Chapter I: Part 1

Transcriber’s notes:

Italic text is denoted _thus_.

The spelling, hyphenation, punctuation and accentuation are as the original, except for apparent typographical errors which have been corrected.

_From the painting by E. Burne-Jones._]

PLUTARCH’S ESSAYS AND MISCELLANIES

Comprising all his Works Collected under the Title of “Morals” · Translated from the Greek by Several Hands Corrected and Revised by WILLIAM W. GOODWIN, Ph.D., Professor of Greek Literature in Harvard University In Five Volumes · Volume Five

BOSTON · LITTLE, BROWN
AND COMPANY · MCMXI

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870,
By LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY,
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

Copyright, 1898, 1905,
By LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.

Printers
S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A.

CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIFTH.

WITH THE TRANSLATORS’ NAMES.

OF EATING OF FLESH.

BY WILLIAM BAXTER, GENT.

The very idea of eating the carcasses of slain animals is repulsive,
8. Who could have begun the practice, but from the direst necessity?
4. Men must have been driven to the deed of slaying animals for food,
because the supply of food from the vegetable world had utterly
failed, 4, 5. We have no such necessity, 5. Man is not by nature
a carnivorous animal, 7. Our conduct in slaying animals and then
preparing them for food is wholly against nature, 8. Animal food is
injurious: it clogs and confuses the mind and renders it stupid, 9.
It operates unfavorably on character, 9, 10. If we must eat flesh,
let it be with sorrow and pity; not tormenting and abusing the poor
animal before taking its life, 11. Passing the bounds of nature in
our feeding, intemperate appetites and shameful lusts are gratified,
12. Cruelty to mankind is induced, 12. Animals have senses; they
have faculties for seeing, hearing, understanding: is it right to
extinguish these faculties? 13. Who knows but the bodies of animals
may contain the souls of deceased men; of a father, brother, son, or
other friend? 14, 15.

LIVES OF THE TEN ORATORS.

BY CHARLES BARCROFT, LECTURER OF ST. MILDRED’S, BREAD STREET.

1. Antiphon, 17-21. 2. Andocides, 21-23. 3. Lysias, 24-26. 4.
Isocrates, 27-33. 5. Isaeus, 33. 6. Aeschines, 34-36. 7. Lycurgus,
36-42. 8. Demosthenes, 43-53. 9. Hyperides, 53-57. 10. Dinarchus, 57,
58. Decrees proposed to the Athenians for statues to be set up to
Demosthenes, 58-63.

WHETHER AN AGED MAN OUGHT TO MEDDLE IN STATE AFFAIRS.

BY F. FETHERSTON, D.D.

It is maintained by some, that after a certain time men should not
employ themselves in public affairs, 64. The love of honor and zeal
for the public good never grows old, 65. It is not well for a man
who has never been accustomed to public business to commence such
employment late in life, 66. An aged man may usefully conduct public
affairs, as we see in the instances of Augustus Caesar, Pericles, and
Agesilaus, 67, 68. Simonides and Sophocles, in old age, were good
poets, 68. It is unworthy of a man who has served the public many
years, to descend, in the decline of life, to mean employments, 69,
70. Political life has pleasures very great and honorable, 71. A man
should not suffer his glory to wither in old age, 72. Reputation once
acquired is easily maintained, and the people readily trust their
old and faithful servants, 73. Envy and jealousy do not assail old
age, 73, 74. It is not easy to terminate a long and faithful public
service, 74. An old man staying at home, and spending his time in
small matters is not honored, 75. Old men, full of experience and
of wisdom, are often compelled by their fellow-citizens to conduct
difficult negotiations, 76. Old age of itself is not a good reason
for quitting the public service, 77, 78. Young men for war, but
old men for counsel, 78. The Roman council of state is called the
Senate, 79. The regal dignity has cares and toils, but who would
advise the king to abdicate? 80. Old men in office may instruct and
guide younger statesmen, 81, 82. Old men are often hale and vigorous,
and so not disabled for the service of the state, 83. Examples of
Phocion, Masinissa, and Cato, 83. Idleness enervates even great men,
as Lucullus, while constant employment invigorates, 84. Our country
has claims on our services, 85. Yet old age should have becoming
employment, 86. An aged man should abstain from small and frivolous
matters, 87. Offices of honor and dignity befit old men, 88. They
should not eagerly seek office, 88. Old men should not be forward to
speak in public, they should speak on grave occasions, 89. On other
occasions, let them yield to younger men, 89, 90. Let them comfort
and encourage deserving young men in their failures, 91. To be a
statesman is not only to hold office and conduct negotiations, but
also to guide, instruct, and assist those who conduct public affairs,
when occasion requires, 93, 94. Even men in private stations may do
this, and thus serve their country till death, 95, 96.

POLITICAL PRECEPTS.

BY SAMUEL WHITE, M.D.

