9, _to distract_ or _confuse_. (G.)\n\n[96] Eurip. Orestes, 211.\n\n[97] Eurip. Troad. 759.\n\n[98] Pindar, Pyth. I. 25.\n\n[99] Pythagoras, Carmen Aur. 41.\n\n[100] Archilochus, Frag. 56.\n\n[101] Hesiod, Works and Days, 463.\n\n[102] See Il. VII. 193; II. 382, 414.\n\n[103] See Maccabees, I. 2, 27-38, cited by Wyttenbach. (G.)\n\n[104] Sophocles, Oed. Tyr. 4.\n\n[105] I leave Mr. Baxter\u2019s conjectural version of this corrupt passage,\ninstead of inserting another equally conjectural. As to the original\nGreek, hardly a word can be made out with certainty. (G).\n\n[106] Il. XXIV. 604.\n\n[107] Il. XXIV. 212.\n\n[108] Il. XXII. 20.\n\n[109] The Greek \u03ba\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03c2 (clavis), _a key_, signifies also the\n_collar-bone_. (G.)\n\n[110] Il. V. 340.\n\n[111] \u039c\u1f74 \u03c3\u03c0\u03bf\u1fe6\u03b4\u03b5 \u03b3\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1\u03b9, \u03c0\u03c1\u1f76\u03bd \u03c4\u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03c4\u03ae\u03c3\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u2019 \u1f34\u03b4\u1fc3\u03c2. From Sophocles\u2019s Tyro,\nFrag. 596.\n\n[112]\n\n  \u03a3\u1fc6\u03bc\u03b1 \u03b4\u2019 \u03bf\u1f50\u03ba \u1f10\u03c0\u1fc6\u03bd \u03ba\u03cd\u03ba\u03bb\u1ff3\u00b7\n  \u039f\u1f50 \u03b3\u1f70\u03c1 \u03b4\u03bf\u03ba\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd \u1f04\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f00\u03bb\u03bb\u2019 \u03b5\u1f36\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u03b8\u03ad\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9,\n  \u0392\u03b1\u03b8\u03b5\u1fd6\u03b1\u03bd \u1f04\u03bb\u03bf\u03ba\u03b1 \u03b4\u03b9\u1f70 \u03c6\u03c1\u03b5\u03bd\u1f78\u03c2 \u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03c0\u03bf\u03cd\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2,\n  \u1f18\u03be \u1f27\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f70 \u03ba\u03b5\u03b4\u03bd\u1f70 \u03b2\u03bb\u03b1\u03c3\u03c4\u03ac\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9 \u03b2\u03bf\u03c5\u03bb\u03b5\u03cd\u03bc\u03b1\u03c4\u03b1.\n\nAesch. Sept. 591. Thus the passage stands in all MSS. of Aeschylus;\nbut it is quoted by Plutarch in his Life of Aristides, \u00a7 3, with\n\u03b4\u03af\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 in the second verse in the place of \u1f04\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2. It has been\nplausibly conjectured, that the actor who spoke the part intentionally\nsubstituted the word \u03b4\u03af\u03ba\u03b1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 as a compliment to Aristides, on seeing\nhim in a conspicuous place among the spectators. See Hermann\u2019s note on\nthe passage in his edition of Aeschylus. (G.)\n\n[113] See Odyss. X. 495.\n\n[114] \u1f2e\u03bb\u03b8\u03bf\u03bd, \u03b5\u1f36\u03b4\u03bf\u03bd, \u1f10\u03bd\u03af\u03ba\u03b7\u03c3\u03b1, _veni, vidi, vici_.\n\n[115] It is doubtful what amount is here intended by Plutarch. If\nsesterces are understood, the amount is much less than it is commonly\nstated; and even if we understand drachmas (or denarii), we shall still\nfall below the amount commonly given, which is 700,000,000 sesterces\n(or about $28,000,000). See, for example, Vell. Paterc. II. 60, 4:\nSestertium septiens miliens. (G.)\n\n[116] Il. XI. 514.\n\n[117] Odyss. IV. 392.\n\n[118] See Eurip. Medea. 290.\n\n[119] Eteocles the Theban, in Eurip. Phoeniss. 524.\n\n[120] \u039c\u03b7\u03b4\u1f72\u03bd \u03b4\u03b9\u03b1\u03c6\u03ad\u03c1\u03b5\u03b9\u03bd \u1f44\u03c0\u03b9\u03c3\u03b8\u03ad\u03bd \u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03b1 \u1f22 \u1f14\u03bc\u03c0\u03c1\u03bf\u03c3\u03b8\u03b5\u03bd \u03b5\u1f36\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9 \u03ba\u03af\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03b4\u03bf\u03bd.\n\n[121] Hesiod, Works and Days, 102.\n\n[122] The text of this passage is uncertain, and probably corrupt. I\nhave given Holland\u2019s version of the doubtful expressions. (G.)\n\n[123] \u03a4\u03c1\u03ac\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2 \u03b3\u03ad\u03bd\u03b5\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u1f06\u03c1\u03b1 \u03c0\u03b5\u03bd\u03b8\u03ae\u03c3\u03b5\u03b9\u03c2 \u03c3\u03cd \u03b3\u03b5, _Thou goat, soon thou shalt\nbewail the loss of thy beard_. This verse is supposed to belong to the\nSatyrdrama _Prometheus_ of Aeschylus, which was exhibited with the\ntrilogy to which the Persians belong. The whole tetralogy, according to\nthe _didascalia_, consisted of the _Phineus_, _Persians_, Glaucus, and\n_Prometheus_. (G.)\n\n[124] Aeschyl. Septem, 593. See note on page 202. (G.)\n\n[125] Fragment 253.\n\n[126] Fals. Legat. p. 406, 4.\n\n[127] Eurip. Orest. 251.\n\n[128] Eurip. Frag. No. 1071\n\n[129] From the Adrastus of Euripides.\n\n[130] From Euripides.\n\n[131] Laws, V. p. 731 E.\n\n[132] Il. IV. 350.\n\n[133] Plato, Laws, XI. p. 935 A.\n\n[134] Hesiod, Works and Days, 23.\n\n[135] Solon, Frag. No. 16.\n\n[136] Aesch. Prom. 378.\n\n[137] From the Stheneboea of Euripides, Frag. 662.\n\n[138] From Euripides.\n\n[139] Eurip. Iph. Aul. 29.\n\n[140] Il. XII. 327.\n\n[141] Eurip. Phoeniss. 558.\n\n[142] From the Ino of Euripides.\n\n[143] From the Ino of Euripides.\n\n[144] Pindar, Pyth. VIII. 135.\n\n[145] Odyss. XVIII. 130.\n\n[146] Il. VI. 145.\n\n[147] Il. XXI. 463.\n\n[148] Il. XXIV. 522.\n\n[149] Hesiod, Works and Days, 94.\n\n[150] From the Danae of Euripides.\n\n[151] From Euripides.\n\n[152] Pindar, Pyth. III. 145.\n\n[153] Eurip. Alcestis, 792.\n\n[154] See Odyss. XIII. 80; and Il. XIV. 231; XVI. 672; XI. 241.\n\n[155] Plat. Phaed. pp. 66 B-67 B.\n\n[156] From Aeschylus.\n\n[157] Eurip. Suppliants, 1109.\n\n[158] From the Cresphontes of Euripides.\n\n[159] From the Hypsipyle of Euripides.\n\n[160] Odyss. XV. 245.\n\n[161] See the Latin version in Cicero, Tusc. III. 14, 29.\n\n[162] Plato, Repub. X. p. 604 B.\n\n[163] \u039c\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bf\u03bd \u03a4\u03c1\u03c9\u03af\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f10\u03b4\u03ac\u03ba\u03c1\u03c5\u03c3\u03b5\u03bd \u1f22 \u03a0\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u03bc\u03bf\u03c2 is a saying of Callimachus, as\nwe learn from Cicero, Tusc. I. 39: Quanquam non male ait Callimachus,\n_multo saepius lacrimasse Priamum quam Troilum_. (G.)\n\n[164] Il. XXII. 56.\n\n[165] See Il. XXIII. 109; Odyss. I. 423.\n\n[166] Hesiod, Works and Days, 94.\n\n[167] Eurip. Phoeniss. 555.\n\n[168] Il. XI. 452.\n\n[169] Il. XXIV. 744.\n\n[170] Il. XXIII. 222; XVII. 37.\n\n[171] Il. IX. 482.\n\n[172] From Euripides.\n\n[173] Il. VI. 486.\n\n[174] Il. XX. 128.\n\n[175] Aeschines against Ctesiphon, \u00a7 77.\n\n[176] Plat. Gorg. 523 A-524 B.\n\n[177] Il. I. 527.\n\n[178] \u0394\u03b5\u03b9\u03ba\u03b7\u03bb\u03af\u03ba\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2, the Spartan word for the more common \u1f51\u03c0\u03bf\u03ba\u03c1\u03af\u03c4\u03b7\u03c2. (G.)\n\n[179] Following Wyttenbach\u2019s emendation for \u201cI have lost my post.\u201d (G.)\n\n[180] That is, changing \u03bc\u03ac\u03c7\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 (_to fight_) into \u1f00\u03bd\u03b1\u03bc\u03ac\u03c7\u03b5\u03c3\u03b8\u03b1\u03b9 (_to\nretrieve a defeat_). (G.)\n\n[181] According to Plutarch, the Spartan iron coin weighed an Aeginetan\nmina (about 1-1/2 lbs. avoir.), and was of the value of four chalci (or\n3-1/4 farthings, about 1-1/2 cents). (G.)\n\n[182] Herod. I. 8.\n\n[183] Simonides, Frag. No. 47.\n\n[184] Odyss. XVII. 222.\n\n[185] Plato, Republic, V. p. 474 D.\n\n[186] Antigone, 232.\n\n[187]\n\n  \u0395\u1f30\u03c2 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u03bb\u03b5\u03b9\u03bc\u1ff6\u03bd\u03b1 \u03ba\u03b1\u03b8\u03af\u03c3\u03b1\u03c2\n  \u1f14\u03b4\u03c1\u03b5\u03c0\u03b5\u03bd \u1f15\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd \u1f10\u03c6\u2019 \u1f11\u03c4\u03ad\u03c1\u1ff3\n  \u03b1\u1f30\u03c1\u03cc\u03bc\u03b5\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2 \u1f04\u03b3\u03c1\u03b5\u03c5\u03bc\u03b1 \u1f00\u03bd\u03b8\u03ad\u03c9\u03bd\n  \u1f21\u03b4\u03bf\u03bc\u03ad\u03bd\u1fb3 \u03c8\u03c5\u03c7\u1fb7,\n  \u03c4\u1f78 \u03bd\u03ae\u03c0\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd \u1f04\u03c0\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03c4\u03bf\u03bd \u1f14\u03c7\u03c9\u03bd.\n\nFrom the Hypsipyle of Euripides.\n\n[188] Il. IX. 482.\n\n[189] Sophocles, Frag. 778.\n\n[190] Il. XXIII. 77.\n\n[191] See Odyss. IV. 178.\n\n[192] See Il. V. 902.\n\n[193] Sophocles, Oed. Tyr. 4.\n\n[194] From Menander.\n\n[195] Eurip. Hippol. 253.\n\n[196] Eurip. Pirith. Frag. 598.\n\n[197] Thucyd. II. 51.\n\n[198] Theognis vs. 215.\n\n[199] Il. IX. 325.\n\n[200] Il. III. 179.\n\n[201] Il. IX. 189.\n\n[202] Il. XII. 243.\n\n[203] Demosthenes on the Crown, p. 258, 20.\n\n[204] Thucyd. II. 87.\n\n[205] Alcman, Frag. 27.\n\n[206] Aristophanes, Knights, 1056.\n\n[207] From the Erechtheus of Euripides.\n\n[208] Il. XI. 265.\n\n[209] Il. V. 340.\n\n[210] Il. X. 407.\n\n[211] Il. II. 478.\n\n[212] See foot-note at the end of the First Oration on Alexander.\n\n\n\n\nINDEX.\n\n\n  A.\n\n  \u201cA bird in the hand is worth two in the bush,\u201d a proverb among the\n      Greeks, iv. 229.\n\n  \u201cAbstain from beans,\u201d meaning of the aphorism, i. 29.\n\n  Achelous, a river in Aetolia, v. 504.\n\n  Acrotatus, apothegm of, i. 400.\n\n  Actaeon, a beautiful youth of Corinth, murdered, iv. 313-315.\n\n  Ada, queen of Caria, sends delicacies to Alexander, i. 199.\n\n  Adimantus, admiral of the Corinthian fleet at the battle of Salamis,\n    iv. 362;\n    his courage vindicated, 364.\n\n  Adrastus, anecdote of, i. 288.\n\n  Advice to a new-married couple, ii. 486-507.\n\n  Aeacus, his two sons, v. 466.\n\n  Aemilius Censorinus, v. 475.\n\n  Aemilius of Sybaris, v. 464.\n\n  Aemilius Paulus, sayings of, i. 232; iv. 202.\n\n  Aeolus, king of Etruria, v. 467.\n\n  Aeschines, quoted, Prom., i. 40;\n    anecdote of, 55;\n    Eumen., 59;\n    Frag., 163;\n    Prom., 299;\n    Ctesiphon, 334;\n    his early life, and concern in public affairs, v. 34;\n    incurs the hostility of Demosthenes, _ib._;\n    accused by Demosthenes and acquitted, 34, 35;\n    impeaches Ctesiphon, is fined and exiled, 35;\n    his school at Rhodes, _ib._;\n    his death, _ib._;\n    his orations, _ib._;\n    his public employments, 36.\n\n  Aeschylus, quoted, Septem, i. 210, 286, 315, 329, 493;\n    quoted, ii. 47;\n    anecdote of, 77, 160;\n    Frag., 48, 83, 127, 165, 374, 431, 458, 463, 474, 477;\n    quoted, iii. Frag., 24, 222;\n    quoted, iv. 20, 54, 385;\n    Frag., 276, 279;\n    quoted, v. Frag., 170;\n    Prom., 241, 320, 398.\n\n  Aesop, murdered by the citizens of Delphi, iv. 160;\n    their punishment, 161.\n    _See Esop._\n\n  Agamedes and Trophonius built the temple at Delphi, i. 313.\n\n  Agasicles, apothegms of, i. 385.\n\n  Agatharchides the Samian, his Persian History, v. 451.\n\n  Agatho the Samian, v. 474.\n\n  Agathocles, anecdote of, i. 46; ii. 317.\n\n  Aged Men, Shall they meddle in State Affairs?, v. 64-96.\n\n  Agesianax quoted, v. 235, 236.\n\n  Agesilaus, reply of, i. 73, 219, 220;\n    his sayings and great actions, 385-397;\n    his upright character, ii. 109, 115, 319, 455;\n    his punishment, iii. 46, 79;\n    anecdote of, v. 67;\n    his faults, 118; 457;\n    his Italian History, 468.\n\n  Agesipolis, two of the name, apothegms of, i. 397, 398.\n\n  Agis, king of Sparta, his sayings, i. 218, 221;\n    anecdote of, v. 95.\n\n  Agis, son of Archidamus, apothegm of, i. 398.\n\n  Agis the Argive, ii. 125.\n\n  Agis the Last, apothegm of, i. 400.\n\n  Agis the Younger, apothegms of, i. 400.\n\n  Ajax\u2019s soul, her place in Hell, iii. 442.\n\n  Alba, king of, torn in pieces by horses, v. 455.\n\n  Albinus, a Roman general, v. 453.\n\n  Alcaeus quoted, ii. 298; iii, 264.\n\n  Alcamenes, apothegm of, i. 400.\n\n  Alcibiades, i. 143;\n    his sayings, 211;\n    his lustful conduct, 489;\n    the prince of flatterers, ii. 108, 471;\n    failure of, 460;\n    spoke with hesitation, v. 110, 112.\n\n  Alcippus, a Lacedaemonian, banished for his virtue; his wife slays\n    herself and her daughters, iv. 320-322.\n\n  Alcmaeon, saying of, i. 288;\n    philosophical opinions;\n    of the planets, iii. 140;\n    of hearing, 170;\n    of smelling, 170;\n    of taste, 170;\n    of the barrenness of mules, 182;\n    of embryos, 184;\n    of the formation of the body, 184;\n    of the cause of sleep, 188;\n    of health, sickness, and old age, 192.\n\n  Alcmaeonidae, unfairly represented by Herodotus, iv. 338, 347.\n\n  Alcman, quoted; Frag., i. 494; iii. 16; v. 279.\n\n  Aleuas the Thessalian, iii. 67.\n\n  Alexander of Macedon, and Porus, i. 45;\n    lament of, 140;\n    and Criso the runner, 152;\n    his sayings, 198-202;\n    the Fortune or Virtue of, 475-516;\n    anecdotes of, ii. 125, 138, 473;\n    his moderation, 475; iii. 29;\n    was he a great drinker, 219;\n    his purpose to attack the Romans, iv. 219; v. 140.\n\n  Alexander, tyrant of Pherae, his cruel temper softened by a play, i. 492.\n\n  Alexandridas, apothegm of, i. 401.\n\n  Alexarchus, his Italian History, v. 456.\n\n  Alexidemas, at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41.\n\n  Alexinus the sophist, i. 76.\n\n  Alexis quoted, ii. 58.\n\n  Alpha, why placed first in the Alphabet, iii. 438.\n\n  Alpheus, a river in Arcadia, v. 501.\n\n  Amasis, king of Egypt, required to drink the ocean dry, ii. 13;\n    questions of, 16.