Complete Works of Plutarch Part 75

Till Hector's arm involve the s.h.i.+ps in flame?

Haste, let us join, and combat side by side.

("Iliad," xi. 313. For the four following see "Odyssey," iii. 52; "Iliad," xxiv. 560 and 584; "Odyssey," xvi. 274.)

For to see a man of the greatest wisdom in danger of being totally cut off with all those that take part with him, and yet affected less with fear of death than of shame and dishonor, must needs excite in a young man a pa.s.sionate affection for virtue. And this,

Joyed was the G.o.ddess, for she much did prize A man that was alike both just and wise,

teacheth us to infer that the Deity delights not in a rich or a proper or a strong man, but in one that is furnished with wisdom and justice.

Again, when the same G.o.ddess (Minerva) saith that the reason why she did not desert or neglect Ulysses was that he was

Gentle, of ready wit, of prudent mind,

she therein tells us that, of all things pertaining to us, nothing is dear to the G.o.ds and G.o.dlike but our virtue, seeing like naturally delights in like.

And seeing, moreover, that it both seemeth and really is a great thing to be able to moderate a man's anger, but a greater by far to guard a man's self beforehand by prudence, that he fall not into it nor be surprised by it, therefore also such pa.s.sages as tend that way are not slightly to be represented to the readers; for example, that Achilles himself--who was a man of no great forbearance, nor inclined to such meekness--yet admonishes Priam to be calm and not to provoke him, thus,

Move me no more (Achilles thus replies, While kindling anger sparkled in his eyes), Nor seek by tears my steady soul to bend: To yield thy Hector I myself intend: Cease; lest, neglectful of high Jove's command, I show thee, king, thou tread'st on hostile land;

and that he himself first washeth and decently covereth the body of Hector and then puts it into a chariot, to prevent his father's seeing it so unworthily mangled as it was,--

Lest the unhappy sire, Provoked to pa.s.sion, once more rouse to ire The stern Pelides; and nor sacred age, Nor Jove's command, should check the rising rage.

For it is a piece of admirable prudence for a man so p.r.o.ne to anger, as being by nature hasty and furious, to understand himself so well as to set a guard upon his own inclinations, and by avoiding provocations to keep his pa.s.sion at due distance by the use of reason, lest he should be unawares surprised by it. And after the same manner must the man that is apt to be drunken forearm himself against that vice; and he that is given to wantonness, against l.u.s.t, as Agesilaus refused to receive a kiss from a beautiful person addressing to him, and Cyrus would not so much as endure to see Panthea. Whereas, on the contrary, those that are not virtuously bred are wont to gather fuel to inflame their pa.s.sions, and voluntarily to abandon themselves to those temptations to which of themselves they are endangered. But Ulysses does not only restrain his own anger, but (perceiving by the discourse of his son Telemachus, that through indignation conceived against such evil men he was greatly provoked) he blunts his pa.s.sion too beforehand, and composeth him to calmness and patience, thus:--

There, if base scorn insult my reverend age, Bear it, my son! repress thy rising rage.

If outraged, cease that outrage to repel; Bear it, my son! howe'er thy heart rebel.

For as men are not wont to put bridles on their horses when they are running in full speed, but bring them bridled beforehand to the race; so do they use to preoccupy and predispose the minds of those persons with rational considerations to enable them to encounter pa.s.sion, whom they perceive to be too mettlesome and unmanageable upon the sight of provoking objects.

Furthermore, the young man is not altogether to neglect names themselves when he meets with them; though he is not obliged to give much heed to such idle descants as those of Cleanthes, who, while he professeth himself an interpreter, plays the trifler, as in these pa.s.sages of Homer: [Greek omitted], ("Iliad," iii. 320; xvi. 233.) For he will needs read the two of these words joined into one, and make them [Greek omitted] for that the air evaporated from the earth by exhalation [Greek omitted] is so called. Yea, and Chrysippus too, though he does not so trifle, yet is very jejune, while he hunts after improbable etymologies.

As when he will need force the words [Greek omitted] to import Jupiter's excellent faculty in speaking and powerfulness to persuade thereby.

But such things as these are fitter to be left to the examination of grammarians and we are rather to insist upon such pa.s.sages as are both profitable and persuasive. Such, for instance, as these;--

My early youth was bred to martial pains, My soul impels me to the embattled plains!

How skill'd he was in each obliging art; The mildest manners, and the gentlest heart.

(Ibid. vi. 444; xvii. 671.)

For while the author tells us that fort.i.tude may be taught, and that an obliging and graceful way of conversing with others is to be gotten by art and the use of reason, he exhorts us not to neglect the improvement of ourselves, but by observing our teachers' instructions to learn a becoming carriage, as knowing that clownishness and cowardice argue ill-breeding and ignorance. And very suitable to what hath been said is that which is said of Jupiter and Neptune:--

G.o.ds of one source, of one ethereal race, Alike divine, and heaven their native place;

But Jove the greater; first born of the skies, And more than men or G.o.ds supremely wise.

("Iliad," xiii. 354.)