Counsels to a politician, 97. In the administration of public
affairs, be guided by reason and judgment, 98. Act not from
vain-glory, emulation, or want of other employment, 98, 99.
Accommodate yourself to the temper and disposition of the citizens,
99, 100. Having obtained power among the people, endeavor to reform
their disposition, 101. Do not give them an opportunity of finding
fault with your own life or manners, 102. Beware of little faults,
102, 103. Cultivate the graces of speech, 104, 105. Orators sway the
multitude, as in the case of Pericles, 106, 107. What the speech of
a statesman should be, 107. How to use satire and invective, 108,
109. Think before you speak, and speak right on, 110. Speak in full,
round tones, 110, 111. Two ways of entering on public life, 111.
First, with a bold, vigorous hand, like Aratus, Alcibiades, Scipio,
Pompey, &c., 112. Secondly, by procuring the assistance of some man
of influence and authority, 114. Be careful in the choice of your
man, lest your success inspire him with jealousy, 115. Pompey owed
his success to Sylla, 115. Avoid flatterers and favorites, 116. Do
not gratify friends in derogation of law and right, 117. Grant favors
to friends when consistent with duty and public advantage, 120. Be
generous and just towards your enemies, 121, 123. Let patriotism
overshadow all private griefs, 122. How to meet invective, 124. Allow
others to assist in public affairs, 128. Undertake nothing for which
you lack qualification, 128, 129. Keep the helm in your own hand,
but carry yourself with moderation; do not forget the limits of your
power, 130, 131. As Greece is under the Roman sway, it is well to
remember that fact, and to cultivate the favor of some powerful man
at Rome, 132. Yet you should avoid, as much as possible, foreign
interference, 133. Let the affairs of every city be settled by its
own citizens, 133. When commotions arise, try to compose them, 134.
One man’s virtue has often saved a state, 135. Treat colleagues in
office with honor and respect, 136. Plutarch relates an incident in
his own life, 137. Honor the magistrates, even if you are personally
their superior, 138. If a magistrate should be remiss in duty, do
what you can to supply the defect, 139. Yield to the multitude in
small things, that you may hinder their misdoings in greater, 140.
When the people desire something which would be injurious to the
state, use evasion and delay, 141. When about to undertake some
difficult affair, secure the assistance of well-qualified persons,
rather than of persons like yourself, 142. Divest yourself of the
desire for riches, and of a mean, ignoble ambition, 143, 144. Decline
not the honors which the people are disposed to bestow, 145, 146. The
good-will of the people towards a public servant helps him greatly
in the discharge of his duty, 147. If you are rich, and can give
largesses to the people, bestow them, but with due care, 148. If
you are poor, hesitate not to confess it, and incur no expense you
cannot afford, 149, 150. In case of a sedition, try to compose it,
152. Especially try to prevent seditions and commotions, 153. In the
present state of Greece, subject to the will of a Roman proconsul, no
good can arise from public commotions, 154.

WHICH ARE THE MOST CRAFTY, WATER-ANIMALS OR THOSE CREATURES THAT
BREED UPON THE LAND?

BY JOHN PHILIPS, GENT.

Field sports, the slaughter of wild and at length of tame animals,
prepared the way for men to kill one another, 158. Have brutes a
soul? they certainly have sense and imagination, 160. They learn to
desire some things and to avoid others, 161. They have expectation,
memory, design, hope, fear, desire, and grief, 161. If they have
sense, they have understanding, 161. They have what in men is
called understanding, 162. Men punish dogs and horses for their
faults, as if for the purpose of producing repentance, 162. Beasts
are susceptible of pleasure, joy, anger, fear, 163. But are they
capable of virtue? 163. They love their offspring, 164. They may have
reason, and yet not have it perfectly, or in a high degree, 164. As
sight and swiftness exist in different degrees, so may reason and
mental force, 165. Animals differ widely in their faculties, as in
their habits, 165. Many brute animals excel men in the faculties
of sight and hearing, as well as in swiftness and strength; but we
may not therefore say that men are blind, &c., 166. There are mad
dogs and horses; what is this but a disturbance of the reason? 167.
Mankind are chargeable with great injustice in dealing with beasts
as they do, 169. There is a necessary and convenient use of the
brute creation, 169, 170. Beyond this, we ought not to go, 170. In
the exercise of what so nearly resembles reason, do land animals
excel those that live in the water? 172. There is sufficient reason
to believe that they do, 173. Observe the habits of bulls, lions,
and elephants, 173. Of the ichneumon, of swallows, and spiders,
174. Of bees, crows, geese, and cranes, 175. The contrivances and
labors of emmets, 176, 177. The sagacity of the elephant and the fox,
178, 179. The affection of the dog for his master; some striking
instances related, 180, 181. Story of a mule at Athens, 182. Another
dog story, 182, 183. The elephant that carried King Porus, 183. The
horse Bucephalus, 183. Where there is one virtue in a brute, there
are commonly others, 183, 184. Instances of subtlety and cunning,
184-186. Elephants and lions have a taste for society, 187. Amorous
propensities of some brutes towards mankind; singular instances
given, 188. Starlings, magpies, and parrots learn to talk, 188, 189.
Swans and nightingales sing, 189. Story of a magpie at Rome imitating
the music of trumpets exactly, 190. Wonderful docility of a dog, 191.
Men have learned of the spider to weave; of the swallow to build;
and have acquired from other animals skill in medicine, 191, 192.
Some oxen have learned to count, 193. Soothsaying and divination is
by means of birds, 194. What now can be said of the sagacity and
intelligence of fishes and other water-animals? living in the sea,
and remote from our observation, they are but little known to us,
195. Crocodiles come when called, 196. Fish are not easily caught,
a proof of great cunning and wariness, 197, 198. Fish stand by and
defend each other in danger, 199. Sagacity of the dolphin and the
cuttle-fish, 200. Subtlety of the fish in taking their own prey,
the torpedo, polypus, and others, 201, 202. Sagacity of the tunny,
203, 204. Mutual affection of the crocodile and the trochilus, 206.
Sagacity of fish in depositing their spawn, 207, 208. Care of the
tortoise and crocodile for their young, 209, 210. Intelligence and
conjugal affection of the halcyon, 211, 212. Story of a dolphin
which served as a guide to messengers of Ptolemy Soter, king of
Egypt, 213, 214. The dolphin, a solitary instance among the brutes of
disinterested love for man, 214. Stories of affectionate dolphins,
215, 216.

THAT BRUTE BEASTS MAKE USE OF REASON.

BY SIR A. J.