\n\n  Ammonius, teacher of Plutarch, anecdote of, ii. 147.\n\n  Amphiaraus, quoted, i. 317;\n    his lance turned into a laurel, v. 455.\n\n  Amphidamas, poets meet at his grave in Chalcis, ii. 19.\n\n  Amphion, first invented playing on the harp and lyric poesy, i. 105.\n\n  Anarcharsis, and Eumetis, ii. 8;\n    his utterances at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 12, 15, 20,\n      21, 27, 39.\n\n  Anatole, a mountain, v. 482.\n\n  Anaxagoras, saying of, i. 159;\n    said the sun was red-hot metal, 179;\n    anecdote of, 332; ii. 357; iii. 35, 37;\n    philosophical opinions;\n    Homoeomeries, 108;\n    of the origin of bodies, 119;\n    how bodies are mixed, 126;\n    of fortune, 131;\n    of the world\u2019s inclination, 136;\n    of the stars, 138, 140;\n    of the sun, 142, 143;\n    of the moon, 145, 147;\n    of the milky way, 149;\n    of shooting stars, 150;\n    of thunder, lightning and hurricanes, 151;\n    of the rainbow, 153;\n    of earthquakes, 157;\n    of the sea, 158;\n    of the overflow of the Nile, 160;\n    of the voice, 172;\n    of generation, 178;\n    of the generation of animals, 186;\n    of reason in animals, 187;\n    of sleep, 190; v. 145, 255.\n\n  Anaxander, apothegm of, i. 401.\n\n  Anaxilas, apothegm of, i. 402.\n\n  Anaximander, philosophical opinions;\n    of principles, iii. 107;\n    the stars were heavenly deities, 121;\n    of the stars, 140;\n    of the essence and magnitude of the sun, 141, 142;\n    of eclipses of the sun, 144;\n    of the moon, 145;\n    of fire from clouds, 150;\n    of winds, 154;\n    of the earth, 155;\n    of the sea, 158;\n    of the generation of animals, 186.\n\n  Anaximenes, philosophical opinions;\n    air is the principle of all beings, iii. 107;\n    of heaven, 137;\n    of the stars, 139, 140;\n    cause of summer and winter, 141;\n    of the shape of the sun and summer and winter solstice, 143;\n    of the moon, 146;\n    of clouds, 151;\n    of the rainbow, 153;\n    of the earth, 155;\n    of earthquakes, 157; v. 313.\n\n  Ancients, suppers of the, iii. 255-259.\n\n  Andocides, one of the ten Attic orators, v. 21-23;\n    of a noble family, 21;\n    accused of impious acts, 22;\n    his adventures in Cyprus, 22, 23;\n    his exile, 23;\n    his orations, _ib._\n\n  Androclidas, apothegm of, i. 402.\n\n  Anecdotes of\n    Aeschylus, ii. 458.\n    Agathocles, i. 46.\n    Agesilaus, i. 73, 219, 220; v. 67, 118.\n    Agis, king of Sparta, v. 95.\n    Alcibiades, ii. 108, 109.\n    Alexander the Great, i. 45; ii. 473.\n    Ammonius, ii. 147.\n    Anaxagoras, i. 332.\n    Antigonus, i. 44, 47, 67, 202, 205, 334; iv. 231.\n    Antimachus, i. 307.\n    Antiochus Hierax, iii. 60.\n    Antipater, i. 64, 197, 205, 215.\n    Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 127.\n    Apelles the painter, i. 16, 153; ii. 122, 133.\n    Appius Claudius, v. 89.\n    Arcesilaus and Apelles, ii. 133.\n    Archelaus of Macedon, i. 67, 193.\n    Archidamus, i. 74.\n    Archimedes, ii. 174; v. 71.\n    Archytas of Tarentum, i. 18, 24.\n    Aristippus, i. 11, 55, 147, 459; ii. 55.\n    Athenian barber, iv. 238.\n    Attalus and Eumenes, iii. 61.\n    Augustus Caesar and Fulvius, iv. 235, 236.\n    Bocchoris, i. 63.\n    Brasidas, ii. 458.\n    Caesar, i. 293; iv. 204, 205; v. 67.\n    Cato, i. 295; ii. 490.\n    Cato and Catulus, i. 73.\n    Cleon, v. 100, 116.\n    Corinna, v. 404.\n    Crassus, i. 288, 290.\n    Croesus and Solon, ii. 122.\n    Demades and Phocion, ii. 298.\n    Demaratus and Philip, ii. 146.\n    Demetrius Phalereus, ii. 145; iii. 21.\n    Demosthenes, i. 15, 65, 334; ii. 460; v. 43-53.\n    Diogenes, i. 51, 67, 141, 142, 166, 283,\n    285, 311, 487; ii. 455, 458; iii, 21, 29.\n    Diogenes and Philip, ii. 147.\n    Diogenes and the mouse, ii. 453.\n    Dion, i. 64, 333.\n    Dionysius of Syracuse, i. 83, 152, 493; ii. 108, 140; iv. 238.\n    Epaminondas, v. 72, 95, 101, 120, 121, 125, 401.\n    Euclid, i. 55.\n    Eudoxus, ii. 174.\n    Eumenes, iii. 61; iv. 232.\n    Fulvius and Augustus, iv. 235, 236.\n    Hiero, i. 291.\n    Hyperides, v. 55, 56.\n    Isocrates, v. 31.\n    Leaena, iv. 229, 230.\n    Lucretia, i. 355.\n    Lycurgus, the lawgiver, i. 7.\n    Lycurgus, the orator, v. 39.\n    Lysander, i. 72; ii. 495.\n    Lysias, iv. 226.\n    Magas, i. 45.\n    Menander, v. 403.\n    Nasica, i. 285.\n    Nero, v. 123.\n    Nicias, the Athenian general, i. 177.\n    Nicias, the painter, ii. 173; v. 71.\n    Nicostratus and Archidamus, i. 74.\n    Olympias, ii. 494, 495.\n    Pericles, i. 15, 18, 66, 211, 332; ii. 309, 315; v. 67, 106.\n    Philip of Macedon, i. 305; ii. 146, 147, 494.\n    Phocion, ii. 298; v. 118.\n    Pindar, v. 404.\n    Pisistratus, iii. 41.\n    Plato, i. 71.\n    Plato and Socrates, ii. 148.\n    Polemon, i. 55.\n    Pompey, v. 70.\n    Postumia, i. 290.\n    Priest of Hercules, iii. 90.\n    Prometheus, i. 289.\n    Ptolemy Lagus, i. 45.\n    Pythagoras, ii. 174.\n    Roman Senator and his wife, iv. 233-235.\n    Scaurus, i. 295.\n    Scilurus, a Scythian king, iv. 244.\n    Seleucus Callinicus, iv. 237.\n    Seneca, i. 53.\n    Simonides, v. 68.\n    Socrates, i. 11, 13, 23, 26, 38, 53, 141, 150.\n    Socrates and Plato, ii. 148.\n    Solon, v. 89.\n    Solon and Croesus, ii. 122.\n    Sophocles, v. 68.\n    Stasicrates, i. 495.\n    Stilpo the philosopher, ii. 468.\n    Stratonicus, iii. 21.\n    Sylla, v. 72.\n    Terpander, i. 91, 92.\n    Themistocles, i. 73, 290, 296; iii. 21; v. 120.\n    Theramenes, i. 306.\n    Timotheus the musician, i. 92.\n    Valeria, i. 356.\n    Xanthippe, wife of Socrates, i. 53, 292.\n    Xenocrates, i. 71.\n    Xenophon, i. 333.\n    Xerxes and Ariamenes, iii. 59, 60.\n    Zeno, i. 72, 142, 283; ii. 455; iii. 25; iv. 225.\n\n  Anger, concerning the cure of, i. 33-59.\n\n  Animal Food, shall it be eaten? Of Eating of Flesh, v. 3-16.\n\n  Animals, generation of, iii. 186;\n    how many species of, 187;\n    appetites and pleasures of, 191;\n    ails and cures of, 510;\n    their intelligence, v. 157-217.\n\n  Anius, king of the Tuscans, v. 475.\n\n  Antalcidas, his sayings, i. 222, 402;\n    his reply to a railing Athenian, v. 125.\n\n  Anthes, the first author of hymns, i. 105.\n\n  Anthias, the sacred fish, v. 208.\n\n  Anthipphus, Lydian harmony first used by, i. 114.\n\n  Antichthon, the, iii. 155.\n\n  Antigonus, anecdote of, i. 25;\n    saying of, 44, 47, 67, 202, 205, 334, 484; iv. 231.\n\n  Antigonus the Second, his sayings, i. 205; ii. 319.\n\n  Antimachus, anecdote of, i. 308.\n\n  Antiochus and Charicles, iii. 49.\n\n  Antiochus and Seleucus, iii. 60.\n\n  Antiochus, apothegm of, i. 403.\n\n  Antiochus Hierax, anecdotes of, i. 206; iii. 60.\n\n  Antiochus Sidetes, anecdotes of, i. 207.\n\n  Antiochus the Spartan, his saying, i. 221.\n\n  Antiochus the Third, anecdotes of, i. 206.\n\n  Antipater, anecdotes of, i. 64, 197, 205, 215; ii. 135, 298; iii. 517;\n      v. 49.\n\n  Antiperistasis of motion, v. 435.\n\n  Antiphanes, witty saying of his, ii. 456.\n\n  Antiphon, one of the ten Attic orators, ii. 142; v. 17-21;\n    his birth, education, &c., 17;\n    wrote speeches for others, _ib._;\n    a man of great talent and learning, 18;\n    concerned in the revolution which subverted the popular government,\n      _ib._;\n    on the overthrow of the oligarchical party he was involved in their\n      ruin, _ib._;\n    number of his orations, 19;\n    decree of the senate against him, 20;\n    his condemnation and punishment, 21;\n    opinion concerning the moon, iii. 146;\n    of the sea, 158.\n\n  Antisthenes quoted, i. 77, 289, 496; v. 125.\n\n  Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 127.\n\n  Apelles, the painter, anecdotes of, i. 16, 153;\n    his picture of Alexander, 494;\n    and Megabyzus, ii. 122;\n    and Arcesilaus, 133.\n\n  Aphareus, adopted son of Isocrates, wrote orations and tragedies, v. 32.\n\n  Apis, the sacred bull of the Egyptians, iv. 68;\n   slain by Ochus, king of Persia, 74, 92.\n\n  Apollo and the dragon Python, iv. 20.\n\n  Apollo, inventor of the flute and harp, i. 113.\n\n  Apollo, temple of, iv. 478-498;\n   the inscription \u03b5\u03b9 over its gate, 479.\n\n  Apollodorus, first invented the mixing of colors and the softening of\n  shadows, v. 400.\n\n  Apollonides, of shadow, v. 265;\n    of spots in the moon, 269.\n\n  Apollonis of Cyzicum, iii. 41.\n\n  Apollonius, consolation to, i. 299-339.\n\n  Apollonius, the Peripatetic, iii. 57.\n\n  Apothegms of Kings and Great Commanders, i. 185-250.\n    Agathocles, sayings of, i. 193.\n    Agesilaus, 219.\n    Agis, 218-221.\n    Alcibiades, 211.\n    Alexander the Great, 198-202.\n    Antalcidas, 222.\n    Antigonus, 202.\n    Antigonus the Second, 205.\n    Antiochus Sidetes, 207.\n    Antiochus the Spartan, 221.\n    Antiochus the Third, 206.\n    Antipater, 205.\n    Archelaus, 193.\n    Archidamus, 218.\n    Aristides, 210.\n    Artaxerxes Longimanus, 187.\n    Artaxerxes Mnemon, 188.\n    Ateas, 189.\n    Augustus Caesar, 248-250.\n    Brasidas, 218.\n    Caecilius Metellus, 239.\n    Caius Fabricius, 227.\n    Caius Marius, 239.\n    Caius Popilius, 240.\n    Cato the Elder, 233-235.\n    Chabrias, 213.\n    Charillus, 217.\n    Cicero, 244.\n    Cneus Domitius, 231.\n    Cneus Pompeius, 241-244.\n    Cotys, 189.\n    Cyrus the Elder, 186.\n    Cyrus the Younger, 188.\n    Darius, 186.\n    Demetrius, 204.\n    Demetrius Phalereus, 217.\n    Dion, 193.\n    Dionysius the Elder, 191.\n    Dionysius the Younger, 192.\n    Epaminondas, 222-226.\n    Eudaemonidas, 221.\n    Eumenes of Pergamus, 206.\n    Fabius Maximus, 227-228.\n    Gelo, 190.\n    Hegesippus, 213.\n    Hiero, 190.\n    Idathyrsus, 189.\n    Iphicrates, 212.\n    Lucullus, 241.\n    Lycurgus, 217.\n    Lysander, 219.\n    Lysimachus, 205.\n    Manius Curius, 226.\n    Memnon, 189.\n    Nicostratus, 221.\n    Orontes, 188.\n    Parysatis, 188.\n    Paulus Aemilius, 232.\n    Pelopidas, 225.\n    Pericles, 211.\n    Philip of Macedon, 194-198.\n    Phocion, 213, 216.\n    Pisistratus, 216.\n    Poltys, 189.\n    Ptolemy Lagus, 202.\n    Pyrrhus the Epirot, 207.\n    Pytheas, 213.\n    Scilurus, 190.\n    Scipio Junior, 235-239.\n    Scipio the Elder, 229.\n    Semiramis, 187.\n    Teres, 189.\n    Themistocles, 208.\n    Theopompus, 217.\n    Timotheus, 212.\n    Titus Quinctius, 230.\n    Xerxes, 187.\n\n  Appius Claudius, anecdote of, v. 89.\n\n  Apple tree, of the, iii. 333.\n\n  Arar, a river in Gaul, v. 484.\n\n  Aratus, quoted, iii. 116;\n    of the stars, 141;\n    quoted, 334, 497; iv. 98; v. 112;\n    quoted, 177.\n\n  Araxes, a river in Armenia, v. 506.\n\n  Arcadian prophet in Herodotus, iii. 38.\n\n  Arcadio the Archaean, saying of, i. 44.\n\n  Arcesilaus, i. 53, 148;\n    quoted, 258, 315;\n    and Battus, ii. 115;\n    his kindness to Apelles, 133; v. 371.\n\n  Archelaus, king of Macedon, anecdote of, i. 67, 193.\n\n  Archelaus, his opinions concerning principles, iii. 109.\n\n  Archias, ii. 379 _et seq._; iv. 314, 315.\n\n  Archidamidas, apothegms of, i. 404.\n\n  Archidamus, i. 4, 74, 218, 404; ii. 379 _et seq._\n\n  Archilochus the poet, banished from Sparta, i. 96;\n    quoted, 97;\n    his improvements in music, 122, 123, 177;\n    phrase of, ii. 17, 61, 84; iii. 26; v. 108, 216, 320.\n\n  Archimedes, of the sun\u2019s diameter, v. 71;\n    anecdote of, ii. 173, 174.\n\n  Archytas of Tarentum, anecdotes of, i. 18, 24.\n\n  Ardalus, a minstrel at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 11, 12.\n\n  Aregeus, apothegm of, i. 403.\n\n  Aretades Cnidus, his Macedonian History, v. 458;\n    his Second Book of Islands, 467.\n\n  Aretaphila, her fortitude and virtue, i. 367.\n\n  Argive women, their repulse of the Spartan army, i. 346.\n\n  Argives, wrestling matches of, i. 121;\n    imposed a fine for playing with more than seven strings, 130;\n    combat of the, with the Lacedaemonians, v. 452.\n\n  Ariamenes yields the throne of Persia to his younger brother Xerxes,\n  iii. 59.\n\n  Arion and the dolphins, ii. 33-36.\n\n  Aristarchus, iii. 36;\n    concerning the eclipse of the sun, 144; v. 246.\n\n  Aristides, his Persian History, v. 453.\n\n  Aristides, his sayings, i. 210.\n\n  Aristides Milesius, his Italian History, v. 451, 452, 453, 458, 459,\n      460, 462, 463, 465, 466, 469, 473, 474, 475, 476;\n    Italian Commentaries, 461;\n    quoted, 462.\n\n  Aristippus, anecdotes of, i. 11, 55, 79, 147; ii. 295, 459.\n\n  Aristo of Chios, ii. 369.\n\n  Aristobolus, his Third Book of Italian History, v. 470.\n\n  Aristocles, Third Book of his Italian History, v. 466, 476.\n\n  Aristoclia, a beautiful maiden, iv. 312, 313.\n\n  Aristodemus, his Third Collection of Fables, v. 472.\n\n  Aristodemus, king of Messenia, i. 177.\n\n  Aristodemus the Epicurean, ii. 158, 159, 180.\n\n  Aristomenes, preceptor of Ptolemy, ii. 149.\n\n  Ariston, apothegm of, i. 403; iii. 18;\n    his opinion of moral virtue, 462; v. 111.\n\n  Aristonicus the musician, i. 494.\n\n  Aristonymus, a woman hater, v. 468.\n\n  Aristophanes, his comedy of \u201cThe Clouds,\u201d i. 23;\n    quoted, 79, 125, 500;\n    quoted, ii. 78, 149, 429;\n    his coarseness and buffoonery, iii. 11;\n    compared with Menander, 11-14;\n    quoted, iv. 196, 273;\n    quoted, v. 42, 405.\n\n  Aristotinus, tyranny of, i. 357-363; v. 172.