PREFACE.
ON EDUCATION.
ON LOVE TO ONE'S OFFSPRING.
ON LOVE.
CONJUGAL PRECEPTS.
CONSOLATORY LETTER TO HIS WIFE.
THAT VIRTUE MAY BE TAUGHT.
ON VIRTUE AND VICE.
ON MORAL VIRTUE.
HOW ONE MAY BE AWARE OF ONE'S PROGRESS IN VIRTUE.
WHETHER THE DISORDERS OF MIND OR BODY ARE WORSE.
ON ABUNDANCE OF FRIENDS.
HOW ONE MAY DISCERN A FLATTERER FROM A FRIEND.
480.
HOW A MAN MAY BE BENEFITED BY HIS ENEMIES.
ON RESTRAINING ANGER.
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN SYLLA AND FUNDANUS.
PLUTARCH SENDS GREETING TO PACCIUS.
ON ENVY AND HATRED.
HOW ONE CAN PRAISE ONESELF WITHOUT EXCITING ENVY.
ON THOSE WHO ARE PUNISHED BY THE DEITY LATE.
AGAINST BORROWING MONEY.
WHETHER "LIVE UNKNOWN" BE A WISE PRECEPT.
ON FORTUNE.
ON EDUCATION.
§
i. Come let us consider what one might say on the education of free
children, and by what training they would become good citizens.§
ii. It is perhaps best to begin with birth: I would therefore warn
those who desire to be fathers of notable sons, not to form
connections with any kind of women, such as courtesans or mistresses:
for those who either on the father or mother's side are ill-born have
the disgrace of their origin all their life long irretrievably
present with them, and offer a ready handle to abuse and
vituperation. So that the poet was wise, who said, "Unless the
foundation of a house be well laid, the descendants must of necessity
be unfortunate."3
Good birth indeed brings with it a store of assurance, which ought to
be greatly valued by all who desire legitimate offspring. For the
spirit of those who are a spurious and bastard breed is apt to be
mean and abject: for as the poet truly says, "It makes a man
even of noble spirit servile, when he is conscious of the ill fame of
either his father or mother."4
On the other hand the sons of illustrious parents are full of pride
and arrogance. As an instance of this it is recorded of Diophantus,5
the son of Themistocles, that he often used to say to various people
"that he could do what he pleased with the Athenian people, for
what he wished his mother wished, and what she wished Themistocles
wished, and what Themistocles wished all the Athenians wished."
All praise also ought we to bestow on the Lacedæmonians for their
loftiness of soul in fining their king Archidamus for venturing to
marry a small woman, for they charged him with intending to furnish
them not with kings but kinglets.§
iii. Next must we mention, what was not overlooked even by those who
handled this subject before us, that those who approach their wives
for procreation must do so either without having drunk any wine or at
least very little. For those children, that their parents begot in
drink, are wont to be fond of wine and apt to turn out drunkards. And
so Diogenes, seeing a youth out of his mind and crazy, said, "Young
man, your father was drunk when he begot you." Let this hint
serve as to procreation: now let us discuss education.§
iv. To speak generally, what we are wont to say about the arts and
sciences is also true of moral excellence, for to its perfect
development three things must meet together, natural ability, theory,
and practice. By theory I mean training, and by practice working at
one's craft. Now the foundation must be laid in training, and
practice gives facility, but perfection is attained only by the
junction of all three. For if any one of these elements be wanting,
excellence must be so far deficient. For natural ability without
training is blind: and training without natural ability is defective,
and practice without both natural ability and training is imperfect.
For just as in farming the first requisite is good soil, next a good
farmer, next good seed, so also here: the soil corresponds to natural
ability, the training to the farmer, the seed to precepts and
instruction. I should therefore maintain stoutly that these three
elements were found combined in the souls of such universally famous
men as Pythagoras, and Socrates, and Plato, and of all who have won
undying fame. Happy at any rate and dear to the gods is he to whom
any deity has vouchsafed all these elements! But if anyone thinks
that those who have not good natural ability cannot to some extent
make up for the deficiencies of nature by right training and
practice, let such a one know that he is very wide of the mark, if
not out of it altogether. For good natural parts are impaired by
sloth; while inferior ability is mended by training: and while simple
things escape the eyes of the careless, difficult things are reached
by painstaking. The wonderful efficacy and power of long and
continuous labour you may see indeed every day in the world around
you.6
Thus water continually dropping wears away rocks: and iron and steel
are moulded by the hands of the artificer: and chariot wheels bent by
some strain can never recover their original symmetry: and the
crooked staves of actors can never be made straight. But by toil what
is contrary to nature becomes stronger than even nature itself. And
are these the only things that teach the power of diligence? Not so:
ten thousand things teach the same truth. A soil naturally good
becomes by neglect barren, and the better its original condition, the
worse its ultimate state if uncared for. On the other hand a soil
exceedingly rough and sterile by being farmed well produces excellent
crops. And what trees do not by neglect become gnarled and
unfruitful, whereas by pruning they become fruitful and productive?