A satire on the boasted wisdom, fortitude, magnanimity, and
temperance of man, in the form of a dialogue between Ulysses in the
island of Circe, and Gryllus, whom she had changed into a swine, and
who now prefers his swinish condition to a return to the human form;
Ulysses asks Circe for permission to restore his companions to the
human shape, 218. Circe will grant the request if the men themselves
desire it, 219. Gryllus, one of them, is brought forward to answer in
behalf of the entire company, 219. He refuses, and gives his reasons,
220, et seq. He says that by making him and his companions beasts,
Circe has done them a great favor, 220. Beasts have more fortitude
than men; they fight in fair, open combat, without trick or artifice;
they are no cowards, they never cry for mercy, 222. Beasts are
courageous and daring, even the females; while the courage of men is
artificial, and women are timid, 223, 224. Beasts are more temperate
and chaste than men; they indulge their appetites only in a natural
way, and at the proper season, 225, 226, 228. Beasts do not value
silver or gold, 227. They have no adventitious desires, 227. Their
senses are more accurate, 227. Men are incontinent: they indulge
unnatural and excessive appetites; are never satisfied, 229, 230.
Beasts are satisfied with one kind of food, and this procured without
difficulty; they have nature for their teacher, and could teach men
many useful lessons, 231, 232.

OF THE FACE APPEARING WITHIN THE ORB OF THE MOON.

BY A. G., GENT.

In abstruse speculations, if we fail of satisfaction in one
direction, we must inquire in another, 234. A face or form is seen
in the moon; how is this to be explained? 234. The appearance of a
form in the moon is not the result of any acuteness or dulness of
our vision, 234, 235. The appearance in question some think may be
a reflection of the ocean from the moon’s disc, 236. This opinion
refuted, 236, 237. Some think the moon to be a compound of air and
fire, a disturbance of which causes the appearance in question, 238.
This notion disproved, 238, 239, 242. That the earth is a larger body
than the moon, is shown by eclipses of the moon, 241. The moon must
be a solid body, though much lighter than the earth, 241, 242. The
spherical form of the earth, the antipodes, and all motion tending
towards the earth’s centre, are pronounced absurdities, 243, 244.
The moon is not far from the earth, and feels its influence, though
not of the same substance, 245, 246. Computation of the respective
distances of the sun and moon from the earth, 246. The spherical form
of the earth again denied, 247. If the earth is in the middle, of
what is it the middle? not of the universe, surely, 247. Relations
of bodies _above_ and _beneath_, 248. We are not, in our philosophy,
to reduce every thing to the place to which it naturally belongs,
249, 250. All things do not follow their natural course, 250. In the
human body the heaviest parts are not placed lowermost, 251. So it
may be in the structure of the world, 252. The moon, though placed in
high heaven, may be a heavy body, 253. It is not therefore composed
of fire and air, 253. But has the moon the nature of earth? 254.
Does the moon reflect the light of the sun? 255. Reasons why this is
probable, 256. When the moon appears only half-enlightened, ought not
the light reflected to come at right angles? and is it so? 256-258.
Aspect of the moon when gibbous or crescent, 258. Only solid bodies
reflect light; the moon therefore must be a solid body, 259, 260.
That the moon is a solid body is farther proved by eclipses of the
sun, 260-262. Size of the moon; as large as Peloponnesus, 261. Its
proportionate size in relation to the earth, 261. Further arguments
from eclipses, 263-265. Objections answered, 266-268. The moon is
not a star, or a burning body, 266. Its nature is like that of the
earth, 268. This need not impugn her divinity, 268. There may be
cavities and other inequalities on the surface of the moon, and these
may be immensely large, so as to be seen by us, 269. The shadow of
Mount Athos falls on Lemnos, the shadow being immensely larger than
the mountain, 270. An objection from this answered, 270-273. Is the
moon inhabited? is it fit for the abode of animated beings? 274,
275. Answer, (1.) If it be not, it does not prove that the moon was
made in vain, 276. (2.) The moon may be inhabited: we can see no
reasons to the contrary, 277-279. Objections considered, 277, 278.
That the moon is inhabited is not more incredible than that the ocean
should be inhabited, 280. A description of the isle Ogygia, in the
Western Ocean, the abode of Saturn; its inhabitants; the phenomena
and customs of the place, 281-283. Man is compounded of three parts:
the body, the soul, and the understanding, 286. The understanding is
from the sun, the soul from the moon, that is from Proserpine, 286.
Every soul, dismissed from the body, wanders for a time between the
earth and the moon, 286. When they reach the moon, they behold its
greatness and beauty, 288. The moon described as it appears to them,
289. The Elysian fields are there, 289. If any of the dwellers there
commit a fault, they are thrust down to earth again, 289. After a
long time, they come back to the moon, 291. This about the moon may
be taken for what one pleases, 292.

OF FATE.

BY THE SAME HAND.

Fate is either (1) an energy, a law, an act, 293; or (2) a substance,
the soul of the world, 294. Though comprehending infinite, it is
itself finite, for law is in its nature finite, 294, 295. Every
thing moves in a circle; all beings and all actions that now exist
will come around again: we shall again do what we are now doing, and
in the same manner, 295. Fate, the Divine Law, the Law of Nature,
determines all things, 296. It determines both conditionally and
universally, 297. What relation has Fate to Divine Providence?
what to fortune? what to human ability? what to contingent events?
298. As the civil law comprehends and relates to many things which
are not lawful, so it is with Fate, 298. The words _possible_ and
_contingent_ defined; also _power_, _necessity_, &c., 299, 300. Of
causes: some are causes _per se_, others are causes by accident, 301.
Fortune is a cause by accident, 302. Fortune is not the same thing
as Chance, though Chance comprehends Fortune, 303. Fortune relates
to men only; Chance includes things animate and inanimate, 303. Of
Divine Providence: (1) the will of the Supreme Deity; (2) the will
of the subordinate deities; (3) the will of the Daemons, 304. Of the
Providence of the Supreme God, 305. Of the Providence of the inferior
gods, 306. Of the Providence of the Daemons, 307, 308.

CONCERNING THE FIRST PRINCIPLE OF COLD.