\n\n  Aristotle, quoted, i. 37; 50;\n    on harmony, 119; 155, 272, 326;\n    the teacher of Alexander, 478, ii. 302, 319;\n    letter of, 455;\n    his philosophical opinions; of nature, 105;\n    of principles and elements, 106;\n    of God, 121;\n    of matter, 123;\n    of ideas, 123;\n    of causes, 124;\n    of a vacuum, 127;\n    of motion, 128;\n    of fortune, 131;\n    of the world, 133, 134, 135;\n    of vacuum, 137;\n    of the world, 137;\n    of heaven, 137;\n    of the stars, 140;\n    of the sun, 142;\n    of the summer and winter solstices, 143;\n    of the moon, 146;\n    of the milky way, 148, 149;\n    of comets, 149;\n    of thunder and lightning, 151;\n    of earthquakes, 157;\n    of tides, 159;\n    of the motion of the soul, 164;\n    of the senses, 166;\n    of the voice, 172;\n    of generative seed, 177;\n    of the sperm, 177;\n    of emission of women, 177;\n    of conception, 178;\n    of generation, 179;\n    of the first form in the womb, 184;\n    of seven months\u2019 children, 185;\n    of the species of animals, 187;\n    of sleep, 189;\n    of plants, 190;\n    quoted, 225, 226;\n    opinions concerning the soul, 465;\n    opinion concerning a plurality of worlds, iv. 33;\n    concerning prophetic inspiration, 54; v. 189, 253, 262,\n    313, 316, 355;\n    quoted, 439;\n    the Second Book of Paradoxes, 468.\n\n  Aristoxenus, of music, i. 114, 115, 125, 134.\n\n  Arsinoe, Queen, i. 319.\n\n  Artaxerxes Longimanus, his sayings, i. 187.\n\n  Artaxerxes Mnemon, his sayings, i. 188.\n\n  Aruntius and Medullina, v. 463.\n\n  Asclepiades, opinions: of the soul, iii. 161;\n    of respiration, 174;\n    of two or three children at one birth, 180;\n    animals in the womb, 188;\n    of health, sickness, and old age, 193.\n\n  Aster the archer, v. 456.\n\n  Astycratidas, apothegm of, i. 405.\n\n  Ateas, saying of, i. 189; ii. 177.\n\n  Atepomarus, king of the Gauls, v. 469.\n\n  Atheism and superstition compared, i. 168 _et seq._\n\n  Athenian citizens, their number, v. 42;\n    their temper and disposition, 100.\n\n  Athenians, whether they were more renowned for their warlike\n    achievements, or for their learning, v. 399-411.\n\n  Athenodorus, memorable action of, iii. 50.\n\n  Athens, was a democracy, v. 397;\n    the nurse of history, of painting, and poetry, 400, 401;\n    not renowned for epic or lyric verse, 404.\n\n  Atoms, doctrine of, v. 345-348.\n\n  Atreus and Thyestes, v. 470, 471.\n\n  Attalus and Eumenes, their kindness and fidelity to each other, iii.\n  61, 62.\n\n  Attica, invasion of, by Datis, v. 450, 451.\n\n  Augustus Caesar, his sayings, i. 248-250;\n    the favored son of Fortune, iv. 205; v. 67.\n\n  Augustus Caesar and Fulvius, anecdote of, iv. 235, 236.\n\n  Autobulus, v. 156 _et seq._\n\n  Autumn, dreams in, iii. 432.\n\n\n  B.\n\n  Baccho, iv. 256, 264, 269.\n\n  Bacchus, ii. 12, 29.\n\n  Ballenaeus, mount, v. 492.\n\n  Banishment, or flying one\u2019s country, iii. 15-35.\n\n  Banquet of the Seven Wise Men; Solon, Bias, Thales, Anacharsis,\n    Cleobulus, Pittacus, Chilo, ii. 3-41.\n\n  Barley, sow, in dust, iii. 505.\n\n  Barrenness in women, iii. 181.\n\n  Barrenness of mules, iii. 182.\n\n  Bashfulness, i. 60-77.\n\n  Basilocles, iii. 69, 70.\n\n  Baths, hot and cold, iii. 512.\n\n  Battus, ii. 115.\n\n  Bear, cunning of the, v. 185.\n\n  Bears, flesh of, iii. 509.\n\n  Beasts, flesh of sacrificial, iii. 361.\n\n  Bees, cannot abide smoke, iii. 515;\n    stinging of, 516.\n\n  Bellerophon, fable of, i. 351.\n\n  Berecyntus, mount, v. 490.\n\n  Berosus concerning the eclipse of the moon, iii. 146.\n\n  Bewitching, power of, iii. 327.\n\n  Bias, quoted, i. 17, 406;\n    at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 4, 14, 128.\n\n  Bion, saying of, i. 76;\n    his opinion concerning the punishment of children for the sins of their\n      fathers, iv. 171;\n    saying of, v. 170.\n\n  Bird or the egg, which was first, iii. 242-246.\n\n  Birds, prophetic nature of, v. 193.\n\n  Birth, two or three at one, iii. 180.\n\n  Birthdays of famous men, iii. 400.\n\n  Biton and Cleobis, their filial piety, i. 313.\n\n  Boar and the toil, iii. 512.\n\n  Bocchoris, anecdote of, i. 63.\n\n  Bodies, of, iii. 124;\n    division of, 126;\n    how mixed with one another, 126.\n\n  Body, passions of the, iii. 175;\n    what part is first formed, 184;\n    diseases of the, iv. 504-508.\n\n  Boedromion, month of, iii. 444.\n\n  Boethus, his opinion concerning comets, iii. 150.\n\n  Book of Rivers, v. 455.\n\n  Brasidas, apothegm of, i. 218; ii. 458.\n\n  Brennus, king of the Gauls, v. 460.\n\n  Britain, longevity in, iii. 193.\n\n  Brixaba, mount, v. 494.\n\n  Brotherly love, iii. 36-68.\n\n  Brute animals, ails and cures of, iii. 510;\n    their intelligence; which are the more crafty, water or land\n    animals? v. 157-217.\n\n  Brute beasts make use of reason, v. 218-233.\n\n  Bucephalus, the horse, v. 183.\n\n  Bulimy, or the greedy disease, iii. 355.\n\n  Busiris, king of Egypt, strangers murdered by, v. 474.\n\n\n  C.\n\n  Caecilius Metellus, apothegm of, i. 239.\n\n  Caesar, Augustus, his sayings, i. 248-250;\n    anecdote of, iv. 205;\n    and Fulvius, 235, 236; v. 67, 132.\n\n  Caesar, C. Julius, his sayings, i. 246-248;\n    his magnanimity, 293;\n    his reliance on fortune, iv. 205.\n\n  Caesar, Tiberius, sayings of, i. 277; ii. 126; iii. 23.\n\n  Caicus, a river, v. 503.\n\n  Caius Fabricius, apothegm of, i. 227.\n\n  Caius Gracchus, i. 40; v. 99.\n\n  Caius Marius, apothegm of, i. 239.\n\n  Caius Maximus, and his two sons, v. 466.\n\n  Caius Popilius, apothegm of, i. 240.\n\n  Callicratidas, apothegms of, i. 412;\n    saying of, ii. 187.\n\n  Callimachus, saying of, i. 323; iii. 23, 118, 321.\n\n  Callisthenes, saying of, i. 37;\n    his Book of Transformations, v. 454;\n    Third Book of the Macedonics, 456;\n    Third Book of History of Thrace, v. 469.\n\n  Calpurnius Crassus, liberated from captivity, v. 465.\n\n  Calpurnius and Florentia, v. 467.\n\n  Calydon, mount, v. 505.\n\n  Camillus, anecdote of, iv. 204.\n\n  Camma, the Galatian, her revenge, i. 372.\n\n  Canus the piper, v. 71.\n\n  Caphene and Nymphaeus, i. 348.\n\n  Caphisias, ii. 379 _et seq._\n\n  Carneades, i. 160;\n    a striking observation of his, ii. 123.\n\n  Cassius, a Roman traitor, v. 457.\n\n  Castor and Pollux, iii. 48.\n\n  Cato and Catulus, anecdotes of, i. 73.\n\n  Cato, saying of, i. 61;\n    and Catulus, 73; 261;\n    his integrity, 295;\n    his sayings, ii. 42, 72, 76, 318; v. 10, 66, 67;\n    anecdotes of, 83, 112, 120, 123, 144, 155.\n\n  Cato the Elder, apothegms of, i. 233-235;\n    anecdote of, ii. 490.\n\n  Catoptrics, doctrine of the, v. 257.\n\n  Cattle, salt given to, iii. 497.\n\n  Catulus, v. 457.\n\n  Caucasus, mount, v. 483.\n\n  Caudine Forks, defeat of the Romans at the, v. 452, 453.\n\n  Causes, of, iii. 123.\n\n  Causes of sleep and death, iii. 188.\n\n  Celtic women, virtue of the, i. 347.\n\n  Cephisocrates, ii. 133.\n\n  Cephisophan, a rhetorician, i. 98.\n\n  Ceres, mistress of earthly things, v. 285, 286.\n\n  Chabrias, his sayings, i. 213.\n\n  Chaeremon quoted, Frag., ii. 475.\n\n  Chameleon, the, v. 202.\n\n  Chaplet of flowers at table, iii. 260-265.\n\n  Charicles and Antiochus, iii. 49.\n\n  Charillus, his sayings, i. 217, 432; ii. 97, 116.\n\n  Charon, the Theban, ii. 381.\n\n  Chasms in the earth closed by men leaping into them, v. 454.\n\n  Chersias at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41.\n\n  Chian women, virtue of the, i. 344.\n\n  Children, training of, i. 3-32;\n    similitude to their parents, iii. 180;\n    similitude to strangers, 181.\n\n  Chilo, i. 280;\n    at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41.\n\n  Chilon, saying of, i. 471.\n\n  Chiomara of Galatia, i. 374.\n\n  Chorus of the Aeantis, iii. 226-228.\n\n  Chorus of the Leontis, iii. 226.\n\n  Chromatic scale, in music, i. 117.\n\n  Chrysermus, his Peloponnesian History, v. 452;\n    Second Book of Histories, 457.\n\n  Chrysippus, ii. 87;\n    his opinion concerning fate, iii. 130;\n    of moral virtue, 462;\n    his doctrines refuted, 488; iv. 372 _et seq._, 428-477; v. 205;\n    his opinion concerning the cause of cold combated, 324;\n    First Book of Italian History, 468.\n\n  Cicero, apothegm of, i. 244; ii. 310; v. 96.\n\n  Cilician geese, v. 175.\n\n  Cinesias, the lyric poet, i. 180.\n\n  Cinna stoned to death, v. 469.\n\n  Cios, maids of, i. 354.\n\n  Circe, her supposed conversation with Ulysses, v. 218-219.\n\n  Cithaeron, mount, v. 479.\n\n  Cleanthes, his opinion concerning the stars, iii. 139, 140; v. 176, 420.\n\n  Cleobis and Biton, i. 313.\n\n  Cleobulus at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41.\n\n  Cleodemus, at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41;\n    first brought the cupping-glass into request, 20.\n\n  Cleodorus, the physician, ii. 16.\n\n  Cleombrotus, i. 413; iv. 3, 4, 26.\n\n  Cleomenes, v. 161.\n\n  Cleomenes, apothegms of, i. 346, 413, 416.\n\n  Cleon, anecdotes of, v. 100, 116.\n\n  Clisthenes, vindicated from the aspersions of Herodotus, iv. 343.\n\n  Clitonymus, his Italian History, v. 458;\n    Second Book of his Sybaritics, v. 464.\n\n  Clitophon, his First Book of Gallican History, v. 460.\n\n  Cloelia and Valeria, i. 356.\n\n  Clonas, a musical composer, i. 107, 109.\n\n  Clouds, eruption of fire out of the, iii. 150;\n    rain, hail, and snow, 151.\n\n  Cneus Domitius, apothegm of, i. 231.\n\n  Cneus Pompeius, apothegms of, i. 241-244.\n\n  Cocles, the Roman, v. 145.\n\n  Codrus, king of Athens, v. 462.\n\n  Coeranus and the dolphins, v. 215.\n\n  Cold, First Principle of, v. 309-330.\n\n  Color, does it exist in the dark, v. 344, 345.\n\n  Colors, of, iii. 125.\n\n  Colotes, the Epicurean, ii. 187;\n    book written by, v. 338;\n    misrepresents Democritus, 341;\n    his doctrines, 349;\n    misrepresents Plato, 355, 356;\n    falls at the feet of Epicurus, 360;\n    disparagement of Socrates, 361;\n    against Stilpo, 367;\n    assaults the Philosophers, 367;\n    condemns the opinion of Epicurus, 368;\n    Cyrenaic philosophers ridiculed, 369;\n    treats Arcesilaus unfairly, 371;\n    absurdity of Epicureanism, 373;\n    opinions of Epicurus, 374;\n    danger of his doctrines, 377, 378, 338-385.\n\n  Comets and shooting fires, iii. 149.\n\n  Comminius Super, a Laurentine, v. 472.\n\n  Common conceptions against the Stoics, iv. 372-427.\n\n  Comparison between the actions of the Greeks and Romans, v. 450-476.\n\n  Comparison betwixt Aristophanes and Menander, iii. 11-14.\n\n  Conception, how it is made, iii. 178.\n\n  Concerning Music, i. 102-135.\n\n  Concerning such whom God is slow to punish, iv. 140-188.\n\n  Concerning the fortune of the Romans, iv. 198-219.\n\n  Concerning the virtues of women, i. 340-384.\n\n  Conciseness of speech, recommended, iv. 243;\n    examples given, 243, 244.\n\n  Conjugal Precepts; Advice to a New-married Couple, ii. 486-507.\n\n  Consolation to Apollonius, i. 299-339.\n\n  Consolatory Letter from Plutarch to his Wife, Timoxena, on Occasion\n    of the Death of their Daughter, two years old, v. 386-394.\n\n  Contingent and possible defined, v. 299.\n\n  Contradictions of the Stoics, iv. 428-477.\n\n  Cora and Proserpine, v. 285.\n\n  Corinna, anecdote of, v. 404.\n\n  Corinthian Hall at Delphi, iii. 80-82.\n\n  Cornelius Scipio, consul, v. 96, 112, 114, 136.\n\n  Cotys, his sayings, i. 189.\n\n  Crabs charmed by fifes, v. 163.\n\n  Cranes, flight of, v. 175, 203.\n\n  Crantor, quoted, i. 300, 304, 324, 326;\n    his opinion of the soul, ii. 327, 328, 345, 349, 360.\n\n  Crassus, anecdotes of, i. 288, 290; v. 125.\n\n  Crassus Calpurnius, v. 465.\n\n  Crassus\u2019s mullet, v. 196.\n\n  Crates, i. 141;\n    saying of, 495; ii. 145, 321;\n    opinion of the stars, iii. 140; v. 419, 423.\n\n  Cratinus the comic poet, v. 410.\n\n  Crato, iii. 198.\n\n  Creon\u2019s daughter, i. 472.\n\n  Cretinus, the Magnesian, v. 121.\n\n  Criticism on passages in Homer, ii. 69-72, 74-84, 89, 90, 91.\n\n  Criticism on Sophocles, ii. 72.\n\n  Critolaus, his History of the Epirots, v. 455;\n    Fourth Book of Celestial Appearances, 457.\n\n  Crocodile, story of a, v. 196, 206, 210.\n\n  Croesus, ii. 122; iii. 85; iv. 339.\n\n  Cronium, mount, v. 501.\n\n  Ctesiphon, his Third Book of the Boeotian History, v. 458.\n\n  Ctesiphon the Pancratiast, i. 42.\n\n  Curatii and Horatii, v. 461.\n\n  Cure of anger, i. 33-59.\n\n  Curiosity, of, ii. 424-445;\n    mischiefs of vain, iv. 236.\n\n  Cuttle-fish, sign of a storm, iii. 505;\n    wariness of the, v. 200.\n\n  Cyanippus, a Syracusan, v. 462.\n\n  Cyanippus, a Thessalian, v. 463.\n\n  Cyclades islands, iii. 24.\n\n  Cycloborus, a brook near Athens, v. 110.\n\n  Cynaegirus, an Athenian commander, story of, v. 450.\n\n  Cyprus, female parasites of, called Steps, ii. 103.\n\n  Cyrus the Elder, his sayings, i. 186; ii. 319;\n    enlarges the Persian empire, iv. 85.\n\n  Cyrus the Younger, his sayings, i. 188.\n\n\n  D.\n\n  Daemon of Socrates, Discourse concerning the, ii. 378-423.\n\n  Daemons, their nature, attributes, and actions, iv. 14 _et seq._;\n    some of them are malignant and cruel, 19;\n    they are mortal, 15, 23, 24;\n    vainglorious, 28;\n    have the care of oracles, 21, 27;\n    sometimes have quarrels and combats with one another, 27;\n    our souls are by nature endued with similar powers, 50 _et seq._;\n    in the Moon, v. 289;\n    will of the, 304;\n    providence of the, 307, 308.\n\n  Damindas, apothegm of, i. 407.\n\n  Damis, apothegm of, i. 406.\n\n  Damonidas, apothegm of, i. 406.\n\n  Darius, his sayings, i. 186, 502; v. 458.\n\n  Darkness, whether visible, iii. 169.\n\n  Datis, a Persian commander, his invasion of Attica, v. 450.