And what constitution so good but it is marred and impaired by sloth,
luxury, and too full habit? And what weak constitution has not
derived benefit from exercise and athletics? And what horses broken
in young are not docile to their riders? while if they are not broken
in till late they become hard-mouthed and unmanageable. And why
should we be surprised at similar cases, seeing that we find many of
the savagest animals docile and tame by training? Rightly answered
the Thessalian, who was asked who the mildest Thessalians were,
"Those who have done with fighting."7
But why pursue the line of argument further? For the Greek name for
moral virtue is only habit: and if anyone defines moral virtues as
habitual virtues, he will not be beside the mark. But I will employ
only one more illustration, and dwell no longer on this topic.
Lycurgus, the Lacedæmonian legislator, took two puppies of the same
parents, and brought them up in an entirely different way: the one he
pampered and cosseted up, while he taught the other to hunt and be a
retriever. Then on one occasion, when the Lacedæmonians were
convened in assembly, he said, "Mighty, O Lacedæmonians, is the
influence on moral excellence of habit, and education, and training,
and modes of life, as I will prove to you at once." So saying he
produced the two puppies, and set before them a platter and a hare:
the one darted on the hare, while the other made for the platter. And
when the Lacedæmonians could not guess what his meaning was, or with
what intent he had produced the puppies, he said, "These puppies
are of the same parents, but by virtue of a different bringing up the
one is pampered, and the other a good hound." Let so much
suffice for habit and modes of life.§
v. The next point to discuss will be nutrition. In my opinion mothers
ought to nurse and suckle their own children. For they will bring
them up with more sympathy and care, if they love them so intimately
and, as the proverb puts it, "from their first growing their
nails."8
Whereas the affection of wet or dry nurses is spurious and
counterfeit, being merely for pay. And nature itself teaches that
mothers ought themselves to suckle and rear those they have given
birth to. And for that purpose she has supplied every female parent
with milk. And providence has wisely provided women with two breasts,
so that if they should bear twins, they would have a breast for each.
And besides this, as is natural enough, they would feel more
affection and love for their children by suckling them. For this
supplying them with food is as it were a tightener of love, for even
the brute creation, if taken away from their young, pine away, as we
constantly see. Mothers must therefore, as I said, certainly try to
suckle their own children: but if they are unable to do so either
through physical weakness (for this contingency sometimes occurs), or
in haste to have other children, they must select wet and dry nurses
with the greatest care, and not introduce into their houses any kind
of women. First and foremost they must be Greeks in their habits. For
just as it is necessary immediately after birth to shapen the limbs
of children, so that they may grow straight and not crooked, so from
the beginning must their habits be carefully attended to. For infancy
is supple and easily moulded, and what children learn sinks deeply
into their souls while they are young and tender, whereas everything
hard is softened only with great difficulty. For just as seals are
impressed on soft wax, so instruction leaves its permanent mark on
the minds of those still young. And divine Plato seems to me to give
excellent advice to nurses not to tell their children any kind of
fables, that their souls may not in the very dawn of existence be
full of folly or corruption.9
Phocylides the poet also seems to give admirable advice when he says,
"We must teach good habits while the pupil is still a boy."§
vi. Attention also must he given to this point, that the lads that
are to wait upon and be with young people must be first and foremost
of good morals, and able to speak Greek distinctly and idiomatically,
that they may not by contact with foreigners of loose morals contract
any of their viciousness. For as those who are fond of quoting
proverbs say not amiss, "If you live with a lame man, you will
learn to halt."10§
vii. Next, when our boys are old enough to be put into the hands of
tutors,11
great care must be taken that we do not hand them over to slaves, or
foreigners, or flighty persons. For what happens nowadays in many
cases is highly ridiculous: good slaves are made farmers, or sailors,
or merchants, or stewards, or money-lenders; but if they find a
winebibbing, greedy, and utterly useless slave, to him parents commit
the charge of their sons, whereas the good tutor ought to be such a
one as was Phœnix, the tutor of Achilles. The point also which I am
now going to speak about is of the utmost importance. The
schoolmasters we ought to select for our boys should be of blameless
life, of pure character, and of great experience. For a good training
is the source and root of gentlemanly behaviour. And just as farmers
prop up their trees, so good schoolmasters prop up the young by good
advice and suggestions, that they may become upright. How one must
despise, therefore, some fathers, who, whether from ignorance or
inexperience, before putting the intended teachers to the test,
commit their sons to the charge of untried and untested men. If they
act so through inexperience it is not so ridiculous; but it is to the
remotest degree absurd when, though perfectly aware of both the
inexperience and worthlessness of some schoolmasters, they yet
entrust their sons to them; some overcome by flattery, others to
gratify friends who solicit their favours; acting just as if anybody
ill in body, passing over the experienced physician, should, to
gratify his friend, call him in, and so throw away his life; or as if
to gratify one's friend one should reject the best pilot and choose
him instead. Zeus and all the gods! can anyone bearing the sacred
name of father put obliging a petitioner before obtaining the best
education for his sons? Were they not then wise words that the
time-honoured Socrates used to utter, and say that he would proclaim,
if he could, climbing up to the highest part of the city, "Men,
what can you be thinking of, who move heaven and earth to make money,
while you bestow next to no attention on the sons you are going to
leave that money to?"12
I would add to this that such fathers act very similarly to a person
who should be very careful about his shoe but care nothing about his
foot. Many persons also are so niggardly about their children, and
indifferent to their interests, that for the sake of a paltry saving,
they prefer worthless teachers for their children, practising a vile
economy at the expense of their children's ignorance.