For the poet therein p.r.o.nounceth wisdom to be the most divine and royal quality of all; as placing therein the greatest excellency of Jupiter himself, and judging all virtues else to be necessarily consequent thereunto. We are also to accustom a young man attentively to hear such things as these:--

Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies: And sure he will, for wisdom never lies:

The praise of wisdom, in thy youth obtain'd, An act so rash, Antilochus, has stain'd:

Say, is it just, my friend, that Hector's ear From such a warrior such a speech should hear?

I deemed thee once the wisest of thy kind, But ill this insult suits a prudent mind.

("Odyssey," iii. 20; "Iliad," xxiii. 570; xvii. 170.)

These speeches teach us that it is beneath wise men to lie or to deal otherwise than fairly, even in games, or to blame other men without just cause. And when the poet attributes Pindarus's violation of the truce to his folly, he withal declares his judgment that a wise man will not be guilty of an unjust action. The like may we also infer concerning continence, taking our ground for it from these pa.s.sages:--

For him Antaea burn'd with lawless flame, And strove to tempt him from the paths of fame: In vain she tempted the relentless youth, Endued with wisdom, sacred fear, and truth:

At first, with worthy shame and decent pride, The royal dame, his lawless suit denied!

For virtue's image yet possessed her mind: ("Iliad," vi. 160; "Odyssey," iii. 265.)

in which speeches the poet a.s.signs wisdom to be the cause of continence.

And when in exhortations made to encourage soldiers to fight, he speaks in this manner:--

What mean you, Lycians? Stand! O stand, for shame!

Yet each reflect who prizes fame or breath, On endless infamy, on instant death; For, lo! the fated time, the appointed sh.o.r.e; Hark! the gates burst, the brazen barriers roar!

("Iliad," xvi. 422; xiii. 121.)

he seems to intimate that prudent men are valiant men; because they fear the shame of base actions, and can trample on pleasures and stand their ground in the greatest hazards. Whence Timotheus, in the play called Persae, takes occasion handsomely to exhort the Grecians thus:--

Brave soldiers of just shame in awe should stand; For the blus.h.i.+ng face oft helps the fighting hand.

And Aeschylus also makes it a point of wisdom not to be blown up with pride when a man is honored, nor to be moved or elevated with the acclamations of a mult.i.tude, writing thus of Amphiaraus:--

His s.h.i.+eld no emblem bears; his generous soul Wishes to be, not to appear, the best; While the deep furrows of his n.o.ble mind Harvests of wise and prudent counsel bear.

(See note in the same pa.s.sage of Aeschylus (Sept. 591), i. 210. (G).)

For it is the part of a wise man to value himself upon the consciousness of his own true worth and excellency.

Whereas, therefore, all inward perfections are reducible to wisdom, it appears that all sorts of virtue and learning are included in it

Again, boys may be instructed, by reading the poets as they ought, to draw even from those pa.s.sages that are most suspected as wicked and absurd something that is useful and profitable; as the bee is taught by Nature to gather the sweetest and most pleasant honey from the harshest flowers and sharpest thorns. It does indeed at the first blush cast a shrewd suspicion on Agmemnon of taking a bribe, when Homer tells us that he discharged that rich man from the wars who presented him with his fleet mare Aethe:--

Whom rich Echepolus, more rich than brave, To 'scape the wars, to Agamemnon gave (Aethe her name), at home to end his days; Base wealth preferring to eternal praise.

("Iliad," xxiii. 297.)

Yet, as saith Aristotle, it was well done of him to prefer a good beast before such a man. For, the truth is, a dog or a.s.s is of more value than a timorous and cowardly man that wallows in wealth and luxury. Again, Thetis seems to do indecently, when she exhorts her son to follow his pleasures and minds him of companying with women. But even here, on the other side, the continency of Achilles is worthy to be considered; who, though he dearly loved Briseis,--newly returned to him too,--yet, when he knew his life to be near its end, does not hasten to the fruition of pleasures, nor, when he mourns for his friend Patroclus, does he (as most men are wont) shut himself up from all business and neglect his duty, but only bars himself from recreations for his sorrow's sake, while yet he gives himself up to action and military employments.

And Archilochus is not praiseworthy either, who, in the midst of his mourning for his sister's husband drowned in the sea, contrives to dispel his grief by drinking and merriment. And yet he gives this plausible reason to justify that practice of his,

To drink and dance, rather than mourn, I choose; Nor wrong I him, whom mourning can't reduce.

For, if he judged himself to do nothing amiss when he followed sports and banquets, sure, we shall not do worse, if in whatever circ.u.mstances we follow the study of philosophy, or manage public affairs, or go to the market or to the Academy, or follow our husbandry. Wherefore those corrections also are not to be rejected which Cleanthes and Antisthenes have made use of. For Antisthenes, seeing the Athenians all in a tumult in the theatre, and justly, upon the p.r.o.nunciation of this verse,--

Except what men think wrong, there's nothing ill, (From the "Aeolus" of Euripides, Frag. 19.)

presently subjoined this corrective,