BY F. FETHERSTON, D.D.

Is cold the mere privation of heat? 309. This is denied, for cold
seems to act on fluids and on solids: like heat or other actual
substances, it has a productive power, 310. Further, a mere privation
is not capable of degrees; but cold exists in different degrees,
310. A privation is nothing; cold is something, 311. A privation
is not the object of any of our senses; but cold can be felt,
311. Privation is something single and simple; substances have
differences, continually varying; and thus it is with cold, therefore
cold must be a substance, 312. Cold acts as a substance; it resists
heat, and overcomes it or is vanquished by it, 312. As there are four
elements, of which all things are composed, so there should be four
qualities, heat and cold, drought and moisture, 313. What sort of
substance is cold? 314. The air, when it becomes dark, becomes also
cold, 315. The freezing of water is caused by cold air, 316. Great
rivers and lakes are not frozen to the bottom, because the air does
not reach so far; the power of cold is therefore as many think, from
the air, 317; but this is doubtful, 318. Water makes things black;
air makes them white, 318. Oil is transparent because so much air is
in it, 318. It does not easily freeze, 319. Cold things are always
heavy, 319. Fire and water are opposites, 320. In winter, heat is
driven inward by cold, 321. It is driven downward from the surfaces
of great rivers, 321. Several considerations show that water, and
not air, is the cause of cold, 322. Water is cold of itself, being
the opposite of fire, 323. Opinion of Chrysippus combated, 324. The
earth, because it is dark, might be considered the cause of cold,
324, 325. But many hot things are dark, 326. Cold makes things hard,
heavy, rigid, and capable of resistance: the earth is therefore the
source of cold, 326, 327. Several considerations which seem to prove
that heat exists in every thing except the earth, and that cold
proceeds as a substance from the earth; which, and the whole subject,
in conclusion, is left in doubt, to be decided as the reader pleases.
327-330.

WHETHER WATER OR FIRE BE MOST USEFUL.

BY THE SAME HAND.

1. Arguments of the superior usefulness of Water: We need it at all
times and in all places; it is not so with fire. Water was given to
man at his first creation; fire was introduced by Prometheus. Some
men and all brute animals can live without fire, but not without
water. Fire is often pernicious; water never. Fire cannot be kept up
without expense; water requires no expense. Water, or the sea, is the
great civilizer of man, 331-334. 2. Arguments in behalf of Fire: Heat
is the exciting cause of vegetation; water becomes putrid when fire
leaves it; animals perish without heat; death is only the absence
of heat; water is made more useful by fire; the arts cannot exist
without fire, 334-337.

AGAINST COLOTES, THE DISCIPLE AND FAVORITE OF EPICURUS.

BY A. G., GENT.

Occasion of this tract; a book written by Colotes, 338. Plutarch
undertakes to answer it, and why, 339, 340. Colotes wrongly
represents Democritus, 341. Our senses give us true information, but
it does not follow that the different qualities which are perceived
in the same object by different persons prove that nothing is of one
nature more than another, 341-343. This argument further applied,
344. Does color exist in the dark? 344, 345. Doctrine of Democritus
concerning atoms, 346. Are atoms immutable and impassible? 347,
348. How then can any thing be generated? 348. Is generation the
mere union of atoms? 348. According to Colotes life cannot exist,
349. His doctrines virtually abolish nature, 349. Is nature nothing
distinct from bodies and their place? 350. Is death nothing but that
which dies? 350. Empedocles defended from the misrepresentations
of Colotes, 350, 351. Parmenides also defended, 352-354. A thing
positively existing distinguished from its sensible qualities, 354.
Aristotle and the Peripatetics differed from Plato, 355. Colotes
misrepresents Plato, 355, 356. Difference between that which exists
by itself, and that which participates of something else; or between
essence and form, 356-359. Colotes falls at the feet of Epicurus,
360. Epicurus accepts the homage, 360. Disparagement of Socrates by
Colotes, 361. Though our senses are not perfect, they may in general
be safely relied on, 362. If self-knowledge is valuable, Colotes is
blamable for scoffing at those who seek it, 363. Stilpo defended
against Colotes, 365-367. That one thing cannot be predicated of
another may not endanger life, 365. It is bad to withhold reverence
and worship from the gods, as Colotes and the Epicureans do, 366.
Colotes assaults the philosophers of his own time, 367. He condemns
even the opinions of Epicurus, when he finds them held by others,
368, 369. The Cyrenaic philosophers ridiculed, 369. Arcesilaus
unfairly treated by Colotes, 371. Three sorts of motions in the soul:
what they are; their influence, 371, 372. Absurdity of Epicureanism,
373. The opinions of Epicurus tend to universal scepticism, 374. It
is well and safe in some cases to withhold our assent, and to doubt
in matters which do not appear credible, as did Arcesilaus and his
followers, 371-376. Safety of believing and following the doctrines
of Socrates, Plato, and the Academy, 377. Degradation and danger
resulting from the doctrines of Epicurus, 377, 378. Those doctrines
fatal to the state, 379. No people, no city, is found without some
religion, but Epicureanism subverts all religion, 380. Great public
spirit of Democritus, Parmenides, Socrates, Plato, and others, who
are reviled by Colotes and other Epicureans, 381, 382. Men of the
school of Epicurus do not contribute to the public welfare, 383-385.

PLUTARCH’S CONSOLATORY LETTER TO HIS WIFE.

BY ROBERT MIDGLEY, M.D., AND COLL. MED. LOND. CAND.

