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PLUTARCH'S    MORALS. 


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TRANSLATED  FROM  THE  GREEK  BY  SEVERAL  HANDS. 


CORRECTED  AND  REVISED 


BY 


WILLIAM  W.  GOODWIN,  Ph.  D., 

PROFESSOR    OF    GREEK    LITERATURE    IN    HABVAiU)    UNIVERSITY. 


WITH 

AN    INTRODUCTION    BY    RALPH    WALDO    EMERSON. 


Vol.  V. 


BOSTON: 
LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND   COMPANY. 

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Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1870,  by 

LITTLE,    BKOWN,    AND    COMPAIT^, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


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University  Press: 
JOHN  Vl^iLicN  &  S6n,\  Cambridge 


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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,  3.  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.  Pass- 
ing 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  1  13.  Who  knows  but  the  bodies  of  animals  may  contain  the  souls  of 
deceased  men  ;  of  a  father,  brother,  son,  or  other  friend  f  14,  15. 

LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS. 

Bt  Charles  Barcroft,  Lecturer  of  St.  Mildred's,  Bread  Streki. 

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.  Fetherstow,  D.D. 

It  is  maintained  by  some,  that  after  a  certain  time  men  should  not  employ  them- 
selves 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  pub- 
lic 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 


IV  CONTENTS    OF   VOL   V. 

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,  37,  74.  It  is  not  easy  to  terminate  a  long  and  faithful  public  ser- 
vice, 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  com- 
pelled 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  states- 
men, 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.  Idle- 
ness enervates  even  great  men,  as  Lucullus,  while  constant  employment  invigor- 
ates, 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  frivo- 
lous matters,  87.  Offices  of  honor  and  dignity  befit  old  men,  88.  They  should 
not  eagerlj'  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  nego- 
tiations, 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 
emploj^ment,  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  Peri- 
cles, 106,  107.  What  the  speech  of  a  statesman  should  be,  107.  Hovr  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  au- 
thority, 114.  Be  careful  in  the  choice  of  your  man,  lest  your  success  inspire 
him  with  jealous}',  115.  Pompey  owed  his  success  to  Sylla,  115.  Avoid  flatter- 
ers 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  over- 
shadow all  private  griefs,  122  How  to  meet  invective,  124.  Allow  others 
to  assist  in  public  afTIiirs,  128.  Undertake  nothing  for  which  you  lack  qualifi- 
cation, 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 


CONTENTS   OF  VOL.   V.  V 

is  under  the  Koman  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,  183.  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,  185.  Treat  colleagues  in  office  with 
honor  and  respect,  186.  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  Koman 
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  1  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 
emmet",  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 


Vi  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   V. 

that  carried  King  Poms,  ]  83.  The  horse  Bucephalus,  183.  Where  there  is  one 
virtue  in  a  brute,  there  are  commonly  others,  188,  184.  Instances  of  subtlety 
and  cunning,  184-186.  Elephants  and  lions  have  a  taste  for  society,  187.  AmoF- 
ous  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  ta  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  ta  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  disin- 
terested 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  oi  man,  in 
the  form  of  a  dialogue  between  Ulysses  in  the  island  of  Circe,  and  Gryllua,  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  com- 
panions to  the  human  shape,  218.  Circe  will  grant  the  request  if  the  men  them- 
selves 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  convpanions  beasts,  Circe  has  done  them  a 
great  favor,  220.  Beasts  have  more  fortitude  tlaan  men ;  they  fight  in  fair,  open 
combat,  without  trick  or  artifice ;  they  are  nc  cowards,  they  never  cry  for  mercy, 
222.  Beasts  are  courageous  and  daring,  even  the  females  ;  while  the  bourage  of 
men  is  artificial,  and  women  are  timid,  228,  224.  Beasts  are  more  temperate  and 
chaste  than  men ;  they  indulge  tlieir  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  1  234. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   V.  VU 

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  1  255.  Reasons  why  this  is  probable,  256.  When  the  moon 
appears  only  half-enlightened,  ought  not  the  light  reflected  to  come  at  right 
angles  1  and  is  it  so  1  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  further  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  moun- 
tain, 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  consid- 
ered, 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 


Viii  CONTENTS  OF   VOL.  V. 

OF  FATE. 

Bt  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,  deter- 
mines all  things,  296.  It  determines  both  conditionally  and  universally,  297.  What 
relation  has  Fate  to  Divine  Providence  1  what  to  fortune  1  what  to  human  abil- 
ity 1  what  to  contingent  events  1  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, 
802.  Fortune  is  not  the  same  thing  as  Chance,  though  Chance  comprehends  For- 
tune, 303.  Fortune  relates  to  men  only ;  Chance  includes  things  animate  and 
manimate,  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, 
806.     Of  the  Providence  of  the  Daemons,  307,  308. 

CONCERNING  THE  FIRST  PRINCIPLE  OF  COLD. 

Bt  F.  Fethekston,  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.  Priva- 
tion 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  there- 
fore 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 


CONTENTS   OF  VOL.   V.  ix 

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. 
827-330. 

WHETHEE   WATER   OR   FIRE   BE   MOST   USEFUL. 

By  the  Same  Hand. 

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. 

Bt  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.  Tiiis  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  1 
848.  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  1  350.  Empedocles  defended  from  the  mis- 
representations of  Colotes,  3.50,  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, 
856.  Difference  between  that  which  exists  by  itself,  and  tliat  wliich  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  gen- 
eral be  safely  relied  on,  362.  If  self-knowledge  is  valuable,  Colotes  is  blamable 
for  scofiing  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, 
868,  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  Arces- 


X  CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   V. 

ilaus  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. 

PLUTAKCH'S    CONSOLATORY   LETTER   TO   HIS   WIFE. 

By  Robert  Midglet,  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.  Tlie  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,  DEMOC- 
RACY,  AND   OLIGARCHY. 

By  R.  Smith,  M.A. 

Which  of  these  three  sorts  is  best  ?  395.  The  word  policij  or  government  defined, 
396.  The  Persians  had  monarchy ;  Sparta  had  an  oligarchy  ;  Athens  was  a  de- 
mocracy :  and  all  were  powerful  and  prosperous,  397.  The  author  prefers  mon- 
archy, 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  de- 
rived great  reputation  thereby,  400,  401.  But  what  are  historians,  painters,  and 
poets,  compared  with  the  generals,  admirals,  and  statesmen,  whom  they  com- 
memorate ?  402,  403.  Athens  not  renowned  for  epic  or  lyric  verse,  404.  Tragedy 
flourished  there,  but  what  benefit  did  tragedy  procure  for  the  Athenians  1  405. 
They  lavished  money  on  scenes  and  shows,  to  the  neglect  of  more  important  in- 
terests, 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 
80  poets,  rhetoricians,  and  orators,  408-411.  Miltiades  and  other  commanders, 
compared  with  Demosthenes  and  other  orators,  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  latter, 
408-411. 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.   V.  XI 

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

By  the  Saue  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,  4ii0.  We  must  avoid  the  usurer  or  be 
mined,  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  1  428,  429.  3.  What  does 
Plato,  in  his  Republic,  mean  by  dividing  the  universe  into  unequal  parts  f  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.  ?  438-435.  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.  1  435-438.  8.  What  does  he  mean  in  the  Ti- 
maeus  when  he  says  that  Souls  are  dispersed  into  the  Earth,  the  Moon,  and 
into  other  instruments  of  time  1  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  Lace- 
daemonians in  Tiiyreatis  ;  defeat  of  the  Romans  at  the  Caudine  Forks,  452,  453 
4.  Leonidas  at  Thermopylae  ;  Fabius  Maximus  in  the  Punic  War,  453.  6  Chasms 
in  the  earth  closed  by  men  leaping  into  them,  454.    6.  Amphiaraus,  and  Valerius 


Xii  CONTENTS   OF   VOL.   V. 

Conatus,  swallowed  up  alive  by  the  earth,  455.  7.  A  king  of  Euboea,  and  a  king  of 
Alba,  drawn  in  pieces  by  liorses,  455.  8.  Pliilip  of  Macedon  and  Aster  the  archer, 
Porsena  of  Clusium  and  Horatius  Codes,  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  pun- 
ishment, 458.  12.  A  son  of  Epaminondas,  the  Theban  general,  and  a  son  of 
Manhus,  the  Roman  consul,  beheaded  for  disobeying  the  orders  of  their  fathers, 

458,  459.  13.  lole,  the  beloved  of  Hercules,  threw  herself  from  a  wall  without 
hurt ;  this  story  matched  from  Roman  history,  459.  14.  The  sacrifice  of  Iphi- 
genia  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  com- 
bat of  the  Horatii  and  Curiatii  in  Roman  history  has  a  parallel  in  Tegea,  460, 
461.  17.  The  Palladium  in  liinm  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  Romt , 
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  Lacedae- 
mon,  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.  Er 
enus  cannot  keep  his  daughter  a  virgin  :  neither  can  Anius,  king  of  the  Tuscans, 
476. 


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

By  R.  White,  MA. 

1  Hydaspes,  a  river  in  India,  why  it  received  the  name,  &c.,  477,  478.  2.  Ismenns,  a 
river  of  Boeotia,  Cadmus,  mount  Cithaeron,  Tisiphone,  &c.,  478^80.  3.  Hebrus, 
a  river  of  Thrace  ;  mount  Pangaeus,  480, 481.   4.  Ganges  ;  the  mountain  Anatole, 


CONTENTS  OF  VOL.  V.  xiu 

481,  482.  5.  Phasis,  a  riyer  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  moimtaina 
Rhodope  and  Haemus,  491,  492.  12.  Sagaris,  in  Phrygia,  492.  13.  Scamander, 
in  Troas  ;  moimt  Ida,  493.  14.  Tanais,  in  Scythia ;  mount  Brixaba,  494.  16. 
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,  601, 
502.  20.  Euphrates,  502.  21.  Caicus,  in  Mysia;  mount  Teuthras,  603,  604. 
22.  Acheloiis,  in  Aetolia ;  mount  Calydon,  504,  505.  23.  Araxes,  in  Armenia ; 
mount  Diorphus,  606,  607.  24.  Tigris;  mount  Gauran,  507,  608.  25.  Indus; 
moxmt  Lilaeus,  508,  509. 


INDEX. 611 


PLUTARCH'S    MORALS. 


PLUTARCH'S    MORALS. 


OF  EATING   OF   FLESH. 
TRACT  I. 

1.  You  ask  of  me  then  for  what  reason  it  was  that  Py- 
thagoras 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  be- 
fore 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  man- 
gled bodies  ;  how  his  smell  could  bear  their  scent ;  and 
how  the  very  nastiness  happened  not  to  off"end  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.* 

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  opin- 
ion, to  have  enquired  who  first  began  this  practice,  than 
who  of  late  times  left  it  ofi". 

*  Odyss.  XII.  395. 


4  OF  EATING   OF   FLESH. 

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  law- 
less and  extravagant  lusts,  or  their  growing  wanton  and 
capricious  through  the  excessive  variety  of  provisions  then 
among  them,  brought  them  to  such  unsociable  pleas- 
ures 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  afi"righting  part  of  time,  in 
which  we  were  exposed  by  our  first  production  to  mani- 
fold 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  inunda- 
tions of  disorderly  rivers ;  and  a  great  part  of  it  was  de- 
formed 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  Na- 


OF  EATING   OF  FLESH.  5 

ture,  when  mud  was  eaten  and  the  bark  of  wood,  and 
when  it  was  thought  a  happy  thing  to  find  either  a  sprout- 
ing 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  escuhis,  calUng  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 
!\ecessary  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  Bac- 
chus, as  not  furnishing  you  with  sufficiency  1  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. 
*[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  croco- 
dile swimming  in  it,  or  an  asp  crawling  along,  or  mice 

*  "  I  see  not  how  this  that  is  included  within  these  marks  [  ]  agreeth  with 
this  place,  or  matter  in  hand  :  I  suppose  therefore  it  is  inserted  heere  without  judge- 
ment, and  taken  out  of  some  other  booke."— Holland. 


6  OF  EATING   OF  FLESH. 

(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  contemplat- 
ing this  land  or  ground,  how  full  it  is  of  tame  fruits,  and 
how  heavy  with  ears  of  corn,  should  afterwards  espy  some- 
where in  these  same  cornfields  an  ear  of  darnel  or  a  wild 
vetch,  aud  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  advo- 
cate 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  roll- 
ing 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  diff'ering  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  ex- 
pressions, 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  charming- 
ness  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  propor- 
tion 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 


OF   EATING   OF  FLESH.  7 

sounds  and  noises,  and  not  the  several  deprecations,  en- 
treaties, 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  mam- 
mocks 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  havv^k's  bill,  no  sharp  talon,  no  roughness  of 
teeth,  no  such  strength  of  stomach  or  heat  of  digestion,  as 
can  be  sufiicient  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  incli- 
nation 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  sou] 


H  OF  EATING   OF  FLESH. 

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  pur- 
chased 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  (o^ov),  and  then  require 
another  seasoning  (oyjov),  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  pour- 
contrel, to  the  end  he  might  make  human  life  more  brutish. 
Moreover,  these  same  flesh-eatings  not  only  are  preter- 


OF  EATING   OF  FLESH.  9 

natural  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  "  fel- 
lows with  long  jaws."  It  is  observed  also  that,  according 
to  the  saying  of  Heraclitus,  "  the  wisest  soul  is  like  a 
dry  light."*  Earthen  jars,  if  you  strike  them,  will  sound; 
but  if  they  be  fall,  they  perceive  not  the  strokes  that  are 
given  them.  Copper  vessels  also  that  are  thin  communi- 
cate 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  hu- 
mors, grows  dim  and  feeble  for  its  ordinary  work.  When 
we  behold  the  sun  through  a  humid  air  and  a  great  quan- 
tity 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  accustom- 
ing one's  self  to  mildness  and  a  human  temper  of  mind  an 
admirable  thing  1  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 

*  See  Mullach,  Fragm.  Philos.  p.  325  (No.  73). 


10  OF  EATING  OF  FLESH. 

of  a  saying  of  Xenocrates,  and  how  the  Athenians  gave 
judgment  upon  a  certain  person  who  had  flayed  a  living 
ram.  For  my  part  1  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  cus- 
tom 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  afl'ect  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  cer- 
tain 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  at- 
tempts of  the  Titans  upon  him,  and  of  their  tasting  of  his 
slain  body,  and  of  their  several  punishments  and  fulmina- 
tions  afterwards,  are  but  a  representation  of  the  regenera- 
tion. For  what  in  us  is  unreasonable,  disorderly,  and 
boisterous,  being  not  divine  but  demoniac,  the  ancients 
termed    Titans,    that    is    tormented  and  punished  (from 

TtVto).    ... 

TRACT  II. 

1.  Reason  persuades  us  now  to  return  with  fresh  cogi- 
tations 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 


OF  EATING  OF  FLESH.  11 

already  drunk  that  draught  of  custom,  which  is  like  that 
of  Circe, 

Of  groans  and  frauds  and  sorcery  replete.* 

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  wanton- 
ness. Let  us  kill  an  animal ;  but  let  us  do  it  with  sorrow 
and  pity,  and  not  abusing  and  tormenting  it,  as  many  now- 
adays 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. 

2.  By  all  which  it  is  most  manifest,  that  it  is  not  for 
nourishment,  or  want,  or  any  necessity,  but  for  mere  glut- 
tony, wantonness,   and   expensiveness,  that  they  make   a 

*  Odyea.  X.  234. 


12  OF   EATING   OF   FLESH. 

pleasure  of  villany.  Just  as  it  happens  in  persons  who 
cannot  satiate  their  intemperance  upon  women,  and  having 
made  trial  of  every  thing  else  and  falling  into  vagaries,  at 
last  attempt  things  not  to  be  mentioned  ;  even  so  inordi- 
nateness  in  feeding,  when  it  hath  once  passed  the  bounds 
of  nature  and  necessity,  studies  at  last  to  diversify  the  lusts 
of  its  intemperate  appetite  by  cruelty  and  villany.  For 
the  senses,  when  they  once  quit  their  natural  measures, 
sympathize  with  each  other  in  their  distempers,  and  are 
enticed  by  each  other  to  the  same  consent  and  intemper- 
ance. Thus  a  distempered  ear  first  debauched  music,  the 
soft  and  effeminate  notes  of  which  provoke  immodest 
touches  and  lascivious  tickling.  These  things  first  taught 
the  eye  not  to  delight  in  Pyrrhic  dances,  gesticulations  of 
hands,  or  elegant  pantomimes,  nor  in  statues  and  fine 
paintings ;  but  to  reckon  the  slaughtering  and  death  of 
mankind  and  wounds  and  duels  the  most  sumptuous  of 
shows  and  spectacles.  Thus  unlawful  tables  are  accom- 
panied with  intemperate  copulations,  with  unmusician-like 
balls,  and  theatres  become  monstrous  through  shameful 
songs  and  rehearsals ;  and  barbarous  and  brutish  shows 
are  again  accompanied  with  an  unrelenting  temper  and 
savage  cruelty  towards  mankind.  Hence  it  was  that  the 
divine  Lycurgus  in  his  Three  Books  of  Laws  gave  orders 
that  the  doors  and  ridges  of  men's  houses  should  be  made 
with  a  saw  and  an  axe,  and  that  no  other  instrument  should 
so  much  as  be  brought  to  any  house.  Not  that  he  did 
hereby  intend  to  declare  war  against  augers  and  planes 
and  other  instruments  of  finer  work  ;  but  because  he  very 
well  knew  that  with  such  tools  as  these  you  will  never 
bring  into  your  house  a  gilded  couch,  and  that  you  will 
never  attempt  to  bring  into  a  slender  cottage  either  silver 
tables,  purple  carpets,  or  costly  stones  ;  but  that  a  plain 
supper  and  a  homely  dinner  must  accompany  such  a  house, 
couch,  table,  and  cup.     The  beginning  of  a  vicious  diet  is 


OF  EATING   OF  FLESH.  13 

presently  followed  by  all  sorts  of  luxury  and  expensive- 
ness, 

Ev'n  as  a  mare  is  by  her  thirsty  colt. 

3.  And  what  meal  is  not  expensive  ?  That  for  which  no 
animal  is  put  to  death.  Shall  we  reckon  a  soul  to  be  a 
small  expense.  I  will  not  say  perhaps  of  a  mother,  or  a 
father,  or  of  some  friend,  or  child,  as  Empedocles  did ;  but 
one  participating  of  feeling,  of  seeing,  of  hearing,  of  imagi- 
nation, and  of  intellection ;  which  each  animal  hath  re- 
ceived from  I^ature  for  the  acquiring  of  what  is  agreeable 
to  it,  and  the  avoiding  what  is  disagreeable.  Do  but  con- 
sider this  with  yourself  now,  which  sort  of  philosophers 
render  us  most  tame  and  civil,  they  who  bid  people  to  feed 
on  their  children,  friends,  fathers,  and  wives,  when  they  are 
dead ;  or  Pythagoras  and  Empedocles,  that  accustom  men 
to  be  just  towards  even  the  other  members  of  the  creation. 
You  laugh  at  a  man  that  will  not  eat  a  sheep :  but  we 
(they  will  say  again)  —  when  we  see  you  cutting  off  the 
parts  of  your  dead  father  or  mother,  and  sending  it  to  your 
absent  friends,  and  calling  upon  and  inviting  your  present 
friends  to  eat  the  rest  freely  and  heartily  —  shall  we  not 
smile  1  Nay,  peradventure  we  offend  at  this  instant  time 
while  we  touch  these  books,  without  having  first  cleansed 
our  hands,  eyes,  feet,  and  ears  ;  if  it  be  not  (by  Jupiter)  a 
sufficient  purgation  of  them  to  have  discoursed  of  these 
matters  in  potable  and  fresh  language  (as  Plato  speaketh), 
thereby  washing  off  the  brackishness  of  hearing.  Now  if 
a  man  should  set  these  books  and  discourses  in  opposition 
to  each  other,  he  will  find  that  the  philosophy  of  the  one 
sort  suits  with  the  Scythians,  Sogdians,  and  Melanchlae- 
nians,  of  whom  Herodotus's  relation  is  scarce  believed ; 
but  the  sentiments  of  Pythagoras  and  Empedocles  were  the 
laws  and  customs  of  the  ancient  Grecians. 

4.  Who  then  were  the  first  authors  of  this  opinion,  that 
we  owe  no  justice  to  dumb  animals  1 


14  or  EATING  OF  FLESH. 

"Who  first  beat  out  accursed  steel. 

And  made  the  lab'ring  ox  a  knife  to  feel. 

In  the  very  same  manner  oppressors  and  tyrants  begin  first 
to  shed  blood.  For  example,  the  first  man  that  the  Athe- 
nians ever  put  to  death  was  one  of  the  basest  of  all  knaves, 
whom  all  thought  deserving  of  death ;  after  him  they  put 
to  death  a  second  and  a  third.  After  this,  being  now  ac- 
customed to  blood,  they  patiently  saw  Niceratus  the  son  of 
Nicias,  and  their  own  general  Theramenes,  and  Polemar- 
chus  the  philosopher  suffer  death.  Even  so,  in  the  begin- 
ning, some  wild  and  mischievous  beast  was  killed  and  eaten, 
and  then  some  little  bird  or  fish  was  entrapped.  And  the 
love  of  slaughter,  being  first  experimented  and  exercised 
in  these,  at  last  passed  even  to  the  laboring  ox,  and  the 
sheep  that  clothes  us,  and  to  the  poor  cock  that  keeps 
the  house ;  until  by  little  and  little,  unsatiableness  being 
strengthened  by  use,  men  came  to  the  slaughter  of  men, 
to  bloodshed  and  wars.  Now  even  if  one  cannot  demon- 
strate and  make  out,  that  souls  in  their  regenerations  make 
a  promiscuous  use  of  all  bodies,  and  that  that  which  is  now 
rational  will  at  another  time  be  irrational,  and  that  again 
tame  which  is  now  wild,  —  for  that  Nature  changes  and 
transmutes  every  thing. 

With  different  fleshy  coats  new  clothing  all,  — 

this  thing  should  be  sufficient  to  change  and  reclaim  men, 
that  it  is  a  savage  and  intemperate  habit,  that  it  brings  sick- 
ness and  heaviness  upon  the  body,  and  that  it  inclines  the 
mind  the  more  brutishly  to  bloodshed  and  destruction,  when 
we  have  once  accustomed  ourselves  neither  to  entertain  a 
guest  nor  keep  a  wedding  nor  to  treat  our  friends  without 
blood  and  slaughter. 

5.  And  if  what  is  argued  about  the  return  of  souls  into 
bodies  is  not  of  force  enough  to  beget  faith,  yet  methinks 
the  very  uncertainty  of  the  thing  should  fill  us  with  appre- 
hension and  fear.     Suppose,  for  instance,  one  should  in 


OF  EATING  OF  FLESH.  15 

some  night- engagement  run  on  with  his  drawn  sword  upon 
one  that  had  fallen  down  and  covered  his  body  with  his 
arms,  and  should  in  the  mean  time  hear  one  say,  that  he 
was  not  very  sure,  but  that  he  fancied  and  believed,  that 
the  party  lying  there  was  his  own  son,  brother,  father,  or 
tent-companion;  which  were  more  advisable,  think  you, — 
to  hearken  to  a  false  suggestion,  and  so  to  let  go  an  enemy 
under  the  notion  of  a  friend,  or  to  slight  an  authority  not 
sufficient  to  beget  faith,  and  to  slay  a  friend  instead  of  a 
foe  ?  This  you  will  all  say  would  be  insupportable.  Do 
but  consider  the  famous  Merope  in  the  tragedy,  who  taking 
up  a  hatchet,  and  lifting  it  at  her  son's  head,  whom  she 
took  for  her  son's  murderer,  speaks  thus  as  she  was  ready 
to  give  the  fatal  blow, 

Villain,  this  pious  blow  shall  cleave  thy  head  ;  * 

what  a  bustle  she  raises  in  the  whole  theatre  while  she 
raises  herself  to  give  the  blow,  and  what  a  fear  they  are 
all  in,  lest  she  should  prevent  the  old  man  that  comes  to 
stop  her  hand,  and  should  wound  the  youth.  Now  if  an- 
other old  man  should  stand  by  her  and  say,  "  Strike,  it  is 
thy  enemy,"  and  this,  "  Hold,  it  is  thy  son ;  "  which,  think 
you,  would  be  the  greater  injustice,  to  omit  the  punishing 
of  an  enemy  for  the  sake  of  one's  child,  or  to  suffer  one's 
self  to  be  so  transported  with  anger  at  an  enemy  as  to  kill 
one's  child  ■?  Since  then  neither  hatred  nor  wrath  nor  any 
revenge  nor  fear  for  ourselves  carries  us  to  the  slaughter 
of  a  beast,  but  the  poor  sacrifice  stands  with  an  inclined 
neck,  only  to  satisfy  thy  lust  and  pleasure,  and  then  one 
philosopher  stands  by  and  tells  thee,  "  Cut  him  down,  it  is 
but  an  unreasonable  animal,"  and  another  cries,  "  Hold, 
what  if  there  should  be  the  soul  of  some  kinsman  or  God 
inclosed  in  him  "1  —  good  Gods  !  is  there  the  like  danger 
if  I  refuse  to  eat  flesh,  as  if  I  for  want  of  faith  murder  my 
child  or  some  other  friend? 

•  Eurip.  Cresphontes,  Frag.  467. 


16  OF  EATING  OF  FLESH. 

6.  The  Stoics'  way  of  reasoning  upon  this  subject  of  flesh- 
eating  is  no  way  equal  nor  consonant  with  themselves. 
Who  is  this  that  hath  so  many  mouths  for  his  belly  and  the 
kitchen'?  Whence  comes  it  to  pass,  that  they  so  very 
much  womanize  and  reproach  pleasure,  as  a  thing  that  they 
will  not  allow  to  be  either  good  or  preferable,  or  so  much 
as  agreeable,  and  yet  all  on  a  sudden  become  so  zealous 
advocates  for  pleasures  ?  It  were  indeed  but  a  reasonable 
consequence  of  their  doctrine,  that,  since  they  banish. per- 
fumes and  cakes  from  their  banquets,  they  should  be  much 
more  averse  to  blood  and  to  flesh.  But  now,  just  as  if  they 
would  reduce  their  philosophy  to  their  day-books,  they 
lessen  the  expenses  of  their  suppers  in  certain  unnecessary 
and  needless  matters,  but  the  untamed  and  murderous  part 
of  their  expense  they  nothing  boggle  at.  "  Well !  What 
then  ?  "  say  they.  "  We  have  nothing  to  do  with  brute 
beasts."  Nor  have  you  any  with  perfumes,  nor  with  for- 
eign sauces,  may  some  one  answer;  therefore  expel  these 
from  your  banquets,  if  you  are  driving  out  every  thing 
that  is  both  useless  and  needless. 

7.  Let  us  therefore  in  the  next  place  consider,  whether 
we  owe  any  justice  to  the  brute  beasts.  Neither  shall  we 
handle  this  point  artificially,  or  like  subtle  sophisters,  but 
by  casting  our  eye  into  our  own  breasts,  and  conversing  with 
ourselves  as  men,  we  will  weigh  and  examine  the  whole 
matter.  .  .  . 


LIVES   OF  THE  TEN   ORATORS. 


I.  ANTIPHON. 

Antiphon,  the  son  of  Sophilus,  by  descent  a  Rhamrni- 
sian,  was  his  father's  scholar  ;  for  Sophikis  kept  a  rhetoric 
school,  to  which  it  is  reported  that  Alcibiades  himself  had 
recourse  in  his  youth.  Having  attained  to  competent 
measure  of  knowledge  and  eloquence,  —  and  that,  as  some 
believe,  from  his  own  natural  ingenuity,  —  he  dedicated  his 
study  chiefly  to  affairs  of  state.  And  yet  he  was  for  some 
time  conversant  in  the  schools,  and  had  a  controversy  with 
Socrates  the  philosopher  about  the  art  of  disputing,  —  not 
so  much  for  the  sake  of  contention  as  for  the  profit  of 
arguing,  as  Xenophon  tells  us  in  his  Commentaries  of  So- 
crates. At  the  request  of  some  citizens,  he  wrote  orations 
by  which  they  defended  their  suits  at  law.  Some  say  that 
he  was  the  first  that  ever  did  any  thing  of  this  nature. 
For  it  is  certain  there  is  not  one  juridical  oration  extant 
written  by  any  orator  that  lived  before  him,  nor  by  his  con- 
temporaries either,  as  Themistocles,  Aristides,  and  Pericles ; 
though  the  times  gave  them  opportunity,  and  there  was 
need  enough  of  their  labor  in  such  business.  Not  that  we 
are  to  impute  it  to  their  want  of  parts  that  they  did  noth- 
ing in  this  way,  for  we  may  inform  ourselves  of  the  contrary 
from  what  historians  relate  of  each  of  them.  Besides,  if 
we  inspect  the  most  ancient  of  those  known  in  history  who 
had  the  same  form  and  method  in  their  pleadings,  such  as 
Alcibiades,  Critias,  Lysias,  and  Archinous,  we  shall  find 


18  LIVES  OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS. 

that  they  all  followed  Antiphon  when  he  was  old.  For 
being  a  man  of  incomparable  sagacity,  he  was  the  first 
that  published  institutions  of  oratory  ;  and  by  reason  of 
his  profound  learning,  he  was  surnamed  Nestor.  Caecilius, 
in  a  tract  which  he  wrote  of  him,  supposes  him  to  have 
been  Thucydides's  pupil,  from  what  Antiphon  delivered  in 
praise  of  him.  He  is  most  accurate  in  his  orations,  in  in- 
vention subtle ;  and  he  would  frequently  baffle  his  adver- 
sary at  unawares,  by  a  covert  sort  of  pleading ;  in  trouble- 
some and  intricate  matters  he  was  very  judicious  and  sharp  ; 
and  as  he  was  a  great  admirer  of  ornamental  speaking,  he 
would  always  adapt  his  orations  to  both  law  and  reason. 

He  lived  about  the  time  of  the  Persian  war  and  of 
Gorgias  the  rhetorician,  being  somewhat  younger  than  he. 
And  he  lived  to  see  the  subversion  of  the  popular  govern- 
ment in  the  commonwealth  which  was  wrought  by  the 
four  hundred  conspirators,  in  which  he  himself  is  thought 
to  have  had  the  chiefest  hand,  being  sometimes  commander 
of  two  galleys,  and  sometimes  general,  and  having  by  the 
many  and  great  victories  he  obtained  gained  them  many 
allies,  he  armed  the  young  men,  manned  out  sixty  galleys, 
and  on  all  their  occasions  went  ambassador  to  Lacedaemon 
at  the  time  when  Eetionia  was  fortified.  But  when  those 
Four  Hundred  were  overcome  and  taken  down,  he  with 
Archeptolemus,  who  was  likewise  one  of  the  same  number, 
was  accused  of  the  conspiracy,  condemned,  and  sentenced 
to  the  punishment  due  to  traitors,  his  body  cast  out  un- 
buried,  and  all  his  posterity  infamous  on  record.  But 
there  are  some  who  tell  us,  that  he  was  put  to  death  by  the 
Thirty  Tyrants  ;  and  among  the  rest,  Lysias,  in  his  oration 
for  x\ntiphon's  daughter,  says  the  same ;  for  he  left  a  little 
daughter,  whom  Callaeschrus  claimed  for  his  wife  by  the 
law  of  propinquity.  And  Theopompus  likewise,  in  his 
Fifteenth  Book  of  Philippics,  tells  us  the  same  thing.  But 
this  must  have  been  another  Antiphon,  son  of  Lysidonides, 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS.  19 

whom  Cratinus  mentions  in  his  Pytine  as  a  rascal.  But 
how  could  he  be  executed  in  the  time  of  the  Four  Hundred, 
and  afterward  live  to  be  put  to  death  by  the  Thirty  Tyrants  ? 
There  is  likewise  another  story  of  the  manner  of  his  death  : 
that  when  he  was  old,  he  sailed  to  Syracuse,  when  the 
tyranny  of  Dionysius  the  First  was  most  famous ;  and 
being  at  table,  a  question  was  put,  what  sort  of  brass  was 
best.  When  others  had  answered  as  they  thought  most 
proper,  he  replied,  That  is  the  best  brass,  of  which  the 
statues  of  Harmodius  and  Aristogiton  were  made.  The 
tyrant  hearing  this,  and  taking  it  as  a  tacit  exhortation  to 
his  subjects  to  contrive  his  ruin,  he  commanded  Antiphon 
to  be  put  to  death ;  and  some  say  that  he  put  him  to  death 
for  deriding  his  tragedies. 

This  orator  is  reported  to  have  written  sixty  orations ; 
but  Caecilius  supposes  twenty-five  of  them  to  be  spurious 
and  none  of  his.  Plato,  in  his  comedy  called  Pisander, 
traduces  him  as  a  covetous  man.  He  is  reported  to  have 
composed  some  of  his  tragedies  alone,  and  others  with 
Dionysius  the  tyrant.  While  he  was  poetically  inclined, 
he  invented  an  art  of  curing  the  distemper  of  the  mind,  as 
physicians  are  wont  to  provide  cure  of  bodily  diseases. 
And  having  at  Corinth  built  him  a  little  house,  in  or  near 
the  market,  he  set  a  postscript  over  the  gate,  to  this  effect : 
that  he  had  a  way  to  cure  the  distemper  of  men's  minds  by 
words ;  and  let  him  but  know  the  cause  of  their  malady, 
he  would  immediately  prescribe  the  remedy,  to  their  com- 
fort. But  after  some  time,  thinking  that  art  not  worth  his 
while,  he  betook  himself  to  the  study  and  teaching  of 
oratory.  There  are  some  who  ascribe  the  book  of  Glaucus 
of  Rhegium  concerning  Poets  to  him  as  author.  His  ora- 
tions concerning  Herodes,  against  Erasistratus  concerning 
Peacocks,*  are  very  much  commended,  and  also  that  which, 
when  he  was  accused,  he  penned  for  himself  against  a 

*  Concerning  Ideas,  according  to  the  MSS.    (G.) 


20  LIVES   OF   THE   TEN   ORATORS. 

public  indictment,  and  that  against  Demosthenes  the 
general  for  moving  an  illegal  measure.  He  likewise  had 
another  against  Hippocrates  the  general ;  who  did  not 
appear  on  the  day  appointed  for  his  trial,  and  was  con- 
demned in  his  absence. 

Caecilius  has  recorded  the  decree  of  the  senate  for  the 
judicial  trial  of  Antiphon,  passed  in  the  year*  in  which 
Theopompus  was  chief  magistrate  of  Athens,  the  same  in 
which  the  Four  Hundred  were  overthrown,  —  in  these 
words : 

"  Enacted  by  the  senate  on  the  twenty-first  day  of  the 
prytany.  Demonicus  of  Alopece  was  clerk ;  Philostratus 
of  Pallene  was  president. 

"  Andron  moved  in  regard  to  those  men,  —  viz.  Archep- 
tolemus,  Onomacles,  and  Antiphon,  whom  the  generals  had 
declared  against,  for  that  they  went  in  an  embassage  to 
Lacedaemon,  to  the  great  damage  of  the  city  of  Athens, 
and  departed  from  the  camp  in  an  enemies'  ship,  and 
went  through  Decelea  by  land,  —  that  they  should  be 
apprehended  and  brought  before  the  court  for  a  legal 
trial. 

"  Therefore  let  the  generals,  with  others  of  the  senate, 
to  the  number  of  ten,  whom  it  shall  please  the  generals  to 
name  and  choose,  look  after  these  men  to  present  them 
before  the  court,  that  they  may  be  present  during  the  pro- 
ceedings. Then  let  the  Thesmothetes  summon  the  de- 
fendants to  appear  on  the  morrow,  and  let  them  open  the 
proceedings  in  court  at  the  time  at  which  the  summonses 
shall  be  returnable.  Then  let  the  chosen  advocates,  with 
the  generals  and  any  others  who  may  have  any  thing  to  say, 
accuse  the  defendants  of  treason ;  and  if  any  one  of  them 
shall  be  found  guilty,  let  sentence  be  passed  upon  him  as  a 
traitor,  according  to  the  law  in  such  case  made  and  pro- 
vided." 

•  Theopompus  was  Archon  in  b.c.  411.    (G.) 


LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS.  21 

At  the  bottom  of  this  decree  was  subscribed  the  sen 
tence :  — 

"  Archeptolemus  son  of  Hippodamus,  the  Agrylian,  and 
Antiphon  son  of  Sophilus,  the  Ramnusian,  being  both 
present  in  court,  are  condemned  of  treason.  And  this 
was  to  be  their  punishment :  that  they  should  be  delivered 
to  the  eleven  executioners,  their  goods  confiscated,  the 
tenth  part  of  them  being  first  consecrated  to  Minerva ; 
their  houses  to  be  levelled  with  the  ground,  and  in  the 
places  where  they  stood  this  subscription  to  be  engraven 
on  brass,  '  [The  houses]  of  Archeptolemus  and  Antiphon, 
traitors.'  ...  *  That  Archeptolemus  and  Antiphon  should 
neither  of  them  be  buried  in  Athens,  nor  anywhere  else 
under  that  government.  And  besides  all  this,  that  their 
posterity  should  be  accounted  infamous,  bastards  as  well 
as  their  lawful  progeny ;  and  he  too  should  be  held  infa- 
mous who  should  adopt  any  one  of  their  progeny  for  his 
son.  And  that  all  this  should  be  engrossed  and  engraven 
on  a  brass  column,  and  that  column  should  be  placed 
where  that  stands  on  which  is  engraven  the  decree  con- 
cerning Phrynichus." 


11.    ANDOCIDES. 

Andocides,  the  son  of  Leogoras,  [and  grandson  of  that 
Andocides]  who  once  made  a  peace  between  the  Athenians 
and  the  Lacedaemonians,  by  descent  a  Cydathenian  or 
Thorian,  of  a  noble  family,  and,  as  Hellanicus  tells  us,  the 
offspring  of  Mercury  himself,  for  the  race  of  Heralds 
belongs  to  him.  On  this  account  he  was  chosen  by  the 
people  to  go  with  Glaucon,  with  twenty  sail  of  ships,  to 
aid   the   Corcyraeans    against   the    Corinthians.      But   in 

*  The  corrupt  clause  indicated  by  .  .  .  probably  means,  that  the  Demarchs  were 
to  make  inventories  {uno^rivai)  of  the  traitors' estates.     (G.) 


22  LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS. 

process  of  time  he  was  accused  of  some  notorious  acts 
of  impiety,  as  that  he  was  of  the  number  of  those  who 
defaced  the  statues  of  Mercury  and  divulged  the  sacred 
mysteries  of  Ceres.  And  withal,  he  had  been  before  this 
time  wild  and  intemperate,  and  had  once  been  seen  in  the 
night  in  masquerade  to  break  one  of  the  statues  of  Mer- 
cury ;  and  when  on  his  trial  he  refused  to  bring  his  servant 
to  examination  whom  his  accusers  named,  he  not  only 
remained  under  this  reproach,  but  was  also  on  this  account 
very  much  suspected  to  be  guilty  of  the  second  crime  too. 
This  later  action  was  laid  to  his  charge  soon  after  the  ex- 
pedition of  the  navy  sent  by  the  Athenians  into  Sicily. 
For,  as  Cratippus  informs  us,  when  the  Corinthians  sent  the 
Leontines  and  Egestians  to  the  Athenians,  who  hesitated 
to  lend  them  assistance,  they  in  the  night  defaced  and 
brake  all  the  statues  of  Mercury  which  were  erected  in  the 
market.  To  which  offence  Andocides  added  another,  that 
of  divulging  the  mysteries  of  Ceres.  He  was  brought  to 
his  trial,  but  was  acquitted  on  condition  he  would  discover 
who  were  companions  with  him  in  the  crime.  In  which 
affair  being  very  diligent,  he  found  out  who  they  were  that 
had  been  guilty,  and  among  the  rest  he  discovered  his  own 
father.  He  proved  all  guilty,  and  caused  them  all  to  be 
put  to  death  except  his  father,  whom  he  saved,  though  in 
prison,  by  a  promise  of  some  eminent  service  he  would  do 
to  the  commonwealth.  Nor  did  he  fail  of  what  he  prom- 
ised ;  for  Leogoras  accused  many  who  had  acted  in  several 
matters  against  the  interest  of  the  commonwealth,  and 
for  this  was  acquitted  of  his  own  crime. 

Now,  though  Andocides  was  very  much  esteemed  of  for 
his  skill  in  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  com- 
monwealth, yet  his  inclinations  led  him  rather  to  traffic  by 
sea ;  and  by  this  means  he  contracted  friendship  with  the 
kings  of  Cyprus  and  other  great  princes.  At  which  time 
he  privily  stole  a  damsel  of  the  city,  the  daughter  of  Aris- 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATOKS.  23 

tides,  and  his  own  niece,  and  sent  her  as  a  present  to  the 
king  of  Cyprus.  But  suspecting  he  should  be  called  in 
question  for  it,  he  again  stole  her  from  Cyprus,  for  which 
the  king  of  Cyprus  took  him  and  clapped  him  up  in 
prison ;  whence  he  brake  loose,  and  returned  to  Athens, 
just  at  that  time  when  the  four  hundred  conspirators  had 
usurped  the  government.  By  whom  being  confined,  he 
again   escaped   when   the    oligarchical    government    was 

broken  up But  when  the  Thirty  Tyrants  were 

uppermost,  he  withdrew  to  Elis,  and  there  lived  till  Thra- 
sybulus  and  his  faction  returned  into  the  city,  and  then  he 
also  repaired  thither.  And  after  some  time,  being  sent 
to  Lacedaemon  to  conciliate  a  peace,  he  was  again  sus- 
pected to  be  faulty,  and  on  that  suspicion  banished. 

He  himself  has  given  an  account  of  all  these  transac- 
tions, in  his  orations,  which  he  has  left  behind  him.  For 
some  of  them  contain  his  defence  of  himself  in  regard  to 
the  mysteries  ;  others  his  petition  for  restoration  from  ex- 
ile ;  there  is  one  extant  on  Endeixis  (or  information  laid 
against  a  criminal) ;  also  a  defence  against  Phaeax,  and 
one  on  the  peace.  He  flourished  at  the  same  time  with 
Socrates  the  philosopher.  He  was  born  in  the  seventy- 
eighth  Olympiad,  when  Theogenides  was  chief  magistrate 
of  Athens,  so  that  he  should  seem  to  be  about  ten  years 
before  Lysias.  There  is  an  image  of  Mercury,  called  from 
his  name,  being  given  by  the  tribe  Aegeis ;  and  it  stood 
near  the  house  where  Andocides  dwelt,  and  was  therefore 
called  by  his  name.  This  Andocides  himself  was  at  the 
charge  of  a  cyclic  chorus  for  the  tribe  Aegeis,  at  the  per- 
formance of  a  dithyrambus.  And  having  gained  a  victory, 
he  erected  a  tripod  on  an  ascent  opposite  to  the  tuffstone 
statue  of  Silenus.  His  style  in  his  orations  is  plain  and 
easy,  without  the  least  affectation  or  any  thing  of  a  figura 
tive  ornament. 


24  LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS. 


III.     LYSIAS. 

Lysias  was  the  son  of  Cephalus,  grandson  of  Lysanias, 
and  great-grandson  of  Cephalus.  His  father  was  by  birth 
a  Syracusan  ;  but  partly  for  the  love  he  had  to  the  city, 
and  partly  in  condescension  to  the  persuasions  of  Pericles 
the  son  of  Xanthippus,  who  entertained  him  as  his  friend 
and  guest,  he  went  to  live  at  Athens,  being  a  man  of  great 
wealth.  Some  say  that  he  was  banished  Syracuse  when 
the  city  was  under  the  tyranny  of  Gelo.  Lysias  was  born 
at  Athens  when  Philocles,  the  successor  of  Phrasicles,  was 
chief  magistrate,  in  the  second  year  of  the  eightieth  Olym- 
piad.* At  his  first  coming,  he  was  educated  among  the 
most  noble  of  the  Athenians.  But  when  the  city  sent 
a  colony  to  Sybaris,  which  was  afterwards  called  Thurii,  he 
went  thither  with  bis  other  brother  Polemarchus,  his  father 
being  now  dead  (for  he  had  two  otber  brothers,  Euthy- 
demus  and  Brachyllus),  that  he  might  receive  his  portion 
of  his  father's  estate.  This  was  done  in  the  fifteenth  year 
of  his  age,  when  Praxiteles  was  chief  magistrate. f  There 
then  he  stayed,  and  was  brought  up  under  Nicias  and  Tisias, 
both  Syracusans.  And  having  purchased  a  house  and  re- 
ceived his  estate,  he  lived  as  a  citizen  for  thhty-three  years, 
till  the  year  of  Cleocritus.:}:  In  the  year  following,  in  the 
time  of  Callias,  viz.  in  the  ninety-second  Olympiad,  when  the 
Athenians  had  met  with  their  disasters  in  Sicily,  and  when 
other  of  their  allies  revolted,  and  especially  the  Italians, 
he,  being  accused  of  favoring  the  Athenians,  was  ban- 
ished with  three  other  of  his  association  ;  when  "coming  to 
Athens,  in  the  year  wherein  Callias  succeeded  Cleocritus, 
the  city  then  laboring  under  the  tyranny  of  the  four  hundred 
conspirators,  he  there  sat  down.  But  after  the  fight  at 
Aegospotami,  when  the  Thirty  Tyrants  had  usurped  the 

»  B.C.  459.  t  B.C.  444.  J  B.C.  413. 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATOES.  2,5 

government,  he  was  banished  thence,  after  he  had  remained 
in  Athens  seven  years.  His  goods  were  confiscated  ;  and 
having  Hkewise  lost  his  brother  Polemarchus,  he  himself 
escaped  by  a  back  door  of  the  house  in  which  he  was  kept 
for  execution,  fled  to  Megara  and  there  lived.  But  when 
the  citizens  endeavored  to  return  from  Phyle,  he  also  be- 
haved himself  very  well,  and  appeared  very  active  in  the 
affair,  having,  to  forward  this  great  enterprise,  deposited 
two  thousand  drachms  of  silver  and  two  hundred  targets, 
and  being  commissioned  with  Hermas,  he  maintained  three 
hundred  men  in  arms,  and  prevailed  with  Thrasylaeus  the 
Elean,  his  old  friend  and  host,  to  contribute  two  talents. 
Upon  entering  the  city,  Thrasybulus  proposed  that,  for  a 
consideration  of  his  good  service  to  the  public,  he  should 
receive  the  rights  of  citizenship  :  this  was  during  the  so- 
called  time  of  anarchy  before  Euclides.  Which  proposal 
being  ratified  by  the  people,  Archinus  objected  that  it  was 
against  the  laws,  and  a  decree  without  authority  of  the 
senate.  The  decree  was  thereupon  declared  void,  and 
Lysias  lost  his  citizenship.  He  led  the  remainder  of  his 
life  in  the  rank  of  an  Isoteles  (or  citizen  who  had  no  right 
to  vote  or  hold  office),  and  died  at  last  at  Athens,  being 
fourscore  and  three  years  old,  or  as  some  would  have  it, 
seventy-six  ;  and  others  again  say,  that  he  lived  above  four- 
score years,  till  after  the  birth  of  Demosthenes.  It  is  sup- 
posed he  was  born  in  the  year  of  Philocles. 

There  are  four  hundred  and  twenty-five  orations  which 
bear  his  name,  of  which  Dionysius  and  Caecilius  affu'm 
only  two  hundred  and  thirty  to  be  genuine,  and  he  is  said 
to  have  been  overcome  but  twice  in  all.  There  is  extant 
also  the  oration  which  he  made  in  defence  of  the  fore- 
mentioned  decree  against  Archinus,  who  indicted  it  and 
thereby  prevented  Lysias  from  receiving  the  citizenship,  as 
also  another  against  the  Thirty  Tyrants.  He  was  very  co- 
gent in  his  persuasions,  and  was  always  very  brief  in  what 


26  LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS. 

he  delivered.  He  would  commonly  give  orations  to  private 
persons.  There  are  likewise  his  institutions  of  oratory, 
his  public  harangues,  his  epistles,  his  eulogies,  funeral 
orations,  discourses  of  love,  and  his  defence  of  Socrates, 
accommodated  to  the  minds  of  the  judges.  His  style 
seems  plain  and  easy,  though  hardly  imitable.  Demosthe- 
nes, in  his  oration  against  Neaera,  says  that  he  was  in  love 
with  one  Metanira,  Neaera's  serving-maid,  but  afterwards 
married  his  brother  Brachyllus's  daughter.  Plato  in  hi*^ 
Phaedrus  makes  mention  of  him,  as  a  most  eloquent  ora- 
tor and  ancienter  than  Isocrates.  Philiscus,  his  companion, 
and  Isocrates's  votary,  composed  an  epigram  concerning 
him,  whence  the  same  that  we  have  urged  from  Plato  is 
deducible ;  and  it  sings  to  this  effect : 

Calliope's  witty  daughter,  Phrontis,  show 
If  aught  of  wit  or  eloquence  thou  hast  ; 
For  'tis  decreed  that  thou  shalt  bear  a  son, 
Lysias  by  name,  to  spread  the  name  of  him 
Whose  great  and  generous  acts  do  fill  the  world, 
And  are  received  for  glorious  above. 
Let  him  who  sings  those  praises  of  the  dead. 
Let  him,  my  friend,  too,  praise  our  amity. 

He  likewise  wrote  two  orations  for  Iphicrates,  —  one 
against  Harmodius,  and  another  accusing  Timotheus  of 
treason,  —  in  both  which  he  overcame.  But  when  Iphi- 
crates made  himself  responsible  for  Timotheus's  actions, 
and  would  purge  himself  of  the  allegation  of  treason 
made  also  against  him,  Lysias  wrote  an  oration  for  him  to 
deliver  in  his  defence  ;  upon  which  he  was  acquitted,  but 
Timotheus  was  fined  in  a  considerable  sum  of  money. 
He  likewise  delivered  an  oration  at  the  Olympic  games, 
in  which  he  endeavored  to  convince  the  Greeks  of  how 
great  advantage  it  would  be  to  them,  if  they  could  but 
unanimously  join  to  pull  down  the  tyrant  Dionysius. 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS.  27 


rV.    ISOCRATES. 


IsocRATES  was  the  son  of  Theodorus,  of  Erchia,  reck- 
oned among  the  middle  class  of  citizens,  and  a  man  who 
kept  servants  under  him  to  make  flutes,  by  which  he  got 
so  much  money  as  enabled  him  not  only  to  bring  up  his 
children  after  the  most  genteel  manner,  but  likewise  to 
maintain  a  choir.  For  besides  Isocrates,  he  had  other 
sons,  Telesippus  and  Diomnestus,  and  one  daughter.  And 
hence,  we  may  suppose,  those  two  comical  poets,  Aristo- 
phanes and  Stratis,  took  occasion  to  bring  him  on  the 
stage.  He  was  born  in  the  eighty-sixth  Olympiad,*  Lysi- 
machus  being  archon,  about  two  and  twenty  years  after 
Lysias,  and  seven  before  Plato.  When  he  was  a  boy,  he 
was  as  well  educated  as  any  of  the  Athenian  children, 
being  under  the  tuition  of  Prodicus  the  Cean,  Gorgias  the 
Leontine,  Tisias  the  Syracusan,  and  Theramenes  the  rhe- 
torician. And  when  Theramenes  was  to  be  apprehended 
by  the  order  of  the  Thirty  Tyrants,  and  flying  for  succor 
to  the  altar  of  the  senate,  only  Isocrates  stood  his  friend, 
when  all  others  were  struck  with  terror.  For  a  long  time 
he  stood  silent ;  but  after  some  time  Theramenes  advised 
him  to  desist,  because,  he  told  him,  it  would  be  an  aggra- 
vation of  his  grief,  if  any  of  his  friends  should  come 
into  trouble  through  him.  And  it  is  said  that  he  made 
use  of  certain  institutions  of  rhetoric  composed  by  Thera- 
menes, when  he  was  slandered  in  court ;  which  institutions 
have  since  borne  Boton's  name. 

When  Isocrates  was  come  to  man's  estate,  he  meddled 
with  nothing  of  state  aff'airs,  both  because  he  had  a  very 
weak  voice  and  because  he  was  something  timorous ;  and 
besides  these  two  impediments,  his  estate  was  much  im- 
paired by  the  loss  of  a  great  part  of  his  patrimony  in  the 

♦  B.O.  436. 


28  LIVES  OF  THE   TEN  OEATORS. 

war  with  the  Lacedaemonians.  It  is  evident  that  he 
composed  orations  for  others  to  use,  but  deUvered  only  one, 
that  concerning  Exchange  of  Property,  Having  set  up  a 
school,  he  gave  himself  much  to  writing  and  the  study  of 
philosophy,  and  then  he  wrote  his  Panegyrical  oration, 
and  others  which  were  used  for  advice,  some  of  which  he 
delivered  himself,  and  others  he  gave  to  others  to  pro- 
nounce for  him ;  aiming  thereby  to  persuade  the  Greeks 
to  the  study  and  practice  of  such  things  as  were  of  most 
immediate  concern  to  them.  But  his  endeavors  in  that  way 
proving  to  no  purpose,  he  gave  those  things  over,  and 
opened  a  school  in  Chios  first,  as  some  will  have  it,  having 
for  a  beginning  nine  scholars  ;  and  when  they  came  to  him 
to  pay  him  for  their  schooling,  he  weeping  said,  "  Now  I 
see  plainly  that  I  am  sold  to  my  scholars."  He  admitted 
all  into  his  acquaintance  who  desired  it.  He  was  the  first 
that  made  a  separation  between  wrangling  pleas  and  polit- 
ical arguments,  to  which  latter  he  rather  addicted  himself. 
He  instituted  a  form  of  magistracy  in  Chios,  much  the 
same  with  that  at  Athens.  No  schoolmaster  ever  got  so 
much ;  so  that  he  maintained  a  galley  at  his  own  charge. 
He  had  more  than  a  hundred  scholars,  and  among  others 
Timotheus  the  son  of  Conon  was  one,  with  whom  he 
visited  many  cities,  and  composed  the  epistles  which  Timo- 
theus sent  to  the  Athenians ;  who  for  his  pains  gave  him 
a  talent  out  of  that  which  he  got  at  Samos.  Theopom- 
pus  likewise  the  Chian,  Ephorus  the  Cumaean,  Asclepiades 
who  composed  arguments  for  tragedies,  and  Theodectes  of 
Phaselis,  who  afterwards  wrote  tragedies,  were  all  Iso- 
crates's  scholars.  The  last  of  these  had  a  monument  in 
the  way  to  the  shrine  of  Cyamites,  as  we  go  to  Eleusis  by 
the  Sacred  Way,  of  which  now  remains  only  rubbish. 
There  also  he  set  up  with  his  own  the  statues  of  other 
famous  poets,  of  all  which  only  Homer's  is  to  be  seen. 
Leodamas  also  the  Athenian,  and  Lacritus  who  gave  laws 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  OEATORS.  29 

to  the  Athenians,  were  both  his  scholars ;  and  some  say, 
Hyperides  and  Isaeus  too.  They  add  likewise,  that  De- 
mosthenes also  was  very  desirous  to  learn  of  him,  and 
because  he  could  not  give  the  full  rate,  which  was  a  thou- 
sand drachms,  he  offered  him  two  hundred,  the  fifth  part, 
if  he  would  teach  him  but  the  fifth  part  of  his  art  propor- 
tionable :  to  whom  Isocrates  answered,  We  do  not  use, 
Demosthenes,  to  impart  our  skill  by  halves,  but  as  men 
sell  good  fish  whole,  or  altogether,  so  if  thou  hast  a  desire 
to  learn,  we  will  teach  thee  our  full  art,  and  not  a  piece 
of  it.  He  died  in  the  year  when  Charondas  was  chief 
magistrate,*  when,  being  at  Hippocrates's  public  exercise, 
he  received  the  news  of  the  slaughter  at  Cbaeronea ;  for 
he  was  the  cause  of  his  own  death  by  a  four  days'  fast, 
which  he  then  made,  pronouncing  just  at  his  departure 
the  three  verses  which  begin  three  tragedies  of  Euripides  • 

Danaus,  father  of  the  fifty  sisters,  — 
Pelops,  son  of  Tantalus,  in  quest  of  Pisa,  — 
Cadmus,  in  time  past,  going  from  Sidon. 

He  lived  ninety-eight  years,  or,  as  some  say,  a  hundred, 
not  being  able  to  behold  Greece  the  fourth  time  brought 
into  slavery.  The  year  (or,  as  some  say,  four  years)  before 
he  died,  he  wrote  his  Panathenaic  oration.  He  labored 
upon  his  Panegyric  oration  ten  years,  or,  as  some  tell  us, 
fifteen,  which  he  is  supposed  to  have  borrowed  out  of 
Gorgias  the  Leontine  and  Lysias.  His  oration  concerning 
Exchange  of  Property  he  wrote  when  he  was  eighty-two 
years  old,  and  those  to  Philip  a  little  before  his  death. 
When  he  was  old,  he  adopted  Aphareus,  the  youngest  of 
rtie  three  sons  of  Plathane,  the  daughter  of  Hippias  the 
orator.  He  was  very  rich,  both  in  respect  of  the  great 
sums  of  money  he  exacted  of  his  scholars,  and  besides 
that,  having  at  one  time  twenty  talents  of  Nicocles,  king 
of  Cyprus,  for  an  oration  which  he  dedicated  to  him.     By 

*  B.C.  338. 


30  LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS. 

reason  of  his  riches  he  became  obnoxious  to  the  envy  of 
others,  and  was  three  times  named  to  maintain  a  galley ; 
which  he  evaded  twice  by  the  assistance  of  his  son  and  a 
counterfeit  sickness,  but  the  thu*d  time  he  undertook  it., 
though  the  charge  proved  very  great.  A  father  telling  him 
that  he  had  allowed  his  son  no  other  companion  than  one 
slave,  Isocrates  replied,  Go  thy  way  then,  for  one  slave 
thou  shalt  have  two.  He  strove  for  the  prize  which  Are- 
temisia  dedicated  to  the  honor  and  memory  of  her  husband 
Mausolus  ;  but  that  oration  is  lost.  He  wrote  also  another 
oration  in  praise  of  Helen,  and  one  called  Areopagiticus. 
Some  say  that  he  died  when  he  had  fasted  nine  days, 
—  some  again,  at  four  days'  end,  —  and  his  death  took  its 
date  from  the  funeral  solemnities  of  those  that  lost  their 
lives  at  Chaeronea.  His  son  Aphareus  likewise  wrote 
several  orations. 

He  lies  buried  with  all  his  family  near  Cynosarges,  on 
the  left  hand  of  the  hill.  There  are  interred  Isocrates 
and  his  father  Theodorus,  his  mother  and  her  sister  Anaco, 
his  adoptive  son  Aphareus,  Socrates  the  son  of  Anaco, 
Theodorus  his  brother,  bearing  his  father's  name,  his 
grandsons,  the  sons  of  his  adopted  Aphareus,  and  his 
wife  Plathane,  the  mother  of  Aphareus.  On  these  tombs 
were  erected  six  tables,  which  are  now  demolished.  And 
upon  the  tomb  of  Isocrates  himself  was  placed  a  column 
thirty  cubits  high,  and  on  that  a  mermaid  of  seven  cubits, 
which  was  an  emblem  of  his  eloquence ;  there  is  nothing 
now  extant.  There  was  also  near  it  a  table,  having  poets 
and  his  schoolmasters  on  it ;  and  among  the  rest,  Gorgias 
inspecting  a  celestial  globe,  and  Isocrates  standing  by  him. 
There  is  likewise  a  statue  of  his  of  bronze  in  Eleusis, 
dedicated  by  Timothy  the  son  of  Conon,  before  the  entry 
of  the  porch,  with  this  inscription : 

To  the  fame  and  honor  of  Isocrates, 
This  statue's  sacred  to  the  Goddesses ; 
The  gift  of  Timothy. 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  OKATORS.  31 

This  statue  was  made  by  Leochares.  There  are  three- 
score orations  which  bear  his  name  ;  of  which,  if  we  credit 
Dionysius,  only  five  and  twenty  are  genuine ;  but  accord- 
ing to  CaeciHus,  twenty-eight ;  and  the  rest  are  accounted 
spurious.  He  was  an  utter  stranger  to  ostentation,  inso- 
much that,  when  there  came  at  one  time  three  persons  to 
hear  him  declaim,  he  admitted  but  two  of  them,  desiring 
the  third  to  come  the  next  day,  for  that  two  at  once  were 
to  him  as  a  full  theatre.  He  used  to  tell  his  scholars  that 
he  taught  his  art  for  ten  minas ;  but  he  would  give  any 
man  ten  thousand,  that  could  teach  him  to  be  bold  and 
give  him  a  good  utterance.  And  being  once  asked  how 
he,  who  was  not  very  eloquent  himself,  could  make  others 
so,  he  answered.  Just  as  a  whetstone  cannot  cut,  yet  it  will 
sharpen  knives  for  that  purpose.  Some  say  that  he  wrote 
institutions  to  the  art  of  oratory ;  others  are  of  opinion 
that  he  had  no  method  of  teaching,  but  only  exercise. 
He  would  never  ask  any  thing  of  a  free-born  citizen.  He 
used  to  enjoin  his  scholars  being  present  at  public  assem- 
blies to  repeat  to  him  what  was  there  delivered.  He  con- 
ceived no  little  sorrow  for  the  death  of  Socrates,  insomuch 
that  the  next  day  he  put  himself  in  mourning.  Being 
asked  what  was  the  use  and  force  of  rhetoric,  he  an- 
swered. To  make  great  matters  small,  and  small  great. 
At  a  feast  with  Nicoceon,  the  tyrant  of  Cyprus,  being 
desired  by  some  of  the  company  to  declaim  upon  some 
theme,  he  made  answer,  that  that  was  not  a  season  for 
him  to  speak  what  he  knew,  and  he  knew  nothing  that 
was  then  seasonable.  Happening  once  to  see  Sophocles 
the  tragedian  amorously  eying  a  comely  boy,  he  said  to 
him,  It  will  become  thee,  Sophocles,  to  restrain  not  only 
thy  hands,  but  thine  eyes.  When  Ephorus  of  Cumae  left 
his  school  before  he  had  arrived  at  any  good  proficiency, 
his  father  Demophilus  sent  him  again  with  a  second  sum 
of  money  in  his  hand ;  at  which  Isocrates  jocosely  called 


32  LIVES   OF   THE   TEN   ORATORS. 

him  Diphoriis,  that  is,  twice  hringing  his  fee.  However, 
he  took  a  great  deal  of  pains  and  care  with  him,  and  went 
so  far  as  to  put  him  in  the  way  of  writing  history. 

He  was  wantonly  given ;  and  used  to  lie  upon  a  .  . 
mat  for  his  bed,  and  his  bolster  was  commonly  made  moist 
with  saffron.  He  never  married  while  he  was  young  ;  but 
in  his  old  age  he  kept  a  miss,  whose  name  was  Lagisce, 
and  by  her  he  had  a  daughter,  who  died  in  the  twelfth 
year  of  her  age,  before  she  was  married.  He  afterwards 
married  Plathane,  tlie  wife  of  Hippias  the  rhetorician,  who 
had  three  sons,  the  youngest  of  which,  Aphareus  by  name, 
he  adopted  for  his  own,  as  we  said  before.  This  Aphareus 
erected  a  bronze  statue  to  him  near  the  temple  of  Jupiter, 
as  may  be  seen  from  the  inscription : 

In  veneration  of  the  mighty  Jove, 
His  noble  parents,  and  the  Gods  above, 
Aphareus  this  statue  liere  has  set, 
The  statue  of  Isocrates  his  father. 

He  is  said  to  have  run  a  race  on  a  swift  horse,  when  he 
was  but  a  boy ;  for  he  is  to  be  seen  in  this  posture  in  the 
Citadel,  in  the  tennis  court  of  the  priestesses  of  Minerva, 
in  a  statue.  There  were  but  two  suits  commenced  against 
him  in  his  whole  life.  One  whereof  was  with  Megaclides, 
who  provoked  him  to  exchange  of  property  ;  at  the  trial  of 
which  he  could  not  be  personally  present,  by  reason  of 
sickness  ;  but  sending  Aphareus,  he  nevertheless  overcame. 
The  other  suit  was  commenced  against  him  by  Lysimachus, 
who  would  have  him  come  to  an  exchange  or  be  at  the 
charge  of  maintaining  a  galley  for  the  commonwealth.  In 
this  case  he  was  overthrown,  and  forced  to  perform  the 
service.  There  was  likewise  a  painting  of  him  in  the 
Pompeum. 

Aphareus  also  wrote  a  few  orations,  both  judicial  and 
deliberative ;  as  also  tragedies  to  the  number  of  thirty- 
seven,  of  which  two  are  contested.     He  began  to  make 


LIVES   OF   THE   TEN   ORATORS.  33 

his  works  public  in  the  year  of  Lysistratus,  and  continued 
it  to  the  year  of  Sosigenes,  that  is,  eight  and  twenty  years  * 
In  these  years  he  exhibited  dramas  six  times  at  the  city 
Dionysiac  festivals,  and  twice  went  away  with  the  prize 
through  the  actor  Dionysius ;  he  also  gained  two  other 
victories  at  the  Lenaean  festival  through  other  actors. 

There  were  to  be  seen  in  the  Citadel  the  statues  of  the 
mother  of  Isocrates,  of  Theodorus,  and  of  Anaco  his 
mother's  sister.  That  of  the  mother  is  placed  just  by  the 
image  of  Health,  the  inscription  being  changed ;  that  of 
Anaco  is  no  longer  there.  [Anaco]  had  two  sons,  Alex- 
ander by  Coenes,  and  Lysicles  by  Lysias. 


V.  ISAEUS. 

IsAEus  was  born  in  Chalcis.  When  he  came  to  Athens, 
he  read  Lysias's  works,  whom  he  imitated  so  well,  both  in 
his  style  and  in  his  skill  in  managing  causes,  that  he  who 
was  not  very  well  acquainted  with  their  manner  of  writing 
could  not  tell  which  of  the  two  was  author  of  many  of 
their  orations.  He  flourished  after  the  Peloponnesian  war, 
as  we  may  conjecture  from  his  orations,  and  was  in  repute 
till  the  reign  of  Philip.  He  taught  Demosthenes  —  not  at 
his  school,  but  privately  —  who  gave  him  ten  thousand 
drachms,  by  which  business  he  became  very  famous.  Some 
say  that  he  composed  orations  for  Demosthenes,  which  he 
pronounced  in  opposition  to  his  guardians.  He  left  behind 
him  sixty-four  orations,  of  which  fifty  are  his  own ;  as  like- 
wise some  peculiar  institutions  of  rhetoric.  He  was  the 
first  that  used  to  speak  or  write  figuratively,  and  that  ad- 
dicted himself  to  civil  matters  ;  which  Demosthenes  chiefly 
followed.  Theopompus  the  comedian  makes  mention  of 
him  in  his  Theseus. 

*  B.O.  869-842. 

VOL.  V.  8 


3i  LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATOBS. 


VI.   AESCHINES. 


He  was  the  son  of  Atrometus  —  who,  being  banished  by 
the  Thirty  Tyrants,  was  thereby  a  means  of  reducing  the 
commonwealth  to  the  government  of  the  people  —  and  of 
his  wife  Glaucothea ;  by  birth  a  Cothocidian.  He  was 
neither  nobly  born  nor  rich  ;  but  in  his  youth,  being  strong 
and  well  set,  he  addicted  himself  to  all  sorts  of  bodily  ex- 
ercises ;  and  afterwards,  having  a  very  clear  voice,  he  took 
to  playing  of  tragedies,  and  if  we  may  credit  Demosthenes, 
he  was  a  petty  clerk,  and  also  served  Aristodemus  as  a 
player  of  third  parts  at  the  Bacchanalian  festivals,  in  his 
times  of  leisure  rehearsing  the  ancient  tragedies.  When 
he  was  but  a  boy,  he  was  assisting  to  his  father  in  teaching 
little  children  their  letters,  and  when  he  was  grown  up,  he 
listed  himself  a  private  soldier.  Some  think  he  was 
brought  up  under  Socrates  and  Plato ;  but  Caecilius  will 
have  it  that  Leodamas  was  his  master.  Being  concerned 
in  the  affairs  of  the  commonwealth,  he  openly  acted  in 
opposition  to  Demosthenes  and  his  faction ;  and  was  em- 
ployed in  several  embassies,  and  especially  in  one  to  Philip, 
to  treat  about  articles  of  peace.  For  which  Demosthenes 
accused  him  for  being  the  cause  of  the  overthrow  and  ruin 
of  the  Phocians,  and  the  inflamer  of  war ;  which  part  he 
would  have  him  thought  to  have  acted  when  the  Amphic- 
tyons  chose  him  one  of  their  deputies  to  the  Amphissians 
who  were  building  up  the  harbor  [of  Crissa].  On  which 
the  Amphictyons  put  themselves  under  Philip's  protection, 
who,  being  assisted  by  Aeschines,  took  the  affair  in  hand, 
and  soon  conquered  all  Phocis.*  But  Aeschines,  notwith- 
standing all  that  Demosthenes  could  do,  being  favored  by 
Eubulus  the  son  of  Spintharus,  a  Probalisian,  who  plead- 

*  The  Greek  text  is  corrupt ;  but  it  is  evident  that  the  author  confounds  the 
Phocian  war,  which  ended  in  346  B.C.,  with  the  Amphissian  war  of  339  b.c  The 
next  sentence  sliows  the  same  mistake.    (G.) 


LIVES  OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS.  35 

ed  in  his  behalf,  carried  his  cause  by  thirty  voices,  aud 
so  was  cleared.  Though  some  tell  us,  that  there  were 
orations  prepared  by  the  orators,  but  the  news  of  the  con- 
quest of  Chaeronea  put  a  stop  to  the  present  proceedings, 
and  so  the  suit  fell. 

Some  time  after  this,  Philip  being  dead,  and  his  son 
Alexander  marching  into  Asia,  Aeschines  impeached  Ctesi- 
phon  for  acting  against  the  laws,  in  passing  a  decree  in 
favor  of  Demosthenes.  But  he  having  not  the  fifth  part 
of  the  voices  of  the  judges  on  his  side,  was  forced  to 
go  in  exile  to  Rhodes,  because  he  would  not  pay  his 
mulct  of  a  thousand  drachms.  Others  say,  that  he  in- 
curred disfranchisement  also,  because  he  would  not  depart 
the  city,  and  that  he  went  to  Alexander  at  Ephesus.  But 
upon  the  death  of  Alexander,  when  a  tumult  had  been 
excited,  he  went  to  Rhodes,  and  there  opened  a  school  and 
taught.  And  on  a  time  pronouncing  the  oration  which  he 
had  formerly  made  against  Ctesiphon,  to  pleasure  the  Rho- 
dians,  he  did  it  with  that  grace,  that  they  wondered  how 
he  could  fail  of  carrying  his  cause  if  he  pleaded  so  well 
for  himself.  But  ye  would  not  wonder,  said  he,  that  I  was 
overthrown,  if  ye  had  heard  Demosthenes  pleading  against 
me.  He  left  a  school  behind  him  at  Rhodes,  which  was 
afterwards  called  the  Rhodian  school.  Thence  he  sailed 
to  Samos,  and  there  in  a  short  time  died.  He  had  a  very 
good  voice,  as  both  Demosthenes  and  Demochares  testified 
of  him. 

Four  orations  bear  his  name,  one  of  which  was  against 
Timarchus,  another  concerning  false  embassage,  and  a 
third  against  Ctesiphon,  which  three  are  really  his  own ; 
but  the  fourth,  called  Deliaca,  is  none  of  his ;  for  though 
he  was  named  to  plead  the  cause  of  the  temple  at  Delos, 
yet  Demosthenes  tells  us  that  Hyperides  was  chosen  in 
his  stead.*     He  says  himself,  that  he  had  two  brothers, 

*  See  Demosthenes  on  the  Crown,  p.  271,  27. 


36  LIVES   OF   THE   TEN   ORATORS. 

Aphobetus  and  Philochares.  He  was  the  first  that  brought 
the  Athenians  the  news  of  the  victory  obtained  at  Tamynae, 
for  which  he  was  crowned  for  the  second  time.  Some 
report  that  Aeschines  was  never  any  man's  scholar,  but 
having  passed  his  time  chiefly  in  courts  of  justice,  he  raised 
himself  from  the  office  of  clerk  to  that  of  orator.  His  fii'st 
public  appearance  was  in  a  speech  against  Philip ;  with 
which  the  people  being  pleased,  he  was  immediately  chosen 
to  go  ambassador  to  the  Arcadians ;  and  being  come 
thither,  he  excited  the  Ten  Thousand  against  Philip. 
He  indicted  Timarchus  for  profligacy ;  who,  fearing  the 
issue,  deserted  his  cause  and  hanged  himself,  as  Demos- 
thenes somewhere  informs  us.  Being  employed  with 
Ctesiphon  and  Demosthenes  in  an  embassage  to  Philip  to 
treat  of  peace,  he  appeared  the  most  accomplished  of  the 
three.  Another  time  also  he  was  one  of  ten  men  sent  in 
embassage  to  conclude  a  peace ;  and  being  afterwards 
called  to  answer  for  it,  he  was  acquitted,  as  we  said. 


VII.  LYCURGUS. 

Lycurgus  was  the  son  of  Lycophron,  and  grandson  of 
that  Lycurgus  whom  the  Thirty  Tyrants  put  to  death,  by 
the  procurement  of  Aristodemus  the  Batesian,  who,  also 
being  treasurer  of  the  Greeks,  was  banished  in  the  time 
of  the  popular  government.  He  was  a  Butadian  by  birth, 
and  of  the  line  or  family  of  the  Eteobutades.  He  received 
his  fii'st  institutions  of  philosophy  from  Plato  the  philoso- 
pher. But  afterward  entering  himself  a  scholar  to  Iso- 
crates  the  orator,  he  employed  his  study  about  afl"airs  of 
the  commonwealth.  And  to  his  care  was  committed  the 
disposal  and  management  of  the  city  stock,  and  so  he  exe- 
cuted the  office  of  treasurer-general  for  the  space  of  twelve 
years  ;  in  which  time  there  went  through  his  hands  four- 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS.  37 

teen  thousand  talents,  or  (as  some  will  have  it)  eighteen 
thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty.  It  was  the  orator  Strato- 
cles  that  procured  him  this  preferment.  At  first  he  was 
chosen  in  his  own  name  ;  but  afterwards  he  nominated  one 
of  his  friends  to  the  office,  while  he  himself  performed  the 
duties ;  for  there  was  a  law  just  passed,  that  no  man  should 
be  chosen  treasurer  for  above  the  term  of  four  years.  But 
Lycurgus  plied  his  business  closely,  both  summer  and  win- 
ter, in  the  administration  of  public  aff"airs.  And  being 
entrusted  to  make  provision  of  all  necessaries  for  the  wars, 
he  reformed  many  abuses  that  were  crept  into  the  com- 
monwealth. He  built  four  hundred  galleys  for  the  use  of 
the  public,  and  prepared  and  fitted  a  place  for  public  ex- 
ercises in  Lyceum,  and  planted  trees  before  it;  he  likewise 
built  a  wrestling-court,  and  being  made  surveyor  of  the 
theatre  of  Bacchus,  he  finished  this  building.  He  was 
likewise  of  so  great  repute  among  all  sorts,  that  he  was 
entrusted  with  two  hundred  and  fifty  talents  of  private 
citizens.  He  adorned  and  beautified  the  city  with  gold 
and  silver  vessels  of  state,  and  golden  images  of  victory. 
He  likewise  finished  many  things  that  were  as  yet  imper- 
fect, as  the  dockyards  and  the  arsenal.  He  built  a  wall  also 
about  the  spacious  Panathenaic  race-course,  and  made 
level  a  piece  of  uneven  ground,  given  by  one  Dinias  to  Ly- 
curgus for  the  use  of  the  city.  The  keeping  of  the  city 
was  committed  wholly  to  his  care,  and  power  to  apprehend 
malefactors,  of  whom  he  cleared  the  city  utterly  ;  so  that 
some  sophisters  were  wont  to  say,  that  Lycurgus  did  not 
dip  his  pen  in  ink,  but  in  blood.  And  therefore  it  was, 
that  when  Alexander  demanded  him  of  the  people,  they 
would  not  deliver  him  up.  When  Philip  made  the  second 
war  upon  the  Athenians,  he  was  employed  with  Demos- 
thenes and  Polyeuctus  in  an  embassy  to  Peloponnesus  and 
other  cities.  He  was  always  in  great  repute  and  esteem 
with  the  Athenians,  and  looked  upon  as  a  man  of  that 


38  LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS. 

justice  and  integrity,  that  in  the  courts  of  judicature  his 
good  word  was  at  all  times  prevalent  on  the  behalf  of 
those  persons  for  whom  he  undertook  to  speak.  He  was 
the  author  of  several  laws  ;  one  of  which  was,  that  there 
should  be  certain  comedies  played  at  the  Chytrian  solemni- 
ties, and  whoever  of  the  poets  or  players  should  come  off 
victor,  he  should  thereby  be  invested  with  the  freedom  of 
the  city,  which  before  was  not  lawful ;  and  so  he  revived 
a  solemnity  which  for  want  of  encouragement  had  for 
some  time  before  been  out  of  request.  Another  of  his 
laws  was,  that  the  city  should  erect  statues  to  the  memory 
of  Aeschylus,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides  ;  and  that  their 
tragedies,  being  fairly  engrossed,  should  be  preserved  in 
the  public  consistory,  and  that  the  public  clerks  should 
read  these  copies  as  the  plays  were  acted,  that  nothing 
might  be  changed  by  the  players  ;  and  that  otherwise  it 
should  be  unlawful  to  act  them.  A  third  law  proposed  by 
him  was,  that  no  Athenian,  nor  any  person  inhabiting  in 
Athens,  should  be  permitted  to  buy  a  captive,  who  was 
once  free,  to  be  a  slave,  without  the  consent  of  his  for- 
mer master.  Further,  that  in  the  Piraeus  there  should  be 
at  least  three  circular  dances  played  to  Neptune  ;  and  that 
to  the  victor  in  the  first  should  be  given  not  less  than  ten 
minas  ;  in  the  second,  eight ;  in  the  third,  six.  Also,  that 
no  woman  should  go  to  Eleusis  in  a  coach,  lest  the  poor 
should  appear  more  despicable  than  the  rich,  and  so  be 
dejected  and  cast  down ;  and  that  whoever  should  ride  in 
a  coach  contrary  to  this  law  should  be  fined  six  thousand 
drachms.  And  when  even  his  own  wife  was  taken  in  the 
violation  of  it,  he  paid  to  the  discoverers  of  it  a  whole 
talent ;  for  which  being  afterwards  called  in  question  by 
the  people :  See  therefore,  said  he,  I  am  called  to  answer 
for  giving,  and  not  for  receiving  money. 

As  he  was  walking  one  day  in  the  streets,  he  saw  an 
officer  lay  hand  on  Xenocrates  the  philosopher  ;  and  when 


LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS.  39 

nothing  would  serve  his  turn  bat  the  philosopher  must  to 
prison,  because  he  had  not  deposited  the  tribute  due  from 
strangers,  he  with  his  staff  struck  the  officer  on  the  head 
for  his  unmannerly  roughness  toward  a  person  of  that 
character,  and  freeing  Xenocrates,  cast  the  other  into  pris- 
on in  his  stead.  And  not  many  days  after,  Xenocrates 
meeting  with  the  children  of  Lycurgus  said:  I  have  re- 
turned thanks  unto  your  father  right  speedily,  my  good 
children,  for  his  friendship  towards  me,  for  I  hear  his 
kindness  commended  by  all  people  where  I  go.  He  made 
likewise  several  decrees,  in  which  he  made  use  of  the 
help  of  an  Olynthian  named  Euclides,  one  very  expert  in 
such  matters.  Though  he  was  rich  enough,  yet  he  was 
used  to  wear  the  same  coat  every  day,  both  summer  and 
winter ;  but  he  wore  shoes  only  when  he  was  compelled  to 
do  it.  Because  he  was  not  ready  to  speak  extempore, 
he  used  to  practise  and  study  day  and  night.  And  to  the 
end  he  might  not  at  any  time  oversleep  himself  and  so 
lose  time  from  his  study,  he  used  to  cover  himself  on  his 
bed  only  with  a  sheepskin  with  the  wool  on,  and  to  lay  a 
hard  bolster  under  his  head.  When  one  reproached  him 
for  being  in  fee  with  rhetoricians  when  he  studied  his  ora- 
tions, he  answered,  that,  if  a  man  would  promise  to  restore 
his  sons  better,  he  would  give  him  not  only  a  thousand 
drachms,  but  half  what  he  was  worth.  He  took  the  liber- 
ty of  speaking  boldly  upon  all  occasions,  by  reason  of  his 
greatness  ;  as  when  once  the  Athenians  interrupted  him  in 
his  speaking,  he  cried  out,  O  thou  Corcyraean  whip,  how 
many  talents  art  thou  worth "?  And  another  time,  when 
some  would  rank  Alexander  among  the  Gods,  What  man- 
ner of  God,  said  he,  must  he  be,  when  all  that  go  out  of 
his  temple  had  need  to  be  dipped  in  water  to  purify  them- 
selves ? 

After  his  death  Menesaechmus   accusing  and  indicting 
them  by  virtue  of  an  instrument  drawn  by  Thracycles,  his 


40  LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS. 

sons  were  delivered  to  the  eleven  executioners  of  Justice. 
But  Demosthenes,  being  in  exile,  wrote  to  the  Athenians, 
to  let  them  know  that  they  were  wrongfully  accused,  and 
that  therefore  they  did  not  well  to  hear  their  accusers ; 
upon  which  they  recanted  what  they  had  done,  and  set 
them  at  liberty  again,  —  Democles,  who  was  Theophrastus's 
scholar,  likewise  pleading  in  their  defence.  Lycurgus  and 
some  of  his  posterity  were  buried  publicly,  at  or  near  the 
temple  of  Minerva  Paeonia,  where  their  monuments  stand 
in  the  garden  of  Melanthius  the  philosopher,  on  which 
are  inscriptions  to  Lycurgus  and  his  children,  which  are 
yet  extant.  The  greatest  thing  he  did  while  he  lived  was 
his  raising  the  revenue  of  the  commons  totally  from  sixty 
talents,  as  he  found  it,  to  twelve  hundred.  When  he 
found  he  must  die,  he  was  by  his  own  appointment  carried 
into  the  temple  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods,  and  into  the 
senate-house,  being  willing  before  his  death  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  his  administration.  And  no  man  daring  to  accuse 
him  of  any  thing  except  Menesaechmus,  having  purged 
himself  from  those  calumnies  which  he  cast  upon  him, 
he  was  carried  home  again,  where  in  a  short  time  he 
ended  his  life.  He  was  always  accounted  honest ;  his 
orations  were  commended  for  the  eloquence  they  carried 
in  them ;  and  though  he  was  often  accused,  yet  he  never 
was  overthrown  in  any  suit. 

He  had  three  children  by  Callisto,  the  daughter  of 
Abron,  and  sister  of  Callias,  Abron's  son,  by  descent  a 
Batesian,  —  I  mean,  of  him  who,  when  Chaerondas  was 
magistrate,  was  paymaster  to  the  army.  Of  this  affinity 
Dinarchus  speaks  in  his  oration  against  Pas  tins.  He  left 
behind  him  three  sons,  Abron,  Lycurgus,  and  Lycophron ; 
of  which,  Abron  and  Lycurgus  died  without  issue,  though 
the  first,  Abron,  did  for  some  time  act  very  acceptably  and 
worthily  in  affairs  of  the  commonwealth.  Lycophron  mar- 
rying  Callistomacha,  the  daughter  of  Philip   of  Aexone, 


LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS.  '  41 

begat  Callisto,  who  married  Cleombrotus  the  son  of  Dino- 
crates  the  Acharnian,  to  whom  she  bare  Lycophron,  who, 
being  adopted  by  his  grandfather,  died  without  issue.  He 
being  dead,  Socrates  married  Callisto,  of  whom  he  had  his 
sou  Symmachus.  To  him  was  born  Aristonymus  ;  to  Aris- 
tonymus,  Charmides,  who  was  the  father  of  Philippe.  Of 
her  and  Lysander  came  Medeius,  who  also  was  an  inter- 
preter, one  of  the  Eumolpids.  He  begat  two  children  of 
Timothea,  the  daughter  of  Glaucus,  viz.  Laodamia  and 
Medius,  who  were  priests  of  Neptune  Erechtheus ;  also 
Philippe  a  daughter,  who  was  afterward  priestess  of  Mi- 
nerva ;  for  before,  she  was  married  to  Diodes  of  Melite,  to 
whom  she  bare  a  son  named  Diodes,  who  was  a  colonel 
of  a  regiment  of  foot.  He  married  Hediste,  the  daughter 
of  Abron,  and  of  her  begat  Philippides  and  Nicostrata, 
whom  Themistocles  the  torch-bearer,  son  of  Theophrastus, 
married,  and  by  her  had  Theophrastus  and  Diodes ;  and 
he  likewise  constituted  the  priesthood  of  Neptune  Erech- 
theus. 

It  is  said  that  he  penned  fifteen  orations.  He  was  often 
crowned  by  the  people,  and  had  statues  dedicated  to  him. 
His  image  in  brass  was  set  up  in  Ceramicus  by  order  of 
the  public,  in  the  year  of  Anaxicrates ;  in  whose  time  also 
it  was  ordered  that  he  and  his  eldest  son  should  be  provided 
for  with  diet  in  the  Prytaneum ;  but  he  being  dead,  Lyco- 
phron his  eldest  son  was  forced  to  sue  for  that  donation. 
This  Lycurgus  also  was  used  frequently  to  plead  on  the 
account  of  sacred  things  ;  and  accused  Autolycus  the  Areo- 
pagite,  Ly sides  the  general,  Demades'  the  son  of  Demeas, 
Menesaechmus,  and  many  others,  all  whom  he  caused  to 
be  condemned  as  guilty.  Diphilus  also  was  called  in  ques- 
tion by  him,  for  impairing  and  diminishing  the  props 
of  the  metal  mines,  and  unjustly  making  himself  rich 
therefrom  ;  and  he  caused  him  to  be  condemned  to  die, 
according  to  the  provision  made  by  the  laws  in  that  case. 


4'2  LIVES   OF   THE   TEN  ORATORS 

He  gave  out  of  his  own  stock  fifty  drachms  to  every  citi- 
zen, the  sum  total  of  which  donation  amounted  to  one 
hundred  and  sixty  talents ;  *  but  some  say  he  gave  a  mina 
of  silver  to  each.  He  likewise  accused  Aristogiton,  Leo- 
crates,  and  Autolycus  for  cowardice.  He  was  called  the 
Ibis:  .  .  . 

The  ibis  to  Lycurgus,  to  Chaerephon  the  bat.f 

His  ancestors  derived  their  pedigree  from  Erechtheus,  the  . 
son  of  the  Earth  and  of  Vulcan  ;  but  he  was  nearest  to 
Lycomedes  and  Lycurgus,  whom  the  people  honored  with 
public  solemnities.  There  is  a  succession  of  those  of  the 
race  who  were  priests  of  Neptune,  in  a  complete  table 
placed  in  the  Erechtheum,  painted  by  Ismenias  the  Chalci- 
dian  ;  in  the  same  place  stood  wooden  images  of  Lycurgus, 
and  of  his  sons,  Abron,  Lycurgus,  and  Lycophron;  made  by 
Timarchus  and  Cephisodotus,  the  sons  of  Praxiteles.  His 
son  Abron  dedicated  the  table ;  and  coming  to  the  priest- 
hood by  right  of  succession,  he  resigned  to  his  brother 
Lycophron,  and  hence  he  is  painted  as  giving  a  trident. 
But  Lycurgus  had  made  a  draught  of  all  his  actions,  and 
hung  it  on  a  column  before  the  wrestling-court  built  by 
himself,  that  all  might  read  that  would ;  and  no  man  could 
accuse  him  of  any  peculation.  He  likewise  proposed  to 
the  people  to  crown  Neoptolemus,  the  son  of  Anticles,  and 
to  dedicate  statues  to  him,  because  he  had  promised  and 
undertaken  to  cover  the  altar  of  Apollo  in  the  market  with 
gold,  according  to  the  order  of  the  oracle.  He  decreed 
honors  likewise  tOt  Diotimus,  the  son  of  Diopithes  of 
Euonymus,  in  the  year  when  Ctesicles  was  magistrate. 

*  This  is  one  of  the  statements  which  seem  to  fix  the  number  of  Athenian  citi- 
zens in  the  age  of  the  Orators  at  about  20,000.  See  Boeckh's  Public  Economy  of 
the  Athenians,  I.  Book  1,  chap.  7.     (G.) 

t  Aristoph.  Birds,  1296. 


LIVES   OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS.  43 


VIII.     DEMOSTHENES. 


Demosthenes,  the  son  of  Demosthenes  by  Cleobule,  the 
daughter  of  Gylon,  was  a  Paeanian  by  descent.  He  was 
left  an  orphan  by  his  father,  when  he  was  but  seven  years 
old,  together  with  a  sister  of  the  age  of  five.  Being  kept 
by  his  mother  during  his  nonage,  he  went  to  school  to  Iso- 
crates,  say  some ;  but  the  generality  are  of  opinion  that  he 
was  pupil  to  Isaeus  the  Chalcidian,  who  lived  in  Athens 
and  was  Isocrates's  scholar.  He  imitated  Thucydides  and 
Plato,  and  some  affirm  that  he  more  especially  attended  the 
school  of  Plato.  Hegesias  the  Magnesian  writes,  that  he 
entreated  his  master's  leave  to  go  to  hear  Callistratus  the 
son  of  Empaedus,  an  Amphidnean,  a  noble  orator,  and 
sometime  commander  of  a  troop  of  horse,  who  had  dedi- 
cated an  altar  to  Mercury  Agoraeos,  and  was  to  make  an 
oration  to  the  people.  And  when  he  heard  him,  he 
became  a  lover  of  oratory,  and  so  long  as  he  continued 
at  Athens,  remained  his  disciple. 

But  Callistratus  being  soon  banished  to  Thrace,  and 
Demosthenes  arrived  at  some  years  of  maturity,  he  joined 
with  Isocrates  and  Plato.  After  this,  he  took  Isaeus  into 
his  house,  and  for  the  space  of  four  years  labored  very 
hard  in  imitation  of  his  orations.  Though  Ctesibius  in 
his  book  of  philosophy  affirms  that,  by  the  help  of  Callias 
the  Syracusan,  he  got  the  orations  of  Zoilus  the  Amphi- 
polite,  and  by  the  assistance  of  Charicles  the  Carystian 
those  also  of  Alcidamas,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  imita- 
tion of  them.  When  he  came  to  age,  in  the  year  of  Timo- 
crates*  he  called  his  tutors  and  guardians  to  account  for 
their  maladministration,  in  not  allowing  him  what  was 
fitting  and  requisite  out  of  his  estate.  And  these  tutors  or 
guardians  were  three,  Aphobus,  Therippides,  and  Demo- 
phon  (or  Demeas),  the  last  of  whom,  being  his  uncle,  he 

*  B.C.  364. 


44  LIVES  OF  THE  TEN   ORATORS. 

charged  more  severely  than  the  other  two.  He  arrested 
each  of  them  m  an  action  of  ten  talents,  and  cast  them, 
but  did  not  exact  of  them  what  the  law  had  given  him, 
releasing  some  for  money  and  others  for  favor. 

When  Aristophon,  by  reason  of  his  age,  could  not  hold 
the  office  any  longer,  he  was  chosen  choregus,  or  overseer 
of  the  dances.  During  the  execution  of  which  office, 
Midias  the  Anagyrasian  striking  him  as  he  was  ordering 
the  dances  in  the  theatre,  he  sued  him  upon  it,  but  let 
fall  his  suit  upon  Midias's  paying  him  three  thousand 
drachms. 

It  is  reported  of  him  that,  while  he  was  a  youth,  he 
confined  himself  to  a  den  or  cave,  and  there  studied  his 
orations,  and  shaved  half  of  his  head  that  he  might  not  be 
allured  to  divert  himself  from  it ;  and  that  he  lay  upon  a 
very  narrow  bed,  that  he  might  awake  and  rise  the  sooner. 
And  for  that  he  could  not  very  well  pronounce  the  letter 
E.,  he  accustomed  himself  very  much  to  that,  that  he  might 
master  it  if  possible ;  and  using  likewise  an  unseemly 
motion  of  his  shoulder  when  he  spake  at  any  time,  he 
remedied  that  by  a  spit  (or,  as  some  say,  a  sword)  stuck  in 
the  ceiling  just  over  his  shoulder,  that  the  fear  of  being 
pricked  with  it  might  break  him  of  that  indecent  ges- 
ture. They  report  of  him  further  that,  when  he  could 
declaim  pretty  well,  he  had  a  sort  of  mirror  made  as  big 
as  himself,  and  used  always  in  declaiming  to  look  in  that, 
to  the  end  that  he  might  see  and  correct  what  was  amiss. 
He  used  likewise  at  some  certain  times  to  go  down  to  the 
Phalerian  shore,  to  the  end  that,  being  accustomed  to  the 
surges  and  noise  of  the  waves,  he  might  not  be  daunted 
by  the  clamors  of  the  people,  when  he  should  at  any  time 
declaim  in  public.  And  being  naturally  short-winded,  he 
gave  Neoptolemus  a  player  ten  thousand  drachms  to  teach 
him  to  pronounce  long  sentences  in  one  breath. 

Afterwards,  betaking  himself  to  the  afi'airs  of  the  com- 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS.  45 

monwealth,  and  finding  the  people  divided  into  two  differ- 
ent factions,  one  in  favor  of  Philip,  and  the  other  standing 
for  the  liberty  and  properties  of  the  people,  he  took  part 
with  them  that  opposed  Philip,  and  always  persuaded  the 
citizens  to  help  those  who  were  in  danger  and  trouble  by 
Philip's  oppression  ;  taking  for  his  companions  in  council 
Hyperides,  Nausicles,  Polyeuctus,  and  Diotimus  ;  and  then 
he  drew  the  Thebans,  Euboeans,  Corcyraeans,  Corinthians, 
Boeotians,  and  many  more  into  a  league  with  the  Athe- 
nians. Being  in  the  assembly  one  day  and  his  memory 
failing  him,  his  oration  was  hissed ;  which  made  him  return 
home  very  heavy  and  melancholy  ;  and  being  met  by  Euno- 
mus  the  Thriasian,  an  old  man,  by  him  he  was  comforted 
and  encouraged.  But  he  was  chiefly  animated  by  Andro- 
nicus  the  player,  who  told  him  that  his  orations  were 
excellent,  but  that  he  wanted  something  of  action,  there- 
upon rehearsing  certain  places  out  of  his  oration  which 
he  had  delivered  in  that  same  assembly.  Unto  which 
Demosthenes  gave  good  ear  and  credit,  and  he  then  be- 
took himself  to  Andronicus.  And  therefore,  when  he  was 
afterwards  asked  what  was  the  first  part  of  oratory,  he 
answered,  "  Action ; "  and  which  was  the  second,  he  re- 
plied, "  Action ;  "  and  which  was  the  third,  he  still  an 
swered,  "  Action."  Another  time,  declaiming  publicly,  and 
using  expressions  too  youthful  for  one  of  his  years  and 
gravity,  he  was  laughed  at,  and  ridiculed  by  the  comedians, 
Antiphanes  and  Timocles,  who  in  derision  used  to  repeat 
such  phrases  as  these,  as  uttered  by  him  : 

By  the  earth,  by  the  fountains,  by  the  rivers,  by  the  floods ! 

For  having  sworn  thus  in  presence  of  the  people,  he  raised 
a  tumult  about  him.  He  likewise  used  to  swear  by 
Asclepius,  and  accented  the  second  syllable  {'^axXymog)* 
through  some  mistake,  and  yet  afterwards  defended  it ;  for 

*  This  name  was  properly  pronounced  with  the  accent  on  the  last  syllable,'A«T/cA77 


46  LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS. 

this  Asclepius,  he  said,  was  called  i'jmog,  that  is  a  mild  God. 
This  also  often  caused  him  to  be  interrupted.  But  all 
these  things  he  reformed  in  time,  being  sometime  con- 
versant with  Eubulides,  the  Milesian  philosopher.  Be- 
ing on  a  time  present  at  the  Olympic  games,  and  hearing 
Lamachus  the  Myrrhinaean  sound  the  praises  of  Philip  and 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  his  son,  and  decry  the  cowardice 
of  the  Thebans  and  Olynthians,  he  stood  up  in  their  de- 
fence against  him,  and  from  the  ancient  poets  he  pro- 
claimed the  great  and  noble  achievements  of  the  Thebans 
and  Olynthians ;  and  so  elegantly  he  behaved  himself  in 
this  affair,  that  he  at  once  silenced  Lamachus,  and  made 
him  convey  himself  immediately  out  of  the  assembly.  And 
even  Philip  himself,  when  he  had  heard  what  harangues 
he  made  against  him,  replied,  that  if  he  had  heard  him,  he 
should  have  chosen  him  general  in  the  war  against  himself. 
He  was  used  to  compare  Demosthenes's  orations  to  soldiers, 
for  the  force  they  carried  along  with  them ;  but  the  ora- 
tions of  Isocrates  to  fencers,  because  of  the  theatrical 
delight  that  accompanied  them. 

Being  about  the  age  of  seven  and  thirty,  reckoning  from 
Dexitheus  to  Callimachus,*  —  in  whose  time  the  Olynthians 
sent  to  beg  aid  of  the  Athenians  against  Philip,  who  then 
made  war  upon  them,  —  he  persuaded  them  to  answer  the 
Olynthians'  request ;  but  in  the  following  year,  in  which 
Plato  died,!  Philip  overthrew  and  destroyed  the  Olyn- 
thians. Xenophon  also,  the  scholar  of  Socrates,  had  some 
knowledge  of  Demosthenes,  either  at  his  first  rise,  or  at 
least  when  he  was  most  famous  and  flourishing ;  for  he 
wrote  the  Acts  of  the  Greeks,  as  touching  what  passed  at 
the  battle  of  Mantinea,  in  the  year  of  Chariclides  ;  J  our 
Demosthenes  having  sometime  before  overthrown  his  guar- 
dians in  a  suit  he  had  commenced  against  them,  in  the 
year  of  Timocrates.     When  Aeschines,  being  condemned, 

*  B.  c.  385-384  to  349-348.  t  B.C.  348-847.  J  b.  c.  363-362. 


LIVES  OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS.  47 

fled  from  Athens.  Demosthenes  hearing  of  it  took  horse 
and  rode  after  him ;  which  Aeschines  understanding,  and 
fearing  to  be  apprehended  again,  he  came  out  to  meet  De- 
mosthenes, and  fell  at  his  feet,  covered  his  face,  and  begged 
his  mercy ;  upon  which  Demosthenes  bid  him  stand  up, 
be  assured  of  his  favor,  and  as  a  pledge  of  it,  gave  him  a 
talent  of  silver.  He  advised  the  people  to  maintain  a 
company  of  mercenary  soldiers  in  Thasos,  and  thither 
sailed  himself  as  captain  of  the  galleys.  Another  time, 
being  entrusted  to  buy  corn,  he  was  accused  of  defrauding 
the  city,  but  cleared  himself  of  the  accusation  and  was 
acquitted.  When  Philip  had  seized  upon  Elatea,  Demos- 
thenes with  others  went  to  the  war  of  Chaeronea,  where  he 
is  said  to  have  deserted  his  colors  ;  and  flying  away,  a  bram- 
ble caught  hold  of  his  vest  behind,  when  turning  about  in 
haste,  thinking  an  enemy  had  overtaken  him,  he  cried  out, 
Save  my  life,  and  say  what  shall  be  my  ransom.  On  his 
buckler  he  had  engraven  for  his  motto.  To  Good  Fortune. 
And  it  was  he  that  made  the  oration  at  the  funerals  of 
such  as  died  in  that  battle. 

After  these  things,  he  bent  his  whole  care  and  study  for 
the  reparation  of  the  city  and  wall ;  and  being  chosen 
commissary  for  repairing  the  walls,  besides  what  money 
he  expended  out  the  city  stock,  he  laid  out  of  his  own  at 
least  a  hundred  minas.  And  besides  this,  he  gave  ten 
thousand  drachms  to  the  festival  fund ;  and  taking  ship, 
he  sailed  from  coast  to  coast  to  collect  money  of  the  allies  ; 
for  which  he  was  often  by  Demotelus,  Aristonicus,  and 
Ilyperides  crowned  with  golden  crowns,  and  afterwards 
by  Ctesiphon.  Which  last  decree  had  like  to  have  been 
retracted,  Diodotus  and  Aeschines  endeavoring  to  prove  it 
to  be  contrary  to  the  laws ;  but  he  defended  himself  so 
well  against  their  allegations,  that,  he  overcame  all  diflicul- 
ties,  his  enemies  not  having  the  fifth  part  of  the  votes  of 
the  judges. 


48  LIVES   OF   THE   TEN  ORATORS. 

After  this,  Avhen  Alexander  the  Great  made  his  expedi- 
tion into  Asia,  and  Harpalus  fled  to  Athens  with  a  great 
sum  of  money,  at  first  he  would  not  let  him  be  entertained, 
but  afterwards,  Harpalus  being  landed  and  having  given 
him  a  thousand  darics  he  was  of  another  mind ;  and  when 
the  Athenians  determined  to  deliver  Harpalus  up  to  Anti- 
pater,  he  opposed  it,  proposing  to  deposit  the  money  in 
the  Citadel,  still  without  declaring  the  amount  to  the  people. 
Thereupon  Harpalus  declared  that  he  had  brought  with 
him  from  Asia  seven  hundred  talents,  and  that  this  sum  had 
been  deposited  in  the  Citadel ;  but  only  three  hundred  and 
fifty  or  a  little  more  could  be  found,  as  Philochorus  relates. 
But  when  Harpalus  broke  out  of  the  prison  wherein  he 
was  kept  till  some  person  should  come  from  Alexander, 
and  was  escaped  into  Crete,  —  or,  as  some  will  have  it, 
into  Taenarum  in  Laconia,  —  Demosthenes  was  accused 
that  he  had  received  from  him  a  sum  of  money,  and  that 
therefore  he  had  not  given  a  true  account  of  the  sum  de- 
livered to  him,  nor  had  impeached  the  negligence  of  the 
keepers.  So  he  was  judicially  cited  by  Hyperides,  Py- 
theus,  Menesaechmus,  Himeraeus,  and  Patrocles,  who 
prosecuted  him  so  severely  as  to  cause  him  to  be  con- 
demned in  the  court  of  Areopagus  ;  and  being  condemned, 
he  went  into  exile,  not  being  able  to  pay  fivefold ;  for  he 
was  accused  of  receiving  thirty  talents.  Others  say,  that 
he  would  not  run  the  risk  of  a  trial,  but  went  into  banish- 
ment before  the  day  came.  After  this  tempest  was  over, 
when  the  Athenians  sent  Polyeuctus  to  the  republic  of 
Arcadia  to  di-aw  them  off  from  the  alliance  with  the  Mace- 
donians, he  not  succeeding,  Demosthenes  appeared  to 
second  him,  where  he  reasoned  so  effectually  that  he  easily 
prevailed.  Which  procured  him  so  much  credit  and  esteem, 
that  after  some  time  a  galley  was  dispatched  to  call  him 
home  again.  And  the  Athenians  decreed  that,  whereas  he 
owed  the  state  thirty  talents,  as  a  fine  laid  on  him  for  the 


LIVES  OF  THE   TEN  OEATORS.  49 

misdemeanor  he  was  accused  of,  he  should  be  excused  for 
only  building  an  altar  to  Jupiter  Servator  in  the  Piraeus ; 
which  decree  was  first  proposed  by  Demon  his  near  kins- 
man. This  being  agreed  on,  he  returned  to  the  administra- 
tion of  affairs  in  the  commonwealth  again. 

But  when  Antipater  was  blocked  up  in  Lamia,  and  the 
Athenians  offered  sacrifices  for  the  happy  news,  he  hap- 
pened, being  talking  with  Agesistratus,  one  of  his  intimate 
friends,  to  say,  that  his  judgment  concerning  the  state  of 
affairs  did  not  jump  with  other  men's,  for  that  he  knew 
the  Greeks  were  brisk  and  ready  enough  to  run  a  short 
course  but  not  to  hold  on  a  long  race.  When  Antipater 
had  taken  Pharsalus,  and  threatened  to  besiege  Athens  it- 
self if  they  refused  to  deliver  up  such  orators  as  had  de- 
claimed against  him,  Demosthenes,  suspecting  himself  to 
be  one  of  the  number,  left  the  city,  and  fled  first  into 
Aegina,  that  he  might  take  sanctuary  in  the  temple  of 
Aeacus ;  but  being  afraid  to  trust  himself  long  there,  he 
went  over  to  Calauria ;  and  when  the  Athenians  had  de- 
creed to  deliver  up  those  orators,  and  him  especially  as  one 
of  them,  he  continued  a  suppliant  in  the  temple  of  Nep- 
tune. When  Archias  came  thither,  —  who,  from  his  office 
of  pursuing  fugitives,  was  called  Phygadotheres  and  was 
the  scholar  of  Anaximines  the  orator,  —  when  he,  I  say, 
came  to  him,  and  persuaded  him  to  go  with  him,  telling 
him  that  no  doubt  he  should  be  received  by  Antipater  as  a 
friend,  he  replied :  When  you  played  a  part  in  a  tragedy, 
you  could  not  persuade  me  to  believe  you  the  person  you 
represented ;  no  more  shall  you  now  persuade  me  by  your 
counsel.  And  when  Archias  endeavored  to  force  him 
thence,  the  townsmen  would  not  suffer  it.  And  Demos- 
thenes told  them,  that  he  did  not  flee  to  Calauria  to  save 
his  life,  but  that  he  might  convince  the  Macedonians  of 
their  violence  committed  even  against  the  Gods  themselves. 
And  with  that  he  called  for  a  writing-table  ;  and  if  we  may 


50  LIVES   OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS. 

credit  Demetrius  the  Magnesian,  on  that  he  wrote  a  distich, 
which  afterwards  the  Athenians  caused  to  be  affixed  to  his 
statue  ;  and  it  was  to  this  purpose  : 

Hadst  thou,  Demostlienes,  an  outward  force 

Great  as  thy  inward  magnanimity, 
Greece  should  not  wear  the  Macedonian  yoke. 

This  statue,  made  by  Polyeuctus,  is  placed  near  the 
cloister  where  the  altar  of  the  twelve  Gods  is  erected. 
Some  say  this  writing  was  found :  "  Demosthenes  to  An- 
tipater,  Greeting."  Philochorus  tells  us  that  he  died  by 
drinking  of  poison  ;  and  Satyrus  the  historiographer  will 
have  it,  that  the  pen  was  poisoned  with  which  he  wrote  his 
epistle,  and  putting  it  into  his  mouth,  soon  after  he  tasted 
it  he  died.  Eratosthenes  is  of  another  opinion,  that  being 
in  continual  fear  of  the  Macedonians,  he  wore  a  poisoned 
bracelet  on  his  arms.  Others  say  again,  that  he  died  with 
holding  his  breath  ;  and  others,  lastly,  say  that  he  carried 
strong  poison  in  his  signet.  He  lived  to  the  age  of  seventy, 
according  to  those  who  give  the  highest  number,  —  of 
sixty-seven,  according  to  other  statements.  And  he  was  in 
public  life  two  and  twenty  years. 

When  King  Philip  was  dead,  he  appeared  publicly  in  a 
glorious  robe  or  mantle,  as  rejoicing  for  his  death,  though 
he  but  just  before  mourned  for  his  daughter.  He  assisted 
the  Thebans  likewise  against  Alexander,  and  animated  all 
the  other  Greeks.  So  that  when  Alexander  had  conquered 
Thebes,  he  demanded  Demosthenes  of  the  Athenians, 
threatening  them  if  they  refused  to  deliver  him.  When  he 
went  against  Persia,  demanding  ships  of  the  Athenians,  De- 
mosthenes opposed  it,  saying,  who  can  assure  us  that  he  will 
not  use  those  ships  we  should  send  him  against  ourselves  ? 

He  left  behind  him  two  sons  by  one  wife,  the  daughter 
of  one  Heliodorus,  a  principal  citizen.  He  had  but  one 
daughter,  who  died  unmarried,  being  but  a  child.  A  sister 
too  he  had,  who  married  with  Laches  of  Leuconoe,  his 


LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS.  51 

kinsman,  and  to  him  bore  Demochares,  who  proTed  inferioi 
to  none  in  his  time  for  eloquence,  conduct,  and  courage. 
His  statue  is  still  standing  in  the  Prytaneum,  the  first  on 
the  right  as  you  approach  the  altar,  clothed  with  a  mantle 
and  girt  with  a  sword,  because  in  this  habit  he  delivered 
an  oration  to  the  people,  when  Antipater  demanded  of 
them  their  orators. 

Afterwards,  in  process  of  time,  the  Athenians  decreed 
nourishment  to  be  given  to  the  kindred  of  Demosthenes  in 
the  Prytaneum,  and  likewise  set  up  a  statue  to  his  memory, 
when  he  was  dead,  in  the  market,  in  the  year  of  Gorgias,* 
which  honors  were  paid  him  at  the  request  of  Demochares 
his  sister's  son.  And  ten  years  after,  Laches,  the  son  of 
Demochares  of  Leuconoe,  in  the  year  of  Pytharatus,  re- 
quired the  same  honor  for  himself,  that  his  statue  should 
be  set  up  in  the  market,  and  that  both  he  and  the  eldest 
of  his  line  for  the  future  should  have  their  allov/ance  in 
the  Prytaneum,  and  the  highest  room  at  all  public  shows. 
These  decrees  concerning  both  of  them  are  engrossed,  and 
to  be  found  among  the  statute  laws.  The  statue  of  De- 
mochares, of  which  we  have  spoken  before,  was  afterwards 
removed  out  of  the  market  into  the  Prytaneum. 

There  are  extant  sixty-five  orations  which  are  truly  his. 
Some  report  of  him,  that  he  lived  a  very  dissolute  and 
vicious  life,  appearing  often  in  women's  apparel,  and  being 
frequently  conversant  at  masks  and  revellings,  whence  he 
was  surnamed  Batalus ;  though  others  say,  that  this  was  a 
pet  name  given  him  by  his  nurse,  and  that  from  this  he  was 
called  Batalus  in  derision.  Diogenes  the  Cynic  espying 
him  one  day  in  a  victualling-house,  he  was  very  much 
ashamed,  and  to  shun  him,  went  to  withdraw ;  but  Dioge- 
nes called  after  him,  and  told  him,  The  more  you  shrink 
inward,  the  more  you  will  be  in  the  tavern.  The  same 
Diogenes  once  upon  the  banter  said  of  him,  that  in  his 

*  B.c  280. 


52  LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS. 

orations  he  was  a  Scythian,  but  in  war  a  delicate  nice 
citizen.  He  was  one  of  them  who  received  gold  of  Ephi- 
altes,  one  of  the  popular  orators,  who,  being  sent  in  an 
embassy  to  the  king  of  Persia,  took  money  privily,  and 
distributed  it  among  the  orators  of  Athens,  that  they  might 
use  theu'  utmost  endeavors  to  kindle  and  inflame  the  war 
against  Philip ;  and  it  is  said  of  Demosthenes,  that  he  for 
his  part  had  at  once  three  thousand  darics  of  the  king. 
He  apprehended  one  Anaxilas  of  Oreus,  who  had  been 
his  friend,  and  caused  him  to  be  tortured  for  a  spy ;  and 
when  he  would  confess  nothing,  he  procured  a  decree  that 
he  should  be  delivered  to  the  eleven  executioners. 

When  once  at  a  meeting  of  the  Athenians  they  would 
not  suffer  him  to  speak,  he  told  them  he  had  but  a  short 
story  to  tell  them.  Upon  which  all  being  silent,  thus  he 
began:  A  certain  youth,  said  he,  hired  an  ass  in  summer 
time,  to  go  from  hence  to  Megara.  About  noon,  when  the 
sun  was  very  hot,  and  both  he  that  hired  the  ass  and  the 
owner  were  desirous  of  sitting  in  the  shade  of  the  ass, 
they  each  thrust  the  other  away,  —  the  owner  arguing  that 
he  let  him  only  his  ass  and  not  the  shadow,  and  the  other 
replying  that,  since  he  had  hked  the  ass,  all  that  belonged 
to  him  was  at  his  dispose.  Having  said  thus,  he  seemed 
to  go  his  way.  But  the  Athenians  willing  now  to  hear  his 
story  out,  called  him  back,  and  desired  him  to  proceed. 
To  whom  he  replied :  How  comes  it  to  pass  that  ye  are  so 
desirous  of  hearing  a  story  of  the  shadow  of  an  ass,  and 
refuse  to  give  ear  to  matters  of  greater  moment?  Polus 
the  player  boasting  to  him  that  he  had  gotten  a  whole 
talent  by  playing  but  two  days,  he  answered,  and  I  have 
gotten  five  talents  by  being  silent  but  one  day.  One  day 
his  voice  failing  him  when  he  was  declaiming  publicly, 
being  hissed,  he  cried  out  to  the  people,  saying.  Ye  are  to 
judge  of  players,  indeed,  by  their  voice,  but  of  orators  by 
the  gravity  of  their  sentences. 


LIVES   OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS.  53 

Epicles  upbraiding  him  for  his  premeditating  what  he 
was  to  say,  he  repKed,  I  should  be  ashamed  to  speak  what 
comes  uppermost  to  so  great  an  assembly.  They  say  of 
him  that  he  never  put  out  his  lamp  —  that  is,  never  ceased 
polishing  his  orations  —  until  he  was  fifty  years  old.  He 
says  of  himself,  that  he  drank  always  fair  water.  Lysias 
the  orator  was  acquainted  with  him ;  and  Isocrates  knew 
him  concerned  in  the  management  of  public  affairs  till  the 
battle  of  Chaeronea  ;  as  also  some  of  the  Socratical  sect. 
[He  delivered  most  of  his  orations  extempore.  Nature  hav- 
ing well  qualified  him  for  it.]*  The  first  that  proposed 
the  crowning  him  with  a  coronet  of  gold  was  Aristonicus, 
the  son  of  Nicophanes,  the  Anagyrasian ;  though  Diondas 
interposed  with  an  indictment. 


IX.    HYPERIDES. 

Hyperides  was  son  of  Glaucippus,  and  grandson  oi 
Dionysius,  of  the  borough  of  Colyttus.  He  had  a  son, 
who  bare  the  same  name  with  his  father  Glaucippus,  an 
orator,  who  wrote  many  orations,  and  begat  a  son  named 
Alphinous.  At  the  same  time  with  Lycurgus,  he  had  been 
a  scholar  of  the  philosopher  Plato  and  of  the  orator  Iso- 
ciates.  In  Athens  his  concern  in  the  commonwealth  was 
at  that  time  when  Alexander  accosted  Greece,  whom  he 
vigorously  opposed  in  his  demands  made  of  the  Athenians 
for  the  generals  as  well  as  for  galleys.  He  advised  the 
people  not  to  discharge  the  garrison  of  Taenarum,  and  this 
he  did  for  the  sake  of  a  friend  of  his,  Chares,  who  was 
commander  of  it.  At  first  he  used  to  plead  causes  for  a 
fee.  He  was  suspected  to  have  received  part  of  the  money 
which  Ephialtes  brought  out  of  Persia,  and  was  chosen 
to  maintain  a  galley,  and  was  sent  to  assist  the  Byzantines, 

*  This  is  supposed  to  have  been  added  by  some  other  hand,  because  a  jontrarr 
sentence  is  given  of  him  before. 


54:  LIVES   OF   THE   TEN   ORATORS. 

when  Philip  was  besieging  their  city.  Nevertheless,  in 
the  same  year  he  took  the  charge  of  defraying  the  expense 
of  the  solemn  dunces,  whereas  the  rest  of  the  captains 
were  exempt  from  all  such  public  burdens  for  that  year. 
He  obtained  a  decree  for  some  honors  to  be  paid  to  De- 
mosthenes ;  and  when  that  decree  was  indicted  at  the  in- 
stance of  Diondas,  as  being  contrary  to  the  laws,  he,  being 
called  in  question  upon  it,  cleared  himself.  He  did  not 
continue  his  friendship  with  Demosthenes,  Lysicles,  and 
Lycurgus  to  the  last ;  for,  Lysicles  and  Lycurgus  being 
dead,  and  Demosthenes  being  accused  of  having  received 
money  of  Harpalus,  he,  among  all  the  rest,  was  pitched 
upon,  as  the  only  person  who  was  not  corrupted  wath 
bribery,  to  draw  up  his  indictment,  which  he  accordingly  did. 
Being  once  accused  at  the  instance  of  Aristogiton  of  pub- 
lishing acts  contrary  to  the  laws  after  the  battle  of  Chae- 
ronea,  —  that  all  foreign  inhabitants  of  Athens  should  be 
accounted  citizens,  that  slaves  should  be  made  free,  that 
all  sacred  things,  children,  and  women  should  be  confined 
to  the  Piraeus,  —  he  cleared  himself  of  all  and  was  ac- 
quitted. And  being  blamed  by  some,  who  wondered  how 
he  could  be  ignorant  of  the  many  laws  that  were  directly 
repugnant  to  those  decrees,  he  answered,  that  the  arms  of 
the  Macedonians  darkened  his  sight,  and  it  was  not  he  but 
the  battle  of  Chaeronea  that  made  that  decree.  But  Philip, 
being  affrighted  at  somewhat,  gave  leave  to  carry  away 
their  dead  out  of  the  field,  which  before  he  had  denied  to 
the  heralds  from  Lebadea. 

After  this,  at  the  overthrow  at  Crannon,  being  demanded 
by  Antipater,  and  the  people  being  resolved  to  deliver 
him  up,  he  fled  out  of  the  city  with  others  who  were  under 
the  same  condemnation  to  Aegina ;  where  meeting  with 
Demosthenes,  he  excused  himself  for  the  breach  of  friend- 
ship between  them.  Going  from  thence,  he  was  appre- 
hended by  Archias,  surnamed  Phygadotheres,  by  country  a 


LIVES   OF   THE   TEN   ORATORS.  55 

Tliurian,  formerly  a  player,  but  at  that  time  in  the  service 
of  Antipater ;  by  this  man,  I  say,  he  was  apprehended, 
even  in  the  very  temple  of  Neptune,  though  he  grasped 
the  image  of  that  God  in  his  arms.  He  was  brought  be- 
fore Antipater,  who  was  then  at  Corinth  ;  where  being 
put  upon  the  rack,  he  bit  out  his  tongue,  because  he  would 
not  divulge  the  secrets  of  his  country,  and  so  died,  on  the 
ninth  day  of  October.  Hermippus  tells  us  that,  as  he  went 
into  Macedonia,  his  tongue  was  cut  out  and.  his  body  cast 
forth  unburied  ;  but  Alphinous  his  cousin-german  (or,  ac- 
cording to  the  opinion  of  others,  his  grandson,  by  his  son 
Glaucippus)  obtained  leave,  by  means  of  one  Philopithes 
a  physician,  to  take  up  his  body,  which  he  burnt,  and  car- 
ried the  ashes  to  Athens  to  his  kinsfolk  there,  contrary  to 
the  edicts  both  of  the  Athenians  and  Macedonians,  which 
not  only  banished  them,  but  likewise  forbade  the  burial  of 
them  anywhere  in  their  own  country.  Others  say,  that 
he  was  carried  to  Cleonae  with  others,  and  there  died, 
having  his  tongue  cut  out,  as  above  ;  however,  his  relations 
and  friends  took  his  bones,  when  his  body  was  burned,  and 
buried  them  among  his  ancestors  before  the  gate  Hippades, 
as  Heliodorus  gives  us  the  relation  in  his  Third  Book  of 
Monuments.  His  monument  is  now  altogether  unknown 
and  lost,  being  thrown  down  with  age  and  long  standing. 

He  is  said  to  have  excelled  all  others  in  his  way  of  de- 
livering himself  in  his  orations  to  the  people.  And  there 
are  some  who  prefer  him  even  to  Demosthenes  himself. 
There  are  seventy-seven  orations  which  bear  his  name,  of 
which  only  two  and  fifty  are  genuine  and  truly  his.  He 
was  much  given  to  venery,  insomuch  that  he  turned  his 
son  out  of  doors,  to  entertain  that  famous  courtesan  Myr- 
rhina.  In  Piraeus  he  had  another,  whose  name  was  Aris- 
tagora  ;  and  at  Eleusis,  where  part  of  his  estate  lay,  he 
kept  another,  one  Philte  a  Theban,  whom  he  ransomed 
for  twenty  minas.     His  usual  walk  was  in  the  fish-market. 


56  LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS. 

It  is  thought  that  he  was  accused  of  impiety  with  one 
Phryne,  a  courtesan  likewise,  and  so  was  sought  after  to  be 
apprehended,  as  he  himself  seems  to  intimate  in  the  be- 
ginning of  an  oration ;  and  it  is  said,  that  when  sentence 
was  just  ready  to  be  passed  upon  her,  he  produced  her  in 
court,  opened  her  clothes  before,  and  discovered  her  naked 
breasts,  which  were  so  very  white,  that  for  her  beauty's 
sake  the  judges  acquitted  her.  He  at  leisure  times  drew 
up  several  declamations  against  Demosthenes,  which  were 
thus  discovered :  Hyperides  being  sick,  Demosthenes  came 
one  day  to  visit  him,  and  caught  him  with  a  book  in  his 
hand  written  against  him ;  at  which  seeming  somewhat 
displeased,  Hyperides  told  him :  This  book  shall  hurt  no 
man  that  is  my  friend ;  but  as  a  curb,  it  may  serve  to  re- 
strain my  enemy  from  offering  me  any  injury.  He  obtained 
a  decree  of  some  honors  to  be  paid  to  lolas,  who  gave  the 
poisoned  cup  to  Alexander.  He  joined  with  Leosthenes 
in  the  Lamian  war,  and  made  an  admkable  oration  at  the 
funerals  of  those  who  lost  their  lives  therein. 

When  Philip  was  prepared  to  embark  for  Euboea,  and 
the  Athenians  heard  the  news  of  it  with  no  little  conster- 
nation, Hyperides  in  a  very  short  time,  by  the  voluntary 
contributions  of  the  citizens,  fitted  out  forty  sail,  and  was 
the  first  that  set  an  example,  by  sending  out  two  galleys, 
one  for  himself  and  another  for  his  son,  at  his  own 
charge. 

When  there  was  a  controversy  between  the  Delians  and 
the  Athenians,  who  should  have  the  pre-eminence  in  the 
temple  at  Delos  ;  Aeschines  being  chosen  on  the  behalf  of 
the  Athenians  for  their  advocate,  the  Areopagites  refused 
to  ratify  the  choice  and  elected  Hyperides ;  and  his  ora- 
tion is  yet  extant,  and  bears  the  name  of  the  Deliac  ora- 
tion.* 

He  likewise  went  ambassador  to  Rhodes ;  where  meet- 

*  See  Demosthenes  on  the  Crown,  p.  221,  27. 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS.  57 

ing  other  ambassadors  from  Antipater,  who  commended 
then*  master  very  highly  for  his  goodness  and  virtue,  We 
know,  replied  he,  that  Antipater  is  good,  but  we  have  no 
need  of  a  good  master  at  present. 

It  is  said  of  him,  that  he  never  affected  much  action  in 
his  orations  to  the  people,  his  chief  aim  being  to  lay  down 
the  matter  plainly,  and  make  the  case  as  obvious  to  the 
judges  as  he  could. 

He  was  sent  likewise  to  the  Eleans,  to  plead  the  cause  of 
Callippus  the  fencer,  who  was  accused  of  carrying  away 
the  prize  at  the  public  games  unfairly ;  in  which  cause  he 
got  the  better.  But  when  he  opposed  the  sentence  of  pay- 
ing honors  to  Phocion,  obtained  by  Midias  the  son  of  Mi- 
dias  the  Anagyrasian,  he  was  in  that  cause  overthrown. 
This  cause  was  pleaded  on  the  twenty-fourth  day  of  May, 
in  the  year  when  Xenius  was  magistrate. 


X.   DINARCHUS. 

DiNARCHUs,  the  son  of  Socrates  or  Sostratus,  —  born,  as 
some  think,  at  Athens,  but  according  to  others,  at  Corinth, 
—  came  to  Athens  very  young,  and  there  took  up  his 
dwelling,  at  that  time  when  Alexander  made  his  expedition 
into  Asia.  He  used  to  hear  Theophrastus,  who  succeeded 
Aristotle  in  his  school.  He  was  frequently  conversant  with 
Demetrius  the  Phalerian  too.  He  betook  himself  more 
especially  to  the  affairs  of  the  commonwealth  after  the 
death  of  Antipater,  when  some  of  the  orators  were  killed 
and  others  banished.  Having  contracted  friendship  with 
Cassander,  he  became  in  a  short  time  vastly  rich,  by  exact- 
ing great  rates  for  his  orations  of  those  for  whom  he  wrote 
them.  He  opposed  himself  to  the  greatest  and  most  noble 
orators  of  his  time,  not  by  being  overforward  to  declaim 
publicly,  —  for  his  faculty  did  not  lie  that  way,  —  but  by 


58  LIVES   OF  THE   TEN   ORATORS. 

composing  orations  for  their  adversaries.  And  when  Har- 
palus  had  broken  out  of  prison,  he  wrote  several  orations, 
which  he  gave  to  their  accusers  to  pronounce  against  those 
that  were  suspected  to  have  taken  bribes  of  him. 

Some  time  after,  being  accused  of  a  conspiracy  with 
Antipater  and  Cassander  about  the  matter  of  Munychia, 
when  it  was  surprised  by  Antigonus  and  Demetrius,  who 
put  a  garrison  into  it,  in  the  year  of  Anaxicrates,*  he  turned 
the  greatest  part  of  his  estate  into  money,  and  fled  to  Chal- 
cis,  where  he  Uved  in  exile  about  fifteen  years,  and  in- 
creased his  stock ;  but  afterwards,  by  the  mediation  of 
Theophrastus,  he  and  some  other  banished  persons  returned 
to  Athens.  Then  he  took  up  his  abode  in  the  house  of 
one  Proxenus,  his  intimate  friend  ;  where,  being  very  aged 
and  withal  dim-sighted,  he  lost  his  gold.  And  because 
Proxenus  refused  to  make  inquiry  after  the  thief,  he  appre- 
hended him  ;  and  this  was  the  first  time  that  ever  he  ap- 
peared in  court.  That  oration  against  Proxenus  is  extant ; 
and  there  are  sixty-four  that  bear  his  name,  Avhereof  some 
are  believed  to  be  Aristogiton's.  He  imitated  Hyperides  ; 
or,  as  some  incline  to  judge,  rather  Demosthenes,  because 
of  that  vigor  and  force  to  move  the  affections,  and  the 
rhetorical  ornaments  that  are  evident  in  his  style. 


DECREES  PROPOSED  TO  THE  ATHENIANS. 

I. 

Demochares,  the  son  of  Laches  of  Leuconoe,  requires 
that  a  statue  of  brass  be  set  up  for  Demosthenes,  the  son 
of  Demosthenes  the  Paeanian,    in    the   market-place,   as 

*  B.C.   307. 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  OEATORS.  59 

likewise  that  provision  of  diet  be  made  in  the  Prytaneura 
for  himself  and  the  eldest  of  his  progeny  snccessively,  and 
the  chief  seat  in  all  pnblic  shows  ;  for  that  he  had  done 
many  good  offices  for  the  Athenians,  had  on  most  occasions 
been  a  good  counsellor,  and  had  spent  his  patrimony  in  the 
commonwealth  ;  had  expended  eight  talents  for  the  fitting 
out  and  maintenance  of  one  galley,  when  they  delivered 
Euboea,  another,  when  Cephisodorus  sailed  into  the  Helles- 
pont, and  a  third,  when  Chares  and  Phocion  were  commis- 
sioned by  the  people  to  go  captains  to  Byzantium ;  that  he 
at  his  own  charge  had  redeemed  many  who  had  been  taken 
prisoners  by  Philip  at  Pydna,  Methone,  and  Olynthus  ;  that 
himself  had  maintained  a  choir  of  men,  when  no  provision 
had  been  made  therefor  through  the  neglect  of  the  tribe 
Pandionis  ;  that  he  had  furnished  many  indigent  citizens 
with  arms  ;  that  being  chosen  by  the  people  to  oversee  the 
city  works,  he  had  laid  out  three  talents  of  his  own  stock 
towards  the  repairing  of  the  walls,  besides  all  that  he 
gave  for  making  two  trenches  about  the  Piraeus ;  that 
after  the  battle  of  Chaeronea  he  deposited  one  talent  for 
the  use  of  the  public,  and  after  that,  another  to  buy  corn 
in  time  of  scarcity  and  want;  that  by  his  beneficence, 
wholesome  counsels  and  effectual  persuasions,  he  allured 
the  Thebans,  Euboeans,  Corinthians,  Megarians,  Achaeans, 
Locrians,  Byzantines,  and  Messenians  to  a  league  with  the 
Athenians  ;  that  he  raised  an  army  of  ten  thousand  foot 
and  a  thousand  horse,  and  contracted  plenty  to  the  people 
and  their  allies  ;  that  being  ambassador,  he  had  persuaded 
the  allies  to  the  contribution  of  above  five  hundred  talents  ; 
that  in  the  same  quality,  by  his  influence  and  the  free  gift 
of  money,  he  obtained  of  the  Peloponnesians  that  they 
should  not  send  aid  to  Alexander  against  the  Thebans  ; 
and  in  consideration  of  many  other  good  offices  performed 
by  him,  either  as  to  his  counsels,  or  his  personal  administra- 


60  LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS. 

tion  of  affairs  in  the  commonwealth,  in  which,  and  in 
defending  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people,  no  man  in 
his  time  had  done  more  or  deserved  better ;  and  in  regard 
of  his  sufferings  when  the  commonwealth  was  mined, 
being  banished  by  the  insolence  of  the  oligarchy,  and  at 
last  dying  at  Calauria  for  his  good-will  to  the  public,  there 
being  soldiers  sent  from  Antipater  to  apprehend  him  ;  and 
that  notwithstanding  his  being  in  the  hands  of  his  enemies, 
in  so  great  and  imminent  danger,  his  hearty  affection  to  his 
countrymen  was  still  the  same,  insomuch  that  he  never  to 
the  last  offered  any  unworthy  thing  to  the  injury  of  his 
people. 

II. 

In  the  magistracy  of  Pytharatus,*  Laches,  the  son  of 
Demochares  of  Leuconoe  requires  of  the  Athenian  senate 
that  a  statue  of  brass  be  set  up  for  Demochares,  the  son 
of  Laches  of  Leuconoe,  in  the  market-place,  and  table  and 
diet  in  the  Prytaneum  for  himself  and  the  eldest  of  his 
progeiay  successively,  and  the  first  seat  at  all  public  shows  ; 
for  that  he  had  always  been  a  benefactor  and  good  coun- 
sellor to  the  people,  and  had  done  these  and  the  like  good 
offices  to  the  public  :  he  had  gone  in  embassies  in  his  own 
person ;  had  proposed  and  carried  in  bills  relating  to  his 
embassage ;  had  been  chief  manager  of  pubUc  matters  ; 
had  repaired  the  walls,  prepared  arms  and  machines ; 
had  fortified  the  city  in  the  time  of  the  four  years'  wai\  and 
composed  a  peace,  truce,  and  alliance  with  the  Boeotians  ; 
for  which  things  he  was  banished  by  those  who  overturned 
and  usurped  the  government ;  —  and  being  called  home 
again  by  a  decree  of  the  people,  in  the  year  of  Diodes, 
he  had  contracted  the  administration,  sparing  the  public 
funds ;  and  going  in  embassage  to  Lysimachus,  he  had  at 

«  B.C.  269. 


LIVES  OF  THE  TEN  ORATORS.  61 

one  time  gained  thirty,  and  at  another  time  a  hundred 
talents  of  silver,  for  the  use  of  the  public  ;  he  had  moved 
the  people  to  send  an  embassage  to  Ptolemy,  by  which 
means  the  people  got  fifty  talents  ;  he  went  ambassador 
to  Antipater,  and  by  that  got  twenty  talents,  and  brought 
i*;  to  Eleusis  to  the  people,  —  all  which  measures  he  per- 
suaded the  people  to  adopt  while  he  himself  carried  them 
out ;  furthermore,  he  was  banished  for  his  love  for  the 
commonwealth,  and  would  never  take  part  with  usurpers 
against  the  popular  government ;  neither  did  he,  after  the 
overthrow  of  that  government,  bear  any  public  office  in 
the  state ;  he  was  the  only  man,  of  all  that  had  to  do  in 
the  public  administration  of  affairs  in  his  time,  who  never 
promoted  or  consented  to  any  other  form  of  government 
but  the  popular ;  by  his  prudence  and  conduct,  all  the 
judgments  and  decrees,  the  laws,  courts,  and  all  things 
else  belonging  to  the  Athenians,  were  preserved  safe  and 
inviolate ;  and,  in  a  word,  he  never  said  or  did  any  thing 
to  the  prejudice  of  the  popular  government. 


III. 

Lycophron,  the  son  of  Lycurgus  of  Butadae,  requires 
that  he  may  have  diet  in  the  Prytaneum,  according  to  a 
donation  of  the  people  to  Lycurgus.  In  the  year  of 
Anaxicrates,*  in  the  sixth  prytany,  —  which  was  that 
of  the  tribe  Antiochis,  —  Stratocles,  the  son  of  Euthyde- 
mus  of  Diomea,  proposed  ;  that,  —  since  Lycurgus,  the 
son  of  Lycophron  of  Butadae,  had  (as  it  were)  an  in- 
generated  good-will  in  him  towards  the  people  of  Athens  ; 
and  since  his  ancestors  Diomedes  and  Lycurgus  lived  in 
honor  and  esteem  of  all  people,  and  when  they  died  were 
honored  for  their  virtue   so  far  as   to  be  buried  at  the 

*  B.C.  307. 


62  LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS. 

public  charge  in  the  Ceramicus ;  and  since  Lycurgus 
himself,  while  he  had  the  management  of  public  afFau's, 
was  the  author  of  many  good  and  wholesome  laws,  and 
was  the  city  treasurer  for  twelve  years  together,  during 
which  time  there  passed  through  his  own  hands  eighteen 
thousand  and  nine  hundred  talents,  besides  other  great 
sums  of  money  that  he  was  entrusted  with  by  private  citi- 
zens for  the  public  good,  to  the  sum  of  six  hundred  and 
fifty  talents  ;  in  all  which  concerns  he  behaved  himself  so 
justly,  that  he  was  often  crowned  by  the  city  for  his 
fidelity ;  besides,  being  chosen  by  the  people  to  that 
purpose,  he  brought  much  money  into  the  Citadel,  and 
provided  ornaments,  golden  images  of  victory,  and  vessels 
of  gold  and  silver  for  the  Goddess  Minerva,  and  gold  orna- 
ments for  a  hundred  Canephoroe  ;  *  since,  being  commis- 
sary-general, he  brought  into  the  stores  a  great  number 
of  arms  and  at  least  fifty  thousand  shot  of  darts,  and  set 
out  four  hundred  galleys,  some  new  built,  and  others 
only  repaired ;  since,  finding  many  buildings  half  finished, 
as  the  dock-yards,  the  arsenal,  and  the  theatre  of  Bacchus, 
he  completed  them ;  and  finished  the  Panathenaic  race, 
and  the  court  for  public  exercises  at  the  Lyceum,  and 
adorned  the  city  with  many  fair  new  buildings  ;  since, 
when  Alexander,  having  conquered  Asia,  and  assuming 
the  empire  of  all  Greece,  demanded  Lycurgus  as  the  prin- 
cipal man  that  confronted  and  opposed  him  in  his  affairs, 
the  people  refused  to  deliver  him  up,  notwithstanding  the 
terror  inspired  by  Alexander ;  and  since,  being  often  called 
to  account  for  his  management  of  affairs  in  so  free  a  city, 
which  was  wholly  governed  by  the  people,  he  never  was 
found  faulty  or  corrupt  in  any  particular ;  —  that  all  peo- 
ple, therefore,  may  know,  not  only  that  the  people  do 
highly  esteem  all  such  as  act  in  defence  of  their  liberties 
and  rights  while  they  live,  but  likewise  that  they  pay  them 

*  Persons  who  carried  baskets,  or  panniers,  on  their  heads,  of  sacred  things. 


LIVES   OF  THE   TEN  ORATORS.  63 

honors  after  death,  in  the  name  of  Good  Fortune  it  is  de- 
creed by  the  people,  that  such  honors  be  paid  to  Lycurgus, 
the  son  of  Lycophron  of  Butadae,  for  his  justice  and  mag- 
nanimity, as  that  a  statue  of  brass  be  erected  in  memory 
of  him  in  any  part  of  the  market  which  the  laws  do  not 
prohibit ;  as  likewise  that  there  be  provision  for  diet  in 
the  Prytaneum  for  every  eldest  son  of  his  progeny,  suc- 
cessively for  ever.  Also,  that  all  his  decrees  be  ratified, 
and  engrossed  by  the  public  notary,  and  engraven  on 
pillars  of  stone,  and  set  up  in  the  Citadel  just  by  the 
gifts  consecrated  to  Minerva ;  and  that  the  city  treasurer 
shall  deposit  fifty  drachms  for  the  engraving  of  them,  out 
of  the  money  set  apart  for  such  uses. 


WHETHER  AN  AGED   MAN  OUGHT  TO  MEDDLE  IN 
STATE  AFFAIRS. 


1.  We  are  not  ignorant,  O  Euphanes,  that  you,  being  an 
extoller  of  Pindar,  have  often  in  your  mouth  this  saying 
of  his,  as  a  thing  well  and  to  the  purpose  spoken  by  him : 

When  as  the  combat's  once  agreed, 
Who  by  pretence  seeks  to  be  freed 
Obscures  his  virtue  quite. 