\n\n  Daughters who had carnal knowledge of their fathers, v. 464.\n\n  Death appertains to soul or body, iii. 189.\n\n  Death a reward for distinguished piety; illustrated by the cases of\n    Biton and Cleobis, of Agamedes and Trophonius, of Pindar and\n    Euthynous, i. 313, 314.\n\n  Death of fire is the generation of air, v. 316.\n\n  Death the brother of sleep, i. 311.\n\n  Debates at entertainments, iii. 394.\n\n  Debt, Evils of. Against running in Debt, or Taking up Money upon\n    Usury, v. 412-424.\n\n  Debt of nature, i. 309.\n\n  Decius of Rome, v. 462.\n\n  Decrees proposed to the Athenians, v. 58.\n\n  Deity, knowledge of a, whence derived, iii. 115.\n\n  Delay of Providence in Punishing the Wicked. De sera Numinis\n    Vindicta, iv. 140-188.\n\n  Delight in hearing the passions of men represented, iii. 314.\n\n  Delphi, a walk in, iii. 69;\n    the statues there, 70;\n    atmosphere of, 72;\n    ancient oracles of, 73;\n    Corinthian Hall at, 80-82;\n    statue of Phryne, 83.\n\n  Delphic Oracle, inscription on the, Know thyself, and Nothing too\n    much, i. 328.\n\n  Demades and Phocion, anecdotes of, ii. 298; v. 108, 141.\n\n  Demaratus and Philip, anecdote of, ii. 146.\n\n  Demaratus, apothegm of, i. 407, 482;\n    his Second Book of Arcadian History, v. 461.\n\n  Demetrius Phalereus, his saying, i. 217;\n  anecdotes of, ii. 145; iii. 21; v. 145.\n\n  Demetrius, his sayings, i. 204.\n\n  Demetrius of Tarsus, comes to Delphi, iv. 3.\n\n  Demochares, a nephew of Demosthenes, procures a statue to be set up\n    for his uncle, v. 58-60;\n    a decree for a statue for himself, 60, 61.\n\n  Democracy and Oligarchy, v. 395-398.\n\n  Democrates, saying of, v. 109.\n\n  Democritus, saying of, i. 22, 263, 275; ii. 440; iii. 7;\n    his philosophical opinions, 121, 123, 126, 127, 128, 129, 132, 133,\n      135, 139, 140, 142, 145, 149, 155, 156, 157, 160, 162, 163, 164,\n      166, 168, 169, 171, 176, 177, 179, 183, 187, 227;\n    his opinions misrepresented, v. 341;\n    his doctrine concerning atoms, 345, 346, 381.\n\n  Demodocus, i. 105.\n\n  Demonides, the cripple, ii. 51.\n\n  Demosthenes, the orator, anecdotes of, i. 15, 65;\n    quoted, 67, 286, 325;\n    anecdote of, 334, 481;\n    quoted, ii. 145, 300, 312, 313;\n    anecdote of, 460;\n    quoted, iv. 212;\n    quoted, v. 34, 35;\n    sketch of his life, 43-53;\n    his birth, education, and early years, 43;\n    calls his guardians to account, _ib._;\n    is chosen choregus, 44;\n    his methods to obtain excellence in speaking, _ib._;\n    opposes the designs of Philip, 45;\n    describes \u201caction\u201d as of supreme importance in oratory, _ib._;\n    his early failures as an orator, _ib._;\n    defends the Olynthians, 46;\n    is admired by Philip, though an enemy, _ib._;\n    his magnanimity, 47;\n    his conduct at Chaeronea, _ib._;\n    his patriotism, _ib._;\n    the oration for the Crown, _ib._;\n    accused of receiving a bribe, 48;\n    his exile, _ib._;\n    recalled, _ib._;\n    returns to the administration of public affairs, 49;\n    leaves Athens to avoid being delivered up to Antipater, _ib._;\n    his death, 50;\n    his family, _ib._;\n    honors paid to his memory, 51;\n    anecdotes of him, 49, 50-53;\n    his great temperance, 53;\n    his public services recounted in a decree, 58-60;\n    quoted, 69, 109, 110, 124, 138, 146, 409, 411, 447, 448.\n\n  Dercyllidas, apothegm of, i. 407.\n\n  Dercyllus, his First Book of Foundations, v. 461;\n    Third Book of Italian History, 474.\n\n  Destiny, or fate, iii. 130.\n\n  Deucalion [like Noah] sent forth a dove from the ark, and with like\n  purpose, v. 179.\n\n  Diagoras the Melian, iii. 118.\n\n  Diana Orthia, rites of, i. 98.\n\n  Dicaearchus, opinion concerning the soul, iii. 161;\n    of divination, 176; v. 93.\n\n  Dignity of places at table, iii. 210, 212.\n\n  Dinarchus, an Athenian orator, v. 57, 58;\n    becomes rich, 57;\n    his exile in Chalcis, 58;\n    restored, _ib._;\n    his orations, _ib._\n\n  Diocles, at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41;\n    his philosophical opinions, iii. 179, 182, 185, 192.\n\n  Diogenes Laertius quoted, i. 77.\n\n  Diogenes, quoted, i. 4, 12;\n    anecdotes of, 51, 67, 141, 142, 166, 283, 285, 311, 487;\n    quoted, ii. 58, 155, 193; 455, 458, 465, 466;\n    story of the mouse, 453; iii. 21, 27, 29, 31;\n    his philosophical opinions, 132, 136, 138, 143, 148, 163, 183, 187,\n      189, 494; iv. 311; v. 8, 65.\n\n  Diogenes and Philip, ii. 147.\n\n  Diogenianus, iii. 71, 73, _et seq._\n\n  Diomedes, ii. 41;\n    liberated from captivity, v. 465.\n\n  Dion, example of, i. 64, 193, 333.\n\n  Dionysius, tyrant of Sicily, does not relish the Lacedaemonian\n  broth, i. 83;\n    his unreasonable anger, 152;\n    his sayings, 449, 484, 491;\n    his ungenerous behavior, 493;\n    parasites of, ii. 166; 314;\n    anecdote of, iv. 238.\n\n  Dionysius and Plato, ii. 108, 140.\n\n  Dionysius the Elder, his sayings, i. 191; v. 84.\n\n  Dionysius the Younger, his sayings, i. 192, 501.\n\n  Diophantus, saying of, i. 4.\n\n  Diorphus, mount, v. 507.\n\n  Discourse to an Unlearned Prince, iv. 323-330.\n\n  Diseases of the body, iv. 504-508.\n\n  Divination, of, iii. 176; iv. 59.\n\n  Dog, habit of biting of stones, iii. 516;\n    affection for his master, v. 180, 182, 184;\n    docility of the, 191.\n\n  Dolphin, sagacity of the, v. 200;\n    nature of the, 204;\n    story of a, 213;\n    its love of music, 214;\n    stories of affection of, 215, 216.\n\n  Dolphin and Arion, ii. 33-36;\n    and the lad of Jasus, v. 215.\n\n  Domitian is mentioned [which fixes the era of Plutarch], ii. 443.\n\n  Domitius, anecdote of, i. 288, 295; v. 125.\n\n  Dorian Mood of music, i. 109, 115.\n\n  Dorians pray for bad making of their hay, iii. 504.\n\n  Dorotheus, his First Book of Transformations, v. 466;\n    his Fourth Book of Italian History, v. 463.\n\n  Dositheus, his Third Book of Sicilian History, v. 463, 471, 472, 474;\n    Third Book of Lydian History, 469;\n    his Pelopidae, 471;\n    First Book of Italian History, 475.\n\n  Dream, a romantic, ii. 407-411.\n\n  Dreams and Omens, ii. 401, 402.\n\n  Dreams in Autumn, iii. 432.\n\n  Dreams, whence do they arise, iii. 176.\n\n  Drink either five or three, iii. 282-284.\n\n  Drink passeth through the lungs, iii. 363.\n\n\n  E.\n\n  Earth, its nature and magnitude, iii. 154;\n    figure of the, 155;\n    site and position of the, 155;\n    inclination of the, 155;\n    motion of the, 156;\n    zones of the, 156;\n    exhalations from the, iv. 53;\n    its form and its place, v. 247;\n    an instrument of time, 439.\n\n  Earthquakes, of, iii. 157.\n\n  Echo, what gives the, iii. 172.\n\n  Eclipse of the moon, iii. 146.\n\n  Eclipses of the sun, iii. 144.\n\n  Ecphantus, his opinion concerning the motion of the earth, iii. 156.\n\n  Egg or the bird, which was first, iii. 242-246.\n\n  Egypt, its Religion and Philosophy; of Isis and Osiris, or of the\n    Ancient Religion and Philosophy of Egypt, iv. 65-139.\n\n  Egyptian skeleton at feasts, ii. 7.\n\n  Egyptians in Ethiopia, iii. 20.\n\n  \u0395\u03b9 at Apollo\u2019s temple at Delphi, iv. 479-498.\n\n  Eleans, the, v. 426.\n\n  Elements, mixture of the, iii. 126.\n\n  Elephant, understanding of the, v. 178;\n    stories of, 178;\n    of King Porus, 183;\n    most beloved by the Gods, 187;\n    amour of the, 188;\n    chirurgery of the, 192.\n\n  Elephas, mount, v. 478.\n\n  Elysian fields in the moon, v. 289.\n\n  Elysius the Terinean, vision of, i. 314.\n\n  Embryo, how nourished, iii. 183;\n    is an animal, _ib._\n\n  Empedocles, i. 59;\n    saying of, 158, 469;\n    quoted, ii. 49, 195; 357;\n    quoted, iii. 34, 81;\n    his philosophical opinions, 112, 114, 125-129, 131, 132, 136-138,\n      143, 145, 147, 154, 158, 163, 165, 168-170, 173, 178-184, 188-191;\n    quoted, 209, 262, 293, 333, 497, 509, 518;\n    quoted, iv. 21, 52, 85, 87, 108, 273;\n    quoted, v. 169, 239, 246, 249, 252, 255, 318, 348, 350, 351;\n    misunderstood by Colotes, 351;\n    quoted, 381, 420, 421, 439.\n\n  Emprepes, apothegm of, i. 408.\n\n  Enemies, how a man may profit by his, i. 280-298.\n\n  Entertainment, late to an, iii. 417.\n\n  Envy and Hatred, ii. 95-99.\n\n  Epaminondas, his sayings, i. 222-226, 277;\n    his great actions, 225;\n    his consistency of character, ii. 109; 182, 185, 309, 313, 319,\n      381, 396, 399, 414; iii. 6; v. 72, 75, 95, 101, 121, 125;\n    his invasion of Laconia, 401, 407, 458.\n\n  Epaminondas, son of, beheaded, v. 458.\n\n  Ephorus, his opinion concerning the overflowing of the Nile, iii. 161.\n\n  Epicharmus, quoted, i. 315, 496; ii. 141; iv. 242.\n\n  Epicureans, misrepresentations of the, v. 352-354.\n\n  Epicurus, quoted, i. 138, 139, 159;\n    famous sentence of, ii. 92;\n    his doctrine; refutation of it; pleasure is not attainable, 157-203;\n    reverence of his brothers, iii. 57;\n    his philosophical opinions, 111, 122, 124, 127, 128, 131, 134, 135,\n      139, 142, 143, 151, 163, 164, 165, 169, 177, 183;\n    opinions of, v. 350, 374;\n    danger of his doctrines, 377, 378;\n    disciples of, 383, 385.\n\n  Epigenes, opinion concerning comets, iii. 150.\n\n  Epimenides, long sleep of, v. 66; 279.\n\n  Erasistratus, his opinion of the soul, iii. 163;\n    of superfetation, 180;\n    his definition of a fever, 192.\n\n  Eratosthenes, his philosophical opinions: of time, iii. 128;\n    of the sun, 147; v. 456.\n\n  Erectheus, sacrifice of his daughter, v. 463.\n\n  Eryxo of Cyrene, i. 378.\n\n  Esop, fable of, ii. 11, 12, 16, 19-22, 23;\n    dog of, 25;\n    at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 3-41; iii. 63, 202.\n\n  Eteocles the Theban, i. 257.\n\n  Euboea, king of, drawn in pieces by horses, v. 455.\n\n  Euboidas, apothegm of, i. 408.\n\n  Euclid, anecdote of, i. 55; ii. 173.\n\n  Euclides, his brotherly love, iii. 61.\n\n  Euctus and Eulaeus, ii. 146.\n\n  Eudaemonidas, his sayings, i. 221.\n\n  Eudamidas, apothegm of, i. 408.\n\n  Eudemus, of matter, ii. 334.\n\n  Eudorus, system of numbers, ii. 343, 345.\n\n  Eudoxus, anecdotes of, ii. 174;\n    his opinion of the cause of winter and summer, iii. 141;\n    of the overflow of the Nile, 161.\n\n  Euemerus, his opinion of God, iii. 118.\n\n  Eumenes of Pergamus, his sayings, i. 206;\n    anecdotes of, iii. 61, iv. 232.\n\n  Eumetis at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41;\n    her riddle, 20.\n\n  Euphorion quoted, iii. 321.\n\n  Euphranor, the painter, v. 400.\n\n  Euphrates, the river, v. 502.\n\n  Eupolis, saying of, ii. 112.\n\n  Euripides, quoted, i. 3, 158, 291, 300, 301, 302, 308, 320, 329, 330,\n      335, 458;\n    Hippol., 4, 14, 471;\n    Protesilaus, 23;\n    Dictys, 26, 58;\n    Bellerophon, 63, 141;\n    Frag., 287, 472;\n    Pirithous, 70;\n    Orestes, 37, 137, 140, 165, 170, 286;\n    Medea, 64, 71, 255;\n    Iph. Aul., 152, 302;\n    Bacchae, 163;\n    Troad, 170;\n    Phoeniss, 257, 303, 327;\n    Danae, 307;\n    Adrastus, 288;\n    Stheneboea, 301;\n    Ino, 303, 304;\n    Alcestis, 310;\n    Suppliants, 316;\n    Cresphontes, 316;\n    Erectheus, 500;\n    Hypsipyle, 317, 465; ii. 54, 56, 62, 87, 92, 121, 148, 150, 251,\n      300, 306, 357, 363, 391, 472;\n    Cresphontes, 93;\n    Hippol., 73, 108, 173, 198, 373, 374;\n    Frag., 86, 181, 318, 437, 501;\n    Orestes, 143, 443;\n    Medea, 66;\n    Iph. Aul., 49, 85;\n    Phoeniss, 51, 61, 66, 130, 151;\n    Ion, 102, 144;\n    Ino, 131;\n    Erectheus, 132;\n    Electra, 85;\n    Aeolus, 66, 85, 88, 175;\n    Herc. Furens, 151;\n    Hecuba, 197;\n    Iph. Taur., 447; iii. 27, 99, 116, 194;\n    Frag., 3, 19, 33, 41, 42, 94,\n    230, 458, 475, 512;\n    Hippol., 483;\n    Orestes, 168, 437;\n    Phoeniss, 16, 32, 43, 49, 257;\n    Stheneboea, 217;\n    Iph. Taur., 21;\n    Androm., 232;\n    Hipsipyle, 291, iv. 17, 128, 142, 270, 308, 450, 478, 497;\n    Frag., 47, 220, 233, 251, 272, 273, 292, 301, 325, 392, 461, 475;\n    Bacchae, 223, 272, 422, 506;\n    Hippol., 294, 298;\n    Cyclops, 56;\n    Aeolus, 105;\n    Troad, 132;\n    Orestes, 141, 507;\n    Ino, 158, 231;\n    Alcestis, 197;\n    Danae, 274, 283;\n    Stheneboea, 288;\n    Androm., 401;\n    Herc. Furens, 459, 467; v. 126, 128, 157, 172;\n    Frag., 15, 79, 105, 108, 118, 345;\n    Aeolus, 71;\n    Hippol., 158;\n    Iph. Taur., 374;\n    Orestes, 77, 380;\n    Troad, 440;\n    Erectheus, 463;\n    Meleager, 466.\n\n  Eurotas, a river in Laconia, v. 497.\n\n  Eurycratidas, apothegm of, i. 410.\n\n  Eurydice of Hierapolis, her epigram, i. 32.\n\n  Euthrymenes, his opinion of the overflow of the Nile, iii. 160.\n\n  Euthynous and Pindar, i. 313.\n\n  Eutropion, anecdote of, i. 25.\n\n  Evenus quoted, ii. 102, 192.\n\n  Evenus, son of Mars, v. 475.\n\n  Exercises, different kinds of, iii. 248-250.\n\n  Exile, consolations of, iii. 15-35.\n\n  Eyes, images of the, iii. 169.\n\n\n  F.\n\n  Fabius Maximus, his sayings, i. 227, 228;\n    in the Punic war, v. 453.\n\n  Fable of Minerva, i. 41.\n\n  Fable of the defeat of Neptune, iii. 444.\n\n  Fable of the Fox and Leopard, ii. 21.\n\n  Fable of the Lydian Mule, ii. 11.\n\n  Fabricianus, v. 474.\n\n  Fabricius, iv. 201.\n\n  Face appearing in the moon, v. 234-292.\n\n  Fasting creates more thirst than hunger, iii. 339.\n\n  Fate, or destiny, iii. 130;\n    nature of, 130; v. 293-308.\n\n  Faunus, king of Italy, strangers murdered by, v. 474.\n\n  Fever, cause of a, iii. 192.\n\n  Fig-trees, of, iii. 250, 335.\n\n  Figures, of, iii. 125.\n\n  Filial treachery in Persian and Roman history, v. 458.