He counsels patience, 386. The child was affectionate and
interesting; her memory should be cherished, 387. The mother is
commended for controlling her grief; excessive grief is unreasonable,
388. The mother’s admirable conduct on the previous death of her
eldest son, 389. Women are frantic with joy at the birth of their
children, and mourn excessively at their death, 389, 390. The body
should not suffer through grief, 390. Women nourish and increase the
grief of bereaved wives and mothers, by their tears and lamentations
when visiting them; Plutarch does not fear this in the present case,
390. We should remember the pleasure our deceased child has afforded
us, 391. True happiness arises from the mind itself, and not from
external circumstances, 392. You have much left to comfort you, 392.
State of the soul after death; the soul will return to earth in a new
body; an early death is desirable, 393, 394.

OF THE THREE SORTS OF GOVERNMENT,—MONARCHY, DEMOCRACY, AND OLIGARCHY.

BY R. SMITH, M.A.

Which of these three sorts is best? 395. The word _policy_ or
government defined, 396. The Persians had monarchy; Sparta had
an oligarchy; Athens was a democracy: and all were powerful and
prosperous, 397. The author prefers monarchy, 398.

WHETHER THE ATHENIANS WERE MORE RENOWNED FOR THEIR WARLIKE
ACHIEVEMENTS OR THEIR LEARNING.

BY THE SAME HAND.

Historians, even the most admired and popular, only relate the
actions of other men, 399. Athens was the nurse of History, of
Painting, and of Poetry; and has derived great reputation thereby,
400, 401. But what are historians, painters, and poets, compared
with the generals, admirals, and statesmen, whom they commemorate?
402, 403. Athens not renowned for epic or lyric verse, 404. Tragedy
flourished there, but what benefit did tragedy procure for the
Athenians? 405. They lavished money on scenes and shows, to the
neglect of more important interests, 406. True renown belongs to
those commanders who have upheld the honor of their country, and
they merit a lasting remembrance, 407, 408. But not so poets,
rhetoricians, and orators, 408-411. Miltiades and other commanders,
compared with Demosthenes and other orators, to the disadvantage of
the latter 408-411.

AGAINST RUNNING IN DEBT, OR TAKING UP MONEY UPON USURY.

BY THE SAME HAND.

Running in debt should not be resorted to but in the last necessity,
412. To avoid it, practise the closest economy, 413. The borrower
is slave to the lender, 414, 415. Usurers are chargeable with
oppression, fraud, and falsehood, 416, 417. They take a man’s money
without an equivalent, 417. It is shameful to be in the power of
another, 418. We incur debt, not to procure necessaries, but to
purchase ornaments and superfluities, 420. We must avoid the usurer
or be ruined, 421-424.

PLATONIC QUESTIONS.

BY R. BROWN, M.L.

1. Why did Socrates act the midwife’s part, rather than the parent’s?
in other words, why did he prefer to develop in the minds of others
the germs of knowledge, rather than communicate knowledge to them?
425-427. 2. Why does Plato call the supreme God the Father and Maker
of all things? 428, 429. 3. What does Plato, in his Republic, mean
by dividing the universe into unequal parts? and of the sections,
thus made, which is the greater, the Intelligible or the Sensible?
429-432. 4. Plato always says that the Soul is elder than the Body,
and the cause and principle of its rise. Yet he also says that
neither could the Soul exist without the Body, nor the Reason without
the Soul, but the Soul in the Body, and the Reason in the soul. How
can this be explained? 432. 5. Since geometrical figures and solids
are contained, partly by Rectilinears and partly by Circles, why does
Plato make Isosceles Triangles and Triangles of unequal sides the
Principles of Rectilinears, &c.? 433-435. 6. Why does Plato say that
the nature of a Wing participates most of the Body of God? 435. 7.
In what sense does Plato say that the Antiperistasis, or Reaction,
of Motion, is the cause of the effect, in using cupping-glasses, in
swallowing, in throwing of weights, in the use of the loadstone, &c.?
435-438. 8. What does he mean in the Timaeus when he says that Souls
are dispersed into the Earth, the Moon, and into other instruments
of time? Is the Earth, is the Sun, an instrument of time? 438-441.
9. Did Plato, in his Republic, place the Rational or the Irascible
Faculty in the middle chord of the human faculties? 441-444. 10.
Why did he say that Speech is composed of Nouns and Verbs? 444-449.
Because they are the principal elements, _ib._

PARALLELS, OR A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE GREEK AND ROMAN HISTORIES.

BY JOHN OSWALD, M.A.