But  since  sloth  and  effeminacy  towards  civil  affairs,  having 
many  pretences,  do  for  the  last,  as  if  it  were  drawn  from 
the  sacred  line,  tender  to  us  old  age,  and  thinking  by  this 
chiefly  to  abate  and  cool  our  honorable  desire,  allege  that 
there  is  a  certain  decent  dissolution,  not  only  of  the  ath- 
letical,  but  also  of  the  political  period,  or  that  there  is  in 
the  revolution  of  our  years  a  certain  set  and  limited  time, 
after  which  it  is  no  more  proper  for  us  to  employ  ourselves 
in  the  conduct  of  the  state  than  in  the  corporeal  and  robust 
exercises  of  youth ;  I  esteem  myself  obliged  to  communi- 
cate also  to  you  those  sentiments  of  mine  concerning  old 
men's  intermeddling  with  public  matters,  which  I  am  ever 
and  anon  ruminating  on  by  myself;  so  that  neither  of  us 
may  desert  that  long  course  we  have  to  this  day  held 
together,  nor  rejecting  the  political  life,  which  has  been 
(as  it  were)  an  intimate  friend  of  our  own  years,  change  it 
for  another  to  which  we  are  absolute  strangers,  and  with 
which  we  have  not  time  to  become  acquainted  and  famil- 
iar, but  that  we  may  persist  in  what  we  had  chosen  and 
have  been  inured  to  from  the  beginning,  putting  the  same 


AN  AGED  MAN  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  65 

conclusion  to  our  life  and  our  living  honorably  ;  unless  we 
would,  by  the  short  space  of  life  we  have  remaining,  dis- 
grace that  longer  time  we  have  already  lived,  as  having 
been  spent  idly  and  in  nothing  that  is  commendable.  For 
tyranny  is  not  an  honorable  sepulchre,  as  one  told  Diony- 
sius,  whose  monarchy,  obtained  by  and  administered  with 
injustice,  did  by  its  long  continuance  bring  on  him  but  a 
more  perfect  calamity ;  as  Diogenes  afterwards  let  his  son 
know,  when,  seeing  him  at  Corinth,  of  a  tyrant  become  a 
private  person,  he  said  to  him :  "  How  unworthy  of  thyself, 
Dionysius,  thou  actest !  For  thou  oughtest  not  to  live 
here  at  liberty  and  fearless  with  us,  but  to  spend  thy  life, 
as  thy  father  did,  even  to  old  age,  immured  within  a 
tyrannical  fortress."  But  the  popular  and  legal  government 
of  a  man  accustomed  to  show  himself  no  less  profitable  in 
obeying  than  in  commanding  is  an  honorable  monument, 
which  really  adds  to  death  the  glory  accruing  from  life. 
For  this  thing,  as  Simonides  says,  "  goes  last  under  the 
ground ;  "  unless  it  be  in  those  in  whom  humanity  and  the 
love  of  honor  die  first,  and  whose  zeal  for  goodness  sooner 
decays  than  their  covetousness  after  temporal  necessaries  ; 
as  if  the  soul  had  its  active  and  divine  parts  weaker  than 
those  that  are  passive  and  corporeal ;  which  it  were  neither 
honest  to  say,  nor  yet  to  admit  from  those  who  affirm  that 
only  of  gaining  we  are  never  weary.  But  we  ought  to 
turn  to  a  better  purpose  the  saying  of  Thucydides,  and 
believe  that  it  is  not  the  desire  of  honor  only  that  never 
grows  old,*  but  much  more  also  the  inclinations  to  society 
and  aff'ection  to  the  state,  which  continue  even  in  ants  and 
bees  to  the  very  last.  For  never  did  any  one  know  a  bee 
to  become  by  age  a  drone,  as  some  think  it  requisite  of 
statesmen,  of  whom  they  expect  that,  when  the  vigor  of 
their  youth  is  past,  they  should  retire  and  sit  mouldy  at 
home,  suff"ering  their  active  virtue  to  be  consumed  by  idle- 

*  Thuc.  n.  44. 
VOL.  T.  6 


66  WHETHER  AN  AGED  MAN 

ness,  as  iron  is  by  rust.  For  Cato  excellently  well  said, 
that  we  ought  not  willingly  to  add  the  shame  proceeding 
from  vice  to  those  many  afflictions  which  old  age  has  of 
its  own.  For  of  the  many  vices  everywhere  abounding, 
there  is  none  which  more  disgraces  an  old  man  than  sloth, 
delicacy,  and  effeminateness,  when,  retiring  from  the  court 
and  council,  he  mews  himself  up  at  home  like  a  woman, 
or  getting  into  the  country  oversees  his  reapers  and  glean- 
ers ;  for  of  such  a  one  we  may  say, 

Where's  Oedipus,  and  all  his  famous  riddles  ? 

But  as  for  him  who  should  in  his  old  age,  and  not  be- 
fore, begin  to  meddle  with  public  matters,  —  as  they  say 
of  Epimenides,  that  having  fallen  asleep  while  he  was  a 
young  man,  he  awakened  fifty  years  after,  —  and  shaking 
off  so  long  and  so  close-sticking  a  repose,  should  thrust 
himself,  being  unaccustomed  and  unexercised,  into  difficult 
and  laborious  employs,  without  having  been  experienced 
in  civil  affairs,  or  inured  to  the  conversations  of  men,  such 
a  man  may  perhaps  give  occasion  to  one  that  would  repre- 
hend him,  to  say  with  the  prophetess  Pythia : 

Thou  com'st  too  late, 

seeking  to  govern  in  the  state  and  rule  the  people,  and  at 
an  unfit  hour  knocking  at  the  palace  gate,  like  an  ill-bred 
guest  coming  late  to  a  banquet,  or  a  stranger,  thou  wouldst 
change,  not  thy  place  or  region,  but  thy  life  for  one 
of  which  thou  hast  made  no  trial.  For  that  saying  of 
Simonides, 

The  state  instructs  a  man, 

is  true  in  those  who  apply  themselves  to  the  business  of 
the  commonweal  whilst  they  have  yet  time  to  be  taught, 
and  to  learn  a  science  which  is  scarce  attained  with  much 
labor  through  many  strugglings  and  negotiations,  even 
when  it  timely  meets  with  a  nature  that  can  easily  un- 
dergo toil  and  difficulty.     These  things  seem  not  to  be 


OUGHT   TO  MEDDLE  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  67 

impertinently  spoken  against  him  who  in  his  old  age  begins 
to  act  in  the  management  of  the  state. 

2.  And  yet,  on  the  contrary,  we  see  how  young  men  and 
those  of  unripe  years  are  by  persons  of  judgment  diverted 
from  meddling  in  public  matters ;  and  the  laws  also  testify 
the  same,  when  by  the  crier  in  the  assemblies  they  sum- 
mon not  first  the  men  like  Alcibiades  and  Pytheas  to  come 
to  the  desk,  but  those  who  have  passed  the  age  of  fifty 
years,  to  make  speeches  and  consult  together  for  the 
good  of  the  people.  For  the  being  unused  to  boldness 
and  the  want  of  experience  are  not  so  much  to  every 
soldier.  .  .  . 

[Here  is  a  defect  in  the  original.] 
But  Cato,  when  above  eighty  years  of  age  he  was  to  plead 
his   own   cause,  said,  that  it  was   a  difficult   thing  for  a 
man  to  make  his  apology  and  justify  his  life  before  others 
than  those  with  whom  he  had  lived  and  been  conversant. 

x'Vll  men  indeed  confess,  that  the  actions  of  Augustus 
Caesar,  when  he  had  defeated  Antony,  were  no  less  royal 
and  useful  to  the  public  towards  the  end  of  his  life,  than 
any  he  had  done  before.  And  himself  severely  reprehend- 
ing the  dissoluteness  of  young  men  by  establishing  good 
customs  and  laws,  when  they  raised  an  uproar,  he  only 
said  to  them :  Young  men,  refuse  not  to  hear  an  old  man, 
to  whom  old  men  not  unwillingly  gave  ear  when  he  was 
young.  The  government  also  of  Pericles  exerted  itself 
with  most  vigor  in  his  old  age,  when  he  both  persuaded 
the  Athenians  to  make  war,  and  at  another  time,  when 
they  were  eagerly  bent  unseasonably  to  go  forth  and  fight 
sixty  thousand  armed  men  withstood  and  hindered  them, 
sealing  up  in  a  manner  the  arms  of  the  people  and  the 
keys  of  the  gates.  Now  as  for  what  Xenophon  has  written 
of  Agesilaus,  it  is  fit  it  should  be  set  down  in  his  own 
words.  "What  youth,"  says  he,  "  was  ever  so  gallant  but 
that  his  old  age  surpassed  it"?    Who  was  ever  so  terrible  to 


68  WHETHER  AN   AGED   MAN 

his  enemies  in  the  very  flower  of  his  virility,  as  Agesilaus 
in  the  declension  of  his  days  ?  At  whose  death  were 
adversaries  ever  seen  more  joyful  than  at  that  of  Agesi- 
laus, though  he  departed  not  this  life  till  he  was  stooping 
under  the  burden  of  his  years  ?  Who  more  emboldened 
his  confederates  than  Agesilaus,  though  being  at  the  ut- 
most period  of  his  life  1  What  young  man  was  ever  missed 
more  by  his  friends  than  Agesilaus,  who  died  not  till  he 
was  very  old  ? " 

3.  Age  then  hindered  not  these  men  from  performing 
such  gallant  actions;  and  yet  we,  forsooth,  being  at  our 
ease  in  states  which  have  neither  tyranny,  war,  nor  siege 
to  molest  them,  are  afraid  of  such  bloodless  debates  and 
emulations,  as  are  for  the  most  part  terminated  with  justice 
only  by  law  and  words ;  confessing  ourselves  by  this  not 
only  worse  than  those  ancient  generals  and  statesmen,  but 
even  than  poets,  sophisters,  and  players.  Since  Simonides 
in  his  old  age  gained  the  victory  by  his  choral  songs,  as  the 
epigram  testifies  in  these  concluding  verses : 

Fourscore  years  old  was  Leoprepes'  son, 
Simonides,  when  he  this  glory  won. 

And  it  is  said  of  Sophocles,  that,  to  avoid  being  condemned 
of  dotage  at  the  instance  of  his  children,  he  repeated  the 
entrance  song  of  the  Chorus  in  his  tragedy  of  Oedipus  in 
Colonus,  which  begins  thus : 

Welcome,  stranger,  come  in  time 

To  the  best  place  of  this  clime, 

White  Colonus,  which  abounds 

With  brave  horses.     In  these  grounds, 

Spread  with  Nature's  choicest  green, 

Philomel  is  often  seen. 
Here  she  her  hearers  charms  with  sweetest  lays. 

Whilst  with  shrill  throat 

And  warbling  note 
She  moans  the  sad  misfortunes  of  her  former  days:* 

and  that,  this  song  appearing  admirable,  he  was  dismissed 

♦  Soph.  Oed.  Colon.  668. 


OUGHT  TO  MEDDLE  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  69 

from  the  court,  as  from  the  theatre,  with  the  applause  and 
acclamations  of  all  that  were  present  And  this  short  verse 
is  acknowledged  to  be  written  of  him : 

When  Sophocles  framed  for  Herodotus 
This  ode,  his  years  were  fifty-five. 

Philemon  also  the  comedian  and  Alexis  were  snatched 
away  by  death,  whilst  they  were  acting  on  the  stage  and 
crowned  with  garlands.  And  as  for  Polus  the  tragedian, 
Eratosthenes  and  Philochorus  related  of  him  that,  being 
seventy  years  of  age,  he  a  little  before  his  death  acted  in 
four  days  eight  tragedies. 

4.  Is  it  not  then  a  shame,  that  those  who  have  grown 
old  in  councils  and  courts  of  judicature  should  appear  less 
generous  than  such  as  have  spent  their  years  on  the  stage, 
and  forsaking  those  exercises  which  are  really  sacred,  cast 
off  the  person  of  the  statesman,  to  put  on  instead  of  it  I 
know  not  what  other  ]     For  to  descend  from  the  state  of  a 
prince  to  that  of  a  ploughman  is  all  over  base  and  mean. 
For  since   Demosthenes   says   that  the   Paralus,  being   a 
sacred  galley,  was  unworthily  used  in  being  employed  to 
carry  timber,  pales,  and  cattle  to  Midias  ;  would  not  a  man 
who  should,  after  his  having  quitted  the  office  of  superin- 
tendent at  the  public   solemnities,   governor  of   Boeotia, 
or  president  in  the  council  of  the  Amphictyons,  be  seen 
measuring  of   corn,  weighing  of  raisins,  and  bargaining 
about  fleeces   and  wool-fells,  —  would  not  such  a  one,  I 
say,  wholly  seem  to  have  brought  on  himself,  as  the  prov- 
erb has  it,  the  old  age  of  a  horse,  without  any  one's  neces- 
sitating him  to  it  1     For  to  set  one's  self  to  mechanical 
employments  and  trafficking,  after  one  has  borne  office  in 
the   state,  is  the  same  as  if  one  should  strip  a  well-bred 
virtuous  gentlewoman  out  of  her  matron-like  attire,  and 
thrust  her  with  an  apron  tied  about  her  into  a  public  vic- 
tualling-house.    For  the  dignity  and  greatness  of  political 
virtue  is  overthrown,  when  it  is  debased  to  such  mean 


70  WHETHER  AN   AGED   MAN 

administrations  and  traffics  for  gain.  But  if  (which  is  the 
only  thing  remaining)  they  shall,  by  giving  effeminacies 
and  voluptuousness  the  name  of  living  at  quiet  and  enjoy- 
ing one's  self,  exhort  a  statesman  leisurely  to  waste  away 
and  grow  old  in  them,  I  know  not  to  which  of  the  two 
shameful  pictures  his  life  will  seem  to  have  the  greater 
resemblance,  —  whether  to  the  mariners  who,  leaving  their 
ship  for  the  future  not  in  the  harbor  but  under  sail,  spend 
all  their  time  in  celebrating  the  feasts  of  Venus ;  or  to 
Hercules,  whom  some  painters  merrily  but  yet  ridiculously 
represent  wearing  in  Omphale's  palace  a  yellow  petticoat, 
and  giving  himself  up  to  be  boxed  and  combed  by  the 
Lydian  damsels.  So  shall  we,  stripping  a  statesman  of 
his  lion's-skin,  and  seating  him  at  a  luxurious  table,  there 
be  always  cloying  his  palate  with  delicacies,  and  filling  his 
ears  with  effeminate  songs  and  music ;  being  not  a  whit 
put  to  the  blush  by  the  saying  of  Pompey  the  Great  to 
Lucullus,  who  after  his  public  services  both  in  camp  and 
council,  addicted  himself  to  bathing,  feasting,  conversing 
with  women  in  the  day,  and  much  other  dissoluteness,  even 
to  the  raising  and  extravagantly  furnishing  of  sumptuous 
buildings,  and  who,  once  upbraiding  Pompey  with  an  am- 
bition and  desire  of  rule  unsuitable  to  his  age,  was  by  him 
answered,  that  it  was  more  misbecoming  an  old  man  to 
live  voluptuously  than  to  govern "?  The  same  Pompey, 
when  in  his  sickness  his  physican  had  prescribed  him  the 
eating  of  a  thrush,  which  was  then  hard  to  be  got,  as 
being  out  of  season,  being  told  that  Lucullus  bred  great 
store  of  such  birds,  would  not  send  to  him  for  one,  but 
said :  What !  Cannot  Pompey  live,  unless  Lucullus  be 
luxurious  1 

5.  For  though  Nature  seeks  by  all  means  to  delight  and 
rejoice  herself,  yet  the  bodies  of  old  men  are  incapacitated 
for  all  pleasures,  except  a  few  that  are  absolutely  neces- 
sary.    For  not  only 


OUGHT   TO  MEDDLE  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  71 

Venus  to  old  men  is  averse,* 

as  Euripides  has  it ;  but  their  appetite  also  to  their  meat 
and  drink  is  for  the  most  part  dull,  and  as  one  would  say, 
toothless ;  so  that  they  have  but  little  gust  and  relish  in 
them. 

They  ought  therefore  to  furnish  themselves  with  pleas- 
ures of  the  mind,  not  ungenerous  or  illiberal,  like  those  of 
Simonides,  who  said  to  those  who  reproached  him  with 
covetousness,  that  being  by  his  years  deprived  of  other 
pleasures,  he  recreated  his  old  age  with  the  only  delight 
which  remained,  that  of  heaping  up  riches.  But  political 
life  has  in  it  pleasures  exceeding  great,  and  no  less  honor- 
able, being  such  as  it  is  probable  the  very  Gods  do  only 
or  at  least  chiefly  enjoy  themselves  in ;  and  these  are  the 
delights  which  proceed  from  doing  good  and  performing 
what  is  honest  and  laudable.  For  if  Nicias  the  painter 
took  such  pleasure  in  the  work  of  his  hands,  that  he  often 
was  fain  to  ask  his  servants  whether  he  had  washed  or 
dined ;  and  if  Archimedes  was  so  intent  upon  the  table  in 
which  he  drew  his  geometrical  figures,  that  his  attendants 
were  obliged  by  force  to  pluck  him  from  it  and  strip  him 
of  his  clothes  that  they  might  anoint  him,  whilst  he  in  the 
mean  time  drew  new  schemes  on  his  anointed  body ;  and 
if  Canus  the  piper,  whom  you  also  know,  was  wont  to  say 
that  men  knew  not  how  much  more  he  delighted  himself 
with  his  playing  than  he  did  others,  for  that  then  his  hear- 
ers would  rather  demand  of  him  than  give  him  a  reward ; 
do  we  not  thence  conceive  how  great  pleasures  the  virtues 
afford  to  those  who  practise  them,  from  their  honest  ac- 
tions and  public-spirited  works  tending  to  the  benefit  of 
human  society?  They  do  not  tickle  or  weaken,  as  do  such 
sweet  and  gentle  motions  as  are  made  on  the  flesh ;  for 
these  indeed  have  a  furious  and  unconstant  itching,  mixed 
with  a  feverish  inflammation  ;  whereas  those  which  accom- 

*  Eurip.  Aeolus,  Frag.  23. 


72  WHETHEli  AN  AGED   MAN 

pany  such  gallant  actions  as  he  who  rightly  administers 
the  state  is  worker  of,  not  like  the  golden  plumes  of  Euri- 
pides, but  like  those  celestial  wings  of  Plato,  elevate  the 
soul  which  has  received  a  greatness  of  courage  and  wis- 
dom accompanied  with  joy. 

6.  Call  to  mind  a  little,  I  entreat  you,  those  things  you 
have  so  often  heard.  For  Epaminondas  indeed,  being 
asked  what  was  the  most  pleasant  thing  that  ever  befell 
him,  answered,  his  having  gained  the  victory  at  Leuctra 
whilst  his  father  and  mother  were  yet  living.  And  Sylla, 
when,  having  freed  Italy  from  civil  wars,  he  came  to  Rome, 
could  not  the  first  night  fetch  the  least  wink  of  sleep, 
having  his  soul  transported  with  excessive  joy  and  content, 
as  with  a  strong  and  mighty  wind ;  and  this  he  himself 
has  written  in  his  Commentaries.  For  be  it  indeed  so,  as 
Xenophon  says,  that  there  is  no  sound  more  pleasing  than 
one's  own  praises  ;  yet  there  is  no  sight,  remembrance,  or 
consideration  which  gives  a  man  so  much  satisfaction  as 
the  contemplation  of  his  own  actions,  performed  by  him 
in  offices  of  magistracy,  and  management  of  the  state,  in 
eminent  and  public  places. 

It  is  moreover  true,  that  the  courteous  thanks  attending 
as  a  witness  on  such  virtuous  acts,  and  the  emulous  praise 
conferred  on  them,  which  is  as  a  guide  conducting  us  in 
the  way  of  just  benevolence,  add  a  certain  lustre  and 
shining  gloss  to  the  joy  of  virtue.  Neither  ought  a  man 
negligently  to  suffer  his  glory  to  wither  in  his  old  age,  like 
a  wrestler's  garland  ;  but,  by  adding  always  something  new 
and  fresh,  he  should  awaken,  meliorate,  and  confirm  the 
grace  of  his  former  actions.  For  as  those  workmen  on 
whom  was  incumbent  the  charge  of  keeping  in  repair  the 
Delian  ship,  by  supplying  and  putting  into  the  place  of 
the  decayed  planks  and  timber  others  that  were  new  and 
sound,  seem  to  have  preserved  it  from  ancient  times,  as  if 
it  were  eternal  and  incorruptible ;  so  the  preserving  and 


OUGHT  TO  MEDDLE  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  73 

upholding  of  one's  glory  is  as  the  keeping  in  of  a  fire,  a 
work  of  no  difficulty,  as  requiring  only  to  be  supplied  with 
a  little  fuel,  but  when  either  of  them  is  wholly  extinct  and 
suppressed,  one  cannot  without  great  labor  rekindle  it 
again.  Lampis,  the  sea  commander,  being  asked  how  he 
got  his  wealth,  answered :  "  My  greatest  estate  I  gained 
easily  enough,  but  the  smaller  slowly  and  with  much  labor." 
In  like  manner,  it  is  not  easy  at  the  beginning  to  acquire 
reputation  and  power  in  the  state ;  but  to  augment  and 
conserve  it,  when  it  is  grown  great,  is  not  at  all  hard  for 
those  who  have  obtained  it.  For  neither  does  a  friend, 
when  he  is  once  had,  require  many  and  great  services  that 
he  may  so  continue,  but  assiduity  does  by  small  signs  pre- 
serve his  good- will ;  nor  do  the  friendship  and  confidence 
of  the  people  expect  to  have  a  man  always  bestowing  lar- 
gesses, defending  their  causes,  or  executing  of  magistracy, 
but  they  are  maintained  by  a  readiness,  and  by  not  failing 
or  being  weary  of  carefulness  and  solicitude  for  the  public. 
For  even  wars  themselves  have  not  alway  conflicts,  fights, 
and  sieges ;  but  there  sometimes  intervene  sacrifices  and 
parleys,  and  abundance  of  leisure  for  sports  and  pastimes. 
Whence  then  comes  it,  that  the  administration  of  the  com- 
monwealth should  be  feared  as  inconsolable,  laborious, 
and  unsupportable,  where  theatres,  processions,  largesses, 
music,  joy,  and  at  every  turn  the  service  and  festival  of 
some  God  or  other,  unbending  the  brows  of  every  council 
and  senate,  yield  a  manifold  pleasure  and  delight'? 

7.  As  for  envy,  which  is  the  greatest  evil  attending  the 
management  of  public  aff'airs,  it  least  attacks  old  age.  For 
dogs  indeed,  as  Heraclitus  has  it,  bark  at  a  stranger  whom 
they  do  not  know ;  and  envy  opposes  him  who  is  a  begin 
ner  on  the  very  steps  of  the  tribune,  hindering  his  access, 
but  she  meekly  bears  an  accustomed  and  familiar  glory, 
and  not  churlishly  or  difficultly.  Wherefore  some  resemble 
envy  to  smoke  ;  for  it  arises  thick  at  first,  when  the  fire 


74  WHETHER   AN   AGED   MAN 

begins  to  burn  ;  but  when  the  flame  grows  clear,  it  vanishes 
away.  Now  men  usually  quarrel  and  contend  about  other 
excellences,  as  virtue,  nobility,  and  honor,  as  if  they  were 
of  opinion  that  they  took  from  themselves  as  much  as  they 
give  to  others  ;  but  the  precedency  of  time,  which  is  prop- 
erly called  by  the  Greeks  IlQso^dov  (or  the  honor  of  old 
age),  is  free  from  jealousy,  and  willingly  granted  by  men 
to  their  companions.  For  to  no  honor  is  it  so  incident  to 
grace  the  honorer  more  than  the  honored,  as  to  that  which 
is  given  to  persons  in  years.  Moreover,  all  men  do  not 
expect  to  gain  themselves  authority  from  wealth,  eloquence, 
or  wisdom ;  but  as  for  the  reverence  and  glory  to  which 
old  age  brings  men,  there  is  not  any  one  of  those  who  act 
in  the  management  of  the  state  but  hopes  to  attain  it. 

He  therefore  who,  having  a  long  time  contended  against 
envy,  shall  when  it  ceases  and  is  appeased  withdraw  him- 
self from  the  state,  and  together  with  public  actions  desert 
communities  and  societies,  differs  nothing  from  that  pilot 
who,  having  kept  his  ship  out  at  sea  when  in  danger  of 
being  overwhelmed  by  contrary  and  tempestuous  waves 
and  winds,  seeks  to  put  into  harbor  as  soon  as  ever  the 
weather  is  grown  calm  and  favorable.  For  the  longer  time 
there  has  been,  the  more  friends  and  companions  he  has 
made ;  all  which  he  cannot  carry  out  with  him,  as  a 
singing-master  does  his  choir,  nor  is  it  just  to  leave  them. 
But  as  it  is  not  easy  to  root  up  old  trees,  so  neither  is  it  to 
extirpate  a  long-continued  practice  in  the  management  of 
the  state,  which  having  many  roots  is  involved  in  a  tangled 
mass  of  affairs,  which  create  more  troubles  and  vexations 
to  those  who  retire  from  them  than  to  those  who  continue 
in  them.  And  if  there  is  any  remainder  of  envy  and  emu- 
lation against  old  men  from  former  contentions  about  civil 
affairs,  they  should  rather  extinguish  it  by  authority,  than 
turn  their  backs  on  it  and  go  away  naked  and  disarmed. 
For  envious  persons  do  not  so  much  assail  those  who  con- 


OUGHT  TO  MEDDLE  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  7o 

tend  against  them,  as  they  do  by  contempt  insult  over  such 
as  retire. 

8.  And  to  this  bears  witness  that  saying  of  the  great 
Epaminondas  to  the  Thebans,  when  in  the  winter  the  Ar- 
cadians requested  them  to  come  into  their  city  and  dwell 
in  their  houses,  —  which  he  would  not  permit,  but  said  to 
them :  Now  the  Arcadians  admire  you,  seeing  you  exercise 
yourselves,  and  wrestle  in  your  armor  ;  but  if  they  shall 
behold  you  sitting  by  the  fire  and  pounding  of  beans,  they 
will  think  you  to  differ  nothing  from  themselves.  So  an 
old  man  speaking  to  the  people,  acting  in  the  state,  and 
honored,  is  a  venerable  spectacle  ;  but  he  who  wastes  away 
his  days  in  his  bed,  or  sits  discoursing  of  trivial  matters 
and  wiping  his  nose  in  the  corner  of  a  gallery,  easily  ren- 
ders himself  an  object  of  contempt.  And  this  indeed 
Homer  himself  teaches  those  who  hear  him  aright.  For 
Nestor,  who  fought  before  Troy,  was  highly  venerated  and 
esteemed  ;  whilst  Peleus  and  Laertes,  who  stayed  at  home, 
were  slighted  and  despised.  For  the  habit  of  prudence 
does  not  continue  the  same  in  those  who  give  themselves 
to  their  ease ;  but  by  little  and  little  diminishes  and  is 
dissolved  by  sloth,  as  always  requiring  some  exercise  of 
the  thought  to  rouse  up  and  purify  the  rational,  active  facul- 
ty of  the  soul.     For, 

Like  glittering  brass,  by  being  used  it  shines.* 

For  the  infirmity  of  the  body  does  not  so  much  incommode 
the  administrations  of  those  who,  almost  spent  with  age, 
go  to  the  tribune  or  to  the  council  of  war,  as  they  are 
advantageous  by  the  caution  and  prudence  which  attend 
their  years,  and  keep  them  from  thrusting  themselves  pre- 
cipitately into  affairs,  abused  partly  by  want  of  experience 
and  partly  by  vain-glory,  and  hurrying  the  people  along 
with  them  by  violence,  like  a  sea  agitated  by  the  winds  ; 

*  Sophocles,  Frag.  779. 


76  WHETHER  AN  AGED   MAN 

causing  them  mildly  and  moderately  to  manage  those  with 
whom  they  have  to  do. 

Whence  cities,  when  they  are  in  adversity  and  fear,  de- 
sire the  government  of  grave  and  ancient  personages ;  and 
often  having  drawn  out  of  his  field  some  old  man  who  had 
not  so  much  as  the  least  thought  of  it,  have  compelled 
him,  though  unwilling,  to  put  his  hand  to  the  helm,  and 
conduct  the  ship  of  the  state  into  the  haven  of  security, 
rejecting  generals  and  orators,  who  not  only  knew  how  to 
speak  loud  and  make  long  harangues  without  drawing 
their  breath,  but  were  able  also  valiantly  to  march  forth 
and  fight  their  enemies.  So  w^hen  the  orators  one  day  at 
Athens,  before  Timotheus  and  Iphicrates  uncovering 
Chares  the  son  of  Theochares,  a  vigorous  and  stout-bod- 
ied young  man,  said  they  were  of  opinion  that  the  general 
of  the  Athenians  ought  to  be  such  a  one  ;  Not  so,  by  all 
the  Gods,  answered  Timotheus,  but  such  a  one  he  should 
be  that  is  to  carry  the  general's  bedding ;  but  the  general 
himself  ought  to  be  such  a  one  as  can  at  the  same  time  see 
both  forwards  and  backwards,  and  will  suffer  not  his  rea- 
sonings about  things  convenient  to  be  disturbed  by  any 
passion. 

Sophocles  indeed  said,  he  was  glad  that  he  was  got  free 
from  the  tyranny  of  wanton  love,  as  being  a  furious  and 
raging  master ;  but  in  the  administrations  of  state,  we  are 
not  to  avoid  this  one  only  master,  the  love  of  women  or 
boys,  but  many  who  are  madder  than  he,  such  as  obstina- 
cy in  contending  ambition,  and  a  desire  of  being  always 
the  first  and  greatest,  which  is  a  disease  most  fruitful  in 
bringing  forth  envy,  jealousy,  and  conspiracies  ;  some  of 
"w  hich  vices  old  age  abates  and  dulls,  while  it  wholly  ex- 
tinguishes and  cools  the  others,  not  so  much  detracting 
from  the  practical  impulse  of  the  mind,  as  repressing  its 
impetuous  and  over-hot  passions,  that  it  may  apply  a  sober 
and  settled  reasoning  to  its  considerations  about  the  manage- 
ment of  affairs. 


OUGHT   TO   MEDDLE   IN   STATE  AFFAIRS.  77 

9.  Nevertheless  let  this  speech  of  the  poet, 

Lie  still  at  ease,  poor  wretch,  in  thy  own  bed,* 

both  be  and  seem  to  be  spoken  for  the  dissuading  of  him 
who  shall,  when  he  is  now  grown  gray  Avith  age,  begin  to 
play  the  youth  ;  and  for  the  restraining  an  old  man  who, 
rising  from  a  long  administration  of  his  domestic  affairs, 
as  from  a  lingering  disease,  shall  set  himself  to  lead  an 
army  to  the  field,  or  perform  the  office  of  secretary  of 
state. 

But  altogether  senseless,  and  nothing  like  to  this,  is  he 
who  will  not  suffer  one  that  has  spent  his  whole  time  in 
political  administrations,  and  been  thoroughly  beaten  to 
them,  to  go  on  to  his  funeral  torch  and  the  conclusion  of 
his  life,  but  shall  call  him  back,  and  command  him  (as  it 
were)  to  turn  out  of  the  long  road  he  has  been  travelling 
in.  He  who,  to  draw  off  from  his  design  an  old  fellow 
who  is  crowned  and  is  perfuming  himself  to  go  a  wooing, 
should  say  to  him,  as  was  heretofore  said  to  Philoctetes, 

What  virgin  will  her  blooming  maidenhead 

Bestow  on  such  a  wretch  ?     Why  would'st  thou  wed  ? 

would  not  be  at  all  absurd,  since  even  old  men  break 
many  such  jests  upon  themselves,  and  say, 

I,  old  fool,  know,  I  for  my  neighbors  wed  ; 

but  he  who  should  think,  that  a  man  which  has  long  co- 
habited and  lived  irreprehensibly  with  his  wife  ought,  be- 
cause he  is  grown  old,  to  dismiss  her  and  live  alone,  or 
take  a  concubine  in  her  place,  would  have  attained  the 
utmost  excess  of  perverseness.  So  he  would  not  act 
altogether  unreasonably,  that  should  admonish  an  old  man 
who  is  making  his  first  approaches  to  the  people,  whether 
he  be  such  a  one  as  Chlidon  the  farmer,  or  Lampon  the  mar- 
iner, or  some  old  dreaming  philosopher  of  the  garden,  and 

♦  Eurip.  Creates,  268. 


78  WHETHER  AN   AGED   MAN 

advise  him  to  continue  in  his  accustomed  unconcernedness 
for  the  public ;  but  he  who,  taking  hold  of  Phocion,  Cato, 
or  Pericles,  should  say  to  him,  My  Athenian  or  Roman 
friend,  who  art  come  to  thy  withered  old  age,  make  a  di- 
vorce, and  henceforth  quit  the  state  ;  and  dismissing  all 
conversations  and  cares  about  either  council  or  camp,  re- 
tire into  the  country,  there  with  an  old  maid-servant  look- 
ing after  thy  husbandry,  or  spending  the  remainder  of  thy 
time  in  managing  thy  domestic  affairs  and  taking  thy  ac- 
counts, —  would  persuade  a  statesman  to  do  things  misbe- 
seeming  him  and  unacceptable. 

10.  What  then !  may  some  one  say ;  do  we  not  hear  the 
soldier  in  the  comedy  affirming, 

Henceforth  my  gray  hairs  exempt  me  from  wars  ? 

Yes  indeed,  my  friend,  it  is  altogether  so  ;  for  it  becomes 
the  servants  of  Mars  to  be  young  and  vigorous,  as  man- 
aging 

War,  and  war's  toilsome  works  ;  * 

in  which,  though  an  helmet  may  also  hide  the  old  man's 
gray  hairs. 

Yet  inwardly  his  limbs  are  all  decayed,  t 

and  his  strength  falls  short  of  his  good-will.  But  from 
the  ministers  of  Jupiter,  the  counsellor,  orator,  and  patron 
of  cities,  we  expect  not  the  works  of  feet  and  hands,  but 
those  of  counsel,  providence,  and  reason,  —  not  such  as 
raises  a  noise  and  shouting  amongst  the  people,  but  such  as 
has  it  in  understanding,  prudent  solicitousness,  and  safety  ; 
by  which  the  derided  hoariness  and  wrinkles  appear  as 
witnesses  of  his  experience,  and  add  to  him  the  help  of 
persuasion,  and  the  glory  of  ingenuity.  For  youth  is 
made  to  follow  and  be  persuaded,  age  to  guide  and  direct ; 
and  that  city  is  most  secure,  where  the  counsels  of  the  old 
and  the  prowess  of  the  young  bear  sway.  And  this  of 
Homer,  % 

*  n.  vm.  463.  t  n.  xix.  i65.  t  d.  n.  53. 


OUGHT   TO   MEDDLE   IN   STATE   AFFAIRS.  79 

A  council  first  of  valiant  old  men 
He  called  in  Nestor's  ship, 

is  wonderfully  commended.  Wherefore  the  Pythian  Apollo 
called  the  aristocracy  or  council  of  noblemen  in  Lacedae- 
mon,  joined  as  assistants  to  their  kings,  nQsa^vyeveTg  (or  the 
ancients),  and  Lycurgus  named  it  plainly  rsQovreg  (or  the 
council  of  old  men) ;  and  even  to  this  day  the  council  of 
the  Romans  is  called  the  senate  (from  senium,  signifying 
old  age).  And  as  the  law  places  the  diadem  and  crown, 
so  does  Nature  the  hoariness  of  the  head,  as  an  honorable 
sign  of  princely  dignity.  And  I  am  of  opinion,  that  yf^ag 
(signifying  an  honorable  reward)  and  yzQaiquv  (signifying 
to  honor)  continue  still  in  use  amongst  the  Greeks,  being 
made  venerable  from  the  respect  paid  to  old  men,  not  be- 
cause they  wash  in  warm  water  and  sleep  on  softer  beds 
than  others,  but  because  they  have  as  it  were  a  king-like 
esteem  in  states  for  their  prudence,  from  which,  as  from  a 
late-bearing  tree,  Nature  scarcely  in  old  age  brings  forth 
its  proper  and  perfect  good.  Therefore  none  of  those 
martial  and  magnanimous  Achaeans  blamed  that  king  of 
kings,  Agamemnon,  for  praying  thus  to  the  Gods, 

O  that  among  the  Greeks  I  had  but  ten 
Such  counsellors  as  Nestor ;  * 

but  they  all  granted,  that  not  in  policy  only,  but  in  war 
also,  old  age  has  great  influence ; 

For  one  discreet  advice  is  much  more  worth 
Than  many  hands,  t 

and  one  rational  and  persuasive  sentence  effects  the  bravest 
and  greatest  of  public  exploits. 

11.  Moreover,  the  regal  dignity,  which  is  the  perfectest 
and  greatest  of  all  political  governments,  has  exceeding 
many  cares,  labors,  and  difficulties  ;  insomuch  that  Seleucus 
is  reported  ever  and  anon  to  have  said :  If  men  knew  how 
laborious    are  only  the  writing  and  reading  of  so  many 

»  n.  n.  372.  t  Eurip.  Antiope,  Frag.  220. 


80  WHETHER  AN  AGED   MAN 

epistles,  they  would  not  so  much  as  stoop  to  take  up  a 
diadem  thrown  on  the  ground.  And  Philip,  when,  being 
about  to  pitch  his  camp  in  a  fair  and  commodious  place,  he 
was  told  that  there  was  not  there  forage  for  his  regiments, 
cried  out :  O  Hercules,  what  a  life  is  ours,  if  we  must  live 
for  the  conveniency  of  asses !  It  is  then  time  to  persuade  a 
king,  when  he  is  now  grown  into  years,  to  lay  aside  his 
diadem  and  purple,  and  putting  on  a  coarse  coat,  with  a 
crook  in  his  hand,  to  betake  himself  to  a  country  life,  lest 
he  should  seem  to  act  superfluously  and  unseasonably  by 
reigning  in  his  old  age.  But  if  the  very  mentioning  such 
a  thing  to  an  Agesilaus,  a  Numa,  or  a  Darius  would  be  an 
indignity ;  let  us  not,  because  they  are  in  years,  either 
drive  away  Solon  from  the  council  of  the  Areopagus,  or 
remove  Cato  out  of  the  senate ;  nor  yet  let  us  advise 
Pericles  to  abandon  the  democracy.  For  it  is  besides  alto- 
gether unreasonable  and  absurd,  that  he  who  has  in  his 
youth  leaped  into  the  tribunal  should,  after  he  has  dis- 
charged all  his  furious  ambitions  and  impetuous  passions 
on  the  public,  when  he  is  come  to  that  maturity  of  years 
which  by  experience  brings  prudence,  desert  and  abandon 
the  commonwealth,  having  abused  it  as  if  it  were  a  woman. 
12.  Aesop's  fox  indeed  would  not  permit  the  hedge-hog, 
who  off"ered  it,  to  take  from  him  the  ticks  that  fed  upon 
his  body.  For,  said  he,  if  thou  remov'st  those  that  are  full, 
other  hungry  ones  will  succeed  them.  So  it  is  of  necessity, 
that  a  commonwealth  which  is  always  casting  off  those 
who  grow  old  must  be  replenished  with  young  men,  thirst- 
ing after  glory  and  powder,  and  void  of  understanding  in 
state  affairs.  For  whence,  I  pray,  should  they  have  it,  if 
they  shall  have  been  neither  disciples  nor  spectators  of  any 
ancient  statesman?  For  if  treatises  of  navigation  cannot 
make  those  skilful  pilots  who  have  not  often  in  the  stern 
been  spectators  of  the  conflicts  against  the  waves,  winds, 
and  pitchy  darkness  of  the  night, 


OUGHT   TO   MEDDLE   IN   STATE   AFFAIRS.  81 

When  the  poor  trembling  seaman  longs  to  see 
Tlie  safety-boding  twins,  Tyndaridae  ; 

how  should  a  raw  young  man  take  in  hand  the  govern- 
ment of  a  city,  and  rightly  advise  both  the  senate  and  the 
people,  having  only  read  a  book  or  written  an  exercise  in 
the  Lyceum  concerning  policy,  though  he  has  seldom  or 
never  stood  by  the  reins  or  helm,  when  grave  statesmen 
and  old  commanders  have  in  debating  alleged  both  their 
experiences  and  fortunes,  whilst  he  was  wavering  on  both 
sides,  that  so  he  might  with  dangers  and  transacting  of 
affairs  gain  instruction  1  This  is  not  to  be  said.  But  if  it 
were  for  nothing  else,  yet  ought  an  old  man  to  manage  in 
public  affairs,  that  he  may  instruct  and  teach  those  who 
are  young.  For  as  those  who  teach  children  reading  and 
music  do,  by  pronouncing  and  by  singing  notes  and  tunes 
before  them,  lead  and  bring  on  their  scholars ;  so  an  old 
statesman,  not  by  speaking  and  dictating  exteriorly,  but  by 
acting  and  administering  public  affairs,  directs  and  breeds 
up  a  young  one,  who  is  by  his  deeds  joined  with  his  words 
interiorly  formed  and  fashioned.  For  he  who  is  exercised 
after  this  manner,  not  amongst  the  disputes  of  nimble 
tongued  sophisters,  as  in  the  wrestling-schools  and  anoint- 
ings, where  there  is  not  the  least  appearance  of  any  danger, 
but  really,  and  as  it  were  in  the  Olympian  and  Pythian 
games,  will  tread  in  his  teacher's  steps, 

Like  a  young  colt,  which  runs  by  th'  horse's  side,  — 

as  Simonides  has  it.  Thus  Aristides  followed  Clisthenes, 
Cimon  Aristides,  Phocion  Chabrias,  Cato  Fabius  Maxi- 
mus,  Pompey  Sylla,  and  Polybius  Philopoemen ;  for  these, 
when  they  were  young,  joining  themselves  with  their 
elders,  and  afterwards  as  it  were  flourishing  and  growing 
up  by  their  administrations  and  actions,  gained  experience, 
and  were  inured  to  the  management  of  public  affairs  with 
reputation  and  power. 

13      Aeschines  therefore  the  Academic,  being  charged 


82  WHETHER  AN  AGED   MAN 

by  certain  sophisters  that  he  pretended  himself  a  disciple 
of  Carneades  when  he  was  not  so,  said :  I  was  then  a 
hearer  of  Carneades,  when  his  discourse,  having  dismissed 
contention  and  noise  by  reason  of  his  old  age,  contracted 
itself  to  what  was  useful  and  fit  to  be  communicated.  Now 
an  aged  man's  government  being  not  only  in  words  but  in 
deeds  far  remote  from  all  ostentation  and  vain-glory,  —  as 
they  say  of  the  bird  ibis,  that  when  she  is  grown  old, 
having  exhaled  all  her  venomous  and  stinking  savor,  she 
sends  forth  a  most  sweet  and  aromatical  one,  —  so  in  men 
grown  into  years,  there  is  no  opinion  or  counsel  disturbed, 
but  all  grave  and  settled.  Wherefore,  even  for  the  young 
men's  sake,  as  has  been  said,  ought  an  old  man  to  act  in 
the  government  of  the  state ;  that,  (as  Plato  said  of  wine 
allayed  with  water,  that  the  furious  God  was  made  wise, 
being  chastised  by  another  who  was  sober)  so  the  caution 
of  old  age,  mixed  among  the  people  with  the  fervency  of 
youth,  transported  by  glory  and  ambition,  may  take  off 
that  which  is  furious  and  over-violent. 

14.  But  besides  all  this,  they  are  under  a  mistake  who 
think  that,  as  sailing  and  going  to  the  wars,  so  also  acting 
in  the  state  is  done  for  a  certain  end,  and  ceases  when  that 
is  obtained.  For  the  managing  of  state  affairs  is  not  a 
ministry  which  has  profit  for  its  end  ;  but  the  life  of  gentle, 
civil,  and  sociable  animals,  framed  by  nature  to  live  civilly, 
honestly,  and  for  the  benefit  of  mankind.  Wherefore  it  is 
fit  he  should  be  such  a  one  as  that  it  may  be  said  of  him, 
he  is  employed  in  state  affairs,  and  not  he  has  been  so  em- 
ployed ;  as  also,  that  he  is  true,  and  not  he  has  been  true  ; 
he  acts  justly,  and  not  he  has  acted  justly ;  and  that  he 
loves  his  country  and  fellow-citizens,  and  not  he  has  loved 
them.  For  to  these  things  does  Nature  direct,  and  these 
voices  does  she  sound  to  those  who  are  not  totally  corrupted 
with  sloth  and  effeminacy : 


OUGHT  TO   MEDDLE  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  83 

Thy  father  has  engendered  thee  a  man, 
Worthy  of  much  esteem  with  men : 

and  again, 

Let  us  not  cease  to  benefit  mankind. 

15.  Now  as  for  those  who  pretend  weakness  and  impo- 
tency,  they  accuse  rather  sickness  and  infirmity  of  body 
than  old  age ;  for  there  are  many  young  men  sickly,  and 
many  old  ones  lusty ;  so  that  we  are  not  to  remove  from 
the  administration  of  the  state  aged,  but  impotent  persons  ; 
nor  call  to  it  such  as  are  young,  but  such  as  are  able.  For 
Aridaeus  was  young,  and  Antigonus  old  ;  and  yet  the  latter 
conquered  in  a  manner  all  Asia,  whereas  the  former,  as  if 
he  had  only  been  to  make  a  dumb  show  with  his  guards 
upon  a  stage,  was  but  the  bare  name  of  a  king,  a  puppet 
always  mocked  by  those  who  were  in  power.  As  therefore 
he  would  be  a  very  fool  that  should  think  Prodicus  the 
sophister  and  Philetas  the  poet  —  men  indeed  young,  but 
withal  weak,  sickly,  and  almost  always  confined  by  their 
infirmity  to  their  beds  —  fit  to  be  concerned  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  state  ;  so  he  would  be  no  less  absurd  that 
should  hinder  such  vigorous  old  men  as  were  Phocion, 
Masinissa  the  Libyan,  and  Cato  the  Roman,  from  govern- 
ing or  leading  forth  of  armies.  For  Phocion,  when  the 
Athenians  were  at  an  unseasonable  time  hurrying  to  war, 
made  proclamation  that  all  who  were  not  above  sixty  years 
of  age  should  take  up  arms  and  follow  him  ;  and  when 
they  were  off"ended  at  it,  he  said.  There  is  no  hardship  put 
upon  you,  for  I,  who  am  above  fourscore  years  old,  will  be 
your  general.  And  Polybius  relates,  that  Masinissa,  dying 
at  the  age  of  ninety  years,  left  behind  him  a  young  son  of 
his  own  begetting,  not  above  four  years  old  ;  and  that, 
having  a  little  before  been  in  a  great  fight,  he  was  the  next 
day  seen  at  the  door  of  his  tent  eating  a  dirty  piece  of 
bread,  and  that  he  said  to  those  who  wondered  at  it,  that 
he  did  this.  .  .  . 


84  WHETHER   AN   AGED   MAN 

For  brass  by  use  and  wear  its  gleam  displays, 
But  every  house  untenanted  decays  ;  * 

as  Sophocles  has  it ;  we  all  say  the  same  of  that  light  and 
lustre  of  the  soul,  by  which  we  reason,  remember,  and 
think. 

16.  Wherefore  also  they  say,  that  kings  become  better 
in  wars  and  military  expeditions  than  when  they  live  at 
ease.  Attains  therefore,  the  brother  of  Eumenes,  being 
enervated  with  long  idleness  and  peace,  was  with  little 
skill  managed  by  Philopoemen,  one  of  his  favorites,  who 
fattened  him  like  a  hog  in  the  sty ;  so  that  the  Romans 
were  wont  in  derision  to  ask  those  who  came  out  of  Asia, 
whether  the  king  had  any  power  with  Philopoemen.  Now 
one  cannot  find  amongst  the  Romans  many  stouter  generals 
than  Lucullus,  as  long  as  he  applied  his  mind  to  action ; 
but  when  he  gave  himself  up  to  an  unactive  life,  to  a  con- 
tinuing lazily  at  home,  and  an  unconcernedness  for  the 
public,  being  dulled  and  mortified,  like  sponges  in  calm 
weather,  and  then  delivering  his  old  age  to  be  dieted  and 
ordered  by  Callisthenes  one  of  his  freedmen,  he  seemed 
bewitched  by  him  with  philters  and  other  incantations  ;  till 
such  time  as  his  brother  Marcus,  having  driven  away  this 
fellow,  did  himself  govern  and  conduct  the  remainder  of 
his  life,  which  was  not  very  long.  But  Darius,  father  of 
Xerxes,  said,  that  by  difficulties  he  grew  wiser  than  him- 
self. And  the  Scythian  Ateas  affirmed,  that  he  thought 
there  was  no  difference  between  himself  and  his  horse- 
keepers,  when  he  was  idle.  And  Dionysius  the  Elder, 
when  one  asked  him  whether  he  was  at  leisure,  answered. 
May  that  never  befall  me.  For  a  bow,  they  say,  will 
break,  if  over-bent ;  and  a  soul,  if  too  much  slackened. 
For  even  musicians,  if  they  over-long  omit  to  hear  accords, 
geometricians,  if  they  leave  off  demonstrating  their  propo- 
sitions, and  arithmeticians,  if  they  discontinue  their  casting 

*  Sophocles,  Frag.  779. 


OUGHT  TO  MEDDLE  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  85 

up  of  accounts,  do,  together  with  the  actions,  impair  by 
their  progress  in  age  the  habits,  though  they  are  not 
practical  but  speculative  arts ;  but  the  habit  of  statesmen 
—  being  wise  counsel,  discretion,  and  justice,  and  besides 
these,  experience  which  seizes  upon  the  right  opportunities 
and  words,  the  very  faculty  which  works  persuasion  —  is 
maintained  by  frequent  speaking,  acting,  reasoning,  and 
judging.  And  a  hard  thing  it  would  be,  if  by  avoiding  to 
do  these  things  it  should  suffer  such  and  so  great  virtues 
to  run  out  of  the  soul.  For  it  is  probable  also  that  hu- 
manity, friendly  society,  and  beneficence  will  then  also 
decay,  of  which  there  ought  to  be  no  end  or  limit. 

17.  If  then  you  had  Tithonus  to  your  father,  who  was 
indeed  immortal,  but  yet  by  reason  of  his  old  age  stood 
perpetually  in  need  of  much  attendance,  I  do  think  you 
would  shun  or  be  weary  of  looking  to  him,  discoursing 
with  him,  and  helping  him,  as  having  a  long  time  done 
him  service.  Now  our  fatherland  (or,  as  the  Cretans  call 
it,  our  motherland)^  being  older  and  having  greater  rights 
than  our  parents,  is  indeed  long  lasting,  yet  neither  free 
from  the  inconveniences  of  old  age  nor  self-sufficient ;  but 
standing  always  in  need  of  a  serious  regard,  succor,  and 
vigilance,  she  pulls  to  her  and  takes  hold  of  a  statesman, 

And  with  strong  hand  restrains  him,  who  would  go.* 

And  you  indeed  know  that  I  have  these  many  Pythiads 
served  the  Pythian  Apollo ;  but  yet  you  would  not  say  to 
me :  Thou  hast  sufficiently,  O  Plutarch,  sacrificed,  gone  in 
procession,  and  led  dances  in  honor  of  the  Gods ;  it  is  now 
time  that,  being  in  years,  thou  shouldst  in  favor  of  thy 
old  age  lay  aside  the  garland  and  leave  the  oracle.  There- 
fore neither  do  you  think  that  you,  who  are  the  chief  priest 
and  interpreter  of  religious  ceremonies  in  the  state,  may 

*  n.  XVI.  9. 


86  WHETHER   AN   AGED   MAN 

leave  the  service  of  Jupiter,  the  protector  of  cities  and 
governor  of  assemblies,  for  the  performance  of  which  you 
were  long  since  consecrated. 

18.  But  leaving,  if  you  please,  this  discourse  about 
withdrawing  old  men  from  performing  their  duties  to  the 
state,  let  us  make  it  a  little  the  subject  of  our  considera- 
tion and  philosophy,  how  we  may  enjoin  them  no  exercise 
unfitting  or  grievous  to  their  years,  the  administration  of  a 
commonwealth  having  many  parts  beseeming  and  suitable 
for  such  persons.  For  as,  if  we  were  obliged  to  persevere 
in  the  practice  of  singing  to  the  end  of  our  days,  it  would 
behoove  us,  being  now  grown  old,  of  the  many  tones  and 
tensions  there  are  of  the  voice,  which  the  musicians  call 
harmonies,  not  to  aim  at  the  highest  and  shrillest,  but  to 
make  choice  of  that  in  which  thei'e  is  an  easiness  joined 
with  a  decent  suitableness  ;  so,  since  it  is  more  natural  for 
men  to  act  and  speak  even  to  the  end  of  their  lives,  than 
for  swans  to  sing,  we  must  not  reject  action,  like  a  harp 
that  is  set  too  high,  but  rather  let  it  a  little  down,  accom- 
modating it  to  such  employs  in  the  state  as  are  easy, 
moderate,  and  fitting  for  men  in  years.  For  neither  do  we 
suffer  our  bodies  to  be  altogether  motionless  and  unexer- 
cised because  we  cannot  any  longer  make  use  of  spades 
and  plummets,  nor  yet  throw  quoifs  or  skirmish  in  armor, 
as  we  have  formerly  done  ;  but  some  of  us  do  by  swinging 
and  walking,  others  by  playing  gently  at  ball,  and  some 
again  by  discoursing,  stir  up  our  spirits  and  revive  our 
natural  heat.  Therefore  neither  let  us  permit  ourselves  to 
be  wholly  chilled  and  frozen  by  idleness,  nor  yet  on  the 
contrary  let  us,  by  burthening  ourselves  with  every  office 
or  intermeddling  with  every  public  business,  force  on  old 
age,  convinced  of  its  disability,  to  break  forth  into  these 
exclamations : 

The  spear  to  brandish,  thou,  right  hand,  art  bent ; 
But  weak  old  age  opposes  thy  intent. 


OUGHT  TO  MEDDLE  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS.  87 

Since  even  that  man  is  not  commended  who,  in  the  vigor 
and  strength  of  his  years,  imposing  all  public  affairs  in 
general  on  himself,  and  unwilling  to  leave  any  thing  for 
another  (as  the  Stoics  say  of  Jupiter),  thrusts  himself  into 
all  employs,  and  intermeddles  in  every  business,  through 
an  insatiable  desire  of  glory,  or  through  envy  against  those 
who  are  in  some  measure  partakers  of  honor  and  authority 
in  the  state.  But  to  an  old  man,  though  you  should  free 
him  from  the  infamy,  yet  painful  and  miserable  would  be 
an  ambition  always  laying  wait  at  every  election  of  magis- 
trates, a  curiosity  attending  for  every  opportunity  of  judi- 
cature or  assembling  in  counsel,  and  a  humor  of  vain-glory 
catching  at  every  embassy  and  patronage.  For  the  doing 
of  these  things,  even  with  the  favor  and  good  liking  of 
every  one,  is  too  heavy  for  that  age.  And  yet  the  contrary 
to  this  happens  ;  for  they  are  hated  by  the  young  men,  as 
leaving  them  no  occasions  of  action,  nor  suffering  them  to 
put  themselves  forth ;  and  their  ambitious  desire  of  primacy 
and  rule  is  no  less  odious  to  others  than  the  covetousness 
and  voluptuousness  of  other  old  men. 

19.  Therefore,  as  Alexander,  unwilling  to  tire  his  Buce- 
phalus when  he  now  began  to  grow  old,  did  before  the 
fight  ride  on  other  horses,  to  view  his  army  and  draw  it  up 
for  battle,  and  then,  after  the  signal  was  given,  mounting 
this,  marched  forth  and  charged  the  enemy  ;  so  a  statesman, 
if  he  is  wise,  moderating  himself  when  he  finds  years 
coming  on,  will  abstain  from  intermeddling  in  unnecessary 
affairs,  and  suffering  the  state  to  make  use  of  younger 
persons  in  smaller  matters,  will  readily  exercise  himself  in 
such  as  are  of  great  importance.  For  champions  indeed 
keep  their  bodies  untouched  and  unemployed  in  necessary 
matters,  that  they  may  be  in  a  readiness  for  unprofitable 
engagements ;  but  let  us  on  the  contrary,  letting  pass  what 
is  little  and  frivolous,  carefully  preserve  ourselves  for 
worthy  and  gallant  actions.     For  all  things  perhaps,  as 


88  WHETHER   AN  AGED   MAN 

Homer  says,  equally  become  a  young  man  ;  *  all  men  now 
esteem  and  love  him ;  so  that  for  undertaking  frequently 
little  and  many  businesses,  they  say  he  is  laborious  and  a 
good  commonwealths-man ;  and  for  enterprising  none  but 
splendid  and  noble  actions,  they  style  him  generous  and 
magnanimous  ;  nay,  there  are  also  some  occurrences  when 
even  contention  and  rashness  have  a  certain  seasonableness 
and  grace,  becoming  such  men.  But  an  old  man's  under- 
taking in  a  state  such  servile  employs  as  the  farming  out 
of  the  customs,  and  the  looking  after  the  havens  and  mar- 
ket-place, or  else  his  running  on  embassies  and  journeys 
to  princes  and  potentates  when  there  are  no  necessary  or 
honorable  affairs  to  be  treated  of,  but  only  compliments 
and  a  maintaining  of  correspondence,  —  such  management, 
dear  friend,  seems  to  me  a  thing  miserable  and  not  to  be 
imitated,  but  to  others,  perhaps,  odious  and  intolerable. 

20.  For  it  is  not  even  seasonable  for  such  men  to  be 
employed  in  magistracies,  unless  it  be  such  as  bear  some- 
what of  grandeur  and  dignity  ;  such  is  the  presidency  in 
the  council  of  Areopagus,  which  you  now  exercise,  and 
such  also,  by  Jove,  is  the  excellency  of  the  Amphictyonic 
office,  which  your  country  has  conferred  on  you  for  your 
life,  having  an  easy  labor  and  pleasant  pains.  And  yet  old 
men  ought  not  ambitiously  to  affect  even  these  honors,  but 
accept  them  with  refusal,  not  seeking  but  being  sought ; ' 
nor  as  taking  government  on  themselves,  but  bestowing 
themselves  on  government.  For  it  is  not,  as  Tiberius 
Caesar  said,  a  shame  for  those  that  are  above  threescore 
years  old  to  reach  forth  their  hands  to  the  physician  ;  but 
it  far  more  misbeseems  them  to  hold  up  their  hands  to  the 
people,  to  beg  their  votes  or  suffrages  for  the  obtaining 
offices  ;  for  this  is  ungenerous  and  mean,  whereas  the  con- 
trary has  a  certain  majesty  and  comeliness,  when,  his 
country  choosing,  inviting,  and  expecting  him,  he  comea 

*  11.  XXII.  71. 


OUGHT   TO   MEDDLE   IN   STATE  AFFAIRS.  89 

down  with  honor  and  courtesy  to  welcome  and  receive  the 
present,  tiTily  befitting  his  old  age  and  acceptance. 

21.  After  the  same  manner  also  ought  he  that  is  grown 
old  to  use  his  speech  in  assemblies,  not  ever  and  anon 
climbing  up  to  the  desk  to  make  harangues,  nor  always, 
like  a  cock,  crowing  against  those  that  speak,  nor  letting 
go  the  reins  of  the  young  men's  respect  to  him  by  contend- 
ing against  them  and  provoking  them,  nor  breeding  in  them 
a  desire  and  custom  of  disobedience  and  unwillingness  to 
hear  him  ;  but  he  should  sometimes  pass  them  by,  and  let 
them  strut  and  brave  it  against  his  opinion,  neither  being 
present  nor  concerning  himself  much  at  it,  as  long  as  there 
is  no  great  danger  to  the  public  safety  nor  any  offence 
against  what  is  honest  and  decent.  But  in  such  cases,  on 
the  contrary,  he  ought,  though  nobody  call  him,  to  run 
beyond  his  strength,  or  to  deliver  himself  to  be  led  or  car- 
ried in  a  chair,  as  historians  report  of  Appius  Claudius  in 
Rome.  For  he  having  understood  that  the  senate,  after 
their  army  had  been  in  a  great  fight  worsted  by  Pyrrhus, 
were  debating  about  receiving  proposals  of  peace  and  alli- 
ance, could  not  bear  it,  but,  although  he  had  lost  both  his 
eyes,  caused  himself  to  be  carried  through  the  common 
place  straight  to  the  senate  house,  where  entering  among 
them  and  standing  in  the  midst,  he  said,  that  he  had  for- 
merly indeed  been  troubled  at  his  being  deprived  of  his 
sight,  but  that  he  now  wished  he  had  also  lost  his  ears, 
rather  than  to  have  heard  that  the  Roman  senators  were 
consulting  and  acting  things  so  ungenerous  and  dishonor- 
able. And  then  partly  reprehending,  and  partly  teaching 
and  exalting  them,  he  persuaded  them  to  betake  them- 
selves presently  to  their  arms,  and  fight  with  Pyrrhus  for 
the  dominion  of  Italy.  And  Solon,  when  the  popularity 
of  Pisistratus  was  discovered  to  be  only  a  plot  for  the  ob- 
taining of  a  tyranny,  none  daring  to  oppose  or  impeach  it, 
did  himself  bring  forth  his  arms,  and  setting  them  before 


yU  WHETHER   AN  AGED   MAN 

the  doors  of  his  house,  called  out  to  the  people  to  assist 
him  ;  and  when  Pisistratus  sent  to  ask  him  what  gave  him 
the  confidence  to  act  in  that  manner,  "  My  old  age,"  an- 
swered he. 

22.  For  matters  that  are  so  necessary  as  these  inflame 
and  rouse  up  old  men  who  are  in  a  manner  extinct,  so  that 
they  have  but  any  breath  yet  left  them ;  but  in  other  occur- 
rences, an  old  man,  as  has  been  said,  should  be  careful  to 
avoid  mean  and  servile  offices,  and  such  in  which  the  trou- 
ble to  those  who  manage  them  exceeds  the  advantage  and 
profit  for  which  they  are  done.  Sometimes  by  expecting 
also  till  the  citizens  call  and  desire  and  fetch  him  out  of 
house,  he  is  thought  more  worthy  of  credit  by  those  who 
request  him.  And  even  when  he  is  present,  let  him  for 
the  most  part  silently  permit  the  younger  men  to  speak,  as 
if  he  were  an  arbitrator,  judging  to  whom  the  reward  and 
honor  of  this  their  debate  about  public  matters  ought  to  be 
given  ;  but  if  any  thing  should  exceed  a  due  mediocrity, 
let  him  mildly  reprehend  it,  and  with  sweetness  cut  off  all 
obstinate  contentions,  all  injurious  and  choleric  expres- 
sions, directing  and  teaching  without  reproof  him  that  errs 
in  his  opinions,  boldly  praising  him  that  is  in  the  right, 
and  often  willingly  suffering  himself  to  be  overcome,  per- 
suaded, and  brought  to  their  side,  that  he  may  hearten  and 
encourage  them  ;  and  sometimes  with  commendations  sup- 
plying what  has  been  omitted,  not  unlike  to  Nestor,  whom 
Homer  makes  to  speak  in  this  manner : 

There  is  no  Greek  can  contradict  or  mend 
What  you  have  said ;  yet  to  no  perfect  end 
Is  your  speech  brought.     No  wonder,  for't  appears 
You're  young,  and  may  my  son  be  for  your  years.* 

23.  And  it  were  yet  more  civil  and  politic,  not  only  in 
reprehending  them  openly  and  in  the  face  of  the  people, 
to  forbear  that   sharpness  of   speech  which    exceedingly 

*  II.  IX.  55. 


OUGHT   TO   MEDDLE   IN   STATE  AFFAIRS.  91 

dashes  a  young  man  and  puts  him  out  of  countenance,  but 
rather,  wholly  abstaining  from  all  such  public  reproofs, 
privately  to  instruct  such  as  have  a  good  genius  for  the 
managing  of  state  affairs,  drawing  them  on  by  setting 
gently  before  them  useful  counsels  and  political  precepts, 
inciting  them  to  commendable  actions,  enlightening  their 
understanding,  and  showing  them,  as  those  do  who  teach 
to  ride,  how  at  their  beginning  to  render  the  people  tract- 
able and  mild,  and  if  any  young  man  chances  to  fall,  not 
to  suffer  him  to  lie  gasping  and  panting  on  the  ground,  but 
to  help  him  up  and  comfort  him,  as  Aristides  dealt  by 
Cimon,  and  Mnesiphilus  by  Themistocles ;  whom  they 
raised  up  and  encouraged,  though  at  first  they  were  harshly 
received  and  ill  spoken  of  in  the  city,  as  audacious  and 
intemperate.  It  is  said  also,  that  Demosthenes  being  re- 
jected by  the  people  and  taking  it  to  heart,  there  came  to 
him  a  certain  old  man,  who  had  in  former  years  been  an 
hearer  of  Pericles,  and  told  him,  that  he  naturally  resem- 
bled that  great  man,  and  did  unjustly  cast  down  himself. 
In  like  manner  Euripides  exhorted  Timotheus,  when  he 
was  hissed  at  for  introducing  of  novelty,  and  thought  to 
transgress  against  the  law  of  music,  to  be  of  good  courage, 
for  that  he  should  in  a  short  time  have  all  the  theatres 
subject  to  him. 

24.  In  brief,  as  in  Rome  the  Vestal  virgins  have  their 
time  divided  into  three  parts,  in  one  of  which  they  are  to 
learn  what  belong  to  the  ceremonies  of  their  religion,  in 
the  second  to  execute  what  they  have  learned,  and  in  the 
third  to  teach  the  younger ;  and  as  in  like  manner  they 
call  every  one  of  those  who  are  consecrated  to  the  service 
of  Diana  in  Ephesus,  first  Mell-hiere  (one  that  is  to  be  a 
priestess),  then  Hiere  (priestess),  and  thirdly  Par-hiere  (or 
one  that  has  been  a  priestess),  so  he  that  is  a  perfect  states- 
man is  at  first  a  learner  in  the  management  of  public  affairs, 
then  a  practitioner,  and  at  last  a  teacher  and  instructor  in 


92  WHETHER  AN  AGED   MAN 

the  mysteries  of  government.  For  in  leed  he  who  is  to 
oversee  others  that  are  performing  their  exercise  or  fight- 
ing for  prizes  cannot  judge  at  the  same  exercise  and  fight 
himself.  Thus  he  who  instructs  a  young  man  in  public 
affairs  and  negotiations  of  the  state,  and  prepares  him 

Both  to  speak  well  and  act  heroicly  * 

for  the  service  of  his  country,  is  in  no  small  or  mean  de- 
gree useful  to  the  commonwealth,  but  in  that  at  which 
Lycurgus  chiefly  and  principally  aimed  himself,  when  he 
accustomed  young  men  to  persist  in  obedience  to  every 
one  that  was  elder,  as  if  he  were  a  lawgiver.  For  to 
what,  think  you,  had  Lysander  respect,  when  he  said  that 
in  Lacedaemon  men  most  honorably  grew  old  ?  Was  it 
because  old  men  could  most  honorably  grow  old  there  en- 
joying idleness,  putting  out  money  to  use,  sitting  together 
at  tables,  and  after  their  game  taking  a  cheerful  cup  1  You 
will  not,  I  believe,  say  any  such  thing.  But  it  was  be- 
cause all  such  men,  being  after  some  sort  in  the  place  of 
magistrates,  fatherly  governors,  or  tutors  of  youth,  inspect- 
ed not  only  the  public  affairs,  but  also  made  inquiry  —  and 
that  not  slightly  —  into  every  action  of  the  younger  men, 
both  as  concerning  their  exercises,  recreations,  and  diet, 
being  terrible  indeed  to  offenders,  but  venerable  and  desir- 
able to  the  good.  For  young  men  indeed  always  venerate 
and  follow  those  who  increase  and  cherish  the  neatness 
and  generosity  of  their  disposition  without  any  envy. 

25.  For  this  vice,  though  beseeming  no  age,  is  never- 
theless in  young  men  veiled  with  specious  names,  being 
styled  emulation,  zeal,  and  desire  of  honor ;  but  in  old 
men,  it  is  altogether  unseasonable,  savage,  and  unmanly. 
Therefore  a  statesman  that  is  in  years  must  be  very  far 
from  being  envious,  and  not  act  like  those  old  trees  and 
stocks  which,  as  with  a  certain   charm,  manifestly  with- 

*  n.  IX.  443. 


OUGHT   TO   MEDDLE   IN   STATE   AFFAIRS.  93 

draw  the  nutritive  juice  from  such  young  plants  as  grow 
near  them  or  spring  up  under  them,  and  hinder  their 
growth ;  but  he  should  kindly  admit  and  even  offer  him- 
self to  those  that  apply  themselves  to  him  and  seek  to  con- 
verse with  him,  directing,  leading,  and  educating  them, 
not  only  by  good  instructions  and  counsels,  but  also  by 
affording  them  the  means  of  administering  such  public 
affairs  as  may  bring  them  honor  and  repute,  and  executing 
such  unprejudicial  commissions  as  will  be  pleasing  and 
acceptable  to  the  multitude.  But  for  such  things  as,  being 
untoward  and  difficult,  do  like  medicines  at  first  gripe  and 
molest,  but  afterwards  yield  honor  and  profit,  —  upon  these 
things  he  ought  not  to  put  young  men,  nor  expose  those 
who  are  inexperienced  to  the  mutinous  clamors  of  the  rude 
and  ill-natured  multitude,  but  he  should  rather  take  the 
odium  upon  himself  for  such  things  as  (though  harsh  and 
unpleasing)  may  yet  prove  beneficial  to  the  commonwealth  ; 
for  this  will  render  the  young  men  both  more  affectionate 
to  him,  and  more  cheerful  in  the  undertaking  other  ser- 
vices. 

26.  But  besides  all  this,  we  are  to  keep  in  mind,  that  to 
be  a  statesman  is  not  only  to  bear  offices,  go  on  embassies, 
talk  loud  in  public  meetings,  and  thunder  on  the  tribune, 
speaking  and  writing  such  things  in  which  the  vulgar 
think  the  art  of  government  to  consist ;  as  they  also  think 
that  those  only  philosophize  who  dispute  from  a  chair  and 
spend  their  leisure  time  in  books,  while  the  policy  and 
philosophy  which  is  continually  exercised  in  works  and  con- 
spicuous in  actions  is  nowise  known  to  them.  For  they 
say,  as  Dicaearchus  affirmed,  that  they  who  fetch  turns  to 
and  fro  in  galleries  walk,  but  not  they  who  go  into  the 
country  or  to  visit  a  friend.  But  the  being  a  statesman  is 
like  the  being  a  philosopher.  Wherefore  Socrates  did 
philosophize,  not  only  when  he  neither  placed  benches  nor 
seated  himself  in  his  chair,  nor  kept  the  hour  of  confer- 


94  WHETHER  AN  AGED  MAN 

ence  and  walking  appointed  for  his  disciples,  but  also 
when,  as  it  happened,  he  played,  drank,  went  to  war  with 
some,  bargained,  finally,  even  when  he  was  imprisoned 
and  drank  the  poison  ;  having  first  shown  that  man's  life 
does  at  all  times,  in  every  part,  and  universally  in  all  pas- 
sions and  actions,  admit  of  philosophy.  The  same  also 
we  are  to  understand  of  civil  government,  to  wit,  that  fools 
do  not  administer  the  state,  even  when  they  lead  forth 
armies,  write  dispatches  and  edicts,  or  make  speeches  to 
the  people  ;  but  that  they  either  endeavor  to  insinuate 
themselves  into  the  favor  of  the  vulgar  and  become  popu- 
lar, seek  applause  by  their  harangues,  raise  seditions  and 
disturbances,  or  at  the  best  perform  some  service,  as  com- 
pelled by  necessity.  But  he  that  seeks  the  public  good, 
loves  his  country  and  fellow-citizens,  has  a  serious  regard 
to  the  welfare  of  the  state,  and  is  a  true  commonwealths- 
man,  such  a  one,  though  he  never  puts  on  the  military 
garment  or  senatorial  robe,  is  yet  always  employed  in  the 
administration  of  the  state,  by  inciting  to  action  those  who 
are  able,  guiding  and  instructing  those  that  want  it,  assist- 
ing and  advising  those  that  ask  counsel,  deterring  and 
reclaiming  those  that  are  ill-given,  and  confirming  and 
encouraging  those  that  are  well-minded  ;  so  that  it  is  man- 
ifest, he  does  not  for  fashion's  sake  apply  himself  to  the 
public  affairs,  nor  go  then  to  the  theatre  or  council  when 
there  is  any  haste  or  when  he  is  sent  for  by  name,  that  he 
may  have  the  first  place  there,  being  otherwise  present 
only  for  his  recreation,  as  when  he  goes  to  some  show  or 
a  concert  of  music ;  but  on  the  contrary,  though  absent  in 
body,  yet  is  he  present  in  mind,  and  being  informed  of 
what  is  done,  approves  some  things  and  disapproves 
others. 

27.  For  neither  did  Aristides  amongst  the  Athenians, 
nor  Cato  amongst  the  Romans  often  execute  the  office  of 
magistrate ;  and  yet  both  the  one  and  the  other  employed 


OUGHT    TO   MEDDLE   IN   STATE  AFFAIRS.  95 

their  whole  lives  perpetually  in  the  service  of  their  coun- 
try. And  Epaminondas  indeed,  being  general,  performed 
many  and  great  actions  ;  but  yet  there  is  related  an  exploit 
of  his,  not  inferior  to  any  of  them,  performed  about 
Thessaly  when  he  had  neither  command  in  the  army  noi 
office  in  the  state.  For,  when  the  commanders,  having 
through  inadvertency  drawn  a  squadron  into  a  difficult 
and  disadvantageous  ground,  were  in  amaze,  for  that  the 
enemies  pressed  hard  upon  them,  galling  them  with  their 
arrows,  he,  being  called  up  from  amongst  the  heavy- 
armed  foot,  first  by  his  encouraging  them  dissipated  the 
trouble  and  fright  of  the  army,  and  then,  having  ranged 
and  brought  into  order  that  squadron  whose  ranks  had 
been  broken,  he  easily  disengaged  them  out  of  those  straits, 
and  placed  them  in  front  against  their  enemies,  who,  there- 
upon changing  their  resolutions,  marched  off.  Also  when 
Agis,  king  of  Sparta,  was  leading  on  his  army,  already  put 
in  good  order  for  fight,  against  the  enemies,  a  certain  old 
Spartan  called  out  aloud  to  him,  and  said,  that  he  thought 
to  cure  one  evil  by  another  ;  meaning  that  he  was  desirous 
the  present  unseasonable  promptness  to  fight  should  salve 
the  disgrace  of  their  over-hasty  departure  from  before  Ar- 
gos,  as  Thucydides  says.  Now  Agis,  hearing  him,  took 
his  advice,  and  at  that  present  retreated ;  but  afterwards 
got  the  victory.  And  there  was  every  day  a  chair  set  for 
him  before  the  doors  of  the  government  house,  and  the 
Ephori,  often  rising  from  their  consistory  and  going  to 
him,  asked  his  advice  and  consulted  him  about  the  great- 
est and  most  important  affairs  ;  for  he  was  esteemed  very 
prudent,  and  is  recorded  to  have  been  a  man  of  great 
sense.  And  therefore,  having  now  wholly  exhausted  the 
strength  of  his  body,  and  being  for  the  most  part  tied  to 
his  bed,  when  the  Ephori  sent  for  him  to  the  common  hall 
of  the  city,  he  strove  to  get  up  and  go  to  them  ;  but  walk- 
ing heavily  and  with  great  difficulty,  and  meeting  by  the 


9  b  AN  AGED  MAN  IN  STATE  AFFAIRS. 

way  certain  boys,  he  asked  them  whether  they  knew  any 
thing  stronger  than  the  necessity  of  obeying  their  master  ; 
and  they  answering  him  that  inabiUty  was  of  greater  force, 
he,  supposing  that  this  ought  to  be  the  limit  of  his  service, 
turned  back  again  homewards.  For  a  readiness  and  good 
will  to  serve  the  public  ought  not  to  fail,  whilst  ability 
lasts  ;  but  when  that  is  once  gone,  it  is  no  longer  to  be 
forced.  And  indeed  Scipio,  both  in  war  and  peace,  al- 
ways used  Cains  Laelius  for  a  counsellor ;  insomuch  that 
some  said,  Scipio  was  the  actor  of  those  noble  exploits, 
and  Cains  the  poet  or  author.  And  Cicero  himself  con- 
fessed, that  the  honorablest  and  greatest  of  his  counsels, 
by  the  right  performance  of  which  he  in  his  consulship 
preserved  his  country,  were  concerted  with  Publius  Nigi 
dins  the  philosopher. 

28.  Thus  is  there  nothing  that  in  any  manner  of  gov 
ernment  hinders  old  men  from  helping  the  public  by  the 
best  things,  to  wit,  by  their  reason,  sentences,  freedom  of 
speech,  and  solicitous  care,  as  the  poets  term  it.  For  not 
only  our  hands,  feet,  and  corporeal  strength  are  the  pos- 
session and  share  of  the  commonwealth  ;  but  chiefly  our 
soul,  and  the  beauties  of  our  soul,  justice,  temperance, 
and  prudence ;  which  receiving  their  perfection  late  and 
slowly,  it  were  absurd  that  men  should  remain  in  charge  of 
house  and  land  and  other  wealth,  and  yet  not  be  benefi- 
cial to  their  common  country  and  fellow-citizens  by  reason 
of  their  age,  which  does  not  so  much  detract  from  their 
ministerial  abilities  as  it  adds  to  their  directive  and  politi- 
cal. And  this  is  the  reason  why  they  portrayed  the  Mer- 
curies of  old  without  hands  and  feet,  but  having  their 
natural  parts  stifl",  enigmatically  representing  that  there  is 
no  great  need  of  old  men's  corporeal  services,  if  they  have 
but  their  reason  (as  is  convenient)  active  and  fruitful. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 


1.  If  ever,  O  Menemachus,  that  saying  of  Nestor's  in 
Homer, 

There  is  no  Greek  can  contradict  or  mend 
What  you  have  said,  yet  to  no  perfect  end 
Is  your  speech  brought,* 

might  pertinently  be  made  use  of  and  applied,  it  is  against 
those  exhorting,  but  nothing  teaching  nor  any  way  in- 
structing, philosophers.  For  they  do  (in  this  respect) 
resemble  those  who  are  indeed  careful  in  snuffing  the 
lamps,  but  negligent  in  supplying  them  with  oil.  See- 
ing therefore  that  you,  being  by  reason  moved  to  engage 
yourself  in  the  affairs  of  the  state,  desire,  as  becomes  the 
nobility  of  your  family, 

Both  to  speak  and  act  heroicly  t 

in  the  service  of  your  country,  and  that,  not  having  at- 
tained to  such  maturity  of  age  as  to  have  observed  the  life 
of  a  wise  and  philosophical  man  openly  spent  in  the  trans- 
actions of  the  state  and  public  debates,  and  to  have  been 
a  spectator  of  worthy  examples  represented  not  in  word 
but  in  deed,  you  request  me  to  lay  you  down  some  politi- 
cal precepts  and  instructions  ;  I  think  it  no  ways  becoming 
me  to  give  you  a  denial,  but  heartily  wish  that  the  work 
may  be  worthy  both  of  your  zeal  and  my  forwardness. 
Now  I  have,  according  to  your  request,  made  use  in  this 
my  discourse  of  sundry  and  various  examples. 

*  n.  IX.  55.  t  n.  IX.  443. 

TOL.  T.  7 


98  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

2.  First  then  for  the  administration  of  state  affairs,  let 
there  be  laid,  as  a  firm  and  solid  foundation,  an  intention 
and  purpose,  having  for  its  principles  judgment  and 
reason,  and  not  any  impulse  from  vain-glory,  emulation, 
or  want  of  other  employment.  For  as  those  who  have 
nothing  grateful  to  them  at  home  frequently  spend  their 
time  in  the  forum,  though  they  have  no  occasion  that  re- 
quires it ;  so  some  men,  because  they  have  no  business  of 
their  own  worth  employing  themselves  in,  thrust  them- 
selves into  public  affairs,  using  policy  as  a  divertisement. 
Many  also,  having  been  by  chance  engaged  in  the  negotia- 
tions of  the  commonweal,  and  being  cloyed  with  them, 
cannot  }  et  easily  quit  them  ;  in  which  they  suffer  the  same 
with  those  who,  going  on  board  a  ship  that  they  may  be 
there  a  little  tossed,  and  being  after  carried  away  into  the 
deep,  send  forth  many  a  long  look  towards  the  shore,  being 
sea-sick  and  giddy-headed,  and  yet  necessitated  to  stay  and 
accommodate  themselves  to  thek  present  fortune. 

Past  is  the  lovely  pleasure 
They  took,  when  th'  sea  was  calm  and  weather  bright, 
In  walking  at  their  leisure 
On  the  ship's  deck, 
Whilst  her  sharp  beak 
With  merry  gale, 
And  full  blown  sail, 
Did  through  the  surging  billows  cut  its  course  aright. 

And  these  do  most  of  all  discredit  the  matter  by  their 
repenting  and  being  discontented,  when  either  hoping  for 
glory  they  fall  into  disgrace,  or  expecting  to  become  formi- 
dable to  others  by  their  power  they  are  engaged  in  affairs 
full  of  dangers  and  troubles.  But  he  who  on  a  well 
grounded  principle  of  reason  undertakes  to  act  in  the 
public,  as  an  employ  very  honorable  and  most  beseeming 
him,  is  dismayed  by  none  of  these  things ;  nor  does  he 
therefore  change  his  opinion.  For  we  must  not  come  to 
the  management  of  the  commonweal  on  a  design  of 
gaining  and  growing  rich  by  it,  as  Stratocles  and  Dromo 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  99 

elides  exhorted  one  another  to  the  golden  harvest,  —  so 
in  mirth  terming  the  tribunal,  or  place  of  making  harangues 
to  the  people,  —  nor  yet  as  seized  with  some  sudden  fit  of 
passion,  as  did  heretofore  Caius  Gracchus,  who  having, 
whilst  his  brothers'  misfortunes  were  hot,  withdrawn  him- 
self to  a  retired  life  most  remote  from  public  affairs,  did 
afterwards,  inflamed  by  indignation  at  the  injuries  and 
afli'onts  put  on  him  by  some  persons,  thrust  himself  into 
the  state,  where  being  soon  filled  with  afl"airs  and  glory, 
when  he  sought  to  desist  and  desired  change  and  repose, 
he  could  not  (so  great  was  it  grown)  find  how  to  lay  down 
his  authority,  but  perished  with  it.  And  as  for  those  who 
through  emulation  frame  themselves  for  the  public  as 
actors  for  the  stage,  they  must  needs  repent  of  their 
design,  finding  themselves  under  a  necessity  of  either  serv- 
ing those  whom  they  think  themselves  worthy  to  govern, 
or  disobliging  those  whom  they  desire  to  please.  Now  I 
am  of  opinion,  that  those  who  by  chance  and  without  fore- 
sight stumble  upon  policy,  falling  as  it  were  into  a  pit, 
connot  but  be  troubled  and  repent ;  whereas  they  that  go 
leisurely  into  it,  with  preparation  and  a  good  resolution, 
comfort  themselves  moderately  in  all  occurrences,  as  having 
no  other  end  of  their  actions  but  the  discharging  of  their 
duty  with  honor. 

3.  Now  they  that  have  thus  grounded  their  choice  with- 
in themselves,  and  rendered  it  immovable  and  difficult  to  be 
changed,  must  set  themselves  to  contemplate  that  disposi- 
tion of  the  citizens  which,  being  compounded  (as  it  were) 
of  all  their  natures,  appears  most  prevalent  among  them. 
For  the  endeavoring  presently  to  form  the  manners  and 
change  the  nature  of  a  people  is  neither  easy  nor  safe,  but 
a  work  requiring  much  time  and  great  authority.  But  as 
wine  in  the  beginning  is  overcome  by  the  nature  of  the 
drinker,  but  afterwards,  gently  warming  him  and  mixing 
itself  in  his  veins,  assimilates  and  changes  him  who  drinks 


100  POLITICAL   PRECEPTS. 

it  into  its  own  likeness,  so  must  a  statesman,  till  he  has  by 
his  reputation  and  credit  obtained  a  leading  power  amongst 
the  people,  accommodate  himself  to  the  dispositions  of  the 
subjects,  knowing  how  to  consider  and  conjecture  those 
things  with  which  the  people  are  naturally  delighted  and 
by  which  they  are  usually  drawn.  The  Athenians,  to  wit, 
are  easily  moved  to  anger,  and  not  difficultly  changed  to 
mercy,  more  willing  to  suspect  quickly  than  to  be  informed 
by  leisure ;  and  as  they  are  readier  to  help  mean  and  in- 
considerable persons,  so  do  they  embrace  and  esteem  face- 
tious and  merry  speeches  ;  they  are  exceedingly  delighted 
with  those  that  praise  them,  and  very  little  offended  with 
such  as  jeer  them ;  they  are  terrible  even  to  their  gov- 
ernors, and  yet  courteous  to  their  very  enemies.  Far  other 
is  the  disposition  of  the  Carthaginians,  severe,  rigid,  obse- 
quious to  their  rulers,  harsh  to  their  subjects,  most  abject 
in  their  fear,  most  cruel  in  their  anger,  firm  in  their  resolu- 
tions, untractable,  and  hard  to  be  moved  by  sportive  and 
pleasant  discourse.  Should  Cleon  have  requested  them  to 
defer  their  assembly,  because  he  had  sacrificed  to  the  Gods 
and  was  to  feast  certain  strangers,  they  would  not  have 
risen  up,  laughing  and  clapping  their  hands  for  joy ;  nor, 
if  Alcibiades,  as  he  was  making  an  harangue  to  them,  had 
let  slip  a  quail  from  under  his  cloak,  would  they  have 
striven  who  should  catch  her  and  restore  her  to  him  again, 
but  would  rather  have  killed  them  both  on  the  place,  as 
contemning  and  deriding  them ;  since  they  banished  Hanno 
for  making  use  of  a  lion  to  carry  his  baggage  to  the  army, 
accusing  him  of  affecting  tyranny.  Neither  do  I  think, 
that  the  Thebans,  if  they  had  been  made  masters  of  their 
enemies'  letters,  would  have  foreborne  looking  into  them,  as 
did  the  Athenians,  when,  having  taken  the  messengers  of 
Philip  who  were  carrying  a  letter  superscribed  to  Olym- 
pias,  they  would  not  so  much  as  open  it,  or  discover  the 
conjugal  secrets  of  an  absent  husband,  written  to  his  wife. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  101 

Nor  yet  do  I  believe  that  the  Athenians  on  the  other  side 
would  have  patiently  suffered  the  haughtiness  and  disdain 
of  Epaminondas,  when,  refusing  to  answer  an  accusation 
brought  against  him,  he  rose  up  from  the  theatre,  and 
went  away  through  the  midst  of  the  assembly  to  the  place 
of  public  exercises.  And  much  less  am  I  of  opinion  that 
the  Spartans  would  have  endured  the  contumely  and  scur- 
rility of  Stratocles,  who  persuaded  the  people  to  offer 
sacrifices  of  thanksgiving  to  the  Gods,  as  having  obtained 
the  victory,  and  afterwards,  when,  being  truly  informed  of 
the  loss  they  had  received,  they  were  angry  with  him,  asked 
them  what  injury  they  had  sustained  in  having  through 
his  means  spent  three  days  merrily. 

Courtly  flatterers  indeed,  like  to  quail-catchers,  by  imi- 
tating the  voices  and  assimilating  themselves  to  the  man- 
ners of  kings,  chiefly  insinuate  into  their  favors  and  entrap 
them  by  deceit ;  but  it  is  not  convenient  for  a  statesman  to 
imitate  the  people's  manners,  but  to  know  them,  and  make 
use  of  those  things  toward  every  person  by  which  he  is 
most  likely  to  be  taken.  For  the  ignorance  of  men's 
humoj-s  brings  no  less  disorders  and  obstacles  in  common- 
weals than  in  the  friendships  of  kings. 

4.  When  therefore  you  shall  have  already  gotten  power 
and  authority  amongst  the  people,  then  must  you  endeavor 
to  reform  their  disposition,  treating  them  gently,  and  by 
little  and  little  drawing  them  to  what  is  better.  For  the 
changino;  of  a  multitude  is  a  difficult  and  laborious  work. 
But  as  for  your  own  manners  and  behavior,  so  compose 
and  adorn  them,  as  knowing  that  you  are  henceforth  to 
lead  your  life  on  an  open  stage ;  and  if  it  is  no  easy  task 
for  you  wholly  to  extirpate  vice  out  of  your  soul,  at  least 
take  away  and  retrench  those  offences  which  are  most 
notorious  and  apparent.  For  you  cannot  but  have  heard 
how  Themistocles,  when  he  designed  to  enter  upon  the 
management  of  public  affairs,  withdrew  himself  from  drink- 


102  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

ing  and  revelling,  and  fell  to  watching,  fasting,  and  study- 
ing, saying  to  his  intimate  friends,  that  Miltiades's  trophy 
suffered  him  not  to  sleep.  And  Pericles  also  so  changed 
himself,  both  as  to  the  comportment  of  his  body  and  his 
manner  of  living,  that  he  walked  gravely,  discoursed  affa- 
bly, always  showed  a  staid  and  settled  countenance,  con- 
tinually kept  his  hand  under  his  robe,  and  went  only  that 
way  which  led  to  the  assembly  and  the  senate.  For  a 
multitude  is  not  so  tractable  as  that  it  should  be  easy  for 
every  one  to  take  it  with  safety,  but  it  is  a  service  much  to 
be  valued,  if,  being  like  a  suspicious  and  skittish  beast,  it 
can  be  so  managed  that,  without  being  frighted  either  by 
sight  or  voice,  it  will  submit  to  receive  instruction. 

These  things  therefore  are  not  slightly  to  be  observed ; 
nor  are  we  to  neglect  taking  such  care  of  our  own  life  and 
manners  that  they  may  be  clear  from  all  stain  and  repre- 
hension. For  statesmen  are  not  only  liable  to  give  an 
account  of  what  they  say  or  do  in  public ;  but  there  is  a 
busy  enquiry  made  into  their  very  meals,  beds,  marriages, 
and  every  either  sportive  or  serious  action.  For  what  need 
we  speak  of  Alcibiades,  who,  being  of  all  men  the  most 
active  in  public  affairs,  and  withal  an  invincible  com- 
mander, perished  by  his  irregularity  in  living  and  his 
audaciousness,  and  who  by  his  luxury  and  prodigality  ren- 
dered the  state  unbenefited  by  all  his  other  good  qualities  ? 
—  since  the  Athenians  blamed  Cimon's  wine  ;  the  Komans, 
having  nothing  else  to  cavil  at,  found  f\iult  with  Scipio's 
sleeping ;  and  the  enemies  of  Pompe)  the  Great,  having 
observed  that  he  scratched  his  head  with  one  finger,  up- 
braided him  with  it.  For  as  a  freckle  or  wart  in  the  face 
is  more  prejudicial  than  stains,  maims,  and  scars  in  the 
rest  of  the  body ;  so  little  faults,  discerned  in  the  lives  of 
princes  and  statesmen,  appear  great,  through  an  opinion 
most  men  have  conceived  of  government  and  policy,  which 
they  look  on  as  a  great  and  excellent  thing,  and  such  as 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  103 

ought  to  be  pure  from  all  absurdity  and  imperfection. 
Therefore  not  unjustly  is  Livius  Drusus  commended,  who, 
when  several  parts  of  his  house  lay  open  to  the  view  of 
his  neighbors,  being  told  by  a  certain  workman  that  he 
would  for  the  expense  only  of  five  talents  alter  and  remedy 
that  fault,  said :  I  will  give  thee  indeed  ten,  to  make  my 
whole  house  so  transparent  that  all  the  city  may  see  how  I 
live.  For  he  was  a  temperate  and  modest  man.  And  yet 
perhaps  he  had  no  need  of  this  perspicuity ;  for  many  per- 
sons pry  into  those  manners,  counsels,  actions,  and  lives  of 
statesmen  which  seem  to  be  most  deeply  concealed,  no  less 
loving  and  admiring  one,  and  hating  and  despising  another, 
for  their  private  than  for  their  public  transactions.  What 
then !  perhaps  you  may  say :  Do  not  cities  make  use  also  of 
such  men  as  live  dissolutely  and  effeminately'?  True  ;  for  as 
women  with  child  frequently  long  for  stones  and  chalk,  as 
those  that  are  stomach-sick  do  for  salt-fish  and  such  other 
meats,  which  a  little  after  they  spit  out  again  and  reject ;  so 
also  the  people  sometimes  through  wantonness  and  petu- 
lancy,  and  sometimes  for  want  of  better  guides,  make  use  of 
those  that  come  first  to  hand,  though  at  the  same  time  de- 
testing and  contemning  them,  and  after  rejoice  at  such 
things  spoken  against  them  as  the  comedian  Plato  makes 
the  people  themselves  to  say : 

Quick,  take  me  by  the  hand,  and  hold  me  fast. 
Or  I'll  Agyrrius  captain  choose  in  haste. 

And  again  he  brings  them  in,  calling  for  a  basin  and  feathei 
that  they  may  vomit,  and  saying, 

A  chamber-pot  by  my  tribunal  stands. 

And  a  little  after, 

It  feeds  a  stinking  pest,  foul  Cephalus. 

And  the  Koman  people,  when  Carbo  promised  them  some- 
thing, and  (to  confirm  it)  added  an  oath  and  execration, 


104  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

"unanimously  swore  on  the  contrary  that  they  would  not  be- 
lieve him.  And  in  Lacedaemon,  when  a  certain  dissolute 
man  named  Demosthenes  had  delivered  a  very  convenient 
opinion,  the  people  rejected  it ;  but  the  Ephori,  who  ap- 
proved of  his  advice,  having  chosen  by  lot  one  of  the 
ancient  senators,  commanded  him  to  repeat  the  same  dis- 
course, pouring  it  (as  it  were)  out  of  a  filthy  vessel  into  a 
clean  one,  that  it  might  be  acceptable  to  the  multitude. 
Of  so  great  moment  either  way  in  political  affairs  is  the 
belief  conceived  of  a  person's  disposition  and  manners. 

5.  Yet  are  we  not  therefore  so  to  lay  the  whole  stress  on 
virtue,  as  utterly  to  neglect  all  gracefulness  and  efficacy 
of  speech ;  but  esteeming  rhetoric,  though  not  the  worker, 
yet  a  coadjutor  and  forwarder  of  persuasion,  we  should 
correct  that  saying  of  Menander, 

The  speaker's  manners,  not  his  speech,  persuade. 

For  both  manners  and  language  ought  to  concur,  unless 
any  one  forsooth  shall  say  that  —  as  it  is  the  pilot  who 
steers  the  ship,  and  not  the  rudder,  and  the  rider  that  turns 
the  horse,  and  not  the  bridle  —  so  political  virtue,  using 
not  eloquence  but  manners  as  an  helm  and  bridle,  per- 
suades and  guides  a  city,  which  is  (to  speak  with  Plato)  an 
animal  most  easy  to  be  turned,  managing  and  directing 
it  (as  it  were)  from  the  poop.  For  since  those  great  and 
(as  Homer  calls  them)  Jove-begotten  kings,  setting  them- 
selves out  with  their  purple,  sceptres,  guards,  and  the  very 
oracles  of  the  Gods,  and  subjecting  to  them  by  their  maj- 
esty the  multitude,  as  if  they  were  of  a  better  nature  and 
more  excellent  mould  than  other  men,  desired  also  to  be 
eloquent  orators,  and  neglected  neither  the  gracefulness  of 
speech, 

Nor  public  meeting,  that  more  perfect  they 
Might  be  for  feats  of  war,* 

*  D.  IX.  441. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  105 

not  only  venerating  Jupiter  the  counsellor,  Mars  the 
slaughterer,  and  Pallas  the  warrior,  but  invocating  also 
Calliope, 

"Who  still  attends  on  regal  Majesty,* 

by  her  persuasive  oratory  appeasing  and  moderating  the 
fierceness  and  violence  of  the  people;  how  is  it  possible 
that  a  private  man  in  a  plebeian  garb  and  with  a  vulgar 
mien,  undertaking  to  conduct  a  city,  should  ever  be  able  to 
prevail  over  and  govern  the  multitude,  if  he  is  not  endowed 
with  alluring  and  all-persuading  eloquence  ?  The  captains 
indeed  and  pilots  of  ships  make  use  of  others  to  deliver 
their  commands  ;  but  a  statesman  ought  to  have  in  himself 
not  only  a  spirit  of  government,  but  also  a  commanding 
faculty  of  speech,  that  he  may  not  stand  in  need  of  an- 
other's voice,  nor  be  constrained  to  say,  as  did  Iphicrates 
when  he  was  run  down  by  the  eloquence  of  Aristophon, 
"  My  adversaries  have  the  better  actors,  but  mine  is  the 
more  excellent  play,"  nor  yet  be  often  obliged  to  make  use 
of  these  words  of  Euripides, 


and  again. 


O  that  the  race  of  miserable  men 
Were  speechless  1 


Alas  !  Why  have  not  men's  affairs  a  tongue, 
That  those  fine  pleaders  who  of  right  make  wrong 
Might  be  no  longer  in  request  ?  t 


For  to  these  evasions  perhaps  might  an  Alcamenes,  a 
Nesiotes,  an  Ictinus,  and  any  such  mechanical  persons  as 
get  their  bread  by  their  hands,  be  permitted  on  their  oath 
to  have  recourse.  As  it  sometime  happened  in  Athens, 
where,  when  two  architects  were  examined  about  the  erect- 
ing a  certain  public  work,  one  of  them,  who  was  of  a  free 
and  voluble  speech  and  had  his  tongue  (as  we  say)  well 
hung,  making  a  long  and  premeditated  harangue  concern- 
ing the  method  and  order  of  raising  such  a  fabric,  greatly 

»  See  Od.  VII.  165.  t  Eurip.  Frag.  977  and  442. 


106  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

moved  the  people ;  but  the  other,  who  was  indeed  the  bet- 
ter workman  though  the  worse  speaker,  coming  forth  into 
the  midst,  only  said,  "  Ye  men  of  Athens,  what  this  man  has 
spoken,  I  will  do."  For  those  men  venerate  only  Minerva 
surnamed  Ergane  (or  the  Artisan),  who,  as  Sophocles  says 
of  them, 

Do  on  the  massy  anvil  lay 
*       A  lifeless  iron  bar,  where  they 

With  blows  of  heavy  hammer  make 
It  pliant  to  the  work  they  undertake. 

But  the  prophet  or  minister  of  Minerva  Polias  (that  is,  the 
protectress  of  cities)  and  of  Themis  (or  Justice)  the  coun- 
sellor. 

Who  both  convenes  assemblies,  and  again 
Dissolves  them,* 

making  use  of  no  other  instrument  but  speech,  does,  by 
forming  and  fashioning  some  things  and  smoothing  and 
polishing  others  that,  like  certain  knots  in  timber  or  flaws 
in  iron,  are  averse  to  his  work,  embellish  and  adorn  a  city. 
By  this  means  the  government  of  Pericles  was  in  name  (as 
Thucydidesf  says)  a  democracy,  but  in  effect  the  rule  of 
one  principal  man  through  the  power  of  his  eloquence. 
For  there  were  living  at  the  same  time  Cimon,  and  also 
Ephialtes  and  Thucydides.J  all  good  men ;  now  Thucydi- 
des,  being  asked  by  Archidamus,  king  of  the  Spartans, 
whether  himself  or  Pericles  were  the  better  wrestler,  thus 
answered :  "  That  is  not  easily  known  ;  for  when  I  in 
wrestling  overthrow  him,  he,  by  his  words  persuading  the 
spectators  that  he  did  not  fall,  gains  the  victory."  And 
this  did  not  only  bring  glory  to  himself,  but  safety  also  to 
the  city ;  for  being  persuaded  by  him,  it  preserved  the 
happiness  it  had  gotten,  and  abstained  from  intermeddling 
with  foreign  affairs.  But  Nicias,  though  having  the  same 
design,  yet  falling  short  in  the  art  of  persuasion,  when  he 

*  Od.  IL  69.  t  Thuc.  II.  65. 

t  The  son  of  Melesias,  not  the  historian.     (G.) 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  107 

endeavored  by  his  speech,  as  by  a  gentle  curb,  to  restrain 
and  turn  the  people,  could  not  compass  it  or  prevail  with 
them,  but  was  fain  to  depart,  being  violently  hurried  and 
dragged  (as  it  were)  by  the  neck  and  shoulders  into  Sicily. 
They  say,  that  a  wolf  is  not  to  be  held  by  the  ears  ;  but  a 
people  and  city  are  chiefly  to  be  drawn  by  the  ears,  and 
not  as  some  do  who,  being  unpractised  in  eloquence,  seek 
other  absurd  and  unartificial  ways  of  taking  them,  and 
either  draw  them  by  the  belly,  making  them  feasts  and 
banquets,  or  by  the  purse,  bestowing  on  them  gifts  and 
largesses,  or  by  the  eye,  exhibiting  to  them  masks  and 
prizes  or  public  shows  of  dancers  and  fencers,  —  by  which 
they  do  not  so  much  lead  as  cunningly  catch  the  people. 
For  to  lead  a  people  is  to  persuade  them  by  reason  and 
eloquence  ;  but  such  allurements  of  the  multitude  noth- 
ing differ  from  the  baits  laid  for  the  taking  of  irra- 
tional animals. 

6.  Let  not  yet  the  speech  of  a  statesman  be  youthful 
and  theatrical,  as  if  he  were  making  an  harangue  com- 
posed, like  a  garland,  of  curious  and  florid  words  ;  nor  again 
—  as  Pytheas  said  of  an  oration  made  by  Demosthenes, 
that  it  smelt  of  the  lamp  and  sophistical  curiosity  —  let 
it  consist  of  over-subtle  arguments  and  periods,  exactly 
framed  by  rule  and  compass.  But  as  musicians  require 
that  the  strings  of  their  instruments  should  be  sweetly  and 
gently  touched,  and  not  rudely  thrummed  or  beaten  ;  so 
in  the  speech  of  a  statesman,  both  when  he  counsels  and 
when  he  commands,  there  should  not  appear  either  vio- 
lence or  cunning,  nor  should  he  think  himself  worthy  of 
commendation  for  having  spoken  formally,  artificially,  and 
with  an  exact  observation  of  punctualities  ;  but  his  whole 
discourse  ought  to  be  full  of  ingenuous  simplicity,  true 
magnanimity,  fatherly  freedom,  and  careful  providence  and 
understanding,  joined  with  goodness  and  honesty,  grace- 
fulness and  attraction,  proceeding  from  grave  expressions 


108  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

and  proper  and  persuasive  sentences.  Now  a  political 
oration  does  much  more  properly  than  a  juridical  one  ad- 
mit of  sententious  speeches,  histories,  fables,  and  meta- 
phors, by  which  those  who  moderately  and  seasonably  use 
them  exceedingly  move  their  hearers  ;  as  he  did  who  said, 
Make  not  Greece  one-eyed  ;  and  Demades,  when  he  af- 
firmed of  himself,  that  he  was  to  manage  the  wreck  of 
the  state  ;  and  Archilochus,  when  he  said 

Nor  let  the  stone  of  Tantalus 
Over  this  isle  hang  always  thus  ; 

and  Pericles,  when  he  commanded  the  eyesore*  of  the 
Piraeus  to  be  taken  away ;  and  Phocion,  when  he  pro- 
nounced of  Leosthenes's  victory,  that  the  beginning  or  the 
short  course  of  the  war  was  good,  but  that  he  feared  the 
long  race  that  was  to  follow.  But  in  general,  majesty  and 
greatness  more  benefit  a  political  discourse,  a  pattern  of 
which  may  be  the  Philippics,  and  (amongst  the  orations  set 
down  by  Thucydides)  that  of  Sthenelaidas  the  Ephor,  that 
of  Archidamus  at  Plataea,  and  that  of  Pericles  after 
the  plague.  But  as  for  those  rhetorical  flourishes  and  ha- 
rangues of  Ephorus,  Theopompus,  and  Anaximenes,  which 
they  made  after  they  had  armed  and  set  in  order  the  bat- 
talions, it  may  be  said  of  them, 

None  talks  thus  foolishly  so  near  the  sword.t 

7.  Nevertheless,  both  taunts  and  raillery  may  sometimes 
be  part  of  political  discourse,  so  they  proceed  not  to  injury 
or  scurrility,  but  are  usefully  spoken  by  him  who  either 
reprehends  or  scoifs.  But  these  things  seem  most  to  be 
allowed  in  answers  and  replies.  For  in  that  manner  to 
begin  a  discourse  as  if  one  had  purposely  prepared  himself 
for  it,  is  the  part  of  a  common  jester,  and  carries  with  it 
an  opinion  of  maliciousness ;  as  was  incident  to  the  biting 
jests  of  Cicero,  Cato  the  Elder,  and  Euxitheus,  an  intimate 

*  So  he  called  the  little  island  Aegina.      t  Eurip.  Autolycus,  Frag.  284,  vs.  22. 


POLITICAL   PRECEPTS.  109 

acquaintance  of  Aristotle,  —  all  of  whom  frequently  began 
first  to  jeer;  but  in  him,  who  does  it  only  in  revenge,  the 
seasonableness  of  it  renders  it  not  only  pardonable  but 
also  graceful.  Such  was  the  answer  of  Demosthenes,  when 
one  that  was  suspected  of  thievery  derided  him  for  writing 
by  night :  I  know  that  the  keeping  my  candle  burning  all 
night  is  offensive  to  you.  So  when  Demades  bawled  out, 
Demosthenes  forsooth  would  correct  me :  thus  would  the 
sow  (as  the  proverb  has  it)  teach  Minerva ;  —  That  Minerva, 
replied  Demosthenes,  was  not  long  since  taken  in  adultery. 
Not  ungraceful  also  was  that  of  Xenaenetus  to  those  citi- 
zens who  upbraided  him  with  flying  when  he  was  general, 
'Twas  with  you,  my  dear  hearts.  But  in  raillery  great 
care  is  to  be  taken  for  the  avoiding  of  excess,  and  of  any 
thing  that  may  either  by  its  unseasonableness  offend  the 
hearers  or  show  the  speaker  to  be  of  an  ungenerous  and 
sordid  disposition ;  —  such  as  were  the  sayings  of  Demo- 
crates.  For  he,  going  up  into  the  assembly,  said  that,  like 
the  city,  he  had  little  force  but  much  wind ;  and  after  the 
overthrow  at  Chaeronea,  going  forth  to  the  people,  he 
said :  I  would  not  have  had  the  state  to  be  in  so  ill  a  con- 
dition that  you  should  be  contented  to  hear  me  also  giving 
you  counsel.  For  this  showed  a  mean-spirited  person,  as 
the  other  did  a  madman ;  but  neither  of  them  was  becom- 
ing a  statesman.  Now  the  succinctness  of  Phocion's 
speech  was  admired ;  whence  Polyeuctus  affirmed,  that 
Demosthenes  was  the  greatest  orator,  but  that  Phocion 
spake  most  forcibly,  for  that  his  discourse  did  in  very  few 
words  contain  abundance  of  matter.  And  Demosthenes, 
who  contemned  others,  was  wonf,  when  Phocion  stood  up, 
to  say.  The  hatchet  (or  pruning-knife)  of  my  orations 
arises. 

8,  Let  your  chief  endeavor  therefore  be,  to  use  to  the 
multitude  a  premeditated  and  not  empty  speech,  and  that 
with  safety,  knowing  that  Pericles  himself,  before  he  made 


110  POLITICAL  TRECEPTS. 

any  discourse  to  the  people,  was  wont  to  pray  that  there 
might  not  a  word  pass  from  him  foreign  to  the  business  he 
was  to  treat  of.  It  is  requisite  also,  that  you  have  a  vol- 
uble tongue,  and  be  exercised  in  speaking  on  all  occurren- 
ces ;  for  occasions  are  quick,  and  bring  many  sudden  things 
in  political  affairs.  Wherefore  also  Demosthenes  was,  as 
they  say,  inferior  to  many,  withdrawing  and  absconding 
himself  when  sudden  occasion  offered.  And  Theophras- 
tus  relates  that  Alcibiades,  desirous  to  speak  not  only  what 
he  ought  but  as  he  ought,  often  hesitated  and  stood  still 
in  the  midst  of  his  speech,  seeking  and  composing  expres- 
sions fit  for  his  purpose.  But  he  who,  as  matters  and 
occasions  present  themselves,  rises  up  to  speak,  most  of  all 
moves,  leads,  and  disposes  of  the  multitude.  Thus  Leo 
Byzantius  came  to  make  an  harangue  to  the  Athenians, 
being  then  at  dissension  amongst  themselves  ;  by  whom 
when  he  perceived  himself  to  be  laughed  at  for  the  little- 
ness of  his  stature.  What  would  you  do,  said  he,  if  you 
saw  my  wife,  who  scarce  reaches  up  to  my  knees  ?  And 
the  laughter  thereupon  increasing,  Yet,  went  he  on,  as 
little  as  we  are,  when  we  fall  out  with  one  another,  the 
city  of  Byzantium  is  not  big  enough  to  hold  us.  So  Py- 
theas  the  orator,  who  declaimed  against  the  honors  decreed 
to  Alexander,  when  one  said  to  him,  Dare  you,  being  so 
young,  discourse  of  so  great  matters'?  made  this  answer, 
And  yet  Alexander,  whom  you  decree  to  be  a  God,  is 
younger  than  I  am. 

9.  It  is  requisite  also  for  the  champion  of  the  common- 
weal to  bring  to  this  not  slight  but  all-concerning  contest 
a  firm  and  solid  speech, 'attended  with  a  strong  habit  of 
voice  and  a  long  lasting  breath,  lest,  being  tired  and  spent 
with  speaking,  he  chance  to  be  overcome  by 

Some  ravening  crier,  with  a  roaring  voice, 
Loud  as  Cycloborus.* 

*  A  brook  near  Alliens,  the  waters  of  which  fell  with  an  extraordinary  noise. 
Aristoph.  Eq.  137. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  Ill 

Cato,  when  he  had  no  hopes  of  persuading  the  people  or 
senate,  whom  he  found  prepossessed  by  the  courtships  and 
endeavors  of  the  contrary  party,  was  wont  to  rise  up  and 
hold  them  a  whole  day  with  an  oration,  by  that  means  de- 
priving his  adversaries  of  their  opportunity.  And  thus 
much  concerning  the  preparation  and  use  of  speech  may 
be  sufficient  for  him  who  can  of  himself  find  out  and  add 
what  necessarily  follows  from  it. 

10.  There  are,  moreover,  two  avenues  or  ways  of  entermg 
into  the  government  of  the  state  ;  the  one  short  and  expe- 
ditious to  the  lustre  of  glory,  but  not  without  danger ;  the 
other  more  obscure  and  slow,  but  having  also  greater 
security.  For  some  there  are  who,  beginning  with  some 
great  and  illustrious  action  which  requires  a  courageous 
boldness,  do,  like  to  those  that  from  a  far  extended  prom- 
ontory launch  forth  into  the  deep,  steer  directly  into  the 
very  midst  of  public  affairs,  thinking  Pindar  to  have  been 
in  the  right  when  he  said. 

If  you  a  stately  fabric  do  design, 

Be  sure  that  your  work's  front  with  lustre  shine.* 

For  the  multitude  do,  through  a  certain  satiety  and  loath- 
ing of  those  to  whom  they  have  been  accustomed,  more 
readily  receive  a  beginner ;  as  the  beholders  do  a  fresh 
combatant,  and  as  those  dignities  and  authorities  which 
have  a  splendid  and  speedy  increase  dazzle  and  astonish 
envy.  For  neither  does  that  fire,  as  Ariston  says,  make  a 
smoke,  nor  that  glory  breed  envy,  which  suddenly  and 
quickly  shines  forth ;  but  of  those  who  grow  up  slowly 
and  by  degrees,  some  are  attacked  on  this  side,  others  on 
that ;  whence  many  have  withered  away  about  the  tribunal, 
before  ever  they  came  to  flourish.  But  when,  as  they  say 
of  Ladas, 

The  sound  o'  th'  rope  t  yet  rattled  in  his  ear. 
When  Ladas  haying  finished  his  career 
Was  crowned, 

»  Plnd.  Olymp.  VI.  4.  t  From  whence  they  set  forth  to  run. 


112  POLITICAL   PRECEPTS. 

any  one  suddenly  and  gloriously  performs  an  embassy, 
triumphs,  or  leads  forth  an  army,  neither  the  envious  nor 
the  disdainful  have  like  power  over  him  as  over  others. 
Thus  did  Aratus  ascend  to  glory,  making  the  overthrow  of 
the  tyrant  Nicocles  his  first  step  to  the  management  of  the 
commonweal.  Thus  did  Alcibiades,  settling  the  alliance 
with  the  Mantineans  against  the  Lacedaemonians.  Pom- 
pey  also  required  a  triumph,  being  not  yet  admitted  into 
the  senate  ;  and  when  Sylla  opposed  it,  he  said  to  him. 
More  adore  the  rising  than  the  setting  sun  ;  which  when 
Sylla  heard,  he  yielded  to  him.  And  the  people  of  Kome 
on  a  sudden,  contrary  to  the  ordinary  course  of  the  law, 
declared  Cornelius  Scipio  consul,  when  he  stood  candidate 
for  the  aedileship,  not  from  any  vulgar  reason,  but  admiring 
the  victory  he  had  got,  whilst  he  was  but  a  youth,  in  a 
single  combat  fought  in  Spain,  and  his  conquests  a  little 
after,  perforined  at  Carthage,  when  he  was  a  tribune  of 
foot ;  in  respect  of  which  Cato  the  Elder  cried  out  with  a 
loud  voice, 

He  only's  wise,  the  rest  like  shadows  fly.* 

Now  then,  since  the  affairs  of  the  cities  have  neither  wars 
to  be  managed,  tyrannies  to  be  overthrown,  nor  leagues 
and  alliances  to  be  treated,  what  can  any  one  undertake 
for  the  beginning  of  an  illustrious  and  splendid  govern- 
ment? There  are  yet  left  public  causes  and  embassies  to 
the  emperor,  which  require  the  courage  and  prudence  of 
an  acute  and  cautious  person.  There  are  also  in  the  cities 
many  good  and  laudable  usages  neglected,  which  may  be 
restored,  and  many  ill  practices  brought  in  by  custom,  to 
the  disgrace  or  damage  of  the  city,  which  may  be  redressed, 
to  gain  him  the  esteem  of  the  people.  Moreover,  a  great 
suit  rightly  determined,  fidelity  in  defending  a  poor  man's 
cause  against  a  powerful  adversary,  and  freedom  of  speech 
in  behalf  of  justice  to  some  unjust  nobleman,  have  afforded 

*  See  Odyss.  X.  495. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  113 

some  a  glorious  entrance  into  the  administration  of  the 
state.  Not  a  few  also  have  been  advanced  by  enmity  and 
quarrels,  having  set  themselves  to  attack  such  men  whose 
dignity  was  either  envied  or  terrible.  For  the  power  of 
him  that  is  overthrown  does  with  greater  glory  accrue  to 
his  overthrower.  Indeed,  through  envy  to  contend  against 
a  good  man,  and  one  that  has  by  virtue  been  advanced  to 
the  chiefest  honor,  —  as  Simmias  did  against  Pericles,  Alc- 
maeon  against  Themistocles,  Clodius  against  Pompey,  and 
Meneclides  the  orator  against  Epaminondas,  —  is  neither 
good  for  one's  reputation  nor  otherwise  advantageous.  For 
when  the  multitude,  having  outraged  some  good  man,  soon 
after  (as  it  frequently  happens)  repent  of  their  indignation, 
they  think  that  way  of  excusing  this  offence  the  easiest 
which  is  indeed  the  justest,  to  wit,  the  destroying  of  him 
who  was  the  persuader  and  author  of  it.  But  the  rising 
up  to  humble  and  pull  down  a  wicked  person,  who  has  by 
his  audaciousness  and  cunning  subjected  the  city  to  him- 
self (such  as  heretofore  Cleon  and  Clitophon  were  in 
Athens),  makes  a  glorious  entrance  to  the  management 
of  public  affairs,  as  it  were  to  a  play.  I  am  not  ignorant 
also  that  some,  by  opposing  —  as  Ephialtes  did  at  Athens, 
and  Phormio  amongst  the  Eleans  —  an  imperious  and  oli- 
garchical senate,  have  at  the  same  time  obtained  both 
authority  and  honor ;  but  in  this  there  is  great  danger  to 
him  who  is  but  entering  upon  the  administration  of  state. 
AVherefore  Solon  took  a  better  beginning ;  for  the  city  of 
Athens  being  divided  into  three  parts,  the  Diacrians  (or 
inhabitants  of  the  hill),  the  Pedieans  (or  dwellers  on  the 
plain),  and  the  Paralians  (or  those  whose  abode  was  by 
the  water  side),  he,  joining  himself  with  none  of  them,  but 
acting  for  the  common  good  of  them  all,  and  saying  and 
doing  all  things  for  to  bring  them  to  concord,  was  chosen 
the  lawgiver  to  take  away  their  differences,  and  by  that 
means  settled  the  state. 

roL.  V.  8 


114  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

Sucli  then  and  so  many  beginnings  has  the  more  splen- 
did way  of  entering  upon  state  affairs. 

11.  But  many  gallant  men  have  chosen  the  safe  and 
slow  method,  as  Aristides.  Phocion,  Pammenes  the  Theban, 
Lucullus  in  Home,  Cato,  and  Agesilaus  the  Lacedaemo- 
nian. For  as  ivy,  twining  about  the  strongest  trees,  rises 
up  together  with  them ;  so  every  one  of  these,  applying 
himself,  whilst  he  was  yet  young  and  inglorious,  to  some 
elder  and  illustrious  personage,  and  growing  up  and  in- 
creasing by  little  and  little  under  his  authority,  grounded 
and  rooted  himself  in  the  commonweal.  For  Clisthenes  ad- 
vanced Aristides,  Chabrias  preferred  Phocion,  Sylla  pro- 
moted Lucullus,  Maximus  raised  Cato,  Pammenes  forwarded 
Epaminondas,  and  Lysander  assisted  Agesilaus.  But  this 
last,  injuring  his  own  reputation  through  an  unseason- 
able ambition  and  jealousy,  soon  threw  off  the  director  of 
his  actions ;  but  the  rest  honestly,  politically,  and  to  the 
end,  venerated  and  magnified  the  authors  of  their  advance- 
ment, —  like  bodies  which  are  opposed  to  the  sun,  —  by  re- 
flecting back  the  light  that  shone  upon  them,  augmented 
and  rendered  more  illustrious.  Certainly  those  who 
looked  asquint  upon  Scipio  called  him  the  player,  and  his 
companion  Laelius  the  poet  or  author  of  his  actions ;  yet 
was  not  Laelius  puffed  up  by  any  of  these  things,  but  con- 
tinued to  promote  the  virtue  and  glory  of  Scipio.  And 
Afranius,  the  friend  of  Pompey,  though  he  was  very 
meanly  descended,  yet  being  at  the  very  point  to  be  chosen 
consul,  when  he  understood  that  Pompey  favored  others, 
gave  over  his  suit,  saying  that  his  obtaining  the  consulship 
would  not  be  so  honorable  as  grievous  and  troublesome  to 
him,  if  it  were  against  the  good-will  and  without  the 
assistance  of  Pompey.  Having  therefore  delayed  but  one 
year,  he  enjoyed  the  dignity  and  preserved  his  friendship. 
Now  those  who  are  thus  by  others  led,  as  it  were,  by  the 
hand  to  glory  do,  in  gratifying  one,  at  the  same  time  also 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  115 

gratify  the  multitude,  and  incur  less  odium,  if  any  incon- 
venience befalls  them.  Wherefore  also  Philip  (king  of 
Macedon)  exhorted  his  son  Alexander,  whilst  he  had 
leisure  during  the  reign  of  another,  to  get  himself  friends, 
winning  their  love  by  kind  and  affable  behavior. 

12.  Now  he  that  begins  to  enter  upon  the  administration 
of  state  aifairs  should  choose  himself  a  guide,  who  is  not 
only  a  man  of  credit  and  authority  but  is  also  such  for  his 
virtue.  For  as  it  is  not  every  tree  that  will  admit  and  bear 
the  twining  of  a  vine,  there  being  some  which  utterly 
choke  and  spoil  its  growth  ;  so  in  states,  those  who  are 
no  lovers  of  virtue  and  goodness,  but  only  of  honor  and 
sovereignty,  afford  not  young  beginners  any  opportunities 
of  performing  worthy  actions,  but  do  through  envy  keep 
them  down  and  let  them  languish  whom  they  regard  as 
depriving  them  of  their  glory,  which  is  (as  it  were)  their 
food.  Thus  Marius,  having  first  in  Afric  and  afterwards 
in  Galatia  done  many  gallant  exploits  by  the  assistance  of 
Sylla,  forbare  any  farther  to  employ  him,  and  utterly  cast 
him  off,  being  really  vexed  at  his  growing  into  repute,  but 
making  his  pretence  the  device  engraven  on  his  seal.  For 
Sylla,  being  paymaster  under  Marius  when  he  was  general 
in  Afric,  and  sent  by  him  to  Bocchus,  brought  with  him 
Jugurtha  prisoner ;  but  as  he  was  an  ambitious  young 
man,  who  had  but  just  tasted  the  sweetness  of  glory,  he 
received  not  his  good  fortune  with  moderation  ;  but  having 
caused  the  representation  of  the  action  to  be  engraven  on 
his  seal,  wore  about  him  Jugurtha  delivered  into  his  hands ; 
and  this  did  Marius  lay  to  his  charge,  when  he  turned  him 
off.  But  Sylla,  passing  over  to  Catulus  and  Metellus,  who 
were  good  men  and  at  difference  with  Marius,  soon  after 
in  a  civil  war  drove  away  and  ruined  Marius,  who  wanted 
but  little  of  overthrowing  Rome,  Sylla  indeed,  on  the 
contrary,  advanced  Pompey  from  a  very  youth,  rising  up 
to  him  and  uncovering  his  head  as  he  passed  by,  and  not 


116  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

only  giving  other  young  men  occasions  of  doing  captain- 
like actions,  but  even  instigating  some  that  were  backward 
and  unwilling.  He  filled  the  armies  with  emulation  and 
desire  of  honor;  and  thus  he  had  the  superiority  over  thetn 
all,  desiring  not  to  be  alone,  but  the  tirst  and  greatest 
amongst  many  great  ones.  These  therefore  are  the  men 
to  whom  young  statesmen  ought  to  adhere,  and  with  these 
they  should  be  (as  it  were)  incorporated,  not  stealing  from 
them  their  glory,  —  like  Aesop's  wren,  which,  being  car- 
ried up  on  the  eagle's  wings,  suddenly  flew  away  and  got 
before  her,  —  but  receiving  it  of  them  with  friendship  and 
good-will,  since  they  can  never,  as  Plato  says,  be  able  to 
govern  aright,  if  they  have  not  been  first  well  practised  in 
obedience. 

13.  After  this  follows  the  judgment  that  is  to  be  had  in 
the  choice  of  friends,  in  which  neither  the  opinion  of 
Themistocles  nor  that  of  Cleon  is  to  be  approved.  For 
Cleon,  when  he  first  knew  that  he  was  to  take  on  him  the 
government,  assembling  his  friends  together,  brake  off 
friendship  with  them,  as  that  which  often  disables  the 
mind,  and  withdraws  it  from  its  just  and  upright  intention 
in  managing  the  affairs  of  the  state.  But  he  would  have 
done  better,  if  he  had  cast  out  of  his  soul  avarice  and 
contention,  and  cleansed  himself  from  envy  and  malice*- 
For  cities  want  not  men  that  are  friendless  and  unaccom- 
panied, but  such  as  are  good  and  temperate.  Now  he 
indeed  drove  away  his  friends ;  but  a  hundred  heads  of 
fawning  flatterers  were,  as  the  comedian  speaks,  licking 
about  him ;  *  and  being  harsh  and  severe  to  those  that 
were  civil,  he  again  debased  himself  to  court  the  favor  of 
the  multitude,  doing  all  things  to  humor  them  in  their 
dotage,  and  taking  rewards  at  every  man's  hand,"|*  and 
joining  himself  with  the  worst  and  most  distempered  of 
the  people  against  the  best.      But  Themistocles,  on  the 

•  Aristoph.  Pac.  756  t  See  Aristoph.  Eq.  1099. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  117 

contrary,  said  to  one  who  told  him  that  he  would  govern 
■well  if  he  exhibited  himself  alike  to  all :  May  I  never  sit 
on  that  throne  on  which  my  friends  shall  not  have  more 
power  with  me  than  those  who  are  not  my  friends.  Neith- 
er did  he  well  in  pinning  the  state  to  his  friendship,  and 
submitting  the  common  and  public  affairs  to  his  private 
favors  and  affections.  And  farther,  he  said  to  Simonides, 
when  he  requested  somewhat  that  was  not  just :  Neither 
is  he  a  good  poet  or  musician,  who  sings  against  measure  ; 
nor  he  an  upright  magistrate,  who  gratifies  any  one  against 
the  laws.  And  it  would  really  be  a  shameful  and  misera- 
ble thing,  that  the  pilot  should  choose  his  mariners,  and 
the  master  of  a  ship  the  pilot, 

Who  well  can  rule  the  helm,  and  in  good  guise 
Hoist  up  the  sails,  when  winds  begin  to  rise, 

and  that  an  architect  should  make  choice  of  such  sei 
vants   and  workmen   as  will  not  prejudice   his  work,  but 
take  pains  in  the  best  manner  to  forward  it ;    but  that  a 
statesman  —  who,  as  Pindar  has  it, 

The  best  of  artists  and  chief  workman  is 
Of  equity  and  justice  — 

should  not  presently  choose  himself  like-affected  friends 
and  ministers,  and  such  as  might  co-inspire  into  him  a  love 
of  honesty ;  but  that  one  or  other  should  be  always  un- 
justly and  violently  bending  him  to  other  uses.  For  then 
he  would  seem  to  differ  in  nothing  from  a  carpenter  or 
mason  who,  through  ignorance  or  want  of  experience, 
uses  such  squares,  rules,  and  levels  as  will  certainly  make 
his  work  to  be  awry.  Since  friends  are  the  living  and  in- 
telligent instruments  of  statesmen,  who  ought  to  be  so  far 
from  bearing  them  company  in  their  slips  and  transgres- 
sions, that  they  must  be  careful  they  do  not,  even  unknown 
to  them,  commit  a  fault. 

And  this  it  was,  that  disgraced  Solon  and  brought  him 
into  disrepute  amongst  his  citizens  ;  for  he,  having  an  in- 


118  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

tention  to  ease  men's  debts  and  to  bring  in  that  which 
was  called  at  Athens  the  Seisachtheia  (for  that  was  the 
name  given  by  Avay  of  extenuation  to  the  cancelling  of 
debts),  communicated  this  design  to  some  of  his  friends, 
who  thereupon  did  a  most  unjust  act ;  for  having  got  this 
inkling,  they  borrowed  abundance  of  money,  and  the  law 
being  a  little  after  brought  to  light,  they  appeared  to  have 
purchased  stately  houses,  and  great  store  of  land  with  the 
wealth  they  had  borrowed  ;  and  Solon,  who  was  himself 
injured,  was  accused  to  have  been  a  partaker  of  their  in- 
justice. Agesilaus  also  was  most  feeble  and  mean-spirited 
in  what  concerned  the  suits  of  his  friends,  being  like  the 
horse  Pegasus  in  Euripides, 

Who,  frighted,  bowed  his  back,  more  than  his  rider  would,* 

80  that,  being  more  ready  to  help  them  in  their  misfortunes 
than  was  requisite,  he  seemed  to  be  privy  to  their  injustices. 
For  he  saved  Phoebidas,  who  was  accused  for  having 
without  commission  surprised  the  castle  of  Thebes,  called 
Cadmea,  saying  that  such  enterprises  were  to  be  attempted 
without  expecting  any  orders.  And  when  Sphodrias  was 
brought  to  trial  for  an  unlawful  and  heinous  act,  having 
made  an  incursion  into  Attica  at  such  time  as  the  Athe- 
nians were  allies  and  confederates  of  the  Spartans,  he  pro- 
cured him  to  be  acquitted,  being  softened  by  the  amorous 
entreaties  of  his  son.  There  is  also  recorded  a  short  epis- 
tle of  his  to  a  certain  prince,  written  in  these  words :  If 
Nicias  is  innocent,  discharge  him  ;  if  he  is  guilty,  discharge 
him  for  my  sake  ;  but  however  it  is,  discharge  him.  But 
Phocion  (on  the  contrary)  would  not  so  much  as  appear  in 
behalf  of  his  son-in-law  Charicles,  when  he  was  accused 
for  having  taken  money  of  Harpalus  ;  but  having  said, 
Only  for  acts  of  justice  have  I  made  you  my  son-in-law,  — 
went  his  way.     And  Timoleon   the   Corinthian,  when  he 

*  Eurip.  Bellerophon,  Frag.  SIL 


POLITICAL   PRECEPTS.  119 

could  not  by  admonitions  or  requests  dissuade  his  brother 
from  being  a  tyrant,  confederated  with  his  destroyers.  For 
a  magistrate  ought  not  to  be  a  friend  even  to  the  altar  (or 
till  he  comes  to  the  point  of  being  forsworn),  as  Pericles 
sometime  said,  but  no  farther  than  is  agreeable  to  all  law, 
justice,  and  the  utility  of  the  state  ;  any  of  which  being 
neglected  brings  a  great  and  public  damage,  as  did  the 
not  executing  of  justice  on  Sphodrias  and  Phoebidas,  who 
did  not  a  little  contribute  to  the  engaging  of  Sparta  in  the 
liGuctrian  war,  . 

Otherwise,  reason  of  state  is  so  far  from  necessitatmsr 
one  to  show  himself  severe  on  every  peccadillo  of  his 
friends,  that  it  even  permits  him,  when  he  has  secured  the 
principal  affairs  of  the  public,  to  assist  them,  stand  by 
them,  and  labor  for  them.  There  are,  moreover,  certain 
favors  that  may  be  done  without  envy,  as  is  the  helping  a 
friend  to  obtain  an  office,  or  rather  the  putting  into  his 
hands  some  honorable  commission  or  some  laudable  em 
bassy,  such  as  for  the  congratulating  or  honoring  some 
prince  or  the  making  a  league  of  amity  and  alliance  with 
some  state.  But  if  there  be  some  difficult  but  withal  illus- 
trious and  great  action  to  be  performed,  having  first  taken 
it  upon  himself,  he  may  afterwards  assume  a  friend  to  his 
assistance,  as  did  Diomedes,  whom  Homer  makes  to  speak 
in  this  manner : 

Since  a  companion  you  will  have  me  take. 
How  can  I  think  a  better  choice  to  make, 
Than  the  divine  Ulysses  ?  * 

And  Ulysses  again  as  kindly  attributes  to  him  the  praise  of 
the  achievement,  saying : 

These  stately  steeds,  whose  country  you  demand, 
Nestor,  were  hither  brought  from  Thracian  land. 
Whose  king,  with  twelve  of  his  best  friends,  lies  dead, 
All  slain  by  th'  hand  of  warlike  Diomed.t 

*n.X.242.  tn.X.558. 


120  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

For  this  sort  of  concession  no  less  adorns  the  praiser  than 
the  praised ;  but  self-conceitedness,  as  Plato  says,  dwells 
with  solitude.  He  ought  moreover  to  associate  his  friends 
in  those  good  and  kind  offices  which  are  done  by  him, 
bidding  those  whom  he  has  benefited  to  love  them  and 
give  them  thanks,  as  having  been  the  procurers  and  coun- 
sellors of  his  favors  to  them.  But  he  must  reject  the  dis- 
honest and  unreasonable  request  of  his  friends,  yet  not 
churlishly  but  mildly,  teaching  and  showing  them  that  they 
are  not  beseeming  their  virtue  and  honor.  Never  was  any 
man  better  at  this  than  Epaminondas,  who,  having  denied 
to  deliver  out  of  prison  a  certain  victualler,  when  requested 
by  Pelopidas,  and  yet  a  little  after  dismissing  him  at  the 
desire  of  his  miss,  said  to  his  friend,  These,  O  Pelopidas, 
are  favors  fit  for  wenches  to  receive,  and  not  for  generals. 
Cato  on  the  other  side  acted  morosely  and  insolently,  when 
Catulus  the  censor,  his  most  intimate  and  familiar  friend, 
interceded  with  him  for  one  of  those  against  whom  he,  be- 
ing quaestor,  had  entered  process,  saying :  It  would  be  a 
shame  if  you,  who  ought  to  reform  young  men  for  us, 
should  be  thrust  out  by  our  servants.  For  he  might, 
though  in  efi'ect  refusing  the  requested  favor,  have  yet  for- 
borne that  severity  and  bitterness  of  speech  ;  so  that  his 
doing  what  was  displeasing  to  his  friend  might  have  seemed 
not  to  have  proceeded  from  his  own  inclination,  but  to 
have  been  a  necessity  imposed  upon  him  by  law  and  jus- 
tice. There  are  also  in  the  administration  of  the  state 
methods,  not  dishonorable,  of  assisting  our  poorer  friends 
in  the  making  of  their  fortune.  Thus  did  Themistocles, 
who,  seeing  after  a  battle  one  of  those  which  lay  dead  in 
the  field  adorned  with  chains  of  gold  and  jewels,  did  him- 
self pass  by  him ;  but  turning  back  to  a  friend  of  his,  said. 
Do  you  take  these  spoils,  for  you  are  not  yet  come  to  be 
Themistocles.  For  even  the  affairs  themselves  do  fre- 
quently afford  a  statesman  such  opportunities  of  benefiting 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  121 

his  friends  ;  for  every  man  is  not  a  Menemachus.  To  one 
therefore  give  the  patronage  of  a  cause,  both  just  and 
beneficial ;  to  another  recommend  some  rich  man,  who 
stands  in  need  of  management  and  protection ;  and  help 
a  third  to  be  employed  in  some  public  work,  or  to  some 
gainful  and  profitable  farm.  Epaminondas  bade  a  friend 
of  his  go  to  a  certain  rich  man,  and  ask  him  for  a  talent 
by  the  command  of  Epaminondas,  and  when  he  to  whom 
the  message  was  sent  came  to  enquire  the  reason  of  it ; 
Because,  said  Epaminondas,  he  is  a  very  honest  man  and 
poor ;  but  you,  by  converting  much  of  the  city's  wealth  to 
your  own  use,  are  become  rich.  And  Xenophon  reports, 
that  Agesilaus  delighted  in  enriching  his  friends,  himself 
making  no  account  of  money. 

14.  Now  since,  as  Simonides  says,  all  larks  must  have  a 
crest,  and  every  eminent  ofHce  in  a  commonweal  brings 
enmities  and  dissensions,  it  is  not  a  little  convenient  for  a 
statesman  to  be  forewarned  also  of  his  comportment  in 
these  rencounters.  Many  therefore  commend  Themistocles 
and  Aristides,  who,  when  they  were  to  go  forth  on  an 
embassy  or  to  command  together  the  army,  laid  down  their 
enmity  at  the  confines  of  the  city,  taking  it  up  again  after 
their  return.  Some  again  are  highly  pleased  with  the 
action  of  Cretinas  the  Magnesian,  He,  having  for  his 
rival  in  the  government  one  Hermias,  a  man  not  power- 
ful and  rich,  but  ambitious  and  high-spirited,  when  the 
Mithridatic  war  came  on,  seeing  the  city  in  danger,  desired 
Hermias  either  to  take  the  government  upon  himself  and 
manage  the  affairs  whilst  he  retired,  or,  if  he  would  have 
him  take  the  command  of  the  army,  to  depart  himself  im- 
mediately, lest  they  should  through  their  ambitious  conten- 
tion destroy  the  city.  The  proposal  pleased  Hermias, 
who,  saying  that  Cretinas  was  a  better  soldier  than  himself, 
did  with  his  wife  and  children  quit  the  city.  Cretinas  then 
escorted  him  as  he  went  forth,  furnishing  him  out  of  his 


122  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

own  estate  with  all  such  things  as  are  more  useful  to  those 
that  fly  from  home  than  to  those  that  are  besieged ;  and 
excellently  defending  the  city,  unexpectedly  preserved  it, 
being  at  the  point  to  be  destroyed.  For  if  it  is  generous 
and  proceeding  from  a  magnanimous  spirit  to  cry  out, 

I  love  my  children,  but  my  .country  more, 

why  should  it  not  be  readier  for  every  one  of  them  to  say, 
I  hate  this  man,  and  desire  to  do  him  a  diskindness,  but 
the  love  of  my  country  has  greater  power  over  me  ?  For 
not  to  condescend  to  be  reconciled  to  an  enemy  for  those 
very  causes  for  which  we  ought  to  abandon  even  a  friend, 
is  even  to  extremity  savage  and  brutish.  But  far  better 
did  Phocion  and  Cato,  who  grounded  not  any  enmity  at  all 
on  their  political  differences,  but  being  fierce  and  obstinate 
only  in  their  public  contests  not  to  recede  from  any  thing 
they  judged  convenient  for  the  state,  did  in  their  private 
affairs  use  those  very  persons  friendly  and  courteously  from 
whom  they  differed  in  the  other.  For  one  ought  not  to 
esteem  any  citizen  an  enemy,  unless  it  be  one  like  Aristion, 
Nabis,  or  Catiline,  the  disease  and  plague  of  the  city :  but 
as  for  those  that  are  otherwise  at  discord,  a  good  magistrate 
should,  like  a  skilful  musician,  by  gently  setting  them  up 
or  letting  them  down,  bring  them  to  concord ;  not  falling 
angrily  and  reproachfully  upon  those  that  err,  but  mildly 
reprehending  them  in  such  like  terms  as  these  of  Homer's, 

Good  friend,  I  thought  you  wiser  than  the  rest ;  * 


and  again, 


You  could  have  told  a  better  tale  than  this  ;  t 


nor  yet  repining  at  their  honors,  or  sparing  to  speak  freely 
in  commendation  of  their  good  actions,  if  they  say  or  do 
any  thing  advantageous  to  the  public.  For  thus  will  our 
reprehension,  when  it  is  requisite,  be  credited,  and  we  shall 
render   them  averse  to  vice,  increasing  their  vhtue,  and 

*  II.  XVIL  171  t  II.  VIL  358. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  123 

showing,  by  comparing  them,  how  much  the  one  is  more 
worthy  and  beseeming  them  than  the  other. 

But  I  indeed  am  also  of  opinion,  that  a  statesman  should 
in  just  causes  give  testimony  to  his  enemies,  stand  by  them 
when  they  are  accused  by.  sycophants,  and  discredit  impu- 
tations brought  against  them  if  they  are  repugnant  to  their 
characters ;  as  Nero  himself,  a  little  before  he  put  to  death 
Thraseas,  whom  of  all  men  he  both  most  hated  and  feared, 
when  one  accused  him  for  giving  a  wrong  and  unjust  sen- 
tence, said :  I  wish  Thraseas  was  but  as  great  a  lover  of 
me,  as  he  is  a  most  upright  judge.  Neither  is  it  amiss  for 
the  daunting  of  others  who  are  by  Nature  more  inclined  to 
vice,  when  they  offend,  to  make  mention  of  some  enemy 
of  theirs  who  is  better  behaved,  and  say,  Such  a  one  would 
not  have  spoken  or  acted  thus.  And  some  again,  when 
they  transgress,  are  to  be  put  in  mind  of  their  virtuous 
progenitors.     Thus  Homer  says, 

Tydeus  has  left  a  son  unlike  himself.* 

And  Appius,  contending  in  the  Comitia  with  Scipio  Afri- 
canus,  said.  How  deeply,  O  Paulus,  wouldst  thou  sigh 
amongst  the  infernal  shades,  wert  thou  but  sensible  that 
Philonicus  the  publican  guards  thy  son,  who  is  going  to 
stand  for  the  office  of  censor.  For  such  manner  of  speeches 
do  both  admonish  the  offender,  and  become  their  ad- 
monishers.  Nestor  also  in  Sophocles,  being  reproached  by 
Ajax,  thus  politicly  answers  him : 

I  blame  you  not,  for  you  act  well,  although 

You  speak  but  ill. 

And  Cato,  who  had  opposed  Pompey  in  his  joining  with 
Caesar  to  force  the  city,  when  they  fell  to  open  wars,  gave 
his  opinion  that  the  conduct  of  the  state  should  be  com- 
mitted to  Pompey,  saying,  that  those  who  are  capable  to  do 
the  greatest  mischiefs  are  fittest  to  put  a  stop  to  them. 

*  L.  V.  800. 


124  POLITICAL   PRECEPTS. 

For  reprehension  mixed  with  praise,  and  accompanied  not 
with  opprobriousness  but  liberty  of  speech,  working  not 
animosity  but  remorse  and  repentance,  appears  both  kind 
and  salutary ;  but  railing  expressions  do  not  at  all  beseem 
statesmen.  Do  but  look  into  the  speeches  of  Demosthenes 
against  Aeschines,  and  of  Aeschines  against  him ;  and 
again  into  wliat  Hyperides  has  written  against  Demades, 
and  consider  whether  Solon,  Pericles,  Lycurgus  the  Lace- 
daemonian, or  Pittacus  the  Lesbian  would  have  spoken  in 
that  manner.  And  yet  Demosthenes  used  this  reproachful 
manner  of  speaking  only  in  his  juridical  orations  or  plead- 
ings ;  for  his  Philippics  are  clean  and  free  from  all  scoffing 
and  scurrility.  For  such  discourses  do  not  only  more  dis- 
grace the  speakers  than  the  hearers,  but  do  moreover 
breed  confusion  in  affairs,  and  disturb  counsels  and  assem- 
blies. Wherefore  Phocion  did  excellently  well,  who,  hav- 
ing broken  off  his  speech  to  give  way  to  one  that  railed 
against  him,  when  the  other  with  much  ado  held  his  peace, 
going  on  again  where  he  had  left  off,  said  :  You  have 
already  heard  what  has  been  spoken  of  horsemen  and 
heavy  armed  foot ;  I  am  now  to  treat  of  such  as  are  light 
armed  and  targeteers. 