\n\n  Fire or water, which is more useful, v. 331-337.\n\n  Firmus and Nuceria, v. 471.\n\n  Fish called the fisherman, v. 201.\n\n  Fish, eating of, iii. 422.\n\n  Fisherman\u2019s nets, rotting of, iii. 503.\n\n  Fishes, of; the labrax, mullet, scate, anthias, dolphin, cuttle-fish,\n    star-fish, torpedo, the fisherman, tunny, amiae, pionetras,\n    sponge, porphyrae, hegemon, whale, pinoterus, gilthead,\n    phycides, galeus, tortoise, v. 195, 209.\n\n  Fittest time for a man to know his wife, iii. 274-279.\n\n  Fives, we reckon by, iv. 43-47.\n\n  Five tragical histories of Love, iv. 312-322.\n\n  Flattery: How to know a Flatterer from a Friend, ii. 100-156.\n\n  Flattery fatal to whole kingdoms, ii. 118.\n\n  Flesh exposed to the moon, iii. 284-287.\n\n  Flute girls, whether they are to be admitted to a feast, iii. 387.\n\n  Folly of Seeking Many Friends, i. 464-474.\n\n  Food, digesting of, iii. 289-295.\n\n  Fortune, of, ii. 475-481; iii. 131;\n    is a cause by accident, v. 302;\n    not the same as chance, 303;\n    relates to men only, 303.\n\n  Fortune of the Romans, iv. 198-219.\n\n  Fox, cunning of the, v. 179.\n\n  Fresh water washes clothes better than salt, iii. 224-226.\n\n  Friends, folly of seeking many, i. 464-474.\n\n  Frogs, croaking of, v. 210.\n\n  Frost makes hunting difficult, iii. 510.\n\n  Fruit, salt not found in, iii. 498.\n\n  Fulvius and Augustus, anecdotes of, iv. 235, 236.\n\n  Fulvius Stellus, v. 468.\n\n  Fundanus, i. 34, 35.\n\n\n  G.\n\n  Galaxy, or milky way, iii. 148.\n\n  Galeus, affection of, for their young, v. 209.\n\n  Ganges, the river, v. 481.\n\n  Garlands at sacred games, iii. 411.\n\n  Garrulity, or Talkativeness, iv. 220-253.\n\n  Gauran, mount, v. 508.\n\n  Gelo, his saying, i. 190.\n\n  Generation and corruption, iii. 128.\n\n  Generation of males and females, iii. 178;\n    of animals, 186;\n    of the Gods, 400.\n\n  Generative seed, iii. 177.\n\n  Geniuses and heroes, opinions concerning, iii. 122.\n\n  Germanicus, ii. 96.\n\n  Gnatho the Sicilian, iii. 3.\n\n  Gobryas, a Persian noble, ii. 104.\n\n  God always plays the Geometer, saying attributed to Plato, iii. 402.\n\n  God bade Socrates act the midwife\u2019s part, v. 425.\n\n  God, Father and Maker of all things, v. 428.\n\n  God, what is, iii. 118.\n\n  Gods, generation of the, iii. 400.\n\n  Gorgias, i. 340;\n  at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41; 44, 134; ii. 502;\n  v. 405.\n\n  Government. Of the Three Sorts of Government, Monarchy, Democracy,\n    and Oligarchy, v. 395-398.\n\n  Gracchus, Caius, example of, i. 40.\n\n  Greek music, principles of, i. 102, 103.\n\n  Greek Questions, ii. 265-293.\n\n  Groom, saying of the king\u2019s, i. 21.\n\n  Gryllus, v. 218 _et seq._\n\n  Guests, should the entertainer seat the, iii. 203-210;\n    to a wedding supper, 300;\n    that are called shadows, iii. 381.\n\n  Gylippus, his dishonesty, i. 23.\n\n\n  H.\n\n  Habits of animals, v. 173-177.\n\n  Halcyon, of the, v. 211.\n\n  Halo, of the, iii. 160.\n\n  Hannibal and Fabius, i. 228.\n\n  Hares, cunning of the, v. 185.\n\n  Harp, an invention of Apollo, i. 113.\n\n  Hart, tears of the, iii. 507.\n\n  Health, preservation of, i. 251-279.\n\n  Health, sickness, and old age, iii. 192.\n\n  Hearing, of, i. 441-463; iii. 170.\n\n  Heaven, its nature and essence, iii. 137;\n    division of, 137.\n\n  Hebrus, a river of Thrace, v. 480.\n\n  Hedgehog, ingenuity of the, v. 186.\n\n  Hedgehog of the sea, v. 203.\n\n  Hegemon, of the fish, v. 206.\n\n  Hegesippus, sayings of, &c., i. 213.\n\n  Hegesistratus, an Ephesian, v. 476.\n\n  Helicon the mathematician, i. 57.\n\n  Hephaestion, the friend of Alexander, i. 489, 505.\n\n  Heracleo, v. 194.\n\n  Heraclides, his compendium of music, i. 105; ii. 158;\n    his philosophical opinions, iii. 139, 149, 156, 159, 165.\n\n  Heraclides the wrestler, iii. 220.\n\n  Heraclitus, i. 44, 79, 276, 308, 448, 453; ii. 74, 165, 330, 358,\n      477; iii. 26, 74;\n    his philosophical opinions, 111, 125, 128, 130, 131, 143, 144,\n      145, 146, 162;\n    apothegm, v. 9;\n    quoted, 73, 169, 425.\n\n  Hercules and Iole, v. 459.\n\n  Hercules in Antisthenes, precept of, i. 77.\n\n  Hercules,\n    ridiculous representation of, v. 70;\n    and King Faunus, 474.\n\n  Hercules the woman-hater, his temple in Phocis, iii. 90;\n    singular anecdote, _ib._\n\n  Hermes, iv. 74.\n\n  Hermias, v. 121.\n\n  Hermogenes, ii. 194.\n\n  Herodotus, quoted, i. 80, 441;\n    saying of, ii. 202, 489;\n    Arcadian prophet, iii. 38;\n    quoted, iv. 248, 335 _et seq._;\n    malice of, iv. 331-371; v. 397.\n\n  Herondas, apothegm of, i. 410.\n\n  Herons, artifices of the, v. 176.\n\n  Herophilus, opinion of, iii. 128, 163.\n\n  Hesianax, his Third Book of African History, v. 465.\n\n  Hesiod, quoted, Works and Days, i. 22, 65, 70, 138, 156, 178,\n      261, 296, 307, 325;\n    Works and Days, ii. 24;\n    spare diet recommended by, 27;\n    and the dolphin, 36, 37;\n    Works and Days, 63, 64, 65, 73, 87, 92, 302, 303, 449, 452,\n      480, 483;\n    Theogony, 102;\n    Works and Days, iii. 64, 210, 382, 416, 436, 438;\n    Theogony, 118, 324, 458; iv. 15;\n    Works and Days, 48, 49, 68, 87, 154, 173, 264, 385, 442, 457;\n    Theogony, 53;\n    Works and Days, v. 153, 168, 172, 279.\n\n  Hicetes, his opinion of the earth, iii. 154.\n\n  Hiero, his sayings, i. 190;\n    anecdote of, 291.\n\n  Hiero the Spartan, statue of, iii. 76.\n\n  Hiero the Tyrant, statue of, iii. 75.\n\n  Hieronymus, saying of, i. 38, 50, 462.\n\n  Himerius, an Athenian parasite, ii. 126.\n\n  Hippasus, opinions of, iii. 111.\n\n  Hippocrates, saying of, i. 40;\n    quoted, 261, 292; ii. 165, 185;\n    his magnanimity, ii. 466.\n\n  Hippocratidas, apothegm of, i. 412.\n\n  Hippodamus, apothegm of, i. 411.\n\n  Hippolytus, son of Theseus, v. 471, 472.\n\n  Hippomachus, ii. 294.\n\n  Hipponax, i. 108.\n\n  History of music, i. 104 _et seq._\n\n  History of wind instruments, i. 108.\n\n  Homer, passages in, criticised, ii. 69-72, 74-84, 89, 90.\n\n  Homer quoted: Iliad, i. 34, 38, 39, 51, 52, 55, 62, 104, 132, 133,\n      134, 138, 141, 151, 153, 154, 156, 161, 165, 178, 180, 181, 200,\n      236, 251, 292, 303, 305, 306, 310, 324, 325, 329, 330, 331, 385,\n      466, 469, 475, 486, 490, 507, 508, 510, 511; ii. 25, 32, 41, 44,\n      47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 55, 56, 59, 62, 63, 65, 67, 68, 74, 75, 77,\n      79, 81, 82, 84, 88, 89, 90, 91, 108, 114, 115, 120, 123, 131, 140,\n      142, 145, 150, 151, 152, 154, 185, 197, 198, 200, 237, 295, 305,\n      310, 311, 314, 317, 319, 413, 501, 505; iii. 25, 26, 47, 53, 54,\n      107, 120, 152, 206, 207, 221, 231, 248, 255, 285, 301, 313, 317,\n      321, 323, 325, 336, 354, 364, 381, 394, 401, 413, 418, 437, 442,\n      447, 448, 449, 450, 480, 486, 492, 493, 515; iv. 16, 65, 108, 111,\n      152, 191, 194, 195, 216, 237, 238, 280, 285, 291, 327, 329, 383,\n      386, 401, 405, 434, 462, 483, 490, 499, 504; v. 78, 79, 85, 88,\n      90, 92, 96, 104, 119, 122, 123, 134, 135, 138, 146, 147, 171, 182,\n      200, 208, 214, 266, 276, 281, 315, 339, 350, 371, 386, 394, 400,\n      418, 443, 444, 447;\n\n    Odyss. i. 52, 134, 138, 154, 236, 252, 305, 310, 318, 325, 452, 469;\n      ii. 41, 43, 47, 48, 52, 53, 54, 56, 59, 63, 65, 67, 70, 71, 82,\n      83, 108, 110, 114, 115, 127, 149, 158, 159, 162, 184, 195, 304,\n      316, 317, 320, 371, 427, 463, 467, 478; iii. 10, 42, 45, 72, 81,\n      101, 196, 201, 207, 226, 232, 233, 249, 259, 280, 333, 359, 365,\n      395, 419, 425, 437, 438, 451, 466, 477, 499; iv. 5, 30, 86, 97,\n      191, 200, 219, 224, 226, 230, 231, 289, 307, 325, 401, 405; v. 3,\n      11, 105, 106, 143, 171, 184, 281, 285, 290, 315, 323, 403, 416,\n      422, 423, 446.\n\n  Horatii and Curatii, v. 460, 461.\n\n  Horatius Cocles, v. 456.\n\n  Horsehair for fishing lines, iii. 505.\n\n  Horses, called \u03bb\u03c5\u03c7\u03bf\u03c3\u03c0\u03ac\u03b4\u03b5\u03c2, iii. 253.\n\n  Horus, son of Osiris, iv. 80, 114 _et seq._\n\n  Hounds that hunt hares, v. 184.\n\n  How a man may praise himself without being envied, ii. 306.\n\n  How a man may receive advantage and profit from his enemies, i.\n      280-298.\n\n  How animals are begotten, iii. 186.\n\n  How a young man ought to hear poems, ii. 42.\n\n  How plants grow, and whether they are animals, iii. 190.\n\n  How to know a flatterer, ii. 100-156.\n\n  Hunger, cause of, iii. 341;\n    allayed by drinking, 345.\n\n  Hurricanes, of, iii. 150.\n\n  Hyagnis, first that sung to the pipe, i. 107.\n\n  Hydaspes, a river in India, v. 477.\n\n  Hyperides, the Athenian orator, ii. 140; v. 53-57;\n    his part in public affairs, 53;\n    his friendship for Demosthenes, 54;\n    this friendship broken, _ib._;\n    demanded by Antipater, he escapes to Aegina, _ib._;\n    is apprehended, tortured, and put to death, 55;\n    an excellent orator, _ib._;\n    his amorous propensities, 55, 56;\n    his patriotism, 56;\n    sent as ambassador, 56, 57.\n\n  Hypsipyle, foster-child of, i, 465.\n\n\n  I.\n\n  Ibis, habits of, imitated by the Egyptians, v. 192.\n\n  Ibycus, the poet, iv. 240.\n\n  Ichneumon, of the, v. 174.\n\n  Ida, mount, v. 493.\n\n  Idathyrsus, his sayings, i. 189.\n\n  Ideas, of, iii. 123.\n\n  Images presented to our eyes in mirrors, iii. 169.\n\n  Imagination, imaginable and phantom, difference between, iii. 167.\n\n  Immortality of the soul, argument for it, iv. 169, 170.\n\n  Impotency in men, iii. 181.\n\n  Improbabilities of the Stoics, iii. 194-196.\n\n  Inachus, a river in Argolis, v. 498.\n\n  Incest, case of, v. 467.\n\n  Indus, the river, v. 508.\n\n  Infants, seven months\u2019, iii. 184.\n\n  Inquisitiveness, or vain curiosity; of curiosity, or an over-busy\n      inquisitiveness into things impertinent, ii. 424-445.\n\n  Iole, the beloved of Hercules, v. 459.\n\n  Ion the tragedian, i. 322, 328; v. 186, 254.\n\n  Iphicrates, his saying, i. 80, 212; v. 105.\n\n  Iphigenia at Aulis, v. 459, 460.\n\n  Irascible faculty, v. 441.\n\n  Isaeus, an Athenian orator, v. 33;\n    considered by some equal to Lysias, _ib._;\n    the teacher of Demosthenes, _ib._;\n    number of his orations, _ib._\n\n  Isis and Osiris, iv. 66-139.\n\n  Ismenodora, iv. 256, 264, 269, 311.\n\n  Ismenus, a river of Boeotia, v. 478.\n\n  Isocrates, an Athenian orator, iii. 198; v. 27-33;\n    his parentage, birth, and education, 27;\n    composed orations for others, 28;\n    his school at Chios, _ib._;\n    his great success as a teacher of rhetoric, _ib._;\n    lived to a great age, 29;\n    his death and burial, 30;\n    number of his orations, 31;\n    his timidity, 27, 31;\n    his description of the use of rhetoric, 31;\n    the two suits against him, 32, 409;\n    his Panegyric, 410.\n\n  Isthmian games, iii. 318.\n\n  Ivy, nature of, iii. 265-268.\n\n\n  J.\n\n  Jason, saying of, v. 140.\n\n  Jewish religion, statements and conjectures respecting it,\n      iii. 307-312.\n\n  Jews, their fatal inaction in war because it was their Sabbath day,\n      i. 178.\n\n  Juba, his third Book of Lybian History, v. 465.\n\n\n  L.\n\n  Lacedaemonians, their laws and customs, i. 82-101;\n    their currency, 99;\n    influx of gold and silver, 100;\n    refuse to assist Philip and Alexander in their designs against\n      Persia, 101;\n    lose all their ancient glory, 101;\n    combat with the Argives, v. 452.\n\n  Lachares, tyranny of, ii. 166.\n\n  Laconic answers, iv. 243.\n\n  Laconic Apothegms, of, i. 385-440.\n    Acrotatus, 400.\n    Agasicles, 385.\n    Agesilaus, 385-397.\n    Agesipolis, 397, 398.\n    Agis, son of Archidamus, 398.\n    Agis the Last, 400.\n    Agis the Younger, 400.\n    Alcamenes, the son of Teleclus, 400.\n    Alexandridas, 401.\n    Anaxander, 401.\n    Anaxilas, 402.\n    Androclidas, 402.\n    Antalcidas, 402.\n    Antiochus, 403.\n    Archidamidas, 403.\n    Archidamus, son of Agesilaus, 404.\n    Archidamus, son of Zeuxidamus, 404.\n    Aregeus, 403.\n    Ariston, 403.\n    Astycratidas, 405.\n    Bias, 406.\n    Callicratidas, 412.\n    Charillus, 432.\n    Cleombrotus, 413.\n    Cleomenes, son of Cleombrotus, 413, 416.\n    Damindas, 407.\n    Damis, 406.\n    Damonidas, 406.\n    Demaratus, 407.\n    Dercyllidas, 407.\n    Emprepes, 408.\n    Euboidas, 408.\n    Eudamidas, son of Archidamas, 408.\n    Eurycratidas, 410.\n    Herondas, 410.\n    Hippocratidas, 412.\n    Hippodamus, 411.\n    Leonidas, the son of Anaxandrias, 417.\n    Leo, the son of Eucratidas, 417.\n    Leotychides, 416.\n    Lycurgus the Lawgiver, 419-425.\n    Lysander, 425.\n    Namertes, 427.\n    Nicander, 427.\n    Paedaretus, 429.\n    Panthoidas, 427.\n    Pausanias, son of Cleombrotus, 428.\n    Pausanias, son of Plistoanax, 428.\n    Phoebidas, 431.\n    Plistoanax, 430.\n    Polycratidas, 431.\n    Polydorus, 430.\n    Soos, 431.\n    Telecrus, 431.\n    Thectamenes, 411.\n    Themisteas, 410.\n    Theopompus, 410.\n    Thorycion, 411.\n    Zeuxidamus, 410.\n\n  Lacydes, King of the Argives, i. 290.\n\n  Lais, murder of, iv. 302.\n\n  Lampis, a sea commander, v. 73.\n\n  Lampsace, anecdote of, i. 366.\n\n  Lamps and tables of the ancients, iii. 372.\n\n  Land, food of the, iii. 302-306.\n\n  Lasus, his innovation upon ancient music, i. 123.\n\n  Leaena, anecdote of, iv. 229, 230.\n\n  Least things in nature, iii. 125.\n\n  Leo, apothegm of, i. 417.\n\n  Leo Byzantinus, saying of, i. 288;\n    and his wife, v. 110.\n\n  Leonidas, apothegm of, i. 417;\n    vindicated from the statements of Herodotus, iv. 354; v. 157;\n    at Thermopylae, 453.