Apropos of this,
Aristippus on one occasion rebuked an empty-headed parent neatly and
wittily. For being asked how much money a parent ought to pay for his
son's education, he answered, "A thousand drachmæ." And he
replying, "Hercules, what a price! I could buy a slave for as
much;" Aristippus answered, "You shall have two slaves
then, your son and the slave you buy."13
And is it not altogether strange that you accustom your son to take
his food in his right hand, and chide him if he offers his left,
whereas you care very little about his hearing good and sound
discourses? I will tell you what happens to such admirable fathers,
when they have educated and brought up their sons so badly: when the
sons grow to man's estate, they disregard a sober and well-ordered
life, and rush headlong into disorderly and low vices; then at the
last the parents are sorry they have neglected their education,
bemoaning bitterly when it is too late their sons' debasement. For
some of them keep flatterers and parasites in their retinue—an
accursed set of wretches, the defilers and pest of youth; others keep
mistresses and common prostitutes, wanton and costly; others waste
their money in eating; others come to grief through dice and
revelling; some even go in for bolder profligacy, being whoremongers
and defilers of the marriage bed,14
who would madly pursue their darling vice if it cost them their
lives. Had they associated with some philosopher, they would not have
lowered themselves by such practices, but would have remembered the
precept of Diogenes, whose advice sounds rather low, but is really of
excellent moral intent,15
"Go into a brothel, my lad, that you may see the little
difference between vice and virtue."§
viii. I say, then, to speak comprehensively (and I might be justly
considered in so saying to speak as an oracle, not to be delivering a
mere precept), that a good education and sound bringing-up is of the
first and middle and last importance; and I declare it to be most
instrumental and conducive to virtue and happiness. For all other
human blessings compared to this are petty and insignificant. For
noble birth is a great honour, but it is an advantage from our
forefathers. And wealth is valuable, but it is the acquisition of
fortune, who has often taken it away from those who had it, and
brought it to those who little expected it; and much wealth is a sort
of mark for villanous slaves and informers to shoot at to fill their
own purses; and, what is a most important point, even the greatest
villains have money sometimes. And glory is noble, but insecure. And
beauty is highly desirable, but shortlived. And health is highly
valuable, but soon impaired. And strength is desirable, but illness
or age soon made sad inroads into it. And generally speaking, if
anyone prides himself on his bodily strength, let him know that he is
deficient in judgment. For how much inferior is the strength of a man
to that of animals, as elephants, bulls, and lions! But education is
of all our advantages the only one immortal and divine. And two of
the most powerful agencies in man's nature are mind and reason. And
mind governs reason, and reason obeys mind; and mind is irremovable
by fortune, cannot be taken away by informers, cannot be destroyed by
disease, cannot have inroads made into it by old age. For the mind
alone flourishes in age; and while time takes away everything else,
it adds wisdom to old age. Even war, that sweeps away everything else
like a winter torrent, cannot take away education. And Stilpo, the
Megarian, seems to me to have made a memorable answer when Demetrius
enslaved Megara and rased it to the ground. On his asking whether
Stilpo had lost anything, he replied, "Certainly not, for war
can make no havoc of virtue." Corresponding and consonant to
this is the answer of Socrates, who when asked, I think by Gorgias,16
if he had any conception as to the happiness of the King of Persia,
replied, "I do not know his position in regard to virtue and
education: for happiness lies in these, and not in adventitious
advantages."§
ix. And as I advise parents to think nothing more important than the
education of their children, so I maintain that it must be a sound
and healthy education, and that our sons must be kept as far as
possible from vulgar twaddle. For what pleases the vulgar displeases
the wise. I am borne out by the lines of Euripides, "Unskilled
am I in the oratory that pleases the mob; but amongst the few that
are my equals I am reckoned rather wise. For those who are little
thought of by the wise, seem to hit the taste of the vulgar."17
And I have myself noticed that those who practise to speak acceptably
and to the gratification of the masses promiscuously, for the most
part become also profligate and lovers of pleasure in their lives.
Naturally enough. For if in giving pleasure to others they neglect
the noble, they would be hardly likely to put the lofty and sound
above a life of luxury and pleasure, and to prefer moderation to
delights. Yet what better advice could we give our sons than to
follow this? or to what could we better exhort them to accustom
themselves? For perfection is only attained by neither speaking nor
acting at random—as the proverb says,
Perfection is only attained by practice.18
Whereas extempore oratory is easy and facile, mere windbag, having
neither beginning nor end. And besides their other shortcomings
extempore speakers fall into great disproportion and repetition,
whereas a well considered speech preserves its due proportions. It is
recorded by tradition that Pericles, when called on by the people for
a speech, frequently refused on the plea that he was unprepared.