But  since  many  persons  can  hardly  contain  themselves 
on  such  occasions,  and  since  railers  have  often  their  mouths 
not  impertinently  stopped  by  replies ;  let  the  answer  be 
short  and  pithy,  not  showing  any  indignation  or  bitterness 
of  anger,  but  mildness  joined  with  raillery  and  graceful- 
ness, yet  somewhat  tart  and  biting.  I^ow  such  especially 
are  the  retortings  of  what  has  been  spoken  before.  For  as 
darts  returning  against  their  caster  seem  to  have  been  re- 
pulsed and  beaten  back  by  a  certain  strength  and  solidity 
in  that  against  which  they  were  thrown  ;  so  what  was 
spoken  seems  by  the  strength  and  understanding  of  the 
reproached  to  have  been  turned  back  upon  the  reproacher. 
Such  was  that  reply  of  Epaminondas  to  Callistratus,  who 


POLITICAL   PRECEPTS.  125 

upbraided  the  Thebans  with  Oedipus,  and  the  Argives  with 
Orestes,  —  one  of  which  had  killed  his  father  and  the  other 
his  mother,  —  Yet  they  who  did  these  things,  being  rejected 
by  us,  were  received  by  you.  Such  also  was  the  repartee 
of  Antalcidas  the  Spartan  to  an  Athenian,  who  said  to  him, 
We  have  often  driven  you  back  and  pursued  you  from  the 
Cephissus  ;  But  we  (replied  Antalcidas)  never  yet  pursued 
you  from  the  Eurotas.  Phocion  also,  when  Demades  cried 
out.  The  Athenians  if  they  grow  mad,  will  kill  thee  ;  ele 
gantly  replied.  And  thee,  if  they  come  again  to  their  wits. 
So,  when  Domitius  said  to  Crassus  the  orator.  Did  not  you 
weep  for  the  death  of  the  lamprey  you  kept  in  your  fish- 
pond ?  —  Did  not  you,  said  Crassus  to  him  again,  bury  three 
wives  without  ever  shedding  a  tear?  These  things  there- 
fore have  indeed  their  use  also  in  other  parts  of  a  man's 
life. 

15.  Moreover,  some,  like  Cato,  thrust  themselves  into 
every  part  of  polity,  thinking  a  good  citizen  should  not 
omit  any  care  or  industry  for  the  obtaining  authority.  And 
these  men  greatly  commend  Epaminondas  ;  for  that  being 
by  the  Thebans  through  envy  and  in  contempt  appointed 
telearch,  he  did  not  reject  it,  but  said,  that  the  office  does 
not  show  the  man,  but  the  man  also  the  office.  He  brought 
the  telearchate  into  great  and  venerable  repute,  which  was 
before  nothing  but  a  certain  charge  of  the  carrying  the 
dung  out  of  the  narrow  streets  and  lanes  of  the  city,  and 
turning  of  watercourses.  Nor  do  I  doubt  but  that  I  my- 
self afford  matter  of  laughter  to  many  who  come  into  this 
our  city,  being  frequently  seen  in  public  employed  about 
such  matters.  But  that  comes  into  my  assistance  which  is 
related  of  Antisthenes  ;  for,  when  one  wondered  to  see  him 
carry  a  piece  of  stock-fish  through  the  market,  'Tis  for  my- 
self, said  he.  But  I,  on  the  contrary,  say  to  those  who 
upbraid  me  for  being  present  at  and  overseeing  the  meas- 
uring of  tiles,  or  the  bringing  in  and  unloading  of  clay  and 


126  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

stones  :  It  is  not  for  myself,  but  for  my  country,  that  I  per- 
form this  service.  For  though  he  who  in  his  own  person 
manages  and  does  many  such  things  for  himself  may  be 
judged  mean-spirited  and  mechanical,  yet  if  he  does  them 
for  the  public  and  for  his  country,  he  is  not  to  be  deemed 
sordid  ;  but  on  the  contrary,  his  diligence  and  readiness, 
extending  even  to  these  small  matters,  is  to  be  esteemed 
greater  and  more  highly  to  be  valued.  But  others  there 
are,  that  hold  Pericles's  manner  of  acting  to  have  been 
more  magnanimous  and  august ;  amongst  which  Critolaus 
the  Peripatetic,  who  is  of  opinion  that,  as  at  Athens  the 
Salaminian  ship  and  the  Paralus  were  not  launched  forth 
for  every  service,  but  only  on  necessary  and  great  occa- 
sions, so  a  statesman  ought  to  employ  himself  in  the  chief- 
est  and  greatest  affairs,  like  the  King  of  the  universe,  who, 
as  Euripides  says. 

Reserves  great  things  for  his  own  government, 
But  small  things  leaves  to  Fortune's  management. 

For  neither  do  we  approve  the  excessively  ambitious  and 
contentious  spirit  of  Theagenes,  who,  having  obtained  the 
victory  not  only  through  the  whole  course  of  public  games, 
but  also  in  many  other  contests,  and  not  only  in  wrestling 
but  in  buffeting  and  running  of  long  races,  at  last,  being 
at  the  anniversary  festival  supper  of  a  certain  hero,  after 
every  one  was  served,  according  to  the  custom,  he  started 
up,  and  fell  to  wrestling,  as  if  it  were  necessary  that  no 
other  should  conquer  when  he  was  present ;  whence  he  got 
together  twelve  hundred  coronets,  most  of  which  one  would 
have  taken  for  rubbish. 

Now  nothing  do  they  differ  from  him,  who  strip  them- 
selves for  every  public  affair,  and  render  themselves  repre- 
hensible by  many,  becoming  troublesome,  and  being,  when 
they  do  well,  the  subject  of  envy,  and  when  they  do  ill,  of 
rejoicing.  And  that  industry  which  was  at  the  beginning 
admired  turns  afterwards  to  contempt  and  laughter.     In 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  127 

this  manner  it  was  said ;  Metiochus  leads  forth  the  array, 
Metiochiis  oversees  the  highways,  Metiochus  bakes  the 
bread,  Metiochus  bolts  the  meal,  Metiochus  does  all  things, 
Metiochus  shall  suffer  for  it  at  last.  This  Metiochus  was 
a  follower  of  Pericles,  and  made  use,  it  seems,  of  the  power 
he  had  with  him  invidiously  and  disdainfully.  For  a 
statesman  ought  to  find  the  people  when  he  comes  to  them 
(as  they  say)  in  love  with  him,  and  leave  in  them  a  longing 
after  him  when  he  is  absent ;  which  course  Scipio  Africa- 
nus  also  took,  dwelling  a  long  time  in  the  country,  at  the 
same  time  both  removing  from  himself  the  burthen  of  envy, 
and  giving  those  leisure  to  breathe,  who  seemed  to  be  op- 
pressed by  his  glory.  But  Timesias  the  Clazomenian,  who 
was  otherwise  a  good  commonwealths-man,  was  ignorant 
of  his  being  envied  and  hated  for  doing  all  things  by  him- 
self, till  the  following  accident  befell  him.  It  happened 
that,  as  he  passed  by  where  certain  boys  were  striking  a 
cockal-bone  out  of  an  hole,  some  of  them  said,  that  the 
bone  was  still  left  within  ;  but  he  who  had  stricken  it  cried 
out,  I  wish  I  had  as  certainly  beaten  out  Timesias's  brains, 
as  this  bone  is  out  of  the  hole.  Timesias,  hearing  this, 
and  thereby  understanding  the  envy  and  spite  borne  him  by 
every  one,  returned  home,  where  he  imparted  the  matter 
to  his  wife,  and  having  commanded  her  to  pack  up  all  and 
follow  him,  immediately  left  both  his  house  and  the  city. 
And  Themistocles  seems  to  have  been  in  some  such  condi- 
tion amongst  the  Athenians,  when  he  said :  How  is  it,  O 
ye  blessed  ones,  that  you  are  tired  with  the  frequent  re 
ceiving  of  benefits  ? 

Now  some  of  those  things  have  indeed  been  rightly 
spoken,  others  not  so  well.  For  a  statesman  ought  not  to* 
withdraw  his  affection  and  providential  care  from  any  pub- 
lic affair  whatever,  nor  reserve  himself  sacred,  like  the 
anchor  in  a  ship,  for  the  last  necessities  and  hazards  of  the 
state.     But  as  the  masters  of  ships  do  some  things  with  their 


128  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

own  hands,  and  perform  others,  sitting  afar  off,  by  other 
instruments,  turning  and  winding  them  by  the  hands  of 
others,  and  making  use  of  mariners,  boatswains,  and  mates, 
some  of  which  they  often  call  to  the  stern,  putting  the  helm 
into  their  hands  ;  so  it  is  convenient  for  a  statesman  some- 
times to  yield  the  command  to  his  companions,  and  to  in- 
vite them  kindly  and  civilly  to  the  tribunal,  not  managing 
all  the  affairs  of  the  commonweal  by  his  own  speeches, 
decrees,  and  actions,  but  having  good  and  faithful  men,  to 
employ  every  one  of  them  in  that  proper  and  peculiar 
station  which  he  finds  to  be  most  suitable  for  him.  Thus 
Pericles  used  Menippus  for  the  conduct  of  the  armies,  by 
Ephialtes  he  humbled  the  council  of  the  Areopagus,  by 
Charinus  he  passed  the  law  against  the  Megarians,  and 
sent  Lampon  to  people  the  city  of  Thurii.  For  not  only 
is  the  greatness  of  authority  less  liable  to  be  envied  by  the 
people,  when  it  seems  to  be  divided  amongst  many  ;  but 
the  business  also  is  more  exactly  done.  For  as  the  division 
of  the  hand  into  fingers  has  not  w^eakened  it,  but  rendered 
it  more  commodious  and  instrumental  for  the  uses  to  which 
it  serves  ;  so  he  wdro  in  the  administration  of  a  state  gives 
part  of  the  affairs  to  others  renders  the  action  more  effica- 
cious by  communicating  it.  But  he  who,  through  an  un- 
satiable  desire  of  glory  or  power,  lays  the  whole  burthen 
of  the  state  upon  his  own  shoulders,  and  applies  himself 
to  that  for  which  he  is  neither  fitted  by  nature  nor  exer- 
cise,—  as  Cleon  did  to  the  leading  forth  of  armies,  Philo- 
poemen  to  the  commanding  of  navies,  and  Hannibal  to 
haranguing  the  people,  —  has  no  excuse  for  his  errors  ; 
but  hears  that  of  Euripides  objected  against  him, 

Thou,  but  a  carpenter,  coneernd'st  thyself 
With  works  not  wrought  in  wood  ;  — 

being  no  good  orator,  you  went  on  an  embassage  ;  being 
of  a  lazy  temper,  you  thrust  yourself  into  the  stewardship  ; 
being  ignorant  in  keeping  accounts,  you  would  be  treas- 


POLITICAL   PRECEPTS.  129 

urer ;  or,  being  old  and  infirm,  you  took  on  you  the  com- 
mand of  the  army.  But  Pericles  divided  his  authority 
with  Cimon,  reserving  to  himself  the  governing  within  the 
city,  and  committing  to  him  the  manning  of  the  navy  and 
making  war  upon  the  barbarians ;  for  the  other  was  natu- 
rally fitted  for  war,  and  himself  for  civil  affairs.  Eubulus 
also  the  Anaphlystian  is  much  commended,  that,  having 
credit  and  authority  in  matters  of  the  greatest  importance, 
he  managed  none  of  the  Grecian  affairs,  nor  betook  him- 
self to  the  conducting  of  the  army  ;  but  employing  himself 
about  the  treasure,  he  augmented  the  public  revenues, 
and  greatly  benefited  the  city  by  them.  But  Iphicrates, 
practising  to  make  declamations  at  his  own  house  in  the 
presence  of  many,  rendered  himself  ridiculous  ;  for  though 
he  had  been  no  bad  orator  but  an  excellently  good  one,  yet 
ought  he  to  have  contented  himself  with  the  glory  got  by 
arms,  and  abstaining  from  the  school,  to  have  left  it  to  the 
sophisters. 

16.  But  since  it  is  incident  to  every  populacy  to  be 
malicious  and  desirous  to  find  fault  with  their  governors, 
and  since  they  are  apt  to  suspect  that  many,  even  useful 
things,  if  they  pass  without  being  opposed  or  contradicted, 
are  done  by  conspiracy,  and  since  this  principally  brings 
societies  and  friendships  into  obloquy  ;  they  must  not 
indeed  leave  any  real  enmity  or  dissension  against  them- 
selves, as  did  Onomademus,  a  demagogue  of  the  Chians, 
who,  having  mastered  a  sedition,  suffered  not  all  his  ad- 
versaries to  be  expelled  the  city ;  lest,  said  he,  we  should 
begin  to  differ  with  our  friends,  when  we  are  wholly  freed 
from  our  enemies  ;  for  this  would  be  indeed  a  folly.  But 
when  the  multitude  shall  have  conceived  a  suspicion  against 
any  important  beneficial  project,  they  must  not,  as  if  it 
were  by  confederacy,  all  deliver  the  same  opinion  ;  but 
two  or  three  of  them  must  dissent,  and  mildly  oppose  their 
friend,  and  afterwards,  as  if  they  were  convinced  by  reason, 

YOL.   V  9 


130  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

change  their  sentiments  ;  for  by  this  means  they  draw  along 
with  them  the  people,  who  think  them  moved  by  the  bene- 
ficialness  of  the  thing.  But  in  small  matters,  and  such  as 
are  of  no  great  consequence,  it  is  not  amiss  to  suffer  his 
friends  really  to  differ,  every  one  following  his  own  private 
reason  ;  that  so  in  the  principal  and  greatest  concerns,  they 
may  not  seem  to  act  upon  design,  when  they  shall  unani- 
mously agree  to  what  is  best. 

17.  The  politician  therefore  is  by  nature  always  the 
prince  of  the  city,  as  the  king  among  the  bees  ;  and  in 
consideration  of  this,  he  ought  always  to  have  the  helm  of 
public  affairs  in  his  hand.  But  as  for  those  dignities  and 
offices  to  which  persons  are  nominated  and  chosen  by  the 
suffrages  of  the  people,  he  should  neither  too  eagerly  nor 
too  often  pursue  them,  —  the  seeking  after  offices  being 
neither  venerable  nor  popular,  —  nor  yet  should  he  reject 
them,  when  the  people  legally  confer  them  on  him  and 
invite  him  to  them,  but  even  though  they  are  below  his 
reputation,  he  should  accept  them  and  willingly  employ 
himself  in  them ;  for  it  is  but  just  that  they  who  have 
been  honored  by  offices  of  greater  dignity  should  in  return 
grace  those  of  inferior  rank.  And  in  those  more  weighty 
and  superior  employs,  such  as  are  the  commanding  of  the 
armies  in  Athens,  the  Prytania  in  Rhodes,  and  the  Boeo- 
tarchy  amongst  us,  he  should  carry  himself  with  such 
moderation  as  to  remit  and  abate  something  of  their  gran- 
deur, adding  somewhat  of  dignity  and  venerableness  to 
those  that  are  meaner  and  less  esteemed,  that  he  may  be 
neither  despised  for  these  nor  envied  for  those. 

Now  it  behooves  him  that  enters  upon  any  office,  not 
only  to  have  at  hand  those  arguments  of  which  Pericles 
put  himself  in  mind  when  he  first  received  the  robe  of 
state :  Bethink  thyself,  Pericles,  thou  govern'st  freemen, 
thou  govern'st  Grecians,  yea,  citizens  of  Athens  ;  but 
farther  also,  he  ought  to   say  thus  with  himself:  Thou, 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  131 

being  a  subject,  govern'st  a  city  which  is  under  the  obe 
dience  of  Caesar  s  proconsul  or  lieutenant.  Here  is  no 
fight  in  a  fair  field,  this  is  not  the  ancient  Sardis,  nor  is 
this  the  puissance  of  the  Lydians.  Thou  must  make  thy 
robe  scantier,  look  from  the  pavilion  to  the  tribunal,  and 
not  place  too  great  confidence  in  thy  crown,  since  thou 
see'st  the  Roman's  shoes  over  thy  head.  But  in  this  the 
stage-players  are  to  be  imitated,  who  add  indeed  to  the 
play  their  own  passionate  transports,  behavior,  and  coun- 
tenance, suitable  to  the  person  they  represent,  but  yet  give 
ear  to  the  prompter,  and  transgress  not  the  rhyme  and 
measures  of  the  faculty  granted  them  by  their  masters. 
For  an  error  in  government  brings  not,  as  in  the  acting  of 
a  tragedy,  only  hissing  and  derision  ;  but  many  have  by 
this  means  subjected  themselves  to  that 

Severe  chastiser,  the  neck-cutting  axe. 

As  it  befell  your  countryman  Pardalas,  when  he  forgot  the 
limits  of  his  power.  Another,  being  banished  from  home 
and  confined  to  a  little  island,  as  Solon  has  it. 

Became  at  last  from  an  Athenian 
A  Pholegandrian  or  Sicinitan. 

For  we  laugh  indeed,  when  we  see  little  children  endeav- 
oring to  fasten  their  father's  shoes  on  their  own  feet,  or 
setting  their  crowns  on  their  own  heads  in  sport.  But  the 
governors  of  cities,  foolishly  exhorting  the  people  to  imi- 
tate those  works,  achievements,  and  actions  of  their  ances- 
tors which  are  not  suitable  to  the  present  times  and  affairs, 
elevate  the  multitude,  and  although  they  do  things  that  are 
ridiculous,  they  yet  meet  with  a  fate  which  is  not  fit  to  be 
laughed  at,  unless  they  are  men  altogether  despised.  For 
there  are  many  other  facts  of  the  ancient  Greeks,  the  re- 
cital of  which  to  those  who  are  now  living  may  serve  to 
form  and  moderate  their  manners  ;  as  would  be  the  relat- 
ing at  Athens,  not  the  warlike  exploits  of  their  progenitors. 


132  POLITICAL   PRECEPTS. 

but  (for  example)  the  decree  of  amnesty  after  the  expul- 
sion of  the  Thirty  Tyrants ;  the  fining  of  Phrynicus,  who 
represented  in  a  tragedy  the  taking  of  Miletus  ;  how  they 
wore  garlands  on  their  heads  when  Cassander  rebuilt 
Thebes  ;  how,  having  intelligence  of  the  Scytalism  (or 
slaughter)  at  Argos  in  which  the  Argives  put  to  death  fif- 
teen hundred  of  their  own  citizens,  they  commanded  a 
lustration  (or  expiatory  sacrifice)  to  be  carried  about  in  a 
full  assembly ;  and  how,  when  they  were  searching  of 
houses  for  those  that  were  confederated  with  Harpalus, 
they  passed  by  only  one,  which  was  inhabited  by  a  man 
newly  married.  For  by  the  imitating  of  such  things  as 
these,  they  may  even  now  resemble  their  ancestors ;  but 
the  fights  at  Marathon,  Eurymedon,  and  Plataea,  and  what- 
ever examples  vainly  pufi"  up  and  heighten  the  multitude, 
should  be  left  to  the  schools  of  the  sophisters. 

18.  Now  a  statesman  ought  not  only  to  exhibit  himself 
and  his  country  blameless  to  the  prince,  but  also  to  have 
always  for  his  friend  some  one  of  those  that  are  most 
powerful  above,  as  a  firm  support  of  polity ;  for  the  Ro- 
mans are  of  such  a  disposition,  that  they  are  most  ready  to 
assist  their  friends  in  their  political  endeavors.  It  is  good 
also,  when  we  have  received  benefit  from  friendship  with 
princes,  to  apply  it  to  the  advancement  of  our  country ; 
as  did  Polybius  and  Panaetius,  who  through  the  favor  of 
Scipio  to  them  greatly  advantaged  their  countries  for  the 
obtaining  felicity.  So  Caesar  Augustus,  when  he  had 
taken  Alexandria,  made  his  entry  into  it,  holding  Arius 
by  the  hand,  and  discoursing  with  him  alone  of  all  his 
familiars  ;  after  which  he  said  to  the  Alexandrians,  who 
expecting  the  utmost  severity  supplicated  his  favor,  that 
he  pardoned  them  first  for  the  greatness  of  their  city, 
secondly  for  its  builder,  Alexander,  and  thirdly,  added  he, 
to  gratify  this  my  friend.  Is  it  then  fit  to  compare  to  this 
benefit  those  exceeding  gainful  commissions  and  adminis- 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  133 

trations  of  provinces,  in  the  pursuit  of  which  many  even 
grow  old  at  other  men's  doors,  leaving  their  own  domestic 
affairs  in  the  mean  time  unregarded  1  Or  should  we  rather 
correct  Euripides,  singing  and  saying  that,  if  one  must 
watch  and  sue  at  another's  court  and  subject  one's  self  to 
some  great  man's  familiarity,  it  is  most  commendable  so 
to  do  for  the  sake  of  one's  country ;  but  otherwise,  we 
should  embrace  and  pursue  friendships  on  equal  and  just 
conditions. 

19.  Yet  ought  not  he  who  renders  and  exhibits  his 
country  obsequious  to  potent  princes  to  contribute  to  the 
oppressing  of  it,  nor  having  tied  its  legs  to  subject  also  its 
neckj  as  some  do  who,  referring  all  things  both  great  and 
little  to  these  potentates,  upbraid  it  with  servitude,  or  rather 
wholly  take  away  the  commonwealth,  rendering  it  aston- 
ished, timorous,  and  without  command  of  any  thing.  For 
as  those  who  are  accustomed  neither  to  sup  nor  bathe 
without  the  physician  do  not  make  so  much  use  of  their 
health  as  Nature  affords  them ;  so  they  who  introduce  the 
prince's  judgment  into  every  decree,  council,  favor,  and 
administration,  necessitate  the  princes  to  be  more  masters 
of  them  than  they  desire.  Now  the  cause  of  this  is  prin- 
cipally the  avarice  and  ambition  of  the  chief  citizens.  For 
either,  by  injuring  their  inferiors,  they  compel  them  to  fly 
out  of  the  city  ;  or  in  such  things  wherein  they  differ  from 
one  another,  disdaining  to  be  worsted  by  their  fellow-citi- 
zens, they  bring  in  such  as  are  more  powerful,  whence 
both  the  council,  people,  courts  of  judicature,  and  whole 
magistracy  lose  their  authority.  But  he  ought  to  appease 
private  citizens  by  equality,  and  mightier  men  by  mutual 
submissions,  so  as  to  keep  peace  within  the  commonweal, 
and  coolly  to  determine  their  affairs  ;  making  for  these 
things,  as  it  were  for  secret  diseases,  a  certain  political 
medicine,  both  being  himself  rather  willing  to  be  van- 
quished amongst  his  fellow-citizens,  than  to  get  the  better 


134  POLITICAL   PRECEPTS. 

by  the  injury  and  dissolution  of  his  country's  rights,  and 
requesting  the  same  of  every  one  else,  and  teaching  them 
how  great  a  mischief  this  obstinacy  in  contending  is.  But 
now,  rather  than  they  will  with  honor  and  benignity  mu- 
tually yield  to  their  fellow-citizens,  kinsmen,  neighbors, 
and  colleagues  in  office,  they  do,  with  no  less  prejudice 
than  shame,  carry  forth  their  dissensions  to  the  doors  of 
the  pleaders,  and  put  them  into  the  hands  of  pragmatical 
lawyers. 

Physicians  indeed  turn  and  drive  forth  into  the  super- 
ficies of  the  body  such  diseases  as  they  are  not  able  utterly 
to  extirpate  ;  but  a  statesman,  though  he  cannot  keep  a 
city  altogether  free  from  internal  troubles,  yet  should,  by 
concealing  its  disturbance  and  sedition,  endeavor  to  cure 
and  compose  it,  so  that  it  may  least  stand  in  need  of  phy- 
sicians and  medicines  from  abroad.  For  the  intention  of 
a  statesman  should  be  fixed  upon  the  public  safety,  and 
should  shun,  as  has  been  said,  the  tumultuous  and  furious 
motion  of  vain-glory ;  and  yet  in  his  disposition  there 
should  be  magnanimity. 

And  undaunted  courage,  — as  beconies 

The  men,  who  are  for  their  dear  country's  right 

Prepared  till  deatli  'gainst  stoutest  foes  to  fight,* 

and  who  are  bravely  resolved,  not  only  to  hazard  their 
lives  against  the  assaults  of  invading  enemies,  but  also  to 
struggle  with  the  most  difficult  afi"airs,  and  stem  the  tor- 
rent of  the  most  dangerous  and  impetuous  times.  For  as 
he  must  not  himself  be  a  creator  of  storms  and  tempests, 
so  neither  must  he  abandon  the  ship  of  the  state  when 
they  come  upon  it ;  and  as  he  ought  not  to  raise  commo- 
tions and  drive  it  into  danger,  so  is  he  obliged,  when  it 
is  tossed  and  is  in  peril,  to  give  it  his  utmost  assistance,  put- 
ting forth  all  his  boldness  of  speech,  as  he  would  throw  out 
a  sacred  anchor  when  affairs  are  at  the  greatest  extremity. 

*  See  II.  XVII.  156. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  135 

Such  were  the  difficulties  that  befell  the  Pergamenians 
under  Nero,  and  the  Rhodians  lately  under  Domitian,  and 
the  Thessalians  heretofore  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  when 
they  burned  Petraeus  alive. 

You  shall  not  in  this  case  demurring  6ee,* 

or  starting  back  for  fear,  any  one  who  is  truly  a  statesman  ; 
neither  shall  you  find  him  accusing  others  and  withdraw- 
ing himself  out  of  harm's  way ;  but  you  shall  have  him 
rather  going  on  embassies,  sailing  to  foreign  parts,  and  not 
only  saying  first. 

We're  here,  Apollo,  who  the  murther  wrought, 
No  longer  plague  our  country  for  our  fault, 

but  also  ready  to  undergo  perils  and  dangers  for  the  multi- 
tude, even  though  he  has  not  been  at  all  partaker  of  their 
crime.  For  this  indeed  is  a  gallant  action  ;  and  besides  its 
honesty,  one  only  man's  virtue  and  magnanimity  has  often 
wonderfully  mitigated  the  anger  conceived  against  a  whole 
multitude,  and  dissipated  the  terror  and  bitterness  with 
which  they  were  threatened.  Such  an  influence  with  a 
king  of  Persia  had  the  deportment  of  Sperchis  and  Bulis, 
two  noble  Spartans ;  and  equally  prevalent  was  the  speech 
of  Stheno  with  Pompey,  when,  being  about  to  punish  the 
Mamertines  for  their  defection,  he  was  told  by  Stheno,  that 
he  would  not  act  justly  if  he  should  for  one  guilty  person 
destroy  abundance  of  innocents  ;  for  that  he  himself  had 
caused  the  revolt  of  the  city,  by  persuading  his  friends  and 
forcing  his  enemies  to  that  attempt.  This  speech  did  so 
dispose  Pompey,  that  he  both  pardoned  the  city  and  courte- 
ously treated  Stheno.  But  Sylla's  host,  having  used  the 
like  virtue  towards  an  unlike  person,  generously  ended  his 
days.  For  when  Sylla,  having  taken  the  city  of  Prae- 
neste,  determined  to  put  all  the  rest  of  the  inhabitants  to 
the  sword,  and  to  spare  only  him  for  the  hospitality  that 

*  See  II.  IV.  223 


136  POLITICAL  PHECEPTS. 

had  been  between  them,  he,  saying  that  he  would  not  be 
indebted  for  his  preservation  to  the  destroyer  of  his  coun- 
try, thrust  himself  in  amongst  his  fellow-citizens,  and  was 
massacred  with  them.  We  ought  therefore  indeed  to 
deprecate  such  times  as  these,  and  hope  for  better  things. 

20.  Moreover,  we  should  honor,  as  a  great  and  sacred 
thing,  every  magistracy  and  magistrate.  Now  the  mutual 
concord  and  friendship  of  magistrates  with  one  another  is 
a  far  greater  honor  of  magistracy  than  their  diadems  and 
purple-garded  robes.  Now  those  who  lay  for  a  foundation 
of  friendship  their  having  been  fellow-soldiers  or  having 
spent  their  youth  together,  and  take  their  being  joint  com- 
manders or  co-magistrates  for  a  cause  of  enmity,  cannot 
avoid  being  guilty  of  one  of  these  three  evils.  For  either, 
regarding  their  colleagues  in  government  as  their  equals, 
they  brangle  with  them  ;  or  looking  on  them  as  their  su- 
periors, they  envy  them ;  or  esteeming  them  their  inferiors, 
they  despise  them ;  whereas,  indeed,  one  ought  to  court 
his  superior,  advance  his  inferior,  honor  his  equal,  and  love 
and  embrace  all,  as  having  been  made  friends,  not  by  eat- 
ing at  the  same  table,  drinking  in  the  same  cup,  or  meeting 
at  the  same  solemn  feast,  but  by  a  common  and  public 
bond,  and  having  in  some  sort  an  hereditary  benevolence 
derived  from  their  country.  Scipio  therefore  was  ill  spoken 
of  in  Rome,  for  that,  making  a  feast  for  his  friends  at  the 
dedication  of  a  temple  to  Hercules,  he  invited  not  to  it  his 
colleague  Mummius  ;  for,  though  in  other  things  they  took 
not  one  another  for  friends,  yet  in  such  occurrences  as 
these  they  should  have  mutually  honored  and  caressed 
each  other,  for  the  sake  of  their  common  magistracy.  If 
then  the  omission  of  so  small  a  civility  brought  Scipio, 
who  was  otherwise  an  admirable  man,  under  a  suspicion 
of  arrogancy ;  how  can  he  who  seeks  to  impair  the  dignity 
of  his  colleague,  or  to  obfuscate  the  lustre  of  his  actions, 
or  through  insolency  to  draw  and  attribute  all  things  to 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  137 

himself,  taking  them  wholly  from  his  companion,  be  es- 
teemed reasonable  and  moderate  1  I  remember  that,  when 
I  was  yet  but  a  young  man,  being  jointly  with  another  sent 
on  an  embassy  to  the  proconsul,  and  my  companion  —  I 
know  not  on  what  occasion  —  stopping  by  the  way,  I  went 
on  alone  and  performed  the  affair.  Now  when  at  my  re- 
turn I  was  to  render  an  account  of  my  charge,  my  father, 
taking  me  aside,  admonished  me  not  to  say  /  we7it  but  We 
went,  not  /  spoke  but  We  spoke,  and  so  through  all  the 
rest  to  make  my  report  by  associating  my  companion,  and 
rendering  him  a  sharer  in  my  actions.  For  this  is  not  only 
decent  and  courteous,  but  also  takes  from  glory  what  is 
offensive,  that  is,  envy.  Whence  it  is  that  great  men  gen- 
erally co-ascribe  their  most  glorious  actions  to  their  Daemon 
or  Fortune ;  as  did  Timoleon,  who  having  destroyed  the 
tyrannies  in  Sicily,  consecrated  a  temple  to  Chance  ;  and 
Python,  when,  being  admired  and  honored  by  the  iVthenians 
for  having  slain  Cotys,  he  said,  God  did  this,  making  use 
of  my  hand.  But  Theopompus,  king  of  the  Lacedaemo- 
nians, when  one  said  that  Sparta  was  preserved  because  its 
kings  were  well  skilled  in  governing,  replied :  'Tis  rather 
because  the  people  are  well  versed  in  obeying. 

21.  These  two  things  then  are  affected  by  each  other; 
yet  most  men  both  say  and  think  that  the  business  of  po- 
litical instruction  is  to  render  the  people  pliable  to  be 
governed.  For  there  are  in  every  city  more  governed  than 
governors,  and  every  one  who  lives  in  a  democracy  rules 
only  a  short  time,  but  is  subject  all  his  life,  so  that  it  is  the 
most  excellent  and  useful  lesson  we  can  learn,  to  obey 
those  who  are  set  over  us,  though  they  are  less  furnished 
with  authority  and  reputation. 

For  it  is  absurd  that  a  Theodorus  or  a  Polus,  tbe  principal 
actor  in  a  tragedy,  should  often  obey  a  hireling  who  plays 
the  third  part,  and  speak  humbly  to  him  because  he  wears 
a  diadem  and  a  sceptre ;  and  that  in  real  actions  and  iu 


138  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

the  government  of  the  state,  a  rich  and  mighty  man  should 
undervalue  and  contemn  a  magistrate  because  he  is  simple 
and  poor,  thus  injuring  and  degrading  the  dignity  of  the 
commonweal  by  his  own  ;  whereas  he  should  rather  by  his 
own  reputation  and  authority  have  increased  and  advanced 
that  of  the  magistrate.  As  in  Sparta  the  kings  rose  up 
out  of  their  thrones  to  the  ephors,  and  whoever  else  was 
sent  for  by  them  did  not  slowly  obey,  but  running  hastily 
and  with  speed  through  the  forum,  gave  a  pattern  of  obe- 
dience to  his  fellow-citizens,  whilst  he  gloried  in  honoring 
the  magistrates  ;  not  like  to  some  ill-bred  and  barbarous 
persons,  who,  priding  themselves  in  the  abundance  of  their 
power,  affront  the  judges  of  the  public  combats,  revile 
the  directors  of  the  dances  in  the  Bacchanals,  and  deride 
military  commanders  and  those  that  preside  over  the  exer- 
cises of  youth,  neither  knowing  nor  understanding  that  to 
honor  is  sometimes  more  glorious  than  to  be  honored.  For 
to  a  man  of  great  authority  in  a  city,  his  accompanying 
and  attending  on  the  magistrate  is  a  greater  grace  than  if 
he  were  himself  accompanied  and  attended  on  by  him  ;  or 
rather  this  indeed  would  bring  trouble  and  envy,  but  that 
brings  real  glory,  and  such  as  proceeds  from  kindness  and 
good-will.  And  such  a  man,  being  seen  sometimes  at  the 
magistrate's  door,  and  saluting  him  first,  and  giving  him 
the  middle  place  in  walking,  does,  without  taking  any 
thing  from  himself,  add  ornament  to  the  city. 

22.  It  is  also  a  popular  thing  and  wins  greatly  on  the 
multitude,  to  bear  patiently  the  reproaches  and  indignation 
of  a  magistrate,  saying  either  with  Diomedes, 

Great  glory  soon  will  follow  this,* 

or  this,  which  was  sometime  said  by  Demosthenes,  —  that 
he  is  not  now  Demosthenes  only,  but  a  magistrate,  or 
a  director  of  public  dances,  or  a  wearer  of  a  diadem. 
Let  us  therefore  lay  aside  our  revenge  for  a  time ;    for 

*  II.  IV.  415. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  139 

either  we  shall  come  upon  him  when  he  is  dismissed 
from  his  ofl&ce,  or  shall  by  delaying  gain  a  cessation  of 
anger. 

23.  Indeed  one  should  in  diligence,  providence,  and  care 
for  the  public  always  strive  with  every  magistrate,  advising 
them,  —  if  they  are  gracious  and  well  behaved,  —  of  such 
things  as  are  requisite,  warning  them,  and  giving  them 
opportunities  to  make  use  of  such  things  as  have  been 
rightly  counselled,  and  helping  them  to  advance  the  com- 
mon good ;  but  if  there  is  in  them  any  sloth,  delay,  or  ill- 
disposedness  to  action,  then  ought  one  to  go  himself  and 
speak  to  the  people,  and  not  to  neglect  or  omit  the  public 
on  pretence  that  it  becomes  not  one  magistrate  to  be 
curious  and  play  the  busybody  in  another's  province.  For 
the  law  always  gives  the  first  rank  in  government  to  him 
w^ho  does  what  is  just  and  knows  what  is  convenient. 
"  There  was,"  says  Xenophon,*  "  one  in  the  army  named 
Xenophon,  who  was  neither  general  nor  inferior  comman- 
der ; "  but  yet  this  man,  by  his  skill  in  what  was  fit  and 
boldness  in  attempting,  raising  himself  to  command,  pre- 
served the  Grecians.  Now  of  all  Philopoemen's  deeds 
this  is  the  most  illustrious,  that  Agisf  having  surprised 
Messene,  and  the  general  of  the  Achaeans  being  unwilling 
and  fearful  to  go  and  rescue  it,  he  with  some  of  the  for- 
wardest  spirits  did  without  a  commission  make  an  assault 
and  recover  it.  Yet  are  we  not  to  attempt  innovations  on 
every  light  or  trivial  occasion ;  but  only  in  cases  of  neces- 
sity, as  did  Philopoemen,  or  for  the  performance  of  some 
honorable  actions,  as  did  Epaminondas  when  he  continued 
in  the  Boeotarchy  four  months  longer  than  was  allowed  by 
the  law,  during  which  he  brake  into  Laconia  and  re-edified 
Messene.  Whence,  if  any  complaint  or  accusation  shall 
on  this  occasion  happen,  we  may  in  our  defence  against 

♦  Xen.  Anab.  III.  1,  4. 

t  Probably  a  mistake  for  Nobis.    See  Plutarch's  Life  of  Philopoemen,  §  12.    (G.) 


1^:0  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

such  accusation  plead  necessity,  or  have  the  greatness  and 
gallantry  of  the  action  as  a  comfort  for  the  danger. 

24.  There  is  recorded  a  saying  of  Jason,  monarch  of 
the  Thessalians,  which  he  always  had  in  his  mouth  when 
he  outraged  or  molested  any,  that  there  is  a  necessity  for 
those  to  be  unjust  in  small  matters  who  will  act  justly  in 
great  ones.  Now  that  speech  one  may  presently  discern 
to  have  been  made  by  a  despot.  But  more  political  is  this 
precept,  to  gratify  the  populacy  with  the  passing  over 
small  things,  that  we  may  oppose  and  hinder  them  when 
th(  y  are  like  to  offend  in  greater.  For  he  that  will  be 
exact  and  earnest  in  all  things,  never  yielding  or  conniving, 
but  always  severe  and  inexorable,  accustoms  the  people  to 
strive  obstinately,  and  behave  themselves  perversely  to- 
wards him. 

But  wlien  the  waves  beat  high,  the  sheet  should  be 
A  little  slackened,  — 

sometimes  by  unbending  himself  and  sporting  graciously 
with  them,  as  in  the  celebrating  of  festival  sacrifices, 
assisting  at  public  games,  and  being  a  spectator  at  the 
theatres,  and  sometimes  by  seeming  neither  to  see  nor 
hear,  as  we  pass  by  the  faults  of  such  children  in  oui 
houses  ;  that  the  faculty  of  freely  chastising  and  repre- 
hending, being  —  like  a  medicine  —  not  antiquated  or  de- 
bilitated by  use,  but  having  its  full  vigor  and  authority, 
may  more  forcibly  move  and  operate  on  the  multitude  in 
matters  of  greater  importance. 

Alexander,  being  informed  that  his  sister  was  too  famil- 
iarly acquainted  with  a  certain  handsome  young  man,  was 
not  displeased  at  it.,  but  said,  that  she  also  must  be  per- 
mitted to  have  some  enjoyment  of  the  royalty ;  acting  in 
this  concession  neither  rightly  nor  as  beseemed  himself; 
for  the  dissolution  and  dishonoring  of  the  state  ought  not 
to  be  esteemed  an  enjoyment.  But  a  statesman  will  not  to 
his  power  permit  the  people  to  injure  any  private  citizens, 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  141 

to  confiscate  other  men's  estates,  or  to  share  the  public 
stock  amongst  them  ;  but  will  by  persuading,  instructing, 
and  threatening  oppugn  such  irregular  desires,  by  the  feed- 
ing and  increasing  of  which  Cleon  caused  many  a  stinging 
drone,  as  Plato  says,  to  breed  in  the  city.  But  if  the  mul- 
titude, taking  occasion  from  some  solemn  feast  of  the 
country  or  the  veneration  of  some  God,  shall  be  inclined 
either  to  exhibit  some  show,  to  make  some  small  distribu- 
tion, to  bestow  some  courteous  gratification,  or  to  perform 
some  other  magnificence,  let  them  in  such  matters  have  an 
enjoyment  both  of  their  liberality  and  abundance.  For 
there  are  many  examples  of  such  things  in  the  govern- 
ments of  Pericles  and  Demetrius  ;  and  Cimon  adorned  the 
market-place  by  planting  rows  of  plane-trees  and  making 
of  walks.  Cato  also,  seeing  the  populacy  in  the  time  of 
Catiline's  conspiracy  put  in  a  commotion  by  Caesar,  and 
dangerously  inclined  to  make  a  change  in  the  government, 
persuaded  the  senate  to  decree  some  distributions  of  money 
amongst  the  poor,  and  this  being  done  appeased  the  tumult 
and  quieted  the  sedition.  For,  as  a  physician,  having 
taken  from  his  patient  great  store  of  corrupt  blood,  gives 
him  a  little  innocent  nourishment ;  so  a  statesman,  having 
taken  from  the  people  some  great  thing  which  was  either 
inglorious  or  prejudicial,  does  again  by  some  small  and 
courteous  gratuity  still  their  morose  and  complaining 
humor. 

25.  It  is  not  amiss  also  dexterously  to  turn  aside  the 
eager  desires  of  the  people  to  other  useful  things,  as 
Demades  did  when  he  had  the  revenues  of  the  city  under 
his  management.  For  they  being  bent  to  send  galleys  to 
the  assistance  of  those  who  were  in  rebellion  against  Alex- 
ander, and  commanding  him  to  furnish  out  money  for  that 
purpose,  he  said  to  them :  You  have  money  ready,  for  I 
have  made  provision  against  the  Bacchanals,  that  every 
one  of  you  may  receive  half  a  mina  ;  but  if  you  had  rather 


142  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

have  it  employed  this  way,  make  use  as  you  please  of  your 
own.  And  by  this  means  taking  them  off  from  sending 
the  fleet,  lest  they  should  be  deprived  of  the  dividend,  he 
kept  the  people  from  ofl"ending  Alexander.  For  there  are 
many  prejudicial  things  to  which  we  cannot  directly  put  a 
stop,  but  we  must  for  that  end  make  use  of  turning  and 
winding;  as  did  Phocion,  when  he  was  required  at  an  un- 
seasonable time  to  make  an  incursion  into  Boeotia.  For  he 
immediately  caused  proclamation  to  be  made,  that  all  from 
sixteen  years  of  age  to  sixty  should  prepare  to  follow 
him ;  and  when  there  arose  upon  it  a  mutiny  amongst  the 
old  men,  he  said :  There  is  no  hardship  put  upon  you,  for 
I,  who  am  above  fourscore  years  old,  shall  be  your  general. 
In  this  manner  also  is  the  sending  of  embassies  to  be  put 
off,  by  joining  in  the  commission  such  as  are  unprepared ; 
and  the  raising  of  unprofitable  buildings,  by  bidding  them 
contribute  to  it ;  and  the  following  of  indecent  suits,  by 
ordering  the  prosecutors  to  appear  together  and  go  together 
from  the  court.  Now  the  proposers  and  inciters  of  the 
people  to  such  things  are  first  to  be  drawn  and  associated 
for  the  doing  them  ;  for  so  they  will  either  by  their  shifting 
it  off  seem  to  break  the  matter,  or  by  their  accepting  of  it 
have  their  share  in  the  trouble. 

26.  But  when  some  great  and  useful  matter,  yet  such  as 
requires  much  struggling  and  industry,  is  to  be  taken  in 
hand,  endeavor  to  choose  the  most  powerful  of  your  friends, 
or  rather  the  mildest  of  the  most  powerful ;  for  they  will 
least  thwart  you  and  most  co-operate  with  you,  having 
wisdom  without  a  contentious  humor.  Nevertheless, 'thor- 
oughly understanding  your  own  nature,  you  ought,  in  that 
for  which  you  are  naturally  less  fit,  rather  to  make  choice 
of  such  as  are  of  suitable  abilities,  than  of  such  as  are 
like  yourself;  as  Diomedes,  when  he  went  forth  to  spy, 
passing  by  the  valiant,  took  for  his  companion  one  that  was 
prudent  and  cautious.     For  thus  are  actions  better  coun- 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  143 

terpoised,  and  there  is  no  contention  bred  betwixt  them, 
when  they  desire  honor  from  different  virtues  and  qualities. 
If  therefore  you  are  yourself  no  good  speaker,  choose  for 
your  assistant  in  a  suit  or  your  companion  in  an  em- 
bassy an  eloquent  man,  as  Pelopidas  did  Epaminondas  ; 
if  you  are  unfit  to  persuade  and  converse  with  the  multi- 
tude, being  too  high-minded  for  it,  as  was  Callicratidas, 
take  one  that  is  gracious  and  courtly ;  if  you  are  infirm  of 
body  and  unable  to  undergo  fatigues,  make  choice  of  one 
who  is  robust  and  a  lover  of  labor,  as  Nicias  did  of  Lama- 
chus.  For  thus  Geryon  would  have  become  admirable, 
having  many  legs,  hands,  and  eyes,  if  only  they  had  been 
all  governed  by  one  soul.  But  it  is  in  the  power  of  states- 
men—  by  conferring  together,  if  they  are  unanimous,  not 
only  their  bodies  and  wealth,  but  also  their  fortunes,  au- 
thorities, and  virtues,  to  one  common  use  —  to  perform  the 
same  action  with  greater  glory  than  any  one  person ;  not 
as  did  the  Argonauts,  who,  having  left  Hercules,  were  ne- 
cessitated to  have  recourse  to  female  subtleties  and  be  sub- 
ject to  enchantments  and  sorceries,  that  they  might  save 
themselves  and  steal  away  the  fleece. 

Men  indeed  entering  into  some  temples  leave  their  gold 
without;  but  iron,  that  I  may  speak  my  mind  in  a  word, 
they  never  carry  into  any.  Since  then  the  tribunal  is  a 
temple  common  to  Jupiter  the  counsellor  and  protector  of 
cities,  to  Themis,  and  to  Justice,  from  the  very  beginning, 
before  thou  enterest  into  it,  stripping  thy  soul  of  avarice 
and  the  love  of  wealth,  cast  them  into  the  shops  of  bank- 
ers and  usurers. 

And  from  them  turn  thyself,* 

esteeming  him  who  heaps  up  treasures  by  the  management 
of  public  affairs  to  rob  the  temples,  plunder  graves,  and 
steal  from  his  friends,  and  enriching  himself  by  treachery 
and  bearing  of  false  witness,  to  be  an  unfaithful  counsellor, 

*  Odjss.  V.  350. 


144:  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

a  perjured  judge,  a  bribe-taking  magistrate,  and  in  brief, 
free  from  no  injustice.  Whence  it  is  not  necessary  to  say 
much  concerning  this  matter. 

27.  Now  ambition,  though  it  is  more  specious  than  covet- 
ousness,  brings  yet  no  less  plagues  into  a  state.     For  it  is 
usually  more  accompanied  with  boldness,  as  being  bred, 
not  in  slothful  and  abject  spirits,  but  chiefly  in  such  as  are 
vigorous    and  active;  and  the  vogue  of  the  people,  fre- 
quently extolling  it  and  driving  it  by  their  praises,  renders 
it  thereby  headstrong  and  hard  to  be  managed.     As  there- 
fore Plato  advised,  that  we  should  even  from  our  infancy 
inculcate  into  young  people,  that  it  is  not  fit  for  them  to 
wear  gold  about  them  abroad  nor  yet  to  be  possessors  of 
it,  as  having  a  peculiar  treasure  of  their  own,  immixed 
with  their  souls,  —  enigmatically,  as  I  conceive,  insinuating 
the  virtue  propagated  in  their  natures  from  the  race  or  stock 
of  which  they  are  descended,  — so  let  us  also  moderate  our 
ambition  by  saying,  that  we  have  in  ourselves  uncorrupted 
gold,  that  is,  honor  unmixed,  and  free  from  envy  and  repre- 
hension, which  is  still  augmented  by  the  consideration  and 
contemplation  of  our  acts  and  jests  in  the  service  of  the 
commonweal.     Wherefore  we  stand  not  in  need  of  honors 
painted,  cast,  or  engraven  in  brass,  in  which  what  is  most 
admired  frequently  belongs  to  another.     For  the  statue  of 
a  trumpeter  or  halberdier  is  not  commended  or  esteemed 
for  the  sake  of  the  person  whom  it  is  made  to  represent, 
but  for  that  of  the  workman  by  whom  it  is  made.     And 
Cato,  when  Home  was  in  a  manner   filled  with   statues, 
would  not  suffer  his   to  be  erected,  saying,  I  had  rather 
men  should  ask  why  my  statue  is  not  set  up,  than  why  it 
is.     For  such  things  are  subject  to  envy,  and  the  people 
think  themselves  obliged  to  those  who  have  not  received 
them  ;  whereas  those  who  have  received  them  are  esteemed 
burthensome,  as  seeking  public  employs  for  a  reward.     For 
as  he  does  no  great  or  glorious  act  who,  having  without 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  145 

danger  sailed  along  the  Syrtis,  is  afterwards  cast  away  in 
the  harbor ;  so  he  who,  having  kept  himself  safe  in  pass- 
ing through  the  treasury  and  the  management  of  the 
public  revenues,  is  caught  with  a  presidency  or  a  place  in 
the  Prytaneum,  not  only  dashes  against  an  high  promon- 
tory, but  is  likewise  drowned. 

He  then  is  best,  who  desires  none  of  these  things,  but 
shuns  and  refuses  them  all.  But  if  perhaps  it  is  not  easy 
wholly  to  decline  a  favor  or  testimonial  of  the  people's 
amity,  when  they  are  fully  bent  to  bestow  it,  yet  for  those 
who  have  in  the  service  of  the  state  contended  not  for  sil- 
ver or  presents,  but  have  fought  a  fight  truly  sacred  and 
deserving  a  crown,  let  an  inscription,  a  tablet,  a  decree,  or 
a  branch  of  laurel  or  olive  suffice,  such  as  Epimenides  re- 
ceived out  of  the  castle  of  Athens  for  having  purified  the 
city.  So  Anaxagoras,  putting  back  the  other  honors  that 
were  given  him,  desired  that  on  the  day  of  his  death  the 
children  might  have  leave  to  play  and  intermit  their  stud- 
ies. And  to  the  seven  Persians  who  killed  the  Magi  it  was 
granted  that  they  and  their  posterity  should  wear  their 
turban  on  the  fore  part  of  the  head  ;  for  this,  it  seems, 
they  had  made  the  signal,  when  they  went  about  that  at- 
tempt. The  honor  also  which  Pittacus  received  had  some- 
thing political ;  for  being  bid  to  take  what  portion  he 
would  of  the  land  he  had  gotten  for  his  citizens,  he  ac- 
cepted as  much  as  he  could  reach  with  the  cast  of  his  dart. 
So  Codes  the  Roman  took  as  much  as  he  himself,  being 
lame,  could  plough  in  a  day.  For  the  honor  should  not  be  a 
recompense  of  the  action,  but  an  acknowledgment  of  grati- 
tude, that  it  may  continue  also  long,  as  those  did  which  we 
have  mentioned.  But  of  the  three  hundred  statues  erected 
to  Demetrius  Phalereus,  not  one  was  eaten  into  by  rust  or 
covered  with  filth,  they  being  all  pulled  down  whilst  him- 
self was  yet  alive  ;  and  those  of  Demades  were  melted 
into  chamber-pots.     Many  other  honors  also  have  under- 

VOL.  T.  10 


146  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

gone  the  like  fate,  being  regarded  with  an  ill  eye,  not  only 
for  the  wickedness  of  the  receiver,  but  also  for  the  great- 
ness of  the  gift.  A  moderation  in  the  expense  is  therefore 
the  best  and  surest  preservative  of  honors  ;  for  such  as 
are  great,  immense,  and  ponderous  are  like  to  unpropor- 
tioned  statues,  soon  overthrown. 

28.  Now  I  here  call  those  honors  which  the  people, 

Whose  right  it  is,  so  name  ;  with  them  I  speak  : 

as  Empedocles  has  it ;  since  a  wise  statesman  will  not  de- 
spise true  honor  and  favor,  consisting  in  the  good-will  and 
friendly  disposition  of  those  who  gratefully  remember  his 
services ;  nor  will  he  contemn  glory  by  shunning  to  please 
his  neighbors,  as  Democritus  would  have  him.  For  nei- 
ther the  fawning  of  dogs  nor  the  affection  of  horses  is  to  be 
rejected  by  huntsmen  and  jockeys ;  nay,  it  is  both  profit- 
able and  pleasant  to  breed  in  those  animals  which  are 
brought  up  in  our  houses  and  live  with  us,  such  a  disposi- 
tion towards  one's  self  as  Lysimachus's  dog  showed  to  his 
master,  and  as  the  poet  relates  Achilles's  horses  to  have 
had  towards  Patroclus.*  And  I  am  of  opinion  that  bees 
would  fare  better  if  they  would  make  much  of  those  who 
breed  them  and  look  after  them,  and  would  admit  them  to 
come  near  them,  than  they  do  by  stinging  them  and  driv- 
ing them  away ;  for  now  their  keepers  punish  them  by 
smothering  them  with  smoke  ;  so  they  tame  unruly  horses 
with  short  bits ;  and  dogs  that  are  apt  to  run  away,  by  col- 
laring them  and  fastening  them  to  clogs.  But  there  is 
nothing  which  renders  one  man  so  obsequious  and  submis- 
sive to  another,  as  the  confidence  of  his  good-will,  and  the 
opinion  of  his  integrity  and  justice.  Wherefore  Demos- 
thenes rightly  affirmed,  that  the  greatest  preservative  of 
states  against  tyrants  is  distrust.  For  the  part  of  the  soul 
by  which  we  believe  is  most  apt  to  be  caught.     As  there- 

*  See  n.  XIX.  404. 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  I4.7 

fore  Cassandra's  gift  of  prophecy  was  of  no  advantage  to 
the  citizens  of  Troy,  who  would  not  believe  her : 

The  God  (says  she)  would  have  me  to  foretell 
Things  unbelieved ;  for  when  the  people  well 
Have  smarted,  groaning  under  pressures  sad, 
They  style  me  wise,  till  then  they  think  me  mad  ; 

so  the  confidence  the  citizens  had  in  Archytas,  and  their 
good-will  towards  Battus,  were  highly  advantageous  to 
those  who  would  make  use  of  them  through  the  good 
opinion  they  had  of  them. 

Now  the  first  greatest  benefit  which  is  in  the  reputation 
of  statesmen  is  the  confidence  that  is  had  in  them,  giving 
them  an  entrance  into  affairs ;  and  the  second  is,  that  the 
good-will  of  the  multitude  is  an  armor  to  the  good  against 
those  that  are  envious  and  wicked  ;  for, 

As  when  the  careful  mother  drives  the  flies 
From  her  dear  babe,  which  sweetly  sleeping  lies,* 

it  chases  away  envy,  and  renders  the  plebeian  equal  in  au- 
thority to  the  nobleman,  the  poor  man  to  the  rich,  and 
the  private  man  to  the  magistrates  ;  and  in  a  word,  when 
truth  and  virtue  are  joined  with  it,  it  is  a  strange  and  fav- 
orable wind,  directly  carrying  men  into  government.  And 
on  the  other  side  behold  and  learn  by  examples  the  mis- 
chievous eff'ects  of  the  contrary  disposition.  For  those  of 
Italy  slew  the  wife  and  children  of  Dionysius,  having  first 
violated  and  polluted  them  with  their  lusts ;  and  after- 
wards burning  their  bodies,  scattered  the  ashes  out  of  the 
ship  into  the  sea.  But  when  one  Menander,  who  had 
reigned  graciously  over  the  Bactrians,  died  afterwards  in 
the  camp,  the  cities  indeed  by  common  consent  celebrated 
his  funeral ;  but  coming  to  a  contest  about  his  relics,  they 
were  difficultly  at  last  brought  to  this  agreement,  that  his 
ashes  being  distributed,  every  one  of  them  should  carry 
away  an  equal  share,  and  they  should  all  erect  monuments 

•  n.  IV.  130. 


148  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS 

to  him.  Again,  the  Agrigentines,  being  got  rid  of  Phala- 
ris,  made  a  decree,  that  none  should  wear  a  blue  garment ; 
for  the  tyrant's  attendants  had  blue  liveries.  But  the  Per- 
sians, because  Cyrus  was  hawk-nosed,  do  to  this  day  love 
such  men  and  esteem  them  handsomest. 

29.  That  is  of  all  loves  the  strongest  and  divinest,  which 
is  by  cities  and  states  borne  to  any  man  for  his  virtue.  But 
those  false-named  honors  and  false  testimonials  of  amity, 
which  have  their  rise  from  stage-plays,  largesses,  and  fen- 
cings, are  not  unlike  the  flatteries  of  whores  ;  the  people 
always  with  smiles  bestowing  an  unconstant  and  short-lived 
glory  on  him  that  presents  them  and  gratifies  them. 

He  therefore  who  said,  the  people  were  first  overthrown 
by  him  which  first  bestowed  largesses  on  them,  very  well 
understood  that  the  multitude  lose  their  strength,  being 
rendered  weaker  by  receiving.  But  these  bestowers  must 
also  know  that  they  destroy  themselves,  when,  purchasing 
glory  at  great  expenses,  they  make  the  multitude  haughty 
and  arrogant,  as  having  it  in  their  power  to  give  and  take 
away  some  very  great  matter. 

30.  Yet  are  we  not  therefore  to  act  sordidly  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  honorary  presents,  when  there  is  plenty  enough. 
For  the  people  more  hate  a  rich  man  who  gives  nothing 
of  his  own,  than  they  do  a  poor  man  that  robs  the  public 
treasury ;  attributing  the  former  to  pride  and  a  contempt 
of  them,  but  the  latter  to  necessity.  First,  therefore,  let 
these  largesses  be  made  gratis,  for  so  they  more  oblige  the 
receivers,  and  strike  them  with  admiration ;  then,  on  some 
occasion  that  has  a  handsome  and  laudable  pretence,  with 
the  honor  of  some  God  wholly  drawing  the  people  to 
devotion ;  for  so  there  is  at  the  same  time  bred  in  them  a 
strong  apprehension  and  opinion  that  the  Deity  is  great 
and  venerable,  when  they  see  those  whom  they  honor  and 
highly  esteem  so  bountifully  and  readily  expending  their 
wealth   upon  his    honor.      As    therefore    Plato    forbade 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  149 

young  men  who  were  to  be  liberally  educated  to  learn  the 
Lydian  and  Phrygian  harmony,  —  one  of  which  excites  the 
mournful  and  melancholy  part  of  our  soul,  whilst  the  other 
increases  its  inclination  to  pleasure  and  sensual  delight, — 
so  do  you,  as  much  as  possibly  you  can,  drive  out  of  the 
city  all  such  largesses  as  either  foster  and  cherish  brutality 
and  savageness,  or  scurrility  and  lasciviousness ;  and  if 
that  cannot  be,  at  least  shun  them,  and  oppose  the  many 
when  they  desire  such  spectacles ;  always  making  the  sub- 
jects of  our  expenses  useful  and  modest,  having  for  their 
end  what  is  good  and  necessary,  or  at  least  what  is  pleasant 
and  acceptable,  without  any  prejudice  or  injury. 

31.  But  if  your  estate  be  but  indifferent,  and  by  its 
centre  and  circumference  confined  to  your  necessary  use, 
it  is  neither  ungenerous  nor  base  to  confess  your  poverty 
and  give  place  to  such  as  are  provided  for  those  honorary 
expenses,  and  not,  by  taking  up  money  on  usury,  to  render 
yourself  at  the  same  time  both  miserable  and  ridiculous  by 
such  services.  For  they  whose  abilities  fall  short  cannot 
well  conceal  themselves,  being  compelled  either  to  be 
troublesome  to  their  friends,  or  to  court  and  flatter  usurers, 
so  that  they  get  not  any  honor  or  power,  but  rather  shame 
and  contempt  by  such  expenses.  It  is  therefore  always 
useful  on  such  occasions  to  call  to  mind  Lamachus  and 
Phocion.  For  Phocion,  when  the  Athenians  at  a  solemn 
sacrifice  called  upon  him,  and  often  importuned  him  to 
give  them  something,  said  to  them,  I  should  be  ashamed 
to  give  to  you,  and  not  pay  this  Callicles,  —  pointing  to  an 
usurer  who  was  standing  by.  And  as  for  Lamachus,  he 
always  put  down  in  his  bill  of  charges,  when  he  was  gen 
eral,  the  money  laid  out  for  his  shoes  and  coat.  And  to 
Hermon,  when  he  refused  the  undertaking  of  an  office 
because  of  his  poverty,  the  Thessalians  ordained  a  pun- 
cheon of  wine  a  month,  and  a  bushel  and  a  half  of  meal 
every  four  days.     It  is  therefore  no  shame  to  confess  one's 


150  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

poverty ;  nor  are  the  poor  in  cities  of  less  authority  than 
those  who  feast  and  exhibit  pubUc  shows,  if  they  have 
but  gotten  freedom  of  speech  and  reputation  by  their 
virtue. 

A  statesman  ought  therefore  chiefly  to  moderate  himself 
on  such  occasions,  and  neither,  being  himself  on  foot,  go 
into  the  field  against  well-mounted  cavaliers,  nor,  being 
himself  poor,  vie  with  those  that  are  rich  about  race 
matches,  theatrical  pomps,  and  magnificent  tables  and  ban- 
quets ;  but  he  should  rather  strive  to  be  like  those  who 
endeavor  to  manage  the  city  by  virtue  and  prudence,  al- 
ways joined  with  eloquence ;  in  which  there  is  not  only 
honesty  and  venerableness,  but  also  a  gracefulness  and 
attractiveness, 

Ear  more  to  be  desired  than  Croesus'  wealth. 

For  a  good  man  is  neither  insolent  nor  odious ;  nor  is  a  dis- 
creet person  self-conceited, 

Nor  with  a  look  severe  walks  he  amongst 
His  fellow-citizens ; 

but  he  is,  on  the  contrary,  courteous,  affable,  and  of  easy 
access  to  all,  having  his  house  always  open,  as  a  port  of 
refuge  to  those  that  will  make  use  of  him,  and  showing 
his  care  and  kindness,  not  only  by  being  assistant  in  the 
necessities  and  aff"airs  of  those  that  have  recourse  to  him, 
but  also  by  condoling  with  those  that  are  in  adversity,  and 
congratulating  and  rejoicing  with  such  as  have  been  suc- 
cessful ;  neither  is  he  troublesome  or  offensive  by  the  mul- 
titude and  train  of  domestics  attending  him  at  bath,  or  by 
taking  up  of  places  in.  the  theatres,  nor  remarkable  by 
things  invidious  for  luxury  and  sumptuousness  ;  but  he  is 
equal  and  like  to  others  in  his  clothes,  diet,  education  of 
his  children,  and  the  garb  and  attendance  of  his  wife,  as 
desiring  in  his  comportment  and  manner  of  living  to  be 
like  the  rest  of  the  people.     Then  he  exhibits  himself  an 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  151 

intelligent  counsellor,  an  unfeed  advocate  and  courteous 
arbitrator  between  men  and  their  wives,  and  friends  at 
variance  amongst  themselves ;  not  spending  a  small  part 
of  the  day  for  the  service  of  the  commonweal  at  the 
tribunal  or  in  the  hall  of  audience,  and  employing  all  the 
rest,  and  the  whole  remainder  of  his  life,  in  drawing  to 
himself  every  sort  of  negotiations  and  affairs,  as  the  north- 
east wind  does  the  clouds ;  but  always  employing  his  cares 
on  the  public,  and  reputing  polity  (or  the  administration 
of  the  state)  as  a  busy  and  active  life,  and  not,  as  it  is 
commonly  thought,  an  easy  and  idle  service  ;  he  does  by 
all  these  and  such  like  things  turn  and  draw  the  many, 
who  see  that  all  the  flatteries  and  enticements  of  others 
are  but  spurious  and  deceitful  baits,  when  compared  to  his 
care  and  providence.  The  flatterers  indeed  of  Demetrius 
vouchsafed  not  to  give  the  other  potentates  of  his  time, 
amongst  whom  Alexanders  empire  was  divided,  the  title 
of  kings,  but  styled  Seleucus  master  of  the  elephants, 
Lysimachus  treasurer,  Ptolemaeus  admiral,  and  Agathocles 
governor  of  the  isles.  But  the  multitude,  though  they 
may  at  the  beginning  reject  a  good  and  prudent  man,  yet 
coming  afterwards  to  understand  his  veracity  and  the  sin- 
cerity of  his  disposition,  esteem  him  a  public-spirited  per- 
son and  a  magistrate ;  and  of  the  others,  they  think  and 
call  one  a  maintainer  of  choruses,  a  second  a  feaster, 
and  a  third  a  master  of  the  exercises.  Moreover,  as  at 
the  banquets  made  by  Callias  or  Alcibiades,  Socrates  only 
is  heard,  and  to  Socrates  all  men's  eyes  are  directed ;  so  in 
sound  and  healthy  states  Ismenias  bestows  largesses,  Lichas 
makes  suppers,  and  Niceratus  provides  choruses ;  but  it  is 
Epaminondas,  Aristides,  and  Lysander  that  govern,  man- 
age the  state,  and  lead  forth  the  armies.  Which  if  any 
one  considers,  he  ought  not  to  be  dejected  or  amazed  at 
the  glory  gotten  amongst  the  people  from  theatres,  ban- 
que ting-halls,  and  public  buildings ;  since  it  lasts  but  a 


152  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

short  time,  being  at  an  end  as  soon  as  the  prizes  and  plays 
are  over,  and  having  in  them  nothing  honorable  or  worthy 
of  esteem. 

32.  Those  that  are  versed  in  the  keeping  and  breeding 
of  bees  look  on  that  hive  to  be  healthiest  and  in  best 
condition,  where  there  is  most  humming,  and  which  is 
fullest  of  bustle  and  noise  ;  but  he  to  whom  God  has  com- 
mitted the  care  of  the  rational  and  political  hive,  reputing 
the  felicity  of  the  people  to  consist  chiefly  in  quietness  and 
tranquillity,  will  receive  and  to  his  power  imitate  the  rest 
of  Solon's  ordinances,  but  will  doubt  and  wonder  what  it 
was  that  induced  him  to  decree,  that  he  who,  when  there 
arises  a  sedition  in  the  city,  adheres  to  neither  party  should 
be  reputed  infamous.  For  in  the  body,  the  beginning  of 
its  change  from  sickness  to  health  is  not  wrought  by  the 
parts  that  are  infected  with  the  disease,  but  when  the 
temperature  of  such  parts  as  are  sound,  growing  powerful, 
drives  away  what  is  contrary  to  nature ;  and  in  a  state, 
where  the  people  are  disturbed  by  a  sedition  not  dangerous 
and  mortal,  but  which  will  after  a  while  be  composed  and 
allayed,  it  is  of  necessity  that  there  be  a  mixture  of  much 
that  is  uninfected  and  sound,  and  that  it  continue  and  co- 
habit in  it.  For  thither  flows  from  the  wise  what  is  fit  and 
natural,  and  passes  into  the  part  that  is  diseased.  But 
when  cities  are  in  an  universal  commotion,  they  are  in 
danger  of  being  utterly  destroyed,  unless,  being  constrained 
by  some  necessity  and  chastisement  from  abroad,  they  are 
by  the  force  of  their  miseries  reduced  to  wisdom.  Yet 
does  it  not  become  you  in  the  time  of  a  sedition  to  sit  as 
if  you  were  neither  sensible  nor  sorry,  praising  your  own 
unconcernedness  as  a  quiet  and  happy  life,  and  taking  de- 
light in  the  error  of  others.  But  on  such  occasions  chiefly 
should  you  put  on  the  buskin  of  Theramenes,  and  confer- 
ring with  both  parties,  join  yourself  to  neither.  For  you  will 
not  seem  a  stranger  by  not  being  a  partaker  in  injustice, 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  153 

but  a  common  friend  to  them  all  by  your  assistance ;  nor 
will  you  be  envied  for  your  not  sharing  in  the  calamity, 
when  you  appear  equally  to  condole  with  every  one  of 
them.  But  the  best  is,  by  your  providential  care  to  pre- 
vent the  raising  of  any  sedition ;  and  in  this  consists  the 
greatest  and  most  excellent  point,  as  it  were,  of  the  politi- 
cal art.  For  you  are  to  consider  that,  the  greatest  benefits 
a  city  can  enjoy  being  peace,  liberty,  plenty,  abundance  of 
men,  and  concord,  the  people  have  at  this  time  no  need  of 
statesmen  for  the  procuring  of  peace ;  since  all  war, 
whether  with  Greeks  or  barbarians,  is  wholly  taken  away 
and  banished  from  us.  As  for  liberty,  the  people  have  as 
much  as  the  emperors  think  fit  to  grant  them,  and  more 
perhaps  would  not  be  expedient.  The  prudent  man  there- 
fore will  beg  the  Gods  to  grant  to  his  fellow-citizens  the 
unenvied  plenty  of  the  earth,  and  the  kind  temper  of  the 
seasons,  and  that  wives  may  bear  "  children  like  to  their 
parents,"  *  and  also  safety  for  all  that  is  born  and  produced. 
There  remains  therefore  to  a  statesman,  of  all  those 
things  that  are  subject  to  his  charge,  this  alone,  which  is 
inferior  to  none  of  the  other  benefits,  the  keeping  of  those 
who  are  co-inhabitants  of  the  same  city  in  perpetual  con- 
cord and  friendship,  and  the  taking  away  of  all  contentions, 
animosities,  and  heart-burnings.  In  which  he  shall,  as  in 
the  difi'erences  between  friends,  so  converse  with  the  party 
appearing  to  be  most  injured,  as  if  he  himself  seemed  also 
a  sharer  in  the  injury  and  equally  offended  at  it,  endeavor- 
ing afterwards  so  to  appease  him,  by  showing  him  how 
much  those  who  pass  by  injuries  excel  such  as  strive  to 
contend  and  conquer,  not  only  in  good-nature  and  sweet- 
ness of  disposition,  but  also  in  prudence  and  magnanimity  ; 
and  how,  by  remitting  a  little  of  their  right  in  small  mat- 
ters, they  get  the  better  in  the  greatest  and  most  important. 
He  shall  afterwards  admonish  them  both  in  general  and 

*  Hesiod,  Works  and  Days,  235. 


154  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

apart,  instructing  them  in  the  weakness  of  the  Grecian 
affairs,  which  it  is  better  for  intelligent  men  to  make  the 
best  of,  and  to  live  in  peace  and  concord,  than  to  engage  in 
a  contest  for  which  fortune  has  left  no  reward.  For  what 
authority,  what  glory  is  there  remaining  for  the  conquer- 
ors ?  What  power  is  there,  which  the  least  decree  of  a 
proconsul  cannot  abolish  or  transfer  elsewhere,  and  which, 
though  it  should  continue,  would  yet  have  any  thing  worth 
our  pains  1  But  since,  as  a  conflagration  in  a  town  does 
not  frequently  begin  in  sacred  and  public  places,  but  a 
lamp  negligently  left  in  a  house,  or  the  burning  of  a  little 
trash  or  rubbish,  raises  a  great  fire  and  works  a  common 
mischief;  so  sedition  in  a  state  is  not  always  kindled  by 
contentions  about  public  aff"airs,  but  oftentimes  the  differ- 
ences arising  from  private  concerns  and  jangles,  being  pro- 
pagated into  the  public,  have  disturbed  a  whole  city.  It  is 
no  less  becoming  a  statesman  to  remedy  and  prevent  all 
these,  so  that  some  of  them  may  never  have  any  being, 
others  may  quickly  be  extinguished,  and  others  hindered 
from  increasing  or  taking  hold  of  the  public,  and  confined 
amongst  the  adversaries  themselves.  And  as  himself 
ought  to  take  care  for  this,  so  should  he  advertise  others, 
that  private  disturbances  are  the  occasion  of  public  ones, 
and  little  of  great  ones,  if  they  are  neglected  and  suffered 
to  proceed  without  taking  care  to  apply  fit  remedies  to 
them  in  the  beo:inninD;. 

In  this  manner  is  the  greatest  and  most  dangerous  dis- 
turbance that  ever  happened  in  Delphi  said  to  have  been 
occasioned  by  Crates,  whose  daughter  Orgilaus,  the  son  of 
Phalis,  being  about  to  marry,  it  happened  that  the  cup 
they  were  using  in  the  espousals  brake  asunder  of  itself; 
which  he  taking  for  an  ill  omen,  left  his  bride,  and  went 
away  with  his  father.  Crates  a  little  after,  charging  them 
with  taking  away  a  certain  golden  vessel,  used  in  the  sacri- 
fices, caused  Orgilaus  and  his  brother,  unheard,  to  be  pre- 


POLITICAL  PRECEPTS.  155 

cipitated  from  the  top  of  a  rock  to  the  bottom,  and  after- 
wards slew  several  of  their  most  intimate  friends,  as  they 
were  at  their  devotions  in  the  temple  of  Providence.  Aftei 
many  such  things  were  perpetrated,  the  Delphians,  putting 
to  death  Crates  and  his  companions  in  the  sedition,  out  of 
their  estates  which  they  called  excommunicated,  built  the 
temples  in  the  lower  part  of  the  town.  In  Syracuse  also 
there  were  two  young  men,  betwixt  whom  there  was  an 
extraordinary  intimacy,  one  of  which,  having  taken  into 
his  custody  his  friend's  catamite,  vitiated  him  in  his 
absence.  The  other  at  his  return,  by  way  of  retaliation, 
debauched  his  companion's  wife.  Then  one  of  the  ancient 
senators,  coming  into  the  council,  proposed  the  banishing 
of  them  both  before  the  city  was  ruined  by  their  filling  it 
with  enmity.  Yet  did  not  he  prevail ;  but  a  sedition 
arising  on  this  occasion  by  very  great  calamities  overturned 
a  most  excellently  constituted  commonweal.  You  have 
also  a  domestical  example  in  the  enmity  between  Pardalus 
and  Tyrrhenus,  which  wanted  little  of  destroying  Sardis 
by  embroiling  it  in  revolt  and  war  on  little  and  private 
differences.  A  statesman  therefore  is  not  to  slight  the  little 
offences  and  heart-burnings  which,  as  diseases  in  a  body, 
pass  speedily  from  one  to  another,  but  to  take  them  in 
hand,  suppress,  and  cure  them.  For,  as  Cato  says,  by 
attention  and  carefulness  great  matters  are  made  little,  and 
little  ones  reduced  to  nothing.  Now  there  is  no  better 
artifice  of  inuring  men  to  this,  than  the  showing  one's  self 
easily  pacified  in  his  own  private  differences,  persisting 
without  rancor  in  matters  of  the  first  importance,  and 
managing  none  with  obstinacy,  contending  wrath,  or  any 
other  passion,  which  may  work  sharpness  or  bitterness  in 
necessary  disputes.  For  as  they  bind  certain  round  muffles 
about  the  hands  of  those  who  combat  at  buffets,  that  in 
their  contests  there  may  not  arrive  any  fatal  accident, 
the  blows  being  soft  and  such  as  can  do  no  great  harm ;  so 


156  POLITICAL  PRECEPTS. 

in  such  suits  and  processes  with  one's  fellow-citizens,  it  is 
best  to  manage  the  dispute  by  making  use  of  pure  and 
simple  pretences,  and  not  by  sharpening  and  empoisoning 
matters,  as  if  they  were  weapons,  with  calumnies,  malice, 
and  threats,  to  render  them  pernicious,  great,  and  public. 
For  he  who  in  this  manner  carries  himself  with  those  with 
whom  he  has  affairs  will  have  others  also  subject  to  him. 
But  contentions  about  public  matters,  where  private  grudges 
are  taken  away,  are  soon  appeased,  and  bring  no  difficult 
or  fatal  mischiefs. 


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


AUTOBULUS,    SOCLARUS,    OPTATUS,   PHAEDIMUS,    ARISTOTIMUS, 

HERACLEO. 

1.  AuTOBULus.  Leonidas,  being  asked  the  question  what 
he  thought  of  Tyrtaeus,  made  answer,  that  he  was  a  good 
poet  to  whet  minds  of  young  men ;  as  a  person  who, 
by  the  vigor  and  spirit  of  his  poetical  raptures,  kindled 
that  wrathful  indignation  and  ambition  of  honor,  which 
emboldened  them  in  combat  tO  the  contempt  of  death  and 
danger.  Which  makes  me  afraid,  my  dearest  friends,  lest 
the  encomium  of  hunting  yesterday  recited  may  have  in- 
flamed our  young  gentlemen  beyond  the  bounds  of  modera- 
tion, so  as  to  deem  all  other  things  fruitless  and  of  little 
worth,  while  they  rendezvous  from  all  parts  to  this  exer- 
cise. So  much  the  rather,  because  I  myself,  when  I  was 
but  very  young,  even  beyond  the  strength  of  my  age, 
seemed  to  be  more  than  became  me  addicted  to  this  sport, 
and  to  be  over  desirous  with  Phaedra  in  Euripides, 

With  hounds  and  horn  and  merry  hollow, 
The  spotted  hart  and  hind  to  follow. 

So  did  that  discourse  affect  me,  fortified  with  many  and 
probable  arguments. 

SocLARUs.  You  say  very  truly,  Autobulus.  For  that 
same  poet  seems  to  me  to  have  awakened  the  force  of 
rhetoric,  for  a  long  time  lulled  asleep,  to  gratify  the  incli- 


15b  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

nations  of  the  youthful  gentry,  and  to  make  himself  their 
spring  companion.  But  I  am  most  pleased  with  him  for 
introducing  the  example  of  single  combatants,  from  whence 
he  takes  occasion  to  praise  the  sport  of  hunting,  as  being 
that  which  for  the  most  part  draws  to  itself  whatever  is 
natural  in  us,  or  what  we  have  by  use  acquired,  of  that  de- 
light which  men  take  in  fighting  with  single  weapons  one 
against  another,  thus  affording  an  evident  prospect  of  arti- 
fice and  daring  courage,  endued  with  understanding,  en- 
countering brutish  force  and  strength,  and  applauding  that 
of  Euripides : 

Small  is  the  nerveless  strength  of  feeble  man, 
Yet  through  the  cunning  of  his  reaching  brain, 
By  various  slights  and  sundry  stratagems, 
Whatever  land  or  th'  Ocean  breeds  he  tames.* 

2.  AuTOBULus.  And  hence  it  was,  as  they  say,  my  dearest 
Soclarus,  that  men  at  first  became  insensible  and  inhuman, 
having  once  tasted  of  murder,  and  being  all  accustomed, 
by  hunting  and  following  the  chase,  not  only  to  behold 
without  remorse  the  wounds  and  blood  of  wild  beasts,  but 
to  rejoice  at  their  being  killed  and  slaughtered.  After- 
wards, as  at  Athens,  some  sycophant  was  by  the  Thirty 
Tyrants  set  apart  for  death,  as  a  proper  object  of  capital 
punishment,  then  a  second,  and  a  third  ;  till,  proceeding  by 
degrees,  they  seized  upon  good  men,  and  at  length  spared 
not  the  best  and  most  worthy  citizens.  In  like  manner 
the  first  that  slew  a  bear  or  a  wolf  obtained  applause, 
then  the  ox  and  hog  were  appointed  to  be  killed,  under 
pretence  of  having  tasted  the  sacred  things  that  lay  before 
them.  Next  to  them  deer,  hares,  and  goats  were  made 
use  of  for  food,  and  in  some  places  the  flesh  of  sheep, 
dogs,  and  horses  grew  familiar  to  human  taste.  The  tame 
goose  also  and  pigeon,  man's  familiar  domestic,  according 
to  Sophocles,  —  not  for  nourishment  or  to  assuage  hunger, 

*  Eurip.  Hippol.  218. 


WATER  OR  LAND   ANIMALS?  159 

as  cats  and  weasels  do,  but  to  indulge  voluptuous  appetites, 
—  they  dressed  and  mangled  to  pieces.  This  gave  strength 
and  vigor  to  whatever  was  in  nature  bloodthirsty  and 
savage,  and  rendering  the  disposition  of  man  inflexible 
to  pity,  had  almost  erased  out  of  his  breast  whatever  was 
inclinable  to  humanity  and  mildness.  Whereas,  on  the  other 
side,  the  Pythagoreans,  that  they  might  accustom  men  to 
the  love  of  humanity  and  compassion,  still  inculcated  into 
their  minds  a  particular  care  of  being  mild  and  gentle 
towards  beasts.  For  there  is  nothing  more  powerful  than 
custom  to  win  upon  all  the  affections  of  man,  and  to 
draw  them  from  moderation  to  extremity.  But  I  know  not 
how  it  comes  to  pass,  that  being  entered  into  this  dis- 
course, we  have  forgot  not  only  the  subject  we  were  yes- 
terday upon,  but  what  we  had  also  this  day  agreed  to 
make  the  theme  of  our  colloquy.  For  yesterday,  as  you 
well  know,  having  thrown  out  a  proposition,  that  all  creat- 
ures were  in  some  manner  partakers  of  understanding 
and  reason,  we  gave  an  occasion  to  you,  young  huntsmen, 
for  a  fair  dispute,  which  of  the  two  excelled  in  craft  and 
cunning,  the  land  animals,  or  the  creatures  that  breed  in 
the  sea"?  Which,  if  you  please,  we  will  determine  this 
day,  if  Aristotimus  and  Phaedimus  will  stand  to  their 
agreement ;  of  which  two  gentlemen,  the  one  has'  offered 
himself  to  his  friends  to  be  the  patron  of  the  land  animals, 
the  other  reserves  the  honor  of  being  more  crafty  to  those 
of  the  sea. 

SocLARus.  They  will  be  as  good  as  their  words,  I  assure 
you,  Autobulus,  and  will  be  here  presently  ;  for  I  saw  them 
both  early  this  morning  preparing  for  the  combat.  In  the 
mean  time,  if  you  please,  before  they  begin,  let  us  resume 
something  of  what  was  yesterday  not  so  fully  discoursed 
of  for  want  of  time,  or  not  so  carefully  argued  in  our 
wine,  as  it  ought  to  have  been.  For  there  seemed  a  dis- 
pute to  resound  in  my  ears  from  the  Stoics'  portico,  that, 


160  WHICH  AEE  THE  MOST  CKAFTT, 

as  immortal  is  opposite  to  mortal,  incorruptible  to  corrupti- 
ble, incorporeal  to  corporeal,  in  like  manner  things  void 
of  reason  ought  to  be  opposed  to  those  beings  that  are  en- 
dued with  reason,  lest  among  so  many  pairs  of  contraries 
this  alone  should  be  found  maimed  and  imperfect. 

3.  AuTOBULUs.  Good  now,  friend  Soclarus,  who  was  he 
that  maintained  that,  because  there  are  certain  beings  en- 
dued with  reason,  therefore  there  is  nothing  void  of  rea- 
son 1  For  we  abound  with  examples  in  all  things  that  are 
destitute  of  a  soul ;  nor  do  we  want  any  other  antithesis  to 
irrational,  but  only  to  oppose  whatever  is  deprived  of  a 
soul  —  as  being  void  of  reason  and  understanding  —  to 
that  which  is  endued  with  reason  and  understanding  to- 
gether wath  a  soul.  But  if  any  one  will  assert,  that  Na- 
ture is  not  defective,  and  that  therefore  animated  Nature  is 
partly  rational,  partly  without  reason  ;  another  may  at  the 
same  time  allege,  that  animated  Nature  is  partly  endued 
with  imagination,  partly  deprived  of  it ;  partly  sensible, 
partly  insensible  ;  to  the  end  that  Nature  may  not  want 
these  opposite  habits  and  privations,  as  it  were,  equally 
balanced  in  the  same  kind.  For,  as  it  would  be  absurd  to 
expect  to  find  some  living  creatures  sensible  and  others 
without  sense,  and  equally  ridiculous  to  grant  imagination 
to  some  living  creatures  and  not  allloAV  it  to  others,  —  since 
there  is  no  living  creature  that  comes  into  the  world  but 
what  is  presently  endued  with  sense  and  imagination, — 
thus  would  he  be  as  much  out  of  the  way,  who  should  re- 
quire one  living  creature  to  be  rational  and  another  void 
of  reason,  and  that  too  when  he  is  disputing  with  men 
who  hold  that  nothing  whatever  can  partake  of  sense 
which  does  not  also  partake  of  understanding,  and  that 
there  is  no  animal  not  endued  by  Nature  with  opinion  and 
ratiocination,  as  well  as  with  sense  and  instinct.  For  Na- 
ture, which,  as  they  truly  say,  made  all  things  for  the  sake 
of  something  and  to  some  end,  did  not  make  a  sensible 


WATER   OR   LAND   ANIMALS?  161 

creature  to  be  merely  sensible  of  barely  suffering  some- 
'"bing ;  but  since  there  are  many  things  familiar  and  agree- 
able, and  other  things  as  baneful  and  pernicious,  no  one  of 
them  could  survive  for  a  moment,  did  they  not  learn  to 
avoid  some  things  and  covet  the  use  and  benefit  of  others. 
Sense  it  is,  therefore,  that  affords  to  every  creature  the 
knowledge  both  of  useful  and  hurtful ;  but  the  discretion 
which  accompanies  the  said  sense,  choosing  and  seizing 
upon  things  profitable,  and  discerning  and  avoiding  things 
pernicious  or  troublesome,  can  never  be  thought  to  reside 
in  any  creature  not  capable  to  reason,  to  judge,  remember, 
and  consider.  Therefore,  if  you  will  deprive  the  creatures 
of  expectation,  memory,  design,  preparation,  hope,  fear, 
desire,  and  grief,  you  must  at  the  same  time  deny  them  the 
use  either  of  eyes  or  ears,  and  indeed  of  all  sense  and  im- 
agination ;  which  it  is  better  for  them  to  be  without,  since 
they  cannot  make  use  of  them,  than  to  labor  under  grief 
and  pain,  with  no  means  present  of  averting  them. 

There  is  an  oration  of  Strato  the  philosopher,  demon- 
strating that  without  sense  there  can  be  no  understanding. 
For  many  times  letters  cursorily  glanced  upon  by  the  eye, 
and  speeches  little  regarded  by  the  ear,  escape  our  knowl- 
edge, our  minds  being  intent  on  other  matters.  After- 
wards by  recollection  the  same  things  return  into  our  mind, 
for  us  to  run  through  and  pursue  them  in  our  thoughts  as 
we  please.  Whence  we  say  proverbially,  "  The  mind  sees, 
the  mind  hears  ;  all  other  things  are  deaf  and  blind,"  in 
regard  there  can  be  no  sense  in  the  eyes  and  ears,  if  un- 
derstanding be  wanting.  Therefore  King  Cleomenes, 
after  great  commendations  given  to  a  copy  of  verses  recited 
at  a  banquet  where  he  w^as  present,  being  asked  whether 
it  were  not  an  admirable  piece,  bid  them  that  heard  it  give 
their  judgment,  for  that  his  mind  was  in  the  Peloponnesus. 
Therefore  of  necessity,  whatever  creatures  are  capable  of 
sense  must  also  be  capable  of  understanding,  if  we  can 

VOL.  V.  11 


162  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

no  otherwise  be  sensible  than  by  the  force  of  understand 
ing. 

But  suppose  we  should  grant  that  sense  has  no  need  of 
the  understanding  for  the  performance  of  the  duty  incum- 
bent upon  it ;  nevertheless,  when  that  same  sense  which 
has  shown  an  animal  the  difference  between  what  is  grate- 
ful and  what  is  averse  to  Nature  has  departed,  where  is 
that  faculty  which  retains  this  difference  in  the  memory, 
—  dreading  things  that  are  abominable,  and  longing  after 
things  that  are  useful,  and  if  they  are  wanting,  seeking 
means  to  compass  them, —  which  provides  animals  recepta- 
cles and  places  of  refuge,  that  they  may  look  out  after  their 
prey,  and  avoid  the  snares  and  gins  of  the  hunters  1  And 
yet  those  very  authors  inculcate  these  things  in  their  intro- 
ductions, even  to  the  teasing  our  ears :  defining  purpose 
to  be  an  indication  that  something  is  to  be  brought  to 
completion ;  design  to  be  an  impulse  before  an  impulse ; 
preparation  to  be  an  action  before  an  action  ;  memory  to 
be  the  comprehension  of  some  certain  past  impression, 
which  at  first  was  apprehended  by  sense.  In  all  which 
things  there  is  nothing  which  may  not  rightly  be  said  to 
partake  of  reason,  and  yet  all  these  things  are  common  to 
all  creatures ;  as  indeed  are  certainly  all  cogitations  ; 
which,  while  they  lie  concealed  in  the  brain,  we  call 
thoughts,  but  when  they  come  to  be  in  motion,  we  name 
conceptions.  In  the  mean  time  they  acknowledge  all 
passions  and  perturbations  of  the  mind  to  be  false  judg- 
ments and  erroneous  opinions  ;  so  that  it  is  a  wonder  to 
me,  that  the  same  men  should  oversee  so  many  operations 
and  motions,  some  of  desire,  others  of  fear,  nay,  by  Jupi- 
ter, many  times  of  envy  and  emulation  itself.  And  many 
times  they  themselves  punish  their  dogs  and  horses  when 
they  commit  a  fault,  and  this  not  to  no  purpose,  but  to 
chastise  them  by  causing  in  them  through  pain  that  trouble 
of  mind  which  we  call  repentance.     Now  the  tickling  the 


"WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  163 

ear  by  pleasing  sounds  is  called  enchantment,  but  the  be- 
witching the  eye  is  called  bewitching ;  both  which  we 
make  use  of  in  the  domesticating  of  wild  beasts.  Harts 
and  horses  are  allured  by  the  sounds  of  pipes  and  flutes. 
And  there  are  a  sort  of  crabs  which  are  charmed  out  of 
their  holes  by  fifes  ;  and  it  is  reported  that  the  shadfish  are 
drawn  to  show  themselves  above  water  by  singing  and 
clapping  of  hands.  The  otus  also,  which  is  a  bird  not 
much  unlike  a  night-raven,  is  taken  by  allurement  of  the 
sight ;  for  that  while  he  stands  staring  upon  the  fowlers 
dancing  before  him  in  measure  and  figure,  and  out  of 
aff'ection  will  be  striving  to  act  his  part  by  aping  their 
motions  with  his  wings  and  shoulders,  he  is  frequently  sur- 
prised and  taken. 

But  as  for  those  that  more  foolishly  affirm  that  beasts 
are  not  affected  with  joy  or  anger  or  fear,  that  the  swal- 
low does  not  build,  that  the  bee  does  not  remember,  that 
the  lion  is  not  angry,  that  the  hart  is  not  timorous,  but  that 
they  do  all  these  things  only  as  it  were  and  apparently ;  I 
would  fain  know  what  answer  they  will  make  to  those  who 
say,  that  beasts  neither  see  nor  hear,  but  as  it  were  see  and 
as  it  were  hear ;  that  they  neither  neigh  nor  bleat,  but  as 
it  were  send  forth  a  certain  sound  ;  lastly,  that  they  do  not 
absolutely  live,  but  live  as  it  were  ?  For,  in  my  opinion, 
to  aver  this  is  as  contrary  to  plain  demonstration  as  the 
rest. 

4.  SocLARUs.  Well  then,  Autobulus,  suppose  me  to  be 
one  of  those  that  affirm  these  things.  For  it  is  great 
folly  for  men  to  compare  the  actions  of  beasts  with  the 
customs,  actions,  and  manner  of  living  men,  and  above  all, 
to  deny  that  beasts  have  the  least  inclination  or  aim  at  any 
progress  towards  virtue,  to  which  we  bent  our  discourse. 
Indeed,  I  doubt  whether  Nature  gave  them  a  beginning  or 
no,  since  they  are  so  incapable  to  attain  the  end. 

Autobulus.    Why  truly,  Soclarus,  this  is  not  a  thing  that 


164  WHICH   ATIE   THE   MOST   CRAFTY, 

seems  so  absurd  to  those  men.  For  that  while  they  assert 
the  extreme  love  of  parents  towards  their  children  to  be 
the  principle  of  society  and  justice,  and  find  at  the  same 
time  this  virtue  apparent  and  surpassing  in  brute  animals, 
yet  they  will  not  allow  them  in  the  least  to  partake  of  jus- 
tice ;  like  mules,  which,  though  they  are  furnished  with 
genital  parts,  as  wanting  neither  privities  nor  wombs,  and 
mixing  with  delight  and  pleasure,  yet  cannot  attain  the  end 
of  generation.  But  then  again  I  would  have  you  consider, 
whether  they  be  not  ridiculous,  that  affirm  Socrates  or 
Plato  to  be  no  less  vicious  than  the  meanest  of  slaves, — 
nay  more,  that  they  were  fools,  intemperate,  and  unjust, — 
and  then  find  fault  with  the  nature  of  beasts,  as  being 
impure  and  no  way  accurately  framed  for  the  reception  of 
virtue ;  as  if  this  were  proof  of  utter  want  of  reason,  and 
not  of  depravedness  and  imbecility  of  reason.  And  all 
the  while,  they  acknowledge  that  there  are  vices  of  reason, 
of  which  all  brute  beasts  are  guilty  ;  many  of  which  we 
plainly  find  to  be  intemperate,  fearful,  malicious,  and  un- 
just. Therefore  he  that  denies  that  reason  exists  by  Nature 
in  a  creature,  because  it  is  not  framed  by  Nature  to  attain 
to  the  perfection  of  reason,  little  differs  from  one  that 
should  deny  a  monkey  to  partake  of  deformity  by  Nature, 
or  a  tortoise  of  slowness,  as  being  neither  susceptible  of 
beauty  or  swiftness.  Nor  do  they  observe  the  distinction 
that  lies  before  their  eyes.  For  reason  is  in  the  creature 
by  Nature,  but  right  and  perfect  reason  is  attained  by  in- 
dustry and  education ;  so  that  naturally  all  creatures  may 
be  said  to  be  rational.  But  if  they  look  for  perfection  of 
reason  and  true  wisdom,  they  will  hardly  find  those  perfec- 
tions in  any  man  whatever.  For  as  there  is  a  difiference 
between  sight  and  sight,  and  between  flight  and  flight, 
—  for  hawks  and  grasshoppers  do  not  see  alike,  neither  do 
eagles  and  partridges  fly  with  equal  swiftness,  —  so  neither 
in  all  rational  creatures  is  there  to  be  found  the  same  per- 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  165 

fection  of  cunning  and  acuteness.  For  as  there  are  many 
examples  to  be  produced  of  several  brute  creatures,  excel- 
ling in  the  observance  of  society,  fortitude,  and  foresight 
as  to  their  particular  economy  and  making  provision  for 
themselves ;  so  on  the  other  side,  there  may  be  found 
among  them  as  many  of  injustice,  cowardice,  and  folly. 
Which  is  evident  from  the  present  contest  wherein  these 
young  gentlemen  have  engaged  themselves,  while  the  one 
has  undertaken  to  maintain  that  land-animals,  the  other 
that  creatures  bred  in  the  sea,  are  most  inclined  to  virtue. 
Which  is  plainly  demonstrated  by  comparing  river-horses 
with  storks.  For  the  one  support  and  cherish  their  fathers, 
the  others  kill  them  that  they  may  enjoy  their  dams.  So 
likewise,  if  you  compare  doves  with  partridges.  For  the 
cock  partridge  will  not  suffer  the  hen  to  sit,  but  breaks  her 
eggs  and  throws  them  out  of  the  nest  if  she  refuses  to  be 
trod.  But  the  cock  pigeon  takes  upon  him  part  of  the 
female's  duty,  in  brooding  over  the  eggs  and  feeding  the 
young  ones  ;  and  if  the  hen  happens  to  be  too  long  absent, 
he  corrects  her  with  his  bill,  till  he  forces  her  to  return  to 
her  nest.  So  that,  while  Antipater  found  fault  with  sheep 
and  asses  for  their  nastiness,  I  wonder  how  he  came  to 
pass  by  lynxes  and  swallows,  of  which  the  one  are  so 
cleanly  that  they  always  remove  and  hide  their  excrements, 
the  others  teach  their  young  ones  to  turn  their  tails  out  of 
their  nest,  before  they  let  fall  their  defilement.  Anti  in- 
deed, why  may  we  not  say  that  one  tree  is  more  docible 
than  another,  as  dogs  are  more  docible  than  sheep  ;  or  one 
pot-herb  more  timorous  than  another,  as  harts  are  more 
fearful  than  lions  1  Or  otherwise,  as  among  things  immov- 
able, there  is  not  one  thing  slower  in  motion  than  another ; 
nor  among  things  that  are  mute,  one  thing  more  vocal  than 
another ;  so  neither,  among  things  to  which  Nature  has 
not  afforded  a  faculty  of  understanding,  is  there  one  thing 
more  timorous,  more   slothful,  or  more  intemperate  than 


166  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

another.  But  as  to  those  creatures  where  that  faculty  is 
present,  the  difference  is  manifest  in  the  degrees  of  more 
or  less. 

5.  SocLARUs.  However,  it  is  a  wonderful  thing  to  ob- 
serve, how  much  man  differs  from  all  other  creatures  in 
probity  of  manners,  in  industry,  and  in  all  those  things 
that  relate  to  justice  and  common  society. 

AuTOBULUS.  Nevertheless,  my  dear  friend,  this  cannot 
be  denied,  that  there  are  many  brute  beasts  that  surpass 
men  both  in  bulk  and  swiftness,  others  that  far  surpass  him 
in  strength  of  sight  and  exactness  of  hearing ;  and  yet  for 
all  this  we  are  not  to  say  that  man  is  blind,  without 
strength,  or  wants  ears.  For  Nature  has  not  deprived  us 
either  of  hands  or  eyes  or  strength  or  bulk,  though  we 
must  not  compare  with  camels  or  elephants.  In  like  man- 
ner we  must  not  say  that  brute  beasts  are  altogether  de- 
prived of  reason  and  understanding,  because  they  are  more 
dull  of  understanding,  and  not  so  quick  at  ratiocination  as 
we  are,  as  only  enjoying  a  weak  and  muddy  sort  of  reason, 
like  a  dim  and  clouded  eye.  And  did  I  not  presently  ex- 
pect these  young  gentlemen,  being  persons  both  studious 
and  learned,  to  bring  together  an  infinite  number  of  ex- 
amples in  reference  to  both  land  and  sea-animals,  I  could 
produce  a  thousand  examples  of  docility  and  a  thousand 
more  of  good  nature  in  beasts,  which  the  famous  city  of 
Rome  has  given  us  an  opportunity  to  fetch  from  her  impe- 
rial theatres ;  but  we  will  leave  these  things  fresh  and 
untouched,  for  them  to  embellish  with  theu'  eloquent  dis- 
course. 

In  the  mean  time  I  have  something  to  offer  by  the  by, 
which  is  this,  that  I  am  of  opinion  that  there  is  a  mutila- 
tion, disease,  and  defect  peculiar  to  every  part  and  faculty, 
—  as  blindness  of  the  eye,  lameness  of  the  leg,  and  stut- 
tering of  the  tongue,  —  which  defects  cannot  be  appro- 
priated to  any  other  members.     For  that  blindness   can 


"WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  167 

never  be  attributed  to  that  which  was  never  created  to  see, 
nor  lameness  to  that  which  never  could  go,  nor  can  any 
thing  be  said  to  stammer  that  wants  a  tongue,  or  to  lisp  or 
stutter  that  has  not  a  vocal  utterance.  And  nothing  can 
be  said  to  be  a  changeling  or  beside  his  wits  or  mad,  to 
which  Nature  never  gave  the  use  of  thought,  reason,  and 
understanding ;  for  it  is  impossible  to  be  so  without  some 
faculty  that  can  suffer  either  privation  or  mutilation  or 
some  other  defect.  But  you  have  seen  dogs  that  were 
mad,  and  I  have  seen  horses  under  the  same  predicament ; 
and  some  there  are  who  say  that  bulls  and  foxes  will  be 
mad.  But  the  example  of  dogs  is  sufficient,  which  is  un- 
questionable. This  makes  it  evident,  that  those  creatures 
have  a  sort  of  reason  and  understanding  not  to  be  despised, 
which  being  once  confused  and  troubled,  the  affection 
arises  which  is  called  madness.  For  we  do  not  find  either 
their  sight  or  their  hearing  diminished.  Now,  as  when  a 
man  is  affected  with  hypochondriac  melancholy,  or  in  a 
delirium,  it  would  be  absurd  to  say  that  he  was  not  beside 
himself,  or  that  his  sense,  reason,  and  memory  were  not 
disturbed,  —  for  custom  tells  that  they  who  are  in  a  raving 
condition  are  not  in  their  right  senses,  but  are  fallen  from 
their  reason,  —  so  whoever  believes  that  there  is  any  other 
cause  why  dogs  run  mad,  but  only  that  their  natural  senses, 
reason,  and  memories  are  disturbed,  while  they  cease  to 
know  faces  the  most  familiar  to  them  before,  and  abandon 
their  most  usual  food,  and  overlook  what  is  just  before  their 
eyes,  such  a  man,  I  say,  seems  to  me  either  to  overlook  what 
is  just  before  his  eyes,  or  else,  seeing  the  conclusions  that 
follow,  to  fight  against  the  truth  itself. 

6  SocLARus.  You  seem  to  me  to  be  very  much  in  the 
right,  for  the  Stoics  and  Peripatetics  are  led  to  affirm  the 
contrary  upon  this  supposition,  that  justice  could  have  no 
certain  original,  but  would  be  altogether  incomprehen- 
sible and  inexistent  if  all  brute  creatures  should  partake 


158  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

of  reason.  For  either  of  necessity  we  must  do  a  very 
great  piece  of  injustice  when  we  devour  and  feed  upon 
them ;  or  if  we  forbear  the  use  of  them,  it  will  be  impos- 
sible for  us  to  live,  or  rather  we  shall  in  some  measure 
live  the  lives  of  beasts,  rejecting  the  use  of  brute  creatures. 
I  pass  by  those  innumerable  myriads  of  nomades  and 
Troglodytes  that  know  no  other  food  but  flesh.  But  as 
for  us  that  seem  to  live  lovingly  and  in  friendship  to- 
gether, what  necessity  would  there  be  of  laboring  on  the 
earth,  toiling  upon  the  sea,  or  mining  in  the  mountains, 
what  ornament  would  there  be  in  our  life,  if  it  were  so 
that  we  must  be  bound  to  live,  as  it  would  then  become 
us,  not  only  without  injury  but  rather  with  all  civility  and 
humanity  toward  all  the  sorts  of  beasts,  as  being  our  fellow 
rational  creatures  ?  We  have  no  cure,  no  remedy  for  an 
unquestionable  necessity  that  deprives  us  either  of  life  or 
justice,  unless  we  observe  that  ancient  bound  and  dispensa- 
tion which,  according  to  Hesiod,  distinguishing  natures  and 
separating  every  kind  by  themselves,  commands 

The  fish,  wild  beasts,  and  all  the  winged  fowl, 
To  prey  upon  their  kinds  without  control, 
For  among  them  no  law  nor  justice  reigns  ; 
Only  by  justice  man  from  man  abstains.* 

And  therefore,  as  brutes  can  extend  no  act  of  justice  to 
us,  so  neither  can  we  commit  any  act  of  injustice  against 
them.  Which  argument  they  who  reject  have  left  us  no 
benefit  of  life,  nor  any  the  smallest  entrance  for  justice 
into  the  world. 

7.  AuTOBULUs.  These  things,  dear  friend,  you  utter 
as  the  opinion  of  those  people.  But  we  are  not  to  allow 
philosophers  a  remedy  to  procure  easy  delivery,  as  they  do 
to  women  that  are  subject  to  hard  labors,  merely  that  they 
may  bring  us  forth  justice  without  any  pain  or  trouble. 
;For  the  same  persons,  even  in  the  greatest  matters,  will 

p  «  Hesiod,  Works  and  Days,  275. 


"WATEE  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  169 

not  allow  to  Epicurus  so  small  and  pitiful  a  thing  as  the 
slightest  inclination  of  one  only  atom,  for  to  make  way  for 
the  stars  and  living  creatures  and  Fortune  to  come  into  the 
world,  and  that  thereby  our  free  will  might  be  saved.  For 
we  ought  either  to  prove  what  is  doubtful  or  to  assume 
what  of  itself  is  manifest ;  so  we  ought  not  to  take  for 
granted  this  doctrine  touching  beasts  as  regards  justice, 
unless  it  is  either  confessed  or  otherwise  proved  by  demon- 
stration. For  justice  has  another  way  to  establish  itself, 
neither  so  steep  nor  so  slippery,  nor  leading  to  the  subver- 
sion of  evident  truths  ;  but  which,  according  to  Plato's  in- 
struction, my  son  and  thy  friend,  Soclarus,  has  showed  to 
such  as  are  not  captiously  contentious  but  willing  to  learn. 
For  certain  it  is,  that  both  Empedocles  and  Heraclitus  held 
it  for  a  truth,  that  man  could  not  be  altogether  cleared 
from  injustice  in  dealing  with  beasts  as  he  now  does ; 
often  bewailing  and  exclaiming  against  Nature,  as  if  she 
were  nothing  else  but  necessity  and  war,  having  neither 
any  thing  unmixed  nor  any  thing  truly  pure,  but  still 
arriving  at  her  end  by  many,  and  those  unjust  and  unlaw- 
ful passions.  Whence  they  affirm  that  generation  itself 
originally  proceeded  from  injustice  by  the  conjunction  of 
immortal  with  mortal,  and  that  the  thing  engendered  is  still 
contrary  to  Nature  delighted  with  the  parts  of  that  which 
engenders,  dismembered  from  the  whole.  But  this  seems 
to  be  too  luxuriant  and  severe  an  accusation  of  Nature. 
For  there  is  yet  a  more  moderate  excuse,  which  does  not 
altogether  deprive  the  beasts  of  reason,  yet  justifies  the 
necessary  and  convenient  use  of  them ;  which  when  the 
ancients  introduced,  they  detested  and  utterly  discoun- 
tenanced voracious  and  voluptuous  gluttony.  Pythagoras 
also  resumed  the  argument,  teaching  how  we  might  reap 
the  benefit  of  the  creatures  without  doing  injustice.  For 
they  do  no  injustice,  that  chastise  and  kill  such  savage 
beasts  that  are  both    hurtful  to  man  and  never  will  be 


170  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

tame.  But  taming  such  as  are  gentle  and  loving  to  men, 
they  thereby  make  them  assistant  in  the  several  uses  to 
which  they  were  ordained, — 

The  horse  and  ass,  that  backs  to  load  resign. 
And  race  of  bulls, 

which,  as  Prometheus  in  Aeschylus*  observes, 

Kind  Heaven  vouchsafed  to  men  by  toil  distrest. 
With  servile  limbs  his  labors  to  assist. 

Thus  we  make  use  of  dogs  to  guard  our  goats  and 
sheep,  while  they  are  milked  and  shorn.  For  life  does 
not  presently  forsake  a  man  unless  he  have  his  platters 
of  fish  or  livers  of  geese,  or  unless  he  may  kill  whole  oxen 
or  kids  to  supply  his  banquets,  or  unless  —  that  he  may 
disport  himself  in  the  theatre  or  take  his  pleasure  in  hunt- 
ing—  he  may  compel  some  beasts  to  be  daring  and  to 
fight  against  their  wills,  and  kill  others  whom  Nature  has 
not  armed  to  defend  themselves.  For,  in  my  opinion,  he 
that  is  for  sport  and  pastime  ought  to  seek  out  for  such  as 
will  sport  and  be  merry  with  him.  And  as  it  was  the  say- 
ing of  Bion,  that,  though  boys  throw  stones  at  frogs  in 
sport,  yet  the  frogs  do  not  die  in  sport  but  in  earnest ;  so 
in  hunting  and  fishing,  the  fault  is  in  the  men  delighting 
in  the  torments  and  cruel  deaths  of  beasts,  and  tearing 
them  without  compassion  from  their  whelps  and  their 
young  ones.  For  it  is  not  in  the  making  use  of  beasts 
that  men  do  them  wrong,  but  in  the  wastefully  and  cruelly 
destroying  them. 

8.  SocLARUs.  Contain  yourself,  my  dearest  Autobulus, 
and.  forbear  these  accusations  ;  for  here  are  several  gentle- 
men coming,  all  great  huntsmen,  whom  it  will  be  very  dif- 
ficult to  bring  over  to  your  opinion ;  neither  is  it  convenient 
to  offend  them. 

Autobulus.     You  give  me  good  advice.     However,  I 

*  In  the  lost  tragedy,  Prometheus  Unbound,  Frag.  188  (Nauck).     (G.) 


WATER  OR  LAND   ANIMALS?  171 

know  Eubiotus  very  well,  and  my  kinsman  Ariston;  nor 
am  I  less  acquainted  with  Aeacides  and  Aristotimus,  the 
sons  of  Dionysius  the  Delphian,  as  also  with  Nicander  the 
son  of  Euthydamus,  all  expert  in  the  chase  by  land,  as 
Homer  expresses  it ;  and  therefore  likely  to  take  part  with 
Aristotimus.  On  the  other  side,  yonder  comes  Phaedimus 
too,  bringing  along  with  him  the  islanders  and  neighbors 
to  the  sea,  Heracleon  of  Megara,  and  Philostratus  of 
Euboea, 

Whose  whole  delight  is  all  the  day 
The  toilsome  pastime  of  the  sea.* 

But  as  for  Optatus,  our  equal  in  years  (like  Tydides), — 

Which  of  the  sides  to  range  him  well, 
So  versed  in  both,  we  cannot  tell.t 

For  he  is  one  that  offers  as  well  the  first-fruits  of  his 
fishery  to  Dictynna,  as  of  his  forest  spoils  to  Diana ;  so 
that  it  is  apparent  he  comes  among  us  as  one  that  intends 
not  to  be  partial  to  one  side  more  than  the  other ;  or  else 
our  conjecture  is  amiss,  dear  Optatus,  that  your  design  is 
only  to  be  an  impartial  umpire  between  these  young 
gentlemen. 

Optatus.  You  conjecture  very  truly,  Autobulus.  For 
the  ancient  law  of  Solon  is  out  of  date,  that  punished 
those  who  stood  neuters  and  refused  to  adhere  to  either 
side. 

Autobulus.  Seat  yourself  then  here  by  us,  that  if  there 
should  be  any  occasion  for  a  testimony,  we  may  not  be 
troubled  to  run  to  Aristotle's  writings,  but  acquiescing  in 
your  experience,  may  give  our  suffrages  according  to  what 
you  aver  for  truth. 

Optatus.  Go  to  then,  young  gentlemen  :  are  ye  agreed 
upon  the  method  and  order  of  the  dispute  ? 

Phaedimus.      Truly,  worthy    Soclarus,  that  very  thing 

*  See  Odyss.  XII.  116.  t  H.  V.  85 


172  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

occasioned  a  great  debate  among  us  ;  but  at  length,  ac- 
cording to  that  of  Euripides, 

The  child  of  Fortune,  Chance,  the  point  agreed, 
And  fixed  the  method  how  we  should  proceed, 

by  giving  the  precedence  to  the  land  animals  to  plead  their 
cause  before  marine  creatures. 

SocLARDs.  Then,  Aristotimus,  it  is  high  time  for  you  to 
speak  and  for  us  to  hear. 

9.  Aristotimus.  The  court  is  open  to  all  concerned  in 
the  controversy.  .  .  .  Others  there  are  that  kill  their  young 
ones  by  leaping  the  females  at  the  very  instant  of  their 
bringing  forth.  There  are  a  sort  of  mullets,  called  pardiae, 
that  feed  upon  their  own  slime.  But  the  polypus  sits  all 
the  winter  feeding  upon  itself. 

In  fireless  house,  and  domicils  forlorn  ;  * 

SO  slothful,  or  SO  stupid,  or  so  given  to  his  gut  he  is,  or 
else  so  abandoned  to  all  those  vices  together.  And  there- 
fore Plato  again  and  again  forbids,  or  rather  makes  it  his 
wish,  in  his  laws,  that  young  men  might  not  be  permitted 
to  addict  themselves  to  marine  fishery,  wherein  there  is  no 
exercise  of  strength,  no  cogitation  of  wisdom,  nor  any 
thing  that  contributes  to  fortitude,  swiftness,  or  agility,  in 
combating  against  pikes,  congers,  or  scates  ;  whereas,  in 
the  chase  of  wild  beasts,  the  fiercer  sort  accustom  the 
huntsman  to  contempt  of  danger,  the  more  subtle  sort  ex- 
ercise and  sharpen  his  wit  and  cunning,  the  swifter  sort 
exercise  his  strength,  and  render  him  more  apt  to  endure 
labor.  These  are  the  advantages  that  accrue  to  a  man  by 
hunting  ;  but  in  fishing,  there  is  nothing  worth  his  while. 
For  never  any  of  the  Gods  got  honor  by  the  surname  of 
a  conger-killer  ;  as  Apollo  was  surnamed  the  wolf-slayer ; 
never  any  of  the  Deities  gloried  in  being  a  darter  of  mul- 
lets, as  Diana  is  honored  with  the  addition  of  hart-darting. 

*  Hesiod,  Works  and  Days,  525. 


WATER   OR   LAND    ANIMALS?  173 

And  Avhat  wonder  is  it,  when  it  is  accounted  more  noble 
for  a  man  to  kill  than  to  buy  a  wild  boar,  a  hart,  a  goat, 
or  a  hare,  but  more  honorable  to  buy  a  tunny,  a  lobster,  or 
an  amy,  than  to  kill  one  ?  And  therefore,  because  there  is 
nothing  in  fishing  that  is  noble,  no  using  of  gins  and 
slight  of  cunning,  it  is  accounted  a  sorry,  pitiful  exercise, 
not  worth  a  man's  labor. 

10.  In  general  then,  since  the  usual  arguments  by  which 
philosophers  demonstrate  that  beasts  partake  of  reason 
are  these  following,  —  purpose,  contrivance,  memory,  pas- 
sions, care  of  their  young  ones,  gratefulness  to  those  from 
whom  they  receive  kindnesses,  and  the  remembrance  of 
shrewd  turns,  to  which  we  may  add  the  search  after  and 
choice  of  what  is  needful  and  beneficial  for  them,  together 
with  apparent  shows  of  virtue,  as  of  fortitude,  society, 
continence,  and  magnanimity,  —  if  we  consider  the  marine 
creatures,  we  shall  not  find  that  our  strictest  observation 
can  perceive  in  them  any  of  these  excellences,  or  at  best 
they  are  such  obscure  and  imperfect  glimmerings  as  are 
scarce  discernible.  But  in  terrestrial  and  land  animals, 
there  is  not  any  man  but  may  behold  the  most  luculent,  the 
most  evident  and  uncontrollable  demonstrations  in  the  world 
of  all  that  has  been  said.  In  the  first  place,  observe  the 
designs  and  preparations  of  bulls  provoked  to  combat,  and 
of  wild  boars  whetting  their  teeth.  Again,  elephants  — 
since,  by  digging  up  or  tearing  down  the  trees  which  they 
intend  to  feed  upon,  they  blunt  and  wear  out  their  tushes 
—  make  use  of  only  one  for  those  purposes,  but  reserve 
the  other  strong  and  sharp  for  their  own  defence.  The 
lion  also  always  walks  with  his  feet  inverted,  hiding  his  claws 
withinside  his  paw,  to  prevent  the  hunter  from  tracing 
him  easily  by  his  footing.  For  the  track  of  a  lion's  claw 
is  not  easily  to  be  found,  so  that  the  hunters  are  frequently 
at  a  loss,  and  wander  after  the  obscure  and  scarce  discern- 
ible footsteps  of  those  beasts.     You  have  heard  also,  I  sup- 


174  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

pose,  of  the  ichneumon,  how  that  he  arms  himself  as  com- 
pletely as  a  soldier  with  his  breastplate  and  cuirass  pre- 
pared for  battle ;  in  such  a  manner  does  that  creature 
surround  and  wrap  himself  about  with  a  coat  of  mail, 
when  he  attacks  the  crocodile. 

Admirable  are  the  preparations  of  swallows  before  they 
go  to  lay  their  eggs,  how  they  place  the  more  solid  stubble 
for  foundations,  and  upon  that  build  up  the  slighter  straws  ; 
and  if  they  perceive  that  the  nest  wants  mud  to  serve  as 
glue,  you  may  observe  how  they  fly  to  the  next  lake  or 
sea,  and  after  they  have  skimmed  the  superficies  of  the 
water  with  their  wings, — so  as  to  make  them  moist,  yet 
not  heavy  with  wet,  —  they  lick  up  the  dust,  and  so  daub 
and  bind  together  the  loose  and  ill-cohering  parts  of  the 
nest.  As  for  the  form  of  their  architecture,  it  is  composed 
neither  of  angles  nor  of  many  sides,  but  smooth  and,  as 
much  as  may  be,  spherical ;  for  that  such  a  figure  is  last- 
ing and  capacious,  and  not  easily  affording  entrance  to 
creatures  that  lie  in  wait  for  their  destruction  from  with- 
out. 

Who  is  there  that  does  not  admire,  for  more  reasons 
than  one,  the  labor  of  the  S23iders,  which  seems  as  pattern 
for  the  threads  that  women  spin  and  the  nets  that  are  used 
in  hunting  ?  For  the  extraordinary  fineness  of  the  spin- 
ning, and  the  evenness  of  the  thread,  not  discontinued  or 
snapped  off  like  the  yarn  upon  a  quill,  but  having  the 
smooth  and  subtle  texture  of  a  thin  membrane,  and  knit 
and  spun  together  with  a  certain  clammy  moisture  imper- 
ceptibly mixed ;  besides  the  tincture  of  it,  causing  a  kind 
of  airy  and  misty  color,  the  better  to  deceive  ;  but  above 
all,  the  conduct  and  governing  of  this  little  engine,  in 
which  when  any  thing  happens  to  be  entangled,  you  see 
how  presently,  like  an  expert  huntsman,  the  subtle  artist 
contracts  her  net  and  binds  her  prey  within  it ;  —  all  this, 
being  every  day  obvious  to  our  sight  and  contemplation, 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  175 

gives  credit  to  my  discourse,  which  otherwise  might  be 
accounted  no  less  fabulous  than  what  is  reported  of  certain 
Libyan  crows,  that,  when  they  are  a-thirsty,  throw  stones 
into  the  water,  by  that  means  to  raise  it  to  such  a  height 
that  they  may  be  able  to  reach  it  with  their  bills.  Then 
again,  when  I  saw  a  ship  dog,  in  the  absence  of  the  sea- 
men, putting  in  stones  in  a  half-empty  jar  of  oil,  it  was  to 
me  a  wonder  how  that  dog  should  understand  that  the 
pressure  of  the  heavier  weight  would  make  the  lighter  rise. 

And  the  same  artifices  are  reported  of  Cretan  bees  and 
Cilician  geese.  For  the  first  of  these,  being  to  take  their 
flight  about  some  windy  promontory,  ballast  themselves 
with  little  stones,  to  prevent  their  being  carried  away  by 
the  stronger  blasts.  And  as  for  the  geese,  they  being 
afraid  of  the  eagles,  every  time  they  cross  the  mountain 
Taurus,  carry  great  stones  in  their  mouths,  to  the  end  that 
by  that  means  (as  it  were)  br  dling  their  gaggling  tongues, 
they  may  cross  the  mountain  in  silence,  without  alarming 
their  enemies. 

Extraordinary  also  is  the  caution  which  the  cranes  ob- 
serve in  their  flight.  For  they  fly,  when  the  wind  is  very 
high  and  the  air  very  tempestuous,  not  as  in  fair  weather, 
all  afront  or  in  manner  of  the  half-moon ;  but  forming  a 
triangular  body,  with  the  sharp  angle  of  that  figure  they 
penetrate  the  wind  that  ruffles  round  about  them,  and  by 
that  means  preserve  their  order  unbroken.  On  the  other 
side,  when  they  fall  upon  the  ground,  those  that  are  upon 
the  night-watch  stand  with  the  whole  weight  of  their 
bodies  upon  one  leg,  holding  a  stone  in  the  claw  of  the 
other  foot.  For  the  holding  of  the  stone  keeps  them 
awake  for  a  long  time  together,  and  wakes  them  again 
with  the  noise  of  the  fall  if  they  happen  to  drop  asleep. 
So  that  it  was  no  wonder  that  Hercules  laid  his  quiver 
under  his  arm-pit,  and  with  his  strenuous  arm  embracing 
his  bow. 


176  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

Slept  all  the  night,  where'er  he  laid  his  load, 
With  his  right-handed  weight  upon  the  wood. 

Nor  do  I  so  much  admire  at  him  who  was  the  first  that 
hit  upon  the  way  to  open  an  oyster,  when  I  meet  with  and 
consider  the  artifices  of  the  herons.  For  a  heron,  when 
he  has  swallowed  a  closed  oyster,  endures  the  trouble 
and  vexation  of  it  for  so  long  time,  till  he  perceives  it 
soften  and  relaxed  by  the  heat  of  his  stomach ;  then  cast- 
ing it  up  again  gaping  and  divided,  he  takes  out  that 
which  is  fit  for  food. 

11.  But  as  it  is  a  task  of  great  labor  accurately  to  relate 
the  economy  and  contrivances  of  the  emmets,  so  it  would 
argue  too  much  of  negligence  to  pass  them  over  in  silence. 
For  there  is  not  in  Nature  a  smaller  creature ;  and  yet  it  is 
a  most  absolute  mirror  of  the  greatest  and  most  noble  per- 
formances, and  (as  it  were)  in  a  transparent  drop  the 
appearance  of  all  virtue.  There  is  friendship  to  be  dis- 
cerned in  their  mutual  society.  There  is  the  image  of 
fortitude  in  the  patient  undergoing  of  labor.  In  them  are 
to  be  seen  many  seeds  of  continence,  many  of  wisdom  and 
justice.  Insomuch  that  Cleanthes,  who  denied  that  beasts 
were  endued  with  reason,  could  not  forbear  reporting  how 
he  met  with  the  following  accident  of  a  crowd  of  emmets, 
that  came  to  another  ant-hill,  bringing  along  with  them  a 
dead  emmet.  Presently  other  emmets  ascending  out  of 
their  ant-hill  seemed  (as  it  were)  to  meet  them,  and  then 
disappeared  again ;  and  this  was  done  twice  or  thrice. 
Till  at  length  the  one  side  brought  up  from  under  ground 
a  worm,  as  the  price  of  the  dead  emmet's  redemption, 
which  the  other  party  of  pismires  receiving,  delivered  the 
dead  emmet,  and  so  departed.  But  that  which  is  appar- 
ent to  all  is  their  equity  to  each  other  when  they  meet  one 
another,  while  they  that  carry  nothing  always  give  way  to 
those  that  are  burdened ;  nor  are  their  divisions  and  par- 
titions of  things  too  weighty  for  single  carriage  less  re- 


WATER   OR  LAND   ANIMALS'?  177 

markablc",  to  the  end  the  burdens  may  be  divided  among 
many.  But  when  they  bring  forth  their  little  eggs  and  ex- 
pose them  to  the  cold,  Aratus  makes  it  a  sign  of  rainy 
weather. 

When  from  her  hollow  cells  th'  industrious  ant 
Her  hidden  store  of  eggs  brings  forth. 

For  in  that  sense  many  read  //f«  (provision)  for  wea  {eggs)^ 
referring  it  to  the  providence  of  those  little  creatures,  who, 
when  they  find  their  provision  in  their  magazines  to  begin 
to  taint  and  grow  rotten,  bring  it  forth  and  expose  it  to 
the  open  air,  to  prevent  the  progress  of  the  putrefaction. 
But  that  which  above  all  things  demonstrates  the  surpass- 
ing excellency  of  their  understanding  is  their  pre-apprehen- 
sion  of  the  germinating  of  wheat.  For  the  wheat  does 
not  remain  dry  and  void  of  putrefaction,  but  grows  moist 
and  turns  into  a  kind  of  milky  substance,  when  it  changes 
from  seed  to  become  an  herb.  For  fear  therefore  that 
preserving  the  quality  it  should  become  useless  for  food, 
they  eat  out  the  very  principal  part  of  the  grain,  from 
whence  the  wheat  sends  forth  its  blossom.  I  must  confess, 
I  do  not  approve  of  those  who  dig  up  ant-hills  on  purpose 
to  improve  their  learning  (as  it  were)  by  anatomy.  How- 
ever, they  tell  us  by  virtue  of  that  cruel  information,  that 
the  passage  or  descent  from  the  top  of  the  hill  to  the  nest 
is  not  directly  straight  nor  easily  penetrated  by  any  other 
creature,  but  intercepted  with  several  turnings  and  wind- 
ings, leading  through  several  underminings  and  perforations 
into  three  cavities  ;  of  which  the  one  is  the  common  place 
of  feeding  and  converse  for  the  whole  community,  the  next 
is  the  general  magazine  of  their  provision,  and  the  third  is 
the  apartment  where  they  dispose  of  their  dead. 

12.  I  am  afraid  you  may  deem  me  too  impertinent  in 
joining  elephants  with  pismires,  and  yet  I  cannot  but 
think  it  seasonable  to  show  the  nature  and  force  of  under- 


178  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

standing,  as  well  in  the  smallest  as  in  the  greatest  hodies, 
neither  obscured  in  the  one  nor  deficient  in  the  other. 

Some  there  are  that  admire  in  an  elephant  his  aptness 
to  learn  and  to  be  taught,  and  the  many  various  postures 
and  alterations  of  movement  which  he  shows  upon  the 
theatres,  not  easily  to  be  equalled  by  human  assiduity,  as 
subtle  and  abounding  in  memory  and  retention  as  man  is. 
But  for  my  part,  I  rather  choose  to  prove  his  evident  un- 
derstanding from  the  passions  and  inclinations  of  the 
creature,  that  were  never  taught  him,  but  only  infused  by 
Nature,  as  being  altogether  unmixed  and  pure  without  the 
help  of  art. 

At  Rome,  not  very  long  ago,  there  were  many  elephants 
that  were  taught  many  dangerous  postures,  many  windings 
and  turnings  and  circular  sere  wings  of  their  bulky  bodies, 
hard  to  be  expressed  ;  among  which  there  was  one,  which, 
being  duller  than  the  rest,  and  therefore  often  rated  and 
chastised  for  his  stupidity,  was  seen  in  the  night-time,  by 
moonlight,  without  being  forced  to  it,  to  practise  over  his 
lessons  with  all  the  industry  imaginable. 

Agno  tells  a  story  of  an  elephant  in  Syria,  that  was  bred 
up  in  a  certain  house,  who  observed  that  his  keeper  took 
away  and  defrauded  him  every  day  of  half  the  measure  of 
his  barley ;  only  that  once,  the  master  being  present  and 
looking  on,  the  keeper  poured  out  the  whole  measure ; 
which  was  no  sooner  done,  but  the  elephant,  extending  his 
proboscis,  separated  the  barley  and  divided  it  into  two 
equal  parts,  thereby  ingeniously  discovering,  as  much  as  in 
him  lay,  the  injustice  of  his  keeper. 

Another  in  revenge  that  his  keeper  mixed  stones  and 
dirt  with  his  barley,  as  the  keeper's  meat  was  boiling  upon 
the  fire,  took  up  the  ashes  and  flung  them  into  the  pot. 

Another  being  provoked  by  the  boys  in  Rome,  that 
pricked  his  proboscis  with  the  sharp  ends  of  their  writing- 
steels,  caught  one  of  them  in  his  proboscis,  and  mounted 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  179 

him  up  into  the  air,  as  if  he  intended  to  have  squashed 
out  his  guts ;  but  upon  the  loud  outcries  of  the  spectators, 
set  him  gently  down  again  upon  his  feet,  and  so  went  on. 
believing  he  had  sufficiently  punished  the  boy  in  scaring 
him.  Many  other  things  are  reported  of  the  wild  elephants 
that  feed  without  control,  but  nothing  more  to  be  admired 
than  their  passing  of  great  rivers.  For  first  of  all  the 
youngest  and  the  least  flounces  into  the  stream  ;  whom  the 
rest  beholding  from  the  shore,  if  they  see  that  the  less 
bulky  leader  keeps  steady  footing  with  his  back  above 
water,  they  are  then  assured  and  confident  that  they  may 
boldly  adventure  without  any  danger. 

13.  Having  thus  far  proceeded  in  our  discourse,  I  cannot 
think  it  well  done  to  pass  by  the  cunning  of  the  fox,  by 
reason  of  the  similitude  it  has  with  the  former.  The 
mythologists  tell  us  that  the  dove  which  Deucalion  sent 
out  of  his  ark,  returning  back  again,  was  to  him  a  certain 
sign  of  the  storm  not  ceased ;  but  of  serene  and  fair 
weather,  when  she  flew  quite  away.  But  the  Thracians 
to  this  day,  when  they  design  to  pass  a  river  that  is  frozen 
over,  make  use  of  a  fox  to  try  whether  the  ice  will  bear  or 
no.  For  the  fox,  treading  gently,  lays  his  ear  to  the  ice, 
and  if  he  perceive  by  the  noise  of  the  water  that  the  stream 
runs  very  close  underneath,  conjecturing  from  thence  that 
the  congelation  is  not  deep  but  thin,  and  no  way  steadfastly 
solid,  he  makes  a  stop,  and  if  he  be  suffered,  returns  back 
again ;  but  if  he  perceive  no  noise,  he  goes  on  boldly. 
Nor  can  we  say  that  this  is  only  an  exquisiteness  of  sense 
without  reason;  but  it  is  a  syllogistical  deduction  from 
sense,  concluding  that  whatever  makes  a  noise  is  moved  ; 
whatever  is  moved,  cannot  be  frozen ;  what  is  not  frozen, 
is  moist;  what  is  moist,  gives  way.  The  logicians  say 
that  a  dog,  making  use  of  the  argument  drawn  from  many 
disjunctive  propositions,  thus  reasons  with  himself,  in  places 
where   several  highways  meet:    Either  the  wild  beast  is 


180  WHICH  ARE   THE   MOST   CRAFTY, 

gone  this  way,  or  that,  or  that  way  ;  but  not  that  way,  nor 
that  way,  therefore  this  way :  the  force  of  sense  affording 
nothing  but  the  minor  premise,  but  the  force  of  reason 
affording  the  major  proposition,  and  inferring  the  conchision 
of  the  assumption.  But  a  dog  stands  in  no  need  of  any 
such  testimonial ;  in  regard  it  is  both  false  and  adulterate. 
For  sense  itself  shows  which  way  the  beast  is  fled,  by  his 
tracks  and  footsteps,  bidding  farewell  to  disjunctive  and 
copulative  propositions.  The  nature  of  dogs  is  palpably 
to  be  discerned  by  many  other  actions,  affections,  and  duti- 
ful service,  neither  the  effects  of  hearing  or  seeing,  but 
practicable  only  by  reason  and  understanding.  It  would 
be  ridiculous  for  me  to  discourse  of  the  continence,  obe- 
dience, and  industry  of  dogs  in  hunting,  to  you  that  are  so 
well  confirmed  in  the  knowledge  of  those  things  by  daily 
experience  and  practice. 

There  was  a  Roman  named  Calvus,  slain  in  the  civil 
wars,  whose  head  nobody  durst  cut  off  before  they  killed 
the  dog  that  guarded  his  body  and  fought  in  defence  of 
his  master.  It  happened  that  King  Pyrrhus,  travelling 
one  day,  lit  upon  a  dog  watching  over  the  carcass  of 
a  person  slain ;  and  hearing  that  the  dog  had  been  there 
three  days  without  meat  or  drink,  yet  would  not  forsake 
his  dead  master,  ordered  that  the  man  should  be  buried, 
but  that  the  dog  should  be  preserved  and  brought  to  him. 
A  few  days  after,  there  was  a  muster  of  the  soldiers,  so 
that  they  were  forced  to  march  all  in  order  by  the  king, 
with  the  dog  quietly  lying  by  him  for  a  good  while.  But 
when  he  saw  the  murderers  of  his  master  pass  by  him,  he 
flew  upon  them  with  a  more  than  ordinary  fury,  barking 
and  baying  and  tearing  his  throat,  and  ever  and  anon  turn- 
ing about  to  the  king  ;  which  did  not  only  rouse  the  king's 
suspicion,  but  the  jealousy  of  all  that  stood  about  him. 
Upon  which  the  men  were  presently  apprehended  ;  and 
though  the  circumstances  were  very  slight  which  otherwise 


WATER   OR  LAND   ANIMALS?  181 

appeared  against  them,  yet  they  confessed  the  fact  and 
were  executed. 

The  same  thing  is  reported  to  have  been  done  by  a  dog 
that  belonged  to  Hesiod,  surnamed  the  wise,  which  dis- 
covered the  sons  of  Ganyctor  the  Naupactian,  by  whom 
Hesiod  was  murdered.  But  that  which  came  to  the  knowl- 
edge of  our  parents,  when  they  were  students  at  Athens, 
is  yet  more  evident  than  any  thing  we  have  said.  For  a 
certain  person  getting  into  the  temple  of  Aesculapius, 
after  he  had  stolen  all  the  massy  offerings  of  gold  and 
silver,  made  his  escape,  not  believing  he  was  discovered. 
But  the  dog  which  belonged  to  the  temple,  who  was  called 
Capparus,  when  he  found  that  none  of  the  sacristans 
took  any  notice  of  his  barking,  pursued  himself  the  sac- 
rilegious thief;  and  though  at  first  the  fellow  pelted  him 
with  stones,  he  could  not  beat  him  off.  So  soon  as  it  was 
day,  the  dog  still  followed  him,  though  at  such  a  distance 
that  he  always  kept  him  in  his  eyes.  When  the  fellow 
threw  him  meat  he  refused  it ;  when  the  thief  went  to  bed, 
the  dog  watched  at  his  door ;  and  when  he  rose  in  the 
morning,  the  dog  still  followed  him,  fawning  upon  the 
passengers  on  the  road,  but  still  barking  and  baying  at 
the  heels  of  the  thief.  These  things  when  they  who  were 
in  pursuit  of  the  sacrilegious  person  heard,  and  were  told 
withal  by  those  they  met  the  color  and  bigness  of  the  dog, 
they  were  the  more  vigorous  in  the  pursuit ;  and  by  that 
means  overtaking  the  thief,  brought  him  back  from  Crom- 
myon,  while  the  dog  ran  before,  leaping  and  capering  and 
full  of  joy,  as  it  were  challenging  to  himself  the  praise  and 
reward  of  apprehending  the  temple-robber.  And  indeed 
the  Athenians  were  so  grateful  to  him,  that  they  decreed 
him  such  a  quantity  of  meat  to  be  publicly  measured  to 
him,  and  ordered  the  priests  to  take  care  to  see  it  done ;  in 
imitation  of  the  kindness  of  the  ancient  Athenians  in  r^ 
warding  the  mule. 


182  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTr, 

For  when  Pericles  built  the  temple  Hecatompedon  (or 
Parthenon)  in  the  tower  of  Athens,  it  so  fell  out  that  the 
stones  were  to  be  fetched  every  day  many  furlongs  off,  and 
a  world  of  carriages  were  made  use  of  for  that  purpose. 
Amons:  the  rest  of  the  mules  that  labored  hard  in  this  em- 
ployment,  there  was  one  that,  though  dismissed  by  reason 
of  age,  would  still  go  down  to  the  Ceramicus,  and  meeting 
the  carts  that  brought  the  stones,  would  be  always  in  their 
company  running  by  their  sides,  as  it  were  by  the  way  of 
encouragement  and  to  excite  them  to  work  cheerfully.  So 
that  the  people,  admmng  the  zeal  of  the  mule,  ordered 
him  to  be  fed  at  the  public  charge,  as  they  were  wont  to 
decree  public  alms  to  the  superannuated  wrestlers. 

14.  And  therefore  they  who  deny  that  there  is  any  thing 
of  justice  due  from  us  towards  dumb  animals  may  be  said 
to  speak  true,  so  far  as  concerns  them  that  live  in  the  sea 
and  haunt  the  abysses  of  the  deep.  For  those  kind  of 
creatures  are  altogether  unsociable,  without  affection  for 
their  young  ones,  void  of  all  softness  of  disposition ;  and 
therefore  it  was  well  said  of  Homer,  speaking  to  a  person 
whom  he  looked  upon  as  a  mere  savage, 

But  as  for  thee,  so  little  worth, 

Tlie  gleaming  sea  did  bring  thee  forth ;  * 

in  regard  the  sea  brings  forth  nothing  friendly,  nothing 
mansuete  or  gentle.  But  he  that  uses  the  same  discourse 
and  arguments  as:ainst  land  animals  is  himself  a  brute  and 
savage  creature  ;  unless  any  man  will  affirm  that  there  was 
nothing  of  justice  due  from  Lysimachus  to  the  Hyrcanian 
dog,  that  would  not  stir  from  the  body  of  his  deceased 
master,  and  when  he  saw  his  master's  carcass  burning,  ran 
and  threw  himself  into  the  flames.  The  same  is  reported 
to  have  been  done  by  the  dog  Astus,  that  was  kept  by  one 
Pyrrhus,  not  the  king,  but  a  private  person  of  that  name. 
For  upon  the  death  of  his  master,  he  would  not  stir  from 

*  n.  XVI.  34. 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS  1  183 

the  body,  but  when  it  was  carried  forth,  leaped  upon  the 
bier,  and  at  length  threw  himself  into  the  funeral  pile,  and 
was  burnt  alive  with  his  master's  body. 

The  elephant  also  which  carried  King  Porus,  when  the 
king  was  wounded  in  the  battle  against  Alexander,  pulled 
out  several  darts  out  of  his  wounds  with  his  proboscis, 
with  no  less  tenderness  and  care  than  the  chirurgeon  could 
have  done ;  and  though  the  elephant  himself  was  but  in  a 
very  bad  condition,  yet  would  he  not  give  over  till  he  per- 
ceived the  king  was  ready  to  reel  and  sink  down  by  reason 
of  the  blood  which  he  had  lost ;  and  then  fearing  lest  the 
king  should  fall,  he  stooped  down  gently,  to  ease  the  king 
in  sliding  to  the  ground. 

Such  was  the  humor  of  Bucephalus,  who,  before  he  was 
accoutred,  would  suffer  his  groom  to  back  him,  but  when 
he  had  all  his  royal  trappings  and  housings  about  him, 
would  permit  nobody  but  Alexander  to  bestride  him. 
But  if  any  other  persons  approached  him  in  curiosity  to 
try  what  they  could  do,  he  encountered  them  open-mouthed, 
and  neighing  out  his  fury,  leaped  upon  their  shoulders, 
bore  them  down,  and  trampled  them  under  his  feet,  unless 
prevented  by  keeping  at  a  distance  or  by  speedy  flight. 

15.  Nor  am  I  ignorant  but  that  there  is  something  of 
variety  in  every  one  of  these  examples,  which  you  must 
acknowledge.  x\nd  indeed  it  is  not  easy  to  find  out  the 
natural  dexterity  of  any  one  ingenious  and  docible  animal, 
which  is  not  accompanied  with  more  than  one  single  virtue. 
Thus,  where  there  is  afl'ection  toward  their  young  ones, 
there  is  desire  of  praise.  Where  there  is  generosity,  there 
is  also  moderation  of  anger.  Cunning  likewise  and  under- 
standing are  rarely  parted  from  daring  boldness  and  forti- 
tude. But  as  for  those  that  rather  choose  to  divide  and 
distinguish  every  one  of  these  virtues  particularly  by  them- 
selves, they  shall  find  incogs  a  fair  demonstration  of  a 
gentle  and  yet  lofty  mind  at  the  same  time,  in  turning  away 


18i  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

from  such  as  sit  quietly  upon  the  ground  ;  according  to  that 
of  Homer, 

With  hideous  noise  the  dogs  upon  him  flew  ; 
But  sly  Ulysses,  who  the  danger  knew, 
Sate  husht  and  still,  and  from  his  royal  hand 
His  sceptre  dropt,  as  useless  in  command.* 

For  dogs  never  bite  or  worry  those  that  prostrate  them- 
selves at  their  mercy  and  put  on  a  face  of  humility.  Thus 
they  say  the  bravest  of  those  Indian  dogs  that  fought 
against  Alexander  never  stirred  or  so  much  as  looked  about 
them  upon  the  letting  loose  of  a  hart,  a  boar,  and  a  bear ; 
but  when  they  saw  a  lion,  then  they  began  to  rouse,  to 
shake,  and  prepare  themselves  for  the  combat.  By  which 
it  was  plain  that  they  thought  only  the  lion  an  antagonist 
Avorthy  of  their  courage,  but  despised  all  the  rest  as  below 
their  anger. 

Your  hounds  that  usually  hunt  hares,  if  they  kill  the 
hares  themselves,  take  great  delight  in  tearing  them  to 
pieces  and  lapping  up  the  blood.  But  if  the  hare  despair- 
ing of  her  life,  as  many  times  it  happens,  runs  herself  to 
death,  the  hounds  finding  her  dead  will  never  touch  her,  but 
stand  wagging  their  tails,  as  if  they  did  hunt  not  so  much 
for  the  love  of  the  food  as  for  victory  and  triumph's  sake. 