\n\n  Leotychides, apothegm of, i. 422.\n\n  Leprosy caused by dewy trees, iii. 500.\n\n  Leptis, custom in, ii. 499.\n\n  Leucippus, his opinions of the world, iii. 135;\n    of the earth, 155;\n    of the senses, 165.\n\n  Light and darkness, of, v. 325.\n\n  Lightning, of, iii. 150.\n\n  Light, of reflected, iii. 168, 169; v. 236 _et seq._\n\n  Lilaeus, mount, v. 508, 509.\n\n  Linus, elegies of, i. 105.\n\n  Lions, of, v. 187.\n\n  Liquids, of, iii. 359.\n\n  Live concealed, whether\u2019t were rightly said, iii. 3-10.\n\n  Lives of the ten Attic orators, v. 17-63.\n\n  Love: Five tragical histories of, iv. 312-322.\n\n  Love, of, iv. 254-311;\n    makes a man a poet, iii. 217-219.\n\n  Love of wealth, ii. 294-305.\n\n  Lucretia, the Roman matron, i. 355.\n\n  Lucullus, apothegm of, i. 241;\n    quoted, iii. 51; v. 84.\n\n  Lugdunum, mount, v. 485.\n\n  Lyaeus and choraeus, i. 54.\n\n  Lybian crows, v. 175.\n\n  Lycastus and Parasius, v. 473.\n\n  Lycian women, virtue of the, i. 351.\n\n  Lycormas, a river in Aetolia, v. 487.\n\n  Lycurgus, an Athenian orator, v. 36-42;\n    treasurer of the commonwealth, 36;\n    his great public services, 37;\n    his fidelity in office and great reputation, 37;\n    his justice and integrity, 37, 38;\n    useful laws procured by his influence, 38;\n    his diligence in the study and practice of oratory, 39;\n    his incorruptible honesty, 40;\n    his death, _ib._;\n    honors paid to his memory, _ib._;\n    his family, 40, 41;\n    his orations and success as an orator, 41;\n    his benevolence, 42;\n    a decree for honors to be paid to his memory, 61-63.\n\n  Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, anecdote of, i. 7;\n    his institutions, 82 _et seq._;\n    their final overthrow, 101, 217, 419-425;\n    his sayings, ii. 22; v. 12, 92.\n\n  Lydian mood of music, i. 109, 114.\n\n  Lyric nomes, i. 106.\n\n  Lysander, i. 72;\n    his great victory over the Athenians, 99;\n    introduces gold and silver into Lacedaemon, 100;\n    the results, _ib._;\n    his sayings, 219, 425;\n    saying of, ii. 149;\n    anecdote of, 495; iii. 100; v. 92.\n\n  Lysias, the Athenian orator, his remarks on music, i. 104;\n    anecdote of, iv. 226; v. 24-26;\n    his birth, early residence in Athens, residence in Thurii, and\n    return to Athens, 24;\n    banished by the Thirty Tyrants, 25;\n    return after their overthrow, _ib._;\n    death, _ib._;\n    number of his orations, _ib._;\n    his other works, 26;\n    his eloquence, _ib._; v. 33.\n\n  Lysimache, the priestess, i. 73.\n\n  Lysimachus, his sayings, i. 205, 259.\n\n  Lysippus, his statue of Alexander, i. 494.\n\n\n  M.\n\n  Madness of animals, v. 167.\n\n  Maeander, a river in Asia, v. 488.\n\n  Magas, anecdote of, i. 45.\n\n  Magpie, story of a, v. 189.\n\n  Maimactes, king of the gods, i. 45.\n\n  Man, perfection of a, iii. 189;\n    most unhappy of all creatures, iv. 504;\n    compounded of three parts, v. 286.\n\n  Maneros, the foster-son of Isis, iv. 79.\n\n  Manius Curius, apothegm of, i. 226.\n\n  Manlius, son of, beheaded, v. 458.\n\n  Man\u2019s progress in virtue, ii. 446-474.\n\n  Mantinea, battle of, v. 401.\n\n  Marius, sacrifice of his daughter, v. 463.\n\n  Mars, some bad actions of his, v. 466, 467.\n\n  Marsyas, a river in Phrygia, v. 490.\n\n  Marsyas, the musician, i. 41, 108.\n\n  Massinissa, his vigorous old age, v. 83.\n\n  Mathematics, applied to Music, i. 118-121;\n    affords unspeakable delight, ii. 172, 174.\n\n  Matter, of, iii. 122.\n\n  Medius, the parasite, ii. 137.\n\n  Megasthenes, saying of, v. 275.\n\n  Megisto and Micca, and other women of Elis, i. 357-363.\n\n  Meilichius, king of the gods, i. 45.\n\n  Melanippides, quoted, iv. 278.\n\n  Melanthius, quoted, i. 35, 449; ii. 103; iv. 147.\n\n  Melian women, virtue of the, i. 348.\n\n  Melisponda and Nephalia, i. 59.\n\n  Melissus, his opinion of generation, iii, 128.\n\n  Memnon, his saying, i. 189.\n\n  Menalippides, i. 114, 123.\n\n  Menander, quoted, i. 70, 139, 158, 161, 164, 335, 470;\n    quoted, ii. 52, 57, 65, 86, 87, 124, 192, 297;\n    his superiority to Aristophanes, iii. 11-14;\n    quoted, 38, 65, 196, 488; iv. 290;\n    anecdote of, v. 403;\n    saying of, 425.\n\n  Mendesian goat, v. 225.\n\n  Menedemus, i. 77; ii. 115, 464;\n   his opinion of the nature of moral virtue, iii. 461.\n\n  Menelaus, the mathematician, v. 257.\n\n  Men, impotency in, iii. 181;\n    elements of, 188;\n    have better stomachs in autumn, 240;\n    temper of, 270-272;\n    when asleep are never thunderstruck, 295-300;\n    having carnal knowledge of brutes, 468.\n\n  Menon, his definition of virtue, i. 464.\n\n  Menyllus, his First Book of Boeotic History, v. 460;\n   Third Book of Italian History, 467.\n\n  Messenians, saying among the, v. 416.\n\n  Metellus, quoted, iii. 53; iv. 202; v. 459, 461.\n\n  Meteors, of, which resemble rods, iii. 153.\n\n  Metiochus, his misuse of power, v. 127.\n\n  Metius Fufetius, king of Alba, torn in pieces, v. 455.\n\n  Metrocles, i. 144.\n\n  Metrodorus, ii. 158, 160, 161, 167, 169, 175, 180, 183, 496;\n    his philosophical opinions, iii. 115, 127, 132, 149, 150, 151, 153,\n      154, 155, 157, 158; v. 378, 383, 384.\n\n  Micca and Megisto, and other women of Elis, i. 357-363.\n\n  Midas, i. 326; v. 454.\n\n  Miletus, maidens of, i. 354.\n\n  Mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind fine, iv. 143.\n\n  Miltiades, v. 407-411.\n\n  Mimnermus, quoted, iii. 475.\n\n  Mind, tranquillity of the, i. 136-167.\n\n  Minerva, admonished by a satyr, i. 41; iii. 195;\n  temple of, v. 461.\n\n  Mirrors, causes and reasons of, iii. 169; v. 236 _et seq._\n\n  Mithridates, i. 204; ii. 121;\n  story of, iii. 219.\n\n  Mixture of the elements, iii. 126.\n\n  Mnemosyne, the mother of the Muses, i. 22.\n\n  Mnesarete, statue of, iii. 83.\n\n  Mnesiphilus, at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41.\n\n  Mnesitheus, the physician, iii. 511.\n\n  Monarchy, Democracy, and Oligarchy, v. 395-398.\n\n  Money upon usury, v. 412-424.\n\n  Monstrous births, of, iii. 179.\n\n  Moon: essence of the, iii. 145;\n    magnitude of the, 145;\n    figure of the, 145;\n    whence her light, 145;\n    eclipses of the, 146;\n    phases of the, 147;\n    distance from the sun, 147;\n    of the face appearing within the orb of the moon, v. 234-292;\n    its distance from the earth, 246;\n    its nature, 253-260;\n    its size, 261;\n    why called Glaucopis, 267;\n    is it inhabited, 274, 275.\n\n  Moot point in Homer\u2019s Iliad, iii. 446.\n\n  Moral virtue, essay on, iii. 461-494.\n\n  Moschio, dialogue on health, i. 251, 252.\n\n  Motherland a Cretan expression, v. 85.\n\n  Motion, of, iii. 128.\n\n  Mount Athos\u2019 shade, v. 270.\n\n  Mule and the salt, v. 184.\n\n  Mule, superannuated, v. 182.\n\n  Mules, barrenness of, iii. 182.\n\n  Mullet, of the, v. 213.\n\n  Muses, number of the, iii. 450.\n\n  Mushrooms produced by thunder, iii. 295-300.\n\n  Music, treatise concerning, i. 102-135;\n    pleasures from bad, iii. 376;\n    for entertainments, 389.\n\n  Musonius, his rule of health, i. 35.\n\n  Must, sweet, iii. 511.\n\n  Mycenae, mount, v. 501.\n\n\n  N.\n\n  Namertes, apothegm of, i. 427.\n\n  Names of rivers and mountains, and of such things as are to be found\n    therein, and the fables connected therewith, v. 477-509.\n\n  Nasica, his saying, i. 285.\n\n  Natural affection towards one\u2019s offspring, iv. 189-197.\n\n  Natural philosophy, iii. 105.\n\n  Natural Questions, Plutarch\u2019s, iii. 495-518.\n\n  Nature, of, iii. 131;\n    what is, 105;\n    things that are least in, 125;\n    animated, v. 160.\n\n  Necessity, of, iii. 129;\n    nature of, 129;\n    defined, v. 299.\n\n  Nephalia and Melisponda, i. 59.\n\n  Neptune, ii. 38, 39, 41.\n\n  Nero, i. 53; iv. 228, 229;\n    anecdote of, v. 123.\n\n  New diseases and how caused, iii. 426.\n\n  New-married couple, advice to, ii. 486-507.\n\n  New wine, of, iii. 279.\n\n  Nicander, apothegm of, i. 427, 441.\n\n  Nicias Maleotes, quoted, v. 459.\n\n  Nicias, the Athenian general, superstition of, i. 177; v. 107.\n\n  Nicias, the painter, anecdote of, ii. 173; v. 71.\n\n  Nicostratus and Archidamus, i. 74;\n    apothegm of, 221.\n\n  Niger, anecdote of, i. 267.\n\n  Nightingale, of the, v. 189.\n\n  Nile, the river, v. 495;\n    overflow of the, iii. 160;\n    water of the, 415.\n\n  Niloxenus, at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41.\n\n  Niobe, i. 328.\n\n  Noises in the night and day, iii. 406.\n\n  Numa, of the reign of, iv. 208-210.\n\n\n  O.\n\n  Oenopides, his discovery of the obliquity of the Zodiac, iii. 138.\n\n  Ogygia, an island west from Britain and its neighbor islands,\n   described, v. 281-283.\n\n  Oil, top of the, iii. 370;\n    on the sea, 503;\n    is transparent, v. 318;\n    does not easily freeze, 319.\n\n  Old age, health, and sickness, iii. 192.\n\n  Old men, love pure wine, iii. 221;\n    read best at a distance, 222-224;\n    easily foxed, 268-270;\n    in state affairs, v. 64-96.\n\n  Oligarchy, Monarchy, and Democracy, v. 395-398.\n\n  Olympias, anecdotes of, ii. 494, 495.\n\n  Olympus, a Phrygian player, i. 107, 108, 110, 112, 115, 116, 123.\n\n  Omens and dreams, ii. 401, 402.\n\n  Onesicrates, banquet of, i. 103, 133.\n\n  Onomademus, wisdom of, i. 295; v. 129.\n\n  Opinions of philosophers, iii. 104-193.\n\n  Optatus, v. 171.\n\n  Oracle in Cilicia, iv. 55.\n\n  Oracles of Delphi, iii. 73.\n\n  Oracles, why they cease to give answers, iv. 3-64.\n\n  Orestes slays his mother, v. 474.\n\n  Origin of things, opinions concerning the, iii. 107-113.\n\n  Orontes, his saying, i. 188.\n\n  Orpheus never imitated any one, i. 107.\n\n  Orphic Fragments, iv. 59, 404.\n\n  Oryx, fables of the, v. 193.\n\n  Osiris, iv. 75-135;\n    story about his birth, 74;\n    great actions of, 75;\n    his death, 76;\n    his body torn in pieces by Typhon, 80;\n    is identical with Serapis and Bacchus, 89;\n    with the bull Apis, 90;\n    sacred vestments of, 135.\n\n  Othryadas, iv. 338.\n\n  Otus, the bird, v. 163.\n\n  Oxen, teaching of, v. 193.\n\n\n  P.\n\n  Paeans, makers of, i. 110.\n\n  Paedaretus, apothegm of, i. 429.\n\n  Painter, neat saying of a, ii. 378.\n\n  Painting is silent poetry, v. 402.\n\n  Palladium in Ilium and in Rome, v. 461.\n\n  Palm tree, of the, iii. 514.\n\n  Panaetius, sayings of, i. 57.\n\n  Pancrates, i. 117.\n\n  Pandora\u2019s box, i. 306.\n\n  Pangaeus, mount, v. 480.\n\n  Panthoidas, apothegm of, i. 427.\n\n  Papirius Tolucer, v. 468.\n\n  Parallels, or a comparison between the actions of Greeks and Romans,\n  v. 450-476.\n\n  Parmenides, v. 357;\n    his philosophical opinions: of generation and corruption, iii. 128;\n    of necessity, 129;\n    of the world, 135;\n    of the moon, 145;\n    of the galaxy, 149;\n    of the earth, 155;\n    of earthquakes, 157;\n    of the soul, 163;\n    defended from the misrepresentations of the Epicureans, v. 352-354;\n    quoted, 357, 359, 381.\n\n  Partridge, cunning of the, v. 185.\n\n  Parysatis, her saying, i. 188.\n\n  Passions of the body, iii. 175.\n\n  Passions of the soul, or diseases of the body: which are worse, iv.\n      504, 508.\n\n  Paulus Aemilius, apothegm of, i. 232.\n\n  Pausanias, the Spartan traitor, v. 457.\n\n  Pausanius, i. 305;\n    apothegm of, 428.\n\n  Pauson the painter, iii. 73.\n\n  Pederasty, or the love of boys, iv. 259;\n    defended, 259, 260;\n    instances of its power, 284-286;\n    severely condemned, 304;\n    the connection is uncertain and short-lived, 307;\n    it ceases on the sprouting of the beard, 307.\n\n  Pelopidas, his saying, i. 225.\n\n  Pelops and his two sons, v. 470, 471.\n\n  Pemptides, iv. 272, 275, 279.\n\n  Pergamus, woman of, i. 374.\n\n  Periander, at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41;\n    tyrant of Corinth sends three hundred boys to be castrated, iv. 341;\n    the crime prevented, 342.\n\n  Pericles, anecdotes of, i. 15, 18, 66, 211, 332; ii. 309, 315; v. 67,\n      102;\n    his absolute sway over the Athenians, 106;\n    his soliloquy when about to address the people, 130, 131, 410, 413.\n\n  Periclitus, a Lesbian harper, i. 108.\n\n  Persaeus, anecdote of, i. 70.\n\n  Perseus, king of Macedonia, his sorrow on losing his kingdom, i. 160.\n\n  Persian Magi, killers of mice, ii. 96.\n\n  Persian women, virtue of the, i. 347.\n\n  Persians had a monarchy, v. 397.\n\n  Pestilence, relief from, a virgin sacrificed for, v. 472.\n\n  Petron, doctrine of, iv. 30.\n\n  Phaedimus, v. 171, 194.\n\n  Phaeton, i. 141.\n\n  Phalaris, brazen cow of, v. 474.\n\n  Pharnaces, of the moon, v. 265.\n\n  Phasis, a river of Thrace, v. 482.\n\n  Phayllus, iv. 282.\n\n  Phemius, the poet, i. 105.\n\n  Pherecrates, fragment of, i. 124.\n\n  Phidias, statue of Venus, ii. 498; iv. 133.\n\n  Philammon, verses in honor of Latona, Diana, and Apollo, i. 105.\n\n  Philemon and Magas, i. 45.\n\n  Philinus, iii. 69, 70.\n\n  Philip of Macedonia, examples from, i. 44, 45;\n    sayings of, 194-198, 305;\n    anecdotes of, ii. 141, 146, 147, 494; iii. 22; v. 115.\n\n  Philippides the comedian, ii. 430.\n\n  Philippus, his demonstration of the figure of the moon, ii. 173.\n\n  Philolaus, his philosophical opinions: of the nutriment of the world,\n      iii. 134;\n    of the essence of the sun, 142;\n    of the position of the earth, 155;\n    of the motion of the earth, 156.\n\n  Philosophers ought chiefly to converse with great men, ii. 368-377.\n\n  Philosophers, their various opinions. Of those sentiments concerning\n      nature with which philosophers were delighted, iii. 104-193.