Similarly Demosthenes, his state-rival, when the Athenians called
upon him for his advice, refused to give it, saying, "I am not
prepared." But this you will say, perhaps, is mere tradition
without authority. But in his speech against Midias he plainly sets
forth the utility of preparation, for he says, "I do not deny,
men of Athens, that I have prepared this speech to the best of my
ability: for I should have been a poor creature if, after suffering
so much at his hands, and even still suffering, I had neglected how
to plead my case."19
Not that I would altogether reject extempore oratory, or its use in
critical cases, but it should be used only as one would take
medicine.20
Up, indeed, to man's estate I would have no extempore speaking, but
when anyone's powers of speech are rooted and grounded, then, as
emergencies call for it, I would allow his words to flow freely. For
as those who have been for a long time in fetters stumble if
unloosed, not being able to walk from being long used to their
fetters, so those who for a long time have used compression in their
words, if they are suddenly called upon to speak off-hand, retain the
same character of expression. But to let mere lads speak extempore is
to give rise to the acme of foolish talk. A wretched painter once
showed Apelles, they say, a picture, and said, "I have just done
it." Apelles replied, "Without your telling me, I should
know it was painted quickly; I only wonder you haven't painted more
such in the time." As then (for I now return from my
digression), I advise to avoid stilted and bombastic language, so
again do I urge to avoid a finical and petty style of speech; for
tall talk is unpopular, and petty language makes no impression. And
as the body ought to be not only sound but in good condition, so
speech ought to be not only not feeble but vigorous. For a safe
mediocrity is indeed praised, but a bold venturesomeness is also
admired. I am also of the same opinion with regard to the disposition
of the soul, which ought to be neither audacious nor timid and easily
dejected: for the one ends in impudence and the other in servility;
but to keep in all things the mean between extremes is artistic and
proper. And, while I am still on this topic, I wish to give my
opinion, that I regard a monotonous speech first as no small proof of
want of taste, next as likely to generate disdain, and certain not to
please long. For to harp on one string is always tiresome and brings
satiety; whereas variety is pleasant always whether to the ear or
eye.§
x. Next our freeborn lad ought to go in for a course of what is
called general knowledge, but a smattering of this will be
sufficient, a taste as it were (for perfect knowledge of all subjects
would be impossible); but he must seriously cultivate philosophy. I
borrow an illustration to show my meaning: it is well to sail round
many cities, but advantageous to live in the best. It was a witty
remark of the philosopher Bion,21
that, as those suitors who could not seduce Penelope took up with her
maids as a pis
aller, so those who
cannot attain philosophy wear themselves out in useless pursuits.
Philosophy, therefore, ought to be regarded as the most important
branch of study. For as regards the cure of the body, men have found
two branches, medicine and exercise: the former of which gives
health, and the latter good condition of body; but philosophy is the
only cure for the maladies and disorders of the soul. For with her as
ruler and guide we can know what is honourable, what is disgraceful;
what is just, what unjust; generally speaking, what is to be sought
after, what to be avoided; how we ought to behave to the gods, to
parents, to elders, to the laws, to foreigners, to rulers, to
friends, to women, to children, to slaves: viz., that we ought to
worship the gods, honour parents, reverence elders, obey the laws,
submit ourselves to rulers, love our friends, be chaste in our
relations with women, kind to our children, and not to treat our
slaves badly; and, what is of the greatest importance, to be neither
over elated in prosperity nor over depressed in adversity,22
nor to be dissolute in pleasures, nor fierce and brutish in anger.
These I regard as the principal blessings that philosophy teaches.
For to enjoy prosperity nobly shows a man; and to enjoy it without
exciting envy shows a moderate man; and to conquer the passions by
reason argues a wise man; and it is not everybody who can keep his
temper in control. And those who can unite political ability with
philosophy I regard as perfect men, for I take them to attain two of
the greatest blessings, serving the state in a public capacity, and
living the calm and tranquil life of philosophy. For, as there are
three kinds of life, the practical, the contemplative, and the life
of enjoyment, and of these three the one devoted to enjoyment is a
paltry and animal life, and the practical without philosophy an
unlovely and harsh life, and the contemplative without the practical
a useless life, so we must endeavour with all our power to combine
public life with philosophy as far as circumstances will permit. Such
was the life led by Pericles, by Archytas of Tarentum, by Dion of
Syracuse, by Epaminondas the Theban, one of whom was a disciple of
Plato (viz., Dion). And as to education, I do not know that I need
dwell any more on it. But in addition to what I have said, it is
useful, if not necessary, not to neglect to procure old books, and to
make a collection of them, as is usual in agriculture. For the use of
books is an instrument in education, and it is profitable in learning
to go to the fountain head.§
xi. Exercise also ought not to be neglected, but we ought to send our
boys to the master of the gymnasium to train them duly, partly with a
view to carrying the body well, partly with a view to strength. For
good habit of body in boys is the foundation of a good old age. For
as in fine weather we ought to lay up for winter, so in youth one
ought to form good habits and live soberly so as to have a reserve
stock of strength for old age. Yet ought we to husband the exertions
of the body, so as not to be wearied out by them and rendered unfit
for study. For, as Plato says,23
excessive sleep and fatigue are enemies to learning. But why dwell on
this? For I am in a hurry to pass to the most important point. Our
lads must be trained for warlike encounters, making themselves
efficient in hurling the javelin and darts, and in the chase. For the
possessions of those who are defeated in battle belong to the
conquerors as booty of war; and war is not the place for delicately
brought up bodies: it is the spare warrior that makes the best
combatant, who as an athlete cuts his way through the ranks of the
enemies. Supposing anyone objects: "How so? As you undertook to
give advice on the education of freeborn children, do you now neglect
the poor and plebeian ones, and give instructions only suitable to
the rich?" It is easy enough to meet such critics. I should
prefer to make my teaching general and suitable to all; but if any,
through their poverty, shall be unable to follow up my precepts, let
them blame fortune, and not the author of these hints. We must try
with all our might to procure the best education for the poor as well
as the rich, but if that is impossible, then we must put up with the
practicable. I inserted those matters into my discourse here, that I
might hereafter confine myself to all that appertains to the right
education of the young.§
xii. And this I say that we ought to try to draw our boys to good
pursuits by entreaties and exhortation, but certainly not by blows or
abusive language. For that seems to be more fitting for slaves than
the freeborn. For slaves try to shirk and avoid their work, partly
because of the pain of blows, partly on account of being reviled. But
praise or censure are far more useful than abuse to the freeborn,
praise pricking them on to virtue, censure deterring them from vice.