16.  There  are  many  examples  of  cunning  and  subtlety 
abounding  in  land  creatures  ;  but  to  omit  slights  and  arti- 
fices of  foxes,  cranes,  and  jackdaws,  of  which  I  shall  say 
nothing,  because  they  are  things  already  so  well  known,  I 
shall  make  use  of  the  testimony  of  Thales,  the  ancientest 
of  our  philosophers,  who  is  reported  to  have  chiefly  ad- 
mired the  most  excellent  in  any  art  or  cunning. 

A  certain  mule  that  was  wont  to  carry  salt,  in  fording  a 
river,  by  accident  happened  to  stumble,  by  which  means 
the  water  melting  away  the  salt,  when  the  mule  rose  again 
lie  felt  himself  much  lighter ;  the  cause  of  which  the  mule 

*  Odyss.  XIV.  30. 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  185 

was  very  sensible  of,  and  laid  it  up  in  his  memory,  inso- 
much that  every  time  he  forded  the  same  river,  he  would 
always  stoop  when  he  came  into  the  deepest  part,  and  fill 
his  vessels  with  water,  crouching  down,  and  leaning  some- 
times to  one  side,  sometimes  to  the  other.  Thales  hearing 
this,  ordered  the  vessels  to  be  well  filled  with  wool  and 
sponges,  and  to  drive  the  mule  laden  after  that  manner. 
But  then  the  mule,  as  he  was  wont,  filling  his  burthens 
with  water,  reasoned  with  himself  that  he  had  ill  consulted 
his  own  benefit,  and  ever  afterwards,  when  he  forded  the 
same  river,  was  so  careful  and  cautious,  that  he  would 
never  suffer  his  burthens  so  much  as  to  touch  the  water  by 
accident. 

Another  piece  of  cunning,  joined  with  an  extraordinary 
affection  to  their  young  ones,  is  to  be  observed  in  partridges, 
which  instruct  their  young  ones,  ere  they  are  able  to  fly, 
when  they  are  pursued  by  the  fowlers,  to  lay  themselves 
upon  their  backs,  their  breasts  covered  with  some  clod  of 
earth  or  little  heap  of  dirt,  under  which  they  may  lie 
concealed.  On  the  other  side,  the  old  partridges  do  de- 
ceive the  fowlers,  and  draw  them  quite  a  contrary  way, 
make  short  flights  from  one  place  to  another,  thereby  en- 
ticing the  fowlers  to  follow  them  ;  till  thus  allured  from 
their  young  ones,  the  fowlers  give  over  all  hopes  of  being 
masters  of  their  game. 

In  like  manner,  hares  returning  to  their  forms  dispose 
their  leverets  one  to  one  place,  another  to  another,  at  the 
distance  many  times  of  an  acre  of  ground ;  so  that,  upon 
the  tracing  either  of  men  or  hounds,  they  are  sure  not  to 
be  all  in  danger  at  one  time,  —  themselves  in  the  mean 
time  not  easy  to  be  tracked,  by  reason  of  the  various 
windings  and  turnings  which  they  make,  until  at  length, 
by  giving  a  large  leap,  they  discontinue  the  print  of  their 
feet,  and  so  betake  themselves  to  their  rest. 

A  bear,  when  she  perceives  her  winter  sleep   coming 


1 8b  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

upon  her,  before  she  grows  stiff  and  unwieldy,  cleanses 
the  place  where  she  intends  to  conceal  herself,  and  in 
her  passage  thither  lifts  up  her  paws  as  high  as  she  can, 
and  treads  upon  the  ground  with  the  top  of  her  toes,  and 
at  length  turning  herself  upon  her  back,  throws  herself 
into  her  receptacle. 

Your  hinds  generally  calve  at  a  distance  from  all  places 
frequented  by  flesh-devouring  beasts  ;  and  stags,  when  they 
find  themselves  unwieldy  through  surplusage  of  flesh  and 
fat,  get  out  of  the  way  and  hide  themselves,  hoping  to 
secure  themselves  by  lurking,  when  they  dare  not  trust  to 
their  heels. 

The  means  by  which  the  land  hedge-hogs  defend  and 
guard  themselves  occasioned  the  proverb, 

Many  sly  tricks  the  subtle  Reynard  knows, 
But  one  the  hedge-hog  greater  than  all  those. 

For  the  hedge-hog,  as  Ion  the  poet  says,*  when  he  spies 
the  fox  coming. 

Round  as  a  pine-nut,  or  more  sphere-like  ball. 

Lies  with  his  body  palisaded  all 

With  pointed  thorns,  which  all  the  fox's  slight 

Can  find  no  way  to  touch,  much  less  to  bite. 

But  the  provision  which  the  hedge-hogs  make  for  their 
young  ones  is  much  more  ingenious.  For  when  autumn 
comes,  they  creep  under  vines,  and  shake  off  the  grapes 
with  their  feet ;  which  done  they  roll  themselves  up  and 
down,  and  take  them  up  with  their  prickles,  so  that  when 
they  creep  away  again,  you  would  think  it  a  walking  clus- 
ter (and  this  we  have  looked  on  and  seen  them  do) ;  after 
which  returning  to  their  holes,  they  lay  themselves  down 
for  their  young  ones  to  feed.  Their  holes  have  two  open- 
ings, one  to  the  south,  the  other  to  the  north.  So  that 
when  they  perceive  the  alteration  of  the  air,  like  pilots 
shifting  their   sails,  they  stop   up  that  which  lies  to  the 

*  Fragment  38. 


WATER  OR  LAIJD  ANIMALS?  187 

wind  and  open  the  other.  Which  a  certain  person  that 
lived  at  Cyzicus  observing,  took  upon  him  from  thence 
at  any  time  to  tell  in  what  corner  the  wind  would  sit. 

17.  x\s  for  love  and  observance  of  society  joined  with 
understanding  and  prudence,  Juba  produces  many  exam- 
ples of  it  in  elephants.  For  it  is  the  usual  practice  of  the 
elephant-hunters  to  dig  large  pits  in  the  elephants'  walks, 
and  cover  them  slightly  over  with  dry  twigs  or  other  ma- 
terials ;  into  which  if  any  elephant  happens  to  fall,  the 
rest  fetch  wood  and  stones  to  fill  up  the  cavity  of  the  pit, 
that  the  other  may  the  more  easily  get  out  again.  And 
some  report  of  the  elephants,  that  they  make  prayers  to 
the  Gods  by  natural  instinct,  that  they  perform  divine  cere- 
monies to  the  sea,  and  worship  the  rising  sun,  lifting  up 
the  proboscis  to  heaven  instead  of  hands.  For  which  rea- 
son they  are  creatures  the  most  beloved  of  any  by  the 
Gods,  as  Ptolemy  Philopator  testified.  For  having  van- 
quished Antiochus,  and  being  desirous  to  pay  a  more  than 
ordinary  honor  to  the  Deity,  among  many  other  oblations 
of  thanksgivings  for  his  victory,  he  sacrificed  four  elephants. 
After  which  being  terrified  with  a  dream,  which  threatened 
him  with  the  wrath  of  the  Deity  for  that  prodigious  sacri- 
fice, he  sought  out  several  ways  to  expiate  his  oifence,  and 
among  the  rest  by  way  of  propitiation,  he  erected  four 
elephants  of  brass  to  atone  for  the  four  elephants  he  had 
slaughtered. 

Examples  not  inferior  of  the  observance  of  society  are 
to  be  found  among  lions.  For  the  younger  carry  forth  the 
slow  and  aged,  when  they  hunt  abroad  for  their  prey. 
When  the  old  ones  are  weary  and  tired,  they  rest  and  stay 
for  the  younger  that  hunt  on ;  who,  when  they  have  seized 
upon  any  thing,  call  to  the  old  ones,  making  a  noise  like 
the  bleating  of  a  calf.  They  presently  hear,  and  so  meet- 
ing all  together,  they  feed  in  common  upon  the  prey. 

18.  In  the  amours  of  many  animals  there  is  much  vari- 


188  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

cty.  Some  are  furious  and  mad  ;  others  observe  a  kind 
of  human  decency,  and  tricking  of  themselves  to  set  off 
their  beauty,  not  without  a  courtly  kind  of  conversation. 
Such  was  the  amour  of  the  elephant  at  Alexandria,  thttt 
rivalled  Aristophanes  the  grammarian.  For  they  were 
both  in  love  with  a  girl  that  sold  garlands ;  nor  was  the 
elephant's  courtship  less  conspicuous  than  the  other's. 
For  as  he  passed  through  the  fruit-market,  he  always 
brought  her  apples,  and  stayed  with  her  for  some  time,  and 
thrusting  his  proboscis  within  her  waistcoat,  instead  of 
a  hand,  took  great  delight  in  gently  feeling  her  breasts. 

No  less  remarkable  was  the  serpent  in  love  with  the 
Aetolian  woman.  He  came  to  her  in  the  night,  and  getting 
under  her  garments  to  her  very  skin,  embraced  her  naked 
body  ;  and  never  either  willingly  or  unwillingly  did  he  do 
her  any  harm,  but  always  about  break  of  day  departed  ; 
w4iich  the  kindred  of  the  woman  observing  to  be  the  com- 
mon custom  of  the  animal,  removed  her  a  great  way  off. 
After  that,  the  serpent  came  not  again  for  three  or  four 
days  together,  being  all  the  while,  as  it  seemed,  wandering 
about  in  search  of  her.  But  at  length,  having  with  much 
ado  found  her  out,  he  did  not  approach  her  with  that  mild- 
ness as  he  was  wont  to  do,  but  after  a  rougher  manner  ; 
with  his  folds  having  first  bound  her  hands  to  her  body, 
with  the  end  of  his  tail  he  lashed  the  calves  of  her  legs ; 
expressing  thereby  a  gentle  and  loving  anger,  which  had 
more  in  it  of  indulgent  expostulation  than  punishment. 

I  say  nothing  of  a  goose  in  Egypt  in  love  with  a  boy, 
nor  of  the  ram  in  love  with  Glance  who  played  on  the 
harp  ;  for  the  stories  are  in  all  people's  mouths.  And  be- 
sides, I  am  apt  to  think  you  are  satiated  with  examples  of 
this  nature. 

19.  But  as  for  starlings,  magpies,  and  parrots,  that  learn 
to  talk,  and  afford  their  teachers  such  a  spirit  of  voice,  so 
well  tempered  and  so  adapted  for  imitation,  they  seem  to 


WATER   OR   LAND   ANIMALS?  189 

me  to  be  patrons  and  advocates  in  behalf  of  other  creat- 
ures, by  their  talent  of  learning  what  they  are  taught  ; 
and  in  some  measure  to  teach  us  that  those  creatures  also, 
as  well  as  we,  partake  of  vocal  expression  and  articulate 
sound.  From  whence  I  conclude  it  a  most  ridiculous  thins 
in  them  that  would  compare  these  creatures  with  a  sort  of 
mute  animals,  I  mean  the  fish,  that  have  not  voice  enough 
to  howl  or  make  a  mournful  noise.  Whereas,  in  the  natu- 
ral and  untaught  notes  of  these  creatures,  what  music, 
what  a  charming  grace  do  we  observe !  To  which  the 
famous  poets  and  choicest  singers  among  men  bear  testi- 
mony, while  they  compare  their  sweetest  odes  and  poems 
to  the  singing  of  swans  and  melody  of  nightingales.  Now 
in  regard  there  is  more  of  reason  in  teaching  than  in 
learning,  we  are  to  believe  Aristotle,*  who  assures  us  that 
terrestrial  animals  do  that  likewise,  in  regard  that  nightin- 
gales have  been  observed  instructing  their  young  ones  to 
sing.  Of  which  this  may  be  a  sufficient  proof,  that  such 
nightingales  are  known  to  sing  worse  that  are  taken  very 
young  from  the  nest  and  deprived  of  the  education  of  the  old 
one.  For  they  both  learn  and  are  taught  from  the  old  one, 
not  for  hire  or  to  get  reputation,  but  merely  out  of  a  de- 
light in  mixing  their  notes  together,  and  because  they 
have  a  greater  love  for  that  which  is  excellent  and  curious 
in  the  voice  than  for  what  is  profitable.  Concerning 
which  I  have  a  story  to  tell  you,  which  I  heard  from  sev- 
eral Greeks  and  Romans,  who  were  eye-witnesses  of  the 
thing. 

A  certain  barber  in  Rome,  who  had  a  shop  right  against 
the  temple  which  is  called  the  Greeks'  Market,  bred  in 
his  house  a  kind  of  a  prodigy  of  a  magpie,  whose  tongue 
would  be  always  going  with  the  greatest  variety  imagin- 
able, sometimes  imitating  human  speech,  sometimes  chat- 
tering her  wild  notes,  and  sometimes  humoring  the  sounds 

*  History  of  Animals,  IV.  9, 19. 


190  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

of  wind  instruments  ;  neither  was  this  by  any  constraint, 
but  as  she  accustomed  herself,  with  a  more   than  ordinary 
ambition,  to  leave  nothing  unspoken,  nothing  that  her  imi 
tation  should  not  master. 

It  happened  a  certain  person  of  the  wealthier  sort,  newly 
dead  in  the  neighborhood,  was  carried  forth  to  be  buried 
with  a  great  number  of  trumpets  before  him.  Now  in 
regard  it  was  the  custom  of  the  bearers  to  rest  themselves 
before  the  barber's  shop,  the  trumpeters  being  excellent  in 
their  art,  and  withal  commanded  so  to  do,  made  a  long 
stop,  sounding  all  the  while. 

After  that  day  the  magpie  was  altogether  mute,  not  so 
much  as  uttering  her  usual  notes  by  which  she  called  for 
what  she  wanted,  insomuch  that  they  who  before  admired 
as  they  passed  to  and  fro  at  the  chattering  and  prating  of 
the  bird  now  much  more  wondered  at  her  sudden  silence ; 
and  many  suspected  her  to  have  been  poisoned  by  some 
that  affected  peculiar  skill  in  teaching  this  kind-  of  birds. 
But  the  greatest  number  were  of  opinion,  that  the  noise 
of  the  trumpets  had  stupefied  her  hearing,  and  that  by  the 
loss  of  her  hearing  the  use  of  her  voice  was  likewise 
extinguished.  But  her  unusual  silence  proceeded  from 
neither  of  these  causes,  but  from  her  retiring  to  privacy,  by 
herself  to  exercise  the  imitation  of  what  she  had  heard, 
and  to  tit  and  prepare  her  voice  as  the  instrument  to  ex- 
press what  she  had  learned.  For  soon  after  she  came  of 
a  sudden  to  sight  again,  but  had  quitted  all  her  former 
customary  imitations,  and  sounded  only  the  music  of  the 
trumpets,  observing  all  the  changes  and  cadences  of  the 
harmony,  with  such  exactness  of  time  as  was  not  to  be 
imagined ;  an  argument,  as  I  have  said  before,  that  the 
aptness  in  those  creatures  to  learn  of  themselves  is  more 
rational  than  readiness  to  be  taught  by  others.  Nor  do  I 
think  it  proper  to  pass  by  in  silence  one  wonderful  ex- 
ample of  the  docility  of  a  dog,  of  which  I  myself  was  a 


WATER  OR   LAND   ANIMALS?  191 

Spectator  at  Rome.  This  dog  belonged  to  a  certain  mimic, 
who  at  that  time  had  the  management  of  a  farce  wherein 
there  was  great  variety  of  parts,  which  he  undertook  to 
instruct  the  actors  to  perform,  with  several  imitations 
proper  for  the  matters  and  passions  therein  represented. 
Among  the  rest  there  was  one  who  was  to  drink  a  sleepy 
potion,  and  after  he  had  drunk  it,  to  fall  into  a  deadly 
drowsiness  and  counterfeit  the  actions  of  a  dying  person. 
The  dog,  who  had  studied  several  of  the  other  gestures 
and  postures,  more  diligently  observing  this,  took  a  piece 
of  bread  that  was  sopped  in  the  potion,  and  after  he  had 
ate  it,  in  a  short  time  counterfeited  a  trembling,  then  a 
staggering,  and  afterwards  a  drowsiness  in  his  head. 
Then  stretching  out  himself,  he  lay  as  if  he  had  been 
dead,  and  seemed  to  proffer  himself  to  be  dragged  out  of 
the  place  and  carried  to  burial,  as  the  plot  of  the  play 
required.  Afterwards  understanding  the  time  from  what 
was  said  and  acted,  in  the  first  place  he  began  gently  to 
stir,  as  it  were  waking  out  of  a  profound  sleep,  and  lift- 
ing up  his  head,  he  gazed  about  him.  Afterwards  to  the 
amazement  of  the  beholders,  he  rose  up,  and  went  to  his 
master  to  whom  he  belonged,  with  all  the  signs  of  glad- 
ness and  fawning  kindness,  insomuch  that  all  the  specta- 
tors, and  even  Caesar  himself  (for  old  Vespasian  was 
present  in  Marcellus's  theatre)  were  taken  with  the  sight. 

20.  But  perhaps  we  may  seem  ridiculous  for  signalizing 
beasts  in  this  manner  because  they  learn,  since  we  find 
that  Democritus  affirms  us  to  have  been  their  scholars  in 
the  greatest  matters ;  —  of  the  spider,  in  weaving  and 
repairing  what  we  tear  or  wear  out ;  of  the  swallow,  in 
building  houses ;  and  of  the  mournful  swan  and  night- 
ingale, in  singing  and  imitation.  Moreover  in  others  we 
observe  a  threefold  practice  of  physic,  both  natural  and 
inbred.  For  tortoises  make  use  of  marjoram  and  weasels 
eat  rue,  when  they  have  devoured  a  serpent ;  and  dogs 


192  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

purge  themselves  from  abounding  gall  with  a  certain  sort 
of  grass.     The  dragon  quickens  the  dimness  of  his  sight 
with  fennel ;  and  the  bear,  coming  forth  of  her  cave  after 
long  emaciation,  feeds  upon  the  wild  arum,  for  the  acri- 
mony of  that  herb  opens   and  separates   her  guts  when 
clung   together.     At  other   times,   being   overcloyed   with 
food,  she  repairs  to  the  emmet-hills,  and  thrusting  forth 
her  tongue  all  soft  and  unctuous,  by  reason  of  the  sweet 
kind  of  slime  that  all  besmears  it,  till  it  be  crowded  with 
emmets,  at  length  swallows  them  down  her  throat,  and  so 
recovers.     And  it  is  reported  that  the  Egyptians  observe 
and  imitate  the  bird  called  ibis,  in  purging  and  cleansing 
her  bowels  with  the  briny  sea-water.     For  which  reason 
the  priests,  when  they  hallow  themselves,  make  use  of  the 
water  of  which  the  ibis  has  drunk ;  for  that  those  birds 
will  not  drink  the  water,  if  it  be  medicinal  or  otherwise 
infected.     Some  beasts  there  are  that  cure  themselves  by 
abstinence ;    as   wolves    and   lions,   who,   when    they  are 
gorged  with  flesh,  lie  still  and  digest  their  crudities  by  the 
warmth  of  one   another's  bodies.     It  is  reported  also  of 
the  tiger,  that  if  a  kid  be  thrown  to  her,  she  will  not  eat 
in  two  days ;  but  growing  almost  famished  the  third  day, 
if  she  be  not  supplied  with  another,  she  will  tear  down 
the  cage  that  holds  her,  if  she  have  strength  enough ;  yet 
all  this  while  she  will  not  meddle  with  the  first  kid,  as 
being  her  companion  and  fellow-housekeeper. 

More  than  this,  the  elephants  are  said  to  make  use  of 
chirurgery ;  for  that  being  brought  to  persons  wounded, 
they  will  draw  forth  the  heads  of  spears  and  arrows  out 
of  their  bodies  with  little  pain,  and  without  dilacerating 
and  mangling  the  flesh. 

The  Cretan  goats,  which  by  eating  dittany  expel  the 
arrows  shot  into  their  bodies,  taught  women  with  child  to 
understand  the  virtue  of  that  herb,  so  prevalent  to  expel 
the  birth.  For  those  goats  being  wounded  seek  no  other 
cure,  but  presently  seek  out  and  hunt  for  dittany. 


WATER   OR   LAND   ANIMALS?  193 

21.  But  these  things,  though  wonderful,  are  not  so  much 
to  be  admired  as  are  those  beasts  that  understand  the  use 
of  numbers  and  have  the  power  of  reckoning,  like  the 
oxen  about  Susa.  For  there  are  oxen  in  that  place  that 
water  the  king's  gardens  with  portable  buckets,  of  which 
the  number  is  fixed.  For  every  ox  carries  a  hundred 
buckets  every  day,  and  more  you  cannot  force  them  to 
take  or  carry,  would  you  never  so  fain ;  insomuch  that, 
when  constraint  has  been  used  for  experiment's  sake, 
nothing  could  make  them  stir  after  they  had  carried  their 
full  number.  Such  an  accurate  accoimt  do  they  take,  and 
preserve  the  same  in  their  memory,  as  Ctesias  the  Cnidian 
relates  it. 

The  Libyans  deride  the  Egyptians  for  the  fables  which 
they  report  of  the  oryx,  which,  as  they  say,  makes  a  great 
noise  upon  the  same  day,  at  the  very  hour,  when  the  Dog- 
star,  which  they  call  Sothes,  rises.  However,  this  is  cer- 
tain, that  all  their  goats,  when  that  star  rises  truly  with 
the  sun,  turn  themselves  and  stand  gazing  toward  the 
east ;  which  is  a  most  unquestionable  argument  of  that 
star's  having  finished  its  course,  and  agrees  exactly  with 
the  astronomer's  observations. 

22.  But  that  my  discourse  may  draw  to  a  conclusion,  let 
us  (as  the  saying  is)  move  the  stone  over  the  sacred  line, 
and  add  something  concerning  the  divinity  and  prophetic 
nature  with  which  our  terrestrial  creatures  are  endued. 
Which  when  we  consider,  we  shall  find  that  that  part  of 
soothsaying  which  is  founded  upon  the  observation  of 
birds  is  not  the  meanest  or  most  ignoble,  but  very  ancient 
and  in  great  esteem.  For  the  smartness  and  intelligible 
faculty  of  birds,  together  with  their  capability  to  receive 
all  impressions  of  fancy,  aflford  the  Deity  a  convenience  to 
make  use  of  those  faculties  as  instruments,  that  he  may 
turn  them  into  motion,  sounds,  chirpings,  and  forms,  now 
to  stop  and  stay,  anon  to  drive  forward  like  the  winds ;  by 

VOL,  V.  13 


194  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

means  of  some  of  these  stopping  short,  by  the  means  of 
others  directing  to  their  end,  the  actions  and  impetuous 
impulses  of  men.  Therefore  Euripides  in  general  calls 
birds  the  criers  of  the  Gods  ;  and  particularly  Socrates 
styles  himself  a  fellow-servant  with  the  swans.  As  among 
princes,  Pyrrhus  was  pleased  with  the  surname  of  Eagle ; 
and  Antiochus  loved  to  be  called  Antiochus  the  Falcon. 
But  they  who  deride  men  as  insipid  and  void  of  ingenuity 
call  them  by  the  names  of  fish.  And  whereas  we  can 
produce  millions  of  things  and  accidents  which  are  foretold 
us  by  land  and  flying  creatures,  there  is  not  any  one  such 
example  that  the  patrons  of  water-animals  can  produce  in 
their  behalf;  but  being  all  void  of  hearing,  perfectly  sot- 
tish, and  without  any  sight,  discerning,  or  providence,  they 
are  all  thrown  apart  into  that  same  place,  unblest  and 
hideous,  called  the  sea,  as  it  were  into  the  region  of  the 
ungodly,  where  the  rational  and  intellectual  part  of  the 
soul  is  extinguished ;  being  animated  with  only  some  di- 
minutive portion,  the  lowest  that  may  be  imagined,  of  a 
confused  and  overwhelmed  sense,  so  that  they  rather  seem 
to  palpitate  than  breathe. 

23.  Heracleo.  Pluck  up  your  brows  then,  friend  Phae- 
dimus ;  after  all  this,  it  is  time  to  rouse  thyself  in  the  de- 
fence of  the  islanders,  and  others  that  live  by  the  seaside. 
For  this  has  been  no  frivolous  discourse,  but  a  hard  fought 
contest,  and  a  continued  piece  of  rhetoric  that  wanted 
only  lattices  and  a  pulpit  to  give  it  the  honor  it  deserved. 

Phaedimus.  Therefore,  you  see,  it  is  plain  here  has  been 
foul  play  and  treachery  in  the  case,  for  a  person  sober  and 
upon  premeditation  to  set  upon  us  when  we  were  stomach- 
sick  and  dozed  with  our  last  night's  compotation.  But 
there  is  no  way  to  avoid  the  combat ;  for  that,  being  an 
imitator  of  Pindar,  it  shall  never  be  said  of  me, 

Combats  refused,  when  nobly  set  upon, 
Have  virtue  into  deepest  darkness  thrown. 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  195 

For  we  have  leisure  enough,  as  having  not  only  allowed 
ourselves  a  vacation  from  jollity  and  balls,  but  our  hounds 
and  horses  a  relaxation  from  their  labors,  and  withal  having 
hung  up  our  drag-nets  and  spears,  as  having  also  this  day 
granted,  for  disputation's  sake,  a  general  truce  to  all  creat- 
ures, as  well  upon  the  land  as  in  the  sea.  However,  fear 
not ;  for  I  will  use  it  moderately,  without  producing  either 
the  opinions  of  philosophers  or  the  fables  of  the  Egyptians, 
or  the  relations  either  of  the  Indians  or  Libyans,  wanting 
testimony  ;  but  such  as  shall  be  verified  by  good  witnesses, 
who  have  made  it  their  business  to  toil  upon  the  ocean, 
and  such  as  are  evident  to  the  eye.  For  to  say  truth, 
there  is  not  any  one  of  those  examples  produced  from  the 
land  which  is  not  apparent  and  openly  manifested  to  our 
sense.  Whereas  the  sea  affords  few  but  such  as  are  diffi- 
cult to  be  discerned,  as  concealing  the  generation  and 
nourishment  of  most  of  her  creatures,  their  antipathies, 
and  ways  of  preserving  themselves ;  in  reference  to  which 
many  acts  of  understanding,  memory,  and  community  are 
unknown  to  us,  so  that  we  cannot  be  so  copious  in  our  dis- 
course. Then  again,  land  animals,  by  reason  of  their 
familiarity  and  cohabitation,  being  in  some  measure  accus- 
tomed to  the  conditions  of  men,  become  capable  of  their 
nutriture,  education,  and  imitation ;  which  sweetens  and 
allays  all  their  acerbity  and  moroseness,  like  the  mixture 
of  fresh  water  with  sea  brine,  and  awakening  that  which 
is  slow  and  disordered  in  them,  inflames  it  with  human 
motions.  Whereas  the  living  of  sea  animals  being  by  many 
degrees  remote  from  the  converse  of  men,  and  having 
nothing  adventitious  or  that  may  be  said  to  be  acquired  by 
custom  and  familiarity,  is  altogether  peculiar,  genuine,  and 
unmixed  with  manners  strange  and  foreign  to  them  ;  which 
proceeds  not  from  Nature,  but  from  the  place  itself.  For 
Nature,  receiving  and  cherishing  whatever  knowledge 
comes  to  herself,  affords  it  also  to  fish,  and  makes  many 


196  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

eels  tame  and  familiar  to  men,  which  for  that  reason  are 
called  sacred,  like  those  in  the  fountain  Arethusa ;  so  that 
in  many  places  there  are  fish  that  will  hear  and  obey  when 
called  by  their  names,  as  the  story  goes  of  Crassus's  mullet, 
upon  the  death  of  which  he  wept.  For  which  when 
Domitius  twitted  him  in  these  words.  Did  not  you  weep 
when  your  mullet  died]  —  he  retorted  upon  him  again, 
Did  you  not  bury  three  wives  and  never  weep  at  all  ?  The 
crocodiles  belonging  to  the  priests  not  only  know  the  voices 
of  those  that  call  them,  and  suffer  themselves  to  be  stroked 
and  handled,  but  gaping  hold  out  their  teeth  to  be  cleansed 
and  wiped  by  the  hands  of  the  priests. 

Lately  Philinus,  after  he  had  been  long  travelling  in 
Egypt,  returning  to  us,  told  us  how  he  saw,  in  the  city 
which  derives  its  name  from  Anteus,  an  old  woman  sleep- 
ing by  the  side  of  a  crocodile,  upon  a  low  soft  bed  well 
and  decently  dressed  up. 

In  ancient  histories  we  find  that  when  King  Ptolemy 
called  the  sacred  crocodile,  and  w^hen  the  crocodile  neither 
vouchsafed  to  appear  at  his  call  nor  would  answer  to  the 
earnest  expostulations  of  the  priests,  it  was  looked  upon 
as  a  prognostication  of  the  death  of  the  king,  which  hap- 
pened soon  after.  Which  shows  that  the  race  of  water- 
animals  is  neither  without  a  share  of  that  inestimable  thing 
called  prophetic  signification,  nor  undeserving  those  honors 
ascribed  to  land  creatures.  For  that  about  Sura,  which  is 
a  village  in  Lycia  between  Phellus  and  Myra,  I  have  heard 
it  credibly  reported,  that  there  are  certain  persons  who 
make  it  their  business  to  watch  the  turns,  flights,  and  pur- 
suits of  the  fish,  whence,  by  a  certain  art  which  they  have, 
they  gather  predictions,  as  others  from  the  observation  of 
birds. 

24.  But  let  these  examples  suffice  to  show,  that  fish  are 
not  altogether  strangers  to  mankind,  nor  altogether  void 
of  human  affection.     But  for  a  great  and  common  demon- 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  197 

stration  of  their  unmixed  and  natural  understanding,  we 
find  that  there  is  not  any  fish  that  swims,  unless  they  be 
such  as  stick  and  cling  to  the  rocks,  which  is  so  easily 
taken  by  men,  as  asses  are  seized  by  wolves,  bees  by  bee- 
eaters,  grasshoppers  by  swallows,  serpents  by  harts.  And 
these  last  are  therefore  called  elacpoi,  not  from  their  swift- 
ness {tlacpaorr^g),  but  from  a  faculty  which  they  have  of 
drawing  serpents  to  them  (tlneiv  ocpsig).  So  sheep  call  the 
wolf  by  the  sound  of  their  feet,  and  the  panther  allures 
to  her  paws  both  apes  and  other  creatures  by  the  fragrant 
smell  of  her  body.  But  so  suspicious  is  the  sense  of  all 
water  animals,  and  so  watchful  are  they  to  avoid  all  baits 
and  treacheries  against  them,  by  reason  of  their  extraor- 
dinary cunning,  that  fishing  thereby  becomes  no  easy  or 
single  labor,  but  a  toil  that  requires  various  instruments 
and  many  tricks  of  human  cunning  and  deceit.  This  is 
apparent  from  examples  near  at  hand.  For  no  man  desires 
an  angling-rod  too  thick,  though  strong  enough  to  hold 
against  the  twitches  of  the  fish  when  taken ;  but  rather 
they  require  it  slender,  lest  by  casting  too  great  a  shadow 
upon  the  water,  it  should  frighten  the  suspicious  creat- 
ure. In  the  next  place,  they  never  knit  too  many  knots 
in  the  line,  but  make  it  as  smooth  as  may  be,  for  that 
would  too  much  discover  the  deceit ;  and  then  for  the  hairs 
which  are  next  the  hook,  they  endeavor  to  get  the  whitest 
they  can  meet  with ;  for  so,  by  reason  of  the  likeness  of 
color,  they  lie  the  more  easily  concealed  in  the  water. 
Therefore  some  there  are  who,  wrongly  expounding  the 
following  verses  of  Homer,* 

She  to  the  bottom  quickly  sinks,  like  lead, 
Which  fixt  to  horn  t  of  rustic  ox  descends. 
And  brings  destruction  to  the  greedy  fish, 

believe  that  the  ancients  made  use  of  ox-hair  for  their  lines 
with  which  they  angled,  alleging  that  xigag  then  signified 

*  II.  XXIV.  80.  t  Kipas. 


198  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

hair,  —  from  whence  xsiQaadai,  to  he  shaved,  and  xovqu,  shav- 
ing,—  and  that  xeQOTildazrjg  in  Archilochus  signified  one  who 
takes  dehght  in  trimming  and  decking  the  hair.  But  this 
is  an  error.  For  they  made  use  of  horse-hair,  more 
especially  that  of  male  horses.  For  mares,  by  moistening 
their  tails  with  their  urine,  render  the  hair  weak  and 
brittle.  Though  Aristotle  will  not  allow  any  thing  to  be 
said  in  all  this  that  requires  such  extraordinary  subtlety. 
Only  he  says,  that  the  lower  piece  of  the  line  was  fortified 
with  a  little  hollow  piece  of  horn,  lest  the  fish  should  come 
at  the  line  itself  and  bite  it  off;  moreover,  that  they  made 
use  of  round  hooks  to  catch  mullets  and  tunnies,  in  regard 
they  had  but  small  mouths,  for  that  they  were  afraid  of  a 
straight  hook.  He  also  further  says,  that  the  mullet  many 
times  suspecting  the  round  hook,  will  swim  round  about  it, 
flapping  the  bait  with  his  tail,  and  then  turning  round, 
secures  to  himself  so  much  as  he  has  broken  off.  Or  if 
he  cannot  do  that,  he  shuts  his  mouth  close,  and  with  the 
extremities  of  his  lips  nibbles  off  some  part  of  the  bait. 

The  fish  called  labrax  behaves  himself  more  stoutly 
than  the  elephant ;  for  when  he  perceives  himself  struck 
with  the  hook,  without  assistance  he  sets  himself  at  lib- 
erty, widening  the  wound  by  flinging  his  head  to  and  fro, 
and  enduring  the  painful  twingings  of  the  hook,  till  he 
have  freed  himself  from  it  with  the  loss  of  his  flesh.  The 
sea  fox  (or  the  fish  called  alopex)  seldom  bites,  but  avoids 
the  deceit ;  but  if  he  chance  to  be  taken,  he  presently  turns 
the  inside  of  his  body  outward.  For  by  reason  of  the 
strength  and  moisture  of  his  body,  he  has  a  peculiar  fac- 
ulty to  turn  it  so  that,  the  inside  coming  to  be  outermost, 
the  hook  falls  off.  These  things  demonstrate  understand- 
ing, and  a  subtle  and  extraordinary  use  of  it  in  the  nick 
and  juncture  of  time. 

25.  Other  examples  there  are  which  show  not  only  this 
same  understanding  and  knowledge,  but  the   community 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS'  199 

and  mutual  affection  of  fish.  Thus,  if  one  scate  happen 
to  swallow  the  hook,  all  the  rest  of  the  scates  that  are  in 
the  same  shoal  presently  crowd  together  and  bite  the  line 
in  pieces.  The  same  scates,  if  any  of  their  companions 
fall  into  the  net,  give  the  prisoners  their  tails  to  take  hold 
of  with  their  teeth,  and  so  draw  them  forth  by  main 
force. 

But  the  fish  called  anthiae  with  far  more  courage  assist 
their  fellows  in  distress.  For  getting  under  the  line  with 
their  backs,  and  setting  up  their  fins,  with  these,  as  with 
sharp  saws,  they  endeavor  to  cut  it  in  two. 

Now  we  know  no  land  animal  that  will  assist  and  de- 
fend his  kind  in  danger ;  neither  the  bear,  nor  the  wild 
boar,  nor  the  lion,  nor  the  panther.  True  it  is  that,  when 
they  are  in  herds  together,  they  will  gather  into  a  circle 
and  defend  each  other  in  common ;  but  no  single  land 
animal  either  knows  or  cares  to  assist  a  single  companion, 
but  flies  and  shifts  for  himself  as  far  off  as  he  can  from 
the  beast  that  is  wounded  and  lies  a  dying.  For  as  for 
that  old  story  of  elephants  filling  up  the  ditches  with 
heaps  of  adjoining  materials,  whether  wood  or  earth,  for 
the  unfortunate  elephant  the  more  easily  to  get  up  again, 
this,  my  good  friend,  is  extremely  uncouth  and  foreign  to 
us,  as  if  we  were  bound  to  believe  Juba's  books  by  virtue 
of  a  royal  edict.  However,  if  it  is  true,  it  does  but  serve  to 
show  that  many  of  the  marine  creatures  are  nothing  infe- 
rior in  understanding  and  community  to  the  most  intelli- 
gent of  the  land  animals.  But  as  for  their  mutual  society, 
we  shall  discourse  apart  of  that  by  itself. 

26.  Now  the  fishermen,  observing  how  that  most  fish 
avoided  the  casts  of  their  hooks  by  cunning  or  by  striving 
with  the  tackling,  betook  themselves  to  force,  —  as  the 
Persians   use  to    serve  their  enemies    in    their  wars,*  — 

*  That  is,  by  joining  hands  and  sweeping  across  an  island.     See  the  description 
in  Herod.  VL  31,  and  aayrivevu  in  Liddell  and  Scott.     (G.) 


200  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

making  use  of  nets,  that  there  might  be  no  escape  foi 
those  that  were  caught  either  by  the  help  of  reason  or 
subtlety.  Thus  mullets  and  the  fish  called  julides  are 
taken  with  sweep-nets  and  drag-nets,  as  are  also  several 
other  sorts  of  fish  called  mormuri,  sargi,  gobii,  and  la- 
braces  ;  those  that  are  called  casting-nets  catch  the  mullet, 
the  gilthead.  and  the  scorpion  fish ;  and  therefore  Homer 
calls  this  sort  of  net  navdyQa,  or  the  all-sweeper*  And  yet 
there  are  some  fish  that  are  too  cunning  for  these  nets. 
Thus  the  labrax,  perceiving  the  drawing  of  the  sweep-net, 
Avitli  the  force  of  his  body  beats  a  hollow  place  in  the  mud, 
where  he  lays  himself  close  till  the  net  be  gone  over  him. 
But  as  for  the  dolphin,  when  he  finds  himself  taken  and 
in  the  midst  of  the  net,  he  remains  there  without  being  in 
the  least  perplexed,  but  falls  to  with  a  great  deal  of  joy, 
and  feasts  upon  the  numerous  fry  within  the  meshes ;  but 
so  soon  as  he  comes  near  the  shore,  he  bites  his  way 
through  the  net  with  his  teeth  and  swims  away.  Or  if  he 
chance  to  be  taken,  the  fishermen  do  him  no  other  harm 
the  first  time,  but  only  sew  a  sort  of  large  bulrush  to  the 
finny  crown  upon  his  head,  and  so  let  him  go.  If  they 
take  him  a  second  time,  they  punish  him  with  stripes,  well 
knowing  him  again  by  the  prints  of  the  needle.  But  that 
rarely  happens.  For  having  got  pardon  the  first  time,  for 
the  most  part  of  them,  they  acknowledge  the  favor,  and 
abstain  from  spoil  for  the  future. 

Moreover,  among  the  many  examples  that  make  evident 
the  wariness  of  fish  in  avoiding  the  deceits  and  craft  of 
the  fishermen,  it  would  not  be  convenient  to  pass  by  that 
of  the  cuttle-fish.  For  this  fish,  carrying  near  his  neck  a 
certain  black  and  inky  sort  of  liquor,  so  soon  as  he  per- 
ceives himself  discovered,  throws  that  liquor  forth,  and 
darkens  all  the  water  round  about  him  in  such  a  manner 
that,  the  fisherman  losing  sight  of  him,  by  that  means  he 

*  See  II.  V.  487. 


WATER  OR  LAND   ANIMALS?  201 

makes  his  escape ;  imitating  therein  Homer's  Deities,  who, 
when  they  had  a  mind  to  save  any  of  their  heroes,  hid 
them  in  an  azure  cloud.     But  of  this  enough. 

27.  Now  for  the  extraordinary  subtlety  of  fish  in  hunting 
and  catching  their  own  prey,  we  shall  meet  with  several 
examples  of  it  in  several  fish.  Particularly  the  star-fish, 
understanding  his  own  nature  to  be  such  that  whatever  he 
touches  dissolves  and  liquefies,  readily  offers  his  body,  and 
permits  himself  to  be  touched  by  all  that  come  near  him. 

You  know  yourself  the  property  of  the  torpedo  or  cramp 
5sh,  which  not  only  benumbs  all  those  that  touch  it,  but 
also  strikes  a  numbness  through  the  very  net  into  the  hands 
of  them  that  go  about  to  take  him.  And  some  that  have 
had  greater  experience  of  this  fish  report  that,  if  it  happen 
to  fall  alive  upon  the  land,  they  that  pour  water  upon  it 
shall  presently  perceive  a  numbness  seizing  upon  their 
hands  and  stupefying  their  feeling,  through  the  water 
affected  with  the  quality  of  the  fish.  And  therefore,  hav- 
ing an  innate  sense  of  this  faculty,  it  never  makes  any  re- 
sistance against  any  thing,  nor  ever  is  it  in  danger.  Only 
swimming  ckcularly  about  his  prey,  he  shoots  forth  the 
effluviums  of  his  nature  like  so  many  darts,  and  first  infects 
the  water,  then  the  fish  through  the  water,  which  is  neither 
able  to  defend  itself  nor  to  escape,  being  (as  it  were)  held 
in  chains  and  frozen  up. 

The  fish  called  the  fisherman  is  well  known  to  many, 
who  has  his  name  given  him  from  his  manner  of  catching 
fish  ;  whose  art,  as  Aristotle  writes,  the  cuttle-fish  makes 
use  of,  for  he  lets  down,  like  a  line,  a  certain  curl  which 
Nature  has  given  him,  so  ordered  as  to  let  it  run  out  at 
length  or  draw  it  to  him  again,  as  he  sees  occasion.  This, 
when  he  sees  any  of  the  lesser  fish  approach,  he  off'ers 
them  to  bite,  and  then  by  degrees  pulls  the  curl  nearer  and 
nearer  by  virtue  of  the  bait,  till  he  has  drawn  his  prey 
within  the  reach  of  his  mouth.     And  as  for  the  polypus's 


202  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

changing  his  color,  Pindar  has  made  it  famous  in  these 
words : 

In  any  city  may  thai  man  expose 
His  safety,  who  well  knows 
Like  sea-bred  polypus  to  range, 
And  vary  color  upon  every  change. 

In  like  manner  Theognis : 

Change  manners  with  thy  friends,  observing  thus 
The  many-colored,  cunning  polypus  ; 
Who  let  him  stick  to  whatsoever  rock, 
Of  the  same  color  does  his  body  look.* 

It  is  true  the  chameleon  changes  color,  not  out  of  any 
design  or  to  conceal  himself,  but  out  of  fear,  being  natu- 
rally timorous  and  trembling  at  every  noise  he  hears.  And 
this  is  occasioned  by  the  extraordinary  abundance  of 
breath  which  he  enjoys,  as  Theophrastus  affirms.  For  the 
whole  body  of  this  creature  wants  but  little  of  being  noth- 
ing else  but  lungs ;  which  demonstrates  him  to  be  full  of 
spirits,  and  consequently  apt  to  change.  But  this  same 
change  of  the  polypus  is  no  product  of  any  affection  of 
the  mind,  but  a  kind  of  action.  For  he  changes  on  pur- 
pose, making  use  of  this  artifice  to  escape  what  he  fears, 
and  to  get  the  food  which  he  lives  by.  For  by  fraud,  those 
things  that  he  will  take  never  avoid  him,  and  those  things 
he  will  escape  pass  him  by  without  taking  any  notice  of 
him.  For  that  he  devours  his  own  claws  is  an  untruth, 
but  that  he  is  afraid  of  the  lamprey  and  conger  is  certain ; 
for  by  these  he  is  ill  treated,  not  being  able  to  return  them 
any  injury,  by  reason  of  their  being  so  slippery.  Though 
on  the  other  side  the  crawfish,  having  once  got  them  within 
his  claws,  holds  them  with  ease.  For  slenderness  affords 
no  help  against  roughness ;  but  when  the  polypus  comes 
to  thrust  his  horns  into  the  body  of  the  crawfish,  then  also 
the  crawfish  dies.     And  this  same  vicissitude  of  avoiding 

*  Theognis,  vs.  216. 


WATER  OR  LAND   ANIMALS?  203 

and  pursuing  one  another  has  Nature  infused  into  them  on 
purpose  to  exercise  their  subtlety  and  understanding. 

28.  Then  again  we  have  heard  Aristotimus  relating  how 
the  land  hedge-hog  had  a  perception  of  the  rising  of  the 
wind,  and  praising  the  trigonal  flight  of  cranes.  But  for 
my  part,  I  produce  no  particular  hedge-hog  of  Cyzicus  or 
Byzantium,  but  all  the  sea  hedge-hogs  in  general ;  who, 
when  they  perceive  a  storm  coming,  ballast  themselves  with 
little  stones,  lest  they  should  be  overturned  by  reason  of 
their  lightness  or  carried  away  by  the  rolling  of  the  waves, 
which  they  prevent  by  the  weight  of  their  little  stones. 

On  the  other  side,  the  cranes'  order  in  their  flight  against 
the  wind  is  not  of  one  sort.  But  this  is  a  general  notion 
among  all  fish,  that  they  always  swim  against  the  waves  and 
the  tide,  and  always  take  care  lest  the  wind  being  in  their 
tails  should  force  their  fins  from  their  backs,  and  leave 
their  naked  bodies  exposed  to  the  cold  and  other  incon- 
veniences ;  and  therefore  they  still  oppose  the  prows  of 
their  bodies  against  the  waves.  For  that  while  they  thus 
cleave  the  waves  at  the  top,  the  sea  keeps  their  fins  close, 
and  lightly  flowing  over  the  superficies  of  their  bodies,  be- 
comes less  burdensome,  besides  that  it  suff"ers  not  their 
scales  to  rise. 

This,  I  say,  is  common  to  all  fish,  except  that  fish  which 
is  called  ellops  ;  which,  as  they  report,  always  swims  with 
the  wind  and  tide,  not  minding  the  erection  or  opening  of 
the  scales,  which  do  not  lie  towards  the  tail,  as  in  other 
fish. 

29.  Moreover,  the  tunny  is  so  sensible  of  the  equinoxes 
and  solstices,  that  he  teaches  even  men  themselves  without 
the  help  of  any  astrological  table.  For  where  the  winter 
solstice  overtakes  him,  there  he  remains  till  the  vernal 
equinox. 

As  for  that  same  artifice  of  the  cranes,  that  keep  them- 
selves waking  by  clutching  a  stone  in  their  claws,  how  much 


204  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

more  cunningly  done  is  that  of  the  dolphin,  for  whom  it 
is  not  lawful  to  stand  still  or  to  be  out  of  motion.  For  it 
is  the  nature  of  the  dolphins  to  be  always  in  motion ;  so 
that,  when  they  cease  to  move,  they  also  cease  to  live. 
And  therefore  when  sleep  seizes  them,  they  raise  their 
bodies  to  the  superficies  of  the  sea,  and  so  sinking  down 
again  with  their  bellies  upward,  are  carried  along  with  the 
tide  till  they  touch  again  the  shore.  Wakened  in  that 
manner,  with  an  impetuous  noise  they  mount  upward  again, 
desisninsr  thus  a  kind  of  rest  still  intermixed  with  motion. 
And  the  same  thing  is  reported  of  the  tunnies  for  the  same 
reason. 

Having  thus  concluded  their  mathematical  foreknowl- 
edge of  the  mutations  of  the  sun,  of  which  Aristotle 
gives  testimony,  let  me  now  relate  their  skill  in  arithmetic  ; 
but  first  of  all,  their  knowledge  in  optics,  of  which  Aes- 
chylus seems  not  to  have  been  altogether  ignorant.  For 
these  are  his  words  : 

Casting  a  squint-eye  like  the  tunny. 

For  tunnies  seem  to  be  dim-sighted  of  one  eye.  And  there- 
fore, when  they  enter  the  Euxine  Sea,  they  coast  along 
the  land  on  the  right  side,  and  contrariwise  when  they 
come  forth  ;  prudently  committing  the  care  of  their  bodies 
to  the  best  eye. 

But  wanting  arithmetic  in  order  to  the  preservation  of 
mutual  love  and  society  one  with  another,  they  arrive  in 
such  a  manner  to  the  perfection  of  that  science,  that,  in 
regard  they  are  extremely  desirous  to  enjoy  the  society  of 
each  other,  they  always  make  up  their  whole  fry  into  tbo 
form  of  a  cube,  and  make  a  solid  of  the  whole  number 
consisting  of  six  equal  planes;  and  then  they  swim  in  such 
order  as  to  present  an  equal  front  in  each  direction.  So 
then,  if  the  observer  of  the  tunnies  does  but  exactly  take 
the  number  of  the  side  that  he  sees,  he  knows  the  whole 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  205 

number  of  the  shoal ;  well  knowing  that  the  depth  is  equal 
to  the  breadth  and  length. 

.30,  The  fish  amiae,  which  are  another  sort  of  tunnies,  are 
so  called,  because  they  swim  in  shoals,  as  also  the  pelamydes 
or  summer  whitings.  As  for  the  rest  that  are  seen  to  swim 
in  shoals  and  to  observe  a  mutual  society,  their  number  is 
not  to  be  expressed.  And  therefore  let  us  proceed  to  those 
that  observe  a  kind  of  private  and  particular  society  one 
with  another.  Among  which  is  the  pinoteras  of  Chrysip- 
pus,  upon  which  he  has  expended  so  much  ink,  that  he 
gives  it  the  precedency  in  all  his  books,  both  physical  and 
ethical.  For  Chrysippus  never  knew  the  spongotera,  for 
he  would  not  have  passed  it  over  out  of  negligence. 

The  pinoteras  is  so  called,  from  watching  the  fish  called 
pina  or  the  nacre,  and  in  shape  resembles  a  crab ;  and  co- 
habiting with  the  nacre,  he  sits  like  a  porter  at  his  shell- 
side,  which  he  lets  continually  to  stand  wide  open  until  he 
spies  some  small  fishes  gotten  within  it,  such  as  they  are 
wont  to  take  for  their  food.  Then  entering  the  shell,  he 
nips  the  flesh  of  the  nacre,  to  give  him  notice  to  shut  his 
shell ;  which  being  done,  they  feed  together  within  the 
fortification  upon  the  common  prey. 

The  sponge  is  governed  by  a  certain  little  creature  more 
like  a  spider  than  a  crab.  For  the  sponge  wants  neither 
soul  nor  sense  nor  blood ;  but  growing  to  the  stones,  as 
many  other  things  do,  it  has  a  peculiar  motion  from  itself 
and  to  itself,  which  nevertheless  stands  in  need  as  it  were 
of  a  monitor  or  instructor.  For  being  otherwise  of  a  sub- 
stance loose  and  open,  and  full  of  holes  and  hollowness, 
by  reason  of  the  sloth  and  stupidity  of  it  the  sponge-watch- 
er assists  to  give  notice  when  any  thing  of  food  enters  the 
cavities  of  it,  at  which  time  the  sponge  contracts  itself 
and  falls  to  feeding. 

But  if  a  man  approach  and  touch  it,  being  nipped  and 
admonished  by  the  sponge-watcher,  it  seems   to  shuddei 


206  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

and  shut  up  the  body  of  it,  closing  and  condensing  it  in 
such  a  manner  as  makes  it  no  easy  thing  to  cut  it  from  the 
place  where  it  grows. 

The  purple  shellfish  also,  called  porphyrae,  clustering 
together  in  a  kind  of  mutual  society,  build  up  little  combs 
for  themselves  like  bees,  wherein  they  are  said  to  gener- 
ate ;  and  culling  out  the  choicest  substance  of  the  moss  and 
seaweed  that  stick  to  their  shells,  they  seem  to  be  in  a  cir- 
cular commons  among  themselves,  feeding  the  one  upon 
the  other's  nourishment. 

31.  But  why  should  we  admire  society  in  these  creatures, 
when  the  most  savage  and  most  unsociable  of  all  creatures 
which  either  lakes,  rivers,  or  the  ocean  nourishes,  the  croco- 
dile, shows  himself  the  most  sociable  and  grateful  of  water 
monsters  in  the  banquets  which  he  bestows  upon  the 
trochilus  ?  For  the  trochilus  is  a  bird  that  haunts  marshes 
and  rivers,  and  he  guards  and  watches  over  the  crocodile, 
not  as  one  that  feeds  at  his  table,  but  as  one  that  lives 
upon  his  scraps  and  leavings  only.  For  when  this  bird 
observes  the  crocodile  asleep,  and  the  ichneumon  ready  to 
assail  him,  smeared  with  mud  for  the  conflict  like  a  wrest- 
ler covered  with  dust,  he  never  leaves  crying  and  pecking 
him  with  his  beak,  till  he  rouse  the  drowsy  monster.  In 
return  of  which  the  crocodile  is  so  tame  and  gentle  towards 
this  bird,  that  he  permits  him  to  enter  his  yawning  chaps, 
and  is  pleased  with  his  pecking  out  and  cleansing  away 
with  his  beak  the  remainders  of  the  devoured  flesh  that 
sticks  between  his  teeth.  And  when  the  monster  has  an 
inclination  to  shut  his  mouth,  he  gives  the  bird  notice  by 
a  gentle  lowering  of  his  jaw,  nor  will  he  close  his  chaps 
till  he  finds  that  the  bird  is  flown  away.  The  fish  which 
the  Greeks  call  hegemon  (or  the  captain  or  leader)  is  a 
small  fish,  in  bigness  and  shape  not  much  unlike  a  gudg- 
eon, but  by  reason  of  the  roughness  of  his  scales  is  said 
to  resemble  a  bird  when  she  shakes  her  feathers.     This 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  207 

fish  always  keeps  company  with  one  of  the  huge  whales, 
and  swims  before  him  to  direct  his  course,  lest  he  should 
bruise  himself  upon  the  shallows,  or  fall  into  any  marshy 
place  or  narrow  haven  whence  he  could  not  easily  get  out 
again.  Therefore  the  whale  follows  him,  as  the  ship  fol-, 
lows  the  helm,  directing  his  course  with  confidence.  All 
other  things  whatever,  whether  skiff,  whether  beast  or 
stone,  that  chance  to  light  into  the  gaping  gulf  of  the 
whale's  mouth,  immediately  perish,  being  swallowed  by 
the  monster  ;  but  acknowledging  his  conductor,  he  receives 
him  and  lodges  him,  like  an  anchor,  safely  in  his  jaws. 
There  he  sleeps ;  and  all  the  while  he  takes  his  rest,  the 
whale  lies  still,  as  if  he  were  at  anchor ;  and  when  his 
guide  comes  forth  again,  the  whale  proceeds,  never  forsak- 
ing him  night  or  day  ;  or  if  he  wander  without  his  leader, 
the  monster  shipwrecks,  like  a  vessel  cast  upon  a  rock 
without  a  helm.  And  this  we  saw  not  long  ago  near  An- 
ticyra,  where  they  report  that  in  former  times  a  whale 
being  cast  and  putrefying  caused  a  pestilence. 

Is  it  worth  while  then  to  compare  these  observations  of 
community  and  association  with  those  sympathies  which, 
as  Aristotle  relates,  exist  between  foxes  and  serpents  be- 
cause the  eagle  is  an  enemy  to  both  ?  Or  with  those  of  the 
horn-owls  with  horses,  whose  dung  they  love  to  scrape  about 
the  field  ?  For  my  part  I  observe  no  such  care  of  one 
another  in  bees  and  emmets,  which,  by  reason  of  their  mul- 
titude, carry  on  and  perfect  their  work  in  common,  but 
have  no  particular  care  or  consideration  one  of  another. 

32.  We  shall  observe  this  diff'erence  more  evidently,  if 
we  direct  our  discourses  upon  the  most  ancient  and  great- 
est works  of  common  society,  which  are  the  works  of  gen- 
eration and  procreation  of  offspring.  For  in  the  first 
place,  those  fish  that  frequent  the  shores  next  adjoining  to 
vast  lakes  or  great  rivers,  when  they  are  near  their  time  of 
bringing  forth,  retire  up  into  those  places,  seeking  the 


208  WHICH  AHE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

fresh  waters  which  are  more  gentle  and  void  of  brine.  For 
tranquillity  is  most  convenient  for  such  as  bring  forth,  and 
there  is  most  safety  in  rivers  and  lakes  for  their  young 
ones,  as  being  freest  from  the  devouring  monsters  of  the 
sea.  Which  is  the  reason  that  there  is  the  greatest  plenty 
of  fish  about  the  Euxine  Sea,  where  there  are  no  whales, 
but  only  small  sea-calves  or  little  dolphins.  Besides,  the 
mixture  of  rivers,  many  in  number,  and  those  very  large, 
that  fall  into  the  Pontus,  make  the  temperature  more  kind- 
ly and  proper  for  breeding  and  bringing  forth.  And  that 
is  most  wonderful  which  is  reported  of  the  anthias,  which 
Homer  *  calls  the  sacred  fish,  though  some  interpret  sacred 
to  signify  great  in  that  place,  as  we  call  a  certain  great 
bone  OS  sacrum^  and  the  epilepsy,  being  a  great  disease, 
the  sac7'ed  disease,  though  others  interpret  that  to  be  sa- 
cred which  ought  not  to  be  touched,  as  being  dedicated  to 
holy  use.  And  Eratosthenes  seems  to  take  the  gilthead, 
so  called  from  the  golden  hair  about  his  eyes,  for  the  sa- 
cred fish  ;  though  many  believe  it  to  be  the  ellops,  —  a 
fish  seldom  seen  and  difficult  to  be  caught,  yet  many  times 
it  appears  in  the  rivers  of  Pamphylia.  So  they  that  catch 
them  are  crowned,  and  their  boats  are  also  adorned  with 
garlands,  and  as  they  pass  along  they  are  received  and 
honored  with  loud  shouts  and  clapping  of  hands.  How- 
ever it  be,  most  people  take  the  anthias  to  be  a  sacred  fish, 
because  that  where  the  anthias  appears,  there  are  no  sea- 
monsters,  but  the  sponge-cutters  dive  boldly,  and  the  fish 
as  fearlessly  spawn,  as  having  a  pledge  for  their  security. 
And  the  reason  is  twofold,  either  because  the  sea-monsters 
dread  the  anthias,  as  elephants  dread  a  hog,  and  lions 
a  cock ;  or  else  it  is  a  sign  that  there  are  no  sea-monsters 
in  those  places,  which  the  anthias  knows  and  observes,  as 
being  an  intelligent  fish,  endued  with  sense  and  a  good 
memory. 

•  n.  XVI.  407. 


WATER   OR  LAND   ANIMALS?  209 

33.  Then  again,  the  care  of  their  young  is  common  to 
both  sexes.  For  the  males  never  devour  their  offspring, 
but  remain  and  abide  constantly  by  the  sj)awn,  protecting 
it  with  a  diligent  watchfulness,  as  Aristotle  relates ;  and 
those  that  accompany  the  females  moisten  the  spawn  with 
a  small  quantity  of  milky  seed  ;  for  that  otherwise  the 
spawn  will  not  grow,  but  remains  imperfect  and  never 
arrives  at  the  due  proportion.  Particularly  the  fish  called 
phycides  make  themselves  nests  in  the  seaweed  to  preserve 
their  spawn  from  the  waves. 

But  the  love  of  the  galeus  toward  her  young  ones  is 
beyond  the  affection  and  clemency  of  any  the  tamest  of 
creatures  ;  for  they  lay  an  egg^  which  being  hatched,  they 
nourish  and  carry  the  young  about  not  outwardly,  but 
within  their  own  bowels,  as  if  they  could  not  breed  their 
young  without  a  second  birth. 

AVhen  the  young  ones  are  somewhat  grown,  they  put 
them  forth  again,  and  teach  them  to  swim  close  by  them- 
selves, then  resume  them  again  through  their  mouths  into 
their  bellies,  and  afford  them  nourishment  and  safe  retire- 
ment in  their  bodies,  till  they  are  able  to  shift  for  them- 
selves. 

No  less  admirable  is  the  care  of  the  tortoise,  as  to  the 
bringing  forth  and  preserving  her  young.  For  she  retires 
out  of  the  sea  to  lay  ;  but  not  being  able  to  stay  long  upon 
the  land,  she  hides  her  eggs  in  the  sand,  covering  them 
over  gently  with  the  lightest  of  the  gravel ;  and  when  she 
has  thus  sufficiently  and  assuredly  concealed  them,  some 
report  that  she  marks  and  streaks  the  place  with  her  feet, 
that  she  may  be  able  to  know  it  again ;  others  affirm  that 
the  female,  being  turned  upon  her  back  upon  the  sand  by 
the  male,  leaves  her  particular  marks  and  signatures  behind 
her.  However  it  be,  this  is  most  wonderful,  that  after 
waiting  forty  days  (for  in  so  many  the  eggs  come  to  break) 
she  returns,  and  knowing  where  the  treasure  lies,  as  weU 

VOL.  V.  14 


210  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

as  any  man  understands  where  he  hides  his  gold,  she  opens 
them  with  great  joy  and  alacrity. 

34.  Many  observations  like  to  these  are  made  of  the 
crocodile.  But  such  is  its  skill  in  choosing  a  place  for 
breeding,  that  no  man  can  explain  it  by  reason  or  conject- 
ure. Whence  it  comes  that  the  foreknowledge  of  this 
creature  is  imputed  more  to  divinity  than  reason.  For 
neither  farther  nor  nearer,  but  just  so  far  as  the  Nile  that 
year  will  increase  and  cover  the  land,  thither  she  goes  forth 
and  lays  her  eggs  ;  which  the  countrymen  finding,  are  able 
to  tell  one  another  how  far  the  river  will  overflow  that 
year.  So  truly  does  that  animal  measure  for  herself,  that 
though  she  live  in  the  water,  she  may  lay  her  eggs  dry. 
But  the  young  ones  being  hatched,  whichsoever  of  them, 
so  soon  as  they  are  come  to  life,  does  not  seize  whatever 
comes  next  —  either  upon  a  fly,  or  a  worm,  or  a  straw,  or 
a  tuft  of  grass  —  with  his  mouth,  the  dam  presently  tears 
him  to  pieces  with  her  teeth.  But  those  that  are  fierce 
and  active  she  loves  and  cherishes,  according  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  wisest  men,  imparting  her  afl'ection  by  the 
rules  of  judgment,  not  by  the  sway  of  passion. 

The  sea-calves  also  bring  forth  upon  the  dry  lands  ;  but 
then  fetching  out  their  young  ones  by  degrees,  they  give 
them  a  taste  of  the  sea-water,  and  presently  lead  them  out 
again ;  and  this  they  often  do,  till  custom  has  made  them 
bold,  and  brought  them  to  love  a  sea  life. 

Frogs  when  they  couple  use  a  certain  croaking  invita- 
tion, which  is  commonly  called  ololygon ;  and  when  the 
male  has  thus  enticed  the  female,  they  abide  together  all 
night.  For  in  the  water  they  cannot,  and  in  the  daytime 
they  are  afraid  to  engender  upon  the  land,  which  in  the 
night-time  they  do  without  control.  At  other  times  they 
croak  more  shrill  and  loud ;  and  this  is  a  sign  of  rain, 
and  holds  among  the  most  assured  prognostics  of  wet 
weather. 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  211 

35.  But  what  absurdity,  dearest  Neptune,  would  this 
passion  of  mine  lead  me  into !  How  ridiculous  should  I 
appear,  if  trifling  among  sea-calves  and  frogs,  I  should 
omit  one  of  the  marine  animals,  the  wisest  and  most  be- 
loved by  the  Gods  !  For  what  nightingales  are  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  halcyon  for  music  ?  or  who  will  presume  to 
prefer  the  swallow's  love  of  offspring,  the  dove's  love  of 
her  mate,  or  the  ait  and  curiosity  of  the  bees,  to  those 
virtues  ascribed  to  the  halcyon  1  One  only  island,  as  his- 
tory tells  us,  received  and  entertained  Latona  when  she 
gave  birth ;  which  island,  floating  before,  was  then  made 
firm  land.  But  when  the  halcyon  brings  forth,  about  the 
winter  solstice,  the  whole  ocean  remains  calm  and  undis- 
turbed without  the  wrinkle  of  a  wave.  So  that  there  is 
not  any  other  creature  for  which  man  has  so  great  an 
affection,  seeing  that  for  her  sake  for  seven  days  and  seven 
nights  together,  in  the  depth  of  winter,  they  sail  without 
fear  of  shipwreck,  and  make  their  voyages  upon  the  sea 
with  greater  safety  than  they  travel  upon  the  land. 

But  if  it  be  required  that  we  should  make  a  brief  recital 
of  her  particular  virtues,  she  is  so  great  an  example  of 
conjugal  affection,  that  she  does  not  keep  company  with 
her  mate  for  a  single  season,  but  for  the  whole  year  to- 
gether, and  that  not  for  wantonness  (for  she  never  couples 
but  with  her  own),  but  out  of  affection  and  friendship,  like 
a  truly  virtuous  married  wife.  And  when  her  mate  through 
age  becomes  infirm  and  not  able  to  bear  her  company,  she 
takes  care  of  him,  and  feeds  and  carries  him  about  in  his 
old  age,  never  forsaking  nor  leaving  him  alone,  but  taking 
him  upon  her  shoulders,  carries  him  from  place  to  place, 
never  abandoning  him  till  death. 

As  to  her  affection  towards  her  young  ones  and  care  of 
their  preservation,  so  soon  as  she  perceives  herself  near  the 
time  of  her  bringing  forth,  she  presently  betakes  herself 
to  the  making  of  her  nest.     For  the  building  of  which, 


212  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

she  neither  makes  use  of  mud  and  dirt  nor  props  it  up 
with  walls  and  rafters,  like  the  swallows  ;  nor  does  she 
use  several  members  of  her  body  to  work  with,  like  the 
bees,  that  employ  their  whole  body  to  enter  the  wax  and 
open  their  cells,  with  their  six  feet  fashioning  their  six- 
sided  apartments.  For  the  halcyon  having  but  one 
single  instrument,  one  single  tool,  which  is  her  bill, 
nor  any  other  help  to  assist  her  in  labor  and  her  care  of 
her  young  ones,  what  a  wonderful  master-piece  of  work- 
manship does  she  erect?  Insomuch  that  it  is  a  difficult 
thing  for  them  that  have  not  well  considered  it  to  believe 
their  eyesight ;  her  workmanship  seeming  rather  the  art 
of  a  shipwright  than  of  a  common  builder;  of  all  inven- 
tions being  the  only  form  not  to  be  overwhelmed  and 
washed  by  the  waves.  To  this  purpose  she  gathers  to- 
gether the  thorns  of  the  sea-needle  —  some  straight,  others 
oblique,  like  the  woof  in  the  loom  —  and  twists  and  binds 
them  where  the  thread  and  yarn  are  interwoven  one  within 
another,  till  she  has  framed  a  nest  round  and  oblong,  re- 
sembling the  usual  fisher-boats.  This  when  she  has  fin- 
ished she  launches  into  the  sea,  where  the  waves  beating 
gently  upon  it  direct  to  reform  what  is  amiss,  by  consoli- 
dating the  loose  and  ill  compacted  parts,  where  the  water 
has  forced  any  entrance  ;  insomuch  that  at  length  she 
fastens  and  strengthens  what  she  has  put  together  in  such 
a  manner,  that  it  is  not  to  be  broken  or  pierced  either  by 
stones  or  steel.  Nor  is  the  symmetry  and  form  of  the  in- 
side and  cavity  of  the  nest  less  to  be  admired.  For  it  is  so 
contrived  as  only  to  receive  herself;  the  entrance  into  it 
not  being  to  be  found  by  any  other  creature,  nor  can  the 
sea  itself  find  a  way  into  it.  I  am  apt  to  believe  that  there 
is  none  of  you  who  never  saw  this  nest.  But  for  my  own 
part,  that  have  often  seen  and  handled  one  of  them,  I  may 
safely  say,  that  I 

In  Delos'  temple  near  Apollo's  shrine, 
Something  like  this,  a  fabric  most  divine, 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  213 

have  seen.  That  is  to  say,  the  horned  altar,  celebrated  for 
one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the  world,  which  without  the 
help  of  parget,  glue,  soder,  paste,  or  any  other  binding,  is 
framed  only  of  horns  that  grew  on  the  right  side  of  the 
head  of  the  beast. 

Now  may  the  Deity  that  is  somewhat  musical  and  an 
islander  be  propitious  to  me,  .  .  .  while  I  deride  the 
questions  which  those  scoffers  put,  —  wherefore  Apollo 
may  not  be  called  mullet-shooter,  when  we  find  that  Venus 
is  called  the  muUet-protectrix ;  for  which  reason  she  is 
honored  with  temples  adjoining  to  the  sea,  and  sacred 
rights ;  and  certain  it  is,  that  she  is  displeased  when  any 
mullet  is  killed.  Therefore  at  Leptis  the  priests  of  Nep- 
tune never  eat  any  thing  that  breeds  in  the  sea ;  and  you 
know  the  mullet  is  in  great  veneration  among  the  profes- 
sors of  the  Eleusinian  mysteries  ;  moreover,  that  the  priest- 
ess of  Juno  at  Argos  abstains  from  the  same  fish ;  and 
the  reason  is  because  the  mullets  kill  and  destroy  the  sea- 
hare,  which  is  pernicious  to  man,  and  therefore  they  spare 
those  creatures  that  are  kind  and  beneficial  to  him. 

36.  Then  again,  we  find  among  many  of  the  Greeks 
temples  and  altars  frequently  dedicated  to  Diana  Dictynna 
(so  called  from  dUxvov,  a  net)  and  Delphinian  Apollo.  And 
that  same  place  which  Apollo  has  peculiarly  chosen  for 
himself  was  first  of  all  inhabited  by  Cretans,  having  a 
dolphin  for  their  leader.  For  the  Deity  did  not  swim  be- 
fore his  army  in  another  shape  (as  the  mythologists  dream), 
but  sending  a  dolphin  to  direct  them  in  their  course,  the 
dolphin  brought  them  to  Cirrha.  Story  also  tells  us  that 
Soteles  and  Dionysius,  who  were  sent  to  Sinope  by  Ptolemy 
Soter  to  fetch  from  thence  Serapis,  were  driven  by  contrary 
winds  beyond  Cape  Malea,  having  the  Peloponnesus  upon 
their  right  hands  ;  while  they  were  thus  wandering  and 
out  of  their  course,  a  dolphin  appeared  before  the  prow 
of  the  headmost  vessel,  and  (as  it  were)  kindly  inviting 


214  WHICH  ARE  THE  MOST  CRAFTY, 

them,  conducted  them  into  safe  harbors  and  roads,  till  by 
his  good  guidance  and  leading  them  he  at  length  brought 
the  whole  fleet  to  Cirrha.  There,  when  they  came  to  ofl'er 
the  usual  sacrifices  for  their  safe  landing,  they  came  to  un- 
derstand that,  of  two  statues  which  were  in  the  place,  they 
were  to  take  that  of  Pluto  and  carry  it  along  with  them ; 
but  as  for  that  of  Proserpina,  they  were  only  to  take  the 
mould  and  leave  the  statue  itself  behind.  Probable  it  is 
that  the  Deity  had  a  kindness  for  the  dolphin,  considering 
how  much  he  delights  in  music.  For  which  reason  Pindar 
likens  himself  to  the  dolphin,  and  confesses  himself  to  be 
moved  in  the  same  manner  as  that  noble  creature, 

Which  flutes'  beloved  sound 

Excites  to  play, 
Upon  the  calm  and  placid  sea. 

Though  it  is  very  probable  that  his  aflection  to  men  is 
more  pleasing  to  the  Deity,  he  being  the  only  creature  that 
bears  an  aff"ection  to  man  as  man.  For  as  for  the  land 
animals,  some  kinds  there  are  that  fly  him  altogether,  and 
the  tamest  and  most  gentle  follow  him  and  are  familiar 
with  him,  only  for  the  benefit  and  nourishment  which  they 
receive  from  him ;  as  the  dog,  the  horse,  and  elephant. 
The  swallows,  by  necessity  constrained,  build  in  houses, 
seeking  shade  and  security,  but  are  no  less  afraid  of  men 
than  of  the  wild  beasts.  Only  to  the  dolphin  has  Nature 
bequeathed  that  excellent  quality,  so  much  sought  for  by 
the  best  of  philosophers,  to  love  for  no  advantage ;  for 
that  having  no  need  at  all  of  man,  he  is  a  kind  friend  to 
all  men,  and  has  lent  his  assistance  to  many.  There  is  no 
man  that  is  ignorant  of  the  famous  story  of  Arion.  And 
you,  my  dear  friend,  have  seasonably  put  us  in  mind  of 
Hesiod ;  but 

Thou  didst  not  by  a  legal  course 
Rightly  conclude  thy  long  discourse.* 

*  II.  IX.  56.     See  above,  chap.  13. 


WATER  OR  LAND  ANIMALS?  215 

For  when  you  had  spoken  so  much  in  praise  of  the  dog, 
you  should  not  have  passed  by  the  dolphin.  For  it  would 
have  been  a  blind  story  of  the  dog  that  barked  and  flew 
with  violence  upon  the  murderers,  had  it  not  been  for  the 
dolphins,  that  took  the  carcass  of  Hesiod,  floating  in  the 
sea  near  Nemeum,  and  readily  receiving  it  from  one 
another,  landed  it  at  Rhium,  whereby  the  murder  came  to 
be  known. 

Myrtilus  the  Lesbian  writes,  that  Enalus  the  Aeolian, 
being  in  love  with  the  daughter  of  Phineus,  who,  by  the 
command  of  the  oracle  of  Amphitrite  was  cast  into  the 
sea  by  the  Penthilidae,  when  he  understood  it,  threw  him- 
self also  into  the  sea,  but  was  saved  by  a  dolphin,  and 
carried  to  Lesbos. 

But  the  gentleness  and  kindness  of  the  dolphin  towards 
the  lad  of  Jasus  was  so  extraordinary  that  it  might  be  said 
to  amount  even  to  amorous  love.  For  he  played  and  swam 
with  him  in  the  daytime,  and  sufl'ered  himself  to  be 
handled  and  bestrid  by  him ;  nor  did  he  swim  away  with 
him,  but  joyfully  carried  him  which  way  soever  the  lad  by 
the  motion  of  his  body  turned  him,  while  the  lasians 
flocked  from  all  parts  to  the  shore  to  behold  the  sight. 
At  length  the  lad,  being  thrown  from  the  dolphin's  back 
by  a  terrible  shower  of  rain  and  hail,  was  drowned. 
Which  the  dolphin  perceiving  took  up  the  dead  youth, 
and  threw  himself  upon  the  land  together  with  the  body, 
from  which  he  never  stirred  till  he  died  out  of  his  own 
element ;  deeming  it  but  just  to  partake  of  that  end  of 
which  he  seemed  to  have  been  the  occasion  to  his  friend 
and  playfellow.  Nor  can  the  lasians  forget  the  accident, 
but  keep  it  still  in  remembrance  by  the  stamp  upon  their 
coin,  which  is  a  lad  upon  a  dolphin's  back. 

And  from  hence  it  was  that  the  fabulous  stories  of 
Coeranus  gained  credit.  He  was  a  Parian  by  birth,  who 
residing  at  Byzantium,  when  a  draught  of  dolphins  caught 


216         WHICH  AUE  THE  MOST  CRAETY, 

in  a  net  were  exposed  to  sale  and  in  danger  of  slaughter, 
bought  them  up  all,  and  put  them  into  the  sea  again.  It 
happened  not  long  after  that  Coeranus  took  a  voyage  in  a 
vessel  of  fifty  oars,  carrying,  as  the  story  goes,  several 
pirates.  But  between  Naxos  and  the  Bay  of  Pares  he 
suffered  shipwreck ;  and  when  all  the  rest  were  drowned, 
ho  alone  was  taken  up  by  a  dolphin  that  hastened  to  his 
succor,  and  carried  to  Sicynthus,  and  set  ashore  near  the 
cave  which  to  this  day  bears  the  name  of  Coeraneum. 
Upon  which  Archilochus  is  said  to  have  made  these  lines : 

Of  fifty  men,  great  Neptune  gentle  grown 
Left  courteous  Coeranus  alive  alone. 

Some  years  after  Coeranus  dying,  his  relations  burnt  his 
body  near  the  seaside ;  at  what  time  several  dolphins  ap- 
peared near  the  shore,  as  if  they  had  come  to  his  funeral ; 
nor  would  they  stir  till  the  funeral  was  over.  Moreover 
Stesichorus  writes  that  Ulysses  bore  a  dolphin  painted 
upon  his  shield;  and  for  what  reason  the  Zacynthian 
records  tell  us,  as  Critheus  testifies.  For  they  say  that 
Telemachus,  when  he  was  but  a  boy,  falling  into  the  sea, 
was  saved  by  the  dolphins  that  took  him  up  and  set  him 
ashore.  And  therefore  he  made  use  of  a  dolphin  for  the 
impression  of  his  seal  and  the  ornament  of  his  shield. 
But  having  promised  before  that  I  would  produce  no  fabu- 
lous stories,  and  yet  being  carried,  I  know  not  how,  to  dis- 
course beyond  probability  of  dolphins  by  this  repetition  of 
the  stories  of  Coeranus  and  Ulysses,  I  will  do  justice  upon 
myself  by  concluding  here. 

37.  Aristotimus.  Now,  gentlemen,  it  lies  on  your  part 
that  are  judges,  to  pronounce  sentence. 

SocLARus.  Assuredly  then,  for  our  parts,  we  shall  give 
the  same  judgment  in  this,  as  Sophocles  did  in  another 
case : 

Discourse  upon  discording  arguments 

Is  then  determined  best,  when  what  was  said 

la  duly  weighed  and  stated  on  both  sides. 


WATER  OR  LAND   ANIMALS  1  217 

For  thus  comparing  what  you  have  both  discoursed  one 
against  another,  it  will  be  found  that  you  have  acquitted 
yourselves  on  both  sides  like  true  champions  against  those 
that  would  deprive  brute  animals  of  sense  and  under- 
standing. 


THAT  BRUTE  BEASTS  MAKE  USE  OF  REASON 


ULYSSES,  CIKCE,  GRYLLUS. 

1.  Ulysses.  All  these  things,  Circe,  I  believe  that  I 
have  learned  and  well  remember.  But  I  would  will- 
ingly ask  thee,  whether  thou  hast  any  Grecians  here, 
which  being  men  thou  hast  transformed  into  wolves  and 
lions. 

Circe.  Very  many,  dearest  Ulysses,  but  wherefore  do 
you  ask  the  question  ? 

Ulysses.  Because  in  good  truth  I  am  of  opinion  I 
should  gain  a  high  reputation  among  the  Greeks,  if  by 
thy  favor  I  could  restore  these  men  to  human  shape  again, 
and  not  suffer  them  through  any  negligence  of  mine  to 
wax  old  in  the  bodies  of  beasts,  where  they  lead  a  mis- 
erable and  ignominious  life. 

Circe.  Surely,  this  man,  fool  as  he  is,  believes  it  requi- 
site that  his  ambition  should  be  unfortunate  not  only  to 
himself  and  his  friends,  but  to  those  that  nothing  belong 
to  him. 

Ulysses.  Thou  art  now  jumbling  and  mixing  another 
villanous  potion  of  twittle  twattle,  and  wouldst  plainly 
turn  me  into  a  beast  too,  if  thou  couldst  make  me  believe 
that  it  were  a  misfortune  to  be  transformed  from  a  beast 
to  a  man. 

Circe.  What  hast  thou  made  thyself  better  than  a 
beast,  who,  forsaking  an  immortal  life,  free  from  the  mis- 
eries of  old  age,  with  me,  art  making  such  haste  through 


BEASTS  MAKE   USE  OF  REASON.  219 

a  thousand  threatening  calamities  to  a  mortal  and  (as 
I  may  say)  old  wife,  pursuing  an  empty  good  and  a  shadow 
instead  of  real  truth,  and  all  this,  thinking  to  be  more  con- 
spicuous and  famous  than  thou  art. 

Ulysses.  Well,  Circe,  let  it  be  as  thou  sayest ;  for 
why  should  we  be.  always  contending  about  the  same 
thing  1  However,  do  me  the  favor  to  restore  these  men, 
and  give  them  into  my  custody. 

CiRce.  By  Hecate,  not  so  fast  neither ;  these  are  no 
ordinary  fellows.  But  ask  them  first  whether  they  are 
willing.  If  they  refuse,  do  you,  being  such  an  eloquent 
gentleman,  discourse  them  and  persuade  them ;  if  you 
cannot  persuade  them,  being  too  hard  for  ye  at  your  own 
weapon,  then  let  it  suffice  ye  that  you  have  ill  consulted 
your  own  and  the  good  of  your  friends. 

Ulysses.  Blessed  woman,  wherefore  dost  thou  mock 
me  thus  1  For  how  can  they  either  talk  or  hear  reason, 
so  long  as  they  are  asses,  hogs,  and  lions  ? 

Circe.  Be  of  good  comfort,  most  ambitious  of  men  ;  I 
will  so  order  the  business,  that  they  shall  both  understand 
and  discourse  ;  or  rather,  let  one  suffice  to  hear  and  return 
answers  instead  of  all  the  rest.  Look  ye,  here  is  one  at 
hand  ;   pray  talk  to  him. 

Ulysses.  Prithee,  Circe,  by  what  name  shall  we  call 
him  ?     Who  is  this  fellow  of  all  the  men  in  the  world  1 

Circe.  What's  this  to  the  purpose  ?  Call  him  Gryllus, 
if  you  please ;  and  for  my  part,  I'll  leave  ye  together, 
that  ye  may  not  suspect  him  for  speaking  contrary  to  his 
mind  to  please  me. 

2.    Gryllus.     Save  ye,  Mr.  Ulysses. 

Ulysses.     And  you  too,  by  Jove,  Mr.  Gryllus. 

Gryllus.  What  is't  your  worship  would  have  with 
me  1 

Ulysses.  Knowing  you  were  all  born  men,  I  pity  the 
condition  ye  are  now  in ;  and  I  pity  ye  the  more,  for  that 


220  THAT  BRUTE  BEASTS 

being  Greeks  ye  are  fallen  under  this  misfortune  ;  and 
therefore  I  made  it  my  request  to  Circe  that  she  would 
restore  ye  again  to  your  former  shape,  as  many  of  you  as 
were  desirous,  to  the  end  ye  might  return  home  again 
with  us. 

Gryllus.  Hold,  Mr.  Ulysses,  not  a  word  more  of  this, 
I  beseech  your  worship.  For  we  all  contemn  thee,  as  one 
that  none  but  fools  call  cunning,  and  as  vainly  vauntest 
thyself  to  be  wiser  than  other  men,  and  yet  art  afraid  of 
being  changed  from  worse  to  better ;  like  children  that 
are  frightened  at  physician's  doses  and  hate  going  to 
school,  although  the  medicines  and  the  precepts  make 
them  healthy  and  learned  of  diseased  and  fools  ;  just  so 
thou  refusest  to  be  transformed  out  of  one  thing  into 
another.  And  now  thy  bones  rattle  in  thy  skin  for  dread 
of  living  with  Circe,  lest  she  should  transform  thee  into  a 
hog  or  a  wolf;  and  thou  wouldst  persuade  us  living  in 
plenty  of  all  enjoyments  not  only  to  forsake  these  bless- 
ings, but  to  abandon  her  that  has  so  well  provided  for  us, 
to  sail  along  with  thee,  and  to  become  men  again,  the  most 
miserable  of  all  creatures. 

Ulysses.  In  my  opinion,  Gryllus,  this  same  wicked  cup 
has  not  only  deprived  thee  of  thy  shape,  but  of  thy  sense 
and  reason  too ;  or  else  thou  art  got  drunk  with  those 
opinions  which  are  everywhere  exploded  as  nasty  and 
villanous,  unless  some  voluptuous  pleasure  of  custom  and 
habit  has  bewitched  thee  to  this  body. 

Gryllus.  Neither  of  these,  O  king  of  the  Cephallenians. 
But  if  thou  art  come  hither  to  dispute,  and  not  to  rail  and 
swagger,  we  shall  soon  convince  thee,  having  experience 
of  both  manners  of  living,  that  our  way  is  to  be  preferred 
before  that  which  thou  so  much  applaudest. 

Ulysses.  Nay,  then  go  on  ;  I'll  listen  with  both  ears  to 
hear  this  paradox  discussed. 

3.  Gryllus.     Have  at  ye  then,  sir.     But  it  behooves  us 


MAKE   USE   OF  REASON.  221 

to  begin  first  with  those  virtues  which  you  so  presumptuously 
assume  to  yourselves,  and  for  which  you  so  highly  advance 
yourselves  before  the  beasts,  such  as  justice,  prudence, 
fortitude,  &c.  Now  answer  me,  thou  the  wisest  among 
mortals  ;  for  I  have  heard  thee  telling  a  story  to  Circe  of 
the  territory  of  the  Cyclops,  that  being  neither  ploughed 
nor  planted  by  any  person,  it  is  so  fertile  and  generously 
productive,  that  it  bears  all  sorts  of  fruits  and  herbs  spon- 
taneously Now  which  do  you  prefer,  this  country,  or 
your  own  goat-feeding  stony  Ithaca,  which  being  cultivated 
with  great  labor  and  hardship,  yet  answers  the  expecta- 
tions of  the  husbandmen  with  only  a  mean  and  scanty 
return  1  Now  take  it  not  amiss  that  I  forewarn  ye  lest 
your  love  to  your  country  sway  ye  to  give  an  answer  con- 
trary to  truth. 

Ulysses.  No,  no,  I  will  not  lie  for  the  matter ;  I  must 
confess  I  love  and  honor  my  own  country  more  ;  but  I 
applaud  and  admire  theirs  far  beyond  it. 

Gryllus.  Hence  we  must  conclude  that  it  is  so  as  the 
wisest  of  men  has  affirmed ;  that  there  are  some  things  to 
be  praised  and  approved,  others  to  be  preferred  by  choice 
and  affection.  And  I  suppose  you  believe  the  same  con- 
cerning the  soul.  For  the  same  reasons  hold  in  reference 
to  the  soul  as  to  the  ground ;  that  such  a  soul  should  be 
the  best,  that  produces  virtue  like  spontaneous  fruit,  with- 
out labor  and  toil. 

Ulysses.     Grant  all  this. 

Gryllus.  Then  you  confess  that  the  souls  of  beasts  are 
the  more  perfect,  and  more  fertilely  endued  for  the  produc- 
tion of  virtue ;  seeing  that  without  any  command  or  in- 
struction—  as  it  were  without  sowing  or  ploughing  —  it 
produces  and  increases  that  virtue  which  is  requisite  for 
every  one. 

Ulysses.  Prithee,  Gryllus,  don't  rave,  but  tell  me  what 
those  virtues  are  that  beasts  partake  of? 


222  THAT  BRUTE  BEASTS 

4.  Gryllus.  Rather  what  virtues  do  they  not  partake  of 
in  a  higher  degree  than  the  wisest  of  men  ?  Look  upon 
fortitude  in  the  first  place,  of  which  you  vaunt  and  brag  to 
have  such  a  terrible  share,  being  not  ashamed  of  the  mag- 
nificent titles  of  Ulysses  the  bold  and  city-stormer,  when 
indeed,  like  a  pitiful  knave  as  thou  art,  thou  dost  only 
circumvent  by  tricks  and  artifices  men  that  understand 
only  the  simple  and  generous  way  of  making  war,  ignorant 
altogether  of  fraud  and  faith-breaking,  and  by  that  means 
coverest  thy  deceit  with  the  name  of  virtue,  which  never 
admits  of  any  such  coney-catching  devices.  But  do  you  ob- 
serve the  combats  and  warfare  of  beasts,  as  well  one 
against  another  as  against  yourselves,  how  free  from  craft 
and  deceit  they  are,  and  how  with  an  open  and  naked 
courage  they  defend  themselves  by  mere  strength  of  body ; 
and  how,  neither  afraid  of  the  law  that  calls  them  forth  to 
battle  nor  the  severe  edicts  against  deserters,  but  only  out 
of  scorn  to  be  overcome,  they  fight  with  obstinacy  to  the 
last  for  conquest  and  victory.  For  they  are  not  van- 
quished when  their  bodies  are  worsted,  neither  does  de- 
spair cowardize  them,  but  they  die  upon  the  spot.  And 
you  shall  see  many  times  that  the  strength  of  many,  while 
they  are  expiring,  being  retired  and  crowded  together  in 
some  part  of  the  body,  still  makes  resistance  against  the 
victor,  and  pants  and  fumes  till  at  length  it  fails  like  ex- 
tinguished fire  that  goes  out  for  want  of  fuel.  But  there 
is  no  crying  for  quarter,  no  begging  of  mercy,  no  acknowl- 
edgment of  being  beaten ;  nor  will  the  lion  be  a  slave  to 
the  lion,  nor  the  horse  to  the  horse,  as  one  man  is  a  slave 
to  another,  willingly  and  patiently  embracing  servitude, 
which  derives  its  name  {dovXsia)  from  that  of  cowardice 
{8£(Xia).  On  the  other  side,  such  beasts  as  men  by  nets  and 
treacherous  snares  get  into  their  power,  if  fully  grown, 
rather  choose  to  die  than  serve,  refusing  nourishment  and 
suffering  extremity  of  drought.     But  as  for  their  young 


MAKE  USE   OF  REASON.  223 

ones,  —  being  tractable  and  supple  by  reason  of  their 
age,  and  fed  with  the  deceitful  mixtures  and  food  that 
men  provide  for  them,  their  inbred  fierceness  languishing 
through  the  taste  of  preternatural  delights,  —  they  suffer 
that  which  is  called  domestication,  which  is  only  an  effe- 
minating of  their  natural  fury. 

Whence  it  is  apparent  that  beasts  are  naturally  inclined 
to  be  courageous  and  daring,  but  that  the  martial  confi- 
dence of  men  is  preternatural.  Which,  most  noble  Ulysses, 
you  may  chiefly  observe  from  hence  ;  for  that  in  beasts 
Nature  keeps  an  equal  balance  of  strength  ;  so  that  the 
female,  being  but  little  inferior  to  the  male,  undergoes  all 
necessary  toils,  and  fights  in  defence  of  her  young  ones. 
And  thus  you  hear  of  a  certain  Cromyonian  sow,  which, 
though  a  female,  held  Theseus  tack,  and  found  him  work 
sufficient.  Neither  had  the  wisdom  of  that  same  female 
Sphinx  that  sat  on  Phicium,  with  all  her  riddles  and  enig- 
mas, availed  her,  had  she  not  far  excelled  the  Cadmeans 
in  strength  and  fortitude.  Not  far  from  whence  the  Tel- 
mesian  fox  had  his  den,  a  great  propounder  of  questions 
also ;  not  to  omit  the  female  serpent  that  fought  with 
Apollo  for  his  oracle  at  Delphi.  Your  king  also  took  the 
mare  Aetha  from  the  Sicyonian,  as  a  bribe  to  discharge 
him  from  going  to  the  wars  ;  and  he  did  well,  thereby 
showing  how  much  he  esteemed  a  valiant  and  generous 
mare  above  a  timorous  coward.  You  yourself  have  also 
seen  female  panthers  and  lionesses  little  inferior  to  the 
males  in  strength  and  courage ;  when  your  own  wife, 
though  a  Lacedaemonian,  when  you  were  hectoring  and 
blustering  abroad,  sat  at  home  in  the  chimney-corner,  not 
daring  to  do  so  much  as  the  very  swallows  in  encountering 
those  who  plagued  both  her  and  her  family.  Why  need  I 
still  speak  of  the  Carian  and  Maeonian  women  ?  Whence 
it  is  apparent  that  fortitude  is  not  natural  to  men,  for  then 
the  women  would  partake  of  the  same  strength  with  men. 


224  THAT   BRUTE  BEASTS 

So  that  the  fortitude  which  you  exercise  is  only  constrained 
by  law,  not  natural  and  voluntary,  but  subservient  to  the 
manners  of  the  place  and  enslaved  to  reproach,  a  thing 
made  up  only  of  glorious  words  and  adventitious  opinion. 
And  you  undergo  labor  and  throw  yourself  into  danger, 
not  out  of  real  valor  and  boldness,  but  because  ye  are 
more  afraid  of  other  things.  Therefore,  as  among  thy  own 
companions  he  that  first  makes  haste  to  snatch  up  the  light 
oar  does  it  not  because  he  contemns  it,  but  because  he  is 
loath  to  be  troubled  with  the  more  heavy ;  so  he  that 
endures  a  blow  to  avoid  a  wound,  and  defends  himself 
against  an  enemy  to  preserve  himself  from  wounds  and 
death,  does  it  not  out  of  daring  courage  against  the  one, 
but  out  of  fear  of  the  other.  Thus  your  fortitude  is  only 
a  prudent  fear ;  and  your  courage  a  knowing  timidity, 
which  understandingly  does  one  thing  to  avoid  another. 

In  short,  if  you  believe  yourselves  superior  to  the  beasts 
in  fortitude,  why  do  your  poets  call  those  that  behave 
themselves  most  valiantly  against  their  enemies  wolf- 
breasted,  lion-hearted,  and  compare  them  to  wild  boars  ; 
but  never  call  the  courage  of  lions  man-like,  or  resemble 
the  strength  of  a  wild  boar  to  that  of  a  man  ?  But  as  they 
call  the  swift  wind-footed,  and  the  beautiful  Godlike- 
formed,  hyperbolizing  in  their  similes  ;  so  when  they  extol 
the  gallantry  of  the  stout  in  battle,  they  derive  their  com- 
parisons from  the  superior  in  bravery.  The  reason  is, 
because  courage  is  as  it  were  the  tincture  and  edge  of  for- 
titude ;  which  the  beasts  make  use  of  unmixed  in  their 
combats,  but  in  you  being  mixed  with  reason,  like  wine 
diluted  with  water,  it  gives  way  to  danger  and  loses  the 
opportunity.  And  some  of  you  there  are  who  deny  that 
courage  is  requisite  in  battle,  and  therefore  laying  it  aside 
make  use  of  sober  reason ;  which  they  do  well  for  their 
preservation,  but  are  shamefully  beside  the  cushion,  in 
point  of  strength  and  revenge.    How  absurd  is  it  therefore 


MAKE  USE   OF  REASOJ<.  225 

for  you  to  complain  of  Nature,  because  she  did  not  furnish 
your  bodies  with  goads  and  teeth  and  crooked  claws  to 
defend  yourselves,  when  at  the  same  time  you  would  dis- 
arm the  soul  of  her  natural  weapons  ? 

5.  Ulysses.  In  good  truth,  Gryllus,  you  are  grown,  in 
my  conceit,  a  notable  sophister,  to  discourse  at  this  rate 
out  of  a  hog's  snout,  and  yet  to  handle  your  argument  so 
strenuously.  But  why  have  you  not  all  this  while  spoke 
a  word  of  temperance  ? 

Gryllus.  Because  I  thought  you  would  have  contra- 
dicted first  what  I  have  already  said.  But  you  are  in  haste 
to  hear  what  1  have  to  say  concerning  temperance,  because 
that,  being  the  husband  of  a  most  temperate  and  chaste 
wife,  you  believe  you  have  set  us  an  example  of  temper- 
ance by  abstaining  from  Circe's  embraces.  And  yet  in 
this  you  differ  nothing  from  all  the  beasts  ;  for  neither  do 
they  desire  to  approach  their  superiors,  but  they  pursue 
their  pleasures  and  amours  among  those  of  their  own  tribe. 
No  wonder  is  it  then,  if  —  like  the  Mendesian  goat  in 
Egypt,  which  is  reported  to  have  been  shut  up  with  sev- 
eral most  beautiful  women,  yet  never  to  have  offered  copu- 
lation with  them,  but  when  he  was  at  liberty,  with  a  lustful 
fury  flew  upon  the  she-goats  —  so  thou,  though  a  man 
addicted  greatly  to  venereal  pleasures,  yet  being  a  man, 
hast  no  desire  to  sleep  with  a  goddess.  And  for  the  chas- 
tity of  thy  Penelope,  the  ten  thousand  rooks  and  daws  that 
chatter  it  abroad  do  but  make  it  ridiculous  and  expose 
it  to  contempt,  there  being  not  one  of  those  birds  but, 
if  she  loses  her  mate,  continues  a  widow,  not  for  a  small 
time,  but  for  nine  ages  of  men  ;  so  that  there  is  not  one  of 
those  female  rooks  that  does  not  surpass  in  chastity  thy 
fair  Penelope  above  nine  times. 

6.  But  because  thou  believest  me  to  be  a  sophister,  1 
shall  observe  a  certain  order  in  my  discourse,  first  giving 
thee  the  definition  of  temperance,  and  then  dividing  desire 

VOL.   V.  15 


226  THAT  BRUTE  BEASTS 

according  to  the  several  kinds  of  it.  Temperance  then  is 
the  contracting  and  well  governing  our  desires,  pruning  off 
those  that  are  superfluous  and  encroaching  upon  our  wills, 
and  ruHng  those  that  are  necessary  by  the  standards  of 
reason  and  moderation.  Now  in  desires  you  observe  a  vast 
number  of  distinctions.  For  it  is  both  natural  and  neces- 
sary to  drink  ;  but  as  for  venereal  desires,  which  derive 
tlieir  originals  from  Nature,  there  is  a  time  when  they  may 
be  restrained  without  any  inconvenience  ;  these  are  there- 
fore called  natural  but  not  necessary.  But  there  is  another 
sort,  which  are  neither  natural  nor  necessary,  but  infused 
from  without  by  vain  opinion  through  the  mistake  of  right 
and  true ;  and  it  is  these  that  want  but  very  little  of  ruin- 
ing all  your  natural  desires  with  their  number,  like  a  mul- 
titude of  foreigners  outnumbering  the  natives  and  expelling 
them  from  their  habitations.  But  the  beasts,  having  their 
souls  unmixed  and  not  to  be  overcome  by  these  adventitious 
passions,  and  living  lives  as  distant  from  vain  opinion  as 
from  the  sea,  are  inferior  to  you  in  living  elegantly  and  su- 
perfluously, but  they  are  extremely  wary  in  preserving 
temperance  and  the  right  government  of  their  desires,  as 
being  neither  troubled  with  many,  nor  those  foreign  to 
their  natures.  And  therefore  formerly  I  was  no  less 
smitten  with  the  glister  of  gold  than  thou  art  now,  as  be- 
lieving nothing  else  that  a  man  could  possess  to  be  com- 
parable to  it.  Silver  also  and  ivory  inveigled  me  with  the 
same  desires ;  and  he  that  enjoyed  these  things  in  the 
greatest  measure  seemed  to  be  a  man  most  happy  and  be- 
loved of  God,  whether  a  Phrygian  or  a  Carian,  whether 
more  meanly  descended  than  Dolon  or  more  miserable  than 
Priam.  From  thenceforward  being  altogether  swayed  by 
my  desires,  I  reaped  no  other  pleasure  nor  delight  in  any 
other  blessings  of  my  life,  with  which  I  abounded,  believ- 
ing that  I  wanted  still  and  missed  my  share  of  those  that 
were  the  chiefest  and  the  greatest.     Therefore,  I  remem- 


MAKE  USE  OE  REASON.  227 

ber,  when  I  beheld  thee  in  Crete,  at  some  solemnity,  most 
pompously  attired,  I  neither  envied  thy  wisdom  nor  thy 
virtue  ;  but  the  extraordinary  fineness  and  exquisite  work- 
manship of  thy  tunic,  and  the  glistering  of  thy  purple 
upper  garment,  and  the  beauty  of  the  ornaments  struck  me 
with  admiration.  And  the  golden  clasp,  methought,  was 
la  pretty  toy  that  had  something  of  extraordinary  graving 
in  it ;  and  bewitched  with  these  baubles,  I  followed  thee 
as  the  women  did.  But  now  being  altogether  estranged 
from  those  vain  opinions,  and  having  my  understanding 
purified,  I  tread  both  gold  and  silver  under  my  feet  as  I  do 
the  common  stones ;  nor  did  I  ever  sleep  more  soundly 
upon  thy  carpets  and  tapestries,  than  now  I  do,  rolled  over 
head  and  ears  in  the  deep  and  soft  mud.  None  of  those 
adventitious  desires  reside  in  our  souls,  but  for  the  most 
part  our  manner  of  living  is  accustomed  to  necessary 
pleasures  and  desires  ;  and  as  for  those  pleasures  which 
are  not  necessary  but  only  natural,  we  make  such  a  use  of 
them  as  is  neither  without  order  nor  moderation. 

7.  And  therefore  let  us  consider  these  in  the  first  place. 
The  pleasure  then  that  affects  the  sense  of  smelling  with 
sweet  odors  and  fragrant  exhalations,  besides  that  it  has 
something  in  it  which  is  pure  in  itself,  and  as  it  were  be- 
stowed upon  us  gratis,  contributes  also  in  some  measure  to 
the  distinction  of  nourishment.  For  the  tongue  is  said  to 
be  the  judge  of  sweet,  sour,  and  tart,  only  when  the  juices 
have  come  to  be  mingled  and  concorporate  with  the  tasting 
faculty,  and  not  before.  But  our  smell,  before  the  taste, 
becoming  sensible  of  the  virtue  and  qualities  of  every 
thing,  and  being  more  accurate  than  the  tasters  attending 
upon  princes,  admits  what  is  familiar  to  Nature,  and  expels 
whatever  is  disagreeable  to  it ;  neither  will  it  suffer  it  to 
touch  or  molest  the  taste,  but  accuses  and  declares  the 
offensiveness  of  the  thing  smelt,  before  it  do  any  harm. 
As  to  other  things,  it  troubles  us  not  at  all  as  it  does  you, 


228  THAT  BEUTE  BEASTS 

whom  it  constrains  for  the  sake  of  the  sweet  scents  of 
cinnamon  nard,  malobathrum,  and  Arabian  reed,  to  seek 
out  for  things  dissimilar,  and  to  jumble  them  together 
with  a  kind  of  apothecary's  or  perfumer's  art,  and  at  vast 
expense  to  purchase  an  unmanly  and  effeminate  delight, 
for  nothing  profitable  or  useful.  Now  being  such,  this 
sense  of  smelling  has  not  only  corrupted  all  the  female 
sex  but  the  greatest  part  of  men,  insomuch  that  they  care 
not  to  converse  with  their  own  wives,  unless  perfumed  with 
precious  ointments  and  odoriferous  compositions.  Where- 
as sows,  she-goats,  and  other  females  attract  the  boars,  he- 
goats,  and  the  males  of  their  own  kind,  by  their  own  proper 
scents  ;  and  smelling  of  the  pure  dew,  the  meadows,  and 
the  fresh  grass,  they  are  incited  to  copulation  out  of  com- 
mon affection  ;  the  females  without  the  coynesses  .  of 
women,  or  the  practice  of  little  frauds  and  fascinations, 
to  inflame  the  lust  of  their  mates  ;  and  the  males,  not  with 
amorous  rage  and  frenzy  stimulated,  and  enforced  to  pur- 
chase the  act  of  generation  with  expensive  hire  or  servile 
assiduity,  but  enjoying  their  seasonable  amours  without  de- 
ceit or  purchase  of  the  satisfaction  of  their  venery.  For 
Nature  in  the  spring-time,  even  as  she  puts  forth  the  buds 
of  plants,  likewise  awakens  the  desires  of  animals,  but 
presently  quenches  them  again,  neither  the  female  admit- 
ting the  male  nor  the  male  attempting  the  female  after 
conception.  And  thus  pleasure  has  but  a  small  and  slen- 
der esteem  among  us ;  but  Nature  is  all  in  all.  So  that 
even  to  this  very  day,  we  beasts  were  never  yet  tainted 
with  coupling  male  with  male,  and  female  with  female. 
Of  which  nevertheless  there  are  many  examples  to  be 
produced  among  the  greatest  and  most  celebrated  persons  ; 
for  I  pass  by  those  not  worth  remembrance. 

Agamemnon  hunted  all  Boeotia  in  pursuit  of  Argynnus, 
who  fled  his  embraces  ;  and  after  he  had  falsely  accused 
the  sea  and  winds,  bravely  flung  himself  into  the  lake  Co- 


MAKE  USE  OF  REASON.  229 

pais,  to  quench  his  love  and  free  himself  from  the  ardor 
of  his  lust. 

Hercules  in  like  manner  pursuing  his  beardless  friend, 
forsook  his  choicest  associates  and  abandoned  the  fleet. 

In  the  vaulted  room  belonging  to  Apollo  surnamed 
Ptous,  one  of  you  men  secretly  wrote  this  inscription, 
Achilles  the  fair ;  when  Achilles  at  that  time  had  a  son. 
[And  I  hear  the  inscription  is  still  remaining.]  *  Yet  if  a 
cock  tread  a  cock  in  the  absence  of  the  hen,  he  is  burned 
alive,  upon  the  signification  of  the  soothsayer  that  it  por- 
tends some  fatal  calamity.  This  is  a  plain  confession  in 
men  themselves,  that  the  beasts  excel  them  in  chastity, 
and  that  force  is  not  to  be  put  upon  Nature  for  the  sake 
of  pleasure.  But  your  incontinence  is  such,  that  Nature, 
though  she  have  the  law  to  assist  her,  is  not  able  to  keep 
it  within  bounds  ;  insomuch  that,  like  a  rapid  inundation, 
those  inordinate  desires  overwhelm  Nature  with  continual 
violence,  trouble,  and  confusion.  For  men  have  copulated 
with  she-goats,  sows,  and  mares  ;  and  women  have  run 
mad  after  male  beasts.  And  from  such  copulations  sprang 
the  Minotaurs  and  Silvans,  and,  as  I  am  apt  to  believe,  the 
Sphinxes  and  Centaurs.  It  is  true,  that  sometimes,  con- 
strained by  hunger,  a  dog  or  a  bird  has  fed  upon  human 
flesh ;  but  never  yet  did  any  beast  attempt  to  couple  with 
human  kind.  But  men  constrain  and  force  the  beasts  to 
these  and  many  other  unlawful  pleasures. 

8.  Now  being  thus  wicked  and  incontinent  in  reference 
to  the  aforesaid  lustful  desires,  it  is  no  less  easy  to  be 
proved  that  men  are  more  intemperate  than  beasts,  even  in 
those  things  which  are  necessary,  that  is  to  say,  in  eating 
and  drinking,  the  pleasure  of  which  we  always  enjoy  with 
some  benefit  to  ourselves.  But  you,  pursuing  the  pleasures 
of  eating  and  drinking  beyond  the  satisfaction  of  nature, 

*  It  seems  incredible  that  Plutarch  could  have  put  this  into  the  mouth  of  Gryl« 
lus,  even  by  carelessness.     (G.) 


230  THAT  BRUTE  BEASTS 

are    punished   with   many   and   tedious    diseases,    which, 
arising  from  the  single  fountain  of   superfluous  gorman- 
dizing, fill  your  bodies  with  all  manner  of  wind  and  va- 
pors not  easy  for  purgation  to  expel.     In  the  first  place, 
all  sorts  of  beasts,  according  to  their  kind,  feed  upon  one 
sort  of  food,  which  is  proper  to  their  natures ;  some  upon 
grass,  some  upon  roots,  and  others  upon  fruits.     They  that 
feed  upon  flesh  never  mind  any  other  sort  of  food.     Neither 
do  they  rob  the  weaker  animals  of  their  nourishment.    But 
the  lion  sufl'ers  the  hart,  and  the  wolf  the  sheep,  to  feed 
upon  what  Nature  has  provided  for  them.     But  man,  such 
is  his  voracity,  falls  upon  all,  to  satisfy  the  pleasures  of  his 
appetite ;  tries  all  things,  tastes  all  things ;  and,  as  if  he 
were  yet  to  seek  what  was  the  most  proper  diet  and  most 
agreeable  to  his  nature,  among  all  the  creatures  is  the  only 
all-devourer.     And   first  he  makes  use  of  flesh,  not  for 
want,  as  having  the  liberty  to  take  his  choice  of  herbs 
and  fruits,  the  plenty  of  which  is  inexhaustible  ;  but  out  of 
luxury  and  being  cloyed  with  necessaries,  he  seeks  after  in- 
convenient and  impure  diet,  purchased  by  the  slaughter  of 
living   creatures  ;   by   that   means   showing  himself  more 
cruel  than  the  most  savage  of  wild  beasts.     For  blood, 
murder,  and  flesh  are  proper  to  nourish  the  kite,  the  wolf, 
and  dragon  ;  but  to  men  they  are  delicious  viands.     Then 
making  use  of  all,  he  does  not  do  like  the  beasts,  which 
abstain  from  most  creatures  and  are  at  enmity  only  with  a 
few,  and  that  only  compelled  by  the  necessities  of  hunger ; 
but  neither  fowl  nor  fish  nor  any  thing  that  lives  upon  the 
land  escapes  your  tables,  though  they  bear  the  epithets  of 
human  and  hospitable. 

9.  Let  it  be  so,  that  nothing  will  serve  ye  but  to  devour 
whatever  comes  near  ye,  to  pamper  and  indulge  your 
voracious  appetites.  Yet  where  is  the  benefit  and  pleasure 
of  all  this  ?  But  such  is  the  prudence  of  the  beasts,  as 
not  to  admit  of  any  vain  and  unprofitable  arts.     And  as 


MAKE  USE  OF  REASON.  231 

for  those  that  are  necessary,  they  do  not  acqmre  them,  as 
being  introduced  by  others  or  taught  for  reward ;  neither 
do  they  make  it  their  study  to  soder  and  fasten  one  con- 
templation to  another,  but  they  are  supplied  by  their  own 
prudence  with  such  as  are  true-born  and  genuine.  It  is 
true,  we  hear  the  Egyptians  are  generally  physicians.  But 
the  beasts  are  not  only  every  one  of  them  notionally  en- 
dued with  knowledge  and  art  which  way  to  cure  them- 
selves, but  also  to  procure  their  food  and  repair  their 
strength,  to  catch  their  prey  by  slight  and  cunning,  to 
guard  themselves  from  danger  ;  neither  are  some  of 
them  ignorant  how  to  teach  the  science  of  music  so 
far  as  is  convenient  for  them.  For  from  whom  did  we 
hogs  learn  to  run  to  the  rivers,  when  we  are  sick,  to 
search  for  crawfish  1  Who  taught  the  tortoises,  when 
they  have  eaten  vipers,  to  physic  themselves  with  origa- 
num"? Who  taught  the  Cretan  goats,  when  shot  with 
arrows  that  stick  in  their  bodies,  to  betake  themselves  to 
dittany,  which  they  have  no  sooner  eaten,  but  the  heads 
of  the  darts  fall  out  of  the  wound  ?  Now  if  you  say  that  Na- 
ture is  the  schoolmistress  that  teaches  them  these  things, 
you  acknowledge  the  prudence  of  beasts  to  be  derived  from 
the  chiefest  and  wisest  original  of  understanding ;  which 
if  you  think  not  proper  to  call  reason  and  wisdom,  it  is 
time  for  ye  to  find  out  a  more  glorious  and  honorable 
name  for  it.  Indeed  by  its  eff'ects  it  shows  itself  to  be 
greater  and  more  wonderful  in  power ;  not  illiterate  or 
without  education,  but  instructed  by  itself  and  wanting 
nothing  from  without  ;  not  weak  and  imperfect,  but, 
through  the  vigor  and  perfection  of  its  natural  virtue, 
supporting  and  cherishing  that  natural  contribution  of 
understanding  which  others  attain  to  by  instruction  and 
education.  So  that,  whatever  men  acquire  and  contem- 
plate in  the  midst  of  their  luxury  and  wantonness,  those 
things  our  understanding  attains  to  through  the  excellency 


232  THAT  BRUTE  BEASTS 

of  our  apprehensions,  even  contrary  to  the  nature  of  the 
body.  For  not  to  speak  of  whelps  that  learn  to  draw  dry 
foot,  and  colts  that  will  practise  figure-dances  ;  there  are 
crows  that  will  speak,  and  dogs  that  will  leap  through 
hoops  as  they  turn  around.  You  shall  also  see  horses  and 
bulls  upon  the  theatres  lie  down,  dance,  stop,  and  move 
their  bodies  after  such  a  manner  as  would  puzzle  even 
men  to  perform  the  same  things ;  which,  though  they  are 
of  little  use,  yet  being  learned  and  remembered  by  beasts, 
are  great  arguments  of  their  docihty. 

If  you  doubt  whether  we  learn  arts,  be  convinced  that 
we  teach  them.  For  partridges  teach  their  young  ones  to 
hide  themselves  by  lying  upon  their  backs  just  before  a 
clod  of  earth,  to  escape  the  pursuit  of  the  fowlers.  And 
you  shall  observe  the  old  storks,  when  their  young  ones 
first  begin  to  take  wing,  what  care  they  take  to  instruct 
them  upon  the  tops  of  houses.  Nightingales  also  teach 
their  young  ones  to  sing ;  insomuch  that  nightingales  taken 
young  out  of  the  nest,  and  bred  up  by  hand  in  cages,  sing 
worse,  as  being  deprived  of  their  instructors  before  their 
time.  So  that  after  I  had  been  a  while  transformed  into 
this  shape,  I  admired  at  myself,  that  I  was  so  easily  per- 
suaded by  idle  arguments  of  the  sophisters  to  believe  that 
all  other  creatures  were  void  of  sense  and  reason  except 
man. 

10.  Ulysses.  What  then,  Gryllus]  Does  your  trans- 
mutation inform  ye  also  that  sheep  and  asses  are  rational 
creatures  1 

Gryllus.  From  these  very  creatures,  most  worthy  and 
best  of  men,  Ulysses,  the  nature  of  beasts  is  chiefly  to  be 
discerned  to  be  as  it  is,  neither  void  of  reason  nor  under- 
standing. For  as  one  tree  is  neither  more  or  less  than 
another  without  a  soul,  but  all  are  together  in  the  same 
condition  of  insensibihty  (for  there  is  no  tree  that  is  endued 
with  a  soul);    so  neither  would  one  animal  seem  to  be 


MAKE  USE   OF  REASON.  233 

mure  slow  to  understand  or  more  indocible  than  another,  if 
all  did  not  partake  of  reason  and  understanding,  though 
some  in  a  less,  some  in  a  greater  measure.  For  you  must 
consider  that  the  stupidity  and  slothfulness  of  some  is  an 
argument  of  the  quickness  and  subtlety  of  others,  which 
easily  appears  when  you  compare  a  fox,  a  wolf,  or  a  bee 
with  a  sheep  or  ass ;  as  if  thou  shouldest  compare  thyself 
to  Polyphemus,  or  thy  grandfather  Autolycus  with  the 
Corinthian  [mentioned  in]  Homer.  For  I  do  not  believe 
there  is  such  difference  between  beast  and  beast,  in  point 
of  reason  and  understanding  and  memory,  as  between  man 
and  man. 

Ulysses.  Have  a  care,  Gryllus  ;  it  is  a  dangerous  thing 
to  allow  them  reason  that  have  no  knowledge  of  a  Deity. 

Gryllus.  Must  we  then  deny  that  thou,  most  noble 
Ulysses,  being  so  wise  and  full  of  stratagems  as  thou  art, 
wast  begotten  by  Sisyphus  1  ,  .  . 


OF    THE    FACE    APPEARING    WITHIN    THE    ORB    OF 

THE    MOON. 


LAMPRIAS,    APOLLONIDES,    LUCIUS,    PHARNACES,    SYLLA,    ARIS- 
TOTELES,    THEON,    MENELAUS. 

[  The  beginning  of  this  discourse  is  lost.'] 

1.  These  things  then,  said  Sylla,  agree  with  my  story, 
and  are  taken  thence.  But  I  should  first  wilHngly  ask, 
what  need  there  is  of  making  such  a  preamble  against 
these  opinions,  which  are  at  hand  and  in  every  man's 
mouth,  concerning  the  face  that  is  seen  within  the  orb  of 
the  moon.  Why  should  we  not,  said  I,  being,  by  the  diffi- 
culty there  is  in  these  discourses,  forced  upon  those  ?  For, 
as  they  who  have  long  lain  lingering  under  chronical  dis- 
eases, after  they  have  been  worn  out  and  tired  with  exper- 
imenting all  ordinary  remedies  and  the  usual  rules  of 
living  and  diet,  have  at  last  recourse  to  lustrations  and 
purifications,  to  charms  and  amulets  fastened  about  the 
neck,  and  to  the  interpretation  of  dreams ;  so  in  such  ob- 
scure and  abstruse  questions  and  speculations,  when  the 
common,  apparent,  and  ordinary  reasons  are  not  satisfac- 
tory, there  is  a  necessity  of  trying  such  as  are  more  extra- 
vagant, and  of  not  contemning  but  enchanting  ourselves 
(as  one  may  say)  with  the  discourses  of  the  ancients,  and 
endeavoring  always  to  find  out  the  truth. 

2.  For  you  see  at  the  very  first  blush,  how  impertinent 
his  opinion  is  who  said,  that  the  form  appearing  in  the 
moon  is  an  accident  of  our  sight,  by  its  weakness  giving 
way  to  her  brightness,  which  we  call  the  dazzling  of  our 


ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  235 

eyes ;  for  he  perceives  not  that  this  should  rather  befall 
our  looking  against  the  sun,  whose  lustre  is  more  resplen- 
dent, and  whose  rays  are  more  quick  and  piercing ;  as 
Empedocles  also  in  a  certain  passage  of  his  has  not 
unpleasantly  noted  the  difference  of  these  two  planets, 
saying, 

The  sharp-rayed  sun,  and  gently  shining  moon. 

For  thus  does  he  call  her  alluring,  favorable,  and  harmless 
light.  No  less  absurd  appears  the  reason  he  afterwards 
gives  why  dull  and  weak  eyes  discern  no  difference  of 
form  in  the  moon,  her  orb  appearing  to  them  plain  and 
smooth,  whereas  those  whose  sight  is  more  acute  and  pen- 
etrating better  descry  the  lineaments  and  more  perfectly 
observe  the  impressions  of  a  face,  and  more  evidently  dis- 
tinguish its  different  parts.  For  it  should,  in  my  opinion, 
be  quite  contrary,  if  this  were  a  fancy  caused  by  the  weak- 
ness of  the  vanquished  sight ;  so  that  where  the  patient's  eye 
is  weaker,  the  appearance  would  be  more  express  and  evi- 
dent. Moreover,  the  inequality  every  way  confutes  this 
reason ;  for  this  face  is  not  seen  in  a  continuance  and  con- 
fused shadow,  but  the  poet  Agesianax  not  unelegantly 
describes  it,  saying. 

With  shining  fire  it  circled  does  appear, 

And  in  the  midst  is  seen  the  visage  clear 

Of  a  young  maid,  whose  eyes  more  gray  than  blue, 

Her  brow  and  cheeks  a  blushing  red  do  show. 

For  indeed  dark  and  shady  things,  encompassed  with 
others  that  are  bright  and  shining,  sink  underneath  and 
reciprocally  rise  again,  being  repelled  by  them ;  and  in  a 
word,  they  are  so  interlaced  one  within  another,  that  they 
represent  the  figure  of  a  face  painted  to  the  life  ;  and  there 
seems  to  have  been  great  probability  in  that  which  was 
spoken  against  your  Clearchus,  my  dear  Aristotle.  For 
he  appears  not  inconveniently  to  be  called  yours,  for  ho 


236  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

was   intimately  acquainted  with  the  ancient  Aristotle,  al- 
though he  perverted  many  of  the  Peripatetic  doctrines. 

3.  Then  Apollonides  taking  up  the  discourse,  and  asking 
what  that  opinion  of  Clearchus  was  ;  It  would  more,  said 
I,  beseem  any  man  than  you  to  be  ignorant  of  this  dis- 
course, as  being  grounded  on  the  very  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  geometry.  For  he  affirms,  that  what  we  call  a  face, 
is  the  image  and  figure  of  the  great  ocean,  represented  in 
the  moon  as  in  a  mirror.  For  the  circumference  of  a 
circle,  when  it  is  reflected  back,*  is  wont  in  many  places 
to  touch  objects  which  are  not  seen  in  a  direct  line.  And 
the  full  moon  is  for  evenness  and  lustre  the  most  beautiful 
and  purest  of  all  mirrors.  As  then  you  hold,  that  the 
heavenly  bow  appears,  when  the  ray  of  light  is  reflected 
back  towards  the  sun,  in  a  cloud  which  has  got  a  little 
liquid  smoothness  and  consistence ;  so,  said  he,  there  is 
seen  in  the  moon  the  surface  of  the  sea,  not  in  the  place 
where  it  is  situated,  but  from  whence  the  reflection  gives  a 
sight  of  it  by  its  reverberated  and  reflexed  light,  as  Agesi- 
anax  again  says  in  another  passage. 

This  flaming  mirror  offers  to  your  eyes 
The  vast  sea's  figure,  as  beneath  it  lies 
Foaming  with  raging  billows. 

4.  Apollonides  therefore,  being  delighted  with  this,  said . 
A  singular  opinion  indeed  is  this  of  his,  and  (to  speak  in  a 
word)  strangely  and  newly  invented  by  a  man  sufficiently 
presumptuous,  but  not  void  of  learning  and  wit.  But  how, 
I  pray,  was  it  refuted  ] 

First,  said  I,  the  superficies  of  the  sea  is  all  of  a  nature, 
the  current  of  it  being  uniform  and  continuous ;  but  the 
appearance  of  those  black  and  dark  spots  which  are  seen 
in  the  face  of  the  moon  is  not  continued,  but  has  certain 

*  See  the  account  of  various  ancient  doctrines  of  vision  and  the  reflection  of  light 
in  the  treatise  on  the  Opinions  of  Philosophers,  Book  IV.  Chapters  13  and  14.  The 
idea  that  vision  was  caused  by  something  proceeding  from  the  eye  to  the  object  is 
especially  to  be  noticed.     (G.) 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  237 

isthmuses  or  partitions  clear  and  bright,  which  divide  and 
separate  what  is  dark  and  shady.  Whence  every  place 
being  distinguished  and  having  its  own  limits  apart,  the 
conjunctions  of  the  clear  with  the  obscure,  taking  a  re- 
semblance of  high  and  low,  express  and  represent  the 
similitude  of  a  figure  seeming  to  have  eyes  and  lips ;  so 
that  we  must  of  necessity  suppose,  either  that  there  are 
main  oceans  and  main  seas,  distinguished  by  isthmuses  and 
continents  of  firm  land,  which  is  evidently  absurd  and 
false ;  or  that  if  there  is  but  one,  it  is  not  credible  its 
image  should  appear  so  distracted  and  dissipated  into 
pieces.  And  as  for  this,  there  is  less  danger  in  asking  than 
in  affirming  in  your  presence,  whether,  since  the  habitable 
earth  lias  both  length  and  breadth,  it  is  possible  that  the 
sight  of  all  men,  when  it  is  reflected  by  the  moon,  should 
equally  touch  the  ocean,  even  of  those  that  sail  and 
dwell  in  it,  as  do  the  Britons  ;  especially  since  the  earth, 
as  you  have  maintained,  has  but  the  proportion  of  a  point, 
if  compared  to  the  sphere  of  the  moon.  This  therefore, 
said  I,  it  is  your  business  to  observe,  but  the  reflection  of 
the  sight  against  the  moon  belongs  neither  to  you  nor  Hip- 
parchus.  And  yet,  my  friend  Lamprias,  there  are  many 
naturalists,  who  approve  not  this  doctrine  of  his  touching 
the  driving  back  of  the  sight,  but  affirm  it  to  be  more 
probable  that  it  has  a  certain  obedient  and  agreeing  tem- 
perature and  compactness  of  structure,  than  such  beatings 
and  repercussions  as  Epicurus  feigned  for  his  atoms.*  l^or 
am  I  of  opinion  that  Clearchus  would  have  us  suppose  the 
moon  to  be  a  massy  and  weighty  body,  but  a  celestial  and 
light-giving  star,  as  you  say  it  is,  which  must  have  the 
property  of  breaking  and  turning  aside  the  sight ;  so  that 
all  this  reflection  would  come  to  nothing.  But  if  we  are 
desired  to  receive  and  admit  it,  we  shall  ask  why  this  face 
or  image  of  the  sea  is  to  be  seen  only  in  the  body  of  the 

*  The  text  in  this  passage  is  defective,  and  the  sense  chiefly  conjectural.     ( G.  \ 


238  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

moon ;  and  not  in  any  of  the  other  stars  ?  For  the  laws 
of  probability  require  that  the  sight  should  suffer  this 
equally  in  all,  or  else  in  none. 

But  pray,  sir,  said  I,  casting  mine  eyes  upon  Lucius,  call 
a  little  to  mind  what  was  said  at  first  by  those  of  our  party. 

5.  Nay  rather,  answered  he,  —  lest  we  should  seem  too 
injurious  to  Pharnaces,  in  thus  passing  by  the  opinion  of 
the  Stoics,  without  opposing  any  thing  against  it,  —  let  us 
make  some  reply  to  this  man,  who  supposes  the  moon  to 
be  wholly  a  mixture  of  air  and  mild  fire,  and  then  says 
that,  as  in  a  calm  there  sometimes  arises  on  a  sudden  a 
breeze  of  wind  which  curls  and  ruffles  the  superficies  of 
the  sea,  so,  the  air  being  darkened  and  rendered  black, 
there  is  an  appearance  and  form  of  a  face. 

You  do  courteously,  Lucius,  said  I,  thus  to  veil  and  cover 
v/ith  specious  expressions  so  absurd  and  false  an  opinion. 
But  so  did  not  our  friend ;  but  he  said,  as  the  truth  is,  that 
the  Stoics  disfigured  and  mortified  the  moon's  face,  filling 
it  with  stains  and  black  spots,  one  while  invocating  her  by 
the  name  of  Diana  and  Minerva,  and  another  while  making 
her  a  lump  and  mixture  of  dark  air  and  charcoal-fire,  not 
kindling  of  itself  or  having  any  light  of  its  own,  but  a 
body  hard  to  be  judged  and  known,  always  smoking  and 
ever  burning,  like  to  those  thunders  which  by  the  poets 
are  styled  lightless  and  sooty.  Now  that  a  fire  of  coals, 
such  as  they  would  have  that  of  the  moon  to  be,  cannot 
have  any  continuance  nor  yet  so  much  as  the  least  sub- 
sistence, unless  it  meets  with  some  solid  matter  fit  to  main- 
tain it,  keep  it  in,  and  feed  it,  has,  I  think,  far  better  than 
it  is  by  these  philosophers,  been  understood  by  those  poets 
who  in  merriment  affirm  that  Vulcan  was  therefore  said  to 
be  lame  because  fire  can  no  more  go  forward  without  wood 
or  fuel  than  a  cripple  without  a  crutch.  If  then  the  moon 
is  fire,  whence  has  it  so  much  air  ]  For  that  region  above, 
which  is  with  a  continual  motion  carried  round,  consists 


IN  THE  ORB  or  THE  MOON.  239 

not  of  air,  but  some  more  excellent  substance,  whose  na- 
ture it  is  to  subtilize  and  set  on  fire  all  other  things.  And 
if  it  has  been  since  engendered  there,  how  comes  it  that  it 
does  not  perish,  being  changed  and  transmuted  by  the  fire 
into  an  ethereal  and  heavenly  substance  ?  And  how  can  it 
maintain  and  preserve  itself,  cohabiting  so  long  with  the 
fire,  as  a  nail  always  fixed  and  fastened  in  one  and  the 
same  place  ?  For  being  rare  and'  diffused,  as  by  Nature  it 
is,  it  is  not  fitted  for  permanency  and  continuance,  but  for 
change  and  dissipation.  Neither  is  it  possible  that  it 
should  condense  and  grow  compact,  being  mixed  with  fire, 
and  utterly  void  of  water  and  earth,  the  only  two  elements 
by  which  the  nature  of  the  air  suff'ers  itself  to  be  brought 
to  a  consistency  and  thickness.  And  since  the  swiftness 
and  violence  of  motion  is  wont  to  inflame  the  air  which  is 
in  stones,  and  even  in  lead  itself,  as  cold  as  it  is;  much 
more  will  it  that  which,  being  in  fii'e,  is  with  so  great  an 
impetuosity  whirled  about.  For  they  are  displeased  with 
Empedocles  for  making  the  moon  a  mass  of  air  congealed 
after  the  manner  of  hail,  included  within  a  sphere  of  fire. 
And  yet  they  themselves  say,  that  the  moon,  being  a  globe 
of  fire,  contains  in  it  much  air  dispersed  here  and  there, — 
and  this,  though  it  has  neither  ruptures,  concavities,  nor 
depths  (which  they  who  affirm  it  to  be  earthly  admit), 
but  the  air  lies  superficially  on  its  convexity.  Now  this  is 
both  against  the  nature  of  permanency,  and  impossible  to 
be  accorded  with  what  we  see  in  full  moons  ;  for  it  should 
not  appear  separately  black  and  dark,  but  either  be  wholly 
obscured  and  concealed  or  else  co-illuminated,  when  the 
moon  is  overspread  by  the  sun.  For  with  us  the  air  which 
is  in  the  pits  and  hollows  of  the  earth,  whither  the  rays  of 
the  sun  cannot  penetrate,  remains  dark  and  lightless  ;  but 
that  which  is  spread  over  its  exterior  parts  has  clearness 
and  a  lightsome  color.  For  it  is  by  reason  of  its  rarity 
easily  transformed  into  every  quality  and  faculty,  but  princi* 


240  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

pally  that  of  light  and  brightness,  by  which,  being  never 
so  little  touched,  it  incontinently  changes  and  is  illumi- 
nated. This  reason  therefore,  as  it  seems  greatly  to  help 
and  maintain  the  opinion  of  those  who  thrust  the  air  into 
certain  deep  valleys  and  caves  in  the  moon,  so  confutes 
you,  who  mix  and  compose  her  sphere,  I  know  not  how, 
of  air  and  fire.  For  it  is  not  possible  that  there  should  re- 
main any  shadow  or  darkness  in  the  superficies  of  the 
moon,  when  the  sun  with  his  brightness  clears  and  en- 
lightens whatsoever  we  can  discern  of  her  and  ken  with 
our  sight. 

6.  Whilst  I  was  yet  speaking,  Pharnaces  interrupting 
my  discourse  said :  See  here  again  the  usual  stratagem  of 
the  Academy  brought  into  play  against  us,  which  is  to  busy 
themselves  at  every  turn  in  speaking  against  others,  but 
never  to  afford  an  opportunity  for  reproving  what  they  say 
themselves ;  so  that  those  with  whom  they  confer  and  dis- 
pute must  always  be  respondents  and  defendants,  and  never 
plaintiffs  or  opponents.  You  shall  not  therefore  bring  me 
this  day  to  give  you  an  account  of  those  things  you  charge 
upon  the  Stoics,  till  you  have  first  rendered  me  a  reason 
for  your  turning  the  world  upside  down. 

Then  Lucius  smiling  said  :  This,  good  sir,  I  am  well 
contented  to  do,  provided  only  that  you  will  not  accuse  us 
of  impiety,  as  Cleanthes  thought  that  the  Greeks  ought 
to  have  called  Aristarchus  the  Samian  into  question  and 
condemned  him  of  blasphemy  against  the  Gods,  as  shaking 
the  very  foundations  of  the  world,  because  this  man,  en- 
deavoring to  save  the  appearances,  supposed  that  the 
heavens  remained  immovable,  and  that  the  earth  moved 
through  an  oblique  circle,  at  the  same  time  turning  about 
its  own  axis.  As  for  us  therefore,  we  say  nothing  that  we 
take  from  them.  But  how  do  they,  my  good  friend,  who 
suppose  the  moon  to  be  earth,  turn  the  world  upside  down 
more  than  you,  who  say  that  the  earth  remains  here  hang- 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  241 

ing  in  the  air,  being  much  greater  than  the  moon,  as  the 
mathematicians  measure  their  magnitude  by  the  accidents 
of  eclipses,  and  by  the  passages  of  the  moon  through  the 
shadow  of  the  earth,  gathering  thence  how  great  a  space 
it  takes  up  ?  For  the  shadow  of  the  earth  is  less  than  it- 
self, by  reason  it  is  cast  by  a  greater  light.  And  that  the 
end  of  this  shadow  upwards  is  slender  and  pointed,  they 
say  that  Homer  himself  was  not  ignorant,  but  plainly  ex- 
pressed it  when  he  called  the  night  dorj  (that  is,  acute)  from 
the  sharp-pointedness  of  the  earth's  shadow.  And  yet 
the  moon  in  her  eclipses,  being  caught  within  this  point 
of  the  shadow,  can  scarce  get  out  of  it  by  going  forward 
thrice  her  own  bigness  in  length.  Consider  then,  how 
many  times  the  earth  must  needs  be  greater  than  the 
moon,  if  it  casts  a  shadow,  the  narrowest  point  of  which 
is  thrice  as  broad  as  the  moon.  But  you  are  perhaps 
afraid  lest  the  moon  should  fall,  if  it  were  acknowledged 
to  be  earth ;  but  as  for  the  earth,  Aeschylus  has  secured 
you,  when  he  says  that  Atlas 

Stands  shouldering  the  pillar  of  the  heaven  and  earth, 
A  burden  onerous.* 

If  then  there  runs  under  the  moon  only  a  light  air,  not  firm 
enough  to  bear  a  solid  burthen,  whereas  under  the  earth 
there  are,  as  Pindar  says,  columns  and  pillars  of  adamant 
for  its  support,  therefore  Pharnaces  himself  is  out  of  all 
dread  of  the  earth's  falling,  but  he  pities  the  Ethiopians 
and  those  of  Taprobane,  who  lie  directly  under  the  course 
of  the  moon,  fearing  lest  so  ponderous  a  mass  should  tum- 
ble upon  their  heads.  And  yet  the  moon  has,  for  an  help 
to  preserve  her  from  falling,  her  motion  and  the  impetu- 
osity of  her  revolution ;  as  stones,  pebbles,  and  other 
weights,  put  into  slings,  are  kept  from  dropping  out, 
whilst  they  are  swung  round,  by  the  swiftness  of  their  mo- 
tion.    For  every  body  is  carried  according   to  its  natural 

*  Aesch.  Prom.  349. 

TOL.  V.  16 


242  OF  THE  FACE  APPEAEING 

motion,  unless  it  be  diverted  by  some  other  intervening 
cause.  Wherefore  the  moon  does  not  move  according  to 
the  motion  of  her  weight,  her  incUnation  being  stopped 
and  hindered  by  the  violence  of  a  circular  revolution.  And 
perhaps  there  would  be  more  reason  to  wonder,  if  the 
moon  continued  always  immovable  in  the  same  place,  as 
does  the  earth.  But  now  the  moon  has  a  great  cause  to 
keep  herself  from  tending  hither  downwards  ;  but  for  the 
earth,  which  has  no  other  motion,  it  is  probable  that  it  has 
also  no  other  cause  of  its  settlement  but  its  own  weight. 
For  the  earth  is  heavier  than  the  moon,  not  only  because  it 
is  greater,  but  also  because  the  moon  is  rendered  lighter 
by  the  heat  and  inflammation  that  is  in  it.  In  brief,  it  ap- 
pears by  what  you  say,  if  it  is  true  that  the  moon  is  fire, 
that  it  stands  in  need  of  earth  or  some  other  matter,  which 
it  may  rest  on  and  cleave  to,  for  the  maintaining  and  nour- 
ishing of  its  power.  For  it  is  not  possible  to  imagine  how 
a  fire  can  be  preserved  without  some  combustible  matter. 
And  you  yourselves  say  that  the  earth  continues  firm  with- 
out any  basis  or  pedestal  to  support  it. 

Yes  surely,  said  Pharnaces,  being  in  its  proper  and  natu- 
ral place,  the  very  middle  and  centre  of  the  universe.  For 
this  it  is  to  which  all  heavy  and  ponderous  things  do  from 
every  side  naturally  tend,  incline,  and  aspire,  and  about 
which  they  cling  and  are  counterpoised.  But  every  supe- 
rior region,  though  it  may  perhaps  receive  some  earthly 
and  weighty  thing  sent  by  violence  up  into  it,  immediately 
repels  and  casts  it  down  again  by  force,  or  (to  speak  bet- 
ter) lets  it  follow  its  own  proper  inclination,  by  which  it 
naturally  tends  downwards. 

7.  For  the  refutation  of  which,  being  willing  to  give 
Lucius  time  for  the  calling  to  mind  his  arguments,  I  ad- 
dressed myself  to  Theon,  and  asked  him  which  of  the 
tragic  poets  it  was  who  said  that  physicians 

With  bitter  med'cines  bitter  choler  purge. 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  243 

And  Theon  having  answered  me  that  it  was  Sophocles ; 
This,  said  I  to  him,  we  must  of  necessity  permit  them  to 
do ;  but  we  are  not  to  give  ear  to  those  philosophers  who 
would  overthrow  paradoxes  by  assertions  no  less  strange 
and  paradoxical,  and  for  the  oppugning  strange  and  extra- 
vagant opinions,  devise  others  yet  more  wonderful  and 
absurd ;  as  these  men  do,  who  broach  and  introduce  this 
doctrine  of  a  motion  tending  towards  the  middle,  in  which 
what  sort  of  absurdity  is  there  not  to  be  found  ?  Does  it 
not  thence  follow,  that  the  earth  is  spherical,  though  we 
nevertheless  see  it  to  have  so  many  lofty  hills,  so  many 
deep  valleys,  and  so  great  a  number  of  inequalities  ]  Does 
it  not  follow  that  there  are  antipodes  dwelling  opposite  to 
another,  sticking  on  every  side  to  the  earth,  with  their 
heads  downwards  and  their  heels  upwards,  as  if  they  were 
woodworms  or  lizards  ?  That  we  ourselves  go  not  on  the 
earth  straight  upright,  but  obliquely  and  bending  aside 
like  drunken  men  1  That  if  bars  and  weights  of  a  thou- 
sand talents  apiece  should  be  let  fall  into  the  hollow  of 
the  earth,  they  would,  when  they  were  come  to  the  centre, 
stop  and  rest  there,  though  nothing  came  against  them  or 
sustained  them ;  and  that,  if  peradventure  they  should  by 
force  pass  the  middle,  they  would  of  themselves  return 
and  rebound  back  thither  again  1  That  if  one  should  saw 
oiF  the  two  trunks  or  ends  of  a  beam  on  either  side  of  the 
earth,  they  would  not  be  always  carried  downwards,  but 
falling  both  from  without  into  the  earth,  they  would  equally 
meet,  and  hide  themselves  together  in  the  middle  ?  That 
if  a  violent  stream  of  water  should  run  downwards  into 
the  ground,  it  would,  when  it  came  to  the  centre  of  the 
earth,  which  they  hold  to  be  an  incorporeal  point,  there 
gather  together,  and  turn  round  like  a  whirlpool,  with  a 
perpetual  and  endless  suspension?  Some  of  which  posi- 
tions are  so  absurd,  that  none  can  so  much  as  force  his 
imagination,   though  falsely,  to  conceive   them   possible. 


244  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

For  this  is  indeed  to  make  that  which  is  above  to  be 
below  ;  and  to  turn  all  things  upside  down,  by  making  all 
that  is  as  far  as  the  middle  to  be  downwards^  and  all  that 
is  beyond  the  middle  to  be  upwards ;  so  that  if  a  man 
should,  by  the  sufferance  and  consent  of  the  earth,  stand 
with  his  navel  just  against  her  centre,  he  would  by  this 
means  have  his  feet  and  head  both  upwards ;  and  if  one, 
having  digged  through  that  place  which  is  beyond  the 
middle,  should  come  to  pull  him  out  from  thence,  that  part 
which  is  below  would  at  one  and  the  same  time  be  drawn 
upwards,  and  that  which  is  above,  downwards.  And  if 
another  should  be  imagined  to  stand  the  contrary  way, 
their  feet,  though  the  one's  were  opposite  to  the  other's, 
would  both  be  and  be  said  to  be  upwards. 