1. Invasion of Attica by Datis; the story of Cynaegirus, matched with
the story of a Roman, 450, 451. 2. Invasion of Greece by Xerxes; war
of Porsena against Rome; a story under each, 451, 452. 3. Combat
of the Argives with the Lacedaemonians in Thyreatis; defeat of the
Romans at the Caudine Forks, 452, 453 4. Leonidas at Thermopylae;
Fabius Maximus in the Punic War, 453. 5. Chasms in the earth closed
by men leaping into them, 454. 6. Amphiaraus, and Valerius Conatus,
swallowed up alive by the earth, 455. 7. A king of Euboea, and a king
of Alba, drawn in pieces by horses, 455. 8. Philip of Macedon and
Aster the archer, Porsena of Clusium and Horatius Cocles, 456. 9.
Saturn and his four children, 456, 457. 10. Pausanias, the Spartan
traitor, and Cassius, a Roman traitor, both starved to death, 457.
11. Filial treachery in Persian and in Roman history, and its
punishment, 458. 12. A son of Epaminondas, the Theban general, and a
son of Manlius, the Roman consul, beheaded for disobeying the orders
of their fathers, 458, 459. 13. Iole, the beloved of Hercules, threw
herself from a wall without hurt; this story matched from Roman
history, 459. 14. The sacrifice of Iphigenia at Aulis, matched among
the Romans, 459, 460. 15. The story of Tarpeia, promising to betray
the Roman capitol, matched at Ephesus, 460. 16. The combat of the
Horatii and Curiatii in Roman history has a parallel in Tegea, 460,
461. 17. The Palladium in Ilium and in Rome, 461. 18. Codrus of
Athens, and Decius of Rome, 462. 19. A Syracusan and a Roman, each
having refused worship to Bacchus, are intoxicated to commit incest,
and are slain, 462, 463. 20. A daughter of Erechtheus, and a daughter
of Marius, sacrificed by their fathers to procure victory, 463. 21.
A Thessalian wife, and a Sybarite wife, torn in pieces by dogs of
their husbands, 463, 464. 22. Two maidens, a Greek and a Roman, who
had carnal knowledge of their fathers; their punishment, 464, 465.
23. Diomedes and Calpurnius Crassus liberated from captivity by women
who loved them, 465. 24. Priam commits his son to the care of one
who murdered him; the story matched in Roman history, 465, 466. 25.
Aeacus and his two sons; Caius Maximus and his two sons, 466. 26.
Mars, and his lascivious misdoings in Greece and Italy, 466, 467.
27. Telamon deflowers a virgin, whose father orders her to be thrown
into the sea; a parallel at Rome, 467. 28. Six sons and six daughters
in two different families; incest of a brother with a sister, 467,
468. 29. Two cases of men having carnal knowledge of brutes, and
what followed, 468. 30. As the price of peace women are given up to
the embraces of the enemy, 468, 469. 31. The allowance of soldiers
shortened in war, and the fatal result to him who did it, 469. 32.
Romulus murdered in the senate, and his body carried away in pieces;
a parallel in the Peloponnesian war, 470. 33. Pelops and his two
sons, Atreus and Thyestes, their story; a parallel in Italy, 470,
471. 34. Theseus and his son Hippolytus; the latter is killed by
his horses running away: a parallel in Italy, 471, 472. 35. A noble
virgin to be sacrificed to obtain relief from pestilence: an instance
in Lacedaemon, another in Falerii, 472, 473. 36. The story of Romulus
and Remus suckled by a she-wolf: a parallel in Arcadia, 473. 37.
Orestes slays his mother, in revenge of his father’s death: a similar
story from Rome, 474. 38. Strangers murdered by Busiris in Egypt,
and by Faunus in Italy, 474. 39. A brazen cow made for Phalaris of
Agrigentum, a brazen horse for a tyrant of Egesta, 474, 475. 40.
Evenus cannot keep his daughter a virgin: neither can Anius, king of
the Tuscans, 475.

OF THE NAMES OF RIVERS AND MOUNTAINS, AND OF SUCH THINGS AS ARE TO BE
FOUND THEREIN.

BY R. WHITE, M.A.

1. Hydaspes, a river in India, why it received the name, &c., 477,
478. 2. Ismenus, a river of Boeotia, Cadmus, mount Cithaeron,
Tisiphone, &c., 478-480. 3. Hebrus, a river of Thrace; mount
Pangaeus, 480, 481. 4. Ganges, the mountain Anatole, 481, 482. 5.
Phasis, a river of Thrace; mount Caucasus, 482-484. 6. Arar, a river
of Gaul; mount Lugdunum, 484, 485. 7. Pactolus, in Lydia; mount
Tmolus, 485-487. 8. Lycormas, in Aetolia, 487. 9. Maeander, in Asia;
mount Sipylus, 488, 489. 10. Marsyas, in Phrygia, 490. 11. Strymon,
in Thrace; the mountains Rhodope and Haemus, 491, 492. 12. Sagaris,
in Phrygia, 492. 18. Scamander, in Troas; mount Ida, 493. 14. Tanais,
in Scythia; mount Brixaba, 494. 15. Thermodon, in Scythia, 495. 16.
Nile, formerly Melas and Aegyptus, 495-497. 17. Eurotas, in Laconia;
mount Taygetus, 497, 498. 18. Inachus, in Argolis; mount Mycenae,
&c., 498-501. 19. Alpheus, in Arcadia; mount Cronium, 501, 502. 20.
Euphrates, 502. 21. Caicus, in Mysia; mount Teuthras, 503, 504.
22. Achelous, in Aetolia; mount Calydon, 504, 505. 23. Araxes, in
Armenia; mount Diorphus, 506, 507. 24. Tigris; mount Gauran, 507,
508. 25. Indus; mount Lilaeus, 508, 509.

INDEX. 511

PLUTARCH’S MORALS.

VOL. V.

PLUTARCH’S MORALS.

OF EATING OF FLESH.

TRACT I.

1. You ask of me then for what reason it was that Pythagoras abstained from eating of flesh. I for my part do much admire in what humor, with what soul or reason, the first man with his mouth touched slaughter, and reached to his lips the flesh of a dead animal, and having set before people courses of ghastly corpses and ghosts, could give those parts the names of meat and victuals, that but a little before lowed, cried, moved, and saw; how his sight could endure the blood of slaughtered, flayed, and mangled bodies; how his smell could bear their scent; and how the very nastiness happened not to offend the taste, while it chewed the sores of others, and participated of the saps and juices of deadly wounds.

Crept the raw hides, and with a bellowing sound
Roared the dead limbs; the burning entrails groaned.[1]

This indeed is but a fiction and fancy; but the fare itself is truly monstrous and prodigious,—that a man should have a stomach to creatures while they yet bellow, and that he should be giving directions which of things yet alive and speaking is fittest to make food of, and ordering the several manners of the seasoning and dressing them and serving them up to tables. You ought rather, in my opinion, to have enquired who first began this practice, than who of late times left it off.

2. And truly, as for those people who first ventured upon eating of flesh, it is very probable that the whole reason of their so doing was scarcity and want of other food; for it is not likely that their living together in lawless and extravagant lusts, or their growing wanton and capricious through the excessive variety of provisions then among them, brought them to such unsociable pleasures as these, against Nature. Yea, had they at this instant but their sense and voice restored to them, I am persuaded they would express themselves to this purpose.