But one must censure and praise alternately: when they are too saucy
we must censure them and make them ashamed of themselves, and again
encourage them by praise, and imitate those nurses who, when their
children sob, give them the breast to comfort them. But we must not
puff them up and make them conceited with excessive praise, for that
will make them vain and give themselves airs.§
xiii. And I have ere now seen some fathers, whose excessive love for
their children has turned into hatred. My meaning I will endeavour to
make clearer by illustration. While they are in too great a hurry to
make their sons take the lead in everything, they lay too much work
upon them, so that they faint under their tasks, and, being
overburdened, are disinclined for learning. For just as plants grow
with moderate rain, but are done for by too much rain, so the mind
enlarges by a proper amount of work, but by too much is unhinged. We
must therefore give our boys remission from continuous labour,
bearing in mind that all our life is divided into labour and rest;
thus we find not only wakefulness but sleep, not only war but peace,
not only foul weather but fine also, not only working days but also
festivals. And, to speak concisely, rest is the sauce of labour. And
we can see this not only in the case of animate, but even inanimate
things, for we make bows and lyres slack that we may be able to
stretch them. And generally the body is preserved by repletion and
evacuation, and the soul by rest and work. We ought also to censure
some fathers who, after entrusting their sons to tutors and
preceptors, neither see nor hear how the teaching is done. This is a
great mistake. For they ought after a few days to test the progress
of their sons, and not to base their hopes on the behaviour of a
hireling; and the preceptors will take all the more pains with the
boys, if they have from time to time to give an account of their
progress. Hence the propriety of that remark of the groom, that
nothing fats the horse so much as the king's eye.24
And especial attention, in my opinion, must be paid to cultivating
and exercising the memory of boys, for memory is, as it were, the
storehouse of learning; and that was why they fabled Mnemosyne to be
the mother of the Muses, hinting and insinuating that nothing so
generates and contributes to the growth of learning as memory. And
therefore the memory must be cultivated, whether boys have a good one
by nature, or a bad one. For we shall so add to natural good parts,
and make up somewhat for natural deficiencies, so that the deficient
will be better than others, and the clever will outstrip themselves.
For good is that remark of Hesiod, "If to a little you keep
adding a little, and do so frequently, it will soon be a lot."25
And let not fathers forget, that thus cultivating the memory is not
only good for education, but is also a great aid in the business of
life. For the remembrance of past actions gives a good model how to
deal wisely in future ones.§
xiv. We must also keep our sons from filthy language. For, as
Democritus says, Language is the shadow of action. They must also be
taught to be affable and courteous. For as want of affability is
justly hateful, so boys will not be disagreeable to those they
associate with, if they yield occasionally in disputes. For it is not
only excellent to know how to conquer, but also to know how to be
defeated, when victory would be injurious, for there is such a thing
as a Cadmean victory.26
I can cite wise Euripides as a witness of the truth of what I say,
who says, "When two are talking, and one of them is in a
passion, he is the wiser who first gives way."27I
will next state something quite as important, indeed, if anything,
even more important. That is, that life must be spent without luxury,
the tongue must be under control, so must the temper and the hands.
All this is of extreme importance, as I will show by examples. To
begin with the last case, some who have put their hands to unjust
gains, have lost all the fruits of their former life, as the
Lacedæmonian Gylippus,28
who was exiled from Sparta for embezzling the public money. To be
able to govern the temper also argues a wise man. For Socrates, when
a very impudent and disgusting young fellow kicked him on one
occasion, seeing all the rest of his class vexed and impatient, even
to the point of wanting to prosecute the young man, said, "What!