8.  Bearing  then  upon  their  shoulders,  and  drawing  after 
them,  I  do  not  say  a  little  bag  or  box,  but  a  whole  pack  of 
juggler's  boxes,  full  of  so  many  absurdities,  with  which 
they  play  the  hocus-pocus  in  philosophy,  they  nevertheless 
accuse  others  of  error  for  placing  the  moon,  which  they 
hold  to  be  earth,  on  high,  and  not  in  the  middle  or  cen- 
tre of  the  world.  And  yet,  if  every  heavy  body  inclines 
towards  the  same  place,  and  does  from  all  sides  and  with 
every  one  of  its  parts  tend  to  its  own  centre,  the  earth 
certainly  will  appropriate  and  challenge  to  itself  these 
ponderous  masses  —  which  are  its  parts  —  not  because  it 
is  the  centre  of  the  universe,  but  rather  because  it  is  the 
whole ;  and  this  gathering  together  of  heavy  bodies  round 
about  it  will  not  be  a  sign  showing  it  to  be  the  middle  of 
the  world,  but  an  argument  to  prove  and  testify  that  these 
bodies  which  had  been  plucked  from  it  and  again  return 
to  it  have  a  communication  and  conformity  of  nature  with 
the  earth.  For  as  the  sun  draws  into  himself  the  parts 
of  which  he  is  composed,  so  the  earth  receives  a  stone  as 
a  part  belonging  to  it,  in  such  manner  that  every  one  of 
such  things  is  in  time  united  and  incorporated  with  it. 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON  245 

And  if  peradventure  there  is  some  other  body  which  was 
not  from  the  beginning  allotted  to  the  earth  nor  has  been 
separated  from  it,  but  had  its  own  proper  and  peculiar 
consistence  and  nature  apart,  as  these  men  may  say  of  the 
moon,  what  hinders  but  it  may  continue  separated  by  it- 
self, being  kept  close,  compacted,  and  bound  together  by 
its  own  parts  ?  For  they  do  not  demonstrate  that  the  earth 
is  the  middle  of  the  universe ;  and  this  conglomeration  of 
heavy  bodies  which  are  here,  and  their  coalition  with  the 
earth,  show  us  the  manner  how  it  is  probable  that  the 
parts  which  are  assembled  in  the  body  of  the  moon  con- 
tinue also  there.  But  as  for  him  who  drives  and  ranges 
together  in  one  place  all  earthly  and  ponderous  things, 
making  them  parts  of  one  and  the  same  body,  I  wonder 
that  he  does  not  attribute  also  the  same  necessity  and  con- 
straint to  light  substances,  but  leaves  so  many  conglomera- 
tions of  fire  separated  one  from  another ;  nor  can  I  see 
why  he  should  not  amass  together  all  the  stars,  and  think 
that  there  ought  to  be  but  one  body  of  all  those  substances 
which  fly  upwards. 

9.  But  you  mathematicians,  friend  Apollonides,  say  that 
the  sun  is  distant  from  our  upper  sphere  infinite  thousands 
of  miles,  and  after  him  the  day-star  or  Venus,  Mercury, 
and  other  planets,  which  being  situated  under  the  fixed 
stars,  and  separated  from  one  another  by  great  intervals, 
make  their  revolutions ;  and  in  the  mean  time  you  think 
that  the  world  affords  not  to  heavy  and  terrestrial  bodies 
any  great  and  large  place  or  distance  one  from  another. 
You  plainly  see,  it  would  be  ridiculous,  if  we  should  deny 
the  moon  to  be  earth  because  it  is  not  seated  in  the  lowest 
region  of  the  world,  and  yet  affirm  it  to  be  a  star,  though 
so  many  thousands  of  miles  remote  from  the  upper  firma- 
ment, as  if  it  were  plunged  into  some  deep  gulf.  For  she 
is  so  low  before  all  other  stars,  that  the  measure  of  the 
distances   cannot  be  expressed,   and  you  mathematicians 


246  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

want  numbers  to  compute  and  reckon  it ;  but  she  in  a 
manner  touches  the  earth,  making  her  revohition  so  near 
the  tops  of  the  mountains,  that  she  seems,  as  Empedocles 
has  it,  to  leave  even  the  very  tracks  of  her  chariot-wheels 
behind  her.  For  oftentimes  she  surpasses  not  the  shadow 
of  the  earth,  which  is  very  short  through  the  excessive 
greatness  of  the  sun  that  shines  upon  it,  but  seems  to  turn 
so  near  the  superficies,  and  (as  one  may  say)  between  the 
arms  and  in  the  bosom  of  the  earth,  that  it  withholds  from 
her  the  light  of  the  sun,  because  she  mounts  that  shady, 
earthly,  and  nocturnal  region  which  is  the  lot  and  inheri- 
tance of  the  earth.  And  therefore  I  am  of  opinion,  we 
may  boldly  say  that  the  moon  is  within  the  limits  and  con- 
fines of  the  earth,  seeing  she  is  even  darkened  by  the 
summits  of  its  mountains. 

10.  But  leaving  the  stars,  as  well  erring  as  fixed,  see 
what  Aristarchus  proves  and  demonstrates  in  his  treatise 
of  magnitudes  and  distances ;  that  the  distance  of  the  sun 
is  above  eighteen  times  and  under  twenty  times  greater 
than  that  of  the  moon  from  us.  And  yet  they  who  place 
the  moon  lowest  say  that  her  distance  from  us  contains  six 
and  fifty  of  the  earth's  semidiameters,  that  is,  that  she  is 
six  and  fifty  times  as  far  from  us  as  we  are  from  the  centre 
of  the  earth ;  which  is  forty  thousand  stadia,  according  to 
those  that  make  their  computation  moderately.  Therefore 
the  sun  is  above  forty  millions  and  three  hundred  thousand 
stadia  distant  from  the  moon ;  so  far  is  she  from  th^  sun 
by  reason  of  her  gravity,  and  so  near  does  she  approach 
to  the  earth.  So  that  if  substances  are  to  be  distinguished 
by  places,  the  portion  and  region  of  the  earth  challenges 
to  itself  the  moon,  which,  by  reason  of  neighborhood  and 
proximity,  has  a  right  to  be  reputed  and  reckoned  amongst 
the  terrestrial  natures  and  bodies.  Nor  shall  we,  in  my 
opinion,  do  amiss  if,  having  given  so  vast  an  interval  and 
distance  to  these  bodies  which  are  said  to  be  above,  we 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  247 

leave  also  to  those  which  are  below  some  space  and  room 
to  turn  them  in,  such  as  is  that  between  the  earth  and  the 
moon.  For  neither  is  he  who  calls  only  the  utmost  super- 
ficies of  the  heaven  above  and  all  the  rest  beneath  moder- 
ate or  tolerable ;  nor  is  he  to  be  endured  who  confines 
beneath  only  to  the  earth,  or  rather  to  its  centre  ;  seeing 
the  vast  greatness  of  the  world  may  afford  means  for  the 
assigning  farther  to  this  lower  part  some  such  space  as  is 
necessary  for  motion.  Now  against  him  who  holds  that 
whatever  is  above  the  earth  is  immediately  high  and  sub- 
lime, there  is  presently  another  opposition  to  encounter 
and  contradict  it,  that  whatever  is  beneath  the  sphere  of 
the  fixed  stars  ought  to  be  called  low  and  inferior. 

11.  In  a  word,  how  is  the  earth  said  to  be  the  middle, 
and  of  what  is  it  the  middle  ?  For  the  universe  is  infinite  ; 
and  infiniteness  having  neither  beginning  nor  end,  it  is 
convenient  also  that  it  should  not  have  any  middle  ;  for  the 
middle  is  a  certain  end  or  limit,  but  infiniteness  is  a  priva- 
tion of  all  sorts  of  limits.  Now  he  that  affirms  the  earth 
to  be  the  middle,  not  of  the  universe  but  of  the  world,  is 
certainly  a  pleasant  man,  if  he  does  not  think  that  the 
world  itself  is  subject  to  the  same  doubts  and  difficulties. 
For  the  universe  has  not  left  a  middle  even  to  the  very 
world,  but  this  being  without  any  certain  seat  or  founda- 
tion, it  is  carried  in  an  infinite  voidness  to  no  proper  end ; 
or  if  perhaps  it  has  stopped,  it  has  met  with  some  other 
cause  or  stay,  not  according  to  the  nature  of  the  place. 
As  much  may  be  conjectured  of  the  moon,  that  by  the 
means  of  another  soul  and  another  Nature,  or  (to  say 
better)  of  another  difference,  the  earth  continues  firm  here 
below,  and  the  moon  moves.  Besides  this,  see  whether 
they  are  not  ignorant  of  a  great  inconvenience  and  error. 
For  if  it  is  true  that  all  which  is  without  the  centre  of  the 
earth,  however  it  be,  is  above,  there  will  then  be  no  part 
of  the  world  below ;  but  the  earth  and  all  that  is  upon  it 


248  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

will  be  above  ;  and  in  brief,  every  body  that  shall  be  placed 
about  the  centre  will  be  above,  and  there  will  be  noth- 
ing below  or  underneath,  but  one  only  point  which  has  no 
body,  which  will  of  necessity  make  head  against  and  op- 
pose all  the  rest  of  the  world's  nature,  if  above  and  beneath 
are  naturally  opposite  to  one  another.  Nor  is  this  the  only 
absurdity  that  will  follow ;  but  all  heavy  and  ponderous 
bodies  will  also  lose  the  cause  for  which  they  move  and 
tend  downwards  hither,  for  there  will  be  no  body  below  to 
which  they  should  move ;  and  as  for  that  which  is  incor- 
poreal, it  is  not  probable,  neither  will  they  themselves 
allow,  that  it  should  be  so  forcible  as  to  draw  and  retain 
all  things  about  itself.  But  if  it  is  unreasonable  and  con- 
trary to  Nature  that  the  whole  world  should  be  above,  and 
that  there  should  be  nothing  below  but  an  incorporeal  and 
indivisible  term  or  limit,  then  is  this,  as  we  say,  yet  more 
reasonable,  that  the  region  above  and  that  below  being 
divided  the  one  from  the  other,  have  nevertheless  each  of 
them  a  large  and  spacious  room. 

12.  Nevertheless,  supposing,  if  you  please,  that  it  is 
against  Nature  for  earthly  bodies  to  have  any  motions  in 
heaven,  let  us  consider  leisurely  and  mildly  —  and  not 
violently,  as  is  done  in  tragedies  —  that  this  is  no  proof  of 
the  moon's  not  being  earth,  but  only  that  earth  is  in  a 
place  where  by  nature  it  should  not  be ;  for  the  fire  of 
Mount  Aetna  is  indeed  against  nature  under  ground,  never- 
theless it  ceases  not  to  be  fire.  And  the  wind  contained 
within  bottles  is  indeed  of  its  own  nature  light  and  inclined 
to  ascend,  but  is  yet  by  force  constrained  to  be  there  where 
naturally  it  should  not  be.  And  is  not  our  very  soul,  I 
beseech  you  in  the  name  of  Jupiter,  which,  as  yourselves 
say,  is  light,  of  a  fiery  substance,  and  imperceptible  to 
sense,  included  within  the  body,  which  is  heavy,  cold,  and 
palpable  1  Yet  do  we  therefore  say  that  the  soul  does  not 
belong  to  the  body ;   or  that  it  is  not  a  divine  substance 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  249 

uuder  a  gross  and  heavy  mass  ,  or  that  it  does  not  in  a 
moment  pass  through  heaven,  earth,  and  sea,  pierce  into 
the  flesh,  nerves,  and  marrow,  and  into  the  humors  which 
are  the  cause  of  a  thousand  passions'?  And  even  your 
Jupiter,  such  as  you  imagine  him  and  depaint  him  to  be, 
is  he  not  of  his  own  nature  a  great  and  perpetual  fire  ? 
Yet  now  he  submits,  is  phable,  and  transformed  into  all 
things  by  several  mutations.  Take  heed  therefore,  good 
sir,  lest,  by  transferring  and  reducing  every  thing  to  the 
place  assigned  it  by  Nature,  you  so  philosophize  as  to  bring 
in  a  dissolution  of  the  whole  world,  and  put  all  things 
again  into  that  state  of  enmity  mentioned  by  Empedocles, 
or  (to  speak  more  properly)  lest  you  raise  up  again  those 
ancient  Titans  and  Giants  to  put  on  arms  against  Nature, 
and  endeavor  to  introduce  again  that  fabulous  disorder  and 
confusion,  where  all  that  is  heavy  goes  one  way  apart,  and 
all  that  is  light  another  ; 

Where  neither  sun's  bright  face  is  seen, 
Nor  earth  beheld,  spread  o'er  with  green. 
Nor  the  salt  sea, 

as  Empedocles  has  it.  Then  the  earth  felt  no  heat,  nor 
the  sea  any  wind  ;  no  heavy  thing  moved  upwards,  nor  any 
light  thing  downwards ;  but  the  principles  of  all  things 
were  solitary,  without  any  mutual  love  or  dilection  one  to 
another,  not  admitting  any  society  or  mixture  together ; 
but  shunning  and  avoiding  all  communication,  moving 
separately  by  particular  motions,  as  being  disdainful, 
proud,  and  altogether  carrying  themselves  in  such  man- 
ner as  every  thing  does  from  which  (as  Plato  says)  God  is 
absent ;  that  is,  as  those  bodies  do  in  which  there  is  neither 
soul  nor  understanding  ;  till  such  time  as,  by  Divine  Provi- 
dence, desire  coming  into  Nature  engendered  mutual  amity, 
Venus,  and  Love,  —  as  Empedocles,  Parmenides,  and 
Hesiod  have  it,  —  to  the  end  that  changing  their  natural 
places,    and   reciprocally    communicating   their    faculties, 


250  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

some  being  by  necessity  bound  to  motion,  others  to  quiet 
and  rest,  and  all  tending  to  the  better,  every  thing  remitting 
a  little  of  its  power  and  yielding  a  little  from  its  place, 
.  .  .  they  might  make  at  length  a  harmony,  accord,  and 
society  together. 

13.  For  if  there  had  not  been  any  other  part  of  the 
world  against  Nature,  but  every  thing  had  been  in  the 
same  place  and  quality  it  naturally  ought  to  be,  without 
standing  in  need  of  any  change  or  transposition  or  having 
had  any  occasion  for  it  from  the  beginning,  I  know  not 
what  the  work  of  Divine  Providence  is  or  in  what  it  con- 
sists, or  of  what  Jupiter  has  been  the  father,  creator,  or 
worker.  For  there  would  not  in  a  camp  be  any  need  of 
the  art  of  ranging  and  ordering  of  battles,  if  every  soldier 
of  himself  knew  and  understood  his  rank,  place,  and 
station,  and  the  opportunity  he  ought  to  take  and  keep ; 
nor  would  there  be  any  want  of  gardeners  or  builders,  if 
water  were  of  itself  framed  to  flow  where  it  is  necessary, 
and  irrigate  such  plants  as  stand  in  need  of  watering,  or  if 
bricks,  timber,  and  stones  would  of  their  own  inclinations 
and  natural  motion  range  and  settle  themselves  in  due  and 
fitting  places  and  orders.  Now  if  this  discourse  manifestly 
takes  away  Providence,  and  if  the  ordering  and  distinction 
of  things  that  are  in  the  world  belongs  to  God,  why  should 
we  wonder  at  Nature's  having  been  so  disposed  and  or- 
dained by  him,  that  the  fire  should  be  here,  and  the  stars 
there,  and  again  the  earth  should  be  situated  here  below, 
and  the  moon  above,  lodged  in  a  prison  found  out  by 
reason,  more  sure  and  straight  than  that  which  was  first 
ordained  by  Nature  ?  For  if  it  were  of  absolute  necessity 
that  all  things  should  follow  their  natural  instinct  and 
move  according  to  the  motion  given  them  by  Nature, 
neither  the  Sun,  Venus,  nor  any  other  planet  would  any 
more  run  a  circular  course ;  for  light  and  fiery  substances 
have  by  Nature  their  motion  directly  upwards.     And  if 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  251 

perhaps  Nature  itself  receives  this  permutation  and  change 
by  reason  of  the  place,  so  that  fire  should  here  in  a  direct 
line  tend  upwards,  but  being  once  arrived  at  heaven,  should 
turn  round  with  the  revolution  of  the  heavens  ;  what  won- 
der would  it  be,  if  heavy  and  terrestrial  bodies,  being  in 
like  manner  out  of  their  natural  place,  were  vanquished 
by  the  ambient  air,  and  forced  to  take  another  sort  of  mo- 
tion ?  For  it  cannot  with  any  reason  be  said  that  heaven 
has  by  Nature  the  power  to  take  away  from  light  things 
the  property  of  mounting  directly  upwards,  and  cannot 
likewise  have  the  force  to  overcome  heavy  things  and  such 
as  tend  downwards ;  but  that  sometimes  making  use  of 
this  power,  and  sometimes  of  the  proper  nature  of  the 
things,  it  still  orders  every  thing  for  the  best. 

14.  But  if,  laying  aside  those  servile  habits  and  opinions 
to  which  we  have  enslaved  ourselves,  we  must  frankly  and 
fearlessly  deliver  our  judgment,  it  seems  clear  to  me,  that 
there  is  not  any  part  of  the  universe  which  has  a  peculiar 
and  separate  rank,  situation,  or  motion,  that  can  simply  be 
said  to  be  natural  to  it.  But  when  every  thing  exhibits 
and  yields  up  itself  to  be  moved,  as  is  most  profitable  and 
fit  for  that  for  whose  sake  it  was  made  and  to  which  it  is 
by  Nature  appointed,  —  suffering,  doing,  or  being  disposed, 
as  is  most  expedient  and  meet  for  the  safety,  beauty,  and 
power  of  the  same,  —  then  it  appears  to  have  its  place, 
motion,  and  disposition  according  to  Nature.  As  a  proof 
of  this,  we  may  observe  that  man,  who,  if  any  thing  in 
the  world  be  so,  is  made  and  disposed  according  to  Na- 
ture, has  upwards,  especially  about  his  head,  heavy  and 
terrestrial  things,  and  about  the  middle  of  his  body  such, 
as  are  hot  and  participate  of  fire  ;  of  his  teeth  also  some 
grow  upwards  and  some  downwards,  and  yet  neither  the 
one  nor  the  other  are  contrary  to  Nature  ;  neither  is  the 
fire  which  shines  in  his  eyes  according  to  Nature,  and  that 
which  is  in  his  heart  and  stomach  against  it;  but  it  is  in 


252  OF   THE  FACE  APPEAKING 

each  place  properly  and  beneficially  seated.  Moreover, 
consider  the  nature  of  all  shell-fishes ;  and,  that  I  may  use 
the  words  of  Empedocles, 

Look  on  the  crabs,  the  oysters  of  the  sea, 
And  shell-fish  all,  which  heavy  coats  enfold, 

The  tortoise  too  with  arched  back,  whom  we 
Covered  with  crust,  as  hard  as  stone,  behold. 

View  them  but  well,  and  plain  it  will  appear. 

They  hardened  earth  above  their  bodies  bear. 

And  yet  this  crust,  stone-like,  hard,  and  heavy,  as  it  is  thus 
placed  over  their  bodies,  does  not  press  and  crush  their 
natural  habit,  nor  on  the  contrary  does  their  heat  fly  up- 
wards by  reason  of  its  lightness,  and  vanish  away,  but  they 
are  mingled  and  composed  one  with  another,  according  to 
the  nature  of  each  one. 

15.  Wherefore  it  is  also  probable  that  the  world,  if  it  is 
an  animal,  has  in  many  parts  of  its  body  earth,  and  in  as 
many  fire  and  water  and  air,  not  thrust  and  driven  into  it 
by  force,  but  ordered  and  disposed  by  reason.  For  neither 
was  the  eye  by  its  lightness  forced  into  that  part  of  the  body 
where  it  is,  nor  the  heart  by  its  gravity  pressed  down  into 
the  breast ;  but  both  the  one  and  the  other  were  thus 
placed  because  it  was  better  and  more  expedient.  In  like 
manner  we  ought  not  to  think  of  the  parts  of  the  world, 
either  that  the  earth  settled  where  it  is,  being  beaten  down 
thither  by  its  ponderosity  ;  or  that  the  sun  was  carried 
upwards  by  its  levity,  like  a  bottle  or  bladder  full  of  wind 
(which,  being  plunged  into  the  bottom  of  the  water,  imme- 
diately rises  up  again),  as  Metrodorus  of  Chios  was  per- 
suaded ;  or  that  the  other  stars,  as  if  they  had  been  put 
into  a  balance,  were  swayed  this  way  or  that  way,  accord- 
ing to  theh  weight  or  lightness,  and  so  mounted  higher  or 
lower  to  the  places  they  now  possess.  But  reason  having 
prevailed  in  the  constitution  of  the  world,  the  stars  have, 
like  to  glittering  eyes,  been  fixed  in  the  firmament,  as  it 
were  in  the  face  of  the  universe,  there  to  turn  continually 


IN   THE   ORB   OF   THE   MOON.  25fJ 

about;  and  the  sun,  having  the  force  and  vigor  of  the 
heart,  sends  and  distributes  its  heat  and  light,  like  blood 
and  spirits,  throughout  all ;  the  earth  and  sea  are  in  the 
world,  as  the  paunch  and  bladder  in  the  body  of  a  living 
creature ;  and  the  moon  placed  between  the  sun  and  the 
earth,  as  the  liver,  or  some  other  soft  entrail  between  the 
heart  and  the  belly,  transmits  down  thither  the  heat  of 
the  superior  bodies,  and  draws  round  about  her  the  vapors 
which  arise  from  hence,  subtilizing  them  by  way  of  con- 
coction and  purification.  And  whether  its  solid  and  ter- 
restrial quality  has  any  other  property  serving  for  some 
profitable  use,  is  indeed  unknown  to  us  ;  but  everywhere 
that  which  is  better  prevails  over  what  is  by  necessity. 
For  what  probability  can  we  draw  from  that  which  they 
affirm'?  They  say,  that  the  most  subtile  and  luminous 
part  of  the  air,  by  reason  of  its  rarity,  became  heaven  ; 
but  what  was  thickened  and  closely  driven  together  was 
made  into  stars,  of  which  the  moon  being  the  heaviest  is 
compacted  of  the  grossest  and  muddiest  matter.  And  yet 
it  is  plainly  to  be  seen,  that  the  moon  is  not  separated  or 
divided  from  the  air,  but  moves  and  makes  her  revolu- 
tion through  that  which  is  about  her,  to  wit,  the  region 
of  the  winds,  and  where  the  comets  are  engendered 
and  keep  their  course.  These  bodies  then  were  not 
by  a  natural  inclination  thus  placed  and  situated  as  they 
are,  but  have  by  some  other  reason  been  so  ordered  and 
disposed. 

16.  These  things  being  said,  as  I  was  giving  Lucius  his 
turn  to  follow  and  continue  the  discourse,  — ;  there  being 
nothing  left  to  be  added  but  the  demonstrations  of  this 
doctrine,  —  Aristotle  smiling  said  :  I  am  a  witness,  that 
you  have  directed  all  your  contradictions  and  all  your  refu- 
tations against  those  who,  supposing  the  moon  to  be  half 
fire,  affirm  in  general  that  all  bodies  do  of  their  own  ac- 
cord tend  either  upwards  or  downwards ;  but  if  there  is 


254  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

any  one  who  holds  that  the  stars  have  of  their  own  nature 
a  circular  motion,  and  that  they  are  of  a  substance  wholly 
different  from  the  four  elements,  you  have  not  thought  of 
saying  any  thing,  so  much  as  accidentally  or  by  the  way, 
against  him  ;  and  therefore  I  am  wholly  unconcerned  in 
your  discourse. 

Indeed,  good  sir,  said  Lucius,  if  you  should  suppose  the 
other  stars,  and  the  whole  heaven  apart,  to  be  of  a  pure 
and  sincere  nature,  free  from  all  change  and  alteration  of 
passion,  and  should  bring  in  also  a  circle,  in  which  they 
make  their  motion  by  a  perpetual  revolution,  you  would 
not  perhaps  find  any  one  now  to  contradict  you,  though 
there  are  in  this  infinite  doubts  and  difficulties.  But  when 
the  discourse  descends  so  far  as  to  touch  the  moon,  it  can- 
not maintain  in  her  that  perfection  of  being  exem.pt  from 
all  passion  and  alteration,  nor  that  heavenly  beauty  of  her 
body.  But  to  let  pass  all  other  inequalities  and  differences, 
the  very  face  which  appears  in  the  body  of  the  moon  ne- 
cessarily proceeds  from  some  passion  of  her  own  substance 
or  the  mixture  of  another  ;  for  what  is  mixed  suffers,  be- 
cause it  loses  its  first  purity,  being  filled  by  force  with  that 
which  is  worse.  Besides,  as  for  the  slowness  and  dulness 
of  her  course,  her  feeble  and  inefficacious  heat,  by  which, 
as  Ion  says. 

The  black  grape  comes  not  to  maturity, 

to  what  shall  we  attribute  them  but  to  her  weakness  and 
passion,  if  an  eternal  and  celestial  body  can  be  subject  to 
passion '? 

In  brief,  my  friend  Aristotle,  if  the  moon  is  earth,  she  is 
a  most  fair  and  admirable  thing,  and  excellently  well 
adorned ;  but  if  you  regard  her  as  a  star  or  light  or  a  cer- 
tain divine  and  heavenly  body,  I  am  afraid  she  will  prove 
deformed  and  foul,  and  disgrace  that  beautiful  appellation, 
if  of  all  bodies,  which  are  in  heaven  so  numerous,  she 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  255 

alone  stands  in  need  of  light  borrowed  of  another,  and,  as 
Parmenides  has  it, 

Looks  always  backwards  on  the  sun's  bright  rays. 

Our  friend  therefore  indeed,  having  in  a  lecture  of  his 
demonstrated  this  proposition  of  Anaxagoras,  that  the  sun 
communicates  to  the  moon  what  brightness  she  has,  was 
well  esteemed  for  it.  As  for  me,  I  will  not  say  what  I 
have  learned  of  you  or  with  you,  but  having  taken  it  for 
granted,  will  pass  on  to  the  rest.  It  is  then  probable  that  the 
moon  is  illuminated,  not  like  a  glass  or  crystal,  by  the 
brightness  of  the  sun's  rays  shining  through  her,  nor  yet 
again,  by  a  certain  collustration  and  conjunction  of  light 
and  brightness,  as  when  many  torches  set  together  aug- 
ment the  light  of  one  another.  For  so  she  would  be  no 
less  full  in  her  conjunction  or  iirst  quarter  than  in  her  op- 
position, if  she  did  not  obstruct  or  repel  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  but  let  them  pass  through  her  by  reason  of  her  rari 
ty,  or  if  he  did  by  a  contemperature  shine  upon  her  and 
kindle  the  light  within  her.  For  we  cannot  allege  her 
declinations  and  aversions  in  the  conjunction  or  new  moon, 
as  when  it  is  half-moon  or  when  she  appears  crescent  or 
in  the  wane ;  but  being  then  perpendicularly  (as  Democri- 
tus  says)  under  him  that  illuminates  her,  she  receives  and 
admits  the  sun  ;  so  that  then  it  is  probable  she  should  ap- 
pear, and  he  shine  through  her.  But  this  she  is  so  far 
from  doing,  that  she  is  not  only  then  unseen,  but  also  often 
hides  the  sun,  as  Empedocles  has  it : 

The  sun's  bright  beams  from  us  she  turns  aside, 
And  of  the  earth  itself  as  much  doth  hide, 
As  her  orb's  breadth  can  cover ; 

as  if  the  light  of  the  sun  fell  not  upon  another  star,  but 
upon  night  and  darkness.  And  as  for  what  Posidonius 
says,  that  the  depth  of  the  moon's  body  is  the  cause  why 
the  light  of  the  sun  cannot  pierce  through  her  to  us,  this 


256  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

is  evidently  refuted ;  for  the  air,  which  is  infinite  and  of  a 
far  greater  depth  than  the  body  of  the  moon,  is  neverthe- 
less all  over  illustrated  and  enlightened  by  the  rays  of  the 
sun. 

It  remains  then  that,  according  to  the  opinion  of  Empe- 
docles,  the  light  of  the  moon  which  appears  to  us  comes 
from  the  repercussion  and  reflection  of  the  sun's  beams. 
And  for  this  reason  it  comes  not  to  us  hot  and  bright,  as  in 
all  probability  it  would,  if  her  shining  proceeded  either 
from  inflammation  or  the  commixtion  of  two  lights.  But  as 
voices  reverberated  cause  an  echo  more  obscure  and  less 
express  than  the  speech  that  was  pronounced,  and  as  the 
blows  of  darts  and  arrows,  rebounding  from  some  wall 
against  which  they  are  shot,  are  more  mild  and  gentle ; 

So  Titan's  lustre,  smiting  the  moon's  orb, 

yields  but  a  faint  and  feeble  reflection  and  repercussion  of 
brightness  upon  us,  its  force  being  abated  and  weakened 
by  the  refraction. 

17.  Sylla  then,  taking  up  the  discourse,  said:  There  is 
indeed  a  great  deal  of  probability  in  all  that  you  have 
spoken.  But  as  to  the  strongest  objection  that  is  brought 
against  it,  has  it,  think  you,  been  any  way  weakened  by 
this  discourse  ?  Or  has  our  friend  quite  passed  it  over  in 
silence  1 

What  opposition  do  you  mean,  said  Lucius  1  Is  it  the 
difficulty  about  the  moon,  when  one  half  of  her  appears 
enlightened  ? 

The  very  same,  answered  Sylla.  For  there  is  some 
reason,  seeing  that  all  reflection  is  made  by  equal  angles, 
that  when  the  half-moon  is  in  the  midst  of  heaven,  the 
light  proceeding  from  her  should  not  be  carried  upon  the 
earth,  but  glance  and  fall  beyond  and  on  one  side  of  it. 
For  the  sun,  being  placed  in  the  horizon,  touches  the  moon 
with  its  beams  ;  which,  being  equally  reflected,  will  there- 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  257 

fore  necessarily  fall  on  the  other  bound  of  the  horizon,  and 
not  send  their  light  down  hither ;  or  else  there  will  be  a  great 
distortion  and  difference  of  the  angle,  which  is  impossible. 

And  yet,  by  Jupiter,  replied  Lucius,  this  has  not  been 
forgotten  or  overpassed,  but  already  spoken  to.  And  cast- 
ing his  eye,  as  he  was  discoursing,  upon  the  mathematician 
Menelaus ;  I  am  ashamed,  said  he,  in  your  presence,  dear 
Menelaus,  to  attempt  the  subverting  and  overthrowing  of  a 
mathematical  position,  which  is  supposed  as  a  basis  and 
foundation  to  the  doctrine  of  the  catoptrics  concerning  the 
causes  and  reasons  of  mirrors.  And  yet  of  necessity  I 
must.  For  it  neither  appears  of  itself  nor  is  confessed  as 
true,  that  all  reflections  are  at  equal  angles ;  but  this 
position  is  first  checked  and  contradicted  in  concave  mir- 
rors, when  they  represent  the  images  of  things,  appearing 
at  one  point  of  sight,  greater  than  the  things  themselves. 
And  it  is  also  disproved  by  double  mirrors,  which  being 
inclined  or  turned  one  towards  the  other,  so  that  an  angle 
is  made  within,  each  of  the  glasses  or  plain  superficies 
yields  a  double  resemblance  ;  so  that  there  are  four  images 
from  the  same  face,  two  answerable  to  the  object  without 
on  the  left  side,  and  two  others  obscure  and  not  so  evident 
on  the  right  side  in  the  bottom  of  the  mirror.  Of  which 
Plato  renders  the  efiicient  cause ;  for  he  says,  that  a  mirror 
being  raised  on  the  one  and  the  other  side,  the  sight  varies 
the  reflection,  falling  from  one  side  to  the  other.  And 
therefore,  since  of  the  views  or  visions  some  immediately 
have  recourse  to  us,  and  others,  sliding  to  opposite  parts 
of  the  mirror,  do  again  return  upon  us  from  thence,  it  is 
not  possible  that  all  reflections  should  be  made  at  equal 
angles.  Though  those  who  closely  impugn  our  opinion 
contend  that,  by  these  reflections  of  light  from  the  moon 
upon  the  earth,  the  equality  of  angles  is  taken  away, 
thinking  this  to  be  much  more  probable  than  the  other. 

Nevertheless,  if  we  must  of  necessity  yield  and  grant 

VOL.  V  17 


258  OF  THE  FACE  APPEAEING 

thus  much  to  our  dearly  beloved  geometry,  first,  this  should 
in  all  likelihood  befall  those  mirrors  which  are  perfectly 
smooth  and  exquisitely  polished ;  whereas  the  moon  has 
many  inequalities  and  roughnesses,  so  that  the  rays  pro- 
ceeding from  a  vast  body,  and  carried  to  mighty  altitudes, 
receive  one  from  another  and  intercommunicate  their  lights, 
which,  being  sent  to  and  fro  and  reciprocally  distributed, 
are  refracted  and  interlaced  all  manner  of  ways,  and  the 
counter-lights  meet  one  another,  as  if  they  came  to  us  from 
several  mirrors.  And  then,  though  we  should  suppose 
these  reflections  on  the  superficies  of  the  moon  to  be  made 
at  equal  angles,  yet  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  rays,  com- 
ing down  unto  us  by  so  long  an  interval,  may  have  their 
flexions,  fractions,  and  delapsions,  that  the  light  being 
compounded  may  shine  the  more.  Some  also  there  are 
who  prove  by  lineary  demonstration,  that  many  lights  send 
a  ray  down  by  a  line  drawn  below  the  line  of  reflection ; 
but  to  make  the  description  and  delineation  of  it  publicly, 
especially  where  there  were  many  auditors,  would  not  be 
very  easy. 

18.  But  in  brief,  said  he,  I  wonder  how  they  come  thus 
to  allege  against  us  the  half-moon,  there  being  the  same 
reason  when  she  is  gibbous  and  crescent.  For  if  the  sun 
enlightened  the  moon,  as  a  mass  of  ethereal  or  fiery  matter, 
he  would  never  surely  leave  one  hemisphere,  or  half  of 
her  globe  always  appearing  dark  and  shadowy  to  sense,  as 
it  is  seen  to  be ;  but  how  little  soever  he  touched  her  super- 
ficies, it  would  be  agreeable  to  reason  that  it  should  be 
wholly  replenished  and  totally  changed  by  that  light  of  his, 
which  by  reason  of  its  agility  and  swiftness  so  easily  spreads 
and  passes  through  all.  For,  since  wine  touching  water 
only  in  one  point,  or  one  drop  of  blood  falling  into  any 
liquor,  dyes  and  colors  it  all  with  a  red  or  purple  color; 
and  since  they  say,  that  the  very  air  is  altered  and  changed 
with  light,  not  by  any  defluxions  or  beams  intermingled, 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  259 

but  by  a  sudden  conversion  and  change  made  in  one  only 
point ;  how  can  they  imagine  that  one  star  touching  an- 
other star,  and  one  light  another  light,  should  not  be  im- 
mediately mingled,  nor  make  any  thorough  confusion  or 
change,  but  only  exteriorly  illuminate  that  whose  super- 
ficies it  touches  ?  For  that  circle  which  the  sun  makes  by 
fetching  a  compass  and  turning  towards  the  moon,  —  some- 
times falling  upon  the  very  line  that  distinguishes  her  visi- 
ble part  from  her  invisible,  and  sometimes  rising  up  directly, 
so  that  it  cuts  her  in  two  and  is  reciprocally  cut  by  her, 
causing  in  her,  by  several  inclinations  and  habitudes  of  the 
luminous  to  the  dark,  those  various  forms  by  which  she 
appears  gibbous  and  crescent,  —  that  more  than  any  thing 
else  demonstrates,  that  all  this  illumination  of  the  moon  is 
not  a  mixture,  but  only  a  touching ;  nor  a  conflux  or 
gathering  together  of  sundry  lights,  but  only  an  illustra- 
tion round  about. 

But  forasmuch  as  she  is  not  only  enlightened  herself, 
but  also  sends  back  hither  the  image  of  her  illumination, 
this  confirms  us  yet  further  in  what  we  say  touching  her 
substance.  For  reflections  and  reverberations  are  not  made 
upon  any  thing  which  is  rare,  and  of  thin  and  subtile  parts ; 
nor  is  it  easily  to  be  imagined  how  light  can  rebound  from 
light,  or  one  fire  from  another.  But  that  which  is  to  make 
the  reverberation  or  reflection  must  be  solid  and  firm,  that 
a  blow  may  be  given  against  it  and  a  rebounding  made 
from  it.  As  a  proof  of  this,  we  see  that  the  air  transmits 
the  sun,  and  gives  him  a  way  to  pierce  quite  through  it,  not 
obstructing  or  driving  back  his  rays  ;  but  on  the  contrary 
from  wood,  stones,  or  clothes  put  in  the  sun,  there  are  made 
many  reflections  of  light  and  many  illuminations  round 
about.  So  we  see  that  the  earth  is  illuminated  by  him,  not 
to  the  very  bottom,  as  the  water,  nor  thoroughly  and  all 
over,  as  the  air,  through  which  the  beams  of  the  sun  have 
a  clear  passage  ;    but  just  such  a  circle  as  surrounds  the 


260  OF   THE   FACE   APPEARING 

moon  surrounds  also  the  earth  ;  and  as  much  of  the  earth 
as  this  circle  includes,  so  much  does  the  sun  enlighten,  the 
rest  being  left  without  light ;  for  what  is  illuminated  both 
in  the  one  and  in  the  other  is  little  more  than  an  hemi- 
sphere. Permit  me  therefore  now  to  conclude  after  the 
manner  of  geometricians  by  proportions.  If  there  are 
three  things  which  the  light  of  the  sun  approaches,  the 
air,  the  moon,  and  the  earth,  and  if  we  see  that  the  moon 
is  enlightened  by  him,  not  as  the  air,  but  as  the  earth,  it 
is  of  necessity  that  those  two  things  must  have  one  and 
the  same  nature,  which  of  one  and  the  same  cause  suffer 
the  same  effects. 

19.  Now  when  all  the  company  began  highly  to  com- 
mend Lucius's  harangue  ;  This  is  excellently  well  done 
of  you,  Lucius  (said  I  to  him),  that  you  have  to  so  fine  a 
discourse  added  as  fine  a  proportion,  for  you  must  not  be 
defrauded  of  that  which  is  your  due. 

Then  Lucius,  smiling,  thus  went  on :  I  have  yet  a 
second  proportion  to  be  added  to  the  former,  by  which  we 
will  clearly  demonstrate  that  the  moon  altogether  resem- 
bles the  earth,  not  only  because  they  suffer  and  receive  the 
same  accidents  from  the  same  cause,  but  because  they 
work  the  same  effect  on  the  same  object.  For  you  will 
without  difficulty,  I  suppose,  grant  me  that,  of  all  the 
accidents  which  befall  the  sun,  there  is  none  so  like  to  his 
setting  as  his  eclipse,  especially  if  you  but  call  to  mind  that 
recent  conjunction  which,  beginning  at  noonday,  showed 
us  many  stars  in  many  places  of  the  heavens,  and  wrought 
a  temperature  in  the  air  like  that  of  the  twilight.  But  if 
you  will  not  grant  me  this,  our  friend  Theon  here  will 
bring  us  a  Mimnermus,  a  Cydias,  an  Archilochus,  and  be- 
sides these,  a  Stesichorus  and  a  Pindar,  lamenting  that  in 
eclipses  the  world  is  robbed  of  its  brightest  light,  and  say- 
ing that  night  comes  on  in  the  midst  of  the  day,  and  that 
the  rays  of  the  sun  wander  in  the  path  of  darkness ;  but 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  261 

above  all  he  will  produce  Homer,  saying  that  the  faces  of 
men  are  in  eclipses  seized  upon  by  night  and  darkness, 
and  the  sun  is  quite  lost  out  of  heaven  by  the  conjunction 
of  the  moon.  And  ...  it  is  natural  that  this  should 
happen. 

When  one  moon's  going,  and  another  comes. 

For  the  rest  of  the  demonstration  is,  in  my  opinion,  as  cer- 
tain and  exactly  concluding,  as  are  the  acute  arguments  of 
the  mathematics.     As  night  is  the  shadow  of  the  earth,  so 
the  eclipse  of  the  sun  is  the  shadow  of  the  moon,  when  it 
stands  in  the  way  of  our  sight.    For  the  sun  is  at  his  set- 
ting kept  from  our  sight  by  the  interposition  of  the  earth, 
and  at  his  eclipse  by  that  of  the  moon.     Now  both  of 
these  are  obscurations  ;  but  that  of  his  setting  is  from  the 
earth,  and  that  of  his  being  eclipsed  from  the  moon,  their 
shadows  intercepting  our  sight.     Now  the  consequences 
of  these  things  are  easily  understood.     For  if  the  effect  is 
alike,  the  efficient  causes  are  also  alike  ;  because  it  is  of 
necessity  that  the   same  effects,  happening  in   the  same 
subjects,  proceed  from  the  same  efficients.      Now  if  the 
darkness  in  eclipses  is  not  so  profound,  nor  does  so  forci- 
bly and  entirely  seize  the  air,  as  does  the  night,  we  are  not 
to  wonder  at  it ;  for   the   substance   of  the   body   which 
makes  the  night,  and  of  that  which   causes  the   eclipse, 
is  indeed  the  same,  though  their  greatness  is  not  equal. 
For  the  Egyptians,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  hold  that  the 
moon  is  in  bigness  the  two  and  seventieth  part  of  the  earth  ; 
and  Anaxagoras  says,  she  is  as  big  as  Peloponnesus.    And 
Aristarchus  shows  the  overthwart  line  or  diameter  of  the 
moon  to  have  a  proportion  to  that  of  the  earth  which  is 
less  than  if  sixty  were  compared  to  nineteen,  and  some- 
what greater  than  an  hundred  and  eight  compared  to  forty 
and  three.     Whence  it  happens  that  the  earth,  by  reason 
of  its  greatness,  wholly  withdraws  the  sun  from  our  sight ; 


262  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

for  it  is  a  great  obstacle  and  opposition,  and  lasts  all  the 
nisrht.  But  althouQ^h  the  moon  sometimes  hides  all  the 
sun,  yet  that  eclipse  continues  not  so  long  nor  is  so  far  ex- 
tended, but  there  always  appears  about  the  circumference 
a  certain  brightness,  which  permits  not  the  darkness  to  be 
black,  deep,  and  perfectly  obscure. 

And  Aristotle  (I  mean  the  ancient  philosopher  of  that 
name)  rendering  the  reason  why  there  are  oftener  seen  to 
happen  eclipses  of  the  moon  than  of  the  sun,  among  other 
causes  alleges  this,  that  the  sun  is  eclipsed  by  the  interpo- 
sition of  the  moon,  and  the  moon  by  that  of  the  earth, 
which  is  much  greater  and  consequently  oftener  opposes 
itself.  And  Posidonius  thus  defines  this  accident :  The 
eclipse  of  the  sun  is  the  conjunction  of  the  sun  and  moon, 
the  shadow  of  which  darkens  our  sight.*  For  there  is  no 
eclipse  except  to  those  whose  sight  the  shadow  of  the  moon 
intercepting  hinders  them  from  seeing  the  sun.  Now  in 
confessing  that  the  shadow  of  the  moon  descends  down  to 
us,  I  know  not  what  he  has  left  himself  to  say.  It  is  cer- 
tainly impossible  for  a  star  to  cast  a  shadow  ;  for  that 
which  is  not  enlightened  is  called  a  shadow,  and  light 
makes  no  shadow,  but  on  the  contrary  drives  it  away. 

20.  But  what  arguments,  said  he,  were  alleged  after 
this  1 

The  moon,  answered  I  then,  suffered  the  same  eclipse. 

You  have  done  well,  replied  he,  to  put  me  in  mind  of  it. 
But  would  you  have  me  go  on  and  prosecute  the  rest  of 
the  discourse,  as  if  you  had  already  supposed  and  granted 
that  the  moon  is  eclipsed,  being  intercepted  within  the 
shadow  of  the  earth  1  Or  shall  I  take  for  the  subject  of  a 
declamation  the  making  a  demonstration  of  it,  by  rehears- 
ing to  you  all  the  arguments,  one  after  another? 

Nay,  by  Jove,  said  Theon,  let  this  be  the  argument  of 
your  discourse.     For  I  indeed  stand  in  need  of  some  per 

*  Here  again  the  text  is  defective,  and  the  sense  conjectural.     (G.) 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  263 

suasion,  having  only  heard  that  when  these  three  bodies, 
the  earth,  the  moon,  and  the  sun,  are  in  a  direct  line,  then 
eclipses  happen  ;  for  that  either  the  earth  takes  the  sun 
from  the  moon,  or  the  moon  takes  him  from  the  earth.  For 
the  sun  suffers  an  eclipse  when  the  moon,  and  the  moon 
when  the  earth,  is  in  the  midst  of  the  three  ;  of  which 
the  one  happens  in  the  conjunction  or  new  moon,  and  the 
other  in  the  opposition  or  when  the  moon  is  full. 

Then  said  Lucius :  These  are  the  principal  points,  and 
the  summary  of  what  is  said.  But  in  the  fii'st  place,  if 
you  please,  take  the  argument  drawn  from  the  form  and 
figure  of  the  shadow.  For  this  is  a  cone,  as  it  must  be 
when  a  great  fire  or  light  that  is  spherical  encompasses  a 
mass  that  is  also  globular  but  less  ;  whence  it  comes  that, 
in  the  eclipses  of  the  moon,  the  circumscriptions  of  the 
black  and  dark  from  the  clear  and  luminous  have  their 
sections  always  round.  For  the  sections  given  or  received 
by  one  round  body  applied  to  another,  which  way  soever 
they  go,  do  by  reason  of  the  similitude  always  keep  a  cir- 
cular form.  Now  as  for  the  second  argument,  I  suppose 
you  understand  that  the  first  part  which  is  eclipsed  in  the 
moon  is  always  that  which  looks  towards  the  east,  and  in 
the  sun  that  which  regards  the  west.  Now  the  shadow  of 
the  earth  moves  from  the  east  to  the  west,  but  the  sun  and 
moon  from  the  west  eastward.  The  experience  of  the  ap- 
pearances gives  us  a  visible  knowledge  of  this,  nor  is  there 
need  of  many  words  to  make  us  fully  understand  it ;  and 
from  these  suppositions  the  cause  of  the  eclipse  is  con- 
firmed. For,  inasmuch  as  the  sun  is  eclipsed  by  being 
overtaken,  and  the  moon  by  meeting  that  which  makes 
the  eclipse,  it  probably  or  rather  necessarily  follows  that 
the  one  is  surprised  behind,  and  the  other  before. 
Foi  the  obstruction  begins  on  that  side  whence  that 
which  causes  it  first  approaches.  Now  the  moon  comes 
upon  the  sun  from  the  west,  as   striving  in   course  with 


264  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

him  and  hastening  after  him ;  but  the  shadow  of  the  earth 
comes  from  the  east,  as  that  which  has  a  contrary  motion. 
The  third  argument  is  taken  from  the  time  and  great- 
ness of  the  eclipses.  For  the  moon,  if  she  is  eclipsed 
when  she  is  on  high  in  her  apogee  (or  at  her  farthest  dis- 
tance from  the  earth),  continues  but  a  little  while  in  her 
defect  or  want  of  light ;  but  when  she  suffers  the  same 
accident  being  low  and  in  her  perigee  (or  near  the  earth), 
she  is  very  much  oppressed,  and  slowly  gets  out  of  the 
shadow ;  and  yet,  when  she  is  low,  she  moves  swifter,  and 
when  high,  slower.  But  the  cause  of  the  difference  is  in 
the  shadow,  which  is,  like  pyramids,  broadest  at  the  bot- 
tom or  basis  ;  and,  growing  still  narrower  by  little  and 
little,  terminates  in  a  sharp  point  at  the  top.  Whence  it 
comes,  that  when  she  is  low,  she  is  embarrassed  within 
greater  circles,  traversing  the  bottom  of  the  shadow  and 
what  is  most  obscure  and  dark ;  but  when  she  is  high,  be- 
ing through  the  narrowness  of  the  shadow  (as  it  were)  but 
in  a  shallow  puddle,  by  which  she  is  sullied,  she  immedi- 
ately gets  out  again.  I  omit  what  was  said  particularly 
about  the  bases  and  disposition  of  parts,  for  these  admit 
of  a  rational  explanation,  so  far  as  this  is  possible  ;  but  I 
return  to  the  subject  properly  before  us,  which  has  its 
foundation  in  our  senses.  For  we  see  that  fire  shines 
forth  and  appears  brighter  out  of  a  dark  and  shady  place, 
through  the  thickness  of  the  caliginous  air,  which  admits 
no  effluxions  or  diffusions  of  the  fire's  virtue,  but  keeps  in 
and  contains  its  substance  within  itself.  Or  rather,  —  if 
this  is  a  passion  of  the  senses,  —  as  hot  things,  when  near 
to  cold  ones,  are  felt  to  be  hotter,  and  pleasures  immedi- 
ately after  pains  are  found  more  vehement,  so  things 
that  are  bright  appear  better  when  they  are  near  to  such 
as  are  obscure,  the  imagination  being  more  strained  and 
extended  by  means  of  different  passions.  But  there  seems 
to  be  a  greater  appearance  of  probability  in  the  first  rea- 


IN  THE   ORB   OF  THE  MOON.  265 

son.  For  in  the  sun,  all  the  nature  of  fire  not  only  loses 
its  faculty  of  illuminating,  but  is  also  rendered  duller  and 
more  unapt  to  burn,  because  the  heat  of  the  sun  dissipates 
and  scatters  all  its  force. 

If  it  were  then  true  that  the  moon,  being,  as  the  Stoics 
say,  a  muddy  and  troubled  star,  has  a  weak  and  duskish 
fire,  it  would  be  meet  that  she  should  suffer  none  of  these 
accidents  which  she  is  now  seen  to  suffer,  but  altogether 
the  contrary ;  to  wit,  that  she  should  be  seen  when  she  is 
hidden,  and  absconded  when  she  appears  ;  that  is,  she 
should  be  concealed  all  the  rest  of  the  time,  being  obscured 
by  the  environing  air,  and  again  shine  forth  and  become 
apparent  and  manifest  for  six  months  together,  and  after- 
wards disappear  again  five  months,  entering  into  the  shadow 
of  the  earth.  For  of  four  hundred  and  sixty-five  revolu- 
tions of  ecliptic  full  moons,  four  hundred  and  four  are  of 
six  months'  duration,  and  the  rest  of  five.  The  moon 
then  should  all  this  time  appear  shining  in  the  shadow ; 
but  on  the  contrary  we  see,  that  in  the  shadow  she  is 
eclipsed  and  loses  her  light,  and  recovers  it  again  after 
she  is  escaped  and  got  forth  of  the  shadow.  Nay,  she  ap- 
pears often  in  the  daytime,  so  that  she  is  rather  any  thing 
else  than  a  fiery  and  starry  body. 

21.  As  soon  as  Lucius  had  said  these  things,  Pharnaces 
and  Apollonides  ran  both  together  upon  him,  to  oppugn 
and  refute  his  discourse  ;  and  then  Apollonides  giving  him 
way,  Pharnaces  said :  This  it  is  that  principally  shows  the 
moon  to  be  a  star  and  of  a  fiery  nature,  that  in  her  eclip- 
ses she  is  not  wholly  obscured  and  disappearing,  but 
shows  herself  with  a  certain  coal-resembling  color,  terri- 
ble to  the  sight,  yet  such  as  is  proper  to  her. 

As  for  Apollonides,  he  insisted  much  in  opposition  to 
the  word  shadow,  saying,  that  the  mathematicians  always 
give  that  name  to  the  place  which  is  not  enlightened,  and 
that  heaven  admits  no  shadow. 


266  OF  THE   PACE  APPEARING 

To  this  I  thus  answered  :  This  instance  is  rather  alleged 
obstinately  against  the  name,  than  naturally  or  mathe- 
matically against  the  thing.  For  if  one  will  not  call  the 
place  obfuscated  by  the  opposition  of  the  earth  a  shadow, 
but  a  place  deprived  of  light,  yet  be  it  what  it  will,  you 
must  of  necessity  confess  that  the  moon  being  there  be- 
comes obscure ;  and  every  way,  said  I,  it  is  a  folly  to  deny 
that  the  shadow  of  the  earth  reaches  thither  from  whence 
the  shadow  of  the  moon,  falling  upon  our  sight  here  on 
earth,  causes  the  eclipse  of  the  sun.  And  therefore  I  now 
address  myself  to  you,  Pharnaces ;  for  this  coal-like  and 
burnt  color  of  the  moon,  which  you  affirm  to  be  proper  to 
her,  belongs  to  a  body  that  has  thickness  and  depth.  For 
there  is  not  wont  to  remain  any  relic,  mark,  or  print  of 
flame  in  a  body  that  is  rare,  nor  can  a  coal  be  made  where 
there  is  not  a  solid  body  which  may  receive  into  it  the 
heat  of  the  fire  ;  as  Homer  himself  shows  in  a  certain  pas- 
sage, where  he  says. 

Then,  when  the  languid  flames  at  length  subside, 
He  strows  a  bed  of  glowing  embers  wide.* 

For  the  coal  seems  not  properly  a  fire,  but  a  body  en- 
kindled and  altered  by  the  fire,  which  stays  and  remains 
in  a  solid  firmly  rooted  mass  ;  and  whereas  flames  are  the 
setting  on  fire  and  fluxions  of  a  nutriment  and  matter, 
which  is  of  a  rare  substance,  and  by  reason  of  its  weakness 
quickly  dissolved  and  consumed  ;  so  that  there  could  not 
be  any  more  evident  and  plain  argument  to  demonstrate 
that  the  moon  is  solid  and  earthly,  than  if  her  proper 
color  were  that  of  a  coal.  But  it  is  not  so,  my  friend 
Pharnaces ;  but  in  her  eclipses  she  diversely  changes  her 
colors,  which  the  mathematicians,  determining  with  respect 
•to  the  time  and  hour,  thus  distinguish.  If  she  is  eclipsed 
in  the  evening,  she  appears  horribly  black  until  the  middle 
of  the  fourth  hour  of  the  night ;   if  about  midnight,  she 

♦  n.  IX.  212. 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  267 

sends  forth  this  reddish  and  fire-resembling  color,  and  after 
the  middle  of  the  eighth  hour,  the  redness  disappears  ; 
and  finally,  if  about  the  dawning  of  the  morning,  she  takes 
a  blue  or  grayish  color;  which  is  the  cause  why  she 
is  by  the  poets,  and  particularly  by  Empedocles,  called 
Glaucopis. 

Since  then  they  clearly  see  that  the  moon  changes  mto 
so  many  colors  in  the  shadow,  they  do  ill  to  attribute  to 
her  only  that  of  a  burning  coal,  which  may  be  said  to  be 
less  proper  to  her  than  any  other,  being  only  a  small 
remnant  and  semblance  of  light,  appearing  and  shining 
through  a  shadow,  her  own  proper  color  being  black  and 
earthy.  And  since  that  here  below,  red  and  purple  gar- 
ments, and  rivers  and  lakes,  which  receive  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  cause  neighboring  shady  places  to  take  the  same 
appearances  of  colors  and  to  be  illuminated  by  them,  cast- 
ing and  sending  back  by  reason  of  reflections  several  re- 
bated splendors  ;  what  wonder  is  it  if  a  copious  flux  of 
shadow,  falling  as  it  were  into  an  immense  celestial  sea  of 
light,  not  steady  and  quiet,  but  agitated  by  innumerable 
stars,  and  besides  admitting  several  mixtures  and  mutations 
in  itself,  takes  from  the  moon  the  impression  sometimes 
of  one  color,  sometimes  of  another,  and  sends  them  hither 
to  us?  For  it  is  not  to  be  denied  but  that  a  star  of  fire 
cannot  appear  in  a  shadow  black,  gray,  or  violet ;  but 
there  are  seen  upon  hills,  plains,  and  seas,  several  various 
resemblances  of  colors,  caused  by  the  reflection  of  the  sun, 
which  are  the  very  tinctures  that  brightness  mixed  with 
shadows  and  mists,  as  if  it  were  with  painters'  colors, 
brings  upon  them.  And  as  for  the  tincture  or  colors  of  the 
sea,  Homer  has  indeed  in  some  sort  endeavored  to  name 
and  express  them,  when  he  sometimes  terms  the  sea  violet- 
colored  or  red  as  wine,  at  other  times  the  waves  purple, 
and  again  the  sea  blue,  and  the  calm  white.  As  for  the 
diversities    of  tinctures   and   colors    appearing   upon   the 


268  OF   THE   FACE   APPEARING 

earth,  he  has,  I  suppose,  omitted  them,  because  they  are 
in  number  infinite.  Now  it  is  not  probable  that  the  moon 
has  but  one  superficies  all  plain  and  even,  as  the  sea ;  but 
rather  that  of  its  nature  it  principally  resembles  the  earth, 
of  which  old  Socrates  in  Plato  seemed  to  mythologize  at 
his  pleasure  ;  whether  it  w^ere,  that  under  covert  and  enig- 
matical speeches  he  meant  it  of  the  moon,  or  whether  he 
spake  it  of  some  other.  For  it  is  neither  incredible  nor 
wonderful,  if  the  moon,  having  in  herself  nothing  corrupt 
or  muddy,  but  enjoying  a  pure  and  clear  light  from  heaven, 
and  being  full  of  heat,  not  of  a  burning  and  furious  fire, 
but  of  such  as  is  mild  and  harmless,  has  in  her  places 
admirably  fair  and  pleasant,  resplendent  mountains,  purple- 
colored  cinctures  or  zones,  and  store  of  gold  and  silver, 
not  dispersed  here  and  there  within  her  bowels,  but  flour- 
ishing in  great  abundance  on  the  superficies  of  her  plains, 
or  spread  all  over  her  smooth  hills  and  mountains. 

And  if  the  sight  of  all  these  things  comes  to  us  through 
a  shadow,  sometimes  in  one  manner  and  sometimes  in  an- 
other, by  reason  of  the  diversity  and  diff'erent  change  of 
the  ambient  air,  the  moon  does  not  therefore  lose  the 
venerable  persuasion  that  is  had  of  her,  or  the  reputation 
of  divinity ;  being  esteemed  by  men  a  heavenly  earth,  or 
rather  (as  the  Stoics  say)  a  troubled,  thick,  and  dreggish 
fire.  For  even  the  fire  itself  is  honored  with  barbarian 
honors  among  the  Assyrians  and  Medes,  who  through  fear 
serve  and  adore  such  things  as  are  hurtful,  hallowing  them 
even  above  such  things  as  are  of  themselves  indeed  holy 
and  honorable.  But  the  very  name  of  the  earth  is  truly 
dear  and  venerable  to  every  Greek,  and  there  is  through 
all  Greece  a  custom  received  of  adoring  and  revering  it, 
as  much  as  any  of  the  Gods.  And  we  are  very  far  from 
thinking  that  the  moon,  which  we  hold  to  be  a  heavenly 
earth,  is  a  body  without  soul  and  spirit,  exempt  and  de- 
prived of  all  that  is  to  be  offered  to  the  Gods.     For  both 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  269 

by  law  we  yield  her  recompenses  and  thanksgiA^ngs,  for 
that  we  receive  of  her  and  by  nature  we  adore  what  we 
acknowledge  to  be  of  a  more  excellent  virtue  and  a  more 
honorable  power ;  and  therefore  we  do  not  think  that  we 
offend  in  supposing  the  moon  to  be  earth. 

Xow  as  to  the  face  which  appears  in  her,  as  this  earth 
on  which  we  are  has  in  it  many  great  sinuosities  and  val- 
leys, so  it  is  probable  that  the  moon  also  lies  open,  and  is 
cleft  with  many  deep  caves  and  ruptures,  in  which  there  is 
water  or  very  obscure  air,  to  the  bottom  of  which  the  sun 
cannot  reach  or  penetrate,  but  failing  there,  sends  back  a 
dissipated  reflection  to  us  here  below. 

22.  Here  Apollonides,  taking  up  the  discourse,  said: 
Tell  me  then,  I  beseech  you,  good  sir,  even  by  the  moon 
herself,  do  you  think  it  possible  that  there  should  be  there 
shadows  of  caves  and  chinks,  and  that  the  sight  of  them 
should  come  even  to  our  eyes  1  Or  do  you  not  regard 
what  will  come  of  if?  And  must  I  tell  you  what  it  \s1 
But  hearken  to  me,  although  you  are  not  ignorant  of  it. 
The  diameter  of  the  moon,  according  to  that  bigness  which 
appears  to  us  when  she  is  in  her  mean  and  ordinary  dis- 
tances, is  twelve  digits,  and  every  one  of  these  black  and 
shady  spots  is  above  half  a  digit,  that  is  above  the  four 
and  twentieth  part  of  the  diameter.  Now  if  we  suppose 
the  circumference  of  the  moon  to  be  only  thirty  thousand 
stadia ;  and  the  diameter  according  to  that  supposition  to 
be  ten  thousand,  every  one  of  these  shadowy  marks  within 
her  will  not  be  less  than  five  hundred  stadia.  Consider 
then,  first,  whether  there  can  possibly  be  in  the  moon  such 
great  gaps  and  such  inequalities  as  may  make  such  a 
shadow  ?  And  then  how  is  it  possible  that,  being  so  great, 
they  are  not  seen  by  us  ? 

At  this  I,  smiling  upon  him,  said :  You  have  done  me  a 
pleasure,  dear  iVpollonides,  in  having  found  out  such  a 
demonstration  by  which  you  will  prove  that  you  and  I 


270  OF   THE   FACE   APPEAKING 

shall  be  bigger  than  those  giant  sons  of  Aloeus*  —  not 
indeed  every  hour  of  the  day,  but  principally  morning  and 
evening,  —  if  indeed  you  think  that,  when  the  sun  makes 
our  shadows  so  long,  he  suggests  to  our  minds  this  goodly 
argument ;  if  that  which  is  shadowed  is  great,  that  which 
shadows  must  of  necessity  be  yet  excessively  greater.  T 
know  well  that  neither  you  nor  I  have  ever  been  in  Lem- 
nos  ;  yet  we  have  often  heard  that  Iambic  verse,  so  frequent 
in  every  one's  mouth : 

Mount  Athos'  shade  shall  hide  the  Lemnian  cow. 

For  the  shadow  of  that  mountain  falls,  as  it  seems,  on 
the  image  of  a  brazen  heifer  which  is  in  Lemnos,  extend- 
ing itself  in  length  over  the  sea  not  less  than  seven  hun- 
dred stadia.  ...  The  mountain  which  makes  the  shadow 
causes  it,  because  the  distance  of  the  light  renders  the 
shadow  of  bodies  manifoldly  greater  than  the  bodies  them- 
selves. Consider  then  here,  that  when  the  moon  is  in  the 
full,  and  shows  us  the  form  of  a  visage  most  expressly,  by 
reason  of  the  profundity  of  the  shadow,  it  is  then  that  she 
is  most  remote  from  the  sun  ;  for  it  is  the  distance  of  the 
light  that  makes  the  shadow  bigger,  and  not  the  greatness 
of  the  inequalities  which  are  on  the  superficies  of  the 
moon.  And  you  moreover  see,  that  the  brightness  of  the 
sun's  beams  suffers  not  the  tops  of  the  mountains  to  be  dis- 
cerned in  open  day  ;  but  on  the  contrary,  the  deep  hollow 
and  shadowy  parts  appear  from  afar.  It  is  not  therefore 
any  way  absurd  or  strange,  if  we  cannot  so  exactly  see 
how  the  illumination  of  the  moon  and  her  reception  of 
the  sunbeams  take  place,  while  yet  the  conjunction  of 
things  that  are  obscure  and  dark  to  such  as  are  clear  and 
shining  is  by  reason  of  this  diversity  apparent  to  our 
sight. 

23.  But  this,  said  I,  seems  rather  to  refute  and  check 

*  Otus  and  Ephialtes. 


IN  THE  ORB   OF  THE  MOON.  271 

the  reflection  and  reverberation  which  is  said  to  rebound 
from  the  moon ;  because   those   who   are  within  retorted 
rays  do  not  only  see  that  which  is  enlightened,  but  also 
that  which   enlightens.      For  when,   at  the  resulting  of 
light  from  water  upon  a  wall,  the   sight  falls  upon  the 
place  which  is  thus  illuminated  by  the  reflection,  the  eye 
there  beholds  three  things,  to  wit,  the  ray  or  light  that  is 
driven  back,  the  water  which  makes  the  reflection,  and  the 
sun  himself,  whose  light,  falling  on  the  superficies  of  the 
water,  is  repulsed  and  sent  back.     This  being  confessed, 
as  what  is  evidently  seen,  it  is  required  of  those  who  say 
that  the  earth  is  enlightened  from  the  moon  by  the  reflec- 
tions of  the  sun's  rays  upon  it,  that  they  show  us  by  night 
the  sun  appearing  upon  the  superficies  of  the  moon,  in  the 
same  manner  as  he  may  be  seen  by  day  appearing  in  the 
water  on  which  he  shines  when  there  is  the  said  reflection 
of  his  beams.     But  since  the  sun  does  not  so  appear,  they 
thence  infer  that  the  moon  receives  her  illumination  by 
some  other  means,  and  not  by  reflection  ;  and  if  there  is 
no  reflection,  the  moon  then  is  not  earth. 

What  answer  then  is  to  be  made  them,  said  Apollo- 
nides  ?  For  the  argument  of  this  objection  against  reflec- 
tion is  common  also  to  us. 

It  is  indeed,  answered  I,  in  some  sort  common,  and  in 
some  sort  not.  But  first  consider  the  comparison,  how 
perversely  and  against  the  stream  they  take  it.  For  the 
water  is  here  below  on  the  earth,  and  the  moon  there 
above  in  heaven.  So  that  the  reflected  and  reverberated 
rays  make  the  form  of  their  angles  quite  opposite  one  to 
the  other,  the  one  having  their  point  upwards  towards  the 
superficies  of  the  moon,  and  the  other  downwards  toward 
the  earth.  Let  them  not  then  require  that  from  every 
form  of  mirror,  nor  that  from  every  distance  and  remote- 
ness, there  should  be  a  like  and  semblable  r'^flection ;  for 
so  doing,  they  would  repugn  notorious  and  apparent  evi- 


272  OF   THE   FACE   APPEARING 

dence.  And  as  for  those  who  hold  the  moon  to  be  a  body 
not  smooth,  even,  and  subtile  as  the  water,  but  solid,  massy, 
and  terrestrial,  I  cannot  conceive  why  they  should  require 
to  see  the  image  of  the  sun  in  her  as  in  a  glass.  For 
neither  does  milk  itself  render  such  peculiar  images,  nor 
cause  reflection  of  the  sight,  by  reason  of  the  inequality 
and  ruggedness  of  its  parts.  How  then  is  it  possible  that 
the  moon  should  send  back  the  sight  from  her  superficies, 
as  mirrors  do  that  are  more  polished  ?  And  if  in  these 
also  there  is  any  scratch,  filth,  or  dulness  on  their  super- 
ficies whence  the  reflected  sight  is  wont  to  receive  a  form, 
they  are  dimmed,  and  although  the  mirrors  may  be  seen, 
they  yield  no  counterlight.  He  then  who  requires  that 
either  the  sun  should  appear  in  the  moon,  or  else  the  moon 
should  not  reflect  the  sun's  light  to  us,  might  as  well  require 
that  the  eye  be  the  sun,  the  sight  light,  and  man  heaven. 
For  it  is  probable,  that  the  reflection  of  the  sun's  beams 
which  is  made  upon  the  moon  does,  by  reason  of  their 
vehemence  and  great  brightness,  rebound  with  a  stroke 
upon  us.  But  our  sight  being  weak  and  slender,  what 
wonder  is  it,  if  it  neither  give  such  a  stroke  as  may  re- 
bound, or  if  it  rebounds,  that  it  does  not  maintain  its 
continuity,  but  is  broken  and  fails,  as  not  having  such 
abundance  of  light  that  it  should  not  disgregate  and  be 
dissipated  within  those  inequalities  and  asperities  ?  For 
it  is  not  impossible,  that  the  reflection  upon  water  or  other 
sorts  of  mirrors,  being  yet  strong,  powerful,  and  near  its 
origin,  should  from  thence  return  upon  the  eye  ;  but  though 
there  may  perhaps  from  the  moon  be  some  glimmerings, 
yet  they  still  will  be  weak  and  obscure,  and  will  fail  in  the 
way,  by  reason  of  so  long  a  distance.  For  otherwise  hol- 
low and  concave  mirrors  send  back  the  reverberated  and 
reflected  rays  stronger  than  they  came,  so  that  they  fre- 
quently burn  and  set  on  fke ;  and  those  that  are  convex 
and  embossed  like  a  bowl,  because  they  beat  them  not  back 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  273 

on  all  sides,  render  them  dark  and  feeble.  You  see  for 
certain,  when  two  rainbows  appear  together  in  the  heaven, 
one  cloud  comprehending  another,  that  the  rainbow  which 
outwardly  environs  the  other  yields  dim  colors,  and  such 
as  are  not  sufficiently  distinguished  and  expressed,  because 
the  exterior  cloud,  being  more  remote,  makes  not  a  strong 
and  forcible  reflection.  And  what  needs  there  any  more 
to  be  said,  seeing  that  the  very  light  of  the  sun,  reverber- 
ated and  sent  back  by  the  moon,  loses  all  its  heat ;  and  of 
his  brightness,  there  comes  to  us  with  much  ado  but  a 
small  remainder,  and  that  very  languishing  and  weak  ?  Is 
it  then  possible,  that  our  sight,  turning  the  same  course, 
should  bring  back  any  part  of  the  solar  image  from  the 
moon?  I  for  my  part  think  it  is  not.  But  consider,  I 
said,  yourselves,  that  if  our  sight  were  in  one  and  the 
same  manner  affected  and  disposed  towards  the  water  and 
towards  the  moon,  the  full  moon  would  of  necessity  repre- 
sent to  us  the  images  of  the  earth,  plants,  men,  and  stars, 
as  is  done  by  the  water  and  all  other  sorts  of  mirrors. 
And  if  there  is  no  such  reflection  of  our  sight  as  to  bring 
us  back  these  images,  either  by  reason  of  our  said  sight's 
weakness,  or  through  the  rugged  inequality  of  the  moon's 
superficies,  let  us  no  longer  require  that  it  should  rebound 
against  the  sun. 

24.  We  have  then,  said  I,  related,  as  far  as  our  memory 
would  carry  it  away,  whatever  was  there  said.  It  is  now 
time  to  desire  Sylla,  or  rather  to  exact  of  him,  that  he 
would  make  us  his  narration,  as  being  on  such  condition 
admitted  to  hear  all  this  discourse.  If  you  think  good 
therefore,  let  us  give  over  walking,  and  sitting  down  on 
these  seats,  make  him  a  quiet  and  settled  audience. 

Every  one  approved  this  motion.  And  therefore,  when 
we  had  seated  ourselves,  Theon  thus  began :  I  am  indeed, 
O  Lamprias,  as  desirous  as  any  of  you  can  be  to  hear 
what  shall  be  said ;  but  T  would  gladly  first  understand 

VOL.  V.  18 


274  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

something  concerning  those  who  are  said  to  dwell  in  Ihe 
moon ;  not  whether  there  are  any  persons  inhabiting  it, 
but  whether  it  is  impossible  there  should  be  any ;  for  if  it 
is  not  possible  for  the  moon  to  be  inhabited,  it  is  also  un- 
reasonable to  say  that  she  is  earth ;  otherwise  she  would 
have  been  created  in  vain  and  to  no  end,  not  bearing  any 
fruits,  not  affording  a  place  for  the  birth  or  education  of 
any  men,  for  which  causes  and  ends  this  earth  wherein  we 
live  was  made  and  created,  being  (as  Plato  says)  our  nurse 
and  true  guardian,  producing  and  distinguishing  the  day 
from  the  night.  Now  you  know,  that  of  this  matter  many 
things  have  been  said,  as  well  merrily  and  in  jest  as 
seriously  and  in  earnest.  For  of  those  who  dwell  under 
the  moon,  it  is  said  that  she  hangs  over  their  heads,  as  if 
they  were  so  many  Tantaluses  ;  and  on  the  contrary,  of 
those  who  inhabit  her,  that  being  tied  and  bound  to  her, 
like  a  sort  of  Ixions,  they  are  with  violence  turned  and 
whirled  about.  Nor  is  the  moon  indeed  moved  by  one 
only  motion,  but  is,  as  they  were  wont  to  call  her.  Trivia, 
or  Three-wayed  ;  performing  her  course  together  according 
to  length,  breadth,  and  depth  in  the  Zodiac ;  the  first  of 
which  inotions  mathematicians  call  a  direct  revolution,  the 
second  volutation,  or  an  oblique  winding  and  wheeling  in 
and  out ;  and  the  third  (I  know  not  why)  an  inequality ; 
although  they  see  that  she  has  no  motion  uniform,  settled, 
and  certain,  in  all  her  circuits  and  reversions.  Wherefore 
it  is  not  greatly  to  be  admired,  if  through  violence  of  her 
motion  there  sometime  fell  a  lion  from  her  into  Pelopon- 
nesus, but  it  is  rather  to  be  wondered,  that  we  do  not  daily 
see  ten  thousand  falls  of  men  and  women  and  shocks  of 
other  animals  tumbling  down  thence  with  their  heels  up- 
wards on  our  heads ;  for  it  would  be  a  mockery  to  dispute 
about  their  habitation  there,  if  they  can  have  there  neither 
birth  nor  existence.  For  seeing  the  Egyptians  and  the 
Troglodytes,  over  whose  heads  the  sun  directly  stands  only 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  275 

one  moment  of  one  day  in  the  solstice,  and  then  presently 
retires,  can  hardly  escape  being  burnt,  by  reason  of  the 
air's  excessive  dryness ;  is  it  credible  that  those  who  are 
in  the  moon  can  bear  every  year  twelve  solstices,  the  sun 
being  once  a  month  just  in  their  zenith,  when  the  moon  is 
full  ?  As  for  winds,  clouds,  and  showers,  without  which 
the  plants  can  neither  come  up  nor,  when  they  are  come 
up,  be  preserved,  it  cannot  be  so  much  as  imagined  there 
should  be  any,  where  the  ambient  air  is  so  hot,  dry,  and 
subtile ;  since  even  here  below,  the  tops  of  mountains 
never  feel  those  hard  and  bitter  winters,  but  the  air,  being 
there  pure  and  clear,  without  any  agitation,  by  reason  of 
its  lightness,  avoids  all  that  thickness  and  concretion  which 
is  amongst  us ;  unless,  by  Jupiter,  we  will  say  that,  as 
Minerva  instilled  nectar  and  ambrosia  into  the  mouth  of 
Achilles,  when  he  received  no  other  food,  so  the  moon, 
which  both  is  called  and  indeed  is  Minerva,  nourishes  men, 
producing  for  them  and  sending  them  every  day  ambrosia, 
with  which,  as  old  Pherecydes  was  wont  to  say,  the  Gods 
themselves  are  fed.  For  as  touching  that  Indian  root, 
which,  as  Megasthenes  says,  some  people  in  those  parts, 
who  neither  eat  nor  drink,  but  have  pure  mouths,  burn 
and  smoke,  living  on  the  smell  of  its  perfume  ;  whence 
should  they  have  any  of  it  there,  the  moon  not  being 
watered  or  refreshed  with  rain? 

25.  When  Theon  had  spoken  these  things ;  You  have 
very  dexterously  and  gently,  said  I  to  him,  by  this  facetious- 
ness  of  yours  smoothed  as  it  were  the  brow,  and  taken  off 
the  chagrin  and  sourness  of  this  discourse ;  which  encour- 
ages and  emboldens  us  to  return  an  answer,  since,  however 
we  may  chance  to  fail,  we  expect  not  any  severe  or  rigorous 
chastisement.  For,  to  speak  the  truth,  they  who  are  ex- 
tremely offended  with  these  things  and  wholly  discredit 
them,  not  being  willing  mildly  to  consider  what  probability 
and  possibility  there  may  be  in  them,  are  not  much  less  in 


V;76  OF   THE  FACE   ArPEARING 

fault  than  those  that  are  too  excessively  persuaded  of  them. 
First  then,  I  say,  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  moon  must 
have  been  made  in  vain  and  to  no  end  or  purpose,  if  there 
are  not  men  who  dwell  in  it ;  for  we  see  that  this  very 
earth  here  is  not  all  cultivated  or  inhabited,  but  that  only 
a  small  part  of  it,  like  so  many  promontories  or  demi- 
islands  arising  out  of  the  deep,  engenders,  brings  forth, 
and  breeds  plants  and  animals  ;  the  rest  being  through 
excessive  cold  or  heat  wholly  desert  and  barren,  or  (which 
is  indeed  the  greatest  share  of  it)  covered  and  plunged 
under  the  vast  ocean.  But  you,  who  are  always  so  great  a 
lover  and  admirer  of  Aristarchus,  give  no  ear  to  Crates 
when  he  reads  in  Homer, 

The  sea,  which  gave  to  Gods  and  men  their  birth, 
Covers  with  waves  the  most  part  of  the  earth.* 

And  yet  those  parts  are  far  from  having  been  made  in  vain. 
For  the  sea  exhales  and  breathes  out  mild  vapors  ;  and  the 
snow,  leisurely  melting  from  the  cold  and  uninhabited 
regions,  sends  forth  and  spreads  over  all  our  countries 
those  gentle  breezes  which  qualify  the  scorching  heat  of 
summer ;  and  in  the  midst,  as  Plato  says,  is  placed  the 
faithful  guardian  and  operator  of  night  and  day.  There  is 
then  nothing  to  hinder  but  that  the  moon  may  be  withou*" 
living  creatures,  and  yet  give  reflections  to  the  light  that  is 
diffused  about  her,  and  afford  a  receptacle  to  the  rajs  of 
the  stars,  which  have  their  confluence  and  temperature  in 
her,  for  to  digest  the  evaporation  rising,  from  the  earth  and 
moderate  the  over-violent  and  fiery  heat  of  the  sun.  And 
attributing  much  to  ancient  fame,  we  will  say  that  she  is 
styled  Diana,  as  being  a  virgin  and  fruitless,  but  otherwise 
greatly  salutary,  helpful,  and  profitable  to  the  world. 
Moreover,  of  all  that  has  been  said,  my  friend  Theon,  there 
is  nothing  which  shows  it  impossible  for  the  moon  to  be 

•  See  II.  XIV.  246.     The  second  of  these  verses  is  not  found  in  the  present  text 
of  the  Iliad,  but  was  probably  defended  by  Crates  against  Aristarchus.     (G.^ 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  277 

inhabited.  For  her  turning  about,  being  gentle,  mild,  and 
calm,  dulcifies  and  polishes  the  ambient  air,  and  distributes 
it  in  so  good  order  about  her,  that  there  is  no  occasion  to 
fear  the  falling  or  slipping  out  of  those  who  live  in  her. 
And  as  to  the  diversity  and  multiplicity  of  her  motion,  it 
proceeds  not  from  any  inequality,  error,  or  uncertainty,  but 
the  astrologers  show  in  this  an  admirable  order  and  course, 
enclosing  her  within  circles,  which  are  turned  by  other 
circles ;  some  supposing  that  she  herself  stirs  not,  others 
making  her  always  move  equally,  smoothly,  and  with  the 
same  swiftness.  For  it  is  these  ascensions  of  divers  circles, 
with  their  turnings  and  habitudes,  one  towards  another  and 
with  respect  to  us,  which  most  exactly  make  those  heights, 
depths,  and  depressions,  that  appear  to  us  in  her  motion, 
and  her  digressions  in  latitude,  all  joined  with  the  ordinary 
revolution  she  makes  in  longitude.  As  to  the  great  heat 
and  continual  inflammation  of  the  sun,  you  will  cease  to 
fear  it,  if  first  to  the  eleven  estival  conjunctions  you  oppose 
the  full  moons,  and  then  to  the  excesses  the  continuity  of 
change  which  permits  them  not  to  last  long,  reducing  them 
to  a  proper  and  peculiar  temperature,  and  taking  from 
them  both  what  is  over  much ;  for  the  middle,  or  what  is 
between  them,  it  is  probable,  has  a  season  most  like  to  the 
spring.  And,  moreover,  the  sun  sends  his  beams  to  us 
through  a  gross  and  troubled  air,  and  casts  on  us  an  heat 
fed  by  exhalation  ;  whereas  the  air,  being  there  subtile  and 
transparent,  dissipates  and  disperses  his  lustre,  which  has 
no  nourishment  nor  body  on  which  it  may  settle.  Trees 
and  fruits  are  here  nourished  by  showers  ;  but  elsewhere,  as 
in  the  higher  countries  with  you  about  Thebes  and  Syene, 
the  earth  drinking  in  not  aerial  but  earth-bred  water,  and 
being  assisted  with  refreshing  winds  and  dew,  will  not 
(such  is  the  virtue  and  temperature  of  the  soil)  yield  the 
first  place  for  fertility  to  the  best  watered  land  in  the 
world.     And  the  same  sorts  of  trees  which  in  our  country^ 


278  OF  THE    FACE  APPEARING 

having  suffered  a  long  and  sharp  winter,  bring  forth  abun- 
dance of  good  fruit,  are  in  Africa  and  with  you  in  Egypt 
soon  offended  with  cold  and  very  fearful  of  the  winter. 
And  the  provinces  of  Gedrosia  and  Troglodytis,  which  lie 
near  the  ocean  sea,  being  by  reason  of  drought  barren  and 
without  any  trees,  there  grow  nevertheless  in  the  adjacent 
sea  trees  of  a  wonderful  height  and  bigness,  and  green 
even  to  the  very  bottom ;  some  of  which  they  call  olive- 
trees,  others  laurels,  and  others  the  hair  of  Isis.  And 
those  plants  which  are  named  anacampserotes,  being 
hanged  up  after  they  are  plucked  out  of  the  ground,  not 
only  live,  but  —  which  is  more  —  bud  and  put  forth  green 
leaves.  Some  seeds  are  sown  in  winter ;  and  others  in  the 
heat  of  summer,  like  sesame  and  millet.  And  thyme  or 
centaury,  if  it  is  sown  in  a  rich  and  fat  earth,  and  there 
well  drenched  and  watered,  degenerates  from  its  natural 
quality  and  all  its  virtue,  because  it  loves  dryness  and 
thrives  in  its  own  proper  natural  soil.  Others  cannot  bear 
so  much  as  the  least  dew,  of  which  kind  are  the  most  part 
of  the  Arabian  plants,  and  if  they  are  but  once  wet,  they 
wither,  fade,  and  die.  What  wonder  is  it  then,  if  there 
grow  in  the  moon  roots,  seeds,  and  plants  which  have  no 
need  of  rains  or  winter  colds,  and  are  appropriated  to  a 
dry  and  subtile  air,  such  as  is  that  of  summer  ?  And  why 
may  it  not  be  probable  that  the  moon  sends  forth  warm 
winds,  and  that  her  shaking  and  agitation,  as  she  moves,  is 
accompanied  by  comfortable  breezes,  fine  dews,  and  gentle 
moistures,  which  are  everywhere  dispersed  to  furnish 
nutriment  for  the  verdant  plants  ?  —  seeing  she  is  not  of 
her  temperature  ardent  or  parched  with  drought,  but  rather 
soft,  moist,  and  engendering  all  humidity.  For  there  come 
not  from  her  to  us  any  effects  of  dryness,  but  many  of  a 
feminine  moisture  and  softness,  such  as  are  the  growing  of 
plants,  the  putrefaction  of  flesh,  the  changing  and  flatness 
of  wines,  the  tenderness  and  rotting  of  wood,  and  the  easy 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  279 

deliveries  of  child-bearing  women.  But  because  I  am 
afraid  of  irritating  again  and  provoking  Pliarnaces  —  who 
all  this  while  speaks  not  a  word  —  if  I  should  allege  the 
flowing  and  ebbing  of  the  great  ocean  (as  they  themselves 
say),  and  the  increasings  of  the  friths  and  straits,  which 
swell  and  rise  by  the  moon  augmenting  the  moisture ; 
therefore  I  will  rather  turn  myself  to  you,  my  friend 
Theon.  For  you,  interpreting  this  verse  of  the  poet 
Alcman, 

Such  things  as  dew,  Jove's  daughter  and  the  moon's. 
Does  nourish, 

tell  us,  that  in  this  place  he  calls  the  air  Jupiter,  which, 
being  moistened  by  the  moon,  is  by  Nature  changed  into 
dew.  For  she  seems,  my  good  friend,  to  be  of  a  nature 
almost  wholly  contrary  to  the  sun,  not  only  in  that  she  is 
wonted  to  moisten,  dissolve,  and  soften  what  he  thickens, 
dries,  and  hardens  ;  but  moreover,  in  that  she  allays  and 
cools  his  heat,  when  it  lights  upon  her  and  is  mingled  with 
her. 

Those  then  who  think  the  moon  to  be  a  fiery  and  burn- 
ing body  are  in  an  error  ;  and  in  like  manner  those  who 
would  have  all  such  things  to  be  necessary  for  the  genera- 
tion, life,  food,  and  entertainment  of  the  animals  dwelling 
there  as  are  requisite  to  those  that  are  here  below,  con- 
sider not  the  vast  diversity  and  inequality  there  is  in  Na- 
ture ;  in  which  there  are  found  greater  varieties  and  difi'er- 
ences  between  animals  and  animals,  than  there  are  between 
animals  and  other  subjects  that  are  not  animated.  There 
are  surely  not  in  the  world  any  men  of  such  pure  mouths 
that  they  feed  only  on  smells.  .  .  .  But  that  power  of  Na- 
ture which  Ammonius  himself  has  shown  us,  and  which 
Hesiod  has  obscurely  signified  in  these  words. 

Nor  how  great  virtue  is  in  asphodels  and  mallows,* 

Epimenides  has  made  plain  to  us  in  efi"ect,  teaching  us  that 

*  Hesiod^  Works  and  Days,  41. 


280  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

Nature  sustains  a  living  creature  with  very  little  food,  and 
that,  provided  it  has  but  the  quantity  of  an  olive,  it  stands 
in  need  of  no  other  nourishment.  Now,  if  any,  those 
surely  who  dwell  within  the  moon  should  be  active,  light, 
and  easy  to  be  nourished  with  any  thing  whatsoever ;  since 
they  affirm  that  the  moon  herself,  as  also  the  sun,  which  is 
a  fiery  animal,  and  manifoldly  greater  than  the  earth,  is 
nourished  and  maintained  by  the  moistures  that  come  from 
the  earth,  as  are  also  all  the  other  stars,  whose  number  is  in 
a  manner  infinite ;  such  light  and  slender  animals  do  they 
assign  to  the  upper  region,  and  with  so  small  necessaries 
do  they  think  them  contented  and  satisfied.  But  we 
neither  see  these  things,  nor  consider  that  a  quite  different 
region,  nature,  and  temperature  is  accommodated  to  those 
lunar  men. 

As  therefore,  if  we  were  unable  to  come  near  and  touch 
the  sea,  but  could  only  see  it  at  a  distance,  and  had  heard 
that  its  water  is  brackish,  salt,  and  undrinkable,  any  one 
who  should  tell  us  that  there  are  in  its  depths  many  and 
great  animals  of  various  forms  and  shapes,  and  that  it  is 
full  of  great  and  monstrous  beasts  who  make  the  same 
use  of  the  water  as  we  do  of  the  air,  would  be  thought 
only  to  relate  a  parcel  of  strange  and  uncreditable  stories, 
newly  found  out  and  invented  for  delight  and  amusement ; 
in  the  same  manner  we  seem  to  be  affected  and  disposed 
towards  the  moon,  not  believing  that  there  are  any  who 
inhabit  it.  And  I  am  of  opinion,  that  they  themselves  do 
much  more  wonder,  when  they  behold  the  earth,  —  which 
is,  as  it  were,  the  dregs  and  mud  of  the  universe,  appear- 
ing to  them  through  moist  and  foggy  clouds  and  mists,  a 
little  place,  a  low,  abject,  and  immovable  thing  without  any 
brightness  or  light  whatever, —  how  this  pitiful  inconsider- 
able thing  should  be  able  to  produce,  nourish,  and  maintain 
animals  that  have  motion,  respiration,  and  heat.  And  if 
peradventure  they  had  ever  heard  these  verses  of  Homer, 


and  again, 


IN  THE  OPtB   OF  THE  MOON.  281 


A  filthy  squalid  place,  abhorred  even  by 
The  Gods  themselves ;  * 


Hell  is  as  far  beneath,  as  heaven  above 

The  earth ;  t 


they  would  certainly  think  them  to  have  been  written  of 
this  place  where  we  live,  and  that  here  is  hell  and  Tar- 
tarus, and  that  the  earth  which  is  equally  distant  from 
heaven  and  hell  is  only  the  moon. 

26.  I  had  not  well  ended  my  discourse,  when  Sylla  in- 
terrupting me  said :  Forbear  Lamprias,  and  put  a  stop  to 
your  discourse,  lest  running  (as  they  say)  the  vessel  of 
your  story  on  ground,  you  confound  and  spoil  all  the  play, 
which  has  at  present  another  scene  and  disposition.  I  my- 
self therefore  shall  be  the  actor,  but  shall,  before  I  enter 
upon  my  part,  make  known  to  you  the  poet  or  author ; 
beginning,  if  there  is  nothing  to  hinder,  with  that  of 
Homer, 

An  isle  Ogygia  lies  in  Ocean's  arm8,t 

distant  about  five  days'  sail  westward  from  Britain  ;  and 
before  it  there  are  three  others,  of  an  equal  distance  from 
one  another  and  also  from  that,  bearing  north-west,  where 
the  sun  sets  in  summer.  In  one  of  these  the  barbarians 
feign  that  Saturn  is  detained  prisoner  by  Jupiter,  who,  as 
his  son,  having  the  guard  or  keeping  of  those  islands  and 
the  adjacent  sea,  named  the  Saturnian,  has  his  seat  a  little 
below  ;  and  that  the  continent,  by  which  the  great  sea  is 
circularly  environed,  is  distant  from  Ogygia  about  five 
thousand  stadia,  but  from  the  others  not  so  far,  men  using 
to  row  thither  in  galleys,  the  sea  being  there  low  and  ebb. 
and  difficult  to  be  passed  by  great  vessels  because  of  the 
mud  brought  thither  by  a  multitude  of  rivers,  which,  com- 
ing from  the  mainland,  discharge  themselves  into  it,  and 
raise  there  great  bars  and  shelves  that  choke  up  the  river 

»  II.  XX.  65.  t  II.  Vm.  16.  }  Odyss.  VII.  244. 


282  OF   THE  FACE   APPEARING 

and  render  it  hardly  navigable ;  whence  anciently  there 
arose  an  opinion  of  its  being  frozen.  Moreover,  the 
coasts  of  this  continent  lying  on  the  sea  are  inhabited  by 
the  Greeks  about  a  bay  not  much  smaller  than  the  Maeo- 
tic,  the  mouth  of  which  lies  in  a  direct  line  over  against 
that  of  the  Caspian  Sea.  These  name  and  esteem  them- 
selves the  inhabitants  of  the  firm  land,  calling  all  us  others 
islanders,  as  dwelling  in  a  land  encompassed  round  about 
and  washed  by  the  sea.  And  they  think  that  those  who 
heretofore  came  thither  with  Hercules  and  were  left  there 
by  him,  mixing  themselves  with  the  people  of  Saturn, 
raised  up  again  the  Greek  nation,  which  was  well  near  ex- 
tinguished, brought  under  and  supplanted  by  the  language, 
laws,  and  manners  of  the  barbarians,  and  made  it  again 
flourish  and  recover  its  pristine  vigor.  And  therefore  in 
that  place  they  give  the  first  honor  to  Hercules,  and  the 
second  to  Saturn.  Now  when  the  star  of  Saturn,  by  us 
called  Phaenon  and  by  them  Nycturus,  comes  to  the  sign 
of  Taurus,  as  it  does  once  in  the  time  of  thirty  years,  they, 
having  been  a  long  time  preparing  what  is  necessary  for  a 
solemn  sacrifice  and  a  long  voyage  or  navigation,  send  forth 
those  on  whom  the  lots  fall  to  row  in  that  vast  sea,  and 
make  their  abode  for  a  great  while  in  foreign  countries. 
These  men  then,  being  embarked  and  departed,  meet  with 
difl"erent  adventures,  some  in  one  manner,  others  in  an- 
other. Now  such  as  have  in  safety  passed  the  danger  of 
the  sea  go  first  ashore  in  those  opposite  islands,  which  are 
inhabited  by  the  Greeks,  where  they  see  that  the  sun  is 
scarce  hidden  one.  full  hour  during  the  space  of  thirty 
days,  and  that  this  is  their  night,  of  which  the  darkness  is 
but  small,  as  having  a  twilight  from  the  going  down  of  the 
sun  not  unlike  the  dawning  of  the  day ;  that  having  con- 
tinued there  ninety  days,  during  which  they  are  highly 
caressed  and  honored,  as  being  reputed  and  termed  holy 
men,  they  are   afterwards  conducted  by  the   winds,  and 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  283 

transported  into  the  isle  of  Saturn,  where  there  are  no 
other  inhabitants  but  themselves  and  such  as  have  been 
sent  thither  before  them.  For  though  it  is  lawful  for 
them,  after  they  have  served  Saturn  thirty  years,  to  return 
home  to  their  own  countries  and  houses,  yet  most  of  them 
choose  rather  to  remain  quietly  there ;  some,  because  they 
are  ah'eady  accustomed  to  the  place ;  others,  because 
without  any  labor  and  trouble  they  have  abundance  of  all 
things,  as  well  for  the  offering  of  sacrifices  and  holding 
festival  solemnities,  as  to  support  the  ordinary  expenses 
of  those  who  are  perpetually  conversant  in  the  study  of 
learning  and  philosophy.  For  they  affirm  the  nature  of 
the  island  and  the  mildness  of  the  air  which  environs 
it  to  be  admirable  ;  and  that  there  have  been  some 
persons  who,  intending  to  depart  thence,  have  been  hin- 
dered by  the  Divinity  or  Genius  of  the  place  showing 
himself  to  them,  as  to  his  familiar  friends  and  acquaint- 
ance, not  only  in  dreams  and  exterior  signs,  but  also  visibly 
appearing  to  them  by  the  means  of  familiar  spirits  dis- 
coursing and  conversing  with  them.  For  they  say,  that 
Saturn  himself  is  personally  there,  lying  asleep  in  the 
deep  cave  of  an  hollow  rock,  shining  like  fine  gold,  Jupi- 
ter having  prepared  sleep  instead  of  fetters  and  shackles 
to  keep  him  from  stirring ;  but  that  there  are  on  the  top 
of  this  rock  certain  birds,  which  fly  down  and  carry  him 
ambrosia ;  that  the  whole  island  is  filled  with  an  admi- 
rable fragrancy  and  perfume,  which  is  spread  all  over  it, 
arising  from  this  cave,  as  from  an  odoriferous  fountain ; 
that  these  Daemons  serve  and  minister  to  Saturn,  having 
been  his  courtiers  and  nearest  attendants  when  he  held  the 
empire  and  exercised  regal  authority  over  men  and  Gods  ; 
and  that  having  the  science  of  divining  future  occurrences, 
they  of  themselves  foretell  many  things ;  but  the  greatest 
and  of  the  highest  importance,  when  they  return  from  as- 
sisting Saturn,  and  reveal  his  dreams  ;  for  whatever  Jupi- 


284  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

ter  premeditates,  Saturn  dreams  ;  but  his  awakenings  are 
Titanical  passions  or  perturbations  of  the  soul  in  him, 
which  sleep  altogether  controls,  in  order  that  the  royal 
and  divine  nature  may  be  pure  and  incontaminate  in  itself. 

This  stranger  then,  having  been  brought  thither,  and 
there  serving  the  God  in  repose  and  at  his  ease,  attained 
to  as  great  skill  in  astrology  as  it  is  possible  for  any  one  to 
do  that  has  made  the  greatest  progress  in  geometry ;  as  for 
the  rest  of  philosophy,  having  given  himself  to  that  which 
is  called  natural,  he  was  seized  with  an  extraordinary  de- 
sire and  longing  to  visit  and  see  the  great  island  ;  for  so 
they  call  the  continent  inhabited  by  us.  After  therefore 
his  thirty  years  were  passed  and  his  successors  arrived, 
having  taken  leave  of  all  his  relations  and  friends,  he  put 
to  sea,  in  other  respects  soberly  and  moderately  equipped, 
but  having  good  store  of  voyage-provision  in  vessels  of 
gold.  Now  one  day  would  not  suffice  to  relate  unto  you 
in  particular  what  adventures  befell  him,  how  many  na- 
tions he  visited,  through  how  many  countries  he  passed, 
how  he  searched  into  sacred  writings,  and  was  initiated  in 
all  holy  confraternities  and  religious  societies,  as  he  him- 
self recounted  it  to  us,  exactly  particularizing  every  thing. 
But  give  ear,  I  pray  you,  to  what  concerns  the  present 
dispute.  For  he  continued  no  small  time  at  Carthage,  a 
city  not  a  little  also  esteemed  by  us,  where  he  found  cer- 
tain sacred  skins  of  parchment,  which  had  been  secretly 
conveyed  thither  when  the  old  town  was  sacked,  and  had 
there  long  lain  hidden  under  ground.  Now  he  told  me 
that,  of  all  the  Gods  which  appear  to  us  in  heaven,  we 
ought  chiefly  to  honor  the  Moon,  and  earnestly  exhorted 
me  to  be  diligent  in  venerating  of  her,  as  having  the  prin- 
cipal influence  and  dominion  over  our  life. 

27.  At  these  things  when  I  was  amazed,  and  entreated 
him  to  declare  and  explain  them  a  little  more  fully  to  me, 
he  said :  The   Greeks,  O  Sylla,  deliver  many  things  con- 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  285 

cerning  the  Gods,  but  they  are  not  always  in  the  right. 
For  first,  when  they  tell  us  that  there  is  a  Ceres  and  a 
Proserpine,  they  say  well ;  but  not  so  well,  when  they  put 
them  both  in  one  and  the  same  place.  For  one,  to  wit 
Ceres,  is  on  th,e  earth,  and  the  lady  and  mistress  of  all 
earthly  things.  The  other,  to  wit  Proserpine,  is  in  the 
moon,  and  the  mistress  of  all  lunar  things  ;  and  she  is 
called  both  Cora  and  Persephone  ;  Persephone,  as  being  a 
bringer  of  light  and  brightness,  and  Cora,  because  the 
apple  of  the  eye,  in  which  the  image  of  him  who  looks 
into  it  is  represented,  as  the  brightness  of  the  sun  appears 
in  the  moon,  is  by  the  Greeks  called  )(6q7].  And  as  to  what 
they  say  concerning  the  wandering  about  of  Ceres  and 
Proserpine,  and  their  mutual  seeking  of  one  another,  there 
is  in  it  somewhat  of  truth,  for  they  long  after  each  other, 
being  separated,  and  often  embrace  in  shadow.  And  that 
Cora  is  sometimes  in  heaven  and  light,  and  sometimes  in 
darkness  and  night,  is  not  untrue  ;  only  there  is  some  error 
in  the  computation  of  the  time.  For  we  see  her  not  six 
whole  months,  but  every  sixth  month,  caught  in  the  shadow 
by  the  earth,  as  by  her  mother;  and  this  rarely  happens 
within  five  months,  because  it  is  impossible  she  should  for- 
sake Pluto  (Hades),  being  herself  the  bound  or  limit  of 
Hades  ;  which  Homer  also  covertly  but  not  unelegantly 
signified,  when  he  said, 

Into  th'  Elysian  fields,  earth's  utmost  bounds, 
The  Gods  will  bring  thee  ;  * 

for  he  has  there  placed  the  end  and  boundary  of  the  earth, 
where  the  shadow  ceases  and  goes  no  farther.  Now  into 
that  place  no  wicked  or  impure  person  can  have  access. 
But  good  folks,  being  after  their  decease  carried  thither, 
lead  there  indeed  an  easy  and  quiet,  but  yet  not  a  blessed 
and  divine  life,  till  the  second  death. 

28.  But  what  is  that,  O  Sylla  1  said  I.     Ask  me  not,  he 

*  Odyss.  IV.  663. 


286  OF   THE  FACE   APPEARINGt 

replied,  for  I  am  of  myself  going  to  declare  it  to  you. 
The  common  opinion,  which  most  persons  hold,  is  that 
man  is  a  compound  subject,  and  this  they  have  reason  to 
believe.  But  they  are  mistaken  in  thinking  him  to  be 
compounded  of  two  parts  only.  For  they  imagine  that  the 
understanding  is  a  part  of  the  soul,  but  they  err  in  this  no 
less  than  those  who  make  the  soul  to  be  a  part  of  the 
body ;  for  the  understanding  as  far  exceeds  the  soul,  as  the 
soul  is  better  and  diviner  than  the  body.  Now  this  com- 
position  of  the  soul  with  the  understanding  makes  reason ; 
and  with  the  body,  passion ;  of  which  the  one  is  the  be- 
ginning or  principle  of  pleasure  and  pain,  and  the  other 
of  virtue  and  vice.  Of  those  three  parts  conjoined  and 
compacted  together,  the  earth  has  given  the  body,  the  moon 
the  soul,  and  the  sun  the  understanding  to  the  generation 
of  man,  ...  as  therefore  brightness  to  the  moon.  Now 
of  the  deaths  we  die,  the  one  makes  man  two  of  three, 
and  the  other  one  of  two.  And  the  former  indeed  is  in 
the  region  and  jurisdiction  of  Ceres,  whence  the  name 
given  to  her  mysteries  {tbIzIv)  resembles  that  given  to  death 
{tslBindv).  The  Athenians  also  heretofore  called  the  de- 
ceased sacred  to  Ceres.  As  for  the  other  death,  it  is  in  the 
moon,  or  region  of  Proserpine.  And  as  with  the  one  the 
terrestrial,  so  with  the  other  the  celestial  Mercury  doth 
dwell.  This  suddenly  and  with  force  and  violence  jDlucks 
the  soul  from  the  body ;  but  Proserpine  mildly  and  in  a 
long  time  disjoins  the  understanding  from  the  soul.  And 
for  this  reason  is  she  called  Movoyer/^g,  that  is,  only  begotten, 
or  rather,  begetting  one  alone ;  for  the  better  part  of  man 
becomes  alone  when  it  is  separated  by  her.  Now  both 
the  one  and  the  other  happens  thus  according  to  Nature. 
It  is  ordained  by  Fate  that  every  soul,  whether  with  c 
without  understanding,  when  gone  out  of  the  body,  should 
wander  for  a  time,  though  not  all  for  the  same,  in  the 
region  lying  be<:ween  the  earth  and  the  moon.     For  those 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  287 

that  have  been  unjust  and  dissolute  suffer  there  the  pun- 
ishments due  to  their  offences  ;  but  the  good  and  virtuous 
are  there  detained  till  they  are  purified,  and  have  by  ex- 
piation purged  out  of  them  all  the  infections  they  might 
have  contracted  from  the  contagion  of  the  body,  as  if  from ' 
foul  breath,  living  in  the  mildest  part  of  the  air,  called 
the  meadows  of  Pluto,  where  they  must  remain  for  a  cer- 
tain perfixed  and  appointed  time.  And  then,  as  if  they 
were  returning  from  a  wandering  pilgrimage  or  long  exile 
into  their  country,  they  have  a  taste  of  joy,  such  as  they 
principally  receive  who  are  initiated  in  sacred  mysteries, 
mixed  with  trouble,  admiration,  and  each  one's  proper  and 
peculiar  hope.  For  the  moon  drives  and  chases  out  many 
souls  which  already  long  after  it.  And  some  who  are 
already  come  thither,  and  yet  take  pleasure  in  things  be- 
low, are  seen  descending  down  as  it  were  into  an  abyss. 
But  those  that  are  got  on  high,  and  are  there  securely 
seated,  first  go  about  as  victors,  crowned  with  garlands 
called  the  wings  of  constancy,  because  in  their  lives  they 
restrained  the  unreasonable  and  passible  part  of  their  soul, 
rendering  it  subject  and  obedient  to  the  curb  of  reason. 
Secondly,  they  are  like  to  the  rays  of  the  sun  in  appear- 
ance, and  like  to  fire  in  their  soul,  which  is  borne  aloft  by 
the  clear  air  which  is  about  the  moon,  —  like  fire  here  on 
the  earth,  —  from  which  they  gather  strength  and  solidity, 
as  iron  and  steel  do  by  their  being  tempered  and  plunged 
in  water.  For  that  which  was  hitherto  rare  and  loose  is 
compacted  and  made  firm,  and  becomes  bright  and  trans- 
parent ;  so  that  it  is  nourished  with  the  least  exhalation  in 
the  world.  And  this  is  what  Heraclitus  meant,  when  he 
said  that  the  souls  in  Pluto's  region  have  their  smell  ex- 
ceeding quick. 

29.  Now  they  first  see  the  moon's  greatness,  beauty,  and 
nature,  which  is  not  simple  nor  unmixed,  but  a  composi- 
tion as  it  were  of  earth  and  star.     For  as  the  earth  mixed 


288  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

with  wind  and  moisture  becomes  soft,  and  as  the  blood 
tempered  with  the  flesh  gives  it  sense  ;  so  they  say  tliat  the 
moon,  being  mingled  with  an  ethereal  quintessence  even  to 
the  very  bottom,  is  animated,  becomes  fruitful,  and  genera- 
tive, and  is  equally  counterpoised  with  ponderosity  and 
lightness.  For  even  the  world  itself,  being  composed  of 
some  things  naturally  moving  upwards  and  others  by  na- 
ture tending  downwards,  is  exempt  from  all  local  motion 
or  change  of  place.  These  things  also  Xenocrates  seems 
by  a  certain  divine  reasoning  to  have  understood,  having 
taken  his  first  light  from  Plato.  For  Plato  it  was  who  first 
affirmed  that  every  star  is  compounded  of  fire  and  earth, 
by  the  means  of  certain  intermediate  natures  given  in  pro- 
portion ;  forasmuch  as  nothing  can  be  an  object  of  human 
sense  which  has  not  in  some  proportion  a  mixture  of  earth 
and  light.  Now  Xenocrates  says  that  the  stars  and  the 
sun  are  composed  of  fire  and  the  first  or  primitive  solid ; 
the  moon  of  the  second  solid  and  its  own  peculiar  air ; 
and  the  earth,  of  water,  fire,  and  the  third  solid.  For 
neither  is  the  solid  alone  by  itself,  nor  the  rare  alone  by 
itself,  capable  or  susceptible  of  a  soul.  And  let  thus  much 
suffice  for  the  substance  of  the  moon. 

Now  as  to  her  breadth  and  magnitude,  it  is  not  such  as 
the  geometricians  deliver,  but  manifoldly  greater.  And 
she  seldom  measures  the  shadow  of  the  earth  by  her 
greatness,  not  because  she  is  small,  but  because  she  adds 
to  her  motion  by  heat,  that  she  may  quickly  pass  the  shady 
place,  carrying  with  her  the  souls  of  the  blessed,  which 
make  haste  and  cry.  For  when  they  are  in  the  shadow, 
they  can  no  longer  hear  the  harmony  of  the  heavenly 
bodies.  And  withal,  the  souls  of  the  damned  are  from 
below  presented  to  them,  lamenting  and  wailing  through 
this  shadow.  Wherefore  also  in  eclipses,  many  are  wont 
to  ring  vessels  of  brass,  and  to  make  a  noise  and  clatter- 
ing to  be  heard  by  these  souls.      Moreover,  that  which 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  289 

is  called  the  face  of  the  moon  affrights  them  when  they 
draw  near  it,  seeming  to  them  a  dreadful  and  terrible 
sight ;  whereas  indeed  it  is  not  so.  But  as  our  earth  has 
deep  and  great  bays,  one  here  running  between  Hercules's 
pillars  into  the  land  to  us,  and  others  without,  as  the 
Caspian,  and  those  about  the  Red  Sea ;  so  in  the  moon 
also  there  are  hollows  and  great  depths.  Now  of  these, 
the  greatest  they  call  the  gulf  of  Hecate,  where  the  souls 
punish  or  are  punished  according  to  the  evils  they  suffered 
or  did  whilst  they  were  Daemons.  The  two  others  are 
long  passages,  through  which  the  soul  must  go  sometimes 
to  that  part  of  the  moon  which  is  towards  heaven,  and 
sometimes  to  that  which  is  towards  earth.  Now  that  part 
of  the  moon  which  is  towards  heaven  is  called  the  Elysian 
fields ;  and  that  which  is  towards  the  earth,  the  fields  of 
Proserpine  that  is  opposite  to  the  earth. 

30.  The  Daemons  do  not  always  stay  in  the  moon,  but 
sometimes  descend  down  here  below,  to  have  the  care  and 
superintendency  of  oracles.  They  are  assistant  also,  and 
join  in  celebrating  the  sublimest  ceremonies,  having  their 
eye  upon  misdeeds,  which  they  punish,  and  preserving  the 
good  as  well  in  perils  of  war  as  of  the  sea.  And  if  in  the 
performance  of  this  charge  they  commit  any  fault,  either 
through  anger,  envy,  or  any  unjust  grace  or  favor,  they 
smart  for  it ;  for  they  are  again  thrust  down  to  the  earth, 
and  tied  to  human  bodies.  Now  those  who  were  about 
Saturn  said,  that  themselves  were  some  of  the  better  of 
these  Daemons  ;  as  were  formerly  those  that  were  hereto- 
fore in  Crete  called  Dactyli  Idaei,  the  Corybantes  in 
Phrygia,  and  the  Trophoniades  in  Lebadea,  a  city  of 
Boeotia,  and  infinite  others  in  several  places  of  the  habit- 
able earth,  whose  names,  temples,  and  honors  continue  to 
this  day.  But  the  powers  of  some  fail,  being  by  a  most 
happy  change  translated  to  another  place  ;  which  transla- 
tions some  obtain  sooner,  others  later,  when  the  under- 

VOL.   V.  19 


290  OF  THE  FACE  APPEARING 

standing  comes  to  be  separated  from  the  soul ;  which 
separation  is  made  by  the  love  and  desire  to  enjoy  the 
image  of  the  sun,  in  which  and  by  which  shines  that 
divine,  desirable,  and  happy  beauty,  which  every  other 
nature  differently  longs  after  and  seeks,  one  after  one 
manner,  another  after  another.  For  the  moon  herself 
continually  turns,  through  the  desire  she  has  to  be  joined 
with  him.  But  the  nature  of  the  soul  remains  in  the 
moon,  retaining  only  some  prints  and  dreams  of  life.  And 
of  this  I  think  it  to  have  been  well  and  truly  said, 

The  soul,  like  to  a  dream,  flies  quick  away  ;  * 

which  it  does  not  immediately,  as  soon  as  it  is  separated 
from  the  body,  but  afterwards,  when  it  is  alone  and  divided 
from  the  understanding.  And  of  all  that  Homer  ever 
writ,  there  is  not  any  passage  more  divine  than  that  in 
which,  speaking  of  those  who  are  departed  this  life,  he 
says, 

Next  these,  I  saw  Alcides'  image  move  ; 
Himself  is  with  th'  immortal  Gods  above.t 

For  every  one  of  us  is  neither  courage,  nor  fear,  nor  desire, 
—  no  more  than  flesh  or  humors,  —  but  the  part  by  which 
we  think  and  understand.  And  the  soul  being  moulded 
and  formed  by  the  understanding,  and  itself  moulding  and 
forming  the  body,  by  embracing  it  on  every  side,  receives 
from  it  an  impression  and  form ;  so  that  although  it  be 
separated  both  from  the  understanding  and  the  body,  it 
nevertheless  so  retains  still  its  figure  and  semblance  for  a 
long  time,  that  it  may  with  good  right  be  called  its  image. 
And  of  these  souls  (as  I  have  already  said)  the  moon  is 
the  element,  because  souls  resolve  into  her,  as  the  bodies 
of  the  deceased  do  into  earth.  Those  indeed  who  have 
been  virtuous  and  honest,  living  a  quiet  and  philosophical 
life  without  embroiling  themselves  in  troublesome  affairs, 
are  quickly  resolved  ;  because  being  left  by  the  understand- 

*  Odyss.  XL  221.  t  Odyss.  XL  60L 


IN  THE  ORB  OF  THE  MOON.  291 

iiig,  and  no  longer  using  corporeal  passions,  they  incon- 
tinently vanish  away.  But  the  souls  of  the  ambitious  and 
such  as  have  been  busied  in  negotiations,  of  the  amorous 
and  such  as  have  been  addicted  to  corporeal  pleasures,  as 
also  of  the  angry  and  revengeful,  calling  to  mind  the  things 
they  did  in  their  lives,  as  dreams  in  theu*  sleep,  walk  wan- 
dering about  here  and  there,  like  that  of  Endymion ;  be- 
cause their  inconstancy  and  their  being  over-subject  to 
passions  transports  them,  and  draws  them  out  of  the  moon 
to  another  generation,  not  letting  them  rest,  but  alluring 
them  and  calling  them  away.  For  there  is  nothing  small, 
staid,  constant,  and  accordant,  after  that  being  forsaken  by 
the  understanding,  they  come  to  be  seized  by  corporeal 
passions.  x\nd  of  such  souls,  destitute  of  reason  and  suf- 
fering themselves  to  be  carried  away  by  the  proud  violence 
of  passion,  were  bred  the  Tityi  and  Typhous ;  and  particu- 
larly that  Typhon  who,  having  by  force  and  violence  seized 
the  city  of  Delphi,  overturned  the  sanctuary  of  the  oracle 
there.  Nevertheless,  after  a  long  tract  of  time  the  moon 
receives  those  souls  and  recomposes  them ;  and  the  sun 
inspiring  again  and  sowing  understanding  in  them,  the 
moon  receives  them  by  its  vital  power,  and  makes  them 
new  souls  ;  and  the  earth  in  the  third  place  gives  them  a 
body.  For  she  gives  nothing  .  .  .  after  death  of  all  that 
she  takes  to  generation.  And  the  sun  takes  nothing,  but 
reassembles  and  receives  again  the  understanding  which 
he  gave.  But  the  moon  gives  and  receives,  joins  and  dis- 
joins, unites  and  separates,  according  to  divers  faculties 
and  powers ;  of  which  the  one  is  named  Ilithyia  or  Lucina 
(to  wit,  that  which  joins),  and  the  other  Artemis  or  Diana 
(to  wit,  that  which  separates  and  divides).  And  of  the 
three  fatal  Goddesses  or  Parcae,  she  which  is  called  Atropos 
is  placed  in  the  sun,  and  gives  the  principle  of  generation ; 
and  Clotho,  being  lodged  in  the  moon,  is  she  who  joins, 
mingles,  and  unites ;  and  the  last,  named  Lachesis,  is  on 


292  ORB  OF  THE  MOON. 

the  earth,  where  she  adds  her  helping  hand,  and  with  her 
does  Fortune  very  much  participate.  For  that  which  is 
without  a  soul  is  weak  in  itself  and  liable  to  be  affected  by 
others.  The  understanding  is  sovereign  over  all  the  rest, 
and  cannot  be  made  to  suffer  by  any.  Now  the  soul  is  a 
certain  middle  thing  mixed  of  them  both ;  as  the  moon 
was  by  God  made  and  created  a  composition  and  mixture 
of  things  high  and  low,  having  the  same  proportion  to  the 
sun  as  the  earth  has  to  her. 

This  (said  Sylla)  is  what  I  understood  from  this  guest 
of  mine,  who  was  a  stranger  and  a  traveller ;  and  this  he 
said  he  learned  from  the  Daemons  who  served  and  minis- 
tered to  Saturn.  And  you,  O  Lamprias,  may  take  my 
relation  in  such  part  as  you  please. 


Of    FATE.» 


I  WILL  endeavor,  my  dearest  Piso,  to  send  you  my 
opinion  concerning  Fate,  written  with  all  the  clearness 
and  compendiousness  I  am  capable  of;  since  you,  who  are 
not  ignorant  how  cautious  I  am  of  writing,  have  thought 
fit  to  make  it  the  subject  of  your  request. 

1.  You  are  first  then  to  know  that  this  word  Fate  is 
spoken  and  understood  two  manner  of  ways  ;  the  one  as 
it  is  an  energy,  the  other  as  it  is  a  substance.  First  there- 
fore, as  it  is  an  action,  Plato  f  has  under  a  type  described 
it,  saying  thus  in  his  dialogue  entitled  Phaedrus :  "  And 
this  is  a  sanction  of  Adrastea  (or  an  inevitable  ordinance), 
that  whatever  soul  being  an  attendant  on  God,"  &c.  And 
in  his  treatise  called  Timaeus:  "The  laws  which  God  in 
the  nature  of  the  universe  has  established  for  immortal 
souls."  And  in  his  book  of  a  Commonweal  he  calls  Fate 
"  the  speech  of  the  virgin  Lachesis,  who  is  the  daughter 
of  Necessity."  By  which  sentences  he  not  tragically  but 
theologically  shows  us  what  his  sentiments  are  in  this 
matter.  Now  if  any  one,  translating  the  fore-cited  pas- 
sages, would  have  them  expressed  in  more  familiar  terms, 
the  description  in  Phaedrus  may  be  thus  explained :  That 
Fate  is  a  divine  sentence,  intransgressible  because  its  cause 

*  "  This  little  Treatise  is  so  pitiously  tome,  maimeJ,  and  disraembred  thorowout, 
that  a  man  may  sooner  divine  and  guess  thereat  (as  I  have  done)  than  translate  it. 
I  beseech  the  readers  therefore,  to  hold  me  excused,  in  case  I  neither  please  my 
Bfilfe,  nor  content  them,  in  that  which  I  have  written."  —  Holland. 

t  See  Plato,  Phaedrufl,  p.  248  C ;  Timaeus,  p.  41  E  ;  Republic,  X.  p.  617  D. 


294  OF  FATE. 

cannot  be  divested  or  hindered.  And  according  to  what 
he  has  said  in  his  Timaeus,  it  is  a  law  ensuing  on  the 
nature  of  the  universe,  according  to  which  all  things  that 
are  done  are  transacted.  For  this  does  Lachesis  effect, 
who  is  indeed  the  daughter  of  Necessity,  —  as  we  have  both 
already  related,  and  shall  yet  better  understand  by  that 
which  will  be  said  in  the  progress  of  our  discourse.  Thus 
you  see  what  Fate  is,  when  it  is  taken  for  an  action. 

2.  But  as  it  is  a  substance,  it  seems  to  be  the  universal 
soul  of  the  world,  and  admits  of  a  threefold  distribution ; 
the  first  destiny  being  that  which  errs  not ;  the  second, 
that  which  is  thought  to  err ;  and  the  third  that  which, 
being  under  the  heaven,  is  conversant  about  the  earth. 
Of  these,  the  highest  is  called  Clotho,  the  next  Atropos, 
and  the  lowest,  Lachesis  ;  who,  receiving  the  celestial  in- 
fluences and  efficacies  of  her  sisters,  transmits  and  fastens 
them  to  the  terrestrial  things  which  are  under  her  govern- 
ment. Thus  have  we  declared  briefly  what  is  to  be  said 
of  Fate,  taken  as  a  substance  ;  what  it  is,  what  are  its  parts, 
after  what  manner  it  is,  how  it  is  ordained,  and  how  it 
stands,  both  in  respect  to  itself  and  to  us.  But  as  to  the 
particularities  of  these  things,  there  is  another  fable  in  his 
Commonweal,  by  which  they  are  in  some  measure  covertly 
insinuated,  and  we  ourselves  have,  in  the  best  manner  we 
can,  endeavored  to  explain  them  to  you. 

3.  But  we  now  once  again  turn  our  discourse  to  Fate,  as 
it  is  an  energy.  For  concerning  this  it  is  that  there  are  so 
many  natural,  moral,  and  logical  questions.  Having  there- 
fore already  in  some  sort  sufficiently  defined  what  it  is,  we 
are  now  in  the  next  place  to  say  something  of  its  quality, 
although  it  may  to  many  seem  absurd.  I  say  then  that 
Fate,  though  comprehending  as  it  were  in  a  circle  the  in- 
finity of  all  those  things  which  are  and  have  been  from 
infinite  times  and  shall  be  to  infinite  ages,  is  not  in  itself 
infinite,  but  determinate  and  finite ;  for  neither  law,  reason, 


OF  FATE.  295 

nor  any  other  divine  thing  can  be  infinite.  And  this  you 
will  the  better  understand,  if  you  consider  the  total  revolu- 
tion and  the  whole  time  in  which  the  revolutions  of  the 
eight  circles  (that  is.  of  the  eight  spheres  of  the  fixed  stars, 
sun,  moon,  and  five  planets),  having  (asTimaeus*  says) 
finished  their  course,  return  to  one  and  the  same  point, 
being  measured  by  the  circle  of  the  Same,  which  goes 
always  after  one  manner.  For  in  this  order,  which  is 
finite  and  determinate,  shall  all  things  (which,  as  well  in 
heaven  as  in  earth,  consist  by  necessity  from  above)  be  re- 
duced to  the  same  situation,  and  restored  again  to  their 
first  beginning.  Wherefore  the  habitude  of  heaven  alone, 
being  thus  ordained  in  all  things,  as  well  in  regard  of  itself 
as  of  the  earth  and  all  terrestrial  matters,  shall  again  (after 
long  revolutions)  one  day  return ;  and  those  things  that  in 
order  follow  after,  and  being  linked  together  in  a  continuity 
are  maintained  in  their  course,  shall  be  present,  every  one 
of  them  by  necessity  bringing  what  is  its  own.  But  for 
the  better  clearing  of  this  matter,  let  us  understand  that 
whatever  is  in  us  or  about  us  is  not  wrought  by  the  course 
of  the  heavens  and  heavenly  influences,  as  being  entirely 
the  efficient  cause  both  of  my  writing  what  I  now  write, 
and  of  your  doing  also  what  you  at  present  do,  and  in  the 
same  manner  as  you  do  it.  Hereafter  then,  when  the  same 
cause  shall  return,  we  shall  do  the  same  things  we  now  do, 
and  in  the  same  manner,  and  shall  again  become  the  same 
men ;  and  so  it  will  be  with  all  others.  And  that  which 
follows  after  shall  also  happen  by  the  following  cause  ;  and 
in  brief,  all  things  that  shall  happen  in  the  whole  and  in 
every  one  of  these  universal  revolutions  shall  again  become 
the  same.  By  this  it  appears  (as  we  have  said  before)  that 
Fate,  being  in  some  sort  infinite,  is  nevertheless  determinate 
and  finite ;  and  it  may  be  also  in  some  sort  seen  and  com- 
prehended, as  we  have  farther  said,  that  it  is  as  it  were  a 

*  Plato,  Tim.  p.  39  D. 


296  OF  FATE. 

circle.  For  as  a  motion  of  a  circle  is  a  circle,  and  the  time 
that  measures  it  is  also  a  circle  ;  so  the  order  of  things 
which  are  done  and  happen  in  a  circle  may  be  justly 
esteemed  and  called  a  circle. 

4.  This  therefore,  though  there  should  be  nothing  else, 
almost  shows  us  what  sort  of  thing  Fate  is  ;  but  not  par- 
ticularly or  in  every  respect.  What  kind  of  thing  then  is 
it  in  its  own  form  ?  It  is,  as  far  as  one  can  compare  it, 
like  to  the  civil  or  politic  law.  For  first  it  commands  the 
most  part  of  things  at  least,  if  not  all,  conditionally ;  and 
then  it  comprises  (as  far  as  is  possible  for  it)  all  things  that 
belong  to  the  public  in  general ;  and  the  better  to  make 
you  understand  both  the  one  and  the  other,  we  must 
specify  them  by  an  example.  The  civil  law  speaks  and 
ordains  in  general  of  a  valiant  man,  and  also  of  a  deserter 
and  a  coward ;  and  in  the  same  manner  of  others.  Now 
this  is  not  to  make  the  law  speak  of  this  or  that  man  in 
particular,  but  principally  to  propose  such  things  as  are 
universal  or  general,  and  consequently  such  as  fall  under 
them.  For  we  may  very  well  say,  that  it  is  legal  to  reward 
this  man  for  having  demeaned  himself  valiantly,  and  to 
punish  that  man  for  flying  from  his  colors ;  because  the 
law  has  virtually  —  though  not  in  express  terms  and  par- 
ticularly yet  in  such  general  ones  as  they  are  compre- 
hended under,  —  so  determined  of  them.  As  the  law  (if 
I  may  so  speak)  of  physicians  and  masters  of  corporal 
exercises  potentially  comprehends  particular  and  special 
things  within  the  general ;  so  the  law  of  Nature,  determin- 
ing first  and  principally  general  matters,  secondarily  and 
consequently  determines  such  as  are  particular.  Thus, 
general  things  being  decreed  by  Fate,  particular  and  indi- 
vidual things  may  also  in  some  sort  be  said  to  be  so,  be- 
cause they  are  so  by  consequence  with  the  general.  But 
perhaps  some  one  of  those  who  more  accurately  examine 
and  more  subtly  search  into  these  things  may  say,  on  the 


OF  FATE.  297 

contrary,  that  particular  and  individual  things  precede  the 
composition  of  general  things,  and  that  the  general  exist 
only  for  the  particular,  since  that  for  which  another  thing 
is  always  goes  before  that  which  is  for  it.  Nevertheless, 
this  is  not  the  proper  place  to  treat  of  this  difficulty,  but 
it  is  to  be  remitted  to  another.  However,  that  Fate  com- 
prehends not  all  things  clearly  and  expressly,  but  only  such 
as  are  universal  and  general,  let  it  pass  for  resolved  on  at 
present,  as  well  for  what  we  have  already  said  a  little  be- 
fore, as  for  what  we  shall  say  hereafter.  For  that  which 
is  finite  and  determinate,  agreeing  properly  with  divine 
Providence,  is  seen  more  in  universal  and  general  things 
than  in  particular ;  such  therefore  is  the  divine  law,  and 
also  the  civil ;  but  infinity  consists  in  particulars  and  indi- 
viduals. 

After  this  we  are  to  declare  what  this  term  "  condition- 
ally "  means ;  for  it  is  to  be  thought  that  Fate  is  also  some 
such  thing.  That  then  is  said  to  be  conditionally,  which 
is  supposed  to  exist  not  of  itself  or  absolutely,  but  as 
really  dependent  upon  and  joined  to  another ;  which  sig- 
nifies a  suit  and  consequence.  "  And  this  is  the  sanction 
of  Adrastea  (or  an  inevitable  ordinance),  that  whatever 
soul,  being  an  attendant  on  God,  shall  see  any  thing  of 
truth,  shall  till  another  revolution  be  exempt  from  punish- 
ment ;  and  if  it  is  always  able  to  do  the  same,  it  shall 
never  sufi'er  any  damage."  *  This  is  said  both  condition- 
ally and  also  universally.  Now  that  Fate  is  some  such 
thing  is  clearly  manifest,  as  well  from  its  substance  as 
from  its  name.  For  it  is  called  EinaQulvri  as  being  eiQOfisrri, 
that  is,  dependent  and  linked ;  and  it  is  a  sanction  or  law, 
because  things  are  therein  ordained  and  disposed  conse- 
quentially, as  is  usual  in  civil  government. 

5.  We  ought  in  the  next  place  to  consider  and  treat  of 

*  This  is  the  whole  passage  from  Plato's  Phaedrus,  p.  248  C,  of  which  part  is 
quoted  in  §  1.     (G.) 


298  OF  FATE. 

mutual  relation  and  affection  ;  that  is,  what  reference  and 
respect  Fate  has  to  divine  Providence,  what  to  Fortune, 
what  also  to  "  that  which  is  in  our  power,"  what  to  contin- 
gent and  other  such  like  things ;  and  furthermore  we  are 
to  determine,  how  far  and  in  what  it  is  true  or  false  that 
all  things  happen  and  are  done  by  and  according  to  Fate. 
For  if  the  meaning  is,  that  all  things  are  comprehended 
and  contained  in  Fate,  it  must  be  granted  that  this  propo- 
sition is  true ;  and  if  any  would  farther  have  it  so  under- 
stood, that  all  things  which  are  done  amongst  men,  on 
earth,  and  in  heaven  are  placed  in  Fate,  let  this  also  pass 
as  granted  for  the  present.  But  if  (as  the  expression  seems 
rather  to  imply)  the  "  being  done  according  to  Fate  "  sig- 
nifies not  all  things,  but  only  that  which  is  an  immediate 
consequent  of  Fate,  then  it  must  not  be  said  that  all  things 
happen  and  are  done  by  and  according  to  Fate,  though  all 
things  are  so  according  to  Fate  as  to  be  comprised  in  it. 
For  all  things  that  the  law  comprehends  and  of  which  it 
speaks  are  not  legal  or  according  to  law ;  for  it  compre- 
hends treason,  it  treats  of  the  cowardly  running  away  from 
one's  colors  in  time  of  battle,  of  adultery,  and  many  other 
such  like  things,  of  which  it  cannot  be  said  that  any  one 
of  them  is  lawful.  Neither  indeed  can  I  affirm  of  the  per- 
forming a  valorous  act  in  war,  the  killing  of  a  tyrant,  or 
the  doing  any  other  virtuous  deed,  that  it  is  legal ;  be- 
cause that  only  is  proper  to  be  called  legal,  which  is  com- 
manded by  the  law.  Now  if  the  law  commands  these 
things,  how  can  they  avoid  being  rebels  against  the  law 
and  transgressors  of  it,  who  neither  perform  valiant  feats 
of  arms,  kill  tyrants,  nor  do  any  other  such  remarkable 
acts  of  virtue  1  And  if  they  are  transgressors  of  the  law, 
why  is  it  not  just  they  should  be  pimished  ?  But  if  this 
is  not  reasonable,  it  must  then  be  also  confessed  that  these 
things  are  not  legal  or  according  to  law ;  but  that  legal 
and  according  to  law  is  only  that  which  is  particularly  pre- 


OF  FATE.  299 

scribed  and  expressly  commanded  by  the  law,  in  any  action 
whatsoever.  In  like  manner,  those  things  only  are  fatal 
and  according  to  Fate,  which  are  the  consequences  of 
causes  preceding  in  the  divine  disposition.  So  that  Fate 
indeed  comprehends  all  things  which  are  done ;  yet  many 
of  those  things  that  are  comprehended  in  it,  and  almost  all 
that  precede,  should  not  (to  speak  properly)  be  pronounced 
to  be  fatal  or  according  to  Fate. 

6.  These  things  being  so,  we  are  next  in  order  to  show, 
how  "  that  which  is  in  our  power  "  (or  free  will).  Fortune, 
possible,  contingent,  and  other  like  things  which  are  placed 
among  the  antecedent  causes,  can  consist  with  Fate,  and 
Fate  with  them ;  for  Fate,  as  it  seems,  comprehends  all 
things,  and  yet  all  these  things  will  not  happen  by  neces- 
sity, but  every  one  of  them  according  to  the  principle  of  its 
nature.  Now  the  nature  of  the  possible  is  to  presubsist, 
as  the  genus,  and  to  go  before  the  contingent ;  and  the 
contingent,  as  the  matter  and  subject,  is  to  be  presupposed 
to  free  will :  and  our  free  will  ought  as  a  master  to  make  use 
of  the  contingent ;  and  Fortune  comes  in  by  the  side  of 
free  will,  through  the  property  of  the  contingent  of  inclining 
to  either  part.  Now  you  will  more  easily  apprehend  what 
has  been  said,  if  you  shall  consider  that  every  thing  which 
is  generated,  and  the  generation  itself,  is  not  done  without 
a  generative  faculty  or  power,  and  the  power  is  not  with- 
out a  substance.  As  for  example,  neither  the  generation 
of  man,  nor  that  which  is  generated,  is  without  a  power ; 
but  this  power  is  about  man,  and  man  himself  is  the  sub- 
stance. Now  the  power  or  faculty  is  between  the  sub- 
stance, which  is  the  powerful,  and  the  generation  and  the 
thing  generated,  which  are  both  possibles.  There  being 
then  these  three  things,  the  power,  the  powerful,  and  the 
possible ;  before  the  power  can  exist,  the  powerful  must 
of  necessity  be  presupposed  as  its  subject,  and  the  power 
must  also  necessarily  subsist  before  the  possible.     By  this 


300  OF  FATE. 

deduction  then  may  in  some  measure  be  understood  what 
is  meant  by  possible  ;  which  may  be  grossly  defined  as 
"  that  which  power  is  able  to  produce  ; "  or  yet  more 
exactly,  if  to  this  same  there  be  added,  "  provided  there 
be  nothing  from  without  to  hinder  or  obstruct  it."  Now 
of  possible  things  there  are  some  which  can  never  be 
hindered,  as  are  those  in  heaven,  to  wit,  the  rising  and 
setting  of  the  stars,  and  the  like  to  these ;  but  others  may 
indeed  be  hindered,  as  are  the  most  part  of  human  things, 
and  many  also  of  those  which  are  done  in  the  air.  The 
first,  as  being  done  by  necessity,  are  called  necessary ;  the 
others,  which  may  fall  one  way  or  other,  are  called  con- 
tingent ;  and  they  may  both  thus  be  described.  The 
necessary  possible  is  that  whose  contrary  is  impossible  ; 
and  the  contingent  possible  is  that  whose  contrary  is  also 
possible.  For  that  the  sun  should  set  is  a  thing  both 
necessary  and  possible,  forasmuch  as  it  is  contrary  to  this 
that  the  sun  should  not  set,  which  is  impossible  ;  but  that, 
when  the  sun  is  set,  there  should  be  rain  or  not  rain,  both 
the  one  and  the  other  is  possible  and  contingent.  And 
then  again  of  things  contingent,  some  happen  oftener, 
others  rarely  and  not  so  often,  others  fall  out  equally  or 
indiff"erently,  as  well  the  one  way  as  the  other,  even  as  it 
happens.  Now  it  is  manifest  that  those  are  contrary  to 
one  another,  —  to  wit,  those  which  fall  out  oftener  and 
those  which  happen  but  seldom,  —  and  they  both  for  the 
most  part  depend  on  Nature ;  but  that  which  happens 
equally,  as  much  one  way  as  another,  depends  on  our- 
selves. For  that  under  the  Dog  it  should  be  either  hot  or 
cold,  the  one  oftener,  the  other  seldomer,  are  both  things 
subject  to  Nature ;  but  to  walk  and  not  to  walk,  and  all 
such  things  of  which  both  the  one  and  the  other  are  sub- 
mitted to  the  free  will  of  man,  are  said  to  be  in  us  and  our 
election  ;  but  rather  more  generally  to  be  in  us.  For  there 
are  two  sorts  of  this  "being  in  our  power;"  the  one  of 


OF  FATE.  301 

which  proceeds  from  some  sudden  passion  and  motion 
of  the  mind,  as  from  anger  or  pleasure ;  the  other  from 
the  discourse  and  judgment  of  reason,  which  may  properly 
be  said  to  be  in  our  election.  And  some  reason  there  is 
to  believe  that  this  possible  and  contingent  is  the  same 
thing  with  that  which  is  said  to  be  in  us  and  according  to 
our  free  will,  although  differently  named.  For  in  respect 
to  the  future,  it  is  styled  possible  and  contingent ;  and  in 
respect  of  the  present,  it  is  named  "  in  our  power "  and 
"  in  our  free  will."  So  that  these  things  may  thus  be  de- 
fined :  The  contingent  is  that  which  is  itself —  as  well 
as  its  contrary  —  possible;  and  "that  which  is  in  our 
power  "  is  one  part  of  the  contingent,  to  wit,  that  which 
now  takes  place  according  to  our  will.  Thus  have  we  in 
a  manner  declared,  that  the  possible  in  the  order  of  Nature 
precedes  the  contingent,  and  that  the  contingent  subsists 
before  free  will ;  as  also  what  each  of  them  is,  whence 
they  are  so  named,  and  what  are  the  qualities  adjoined  or 
appertaining  to  them. 

7.  It  now  remains,  that  we  treat  of  Fortune  and  casual 
adventure,  and  whatever  else  is  to  be  considered  with  them. 
It  is  therefore  certain  that  Fortune  is  a  cause.  Now  of 
causes,  some  are  causes  by  themselves,  and  others  by  acci- 
dent. Thus  for  example,  the  proper  cause  by  itself  of  an 
house  or  a  ship  is  the  art  of  the  mason,  the  carpenter,  or 
the  shipwright ;  but  causes  by  accident  are  music,  geome- 
try, and  whatever  else  may  happen  to  be  joined  with  the 
art  of  building  houses  or  ships,  in  respect  either  of  the 
body,  the  soul,  or  any  exterior  thing.  Whence  it  appears, 
that  the  cause  by  itself  must  needs  be  determinate  and 
one ;  but  the  causes  by  accident  are  never  one  and  the 
same,  but  infinite  and  undetermined.  For  many  —  nay,  in- 
finite —  accidents,  wholly  diff"erent  one  from  the  other,  may 
be  in  one  and  the  same  subject.  Now  the  cause  by  acci- 
dent, when  it  is  found  in  a  thing  which  not  merely  is  done 


302  OF  FATE. 

for  some  end  but  has  in  it  free  will  and  election,  is  then 
called  Fortune  ;  as  is  the  finding  a  treasure  while  one  is 
digging  a  hole  to  plant  a  tree,  or  the  doing  or  suffering 
some  extraordinary  thing  whilst  one  is  flying,  following,  or 
otherwise  walking,  or  only  turning  about,  provided  it  be 
not  for  the  sake  of  that  which  happens,  but  for  some  other 
intention.  Hence  it  is,  that  some  of  the  ancients  have  de- 
clared Fortune  to  be  a  cause  unknown,  that  cannot  be  fore- 
seen by  the  human  reason.  But  according  to  the  Platonics, 
who  have  approached  yet  nearer  to  the  true  reason  of  it, 
it  is  thus  defined :  Fortune  is  a  cause  by  accident,  in  those 
things  which  are  done  for  some  end,  and  which  are  of  our 
election.  And  afterwards  they  add,  that  it  is  unforeseen 
and  unknown  to  the  human  reason ;  although  that  which 
is  rare  and  strange  appears  also  by  the  same  means  to  be 
in  this  kind  of  cause  by  accident.  But  what  this  is,  if  it 
is  not  sufficiently  evidenced  by  the  oppositions  and  dispu- 
tations made  against  it,  will  at  least  most  clearly  be  seen 
by  what  is  written  in  Plato's  Phaedo,  where  you  will  find 
these  words  : 

Phaed.  Have  you  not  heard  how  and  in  what  man- 
ner the  judgment  passed?  Ech.  Yes  indeed;  for  there 
came  one  and  told  us  of  it.  At  which  we  wondered  very 
much  that,  the  judgment  having  been  given  long  before, 
it  seems  that  he  died  a  great  while  after.  And  what, 
Phaedo,  might  be  the  cause  of  it  ?  Phaed.  It  was  a  for- 
tune which  happened  to  him,  Echecrates.  For  it  chanced 
that,  the  day  before  the  judgment,  the  stern  of  the  galley 
which  the  Athenians  send  every  year  to  the  isle  of  Delos 
was  crowned.* 

In  which  discourse  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  the  expres- 
sion happened  to  him  is  not  simply  to  be  understood  by 
was  done  or  cayne  to  pass,  but  it  much  rather  regards 
what  befell  him  through  the  concurrence  of  many  causes 

*  Plato,  Phaedo,  p.  68  A. 


OF  FATE.  303 

together,  one  being  done  with  regard  to  another.  For  the 
priest  crowned  the  ship  and  adorned  it  with  garlands  for 
another  end  and  intention,  and  not  for  the  sake  of  Socra- 
tes ;  and  the  judges  also  had  for  some  other  cause  con- 
demned him.  But  the  event  was  strange,  and  of  such  a 
nature  that  it  might  seem  to  have  been  effected  by  the 
providence  of  some  human  creature,  or  rather  of  some 
superior  powers.  And  so  much  may  suffice  to  show  with 
what  Fortune  must  of  necessity  subsist,  and  that  there  must 
be  first  some  subject  of  such  things  as  are  in  our  free 
will :  its  effect  is,  moreover,  like  itself  called  Fortune. 

But  chance  or  casual  adventure  is  of  a  larger  extent 
than  Fortune ;  which  it  comprehends,  and  also  several 
other  things  which  may  of  their  own  nature  happen  some- 
times one  way,  sometimes  another.  And  this,  as  it  ap- 
pears by  the  derivation  of  its  name,  which  is  in  Greek 
avTonaxov,  chance^  is  that  which  happens  of  itself,  when  that 
which  is  ordinary  happens  not,  but  another  thing  in  its 
place ;  such  as  cold  in  the  dog-days  seems  to  be  ;  for  it 
is  sometimes  then  cold.  .  .  .  Once  for  all,  as  "  that  which 
is  in  our  power  "  is  a  part  of  the  contingent,  so  Fortune  is 
a  part  of  chance  or  casual  adventure  ;  and  both  the  two 
events  are  conjoined  and  dependent  on  the  one  and  the 
other,  to  wit,  chance  on  contingent,  and  Fortune  on  "  that 
which  is  in  our  power,"  —  and  yet  not  on  all,  but  on  what 
is  in  our  election,  as  we  have  already  said.  Wherefore 
chance  is  common  to  things  inanimate,  as  well  as  to  those 
which  are  animated ;  whereas  Fortune  is  proper  to  man 
only,  who  has  his  actions  voluntary.  And  an  argument  of 
this  is,  that  to  be  fortunate  and  to  be  happy  are  thought 
to  be  one  and  the  same  thing.  Now  happiness  is  a  cer- 
tain well-doing,  and  well-doing  is  proper  only  to  man,  and 
to  him  perfect. 