“Oh! happy you, and highly favored of the Gods, who now live! Into what an age of the world are you fallen, who share and enjoy among you a plentiful portion of good things! What abundance of things spring up for your use! What fruitful vineyards you enjoy! What wealth you gather from the fields! What delicacies from trees and plants, which you may gather! You may glut and fill yourselves without being polluted. As for us, we fell upon the most dismal and affrighting part of time, in which we were exposed by our first production to manifold and inextricable wants and necessities. As yet the thickened air concealed the heaven from our view, and the stars were as yet confused with a disorderly huddle of fire and moisture and violent fluxions of winds. As yet the sun was not fixed to an unwandering and certain course, so as to distinguish morning and evening, nor did he bring back the seasons in order crowned with wreaths from the fruitful harvest. The land was also spoiled by the inundations of disorderly rivers; and a great part of it was deformed with sloughs, and utterly wild by reason of deep quagmires, unfertile forests, and woods. There was then no production of tame fruits, nor any instruments of art or invention of wit. And hunger gave no time, nor did seed-time then stay for the yearly season. What wonder is it if we made use of the flesh of beasts contrary to Nature, when mud was eaten and the bark of wood, and when it was thought a happy thing to find either a sprouting grass or a root of any plant! But when they had by chance tasted of or eaten an acorn, they danced for very joy about some oak or esculus, calling it by the names of life-giver, mother, and nourisher. And this was the only festival that those times were acquainted with; upon all other occasions, all things were full of anguish and dismal sadness. But whence is it that a certain ravenousness and frenzy drives you in these happy days to pollute yourselves with blood, since you have such an abundance of things necessary for your subsistence? Why do you belie the earth as unable to maintain you? Why do you profane the lawgiver Ceres, and shame the mild and gentle Bacchus, as not furnishing you with sufficiency? Are you not ashamed to mix tame fruits with blood and slaughter? You are indeed wont to call serpents, leopards, and lions savage creatures; but yet yourselves are defiled with blood, and come nothing behind them in cruelty. What they kill is their ordinary nourishment, but what you kill is your better fare.”

3. For we eat not lions and wolves by way of revenge; but we let those go, and catch the harmless and tame sort, and such as have neither stings nor teeth to bite with, and slay them; which, so may Jove help us, Nature seems to us to have produced for their beauty and comeliness only. [2][Just as if one seeing the river Nilus overflowing its banks, and thereby filling the whole country with genial and fertile moisture, should not at all admire that secret power in it that produces plants and plenteousness of most sweet and useful fruits, but beholding somewhere a crocodile swimming in it, or an asp crawling along, or mice (savage and filthy creatures), should presently affirm these to be the occasion of all that is amiss, or of any want or defect that may happen. Or as if indeed one contemplating this land or ground, how full it is of tame fruits, and how heavy with ears of corn, should afterwards espy somewhere in these same cornfields an ear of darnel or a wild vetch, and thereupon neglect to reap and gather in the corn, and fall a complaining of these. Such another thing it would be, if one—hearing the harangue of some advocate at some bar or pleading, swelling and enlarging and hastening towards the relief of some impending danger, or else, by Jupiter, in the impeaching and charging of certain audacious villanies or indictments, flowing and rolling along, and that not in a simple and poor strain, but with many sorts of passions all at once, or rather indeed with all sorts, in one and the same manner, into the many and various and differing minds of either hearers or judges that he is either to turn and change, or else, by Jupiter, to soften, appease, and quiet—should overlook all this business, and never consider or reckon upon the labor or struggle he had undergone, but pick up certain loose expressions, which the rapid motion of the discourse had carried along with it, as by the current of its stream, and so had slipped and escaped the rest of the oration, and hereupon undervalue the orator.]

4. But we are nothing put out of countenance, either by the beauteous gayety of the colors, or by the charmingness of the musical voices, or by the rare sagacity of the intellects, or by the cleanliness and neatness of diet, or by the rare discretion and prudence of these poor unfortunate animals; but for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh, we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time it had been born into the world to enjoy. And then we fancy that the voices it utters and screams forth to us are nothing else but certain inarticulate sounds and noises, and not the several deprecations, entreaties, and pleadings of each of them, as it were saying thus to us: “I deprecate not thy necessity (if such there be), but thy wantonness. Kill me for thy feeding, but do not take me off for thy better feeding.” O horrible cruelty! It is truly an affecting sight to see the very table of rich people laid before them, who keep them cooks and caterers to furnish them with dead corpses for their daily fare; but it is yet more affecting to see it taken away, for the mammocks left are more than that which was eaten. These therefore were slain to no purpose. Others there are, who are so sparing of what is set before them that they will not suffer it to be cut or sliced; thus abstaining from them when dead, while they would not spare them when alive.

5. Well then, we understand that that sort of men are used to say, that in eating of flesh they follow the conduct and direction of Nature. But that it is not natural to mankind to feed on flesh, we first of all demonstrate from the very shape and figure of the body. For a human body no ways resembles those that were born for ravenousness; it hath no hawk’s bill, no sharp talon, no roughness of teeth, no such strength of stomach or heat of digestion, as can be sufficient to convert or alter such heavy and fleshy fare. But even from hence, that is, from the smoothness of the tongue, and the slowness of the stomach to digest, Nature seems to disclaim all pretence to fleshy victuals. But if you will contend that yourself was born to an inclination to such food as you have now a mind to eat, do you then yourself kill what you would eat. But do it yourself, without the help of a chopping-knife, mallet, or axe,—as wolves, bears, and lions do, who kill and eat at once. Rend an ox with thy teeth, worry a hog with thy mouth, tear a lamb or a hare in pieces, and fall on and eat it alive as they do. But if thou hadst rather stay until what thou eatest is become dead, and if thou art loath to force a soul out of its body, why then dost thou against Nature eat an animate thing? Nay, there is nobody that is willing to eat even a lifeless and a dead thing as it is; but they boil it, and roast it, and alter it by fire and medicines, as it were, changing and quenching the slaughtered gore with thousands of sweet sauces, that the palate being thereby deceived may admit of such uncouth fare. It was indeed a witty expression of a Lacedaemonian, who, having purchased a small fish in a certain inn, delivered it to his landlord to be dressed; and as he demanded cheese, and vinegar, and oil to make sauce, he replied, if I had had those, I would not have bought the fish. But we are grown so wanton in our bloody luxury, that we have bestowed upon flesh the name of meat (ὄψον), and then require another seasoning (ὄψον), to this same flesh, mixing oil, wine, honey, pickle, and vinegar, with Syrian and Arabian spices, as though we really meant to embalm it after its disease. Indeed when things are dissolved and made thus tender and soft, and are as it were turned into a sort of a carrionly corruption, it must needs be a great difficulty for concoction to master them, and when it hath mastered them, they must needs cause grievous oppressions and qualmy indigestions.