If a young ass kicked me would you have me kick it back?" Not
that the young fellow committed this outrage on Socrates with
impunity, for as all reviled him and nicknamed him the kicker, he
hung himself. And when Aristophanes brought his "Clouds"
on the stage, and bespattered Socrates with his gibes and flouts, and
one of the spectators said, "Aren't you vexed, Socrates, at his
exhibiting you on the stage in this comic light?" he answered,
"Not I, by Zeus, for I look upon the theatre as only a large
supper party."29
Very similar to this was the behaviour of Archytas of Tarentum and
Plato. The former, on his return from war, where he had been general,
finding his land neglected, called his bailiff, and said to him, "You
would have caught it, had I not been very angry." And Plato,
very angry with a gluttonous and shameless slave, called his sister's
son Speusippus, and said, "Go and beat him, for I am too angry."
But someone will say, these examples are difficult and hard to
follow. I know it. But we must try, as far as possible, following
these examples, to avoid ungovernable and mad rage. For we cannot in
other respects equal those distinguished men in their ability and
virtue, nevertheless we must, like initiating priests of the gods and
torchbearers of wisdom, attempt as far as possible to imitate and
nibble at their practice. Then, again, if anyone thinks it a small
and unimportant matter to govern the tongue, another point I promised
to touch on, he is very far from the reality. For silence at the
proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech. And that is, I
think, the reason why the ancients instituted the mysteries that we,
learning therein to be silent, might transfer our secrecy to the gods
to human affairs. And no one ever yet repented of his silence, while
multitudes have repented of their speaking. And what has not been
said is easy to say, while what has been once said can never be
recalled. I have heard of myriads who have fallen into the greatest
misfortunes through inability to govern their tongues. Passing over
the rest, I will mention one or two cases in point. When Ptolemy
Philadelphus married his sister Arsinoe, Sotades said, "You are
contracting an unholy marriage."30
For this speech he long lingered in prison, and paid the righteous
penalty for his unseasonable babbling, and had to weep a long time
for making others laugh. Theocritus the Sophist similarly cracked his
jokes, and had to pay even a greater penalty. For when Alexander
ordered the Greeks to furnish him with purple robes to wear at the
sacrifices on his triumphal return from war against the barbarians,
and his subjects contributed so much per head, Theocritus said,
"Before I doubted, but now I am sure, that this is the
purple death Homer
speaks of."31
By this speech he made Alexander his enemy. The same Theocritus put
Antigonus, the King of the Macedonians, a one-eyed man, into a
thundering rage by alluding to his misfortune. For the King sent his
chief cook, Eutropio, an important person at his court, to go and
fetch Theocritus before him to confer with him, and when he had
frequently requested him to come without avail, Theocritus at last
said, "I know well you wish to serve me up raw to the Cyclops;"
flouting the King as one-eyed and the cook with his profession.
Eutropio replied, "You shall lose your head, and pay the penalty
for this babbling and mad insolence;" and reported his words to
the King, who sent and had his head taken off. Our boys must also be
taught to speak the truth as a most sacred duty; for to lie is
servile, and most hateful in all men, hardly to be pardoned even in
poor slaves.§
xv. Thus much have I said about the good conduct and self-control of
boys without any doubt or hesitation: but as to what I am now going
to say I am doubtful and undecided, and like a person weighed in the
scales against exactly his weight, and feel great hesitation as to
whether I should recommend or dissuade the practice. But I must speak
out. The question is this—whether we ought to let the lovers of our
boys associate and be with them, or on the contrary, debar them from
their company and scare them off. For when I look at fathers
self-opinionated sour and austere, who think their sons having lovers
a disgrace not to be borne, I am rather afraid of recommending the
practice. But when, on the other hand, I think of Socrates, Xenophon,
Æschines, Cebes, and all the company of those men who have approved
of male loves, and who have introduced their minions to learning, to
high positions in the State, and to good morals, I change my opinion,
and am moved to emulate those men. And Euripides seems to favour
these views in the passage, "But there is among mortals another
love, that of the righteous temperate and pure soul."32
Nor must we omit the remark of Plato, which seems to mix seriousness
with mirth, that "those who have distinguished themselves ought
to be permitted to kiss any handsome boy they like."33
Those then that seek only carnal enjoyment must be kept off, but
those that love the soul must be encouraged. And while the loves
common at Thebes and Elis, and the so-called rape at Crete, must be
avoided, the loves of Athens and Lacedæmon should be emulated.§
xvi. As to this matter, therefore, let every parent follow his
inclination. And now, as I have spoken about the good and decent
behaviour of boys, I shall change my subject and speak a little about
youths. For I have often censured the introducers of bad habits, who
have set over boys tutors and preceptors, but have given to youths
full liberty, when they ought, on the contrary, to have watched and
guarded them more than boys. For who does not know that the offences
of boys are petty and easily cured, and proceed from the carelessness
of tutors or want of obedience to preceptors; but the faults of young
men are often grave and serious, as gluttony, and robbing their
fathers, and dice, and revellings, and drinking-bouts, and
deflowering of maidens, and seducing of married women. Such outbreaks
ought to be carefully checked and curbed. For that prime of life is
prodigal in pleasure, and frisky, and needs a bridle, so that those
parents who do not strongly check that period, are foolishly, if
unawares, giving their youths license for vice.34
Sensible parents, therefore, ought during all that period to guard
and watch and restrain their youths, by precepts, by threats, by
entreaties, by advice, by promises, by citing examples,35
on the one hand, of those who have come to ruin by being too fond of
pleasure, on the other hand, of those who by their self-control have
attained to praise and good report. For these are, as it were, the
two elements of virtue, hope of honour, and fear of punishment; the
former inciting to good practices, the latter deterring from bad.§
xvii. We ought, at all hazards, to keep our boys also from
association with bad men, for they will catch some of their villany.