8.  These  then  are  the  things  which  are  comprised  in 
Fate,  to  wit,  contingent,  possible,  election,  "  that  which  is 


304  OF  FATE. 

in  our  power,"  Fortune,  chance,  and  their  adjuncts,  as  are 
the  things  signified  by  the  words  perhaps  and  peradven- 
ture  ;  all  which  indeed  are  contained  in  Fate,  yet  none  of 
them  is  fatal.  It  now  remains,  that  we  discourse  of  di 
vine  Providence,  and  show  how  it  comprehends  even  Fate 
itself. 

9.  The  supreme  therefore  and  first  Providence  is  the 
understanding  or  (if  you  had  rather)  the  will  of  the  first 
and  sovereign  God,  doing  good  to  every  thing  that  is  in 
the  world,  by  which  all  divine  things  have  universally  and 
throughout  been  most  excellently  and  most  wisely  or- 
dained and  disposed.  The  second  Providence  is  that  of 
the  second  Gods,  who  go  through  the  heaven,  by  which 
temporal  and  mortal  things  are  orderly  and  regularly  gen- 
erated, and  which  pertains  to  the  continuation  and  preser- 
vation of  every  kind.  The  third  may  probably  be  called 
the  Providence  and  procuration  of  the  Daemons,  which,  be- 
ing placed  on  the  earth,  are  the  guardians  and  overseers 
of  human  actions.  This  threefold  Providence  therefore 
being  seen,  of  which  the  first  and  supreme  is  chiefly  and 
principally  so  named,  we  shall  not  be  afraid  to  say,  al- 
though we  may  in  this  seem  to  contradict  the  sentiments 
of  some  philosophers,  that  all  things  are  done  by  Fate  and 
by  Providence,  but  not  also  by  Nature.  But  some  are  done 
according  to  Providence,  —  these  according  to  one,  those 
according  to  another,  —  and  some  according  to  Fate  ;  and 
Fate  is  altogether  according  to  Providence,  while  Providence 
is  in  no  wise  according  to  Fate.  But  let  this  discourse  be 
understood  of  the  first  and  supreme  Providence.  Now 
that  which  is  done  according  to  another,  whatever  it  is, 
is  always  posterior  to  that  according  to  which  it  is  done ; 
as  that  which  is  according  to  the  law  is  after  the  law,  and 
that  which  is  according  to  Nature  is  after  Nature,  so  that 
which  is  according  to  Fate  is  after  Fate,  and  must  conse- 
quently be  more  new  and  modern.     Wherefore  supreme 


OF  FATE.  305 

Providence  is  the  most  ancient  of  all  things,  except  him 
whose  will  or  understanding  it  is,  to  wit,  the  sover- 
eign author,  maker,  and  father  of  all  things.  "  Let  us 
therefore,"  says  Timaeus,  "  discourse  for  what  cause  the 
Creator  made  and  framed  this  machine  of  the  universe. 
He  was  good,  and  in  him  that  is  good  there  can  never  he 
imprinted  or  engendered  any  envy  against  any  thing.  Be- 
ing therefore  wholly  free  from  this,  he  desired  that  all 
things  should,  as  far  as  it  is  possible,  resemble  himself. 
He  therefore,  who  admits  this  to  have  been  chiefly  the 
principal  original  of  the  generation  and  creation  of  the 
world,  as  it  has  been  delivered  to  us  by  wise  men,  receives 
that  which  is  most  right.  For  God,  who  desired  that  all 
things  should  be  good,  and  nothing,  as  far  as  possibly  might 
be,  evil,  taking  thus  all  that  was  visible,  —  restless  as  it  was, 
and  moving  rashly  and  confusedly,  —  reduced  it  from  disor- 
der to  order,  esteeming  the  one  to  be  altogether  better  than 
the  other.  For  it  neither  was  nor  is  convenient  for  him 
who  is  in  all  perfection  good,  to  make  any  thing  that 
should  not  be  very  excellent  and  beautiful."  *  This,  there- 
fore, and  all  that  follows,  even  to  his  disputation  concern- 
ing human  souls,  is  to  be  understood  of  the  first  Providence, 
which  in  the  beginning  constituted  all  things.  Afterwards 
he  speaks  thus :  "  Having  framed  the  universe,  he  or- 
dained souls  equal  in  number  to  the  stars,  and  distributed 
to  each  of  them  one  ;  and  having  set  them,  as  it  were,  in 
a  chariot,  showed  the  nature  of  the  universe,  and  appointed 
them  the  laws  of  Fate."  f  Who  then  will  not  believe,  that 
by  these  words  he  expressly  and  manifestly  declares  Fate 
to  be,  as  it  were,  a  foundation  and  political  constitution  of 
laws,  fitted  for  the  souls  of  men?  Of  which  he  after- 
wards renders  the  cause. 

As  for  the  second  Providence,  he  thus  in  a  manner  ex- 
plains it,  saying  :  "  Having  prescribed  them  all  these  laws, 

*  Plato,  Timaeus,  p.  29  D.  f  Plato,  Timaeus,  p.  41  D. 

VOL.  V.  ao 


306  OF  FATE. 

to  the  end  that,  if  there  should  afterwards  happen  any 
fault,  he  might  be  exempt  from  being  the  cause  of  any  of 
their  evil,  he  dispersed  some  of  them  upon  the  earth,  some 
into  the  moon,  and  some  into  the  other  instruments  of 
time.  And  after  this  dispersion,  he  gave  in  charge  to  the 
young  Gods  the  making  of  human  bodies,  and  the  making 
up  and  adding  whatever  was  wanting  and  deficient  in 
human  souls ;  and  after  they  had  perfected  whatever  is 
adherent  and  consequent  to  this,  they  should  rule  and 
govern,  in  the  best  manner  they  possibly  could,  this  mortal 
creature,  so  far  as  it  should  not  be  the  cause  of  its  own 
e  ils."*  For  by  these  words,  "that  he  might  be  exempt 
from  being  the  cause  of  any  of  their  evil,"  he  most  clearly 
signifies  the  cause  of  Fate ;  and  the  order  and  office  of 
the  young  Gods  manifests  the  second  Providence ;  and  it 
seems  also  in  some  sort  to  have  touched  a  little  upon  the 
third,  if  he  therefore  established  laws  and  ordinances  that 
he  might  be  exempt  from  being  the  cause  of  any  of  their 
evil.  For  God,  who  is  free  from  all  evil,  has  no  need  of 
laws  or  Fate  ;  but  every  one  of  these  petty  Gods,  drawn 
on  by  the  providence  of  him  who  has  engendered  them, 
performs  what  belongs  to  his  office.  Now  that  this  is  true 
and  agreeable  to  the  opinion  of  Plato,  these  words  of  the 
lawgiver,  spoken  by  him  in  his  Book  of  Laws,  seems  to 
me  to  give  sufficient  testimony :  "  If  there  were  any  man 
so  sufficient  by  Nature,  being  by  divine  Fortune  happily 
engendered  and  born,  that  he  could  comprehend  this,  he 
would  have  no  need  of  laws  to  command  him.  For  there 
is  not  any  law  or  ordinance  more  worthy  and  powerful 
than  knowledge  ;  nor  is  it  fitting  that  Mind,  provided  it 
be  truly  and  really  free  by  Nature,  should  be  a  subject  or 
slave  to  any  one,  but  it  ought  to  command  all."f 

10.  I  therefore  do  for  mine  own  part  thus  understand 
and  interpret  this  sentence  of  Plato.     There  being  a  three- 

♦  Plato,  Timaeus,  p.  42  D.  t  Plato,  Laws,  IX.  p.  875  C. 


OF  FATE.  307 

fold  Providence,  the  first,  as  having  engendered  Fate,  does 
in  some  sort  comprehend  it ;  the  second,  having  been  en- 
gendered with  Fate,  is  with  it  totally  comprehended  and 
embraced  by  the  first ;  the  third,  as  having  been  engen- 
dered after  Fate,  is  comprehended  by  it  in  the  same  manner 
as  are  free  will  and  Fortune,  as  we  have  already  said. 
"  For  they  whom  the  assistance  of  a  Daemon's  power  does 
aid  in  their  intercourse  with  me  "  says  Socrates,  declaring 
to  Theages  what  is  the  almost  inevitable  ordinance  of 
Adrastea  "  are  those  whom  you  also  mean  ;  for  they  grow 
and  come  forward  with  speed."*  In  which  words,  what 
he  says  of  a  Daemon's  aiding  some  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the 
third  Providence,  and  the  growing  and  coming  forward 
with  speed,  to  Fate.  In  brief,  it  is  not  obscure  or  doubtful 
but  that  this  also  is  a  kind  of  Fate.  And  perhaps  it  may 
be  found  much  more  probable  that  the  second  Providence 
is  also  comprehended  under  Fate,  and  indeed  all  things 
that  are  done  ;  since  Fate,  as  a  substance,  has  been  rightly 
divided  by  us  into  three  parts,  and  the  fable  of  the  chain 
comprehends  the  revolutions  of  the  heavens  in  the  number 
and  rank  of  those  things  which  happen  conditionally.  But 
concerning  these  things  I  will  not  much  contend,  to  wit, 
whether  they  should  be  called  conditional,  or  rather  con- 
joined with  Fate,  the  precedent  cause  and  commander  of 
Fate  being  also  fatal. 

11.  Our  opinion  then,  to  speak  compendiously,  is  such. 
But  the  contrary  sentiment  does  not  only  include  all  things 
in  Fate,  but  afiirms  them  all  to  be  done  by  and  according 
to  Fate.  It  accords  indeed  in  all  things  to  the  other  (the 
Stoic)  doctrine ;  and  that  which  accords  to  it,  'tis  clear,  is 
the  same  thing  with  it.  In  this  discourse  therefore  we 
have  first  spoken  of  the  contingent ;  secondly,  of  "  that 
which  is  in  our  power ;  "  thirdly,  of  Fortune  and  chance, 
and  whatever  depends  on  them  ;  fourthly,  of  praise,  blame, 

*  Plato,  Theages,  p.  129  E. 


308  OF  FATE. 

and  ^vhatever  depends  on  them ;  the  fifth  and  last  of  all 
may  be  said  to  be  prayers  to  the  Gods,  with  their  services 
and  ceremonies. 

For  the  rest,  as  to  those  which  are  called  idle  and  reap- 
ing arguments,  and  that  which  is  named  the  argument 
against  destiny,  they  are  indeed  but  vain  subtleties  and 
captious  sophisms,  according  to  this  discourse.  But  accord- 
ing to  the  contrary  opinion,  the  first  and  principal  conclu- 
sion seems  to  be,  that  there  is  nothing  done  without  a 
cause,  but  that  all  things  depend  upon  antecedent  causes  ; 
the  second,  that  the  world  is  governed  by  Nature,  and  that 
it  conspires,  consents,  and  is  compatible  with  itself;  the 
third  seems  rather  to  be  testimonies,  —  of  which  the  first 
is  divination,  approved  by  all  sorts  of  people,  as  being 
truly  in  God ;  the  second  is  the  equanimity  and  patience 
of  wise  men,  who  take  mildly  and  bear  patiently  whatever 
befalls,  as  happening  by  divine  ordinance  and  as  it  ought ; 
the  third  is  the  speech  so  common  and  usual  in  every 
one's  mouth,  to  wit,  that  every  proposition  is  true  or  false. 
Thus  have  we  contracted  this  discourse  into  a  small  num- 
ber of  short  articles,  that  we  might  in  few  words  compre- 
hend the  whole  matter  of  Fate ;  into  which  a  scrutiny 
ought  to  be  made,  and  the  reasons  of  both  opinions  to  be 
weighed  with  a  most  exact  balance.  But  we  shall  here- 
after come  to  discuss  particulars. 


CONCERNING    THE    FIRST    PRINCIPLE    OF 
COLD. 


1.  Is  there  then,  Favorinus,  any  first  or  prmcipal  power 
or  existence  of  cold,  as  fire  is  the  principle  of  heat,  by  the 
presence  and  imparting  of  which  all  other  things  of  the 
same  nature  become  cold  ?  Or  rather  is  not  cold  the  priva- 
tion of  heat,  as  they  say  darkness  is  the  privation  of  light, 
and  rest  the  privation  of  motion?  In  regard  that  cold 
seems  to  be  firm  and  stable,  and  heat  always  in  motion ; 
and  for  that  the  refrigeration  of  hot  things  is  not  caused 
by  the  presence  of  any  active  power,  but  by  the  departure 
of  the  heat.  For  we  find  the  heat  go  off  in  great  quan- 
tity, and  then  that  which  remains  grows  cold.  Thus  the 
vapor  which  boiling  water  sends  forth  ceases  also  when 
the  heat  is  gone.  Therefore  refrigeration,  expelling  the 
heat,  diminishes  the  quantity,  while  nothing  supplies  the 
place  of  it. 

2.  First,  we  might  question  this  way  of  arguing,  as  being 
that  which  would  abolish  several  manifest  faculties,  as 
being  neither  qualities  nor  habits,  but  the  privations  of 
habits  and  qualities ;  so  as  to  make  ponderosity  the  priva- 
tion of  levity,  hardness  the  privation  of  softness,  black  of 
white,  bitter  of  sweet,  and  so  with  other  things  which  are 
naturally  opposed  to  each  other  in  their  power  and  not  as 
a  privation  to  a  habit.  Or  else  for  this  reason,  because  all 
privation  is  a  thing  altogether  sluggish  and  without  action, 
as  blindness,  deafness,  silence,  and  death ;  for  they  are  the 


310  CONCERNING  THE  FIRST 

departure  of  forms,  and  the  utter  defacings  of  substances, 
not  being  natures  nor  substances  of  themselves  ;  but  cold, 
wherever  it  resides,  causes  no  less  affections  and  alterations 
in  bodies  than  heat.  For  many  things  are  congealed  by 
cold,  many  things  thereby  condensed.  So  that  whatever 
is  solid  in  it  and  difficult  to  be  moved  cannot  be  said  to  be 
sluggish  and  void  of  action,  but  firm  and  ponderous,  as 
being  supported  by  its  own  strength,  which  is  endued  with 
a  power  to  preserve  it  in  its  proper  station.  Wherefore 
privation  is  the  deficiency  and  departure  of  the  opposite 
power,  but  many  things  are  subject  to  be  cold,  though 
abounding  with  heat  within  themselves.  And  there  are 
some  things  which  cold  the  more  condenses  and  consoli- 
dates the  hotter  they  are,  as  iron  quenched  in  water.  The 
Stoics  also  affirm,  that  the  spirit  which  is  in  the  bodies  of 
infants  is  quickened  by  refrigeration,  and  changing  its 
Nature,  turns  to  a  soul.  But  this  is  a  thing  much  to  be 
disputed.  Neither  is  it  rational  to  believe  that  cold,  which 
is  the  productive  agent  in  many  other  things,  can  be  a 
privation. 

3.  Besides,  no  privation  is  capable  of  more  and  less.  Nei- 
ther can  any  man  say,  that  one  among  those  that  cannot  see  is 
more  blind  than  another,  or  that  one  among  those  that  can- 
not speak  is  more  silent  than  another,  or  that  any  thing  is 
more  dead  than  another  among  those  things  that  never  had 
life.  But  in  cold  things  there  is  more  and  less,  and  excess 
and  diminution  to  several  degrees  ;  in  a  word,  there  is  both 
intensity  and  remission  as  well  as  in  hot  things ;  because 
the  matter  suffers  in  some  things  more  violently,  in  others 
more  languidly,  and  therefore  some  things  are  hotter,  soiae 
things  colder  than  others,  according  to  the  nature  of  the 
matter.  For  there  is  no  mixture  of  habit  with  privation. 
Neither  does  any  power  admit  of  privation  opposite  to  it, 
nor  associate  with  it  in  the  same  subject,  but  it  withstands 
it  altogether.     Hot  things  allow  themselves  to  be  mixed 


PRINCIPLE  OF  COLD,  311 

with  cold  things  to  a  certain  degree,  as  black  with  white, 
heavy  with  light,  and  sour  with  sweet,  —  this  community 
and  harmony  of  colors,  sounds,  medicaments,  and  sauces 
generating  several  tastes  and  pleasures  grateful  to  the 
senses.  But  the  opposition  of  privation  and  habit  is  an 
antipathy  never  to  be  reconciled ;  the  being  of  the  one 
enforcing  the  destruction  of  the  other.  Which  destruc- 
tion, if  it  fall  out  seasonably,  according  to  the  opposition 
of  contrary  powers,  the  arts  make  great  use  of,  but  chiefly 
Nature,  not  only  in  her  other  creations,  but  especially  in 
the  alterations  of  the  air,  and  in  all  other  things  of  which 
the  Deity  being  the  adorner  and  dispenser  obtains  the 
attribute  of  harmonical  and  musical.  Not  that  those  at- 
tributes are  given  him  for  the  disposal  of  deep  and  shrill, 
black  and  white,  so  as  to  make  them  agree  together ;  but 
for  his  governing  in  the  world  the  sympathies  and  antipa- 
thies of  cold  and  heat  in  such  a  manner  that  they  may 
unite  and.  separate  again,  and  for  reducing  both  to  a  decent 
order,  by  taking  that  which  we  called  "  the  overmuch " 
from  both. 

4.  Then  again,  we  find  that  there  is  the  same  sense  and 
feeling  of  cold  as  of  heat ;  but  privation  is  neither  to  be 
seen,  heard,  or  felt,  neither  is  it  known  to  any  of  the  other 
senses.  For  the  object  of  sense  is  substance  ;  but  where 
no  substance  appears,  there  we  understand  privation  to 
be,  —  which  is  a  negation  of  substance,  as  blindness  of 
sight,  silence  of  voice,  and  vacuity  of  corporeal  substance. 
For  there  is  no  sense  or  perception  of  vacuity  by  feeling ; 
but  where  there  is  no  body  to  be  felt,  there  a  vacuity  is 
implied.  Neither  do  we  hear  silence ;  but  where  we  do 
not  hear  any  thing  at  all,  there  we  imply  silence.  In 
like  manner  we  have  no  perception  of  blindness,  naked- 
ness, or  being  unarmed ;  but  we  know  them  from  the 
negation  of  our  sense.  Therefore  if  cold  were  a  privation 
of  heat,  there  would  be  no   being  sensible  of  cold  ;  but 


312  CONCERNING  THE  FIRST 

only  where  heat  ceased  to  be,  there  cold  would  be  implied 
But  if,  as  heat  is  perceptible  by  the  warmth  and  laxative 
softness  of  the  flesb,  so  cold  is  no  less  perceptible  by  the 
contraction  and  condensation  of  it,  it  is  from  thence  ap- 
parent, that  there  is  some  peculiar  original  and  fountain  of 
cold  as  well  as  heat. 

5.  Further  then,  privation  of  every  kind  is  something 
single  and  simply  particular ;  but  in  substances  there  are 
several  differences  and  efficacies.  For  silence  is  a  thing 
but  of  one  sort ;  but  of  sounds  there  are  great  variety, 
sometimes  molesting,  sometimes  delightful  to  the  sense. 
There  are  also  the  same  differences  in  colors  and  figures, 
which  vary  as  they  occur  to  the  senses.  But  that  which  is 
not  to  be  felt,  which  is  without  color  and  void  of  quality, 
can  never  be  distinguished,  but  is  always  like  itself. 

6.  Is  cold  therefore  to  be  numbered  among  those  priva- 
tions that  are  not  distinguished  in  their  action  1  Rather 
the  contrary,  in  regard  that  pleasures  very  great  and  bene- 
ficial to  our  bodies  arise  from  cold  things ;  as  no  less  terri- 
ble mischiefs,  pains,  and  stupefaction  on  the  other  side ; 
which  the  heat  does  not  always  avoid  and  give  way  to,  but 
many  times  enclosed  within  the  body,  withstands  and  op- 
poses. Which  contention  of  theirs  is  called  quivering  and 
shaking,  at  what  time,  if  the  cold  overcome  the  heat, 
thence  proceed  numbness  and  stiffness  of  the  limbs ;  but 
if  the  cold  be  vanquished  by  the  heat,  there  follow  a 
pleasing  warmth  and  opening  of  the  skin,  which  Homer 
expresses  by  the  word  laivEa&ai.  These  things  are  past  dis- 
pute ;  and  chiefly  by  these  passive  qualities  it  is,  that  we 
find  cold  to  be  opposite  to  heat,  as  substance  to  substance,  or 
passive  quality  to  passive  quality,  not  as  negation  or  priva- 
tion ;  neither  is  it  the  destruction  or  abolishing  of  hot,  but 
a  kind  of  nature  and  power  tending  to  its  destruction. 
Otherwise  we  should  exempt  the  winter  out  of  the  seasons, 
and  the  north  winds  out  of  the  number  of  the  winds,  as 


PRINCIPLE  OF   COLD.  313 

being  privations  of  the  warmer  seasons  and  the  southern 
gales,  and  not  having  any  proper  original. 

7.  Now  in  regard  there  are  four  first  bodies  in  the  uni- 
verse, which,  by  reason  of  their  number,  their  being  un 
compounded,  and  their  efficacy,  are  allowed  for  the  most 
part  to  be  the  principles  and  beginnings  of  all  other, — 
that  is  to  say,  fire  and  water,  air  and  earth,  —  is  there  not 
the  same  necessity  that  there  should  be  as  many  first  and 
uncompounded  qualities?  And  what  are  they  but  heat 
and  cold,  drought  and  moisture,  by  virtue  of  which  it 
comes  to  pass  that  all  the  principles  act  and  suff'er?  Thus, 
as  there  are  in  grammar  lengthenings  and  shortenings  of 
sounds,  in  music,  deep  and  acute  sounds,  though  not  one 
of  them  is  the  privation  of  the  other ;  we  must  leave  the 
dry  opposed  to  the  moist  principles,  and  the  hot  to  the 
cold,  if  we  intend  to  have  the  effects  answerable  to  reason 
and  what  is  visible  in  Nature.  Unless,  as  it  was  the 
opinion  of  the  ancient  Anaximenes,  we  will  not  allow 
either  cold  or  hot  to  be  in  substance,  but  only  to  be  com- 
mon passive  qualities  accompanying  the  alterations  of  the 
matter.  For  he  affirms  the  contraction  and  condensation 
of  the  matter  to  be  cold ;  but  the  rarefication  and  laxation 
of  it  (for  by  that  word  he  calls  it)  to  be  hot.  Whence  it 
may  not  be  improperly  said,  that  a  man  breathes  hot  and 
cold  at  once.  For  the  breath  grows  cold  being  compressed 
and  thickened  by  the  lips,  but  coming  out  of  the  open 
mouth  it  is  hot,  as  being  rarefied  by  that  emission.  But  for 
this,  Aristotle  convinces  the  same  person  of  ignorance ; 
for  that  when  Ave  blow  with  the  mouth  open,  we  blow  hot 
from  our  own  bodies ;  but  when  we  blow  with  compressed 
lips,  we  do  not  breathe  forth  the  air  from  ourselves,  but  the 
air  that  is  before  our  mouths,  being  cold,  is  thrust  forward, 
and  lights  upon  what  is  next  it. 

8.  But  if  we  must  grant  that  both  heat  and  cold  are  sub- 
stances, let  us  proceed  a  little  farther  in  our  discourse,  and 


314  CONCERNING   THE  FIRST 

enquire  what  sort  of  substance  is  cold,  and  what  is  its  first 
principle  and  nature. 

They  then  who  affirm  that  there  are  certain  irregular 
triangular  figures  in  our  body,  and  tell  us  also  that  shud- 
dering, trembling,  and  quivering,  and  whatever  else  we 
suflPer  of  the  same  nature,  proceed  from  the  roughness  of 
those  figures,  if  they  mistake  in  the  parts,  nevertheless 
derive  the  beginning  from  whence  they  ought.  For  we 
ought  to  begin  the  question  —  as  it  were  from  Vesta  — 
from  the  substance  of  all  things.  By  which  it  chiefly  ap- 
pears wherein  a  philosopher  diff'ers  from  a  physician,  a 
husbandman,  or  a  piper.  For  it  is  sufficient  for  these  to 
contemplate  the  last  causes.  For  if  the  consideration  of 
the  nearest  causes  of  the  aifection  go  no  farther  than  to 
find  that  the  cause  of  a  fever  is  intenseness  of  heat,  or  the 
lighting  of  some  humor  where  it  ought  not  to  be,  that  the 
cause  of  blasting  is  the  scorching  heat  of  the  sun  after 
rain,  and  that  the  cause  why  pipes  give  a  bass  sound  is 
the  inclination  of  the  pipes  or  the  bringing  them  near  one 
to  another  ;  this  is  enough  for  the  artist  to  know  in  refer- 
ence to  his  business.  But  when  a  philosopher  for  con- 
templation's sake  scrutinizes  into  the  truth,  the  knowledge 
of  remote  causes  is  not  the  end  but  the  beginning  of  his 
proceeding  in  search  of  the  first  and  ultimate  causes. 
Wherefore  Plato  and  Democritus,  enquiring  after  the  cause 
of  heat  and  gravity,  did  not  stop  at  the  consideration  of 
earth  and  fire,  but  bringing  things  perceptible  to  sense  to 
beginnings  intelligible  only  by  the  mind,  they  went  on 
even  to  the  smallest,  as  it  were  the  seeds  of  what  they 
sought  for. 

9.  But  it  is  much  the  better  way  for  us  in  the  first  place 
to  move  forward  upon  those  things  which  are  perceptible 
to  sense,  wherein  Empedocles,  Strato,  and  the  Stoics 
placed  the  substances  of  active  qualities  ;  the  Stoics 
ascribing  primitive  cold  to  the  air,  Empedocles  and  Strato 


PRINCIPLE   OF  COLD.  315 

to  the  water  ;  and  perhaps  there  might  be  somebody  else 
who  might  affirm  the  earth  to  be  the  substance  of  cold. 
But  first  let  us  consider  the  opinions  of  those  already 
named. 

Seeing  then  that  fire  is  both  hot  and  bright,  therefore 
there  must  be  something  opposite  to  fire  which  is  cold  and 
dark.  For  as  dark  is  opposite  to  light,  so  is  cold  to  hot. 
Besides,  as  dark  confounds  the  sight,  so  cold  confounds 
the  feeling.  But  heat  diffuses  the  sense  of  feeling,  as 
light  diffuses  the  sense  of  seeing.  Therefore  that  which  is 
first  dark  in  nature  is  first  cold.  Now  that  the  air  is  fii'st 
dark,  was  not  unknown  to  the  poets  ;  for  that  they  call  the 
air  darkness : 

The  thickened  air  the  fleet  with  darkness  covered, 
Nor  could  the  moonlight  be  from  heaven  discovered.* 

And  again : 

Then  darkness  scattered  and  the  fog  dispelled, 
The  sun  brake  forth,  and  all  the  fight  beheld.f 

They  also  call  the  air,  when  it  is  without  light  xvscpag,  as 
being  as  it  were  xsvov  (pdovg  [void  of  light.)  The  air  collected 
and  condensed  into  a  cloud  is  called  vs'cpog,  from  its  negation 
of  light  (vTJ-qidog).  The  words  also  d^Xig  and  6[iixXi]  (mist), 
and  whatever  else  restrains  the  perception  of  light  from  the 
sense,  are  but  distinctions  of  the  air ;  insomuch  that  the 
same  part  of  it  which  is  invisible  and  without  color  (dsidsg 
and  axQcoGTov)  is  called  Hades  and  Acheron.  So  that,  as 
the  air  grows  dark  when  the  splendor  of  it  fails,  in  like 
manner  when  heat  fails,  that  which  is  left  is  no  more  than 
cold  air,  which  by  reason  of  its  coldness  is  called  Tartarus. 
And  this  Hesiod  makes  manifest,  when  he  calls  it  TdgraQov 
TJegoEvra  (or  cloudy  Tavtarus) ;  and  when  a  man  quakes  and 
shivers  for  cold,  he  is  said  to  tartarize.  And  so  much  for 
this. 

*  Odyss.  IX.  144.  t  D.  XVI.  649. 


316  CONCERNING  THE  FIRST 

10.  But  in  regard  corruption  is  the  alteration  of  those 
things  that  are  corrupted  into  that  which  is  contrary  to 
every  one  of  them,  let  us  consider  whether  it  be  a  true 
saying,  "  The  death  of  fire  is  the  generation  of  air."  For 
fire  dies  like  a  Hving  creature,  being  quenched  by  force  or 
going  out  of  its  own  accord.  Now  quenching  makes  the 
alteration  of  it  into  air  more  conspicuous.  For  smoke  is 
a  sort  of  air,  or,  according  to  Pindar,  a  fuliginous  vapor 
and  exhalation,  "lashing  the  air  with  steaming  smoke."* 
On  the  other  side,  when  fire  goes  out  for  want  of  fuel,  as 
in  candles,  you  shall  observe  a  thick  and  cloudy  air  ascend- 
ing from  the  top  of  them.  Moreover,  the  vapor  steaming 
from  our  bodies  upon  the  pouring  of  cold  water  after  hot 
bathing  or  sweating  sufficiently  declares  the  alteration  of 
extinguished  heat  into  air,  as  being  naturally  opposite  to 
air ;  whence  it  follows  that  the  air  was  at  first  dark  and 
cold. 

11.  Then  again,  congelation,  which  is  the  most  forcible 
and  violent  of  all  things  that  befall  our  bodies  by  reason 
of  cold,  is  the  aifection  of  water,  but  the  action  of  air. 
For  water  of  itself  is  easily  diffused,  loose  in  its  parts,  and 
not  readily  congealed  together;  but  it  is  thickened  and 
compressed  by  the  air,  by  reason  of  the  coldness  of  it. 
Which  is  the  reason  of  the  proverb : 

But  if  the  southern  wind  provoke  the  north, 
Snow  straight  will  cover  all  the  earth. 

For  the  southern  wind  preparing  the  moisture  as  matter, 
presently  the  north  wind  receives  and  congeals  it.  And 
this  is  manifest  from  the  consideration  of  snow ;  for  ere 
it  falls,  you  shall  observe  a  thin  and  sharp  cold  air  breath- 
ing before  it.  Aristotle  also  tells  us,  that  whetstones  of 
lead  p]  will  melt  and  run  in  the  winter  through  excess  of 
freezing  cold,  merely  upon  the  setting  of  the  water  near 

*  Find.  Isthm.  IV.  112. 


PRINCIPLE   OF   COLD.  317 

them.  For  it  is  probable  that  the  air  compresses  and 
gripes  the  bodies  so  close  together,  that  at  length  it  breaks 
and  crumbles  them  in  pieces. 

12.  x\nd  therefore  water  drawn  from  a  fountain  soonest 
congeals  ;  for  the  more  of  cold  in  the  air  overcomes  the 
less  of  cold  in  the  water.  Thus  if  a  man  takes  cold 
water  out  of  a  well  and  puts  it  into  a  vessel,  and  then  lets 
the  vessel  down  again  into  the  well,  so  that  it  may  not 
touch  the  water  but  hang  for  some  time  in  the  air,  the 
water  will  be  much  colder.  Whence  it  is  apparent,  that 
the  coldness  of  the  water  is  not  the  first  cause  of  coldness, 
but  the  coldness  of  the  air.  For  you  do  not  find  that  any 
of  your  great  rivers  are  ever  thoroughly  frozen,  by  reason 
of  their  depth.  For  the  air  doth  not  pierce  through  the 
whole  ;  only  so  much  as  it  can  seize  and  embrace  with  its 
cold  quality  generally  freezes,  and  no  more.  Therefore 
the  barbarians  never  cross  over  frozen  rivers  till  they  have 
sent  a  fox  before  to  try  the  depth  of  the  ice.  For  if  the 
ice  be  not  very  thick,  but  only  superficial,  the  fox,  perceiv- 
ing it  by  the  noise  of  the  water  floating  underneath,  re- 
turns. And  some  there  are  that  melt  the  ice  with  hot 
water  to  make  way  for  their  lines,  when  they  go  to  catch 
fish  in  winter.  So  that  nothing  suffers  from  cold  in  the 
depth  of  the  water.  Nevertheless,  so  great  has  been  the 
alteration  of  the  upper  parts  of  the  water  by  congelation, 
that  several  vessels  riding  in  the  stream  have  been  bruised 
and  broken  by  the  forcible  compressure  and  griping  of 
the  congelation ;  as  we  have  heard  from  them  who  lately 
had  their  winter  quarters  with  Caesar  upon  the  Danube. 
And  indeed,  what  happens  to  ourselves  is  sufiicient  to  de- 
monstrate the  truth  of  this.  For  after  hot  bathings  and 
sweatings,  we  are  most  sensible  of  cold,  at  what  time,  our 
bodies  being  open  and  the  skin  relaxed,  we  give  a  freer 
entrance  to  the  cold  together  with  the  ambient  air.  And 
after  the  very  same  manner  the  water  itself  suffers.     For 


318  CONCERNING  THE  FIRST 

it  sooner  freezes  if  it  be  first  heated,  as  being  thereby  ren- 
dered more  easy  for  the  air  to  work  upon.  And  therefore 
they  who  lade  out  scalding  water,  and  let  it  fall  again  from 
a  good  height  in  the  air,  do  it  to  no  other  purpose  than  to 
mix  it  with  a  great  deal  of  air.  And  therefore,  Favorinus, 
the  arguments  that  attribute  the  first  power  of  cold  to  the 
air  are  grounded  upon  these  probabilities. 

13.  Those  that  allow  it  to  water  lean  upon  principles 
of  the  same  nature.  And  this  was  intimated  by  Empe- 
docles,  where  he  says : 

Behold  the  sun,  how  warm  he  i8, 

And  shining  everywhere ; 
But  rain  and  tempests  cold  and  dark 

With  horror  fill  the  air. 

And  thus  opposing  cold  to  heat,  and  dark  to  bright,  he 
gives  us  to  understand  that  black  and  cold  are  both  of  the 
same  substance,  as  also  are  bright  and  hot.  Now  that 
black  is  proper  to  the  water  and  not  to  the  air,  sense  itself 
bears  witness,  nothing  being  darkened  by  the  air,  all  things 
being  clouded  and  blackened  by  water.  So  that  if  you 
throw  the  whitest  wool  that  is,  or  a  white  garment  into  the 
water,  it  comes  out  black,  and  so  remains,  till  the  moisture 
be  dried  up  again  by  the  heat,  or  squeezed  forth  by  presses 
or  weights.  Also  when  the  ground  is  watered,  the  places 
that  receive  the  drops  grow  black,  the  rest  retaining  their 
former  color.  And  therefore  the  deepest  waters,  by  rea- 
son of  their  quantity,  always  appear  blackest,  but  the  parts 
which  are  next  the  air  afford  a  lovely  and  smiling  bright- 
ness. But  of  all  liquids,  oil  is  the  most  transparent,  be- 
cause of  the  great  quantity  of  air  that  is  in  it.  And  of 
this,  the  lightness  of  it  is  an  unquestionable  proof;  the 
reason  why  it  swims  above  all  things,  as  carried  upward 
by  the  air.  Being  poured  forth  upon  the  waves,  it  will 
cause  calmness  upon  the  sea,  not  because  it  is  so  slippery 
that  the  winds  can  have  no  power  over  it,  as  Aristotle 


PRINCirLE   OF   COLD.  319 

thought,  but  because  the  waves  will  fall  and  sink  when 
smitten  by  any  moist  body.  And  this  is  also  peculiar  to 
oil,  that  it  shines  and  causes  a  transparency  at  the  bot- 
tom of  the  water,  while  the  watery  humors  are  dispersed 
by  the  air.  For  being  spurted  out  of  the  mouth  into  the 
sea,  not  only  by  those  that  sail  in  the  night,  but  also  by 
those  that  dive  for  sponges  to  the  bottom  of  the  sea,  it 
will  cast  a  light  in  the  water.  Water  therefore  has  more 
of  blackness  than  the  air,  but  less  of  cold.  Oil  therefore, 
partaking  more  of  air  than  most  liquid  things,  is  least 
cold,  nor  will  it  easily  or  suddenly  freeze ;  for  the  air 
which  is  mixed  with  it  will  not  suffer  the  congelation  to 
grow  hard.  And  therefore,  as  for  needles,  steel  buckles, 
and  such  sort  of  small  iron  and  steel  wares,  they  never 
quench  them  in  water  but  in  oil,  fearing  lest  the  over-cold- 
ness of  the  water  should  make  them  too  brittle.  And 
indeed  the  truth  is  more  truly  enquired  into  from  the  con- 
sideration of  these  experiments,  than  those  of  colors. 
For  hail,  snow,  and  ice,  as  they  are  most  transparent,  so 
are  most  cold  ;  and  pitch,  as  it  is  hotter,  so  it  is  blacker 
and  darker  than  honey. 

14.  This  makes  me  admire  at  those  who  affirm  the  air 
to  be  cold  because  it  is  dark  and  obscure,  unless  it  be  be- 
cause they  find  others  affirming  it  to  be  hot  because  it  is 
light.  For  dark  is  not  so  proper  and  familiar  to  cold,  as 
heavy  and  stable ;  for  many  things  that  are  void  of  heat 
partake  of  splendor  and  light,  but  there  is  nothing  cold 
that  is  light,  nimble,  or  apt  to  ascend  upward.  Even  the 
clouds  themselves,  while  they  preserve  the  nature  of  air, 
tower  aloft  in  the  sky ;  but  changing  into  moisture,  they 
presently  fall  down,  and  having  admitted  coldness,  they 
lose  their  lightness  as  well  as  their  heat.  And  so  on  the 
other  side,  having  regained  their  heat,  they  again  return 
to  motion,  their  substance  being  carried  upward  as  soon  as 
it  is  changed  into  air. 


320  CONCERNING    THE   FIRST 

Neither  is  the  argument  produced  from  corruption  true 
For  nothing  that  perishes  is  corrupted  into  what  is  oppo- 
site, but  hy  what  is  opposite  to  it ;  as  fire  extinguished  by 
water  changes  into  air.  And  therefore  Aeschylus  spake 
not  merely  like  a  tragedian  but  like  a  philosopher,  when 
he  said, 

The  water  curb,  that  punishment  of  fire. 

In  like  manner  Homer  opposed  in  battle  Vulcan  to  the 
river,  and  Apollo  to  Neptune,  more  like  a  philosopher 
than  a  poet  or  mythologist.  And  Archilochus  spoke  not 
amiss  of  a  woman  whose  thoughts  were  contrary  to  her 
words,  when  he  said. 

She,  weaving  subtle  trains  and  sly  vagaries, 
Fire  in  one  hand,  in  th*  other  water  carries. 

Among  the  Persians  there  were  several  customs  of  suppli- 
cation, of  which  the  chiefest,  and  that  which  would  admit 
of  no  refusal,  was  when  the  suppliant,  taking  fire  in  his 
hand  and  entering  into  a  river,  threatened,  if  his  suppli- 
cations were  denied,  to  throw  the  fire  into  the  water.  But 
though  his  suit  were  granted  him,  yet  he  was  punished  for 
threatening,  as  being  against  the  law  and  contrary  to  Na- 
ture. And  this  is  a  vulgar  proverb  in  everybody's  mouth, 
to  mix  fire  with  water,  spoken  of  those  that  would  attempt 
impossibilities  ;  to  show  that  water  is  an  enemy  to  fire, 
and  being  extinguished  thereby,  is  destroyed  and  punished 
by  it,  —  not  by  the  air,  which,  upon  the  change  and  de- 
struction of  it,  receives  and  entertains  the  substance  of  it. 
For  if  that  into  which  the  thing  destroyed  is  changed  be 
contrary  to  it,  why  does  fire  seem  contrary  to  air  more  than 
water"?  For  air  changes  into  water  by  condensation,  but 
into  fire  by  dissipation ;  as,  on  the  other  side,  water  is 
turned  into  air  by  separation,  into  earth  by  condensation. 
Which,  in  my  opinion,  happens  by  reason  of  the  propri- 
ety and  near  afifinlty  between  both,  not  from  any  thing  of 
contrariety  and  hostility  one  to  another.     Others  there  are, 


PRINCIPLE   OF   COLD.  321 

that,  which  way  soever  they  maintain  it,  spoil  the  argu- 
ment. For  it  is  most  irrational  to  say  that  water  is  con- 
gealed by  the  air,  when  they  never  saw  the  air  congealed 
iu  their  lives.  For  clouds,  fogs,  and  mists  are  no  congela- 
tions, but  thickenings  and  condensations  of  the  air  moist 
and  full  of  vapors  ;  but  a  dry  air  void  of  moisture  never 
undergoes  refrigeration  to  such  a  degree.  For  there  are 
some  mountains  that  never  admit  of  a  cloud,  nor  dew,  nor 
mist,  their  tops  being  so  high  as  to  reach  into  an  air  that 
is  pure  and  void  of  moisture.  Whence  it  is  manifest  that 
it  is  the  condensation  and  consistency  below,  which  contri- 
butes that  cold  and  moisture  to  the  air  which  is  mixed 
with  it. 

15.  Now  that  great  rivers  never  freeze  downwards  is 
but  consentaneous  to  reason.  For  those  parts  which  are 
frozen  above  transmit  no  exhalation  outward  ;  for  this, 
being  penned  up  within  and  forced  downward,  affords 
heat  to  the  moisture  at  the  bottom.  A  clear  demonstra- 
tion of  which  is  this,  that  when  the  ice  is  dissolved,  you 
may  observe  a  steam  arising  out  of  the  water  upwards  in 
a  very  great  quantity.  And  therefore  the  bodies  of  living 
creatures  are  warmest  within  in  the  winter,  for  that  the 
heat  is  driven  inward  by  the  ambient  cold.  Now  those 
upward  exhalations  and  ascensions  of  the  vapors  deprive 
the  waters  not  only  of  their  heat  but  of  their  coolness. 
And  therefore  they  that  vehemently  desire  their  drink  to 
be  cold  never  move  the  snow  nor  the  moisture  that  is 
pressed  out  of  it ;  for  motion  would  deprive  them  both  of 
the  virtue  which  is  required  from  them. 

Now  that  this  virtue  is  not  the  virtue  of  air,  but  of  water, 
a  man  may  collect  by  reasoning  thus  from  the  beginning. 
First,  it  is  not  probable  that  the  air,  which  is  next  the  sky, 
and  touching  the  fiery  substance  is  also  touched  by  it, 
should  be  endued  with  a  contrary  virtue  ;  for  otherwise  it 
is  not  possible  that  the  extremities  of  the  one  should  touch 

VOL.  V.  21 


322  CONCERNING   THE  FIRST 

and  be  contiguous  to  the  extremities  of  the  other.  Nor  is 
it  agreeable  to  reason  that  Nature  should  constitute  that 
which  is  corrupted  next  in  order  to  that  which  corrupts,  as 
if  she  were  not  the  author  of  community  and  harmony  but 
of  combat  and  contention.  For  she  makes  use  of  con- 
trary things  in  sustaining  the  universe  ;  but  she  does  not 
use  them  pure  and  unmixed,  nor  so  that  they  will  be  in 
hostility  ;  but  she  uses  such  as  have  alternately  a  certain 
position  and  order  which  is  not  destructive,  but  which  in- 
clines them  to  communicate  and  co-operate  one  with  an- 
other, and  to  effect  a  harmony  between  the  opposing 
qualities.  And  this  is  the  nature  of  the  air,  being  ex- 
panded under  the  fire  above  the  water,  contingent  and 
adhering  to  both,  neither  hot  in  itself  nor  cold,  but  con- 
taining an  intermixture  and  communion  of  hot  and  cold, 
harmlessly  intermixed  in  herself;  and  lightly  cherishing 
the  contrary  extremities. 

16.  Therefore  the  air  is  of  an  equal  temper  in  all 
places,  but  winter  is  not  in  all  places  alike  nor  equally 
cold  ;  but  some  parts  of  the  habitable  world  are  cold  and 
moist,  others  hot  and  dry,  not  by  chance,  but  because  there 
is  but  one  substance  of  heat  and  dryness.  For  the  great- 
est part  of  Africa  is  hot  and  without  water.  But  they 
that  have  travelled  Scythia,  Thrace,  and  the  Pontic  regions 
report  them  to  be  full  of  vast  lakes,  and  large  and  deep 
rivers.  And  as  for  those  regions  lying  between,  those 
parts  that  join  upon  lakes  and  marshes  are  most  cold  by 
reason  of  the  exhalations  from  the  water.  Posidonius 
therefore,  affirming  the  freshness  and  moistness  of  the  air 
of  marshes  to  be  the  cause  of  its  cold,  has  no  way  dis- 
turbed the  probability  of  our  argument,  but  rather  added 
to  the  strength  of  it ;  for  the  air  would  not  always  be 
the  colder  the  fresher  it  is,  unless  cold  has  its  original 
from  moisture.  And  therefore  Homer  much  more  truly 
shows  us  the  fountain  of  cold,  when  he  says, 


PRINCIPLE   OP   COLD.  323 

Chill  from  the  river  blows  the  wind 
Before  the  coming  morn.* 

Then  again  it  raany  times  happens  that  our  sense  deceives 
us.  So  that  when  we  feel  cold  garments  or  cold  wool,  we 
believe  we  feel  them  to  be  moist,  by  reason  of  the  sub- 
stance which  is  common  to  both,  and  of  their  natures 
which  are  coherent  and  familiar  one  with  another.  But 
in  climates  where  the  cold  is  extreme,  it  oftentimes  breaks 
and  cracks  both  pots  and  vessels,  whether  made  of  earth 
or  brass,  —  none  empty,  but  all  full,  the  cold  giving  force 
and  might  to  the  liquor  within,  —  which  made  Theophras- 
tus  say,  that  the  air  breaks  those  vessels,  making  use  of 
the  cold  as  of  a  hammer ;  whether  more  eloquently  or 
more  truly  spoken,  I  leave  you  to  judge.  For  then  ves- 
sels full  of  pitch  or  milk  should  be  more  subject  to  be 
broken  by  the  air. 

But  water  seems  to  be  cold  of  itself,  and  that  primitively 
too ;  for  in  respect  of  the  coldness  of  it,  it  is  opposite  to 
the  heat  of  the  fire  ;  as  to  drought  in  respect  of  its  moist- 
ure, and  to  ponderosity  in  regard  of  its  lightness.  Lastly, 
fire  is  altogether  of  a  dissipating  and  dividing  nature  ; 
water,  of  a  nature  to  fasten  and  contain,  holding  and  join- 
ing together  by  virtue  of  its  moisture.  Which  was  the 
reason  why  Empedocles  called  fire  "  a  pernicious  conten- 
tion," but  water  a  "  tenacious  friendship."  For  the  nour- 
ishment of  fire  is  that  which  changes  into  fire,  and  it 
changes  that  which  is  as  it  were  of  kin  and  familiar  to  it. 
What  is  contrary  to  it,  as  water,  cannot  be  changed  by  it, 
or  at  least  only  with  great  difl3.culty.  True  it  is,  that  as 
for  itself,  as  I  may  so  say,  it  cannot  be  burned  ;  but  as  for 
green  wood  and  wet  straw,  it  overcomes  them  with  much 
struggling,  while  the  heat  and  cold  contending  together, 
by  reason  of  their  moisture  and  their  natural  antipathy, 

*  Odyss.  V.  469. 


324  CONCERNING   THE   FIRST 

produce  only  a  dull  flame,  clouded  with  smoke,  that  makes 
little  progress  upon  the  materials. 

17.  Compare  these  arguments  with  theirs,  and  consider 
them  well.  But  Chrysippus,  believing  the  air  to  be  the 
primitive  cold,  because  it  is  dark,  makes  mention  only  of 
those  that  say  the  water  lies  at  farther  distance  from  the 
sky  than  the  air.  And  being  desirous  to  give  some  answer 
to  them,  "  If  so,"  says  he,  "  we  may  as  well  affirm  the 
earth  to  be  primitively  cold,  because  it  is  the  farthest  dis- 
tant from  the  sky ;  "  rejecting  that,  as  altogether  improb- 
able and  absurd.  But  for  my  part,  I  am  of  opinion  that 
there  might  be  many  probable  and  rational  arguments 
brought  for  the  earth  ;  beginning  with  that  which  Chrysip- 
pus chiefly  makes  use  of  for  the  air.  What  is  this  ?  First, 
that  it  is  dark.  For  if  he,  assuming  these  two  contrari- 
eties of  faculties,  believes  that  the  one  follows  the  other  of 
necessity,  then  there  might  be  produced  a  thousand  oppo- 
sitions and  repugnances  of  the  earth  in  respect  of  the  sky, 
which  would  of  necessity  follow  upon  this  which  we  have 
mentioned.  For  it  is  not  to  be  opposed  only  as  heavy  to 
light,  or  as  that  which  tends  downward  to  that  which 
moves  upward,  or  as  slow  and  stable  to  swift  and  full 
of  motion ;  but  as  that  which  is  heaviest  to  that  which 
is  most  thin,  or  lastly,  as  that  which  is  immovable  of  itself 
to  that  which  moves  spontaneously,  and  as  possessing  the 
middle  space  to  that  which  is  in  a  perpetual  circular  mo- 
tion. Would  it  not  be  absurd  to  aver  that  the  opposition 
of  heat  to  cold  is  accompanied  with  so  many  and  such 
remarkable  contrarieties  ?  But  fire  is  bright,  the  earth  is 
dark,  nay,  the  very  darkest  and  most  void  of  light  of 
all  things.  The  air  first  of  all  participates  of  light,  is 
soonest  altered,  and  being  replenished  with  radiancy,  dif- 
fuses the  splendor  of  it  far  and  near,  and  shows  itself 
a  vast  body  of  light.  For  the  sun  rising,  as  one  of  the 
dithyrambic  authors  writes, 


PRINCIPLE  OF  COLD.  325 

Presently  doth  fill 
The  spacious  house  of  the  air-prancing  winds. 

From  thence  the  descending  air  disposes  a  part  of  her 
brightness  to  the  sea  and  lakes,  and  the  hidden  depths  of 
profound  rivers  laugh  and  smile  so  far  as  the  air  penetrates 
into  them.  Only  the  earth  of  all  bodies  remains  without 
liglit,  and  impenetrable  to  the  beams  of  the  sun  and  moon. 
But  it  is  cherished  and  comforted  by  them,  and  suffers  a 
small  part  of  it  to  be  warmed  and  softened  by  entrance  of 
the  heat.  But  the  solidness  of  it  will  not  admit  the  bright- 
ness of  light,  only  the  surface  of  it  is  enlightened  ;  but  the 
innermost  parts  of  it  are  called  by  the  names  of  Darkness, 
Chaos,  and  Hades ;  and  Erebus  is  nothing  else  but  that 
same  perpetual  darkness  and  horror  in  the  body  of  the 
earth.  Besides,  the  mythologists  tell  us  that  Night  was  the 
daughter  of  the  Earth ;  and  the  mathematicians  show  that 
it  is  the  shadow  of  the  earth  eclipsing  the  body  of  the  sun. 
For  the  air  is  filled  with  darkness  by  the  earth,  as  with 
light  by  the  sun ;  and  that  part  of  the  air  which  is  void 
of  all  light  is  that  same  length  of  the  night  which  is 
caused  by  the  shadow  of  the  earth.  And  therefore  both 
men  and  many  beasts  make  use  of  the  exterior  air,  and 
ramble  in  the  dark,  guided  only  by  some  footsteps  of  light 
and  certain  effluxes  of  a  dim  twinkling  that  are  scattered 
through  it ;  but  he  that  keeps  house  and  shuts  himself  up 
in  his  chamber,  as  being  encompassed  by  the  earth,  re- 
mains altogether  blind  and  without  light.  Also  the  hides 
and  horns  of  beasts  will  not  admit  of  light  by  reason  of 
their  solidness ;  but  being  burnished  and  shaved,  they  be- 
come transparent,  the  air  being  intermixed  with  them. 
Moreover,  I  am  of  opinion  that  the  earth  is  everywhere 
by  the  poets  said  to  be  black,  by  reason  of  the  darkness 
of  it  and  want  of  light.  So  that  the  antithesis  of  light 
and  darkness  is  much  more  remarkable  in  reference  to  the 
earth,  than  in  respect  of  the  air. 


32b  CONCERNING   THE   FIRST 

18.  But  this  is  nothing  to  the  question.  For  we  have 
shown  that  there  are  many  cold  things  which  are  bright 
and  transparent,  and  many  hot  things  which  are  obscure 
and  dark.  But  ponderosity,  stabiHty,  density,  and  immu- 
tability are  qualities  more  properly  belonging  to  cold,  of 
none  of  which  the  air  partakes,  but  of  all  of  which  the 
earth  has  a  far  greater  share  than  the  water.  And  yet  in 
all  these  things  cold,  by  the  judgment  of  sense  itself, 
appears  to  be  hard,  to  cause  hardness,  and  to  make  resist- 
ance. For  Theophrastus  tells  us  of  fish  that  have  been 
frozen  by  extremity  of  cold,  when  they  have  chanced  to 
bounce  ashore,  that  their  bodies  have  been  broken  and 
crumbled  to  pieces  like  a  vessel  of  glass  or  potter's  clay. 
You  yourself  have  heard  at  Delphi,  how  that  certain  per- 
sons ascending  to  the  top  of  Parnassus  to  succor  the  Thy- 
ades  that  were  overtaken  with  a  violent  storm  of  wind  and 
hail,  their  coats  were  frozen  so  hard  and  into  a  substance 
so  like  wood,  that  being  spread  upon  the  ground  they 
broke  and  crumbled  to  pieces.  It  also  stiffens  the  nerves 
and  deprives  the  tongue  of  motion,  congealing  the  moist 
and  softer  parts  of  the  body. 

19.  This  being  obvious  to  sight,  let  us  consider  the 
effect.  Every  faculty,  wherever  it  prevails,  changes  into 
itself  whatever  it  overcomes.  Thus  whatever  is  overcome 
by  heat  is  set  on  fire  ;  that  which  is  vanquished  by  wind  is 
changed  into  air.  That  which  falls  into  water  becomes 
well  moistened,  unless  quickly  saved.  Of  necessity,  there- 
fore, those  things  which  are  violently  affected  by  cold  must 
be  changed  into  the  primitive  cold.  For  freezing  is  an 
excess  of  refrigeration;  which  congelation  ends  in  altera- 
tion and  petrifaction,  when  the  cold,  prevailing  every  way, 
congeals  the  liquid  substance  and  presses  forth  the  heat ; 
so  that  the  bottom  of  the  earth  is,  as  it  were,  a  kind  of 
congelation,  and  altogether  ice.  For  there  the  cold  in- 
habits simple  and  unmixed,  and  removed  hard  and  rigid  at 


PRINCIPLE   OF  COLD.  327 

the  greatest  distance  from  the  sky.  But  as  for  those 
thnigs  which  are  conspicuous,  as  rocks  and  precipices, 
Empedocles  believes  them  to  be  thrust  forth  and  supported 
by  the  fire  that  burns  in  the  bottom  of  the  earth.  Which 
appears  the  more,  in  regard  that,  wherever  the  heat  is 
pressed  forth  and  vanishes  away,  all  those  things  are  con- 
gealed or  stiffened  by  the  cold  ;  and  therefore  congelations 
are  called  ndyoi  (stiffened).  And  the  extremities  of  many 
things  where  heat  fails,  growing  black,  make  them  look 
like  brands  when  the  fire  is  out.  For  cold  congeals  some 
things  more,  some  things  less  ;  more  especially  such  things 
wherein  it  is  primitively  existent.  For  as,  if  it  be  the 
nature  of  hot  to  render  light,  that  which  is  hottest  is  light- 
est ;  if  of  moist  to  soften,  that  which  is  moistest  is  softest ; 
so  if  it  be  the  nature  of  cold  to  congeal,  of  necessity  that 
which  is  coldest  must  be  most  congealed,  —  that  is  to  say 
the  earth,  —  and  that  which  is  most  cold  must  be  that 
which  is  by  nature  and  primitively  cold,  which  is  no  more 
than  what  is  apparent  to  sense.  For  mud  is  colder  than 
water,  and  earth  being  thrown  upon  fire  puts  it  out.  Your 
smiths  also,  when  their  iron  is  melted  and  red  hot,  strew 
upon  it  the  dust  of  marble  to  cool  it  and  stop  the  running 
of  it  too  fluidly.  Dust  also  cools  the  bodies  of  the  wres- 
tlers, and  dries  up  their  sweat. 

20.  To  go  no  farther,  what  means  our  own  yearly  prac- 
tice to  alter  our  lodgings  and  habitations,  while  we  remove 
in  the  winter  so  far  as  we  can  into  the  upper  parts  of  our 
buildings,  but  in  the  summer  descend  again  and  seek  con- 
venient refuge  in  the  lower  edifices,  sometimes  enjoying 
ourselves  under  ground  in  the  very  arms  of  the  earth? 
Do  we  not  do  it,  as  being  guided  by  our  senses  for  cool- 
ness's  sake  to  the  earth,  and  thereby  acknowledging  that 
to  De  the  seat  of  primitive  cold  ?  And  certainly  our  covet- 
ing to  live  near  the  sea  in  winter  may  be  thought  to  be  a 
kind  of  flight  from  the  earth,  since  we  seem  to  forsake  it, 


328  CONCERNING  THE  FIRST 

as  far  as  we  can,  by  reason  of  the  nipping  frosts,  and  run 
to  encircle  themselves  with  the  air  of  the  sea  for  warmth's 
sake ;  and  then  again  in  the  summer,  by  reason  of  the 
scorching  heat,  we  desire  the  earth-born  upland  air,  not 
because  it  is  cold  of  itself,  but  because  it  had  its  original 
and  blossomed  from  the  primitive  natural  cold,  and  is  im- 
bued with  that  power  which  is  in  the  earth,  as  iron  is 
imbued  with  the  virtue  of  the  water  wherein  it  is  quenched. 
Then  again,  of  river  waters  we  find  those  are  the  coldest 
that  riow  upon  gravel  and  stones  and  fall  down  from  moun- 
tains ;  and.  of  well-waters,  those  which  are  in  the  deepest 
wells.  For  with  these  the  exterior  air  is  no  longer  mixed, 
by  reason  of  the  depth  of  the  wells,  and  the  other  arise 
out  of  the  pure  and  unmixed  earth ;  like  the  river  that 
falls  from  the  mountain  Taenarum,  which  they  call  the 
water  of  Styx,  rising  out  of  a  rock  with  a  parsimonious 
spring,  but  so  cold  that  no  other  vessel  except  the  hoof  of 
an  ass  will  hold  it ;  for  all  other  sorts  of  vessels  it  breaks 
and  cracks  to  pieces. 

21.  The  physicians  also  tell  us  that  the  nature  of  all 
sorts  of  earth  is  binding  and  restrictive ;  and  they  number 
up  several  sorts  of  metals  which  are  made  use  of  in  phy- 
sic by  reason  of  their  styptic  and  binding  qualities.  For 
the  element  of  earth  is  fit  neither  to  cut  nor  to  move, 
neither  has  it  any  points,  neither  is  it  subject  to  be  soft- 
ened or  melted,  but  is  firm  and  stable  like  a  cube ;  and 
therefore  it  has  both  ponderosity  and  coldness,  and  the 
faculty  to  thicken  and  condense  moist  things  ;  and  it  causes 
tremblings  and  quiverings  in  bodies  by  reason  of  its  ine- 
quality ;  and.  if  it  get  the  better  by  the  utter  expulsion  and 
extinguishing  of  the  heat,  it  occasions  a  frozen  and  deadly 
habit  of  body.  Therefore  earth  either  does  not  consume 
by  burning,  or  else  burns  with  a  very  slow  and  difficult 
progress.  But  the  air  many  times  darts  forth  flame  from 
itself;  and  being  once  set  on  fire,  it  grows  fluid  and  flashes 


PRINCIPLE  OF  COLD.  329 

out  in  lightning.  Heat  also  feeds  upon  moisture  ;  for  it  is 
not  the  solid  part  of  the  wood,  but  the  moist  and  oily  part, 
that  is  combustible ;  which  being  consumed,  the  solid  and 
dry  is  left  behind  in  the  ashes.  Neither  do  they  arrive  at 
their  mark,  who,  pretending  to  burn  the  ashes  also,  sprinkle 
them  with  oil  and  grease  ;  for  when  the  liquid  is  consumed, 
the  earthy  part  remains,  do  what  they  can.  Therefore, 
because  the  earth  is  not  only  of  a  nature  not  to  be  moved 
from  its  station,  but  also  unalterable  in  its  substance  and 
always  abiding  in  the  habitation  of  the  Gods,  the  ancients 
well  called  it  Hestia  or  Vesta  (from  standing),  by  reason 
of  its  immobility  and  concretion ;  of  which  cold  is  the 
bond  or  ligament,  as  Archelaus  the  philosopher  termed  it, 
which  nothing  is  able  to  unloosen  or  soften,  as  not  being 
capable  of  heat  and  warmth. 

As  for  those  who  say  they  have  been  sensible  of  the 
cold  of  air  and  water,  but  never  felt  the  earth  so  cold,  they 
consider  only  the  surface  of  the  earth,  which  is  a  mixture 
of  air,  water,  sun,  and  heat.  They  are  no  better  than 
people  who  deny  the  aether  to  be  naturally  and  primi- 
tively hot,  but  believe  it  to  be  either  scalding  water  or  red 
hot  iron,  because  they  feel  and  handle  the  one,  but  are  not 
sensible  of  the  pure  and  celestial  fire.  In  like  manner, 
neither  do  they  see  the  earth  which  lies  concealed  at  the 
bottom,  though  that  be  what  is  chiefly  to  be  taken  for  the 
earth,  separated  from  all  other  things.  We  may  see  some 
token  of  this  lower  earth  in  these  rocks  here  about  us, 
which  from  their  depths  send  forth  a  cold  vapor  so  sharp 
and  vehement  that  it  is  hard  to  be  endured.  They  also 
that  desire  cool  drink  throw  small  flint  stones  into  water. 
For  it  becomes  denser  and  quicker  to  the  taste,  through 
the  cold  which  is  carried  upward  fresh  and  unmixed  from 
the  stones. 

22.  Therefore  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  ancient  philoso 
phers  and  learned  men,  that  terrestrial  and  celestial  things 


330  CONCERNING  THE  PRINCIPLE   OF   COLD. 

were  not  to  be  mixed  together,  not  so  much  out  of  a  local 
consideration  of  uppermost  and  lowermost,  in  respect  of 
place,  but  with  a  respect  to  the  difference  of  faculties, 
attributing  hot  and  splendent,  swift  and  light  to  the  immor- 
tal and  sempiternal  Nature,  but  believing  dark  and  cold 
and  slow  to  be  the  unhappy  portion  of  the  dead  under  the 
shackles  of  corruption.  Since  the  body  of  a  living  creat- 
ure, while  it  breathes  and  flourishes  (as  the  poets  say), 
enjoys  both  heat  and  life ;  but  being  deprived  of  these, 
and  only  the  terrestrial  parts  remaining,  presently  cold  and 
stiffness  take  place,  as  if  heat  were  naturally  existent  in 
every  thing  else  but  only  the  earth. 

23.  These  things,  dear  Favorinus,  compare  with  what 
has  been  said  by  others ;  and  if  they  neither  come  too 
short  of  probability  nor  too  much  exceed  it,  bid  all  their 
opinions  farewell,  as  believing  it  much  more  becoming  a 
philosopher  to  pause  in  dubious  matters,  rather  than  over 
hastily  to  side  with  any  one  particular  party. 


WHETHER    WATER    OR    FIRE    BE    MOST 
USEFUL. 


I 


1.  "  Water  is  the  best  of  things,  but  gold  is  like  burning 
fire,"  says  Pindar.*  Therefore  he  positively  assigns  the 
second  place  to  fire ;  with  whom  Hesiod  agrees,  where  he 
says, 

First  of  all  Chaos  being  had.t 

For  most  believe  that  by  the  word  chaos  he  meant  water, 
from  %vGig,  signifying  diffusion.  But  the  balance  of  argu- 
ment as  to  this  point  seems  to  be  equal.  For  there  are 
some  who  will  have  it  that  fire  is  the  principle  of  all 
things,  and  that  like  sperm  it  begets  all  things  out  of  itself, 
and  resolves  all  things  again  by  conflagration.  Therefore, 
not  to  mention  the  persons,  let  us  consider  the  arguments 
on  both  sides,  which  are  to  us  the  most  convincing. 

2.  Now  then,  is  not  that  the  most  useful  to  us,  which  in 
all  places  and  always  and  most  of  all  we  stand  in  need  of, 
—  like  a  piece  of  household-stuff  or  a  tool,  nay,  like  a 
friend  that  is  ready  at  all  hours  and  seasons  ?  But  fire  is 
not  always  useful;  for  sometimes  it  is  a  prejudice  tons 
and  we  avoid  it  if  we  can.  But  water  is  useful,  winter 
and  summer,  to  the  healthy  and  sick,  night  and  day ; 
neither  indeed  is  there  any  time  but  that  a  man  has  need 
of  it.  Therefore  it  is  that  the  dead  are  called  alihantes, 
as  being  without  moisture  (h^dg)  and  by  that  means  de- 
prived of  life  ;  and  man  may  be  without  fire,  but  never 

»  Pindar,  Olymp.  I.  1.  t  Hesiod,  Theog.  116. 


332  WHETHER  WATER  OR    FIRE 

was  any  man  without  water.  Besides,  that  which  was 
existent  from  the  beginning  and  with  the  first  creation  of 
man  must  be  thought  more  useful  than  what  was  afterwards 
invented.  From  whence  it  is  apparent,  that  Nature  be- 
stowed the  one  upon  us  as  a  thing  absohitely  necessary, 
the  other  fortune  and  art  found  out  for  superfluity  of  uses. 
Nor  was  the  time  ever  known  when  man  lived  without 
water,  nor  was  it  an  invention  of  any  of  the  Gods  or 
heroes ;  for  it  was  present  almost  at  their  generation,  and 
it  made  their  creation  possible.  But  the  use  of  fire  was  a 
late  invention  of  Prometheus,  at  what  time  life  was  without 
fire,  but  not  without  water.  And  that  this  is  no  poetical 
fiction  is  demonstrable  from  this,  that  there  are  many  sorts 
of  people  that  live  without  fire,  without  houses,  and  with- 
out hearths,  in  the  open  air.  And  Diogenes  the  Cynic 
made  no  use  of  fire ;  so  that  after  he  had  swallowed  a  raw 
fish,  "  This  hazard,"  said  he,  "  do  I  run  for  your  sakes." 
But  without  water  no  man  ever  thought  it  convenient  or 
possible  to  live. 

3.  But  why  do  I  so  meanly  confine  my  discourse  to  the 
nature  of  men,  seeing  there  are  many,  nay,  infinite  sorts  of 
creatures'?  The  race  of  man  is  almost  the  only  one  that 
knows  the  use  of  fire ;  the  others  live  and  feed  without 
fire.  Indeed,  beasts,  birds,  and  creeping  things  live  upon 
roots,  fruits,  and  raw  flesh,  without  Are  ;  but  without  water 
neither  fish  nor  fowl  nor  land  animals  can  subsist.  For 
all  beasts  that  feed  upon  flesh,  of  which  there  are  some 
(as  Aristotle  reports)  that  never  drink,  nevertheless  sup- 
port life  and  being  merely  by  moisture.  So  that  of  neces- 
sity that  must  be  most  profitable  without  which  no  sort  of 
life  can  subsist  or  endure. 

4.  Let  us  therefore  make  a  step  from  animals  that  eat 
to  things  that  we  ourselves  make  use  of,  such  are  plants 
and  fruits ;  of  which  some  are  altogether  void  of  heat, 
others  enjoy  it  but  imperfectly  and  obscurely.     But  moist- 


I 


BE  MOST  USEFUL.  333 

ure  causes  all  things  to  germinate,  increase,  and  bring 
forth.  Why  should  I  stand  to  reckon  up  wine  and  oil, 
milk  and  honey,  and  whatever  else  we  reap  and  bring  forth 
and  see  before  our  eyes,  when  wheat  itself,  which  is  looked 
upon  as  a  dry  nourishment,  grows  by  alteration,  putrefac- 
tion, and  corruption  of  the  moist  matter  ? 

5.  Then  again,  that  is  most  useful  which  is  no  way 
detrimental.  Now  fire  easily  becomes  most  pernicious, 
but  the  nature  of  water  is  never  prejudicial.  In  the  next 
place,  that  is  most  useful  which  affords  the  benefit  which 
it  brings  with  least  expense,  and  without  any  preparation. 
But  the  benefit  of  fire  requires  cost  and  materials,  and 
therefore  the  rich  make  more  use  of  it  than  the  poor,  and 
princes  than  private  persons  ;  but  water  has  that  kindness 
for  mankind,  that  it  freely  offers  itself  to  all  alike,  a  benefit 
perfect  in  itself,  indigent  of  nothing,  and  wanting  neither 
tools  nor  implements. 

6.  Moreover,  that  which  by  augmentation  loses  its  bene 
fit  is  of  least  use.  Such  is  fire,  which  like  a  devouring 
beast  ravages  all  before  it,  useful  rather  by  art  and  skilful 
moderation,  than  of  its  own  nature.  But  from  water  there 
is  nothing  to  be  feared.  Furthermore,  that  is  most  useful 
which  may  be  joined  with  another.  But  fire  will  not 
admit  of  water,  neither  is  it  any  way  profitable  by  conjunc- 
tion with  it.  But  water  becomes  profitable  by  joining 
with  fire ;  and  therefore  hot  waters  are  wholesome,  and 
sensibly  cure  several  diseases.  Neither  shall  you  ever  find 
moist  fire ;  but  water  both  cold  and  hot  is  profitable  for 
the  body  of  man. 

7.  Then  again,  there  being  four  elements,  water  pro- 
duces a  fifth  out  of  itself,  which  is  the  sea,  no  less  bene- 
ficial than  the  rest,  as  well  for  commerce  as  for  many  other 
things.  So  that  it  may  be  said,  this  element  united  and 
perfected  our  manner  of  living,  which  before  was  wild 
and  unsociable,   correcting  it  by  mutual   assistance,   and 


334  WHETHER  WATER   OR  FIRE 

creating  community  of  friendship  by  reciprocal  exchanges 
of  one  good  turn  for  another.  And  as  Heraclitus  said,  If 
there  were  no  sun,  it  would  be  perpetual  night ;  so  may 
we  say,  If  there  were  no  sea,  man  would  be  the  most 
savage  and  shameless  of  all  creature.  But  the  sea  brought 
the  vine  from  India  into  Greece,  and  out  of  Greece  transmit- 
ted the  use  of  corn  to  foreign  parts ;  from  Phoenicia  translated 
the  knowledge  of  letters,  the  memorials  that  prevent  ob- 
livion. ;  furnished  the  world  with  wine  and  fruit,  and  pre- 
vented the  greatest  part  of  mankind  from  being  illiterate 
and  void  of  education.  How  is  it  possible  then  but  that 
water  should  be  the  most  useful,  when  it  thus  furnishes  us 
with  an  entirely  new  element  ^ 

8.  Or  can  any  man  speak  as  follows  in  defence  of  the 
contrary  ?  We  say  then  that  God,  as  a  master  workman, 
had  before  him  the  four  elements,  to  complete  the  fabric 
of  the  universe ;  and  these  again  were  different  one  from 
another.  But  earth  and  water  were  placed  at  the  founda- 
tion, like  matter,  to  be  formed  and  fashioned,  participating 
of  form  and  order  and  of  power  to  procreate  and  bring 
forth,  so  far  as  they  are  assisted  by  air  and  fire,  —  the  great 
artificers  that  mould  them  into  various  shapes,  —  and 
lying  dead  till  roused  by  them  to  act  and  generate.  Of 
these  two  latter,  fire  is  the  ruling  agent.  This  is  manifest 
by  induction.  For  earth  without  warmth  and  heat  is  al- 
together barren  and  unfruitful ;  but  fire,  by  virtue  of  its 
rousing  and  inflaming  quality,  renders  it  diff"usive,  and 
swells  it  into  generation.  Nor  can  any  man  find  out  any 
other  cause  why  rocks  and  the  dry  tops  of  mountains  are 
not  productive,  but  because  they  participate  either  nothing 
at  all  or  very  little  of  fire. 

9.  Then  generally  for  water,  it  is  so  far  from  being  suffi- 
cient of  itself  for  the  generation  and  preservation  of  other 
things,  that  it  is  itself  destroyed  for  want  of  fire.  But  fire  is 
that  which  upholds  every  thing  in  its  proper  being,  and 


BE  MOST  USEFUL.  335 

preserves  it  in  its  proper  substance,  as  well  water  itself  as 
all  other  things ;  so  that  when  fire  leaves  it,  water  will 
stink,  and  it  may  be  said  that  the  want  of  fire  is  the  death 
and  destruction  of  water.  And  thus  we  find  in  regard  to 
pools  and  all  manner  of  standing  waters,  and  such  as  are 
settled  in  pits  and  holes  without  issue,  what  an  ofi'ensive 
and  dead  stench  they  send  forth,  and  all  for  want  of  mo- 
tion ;  for  this  kindles  and  preserves  heat  in  all  things,  and 
more  especially  in  running  waters  and  swift  streams,  which 
being  thus  agitated  and  enlivened  by  heat,  we  commonly 
say  such  waters  "  live."  Why  then  should  not  that  be  ac- 
counted the  most  useful  of  the  two,  that  affords  to  the 
other  the  cause  of  its  being,  as  fire  does  to  water  ?  More- 
over, that  is  the  most  useful,  of  which  if  an  animal  be 
wholly  deprived,  it  must  perish  ;  for  it  is  evident,  that  any- 
thing without  which  an  animal  cannot  live  affords  the 
reason  and  cause  why  it  exists.  There  is  moisture  also 
in  things  after  they  are  dead,  nor  are  they  altogether 
dried  up  ;  for  otherwise  moist  bodies  would  never  putrefy ; 
since  putrefaction  is  the  alteration  of  dry  into  moist,  or 
rather  the  corruption  of  moisture  in  flesh.  Neither  is  death 
any  other  than  an  absolute  defect  and  want  of  heat,  and 
therefore  dead  carcasses  are  the  coldest  of  all ;  so  that  if 
you  do  but  touch  them  with  a  razor,  they  will  blunt  the 
edge  of  it  through  excess  of  coldness.  Also  in  living 
creatures,  those  parts  that  least  partake  of  heat  are  most 
insensible,  as  the  bones  and  hair,  and  those  parts  which 
are  most  distant  from  the  heart.  Nay,  to  some  of  the 
most  important  things  the  absence  of  fire  and  the  presence 
of  water  are  destructive.  For  plants  and  fruits  are  not 
produced  by  moisture,  but  by  the  warmth  of  the  moisture ; 
and  cold  waters  are  most  certainly  either  less  productive, 
or  altogether  barren.  For  if  water  were  fruitful  in  itself, 
it  would  always,  and  that  spontaneously  too,  bear  fruit. 
But  the  contrary  is  apparent,  and  it  is  rather  baneful  to 
generation. 


336  WHETHER  WATER  OR  FIRE 

10.  Let  US  begin  anew.  As  to  the  use  of  fire,  con- 
sidered as  fire,  we  have  no  need  of  water.  Rather  the 
contrary  is  to  be  made  out ;  for  water  extinguishes  fire. 
And  as  for  water,  there  is  no  use  to  be  made  of  it  in  most 
things  without  fire.  For  water  heated  becomes  more  use- 
ful, whereas  otherwise  it  is  prejudicial.  So  that,  of  the 
two,  that  is  to  be  accounted  best  which  is  profitable  of  it- 
self without  the  assistance  of  another.  Besides,  water  is 
beneficial  only  to  the  feeling,  when  you  either  wash  with 
it  or  touch  it ;  but  fire  is  profitable  to  all  the  senses,  being 
not  only  felt,  but  also  seen  at  a  distance  ;  so  that  you  may 
add  this  to  the  rest  of  the  virtues  of  it,  that  its  uses  are 
manifold. 

11.  Then  to  say  that  man  did  once  subsist  without  fire 
is  a  mistake,  it  being  impossible  that  man  should  be  with- 
out it.  But  we  must  acknowledge  there  are  differences  in 
this  kind,  as  well  as  in  other  things.  Thus  heat  has  ren- 
dered the  sea  more  beneficial,  as  having  a  greater  portion 
of  heat  in  it  than  other  waters,  from  which  it  otherwise 
diff'ers  not  -at  all.  And  as  for  those  that  have  no  need  of 
outward  fire,  they  do  not  avoid  it  because  they  do  not  want 
it,  but  because  they  abound  in  heat  within  themselves.  So 
that  the  use  of  fire  seems  to  be  more  excellent  in  this,  that 
water  is  never  in  such  a  condition  as  not  to  want  external 
aids,  but  fire,  endued  with  manifold  virtues,  contents  itself 
with  its  own  sufficiency.  Therefore,  as  he  is  the  best 
commander  who  so  manages  the  afi'airs  of  his  city  as  not 
to  have  any  need  of  foreign  assistance,  so  that  element 
excels  that  supplies  us  in  such  a  manner  as  to  want  the 
least  of  other  helps  from  without.  And  this  is  to  be  said 
of  other  creatures  that  have  no  need  of  external  heat. 

Now,  to  argue  on  the  other  side,  a  man  may  say  thus, 
that  whatever  we  singly  and  alone  make  use  of  is  more 
profitable,  since  we  are  by  our  reason  best  fitted  to  choose 
what  is  best.     For  what  is  more  useful  and  beneficial  to  us 


BE  MOST   USEFUL.  337 

than  reason  ?  .  .  .  And  yet  brute  animals  want  fire.  What 
then'?  Is  it  the  less  profitable,  because  found  out  by  fore- 
sight of  a  higher  power  ? 

12.  And  since  our  discourse  has  brought  us  to  it,  what 
is  more  beneficial  to  life  than  art?  Yet  fire  invented  and 
preserves  all  manner  of  arts.  And  therefore  Vulcan  is 
feigned  to  be  the  prince  of  all  artificers.  Man  has  allowed 
him  but  a  little  time  to  live;  and  as  Aristo  said,  sleep,  like 
a  toll-gatherer,  deprives  him  of  the  one-half  of  that  too. 
I  would  rather  say  that  the  darkness  does  this  ;  for  a  man 
may  watch  all  night.  But  he  would  have  no  benefit  of  his 
watchfulness  unless  fire  aff"orded  him  all  the  benefit  of  the 
light  of  day,  and  removed  the  difference  between  night  and 
day.  Since  then  there  is  nothing  more  beneficial  to  man 
than  life,  and  this  is  prolonged  by  fire,  why  should  not  fire 
be  accounted  the  most  beneficial  of  all  things  ? 

13.  Lastly,  that  is  to  be  thought  most  profitable,  of 
which  the  temperament  of  the  senses  participates  most. 
Now  do  you  find  that  there  is  any  of  the  senses,  which  of 
itself  makes  use  of  moisture  without  an  intermixture  of  air 
and  fire  ?  But  every  sense  partakes  of  fire,  as  being  that 
which  quickens  the  vital  faculty  ;  more  especially  the  sight, 
which  is  the  most  acute  of  all  the  senses  in  the  body,  being 
a  certain  fiery  efflux,  that  gave  us  our  first  light  into  the 
belief  of  a  Deity,  and  by  virtue  of  which  we  are  able,  as 
Plato  says,  to  conform  our  souls  to  the  motions  of  the 
celestial  bodies. 


22 


AGAINST    COLOTES,    THE    DISCIPLE    AND    FAVORITE 
OF  EPICURUS. 


1.  CoLOTEs,  whom  Epicurus  was  wont  diminutively  and 
by  way  of  familiarity  or  fondness,  to  call  Colotaras  and 
Colotarion,  composed,  O  Saturninus,  and  published  a  little 
book  which  he  entitled,  "  That  according  to  the  opinions 
of  the  other  philosophers  one  cannot  so  much  as  live." 
This  he  dedicated  to  King  Ptolemy.  Now  I  suppose  that 
it  will  not  be  unpleasant  for  you  to  read,  when  set  down  in 
writing,  what  came  into  my  mind  to  speak  against  this 
Colotes,  since  I  know  you  to  be  a  lover  of  all  elegant  and 
honest  treatises,  and  particularly  of  such  as  regard  the 
science  of  antiquity,  and  to  esteem  the  bearing  in  memory 
and  having  (as  much  as  possible  may  be)  in  hand  the  dis- 
courses of  the  ancient  sages  to  be  the  most  royal  of  all 
studies  and  exercises. 

2.  Not  long  since  therefore,  as  this  book  was  reading, 
Aristodemus  of  Aegium,  a  familiar  friend  of  ours  (whom 
you  well  know  to  be  one  of  the  Academy,  and  not  a  mere 
thyrsus-bearer,  but  one  of  the  most  frantic  celebrators  of 
Plato's  orgies),*  did,  I  know  not  how,  keep  himself  con 
trary  to  his  custom  very  still  all  the  while,  and  patiently 
gave  ear  to  it  even  to  the  end.  But  the  reading  was  scarce 
well  over,  when  he  said :  Well  then,  whom  shall  we  cause 

*  See  Plato,  Phaed.  p.  69  C,  and  Stallbaum's  note.     Here  the  proverb  occurs,  — 
NapdTiiiO(p6poi  /m>  noXTuol,  Banxoc  de  re  itavpoL,  the  thrysus-bearers  are  many,  but  the  trv4 
priests  of  Bacchus  are  few.     ( G.) 


AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUKEAN,  339 

to  rise  up  and  fight  against  this  man,  in  defence  of  the 
philosophers?  For  I  am  not  of  Nestor's  opinion,  who, 
when  the  most  valiant  of  those  nine  warriors  that  pre- 
sented themselves  to  enter  into  combat  was  to  be  chosen, 
committed  the  election  to  the  fortune  of  a  lot. 

Yet,  answered  I,  you  see  he  so  disposed  himself  in 
reference  to  the  lot,  that  the  choice  might  pass  according 
to  the  arbitrament  of  the  wisest  man ; 

And  th'  lot  drawn  from  the  helmet,  as  they  wished, 
On  Ajax  fell. 

But  yet  since  you  command  me  to  make  the  election, 

How  can  I  think  a  better  choice  to  make 
Than  the  divine  Ulysses  1  * 

Consider  therefore,  and  be  well  advised,  in  what  manner 
you  will  chastise  this  man. 

But  you  know,  replied  Aristodemus,  that  Plato,  when 
highly  offended  with  his  boy  that  waited  on  him,  would 
not  himself  beat  him,  but  requested  Speusippus  to  do  it 
for  him,  saying  that  he  himself  was  angry.  As  much 
therefore  may  I  say  to  you  ;  Take  this  fellow  to  you,  and 
treat  him  as  you  please ;  for  I  am  in  a  fit  of  choler. 

When  therefore  all  the  rest  of  the  company  desired  me 
to  undertake  this  office  ;  I  must  then,  said  I,  speak,  since 
it  is  your  pleasure.  But  I  am  afraid  that  I  also  shall 
seem  more  vehemently  transported  than  is  fitting  against 
this  book,  in  the  defending  and  maintaining  Socrates 
against  the  rudeness,  scurrility,  and  insolence  of  this  man  ; 
who,  because  Socrates  affirmed  himself  to  know  nothing 
certainly,  instead  of  bread  (as  one  would  say)  presents 
him  hay,  as  if  he  were  a  beast,  and  asks  him  why  he  puts 
meat  into  his  mouth  and  not  into  his  ear.  And  yet  per- 
haps some  would  make  but  a  laughing  matter  of  this,  con- 
sidering the  mildness   and  gentleness  of  Socrates  ;  "  but 

*  B.  VII.  182;  X.  243. 


340  AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN. 

for  the  whole  host  of  the  Greeks,"  that  is,  of  the  other 
philosophers,  amongst  which  are  Democritus,  Plato,  Stilpo, 
Empedocles,  Parmenides,  and  Melissus,  who  have  been 
basely  traduced  and  reviled  by  him,  it  were  not  only  a 
shame  to  be  silent,  but  even  a  sacrilege  in  the  least  point 
to  forbear  or  recede  from  freedom  of  speech  in  their 
behalf,  who  have  advanced  philosophy  to  that  honor  and 
reputation  it  has  gotten. 

And  our  parents  indeed  have,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
Gods,  given  us  our  life ;  but  to  live  well  comes  to  us  from 
reason,  which  we  have  learned  from  the  philosophers,  which 
favors  law  and  justice,  and  restrains  our  concupiscence. 
Now  to  live  well  is  to  live  sociably,  friendly,  temperately, 
and  justly  ;  of  all  which  conditions  they  leave  us  not  one, 
who  cry  out  that  man's  sovereign  good  lies  in  his  belly, 
and  that  they  would  not  purchase  all  the  virtues  together 
at  the  expense  of  a  cracked  farthing,  if  pleasure  were 
totally  and  on  every  side  removed  from  them.  And  in 
their  discourses  concerning  the  soul  and  the  Gods,  they 
hold  that  the  soul  perishes  when  it  is  separated  from  the 
body,  and  that  the  Gods  concern  not  themselves  in  our 
affairs.  Thus  the  Epicureans  reproach  the  other  philoso- 
phers, that  by  their  wisdom  they  bereave  man  of  his  life ; 
whilst  the  others  on  the  contrary  accuse  them  of  teaching 
men  to  live  degenerately  and  like  beasts. 

3.  Now  these  things  are  scattered  here  and  there  in  the 
writings  of  Epicurus,  and  dispersed  through  all  his  phil- 
osophy. But  this  Colotes,  by  having  extracted  from  them 
certain  pieces  and  fragments  of  discourses,  destitute  of  any 
arguments  whatever  to  render  them  credible  and  intelligi- 
ble, has  composed  his  book,  being  like  a  shop  or  cabinet 
of  monsters  and  prodigies  ;  as  you  better  know  than  any  one 
else,  because  you  have  always  in  your  hands  the  works  of 
the  ancients.  But  he  seems  to  me,  like  the  Lydian,  to 
open  not  only  one  gate  against  himself,  but  to  involve 


AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  341 

Epicurus  also  in  many  and  those  the  greatest  doubts  and 
difficulties.  For  he  begins  with  Democritus,  who  receives 
of  him  an  excellent  and  worthy  reward  for  his  instruction ; 
it  being  certain  that  Epicurus  for  a  long  time  called  him- 
self a  Democritean,  which  as  well  others  affirm,  as  Leon- 
teus,  a  principal  disciple  of  Epicurus,  who  in  a  letter 
which  he  writ  to  Lycophron  says,  that  Epicurus  honored 
Democritus,  because  he  first  attained,  though  a  little  at  a 
distance,  the  right  and  sound  understanding  of  the  truth, 
and  that  in  general  all  the  treatise  concerning  natural 
things  was  called  Democritean,  because  Democritus  was 
the  first  who  happened  upon  the  principles  and  met  with 
the  primitive  foundations  of  Nature.  And  Metrodorus 
says  openly  of  philosophy.  If  Democritus  had  not  gone 
before  and  taught  the  way,  Epicurus  had  never  attained 
to  wisdom.  Now  if  it  be  true,  as  Colotes  holds,  that  to 
live  according  to  the  opinions  of  Democritus  is  not  to 
live,  Epicurus  was  then  a  fool  in  following  Democritus, 
who  led  him  to  a  doctrine  which  taught  him  not  to  live. 

4.  Now  the  first  thing  he  lays  to  his  charge  is,  that,  by 
supposing  every  thing  to  be  no  more  of  one  nature  than  an- 
other, he  wholly  confounds  human  life.  But  Democritus 
was  so  far  from  having  been  of  this  opinion,  that  he  op- 
posed Protagoras  the  philosopher  who  asserted  it,  and 
writ  many  excellent  arguments  concluding  against  him, 
which  this  fine  fellow  Colotes  never  saw  nor  read,  nor  yet 
so  much  as  dreamed  of;  but  deceived  himself  by  misun- 
derstanding a  passage  which  is  in  his  works,  where  he  de- 
termines that  TO  dtv  is  no  more  than  to  [ii^dsv,  naming  in  that 
place  the  body  by  dsv,  and  the  void  by  fiTjde'v,  and  meeiiing 
that  the  void  has  its  own  proper  nature  and  subsistence, 
as  well  as  the  body. 

But  he  who  is  of  opinion  that  nothing  is  more  of  one 
nature  than  another  makes  use  of  a  sentence  of  Epicurus, 
in  which  he  says  that  all  the  apprehensions  and  imagina- 


342  AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

tions  given  us  by  the  senses  are  true.  For  if  of  two  say- 
ing, the  one,  that  the  wine  is  sour,  and  the  other,  that  it 
is  sweet,  neither  of  them  shall  be  deceived  by  his  sense, 
how  shall  the  wine  be  more  sour  than  sweet  1  xlnd  we 
may  often  see  that  some  men  using  one  and  the  same 
bath  find  it  to  be  hot,  and  others  find  it  to  be  cold  ; 
because  those  order  cold  water  to  be  put  into  it,  as  these 
do  hot.  It  is  said  that,  a  certain  lady  going  to  visit  Bere- 
nice, wife  to  King  Deiotarus,  as  soon  as  ever  they  ap- 
proached each  other,  they  both  immediately  turned  their 
backs,  the  one,  as  it  seemed,  not  being  able  to  bear  the 
smell  of  perfume,  nor  the  other  of  butter.  If  then  the 
sense  of  one  is  no  truer  than  the  sense  of  another,  it  is 
also  probable,  that  water  is  no  more  cold  than  hot,  nor 
sweet  ointment  or  butter  better  or  worse  scented  one  than 
the  other.  For  if  any  one  shall  say  that  it  seems  the  one 
to  one,  and  the  other  to  another,  he  will,  before  he  is 
aware,  afiirm  that  they  are  both  the  one  and  the  other. 

5.  And  as  for  these  symmetries  and  proportions  of  the 
pores,  or  little  passages  in  the  organs  of  the  senses,  about 
which  they  talk  so  much,  and  those  different  mixtures 
of  seeds,  which,  they  say,  being  dispersed  through  all  sa- 
vors, odors,  and  colors,  move  the  senses  of  different  per- 
sons to  perceive  different  qualities,  do  they  not  manifestly 
drive  them  to  this,  that  things  are  no  more  of  one  quality 
than  another  ?  For  to  pacify  those  who  think  the  sense  is 
deceived  and  lies  because  they  see  contrary  events  and 
passions  in  such  as  use  the  same  objects,  and  to  solve  this 
objection,  they  teach,  —  that  all  things  being  mixed  and 
confounded  together,  and  yet  one  nevertheless  being  more 
suitable  and  fitting  to  one,  and  another  to  another,  it  is  not 
possible  that  there  should  in  all  cases  be  a  contact  and 
comprehension  of  one  and  the  same  quality,  nor  does  the 
object  equally  affect  all  with  all  its  parts,  every  one  meet- 
ing only  those  to  which  it  has  its  sense  commensurate  and 


AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN.  .  343 

proportioned ;  so  that  they  are  to  blame  so  obstinately  to 
insist  that  a  thing  is  either  good  or  bad,  white  or  not  white, 
thinking  to  establish  their  own  senses  by  destroying  those 
of  others  ;  whereas  they  ought  neither  to  combat  the 
senses,  —  because  they  all  touch  some  quality,  each  one 
drawing  from  this  confused  mixture,  as  from  a  living  and 
large  fountain,  what  is  suitable  and  convenient,  —  nor  to 
pronounce  of  the  whole,  by  touching  only  the  parts,  nor 
to  think  that  all  ought  to  be  affected  after  one  and  the 
same  manner  by  the  same  thing,  seeing  that  one  is  affected 
by  one  quality  and  faculty  of  it,  and  another  by  another. 
Let  us  then  seek  who  those  men  are  which  bring  in  this 
opinion  that  things  are  not  more  of  one  quality  than  an- 
other, if  they  are  not  those  who  hold  that  every  sensible 
thing  is  a  mixture,  composed  of  all  sorts  of  qualities,  like 
a  mixture  of  new  wine  fermenting,  and  who  confess  that 
all  their  rules  are  lost  and  their  faculty  of  judging  quite 
gone,  if  they  admit  any  sensible  object  that  is  pure  and 
simple,  and  do  not  make  each  one  thing  to  be  many? 

6.  See  now  to  this  purpose,  what  discourse  and  debate 
Epicurus  makes  Polyaenus  to  have  with  him  in  his  Ban- 
quet concerning  the  heat  of  wine.  For  when  he  asked, 
"  Do  you,  Epicurus,  say,  that  wine  does  not  heat  1 "  some 
one  answered,  "  It  is  not  universally  to  be  affirmed  that 
wine  heats."  And  a  little  after :  "  For  wine  seems  not  to 
be  universally  a  heater ;  but  such  a  quantity  may  be  said 
to  heat  such  a  person."  And  again  subjoining  the  cause, 
to  wit,  the  compressions  and  disseminations  of  the  atoms, 
and  having  alleged  their  commixtures  and  conjunctions 
with  others  when  the  wine  comes  to  be  mingled  in  the 
body,  he  adds  this  conclusion  :  "  It  is  not  universally  to  be 
said  that  wine  is  endued  with  a  faculty  of  heating ;  but 
that  such  a  quantity  may  heat  such  a  nature  and  one  so 
disposed,  while  such  a  quantity  to  such  a  nature  is  cooling. 
For  in  such  a  mass  there  are  such  natures  and  complex- 


344  AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

ions  of  which  cold  might  be  composed,  and  which,  joined 
with  others  in  proper  measure,  would  yield  a  refrigerative 
virtue.  Wherefore  some  are  deceived,  who  say  that  wine 
is  universally  a  heater  ;  and  others,  who  say  that  it  is  uni- 
versally a  cooler."  He  then  who  says  that  most  men  are 
deceived  and  err,  in  holding  that  which  is  hot  to  be  heat- 
ing and  that  which  is  cold  to  be  cooling,  is  himself  in  an 
error,  unless  he  should  believe  that  his  assertion  leads  to 
the  doctrine  that  one  thing  is  not  more  of  one  nature  than 
another.  He  farther  adds  afterwards,  that  oftentimes 
wine  entering  into  a  body  brings  with  it  thither  neither  a 
calefying  nor  refrigerating  virtue,  but,  the  mass  of  the 
body  being  agitated  and  disturbed,  and  a  transposition 
made  of  the  parts,  the  heat-effecting  atoms  being  assem- 
bled together  do  by  their  multitude  cause  a  heat  and  in- 
flammation in  the  body,  and  sometimes  on  the  contrary 
disassembling  themselves  cause  a  refrigeration. 

7.  But  it  is  moreover  wholly  evident,  that  we  may  ap- 
ply this  argument  to  all  those  things  which  are  called  and 
esteemed  bitter,  sweet,  purging,  dormitive,  and  luminous, 
not  any  one  of  them  having  an  entire  and  perfect  quality 
to  produce  such  effects,  nor  to  do  rather  than  to  suffer 
when  they  are  in  the  bodies,  but  being  there  susceptible  of 
various  temperatures  and  differences.  For  Epicurus  him- 
self, in  his  Second  Book  against  Theophrastus,  affirming 
that  colors  are  not  connatural  to  bodies,  but  are  engen 
dered  there  according  to  certain  situations  and  positions 
with  respect  to  the  sight  of  man,  says  :  "  For  this  reason  a 
body  is  no  more  colored  than  destitute  of  color."  And  a 
little  above  he  writes  thus,  word  for  word :  "  But  apart 
from  this,  I  know  not  how  a  man  may  say  that  those  bodies 
which  are  in  the  dark  have  color ;  although  very  often,  an 
air  equally  dark  being  spread  about  them,  some  distinguish 
diversities  of  colors,  others  perceive  them  not  through  the 
weakness  of  their  sight.      And  moreover,  going  into  a 


AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN.  345 

dark  house  or  room,  we  at  our  first  entrance  see  no  color, 
but  after  we  have  stayed  there  awhile,  we  do.  Where- 
fore we  are  to  say  that  every  body  is  not  more  colored  than 
not  colored.  Now,  if  color  is  relative  and  has  its  being 
in  regard  to  something  else,  so  also  then  is  white,  and  so 
likewise  blue ;  and  if  colors  are  so,  so  also  are  sweet  and 
bitter.  So  that  it  may  truly  be  affirmed  of  every  quality, 
that  it  cannot  more  properly  be  said  to  be  than  not  to  be. 
For  to  those  who  are  in  a  certain  manner  disposed,  they 
will  be ;  but  to  those  who  are  not  so  disposed,  they  will 
not  be."  Colotes  therefore  has  bedashed  and  bespattered 
himself  and  his  master  with  that  dirt,  in  which  he  says 
those  lie  who  maintain  that  things  are  not  more  of  one 
quality  than  another. 

8.  But  is  it  in  this  alone,  that  this  excellent  man  shows 
himself 

To  others  a  physician,  whilst  himself 
Is  full  of  ulcers  ?  * 

No  indeed ;  but  yet  much  farther  in  his  second  reprehen- 
sion, without  any  way  minding  it,  he  drives  Epicurus  and 
Democritus  out  of  this  life.  For  he  affirms  that  the  say- 
ing of  Democritus  —  that  the  atoms  are  to  the  senses 
color  by  a  certain  law  or  ordinance,  that  they  are  by  the 
same  law  sweetness,  and  by  the  same  law  concretion  f  —  is 
at  war  with  our  senses,  and  that  he  who  uses  this  reason 
and  persists  in  this  opinion  cannot  himself  imagine  whether 
he  is  living  or  dead.  I  know  not  how  to  contradict  this 
discourse;  but  this  I  can  boldly  affirm,  that  this  is  as  in- 
separable from  the  sentences  and  doctrines  of  Epicurus 
as  they  say  figure  and  weight  are  from  atoms.  For  what 
is  it  that  Democritus  says  ?  "  There  are  substances,  in 
number  infinite,  called  atoms  (because  they  cannot  be 
divided),  without  difference,  without  quality,  and  impas- 
sible, which  move,  being  dispersed  here  and  there,  in  the 

*  Euripides,  Frag.  1071.  t  The  text  is  corrupt  here.     (G.) 


346  AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN. 

infinite  voidness ;  and  that  when  they  approach  one 
another,  or  meet  and  are  conjoined,  of  such  masses  thus 
heaped  together,  one  appears  water,  another  fire,  another 
a  plant,  another  a  man ;  and  that  all  things  are  thus  really 
atoms  (as  he  called  them),  and  that  there  is  nothing  else ; 
for  there  can  be  no  generation  from  what  is  not ;  and  of 
those  things  which  are  nothing  can  be  generated,  because 
these  atoms  are  so  firm,  that  they  can  neither  change,  alter, 
nor  suff"er ;  wherefore  there  cannot  be  made  color  of  those 
things  which  are  without  color,  nor  nature  or  soul  of 
those  things  which  are  without  quality  and  impassible." 
Democritus  then  is  to  be  blamed,  not  for  confessing  those 
things  that  happen  upon  his  principles,  but  for  supposing 
principles  upon  which  such  things  happen.  For  he  should 
not  have  supposed  immutable  principles ;  or  having  sup- 
posed them,  he  ought  to  have  seen  that  the  generation  of 
all  quality  is  taken  away ;  but  having  seen  the  absurdity, 
to  deny  it  is  most  impudent.  But  Epicurus  says,  that  he 
supposes  the  same  principles  with  Democritus,  but  that  he 
says  not  that  color,  sweet,  white,  and  other  qualities,  are 
by  law  and  ordinance.  If  therefore  not  to  say  is  merely 
not  to  confess,  he  does  merely  what  he  is  wont  to  do.  For 
it  is  as  when,  taking  away  divine  Providence,  he  neverthe- 
less says  that  he  leaves  piety  and  devotion  towards  the 
Gods ;  and  when,  choosing  friendship  for  the  sake  of 
pleasure,  that  he  sufi"ers  most  grievous  pains  for  his  friends  ; 
and  supposing  the  universe  to  be  infinite,  that  he  never- 
theless takes  not  away  high  and  low.  .  .  .  Indeed  having 
taken  the  cup,  one  may  drink  what  he  pleases,  and  return 
the  rest.  But  in  reasoning  one  ought  chiefly  to  remember 
this  wise  apophthegm,  that  where  the  principles  are  not 
necessary,  the  ends  and  consequences  are  necessary.  It 
was  not  then  necessary  for  him  to  suppose  or  (to  say  bet- 
ter) to  steal  from  Democritus,  that  atoms  are  the  principles 
of  the  universe ;  but  having  supposed  this  doctrine,  and 


AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  347 

having  pleased  and  glorified  himself  in  the  first  probable 
and  specious  appearances  of  it,  he  must  afterwards  also 
swallow  that  which  is  troublesome  in  it,  or  must  show  how 
bodies  which  have  not  any  quality  can  bring  all  sorts  of 
qualities  to  others  only  by  their  meetings  and  joining 
together.  As  —  to  take  that  which  comes  next  to  hand  — 
whence  does  that  which  we  call  heat  proceed,  and  how  is 
it  engendered  in  the  atoms,  if  they  neither  had  heat  when 
they  came,  nor  are  become  hot  after  their  being  joined 
together  ?  For  the  one  presupposes  that  they  had  some 
quality,  and  the  other  that  theyvvere  fit  to  receive  it.  And 
you  afiirm,  that  neither  the  one  nor  the  other  must  be  said 
to  belong  to  atoms,  because  they  are  incorruptible. 

9.  How  then?  Do  not  Plato,  Aristotle,  and  Xenocrates 
produce  gold  from  that  which  is  not  gold,  and  stone  from 
that  which  is  not  stone,  and  many  other  things  from  the 
four  simple  first  bodies  ?  Yes  indeed ;  but  with  those 
bodies  immediately  concur  also  the  principles  for  the  gen- 
eration of  every  thing,  bringing  with  them  great  contribu- 
tions, that  is,  the  first  qualities  which  are  in  them  ;  then, 
when  they  come  to  assemble  and  join  in  one  the  dry  with 
the  moist,  the  cold  with  the  hot,  and  the  solid  with  the 
soft,  —  that  is  active  bodies  with  such  as  are  fit  to  suff'er 
and  receive  every  alteration  and  change,  —  then  is  genera- 
tion wrought  by  passing  from  one  temperature  to  another. 
Whereas  the  atom,  being  alone,  is  deprived  and  destitute 
of  all  quality  and  generative  faculty,  and  when  it  comes  to 
meet  with  the  others,  it  can  make  only  a  noise  and  sound 
because  of  its  hardness  and  firmness,  but  nothing  else. 
For  they  always  strike  and  are  stricken,  not  being  able  by 
this  means  to  compose  or  make  an  animal,  a  soul,  or  a 
nature,  nay,  not  so  much  as  a  mass  or  heap  of  themselves ; 
for  that  as  they  beat  upon  one  another,  so  they  fly  back 
again  asunder. 

10.  But  Colotes,  as  if  he  were  speaking  to  some  igno* 


348  AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

rant  and  unlettered  king,  again  attacks  Empedocles  for 
breathing  forth  the  same  thought : 

I've  one  thing  more  to  say.     'Mongst  mortals  there 

No  Nature  is  ;  nor  that  grim  thing  men  fear 

So  much,  called  death.     There  only  happens  first 

A  mixture,  and  mixt  things  asunder  burst 

Again,  when  them  disunion  does  befall. 

And  this  is  that  which  men  do  Nature  call. 

For  my  part,  I  do  not  see  how  this  is  repugnant  and  con- 
trary to  life  or  living,  especially  amongst  those  who  hold 
that  there  is  no  generation  of  that  which  is  not,  nor  cor- 
ruption of  that  which  is,  but  that  the  assembling  and 
union  of  the  things  which  are  is  called  generation,  and 
their  dissolution  and  disunion  named  corruption  and  death. 
For  that  he  took  Nature  for  generation,  and  that  this  is 
his  meaning,  he  has  himself  declared,  when  he  opposed 
Nature  to  death.  And  if  they  neither  live  nor  can  live 
who  place  generation  in  union  and  death  in  disunion, 
what  else  do  these  Epicureans  ?  Yet  Empedocles,  gluing, 
(as  it  were)  and  conjoining  the  elements  together  by  heats, 
softnesses,  and  humidities,  gives  them  in  some  sort  a  mix- 
tion and  unitive  composition ;  but  these  men  who  hunt 
and  drive  together  the  atoms,  which  they  affirm  to  be  im- 
mutable and  impassible,  compose  nothing  proceeding  from 
them,  but  indeed  make  many  and  continual  percussions 
of  them. 

For  the  interlacement,  hindering  the  dissolution,  more 
and  more  augments  the  collision  and  concussion ;  so  that 
there  is  neither  mixtion  nor  adhesion  and  conglutination, 
but  only  a  confusion  and  combat,  which  according  to  them 
is  called  generation.  And  if  the  atoms  do  now  recoil  for 
a  moment  by  reason  of  the  shock  they  have  given,  and 
then  return  again  after  the  blow  is  past,  they  are  above 
double  the  time  absent  from  one  another,  without  either 
touching  or  approaching,  so  as  nothing  can  be  made  of 
them,  not  even  so  much  as  a  body  without  a  soul.     But  as 


AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  349 

for  sense,  soul,  understanding,  and  prudence,  there  is  not 
any  man  who  can  in  the  least  conceive  or  imagine  how  it 
is  possible  they  should  be  made  in  a  voidness,  and  of  atoms 
which  neither  when  separate  and  apart  have  any  quality, 
nor  any  passion  or  alteration  when  they  are  assembled  and 
joined  together,  especially  seeing  this  their  meeting  to- 
gether is  not  an  incorporation  or  congress,  making  a  mixt- 
ure or  coalition,  but  rather  percussions  and  repercussions. 
So  that,  according  to  the  doctrine  of  these  people,  life  is 
taken  away,  and  the  being  of  an  animal  denied,  since  they 
suppose  principles  void,  impassible,  godless,  and  soulless, 
and  such  as  cannot  admit  or  receive  any  mixture  or  incor- 
poration whatever. 

11.  How  then  is  it,  that  they  admit  and  allow  Nature, 
soul,  and  living  creature?  Even  in  the  same  manner  as 
they  do  an  oath,  prayer,  and  sacrifice,  and  the  adoration 
of  the  Gods.  Thus  they  adore  by  word  and  mouth,  only 
naming  and  feigning  that  which  by  their  principles  they 
totally  take  away  and  abolish.  If  now  they  call  that  which 
is  born  Nature,  and  that  which  is  engendered  generation, 

—  as  those  who  ordinarily  call  the  wood  itself  wood-work 
and  the  voices  that  accord  and  sound  together  symphony, 

—  whence  came  it  into  his  mind  to  object  these  words 
against  Empedocles  ?  "  Why,"  says  he,  "  do  we  tire  our- 
selves in  taking  such  care  of  ourselves,  in  desiring  and 
longing  after  certain  things,  and  shunning  and  avoiding 
others  ?  For  we  neither  are  ourselves,  nor  do  we  live  by 
making  use  of  others."  But  be  of  good  cheer,  my  dear 
little  Colotes,  may  one  perhaps  say  to  him :  there  is  none 
who  hinders  you  from  taking  care  of  yourself  by  teaching 
that  the  nature  of  Colotes  is  nothing  else  but  Colotes  him- 
self, or  who  forbids  you  to  make  use  of  things  (now  things 
with  you  are  pleasures)  by  showing  that  there  is  no  nature 
of  tarts  and  marchpanes,  of  sweet  odors,  or  of  venereal 
delights,  but  that  there  are  tarts,  marchpanes,  perfumes, 


350  AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN. 

and  women.  For  neither  does  the  grammarian  who  says 
that  "  the  strength  of  Hercules  "  is  Hercules  himself  deny 
the  being  of  Hercules ;  nor  do  those  who  say  that  sym- 
phonies and  roofings  are  but  bare  derivations  affirm  that 
there  are  neither  sounds  nor  timbers ;  since  also  there  are 
some  who,  taking  away  the  soul  and  prudence,  do  not  yet 
seem  to  take  away  either  living  or  being  prudent. 

And  when  Epicurus  says  that  the  nature  of  things  con 
sists  in  bodies  and  their  place,  do  we  so  comprehend  him 
as  if  he  meant  that  Nature  were  something  else  than  the 
things  which  are,  or  as  if  he  insinuated  that  it  is  simply 
the  things  which  are,  and  nothing  else?  —  as,  to  wit,  he 
is  wont  to  call  voidness  itself  the  nature  of  voidness,  and 
the  universe,  by  Jupiter,  the  nature  of  the  universe.  And 
if  any  one  should  thus  question  him ;  What  sayst  thou, 
Epicurus,  that  this  is  voidness,  and  that  the  nature  of 
voidness?  No,  by  Jupiter,  would  he  answer;  but  this 
community  of  names  is  in  use  by  law  and  custom.  I 
grant  it  is.  Now  what  has  Empedocles  done  else,  but 
taught  that  Nature  is  nothing  else  save  that  which  is  born, 
and  death  no  other  thing  but  that  which  dies  1  But  as  the 
poets  very  often,  forming  as  it  were  an  image,  say  thus  in 
figurative  language. 

Strife,  tumult,  noise,  placed  by  some  angry  God, 
Mischief,  and  malice  there  had  their  abode ;  * 

so  do  most  men  attribute  generation  and  corruption  to 
things  that  are  contracted  together  and  dissolved.  But  so 
far  has  he  been  from  stirring  and  taking  away  that  which 
is,  or  contradicting  that  which  evidently  appears,  that  he 
casts  not  so  much  as  one  single  word  out  of  the  accustomed 
use ;  but  taking  away  all  figurative  fraud  that  might  hurt 
or  endamage  things,  he  again  restored  the  ordinary  and 
useful  signification  to  words  in  these  verses: 

*  L.  XVIII.  535. 


AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  351 

When  from  mixed  elements  we  sometimes  see 
A  man  produced,  sometimes  a  beast,  a  tree, 
Or  bird,  this  birtli  and  geniture  we  name ; 
But  death,  when  tliis  so  well  compacted  frame 
And  juncture  is  dissolved.     This  use  I  do  approve. 

And  yet  I  myself  say  that  Colotes,  though  he  alleged  these 
verses,  did  not  understand  that  Empedocles  took  not  away 
men,  beasts,  trees,  or  birds,  which  he  affirmed  to  be  com- 
posed of  the  elements  mixed  together;  and  that,  by  teach- 
ing how  much  they  are  deceived  who  call  this  composition 
Nature  and  life,  and  this  dissolution  unhappy  destruction 
and  miserable  death,  he  did  not  abrogate  the  using  of  the 
customary  expressions  in  this  respect. 

12.  And  it  seems  to  me,  indeed,  that  Empedocles  did  not 
aim  in  this  place  at  the  disturbing  the  common  form  of 
expression,  but  that  he  really,  as  it  has  been  said,  had 
a  controversy  about  generation  from  things  that  have  no 
being,  which  some  call  Nature.  Which  he  manifestly 
shows  by  these  verses : 

Fools,  and  of  little  thought,  we  well  may  deem 
Those,  who  so  silly  are  as  to  esteem 
That  what  ne'er  was  may  now  engendered  be. 
And  that  what  is  may  perish  utterly. 

For  these  are  the  words  of  one  who  cries  loud  enough  to 
those  which  have  ears,  that  he  takes  not  away  generation, 
but  procreation  from  nothing ;  nor  corruption,  but  total 
destruction,  that  is,  reduction  to  nothing.  For  to  him 
who  would  not  so  savagely  and  foolishly  but  more  gently 
calumniate,  the  following  verses  might  give  a  colorable 
occasion  of  charging  Empedocles  with  the  contrary,  when 
he  says : 

No  prudent  man  can  e'er  into  his  mind 
Admit  that,  whilst  men  living  here  on  earth 
(Which  only  life  they  call)  both  fortunes  find, 
They  being  have,  but  that  before  the  birth 
They  nothing  were,  nor  shall  be  when  once  dead. 

For  these  are  not  the  expressions  of  a  man  who  denies 
those  that  are  born  to  be,  but  rather  of  him  who  holds 


352  AGAINST  COLOTES  THE    EPICUKEAN. 

those  to  be  that  are  not  yet  born  or  that  are  ah'eady  dead. 
And  Colotes  also  does  not  altogether  accuse  him  of  this, 
but  says  that  according  to  his  opinion  we  shall  never  be 
sick,  never  wounded.  But  how  is  it  possible,  that  he  who 
affirms  men  to  have  being  both  before  their  life  and  after 
their  death,  and  during  their  life  to  find  both  fortunes  (or 
to  be  accompanied  both  by  good  and  evil),  should  not  leave 
them  the  power  to  suffer?  Who  then  are  they,  O  Colotes, 
that  are  endued  with  this  privilege  never  to  be  wounded, 
never  to  be  sick?  Even  you  yourselves,  who  are  composed 
of  atoms  and  voidness,  neither  of  which,  you  say,  has  any 
sense.  Now  there  is  no  great  hurt  in  this  ;  but  the  worst 
is,  you  have  nothing  left  that  can  cause  you  pleasure,  see- 
ing an  atom  is  not  capable  to  receive  those  things  which 
are  to  effect  it,  and  voidness  cannot  be  affected  by  them. 

13.  But  because  Colotes  would,  immediately  after  Demo- 
critus,  seem  to  inter  and  bury  Parmenides,  and  I  have 
passed  over  and  a  little  postponed  his  defence,  to  bring  in 
between  them  that  of  Empedocles,  as  seeming  to  be  more 
coherent  and  consequent  to  the  first  reprehensions,  let  us 
now  return  to  Parmenides.  Him  then  does  Colotes  accuse 
of  having  broached  and  set  abroad  certain  shameful  and 
villanous  sophistries ;  and  yet  by  these  his  sophisms  he 
has  neither  rendered  friendship  less  honorable,  nor  volup- 
tuousness or  the  desire  of  pleasures  more  audacious  and 
unbridled.  He  has  not  taken  from  honesty  its  attractive 
property  or  its  being  venerable  or  recommendable  of  itself, 
nor  has  he  disturbed  the  opinions  we  ought  to  have  of  the 
Gods.  And  I  do  not  see  how,  by  saying  that  the  All  (or 
the  universe)  is  one,  he  hinders  or  obstructs  our  living. 
For  when  Epicurus  himself  says  that  the  All  is  infinite,  that 
it  is  neither  engendered  nor  perishable,  that  it  can  neither 
increase  nor  be  diminished,  he  speaks  of  the  universe  as 
of  one  only  thing.  And  having  in  the  beginning  of  his 
treatise  concerning  this  matter  said,  that  the  nature  of  those 


AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  353 

things  which  have  being  consists  of  bodies  and  of  void- 
ness,  he  makes  a  division  (as  it  were)  of  one  thing  into 
two  parts,  one  of  which  has  in  reality  no  subsistence, 
being,  as  you  yourselves  term  it,  impalpable,  void,  and 
incorporeal ;  so  that  by  this  means,  even  with  you  also,  all 
comes  to  be  one ;  unless  you  desire,  in  speaking  of  void- 
iiess,  to  use  words  void  of  sense,  and  to  combat  the  an- 
cients, as  if  you  were  fighting  against  a  shadow. 

Bui  these  atomical  bodies,  you  will  say,  are,  according 
to  the  opinion  of  Epicurus,  infinite  in  number,  and  every 
thing  which  appears  to  us  is  composed  of  them.  See 
now,  therefore,  what  principles  of  generation  you  suppose, 
infinity  and  voidness  ;  one  of  which,  to  wit,  voidness,  is 
inactive,  impassible,  and  incorporeal ;  the  other,  to  wit, 
infinity,  is  disorderly,  unreasonable,  and  incomprehensible, 
dissolving  and  confounding  itself,  because  it  cannot  for  its 
multitude  be  contained,  circumscribed,  or  limited.  But 
Parmenides  has  neither  taken  away  fire,  nor  water,  nor 
rocks  and  precipices,  nor  yet  cities  (as  Colotes  says)  which 
are  built  and  inhabited  as  well  in  Europe  as  in  x\sia;  since 
he  has  both  made  an  order  of  the  world,  and  mixing  the 
elements,  to  wit,  light  and  dark,  does  of  them  and  by  them 
compose  and  finish  all  things  that  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
world.  For  he  has  written  very  largely  of  the  earth, 
heaven,  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  has  spoken  of  the  gene- 
ration of  man ;  and  being,  as  he  was,  an  ancient  author  in 
physiology,  and  one  who  in  writing  sought  to  deliver  his 
own  and  not  to  destroy  another's  doctrine,  he  has  passed 
over  none  of  the  principal  things  in  Nature.  Moreover, 
Plato,  and  before  him  Socrates  himself,  understood  that  in 
Nature  there  is  one  part  subject  to  opinion,  and  another 
subject  to  intelligence.  As  for  that  which  is  subject  to 
opinion,  it  is  always  unconstant,  wandering,  and  carried 
away  with  several  passions  and  changes,  liable  to  diminu- 
tion and  increase,  and  to  be  variously  disposed  to  various 

VOL.  V.  23 


354  AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

men,  and  not  always  appearing  after  one  manner  even  to 
the  same  person.  But  as  to  the  intelligible  part,  it  is  quite 
of  another  kind, 

Constant,  entire,  and  still  engenerable, 

as  himself  says,  always  like  to  itself,  and  perdurable  in  if 9 
being. 

Here  Colotes,  sycophant-like,  catching  at  his  expres- 
sions and  drawing  the  discourse  from  things  to  words, 
flatly  affirms  that  Parmenides  in  one  word  takes  away  the 
existence  of  all  things  by  supposing  ejis  (or  that  which  is) 
to  be  one.  But,  on  the  contrary,  he  takes  away  neither 
the  one  nor  the  other  part  of  Nature ;  but  rendering  to 
each  of  them  what  belongs  to  it  and  is  convenient  for  it, 
he  places  the  intelligible  in  the  idea  of  one  and  of  "  that 
which  is,"  calling  it  ens  because  it  is  eternal  and  incorrupt- 
ible, and  one  because  it  is  always  like  itself  and  admits  no 
diversity.  And  as  for  that  part  which  is  sensible,  he  places 
it  in  the  rank  of  uncertain,  disorderly,  and  always  mov- 
ing. Of  which  two  parts,  we  may  see  the  distinct  judg- 
ment : 

One  certain  truth  and  sincere  knowledge  is, 

as  regarding  that  which  is  intelligible,  and  always  alike 
and  of  the  same  sort ; 

The  other  does  on  men's  opinions  rest. 
Which  breed  no  true  belief  within  our  breast, 

because  it  is  conversant  in  things  which  receive  all  sorts 
of  changes,  passions,  and  inequalities.  Now  how  he  could 
have  left  sense  and  opinion,  if  he  had  not  also  left  any 
thing  sensible  and  opinable,  it  is  impossible  for  any  man  to 
say.  But  because  to  that  which  truly  is  it  appertains  to 
continue  in  its  being,  and  because  sensible  things  some- 
times are,  sometimes  are  not,  continually  passing  from  one 
being  to  another  and  perpetually  changing  their  state,  he 
thought  they  required  some  other  name  than  that  of  entia, 


AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  355 

or  things  which  always  are.  This  speech  therefore  con- 
cerning ens  (or  that  which  is),  that  it  should  be  but  one, 
is  not  to  take  away  the  plurality  of  sensible  things,  but 
to  show  how  they  differ  from  that  which  is  intelligible. 
Which  difference  Plato  in  his  discourse  of  Ideas  more  fully 
declaring,  has  thereby  afforded  Colotes  an  opportunity  of' 
cavilling. 

14.  Therefore  it  seems  not  unreasonable  to  me  to  take 
next  into  our  consideration,  as  it  were  all  in  a  train,  what 
he  has  also  said  against  him.  But  first  let  us  contemplate 
a  little  the  diligence  —  together  with  the  manifold  and 
profound  knowledge  —  of  this  our  philosopher,  who  says, 
that  Aristotle,  Xenocrates,  Theophrastus,  and  all  the 
Peripatetics  have  followed  these  doctrines  of  Plato.  For 
in  what  corner  of  the  uninhabitable  world  have  you,  O 
Colotes,  written  your  book,  that,  composing  all  these  accu- 
sations against  such  personages,  you  never  have  lighted  upon 
their  works,  nor  have  taken  into  your  hands  the  books  of 
Aristotle  concerning  Heaven  and  the  Soul,  nor  those  of 
Theophrastus  against  the  [N^aturalists,  nor  the  Zoroaster 
of  Horaclides,  nor  his  books  of  Hell,  nor  that  of  Natural 
Doubts  and  Difficulties,  nor  the  book  of  Dicaearchus  con- 
cerning the  Soul ;  in  all  which  books  they  are  in  the  high- 
est degree  contradictory  and  repugnant  to  Plato  about  the 
principal  and  greatest  points  of  natural  philosophy  1  Nay, 
Strato  himself,  the  very  head  and  prince  of  the  other  Peri- 
patetics, agrees  not  in  many  things  with  Aristotle,  and 
holds  opinions  altogether  contrary  to  Plato,  concerning 
motion,  the  understanding,  the  soul,  and  generation.  In 
fine,  he  says  that  the  world  is  not  an  animal,  and  that 
what  is  according  to  Nature  follows  what  is  according  to 
Fortune  ;  for  that  Chance  gave  the  beginning,  and  so  every 
one  of  the  natural  effects  was  afterwards  finished. 

Now  as  to  the  ideas,  —  for  which  he  quarrels  with  Plato, 
—  Aristotle,  by  moving  this  matter  at  every  turn,  and  alleg- 


356  AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

ing  all  manner  of  doubts  concerning  them,  in  his  Ethics, 
in  his  Physics,  and  in  his  Exoterical  Dialogues  seems  to 
some  rather  obstinately  than  philosophically  to  have  dis- 
puted against  these  doctrines,  as  having  proposed  to  him- 
self the  debasing  and  undervaluing  of  Plato's  philosophy  ; 
so  far  he  was  from  following  it.  What  an  impudent  rash- 
ness then  is  this,  that  having  neither  seen  nor  understood 
what  these  persons  have  written  and  what  were  their  opin- 
ions, he  should  go  and  devise  such  things  as  they  never 
imagined  ;  and  persuading  himself  that  he  reprehends  and 
refutes  others,  he  should  produce  a  proof,  written  with  his 
own  hand,  arguing  and  convincing  himself  of  ignorance, 
licentiousness,  and  shameful  impudence,  in  saying  that 
those  who  contradict  Plato  agree  with  him,  and  that  those 
who  oppose  him  follow  him  ? 

15.  Plato,  says  he,  writes  that  horses  are  in  vain  by  us 
esteemed  horses,  and  men  men.  And  in  which  of  Plato's 
commentaries  has  he  found  this  hidden?  For  as  to  us, 
we  read  in  all  his  books,  that  horses  are  horses,  that  men 
are  men,  and  that  fire  is  by  him  esteemed  fire,  because  he 
holds  that  every  one  of  these  things  is  sensible  and  sub- 
ject to  opinion.  But  this  fine  fellow  Colotes,  as  if  he  were 
not  a  hair's  breadth  removed  from  perfect  wisdom,  appre- 
hends it  to  be  one  and  the  same  thing  to  say,  "  Man  is 
not "  and  "  Man  is  a  7ion  ens'' 

Now  to  Plato  there  seems  to  be  a  wonderful  great  differ- 
ence between  not  being  at  all  and  being  a  non  ens ;  be- 
cause the  first  imports  an  annihilation  and  abolishment  of 
all  substance,  and  the  other  shows  the  diversity  there  is 
between  that  which  is  participated  and  that  which  partici- 
pates. Which  diversity  those  who  came  after  distinguished 
only  into  the  difference  of  genus  and  species,  and  certain 
common  and  proper  qualities  or  accidents,  as  they  are 
called,  but  ascended  no  higher,  falling  into  more  logical 
doubts  and  difficulties.     Now  there  is  the  same  proportion 


AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUKEAN.  357 

between  that  which  is  participated  and  that  which  partici- 
pates, as  there  is  between  the  cause  and  the  matter,  the 
original  and  the  image,  the  faculty  and  the  effect.  Where- 
in that  which  is  by  itself  and  always  the  same  principally 
differs  from  that  which  is  by  another  and  never  abides  in 
one  and  the  same  manner ;  because  the  one  never  was 
nor  ever  shall  be  non-existent,  and  is  therefore  totally  and 
essc^ntially  an  ens  ;  but  to  the  other  that  very  being,  which 
it  has  not  of  itself  but  happens  to  take  by  participation 
from  another,  does  not  remain  firm  and  constant,  but  it 
goes  out  of  it  by  its  imbecility,  —  the  matter  always  glid- 
ing and  sliding  about  the  form,  and  receiving  several  affec- 
tions and  changes  in  the  image  of  the  substance,  so  that  it 
is  continually  moving  and  shaking.  As  therefore  he  who 
says  that  the  image  of  Plato  is  riot  Plato  takes  not  away 
the  sense  and  substance  of  the  image,  but  shows  the  dif- 
ference of  that  which  exists  of  itself  from  that  which  ex- 
ists only  in  regard  to  some  other ;  so  neither  do  they  take 
away  the  nature,  use,  or  sense  of  men,  who  affirm  that 
every  one  of  us,  by  participating  in  a  certain  common  sub- 
stance, that  is,  by  the  idea,  is  become  the  image  of  that 
which  afforded  the  likeness  for  our  generation.  For 
neither  does  he  who  says  that  a  red-hot  iron  is  not  fire,  or 
that  the  moon  is  not  the  sun,  but,  as  Parmenides  has  it, 

A  torch  which  round  the  earth  by  night 
Does  bear  about  a  borrowed  light, 

take  away  therefore  the  use  of  iron,  or  the  nature  of  the 
moon.  But  if  he  should  deny  it  to  be  a  body,  or  affirm 
that  it  is  not  illuminated,  he  would  then  contradict  the 
senses,  as  one  who  admitted  neither  body,  animal,  genera- 
tion, nor  sense.  But  he  who  by  his  opinion  imagines  that 
these  things  subsist  only  by  participation,  and  considers 
how  far  remote  and  distant  they  are  from  that  which  al- 
ways is  and  which  communicates  to  them  their  being,  does 
not  reject  the  sensible,  but  affirms  that  the  intelligible  is  ; 


358  AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

nor  does  he  take  away  and  abolish  the  effects  which  are 
wrought  and  appear  in  us ;  but  he  shows  to  those  who 
follow  him  that  there  are  other  things,  firmer  and  more 
stable  than  these  in  respect  of  their  essence,  because  they 
are  neither  engendered,  nor  perish,  nor  suffer  any  thing; 
and  he  teaches  them,  more  purely  touching  the  difference, 
to  express  it  by  names,  calling  these  ona  or  entia  (things 
that  have  being),  and  those  yiyvofism  or  Jientia  (things  en- 
gendered). And  the  same  also  usually  befalls  the  moderns  ; 
for  they  deprive  many  —  and  those  great  things  —  of  the 
appellation  of  ens  or  being  ;  such  as  are  voidness,  time, 
place,  and  simply  the  entire  genus  of  things  spoken,  in 
which  are  comprised  all  things  true.  For  these  things, 
they  say,  are  not  entia  but  some  things;  and  they  per- 
petually make  use  of  them  in  their  lives  and  in  their 
philosophy,  as  of  things  having  subsistence  and  existence. 

16.  But  I  would  willingly  ask  this  our  fault-finder, 
whether  themselves  do  not  in  their  affairs  perceive  this 
difference,  by  which  some  things  are  permanent  and  im- 
mutable in  their  substances,  —  as  they  say  of  their  atoms, 
that  they  are  at  all  times  and  continually  after  one  and  the 
same  manner,  because  of  their  impassibility  and  hardness, 
—  but  that  all  compounded  things  are  fluxible,  changeable, 
generated,  and  perishing ;  forasmuch  as  infinite  images 
are  always  departing  and  going  from  them,  and  infinite 
others,  as  it  is  probable,  repair  to  them  from  the  ambient 
air,  filling  up  what  was  diminished  from  the  mass,  which  is 
much  diversified  and  transvasated,  as  it  were,  by  this 
change,  since  those  atoms  which  are  in  the  very  bottom  of 
the  said  mass  can  never  cease  stirring  and  reciprocally 
beating  upon  one  another ;  as  they  themselves  affirm. 
There  is  then  in  things  such  a  diversity  of  substance 
But  Epicurus  is  in  this  wiser  and  more  learned  than  Plato, 
that  he  calls  them  all  equally  entia,  —  to  wit,  the  impal 
pable  voidness,  the  solid  and  resisting  body,  the  principles, 


AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  359 

and  the  things  composed  of  them,  —  and  thinks  that  the 
eternal  participates  of  the  common  substance  with  that 
which  is  generated,  the  immortal  with  the  corruptible,  and 
the  natures  that  are  impassible,  perdurable,  unchangeable, 
and  that  can  never  fall  from  their  being,  with  those  which 
have  their  essence  in  suffering  and  changing,  and  can 
never  continue  in  one  and  the  same  state.  But  though 
Plato  had  with  all  the  justness  imaginable  deserved  to  be 
condemned  for  having  offended  in  this,  yet  should  he  have 
been  sentenced  by  these  gentlemen,  who  speak  Greek 
more  elegantly  and  discourse  more  correctly  than  he,  only 
as  having  confounded  the  terms,  and  not  as  having  taken 
away  the  things  and  driven  life  from  us,  because  he  named 
them  Jientia  (or  things  engendered),  and  not  entia  (things 
that  have  being),  as  these  men  do. 

17.  But  because  we  have  passed  over  Socrates,  who 
should  have  come  next  after  Parmenides,  we  must  now 
turn  back  our  discourse  to  him.  Him  therefore  has  Colo- 
tes  begun  at  the  very  first  to  remove,  as  the  common  prov- 
erb has  it,  from  the  sacred  line  ;  and  having  mentioned 
how  Chaerephon  brought  from  Delphi  an  oracle,  v»^ell 
known  to  us  all,  concerning  Socrates,  he  says  thus  :  *'  Now 
as  to  this  narration  of  Chaerephon's,  because  it  is  odious 
and  absolutely  sophistical,  we  will  overpass  it."  Plato  then, 
that  we  may  say  nothing  of  others,  is  also  odious,  who  has 
committed  it  to  writing ;  and  the  Lacedaemonians  are  yet 
more  odious,  who  reserve  the  oracle  of  Lycurgus  amongst 
their  most  ancient  and  most  authentic  inscriptions.  The 
oracle  also  of  Themistocles,  by  which  he  persuaded  the 
Athenians  to  quit  their  town,  and  in  a  naval  fight  defeated 
the  barbarous  Xerxes,  was  a  sophistical  fiction.  Odious 
also  were  all  the  ancient  legislators  and  founders  of  Greece, 
who  established  the  most  part  of  their  temples,  sacrifices, 
and  solemn  festivals  by  the  answer  of  the  Pythian  Oracle. 
But  if  the  oracle  brought  from  Delphi  concerning  Socrates, 


360  AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

a  man  ravished  with  a  divine  zeal  to  virtue,  by  which  he  is 
styled  and  declared  wise,  is  odious,  fictitious,  and  sophisti- 
cal, by  what  name  shall  we  call  your  cries,  noises,  and 
shouts,  your  applauses,  adorations  and  canonizations,  with 
which  you  extol  and  celebrate  him  who  incites  and  exhorts 
you  to  frequent  and  continual  pleasures  1  For  thus  has  he 
written  in  his  epistle  to  Anaxarchus :  "  I  for  my  part  in 
cite  and  call  you  to  continual  pleasures,  and  not  to  vain  and 
empty  virtues,  which  have  nothing  but  turbulent  hopes  of 
uncertain  fruits."  And  yet  Metrodorus,  writing  to  Timar- 
chus,  says :  '•  Let  us  do  some  extraordinarily  excellent 
thing,  not  suffering  ourselves  to  be  plunged  in  reciprocal 
aflections,  but  retiring  from  this  low  and  terrestrial  life,  and 
elevating  ourselves  to  the  truly  holy  and  divinely  revealed 
ceremonies  and  mysteries  of  Epicurus."  And  even  Colotes 
himself,  hearing  one  day  Epicurus  discoursing  of  natural 
things,  fell  suddenly  at  his  feet  and  embraced  his  knees,  as 
Epicurus  himself,  glorying  in  it,  thus  writes :  "  For  as  if 
you  had  adored  what  we  were  then  saying,  you  were  sud- 
denly taken  with  a  desire,  proceeding  not  from  any  natural 
cause,  to  come  to  us,  prostrate  yourself  on  the  ground,  em 
brace  our  knees,  and  use  all  those  gestures  to  us  which  are 
ordinarily  practised  by  those  who  adore  and  pray  to  the 
Gods.  So  that  you  made  us  also,"  says  he,  "  reciprocally 
sanctify  and  adore  you."  Those,  by  Jupiter,  well  deserve 
to  be  pardoned,  who  say,  they  would  willingly  give  any 
money  for  a  picture  in  which  should  be  presented  to  the 
life  this  fine  story  of  one  lying  prostrate  at  the  knees  and 
embracing  the  legs  of  another,  who  mutually  again  adores 
him  and  makes  his  devout  prayers  to  him.  Nevertheless 
this  devout  service,  how  well  soever  it  was  ordered  and 
composed  by  Colotes,  received  not  the  condign  fruit  he  ex- 
pected ;  for  he  was  not  declared  wise ;  but  it  was  only  said 
to  him  :  Go  thy  ways,  and  walk  immortal ;  and  understand 
that  we  also  are  in  like  manner  immortal. 


AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN.  361 

18.  These  men,  knowing  well  in  their  consciences  that 
they  have  used  such  fooUsh  speeches,  have  had  such 
motions,  and  such  passions,  dare  nevertheless  call  others 
odious.  And  Colotes,  having  shown  us  these  fine  first- 
fruits  and  wise  positions  touching  the  natural  senses,  —  that 
we  eat  meat,  and  not  hay  or  forage  ;  and  that  when  rivers 
are  deep  and  great,  we  pass  them  in  boats,  but  when  shal- 
low and  easily  fordable,  on  foot,  —  cries  out,  "You  use 
vain  and  arrogant  speeches,  O  Socrates  ;  you  say  one  thing 
to  those  who  come  to  discourse  with  you,  and  practise  an- 
other." Now  I  would  fain  know  what  these  vain  and 
arrogant  speeches  of  Socrates  were,  since  he  ordinarily 
said  that  he  knew  nothing,  that  he  was  always  learning, 
and  that  he  went  enquiring  and  searching  after  the  truth. 
But  if,  O  Colotes,  you  had  happened  on  such  expressions 
of  Socrates  as  are  those  which  Epicurus  writ  to  Idomeneus, 
"  Send  me  then  the  first-fruits  for  the  entertainment  of  our 
sacred  body,  for  ourself  and  for  our  children :  for  so  it 
comes  upon  me  to  speak ; "  what  more  arrogant  and  inso- 
lent words  could  you  have  used  ]  And  yet  that  Socrates 
spake  otherwise  than  he  lived,  you  have  wonderful  proofs 
in  his  gests  at  Delium,  at  Potidaea,  in  his  behavior  during 
the  time  of  the  Thirty  Tyrants,  towards  Archelaus,  towards 
the  people  of  Athens,  in  his  poverty,  and  in  his  death. 
For  are  not  these  things  beseeming  and  answerable  to  the 
doctrine  of  Socrates  ?  They  would  indeed,  good  sir,  have 
been  indubitable  testimonies  to  show  that  he  acted  other- 
wise than  he  taught,  if,  having  proposed  pleasure  for  the 
end  of  life,  he  had  led  such  a  life  as  this. 

19.  Thus  much  for  the  calumnies  he  has  uttered  against 
Socrates.  Colotes  besides  perceives  not  that  he  is  himself 
found  guilty  of  the  same  offences  in  regard  to  proofs  which 
he  objects  against  Socrates.  For  this  is  one  of  the  senten- 
ces and  propositions  of  Epicurus,  that  none  but  the  wise 
man  ought  irrevocably  and  unchangeably  to  be  persuaded 


862  AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

of  any  thing.  Since  then  Colotes,  even  after  those  adora- 
tions he  performed  to  Epicurus,  became  not  one  of  the 
sages,  let  him  first  make  these  questions  and  interrogatories 
his  own :  How  is  it  that  being  hungry  he  eats  meat  and 
not  hay,  and  that  he  puts  a  robe  about  his  body  and  not 
about  a  pillar,  since  he  is  not  indubitably  persuaded  either 
that  a  robe  is  a  robe  or  that  meat  is  meat  1  But  if  he  not 
only  does  these  things,  but  also  passes  not  over  rivers, 
when  they  are  great  and  high,  on  foot,  and  flies  from 
wolves  and  serpents,  not  being  irrevocably  persuaded  that 
any  of  these  things  is  such  as  it  appears,  but  yet  doing 
every  thing  according  to  what  appears  to  him ;  so  likewise 
the  opinion  of  Socrates  concerning  the  senses  was  no  obsta- 
cle to  him,  but  that  he  might  in  like  manner  make  use  of 
things  as  they  appeared  to  him.  For  it  is  not  likely  that 
bread  appeared  bread  and  hay  hay  to  Colotes,  because  he 
had  read  those  holy  rules  of  Epicurus  wliich  came  down 
from  heaven,  while  Socrates  through  his  vanity  took  a 
fancy  that  hay  was  bread  and  bread  hay.  For  these  wise 
men  use  better  opinions  and  reasons  than  we ;  but  to  have 
sense,  and  to  receive  an  impression  from  things  as  they  ap- 
pear, is  common  as  well  to  the  ignorant  as  to  the  wise,  as 
proceeding  from  causes  where  there  needs  not  the  dis- 
course of  reason.  And  the  proposition  which  affirms  that 
the  natural  senses  are  not  perfect,  nor  certain  enough  to 
cause  an  entire  belief,  hinders  not  that  every  thing  may  ap- 
pear to  us  ;  but  leaving  us  to  make  use  of  our  senses  in 
our  actions  according  to  that  which  appears,  it  permits  us 
not  so  to  give  credit  to  them  as  if  they  were  exactly  true 
and  without  error.  For  it  is  sufficient  that  in  what  is 
necessary  and  commodious  for  use  there  is  nothing  better. 
But  as  for  the  science  and  knowledge  which  the  soul  of  a 
philosopher  desires  to  have  concerning  every  thing,  the 
senses  have  it  not. 

20.  But  as  to  this.  Colotes  will  farther  give  us  occasion 


AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  363 

to  speak  of  it  hereafter,  for  he  brings  this  objection  against 
several  others.  Furthermore,  whereas  he  profusely  derides 
and  despises  Socrates  for  asking  what  man  is,  and  in  a 
youthful  bravery  (as  he  terms  it)  affirming  that  he  was 
ignorant  of  it,  it  is  manifest  that  he  himself,  who  scoffs  at 
it,  never  so  much  as  thought  of  this  matter  ;  but  Heraclitus 
on  the  contrary,  as  having  done  some  great  and  worthy 
thing,  said,  I  have  been  seeking  myself.  And  of  the 
sentences  that  were  written  in  Apollo's  temple  at  Delphi, 
the  most  excellent  and  most  divine  seems  to  have  been  this, 
Know  thyself.  And  this  it  was  which  gave  Socrates  an 
occasion  and  beginning  of  doubting  and  enquiring  into  it, 
as  Aristotle  says  in  his  Platonics.  And  yet  this  appears  to 
Colotes  ridiculous  and  fit  to  be  scoffed  at.  And  I  wonder 
that  he  derides  not  also  his  master  himself,  who  does  as 
much  whenever  he  writes  concerning  the  substance  of  the 
soul  and  the  origin  of  man.  For  if  that  which  is  com- 
pounded of  both,  as  they  themselves  hold,  —  of  the  body, 
to  wit,  and  the  soul,  —  is  man,  he  who  searches  into  the 
nature  of  the  soul  consequently  also  searches  into  the  na- 
ture of  man,  beginning  from  his  chiefest  principle.  Now 
that  the  soul  is  very  difficult  to  be  comprehended  by  rea- 
son, and  altogether  incomprehensible  by  the  exterior  senses, 
let  us  not  learn  from  Socrates,  who  is  a  vain-glorious  and 
sophistical  disputer,  but  let  us  take  it  from  these  wise  men, 
who,  having  forged  and  framed  the  substance  of  the  soul 
of  somewhat  hot,  spiritual,  and  aerial,  as  far  as  to  her 
faculties  about  the  flesh,  by  which  she  gives  heat,  softness 
and  strength  to  the  body,  proceed  not  to  that  which  is  the 
principal,  but  give  over  faint  and  tired  by  the  way.  For 
that  by  which  she  judges,  remembers,  loves,  hates,  —  in 
a  word,  that  which  is  prudent  and  rational,  is,  —  say  they, 
made  afterwards  of  I  know  not  what  nameless  quality. 
Now  we  well  know,  that  this  nameless  thing  is  a  confession 
of  their  shameful  ignorance,  whilst  they  pretend  they  can- 


3G4:  AGAINST  COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN. 

not  name  what  they  are  not  able  to  understand  or  compre- 
hend. But  let  this,  as  they  say,  be  pardoned  them.  For 
it  seems  not  to  be  a  light  and  easy  matter,  which  every  one 
can  at  the  first  attempt  find  out  and  attain  to,  but  has  re- 
tired itself  to  the  bottom  of  some  very  remote  place,  and 
there  lies  obscurely  concealed.  So  that  there  is  not, 
amongst  so  many  words  and  terms  as  are  in  use,  any  one 
that  can  explain  or  show  it.  Socrates  therefore  was  not  a 
fool  or  blockhead  for  seeking  and  searching  what  himself 
was ;  but  they  are  rather  to  be  thought  shallow  coxcombs, 
who  enquire  after  any  other  thing  before  this,  the  knowl- 
edge of  which  is  so  necessary  and  so  hard  to  find.  For 
how  could  he  hope  to  gain  the  knowledge  of  other  things, 
who  has  not  been  able  to  comprehend  the  principal  part 
even  of  himself? 