\n\n  Philosophical discourses at merry meetings, iii. 198-203.\n\n  Philosophy, threefold division of, iii. 104.\n\n  Philotas and Antigona, i. 504.\n\n  Philotas, son of Parmenio, i. 504.\n\n  Philotimus, the physician, i. 452; ii. 153.\n\n  Philoxenus, i. 125;\n    sayings of, ii. 42; iii. 3; iv. 289; v. 423.\n\n  Phocian women, virtue of the, i. 343, 355.\n\n  Phocion, his saying on the death of Alexander, i. 49;\n    his sayings, 70;\n    wife of, 102, 216; ii. 135, 298, 311, 321, 328; v. 83, 109, 118;\n    his magnanimity, 122;\n    his reply to Demades, 125, 142, 149.\n\n  Phocus, a story of love respecting him, iv. 319.\n\n  Phocylides the poet, quoted, i. 9, 462.\n\n  Phoebidas, apothegm of, i. 431.\n\n  Phoenix, tutor to Achilles, i. 9; ii. 150.\n\n  Phrygian mood of music, i. 109.\n\n  Phryne, the statue of, iii. 83.\n\n  Phrynis, the musician, ii. 470.\n\n  Pieria and other women of Myus, i. 363, 364.\n\n  Pierus, the first that wrote in praise of the Muses, i. 105.\n\n  Pindar and Euthynous, i. 314.\n\n  Pindar, his sayings, i. 77, 114;\n    quoted, 143, 173, 174, 286, 293, 303, 304, 310, 313, 328;\n    his description of the state of the blessed, 336;\n    quoted, ii. 57, 143, 177, 193, 306;\n    quoted, iii. 9, 23, 74, 93, 95, 96, 194, 207, 218, 377, 455, 458,\n      491, 516;\n    quoted, iv. 10, 15, 96, 138, 145, 150, 163, 260, 289, 405;\n    quoted, v. 64, 111, 117, 148, 194, 197, 202, 214, 316, 331, 404;\n    anecdote of, 404, 440.\n\n  Pine, sacred to Neptune and Bacchus, iii. 318.\n\n  Pine trees, of, iii. 250.\n\n  Pinoteras, the fish, v. 205.\n\n  Pisias, of love, iv. 270 _et seq._\n\n  Pisistratus, i. 216;\n    anecdote of, iii. 41, 200.\n\n  Pittacus, sayings of, i. 31, 151;\n    his reply to Myrsilus, ii. 5;\n    at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, 3-41; iii. 50; iv. 231;\n      v. 145.\n\n  Pitwater, of, iii. 514.\n\n  Place at table called Consular, iii. 210-212.\n\n  Place, of, iii. 127.\n\n  Plague in Falerie and in Lacedaemon, v. 472.\n\n  Plain of truth, iv. 29.\n\n  Planetiades, iv. 9, 11.\n\n  Plants, grow how, iii. 190;\n    nourishment and growth of, 191.\n\n  Plato, quoted, i. 9, 19, 24, 26;\n    saying of, 27;\n    quoted, 41, 57, 71, 74, 79;\n    on harmony, 115, 118;\n    quoted, 141, 173, 256, 264, 279, 287;\n    laws, 292;\n    quoted, 297, 311, 314, 321, 337, 339, 456;\n    quoted, ii. 49, 92, 100, 104, 106;\n    at the court of Dionysius, 108, 141, 109, 146;\n    and Socrates, 148, 150, 168, 174, 326;\n    concerning the soul, 328 _et seq._, 334;\n    quoted, 344, 352, 353, 355, 356, 359, 364, 455, 456, 457, 492, 496,\n      504;\n    quoted, iii. 19, 81;\n    his philosophical opinions: of the universe, 112, 114, 115;\n    of the understanding, 116;\n    what is God, 119;\n    of God, 121;\n    of matter and ideas, 123;\n    of causes and of bodies, 124;\n    of colors, 125;\n    of bodies, 126;\n    of place and time, 127, 128;\n    of motion, 128;\n    of necessity, 129;\n    of fate, 130;\n    of fortune, 131;\n    of the world, 134, 135, 137;\n    of the stars, 137-141;\n    of the sun, 142, 143;\n    of the moon, 145, 146;\n    of the rainbow, 152;\n    of earthquakes, 158;\n    of the sea, 159;\n    of the soul, 161-165;\n    of sight, 168;\n    of hearing, 170;\n    of the voice, 171;\n    of the echo, 172;\n    of divination, 176;\n    of generative seed, 177;\n    of the embryo, 183;\n    of reason in animals, 187;\n    of sleep, 189;\n    that plants are animals, 190;\n    quoted, 200, 201, 213, 221, 223, 243, 365, 368-370, 401, 462, 464,\n      499; iv. 18, 28, 30, 41, 45;\n    his opinion about daemons, 86, 87, 109, 115-117, 119, 146, 254, 261,\n      292, 305;\n    quoted, v. 10, 82, 103, 116, 120, 172, 257, 276, 288, 293, 295, 297,\n      302, 305, 306, 338, 355, 364, 377, 381, 412, 425-433, 435, 440,\n      441, 444.\n\n  Pleasure not attainable according to Epicurus, ii. 157-203.\n\n  Pleasures from bad music, iii. 376.\n\n  Plistoanax, apothegm of, i. 430.\n\n  Plurality of worlds, iv. 29-39.\n\n  Plutarch, his rules for the preservation of health, i. 251-279;\n    his Symposiacs, iii. 197-460;\n    his natural questions, 495-518;\n    on the immortality of the soul, iii. 164, iv. 169; v. 393;\n    consolatory letter to his wife, 386-394;\n    his Platonic questions, 425-449;\n    his spurious remains, 450-509.\n\n  Poet, love makes a man a, iii. 217-219.\n\n  Poetry, essay on. How a young man ought to hear poems, ii. 42-94.\n\n  Polemon, his kind reply, i. 55.\n\n  Policy or government defined, v. 396.\n\n  Political precepts, v. 97-156.\n\n  Poltys, saying of, i. 189.\n\n  Polus the tragedian, v. 69.\n\n  Polybus, of seven-months\u2019 infants, iii. 185.\n\n  Polycephalus, the nome, i. 108.\n\n  Polycratidas, apothegm of, i. 431.\n\n  Polycrita, a woman of Naxos, i. 364, 366.\n\n  Polydorus, apothegm of, i. 430.\n\n  Polyhistor, his Third Book of Italian History, v. 476.\n\n  Polymnestus, his improvements in music, i. 107, 110, 112, 123.\n\n  Polypus, why it changes color, iii. 506;\n    many-colored, v. 202.\n\n  Polysperchon\u2019s treachery, i. 64, 71.\n\n  Pompey, his great actions and sayings, i. 241 _et seq._, 290;\n    statues of, 293, v. 70, 102, 112, 114;\n    owed his success to Sylla, 115.\n\n  Porsena of Clusium, war with the Romans, v. 451, 456.\n\n  Porus, an Indian king, i. 202.\n\n  Posidonius, his opinion of fate, iii. 130;\n    of a vacuum, 137;\n    of eclipses, v. 262.\n\n  Possible and contingent defined, v. 299.\n\n  Postumia, chastity of, i. 290.\n\n  Power, necessity, &c., defined, v. 300.\n\n  Praise, inordinate, a sign of a flatterer, ii, 116, 117, 120;\n    young people are often spoiled by it, 123.\n\n  Preservation of health, rules for, i. 251-279.\n\n  Priam and Polydore, v. 465.\n\n  Price of peace, women given as the, v. 468.\n\n  Priest of Hercules, iii. 90.\n\n  Principle and element, difference between, iii. 106.\n\n  Principle of cold, v. 309-330.\n\n  Principles, what they are, iii. 106.\n\n  Prize for poets at the games, iii. 316.\n\n  Procles, tyrant of Epidaurus, puts Timarchus to death, iii. 89;\n    his own unhappy end, _ib._\n\n  Procreation of the soul as discussed in the Timaeus of Plato, ii.\n      326-367.\n\n  Progress in virtue, how it may be ascertained, ii. 446-474.\n\n  Prometheus, anecdote of, i. 289.\n\n  Proserpine, the same as Isis, iv. 88;\n    and Cora, v. 285, 286.\n\n  Prosodia, songs called, i. 106.\n\n  Protagoras quoted, i. 332.\n\n  Protogenes, iv. 257, 258, 260-265.\n\n  Providence, of God, iv. 140-188; v. 305;\n    of the inferior gods, 306;\n    of the daemons, 307, 308.\n\n  Ptolemaeus Philadelphus, i. 25.\n\n  Ptolemaeus Soter, iv. 88.\n\n  Ptolemy Lagus, anecdote of, i. 45;\n    his saying, 202; ii. 177.\n\n  Publius Decius, his dream, v. 462.\n\n  Publius Nigidius, v. 96.\n\n  Punishment of the wicked, why so long delayed, iv. 140-188.\n\n  Pupius Piso, the rhetorician, iv. 245.\n\n  Purple shell fish, v. 205.\n\n  Pylades and Orestes, their friendship, i. 465.\n\n  Pyraechmes\u2019s horses, v. 455.\n\n  Pyrander, his Fourth Book of Peloponnesian Histories, v. 474.\n\n  Pyrandrus, the commissary, v. 469.\n\n  Pyrrhon, the Stoic philosopher, anecdote of, ii. 467.\n\n  Pyrrhus the Epirot, his saying, i. 207.\n\n  Pythagoras, his aphorisms, i. 28, 29;\n    of music, 130;\n    quoted, 175;\n    aphorism, 179, 294;\n    symbols of, 454, 471;\n    his unseasonable reproof, ii. 148;\n    his joy on discovering the relation to each other of the three\n    sides of a right-angled triangle, 174;\n    his philosophical opinions: of the principles of things, iii. 109;\n    of the unity of God, 121;\n    of geniuses and heroes, 122;\n    of matter, 123;\n    of causes, 124;\n    of bodies, 126;\n    of time, 127;\n    of motion, 128;\n    of generation and corruption, 129;\n    of the world, 132-137;\n    of the zodiac, 138;\n    of the summer and winter solstice, 143;\n    of the moon, 145;\n    of the zones, 156;\n    of the soul, 161-164;\n    of the voice, 172;\n    of divination, 176;\n    of generative seed, 177;\n    of reason in animals, 187;\n    precepts of, derived his philosophy from Egyptian priests, iv. 72.\n\n  Pythagorean philosophy of dreams, daemons, ii. 412, 413.\n\n  Pythagoreans, precept of, iii. 22;\n    why they do not eat fish, 422-426.\n\n  Pytheas, his saying, i. 213; iii. 159;\n    apothegm of, v. 107, 110.\n\n  Pythes, the Lydian, i. 382.\n\n  Pythian games, iii. 316.\n\n  Pythian priestess, iv. 8, 9, 62, 63;\n    why she now ceases to deliver her oracles in verse, iii. 69-103.\n\n  Pythocles, his Third Book of Italian History, v. 460;\n    Third Book of the Georgics, 476.\n\n  Pythoclides the flute player, i. 114.\n\n  Python of Aenos, ii. 314.\n\n\n  Q.\n\n  Quarry of Carystus, iv. 54.\n\n  Questions or Causes, Second Book of, v. 475.\n\n\n  R.\n\n  Raillery, of, iii. 229-240.\n\n  Rainbow, of the, iii. 151.\n\n  Rain, snow, and hail, of, iii. 151.\n\n  Rational faculty, of the, v. 441.\n\n  Reason, beasts make use of, v. 218-233.\n\n  Reason, habit of our, iii. 166.\n\n  Remarkable speeches of some obscure men amongst the Spartans,\n      i. 432-440.\n\n  Remora or Echeneis, iii. 252.\n\n  Reproof, how to be administered, ii. 138-156.\n\n  Respiration or breathing, iii, 173.\n\n  Rhesus and Similius, v. 466.\n\n  Rhodope and Haemus, mountains, v. 491.\n\n  Riddles and their solutions, ii. 19, 20.\n\n  Roman questions, ii. 204-264.\n\n  Roman senator and his wife, iv. 233-235.\n\n  Romans, fortune of the, iv. 198-219.\n\n  Rome, saved by the cackling of geese, iv. 217;\n  favored by fortune, 219.\n\n  Romulus, his birth and education, iv. 206-208;\n    murdered in the senate, v. 470;\n    and Remus, suckled by a she-wolf, 473.\n\n  Rules for the preservation of health, i. 251-279.\n\n  Rutilius the usurer, v. 419.\n\n\n  S.\n\n  Sabinus of Galatia, iv. 308.\n\n  Sacadas, a flute player, i. 109, 110, 112.\n\n  Sacred games, garlands of, iii. 411.\n\n  Sacrificed beasts, iii. 361.\n\n  Sagaris, a river in Phrygia, v. 492.\n\n  Salmantica, women of, i. 352.\n\n  Salt and cummin, why does Homer call it divine, iii. 336.\n\n  Salt given to cattle, iii. 497;\n    not found in fruit, 498.\n\n  Sappho, i. 42, 114; ii. 506;\n    quoted, iii. 95, 263;\n    quoted, iv. 260.\n\n  Sappho\u2019s measures, grace in, iii. 74.\n\n  Sardanapalus, his luxury and lust, i. 497.\n\n  Sardians and Smyrnaeans, v. 468.\n\n  Saturn and his four children, v. 456, 457.\n\n  Satyrus the orator, i. 47.\n\n  Scamander, a river in Troas, v. 493.\n\n  Scaurus, his magnanimity, i. 295.\n\n  Scilurus, anecdote of, iv. 244.\n\n  Scipio the Elder, apothegm of, i. 229; ii. 475; iv. 201; v. 96, 112,\n      114, 136.\n\n  Scipio the Younger, his sayings and great actions, i. 235-239.\n\n  Scopas, saying of, ii. 303.\n\n  Scythinus, verses of, iii. 86.\n\n  Sea calves, of, v. 210.\n\n  Sea, of the, iii. 158;\n    ebbing and flowing of the, 159;\n    food of the, 302-306;\n    made hot by wind, 501.\n\n  Sea-sickness, iii. 502.\n\n  Sea water nourishes not trees, iii. 495;\n    upon wine, 502;\n    oil on the, 503.\n\n  Seed, nature of generative, iii. 177;\n    that fall on the oxen\u2019s horns, 368;\n    watering of, 496;\n    watered by thunder showers, 498.\n\n  Seleucus the mathematician, iii. 159.\n\n  Seleucus Callinicus, anecdote of, iv. 237.\n\n  Self-praise. How a man may inoffensively praise himself without being\n      liable to envy, ii. 306-325.\n\n  Semiramis, her saying, i. 187, 497; iv. 85.\n\n  Seneca, anecdote of, i. 53.\n\n  Senses, of the, iii. 164;\n    represent what is true, 165;\n    number of the, 165;\n    actions of the, 166.\n\n  Sentiments concerning Nature with which Philosophers were delighted,\n      iii. 104-193.\n\n  Serapio, iii. 74, 79, 81, 82.\n\n  Serapis is Pluto, iv. 88, 89.\n\n  Serpent and the Aetolian woman, v. 188.\n\n  Seven months\u2019 infants, of, iii. 184.\n\n  Seven Wise Men, Banquet of the, ii. 3-41.\n\n  Servius Tullius, his birth, elevation, and prosperous reign, iv. 212,\n      213.\n\n  Shadows, guests called, iii. 381.\n\n  Sheep bitten by wolves, iii. 254.\n\n  She-wolves, of, iii. 517.\n\n  Ships in winter, sailing of, iii. 500.\n\n  Shoe pinches, where the, ii. 494.\n\n  Sibyl with her frantic grimaces, iii. 74.\n\n  Sight, of our, iii. 168.\n\n  Silence commended, iv. 230, 243.\n\n  Simonides, quoted, i. 149, 257, 295, 305, 309, 318;\n    quoted, ii. 44, 101, 136, 436, 457, 471;\n    quoted, iii. 22, 87, 259, 409, 451, 459, 473;\n    quoted, iv. 158;\n    saying of, v. 66, 68, 71, 121.\n\n  Sipylus, mount, v. 489.\n\n  Siramnes, saying of, i. 185.\n\n  Sleep or death, causes of, iii. 188;\n    whether it appertains to the soul or body, 189.\n\n  Smelling, of, iii. 170.\n\n  Smyrna and Cinyras, v. 464.\n\n  Snow, preservation of, iii. 350.\n\n  Soclarus, iv. 292; v. 156, 158, 160, 166, 169, 170, 171, 216.\n\n  Socrates, anecdotes of, i. 11, 13, 23, 26, 38, 53, 141, 150, 162;\n    rules of health, 255;\n    quoted, 307, 310, 312, 337; ii. 46, 148, 150, 338, 441;\n    his Daemon, 378-423, 441, 495; iii. 4, 19, 35, 112, 121, 123,\n      iv. 249; v. 93, 359, 361, 362-364, 377, 381.\n\n  Socrates, his Second Book of Thracian History, v. 462.\n\n  Soil, deep, for wheat, iii. 504;\n    lean soil for barley, 504.\n\n  Solon and Croesus, anecdote of, ii. 122.\n\n  Solon, quoted, i. 155, 297;\n    at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41;\n    quoted, 297, 454, 487;\n    quoted, iii. 50; iv. 72;\n    quoted, 260;\n    anecdote of, 304; v. 89, 113, 117, 118, 131.