This was the meaning of Pythagoras' enigmatical precepts, which I
shall quote and explain, as they give no slight momentum towards the
acquisition of virtue: as,
Do not touch black tails:
that is, do not associate with bad men.36
Do not go beyond the balance:
that is, we must pay the greatest attention to justice and not go
beyond it. Do not
sit on a measure:
that is, do not be lazy, but earn tomorrow's bread as well as
to-day's. Do not
give everyone your right hand:
that is, do not be too ready to strike up a friendship.
Do not wear a tight ring:
that is, let your life be free, do not bind yourself by a chain.
Do not poke the fire with a sword:
that is, do not provoke an angry person, but yield to such.
Do not eat the heart:
do not wear away the heart by anxiety.
Abstain from beans:
that is, do not meddle in state affairs, for the voting for offices
was formerly taken by beans.
Do not put your food in the chamber-pot:
that is, do not throw your pearls before swine, for words are the
food of the mind, and the villany of men twist them to a corrupt
meaning. When you
have come to the end of a journey do not look back:
that is, when people are going to die and see that their end is near,
they ought to take it easily and not be dejected. But I will return
from my digression. We must keep our boys, as I said, from
association with all bad men, but especially from flatterers. For, as
I have often said to parents, and still say, and will constantly
affirm, there is no race more pestilential, nor more sure to ruin
youths swiftly, than the race of flatterers, who destroy both parents
and sons root and branch, making the old age of the one and the youth
of the others miserable, holding out pleasure as a sure bait. The
sons of the rich are by their fathers urged to be sober, but by them
to be drunk; by their fathers to be chaste, by them to wax wanton; by
their fathers to save, by them to spend; by their fathers to be
industrious, by them to be lazy. For they say, "'Our life's but
a span;'37
we can only live once; why should you heed your father's threats?
he's an old twaddler, he has one foot in the grave; we shall soon
hoist him up and carry him off to burial." Some even pimp for
them and supply them with prostitutes or even married women, and cut
huge slices off the father's savings for old age, if they don't run
off with them altogether. An accursed tribe, feigning friendship,
knowing nothing of real freedom, flatterers of the rich, despisers of
the poor, drawn to young men by a sort of natural logic,38
showing their teeth and grinning all over when their patrons laugh,39
misbegotten brats of fortune and bastard elements in life, living
according to the nod of the rich, free in their circumstances, but
slaves by inclination, when they are not insulted thinking themselves
insulted, because they are parasites to no purpose. So, if any father
cares for the good bringing-up of his sons, he must banish from his
house this abominable race. He must also be on his guard against the
viciousness of his sons' schoolfellows, for they are quite sufficient
to corrupt the best morals.§
xviii. What I have said hitherto is
apropos to my
subject: I will now speak a word to the men. Parents must not be over
harsh and rough in their natures, but must often forgive their sons'
offences, remembering that they themselves were once young. And just
as doctors by infusing a sweet flavour into their bitter potions find
delight a passage to benefit, so fathers must temper the severity of
their censure by mildness; and sometimes relax and slacken the reins
of their sons' desires, and again tighten them; and must be
especially easy in respect to their faults, or if they are angry must
soon cool down. For it is better for a father to be hot-tempered than
sullen, for to continue hostile and irreconcilable looks like hating
one's son. And it is good to seem not to notice some faults, but to
extend to them the weak sight and deafness of old age, so as seeing
not to see, and hearing not to hear, their doings. We tolerate the
faults of our friends; why should we not that of our sons? often even
our slaves' drunken debauches we do not expose. Have you been rather
near? spend more freely. Have you been vexed? let the matter pass.
Has your son deceived you by the help of a slave? do not be angry.
Did he take a yoke of oxen from the field, did he come home smelling
of yesterday's debauch? wink at it. Is he scented like a perfume
shop? say nothing. Thus frisky youth gets broken in.40§
xix. Those of our sons who are given to pleasure and pay little heed
to rebuke, we must endeavour to marry, for marriage is the surest
restraint upon youth. And we must marry our sons to wives not much
richer or better born, for the proverb is a sound one, "Marry in
your own walk of life."41
For those who marry wives superior to themselves in rank are not so
much the husbands of their wives as unawares slaves to their
dowries.42§
xx. I shall add a few remarks, and then bring my subject to a close.