21.  But  granting  a  little  to  Colotes,  that  there  is  nothing 
so  vain,  useless,  and  odious  as  the  seeking  into  one's  self, 
let  us  ask  him,  what  confusion  of  human  life  is  in  this, 
and  how  it  is  that  a  man  cannot  continue  to  live,  when  he 
comes  once  thus  to  reason  and  discourse  in  himself:  "  Go 
to  now,  what  am  1 1  Am  I  a  composition,  made  up  of 
soul  and  body  ;  or  rather  a  soul,  serving  itself  and  making 
use  of  the  body,  as  an  horseman  using  his  horse  is  not  a 
subject  composed  of  horse  and  man?  Or  is  every  one  of 
us  the  principal  part  of  the  soul,  by  which  we  understand, 
reason,  and  act ;  and  are  all  the  other  parts,  both  of  soul 
and  body,  only  organs  and  utensils  of  this  power?  Or,  to 
conclude,  is  there  no  proper  substance  of  the  soul  at  all 
apart,  but  is  only  the  temperature  and  complexion  of  the 
body  so  disposed,  that  it  has  force  and  power  to  understand 
and  live  ? "  But  Socrates  does  not  by  these  questions  over- 
throw human  life,  since  all  natural  philosophers  treat  of 
the  same  matter.  But  those  perhaps  are  the  monstrous 
questions  and  enquiries  that  turn  every  thing  upside  down, 
which  are  in  Phaedrus,*  where  he  says,  that  every  one 

*  Plato,  Phaedrus,  p.  230  A. 


AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUKEAN.  365 

ought  to  examine  and  consider  himself,  whether  he  is  a 
savage  beast,  more  cautelous,  outrageous,  and  furious  than 
ever  was  the  monster  Typhon ;  or  on  the  contrary,  an 
animal  more  mild  and  gentle,  partaking  by  Nature  of  a 
certain  divine  portion,  and  such  as  is  free  from  pride. 
Now  by  these  discourses  and  reasonings  he  overturns  not 
the  life  of  man,  but  drives  from  it  presumption  and  arro- 
gance, and  those  haughty  and  extravagant  opinions  and 
conceits  he  has  of  himself.  For  this  is  that  monster 
Typhon,  which  your  teacher  and  master  has  made  to  be 
so  great  in  you  by  his  warring  against  the  Gods  and  divine 
men. 

22.  Having  done  with  Socrates  and  Plato,  he  next  at- 
tacks Stilpo.    Now  as  for  those  his  true  doctrines  and  good 
discourses,  by  which  he   managed  and  governed  himself, 
his   country,  his  friends,  and  such  kings   and   princes  as 
loved  him  and  esteemed  him,  he  has  not  written  a  word ; 
nor  yet  what  prudence  and  magnanimity  was  in  his  heart, 
accompanied  with    meekness,    moderation,    and   modesty. 
But  having  made  mention  of  one  of  those  little  sentences 
he  was  wont  in  mirth  and  raillery  to  object  against  the 
sophisters,  he  does,  without  alleging  any  reason  against  it 
or  solving  the  subtlety  of  the  objection,  stir  up  a  terrible 
tragedy  against  Stilpo,  saying  that  the  life  of  man  is  sub- 
verted by  him,  inasmuch  as  he  affirms  that  one  thing  can- 
not be  predicated  of  another.    '•  For  how,"  says  he,  "  shall 
we  live,  if  we  cannot  style  a  man  good,  nor  a  man  a  cap- 
tain, but  must  separately  name  a  man  a  man,  good  good, 
and  a  captain  a  captain ;  nor  can  say  ten  thousand  horse- 
men, or  a  fortified  town,  but  only  call  horsemen  horsemen, 
and  ten  thousand  ten  thousand,  and  so  of  the  rest  1  "     Now 
what  man  ever  was  there  that  lived   the  worse   for  this  ? 
Or  who  is  there  that,  hearing  this  discourse,  does  not  im- 
mediately perceive  and  understand  it  to  be  the  speech  of  a 
man  who  rallies  gallantly,  and   proposes    to  others   this 


866  AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

logical  question  for  the  exercise  of  their  wits  ?  It  is  not, 
O  Colotes,  a  great  and  dangerous  scandal  not  to  call  man 
good,  or  not  to  say  ten  thousand  horsemen  ;  but  not  to  call 
God  God,  and  not  to  believe  him  to  be  God,  —  as  you  and 
the  rest  do,  who  will  not  confess  that  there  is  a  Jupiter 
presiding  over  generation,  or  a  Ceres  giving  laws,  or  a 
Neptune  fostering  the  plants,  —  it  is  this  separation  of 
names  that  is  pernicious,  and  fills  our  life  with  audacious- 
ness and  an  atheistical  contempt  of  the  Gods.  When  you 
pluck  from  the  Gods  the  names  and  appellations  that  are 
tied  to  them,  you  abolish  also  the  sacrifices,  mysteries, 
processions,  and  feasts.  For  to  whom  shall  we  offer  the 
sacrifices  preceding  the  tilling  of  the  ground  1  To  whom 
those  for  the  obtaining  of  preservation?  Plow  shall  we 
celebrate  the  Phosphoria,  or  torch-festivals,  the  Bacchanals, 
and  the  ceremonies  that  go  before  marriage,  if  we  admit 
neither  Bacchantes,  Gods  of  light,  Gods  who  protect  the 
sown  field,  nor  preservers  of  the  state  ?  For  this  it  is  that 
touches  the  principal  and  greatest  points,  being  an  error 
in  things,  —  not  in  words,  in  the  structure  of  proposi- 
tions, or  use  of  terms. 

Now  if  these  are  the  things  that  disturb  and  subvert 
human  life,  who  are  there  that  more  offend  and  fail  in 
language  than  you  ?  For  you  take  utterly  away  the  whole 
class  of  namable  things,  which  constitute  the  essence  of 
language ;  and  leave  only  words  and  their  accidental  ob- 
jects, while  you  take  away  in  the  mean  time  the  things 
particularly  signified  by  them,  by  which  are  wrought  dis- 
ciplines, doctrines,  preconceptions,  intelligences,  inclina- 
tion, and  assent,  which  you  hold  to  be  nothing  at  all. 

23.  But  as  for  Stilpo,  thus  his  argument  stands.  "  If 
of  a  man  we  predicate  good,  and  of  an  horse  running,  the 
predicate  or  thing  predicated  is  not  the  same  with  the  sub- 
ject or  that  of  which  it  is  predicated,  but  the  essential 
definition  of  man  is  one,  and  of  good  another.    And  again, 


AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  367 

to  be  a  horse  differs  from  to  be  running.  For  being  asked 
the  definition  of  the  one  and  of  the  other,  we  do  not  give 
the  same  for  them  both ;  and  therefore  those  err  who 
predicate  the  one  of  the  other.  For  if  good  is  the  same 
with  man,  and  to  run  the  same  with  a  horse,  how  is  good 
affirmed  also  of  food  and  medicine,  and  again  (by  Jupiter) 
to  run  of  a  Hon  and  a  dog "?  But  if  the  predicate  is  differ- 
ent, then  we  do  not  rightly  say  that  a  man  is  good,  and 
a  horse  runs."  Now  if  Stilpo  is  in  this  exorbitant  and 
grossly  mistaken,  not  admitting  any  copulation  of  such 
things  as  are  in  the  subject,  or  affirmed  of  the  subject, 
with  the  subject  itself;  but  holding  that  every  one  of  them, 
if  it  is  not  absolutely  one  and  the  same  thing  with  that  to 
which  it  happens  or  of  which  it  is  spoken,  ought  not  to  be 
spoken  or  affirmed  of  it,  —  no,  not  even  as  an  accident ;  it 
is  nevertheless  manifest,  that  he  was  only  offended  with 
some  words,  and  opposed  the  usual  and  accustomed  manner 
of  speaking,  and  not  that  he  overthrew  man's  life,  and 
turned  his  affairs  upside  down. 

24.  Colotes  then,  having  got  rid  of  the  old  philosophers, 
turns  to  those  of  his  own  time,  but  without  naming  any 
of  them  ;  though  he  would  have  done  better  either  to  have 
reproved  by  name  these  moderns,  as  he  did  the  ancients, 
or  else  to  have  named  neither  of  them.  But  he  who  has 
so  often  employed  his  pen  against  Socrates,  Plato,  and 
Parmenides,  evidently  demonstrates  that  it  is  through 
cowardice  he  dares  not  attack  the  living,  and  not  for  any 
modesty  or  reverence,  of  which  he  showed  not  the  least 
sign  to  those  who  were  far  more  excellent  than  these. 
But  his  meaning  is,  as  I  suspect,  to  assault  the  Cyrenaics 
first,  and  afterwards  the  Academics,  who  are  followers  of 
Arcesilaus.  For  it  was  these  who  doubted  of  all  things ; 
but  those,  placing  the  passions  and  imaginations  in  them- 
selves, were  of  opinion  that  the  belief  proceeding  from 
Ihem  is  not  sufficient  for  the  assuring  and  affirming  of 


368  AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

things ;  but,  as  if  it  were  in  the  siege  of  a  town,  abandon- 
ing what  is  without,  they  have  shut  themselves  up  in  the 
passions,  using  only  it  seems,  and  not  asserting  it  is,  of 
things  without.  And  therefore  they  cannot,  as  Colotes 
says  of  them,  live  or  have  the  use  of  things.  And  then 
speaking  comically  of  them,  he  adds :  "  These  deny  that 
there  is  a  man,  a  horse,  a  wall ;  but  say  that  they  them- 
selves (as  it  were)  become  walls,  horses,  men,"  or  "  are  im- 
pressed with  the  images  of  walls,  horses,  or  men."  In 
which  he  first  maliciously  abuses  the  terms,  as  calumniators 
are  usually  wont  to  do.  For  though  these  things  follow 
from  the  sayings  of  the  Cyrenaics,  yet  he  ought  to  have 
declared  the  fact  as  they  themselves  teach  it.  For  they 
affirm  that  things  then  become  sweet,  bitter,  lightsome,  or 
dark,  when  each  thing  has  in  itself  the  natural  unhindered 
efficacy  of  one  of  these  impressions.  But  if  honey  is  said 
to  be  sweet,  an  olive-branch  bitter,  hail  cold,  wine  hot,  and 
the  nocturnal  air  dark,  there  are  many  beasts,  things,  and 
men  that  testify  the  contrary.  For  some  have  an  aversion 
for  honey,  others  feed  on  the  branches  of  the  olive-tree  ; 
some  are  scorched  by  hail,  others  cooled  with  wine ;  and 
there  are  some  whose  sight  is  dim  in  the  sun  but  Avho  see 
well  by  night.  Wherefore  opinion,  containing  itself  with- 
in these  impressions,  remains  safe  and  free  from  error ; 
but  when  it  goes  forth  and  attempts  to  be  curious  in  judg- 
ing and  pronouncing  concerning  exterior  things,  it  often 
deceives  itself,  and  opposes  others,  who  from  the  same 
objects  receive  contrary  impressions  and  different  imagina- 
tions. 

25.  And  Colotes  seems  properly  to  resemble  those  young 
children  who  are  but  beginning  to  learn  their  letters.  For, 
being  accustomed  to  learn  them  where  thev  see  them  in 
their  own  horn-books  and  primers,  when  they  see  them  writ- 
ten anywhere  else,  they  doubt  and  are  troubled  ;  so  those 
very  discourses,  which  he  praises  and  approves  in  the  writ- 


AGAINST  COLOTES   THE   EPICUREAN.  369 

ings  of  Epicurus,  he  neither  understands  nor  knows  again, 
when  they  are  spoken  by  others.  For  those  who  say  that 
the  sense  is  truly  informed  and  moulded  when  there  is 
presented  one  image  round  and  another  broken,  but  nev- 
ertheless permit  us  not  to  pronounce  that  the  tower  is 
round  and  the  oar  broken,  confirm  their  own  passions  and 
imaginations,  but  they  will  not  acknowledge  and  confess 
that  the  things  without  are  so  affected.  But  as  the  Cyre- 
naics  must  say  that  they  are  imprinted  with  the  figure  of  a 
horse  or  of  a  wall,  but  do  not  speak  of  the  horse  or  tlie 
wall  ;  so  also  it  is  necessary  to  say  that  the  sight  is  im- 
printed with  a  figure  round  or  with  three  unequal  sides, 
and  not  that  the  tower  is  in  that  manner  triangular  or 
round.  For  the  image  by  which  the  sight  is  aff'ected  is 
broken  ;  but  the  oar  whence  that  image  proceeds  is  not 
broken.  Since  then  there  is  a  diff"erence  between  the  im- 
pression and  the  external  subject,  the  belief  must  either 
remain  in  the  impression,  or  else  —  if  it  maintains  the 
being  in  addition  to  the  appearing  —  be  reproved  and  con 
vinced  of  untruth.  And  whereas  they  cry  out  and  are 
offended  in  behalf  of  the  sense,  because  the  Cyrenaics  say 
not  that  the  thing  without  is  hot,  but  that  the  impression 
made  on  the  sense  is  such ;  is  it  not  the  same  with  what  is 
said  touching  the  taste,  when  they  say  that  the  thing  with- 
out is  not  sweet,  but  that  some  impression  and  motion 
about  the  sense  is  such  1  And  for  him  who  says  that  he 
has  received  the  apprehension  of  an  human  form,  but  per- 
ceives not  whether  it  is  a  man,  whence  has  he  taken  occa- 
sion so  to  say  ?  Is  it  not  from  those  who  affirm  that  they 
receive  an  apprehension  of  a  bowed  figure  and  form,  but 
that  the  sight  pronounces  not  that  the  thing  which  was 
seen  is  bowed  or  round,  but  that  a  certain  effigies  of  it  is 
such  1  Yes,  by  Jupiter,  will  some  one  say  ;  but  I,  going 
near  the  tower  or  touching  the  oar,  will  pronounce  and 
affirm  that  the  one  is  straight  and  the  other  has  many  an- 

voL.  V.  24 


370  AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

gles  and  faces  ;  but  he,  when  he  comes  near  it,  will  con- 
fess that  it  seems  and  appears  so  to  him,  and  no  more. 
Yes  certainly,  good  sir,  and  more  than  this,  when  he  sees 
and  observes  the  consequence,  that  every  imagination  is 
equally  worthy  of  belief  for  itself,  and  none  for  another  ;  but 
that  they  are  all  in  like  condition.  But  this  your  opinion 
is  quite  lost,  that  all  the  imaginations  are  true  and  none 
false  or  to  be  disbelieved,  if  you  think  that  these  ought  to 
pronounce  positively  of  that  which  is  without,  but  those 
you  credit  no  farther  than  that  they  are  so  affected.  For 
if  they  are  in  equal  condition  as  to  their  being  believed, 
when  they  are  near  or  when  they  are  far  off,  it  is  just  that 
either  upon  all  of  them,  or  else  not  upon  these,  should  fol- 
low the  judgment  pronouncing  that  a  thing  is.  But  if 
there  is  a  difference  in  the  being  affected  between  those 
that  are  near  and  those  that  are  far  off,  it  is  then  false 
that  one  sense  and  imagination  is  not  more  express  and 
evident  than  another.  Therefore  those  which  they  call  tes- 
timonies and  counter-testimonies  are  nothing  to  the  sense, 
but  are  concerned  only  with  opinion.  So,  if  they  would 
have  us  following  these  to  pronounce  concerning  exterior 
things,  making  being  a  judgment  of  opinion,  and  what  ap- 
pears an  affection  of  sense,  they  transfer  the  judicature 
from  that  which  is  totally  true  to  that  which  often  fails. 

26.  But  how  full  of  trouble  and  contradiction  in  respect 
of  one  another  these  things  are,  what  need  is  there  to  say 
at  present'?  But  the  reputation  of  Arcesilaus,  who  was 
the  best  beloved  and  most  esteemed  of  all  the  philosophers 
in  his  time,  seems  to  have  been  no  small  eyesore  to  Epi 
curus  ;  who  says  of  him  that,  delivering  nothing  peculiai 
to  himself  or  of  his  own  invention,  he  imprinted  in  illiter- 
ate men  an  opinion  and  esteem  of  his  being  very  knowing 
and  learned.  Now  Arcesilaus  was  so  far  from  desiring 
any  glory  by  being  a  bringer-in  of  new  opinions,  and  from 
arrogating  to  himself  those  of  the  ancients,  that  the  so- 


AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  371 

phisters  of  that  time  blamed  him  for  attributing  to  So- 
crates, Plato,  Parmenides,  and  Heraclitus  the  doctrines 
concerning  the  retention  of  assent,  and  the  incomprehen- 
sibility of  things  ;  having  no  need  so  to  do,  but  only  that 
he  might  strengthen  them  and  render  them  recommendable 
by  ascribing  them  to  such  illustrious  personages.  For  this 
therefore  thanks  to  Colotes,  and  to  every  one  who  declares 
that  the  Academic  doctrine  was  from  higher  times  derived 
to  Arcesilaus.  Now  as  for  the  retention  of  assent  and  the 
doubting  of  all  things,  not  even  those  who  have  much  la- 
bored in  the  matter,  and  strained  themselves  to  compose 
great  books  and  large  treatises  concerning  it,  were  ever  able 
to  stir  it;  but  bringing  at  last  out  of  the  Stoa  itself  the 
cessation  from  all  actions,  as  the  Gorgon  to  frighten  away 
the  objections  that  came  against  them,  they  were  at  last 
quite  tired  and  gave  over.  For  they  could  not,  what  at- 
tempts and  stirs  soever  they  made,  obtain  so  much  from 
the  instinct  by  which  the  appetite  is  moved  to  act,  as  to 
suffer  itself  to  be  called  an  assent,  or  to  acknowledge  sense 
for  the  origin  and  principle  of  its  propension,  but  it  ap- 
peared of  its  own  accord  to  present  itself  to  act,  as  hav- 
ing no  need  to  be  joined  with  any  thing  else.  For  against 
such  adversaries  the  combat  and  dispute  is  lawful  and 
just.     And 

Such  words  as  you  have  spoke,  the  like  you  may 
Expect  to  hear.* 

For  to  speak  to  Colotes  of  instinct  and  consent  is,  I  sup- 
pose, all  one  as  to  play  on  the  harp  before  an  ass.  But  to 
those  who  can  give  ear  and  conceive,  it  is  said  that  there 
are  in  the  soul  three  sorts  of  motions,  —  the  imaginative, 
the  appetitive,  and  the  consenting.  As  to  the  imagina- 
tive or  the  apprehension,  it  cannot  oe  taken  away,  though 
one  would.  For  one  cannot,  when  things  approach,  avoid 
being  informed  and  (as  it  were)  moulded  by  them,  and  re- 

•  n.  XX.  260. 


372  AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

ceiving  an  impression  from  them.  The  appetite,  being 
stirred  up  by  the  imaginative,  effectually  moves  man  to 
that  which  is  proper  and  agreeable  to  his  nature,  just  as 
when  there  is  made  a  propension  and  inclination  in  the 
principal  and  reasonable  part.  Now  those  who  withhold 
their  assent  and  doubt  of  all  things  take  not  away  this, 
but  make  use  of  the  appetition  or  instinct  naturally  con- 
ducting every  man  to  that  which  seems  convenient  for 
him.  AVhat  then  is  the  only  thing  that  they  shun  ?  That 
in  which  is  bred  falsehood  and  deceit,  —  that  is,  opining, 
and  precipitation  in  giving  consent,  —  which  is  a  yielding 
through  weakness  to  that  which  appears,  and  has  not  any 
true  utility.  For  action  stands  in  need  of  two  things,  to 
wit,  the  apprehension  or  imagination  of  what  is  agreeable 
to  Nature,  and  the  instinct  or  appetition  driving  to  that 
which  is  so  imagined ;  of  which,  neither  the  one  nor  the 
other  is  repugnant  to  the  retention  of  assent.  For  reason 
withdraws  us  from  opinion,  and  not  from  appetition  or 
imagination.  When  therefore  that  which  is  delectable 
seems  to  us  to  be  proper  for  us,  there  is  no  need  of  opinion 
to  move  and  carry  us  to  it,  but  appetition  immediately  ex- 
erts itself,  which  is  nothing  else  but  the  motion  and  incli- 
nation of  the  soul. 

27.  It  is  their  own  saying,  that  a  man  must  only  have 
sense  and  be  flesh  and  blood,  and  pleasure  will  appear 
to  be  good.  Wherefore  also  it  will  seem  good  to  him  who 
withholds  his  assent.  For  he  also  participates  of  sense, 
and  is  made  of  flesh  and  blood,  and  as  soon  as  he  has  con- 
ceived an  imagination  of  good,  desires  it  and  does  all 
things  that  it  may  not  escape  from  him ;  but  as  much  as 
possibly  he  can,  he  will  keep  himself  with  that  which  is 
agreeable  to  his  nature,  being  drawn  by  natural  and  not  by 
geometrical  constraints.  For  these  goodly,  gentle,  and 
tickling  motions  of  the  flesh  are,  without  any  teacher, 
attractive  enough  of  themselves  —  even  as  these  men  for- 


AGAINST  COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN.  373 

get  not  to  say  —  to  draw  even  him  who  will  not  in  the 
least  acknowledge  and  confess  that  he  is  softened  and  ren- 
dered pliable  by  them.  "  But  how  comes  it  to  pass,"  per- 
haps you  will  say,  "  that  he  who  is  thus  doubtful  and 
withholds  his  assent  hastens  not  away  to  the  mountain, 
instead  of  going  to  the  bath  ]  Or  that,  rising  up  to  go 
foitti  into  the  market-place,  he  runs  not  his  head  against 
the  wall,  but  takes  his  way  directly  to  the  door?"  Do  you 
ask  this,  who  hold  all  the  senses  to  be  infallible,  and  the 
apprehensions  of  the  imagination  certain  and  true  ?  It  is 
because  the  bath  appears  to  him  not  a  mountain,  but  a 
bath ;  and  the  door  seems  not  a  wall,  but  a  door ;  and  the 
same  is  to  be  said  of  every  other  thing.  For  the  doctrine 
of  retention  does  not  pervert  the  sense,  nor  by  absurd 
passions  and  motions  work  in  it  an  alteration  disturbing 
the  imaginative  faculty ;  but  it  only  takes  away  opinions, 
and  for  the  rest,  makes  use  of  other  things  according  to 
their  nature. 

But  it  is  impossible,  you  will  say,  not  to  consent  to 
things  that  are  evident ;  for  to  deny  such  things  as  are 
believed  is  more  absurd  than  neither  to  deny  nor  affirm. 
Who  then  are  they  that  call  in  question  things  believed, 
and  contend  against  things  that  are  evident?  They  who 
overthrow  and  take  away  divination,  who  say  that  there  is 
not  any  government  of  Divine  Providence,  who  deny  the 
sun  and  the  moon  —  to  whom  all  men  offer  sacrifices  and 
whom  they  honor  and  adore  —  to  be  animated.  And  do 
not  you  take  away  that  which  is  apparent  to  all  the  world, 
that  the  young  are  contained  in  the  nature  of  their  parents  ? 
Do  you  not,  contrary  to  the  sense  of  all  men,  affirm  that 
there  is  no  medium  between  pleasure  and  pain,  saying  that 
not  to  be  in  pain  is  to  be  in  the  fruition  of  pleasure, 
that  not  to  do  is  to  suffer,  and  that  not  to  rejoice  is  to  be 
grieved  ? 

28.  But  to  let  pass  all  the  rest,  what  is  more  evident 


374  AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

and  more  generally  believed  by  all  men,  than  that  those 
who  are  seized  with  melancholy  distempers,  and  whose 
brain  is  troubled  and  whose  wits  are  distracted,  do,  when 
the  fit  is  on  them  and  their  understanding  altered  and 
transported,  imagine  that  they  see  and  hear  things  which 
they  neither  see  nor  hear?  Whence  they  frequently  cry 
out: 

Women  in  black  arrayed  bear  in  their  hands, 
To  burn  mine  eyes,  torches  and  fiery  brands. 

And  again : 

See,  in  her  arms  she  holds  my  mother  dear.* 

These,  and  many  other  illusions  more  strange  and  tragical 
than  these,  —  resembling  those  mormos  and  bugbears 
which  they  themselves  laugh  at  and  deride,  as  they  are 
described  by  Empedocles  to  be,  "  with  winding  feet  and 
undivided  hands,  bodied  like  ox  and  faced  like  man,"  — 
with  certain  other  prodigious  and  unnatural  phantoms, 
these  men  have  gathered  together  out  of  dreams  and  the 
alienations  of  distracted  minds,  and  affirm  that  none  of 
them  is  a  deception  of  the  sight,  a  falsity,  or  inconsistence ; 
but  that  all  these  imaginations  are  true,  being  bodies  and 
figures  that  come  from  the  ambient  air.  What  thing  then 
is  there  so  impossible  in  Nature  as  to  be  doubted  of,  if  it 
is  possible  to  believe  such  reveries  as  these  1  For  these 
men,  supposing  that  such  things  as  never  any  mask-maker, 
potter,  carver  of  wonderful  images,  or  skilful  and  all-daring 
painter  durst  join  together,  to  deceive  or  make  sport  for 
the  beholders,  are  seriously  and  in  good  earnest  existent, — 
nay,  which  is  more,  affirming  that,  if  they  are  not  really 
so,  all  firmness  of  belief,  all  certainty  of  judgment  and 
truth,  is  for  ever  gone,  —  do  by  these  their  suppositions 
and  affirmations  cast  all  things  into  obscurity,  and  bring 
fears  into  our  judgments,  and  suspicions  into  our  actions, 
—  if  the  things  which  we  apprehend,  do,  are  familiarly 

*  Eurip.  Iph,  Taur.  289. 


AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN.  375 

acquainted  with,  and  have  at  hand  are  grounded  on  the 
same  imagination  and  belief  with  these  furious,  absurd, 
and  extravagant  fancies.  For  the  equality  which  they 
suppose  to  be  in  all  apprehensions  rather  derogates  from 
the  credit  of  such  as  are  usual  and  rational,  than  adds  any 
belief  to  those  that  are  unusual  and  repugnant  to  reason. 
Wherefore  we  know  many  philosophers  who  would  rather 
and  more  willingly  grant  that  no  imagination  is  true  than 
that  all  are  so,  and  that  would  rather  simply  disbelieve  all 
the  men  they  never  had  conversed  with,  all  the  things  they 
had  not  experimented,  and  all  the  speeches  they  had  not 
heard  with  their  own  ears,  than  persuade  themselves  that 
any  one  of  these  imaginations,  conceived  by  these  frantic, 
fanatical,  and  dreaming  persons,  is  true.  Since  then  there 
are  some  imaginations  which  may,  and  others  which  may 
not  be  rejected,  it  is  lawful  for  us  to  retain  our  assent  con- 
cerning them,  though  there  were  no  other  cause  but  this 
discordance,  which  is  sufficient  to  work  in  us  a  suspicion 
of  things,  as  having  nothing  certain  and  assured,  but  being 
altogether  full  of  obscurity  and  perturbation.  For  in  the 
dissensions  about  the  infinity  of  worlds  and  the  nature  of 
atoms  and  individuums  and  their  inclinations,  although 
they  trouble  and  disturb  very  many,  there  is  yet  this  com- 
fort, that  none  of  all  these  things  that  are  in  question  is 
near  us,  but  rather  every  one  of  them  is  far  remote  from 
sense.  But  as  to  this  diffidence,  perplexity,  and  ignorance 
concerning  sensible  things  and  imaginations  (whether  these 
be  true  or  false),  found  even  in  our  eyes,  our  ears,  and  our 
hands,  what  opinion  does  it  not  shock?  What  consent 
does  it  not  turn  upside  down  ?  For  if  men  neither  drunk, 
intoxicated,  nor  otherwise  disturbed  in  their  senses,  but 
sober,  sound  in  mind,  and  professedly  writing  of  the  truth 
and  of  the  canons  and  rules  by  which  to  judge  it,  do  in 
the  most  evident  passions  and  motions  of  the  senses  set 
down  either  that  which  has  no  existence  for  true,  or  that 


376  AGAINST   COLOTES   THE   EPICUREAN. 

which  is  existent  for  false,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  that  a 
man  should  be  silent  about  all  things,  but  rather  that  he 
should  give  his  assent  to  any  thing ;  nor  is  it  incredible 
that  he  should  have  no  judgment  about  things  which  ap- 
pear, but  rather  that  he  should  have  contrary  judgments. 
For  it  is  less  to  be  wondered,  that  a  man  should  neither 
affirm  the  one  nor  the  other  but  keep  himself  in  a  mean 
between  two  opposite  things,  than  that  he  should  set  down 
things  repugnant  and  contrary  to  one  another.  For  he 
that  neither  affirms  nor  denies,  but  keeps  himself  quiet,  is 
less  repugnant  to  him  who  affirms  an  opinion  than  he  who 
denies  it,  and  to  him  who  denies  an  opinion  than  he  who 
affirms  it.  Now  if  it  is  possible  to  withhold  one's  assent 
concerning  these  things,  it  is  not  impossible  also  concern- 
ing others,  at  least  according  to  your  opinion,  who  say  that 
one  sense  does  not  exceed  another,  nor  one  imagination 
another. 

29.  The  doctrine  then  of  retaining  the  assent  is  not.  as 
Colotes  thinks,  a  fable  or  an  invention  of  rash  and  light- 
headed young  men  who  please  themselves  in  babbling 
and  prating  ;  but  a  certain  habit  and  disposition  of  men 
who  desire  to  keep  themselves  from  falling  into  error,  not 
leaving  the  judgment  at  a  venture  to  such  suspected  and 
inconstant  senses,  nor  suffering  themselves  to  be  deceived 
by  those  who  hold  that  in  uncertain  matters  things  which 
do  not  appear  are  credible  and  ought  to  be  believed,  when 
they  see  so  great  obscurity  and  uncertainty  in  things  which 
appear.  But  the  infinity  you  assert  is  a  fable,  and  so  indeed 
are  the  images  you  dream  of;  and  he  breeds  in  young  men 
rashness  and  self-conceitedness,  who  writ  of  Pythocles,  not 
yet  eighteen  years  of  age,  that  there  was  not  in  all  Greece 
a  better  or  more  excellent  nature,  that  he  admirably  well 
expressed  his  conceptions,  and  that  he  was  in  other  re- 
spects like  a  woman,  —  praying  that  all  these  extraordinary 
endowments  of  the  young  man  might  not  work  him  hatred 


AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  377 

and  envy.  But  these  are  sophisters  and  arrogant,  who 
write  so  impudently  and  proudly  against  great  and  excel- 
lent personages.  I  confess  indeed,  that  Plato,  Aristotle, 
Theophrastus,  and  Democritus  contradicted  those  who 
went  before  them ;  but  never  durst  any  man  besides 
Colotes  set  forth  with  such  an  insolent  title  as  this  against 
all  at  once. 

30.  Whence  it  comes  to  pass  that,  like  to  such  as  have 
offended  some  Divinity,  confessing  his  fault,  he  says  thus 
towards  the  end  of  his  book  :  "  Those  who  have  estab- 
lished laws  and  ordinances  and  instituted  monarchies  and 
other  governments  in  towns  and  cities,  have  placed  human 
life  in  great  repose  and  security  and  delivered  it  from 
many  troubles ;  and  if  any  one  should  go  about  to  take 
this  away,  we  should  lead  the  life  of  savage  beasts,  and 
should  be  every  one  ready  to  eat  up  one  another  as  we 
meet."  For  these  are  the  very  words  of  Colotes,  though 
neither  justly  nor  truly  spoken.  For  if  any  one,  taking 
away  the  laws,  should  leave  us  nevertheless  the  doctrines 
of  Parmenides,  Socrates,  Plato,  and  Heraclitus,  we  should 
be  far  from  mutually  devouring  one  another  and  leading 
the  life  of  beasts.  For  we  should  fear  dishonest  things, 
and  should  for  honesty  alone  venerate  justice,  the  Gods, 
our  superiors,  and  magistrates,  believing  that  we  have 
spirits  and  Daemons  who  are  the  guardians  and  superin- 
tendents of  human  life,  esteeming  all  the  gold  that  is  upon 
and  within  the  earth  not  to  be  equivalent  to  virtue  ;  and 
doing  that  willingly  by  reason,  as  Xenocrates  says,  which 
we  now  do  by  force  and  through  fear  of  the  law.  When 
then  will  our  life  become  savage,  unsocial,  and  bestial? 
When,  the  laws  being  taken  away,  there  shall  be  left  doc- 
trines inciting  men  to  pleasure ;  when  the  world  shall  be 
thought  not  to  be  ruled  and  governed  by  Divine  Provi- 
dence ;  when  those  men  shall  be  esteemed  wise  who  spit 
at  honesty  if  it  is  not  joined  with  pleasure ;  and  when  such 


378  AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

discourses  and  sentences  as  these  shall  be  scoffed  at  and 
derided : 

For  Justice  has  an  eye  which  all  things  sees  ; 

and  again : 

God  near  us  stands,  and  views  whate'er  we  do ; 

and  once  more :  "  God,  as  antiquity  has  delivered  to  us, 
holding  the  beginning,  middle,  and  end  of  the  universe, 
makes  a  direct  line,  walking  according  to  Nature.  After 
him  follows  Justice,  a  punisher  of  those  who  have  been 
deficient  in  their  duties  by  transgressing  the  divine  law." 

For  they  who  contemn  these  things  as  if  they  were 
fables,  and  think  that  the  sovereign  good  of  man  consists 
about  the  belly,  and  in  those  other  avenues  by  which 
pleasure  is  admitted,  are  such  as  stand  in  need  of  the  law, 
and  fear,  and  stripes,  and  some  king,  prince,  or  magistrate, 
having  in  his  hand  the  sword  of  justice  ;  to  the  end  that 
they  may  not  devour  their  neighbors  through  their  glut- 
tony, rendered  confident  by  their  atheistical  impiety.  For 
this  is  the  life  of  brutes,  because  brute  beasts  know  nothing 
better  nor  more  honest  than  pleasure,  understand  not  the 
justice  of  the  Gods,  nor  revere  the  beauty  of  virtue  ;  but 
if  Nature  has  bestowed  on  them  any  point  of  courage, 
subtlety,  or  activity,  they  make  use  of  it  for  the  satisfaction 
of  their  fleshly  pleasure  and  the  accomplishment  of  their 
lusts.  And  the  wise  Metrodorus  believes  that  this  should 
be  so,  for  he  says :  "  All  the  fine,  subtle,  and  ingenious  in- 
ventions of  the  soul  have  been  found  out  for  the  pleasure 
and  delight  of  the  flesh,  or  for  the  hopes  of  attaining  to  it 
and  enjoying  it,  and  every  act  which  tends  not  to  this  end  is 
vain  and  unprofitable."  The  laws  being  by  such  discourses 
and  philosophical  reasons  as  these  taken  away,  there  wants 
nothing  to  a  beast-like  life  but  lions'  paws,  wolves'  teeth, 
oxen's  paunches,  and  camels'  necks  ;  and  these  passions 
and  doctrines  do  the  beasts  themselves,  for  want  of  speech 


AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN.  379 

and  letters,  express  by  their  bellowings,  neigliiugs,  and  bray- 
ings,  all  their  voice  being  for  their  belly  and  the  pleasure 
of  their  flesh,  which  they  embrace  and  rejoice  in  either 
present  or  future  ;  unless  it  be  perhaps  some  animal  which 
naturally  takes  delight  in  chattering  and  garrulity. 

31.  No  sufficient  praise  therefore  or  equivalent  to  their 
deserts  can  be  given  those  who,  for  the  restraining  of  such 
bestial  passions,  have  set  down  laws,  established  policy  and 
government  of  state,  instituted  magistrates  and  ordained 
good  and  wholesome  laws.  But  who  are  they  that  utterly 
confound  and  abolish  this  ?  Are  they  not  those  who  withdraw 
themselves  and  their  followers  from  all  part  in  the  govern- 
ment ?  Are  they  not  those  who  say  that  the  garland  of  tran- 
quillity and  a  repos6d  life  are  far  more  valuable  than  all  the 
kingdoms  and  principalities  in  the  world]  Are  they  not  those 
who  declare  that  reigning  and  being  a  king  is  a  mistaking 
the  path  and  straying  from  the  right  way  of  felicity  ?  And 
they  write  in  express  terms  :  "  We  are  to  treat  how  a  man 
may  best  keep  and  preserve  the  end  of  Nature,  and  how 
he  may  from  the  very  beginning  avoid  entering  of  his  own 
free  will  and  voluntarily  upon  offices  of  magistracy,  and 
government  over  the  people."  And  yet  again,  these  other 
words  are  theirs :  "  There  is  no  need  at  all  that  a  man 
should  tire  out  his  mind  and  body  to  preserve  the  Greeks, 
and  to  obtain  from  them  a  crown  of  wisdom  ;  but  to  eat 
and  drink  well,  O  Timocrates,  without  prejudicing,  but 
rather  pleasing  the  flesh."  And  yet  in  the  constitution  of 
laws  and  policy,  which  Colotes  so  much  praises,  the  first 
and  most  important  article  is  the  belief  and  persuasion  of 
the  Gods.  Wherefore  also  Lycurgus  heretofore  sancti- 
fied the  Lacedaemonians,  Numa  the  Romans,  the  ancient 
Ion  the  Athenians,  and  Deucalion  universally  all  the 
Greeks,  through  prayers,  oaths,  oracles,  and  omens,  render- 
ing them  devout  and  affectionate  to  the  Gods  by  means 
of  hopes   and  fears  at  once,    xlnd  if   you    will  take  the 


380         AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN, 

pains  to  travel  through  the  world,  you  may  find  towns  and 
cities  without  walls,  without  letters,  without  kings,  without 
houses,  without  wealth,  without  money,  without  theatres 
and  places  of  exercise  ;  but  there  was  never  seen  nor  shall 
be  seen  by  man  any  city  without  temples  and  Gods,  or 
without  making  use  of  prayers,  oaths,  divinations,  and  sac- 
rifices for  the  obtaining  of  blessings  and  benefits,  and  the 
averting  of  curses  and  calamities.  Nay,  I  am  of  opinion, 
that  a  city  might  sooner  be  built  without  any  ground  to  fix 
it  on,  than  a  commonweal  be  constituted  altogether  void 
of  any  religion  and  opinion  of  the  Gods,  —  or  being  consti- 
tuted, be  preserved.  But  this,  which  is  the  foundation 
and  ground  of  all  laws,  do  these  men,  not  going  circularly 
about,  nor  secretly  and  by  enigmatical  speeches,  but  attack- 
ing it  with  the  first  of  their  most  principal  opinions,  di- 
rectly subvert  and  overthrow ;  and  then  afterwards,  as  if 
they  were  haunted  by  the  Furies,  they  come  and  confess 
that  they  have  grievously  ofi"ended  in  thus  taking  away  the 
laws,  and  confounding  the  ordinances  of  justice  and  policy, 
that  they  may  not  be  capable  of  pardon.  For  to  err  in 
opinion,  though  it  be  not  the  part  of  wise  men,  is  at  least 
human  ;  but  to  impute  to  others  the  errors  and  ofi"ences 
they  commit  themselves,  how  can  any  one  declare  what  it 
is,  if  he  forbears  to  give  it  the  name  it  deserves  ? 

32.  For  if,  in  writing  against  Antidorus  or  Bion  the 
sophister,  he  had  made  mention  of  laws,  policy,  order,  and 
justice,  might  not  either  of  them  have  said  to  him,  as 
Electra  did  to  her  mad  brother  Orestes : 

Lie  still  at  ease,  poor  wretch ;  keep  in  thy  bed,* 

and  there  cherish  thy  bit  of  flesh,  leaving  those  to  expostu- 
late and  find  fault  with  me  who  have  themselves  lived  a 
civil  and  domestic  life  1  Now  such  are  all  those  whom 
Colotes  has  reviled  and  railed  at  in  his  book.     Amongst 

♦  Eurip.  Orest.  258. 


AGAINST   COLOTES   THE   EPICUREAN.  381 

whom,  Democritus  in  his  writings  advises  and  exhorts  to 
the  learning  of  political  science,  as  being  the  greatest  of 
all,  and  to  the  accustoming  one's  self  to  bear  fatigues,  by 
which  men  attain  to  great  wealth  and  honor.  And  as  for 
Parmenides,  he  beautified  and  adorned  his  native  country 
with  most  excellent  laws  which  he  there  established,  so 
that  even  to  this  day  the  officers  every  year,  when  they 
enter  first  on  the  exercise  of  their  charges,  are  obliged  to 
swear  that  they  will  observe  the  laws  and  ordinances  of 
Parmenides.  Empedocles  brought  to  justice  some  of  the 
principal  of  his  city,  and  caused  them  to  be  condemned  for 
their  insolent  behavior  and  embezzling  of  the  public  treas- 
ure, and  also  delivered  his  country  from  sterility  and  the 
plague  —  to  which  calamities  it  was  before  subject  —  by 
immuring  and  stopping  up  the  holes  of  certain  mountains, 
whence  there  issued  an  hot  south  wind,  which  overspread 
all  the  plain  country  and  blasted  it.  And  Socrates,  after 
he  was  condemned,  when  his  friends  offered  him,  if  he 
pleased,  an  opportunity  of  making  his  escape,  absolutely 
refused  to  make  use  of  it,  that  he  might  maintain  the  au- 
thority of  the  laws,  choosing  rather  to  die  unjustly  than  to 
save  himself  by  disobeying  the  laws  of  his  country.  Melis- 
sus,  being  captain  general  of  his  country,  vanquished  the 
Athenians  in  a  battle  at  sea.  Plato  left  in  his  writinsfs  ex- 
cellent  discourses  concerning  the  laws,  government,  and 
policy  of  a  commonweal ;  and  yet  he  imprinted  much  bet- 
ter in  the  hearts  and  minds  of  his  disciples  and  familiars, 
which  caused  Sicily  to  be  delivered  by  Dion,  and  Thrace 
to  be  set  at  liberty  by  Pytho  and  Heraclides,  who  slew 
C(  tys.  Chabrias  also  and  Phocion,  those  two  great  gener- 
als of  the  Athenians,  came  out  of  the  Academy.  As  for 
Epicurus,  he  indeed  sent  certain  persons  into  Asia  to  chide 
Timocrates,  and  had  him  removed  out  of  the  king's  palace, 
because  he  had  offended  his  brother  Metrodorus  ;  and  this 
is  written  in  their  own  books.     But  Plato  sent  of  his  disci- 


382  AGAINST  COLOTES   THE  JiPICUREAN. 

pies  and  friends,  Aristonymus  to  the  Arcadians,  to  set  in 
order  their  commonweal,  Phormio  to  the  Eleans,  and 
Menedemus  to  the  Pyrrhaeans.  Eudoxus  gave  laws  to  the 
Cnidians,  and  Aristotle  to  the  Stagirites,  who  Avere  both  of 
them  the  intimates  of  Plato.  And  Alexander  the  Great 
demanded  of  Xenocrates  rules  and  precepts  for  reigning 
well.  And  he  who  was  sent  to  the  same  Alexander  by  the 
Grecians  dwelling  in  Asia,  and  who  most  of  all  inflamed 
and  stimulated  him  to  embrace  and  undertake  the  war 
against  the  barbarian  king  of  Persia,  was  Delius  the 
Ephesian.  one  of  Plato's  familiars.  Zeno,  the  disciple  of 
Parmenides,  having  attempted  to  kill  the  tyrant  Demylus, 
and  failing  in  his  design,  maintained  the  doctrine  of  Par 
menides,  like  pure  and  fine  gold  tried  in  the  fire,  that  there 
is  nothing  which  a  magnanimous  man  ought  to  dread  but 
dishonor,  and  that  there  are  none  but  children  and  women, 
or  eff'eminate  and  women-hearted  men,  who  fear  pain. 
For,  having  with  his  own  teeth  bitten  ofi"  his  tongue,  he 
spit  it  in  the  tyrant's  face. 

33.  But  out  of  the  school  of  Epicurus,  and  from  among 
those  who  follow  bis  doctrine,  I  will  not  ask  what  tyrant- 
killer  has  proceeded,  nor  yet  what  man  valiant  and  victori- 
ous in  feats  of  arms,  what  lawgiver,  what  prince,  what 
counsellor,  or  what  governor  of  the  people ;  neither  will  I 
demand,  who  of  them  has  been  tormented  or  has  died  for 
supporting  right  and  justice.  But  which  of  all  these  sages 
has  for  the  benefit  and  service  of  his  country  undertaken 
so  much  as  one  voyage  at  sea,  gone  of  an  embassy,  or  ex- 
pended a  sum  of  money "?  What  record  is  there  extant  of 
one  civil  action  in  matter  of  government,  performed  by  any 
of  you  ?  And  yet,  because  Metrodorus  went  down  one  day 
from  the  city  as  far  as  the  haven  of  Piraeus,  taking  a 
journey  of  forty  stadia  to  assist  Mithres  a  Syrian,  one  of 
the  king  of  Persia's  court  who  had  been  arrested  and 
taken  prisoner,  he  writ  of  it  to  every  one  and  in  all  his 


AGAINST  COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN.  383 

letters,  Epicurus  also  highly  magnifying  and  extolling  this 
wonderful  voyage.  What  value  then,  think  you,  would 
they  have  put  upon  it,  if  they  had  done  such  an  act  as 
Aristotle  did,  who  procured  the  restoration  and  rebuilding 
of  Stagira,  the  town  of  his  nativity,  after  it  had  been  de- 
stroyed by  King  Philip  ?  Or  as  Theophrastus,  who  twice 
delivered  his  city,  when  possessed  and  held  by  tyrants'? 
Would  not  the  river  Nile  sooner  have  given  over  to  bear 
the  paper-reed,  than  they  have  been  weary  of  writing  their 
brave  exploits? 

And  it  is  not  the  greatest  indignity,  that,  of  so  many 
sects  of  philosophers  as  have  been  extant,  they  alone 
should  enjoy  the  benefits  that  are  in  cities,  without  hav'ng 
ever  contributed  to  them  any  thing  of  their  own ;  but  far 
worse  is  it  that,  while  there  are  not  even  any  tragical  or 
comical  poets  who  do  not  always  endeavor  to  do  or  say 
some  good  thing  or  other  in  defence  of  the  laws  and  policy, 
these  men,  if  peradventure  they  write,  write  of  policy,  that 
we  may  not  concern  ourselves  in  the  government  of  the 
commonweal,  —  of  rhetoric,  that  we  may  not  perform  an 
act  of  eloquence,  —  and  of  royalty,  that  we  may  shun  the 
living  and  conversing  with  kings.  Nor  do  they  ever  name 
any  of  those  great  personages  who  have  intermeddled  in 
civil  aifairs,  but  only  to  scoff  at  them  and  abolish  their 
glory.  Thus  they  say  that  Epaminondas  had  something  of 
good,  but  that  very  little,  or  iiiH>t6v,  for  that  is  the  very  word 
they  use.  They  moreover  call  him  iron-hearted,  and  ask 
what  ailed  him  that  he  went  marching  his  army  through 
all  Peloponnesus,  and  why  he  did  not  rather  keep  himself 
quiet  at  home  with  a  night-cap  on  his  head,  employed  only 
in  cherishing  and  making  much  of  his  belly.  But  methinks 
I  ought  not  in  this  place  to  omit  what  Metrodorus  writ  in 
his  book  of  Philosophy,  when,  utterly  abjuring  all  meddling 
in  the  management  of  the  state,  he  said  thus :  "  Some, 
through  an  abundance  of  vanity  and  arrogance,  have  so 


384  AGAINST   COLOTES  THE  EPICUREAN. 

deep  an  insight  into  the  business  of  it,  that  in  treating 
about  the  precepts  of  good  life  and  virtue,  they  suffer  them- 
selves to  be  carried  away  with  the  very  same  desires  as 
were  Lycurgus  and  Solon."  What  is  this  ?  Was  it  then 
vanity  and  abundance  of  vanity,  to  set  free  the  city  of 
Athens,  to  render  Sparta  well-policied  and  governed  by 
wholesome  laws,  that  young  men  might  do  nothing  licen- 
tiously, nor  get  children  upon  common  courtesans  and 
whores,  and  that  riches,  delights,  intemperance,  and  dis- 
solution might  no  longer  bear  sway  and  have  command  in 
cities,  but  law  and  justice?  For  these  were  the  desires  of 
Solon.  To  this  Metrodorus,  by  way  of  scorn  and  con- 
tumely, adds  this  conclusion :  "  It  is  then  very  well  be- 
seeming a  free-born  gentleman  to  laugh  heartily,  as  at  other 
men,  so  especially  at  these  Solons  and  Lycurguses."  But 
such  a  one,  O  Metrodorus,  is  not  a  gentleman,  but  a  servile 
and  dissolute  person,  and  deserves  to  be  scourged,  not  with 
that  whip  which  is  for  free-born  persons,  but  with  that 
scourge  strung  with  ankle-bones,  with  which  those  gelded 
sacrificers  called  Galli  were  wont  to  be  chastised,  when 
they  failed  of  performing  their  duty  in  the  ceremonies  and 
sacrifices  of  the  Goddess  Cybele,  the  great  Mother  of  the 
Gods. 

34.  But  that  they  made  war  not  against  the  lawgivers 
but  against  the  laws  themselves,  one  may  hear  and  under- 
stand from  Epicurus.  For  in  his  questions,  he  asks  him- 
self, whether  a  wise  man,  being  assured  that  it  will  not  bo 
known,  will  do  any  thing  that  the  laws  forbid.  To  which 
he  answers  :  "  That  is  not  so  easy  to  determine  simply,"  — 
that  is,  "  I  will  do  it  indeed,  but  I  am  not  willing  to  con- 
fess it."  And  again,  I  suppose,  writing  to  Idomeneus,  he 
exhorts  him  not  to  make  his  life  a  slave  to  the  laws  or  to 
the  opinions  of  men,  unless  it  be  to  avoid  the  trouble  they 
prepare,  by  the  scourge  and  chastisement,  so  near  at  hand. 
If  then  those   who  abolish  the  laws,  governments,  and 


AGAINST   COLOTES   THE  EPICUREAN.  385 

policies  of  men  subvert  and  destroy  human  life,  and  if 
Metrodorus  and  Epicurus  do  this,  by  dehorting  and  with- 
drawing their  friends  from  concerning  themselves  in  public 
affairs,  by  hating  those  who  intermeddle  in  them,  by  revil- 
ing the  first  most  wise  lawgivers,  and  by  advising  con- 
tempt of  the  laws  provided  there  is  no  fear  and  danger  of 
the  whip  and  punishment,  I  do  not  see  that  Colotes  has 
brought  so  many  false  accusations  against  the  other  phi- 
losophers as  he  has  alleged  and  advanced  true  ones  against 
the  writings  and  doctrines  of  Epicurus. 


vox.  V.  25 


PLUTARCH'S  CONSOLATORY  LETTER  TO  fflS 
WIFE. 


PLUTARCH  TO  HIS  WIFE:    ALL  HEALTH. 

L  As  for  the  messenger  you  despatched  to  tell  me  of 
the  death  of  my  little  daughter,  it  seems  he  missed  his 
way  as  he  was  going  to  Athens.  But  when  I  came  to 
Tanagra,  I  heard  of  it  by  my  niece.  I  suppose  by  this 
time  the  funeral  is  over.  I  wish  that  whatever  has  been 
done  may  create  you  no  dissatisfaction,  as  well  now  as 
hereafter.  But  if  you  have  designedly  let  any  thing  alone, 
depending  upon  my  judgment,  thinking  better  to  deter- 
mine the  point  if  I  were  with  you,  I  pray  let  it  be  without 
ceremony  and  timorous  superstition,  which  I  know  are  far 
from  you. 

2.  Only,  dear  wife,  let  you  and  me  bear  our  affliction 
with  patience.  I  know  very  well  and  do  comprehend  what 
loss  we  have  had  ;  but  if  I  should  find  you  grieve  beyond 
measure,  this  would  trouble  me  more  than  the  thing  itself. 
For  I  had  my  birth  neither  from  a  stock  nor  a  stone  ;  *  and 
you  know  it  full  well,  I  having  been  assistant  to  you  in  the 
education  of  so  many  children,  which  we  brought  up  at 
home  under  our  own  care.  This  daughter  was  born  after 
four  sons,  when  you  were  longing  to  bear  a  daughter ; 
which  made  me  call  her  by  your  own  name.  Therefore  I 
know  she  was  particularly  dear  to  you.  And  grief  must 
have  a  peculiar  pungency  in  a  mind  tenderly  affectionate 
to  children,  when  you  call  to  mind  how  naturally  witty  and 

*  See  II.  XXTT.  126. 


PLUTARCH'S  LETTER  TO  HIS   WIFE.  387 

innocent  she  was,  void  of  anger,  and  not  querulous.  She 
was  naturally  mild,  and  compassionate  to  a  miracle.  And 
her  gratitude  and  kindness  not  only  gave  us  delight,  but 
also  manifested  her  generous  nature  ;  for  she  would  pray 
her  nurse  to  give  suck,  not  only  to  other  children,  but  to 
her  very  playthings,  as  it  were  courteously  inviting  them 
to  her  table,  and  making  the  best  cheer  for  them  she 
could. 

3.  Now,  my  dear  wife,  I  see  no  reason  why  these  and 
the  like  things,  which  delighted  us  so  much  when  she 
was  alive,  should  upon  remembrance  of  them  afflict  us 
when  she  is  dead.  But  I  also  fear  lest,  while  we  cease 
from  sorrowing,  we  should  forget  her ;  as  Clymene  said, 

I  hate  the  handy  horned  bow, 

And  banish  youthful  pastimes  now ; 

because  she  would  not  be  put  in  mind  of  her  son  by  the 
exercises  he  had  been  used  to.  For  Nature  always  shuns 
such  things  as  are  troublesome.  But  since  our  little 
daughter  afforded  all  our  senses  the  sweetest  and  most 
charming  pleasure  ;  so  ought  we  to  cherish  her  memory, 
which  will  conduce  many  ways  —  or  rather  many  fold  — 
more  to  our  joy  than  our  grief.  And  it  is  but  just,  that 
the  same  arguments  which  we  have  oft-times  used  to  others 
should  prevail  upon  ourselves  at  this  so  seasonable  a  time, 
and  that  we  should  not  supinely  sit  down  and  overwhelm 
the  joys  which  we  have  tasted  with  a  multiplicity  of  new 
griefs. 

4.  Moreover,  they  who  were  present  at  the  funeral  re- 
port this  with  admiration,  that  you  neither  put  on  mourn- 
ing, nor  disfigured  yourself  or  any  of  your  maids ;  neither 
were  there  any  costly  preparations  nor  magnificent  pomp  ; 
but  all  things  were  managed  with  silence  and  modera- 
tion in  the  presence  of  our  relatives  alone.  And  it 
seemed  not  strange  to  me  that  you,  who  never  used  richly 


388  PLUTARCH'S   CONSOLATORY  LETTER 

to  dress  yourself  for  the  theatre  or  other  public  solemni- 
ties, esteeming  such  magnificence  vain  and  useless  even 
in  matters  of  delight,  have  now  practised  frugality  on 
this  sad  occasion.  For  a  virtuous  woman  ought  not  only 
to  preserve  her  purity  in  riotous  feasts,  but  also  to  think 
thus  with  herself,  that  the  tempest  of  the  mind  in  violent 
grief  must  be  calmed  by  patience,  which  does  not  intrench 
on  the  natural  love  of  parents  towards  their  children,  as 
many  think,  but  only  struggles  against  the  disorderly  and 
irregular  passions  of  the  mind.  For  we  allow  this  love 
of  children  to  discover  itself  in  lamenting,  wishing  for, 
and  longing  after  them  when  they  are  dead.  But  the  ex- 
cessive inclination  to  grief,  which  carries  people  on  to 
unseemly  exclamations  and  furious  behavior,  is  no  less 
culpable  than  luxurious  intemperance.  Yet  reason  seems 
to  plead  in  its  excuse ;  because,  instead  of  pleasure,  grief 
and  sorrow  are  ingredients  of  the  crime.  What  can  be 
more  irrational,  I  pray,  than  to  check  excessive  laughter 
and  joy,  and  yet  to  give  a  free  course  to  rivers  of  tears 
and  sighs,  which  flow  from  the  same  fountain'?  Or,  as 
some  do,  quarrel  with  their  wives  for  using  artificial  helps 
to  beauty,  and  in  the  mean  time  suffer  them  to  shave  theii 
heads,  wear  the  mournful  black,  sit  disconsolate,  and  lie  in 
pain?  And,  which  is  worst  of  all,  if  their  wives  at  any 
time  chastise  their  servants  or  maids  immoderately,  they 
will  interpose  and  hinder  them,  but  at  the  same  time  suf- 
fering them  to  torment  and  punish  themselves  most 
cruelly,  in  a  case  which  peculiarly  requires  their  great- 
est tenderness   and  humanity  ? 

5.  But  between  us,  dear  wife,  there  never  was  any 
occasion  for  such  contests,  nor,  I  think,  will  there  ever 
be.  For  there  is  no  philosopher  of  our  acquaintance 
who  is  not  in  love  with  your  frugality,  both  in  apparel  and 
diet ;  nor  a  citizen,  to  whom  the  simplicity  and  plainness 
of  your  dress  is  not  conspicuous,  both  at  religious  sacrifices 


TO   HIS   WIFE  .jy9 

and  public  shows  in  the  theatre.  Formerly  also  you  dis- 
covered on  the  like  occasion  a  great  constancy  of  mind, 
when  you  lost  your  eldest  son ;  and  again,  when  the 
lovely  Chaeron  left  us.  For  I  remember,  when  the  news 
was  brought  me  of  my  son's  death,  as  I  was  returning 
home  with  some  friends  and  guests  who  accomjDanied  me 
to  my  house,  when  they  beheld  all  things  in  order,  and 
observed  a  profound  silence  everywhere,  —  as  they  after- 
wards declared  to  others,  —  they  thought  no  such  calamity 
had  happened,  but  that  the  report  was  false.  So  discreetly 
had  you  settled  the  affairs  of  the  house  at  that  time,  when 
no  small  confusion  and  disorder  might  have  been  expected. 
And  yet  you  gave  this  son  suck  yourself,  and  endured  the 
lancing  of  your  breast,  to  prevent  the  ill  effects  of  a  contu- 
sion.  These  are  things  worthy  of  a  generous  woman,  and 
one  that  loves  her  children. 

6.  Whereas,  we  see  most  other  women  receive  their 
children  in  their  hands  as  playthings  with  a  feminine 
mirth  and  jollity ;  and  afterwards,  if  they  chance  to  die, 
they  will  drench  themselves  in  the  most  vain  and  exces- 
sive sorrow.  Not  that  this  is  any  effect  of  their  love,  for 
that  gentle  passion  acts  regularly  and  discreetly ;  but  it 
rather  proceeds  from  a  desire  of  vain-glory,  mixed  with 
a  little  natural  affection,  which  renders  their  mourning  bar- 
barous, brutish,  and  extravagant.  Which  thing  Aesop 
knew  very  well,  when  he  told  the  story  of  Jupiter's  giving 
honors  to  the  Gods ;  for,  it  seems,  Grief  also  made  her  de- 
mands, and  it  was  granted  that  she  should  be  honored,  but 
only  by  those  who  were  willing  of  their  own  accord  to  do 
it.  And  indeed,  this  is  the  beginning  of  sorrow.  Every- 
body first  gives  her  free  access  ;  and  after  she  is  once  rooted 
and  settled  and  become  familiar,  she  will  not  be  forced 
thence  with  their  best  endeavors.  Therefore  she  must  be 
resisted  at  her  first  approach  ;  nor  must  we  surrender  the 
fort  to  her  by  any  exterior  signs,  whether  of  apparel,  or 


390  PLUTARCH'S  CONSOLATORY  LETTER 

shaving  the  hair,  or  any  other  such  like  symptoms  of 
mournful  weakness ;  which  happening  daily,  and  wound- 
ing us  by  degrees  with  a  kind  of  foolish  bashfulness,  at 
length  do  so  enervate  the  mind,  and  reduce  her  to  such 
straits,  that  quite  dejected  and  besieged  with  grief,  the 
poor  timorous  wretch  dare  not  be  merry,  or  see  the  light, 
or  eat  and  drink  in  company.  This  inconvenience  is  ac- 
companied by  a  neglect  of  the  body,  carelessness  of  anoint- 
ing and  bathing,  with  whatsoever  else  relates  to  the 
elegancy  of  human  life.  Whereas,  on  the  contrary,  the 
soul,  when  it  is  disordered,  ought  to  receive  aid  from 
the  vigor  of  a  healthful  body.  For  the  sharpest  edge  of  the 
soul's  grief  is  rebated  and  slacked,  when  the  body  is  in 
tranquillity  and  ease,  like  the  sea  in  a  calm.  But  where, 
from  an  ill  course  of  diet,  the  body  becomes  dry  and  hot, 
so  that  it  cannot  supply  the  soul  with  commodious  and 
serene  spirits,  but  only  breathes  forth  melancholy  vapors 
and  exhalations,  which  perpetually  annoy  her  with  grief 
and  sadness  ;  there  it  is  difficult  for  a  man  (though  never  so 
willing  and  desirous)  to  recover  the  tranquillity  of  his 
mind,  after  it  has  been  disturbed  with  so  many  evil 
affections. 

7.  But  that  which  is  most  to  be  dreaded  in  this  case  does 
not  at  all  affrighten  me,  to  wit,  the  visits  of  foolish  women, 
and  their  accompanying  you  in  your  tears  and  lamenta- 
tions ;  by  which  they  sharpen  your  grief,  not  suffering  it 
either  of  itself  or  by  the  help  of  others  to  fade  and  vanish 
away.  For  I  am  not  ignorant  how  great  a  combat  you 
lately  entered,  when  you  assisted  the  sister  of  Theon,  and 
opposed  the  women  who  came  running  in  with  horrid  cries 
and  lamentations,  bringing  fuel  as  it  were  to  her  passion. 
Assuredly,  when  men  see  their  neighbor's  house  on  fire, 
every  one  contributes  his  utmost  to  quench  it ;  but  when 
they  see  the  mind  inflamed  with  furious  passion,  they  bring 
fuel  to  nourish  and  increase  the  flame.     When  a  man's 


TO   HIS  WIFE.  391 

eye  is  in  pain,  he  is  not  suffered  to  touch  it,  though  the 
inflammation  provoke  him  to  it,  nor  will  they  that  are  near 
him  meddle  with  it.  But  he  who  is  galled  with  grief  sits 
and  exposes  his  distemper  to  every  one,  like  waters  that 
all  may  poach  in  ;  and  so  that  which  at  fkst  seemed  a  light 
itching  or  trivial  smart,  by  much  fretting  and  provoking, 
becomes  a  great  and  almost  incurable  disease.  But  I 
know  very  well  that  you  will  arm  yourself  against  these 
inconveniences. 

8.  Moreover,  I  would  have  you  endeavor  to  call  often  to 
mind  that  time  when  our  daughter  was  not  as  yet  born  to 
us,  and  when  we  had  no  cause  to  complain  of  Fortune. 
Then,  joining  that  time  with  this,  argue  thus  with  your- 
self, that  we  are  now  in  the  same  condition  as  then. 
Otherwise,  dear  wife,  we  shall  seem  discontented  at  the 
bhth  of  our  little  daughter,  if  we  own  that  our  circum- 
stances were  better  before  her  birth.  But  the  two  years 
of  her  life  are  by  no  means  to  be  forgotten  by  us,  but  to 
be  numbered  amongst  our  blessings,  in  that  they  afforded 
us  an  agreeable  pleasure.  Nor  must  we  esteem  a  small 
good  for  a  great  evil ;  nor  ungratefully  complain  against 
Fortune  for  what  she  has  actually  given  us,  because  she 
has  not  added  what  we  wished  for.  Certainly,  to  speak 
reverently  of  the  Gods,  and  to  bear  our  lot  with  an  even 
mind  Avithout  accusing  Fortune,  always  brings  with  it  a 
fair  reward.  But  he  who  in  such  a  case  calls  prosperous 
things  to  mind,  and  turning  his  thoughts  from  dark  and 
melancholy  objects,  fixes  them  on  bright  and  cheerful  ones, 
will  either  quite  extinguish  his  grief,  or  by  allaying  it  with 
contrary  sentiments,  will  render  it  weak  and  feeble.  For, 
as  perfumes  bring  delight  to  the  nose,  and  arm  it  against 
ill  scents,  so  the  remembrance  of  happiness  gives  necessary 
assistance  in  adversity  to  those  who  avoid  not  the  recollec- 
tion of  their  past  prosperity  nor  complain  at  all  against 
Fortune.    For  certainly  it  would  little  become  us  to  accuse 


392  PLUTARCH'S   CONSOLATORY  LETTER 

our  life,  if  like  a  book  it  hath  but  one  little  blot  in  it, 
though  all  the  rest  be  fair  and  clean. 

9.  For  you  have  oftentimes  heard,  that  true  happiness 
consists  in  the  right  discourses  and  counsels  of  the  mind, 
tending  to  its  own  constant  establishment,  and  that  the 
changes  of  Fortune  are  of  no  great  importance  to  the  feli- 
city of  our  life.  But  even  if  we  must  also  be  governed  by 
exterior  things,  and  with  the  common  sort  of  people  have 
a  regard  to  casualties,  and  suffer  any  kind  of  men  to  be 
judges  of  our  happiness,  however,  do  not  you  take  notice 
of  the  tears  and  moans  of  such  as  visit  you  at  present, 
condoling  your  misfortunes ;  for  their  tears  and  sighs  are 
but  of  course.  But  rather,  do  you  consider  how  happy 
every  one  of  them  esteems  you  for  the  children  you  have, 
the  house  you  keep,  and  the  life  you  lead.  For  it  would 
be  an  ill  thing,  while  others  covet  your  fortune,  though 
sullied  with  this  affliction,  that  you  should  exclaim  against 
what  you  enjoy,  and  not  be  sensible,  from  the  taste  of 
affliction,  how  grateful  you  ought  to  be  for  the  happiness 
which  remains  untouched.  Or,  like  some  who,  collecting 
all  the  defective  verses  of  Homer,  pass  over  at  the  same 
time  so  many  excellent  parts  of  his  poems,  so  shall  we 
peevishly  complain  of  and  reckon  up  the  inconveniences 
of  our  life,  neglecting  at  the  same  time  promiscuously  the 
benefits  thereof?  Or,  shall  we  imitate  covetous  and  sordid 
misers,  who,  having  heaped  together  much  riches,  never 
enjoy  what  they  have  in  possession,  but  bewail  it  if  it 
chance  to  be  lost? 

But  if  you  lament  the  poor  girl  because  she  died  unmar- 
ried and  without  offspring,  you  have  wherewithal  to  com- 
fort yourself,  in  that  you  are  defective  in  none  of  these 
things,  having  had  your  share.  And  these  are  not  to  be 
esteemed  at  once  great  evils  where  they  are  wanted,  and 
small  benefits  where  they  are  enjoyed.  But  so  long  as  she 
is  gone  to  a  place  where  she  feels  no  pain,  what  need  is 


TO   HIS   WIFE.  393 

there  of  our  grief?  For  what  harm  can  befall  us  from 
her,  when  she  is  free  from  all  hurt  ?  And  surely  the  loss 
of  even  great  things  abates  the  grief,  when  it  is  come  to 
this,  that  we  have  no  need  or  use  of  them.  But  thy 
Timoxena  was  deprived  but  of  small  matter ;  for  she  had 
no  knowledge  but  of  such,  neither  took  she  delight  but  in 
such  small  things.  But  for  that  which  she  never  was  sen- 
sible of,  and  which  did  not  so  much  as  once  enter  into  her 
thoughts,  how  can  you  say  it  is  taken  from  her? 

10.  As  for  what  you  hear  others  say,  who  persuade  the 
vulgar  that  the  soul,  when  once  freed  from  the  body,  suf- 
fers no  inconvenience  or  evil  nor  is  sensible  at  all,  I  know 
that  you  are  better  grounded  in  the  doctrines  delivered 
down  to  us  from  our  ancestors,  as  also  in  the  sacred  mys- 
teries of  Bacchus,  than  to  believe  such  stories ;  for  the 
religious  symbols  are  well  known  to  us  who  are  of  the 
fraternity.  Therefore  be  assured,  that  the  soul,  being  in- 
capable of  death,  is  affected  in  the  same  manner  as  birds 
that  are  kept  in  a  cage.  For  if  she  has  been  a  long  time 
educated  and  cherished  in  the  body,  and  by  long  custom 
has  been  made  familiar  with  most  things  of  this  life,  she 
will  (though  separable)  return  again,  and  at  length  enter 
the  body  ;  nor  ceaseth  it  by  new  births  now  and  then  to  be 
entangled  in  the  chances  and  events  of  this  life.  For  do 
not  think  that  old  age  is  therefore  evil  spoken  of  and 
blamed,  because  it  is  accompanied  with  wrinkles,  gray 
hairs,  and  weakness  of  body.  Bat  this  is  the  most  trouble- 
some thing  in  old  age,  that  it  maketh  the  soul  weak  in  its 
remembrance  of  divine  things,  and  too  earnest  for  things 
relating  to  the  body ;  thus  it  bendeth  and  boweth,  retain- 
ing that  form  which  it  took  of  the  body.  But  that  which 
is  taken  away  in  youth,  being  more  soft  and  tractable,  soon 
returns  to  its  native  vigor  and  beauty.  Just  as  fire  that  is 
quenched,  if  it  be  forthwith  kindled  again,  sparkles  and 
burns  out  immediately.  ...  So  most  speedily 


394  PLUTAECH'S  LETTER  TO  HIS  WIFE. 

'Twere  good  to  pass  the  gates  of  death,* 

before  too  great  a  love  of  bodily  and  earthly  things  be  en- 
gendered in  the  soul,  and  it  become  soft  and  tender  by 
being  used  to  the  body,  and  (as  it  were)  by  charms  and 
potions  incorporated  with  it. 

11.  But  the  truth  of  this  will  appear  in  the  laws  and 
traditions  received  from  our  ancestors.  For  when  children 
die,  no  libations  nor  sacrifices  are  made  for  them,  nor  any 
other  of  those  ceremonies  which  are  wont  to  be  performed 
for  the  dead.  For  infants  have  no  part  of  earth  or  earthly 
affections.  Nor  do  we  hover  or  tarry  about  their  sepulchres 
or  monuments,  or  sit  by  when  their  dead  bodies  are  ex- 
posed. The  laws  of  our  country  forbid  this,  and  teach  us 
that  it  is  an  impious  thing  to  lament  for  those  whose  souls 
pass  immediately  into  a  better  and  more  divine  state. 
Wherefore,  since  it  is  safer  to  give  credit  to  our  tradi- 
tions than  to  call  them  in  question,  let  us  comply  with  the 
custom  ia  outward  and  public  behavior,  and  let  our  inte- 
rior be  more  unpolluted,  pure,  and  holy.  ... 

*  See  H.  V.  646  ;  XXHI.  71. 


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


1.  As  I  was  considering  with  myself  to  bring  forth  and 
propose  to  the  judgment  of  this  worthy  company  the  dis- 
course I  held  yesterday  in  your  presence,  methought  I 
heard  political  virtue  —  not  in  the  illusion  of  a  dream,  but 
in  a  true  and  real  vision  —  say  thus  to  me  : 

A  golden  ground  is  laid  for  sacred  songs. 

We  have  already  laid  the  foundation  of  the  discourse  by 
persuading  and  exhorting  persons  to  concern  themselves 
in  managing  the  affairs  of  the  commonweal,  and  now  we 
proceed  to  build  upon  it  the  doctrine  which  is  due  after 
such  an  exhortation.  For  after  a  man  has  received  an 
admonition  and  exhortation  to  deal  in  the  affairs  of  the 
state,  there  ought  consequently  to  be  given  him  the  pre- 
cepts of  government,  following  and  observing  which,  he 
may,  as  much  as  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  do,  profit  the 
public,  and  in  the  mean  time  honestly  prosecute  his  own 
affairs  with  such  safety  and  honor  as  shall  be  meet  for 
him. 

There  is  first  then  one  point  to  be  discoursed,  which,  as 
it  is  precedent  to  what  we  have  hereafter  to  say,  so  depends 
on  what  we  have  said  before.  Now  this  is,  what  sort  of 
policy  and  government  is  best?  For  as  there  are  many 
.sorts  of  lives  in  particular  men,  so  also  are  there  in  people 
and  states ;  and  the  life  of  a  people  or  state  is  its  policy 
and  government.    It  is  therefore  necessary  to  declare  which 


396  OF  THE   THREE   SORTS   OF   GOVERNMENT, 

is  the  best,  that  a  statesman  may  choose  it  from  among  the 
rest,  or,  if  that  is  not  possible  for  him  to  do,  he  may  at 
least  take  that  which  has  the  nearest  resemblance  to  the 
best. 

2.  Now  there  is  one  signification  of  this  word  policy 
{jtolmia)  which  imports  as  much  as  hurg ess-ship,  that  is, 
a  participation  in  the  rights  and  privileges  belonging  to  a 
town,  city,  or  borough ;  as  when  we  say  that  the  Mega- 
rians,  by  an  edict  of  their  city,  presented  Alexander  the 
Great  with  iheu  policy,  that  is,  their  hurgess-ship,  and  that, 
Alexander  laughing  at  the  offer  they  made  him  of  it,  they 
answered  him,  that  they  had  never  decreed  that  honor  to 
any  but  Hercules  and  now  to  himself.  This  he  wondering 
to  hear  accepted  their  present,  thinking  it  honorable  inas- 
much as  it  was  rare.  The  life  also  of  a  political  person, 
who  is  concerned  in  the  government  of  the  commonweal, 
is  called  policy,  as  when  we  praise  the  policy  of  Pericles 
or  Bias,  that  is,  the  manner  of  their  government,  and  on 
the  contrary,  blame  that  of  Hyperbolus  and  Cleon.  Some 
moreover  there  are,  who  call  a  great  and  memorable  action 
performed  in  the  administration  of  a  commonweal  a  policy, 
such  as  is  the  distribution  of  money,  the  suppressing  of  a 
war,  the  introduction  of  some  notable  decree  worthy  to  be 
kept  in  perpetual  memory.  In  which  signification  it  is  a 
common  manner  of  speaking  to  say.  This  man  to-day  has 
done  a  policy,  if  he  has  peradventure  effected  some  re- 
markable matter  in  the  government  of  the  state. 

3.  Besides  all  these  significations  there  is  yet  another, 
that  is,  the  order  and  state  by  which  a  commonweal  is 
governed,  and  by  which  affairs  are  managed  and  adminis- 
tered. According  to  which  we  say  that  there  are  three 
sorts  of  policy  or  public  government,  —  to  wit.  Monarchy, 
which  is  regality  or  kingship.  Oligarchy,  which  is  the  gov- 
ernment by  peers  and  nobles,  and  Democracy,  which  is  a 
popular  or  (as  we  term  it)  a  free  state.     Now  all  these  are 


MONARCHY,  DEMOCRACY,  AND   OLIGARCHY.  397 

mentioned  by  Herodotus  in  his  Third  Book  *  where  he 
compares  them  one  with  another.  And  these  seem  to  be 
the  most  general  of  all ;  for  all  other  sorts  are,  as  it  were, 
the  depravation  and  corruption  of  these,  either  by  defect 
01  excess ;  as  it  is  in  the  first  consonances  of  music,  when 
the  strings  are  either  too  straight  or  too  slack. 

Now  these  three  sorts  of  government  have  been  distrib- 
uted amongst  the  nations  that  have  had  the  mightiest  and 
the  greatest  empke.  Thus  the  Persians  enjoyed  regality 
or  kingship,  because  their  king  had  full  absolute  power  in 
all  things,  without  being  liable  to  render  an  account  to  any 
one.  The  Spartans  had  a  council  consisting  of  a  small 
number,  and  those  the  best  and  most  considerable  persons 
in  the  city,  who  despatched  all  affairs.  The  Athenians 
maintained  popular  government  free  and  exempt  from  any 
other  mixture.  In  which  administration  when  there  are 
any  faults,  their  transgressions  and  exorbitances  are  styled 
tyrannies,  oppressions  of  the  stronger,  unbridled  licentious- 
ness of  the  multitude.  That  is,  when  the  prince  who  has 
the  royalty  permits  himself  to  outrage  whomever  he 
pleases,  and  will  not  suffer  any  remonstrance  to  be  made 
him  concerning  it,  he  becomes  a  tyrant ;  when  a  few  lords 
or  senators  in  whose  hands  the  government  is  arrive  at 
that  arrogance  as  to  contemn  all  others,  they  turn  oppres- 
sors ;  and  when  a  popular  state  breaks  forth  into  disobe- 
dience and  levelling,  it  runs  into  anarchy  and  unmeasurable 
liberty :  and  in  a  word,  all  of  them  together  will  be  rash- 
ness and  folly. 

4.  Even  then  as  a  skilful  musician  will  make  use  of  all 
sorts  of  instruments,  and  play  on  every  one  of  them,  ac- 
commodating himself  in  such  manner  as  its  quality  can 
bear  and  as  shall  be  fit  to  make  it  yield  the  sweetest  sound, 
but  yet,  if  he  will  follow  Plato's  counsel,  will  lay  aside 
fiddles,  many-stringed  virginals,  psalteries,  and  harps,  pre- 

*  Herod.  IH.  82. 


398      or  THE  THREE  SORTS  OF  GOVERNMENT. 

ferring  before  all  other  the  lute  and  bandore  ;  in  like 
manner,  an  able  statesman  will  dexterously  manage  the 
Laconic  and  Lycurgian  seignory  or  oligarchy,  fitting  and 
accommodating  his  companions  who  are  of  equal  authority 
with  him,  and  by  little  and  little  drawing  and  reducing 
them  to  be  managed  by  himself.  He  will  also  carry  him- 
self discreetly  in  a  popular  state,  as  if  he  had  to  deal  with 
an  instrument  of  many  and  differently  sounding  strings, 
one  while  letting  down  and  remitting  some  things,  and 
again  extending  others,  as  he  shall  see  his  opportunity  and 
find  it  most  convenient  for  the  government,  to  which  he 
will  vigorously  apply  himself,  well  knowing  when  and  how 
he  ought  to  resist  and  contradict ;  but  yet,  if  he  might  be 
permitted  to  make  his  choice  from  amongst  all  sorts  of 
government,  as  from  so  many  musical  instruments,  he 
would  not,  if  Plato's  advice  might  be  taken,  choose  any 
other  but  monarchy  or  regal  authority,  as  being  that  which 
is  indeed  alone  able  to  support  that  most  perfect  and  most 
lofty  note  of  virtue,  without  suffering  him  either  by  force 
or  by  grace  and  favor,  to  frame  himself  for  advantage  and 
gain.  For  all  other  sorts  of  governments  do  in  a  manner 
as  much  rule  a  statesman  as  he  does  them,  no  less  carrying 
him  than  they  are  carried  by  him ;  forasmuch  as  he  has 
no  certain  power  over  those  from  whom  he  has  his  author- 
ity, but  is  very  often  constrained  to  cry  out  in  these  words 
of  the  poet  Aeschylus,  which  King  Demetrius,  surnamed 
the  Town-taker,  often  alleged  against  Fortune,  after  he  had 
lost  his  kingdom : 

Thou  mad'st  me  first,  and  now  undoest  me  quite. 


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


1.  .  .  .  These  things  he  rightly  spoke  to  the  comman 
ders  that  accompanied  him,  to  whom  he  opened  the  way 
for  future  performances,  while  he  expelled  the  barbarians 
and  restored  Greece  to  her  ancient  liberty.  And  the  same 
thing  may  be  said  to  those  that  magnify  themselves  for 
their  writings.  For  if  there  were  none  to  act,  there  would 
be  none  to  write.  Take  away  the  political  government  of 
Pericles,  and  the  naval  trophies  of  Phormio  at  Rhium,  and 
the  brave  achievements  of  Nicias  at  Cythera,  Megara,  and 
Corinth,  Demosthenes's  Pylos,  and  the  four  hundred  cap- 
tives taken  by  Cleon,  Tolmides  sailing  round  the  Pelo- 
ponnesus, and  Myronidas  vanquishing  the  Boeotians  at 
Oenophyta  :  and  you  murder  Thucydides.  Take  away  the 
daring  braveries  of  Alcibiades  in  the  Hellespont,  and  of 
Thrasyllus  near  Lesbos ;  the  dissolution  of  the  oligarchy 
by  Theramenes  ;  Thrasybulus,  Archippus,  and  the  seventy 
that  from  Phylae  ventured  to  attack  the  Lacedaemonian 
tyranny ;  and  Conon  again  enforcing  Athens  to  take  the 
sea :  and  then  there  is  an  end  of  Cratippus.  For  as  for 
Xenophon,  he  was  his  own  historian,  relating  the  exploits 
of  the  army  under  his  command,  but  saying  that  Them- 
istogenes  the  Syracusan  had  written  the  history  of  them ; 
dedicating  the  honor  of  his  writing  to  another,  that  writ- 
ing of  himself  as  of  another,  he  might  gain  the  more 
credit.      But  all  the  other  historians,  as  the   Clinodemi, 


400  WHETHER   THE  ATHENIANS  WERE 

Diyli,  Philochorus,  Philarchus,  were  but  the  actors  of 
other  men's  deeds,  as  of  so  many  plays,  while  they  com- 
piled the  acts  of  kings  and  great  generals,  and  thrusting 
themselves  into  the  memory  of  their  fame,  partake  of  a 
kind  of-  lustre  and  light  from  them.  For  there  is  a  certain 
shadow  of  glory  which  reflects  from  those  that  act  to  those 
that  write,  while  the  actions  of  another  appear  in  the  dis 
course  as  in  a  mirror. 

2.  But  this  city  was  the  mother  and  charitable  nurse  of 
many  other  arts  and  sciences ;  some  of  which  she  first  in- 
vented and  illustrated,  to  others  she  gave  both  efficacy, 
honor,  and  increase.  More  especially  to  her  is  painting 
beholden  for  its  first  invention,  and  the  perfection  to 
which  it  has  attained.  For  Apollodorus  the  painter,  who 
first  invented  the  mixing  of  colors  and  the  softening  of 
shadows,  was  an  Athenian.  Over  whose  works  there  is 
this  inscription : 

'  Tis  no  hard  thing  to  reprehend  me  ; 
But  let  the  men  that  blame  me  mend  me. 

Then  for  Euphranor,  Nicias,  Asclepiodorus,  and  Plistay 
netus  the  brother  of  Phidias,  some  of  them  painted  the 
victories,  others  the  battles  of  great  generals,  and  some  of 
them  heroes  themselves.  Thus  Euphranor,  comparing  his 
own  Theseus  with  another  drawn  by  Parrhasius,  said,  that 
Parrhasius's  Theseus  ate  roses,  but  his  fed  upon  beef.  For 
Parrhasius's  piece  was  daintily  painted,  and  perhaps  it  might 
be  something  like  the  original.  But  he  that  beheld  Eu- 
phranor's  Theseus  might  well  exclaim, 

Race  of  Erechtheus  bold  and  stout, 
Whom  Pallas  bred.* 

Euphranor  also  painted  with  great  spirit  the  battle  of 
Mantinea,  fought  by  the  cavalry  between  the  Athenians 
and  Epaminondas.     The  story  was   thus.      The  Theban 

*  II.  II.  547. 


MORE  WARLIKE  OR  LEARNED.  401 

Epaminondas,  puffed  up  with  his  victory  at  Leuctra,  and 
designing  to  insult  and  trample  over  fallen  Sparta  and 
the  glory  of  that  city,  with  an  army  of  seventy  thousand 
men  invaded  and  laid  waste  the  Lacedaemonian  territory, 
stirred  up  the  subject  people  to  revolt,  and  not  far  from 
Mantinea  provoked  the  Spartans  to  battle ;  but  they  neither 
being  willing  nor  indeed  daring  to  encounter  him,  being  in 
expectation  of  a  reinforcement  from  Athens,  Epaminondas 
dislodged  in  the  night-time,  and  with  all  the  secrecy  imagin- 
able fell  into  the  Lacedaemonian  territory  ;  and  missed  but 
little  of  taking  Sparta  itself,  being  destitute  of  men  to  de- 
fend it.  But  the  allies  of  the  Lacedaemonians  made  haste 
to  its  relief;  whereupon  Epaminondas  made  a  show  as  if 
he  would  again  return  to  spoiling  and  laying  waste  the 
country ;  and  by  this  means  deceiving  and  amusing  his 
enemies,  he  retreats  out  of  Laconia  by  night,  and  with 
swift  marches  coming  upon  the  Mantineans  unexpectedly, 
at  what  time  they  were  deliberating  to  send  relief  to 
Sparta,  presently  commanded  the  Thebans  to  prepare  to 
storm  the  town.  Immediately  the  Thebans,  who  had  a 
great  conceit  of  their  warlike  courage,  took  their  several 
posts,  and  began  to  surround  the  city.  This  put  the  Man- 
tineans into  a  dismal  consternation,  and  filled  the  whole 
city  with  dreadful  outcries  and  hurly-burly,  as  being  neither 
able  to  withstand  such  a  torrent  of  armed  men  ready  to 
rush  in  upon  them,  nor  having  any  hopes  of  succor. 

But  at  the  same  time,  and  by  good  fortune,  the  Atheni- 
ans came  down  from  the  hills  into  the  plains  of  Mantinea, 
not  knowing  any  thing  of  the  critical  moment  that  required 
more  speedv  haste,  but  marching  leisurely  along.  How- 
ever, so  soon  as  they  were  informed  of  the  danger  of  their 
allies,  by  one  that  scouted  out  from  the  rest,  though  but  few 
in  respect  of  the  number  of  their  enemies,  single  of  them- 
selves, and  tired  with  their  march,  yet  they  presently  drew 
up  into  order  of  battle ;  and  the  cavalry  charging  up  to 

VOL.  V.  26 


402  WHETHER   THE   ATHENIANS   WERE 

the  very  gates  of  Mantinea,  there  happened  a  terrible  ba  tie 
betweeen  the  horse  on  both  sides  ;  wherein  the  Atheni- 
ans got  the  better,  and  so  saved  Mantinea  out  of  Eparai- 
nondas's  hands.  This  conflict  was  painted  by  Euphranor, 
and  you  see  in  the  picture  with  what  strength,  what  fury 
and  vigor  they  fought.  And  yet  I  do  not  believe  that  any 
one  will  compare  the  skill  of  the  painter  with  that  of  the 
general ;  or  would  endure  that  any  one  should  prefer  tlio 
picture  before  the  trophy,  or  the  imitation  before  the  truth 
itself. 

3.  Though  indeed  Simonides  calls  painting  silent  poetry, 
and  poetry  speaking  painting.  For  those  actions  which 
painters  set  forth  as  they  were  doing,  those  history  relates 
when  they  were  done.  And  what  the  one  sets  forth  in 
colors  and  figures,  the  other  relates  in  words  and  sentences  ; 
only  they  differ  in  the  materials  and  manner  of  imitation. 
However,  both  aim  at  the  same  end,  and  he  is  accounted 
the  best  historian,  who  can  make  the  most  lively  descrip- 
tions both  of  persons  and  passions.  Therefore  Thucydides 
always  drives  at  this  perspicuity,  to  make  the  hearer  (as  it 
were)  a  spectator,  and  to  inculcate  the  same  passions  and 
perturbations  of  mind  into  his  readers  as  they  were  in  who 
beheld  the  causes  of  those  effects.  For  Demosthenes  em- 
battling the  Athenians  near  the  rocky  shore  of  Pylos ; 
Brasidas  hastening  the  pilot  to  run  the  ship  aground,  then 
going  to  the  rowers'  seats,  then  wounded  and  fainting,  sink- 
ing down  in  that  part  of  the  vessel  where  the  oars  could 
not  trouble  him ;  the  land  fight  of  the  Spartans  from  the 
sea,  and  the  sea  engagement  of  the  Athenians  from  the 
land ;  then  again  in  the  Sicilian  war,  both  a  land  fight  and 
sea  engagement,  so  fought  that  neither  had  the  better,* 
...  So  that  if  we  may  not  compare  painters  with  gen- 
erals, neither  must  we  equal  historians  to  them. 

*  The  text  of  several  lines  which  follow  here  is  hopelessly  cornipt,  but  it  is  evi- 
dent that  Plutarch  refers  to  the  description  in  Thucyd.  VII.  71.     (G.) 


MORE  WARLIKE  OR  LEARNED.  403 

Thersippiis  of  Eroeadae  brought  the  first  news  of  the 
victory  at  Marathon,  as  Heraclides  of  Pontus  relates. 
But  most  report  that  Eucles,  running  armed  with  his 
wounds  reeking  from  the  fight,  and  falling  through  the 
door  into  the  first  house  he  met,  expired  with  only  these 
words  in  his  mouth,  "  God  save  ye,  we  are  well."  Now 
this  man  brought  the  news  himself  of  the  success  of  a 
fight  wherein  he  was  present  in  person.  But  suppose  that 
any  of  the  goat-keepers  or  herd-men  had  beheld  the  com- 
bat from  some  high  hill  at  a  distance,  and  seeing  the  suc- 
cess of  that  great  achievement,  greater  than  by  words  can 
be  expressed,  should  have  come  to  the  city  without  any 
wound  or  blood  about  him,  and  should  have  claimed  the 
honors  done  to  Cynaegirus,  Callimachus,  and  Polyzelus, 
for  giving  an  account  of  their  wounds,  their  bravery  and 
deaths,  wouldst  thou  not  have  thought  him  impudent  above 
impudence  itself;  seeing  that  the  Lacedaemonians  gave  the 
messenger  that  brought  the  news  of  the  victory  at  Manti- 
nea*  no  other  reward  than  a  quantity  of  victuals  from  the 
public  mess?  But  historians  are  (as  it  were)  well-voiced 
relators  of  the  actions  of  great  men,  who  add  grace  and 
beauty  and  dint  of  wit  to  their  relations,  and  to  whom  they 
that  first  light  upon  them  and  read  them  are  indebted  for 
their  pleasing  tidings.  And  being  read,  they  are  applauded 
for  transmitting  to  posterity  the  actions  of  those  that  do 
bravely.  For  words  do  not  make  actions,  though  we  give 
them  the  hearing. 

4.  But  there  is  a  certain  grace  and  glory  of  the  poetic 
art,  when  it  resembles  the  grandeur  of  the  actions  them- 
selves ;  according  to  that  of  Homer, 

And  many  falsities  he  did  unfold, 

That  looked  like  truth,  so  smoothly  were  they  told,  f 

It  is  reported  also,  that  when  one  of  his  familiar  friends 
said  to  Menander,  The  feasts  of  Bacchus  are  at  hand,  and 

*  Thuycd.  V.  73.  t  Odyss.  XIX.  203. 


404  WHETHER   THE  ATHENIANS  WERE 

thou  liast  made  ne'er  a  comedy  ;  he  made  him  this  answer : 
By  all  the  Gods,  I  have  made  a  comedy,  for  I  have  laid  my 
plot ;  and  there  remains  only  to  make  the  verses  and 
measures  to  it.  So  that  the  poets  themselves  believe  the 
actions  to  be  more  necessary  than  the  words,  and  the  first 
things  to  be  considered.  Corinna  likewise,  when  Pindar 
was  but  a  young  man  and  made  too  daring  a  use  of  his 
eloquence,  gave  him  this  admonition,  that  he  was  no  poet, 
for  that  he  never  composed  any  fables,  which  was  the 
chiefest  office  of  poetry ;  in  regard  that  strange  words, 
figures,  metaphors,  songs,  and  measures  were  invented  to 
give  a  sweetness  to  things.  Which  admonition  Pindar 
laying  up  in  his  mind,  wrote  a  certain  ode  which  thus 
begins : 

Shall  I  Ismenu3  sing, 
Or  Melia,  that  from  spindles  all  of  gold 

Her  twisted  yarn  unwinds, 
Or  Cadmus,  tliat  most  ancient  king. 
Or  else  the  sacred  race  of  Sparti  bold, 
Or  Hercules,  that  far  in  strength  transcends. 

Which  when  he  showed  to  Corinna,  she  with  a  smile  re- 
plied :  When  you  sow,  you  must  scatter  the  seed  with  your 
hand,  not  empty  the  whole  sack  at  once.  And  indeed  we 
find  that  Pindar  intermixes  in  his  poetic  numbers  a  collec- 
tion of  all  sorts  of  fables.  Now  that  poetry  employs  itself 
in  mythology  is  agreed  by  Plato  likewise.  For  a  fable  is 
the  relation  of  a  false  story  resembling  truth,  and  therefore 
very  remote  from  real  actions ;  for  relation  is  the  image  of 
action,  as  fable  is  the  image  of  relation.  And  therefore 
they  that  feign  actions  fall  as  far  behind  historians  as  they 
that  speak  differ  from  those  that  act. 

5.  Athens  therefore  never  bred  up  any  true  artist  in 
epic  or  lyric  verse.  For  Cinesias  was  a  troublesome  writer 
of  dithyrambics,  a  person  of  mean  parentage  and  of  no 
repute ;  and  being  jeered  and  derided  by  the  comedians, 
proved  very  unfortunate  in  the  pursuit  of  fame. 


MORE  WARLIKE  OR  LEARNED.  405 

Now  for  the  dramatic  poets,  the  Athenians  looked  upon 
comedy  to  be  so  ignoble  and  troublesome,  that  they  pub- 
lished a  law  that  no  Areopagite  should  make  any  comedies. 
But  tragedy  flourished  and  was  cried  up,  and  with  wonder 
and  admiration  heard  and  beheld  by  all  people  in  those 
days,  deceiving  them  with  fables  and  the  display  of  various 
passions ;  whereby,  as  Gorgias  says,  he  that  deceived  was 
more  just  than  he  that  deceived  not,  and  he  that  was  de- 
ceived was  wiser  than  he  who  was  not  deceived.  He  that 
deceived  was  more  just,  because  it  was  no  more  than  what 
he  pretended  to  do ;  and  he  that  was  deceived  was  wiser, 
for  that  he  must  be  a  man  of  no  sense  that  is  not  taken 
with  the  sweetness  of  words.  And  yet  what  benefit  did 
those  fine  tragedies  procure  the  Athenians  ?  But  the 
shrewdness  and  cunning  of  Themistocles  walled  the  city, 
the  industry  of  Pericles  adorned  their  citadel,  and  Cimon 
advanced  them  to  command  their  neighbors.  But  as  for 
the  wisdom  of  Euripides,  the  eloquence  of  Sophocles,  the 
lofty  style  of  Aeschylus,  what  calamity  did  they  avert  from 
the  city ;  or  what  renown  or  fame  did  they  bring  to  the 
Athenians  ?  Is  it  fitting  then  that  dramatic  poems  should 
be  compared  with  trophies,  the  stage  with  the  generals' 
office,  or  lists  of  dramas  with  noble  achievements  ? 

6.  Would  ye  that  we  should  introduce  the  men  them- 
selves carrying  before  them  the  marks  and  signals  of  their 
own  actions,  permitting  them  to  enter  in  order,  like  the 
actors  upon  the  stage?  But  then  poets  must  go  before 
them,  with  flutes  and  lyres,  saying  and  singing : 

Far  from  our  choirs  who  in  this  lore's  unskilled. 
Or  does  not  cherish  pure  and  holy  thoughts. 
Nor  views  nor  joins  the  Muses'  generous  rites. 
Nor  is  perfected  in  the  Bacchic  tongue, 
With  which  Cratinus  bull-devourer  sang.* 

And  then  there  must  be  scenes,  and  vizards,  and  altars, 
and  versatile  machines.     There  must  be  also  the  tragedy- 

*  Aristophanes,  Frogs,  354. 


406  WHETHER   THE   ATHENIANS   WERE 

actors,  the  Nicostrati,  Callippidae.  Menisci,  Theodori,  Poli, 
the  dressers,  and  sedan-men  of  tragedy,  —  like  those  of 
some  sumptuously  apparelled  lady,  or  rather  like  the  pain- 
ters, gilders,  and  colorers  of  statues,  —  together  with  a 
costly  preparation  of  vessels,  vizards,  purple  coats,  and 
machines,  attended  by  an  unruly  rabble  of  dancers  and 
guards ;  and  let  all  the  preparation  be  exceeding  costly 
and  magnificent.  A  Lacedaemonian  once,  beholding  all 
this,  not  improperly  said :  How  strangely  are  the  Athenians 
mistaken,  consuming  so  much  cost  and  labor  upon  ridicu- 
lous trifles  ;  that  is  to  say,  wasting  the  expenses  of  navies 
and  of  victualling  whole  armies  upon  the  stage.  For  if 
you  compute  the  cost  of  those  dramatic  preparations,  you 
will  find  that  the  Athenians  spent  more  upon  their  Bacchae, 
Oedipuses,  and  Antigone,  and  the  woes  of  Medea  and  Elec- 
tra,  than  in  their  wars  against  the  barbarians  for  liberty  and 
extending  their  empire.  For  their  general  oft-times  led 
forth  the  soldiers  to  battle,  commanding  them  to  make 
provisions  only  of  such  food  as  needed  not  the  tedious 
preparation  of  fire.  And  indeed  their  admirals  and  cap- 
tains of  their  ships  went  aboard  without  any  other  pro- 
vision than  meal,  onions,  and  cheese.  Whereas  the  masters 
of  the  choruses,  feeding  their  dancers  with  eels,  lettuce,  the 
kernels  of  garlic,  and  marrow,  feasted  them  for  a  long 
time,  exercising  their  voices  and  pleasing  their  palates  by 
turns.  And  as  for  these  captains,  if  they  were  overcome, 
it  was  their  misfortune  to  be  contemned  and  hissed  at ; 
and  if  they  were  victors,  there  was  neither  tripod,  nor  con- 
secrated ornament  of  victory,  as  Demetrius  says,  but  a  life 
prolonged  among  cables,  and  an  empty  house  for  a  tomb. 
For  this  is  the  tribute  of  poetry,  and  there  is  nothing  more 
splendid  to  be  expected  from  it. 

7.  Now  then  let  us  consider  the  great  generals  as  they 
approach,  to  whom,  as  they  pass  by,  all  those  must  rise  up 
and  pay  their  salutations  who  have  never  been  famous  for 


MORE  WARLIKE  OR  LEARNED.  407 

any  great  action,  military  or  civil,  and  were  never  furnished 
with  daring  boldness  nor  purity  of  wisdom  for  such  enter- 
prises, nor  initiated  by  the  hand  of  Miltiades  that  over- 
threw the  Medes,  or  of  Themistocles  that  vanquished  the 
Persians.  This  is  the  martial  gang,  at  once  combating 
with  phalanxes  by  land,  and  engaging  with  navies  by  sea, 
and  laden  with  the  spoils  of  both.  Give  ear,  Alala,  daugh- 
ter of  War,  to  this  same  prologue  of  swords  and  spears. 

Hasten  to  death,  when  for  your  country  vowed, 

as  Epaminondas  said,  —  for  your  country,  your  sepulchres, 
and  your  altars,  throwing  yourselves  into  most  noble  and 
illustrious  combats.  Their  victories  methinks  I  see  ap- 
proaching toward  me,  not  dragging  after  them  a  goat  or 
ox  for  a  reward,  nor  crowned  with  ivy  and  smelling  of  the 
dregs  of  wine.  But  whole  cities,  islands,  continents,  and 
colonies  well  peopled  are  their  rewards,  being  surrounded 
with  trophies  and  spoils  of  all  sorts.  Whose  statues  and 
symbols  of  honor  are  Parthenons,  a  hundred  feet  in  length. 
South-walls,  houses  for  ships,  the  Propylaea,  the  Cherso- 
nesus,  and  Araphipolis.  Marathon  displays  the  victory  of 
Miltiades,  and  Salamis  the  glory  of  Themistocles,  triumph- 
ing over  the  ruins  of  a  thousand  vessels.  The  victory  of 
Cimon  brings  away  a  hundred  Phoenician  galleys  from  the 
Eurymedon.  And  the  victory  of  Cleon  and  Demosthenes 
brings  away  the  shield  of  Brasidas,  and  the  captive  soldiers 
in  chains  from  Sphacteria.  The  victory  of  Conon  and 
Thrasybulus  walls  the  city,  and  brings  the  people  back  at 
liberty  from  Phylae.  The  victory  of  Alcibiades  near  Sicily 
restores  the  languishing  condition  of  the  city ;  and  Greece 
beheld  Ionia  raised  again  by  the  victories  of  Neleus  and 
Androclus  in  Lydia  and  Caria. 

If  you  ask  what  benefit  every  one  of  the  rest  procured 
to  the  city ;  one  will  answer  Lesbos,  another  Samos,  an- 
other Cyprus,  another  the  Pontus  Euxinus,  another  five 


408  WHETHER   THE   ATHENIANS   WERE 

hundred  galleys  with  three  banks  of  oars,  and  another 
ten  thousand  talents,  the  rewards  of  fame  and  trophies 
won.  For  these  victories  the  city  observes  public  anni- 
versary festivals,  for  these  victories  she  sacrifices  to  the 
Gods  ;  not  for  the  victories  of  Aeschylus  and  Sophocles, 
not  because  Carcinus  was  victorious  *  with  his  Aerope,  or 
Astydamas  with  his  Hector.  But  upon  the  sixth  of  Sep- 
tember, even  to  this  day,  the  Athenians  celebrate  a  festival 
in  memory  of  the  fight  at  Marathon.  Upon  the  sixteenth 
of  the  same  month  libations  are  poured  in  remembrance 
of  the  naval  victory  won  by  Chabrias  near  Naxos.  Upon 
the  twelfth  they  offer  thanksgiving  sacrifices  for  the  recov- 
ery of  their  liberty.  For  upon  that  day  they  returned 
back  from  Phylae.  The  third  of  the  same  month  they 
won  the  battle  of  Plataea.  The  sixteenth  of  April  was 
consecrated  to  Diana,  when  the  moon  appeared  in  the  full 
to  the  Greeks  victorious  at  Salamis.  The  twelfth  of  June 
was  made  sacred  by  the  battle  of  Mantinea,  wherein  the 
Athenians,  when  their  confederates  were  routed  and  fled, 
alone  by  themselves  obtained  the  victory  and  triumph  over 
their  victorious  enemies.  Such  actions  as  these  procured 
honor  and  veneration  and  grandeur  to  the  city ;  for  these 
acts  it  was  that  Pindar  called  Athens  the  support  of  Greece ; 
not  because  she  had  set  the  fortune  of  the  Greeks  upright 
by  the  tragedies  of  Phrynichus  and  Thespis,  but  because 
(as  he  says)  "  near  Artemisium  the  Athenian  youth  laid 
the  first  glorious  foundation  of  freedom  ;  "  and  afterwards 
fixing  it  upon  the  adamantine  pillars  of  Salamis,  Mycale, 
and  Plataea,  they  multiplied  their  felicity  to  others. 

8.  But  as  for  the  writings  of  the  poets,  they  are  mere 
bubbles.  But  rhetoricians  and  orators  indeed  have  some- 
thing in  them  that  renders  them  in  some  measure  fit  to  be 
compared  with  great  captains.     For  which  reason,  Aes- 

*  I  follow  Baelir's  emendation  (or  rather  substitution)  hUa  for  avv^v,  which  is 
demanded  by  the  obvious  sense  of  the  whole  passage.     (G.) 


MORE   WARLIKE   OR  LEARNED.  409 

chines  in  derision  reports  of  Demosthenes,  that  he  said  he 
was  bringing  a  suit  in  behalf  of  the  orator's  stand  against 
the  generals'  office.*  But  for  all  that,  do  you  think  it 
proper  to  prefer  the  Plataic  oration  of  Hyperides  to  the 
Plataic  victory  of  Aristides  ?  Or  the  oration  of  Lysias 
against  the  Thirty  Tyrants,  to  the  acts  of  Thrasybulus  and 
Archias  that  put  them  to  death?  Or  that  of  Aeschines 
against  Timarchus  for  unchastity,  to  the  relieving  of  Byzan- 
tium by  Phocion,  by  which  he  prevented  the  sons  of  the 
confederates  from  being  the  scorn  and  derision  of  the  Ma- 
cedonians ?  Or  shall  we  set  before  the  public  crowns 
which  Demosthenes  received  for  setting  Greece  at  liberty, 
his  oration  on  the  Crown,  wherein  the  rhetorician  has 
behaved  himself  most  splendidly  and  learnedly,  swearing 
by  their  progenitors  that  ventured  their  lives  at  Marathon 
for  the  liberty  of  Greece,t  rather  than  by  those  that  in- 
structed youth  in  the  schools  1  And  therefore  the  city  buried 
these  heroes  at  the  expense  of  the  public,  honoring  the 
sacred  relics  of  their  bodies,  not  men  like  Isocrates,  Anti- 
phon,  and  Isaeus,  and  the  orator  has  translated  them  into 
the  number  of  the  Gods  ;  and  by  these  it  was  that  he 
chose  to  swear,  though  he  did  not  follow  their  example. 
Isocrates  also  was  wont  to  say,  that  they  who  ventured 
their  lives  at  Marathon  fought  as  if  they  had  been  inspired 
with  other  souls  than  their  own  ;  and  extolling  their  daring 
boldness  and  contempt  of  life,  to  one  that  asked  him 
(being  at  that  time  very  aged)  how  he  did,  —  As  well,  said 
he,  as  one  who,  being  now  above  fourscore  and  ten  years 
old,  esteems  death  to  be  the  worst  of  evils.  For  neither 
did  he  spend  his  years  to  old  age  in  whetting  his  sword,  in 
grinding  and  sharpening  his  spear,  in  scouring  and  polish- 
ing his  helmet,  in  commanding  navies  and  armies,  but  in 
knitting  and  joining  together  antithetical  and  equally  bal- 

*  See  Aeschines  against  Ctesiphon,  §  146. 
t  Demosthenes  on  the  Crown,  p.  297,  11. 


410  WHETHER  THE  ATHENIANS  WERE 

anced  clauses,  and  words  of  similar  endings,  all  but  smooth- 
ing and  adapting  his  periods  and  sentences  with  files, 
planes,  or  chisels.  How  would  that  man  have  been 
affrighted  at  the  clattering  of  weapons  or  the  routing  of  a 
phalanx,  who  was  so  afraid  of  suffering  one  vowel  to  clash 
with  another,  or  to  pronounce  a  sentence  where  but  one 
syllable  was  wanting ! 

Miltiades,  the  very  next  day  after  the  battle  of  Mara- 
thon, returned  a  victor  to  the  city  with  his  army.  And 
Pericles,  having  subdued  the  Samians  in  nine  months, 
derided  Agamemnon  that  was  ten  years  taking  of  Troy. 
But  Iso crates  was  nearly  three  Olympiads  (or  twelve  years) 
in  writing  his  Panegyric ;  in  all  which  time  he  had  neither 
been  a  general  nor  an  ambassador,  neither  built  a  city,  nor 
been  an  admiral,  notwithstanding  the  many  wars  that  har- 
assed Greece  within  that  time.  But  while  Timotheus 
freed  Euboea  from  slavery,  while  Chabrias  vanquished  the 
enemy  near  Naxos,  while  Iphicrates  defeated  and  cut  to 
pieces  a  whole  battalion  of  the  Lacedaemonians  near 
Lechaeum,  while  the  Athenians,  having  shaken  off  the 
Spartan  yoke,  set  the  rest  of  Greece  at  liberty,  with  as 
ample  privileges  as  they  had  themselves ;  he  sits  poring  at 
home  in  his  study,  seeking  out  proper  phrases  and  choice 
words  for  his  oration,  as  long  a  time  as  Pericles  spent  in 
erecting  the  Propylaea  and  the  Parthenon.  Though  the 
comic  poet  Cratinus  seems  to  deride  even  Pericles  himself 
as  one  that  was  none  of  the  quickest,  where  he  says  of 
the  middle  wall : 

In  words  the  mighty  Pericles 

Has  rais'd  us  up  a  wall ; 
But  'tis  a  wall  in  only  words. 

For  we  see  none  at  all. 

Consider  now  the  poor  spirit  of  this  great  orator,  who 
spent  the  ninth  part  of  his  life  in  compiling  one  single 
oration.     But  to  say  no  more  of  him,  is  it  rational  to  com- 


MORE  WARLIKE  OR  LEARNED.  411 

pare  the  harangues  of  Demosthenes  the  orator  with  the 
martial  exploits  of  Demosthenes  the  great  leader?  For 
example,  the  oration  against  Conon  for  an  assault,  with  the 
trophies  which  the  other  erected  before  Pylos  ?  Or  the 
declamation  against  Amathusius  concerning  slaves,  with 
the  noble  service  which  the  other  performed  in  bringing 
home  the  Spartan  captives  1  Neither  can  it  be  said,  that 
Demosthenes  for  his  oration  in  regard  to  foreigners  .  .  . 
deserved  as  much  honor  as  Alcibiades,  who  joined  the 
Mantineans  and  Eleans  as  confederates  with  the  Athe- 
nians against  the  Lacedaemonians.  And  yet  we  must 
acknowledge  that  the  public  orations  of  Demosthenes  de- 
serve this  praise,  that  in  his  Philippics  he  bravely  en- 
courages the  Athenians  to  take  arms,  and  he  extols  the 
enterprise  of  Leptines.  .  .  . 


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


1.  Plato  in  his  Laws*  permits  not  any  one  to  go  and 
draw  water  from  his  neighbor's  well,  who  has  not  first 
digged  and  sunk  a  pit  in  his  own  ground  till  he  is  come  to 
a  vein  of  clay,  and  has  by  his  sounding  experimented  that 
the  place  will  not  yield  a  spring.  For  the  clay  or  potter's 
earth,  being  of  its  own  nature  fatty,  solid,  and  strong, 
retains  the  moisture  it  receives,  and  will  not  let  it  soak  or 
pierce  through.  But  it  must  be  lawful  for  them  to  take 
water  from  another's  ground,  when  there  is  no  way  or 
means  for  them  to  find  any  in  their  own  ;  for  the  law  ought 
to  provide  for  men's  necessity,  but  not  favor  their  laziness. 
Should  there  not  be  the  like  ordinance  also  concerning 
money ;  that  none  should  be  allowed  to  borrow  upon 
usury,  nor  to  go  and  dive  into  other  men's  purses,  —  as 
it  were  into  their  wells  and  fountains,  —  before  they  have 
first  searched  at  home  and  sounded  every  means  for  the 
obtaining  it ;  having  collected  (as  it  were)  and  gathered 
together  all  the  gutters  and  springs,  to  try  if  they  can 
draw  from  them  what  may  suflS.ce  to  supply  their  most 
necessary  occasions  ?  But  on  the  contrary,  many  there 
are  who,  to  defray  their  idle  expenses  and  to  satisfy  their 
extravagant  and  superfluous  delights,  make  not  use  of 
their  own,  but  have  recourse  to  others,  running  themselves 
deeply  into   debt  without  any  necessity.     Now  this  may 

*  Plato,  Laws,  VIII.  p.  844  B. 


AGAINST   RUNNING   IN    DEBT.  413 

easily  be  judged,  if  one  does  but  consider  that  usurers  do 
not  ordinarily  lend  to  those  which  are  in  distress,  but  only 
to  such  as  desire  to  obtain  somewhat  that  is  superfluous 
and  of  which  they  stand  not  in  need.  So  that  the  credit 
given  by  the  lender  is  a  testimony  sufficiently  proving 
that  the  borrower  has  of  his  own ;  whereas  on  the  con- 
trary, since  he  has  of  his  own,  he  ought  to  keep  himself 
from  borrowing. 

2.  Why  shouldst  thou  go  and  make  thy  court  to  a 
banker  or  a  merchant  ?  Borrow  from  thine  own  table. 
Thou  hast  tankards,  dishes,  and  basins  of  silver.  Make 
use  of  them  for  thy  necessity,  and  when  they  are  gone  to  sup 
ply  thy  wants,  the  pleasant  town  of  Aulis  or  isle  of  Tenedos 
will  again  refurnish  thy  board  with  fair  vessels  of  earth,  far 
more  cleanly  and  neat  than  those  of  silver.  For  they  are 
not  scented  with  the  strong  and  unpleasant  smell  of  usury, 
which,  like  rust,  daily  more  and  more  sullies  and  tarnishes 
the  lustre  of  thy  sumptuous  magnificence.  They  will  not  be 
every  day  putting  thee  in  mind  of  the  Kalends  and 
new  moons,  which,  being  of  themselves  the  most  holy 
and  sacred  days  of  the  months,  are  by  reason  of  usuries 
rendered  the  most  odious  and  accursed.  For  as  to  those 
who  choose  rather  to  carry  their  goods  to  the  brokers  and 
there  lay  them  in  pawn  for  money  taken  upon  usury  than 
to  sell  them  outright,  I  do  not  believe  that  Jupiter  Ctesius 
himself  can  preserve  them  from  beggary.  They  are 
ashamed  forsooth  to  receive  the  full  price  and  value  of 
their  goods ;  but  they  are  not  ashamed  to  pay  use  for 
the  money  they  have  borrowed  on  them.  And  yet  the 
great  and  wise  Pericles  caused  that  costly  ornament  of 
fine  gold,  weighing  about  forty  talents,  with  which  Mi- 
nerva's statue  was  adorned,  to  be  made  in  such  a  manner 
that  he  could  take  it  off  and  on  at  his  pleasure ;  to  the 
end  (said  he)  that  when  we  shall  stand  in  need  of  money 
to   support  the  charges  of  war,  we  may  take  it  and  make 


414  AGAINST  EUNNING  IN  DEBT. 

use  of  it,  putting  afterwards  in  its  place  another  of  no  less 
value.  Thus  we  ought  in  our  affairs,  as  in  a  besieged 
town,  never  to  admit  or  receive  the  hostile  garrison  of  a 
usurer,  nor  to  endure  before  our  eyes  the  delivering  up 
of  our  goods  into  perpetual  servitude ;  but  rather  to  cut 
off  from  our  table  what  is  neither  necessary  nor  profitable, 
and  in  like  manner  from  our  beds,  our  couches,  and  our 
ordinary  expenses,  and  so  to  keep  ourselves  free  and  at  lib- 
erty, in  hopes  to  restore  again  what  we  shall  have  re- 
trenched, if  Fortune  shall  hereafter  smile  upon  us. 

3.  The  Roman  ladies  heretofore  willingly  parted  with 
their  jewels  and  ornaments  of  gold,  for  the  making  a  cup 
to  be  sent  as  an  offering  to  the  temple  of  Apollo  Pythius 
in  the  city  of  Delphi.  And  the  Carthaginian  matrons  did 
with  their  own  hands  cut  the  hair  from  their  heads,  to 
make  cords  for  the  managing  of  their  warlike  engines  and 
instruments,  in  defence  of  their  besieged  city.  But  we,  as 
if  we  were  ashamed  of  being  able  to  stand  on  our  own 
legs  without  being  supported  by  the  assistance  of  others, 
go  and  enslave  ourselves  by  engagements  and  obligations  ; 
whereas  it  were  much  better  that,  restraining  our  ambition 
and  confining  it  to  what  is  profitable  for  us,  we  should  of 
our  useless  and  superfluous  plate,  which  we  should  either 
melt  or  sell,  build  a  temple  of  Liberty  for  ourselves,  our 
wives,  and  our  children.  The  Goddess  Diana  in  the  city 
of  Ephesus  gives  to  such  debtors  as  can  fly  into  her  temple 
freedom  and  protection  against  their  creditors  ;  but  the 
sanctuary  of  parsimony  and  moderation  in  expenses,  in- 
to which  no  usurer  can  enter  to  pluck  thence  and  carry 
away  any  debtor  prisoner,  is  always  open  for  the  prudent, 
and  affords  them  a  long  and  large  space  of  joyful  and 
honorable  repose.  For  as  the  prophetess  which  gave 
oracles  in  the  temple  of  the  Pythian  Apollo,  about  the 
time  of  the  Persian  wars,  answered  the  Athenians,  that 
God  had  for  their  safety  given  them  a  wall  of  wood,  upon 


OR  TAKING  UP  MONEY  UPON  USURY.        415 

which,  forsaking  their  lands,  their  city,  their  houses,  and 
all  their  goods,  they  had  recourse  to  their  ships  for  the 
preservation  of  their  liberty  ;  so  God  gives  us  a  table  of 
wood,  vessels  of  earth,  and  garments  of  coarse  cloth,  if 
we  desire  to  live  and  continue  in  freedom. 

Aim  not  at  gilded  coaches,  steeds  of  price, 

And  harness,  richly  wrought  with  quaint  device ; 

for  how  swiftly  soever  they  may  run,  yet  will  usuries  over- 
take them  and  outrun  them. 

Take  rather  the  first  ass  thou  shalt  meet  or  the  first  pack- 
horse  that  shall  come  in  thy  way,  and  fly  from  that  cruel  and 
tyrannical  enemy  the  usurer,  who  asks  thee  not  earth  and 
water,  as  heretofore  did  the  barbarous  king  of  Persia,  but 
—  which  is  worse  —  touches  thy  liberty,  and  wounds  thy 
honor  by  proscriptions.  If  thou  payest  him  not,  he  troubles 
thee  ;  if  thou  hast  wherewithal  to  satisfy  him,  he  will  not 
receive  it,  unless  it  be  his  pleasure.  If  thou  sellest,  he  will 
have  thy  goods  for  nothing,  or  at  a  very  under  rate ;  and 
if  thou  wilt  not  sell,  he  will  force  thee  to  it ;  if  thou  suest 
him,  he  speaks  to  thee  of  an  accommodation  ;  if  thou 
swearest  to  give  him  content,  he  will  domineer  over  thee  ; 
if  thou  goest  to  his  house  to  discourse  with  him,  he  shuts 
his  door  against  thee  ;  if  thou  stayest  at  home,  he  is  always 
knocking  at  thy  door  and  will  never  stir  from  thee. 

4.  Of  what  use  to  the  Athenians  was  the  decree  of 
Solon,  by  which  he  ordained  that  the  body  should  not  be 
obliged  for  any  public  debt?  For  they  who  owe  are  in 
bondage  to  all  bankers,  and  not  to  them  alone  (for  then 
there  would  be  no  great  hurt),  but  to  their  very  slaves, 
who  are  proud,  insolent,  barbarous,  and  outrageous,  and  in 
a  word  exactly  such  as  Plato  describes  the  devils  and 
fiery  executioners  to  be,  who  in  hell  torment  the  souls 
of  the  wicked.  For  thus  do  these  wretched  usurers  make 
the  court  where  justice  is  administered  a  hell  to  the  poor 


416  AGAINST  RUNNING  IN  DEBT, 

debtors,  preying  on  some  and  gnawing  them,  vulture-like, 
to  the  very  bones,  and 

Piercing  into  their  entrails  with  sharp  beaks ;  * 

and  standing  over  others,  who  are,  like  so  many  Tantaluses, 
prohibited  by  them  from  tasting  the  corn  and  fruits  of  their 
own  ground  and  drinking  the  wine  of  their  own  vintage. 
And  as  King  Darius  sent  to  the  city  of  Athens  his  lieu- 
tenants Datis  and  Artaphernes  with  chains  and  cords,  to 
bind  the  prisoners  they  should  take ;  so  these  usurers,  bring- 
ing into  Greece  boxes  full  of  schedules,  bills,  and  obliga- 
tory contracts,  as  so  many  irons  and  fetters  for  the 
shackling  of  poor  criminals,  go  through  the  cities,  sow- 
ing in  them,  as  they  pass,  not  good  and  profitable  seed, — 
as  did  heretofore  Triptolemus,  when  he  went  through  all 
places  teaching  the  people  to  sow  corn,  —  but  roots  and 
grains  of  debts,  that  produce  infinite  labors  and  intoler- 
able usuries,  of  which  the  end  can  never  be  found,  and 
which,  eating  their  way  and  spreading  their  sprouts  round 
about,  do  in  fine  make  cities  bend  under  the  burden,  till 
they  come  to  be  suffocated.  They  say  that  hares  at  the 
same  time  suckle  one  young  leveret,  are  ready  to  kindle 
and  bring  forth  another,  and  conceive  a  third ;  but  the 
usuries  of  these  barbarous  and  wicked  usurers  bring  forth 
before  they  conceive.  For  at  the  very  delivery  of  their 
money,  they  immediately  ask  it  back,  taking  it  up  at  the 
same  moment  they  lay  it  down  ;  and  they  let  out  that 
again  to  interest  which  they  take  for  the  use  of  what  they 
have  before  lent. 

5.  It  is  a  saying  among  the  Messenians, 

Pylos  before  Pylos,  and  Pylos  still  you'll  find ; 

but  it  may  much  better  be  said  against  the  usurers, 

Use  before  use,  and  use  still  more  you'll  find. 

So  that  they  laugh  at  those  natural  philosophers  who  hold 

*  Odyss.  XI.  578. 


OR  TAKING  UP  MONEY  UPON  USURY.        417 

that  nothing  can  be  made  of  nothing  and  of  that  which 
has  no  existence ;  but  with  them  usury  is  made,  and  en- 
gendered of  that  which  neither  is  nor  ever  was.  They 
think  the  taking  to  farm  the  customs  and  other  public 
tributes,  which  the  laws  nevertheless  permit,  to  be  a 
shame  and  reproach ;  and  yet  themselves  on  the  contrary, 
in  opposition  to  all  the  laws  in  the  world,  make  men  pay 
tribute  for  what  they  lend  upon  interest ;  or  rather,  if 
truth  may  be  spoken,  do  in  the  very  letting  out  their 
money  to  use,  basely  deceive  their  debtor.  For  the  poor 
debtor,  who  receives  less  than  he  acknowledges  in  his 
obligation,  is  falsely  and  dishonestly  cheated.  And  the 
Persians  indeed  repute  lying  to  be  a  sin  only  in  a  second 
degree,  but  to  be  in  debt  they  repute  to  be  in  the  first  ; 
forasmuch  as  lying  frequently  attends  those  that  owe.  Now 
there  are  not  in  the  whole  world  any  people  who  are 
oftener  guilty  of  lying  than  usurers,  nor  that  practise  more 
unfaithfulness  in  their  day-books,  in  which  they  set  down 
that  they  have  delivered  such  a  sum  of  money  to  such  a 
person,  to  whom  they  have  not  given  nigh  so  much.  And 
the  moving  cause  of  their  lying  is  pure  avarice,  not  want 
or  poverty,  but  an  insatiable  desire  of  always  having  more, 
the  end  of  which  is  neither  pleasurable  nor  profitable  to 
themselves,  but  ruinous  and  destructive  to  those  whom 
they  injure.  For  they  neither  cultivate  the  lands  of  which 
they  deprive  their  debtors,  nor  inhabit  the  houses  out  of 
which  they  eject  them,  nor  eat  at  the  tables  which  they 
take  away  from  them,  nor  wear  the  clothes  of  which  they 
strip  them.  But  first  one  is  destroyed,  and  then  a  second 
soon  follows,  being  drawn  on  and  allured  by  the  former. 
For  the  mischief  spreads  like  wildfire,  still  consuming, 
and  yet  still  increasing  by  the  destruction  and  ruin  of  those 
that  fall  into  it,  whom  it  devours  one  after  another.  And 
the  usurer  who  maintains  this  fire,  blowing  and  kindling  it 
to  the  undoing  of  so  many  people,  reaps  no  other  advan- 

VOL.  V.  27 


418  AGAINST  RUNNING   IN  DEBT, 

tage  from  it  but  only  that  he  now  and  then  takes  his  book 
of  accounts,  and  reads  in  it  how  many  poor  debtors  he  has 
caused  to  sell  what  they  had,  how  many  he  has  dispos- 
sessed of  their  lands  and  livings,  whence  his  money  came 
which  he  is  always  turning,  winding,  and  increasing. 

6.  Think  not  that  I  speak  this  for  any  ill-will  or  enmity 
that  I  have  borne  against  usurers ; 

For  never  did  they  drive  away 
My  horses  or  my  kine.* 

But  my  only  aim  is  to  show  those  who  are  so  ready  to  take 
up  money  upon  use,  how  much  shame  and  slavery  there  is 
in  it,  and  how  it  proceeds  only  from  extreme  folly,  sloth, 
and  effeminacy  of  heart.  For  if  thou  hast  of  thy  own, 
borrow  not,  since  thou  hast  no  need  of  it ;  and  if  thou 
hast  nothing,  borrow  not,  because  thou  wilt  not  have  any 
means  to  pay.  But  let  us  consider  the  one  and  the  other 
apart.  The  elder  Cato  said  to  a  certain  old  man,  who 
behaved  himself  ill :  My  friend,  seeing  old  age  has  of 
itself  so  many  evils,  why  dost  thou  go  about  to  add  to 
them  the  reproach  and  shame  of  wickedness  ?  In  like 
manner  may  we  say  to  a  man  oppressed  with  poverty : 
Since  poverty  has  of  itself  so  many  and  so  great  miseries, 
do  not  heap  upon  them  the  anguishes  of  borrowing  and 
being  in  debt.  Take  not  from  poverty  the  only  good  thing 
in  which  it  is  superior  to  riches,  to  wit,  freedom  from  pen- 
sive care.  Otherwise  thou  wilt  subject  thyself  to  the  deri- 
sion of  the  common  proverb,  which  says, 

A  goat  I  cannot  bear  away, 
Therefore  an  ox  upon  me  lay. 

Thou  canst  not  bear  poverty,  and  yet  thou  art  going  to  load 
on  thyself  a  usurer,  which  is  a  burden  even  to  a  rich  man 
insupportable. 

But  you  will  say  perhaps,  how  then  would  you  have 
me  tc  livel    Is  this  a  question  fit  for  thee  to  ask,  who  hast 

•  n.  1. 154. 


OR   TAKING  UP  MONET  UPON  USURY.  4l9 

hands,  feet,  and  a  voice,  who  in  brief  art  a  man,  whose 
property  it  is  to  love  and  be  beloved,  to  do  and  receive  a 
courtesy  ?  Canst  thou  not  teach,  bring  up  young  children, 
be  a  porter  or  doorkeeper,  travel  by  sea,  serve  in  a  ship '? 
Tliere  is  in  all  these  nothing  more  shameful  or  odious,  than 
to  be  dunned  with  the  importunate  clamors  of  such  as  are 
always  saying,  Pay  me,  give  me  my  money. 

T.  Rutilius  that  rich  Roman,  coming  one  day  to  Muso- 
nius  the  philosopher,  whispered  him  thus  in  his  ear : 
Musonius,  Jupiter  the  Savior,  whom  you  philosophers 
profess  to  imitate  and  follow,  takes  not  up  money  at  in- 
terest. Musonius  smiling  presently  answered  him :  Nor 
yet  does  he  lend  for  use.  For  this  Rutilius,  who  was  him- 
self an  usurer,  upbraided  the  other  with  borrowing  upon 
use.  Now  what  a  foolish  stoical  arrogance  was  this.  For 
what  need  was  there  of  bringing  here  Jupiter  the  Savior, 
when  he  might  have  given  him  the  same  admonition  by 
things  that  were  familiar  and  before  his  eyes?  Swallows 
run  not  themselves  into  debt,  ants  borrow  not  upon  inter- 
est ;  and  yet  Nature  has  given  them  neither  reason,  hands, 
nor  art.  But  she  has  endued  men  with  such  abundance  of 
understanding,  that  they  maintain  not  only  themselves,  but 
also  horses,  dogs,  partridges,  hares,  and  jays.  Why  then 
dost  thou  condemn  thyself,  as  if  thou  wert  less  able  to 
persuade  than  a  jay,  more  dumb  than  a  partridge,  and 
more  ungenerous  than  a  dog,  in  that  thou  couldst  not 
oblige  any  man  to  be  assistant  to  thee,  either  by  serving 
him,  charming  him,  guarding  him,  or  fighting  in  his  de- 
fence ?  Dost  thou  not  see  how  many  occasions  the  land, 
and  how  many  the  sea  affords  thee  for  thy  maintenance  ? 
Hear  also  what  Crates  says  : 

Here  I  saw  Miccylus  the  wool  to  card, 

Whilst  his  wife  spun,  that  they  by  labor  hard 
In  these  hard  times  might  'scape  the  hungry  jaws 
Of  famine. 

King  Antigonus,  when  he  had  not  for  a  long  time  seen 


420  AGAINST   RUNNING  IN  DEBT, 

Cleanthes  the  philosopher,  said  to  him,  Dost  thou  yet,  O 
Cleanthes,  continue  to  grind"?  Yes,  sir,  repHed  Cleanthes, 
I  still  grind,  and  that  I  do  to  gain  my  living  and  not  to 
depart  from  philosophy.  How  great  and  generous  was  the 
courage  of  this  man,  who,  coming  from  the  mill  and  the 
kneadiLg-trough,  did  with  the  same  hand  which  had  been 
employed  in  turning  the  stone  and  moulding  the  dough, 
write  of  the  nature  of  the  Gods,  moon,  stars,  and  sun ! 
And  yet  we  think  these  to  be  servile  works. 

Therefore,  forsooth,  that  we  may  be  free,  we  take  up 
money  at  interest,  and  to  this  purpose  flatter  base  and  ser- 
vile persons,  wait  on  them,  treat  them,  make  them  presents, 
and  pay  them  pensions ;  and  this  we  do,  not  being  com- 
pelled by  poverty  (for  no  usurer  will  lend  a  poor  man 
money)  but  to  gratify  our  prodigality.  For  if  we  would 
be  content  with  such  things  as  are  necessary  for  human 
life,  usurers  would  be  no  less  rare  in  the  world  than  Cen- 
taurs and  Gorgons.  But  luxury  and  excess,  as  it  produced 
goldsmiths,  silversmiths,  perfumers,  and  dyers  of  curious 
colors,  so  has  it  also  brought  forth  usurers.  For  we  run 
not  into  debt  for  bread  and  wine,  but  for  the  purchasing 
of  stately  seats,  numerous  slaves,  fine  mules,  costly  ban- 
queting halls,  rich  tables,  and  for  all  those  foolish  and 
superfluous  expenses  to  which  we  frequently  put  ourselves 
for  the  exhibiting  of  plays  to  the  people,  or  some  such  vain 
ambition,  from  which  we  frequently  reap  no  other  fruit 
but  ingratitude.  Now  he  that  is  once  entangled  in  usury 
remains  a  debtor  all  his  life,  not  unlike  in  this  to  the 
horse,  who,  having  once  taken  the  bridle  into  his  mouth 
and  the  saddle  on  his  back,  receives  one  rider  after  an- 
other. Nor  is  there  any  means  for  these  debtors  to  make 
their  escape  into  those  fair  pastures  and  meadows  which 
once  they  enjoyed,  but  they  wander  about,  like  those  Dae- 
mons mentioned  by  Empedocles  to  have  been  driven  out 
of  heaven  by  the  offended  Gods  : 


OR  TAKING  UP  MONEY  UPON  USURY.        421 

By  the  sky's  force  they're  thrust  into  the  main, 
Which  to  the  earth  soon  spews  them  back  again. 
Thence  to  bright  Titan's  orb  they're  forced  to  fly, 
And  Titan  soon  remits  them  to  the  sky. 

In  like  manner  do  such  men  fall  from  the  hand  of  one 
usurer  or  banker  to  another,  sometimes  of  a  Corinthian, 
sometimes  of  a  Patrian,  sometimes  of  an  Athenian,  till, 
having  been  deceived  and  cheated  by  all,  they  finally  find 
themselves  dissipated  and  torn  in  pieces  by  usury.  For  as 
he  who  is  fallen  into  the  dirt  must  either  rise  up  and  get 
out  of  it,  or  else  lie  still  in  the  place  into  which  he  first 
fell,  for  that  by  tumbling,  turning,  and  rolling  about,  he 
does  but  still  more  and  more  bemire  himself;  so  also  those 
who  do  but  change  their  creditor,  and  cause  their  names  to 
be  transcribed  from  one  usurer's  book  to  another's,  do  by 
loading  and  embroiling  themselves  with  new  usuries  be- 
come more  and  more  oppressed.  Now  in  this  they  proper- 
ly resemble  persons  distempered  with  cholera,  who  cannot 
receive  any  medicine  sufficient  to  work  a  perfect  cure,  but 
continually  vomit  up  all  that  is  given  them,  and  so  make 
way  for  the  choleric  humor  to  gather  more  and  more.  For 
in  the  same  manner  these  men  are  not  willing  to  be  cleansed 
at  once,  but  do  with  grievous  anguish  and  sorrow  pay  their 
use  at  every  season  of  the  year,  and  no  sooner  have  they 
discharged  one,  but  another  drops  and  stills  immediately 
after,  which  causes  them  both  aching  hearts  and  heads  ; 
whereas  they  should  have  taken  care  to  get  wholly  clear, 
that  they  might  remain  free  and  at  liberty. 

8.  For  I  now  turn  my  speech  to  those  who  are  more 
wealthy,  and  withal  more  nice  and  effeminate,  and  whose 
discourse  is  commonly  in  this  manner :  How  shall  I  re- 
main then  without  servants,  without  fire,  and  without 
a  house  or  place  to  which  I  may  repair?  Now  this 
is  the  same  thing  as  if  one  who  is  sick  of  a  dropsy 
and  puffed  up  as  a  barrel  should  say  to  a  physician : 
How?     Would  you  have  me  become  slender,  lean,  and 


422  AGAINST  RUNNING    IN    DEBT, 

empty  ?  And  why  not,  provided  you  thereby  get  your 
health]  Thus  it  is  better  you  should  be  without  servants, 
than  that  you  should  yourself  become  a  slave ;  and  that 
you  should  remain  without  possessions,  than  that  you 
should  be  made  the  possession  of  another.  Give  ear  a 
little  to  the  discourse  of  the  two  vultures,  as  it  is  reported 
in  the  fable.  One  of  them  was  taken  with  so  strong  a  fit 
of  vomiting,  that  he  said :  I  believe  I  shall  cast  up  my  very 
bowels.  Now  to  this  his  companion  answered  :  What  hurt 
will  there  be  in  it  ?  For  thou  wilt  not  indeed  throw  up 
thine  own  entrails,  but  those  of  the  dead  man  which  we 
devoured  the  other  day.  So  he  who  is  indebted  sells  not 
his  own  inheritance  nor  his  own  house,  but  that  of  the 
usurer  who  lent  him  the  money,  to  whom  by  the  law  he 
has  given  the  right  and  possession  of  them.  Nay,  by  Ju- 
piter (will  he  say  to  me)  ;  but  my  father  left  me  this  estate. 
I  believe  it  well,  but  he  left  thee  also  liberty  and  a  good 
repute,  of  which  thou  oughtest  to  make  more  account  and 
be  more  careful.  He  who  begat  thee  made  thy  foot  and 
thy  hand,  and  nevertheless,  if  they  happen  to  be  mortified, 
thou  wilt  give  money  to  the  chirurgeon  to  cut  them  off. 
Calypso  presented  Ulysses  with  a  robe  breathing  forth  the 
sweet-scented  odor  of  an  immortal  body,  which  she  put  on 
him,  as  a  token  and  memorial  of  the  love  she  had  borne 
him.  But  when  his  ship  was  cast  away  and  himself  ready 
to  sink  to  the  bottom,  not  being  able  to  keep  above  the 
water  by  reason  of  his  wet  robe,  which  weighed  him  down- 
wards, he  put  it  off  and  threw  it  away,  and  having  girt 
his  naked  breast  with  a  broad  swaddling  band. 

Swam,  gazing  on  the  distant  shore.* 

And  afterwards,  when  the  danger  was  over  and  he  seen  to 
be  landed,  he  wanted  neither  food  nor  raiment.  And  is 
it  not  a  true  tempest,  when  the  usurer  after  some  time 

*  Odyss.  V.  439. 


OR  TAKING  UP  MONEY  UPON  USURY.        423 

comes  to  assault  the  miserable  debtors  with  this  word  Pay  ? 

This  having  said,  the  clouds  grow  thicJi,  the  sea 

Is  troubled,  and  its  raging  waves  beat  high. 

Whilst  east,  south,  west  winds  through  the  welkin  fly.* 

These  winds  are  use,  and  use  upon  use,  which  roll  one 
after  another ;  and  he  that  is  overwhelmed  by  them  and 
kept  down  by  their  weight  cannot  serve  himself  nor  make 
his  escape  by  swimming,  but  at  last  sinks  down  to  the 
bottom,  where  he  perishes,  carrying  with  him  his  friends 
who  were  pledges  and  sureties  for  him. 

Crates,  the  Theban  philosopher,  acted  far  otherwise ; 
for  owing  nothing,  and  consequently  not  being  pressed  for 
payment  by  any  creditor,  but  only  tired  with  the  cares  and 
troubles  of  housekeeping  and  the  solicitude  requisite  to 
the  management  of  his  estate,  he  left  a  patrimony  of  eight 
talents'  value,  and  taking  only  his  cloak  and  wallet,  re- 
tired to  philosophy  and  poverty.  Anaxagoras  also  forsook 
his  plentiful  and  well-stocked  pastures.  But  what  need 
is  there  of  alleging  these  examples,  seeing  that  the  lyric 
poet  Philoxenus,  being  one  of  those  who  were  sent  to  peo- 
ple a  new  city  and  new  land  in  Sicily,  where  there  fell  to 
his  share  a  good  house  and  great  wealth  with  which  he 
might  have  lived  well  at  his  ease,  yet  seeing  that  delights, 
pleasure,  and  idleness,  without  any  exercise  of  good  letters, 
reigned  in  those  quarters,  said :  These  goods,  by  all  the 
Gods,  shall  not  destroy  me,  but  I  will  rather  lose  them. 
And  immediately  leaving  to  others  the  portion  that  was 
allotted  to  himself,  he  again  took  shipping,  and  returned  to 
Athens.  Whereas  those  who  are  in  debt  bear  and  suffer 
themselves  to  be  sued,  taxed,  made  slaves  of,  and  cheated 
with  false  money,  feeding  like  King  Phineus  certain  winged 
harpies.  For  these  usurers  fly  to  them,  and  ravish  out  of 
cheir  hands  their  very  food.  Neither  yet  have  they  pa- 
tience to  stay  and  expect  the   season ;  for  they  buy  their 

*  Odyss.  V.  291,  295. 


424  AGAINST  RUNNING  IN  DEBT. 

debtors'  corn  before  it  is  ready  for  harvest,  bargain  for  the 
oil  before  the  olives  are  ripe,  and  in  like  manner  for  their 
wines.  I  will  have  it,  says  the  usurer,  at  such  a  price  ; 
and  immediately  he  gets  the  writing  signed  ;  and  yet  the 
grapes  are  still  hanging  on  the  vine,  expecting  the  rising 
of  Arcturus. 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS. 


QUESTION  I. 