\n\n  Sophocles, quoted, i. 46, 57, 244, 288;\n    Thamyras, 39;\n    Frag., 58, 63;\n    Tyre, 206, 467;\n    Antig., 51, 462;\n    Oed. Tyr., 179, 470;\n    quoted, ii. 45, 57, 61, 72;\n    criticisms on, 72;\n    Frag., 173, 241, 244, 298, 431, 452, 456, 470, 495;\n    Oed. Tyr., 60, 172, 442, 476, 495;\n    Antig., 110;\n    Trachin., 311;\n    Electra, 440;\n    quoted, iii. 97, 210, 222;\n    Frag., 7;\n    Antig. 45;\n    Oed. Tyr., 235, 474;\n    Oed. Col., 232;\n    Electra, 437;\n    quoted, iv. 87, 246, 287, 304;\n    Oed. Tyr., 197, 202;\n    Trachin., 281;\n    Antig., 239, 283, 404;\n    Frag., 221, 226, 274, 284, 301;\n    quoted, v. 69, 76, 158, 216;\n    Oed. Col., 68;\n    Frag., 75, 84;\n    anecdote of, 68.\n\n  Sostratus, his Second Book of Tuscan History, v. 468.\n\n  Sotades, jest of, i. 25.\n\n  Soterichus, the musician, i. 103, 112.\n\n  Soul of Ajax, her place in hell, iii. 442.\n\n  Soul or body, death appertains to, iii. 189.\n\n  Soul, procreation of the, ii. 326-367;\n    its nature and essence, iii. 161, 163;\n    parts of the, 162;\n    in what part of the body it resides, 163;\n    motion of the, 163;\n    immortality of the, 164;\n    principal part of the, 173;\n    three sorts of motion in the, v. 371;\n    state of, after death, 393, 394;\n    ancienter than the body, 432.\n\n  Souls dispersed into the earth, moon, &c., v. 438.\n\n  Sounds in the night and day, iii. 406.\n\n  Sows, tame and wild, iii. 508.\n\n  Space, of, iii. 127.\n\n  Sparta had an oligarchy, v. 397.\n\n  Speech composed of nouns and verbs, v. 444.\n\n  Speech of a statesman, what it should be, v. 107.\n\n  Sperm, whether it be a body, iii. 177.\n\n  Spermatic emission of women, iii. 177.\n\n  Sphodrias, v. 118.\n\n  Spiders, labor of the, v. 174.\n\n  Sponge, of the, v. 205.\n\n  Spurious remains of Plutarch, v. 450-509.\n\n  Star-fish, subtlety of the, v. 201.\n\n  Stark drunk, those that are, iii. 281.\n\n  Stars, essence of the, iii. 138;\n    what figure they are, 139;\n    order and place of, 139;\n    motion and circulation of, 140;\n    whence do they receive their light, 140;\n    which are called the Dioscuri, the twins, or Castor and Pollux, 141;\n    how they prognosticate, 141;\n    number of the, whether odd or even, 446.\n\n  Stasicrates proposes to turn Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander,\n      i. 495.\n\n  Stesichorus, i. 109, 112; iv. 497.\n\n  Steward of a feast, iii. 212-216.\n\n  Stilpo, the philosopher, i. 13, 76, 144, 161;\n    anecdote of, ii. 468;\n    defended, v. 365-367.\n\n  Stoics speak greater improbabilities than the poets, iii. 194-196;\n    their opinions concerning daemons, iv. 24;\n    common conceptions against the, 372-427;\n    contradictions of the, 428-477.\n\n  Strabo, quoted, i. 27.\n\n  Strato, i. 155; iii. 163; v. 161.\n\n  Stratonica of Galatia, i. 373.\n\n  Stratonicus, anecdote of, ii. 298; iii. 21.\n\n  Strymon, a river in Thrace, v. 491.\n\n  Summer and winter, cause of, iii. 141.\n\n  Summer and winter solstice, iii. 143.\n\n  Sun, essence of the, iii. 141;\n    magnitude of the, 142;\n    figure or shape of the, 143;\n    turning and returning of the, 143;\n    eclipses of the, 144.\n\n  Superstition of the Gauls, Scythians, and Carthaginians, i. 182, 183.\n\n  Superstition, or indiscreet devotion, i. 168-184;\n    folly of, ii. 387.\n\n  Supper, many guests at, iii. 323.\n\n  Supper-room, why too narrow at first for guests, iii. 326.\n\n  Suppers of the ancients, iii. 255-259.\n\n  Swallows in the house, iii. 419;\n    intelligence of the, v. 174.\n\n  Sylla, i. 32-35;\n    anecdote of, v. 72, 115, 135.\n\n  Symposiacs, or table discourses, iii. 197-460.\n\n  Synorix and Camma, iv. 302.\n\n\n  T.\n\n  Table, dignity of places at, iii. 210-212.\n\n  Tables and lamps of the ancients, iii. 372.\n\n  Talkativeness, or garrulity, iv. 220-253.\n\n  Talk, deliberate or tumultuous, iii. 395.\n\n  Tanais, a river in Scythia, v. 494.\n\n  Tarpeia, a virgin, the story of, v. 460.\n\n  Taste, of, iii. 170.\n\n  Taxiles of India, i. 201.\n\n  Taygetus, mount, v. 498.\n\n  Tears of the hart, iii. 507.\n\n  Tears of wild boars, iii. 507.\n\n  Telamon and Periboea, v. 467.\n\n  Telamon and Phocus, v. 466.\n\n  Telecrus, apothegm of, i. 431.\n\n  Telegonus, son of Ulysses, v. 476.\n\n  Telephanes of Megara, i. 117.\n\n  Telephus, i. 289.\n\n  Telesias the Theban, an eminent flute-player, i. 125.\n\n  Telesphorus, in an iron cage, iii. 31.\n\n  Temple of Apollo, iv. 478-498.\n\n  Teres, his saying, i. 189.\n\n  Teribazus, anecdote of, i. 176.\n\n  Terpander, the musician, fined by the Ephori, and why? i. 91, 92;\n    an inventor of ancient music, 102, 105, 109;\n    an excellent composer to the harp, 106, 112;\n    added the octave to the heptachord, 102, 122.\n\n  Teuthras, mount, v. 504.\n\n  Thales, at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41;\n    first of philosophers; the Ionic sect took its denomination from\n      him, iii. 107;\n    his philosophical opinions; difference between a principle and an\n      element, 106;\n    that the intelligence of the world was God, 121;\n    of geniuses and heroes, 122;\n    of division of bodies, 126;\n    of necessity, 129;\n    of the division of heaven, 137;\n    of the eclipses of the sun, 144;\n    that the moon borrows her light from the sun, 146;\n    that the earth is globular, and the centre of the universe, 155;\n    of earthquakes, 157;\n    of the overflow of the Nile, 160;\n    of the soul, 161; iv. 337, 480.\n\n  Thaletas, a composer, i. 110, 112;\n    power of his music, 133.\n\n  Thamyras, the singer, i. 105.\n\n  Theanor, ii. 395, 396.\n\n  Thebes, liberation of, ii. 414-423.\n\n  Thectamenes, apothegm of, i. 411.\n\n  Themisteas, apothegm of, i. 410.\n\n  Themistocles, quoted, i. 73;\n    his saying, 208;\n    suspected of treason, 290, 296, 480;\n    quoted, ii. 97, 311, 471;\n    his kind reception by the Persian king, iii. 21, 30; iv. 208, 361,\n      365; v. 101, 116, 120, 121, 127.\n\n  Theo, iii. 70, 71, 74, 88.\n\n  Theocritus, his remark and death, i. 25, 73; ii. 380; iii. 516.\n\n  Theodorus, saying of, i. 142; ii. 321, 349; iii. 31;\n    his Book of Transformations, v. 464.\n\n  Theognis, i. 473; ii. 59; iii. 506.\n\n  Theon, ii. 157 _et seq._; v. 273-275.\n\n  Theophilus, his Third Book of Italian History, v. 459;\n    Second Book of Peloponnesian Histories, 470.\n\n  Theophrastus, sayings of, i. 276, 304, 442; ii. 303; iii. 45, 64,\n      218, 219, 334; v. 202, 427.\n\n  Theopompus, his sayings, i. 217, 410; v. 137.\n\n  Theotimus, his Italian History, v. 456.\n\n  Theramenes, anecdote\n    of, i. 306.\n\n  Thermodon, a river in Scythia, v. 495.\n\n  Thero, anecdote of, iv. 286.\n\n  Theseus and his son Hippolytus, v. 471.\n\n  Thespesius, iv. 177, 182 _et seq._, 188.\n\n  Thirst, cause of, iii. 341.\n\n  Thorycion, apothegm of, i. 411.\n\n  Thrasonides quoted, ii. 297.\n\n  Thucydides, quoted, i. 70, 76, 472, 490;\n    quoted, ii. 98, 117, 149, 152, 458;\n    quoted, iii. 88;\n    quoted, iv. 141;\n    quoted, v. 65, 106, 403.\n\n  Thunder, of, iii. 150.\n\n  Thymbris, and his son Rustius, v. 466.\n\n  Tides, of, iii. 159.\n\n  Tigris, the river, v. 507.\n\n  Timaeus, his opinion of tides, iii. 159.\n\n  Timesias, the oracle and, i. 471;\n  anecdote of, v. 127.\n\n  Time, essence and nature of, iii. 127, 128.\n\n  Timoclea, at the taking of Thebes, i. 376.\n\n  Timoleon, ii. 314.\n\n  Timotheus, the musician, anecdote of, i. 92, 106, 112; ii. 83, 306;\n      v. 76.\n\n  Titus Quinctius, apothegm of, i. 230.\n\n  Tmolus, mount, v. 486.\n\n  Torpedo, or crampfish, v. 201.\n\n  Torquatus and Clusia, v. 459.\n\n  Tortoise, their care for their young, v. 209.\n\n  Training of children, i. 3-32.\n\n  Tranquillity of the mind, the, i. 136-167.\n\n  Transmutation of bodies, v. 14.\n\n  Trees and seeds, watering of, iii. 496.\n\n  Trees not nourished by sea-water, iii. 495.\n\n  Triangles, of, v. 433.\n\n  Trisimachus, his book of Foundations of Cities, v. 455.\n\n  Trochilus and crocodile, v. 206.\n\n  Troilus wept less than Priam, i. 323.\n\n  Trojan women, virtue of the, i. 342.\n\n  Trophonius and Agamedes, i. 313.\n\n  True friendship, of, i. 464-474; ii. 100-134.\n\n  True happiness, of, v. 392.\n\n  Tullus Hostilius, v. 455.\n\n  Tunnies, dim sight of the, v. 204.\n\n  Typhon, in Egyptian mythology, iv. 80, 81, 86, 88, 91, 92,\n      99, 101, 105, 110, 114, 118, 122.\n\n  Tyrrhene women, virtue of the, i. 349.\n\n\n  U.\n\n  Ulysses, i. 160;\n    in the island of Circe, v. 218 _et seq._\n\n  Unity of God. Of the word \u03b5\u1f30 engraven over the gate of the temple of\n      Apollo at Delphi, iv. 478-498.\n\n\n\n\n  Universe, whether it is one, iii. 114;\n    division of the, v. 429.\n\n  Unlearned Prince, Discourse to an, iv. 323-330.\n\n  Usurers, what sort of men they are, 417.\n\n  Usury, evils of, v. 412-424.\n\n\n  V.\n\n  Vacuum, of a, iii. 126;\n    there can be none in nature, iv. 33;\n    suppose there were, it would have no beginning, middle, or end, 34.\n\n  Valeria and Cloelia, i. 356.\n\n  Valeria Tusculanaria, v. 464.\n\n  Valerius Conatus swallowed up alive, v. 455.\n\n  Venus\u2019s hands wounded by Diomedes, iii. 441.\n\n  Verses seasonably and unseasonably applied, iii. 436.\n\n  Vice and virtue, ii. 482-485.\n\n  Vice, whether it is sufficient to render a man unhappy, iv. 499-503.\n\n  Vines irrigated with wine, iii. 513;\n    rank of leaves, iii. 513.\n\n  Virtue and vice, ii. 482-485.\n\n  Virtue may be taught, i. 78-81.\n\n  Virtue or fortune, to which of these was due the greatness and glory\n      of Rome? iv. 198-219.\n\n  Virtue, progress in, ii. 446-474.\n\n  Virtues of women, i. 340-384.\n\n  Vision, doctrine of, iii. 168; v. 236 _et seq._\n\n  Voice is incorporeal, iii. 172.\n\n  Voice, of the, iii. 171.\n\n  Vowels and semi-vowels, iii. 438.\n\n\n  W.\n\n  Water made colder by stones and lead, iii. 348.\n\n  Water or fire, which is more useful? v. 331-337.\n\n  Water, white and black, iii. 518.\n\n  Wealth, the love of, ii. 294-305.\n\n  Well water, change of the temperature in, iii. 347.\n\n  West wind the swiftest, iii, 515.\n\n  Whale, of the, v. 207.\n\n  Wheat, sow, in clay, iii. 505.\n\n  Whether an aged man ought to meddle in state affairs, v. 64-96.\n\n  Whether the passions of the soul, or diseases of the body, are\n      worse, iv. 504-508.\n\n  Whether \u2019twere rightly said, \u201cLive concealed,\u201d iii. 3-10.\n\n  Whether vice is sufficient to render a man unhappy, iv. 499-503.\n\n  Whirlwinds, of, iii. 150.\n\n  Why the oracles cease to give answers, iv. 3-64.\n\n  Wicked, delay of Providence in punishing the, iv. 140-188.\n\n  Widows in India, iv. 502.\n\n  Wild beasts, steps of, iii. 509;\n  their tracks, 509.\n\n  Wild boars, tears of the, iii. 507.\n\n  Winds, of, iii. 154.\n\n  Wine, whether it is potentially cold, iii. 272-274;\n    straining of, 351;\n    middle of, 370;\n    sea water upon, 502;\n    irrigation with, 513.\n\n  Winter and summer, cause of, iii. 141, 154.\n\n  Winter, ships in, iii. 500;\n    sea least hot in, 501.\n\n  Wise Men, the Seven, Banquet of, ii. 3-41;\n    their names, iv. 480.\n\n  Woman, of Pergamus, i. 374.\n\n  Woman of Thessaly torn in pieces by dogs, v. 463.\n\n  Women, the virtues of, i. 340-384;\n    barrenness in, iii. 181;\n    are hardly foxed, 268-270;\n    temper of, 270-272;\n    given as the price of peace, v. 468.\n\n  Word \u03b5\u03b9 at Apollo\u2019s temple at Delphi. iv. 478-498.\n\n  World, how it was brought into its present order, iii. 113.\n\n  World, of the, iii. 132;\n    figure of the, 133;\n    whether it be an animal, 133;\n    whether it is eternal and incorruptible, 133;\n    its nutriment, 134;\n    from what element was it raised, 134;\n    in what form and order was it composed, 135;\n    cause of its inclination, 136;\n    thing which is beyond the, 136;\n    what parts on the right and left hand, 137.\n\n  Worlds, plurality of, iv. 29-38.\n\n  Wrestling, of, iii. 246.\n\n\n  X.\n\n  Xanthippe, wife of Socrates, anecdotes of, i. 53, 292.\n\n  Xenaenetus, v. 109.\n\n  Xenocrates, anecdote of; i. 71, 442;\n    his opinions concerning the soul, ii. 327, 439;\n    of triangles, iii. 24, 139, 494;\n    his opinion about daemons, iv. 17, 87;\n    saying of, v. 10, 494.\n\n  Xenocritus, a composer, i. 110, 380.\n\n  Xenodamus, a composer, i. 110.\n\n  Xenophanes, his reply, i. 65, 183;\n    his philosophical opinions, iii. 134, 138, 141, 144, 145, 150, 155;\n    quoted, ii. 49; iv. 291.\n\n  Xenophon, quoted, i. 137;\n    maxim of, 281, 333, 447; ii. 115, 144, 178, 307;\n    the scene of his old age, iii. 24; v. 67, 72, 121, 139.\n\n  Xerxes, his saying, i. 39, 187;\n    and Arimanes, iii. 59, 60;\n    invasion of Greece, v. 451, 452.\n\n\n  Y.\n\n  Year, length of, in different planets, iii. 147.\n\n\n  Z.\n\n  Zaleucus, laws of, ii. 315.\n\n  Zaratas, ii. 327.\n\n  Zeno, saying of, i. 56;\n    anecdotes of, 72, 142, 283; ii. 321, 365, 455;\n    quoted, 467, 481; iii. 25, 113, 125, 128;\n    his definition of virtue, 462;\n    anecdote of, iv. 225; v. 382.\n\n  Zenocrates, v. 288, 377, 441.\n\n  Zeuxidamus, apothegm of, i. 410.\n\n  Zeuxippus, dialogue on health, i. 251-279; ii. 157 _et seq._;\n      iv. 270, 278, 288.\n\n  Zeuxis, reply of, i. 468.\n\n  Zopyrus Byzantius, his Third Book of Histories, v. 473.\n\n  Zoroaster, ii. 357; iv. 106.","title":"Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of \"Morals\"","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":196198}