Before all things fathers must, by a good behaviour, set a good
example to their sons, that, looking at their lives as a mirror, they
may turn away from bad deeds and words. For those fathers who censure
their sons' faults while they themselves commit the same, are really
their own accusers, if they know it not, under their sons' name; and
those who live a depraved life have no right to censure their slaves,
far less their sons. And besides this they will become counsellors
and teachers of their sons in wrongdoing; for where old men are
shameless youths will of a certainty have no modesty. We must
therefore take all pains to teach our sons self-control, emulating
the conduct of Eurydice, who, though an Illyrian and more than a
barbarian, to teach her sons educated herself though late in life,
and her love to them is well depicted in the inscription which she
offered to the Muses: "Eurydice of Hierapolis made this offering
to the Muses, having conceived a vast love for knowledge. For when a
mother with sons full-grown she learnt letters, the preservers of
knowledge."To
carry out all these precepts would be perhaps a visionary scheme; but
to attain to many, though it would need a happy disposition and much
care, is a thing possible to human nature.433
Euripides, "Here. Fur." 1261, 1262.4
Euripides, "Hippol." 424, 425.5
Cleophantus is the name given to this lad by other writers.6
Compare Sophocles, "Œdipus Tyrannus," 112, 113.7
The Thessalians were very pugnacious. Cf. Isocrates, "Oratio de
Pace," p. 316. οἱ μὲν (θετταλοὶ) σφίσιν
αύσῖς ἀτοῖς ἀεὶ πολεμοῦσιν.8
A proverbial expression among the ancients for earliest childhood.
See Erasmus, "Adagia."9
Plato, "Republic," ii. p. 429, E.10
See Erasmus, "Adagia."11
It is difficult to know how to render the word παιδαγωγὸς
in English. He was the slave who took the boy to school, and
generally looked after him from his seventh year upward. Tutor or
governor seems the best rendering. He had great power over the boy
entrusted to him.12
Plato, "Clitophon," p. 255, D.13
Compare Diogenes Laertius, ii. 72.14
Reading κοιτοφθοροῦντες, the excellent emendation of
Wyttenbach.15
From the heathen standpoint of course, not from the Christian.
Compare the advice of Cato in Horace's "Satires," Book i.
Sat. ii. 31-35. It is a little difficult to know what Diogenes'
precept really means. Is it that vice is universal? Like
Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure," Act ii. Sc. ii. 5.
"All sects, all ages smack of this vice."16
He was asked by Polus, see Plato, "Gorgias," p. 290, F.17
"Hippolytus," 986-989.18
Cf. Plato, "Cratylus," p. 257, E. ὦ παῖ Ὶππονίκου
Ὲρμόγενες, παλαιὰ παροιμἰα, ὃτι χαλεπὰ
τὰ καλἀ ἐσιν ὃπη ἔχει μαθεῖν. So Horace,
"Sat." i. ix. 59, 60, "Nil sine magno Vita labore
dedit mortalibus."19
"Midias," p. 411, C.20
i.e., occasionally
and sparingly.21
Diogenes Laertius assigns the remark to Aristippus, while Stobæus
fathers it on Aristo.22
A favourite thought with the ancients. Compare Isocrates, "Admonitio
ad Demonicum," p. 18; and Aristotle, "Nic. Eth.," iv.
3.23
"Republic," vii. p. 489, E.24
A famous Proverb. It is "the master's eye" generally, as in
Xenophon, "Œconom." xii. 20; and Aristotle, "Œconom."
i. 6.25
"Works and Days," 361, 362. The lines were favourite ones
with our author. He quotes them again, § 3, of "How one may be
aware of one's Progress in Virtue."26
See Pausanias, ix. 9. Also Erasmus, "Adagia."27
A fragment from the "Protesilaus" of Euripides. Our "It
takes two to make a quarrel."28
See Plutarch's Lysander.29
Or symposium,
where all sorts of liberties were taken.30
I have softened his phrase. His actual words were very coarse, and
would naturally be resented by Ptolemy. See Athenæus, 621, A.31
See "Iliad," v. 83; xvi. 334; xx, 477.32
A fragment from the "Dictys" of Euripides.33
"Republ." v. 463, F. sq.34
Cf. Shakespeare's "Winter Tale," Act iii. sc. iii. 59-63.35
As Horace's father did. See "Satires," Book i. Sat. iv.
105-129.36
What we call black
sheep.37
From Simonides. Cf. Seneca, "Epist." xlix. "Punctum
est quod vivimus, et adhuc puncto minus."38
Reading with Wyttenbach, ὡς ἐκ λογικῆς τέχνης.39
Like Carker
in Dombey.40
Compare the character of Micio in the "Adelphi" of Terence.41
This saying is assigned by Diogenes Laertius to Pittacus.42
Compare Plautus, "Asinaria," i. l. 74. "Argentum
accepi: dote imperum vendidi." Compare also our author, "Whether
Vice is sufficient to cause Unhappiness,"
§ i.43
Wyttenbach thinks this treatise is not Plutarch's. He bases his
conclusion partly on external, partly on internal, grounds. It is not
quoted by Stobæus, or any of the ancients, before the fourteenth
century. And its style is not Plutarch's; it has many words foreign
to Plutarch: it has "nescio quid novum ac peregrinum, ab illa
Plutarchea copia et gravitate diversum leve et inane." Certainly
its matter is superior to its manner.