6. Diogenes ventured once to eat a raw pourcontrel, that he might disuse himself from meat dressed by fire; and as several priests and other people stood round him, he wrapped his head in his cassock, and so putting the fish to his mouth, he thus said unto them: It is for your sake, sirs, that I undergo this danger, and run this risk. A noble and gallant risk, by Jupiter! For far otherwise than as Pelopidas ventured his life for the liberty of the Thebans, and Harmodius and Aristogiton for that of the Athenians, did this philosopher encounter with a raw pourcontrel, to the end he might make human life more brutish. Moreover, these same flesh-eatings not only are preternatural to men’s bodies, but also by clogging and cloying them, they render their very minds and intellects gross. For it is well known to most, that wine and much flesh-eating make the body indeed strong and lusty, but the mind weak and feeble. And that I may not offend the wrestlers, I will make use of examples out of my own country. The Athenians are wont to call us Boeotians gross, senseless, and stupid fellows, for no other reason but our over-much eating; and Pindar calls us also hogs, for the same reason. Menander the comedian calls us “fellows with long jaws.” It is observed also that, according to the saying of Heraclitus, “the wisest soul is like a dry light.”[3] Earthen jars, if you strike them, will sound; but if they be full, they perceive not the strokes that are given them. Copper vessels also that are thin communicate the sound round about them, unless some one stop and dull the ambient stroke with his fingers. Moreover, the eye, when seized with an over-great plenitude of humors, grows dim and feeble for its ordinary work. When we behold the sun through a humid air and a great quantity of gross and indigested vapors, we see it not clear and bright, but obscure and cloudy, and with glimmering beams. Just so in a muddy and clogged body, that is swagged down with heavy and unnatural nourishments; it must needs happen that the gayety and splendor of the mind be confused and dulled, and that it ramble and roll after little and scarce discernible objects, since it wants clearness and vigor for higher things.

7. But to pass by these considerations, is not accustoming one’s self to mildness and a human temper of mind an admirable thing? For who could wrong or injure a man that is so sweetly and humanly disposed with respect to the ills of strangers that are not of his kind? I remember that three days ago, as I was discoursing, I made mention of a saying of Xenocrates, and how the Athenians gave judgment upon a certain person who had flayed a living ram. For my part I cannot think him a worse criminal that torments a poor creature while living, than a man that shall take away its life and murder it. But (as it seems) we are more sensible of what is done against custom than against Nature. There, however, I discoursed on these matters in a more popular style. But as for that grand and mysterious principle which (as Plato speaks) is incredible to base minds and to such as affect only mortal things, I as little care to move it in this discourse as a pilot doth a ship in a storm, or a comedian his machine while the scenes are moving; but perhaps it would not be amiss, by way of introduction and preface, to proclaim certain verses of Empedocles.... For in these, by way of allegory, he hints at men’s souls, as that they are tied to mortal bodies, to be punished for murders, eating of flesh and of one another, although this doctrine seems much ancienter than his time. For the fables that are storied and related about the discerption of Bacchus, and the attempts of the Titans upon him, and of their tasting of his slain body, and of their several punishments and fulminations afterwards, are but a representation of the regeneration. For what in us is unreasonable, disorderly, and boisterous, being not divine but demoniac, the ancients termed Titans, that is _tormented_ and _punished_ (from τίνω)....

TRACT II

1. Reason persuades us now to return with fresh cogitations and dispositions to what we left cold yesterday of our discourse about flesh-eating. It is indeed a hard and a difficult task to undertake (as Cato once said) to dispute with men’s bellies, that have no ears; since most have already drunk that draught of custom, which is like that of Circe,

Of groans and frauds and sorcery replete.[4]

And it is no easy task to pull out the hook of flesh-eating from the jaws of such as have gorged themselves with luxury and are (as it were) nailed down with it. It would indeed be a good action, if as the Egyptians draw out the stomach of a dead body, and cut it open and expose it to the sun, as the only cause of all its evil actions, so we could, by cutting out our gluttony and blood-shedding, purify and cleanse the remainder of our lives. For the stomach itself is not guilty of bloodshed, but is involuntarily polluted by our intemperance. But if this may not be, and we are ashamed by reason of custom to live unblamably, let us at least sin with discretion. Let us eat flesh; but let it be for hunger and not for wantonness. Let us kill an animal; but let us do it with sorrow and pity, and not abusing and tormenting it, as many nowadays are used to do, while some run red-hot spits through the bodies of swine, that by the tincture of the quenched iron the blood may be to that degree mortified, that it may sweeten and soften the flesh in its circulation; others jump and stamp upon the udders of sows that are ready to pig, that so they may trample into one mass, (O Piacular Jupiter!) in the very pangs of delivery, blood, milk, and the corruption of the crushed and mangled young ones, and so eat the most inflamed part of the animal; others sew up the eyes of cranes and swans, and so shut them up in darkness to be fattened, and then souse up their flesh with certain monstrous mixtures and pickles.