What  is  the  Reason  that  God  bade  Soceates  to  act  the  Mm- 
wife's  Part  to  Others,  but  charged  Himself  not  to  gen- 
erate ;  AS  he  says  in  Theaetetus  ?  * 

\.  For  he  would  never  have  used  the  name  of  God  in 
such  a  merry,  jesting  manner,  though  Plato  in  that  book 
makes  Socrates  several  times  to  talk  with  great  boasting 
and  arrogance,  as  he  does  now.  "  There  are  many,  dear 
friend,  so  affected  towards  me,  that  they  are  ready  even  to 
bite  me,  when  I  offer  to  cure  them  of  the  least  madness. 
For  they  will  not  be  persuaded  that  I  do  it  out  of  good- 
will, because  they  are  ignorant  that  no  God  bears  ill-will 
to  man,  and  that  therefore  I  wish  ill  to  no  man  ;  but  I  can- 
not allow  myself  either  to  stand  in  a  lie  or  to  stifle  the 
truth."  •(•  Whether  therefore  did  he  style  his  own  nature, 
which  was  of  a  very  strong  and  pregnant  wit,  by  the  name 
of  God,  —  as  Menander  says,  "  For  our  mind  is  God,"  and 
as  Heraclitus,  "  Man's  genius  is  a  Deity"?  Or  did  some 
divine  cause  or  some  Daemon  or  other  impart  this  way  of 
philosophizing  to  Socrates,  whereby  always  interrogating 
others,  he  cleared  them  of  pride,  error,  and  ignorance, 
and  of  being  troublesome  both  to  themselves  and  to 
others  ?  For  about  that  time  there  happened  to  be  in 
Greece  several  sophisters ;  to  these  some  young  men  paid 
great  sums  of  money,  for  which  they  purchased  a  strong 

*  See  Plato,  Theaet.  p.  149  B.  t  Theaet.  p.  151  C. 


426  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS. 

opinion  of  learning  and  wisdom,  and  of  being  stout  dispu- 
tants ;  but  this  sort  of  disputation  spent  much  time  in 
trifling  squabblings,  which  were  of  no  credit  or  profit. 
Now  Socrates,  using  an  argumentative  discourse  by  way  of 
a  purgative  remedy,  procured  belief  and  authority  to  what 
he  said,  because  in  refuting  others  he  himself  affirmed 
nothing  ;  and  he  the  sooner  gained  upon  people,  because 
he  seemed  rather  to  be  inquisitive  after  the  truth  as  well 
as  they,  than  to  maintain  his  own  opinion. 

2.  Now,  however  useful  a  thing  judgment  is,  it  is  might- 
ily impeached  by  the  begetting  of  a  man's  own  fancies. 
For  the  lover  is  blinded  with  the  thing  loved ;  and  nothing 
of  a  man's  own  is  so  beloved  as  is  the  opinion  and  dis- 
course which  he  has  begotten.  And  the  distribution  of 
children,  said  to  be  the  justest,  in  respect  of  discourses  is 
the  unjustest;  for  there  a  man  must  take  his  own,  but 
here  a  man  must  choose  the  best,  though  it  be  another 
man's.  Therefore  he  that  has  children  of  his  own,  is  a 
worse  judge  of  other  men's  ;  it  being  true,  as  the  sophister 
said  well,  "  The  Eleans  would  be  the  most  proper  judges 
of  the  Olympic  games,  were  no  Eleans  gamesters."  So  he 
that  would  judge  of  disputations  cannot  be  just,  if  he 
either  seeks  the  bays  for  himself,  or  is  himself  antagonist 
to  either  of  the  antagonists.  For  as  the  Grecian  captains, 
when  they  were  to  decide  by  their  sufl'rages  who  had  be- 
haved himself  the  best,  every  man  of  them  voted  for  him- 
self; so  there  is  not  a  philosopher  of  them  all  but  would  do 
the  like,  besides  those  that  acknowledge,  like  Socrates,  that 
they  can  say  nothing  that  is  their  own ;  and  these  only  are 
the  pure  uncorrupt  judges  of  the  truth.  For  as  the  air  in 
the  ears,  unless  it  be  still  and  void  of  noise  in  itself,  with 
out  any  sound  or  buzzing,  does  not  exactly  take  sounds  ; 
so  the  philosophical  judgment  in  disputations,  if  it  be  dis- 
turbed and  obstreperous  within,  is  hardly  comprehensive 
of  what  is   said  without.     For  our  familiar  and  inbred 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS.  427 

opinion  will  not  admit  that  which  is  at  variance  with  itself, 
as  the  number  of  sects  and  parties  proves,  of  which  phil- 
osophy—  if  she  deals  with  them  in  the  best  manner  — 
must  hold  one  to  be  right,  and  all  the  others  to  be  at  war 
with  the  truth  in  their  opinions. 

3.  Furthermore,  if  men  can  comprehend  and  know 
nothing,  God  did  justly  interdict  Socrates  the  procreation 
of  false  and  unstable  discourses,  which  are  like  wind-eggs, 
and  bid  him  convince  others  who  were  of  any  other 
opinion.  And  reasoning,  which  rids  us  of  the  greatest  of 
evils,  error  and  vanity  of  mind,  is  none  of  the  least  benefit 
to  us;  "For  God  has  not  granted  this  to  the  Esculapians."* 
Nor  did  Socrates  give  physic  to  the  body ;  indeed  he 
purged  the  mind  of  secret  corruption.  But  if  there  be 
any  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  if  the  truth  be  one,  he 
has  as  much  that  learns  it  of  him  that  invented  it,  as  the 
inventor  himself.  Now  he  the  most  easily  attains  the 
truth,  that  is  persuaded  he  has  it  not ;  and  he  chooses 
best,  just  as  he  that  has  no  children  of  his  own  adopts  the 
best.  Mark  this  well,  that  poetry,  mathematics,  oratory, 
and  sophistry,  which  are  the  things  the  Deity  forbade  Soc- 
rates to  generate,  are  of  no  value  ;  and  that  of  the  sole 
wisdom  about  what  is  divine  and  intelligible  (which  Soc- 
rates called  amiable  and  eligible  for  itself),  there  is  neither 
generation  nor  invention  by  man,  but  reminiscence. 
Wherefore  Socrates  taught  nothing,  but  suggesting  prin- 
ciples of  doubt,  as  birth-pains,  to  young  men,  he  excited 
and  at  the  same  time  confirmed  the  innate  notions.  This 
he  called  his  Art  of  Midwifery,  which  did  not  (as  others 
professed)  extrinsically  confer  intelligence  upon  his  audi- 
tors ;  but  demonstrated  it  to  be  innate,  yet  imperfect  and 
confused,  and  in  want  of  a  nurse  to  feed  and  strengthen  it. 

*  Theognis,  va.  432. 


428  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS. 


QUESTION  IL 

Why    DOE8    HE    CALL    THE    SUPREME    GOD    FATHER   AND    MaKER   OF 

ALL  Things?* 

1.  Is  it  because  he  is  (as  Homer  calls  him)  of  created 
Gods  and  men  the  Father,  and  of  brutes  and  things  that 
have  no  soul  the  maker?  If  Chrysippus  may  be  credited, 
he  is  not  properly  styled  the  father  of  the  afterbirth  who 
supplied  the  seed,  although  it  springs  from  the  seed.  Or 
has  he  figuratively  called  the  maker  of  the  world  the 
father  of  if?  In  his  Convivium  he  calls  Phaedrus  the 
father  of  the  amatorious  discourse  which  he  had  intro- 
duced ;  and  so  in  his  Phaedrus  "f  he  calls  him  "  father  of 
noble  children,"  when  he  had  been  the  occasion  of  many 
excellent  discourses  about  philosophical  matters.  Or  is 
there  any  difference  between  a  father  and  a  maker  ?  Or 
between  procreation  and  making?  For  as  what  is  pro- 
created is  also  made,  but  not  the  contrary ;  so  he  that 
procreated  did  also  make,  for  the  procreation  of  an  animal 
is  the  making  of  it.  Now  the  work  of  a  maker  —  as  of 
a  builder,  a  weaver,  a  musical-instrument  maker,  or  a 
statuary  —  is  altogether  distinct  and  separate  from  its 
author ;  but  the  principle  and  power  of  the  procreator  is 
implanted  in  the  progeny,  and  contains  his  nature,  the 
progeny  being  a  piece  pulled  off  the  procreator.  Since 
therefore  the  world  is  neither  like  a  piece  of  potter's  work 
nor  joiner's  work,  but  there  is  a  great  share  of  life  and 
divinity  in  it,  which  God  from  himself  communicated  to 
and  mixed  with  matter,  God  may  properly  be  called  Father 
of  the  world  —  since  it  has  life  in  it  —  and  also  the  maker 
of  it. 

2.  And  since  these  things  come  very  near  to  Plato's 
opinion,  consider,  I  pray,  whether  there  may  not  be  some 

*  Plato,  Timaeus,  p.  28  C.  t  Phaedrus,  p.  261  A. 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS.         429 

probability  in  them.  Whereas  the  world  consists  of  two 
parts,  body  and  soul,  God  indeed  made  not  the  body ;  but 
matter  being  provided,  he  formed  and  fitted  it,  binding  up 
and  confining  what  was  infinite  within  proper  limits  and 
figures.  But  the  soul,  partaking  of  mind,  reason,  and  har- 
mony, was  not  only  the  work  of  God,  but  part  of  him ; 
not  only  made  by  him,  but  begot  by  him. 


QUESTION  III. 

In  the  Republic,*  he  supposes  the  universe,  as  one  line, 
to  be  cut  into  two  unequal  sections ;  again  he  cuts  each 
of  these  sections  in  two  after  the  same  proportion,  and 
supposes  the  two  sections  first  made  to  constitute  the  two 
genera  of  things  sensible  and  things  intelligible  in  the 
universe.  The  first  represents  the  genus  of  intelligibles, 
comprehending  in  the  first  subdivision  the  primitive  forms 
or  ideas,  in  the  second  the  mathematics.  Of  sensibles,  the 
first  subdivision  comprehends  solid  bodies,  the  second 
comprehends  the  images  and  representations  of  them. 
Moreover,  to  every  one  of  these  four  he  has  assigned  its 
proper  judicatory  faculty;  —  to  the  first,  reason;  to  the 
mathematics,  the  understanding;  to  sensibles,  belief;  to 
images  and  likenesses,  conjecture. 

But  what  does  he  mean  by  Dividing  the  Universe  into  Un 
EQUAL  Parts  ?     And    which    of   the    Sections,   the    Intelli- 
gible   OR   THE    Sensible,   is    the   greater?     For    in  this  he 
has  not  explained  himself. 

1.  At  first  sight  it  will  appear  that  the  sensible  is  the 
greater  portion.  For  the  essence  of  intelligibles  being 
indivisible,  and  in  the  same  respect  ever  the  same,  is  con- 
tracted int,  a  little,  and  pure  ;  but  an  essence  divisible  and 
pervading  bodies  constitutes  the  sensible  part.     Now  what 

*  Republic,  VI.  pp.  509  D  — 511  E. 


430  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS. 

is  immaterial  is  limited ;  but  body  in  respect  of  matter  is 
infinite  and  unlimited,  and  it  becomes  sensible  only  when 
it  is  defined  by  partaking  of  the  intelligible.  Besides,  as 
every  sensible  has  many  images,  shadows,  and  representa- 
tions, and  from  one  and  the  same  original  several  copies 
may  be  taken  both  by  nature  and  art ;  so  the  latter  must 
needs  exceed  the  former  in  number,  according  to  Plato, 
who  makes  things  intelligible  to  be  patterns  or  ideas  of 
things  sensible,  like  the  originals  of  images  and  reflections. 
Further,  Plato  derives  the  knowledge  of  ideas  from  body 
by  abstraction  and  cutting  away,  leading  us  by  various 
steps  in  mathematical  discipline  from  arithmetic  to  geome- 
try, thence  to  astronomy,  and  setting  harmony  above  them 
all.  For  things  become  geometrical  by  the  accession  of 
magnitude  to  quantity ;  solid,  by  the  accession  of  profun- 
dity to  magnitude  ;  astronomical,  by  the  accession  of  motion 
to  solidity  ;  harmonical,  by  the  accession  of  sound  to  mo- 
tion. Abstract  then  sound  from  moving  bodies,  motion 
from  solids,  profundity  from  superficies,  magnitude  from 
quantity,  we  are  then  come  to  pure  intelligible  ideas,  which 
have  no  distinction  among  themselves  in  respect  of  the 
one  single  intelligible  essence.  For  unity  makes  no  num- 
ber, unless  joined  by  the  infinite  binary ;  then  it  makes  a 
number.  And  thence  we  proceed  to  points,  thence  to 
lines,  from  them  to  superficies,  and  profundities,  and 
bodies,  and  to  the  qualities  of  the  bodies  so  and  so  quali- 
fied. Now  the  reason  is  the  only  judicatory  faculty  of 
intelligibles  ;  and  the  understanding  is  the  reason  in  the 
mathematics,  where  intelligibles  appear  as  by  reflection  in 
mirrors.  But  as  to  the  knowledge  of  bodies,  because  of 
their  multitude,  Nature  has  given  us  five  powers  or  distinc- 
tions of  senses ;  nor  are  all  bodies  discerned  by  them, 
many  escaping  sense  by  reason  of  then*  smallness.  And 
though  every  one  of  us  consists  of  a  body  and  soul,  yet 
the  hegemonic  and  intellectual  faculty  is  small,  being  hid 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS.  431 

in  the  huge  mass  of  flesh.  And  the  case  is  the  same  in 
the  universe,  as  to  sensible  and  intelligible.  For  intelli- 
gibles  are  the  principles  of  bodily  things,  but  every  thing 
is  greater  than  the  principle  whence  it  came. 

2.  Yet,  on  the  contrary,  some  will  say  that,  by  compar- 
ing sensibles  with  intelligibles,  we  match  things  mortal 
with  divine,  in  some  measure ;  for  God  is  in  intelligibles. 
Besides,  the  thing  contained  is  ever  less  than  the  contain- 
ing, and  the  nature  of  the  universe  contains  the  sensible 
in  the  intelligible.  For  God,  having  placed  the  soul  in 
the  middle,  hath  extended  it  through  all,  and  hath  covered 
it  all  round  with  bodies.  The  soul  is  invisible,  and  cannot 
be  perceived  by  any  of  the  senses,  as  Plato  says  in  his 
Book  of  Laws ;  therefore  every  man  must  die,  but  the 
world  shall  never  die.  For  mortality  and  dissolution  sur- 
round every  one  of  our  vital  faculties.  The  case  is  quite 
otherwise  in  the  world ;  for  the  corporeal  part,  contained 
in  the  middle  by  the  more  noble  and  unalterable  principle, 
is  ever  preserved.  And  a  body  is  said  to  be  without  parts 
and  indivisible  for  its  minuteness  ;  but  what  is  incorporeal 
and  intelligible  is  so,  as  being  simple  and  sincere,  and  void 
of  all  firmness  and  diflerence.  Besides,  it  were  folly  to 
think  to  judge  of  incorporeal  things  by  corporeal.  The 
present,  or  now,  is  said  to  be  without  parts  and  indivisible, 
since  it  is  everywhere  and  no  part  of  the  world  is  void  of 
it.  But  all  affections  and  actions,  and  all  corruptions  and 
generations  in  the  world,  are  contained  by  this  now.  But 
the  mind  is  judge  only  of  what  is  intelligible,  as  the  sight 
is  of  light,  by  reason  of  its  simplicity  and  similitude.  But 
bodies,  having  several  differences  and  diversities,  are  com- 
prehended, some  by  one  judicatory  faculty,  others  by 
another,  as  by  several  organs.  Yet  they  do  not  well  who 
despise  the  intelligible  and  intelligent  faculty  in  us  ;  for 
being  great,  it  comprehends  all  sensibles,  and  attains  to 
things  divine.      The    most   important   thing   he    himself 


432  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS. 

teaches  in  his  Banquet,  where  he  shows  us  how  we 
should  use  amatorious  matters,  turning  our  minds  from 
sensible  goods  to  things  discernible  only  by  the  reason, 
that  we  ought  not  to  be  enslaved  by  the  beauty  of  any 
body,  study,  or  learning,  but  laying  aside  such  pusillanim- 
ity, should  turn  to  the  vast  ocean  of  beauty.* 

QUESTION  IV. 

What  is  the  Reason  that,  though  Plato  always  says  that 
THE  Soul  is  Ancienter  than  the  Body,  and  that  it  is  the 
Cause  and  Principle  of  its  Rise,  yet  he  likewise  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  ?  For  so  the  Body  will  seem 
to  be  and  not  to  be,  because  it  both  exists  with  the  Soul, 
and  is  begot  by  the  Soul. 

Perhaps  what  we  have  often  said  is  true ;  viz.,  that  the 
soul  without  reason  and  the  body  without  form  did  mutually 
ever  coexist,  and  neither  of  them  had  generation  or  begin- 
ning. But  after  the  soul  did  partake  of  reason  and  har- 
mony, and  being  through  consent  made  wise,  it  wrought  a 
change  in  matter,  and  being  stronger  than  the  other's  mo- 
tions, it  drew  and  converted  these  motions  to  itself.  So 
the  body  of  the  world  drew  its  original  from  the  soul,  and 
became  conformable  and  like  to  it.  For  the  soul  did  not 
make  the  Nature  of  the  body  out  of  itself,  or  out  of  noth- 
ing ;  but  it  wrought  an  orderly  and  pliable  body  out  of  one 
disorderly  and  formless.  Just  as  if  a  man  should  say  that 
the  virtue  of  the  seed  is  with  the  body,  and  yet  that  the 
body  of  the  fig-tree  or  olive-tree  was  made  of  the  seed,  he 
would  not  be  much  out ;  for  the  body,  its  innate  motion 
and  mutation  proceeding  from  the  seed,  grew  up  and  be- 
came what  it  is.  So,  when  formless  and  indefinite  matter 
was  once  formed  by  the  inbeing  soul,  it  received  such  a 
form  and  disposition. 

*  See  Plato's  Symposium,  p.  210  D. 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS.  4:.V4 


QUESTION   V. 

Why,  since  Bodies  and  Figures  are  contained  partly  by  Rec- 
ttlinears  and  partly  by  circles,  does  he  make  isosceles 
Triangles  and  Triangles  op  Unequal  Sides  the  Principles 
OP  Rectilinears  ;  op  which  the  Isosceles  Triangle  forms 
THE  Cube,  the  Element  op  the  Earth  ;  and  a  Scalene  Tri- 
angle FORMS  the  Pyramid  which  is  the  Seed  of  Fire,  the 
Octahedron  which  is  the  Seed  op  Air,  and  the  Icosahedron 
WHICH  IS  the  Seed  of  Water;  —  while  he  does  not  meddle 
WITH  Circulars,  though  he  does  mention  the  Globe,  where 

HE    says  that   each   OF  THE   AfORE-ReCKONED    FiGURES    DIVIDES 

A  Round  Body  that  encloses  it  into  Equal  Parts.* 

1.  Is  their  opinion  true  who  think  that  he  ascribed  a 
dodecahedron  to  the  globe,  when  he  says  that  God  made 
use  of  it  in  dehneating  the  universe  ?  For  upon  account 
of  the  multitude  of  its  bases  and  the  obtuseness  of  its 
angles,  avoiding  all  rectitude,  it  is  flexible,  and  by  circum- 
tension,  like  globes  made  of  twelve  skins,  it  becomes  circu- 
lar and  comprehensive.  For  it  has  twenty  solid  angles, 
each  of  which  is  contained  by  three  obtuse  planes,  and 
each  of  these  contains  one  and  the  fifth  part  of  a  right 
angle.  Now  it  is  made  up  of  twelve  equilateral  and 
equangular  quinquangles  (or  pentagons),  each  of  which 
consists  of  thirty  of  the  first  scalene  triangles.  Therefore 
it  seems  to  resemble  both  the  Zodiac  and  the  year,  it  being 
divided  into  the  same  number  of  parts  as  these. 

2.  Or  is  a  right  line  in  Nature  prior  to  circumference ; 
or  is  circumference  but  an  accident  of  rectilinear  ?  For  a 
right  line  is  said  to  bend ;  and  a  circle  is  described  by  a 
centre  and  distance,  which  is  the  place  of  a  right  line  by 
which  a  cu'cumference  is  measured,  this  being  everywhere 
equally  distant  from  the  middle.  And  a  cone  and  a  cylin- 
der are  made  by  rectilinears ;  a  cone  by  keeping  one  side 
of  a  triangle  fixed  and  carrying  another  round  with  the 

*  See  Timaeus,  pp.  53-56. 
TOL.   V,  28 


434  PLUTARCH'S   PLATONIC   QUESTIONS. 

base,  —  a  cylinder,  by  doing  tlie  like  with  a  parallelogram. 
Further,  that  is  nearest  to  principle  which  is  less ;  but  a 
right  is  the  least  of  all  lines,  as  it  is  simple ;  whereas  in  a 
circumference  one  part  is  convex  without,  another  concave 
within.  Besides,  numbers  are  before  figures,  as  unity  is 
before  a  point,  which  is  unity  in  position.  But  indeed 
unity  is  triangular ;  for  every  triangular  number  *  taken 
eight  times,  by  adding  unity,  becomes  quadrate ;  and  this 
happens  to  unity.  Therefore  a  triangle  is  before  a  circle, 
whence  a  right  line  is  before  a  circumference.  Besides, 
no  element  is  divided  into  things  compounded  of  itself; 
indeed  there  is  a  dissolution  of  all  other  things  into  the 
elements.  Now  a  triangle  is  divided  into  no  circumference, 
but  two  diameters  cut  a  chcle  into  four  triangles  ;  there- 
fore a  rectilinear  figure  is  before  a  circular,  and  has  more 
of  the  nature  of  an  element.  And  Plato  himself  shows 
that  a  rectilinear  is  in  the  first  place,  and  a  circular  is  only 
consequential  and  accidental.  For  when  he  says  the  earth 
consists  of  cubes,  each  of  which  is  contained  with  rectilin- 
ear superficies,  he  says  the  earth  is  spherical  and  round. 
Therefore  there  was  no  need  of  making  a  peculiar  element 
for  round  things,  since  rectilinears,  fitted  after  a  certain 
manner  among  themselves,  do  make  up  this  figure. 

3.  Besides,  a  right  line,  whether  great  or  little,  preserves 
the  same  rectitude  ;  but  as  to  the  circumference  of  a  circle, 
the  less  it  is,  the  crookeder  it  is  ;  the  larger,  the  straighter. 
Therefore  if  a  convex  superficies  stands  on  a  plane,  it 
sometimes  touches  the  subject  plane  in  a  point,  some- 
times in  a  line.  So  that  a  man  may  imagine  that  a  circum- 
ference is  made  up  of  little  right  lines. 

4.  But  observe  whether  this  be  not  true,  that  no  circle 

*  Triangular  numbers  are   those                                              ,  •  . ' . 

of  which  equilateral  triangles  can  be                           •                 •   •  ... 

formed  in  this  way :  —                                   ..          ...          ....  

Such  are  3,  6,  10,  15,  21,  28,  36,  45,  &c. ;  that  is,  numbers  formed  by  adding  the 
digits  in  regular  order.     (G.) 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS.  435 

or  sphere  in  this  world  is  .exact ;  but  since  by  the  tension 
and  circumtension  of  the  right  lines,  or  by  the  minuteness 
of  the  parts,  the  difference  disappears,  the  figure  seems 
circular  and  round.  Therefore  no  corruptible  body  moves 
circularly,  but  altogether  in  a  right  line.  To  be  truly 
spherical  is  not  in  a  sensible  body,  but  is  the  element  of 
the  soul  and  mind,  to  which  he  has  given  circular  motion, 
as  being  agreeable  to  their  nature. 

QUESTION   VI. 

How   COMES    IT    TO    PASS    THAT    IN    PhAEDRUS    IT  IS    SAID,   THAT    THK 

Nature   op  a  Wing,  by  which  ant  thing  that  is  Heavy  is 

CARRIED  upwards,  PARTICIPATES  MOST  OP  THE  BODY  OP    GOD?* 

Is  it  because  the  discourse  is  of  love,  and  love  is  of 
beauty  inherent  in  a  body  ?  Now  beauty,  by  similitude  to 
things  divine,  moves  and  reminds  the  soul.  Or  it  may  be 
(without  too  much  curiosity)  he  may  be  understood  in  plain 
meaning,  to  wit,  that  the  several  faculties  of  the  soul  being 
employed  about  bodies,  the  power  of  reasoning  and  under- 
standing partakes  most  about  divine  and  heavenly  things  ; 
which  he  did  not  impertinently  call  a  wing,  it  raising  the 
soul  from  mean  and  mortal  things  to  things  above. 

QUESTION  VII. 

In  WHAT  Sense  does  Plato  sat,  that  the  Antiperistasis  (or 
Reaction)  op  Motion  —  by  Reason  there  is  no  Vacuum  —  is 
THE  Cause  op  the  Effects  in  Physicians'  Cupping-Glasses,  in 
Swallowing,  in  Throwing  op  Weights,  in  the  Running  op 
Water,  in  Thunder,  in  the  Attraction  op  the  Loadstone, 
and  in  the  Harmony  op  Sounds  ?t 

1.  For  it  seems  unreasonable  to  ascribe  the  reason  of 
such  different  effects  to  the  selfsame  cause. 

2.  How  respiration  is  made  by  the  reaction  of  the  air, 

*  See  Phaedrus,  p.  246  D.  t  See  Timaeus,  pp.  79-81. 


436  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS, 

he  has  sufficiently  shown.  But  the  rest,  he  says,  seem  to 
be  done  miraculously,  but  really  the  bodies  thrust  each 
other  aside  and  change  places  with  one  another ;  while  he 
has  left  for  us  to  determine  how  each  is  particularly  done. 

3.  As  to  cupping-glasses,  the  case  is  thus :  the  air  next 
to  the  flesh  being  comprehended  and  inflamed  by  the  heat, 
and  being  made  more  rare  than  the  pores  of  the  brass,  does 
not  go  into  a  vacuum  (for  there  is  no  such  thing),  but  into 
the  air  that  is  without  the  cupping-glass,  and  has  an  im- 
pulse upon  it.  This  air  drives  that  before  it ;  and  each,  as 
it  gives  way,  strives  to  succeed  into  the  place  which  was 
vacuated  by  the  cession  of  the  first..  And  so  the  air  ap- 
proaching the  flesh  comprehended  by  the  cupping-glass, 
and  exciting  it,  draws  the  humors  into  the  cupping-glass. 

4.  Swallowing  takes  place  in  the  same  way.  For  the 
cavities  about  the  mouth  and  stomach  are  full  of  air ;  when 
therefore  the  meat  is  squeezed  down  by  the  tongue  and 
tonsils,  the  elided  air  follows  what  gives  way,  and  also 
forces  down  the  meat. 

5.  Weights  also  thrown  cleave  the  air  and  dissipate  it, 
as  they  fall  with  force ;  the  air  recoiling  back,  according 
to  its  natural  tendency  to  rush  in  and  fill  the  vacuity,  fol- 
lows the  impulse,  and  accelerates  the  motion. 

6.  The  fall  also  of  thunderbolts  is  like  to  darting  any 
thing.  For  by  the  blow  in  the  cloud,  the  fiery  matter  ex- 
ploded breaks  into  the  air ;  and  it  being  broken  gives  way, 
and  again  being  contracted  above,  by  main  force  it  presses 
the  thunderbolt  downwards  contrary  to  Nature. 

7.  And  neither  amber  nor  the  loadstone  draws  any  thing 
to  it  which  is  near,  nor  does  any  thing  spontaneously  ap- 
proach them.  But  this  stone  emits  strong  exhalations,  by 
which  the  adjoining  air  being  impelled  forceth  that  which 
is  before  it ;  and  this  being  carried  round  in  the  circle,  and 
returning  into  the  vacuated  place,  forcibly  draws  the  iron 
in  the  same  direction.     In  amber  there  is  a  flammeous  and 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS.  437 

spirituous  nature,  and  this  by  rubbing  on  the  surface  is 
emitted  by  recluse  passages,  and  does  the  same  that  the 
loadstone  does.  It  also  draws  the  lightest  and  driest  of 
adjacent  bodies,  by  reason  of  their  tenuity  and  weakness ; 
for  it  is  not  so  strong  nor  so  endued  with  weight  and 
strength  as  to  force  much  air  and  to  act  with  violence  and 
to  have  power  over  great  bodies,  as  the  magnet  has.  But 
what  is  the  reason  the  air  never  draws  a  stone,  nor  wood, 
but  iron  only,  to  the  loadstone  ?  This  is  a  common  ques- 
tion both  by  them  who  think  the  coition  of  these  bodies  is 
made  by  the  attraction  of  the  loadstone,  and  by  such  as 
think  it  done  by  the  incitement  of  the  iron.  Iron  is  neither 
so  rare  as  wood,  nor  altogether  so  solid  as  gold  or  a  stone ; 
but  has  certain  pores  and  asperities,  which  in  regard  of 
the  inequality  are  proportionable  to  the  air ;  and  the  air 
being  received  in  certain  seats,  and  having  (as  it  were)  cer- 
tain stays  to  cling  to,  does  not  slip  away ;  but  when  it  is 
carried  up  to  the  stone  and  strikes  against  it,  it  draws  the 
iron  by  force  along  with  it  to  the  stone.  Such  then  may 
be  the  reason  of  this. 

8.  But  the  manner  of  fhe  waters  running  over  the 
earth  is  not  so  evident.  But  it  is  observable  that  the  waters 
of  lakes  and  ponds  stand  immovable,  because  the  air  about 
them  stagnates  immovable  and  admits  of  no  vacuity.  For 
the  water  on  the  surface  of  lakes  and  seas  is  troubled  and 
fluctuates  as  the  air  is  moved,  it  following  the  motion  of 
the  air,  and  moving  as  it  is  moved.  For  the  force  from 
below  causes  the  hollowness  of  the  wave,  and  from  above 
the  swelling  thereof;  until  the  air  ambient  and  containing 
the  water  is  still.  Therefore  the  flux  of  such  waters  as 
follow  the  motion  of  the  retreating  air,  and  are  impelled 
by  that  which  presses  behind,  is  continued  without  end. 
And  this  is  the  reason  that  the  stream  increases  with  the 
waters,  and  is  slow  where  the  water  is  weak,  the  aii*  not 
giving  way,  and  therefore  sufl'ering  less  reaction.     So  the 


438  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS. 

water  of  fountains  must  needs  flow  upwards,  the  extrinsic 
air  succeeding  into  the  vacuity  and  throwing  the  water 
out.  In  a  close  house,  that  keeps  in  the  air  and  wind,  the 
floor  sprinkled  with  water  causes  an  air  or  wind,  because, 
as  the  sprinkled  water  falls,  the  air  gives  way.  For  it  is 
so  provided  by  Nature  that  air  and  water  force  one  an- 
other and  give  way  to  one  another ;  because  there  is  no 
vacuity  in  which  one  can  be  settled  without  feeling  the 
change  and  alteration  in  the  other. 

9.  Concerning  symphony,  he  shows  how  sounds  har- 
monize. A  quick  sound  is  acute,  a  slow  is  grave.  There- 
fore acute  sounds  move  the  senses  the  quicker ;  and  these 
dying  and  grave  sounds  supervening,  what  arises  from  the 
contemperation  of  one  with  the  other  causes  pleasure  to 
the  ear,  which  we  call  harmony.  And  by  what  has  been 
said,  it  may  easily  be  understood  that  air  is  the  instrument 
of  these  things.  For  sound  is  the  stroke  upon  the  sense 
of  the  hearer,  caused  by  the  air ;  and  the  air  strikes  as  it 
is  struck  by  the  thing  moving,  —  if  violent,  acutely,  —  if 
languid,  softly.  The  violent  stroke  comes  quick  to  the 
ear  ;  then  the  circumambient  air  receiving  a  slower,  it  afiects 
and  carries  the  sense  along  with  it. 


QUESTION  VIII. 

What  means  Timaeus,*  avhen  he  says  that  Souls  are  dispersed 
INTO  the  Earth,  the  Moon,  and  into  other  Instruments  op 
Time? 

1.  Does  the  earth  move  like  the  sun,  moon,  and  five 
planets,  which  for  their  motions  he  calls  organs  or  instru- 
ments of  time  ?  Or  is  the  earth  fixed  to  the  axis  of  the 
universe ;  yet  not  so  built  as  to  remain  immovable,  but  to 
turn  and  wheel  about,  as  Aristarchus  and  Seleucus  have 

•  See  Timaeus,  p.  42  D. 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS.  439 

shown  since  ;  Aristarclius  only  supposing  it,  Seleucus  posi- 
tively asserting  if?  Theophrastus  writes  how  that  Plato, 
when  he  grew  old,  repented  him  that  he  had  placed  the 
earth  in  the  middle  of  the  universe,  which  was  not  its 
place. 

2.  Or  is  this  contradictory  to  Plato's  opinion  elsewhere, 
and  in  the  Greek  instead  of  xqovov  should  it  be  written  pf^oVo), 
taking  the  dative  case  instead  of  the  genitive,  so  that  the 
stars  will  not  be  said  to  be  instruments,  but  the  bodies  of 
animals  ?  So  Aristotle  has  defined  the  soul  to  be  "  the 
actual  being  of  a  natural  organic  body,  having  the  power 
of  life."*  The  sense  then  must  be  this,  that  souls  are 
dispersed  into  meet  organical  bodies  in  time.  But  this  is 
far  besides  his  opinion.  For  it  is  not  once,  but  several 
times,  that  he  calls  the  stars  instruments  of  time  ;  as  when 
he  says,  the  sun  was  made,  as  well  as  other  planets,  for 
the  distinction  and  conservation  of  the  numbers  of  time. 

3.  It  is  therefore  most  proper  to  understand  the  earth  to 
be  here  an  instrument  of  time  ;  not  that  the  earth  is  moved, 
as  the  stars  are ;  but  that,  they  being  carried  about  it,  it 
standing  still  makes  sunset  and  sunrising,  by  which  the 
first  measures  of  time,  nights  and  days,  are  circumscribed. 
Wherefore  he  called  it  the  infallible  guard  and  artificer  of 
night  and  day.  For  the  gnomons  of  dials  are  instruments 
and  measures  of  time,  not  in  being  moved  with  the  shad- 
ows, but  in  standing  still ;  they  being  like  the  earth  in 
intercepting  the  light  of  the  sun  when  it  is  down,  —  as 
Empedocles  says  that  the  earth  makes  night  by  intercept- 
ing light.     This  therefore  may  be  Plato's  meaning. 

4.  And  so  much  the  rather  might  we  consider  whether 
the  sun  is  not  absurdly  and  without  probability  said  to 
be  made  for  the  distinction  of  time,  with  the  moon  and  the 
rest  of  the  planets.     For  as  in  other  respects  the  dignity 

•  See  Aristotle  on  the  Soul,  11.  1,  with  Trendelenburg's  note.     (G.) 


440  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS. 

of  the  sun  is  great ;  so  by  Plato  in  his  Republic  *  the  sun 
is  called  the  king  and  lord  of  the  whole  sensible  nature, 
as  the  Chief  Good  is  of  the  intelligible.  For  it  is  said  to 
be  the  offspring  of  Good,  it  giving  both  generation  and 
appearance  to  things  visible  ;  as  it  is  from  Good  that  things 
intelligible  both  are  and  are  understood.  But  that  this 
God,  having  such  a  nature  and  so  great  power,  should  be 
only  an  instrument  of  time,  and  a  sure  measure  of  the  dif- 
ference that  happens  among  the  eight  orbs,  as  they  are 
slow  or  swift  in  motion,  seems  neither  decent  nor  highly 
rational.  It  must  therefore  be  said  to  such  as  are  startled 
at  these  things,  that  it  is  their  ignorance  to  think  that  time 
is  the  measure  of  motion  in  respect  of  sooner  or  later,  as 
Aristotle  calls  it ;  or  quantity  in  motion,  as  Speusippus ; 
or  an  interval  of  motion  and  nothing  more,  as  some  of  the 
Stoics  define  it,  by  an  accident,  not  comprehending  its 
essence  and  power,  which  Pindar  has  not  ineptly  expressed 
in  these  words  :  Time,  who  surpasses  all  in  the  seats  of  the 
blest.  Pythagoras  also,  when  he  was  asked  what  time  was, 
answered,  it  was  the  soul  of  this  world.  For  time  is  no 
affection  or  accident  of  motion,  but  the  cause,  power,  and 
principle  of  that  symmetry  and  order  that  confines  all  cre- 
ated beings,  by  which  the  animated  nature  of  the  universe 
is  moved.  Or  rather,  this  order  and  symmetry  itself — so 
far  as  it  is  motion  —  is  called  time.     For  this, 

Walking  by  still  and  silent  ways, 
Mortal  affairs  with  justice  guides.f 

According  to  the  ancients,  the  essence  of  the  soul  is  a 
number  moving  itself.  Therefore  Plato  says  that  time  and 
heaven  were  coexistent,  but  that  motion  was  before  heaven 
had  being.  But  time  was  not.  For  then  there  neither  was 
order,  nor  measure,  nor  determination  ;  but  indefinite  mo- 
tion, as  it  were,  the  formless   and  rude   matter  of  time. 

*  Plato,  Republic,  VI.  pp.  508,  509.  t  Euripides,  Troad.  887. 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS.  441 

.  .  .  But  when  matter  was  informed  with  figures,  and 
motion  with  circuitions,  from  that  came  the  world,  from 
this  time.  Both  are  representations  of  God ;  the  world, 
of  his  essence ;  time,  of  his  eternity  in  the  form  of  mo- 
tion, as  the  world  is  God  in  creation.  Therefore  they  say 
heaven  and  motion,  being  bred  together,  will  perish  to- 
gether, if  ever  they  do  perish.  For  nothing  is  generated 
without  time,  nor  is  any  thing  intelligible  without  eternity  ; 
if  this  is  to  endure  for  ever,  and  that  never  to  die  when 
once  bred.  Time  therefore,  having  a  necessary  connection 
and  affinity  with  heaven,  cannot  be  called  simple  motion, 
but  (as  it  were)  motion  in  order  having  terms  and  periods ; 
whereof  since  the  sun  is  prefect  and  overseer,  to  deter- 
mine, moderate,  produce,  and  observe  changes  and  seasons, 
which  (according  to  Heraclitus)  produce  all  things,  he  is 
coadjutor  to  the  governing  and  chief  God,  not  in  trivial 
things,  but  in  the  greatest  and  most  momentous  affairs. 

QUESTION  IX. 

Since  Plato  in  his  Commonwealth,  discoursing  of  thfc 
faculties  of  the  soul,  has  very  well  compared  the  symphony 
of  reason  and  of  the  irascible  and  the  concupiscent  facul- 
ties to  the  harmony  of  the  middle,  lowest,  and  highest 
chord,*  some  men  may  properly  ask  this  question  :  — 

Did  Plato  pla.ce  the  Rational  or  the  Irascible  Facultt  nr 
THE  Middle?     For  he  is  not  Clear  in  the  Point. 

1.  Indeed,  according  to  the  natural  order  of  the  parts, 
the  place  of  the  irascible  faculty  must  be  in  the  middle, 
and  of  the  rational  in  the  highest,  which  the  Greeks  call 
hypate.  For  they  of  old  called  the  chief  and  supreme 
vnaxog.  So  Xeiiocrates  calls  Jove,  in  respect  of  immutable 
things,  vnarog  (or  highest),  in  respect  of  sublunary  things 

♦  See  Republic,  IV.  p.  443  D. 


442  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS. 

vmrog  (or  lowest.)  And  long  before  him,  Homer  calls  the 
chief  God  imaxog  HQeiovrcov,  Highest  of  Rulers.  And  Na- 
ture has  of  due  given  the  highest  place  to  what  is  most 
excellent,  having  placed  reason  as  a  steersman  in  the  head, 
and  the  concupiscent  faculty  at  a  distance,  last  of  all  and 
lowest.  And  the  lowest  place  they  call  vmrq,  as  the  names 
of  the  dead,  vsqtsqoi  and  hzQoi^  do  show.  And  some  say,  that 
the  south  wind,  inasmuch  as  it  blows  from  a  low  and  ob- 
scure place,  is  called  voTog.  Now  since  the  concupiscent 
faculty  stands  in  the  same  opposition  to  reason  in  which 
the  lowest  stands  to  the  highest  and  the  last  to  the  first, 
it  is  not  possible  for  the  reason  to  be  uppermost  and  first, 
and  yet  for  any  other  part  to  be  the  one  called  vnaxog  (or 
highest).  For  they  that  ascribe  the  power  of  the  middle 
to  it,  as  the  ruling  power,  are  ignorant  how  they  deprive 
it  of  a  higher  power,  namely,  of  the  highest,  which  is 
eompetible  neither  to  the  irascible  nor  to  the  concupiscent 
faculty  ;  since  it  is  the  nature  of  them  both  to  be  governed 
by  and  obsequious  to  reason,  and  the  nature  of  neither  of 
them  to  govern  and  lead  it.  And  the  most  natural  place 
of  the  irascible  faculty  seems  to  be  in  the  middle  of  the 
other  two.  For  it  is  the  nature  of  reason  to  govern,  and 
of  the  irascible  faculty  both  to  govern  and  be  governed, 
since  it  is  obsequious  to  reason,  and  commands  the  concu 
piscent  faculty  when  this  is  disobedient  to  reason.  And  as 
in  letters  the  semi-vowels  are  middling  between  mutes  and 
vowels,  having  something  more  than  those  and  less  than 
these  ;  so  in  the  soul  of  man,  the  irascible  faculty  is  not 
purely  passive,  but  hath  often  an  imagination  of  good 
mixed  with  the  irrational  appetite  of  revenge.  Plato  him- 
self, after  he  had  compared  the  soul  to  a  pair  of  horses 
and  a  charioteer,  likened  (as  every  one  knows)  the  rational 
faculty  to  the  charioteer,  and  the  concupiscent  to  one  of 
the  horses,  which  was  resty  and  unmanageable  altogether, 
bristly  about  the  ears,  deaf  and  disobedient  both  to  whip 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS.         443 

and  spur ;  and  the  irascible  he  makes  for  the  most  part 
very  obsequious  to  the  bridle  of  reason,  and  assistant  to  it. 
As  therefore  in  a  chariot,  the  middling  one  in  virtue  and 
power  is  not  the  charioteer,  but  that  one  of  the  horses  which 
is  worse  than  his  guider  and  yet  better  than  his  fellow  ; 
so  in  the  soul,  Plato  gives  the  middle  place  not  to  the 
principal  part,  but  to  that  faculty  which  has  less  of  reason 
than  the  principal  part  and  more  than  the  third.  This 
order  also  observes  the  analogy  of  the  symphonies,  i.e.  the 
relation  of  the  irascible  to  the  rational  (which  is  placed 
as  hypate)  forming  the  diatessaron  (or  fourth),  that  of  the 
irascible  to  the  concupiscent  (or  nete)  forming  the  dia- 
pente  (or  fifth),  and  that  of  the  rational  to  the  concupis- 
cent (as  hypate  to  nete)  forming  an  octave  or  diapason. 
But  should  you  place  the  rational  in  the  middle,  you  would 
make  the  irascible  farther  from  the  concupiscent ;  though 
some  of  the  philosophers  have  taken  the  irascible  and 
the  concupiscent  faculty  for  the  selfsame,  by  reason  of 
their  likeness. 

2.  But  it  may  be  ridiculous  to  describe  the  first,  middle, 
and  last  by  their  place  ;  since  we  see  hypate  highest  in 
the  harp,  lowest  in  the  pipe  ;  and  wheresoever  you  place 
the  mese  in  the  harp,  provided  it  is  tunable,  it  sounds  more 
acute  than  hypate,  and  more  grave  than  nete.  Nor  does 
the  eye  possess  the  same  place  in  all  animals  ;  but  where- 
ever  it  is  placed,  it  is  natural  for  it  to  see.  So  a  pedagogue, 
though  he  goes  not  foremost  but  follows  behind,  is  said  to 
lead  (ayeiv),  as  the  general  of  the  Trojan  army, 

Now  in  the  front,  now  in  the  rear  was  seen, 
And  kept  command ;  * 

but  wherever  he  was,  he  was  first  and  chief  in  power. 
So  the  faculties  of  the  soul  are  not  to  be  ranged  by  mere 
force  in  order  of  place  or  name,  but  according  to  theii 

•  D.  XI.  64. 


444  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS. 

power  and  analogy.  For  that  in  the  body  of  man  reason 
is  in  the  highest  place,  is  accidental.  But  it  holds  the 
chief  and  highest  power,  as  mese  to  hypate,  in  respect  of 
the  concupiscent ;  as  mese  to  nete,  in  respect  of  the  iras- 
cible ;  insomuch  as  it  depresses  and  heightens,  —  and  in 
fine  makes  a  harmony,  —  by  abating  what  is  too  much  and 
by  not  suffering  them  to  flatten  and  grow  dull.  For  what 
is  moderate  and  symmetrous  is  defined  by  mediocrity.  Still 
more  is  it  the  object  of  the  rational  faculty  to  reduce  the 
passions  to  moderation,  which  is  called  sacred,  as  effecting 
a  harmony  of  the  extremes  with  reason,  and  through  rea- 
son with  each  other.  For  in  chariots  the  best  of  the  beasts 
is  not  in  the  middle  ;  nor  is  the  skill  of  driving  to  be  placed 
as  an  extreme,  but  it  is  a  mediocrity  between  the  ine- 
quality of  the  swiftness  and  the  slowness  of  the  horses. 
So  the  force  of  reason  takes  up  the  passions  irrationally 
moved,  and  reducing  them  to  measure,  constitutes  a  medi- 
ocrity betwixt  too  much  and  too  little. 


QUESTION  X 

Why  said  Plato,   that   Speech  was   composed  op  Nouns   and 

Verbs  ?  * 

1.  For  he  seems  to  make  no  other  parts  of  speech  but 
them.  But  Homer  in  a  sportive  humor  has  comprehended 
them  all  in  one  verse : 

kvrbg  luv  K?umrivds  rd  abv  yepac,  o(pp'  ei  eldyQ.f 

For  in  it  there  is  pronoun,  participle,  noun,  preposition, 
article,  conjunction,  adverb,  and  verb,  the  particle  -ds  being 
put  instead  of  the  preposition  sig ;  for  xXmrjvds,  to  the  tent,  is 
said  in  the  same  sense  as  I4dtjvd^e,  to  Athens.  What  then 
shall  we  say  for  Plato  % 

*  Plato's  Sophist,  p.  262  A.  t  II.  L  186. 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS.         445 

Is  it  that  at  first  the  ancients  called  that  Xoyog,  or  speech, 
which  once  was  called  protasis  and  now  is  called  axiom  or 
proposition,  —  which  as  soon  as  a  man  speaks,  he  speaks 
either  true  or  false  ?  This  consists  of  a  noun  and  verb, 
which  logicians  call  the  subject  and  predicate.  For  when 
we  hear  this  said,  "  Socrates  philosophizeth"  or  "  Socrates 
is  changed,"  requiring  nothing  more,  we  say  the  one  is 
true,  the  other  false.  For  very  likely  in  the  beginning 
men  wanted  speech  and  articulate  voice,  to  enable  them  to 
express  clearly  at  once  the  passions  and  the  patients,  the 
actions  and  the  agents.  Now,  since  actions  and  affections 
are  sufficiently  expressed  by  verbs,  and  they  that  act  and 
are  affected  by  nouns,  as  he  says,  these  seem  to  signify. 
And  one  may  say,  the  rest  signify  not.  For  instance,  the 
groans  and  shrieks  of  stage-players,  and  even  their  smiles 
and  reticence,  make  their  discourse  more  emphatic.  But 
they  have  no  necessary  power  to  signify  any  thing,  as  a 
noun  and  verb  have,  but  only  an  ascititious  power  to  vary 
speech ;  just  as  they  vary  letters  who  mark  spirits  and 
quantities  upon  letters,  these  being  the  accidents  and  dif- 
ferences of  letters.  This  the  ancients  have  made  mani- 
fest, whom  sixteen  letters  sufficed  to  speak  and  write  any 
thing. 

2.  Besides,  we  must  not  neglect  to  observe,  that  Plato 
says  that  speech  is  composed  of  these,  not  by  these  ;  nor 
must  we  blame  Plato  for  leaving  out  conjunctions,  prepo- 
sitions, and  the  like,  any  more  than  we  should  cavil  at  a 
man  who  should  say  such  a  medicine  is  composed  of  wax 
and  galbanum,  because  fire  and  utensils  are  omitted,  with- 
out which  it  cannot  be  made.  For  speech  is  not  composed 
of  these  ;  yet  by  their  means,  and  not  without  them,  speech 
must  be  composed.  As,  if  a  man  pronounce  heats  or  is 
beaten,  and  put  Socrates  and  Pythagoras  to  the  same,  he 
offers  us  something  to  conceive  and  understand.  But  if 
a  man  pronounce  indeed  or  for  or  about^  and  no  more. 


4 46  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS. 

none  can  conceive  any  notion  of  a  body  or  matter ;  and 
unless  such  words  as  these  be  uttered  with  verbs  and 
nouns,  they  are  but  empty  noise  and  chattering.  For 
neither  alone  nor  joined  one  with  another  do  they  signify 
any  thing.  And  join  and  confound  together  conjunctions, 
articles,  and  prepositions,  supposing  you  would  make 
something  of  them  ;  yet  you  will  be  taken  to  babble,  and 
not  to  speak  sense.  But  when  there  is  a  verb  in  construc- 
tion with  a  noun,  the  result  is  speech  and  sense.  There- 
fore some  do  with  good  reason  make  only  these  two  parts 
of  speech  ;  and  perhaps  Homer  is  willing  to  declare  him- 
self of  this  mind,  when  he  says  so  often, 

"ETTOf  t"  e(paT'  en  r'  ovofia^ev. 

For  by  sTtog  he  usually  means  a  verb,  as  in  these  verses . 

'Q  yvvat,  fj  fiula  tovto  iirog  •&vfidkyeg  ienz£(, 

and, 

'X.alpe,  ■narep,  o  ^elve,  etco^  (5*  elirep  ti  JiXeKTai 
^uvbv,  a(pap  to  ^epoiev  avapna^aaai  ueXkai.* 

For  neither  conjunction,  article,  nor  preposition  could 
be  called  ^mov  (terrible)  or  d-vfiaXysg  (soul-grieving),  but 
only  a  verb  expressing  a  base  action  or  a  foolish  passion 
of  the  mind.  Therefore,  when  we  would  praise  or  dis- 
praise poets  or  writers,  we  are  wont  to  say,  such  a  man 
uses  Attic  nouns  and  good  verbs,  or  else  common  nouns 
and  verbs  ;  but  none  can  say  that  Thucydides  or  Euripides 
used  Attic  or  good  or  common  articles. 

3.  What  then?  may  some  say,  do  the  rest  of  the  parts 
conduce  nothing  to  speech?  I  answer, They  conduce,  as 
salt  does  to  victuals,  or  water  to  barley  cakes.  And  Eue- 
nus  calls  fire  the  best  sauce.  Though  sometimes  there  is 
neither  occasion  for  fire  to  boil,  nor  for  salt  to  season  our 
food,  which  we  have  always  occasion  for.  ]N^or  has 
speech  always  occasion  for  articles.     I  think  I  may  say 

•  Odyss.  XXin.  183;  Vni.  408. 


Plutarch's  platonic  questions.  447 

this  of  the  Latin  tongue,  which  is  now  the  universal  lan- 
guage ;  for  it  has  taken  away  all  prepositions,  saving  a 
few,  nor  does  it  use  any  articles,  but  leaves  its  noims  (as 
it  Avere)  without  skirts  and  borders.  Nor  is  it  any  wonder, 
since  Homer,  who  in  fineness  of  epic  surpasses  all  men, 
has  put  articles  only  to  a  few  nouns,  like  handles  to  cans, 
or  crests  to  helmets.  Therefore  these  verses  are  remark- 
able wherein  the  articles  are  expressed : 

Al'avTL  de  fiaXiffTa  5at<ppovi  dvjxbv  6pive 
T^  TeXafMuviddrj'  * 

and, 

Uoleop  '6(ppa  rb  ktjtos  vweKTrpocpvydjv  a\4aiTo'  t 

and  some  few  besides.  But  in  a  thousand  others,  the 
omission  of  the  articles  hinders  neither  perspicuity  nor 
elegance  of  phrase. 

4.  Now  neither  an  animal  nor  an  instrument  nor  arms 
nor  any  thing  else  is  more  fine,  efficacious,  or  graceful,  for 
the  loss  of  a  part.  Yet  speech,  by  taking  away  conjunc- 
tions, often  becomes  more  persuasive,  as  here : 

One  rear'd  a  dagger  at  a  captive's  breast ; 

One  held  a  living  foe,  that  freshly  bled 

With  new-made  wounds ;  another  dragg'd  a  dead.  X 

And  this  of  Demosthenes  : 

"  A  bully  in  an  assault  may  do  much  which  his  victim 
cannot  even  describe  to  another  person,  —  by  his  mien, 
his  look,  his  voice,  —  when  he  stings  by  insult,  when  he 
attacks  as  an  avowed  enemy,  when  he  smites  with  his 
fist,  when  he  gives  a  blow  on  the  face.  These  rouse  a 
man ;  these  make  a  man  beside  himself  who  is  unused  to 
such  foul  abuse." 

And  again  : 

"  Not  so  with  Midias ;  but  from  the  very  day,  he  talks, 
he  abuses,  he  shouts.    Is  there  an  election  of  magistrates  ? 

*  II.  XIV.  459.  t  II.  XX.  147.  J  II.  XVIII.  536. 


448  PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC  QUESTIONS. 

Midias  the  Anagyrrasian  is  nominated.  He  is  the  advocate 
of  Plutarchus ;  he  knows  state  secrets  ;  the  city  cannot 
contain  him."  * 

Therefore  the  figure  asyndeton,  whereby  conjunctions 
are  omitted,  is  highly  commended  by  writers  of  rhetoric. 
But  such  as  keep  overstrict  to  the  law,  and  (according  to 
custom)  omit  not  a  conjunction,  rhetoricians  blame  for 
using  a  dull,  flat,  tedious  style,  without  any  variety  in  it. 
And  inasmuch  as  logicians  mightily  want  conjunctions  for 
the  joining  together  their  axioms,  as  much  as  charioteers 
want  yokes,  and  Ulysses  wanted  withs  to  tie  Cyclop's 
sheep  ;  this  shows  they  are  not  parts  of  speech,  but  a 
conjunctive  instrument  thereof,  as  the  w^ord  conjunction  im- 
ports. Nor  do  conjunctions  join  all,  but  only  such  as  are 
not  spoken  simply ;  unless  you  will  make  a  cord  part  of 
the  burthen,  glue  a  part  of  a  book,  or  distribution  of  money 
part  of  the  government.  For  Demades  says,  that  money 
which  is  given  to  the  people  out  of  the  exchequer  for 
public  shows  is  the  glue  of  a  democracy.  Now  what 
conjunction  does  so  of  several  propositions  make  one, 
by  knitting  and  joining  them  together,  as  marble  joins  iron 
that  is  melted  with  it  in  the  fire  ?  Yet  the  marble  neither 
is  nor  is  said  to  be  part  of  the  iron ;  although  in  this  case 
the  substances  enter  into  the  mixture  and  are  melted  to- 
gether, so  as  to  form  a  common  substance  from  many  and 
to  be  mutually  affected.  But  there  be  some  who  think 
that  conjunctions  do  not  make  any  thing  one,  but  that  this 
kind  of  discourse  is  merely  an  enumeration,  as  when 
magistrates  or  days  are  reckoned  in  order. 

5.  Moreover,  as  to  the  other  parts  of  speech,  a  pronoun 
is  manifestly  a  sort  of  noun  ;  not  only  because  it  has  cases 
like  the  noun,  but  because  some  pronouns,  when  they  are 
applied  to  objects  heretofore  defined,  by  their  mere  utter- 
ance give  the  most  distinct  and  proper  designation  of  them. 

*  Demosthenes  against  Midias,  p.  537,  25,  and  p.  578,  29. 


PLUTARCH'S  PLATONIC   QUESTIONS.  449 

Nor  do  I  know  whether  he  that  says  Socrates  or  he  that 
says  this  one  does  more  by  name  dedare  the  person. 

6.  The  thing  we  call  a  participle,  being  a  mixture  of  a 
verb  and  noun,  is  nothing  of  itself,  as  are  not  the  com- 
mon names  of  male  and  female  qualities  (i.e.  adjectives), 
but  in  construction  it  is  put  with  others,  in  regard  of  tenses 
belonging  to  verbs,  in  regard  of  cases  to  nouns.  Logi- 
cians call  them  dvdx}  iaroi,  (i.e.  reflected),  —  as  (pQovav  comes 
from  cpQovtfiog,  and  amqjQovwv  from  amqjQovog,  —  having  the  force 
both  of  nouns  and  appellatives. 

7.  And  prepositions  are  like  to  the  crests  of  a  helmet, 
or  footstools  and  pedestals,  which  (one  may  rather  say)  do 
belong  to  words  than  are  words  themselves.  See  whether 
they  rather  be  not  pieces  and  scraps  of  words,  as  they  that 
are  in  haste  write  but  dashes  and  pricks  for  letters.  For 
it  is  plain  that  l^^Jjvai  and  Ix^r^vai  are  abbreviations  of  the 

whole    words   tnog  §7jvai   and   luxog  ^Jjvai,  TtQoysv^adfu  for   TtQOTEQOP 

ysvs6dai,  and  aadl'Qav  for  xktw  TCem  As  undoubtedly  for  haste 
and  brevity's  sake,  instead  of  lidovg  ^dlluv  and  toixovg  oqvzthv 
men  first  said  hdo^olm  and  rot/wov/sr?'. 

8.  Therefore  every  one  of  these  is  of  some  use  in 
speech  ;  but  nothing  is  a  part  or  element  of  speech  (as 
has  been  said)  except  a  noun  and  a  verb,  which  make  the 
first  juncture  admitting  of  truth  or  falsehood,  which  some 
call  a  proposition  or  protasis,  others  an  axiom,  and  which 
Plato  called  speech. 


VOL.V. 


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


Most  people  are  apt  to  take  the  histories  of  former 
times  for  mere  forgeries  and  fables,  because  of  many  pas- 
sages in  those  relations  that  seem  to  be  very  extravagant. 
But  yet,  according  to  my  observation,  we  have  had  as 
strange  occurrences  of  a  later  date  in  the  Roman  times  as 
any  we  have  received  from  antiquity  ;  for  proof  whereof, 
I  have  here  matched  several  stories  of  the  ancients  with 
modern  instances,  and  cited  my  authorities. 

1.  Datis,  an  eminent  Persian  commander,  drew  out 
three  hundred  thousand  men  to  Marathon,  a  plain  of  At- 
tica, where  he  encamped  and  declared  war  against  the  in- 
habitants. The  Athenians  made  no  reckoning  at  all  of 
so  barbarous  a  rabble,  but  sent  out  nine  thousand  men 
against  him,  under  the  command  of  Cynaegirus,  Polyzelus, 
Callimachus,  and  Miltiades.  Upon  the  joining  of  battle, 
Polyzelus  was  struck  blind  at  the  sight  of  a  wonderful  ap- 

*  It  seems  impossible  to  believe  this  treatise  to  be  the  work  of  Plutarch,  and 
equally  impossible  to  believe  it  to  be  the  work  of  any  full-grown  man  of  sound  mind. 
In  this  case,  and  in  that  of  the  next  treatise,  no  satisfaction  is  gained  by  merely 
supposing  the  work  spurious.  One  of  these  Parallel  Histories  is  usually  a  well- 
known  story,  and  the  other  is  an  absurd  imitation  of  it.  An  instance  may  be  seen 
in  section  12,  where  the  common  story  of  Manlius  Torquatus  and  his  son  is  matched 
by  an  absurd  one  of  Epaminondas  and  his  son  ;  on  which  Wyttenbach  remarks  : 
"  Romanum  constat :  Graecum  non  modo  ementitum,  sed  stulte  ementitum."  We 
might  almost  suspect  that  many  of  them  are  some  school-bo3''s  compositions,  half  his- 
torical, and  half  imitations  of  well-known  stories  fortified  by  imaginary  authorities 
Is  it  possible  that  this  school-boy  can  have  been  Plutarch  himself?     (G.) 


ROMAN  AND  GREEK  PARALLELS.  451 

parition ;  Callimachus's  body  was  struck  through  with  a 
great  many  lances,  continuing  in  an  upright  posture  even 
when  he  was  dead  ;  Cynaegirus  had  both  his  hands  cut  off 
upon  laying  hold  of  a  Persian  ship  that  was  endeavoring 
to  get  away. 

King  Asdrubal,  having  possessed  himself  of  Sicily,  pro- 
claimed war  against  the  Romans.  Metellus,  who  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  Senate  to  command  in  chief,  overcame  him. 
L.  Glauco,  a  patrician,  laid  hold  of  the  vessel  that  Asdru- 
bal was  in,  and  lost  both  his  hands  upon  it.  —  Aristides 
Milesms  gives  this  account  in  his  First  Booh  of  the  Affairs 
of  Sicily,  and  Dionysius  Siculus  had  it  from  him, 

2.  Xerxes  came  with  an  army  of  five  millions  of  men  to 
Artemisium,  and  declared  war  against  the  country.  The 
Athenians,  in  a  very  great  surprise,  sent  Agesilaus,  the 
brother  of  Themistocles,  to  discover  the  motions  of  the  ene- 
my, notwithstanding  a  dream  of  his  father  Neocles,  that  his 
son  had  lost  both  his  hands.  This  Agesilaus  put  himself 
into  a  Persian  habit,  and  entered  the  barbarians'  camp ; 
where,  taking  Mardonius  (an  officer  of  the  king's  guards)  for 
Xerxes  himself,  he  killed  him.  Whereupon  he  was  immedi- 
ately seized,  bound,  and  carried  to  Xerxes,  who  was  just 
then  about  to  sacrifice  an  ox  to  the  Sun.  The  fire  was  kin- 
dled upon  the  altar,  and  Agesilaus  put  his  right  hand  into  it, 
without  so  much  as  shrinking  at  the  pain.  He  was  ordered 
upon  this  to  be  untied ;  and  told  the  king  that  the  Atheni- 
ans were  all  of  the  same  resolution,  and  that,  if  he  pleased, 
he  should  see  him  burn  his  left  hand  too.  This  gave 
Xerxes  an  apprehension  of  him,  so  that  he  caused  him  to 
be  still  kept  in  custody.  — This  I  find  in  Agathar  chides  the 
Samian,  in  the  Second  Book  of  his  Persian  History. 

Porsena,  a  king  of  Tuscany,  encamped  himself  beyond 
the  Tiber,  and  made  war  upon  the  Romans,  cutting  off  the 
supplies,  till  they  were  brought  to  great  want  of  provi 


452  PARALLELb   BETWEEN 

sions.  The  Senate  were  at  their  wits'  end  what  to  do,  till 
Mucins,  a  nobleman,  got  leave  of  the  consuls  to  take  four 
hundred  of  his  own  quality  to  advise  with  upon  the  mat- 
ter. Mucins,  upon  this,  put  himself  into  the  habit  of  a 
private  man,  and  crossed  the  river  ;  where  finding  one  of 
the  king's  officers  giving  orders  for  the  distribution  of  ne- 
cessaries to  the  soldiers,  and  taking  him  for  the  king  him- 
self, he  slew  him.  He  was  taken  immediately  and  carried 
to  the  king,  where  he  put  his  right  hand  into  a  fire  that 
was  in  the  room,  and  with  a  smile  in  the  middle  of  his 
torments,  —  Barbarian,  says  he,  I  can  set  myself  at  liber- 
ty without  asking  you  leave  ;  and  be  it  known  to  you,  that 
I  have  left  four  hundred  men  in  the  camp  as  daring  as  my- 
self, that  have  sworn  your  death.  This  struck  Porsena 
with  such  a  terror,  that  he  made  peace  with  the  Romans 
upon  it.  —  Aristides  Milesius  is  my  author  for  this,  in  the 
Third  Book  of  his  History. 

3.  There  happened  a  dispute  betwixt  the  Argives  and 
Lacedaemonians  about  a  claim  to  the  possession  of  Thyreatis. 
The  Amphictyons  gave  their  opinion  for  a  trial  of  it  by 
battle,  so  many  and  so  many  of  a  side,  and  the  possession 
to  go  to  the  victor.  The  Lacedaemonians  made  choice  of 
Othryades  for  their  captain,  and  the  Argives  of  Thersander. 
The  battle  was  fought,  and  the  only  two  survivors  that  ap- 
peared were  Agenor  and  Chromius,  both  Argives,  who 
carried  their  city  the  news  of  the  victory.  In  this  interim, 
Othryades,  who  was  not  as  yet  quite  dead,  made  a  shift  to 
raise  himself  by  the  help  of  broken  lances,  gathered  the 
shields  of  the  dead  together,  and  erected  a  trophy  with 
this  inscription  upon  it  in  his  own  blood.  "  To  Jupiter  the 
Guardian  of  Trophies."  The  controversy  still  depended, 
till  the  Amphictyons,  upon  an  ocular  examination  of  the 
matter,  gave  it  for  the  Lacedaemonians.  —  TJiis  is  accord- 
ing to  Chrysermus,  in  his  Third  Book  of  the  Peloponne- 
sian  History. 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  453 

In  a  war  that  the  Eomans  had  with  the  Samnites,  they 
made  Posthumius  Albinus  their  general.  He  was  sur- 
prised in  the  difficult  pass  called  the  Caudine  Forks,  where 
he  was  hemmed  in  and  lost  three  legions,  he  himself -like- 
wise falling  upon  the  place  grievously  wounded.  In  the 
dead  of  the  night,  finding  himself  near  his  end,  he  gath 
ered  together  the  targets  of  his  dead  enemies,  and  raised 
a  trophy  with  them,  which  he  inscribed  with  his  hand 
dipped  in  blood,  "  Erected  by  the  Romans  to  Jupiter, 
Guardian  of  the  Trophies,  for  a  victory  over  the  Samnites." 
But  Fabius  Gurges,  that  was  despatched  away  with  troops 
under  his  command,  so  soon  as  he  came  to  the  place  and 
saw  the  trophy,  took  up  an  auspicious  omen  upon  it,  fought 
the  enemy,  and  overcame  them,  took  their  king  prisoner, 
and  sent  him  to  Rome.  —  This  is  in  the  Third  Book  of 
Aristides  Milesius's  Italian  History. 

4.  Upon  the  Persians  falling  into  Greece  with  a  body  of 
five  millions  of  men,  the  Spartans  sent  out  Leonidas  with 
a  party  of  three  hundred  soldiers  to  secure  the  Pass  of 
Thermopylae.  As  they  were  at  dinner,  the  barbarians  fell 
in  upon  them  ;  upon  which,  Leonidas  bade  them  eat  as  if 
they  were  to  sup  in  another  world.  Leonidas  charged 
at  the  head  of  his  men  into  the  body  of  the  barbarians  ; 
and  after  many  wounds  received,  got  up  to  Xerxes  him- 
self, and  took  his  crown  from  his  head.  He  lost  his  life  in 
the  attempt,  and  Xerxes  causing  him  to  be  cut  up  when 
he  was  dead,  found  his  heart  all  hairy.  —  Aristides^  in 
the  First  Book  of  his  Persian  History. 

In  the  Punic  war  the  Romans  sent  out  three  hundred 
men  under  the  command  of  Fabius  Maximus,  where  they 
were  all  lost ;  and  he  himself,  after  he  had  received  a  mor- 
tal wound,  assaulting  Hannibal,  took  his  diadem  from  his 
head,  and  died  in  the  action.  According  to  Aristides 
3Iilesius. 


454  PARALLELS  BETWEEN 

5.  There  was  a  terrible  earthquake,  with  a  wonderful 
eruption  of  water,  at  Celaenae,  a  city  of  Phrygia,  that 
swallowed  up  a  great  many  houses,  people  and  all.  Midas 
upon  this  consults  the  oracle,  which  gave  him  for  answer, 
that  if  he  would  cast  into  that  gulf  the  most  precious 
thing  that  he  had  in  the  world,  the  earth  should  close 
again.  Whereupon  he  threw  in  a  mass  of  gold  and  silver; 
but  never  the  better.  This  put  it  in  the  head  of  Anchurus, 
the  son  of  Midas,  to  consider,  that  the  most  precious  thing 
in  Nature  is  the  life  and  soul  of  a  man  ;  so  that  he  went 
presently  and  embraced  his  father  and  his  wife  Timothea, 
mounted  his  horse,  and  leaped  into  the  abyss.  The  earth 
closed  upon  it,  and  Midas  raised  a  golden  altar  in  the 
place,  laid  his  hand  upon  it,  and  dedicated  it  TO  JUPI- 
TER IDAEUS.  This  altar  becomes  stone  at  that  time  of 
the  year  when  it  was  usual  to  have  these  eruptions ;  and 
after  that  season  was  over,  it  is  turned  to  gold  again.  — 
My  author  is  Callisthenes,  in  his  Second  Book  of  Trans- 
formations. 

The  River  Tiber,  in  its  course  over  the  Forum,  opened 
a  huge  cavity  in  the  ground,  so  that  a  great  many  houses 
were  buried  in  it.  This  was  looked  upon  as  a  judgment 
upon  the  place,  from  Jupiter  Tarsius ;  who,  as  the  oracle 
told  them,  was  not  to  be  appeased  without  throwing  into  it 
what  they  held  most  valuable.  So  they  threw  a  quantity 
of  gold  and  silver  into  it.  But  Curtius,  one  of  the  bravest 
young  men  they  had,  gave  a  better  guess  at  the  mind  of 
the  oracle ;  and  reflecting  upon  it,  that  the  life  of  a  man 
was  much  more  excellent  than  treasure,  took  his  horse  and 
plunged  himself  into  the  gulf,  and  so  redeemed  his 
country. —  Aristides,  in  the  Fortieth  Book  of  his  Italian 
History. 

6.  As  several  great  captains  were  making  merry  with 
Polynices,  an  eagle  passing  by  made  a  stoop,  and  carried 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  455 

up  into  the  air  the  lance  of  Amphiaraus,  who  was  one  of 
the  company ;  and  then  falling  down,  it  stuck  in  the 
ground,  and  was  turned  into  a  laurel.  The  next  day,  when 
the  armies  were  in  action,  the  earth  opened  and  swallowed 
up  Amphiaraus  with  his  chariot,  in  that  very  place  where 
at  present  the  city  Harma  stands,  so  called  from  that 
chariot.  —  This  is  in  Trisimachuss  Third  Book  of  the 
Foundations  of  Cities. 

When  the  Romans  made  war  upon  Pyrrhus,  the  king 
of  the  Epirots,  the  oracle  promised  Aemilius  Paulus  the 
victory  in  case  he  should  erect  an  altar  in  that  place  where 
he  should  see  an  eminent  man  with  his  chariot  swallowed 
up  into  the  ground.  Some  three  days  after,  Valerius  Con- 
atus,  a  man  skilled  in  divining,  was  commanded  in  a  dream 
to  take  the  pontifical  habit  upon  him.  He  did  so,  and  led 
his  men  into  the  battle,  where,  after  a  prodigious  slaughter 
of  the  enemy,  the  earth  opened  and  swallowed  him  up. 
Aemilius  built  an  altar  here,  obtained  a  great  victory,  and 
sent  a  hundred  and  sixty  castle-bearing  elephants  to  Rome. 
This  altar  delivers  oracles  about  that  season  of  the  year  in 
which  Pyrrhus  was  overcome.  —  Critolaus  has  this  in  his 
Third  Book  of  the  History  of  the  Epirots. 

7.  Pyraechmes,  king  of  the  Euboeans,  made  war  upon 
the  Boeotians.  Hercules,  when  he  was  yet  a  youth,  over- 
came this  king,  had  him  drawn  to  pieces  with  horses,  and 
threw  away  the  carcass  unburied.  The  place  where  this 
was  done  is  called  Pyraechmes's  horses.  It  lies  upon  the 
River  Heraclius,  and  there  is  heard  a  neighing  whensoever 
any  horse  drinks  of  that  river.  —  This  is  in  the  Third 
Book  of  Bivers. 

Tullus  Hostilius,  a  king  of  the  Romans,  waged  war 
against  the  Albans,  whose  king's  name  was  Metius  Fufe- 
tius  ;  and  he  many  times  kept  off  from  fighting.  He  had 
the  ill  luck  to  be  once  worsted,  upon  which   the  Albans 


456  PARALLELS  BETWEEN 

gave  themselves  up  to  drinking  and  making  good  cheer,  till 
Tullus  fell  in  upon  them  when  they  were  in  their  cups, 
and  tore  their  king  to  pieces  betwixt  two  horses.  —  Alex- 
archus,  in  the  Fourth  Book  of  his  Italian  History. 

8.  Philip  had  a  design  to  sack  Olynthus  and  Methone. 
and  in  trying  to  pass  the  River  Sandanus,  was  shot  in  the 
eye  with  an  arrow  by  one  Aster,  an  Olynthian,  with  these 
words:  It  is  Aster  that  sends  Philip  this  mortal  shaft. 
Philip  upon  this  swam  back  again  to  his  own  people,  and 
with  the  loss  of  an  eye  saved  his  life.  —  Callisthenes,  in 
his  Third  Book  of  the  Macedonics. 

Porsena  made  war  upon  the  Romans,  and  pitched  his 
camp  on  the  further  side  of  the  Tiber,  where  he  intercejDted 
all  relief,  till  they  were  pinched  with  famine.  Horatius 
Codes,  being  chosen  general,  took  possession  of  the  wood- 
en bridge,  where  he  opposed  himself  to  the  enemy  that 
were  pressing  to  come  over ;  but  finding  himself  over- 
powered with  numbers,  he  commanded  his  people  to  cut 
down  the  bridge  behind  him,  by  which  means  he  hindered 
them  from  coming  over.  But  in  the  mean  time  receiving 
a  wound  in  his  eye,  he  threw  himself  into  the  river,  and 
swam  over  to  his  own  party.  —  So  Theoiimus  in  the  Second 
Book  of  his  Italian  History. 

9.  Eratosthenes  in  Erigone  tells  a  story  of  Icarius,  that 
entertained  Bacchus  under  his  roof;  and  it  runs  thus. 
Saturn,  having  taken  up  his  lodging  with  an  husbandman 
who  had  a  very  beautiful  daughter  named  Entoria,  took 
her  to  his  bed,  and  had  several  sons  by  her,  Janus,  Hym- 
nus,  Faustus,  and  Felix.  He  taught  his  host  Icarius  the 
use  of  wine  and  the  way  of  dressing  his  vines,  with  a 
charge  that  he  should  likewise  instruct  his  neighbors  in 
the  mystery.  His  acquaintance,  hereupon  finding  that  this 
strange  drink  had  cast  them  into  a  deeper  sleep  than  ordi- 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  457 

nary,  took  a  fancy  that  they  were  poisoned,  and  stoned 
Icarius  in  revenge ;  whereupon  his  grandchildren  hanged 
themselves  for  grief. 

Upon  a  time,  when  the  plague  was  very  hot  in  Rome, 
the  Pythian  oracle  being  consulted  gave  this  answer,  that 
upon  the  appeasing  the  wrath  of  Saturn,  and  the  Manes  of 
those  that  were  unjustly  killed,  the  pestilence  would  cease. 
Lutatius  Catulus,  a  man  of  the  first  quality,  caused  a  tem- 
ple upon  this  occasion  to  be  erected  near  the  Tarpeian 
Mount,  which  he  dedicated  to  Saturn,  placing  an  altar  in 
it  with  four  faces ;  possibly  with  a  respect  to  Saturn's  four 
children,  or  to  the  four  seasons  of  the  year.  He  also  in- 
stituted the  month  of  January.  But  Saturn  translated 
them  all  to  heaven  among  the  stars,  some  of  which  are 
called  Protrygeteres,  as  forerunners  of  the  vintage ;  only 
Janus  rises  first,  and  has  his  place  at  the  feet  of  the  Vir- 
gin. —  Critolaus^  in  his  Fourth  Booh  of  Celestial  Appear- 
ances. 

10.  In  the  time  of  the  devastation  of  Greece  by  the 
Persians,  Pausaaias,  the  Lacedaemonian  commander,  took 
a  bribe  of  500  talents  of  Xerxes,  to  betray  Sparta.  The 
treason  being  discovered,  his  father  Agesilaus  pressed  him 
so  hard,  that  he  was  fain  to  take  sanctuary  in  the  temple 
of  Minerva,  called  Chalcioecos,  where  he  caused  the  doors 
to  be  bricked  up,  and  his  son  to  be  immured  till  he  died 
of  hunger ;  and  his  mother  after  this  would  not  suffer  the 
body  to  be  buried.  —  Chrysermus,  in  his  Seco?id  Book  of 
Histories. 

The  Komans,  being  in  war  with  the  Latins,  made  choice 
of  P.  Decius  for  their  general.  Now  there  was  a  certain 
patrician,  a  young  man  and  poor  (Cassius  Brutus  by  name), 
who  proposed  for  a  certain  reward  to  open  the  gates  to  the 
enemy ;  but  being  detected,  he  fled  to  the  temple  of  Mi- 
nerva Auxiliaria.     But  his  father  Cassius,  an  ensign-bearer, 


4:5b  PARALLELS   BETWEEN 

shut  him  up  there  till  he  died  of  famine,  and  his  dead 
body  was  not  allowed  burial.  —  Clitonymus,  in  his  Italian 
History. 

11.  Darius,  the  Persian,  had  a  battle  with  Alexander 
near  the  River  Granicus,  where  he  lost  seven  satraps,  and 
five  hundred  and  two  chariots  armed  with  scythes.  And  yet 
he  would  have  tried  the  fortune  of  another  battle  the  day 
following ;  but  his  son  Ariobarzanes,  in  favor  of  Alexan- 
der, undertook  to  betray  his  father  into  his  hands.  The 
father  was  so  transported  with  passion  at  the  indignity  of 
the  thing,  that  he  cut  off  his  son's  head  for  it.  —  Aretades 
Cnidius,  in  the  Third  of  his  Macedonian  History. 

Brutus,  that  was  created  consul  by  the  unanimous  vote 
of  the  citizens,  forced  away  Tarquinius  Superbus  into 
banishment  for  his  abominable  tyranny.  He  fled  to  the 
Tuscans,  and  by  their  assistance  made  war  upon  the 
Komans.  The  sons  were  treating  to  betray  the  father ; 
the  business  was  discovered,  and  they  lost  their  heads  for 
it.  —  Aristides  Milesius,  in  his  Italia?!  Histoi^y. 

12.  Epaminondas,  a  Theban  general,  managed  a  war 
against  the  Spartans.  He  went  from  the  army  to  Thebes, 
to  be  present  there  at  a  public  election  of  magistrates ; 
but  first  enjoined  his  son  Stesimbrotus  that  he  should  not 
fight  the  enemy  in  his  absence  upon  any  terms.  The 
Spartans  being  informed  that  Epaminondas  was  not  with 
the  army,  reproached  the  young  man  with  want  of  courage, 
and  so  far  provoked  him,  that  without  any  regard  to  his 
father's  command  he  gave  the  Spartans  battle,  and  over- 
came them.  His  father  was  so  incensed  against  him  for 
this  action,  that  though  he  crowned  him  for  the  victory, 
he  cut  off  his  head  for  his  disobedience.  —  Ctesiphon,  in 
his  Third  Book  of  the  Boeotian  History. 

lu  a  war  that  the  Romans  had  against  the   Samnites, 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  459 

they  gave  the  command  to  Manlius,  surnamed  Imperiosus. 
He  had  occasion  to  go  to  Rome,  to  be  present  there  at  the 
choice  of  consuls,  and  gave  his  son  in  charge  not  to  en- 
gage the  enemy  in  the  mean  time.  The  Samnites,  under- 
standing this,  irritated  the  young  man  with  opprobrious 
words,  as  if  he  declined  fighting  out  of  cowardice,  and  in 
the  end  provoked  him  to  a  battle  ;  upon  which  action  he 
carried  the  day ;  but  his  father  caused  his  head  to  be 
struck  off  for  breaking  his  order.  —  This  is  in  Aristides 
Milesius. 

13.  Hercules  made  love  to  lole,  but  she  gave  him  the 
repulse,  and  so  he  went  and  assaulted  Oechalia.  lole 
threw  herself  headlong  down  from  the  wall,  but  the 
whiffling  of  the  wind  under  her  garments  broke  tlie 
fall,  and  she  had  no  hurt.  —  This  story  is  in  Nicias 
Mcdeotes. 

Valerius  Torquatus  was  the  Romans'  general  in  the  war 
they  had  with  the  Tuscans  ;  who,  upon  the  sight  of  Clusia, 
the  daughter  of  the  Tuscan  king,  fell  in  love  with  her,  and 
when  he  found  he  could  do  no  good  on't,  laid  siege  to  the 
city.  Clusia,  upon  this,  threw  herself  headlong  from  a 
tower ;  but  Venus  was  so  careful  of  her,  that  by  the  play- 
ing of  the  wind  in  the  folds  of  her  garments,  she  was 
wafted  safe  to  the  ground.  Torquatus,  however,  offered 
her  violence,  and  for  so  doing  he  was  banished  by  a  public 
decree  into  the  isle  of  Corsica.  —  Theophilus,  in  the  Third 
Book  of  his  Italian  History. 

14.  While  the  Carthaginians  were  treating  an  alliance 
with  the  Sicilians  against  the  Romans,  the  Roman  general 
Metellus  was  observed  to  omit  sacrificing  only  to  Vesta, 
who  revenged  herself  upon  him  by  sending  a  cross  wind 
to  the  navy.  But  Caius  Julius,  a  soothsayer,  being  con- 
sulted in  the  matter,  gave  answer,  that  this  obstacle  would 


460  PARALLELS   BETWEEN 

be  removed  upon  the  general's  sacrificing  his  daughter  . 
so  that  he  was  forced  to  produce  his  daughter  Metella  foi 
a  sacrifice.  But  Vesta  had  compassion  for  her,  and  so 
sent  her  away  to  Lamusium,  substituting  a  heifer  in  her 
stead,  and  made  a  priestess  of  her  to  the  dragon  that  is 
worshipped  in  that  place.  —  So  Pythocles,  in  the  Third 
Book  of  his  Italian  History. 

Something  like  this  happened  to  Iphigenia  in  Aulis,  a 
city  of  Boeotia.  —  See  Meryllus,  in  the  First  Book  of  his 
Boeotic  History. 

15.  Brennus,  a  king  of  the  Gauls,  after  the  wasting  of 
Asia,  came  to  Ephesus,  and  there  fell  in  love  with  a  coun- 
try girl,  who  promised  him  that  for  such  a  certain  reward 
in  bracelets  and  other  curiosities  of  value  he  should  have 
the  use  of  her  body,  and  that  she  would  further  undertake 
to  deliver  up  Ephesus  into  his  hands,  Brennus  ordered 
his  soldiers  to  throw  all  the  gold  they  had  into  the  lap  of 
this  avaricious  wretch,  which  they  did,  till  she  perished 
under  the  weight  of  it.  —  Clitophon  in  the  First  Book  of 
his  Gallican  Histoi^y. 

Tarpeia,  a  virgin  that  was  well  born,  and  had  the  keep- 
ing of  the  Capitol  in  the  war  betwixt  the  Sabines  and  the 
Romans,  passed  a  promise  unto  Tatius,  that  she  would  open 
him  a  passage  into  the  Tarpeian  Mount,  provided  that  he 
would  give  lier  all  the  jewels  that  the  Sabines  wore,  for  a 
reward.  The  Sabines  hearing  this  crushed  her  to  death  — 
Arisiides's  3£ilesius,  in  his  Italic  History. 

16.  After  a  long  war  betwixt  two  cities,  Tegea  and  Phe- 
nea,  they  came  to  an  agreement  to  refer  the  decision  of  the 
controversy,  by  combat,  to  three  twin-brothers  on  each  side, 
the  sons  of  Reximachus  for  Tegea,  and  the  sons  of  Damos- 
tratus  for  Phenea.  Upon  the  encounter,  two  of  the  sons 
of  Reximachus  were  slain ;  but  Critolaus,  the  third,  had  a 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  461 

fetch  beyond  his  two  brothers ;  for,  under  a  pretence  of 
running  away,  he  divided  his  enemies  that  pursued  him, 
and  so  taking  them  one  by  one,  he  killed  them  all.  The 
Tegeans  upon  his  return  went  all  overjoyed  to  gratulate 
the  victor.  Only  his  sister  Demodice  was  not  so  well 
pleased  ;  for  she  was  betrothed,  it  seems,  to  DemodicuSj 
one  of  the  brothers,  that  was  now  slain.  Which  Critolaus 
took  so  ill  that  he  killed  his  sister,  and  being  afterwards 
indicted  for  murder  at  the  instigation  of  his  mother,  he  was 
acquitted.  —  Demaratus,  in  his  Second  Booh  of  the  Ar'ca- 
dian  History. 

In  the  heat  of  the  war  betwixt  the  Eomans  and  Albans, 
they  came  to  this  agreement,  that  the  cause  should  be  de- 
termined by  a  trial  at  arms  betwixt  three  and  three  twins 
on  each  side,  the  Curiatii  for  the  Albans,  and  the  Horatii 
for  the  Romans.  Upon  the  encounter,  the  Curiatii  killed 
two  of  the  others  ;  the  third  survivor,  under  the  color  of 
flying,  destroyed  his  enemies  one  by  one,  as  they  followed 
him.  All  his  friends  came  to  joy  him  of  his  victory,  save 
only  his  sister  Horatia ;  for  one  of  the  Curiatii,  that  her 
brother  killed,  was  her  sweetheart.  Horatius  for  this 
killed  his  sister.  —  Aristides  Milesius,  in  his  Italian  Com- 
mentaries. 

17.  The  temple  of  Minerva  in  Ilium  happened  to  be  on 
fire.  Ilus  ran  presently  to  save  the  Palladium  (an  image 
dropped  from  heaven)  ;  but  upon  the  taking  of  it  up,  he 
was  struck  blind,  it  being  a  thing  unlawful  for  any  man  to 
look  upon.  But  upon  appeasing  the  Deity,  he  was  after- 
wards restored  to  his  sight.  —  Dercyllus,  in  his  First  Book 
of  Foundations. 

Metellus,  an  eminent  man,  as  he  was  walking  out  of  the 
city,  was  interrupted  by  ravens,  that  laid  hold  of  him 
and  kept  a  flapping  of  him  with  their  wings.  This 
omen  surprised  him,  and  back  he  went  into  the  city  again, 


462  PAEALLELS   BETWEEN 

where  he  found  the  temple  of  Vesta  all  in  a  flame.  He 
went  and  took  away  the  Palladmm,  and  fell  blind  upon't. 
But  some  time  after,  the  Goddess  being  pacified  gave  him 
the  use  of  his  eyes  again.  —  Aristides  31'desius,  in  his 
Italian  History. 

18.  Upon  a  time  when  the  Thracians  were  engaged  in 
a  war  against  the  Athenians,  the  oracle  promised  them 
victory  if  they  would  but  save  the  life  of  Codrus.  Codrus 
upon  this  puts  himself  in  a  coarse  disguise,  and  away  he 
goes  into  the  enemies'  camp  with  a  scythe  in  his  hand, 
where  he  killed  one,  and  another  killed  him,  so  that  the 
Athenians  got  the  better  on't.  —  Socrates,  in  his  Second 
Book  of  his  Thracian  History. 

Publius  Decius,  a  Koman,  at  a  time  when  they  were  in 
war  with  the  Albans,  had  a  dream  that  his  death  would 
bring  a  great  advantage  to  the  Romans ;  upon  which  con- 
sideration he  charged  into  the  middle  of  his  enemies,  where 
he  killed  many,  and  was  slain  himself:  his  son  Decius  did 
the  like  in  the  Gallic  war,  for  the  conservation  of  the 
Roman  State.  —  Aristides  Milesius  is  my  author. 

19.  There  was  one  Cyanippus  a  Syracusan,  that  sacri- 
ficed to  all  the  Gods  but  Bacchus  ;  who  took  the  contempt 
so  heinously  that  he  made  him  drunk,  in  which  fit  Le  got 
his  daughter  Cyane  into  a  corner  and  lay  with  her.  She 
in  the  mean  time  slipped  his  ring  ofi"  his  finger,  and  gave  it 
to  her  nurse  to  keep,  as  a  circumstance  that  some  time  or 
other  might  come  to  be  brought  in  evidence.  There  brake 
out  a  pestilence,  and  the  Pythian  oracle  advised  the  sacri- 
ficing of  an  incestuous  person  to  the  Gods  that  are  the 
averters  of  such  calamities,  as  the  only  remedy.  Cyane, 
that  understood  the  meaning  of  the  oracle  better  than 
other  people,  took  her  father  by  the  hair  of  the  head 
and  dragged  him  forth,  first  stabbing  him  and  then  her- 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  46S 

■^elf.  —  Dosilheus,   in    the    Third  Booh   of  his   Sicilian 
History. 

In  the  time  of  celebrating  the  Bacchanalia  at  Rome. 
Aruntius,  that  had  never  drunk  any  wine  since  he  was 
born,  did  not  show  such  reverence  for  the  power  of  the 
God  as  he  ought  to  have  done,  so  that  Bacchus  intoxicated 
him  ;  and  in  that  freak,  Aruntius  ravished  his  daughter 
MeduUina.  She  came  to  know  the  ravisher  by  his  ring, 
and  an  exploit  came  into  her  head,  above  what  from  her 
age  could  have  been  expected.  She  made  her  father  drunk 
and  set  a  garland  upon  his  head,  carrying  him  to  the  altar 
of  Thunder,  where  Avith  tears  she  killed  him  for  robbing 
her  so  treacherously  of  her  virginity.  —  Aristides,  in  the 
Third  Book  of  his  Italian  History. 

20.  Erechtheus  was  told  in  a  war  he  had  with  Eumolpus, 
that  he  should  have  the  better  of  his  enemy  if  he  would 
but  sacrifice  his  daughter.  He  advised  upon  the  matter 
with  his  wife  Praxithea,  and  delivered  up  his  daughter 
after  the  manner  of  a  common  sacrifice.  —  Euripides^  in  his 
Erechtheus. 

Marius,  finding  himself  hard  put  to  it  in  the  Cimbrian 
war,  had  it  revealed  to  him  in  a  dream,  that  he  should 
overcome  his  enemies  if  he  would  but  sacrifice  his  daugh- 
ter Calpurnia.  He  did  it,  preferring  the  common  safety 
before  any  private  bond  of  Nature,  and  he  got  the  victory. 
There  are  two  altars  in  Germany,  where  about  that  time 
of  the  year  may  be  heard  the  sound  of  trumpets.  —  Dovo- 
theus,  in  the  Fourth  Book  of  his  Italian  History. 

21.  There  was  one  Cyanippus,  a  Thessalian,  who  was  a 
great  lover  of  the  chase  and  was  often  abroad  a  hunting. 
This  same  Cyanippus  was  newly  married,  and  his  staying 
out  so  long  and  so  often  in  the  woods  gave  his  wife  a 
jealousy  of  an  intrigue  there  with  some  other  woman  ;  in- 


464  PARALLELS  BETWEEN 

somucli  that  she  followed  him  one  time,  and  got  into  a 
thicket  to  watch  him.  The  rustling  of  the  boughs  in  the 
place  where  she  lay  brought  the  dogs  thither  in  expectation 
of  some  game,  where  they  tore  this  tender-hearted  woman 
to  pieces,  as  if  she  had  been  a  brute  beast.  Cyanippus 
was  so  surprised  with  so  dismal  and  unthought-of  a  specta- 
cle, that  he  killed  himself.  —  Parthenias  the  Poet. 

Sybaris  is  a  city  of  Italy,  where  there  was  one  Aemilius, 
a  very  handsome  young  man,  and  a  lover  of  hunting.  His 
wife  (whom  he  had  lately  married)  took  up  a  suspicion 
that,  under  color  of  the  chase,  he  carried  on  an  assignation 
with  some  other  woman.  She  traced  him  to  the  wood,  and 
upon  the  noise  of  the  boughs  in  her  passage,  the  dogs  ran 
presently  to  her  and  tore  her  to  pieces  ;  and  her  husband 
stabbed  himself  immediately  upon  this  miserable  acci- 
dent. —  Clitonymus^  in  the  Second  Booh  of  his  Syharitics. 

22.  One  Smyrna  (to  whom  Venus  owed  a  shame,  it 
seems)  fell  passionately  in  love  with  her  father  Cinyras,  and 
made  the  nurse  her  confidant.  She  goes  craftily  to  work 
with  her  master,  and  tells  him  of  a  maid  there  in  the 
neighborhood  that  loved  him  above  all  things  in  the  world, 
but  she  could  not  in  modesty  appear  publicly  to  him.  So 
the  father  lay  ignorantly  with  his  own  daughter.  But 
some  time  after,  having  a  great  mind  to  see  his  mistress, 
he  called  for  a  light,  and  when  he  saw  who  it  was,  he 
pursued  the  incestuous  wretch  with  his  drawn  sword ;  but 
by  the  providence  of  Venus,  she  was  rescued  from  that 
danger,  and  turned  into  a  myrrh-tree.  —  Theodorus^  in 
his  Transformations. 

One  Valeria  Tusculanaria  (for  whom  Venus  had  no 
kindness)  fell  downright  in  love  with  her  father  Valerius. 
She  told  the  nurse  the  secret,  who  ordered  it  so  that  she 
brought  the  father  and  the  daughter  together,  telling  him, 
that  a  maid  there  hard  by  was  fallen  desperately  in  love 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  465 

with  him,  but  that  she  durst  not  lie  with  him  for  fear  of 
being  known.  The  father  was  got  into  his  cups,  and  as 
lie  was  in  bed  with  his  daughter,  called  for  a  candle.  The 
nurse  waked  Valeria,  and  away  she  goes  wandering  up  and 
down  the  country  with  her  great  belly.  She  had  at  last 
a  fall  from  a  precipice,  but  escaped  without  so  much  as 
any  miscarriage ;  for  she  was  delivered  at  her  time,  and 
the  child's  name  was  Sylvanus  (or  goat-footed  Pan).  Va- 
lerius, in  the  anxiety  of  his  mind,  threw  himself  from  the 
same  precipice.  —  Aristides  Milesius,  m  the  Third  Book 
of  his  Italian  History. 

23.  Diomedes,  after  the  destruction  of  Troy,  was  cast 
by  stress  of  weather  upon  the  coast  of  Libya,  where  Lycus 
the  son  of  Mars  was  king,  whose  custom  it  was  to  sacrifice 
all  strangers  to  his  father;  but  his  daughter  Callirrhoe 
falling  in  love  with  Diomede,  betrayed  her  father  and  set 
Diomede  at  liberty ;  who  presently  went  his  way  without 
any  regard  to  his  benefactress,  and  Callirrhoe  hanged  her- 
self upon  it.  —  Juha,  Booh  the  Third  of  his  Libyan 
History. 

Calpurnius  Crassus,  a  famous  man  bearing  arms  with 
Regulus,  was  sent  to  the  Massyllians  to  attack  the  castle 
of  Garaetius,  being  a  very  strong  place.  He  was  taken  in 
the  enterprise,  and  designed  for  a  sacrifice  to  Saturn ;  but 
Bisaltia,  the  king's  daughter,  out  of  a  passionate  kindness 
to  Calpurnius,  betrayed  her  father.  Calpurnius  left  her, 
and  after  his  departure  Bisaltia  cut  her  own  throat.  —  He- 
sianaxs  Third  Book  of  African  History. 

'24.  When  Priam  found  that  Troy  was  given  for  lost, 
he  sent  his  young  son  Polydore  into  Thrace  with  a  vast 
sum  of  gold,  and  put  all  into  the  hands  of  Polymestor  his 
kinsman.  So  soon  as  Troy  was  taken,  Polymestor  killed 
the  child,  and  took  the  gold  to  himself.     Plecuba,  being 

VOL.  V.  30 


466  PARALLELS  BETWEEN 

driven  upon  that  quarter,  overreached  Polymestor  by  craft, 
under  pretence  of  giving  him  a  great  treasure,  at  which 
time  she,  w^ith  the  assistance  of  her  fellow- prisoners,  tore 
out  his  eyes  with  her  nails.  —  Euripides  the  Tragedian. 

When  Hannibal  was  ravaging  the  country  of  Campania, 
Lucius  Thymbris  deposited  his  son  Rustius,  with  a  vast 
sum  of  money,  in  the  hands  of  Valerius  Gestius  his  kins- 
man; who  upon  intelligence  that  the  enemy  carried  all 
before  him,  out  of  pure  avarice  and  without  any  regard  to 
humanity  or  justice,  killed  the  child.  It  so  fell  out  that 
Thymbris,  as  he  w^as  walking  about  the  fields,  found  the 
dead  body  of  his  son  ;  whereupon  he  called  his  kinsman 
under  pretence  of  a  treasure  that  he  would  show  him.  He 
took  his  opportunity,  put  out  his  eyes,  and  crucified  him. 
—  Aristidess  Third  Book  of  his  Italic  History. 

25.  Aeacus  had  two  sons  by  Psamathe,  Phocus  and 
Telamon,  the  former  better  beloved  than  the  other.  Tela- 
mon  one  day  took  out  his  brother  a  hunting ;  and  a  boar 
presenting  himself,  he  threw  his  lance  in  pretence  at  the 
boar,  but  in  truth  at  his  brother,  whom  he  hated,  and  so 
killed  him ;  for  which  his  father  banished  him.  —  Doro- 
theus's  First  Book  of  Transformations. 

Cains  Maximus  had  two  sons.  Rhesus  the  one,  by  Ame- 
ria,  .  .  .  and  the  other  Similius.  The  brothers  were  a 
hunting  together,  and  Rhesus  having  killed  the  other,  put 
it  off — when  he  came  home  —  that  it  was  by  chance,  and 
far  from  any  design  of  doing  it.  But  his  father,  when  he 
came  in  time  to  know  the  truth  of  it,  banished  the  son.  — 
Aristocles,  in  the  Third  Book  of  his  Italian  History. 

26.  Mars  is  said  to  have  begotten  Meleager  upon  Al- 
thaea. —  Euripides^  in  his  Meleager. 

Septimius  Marcellus  took  to  wife  one  Sylvia,  and  a  great 
lover  of  hunting  he  was.     Mars  put  himself  in  the  habit 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  467 

of  a  shepherd,  whored  the  new  wife  and  got  her  with 
child  ;  which  being  done,  he  told  her  who  he  was,  and 
gave  her  a  spear,  telling  her  that  the  fate  of  the  child 
she  went  withal  was  wrapped  up  in  the  fate  of  that 
spear.  .  .  . 

Septimius  slew  Tuscinus ;  but  Mamercus,  in  his  sacrifi- 
cing to  the  Gods  for  a  fruitful  season,  omitted  only  Ceres, 
who  in  revenge  sent  a  wild  boar  into  his  grounds.  Where 
upon  getting  a  knot  of  huntsmen  together,  he  killed  him, 
and  delivered  the  head  and  skin  to  his  sweetheart ;  but 
Scymbrates  and  Muthias,  the  maid's  uncles,  took  them 
away  from  her.  Mamercus  in  a  rage  killed  them  upon  it, 
and  the  mother  burned  the  spear.  —  Menyllus,  in  the  Third 
Book  of  his  Italian  History, 

27.  When  Telamon,  the  son  of  Aeacus  and  Endeis, 
came  to  Euboea,  he  debauched  Periboea  the  daughter  of 
Alcathous,  and  fled  away  by  night.  The  father  under- 
standing this,  and  suspecting  the  villany  to  be  done  by 
some  of  the  citizens,  he  delivered  his  daughter  to  one  of 
the  guards  to  be  thrown  into  the  sea.  But  the  soldier,  in 
compassion  to  the  woman,  rather  sold  her,  and  she  watj 
carried  away  by  sea  to  the  island  of  Salamis,  where  Tela- 
mon bought  her,  and  had  by  her  Ajax.  —  Areiades  Cni- 
dius,  in  his  Second  Book  of  Islands. 

Lucius  Troscius  had  by  Patris  a  daughter  called  Floren- 
tia,  who,  being  corrupted  by  Calpurnius  a  Roman,  was 
delivered  by  her  father  to  a  soldier,  with  a  charge  to  throw 
her  in  the  sea  and  drown  her.  The  man  had  compassion 
of  her,  and  rather  sold  her.  And  when  good  fortune 
brought  the  ship  to  Italy,  Calpurnius  bought  her,  and  had 
Contruscus  by  her.  .  .  . 

28.  Aeolus,  a  great  king  of  Etruria,  had  by  Amphithea 
six  daughters,  and  as  manv  sons.     Macareus,  the  youngest 


468  PARALLELS  BETWEEN 

of  them,  "had  the  carnal  knowledge  of  one  of  his  sisters, 
who  was  delivered  of  a  boy.  Her  father  sent  her  a  sword 
to  kill  the  child  Avith  ;  but  that  was  so  impious,  that  she 
chose  rather  to  kill  herself.  And  Macareus  laid  violent 
hands  upon  himself  too.  —  Sosiratus,  in  his  Second  Booh 
of  Tuscan  History. 

Papirius  Tolucer  married  Julia  Pulchra,  by  whom  he 
had  six  sons  and  six  daughters.  Papirius  Romanus,  the 
eldest  of  the  six,  got  Canulia  his  sister  with  child.  When 
the  father  came  to  the  knowledge  of  it,  he  sent  his  daugh- 
ter a  sword,  with  which  she  killed  herself;  and  Pomanus 
did  the  same.  —  Chrysippus,  in  his  First  Book  of  Italian 
History. 

29.  Aristonymus,  an  Ephesian  and  the  son  of  Demos- 
tratus,  was  a  woman-hater ;  but  he  had  to  do  with  an  ass, 
which  brought  him  forth  in  the  ordinarv  course  of  time  a 
most  beautiful  daughter,  which  he  called  Onoscelis.  — 
Aristotle  s  Second  Book  of  Paradoxes. 

Fulvius  Stellus  had  an  aversion  to  women  too ;  but  en- 
tertained himself  to  his  satisfaction  with  a  mare,  by  which 
he  had  a  very  handsome  daughter,  that  he  called  Hippona ; 
and  this  is  the  goddess  that  has  the  care  of  the  breed  of 
horses.  —  According  to  Agesilaus,  in  the  Third  Book  of 
his  Italian  History. 

30.  The  Sardians,  being  engaged  in  war  with  the  Smyr- 
naeans,  besieged  Smyrna,  and  sent  them  word  by  their 
ambassadors,  that  they  would  never  raise  the  siege  till  the 
Smyrnaeans  should  deliver  up  their  wives  to  their  embraces. 
The  men  of  Smyrna  would  have  been  hard  put  to  it  upon 
this  pinching  necessity,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  advice 
of  a  pretty  wench  that  was  a  maid-servant  to  Phylarchus. 
Her  counsel  to  her  master  was  this ;  that  instead  of  send- 
ing free  women,  they  should  rather  dress  up  the  servants 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  469 

and  send  them.  The  Smyrnaeans  followed  their  advice ; 
and  when  the  Sardians  had  wearied  themselves  with  their 
mistresses,  the  Smyrnaeans  easily  overcame  them.  From 
whence  there  is  a  festival  day  observed  under  the  name  of 
Eleutheria,  which  is  celebrated  among  the  Smyrnaeans 
with  great  solemnity ;  the  servants  being  dressed  up  with 
all  the  ornaments  of  the  free  women.  —  Dositheus,  in  the 
Third  Book  of  his  Lydian  History. 

Atepomarus,  a  king  of  the  Gauls,  being  in  war  with  the 
Romans,  made  a  public  declaration,  that  he  would  never 
agree  to  a  peace  till  the  Romans  should  prostitute  their 
wives  to  them.  The  Romans  advised  with  the  maid-ser- 
vants, and  sent  them,  in  the  place  of  the  free  women  ;  the 
barbarians  plied  the  work  so  hard,  that  they  were  soon 
tired  and  fell  asleep.  Retana  (who  was  the  authoress  of 
the  counsel)  climbed  a  fig-tree,  and  so  got  on  the  wall ;  and 
finding  how  it  was,  gave  notice  of  it  to  the  consuls.  The 
Romans  upon  this  made  a  sally  and  routed  the  enemy ;  in 
memory  whereof  was  instituted  the  Servants'  Holiday,  and 
this  was  the  rise  of  it.  —  Aristides  Milesius,  in  the  First 
Book  of  his  Italian  History. 

31.  In  the  war  betwixt  the  Athenians  and  Eumolpus, 
provisions  falling  short,  the  commissary  Pyrandrus,  upon 
a  point  of  prudence  and  good  husbandry,  made  some  small 
abatement  in  the  soldiers'  proportions.  The  citizens  sus- 
pected treachery  in  the  case,  and  stoned  him  to  death.  — 
Callisthenes,  Third  Book  of  his  History  of  Thrace. 

The  Romans  being  in  war  with  the  Gauls,  and  provi- 
sions for  the  belly  being  very  scarce,  Cinna  contracted  the 
soldiers'  allowance  to  a  less  proportion  than  they  had  for- 
merly. The  citizens  interpreted  this  abatement  to  an  am- 
bitious design  he  had  upon  the  government,  and  so  stoned 
him  for  it.  —  Aristides^  Book  Third  of  his  Italian  His- 
tory. 


470  PARALLELS  BETWEEN 

32.  In  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  Pisistratus  an 
Orchomenian  had  a  spite  at  the  nobihty,  and  to  make  him- 
self popular,  favored  the  common  people.  The  Senate 
conspired  against  him,  and  treacherously  killed  him,  cutting 
him  into  small  gobbets  which  they  carried  away  with  them 
in  their  bosoms,  and  paring  off  the  surface  of  the  ground 
that  no  signs  of  the  murder  might  appear.  The  common 
people,  however,  upon  a  jealousy  of  the  matter,  went 
tumultuously  to  the  senate  house ;  but  the  king's  younger 
son  Telesimachus  that  was  dipped  in  the  conspiracy, 
diverted  them  with  a  sham  story,  telling  them  that  he 
himself  had  seen  his  father  in  a  form  more  than  human, 
walking  as  lively  as  was  possible  up  the  Pisaean  mountain. 
And  so  he  imposed  upon  the  people.  —  Theophilus8 
Second  Booh  of  Peloponnesian  Histories. 

The  Senate  of  Rome,  being  hard  put  to  it  for  the  main- 
taining of  a  war  with  so  many  of  their  neighbors,  thought 
it  good  husbandry  to  shorten  the  people's  allowance  of 
corn,  which  Romulus  the  king  took  very  ill ;  and  not  only 
did  he  restore  it  to  the  people,  but  several  great  men  were 
punished  for  it.  Upon  this  he  was  murdered  in  the  Senate 
by  a  conspiracy  of  the  nobles,  who  cut  him  all  to  pieces, 
and  carried  them  severally  away  in  the  lappets  of  their 
garments.  The  Romans  came  to  the  senate  house  in  a 
hurry,  and  brought  fire  with  them  to  set  all  in  a  flame ; 
but  Julius  Proculus,  one  that  was  in  the  plot,  told  them 
that  he  saw  Komulus  upon  a  mountain,  of  a  size  larger 
than  any  man,  and  that  he  was  translated  into  the  number 
of  the  Gods.  The  Romans  believed  him,  and  quietly  with- 
drew.—  Aristohulus^  in  the  Third  Book  of  his  History 
of  Italy. 

33.  Pelops  the  son  of  Tantalus  and  Euryanassa,  had 
two  children,  Atreus  and  Thyestes,  by  his  wife  Hippo- 
damia ;    and  by  the  Nymph  Danais  he  had  Chrysippus, 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  471 

whom  he  loved  better  than  his  lawful  children.  But  Laius 
the  Theban  in  the  heat  of  his  lust  forcibly  abused  his 
body ;  and  being  taken  by  Atreus  and  Thyestes,  obtained 
his  pardon  from  Pelops,  in  regard  that  love  had  provoked 
him  to  it.  Hippodamia's  advice  to  Atreus  and  Thyestes 
was,  that  they  should  kill  Chrysippus,  as  one  that  would 
interpose  between  them  and  the  crown.  Upon  their  refu- 
sal to  do  so  base  a  thing,  she  herself  put  her  own  hands  to 
the  work,  and  in  the  dead  of  the  night  took  Laius's  sword 
when  he  was  asleep,  wounded  Chrysippus  with  it,  and  left 
the  weapon  in  his  body.  This  circumstance  of  Laius's 
sword  brought  him  into  suspicion  of  the  murder,  till  he 
was  cleared  by  Chrysippus  himself,  who,  being  as  yet  but 
half  dead,  gave  his  testimony  to  the  truth.  Pelops  buried 
his  son.  and  then  banished  his  wife.  —  JDositheus,  in  his 
Pelopidae. 

Ebius  Toliex  had  two  sons  by  his  wife  Nuceria,  and  a 
third  called  Firmus  by  an  enfranchised  woman,  who  was 
very  handsome  and  better  beloved  by  the  father  than  those 
that  were  legitimate.  Nuceria  that  hated  this  by-blow, 
advised  her  sons  to  despatch  Firmus  ;  but  upon  their  re- 
fusal, she  did  it  herself;  and  in  the  dead  of  the  night  got 
the  sword  of  him  that  guarded  the  body  of  Firmus,  gave 
him  a  mortal  wound,  and  left  the  weapon  sticking  in  his 
body.  The  boy  cleared  his  keeper  by  a  particular  account 
of  the  matter  of  fact ;  the  father  buried  his  son,  and  sent 
away  his  wife  into  banishment.  —  Dositheus,  Book  Third 
of  his  Italian  History. 

34.  Theseus,  the  true  son  of  Neptune,  had  Hippolytus 
by  the  Amazon  Hippolyta,  and  afterward  married  Phaedra 
the  daughter  of  Minos,  who  fell  deep  in  love  with  Hip- 
polytus, and  made  use  of  the  nurse's  mediation  to  help 
forward  the  incest.  But  Hippolytus  upon  this  left  Athens 
and  went  away  to  Troezen,  where  he  diverted  himself  with 


472  PARALLELS  BETWEEN 

hunting.  Now  this  lascivious  woman,  finding  her  design 
disappointed,  forged  several  scandalous  letters  to  the  preju- 
dice of  the  chaste  young  man,  and  ended  her  days  with  a 
halter.  Theseus  gave  credit  to  the  slander,  and  Neptune 
having  promised  him  a  grant  of  any  three  things  he  would 
ask,  he  made  it  his  request  that  he  would  destroy  Hippoly- 
tus.  So  Neptune  sent  a  bull  to  the  coast  where  Hip  poly  tus 
was  driving  his  chariot,  which  put  his  horses  into  such  a 
fright,  that  they  ran  away  with  them,  and  overturning  the 
chariot  killed  the  master. 

Comminius  Super,  a  Laurentine,  had  a  son  by  the 
nymph  Egeria,  whom  he  called  Comminius  ;  after  which  he 
married  one  Gidica,  who  fell  passionately  in  love  witli  her 
son-in-law.  And  receiving  a  repulse,  she  framed  slan- 
derous letters  against  him,  which  slie  left  behind  her,  and 
so  hanged  herself.  Comminius,  reflecting  upon  the  crime 
and  believing  the  calumny,  applied  himself  to  Neptune, 
who  with  a  terrible  bull  frighted  the  horses  so,  while  the 
youth  was  in  the  chariot,  that  they  overturned  all,  and 
killed  him  with  the  fall.  —  Dositheus,  Book  Third  of 
Italian  Histories. 

35.  In  the  time  of  a  great  plague  in  Lacedaemon,  they 
were  told  by  the  oracle,  that  the  pestilence  would  cease 
upon  the  sacrificing  of  a  noble  virgin  every  year.  It  fell 
one  time  by  lot  to  Helena,  who  was  brought  out  and 
dressed  up  ready  for  the  sacrifice.  An  eagle  at  that  time 
flying  by  took  away  the  sword,  and  carrying  it  into  a  herd 
of  cattle  laid  it  down  upon  a  heifer ;  whereupon  they 
spared  the  virgin.  —  Aristodemus,  in  his  Third  Collection 
of  Fables. 

There  was  a  dreadful  plague  in  Falerii,  which  the  oracle 
said  would  be  removed  upon  the  sacrificing  of  a  virgin  to 
Juno  every  year.  While  this  superstition  was  in  course, 
it  fell  to  Valeria  Luperca's  lot  to  be  the  sacrifice.     An 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  ■  473 

eagle  flew  away  with  the  drawn  sword,  but  laid  a  stick 
upon  the  fuel  prepared  for  the  fire,  with  a  little  mallet 
fixed  to  it.  The  sword  he  threw  upon  a  heifer  feeding 
near  the  temple.  The  virgin  perceiving  this  sacrificed 
the  heifer  ;  and  taking  up  the  mallet,  went  about  from  house 
to  house,  and  with  a  gentle  knock  called  to  those  that 
were  sick,  bidding  them  be  of  good  health.  x\nd  this 
was  the  rise  of  the  ceremony  which  continues  to  this  day. 
—  Aristides,  in  his  Nineteenth  Book  of  Italian  Histories. 

36.  Philonome,  the  daughter  of  Nyctimus  and  Arcadia, 
went  many  times  to  the  chase  with  Diana.  Mars  lay  with 
her  in  the  shape  of  a  shepherd,  and  fetched  up  her  belly. 
She  was  delivered  in  time  of  twins,  which  for  fear  of  her 
father  she  threw  into  the  river  Erymanthus.  By  a  strange 
fatality  of  providence  they  were  driven  safe  into  a  hollow 
oak,  which  happening  to  be  the  kennel  of  a  wolf,  this 
wolf  threw  her  whelps  into  the  river,  and  suckled  the 
children.  Tyliphus  a  shepherd,  that  had  seen  this  with 
his  own  eyes,  took  these  children  and  brought  them  up  as 
his  own,  calling  one  of  them  Lycastus,  and  the  other  Par- 
rasius,  which  reigned  successively  in  Arcadia.  —  This  is 
reported  hy  Zopyrus  Byzantius,  in  the  Third  Book  of  his 
Histories. 

Amulius  dealing  very  tyrannically  with  his  brother 
Numitor,  killed  his  son  Aenitus  as  they  were  a  hunting, 
and  made  his  daughter  Sylvia  ...  a  priestess  of  Juno. 
Mars  got  her  with  child,  and  when  she  had  laid  her  belly 
of  twins,  she  confessed  the  truth  to  the  tyrant ;  which  put 
him  in  such  an  apprehension,  that  he  exposed  them  both 
on  the  side  of  the  river  Tiber,  where  they  were  carried 
by  the  stream  to  a  place  where  a  she-wolf  had  her  whelps. 
The  wolf  cast  away  her  own,  and  gave  suck  to  these  chil- 
dren. Faustus  a  shepherd,  observing  this,  took  the  chil- 
dren to  himself,  and  called  them  by  the  names  of  Romus 


474  PARALLELS  BETWEEN 

and  Romulus,  which  came  afterwards  to  be  the  founders 
of  Rome.  —  Aristidess  Italian  Histories. 

37.  After  the  destruction  of  Troy,  Agamemnon  and 
Cassandra  were  killed ;  but  Orestes,  that  was  brought  up 
with  Stropbius,  revenged  the  death  of  his  father.  —  Pyran- 
ders  Fourth  Book  of  Peloponnesian  Histories. 

Fabius  Fabricianus,  a  kinsman  of  Fabius  Maximus, 
having  taken  Tuxium,  the  chief  city  of  the  Samnites,  sent 
to  Rome  the  image  of  Venus  Victrix,  which  among  them 
was  held  in  great  veneration.  His  wife  Fabia  was  de- 
bauched by  Petronius  Valentinus,  a  handsome  young  man, 
and  afterwards  she  treacherously  murdered  her  husband ; 
but  for  her  son  Fabricianus  who  was  yet  in  his  infancy, 
she  shifted  him  away  to  be  privately  brought  up,  and  so 
provided  for  his  security.  When  he  was  grown  up,  he 
destroyed  both  his  mother  and  the  adulterer,  and  was  for- 
mally acquitted  for  it  by  a  decree  of  the  Senate.  —  Dost- 
theuss  Third  Book  of  Italian  History. 

38.  Busiris,  the  son  of  Neptune  and  Anippe  the  daugh- 
ter of  Nilus,  was  used  to  invite  strangers  in  to  him  under 
a  pretence  of  hospitality,  and  then  to  murder  them  ;  but 
divine  vengeance  met  with  him  at  last,  for  Hercules  found 
out  the  villany,  and  killed  him  with  his  club.  —  Agatho 
the  Samian. 

Hercules,  as  he  was  driving  Geryon's  oxen  through 
Italy,  took  up  his  lodging  with  King  Faunus  there,  the 
son  of  Mercury,  whose  custom  it  was  to  sacrifice  strangers 
to  his  father.  He  set  upon  Hercules,  and  had  his  brains 
beaten  out  for  his  pains.  —  Dercylluss  Third  Book  of 
Italian  History. 

39.  Phalaris  of  Agrigentum,  a  cruel  tyrant,  was  wont  to 
put  strangers  and  travellers  to  the  most  exquisite  torment. 


ROMANS  AND   GREEKS.  475 

Perillus,  a  brass-founder,  made  a  cow  of  brass,  and  pre- 
sented it  to  the  king  for  a  new  invention,  that  he  might 
burn  strangers  alive  in  it.  Plialaris  for  this  once  was  just, 
in  making  the  first  proof  of  it  upon  Perillus  himself ;  and 
the  invention  was  so  artificial,  that  upon  putting  it  in  exe- 
cution, the  engine  itself  seemed  to  bellow.  —  Second  Book 
of  Questions  or  Causes. 

In  Egesta,  a  city  of  Sicily,  there  was  a  certain  tyrant 
called  Aemilius  Censorinus,  who  was  so  inhuman  that  he 
proposed  rewards  to  the  inventors  of  new  tortures.  There 
was  one  Aruntius  Paterculus  that  had  framed  a  brazen 
horse,  and  made  a  present  of  it  to  the  tyrant  to  practise 
with  it  upon  whom  he  pleased.  It  was  the  first  piece  of 
justice  that  ever  the  tyrant  did,  to  make  trial  of  the  torment 
upon  the  author  of  it,  that  he  might  first  feel  himself  the 
torments  he  had  provided  for  others.  He  was  afterwards 
thrown  down  from  the  Tarpeian  Rock.  It  may  be  thought 
that  unmerciful  rulers  are  from  this  tyrant  called  Aemilii. 
—  Aristides's  Fourth  Book  of  Italian  History, 

40.  Evenus,  the  son  of  Mars  and  Sterope,  had  a  daugh- 
ter Marpessa  by  his  wife  Alcippe,  the  daughter  of  Oeno- 
maus  ;  and  this  girl  he  had  a  mind  to  keep  a  virgin.  But 
Idas,  the  son  of  Aphareus,  ran  away  with  her  from  a  choir. 
Evenus  pursued  him,  and  finding  he  could  not  overtake 
him,  he  threw  himself  into  the  river  Lycormas,  and  became 
immortal.  —  Dositheus's  First  Book  of  Italian  History. 

Anius,  a  king  of  the  Tuscans,  had  a  delicate,  handsome 
daughter,  whose  name  was  Salia,  and  he  took  great  care 
to  keep  her  a  virgin.  But  Cathetus,  a  man  of  quality, 
seeing  her  sporting  herself,  fell  passionately  in  love  with 
her,  and  carried  her  away  to  Rome.  The  father  made 
after  her,  and  when  he  saw  there  was  no  catching  of  her, 
he  threw  himself  into  a  river  that  from  him  took  the  name 
of  Anio.      Cathetus  begot  Latinus   and   Salius  upon   the 


476  ROMAN  AND  GREEK  PARALLELS. 

body  of  Salia,  the  root  of  a  noble  race.  —  Aristides  MU 
lesiusy  and  Alexander  Polyhistors  Third  Book  of  Ital- 
ian History. 

41.  Hegesistratus  an  Ephesian  committed  a  murder  in 
his  family,  and  fled  to  Delphi ;  on  consulting  the  oracle 
what  place  to  settle  in,  the  answer  was,  that  when  he 
should  come  to  a  place  where  he  should  see  the  country 
people  dancing  with  garlands  of  olive-leaves,  he  should 
settle  there.  He  travelled  into  a  certain  country  of  Asia, 
where  he  found  as  the  oracle  told  him,  and  there  built  a 
city  which  he  called  Elaeus.  —  Pyihocles  the  Samian^  in 
the  Third  Book  of  his  Georgics. 

Telegonus,  the  son  of  Ulysses  by  Circe,  was  sent  to 
find  out  his  father,  and  commanded  by  an  oracle  to  erect 
a  city  where  he  should  see  the  country  people  dancing 
with  garlands.  He  came  into  a  certain  place  of  Italy, 
where  he  found  the  countrymen  dancing  with  wreaths  of  ilex 
about  their  heads  ;  so  that  there  he  built  a  city,  and  called 
it  Prinistum,  for  an  ilex  in  Greek  is  TtQlvoi;.  The  Romans 
corruptly  call  this  city  Praeneste.  —  Aristocles,  in  the 
Third  Book  of  his  Italian  History. 


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


I.     Htdaspes. 

This  is  a  river  of  India,  which  falls  with  an  extraor- 
dinary swift  stream  into  the  Saronitic  Syrtis.  Chrysippe, 
by  the  impulse  of  Venus,  whom  she  had  offended,  fell  in 
love  with  her  father  Hydaspes,  and  not  being  able  to  curb 
her  preternatural  desires,  by  the  help  of  her  nurse,  in  the 
dead  of  the  night  got  to  his  bed  and  received  his  caresses  ; 
after  which,  the  king  proving  unfortunate  in  his  affairs,  he 
buried  alive  the  old  bawd  that  had  betrayed  him,  and  cru- 
cified his  daughter.  Nevertheless  such  was  the  excess  of 
his  grief  for  the  loss  of  Chrysippe,  that  he  threw  himself 
into  the  river  Indus,  which  was  afterwards  called  by  his 
name  Hydaspes. 

Moreover  in  this  river  there  grows  a  stone,  which  is 
called  lychnis,  which  resembles  the  color  of  oil,  and  is 
very  bright  in  appearance.  And  when  they  are  searching 
after  it,  which  they  do  when  the  moon  increases,  the  pipers 
play  all  the  while.  Nor  is  it  to  be  worn  by  any  but  the 
richer  sort.  Also  near  that  part  of  the  river  which  is  called 
Pylae,  there  grows  an  herb  which  is  very  like  a  heliotrope, 
with  the  juice  of  which  the  people  anoint  their  skins  to 
prevent  sunburning,  and  to  secure  them  against  the  scorch- 
ing of  the  excessive  heat. 

*  A  very  slight  inspection  of  this  strange  treatise  will  convince  the  reader  that  it 
is  justly  placed  among  the  Pseudoplutarchea.  It  is  reprinted  here  merely  because 
it  was  included  in  the  original  translation.     (G.) 


478  OF  THE  NAMES 

The  natives  whenever  they  take  their  virgins  tardy,  nail 
them  to  a  wooden  cross,  and  fling  them  into  this  river, 
singing  at  the  same  time  in  their  own  language  a  hymn 
to  Venus.  Every  year  also  they  bury  a  condemned  old 
woman  near  the  top  of  the  hill  called  Therogonos ;  at 
which  time  an  infinite  multitude  of  creeping  creatures 
come  down  from  the  top  of  the  hill,  and  devour  the 
insects  that  hover  about  the  buried  carcass.  This  Chry- 
sermus  relates  in  his  History  of  India,  though  Archelaus 
gives  a  more  exact  account  of  these  things  in  his  Treatise 
of  Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Elephas,  so  called 
upon  this  occasion.  When  Alexander  the  Macedonian 
advanced  with  his  army  into  India,  and  the  natives  were 
resolved  to  withstand  him  with  all  their  force,  the  elephant 
upon  which  Porus,  king  of  that  region,  was  wont  to  ride, 
being  of  a  sudden  stung  with  a  gad-bee,  ran  up  to  the  top 
of  the  mountain  of  tbe  sun,  and  there  uttered  these  words 
distinctly  in  human  speech :  "  O  king,  my  lord,  descended 
from  the  race  of  Gegasius,  forbear  to  attempt  any  thing 
against  Alexander,  for  he  is  descended  from  Jupiter."  And 
having  so  said,  he  presently  died.  Which  when  Porus 
understood,  afraid  of  Alexander,  he  fell  at  his  feet  and 
sued  for  peace.  Which  when  he  had  obtained,  he  called 
the  mountain  Elephas ;  —  as  Dercyllus  testifies  in  his  Third 
Book  of  Mountains. 

\ 

11.      ISMENUS. 

IsMENUs  is  a  river  of  Boeotia,  that  washes  the  walls  of 
Thebes.  It  was  formerly  called  the  foot  of  Cadmus,  upon 
this  occasion.  When  Cadmus  had  slain  the  dragon  which 
kept  the  fountain  of  Mars,  he  was  afraid  to  taste  of  the 
water,  believing  it  was  poisoned ;  which  forced  him  to 
wander  about  in  search  of  another  fountain  to   allay  his 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  479 

thirst.  At  length,  by  the  help  of  Minerva,  he  came  to 
the  Corycian  den,  where  his  right  leg  stuck  deep  in  the 
mire.  And  from  that  hole  it  was  that,  after  he  had  pulled 
his  leg  out  again,  sprung  a  fair  river,  which  the  hero,  after 
the  solemnity  of  his  sacrifices  performed,  called  by  the 
name  of  Cadmus's  foot. 

Some  time  after,  Ismenus,  the  son  of  Amphion  and  Niobe, 
being  wounded  by  Apollo  and  in  great  pain,  threw  him- 
self into  the  said  river,  which  was  then  from  his  name 
called  Ismenus  ;  —  as  Sostratus  relates  in  his  Second  Book 
of  Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Cithaeron,  formerly 
called  Asterion  for  this  reason.  Boeotus  the  son  of  Nep- 
tune was  desirous,  of  two  noble  ladies,  to  marry  her  that 
should  be  most  beneficial  to  him ;  and  while  he  tarried  for 
both  in  the  night-time  upon  the  top  of  a  certain  name- 
less mountain,  of  a  sudden  a  star  fell  from  heaven  upon 
the  shoulders  of  Eurythemiste,  and  immediately  vanished. 
Upon  which  Boeotus,  understanding  the  meaning  of  the 
prodigy,  married  the  virgin,  and  called  the  mountain  Aste- 
rion from  the  accident  that  befell  him.  Afterwards  it  was 
called  Cithaeron  upon  this  occasion.  Tisiphone,  one  of 
the  Furies,  falling  in  love  with  a  most  beautiful  youth 
whose  name  was  Cithaeron,  and  not  being  able  to  curb  the 
impatience  of  her  desires,  declared  her  aff"ection  to  him  in 
a  letter,  to  which  he  would  not  return  any  answer.  Where- 
upon the  Fury,  missing  her  design,  pulled  one  of  the  ser- 
pents from  her  locks,  and  flung  it  upon  the  young  lad  as  he 
was  keeping  his  sheep  on  the  top  of  the  mountain  Aste- 
rion ;  where  the  serpent  twining  about  his  neck  choked 
him  to  death.  And  thereupon  by  the  will  of  the  Gods 
the  mountain  was  called  Cithaeron ;  —  as  Leo  of  Byzan- 
tium writes  in  his  History  of  Boeotia. 

But  Hermesianax  of  Cyprus  tells  the  story  quite  other- 
wise.    For  he  says,  that  Helicon  and  Cithaeron  were  two 


480  OF  THE  NAMES 

brothers,  quite  different  in  their  dispositions.  For  Helicon 
was  affable  and  mild,  and  cherished  his  aged  parents. 
But  Cithaeron,  being  covetous  and  greedily  gaping  after 
the  estate,  first  killed  his  father,  and  then  treacherously 
threw  his  brother  doAvn  from  a  steep  precipice,  but  in 
striving  together,  fell  himself  along  with  him.  Whence, 
by  the  providence  of  the  Gods,  the  names  of  both  the 
mountains  were  changed.  Cithaeron,  by  reason  of  his  im- 
piety, became  the  haunt  of  the  Furies.  Helicon,  for  the 
young  man's  love  to  his  parents,  became  the  habitation  of 
the  Muses. 

III.    Hebrus. 

Hebrus  is  a  river  of  Thrace,  deriving  its  former  name 
of  Rhombus  from  the  many  gulfs  and  whirlpools  in  the 
water. 

Cassander,  king  of  that  region,  having  married  Croto- 
nice,  had  by  her  a  son  whom  he  named  Hebrus.  But  then 
being  divorced  from  his  first  wife,  he  married  Damasippe, 
the  daughter  of  Atrax,  and  brought  her  home  over  his 
son's  head ;  with  whom  the  mother-in-law  falling  in  love, 
invited  him  by  letters  to  her  embraces.  But  he,  avoiding 
his  mother-in-law  as  a  Fury,  gave  himself  over  to  the  sport 
of  hunting.  On  the  other  side  the  impious  woman,  missing 
her  purpose,  belied  the  chaste  youth,  and  accused  him  of 
attempting  to  ravish  her.  Upon  this  Cassander,  raging 
with  jealousy,  flew  to  the  wood  in  a  wild  fury,  and  with 
his  sword  drawn  pursued  his  son,  as  one  that  treacherously 
sought  to  defile  his  father's  bed.  Upon  which  the  son, 
finding  he  could  no  way  escape  his  father's  wrath,  threw 
himself  into  the  river  Rhombus,  which  was  afterwards 
called  Hebrus  from  the  name  of  the  young  man ;  —  as 
Timotheus  testifies  in  his  Eleventh  Book  of  Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Pangaeus,  so  called 
upon  this  occasion.     Pangaeus,  the  son  of  Mars  and  Crito- 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  481 

bule,  by  a  mistake  lay  with  his  own  daughter ;  which  per- 
plexed him  to  that  degree  that  he  fled  to  the  Carmanian 
mountain,  where,  overwhelmed  with  a  sorrow  that  he  could 
not  master,  he  drew  his  sword  and  slew  himself.  Whence, 
by  the  providence  of  the  Gods,  the  place  was  called  Pan- 
gaeus. 

In  the  river  before  mentioned,  grows  an  herb  not  much 
unlike  to  origanum  ;  the  tops  of  which  the  Thracians  crop- 
ping off  burn  upon  a  fire,  and  after  they  are  filled  with  the 
fruits  of  Ceres,  they  hold  their  heads  over  the  smoke,  and 
snuff  it  up  into  their  nostrils,  letting  it  go  down  their 
throats,  till  at  last  they  fall  into  a  profound  sleep. 

Also  upon  the  mountain  Pangaeus  grows  an  herb,  which 
is  called  the  harp  upon  this  occasion.  The  women  that 
tore  Orpheus  in  pieces  cast  his  limbs  into  the  river  Hebrus  ; 
and  his  head  being  changed,  the  whole  body  was  turned 
into  the  shape  of  a  dragon.  But  as  for  his  harp,  such  was 
the  will  of  Apollo,  it  remained  in  the  same  form.  And 
from  the  streaming  blood  grew  up  the  herb  which  was 
called  the  harp  ;  which,  during  the  solemnity  of  the  sacri- 
fices to  Bacchus,  sends  forth  a  sound  like  that  of  an  harp 
when  played  upon.  At  which  time  the  natives,  being 
covered  with  the  skins  of  young  hinds  and  waving  their 
thyrsuses  in  their  hands,  sing  a  hymn,  of  which  these  are 
part  of  the  words, 

When  wisdom  all  in  vain  must  be, 
Then  be  not  wise  at  all ;  — 

as  Clitonymus  reports,  in  his  Third  Book  of  Thracian 
Relations. 

IV.    Ganges. 

Ganges  is  a  river  in  India,  so  called  for  this  reason.  A 
certain  Calaurian  nymph  had  by  Indus  a  son  called  Ganges, 
conspicuous  for  his  beauty.    Who  growing  up  to  manhood, 

VOL.   V.  31 


482  OF  THE  NAMES 

being  once  desperately  overcome  with  wine,  in  the  heat  of 
his  intoxication  lay  with  his  mother.  The  next  day  he 
was  informed  by  the  nurse  of  what  he  had  done  ;  and  such 
was  the  excess  of  his  sorrow,  that  he  threw  himself  into  a 
river  called  Chliarus,  afterwards  called  Ganges  from  his 
own  name. 

In  this  river  grows  an  herb  resembling  bugloss,  which 
the  natives  bruise,  and  keep  the  juice  very  charily.  With 
this  juice  in  the  dead  of  the  night  they  go  and  besprinkle 
the  tigers'  dens ;  the  virtue  of  which  is  such,  that  the 
tigers,  not  being  able  to  stir  forth  by  reason  of  the  strong 
scent  of  the  juice,  are  starved  to  death  ;  —  as  Callisthenes 
reports  in  his  Third  Book  of  Hunting. 

Upon  the  banks  of  this  river  lies  the  mountain  called 
the  Anatole  for  this  reason.  The  Sun,  beholding  the 
nymph  Anaxibia  innocently  spending  her  time  in  dancing, 
fell  passionately  in  love  with  her,  and  not  able  to  curb  his 
loose  amours,  pursued  her  with  a  purpose  to  ravish  her. 
She  therefore,  finding  no  other  way  to  escape  him,  fled  to 
the  temple  of  Orthian  Diana,  which  was  seated  upon  the 
mountain  called  Coryphe,  and  there  immediately  vanished 
away.  Upon  which  the  Sun,  that  followed  her  close  at 
the  heels,  not  knowing  what  was  become  of  his  beloved, 
overwhelmed  with  grief,  rose  in  that  very  place.  And 
from  this  accident  it  was  that  the  natives  called  the  top  of 
that  mountain  Anatole,  or  the  rising  of  the  Sun ;  —  as  Cae- 
maron  reports  in  his  Tenth  Book  of  the  Affairs  of  India. 

V.  Phasis. 

Phasis  is  a  river  of  Scythia,  running  by  a  city  of  the 
same  name.  It  was  formerly  called  Arcturus,  deriving  its 
name  from  the  situation  of  the  cold  regions  through  which 
it  runs.  But  the  name  of  it  was  altered  upon  this  occa- 
sion. 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  483 

Phasis,  the  child  of  the  Sun  and  Ocyrrhoe  daughter  of 
Oceanus,  slew  his  mother,  whom  he  took  in  the  very  act 
of  adultery.  For  which  being  tormented  by  the  Furies  ap- 
pearing to  him,  he  threw  himself  into  the  river  Arcturus, 
which  was  afterwards  called  by  his  own  name  Phasis. 

In  this  river  grows  a  reed,  which  is  called  leucophyllus, 
or  the  reed  with  the  white  leaf.  This  reed  is  found  at 
the  dawning  of  the  morning  light,  at  what  time  the  sacri- 
fices are  offered  to  Hecate,  at  the  time  when  the  divinely 
inspired  paean  is  chanted,  at  the  beginning  of  the  spring ; 
when  they  who  are  troubled  with  jealous  heads  gather  this 
reed,  and  strew  it  in  their  wives'  chambers  to  keep  them 
chaste.  And  the  nature  of  the  reed  is  such,  that  if  any 
wild  extravagant  person  happens  to  come  rashly  in  drink 
into  the  room  where  it  lies,  he  presently  becomes  deprived 
of  his  rational  thoughts,  and  immediately  confesses  what- 
ever he  has  wickedly  done  and  intended  to  do.  At  what 
time  they  that  are  present  to  hear  him  lay  hold  of  him, 
sew  him  up  in  a  sack,  and  throw  him  into  a  hole  called  the 
Mouth  of  the  Wicked,  which  is  round  like  the  mouth  of  a 
well.  This  after  thirty  days  empties  the  body  into  the 
Lake  Maeotis,  that  is  full  of  worms ;  where  of  a  sudden 
the  body  is  seized  and  torn  to  pieces  by  several  vultures 
unseen  before,  nor  is  it  known  from  whence  they  come  ;  — 
as  Ctesippus  relates  in  his  Second  Book  of  Scythian  Rela- 
tions. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Caucasus,  which  was 
before  called  Boreas's  Bed,  upon  this  occasion.  Boreas  in 
the  heat  of  his  amorous  passion  ravished  away  by  force 
Chione,  the  daughter  of  Arcturus,  and  carried  her  to  a 
certain  hill  which  was  called  Niphantes,  and  upon  her 
begot  a  son  whom  he  called  Hyrpax,  who  succeeded  Heni- 
ochus  in  his  kingdom.  For  which  reason  the  mountain 
was  first  called  Boreas's  Bed ;  but  afterwards  Caucasus 
upon  this  occasion.     After  the  fight  of  the  Giants,  Saturn, 


484  OF  THE  NAMES 

to  avoid  the  menaces  of  Jupiter,  fled  to  the  top  of  Boreas's 
Bed,  and  there  being  turned  into  a  crocodile  [lay  concealed. 
But  Prometheus]  slew  Caucasus  one  of  the  shepherds  in- 
habiting that  place ;  and  cutting  him  up  and  observing  the 
disposition  of  his  entrails,  he  foresaw  that  his  enemies 
were  not  far  off.  Presently  Jupiter  appearing,  and  bind- 
ing his  father  with  a  woollen  list,  threw  him  down  to  hell. 
Then  changing  the  name  of  the  mountain  in  honor  of  the 
shepherd  Caucasus,  he  chained  Prometheus  to  it,  and 
caused  him  to  be  tormented  by  an  eagle  that  fed  upon  his 
entrails,  because  he  was  the  first  that  found  out  the  inspec- 
tion of  bowels,  which  Jupiter  deemed  a  great  cruelty ;  — 
as  Cleanthes  relates  in  his  Third  Book  of  the  Wars  of  the 
Gods. 

Upon  this  mountain  grows  an  herb  which  is  called  Pro- 
metheus, which  Medea  gathering  and  bruising  made  use 
of  to  protect  Jason  against  her  father's  obstinacy. 

"VT.    Arab. 

Arar  is  a  river  in  Gallia  Celtica,  deriving  the  name  from 
its  being  mixed  with  the  river  Rhone.  For  it  falls  into  the 
Rhone  within  the  country  of  the  Allobroges.  It  was 
formerly  called  Brigulus,  but  afterwards  changed  its  name 
upon  this  occasion.  Arar,  as  he  was  a  hunting,  entering 
into  the  wood,  and  there  finding  his  brother  Celtiber  torn 
in  pieces  by  the  wild  beasts,  mortally  wounded  himself  for 
grief,  and  fell  into  the  river  Brigulus  ;  which  from  that 
accident  was  afterwards  called  by  his  own  name  Arar. 

In  this  river  there  breeds  a  certain  large  fish,  which  by 
the  natives  is  called  Clupaea.  This  fish  during  the  increase 
of  the  moon  is  white ;  but  all  the  while  the  moon  is  in  the 
wane,  it  is  altogether  black ;  and  when  it  grows  over 
bulky,  it  is  (as  it  were)  stabbed  by  its  own  fins.  In  the 
head  of  it  is  found  a  stone  like  a  corn  of  salt,  which,  being 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  485 

applied  to  the  left  parts  of  the  body  when  the  moon  is  in 
the  wane,  cures  quartan  agues  ;  —  as  CalUsthenes  the 
Sybarite  tells  us  in  the  Thirteenth  Book  of  Gallic  Rela- 
tions, from  whom  Timagenes  the  Syrian  borrowed  his 
argument. 

Near  to  this  river  stands  a  mountain  called  Lugdunum, 
which  changed  its  name  upon  this  occasion.  When  Mo- 
morus  and  Atepomarus  were  dethroned  by  Seseroneus,  in 
pursuance  of  the  oracle's  command  they  designed  to  build 
a  city  upon  the  top  of  the  hill.  But  when  they  had  laid 
the  foundations,  great  numbers  of  crows  with  their  wings 
expanded  covered  all  the  neighboring  trees.  Upon  which 
Momorus,  being  a  person  well  skilled  in  augury,  called  the 
city  Lugdunum.  For  lugdon  in  their  language  signifies  a 
crow,  and  dunum  *  any  spacious  hill.  —  This  Clitophon 
reports,  in  his  Thirteenth  Book  of  the  Building  of  Cities. 

VII.    Pactolus. 

Pactolus  is  a  river  of  Lydia,  that  washes  the  walls  of 
Sardis,  formerly  called  Chrysorrhoas.  For  Chrysorrhoas, 
the  son  of  Apollo  and  Agathippe,  being  a  mechanic  artist, 
and  one  that  only  lived  from  hand  to  mouth  upon  his 
trade,  one  time  in  the  middle  of  the  night  made  bold  to 
break  open  the  treasury  of  Croesus  ;  and  conveying  thence 
a  good  quantity  of  gold,  he  made  a  distribution  of  it  to  his 
family.  But  being  pursued  by  the  king's  officers,  when  he 
saw  he  must  be  taken,  he  threw  himself  into  the  river 
which  was  afterwards  from  his  name  called  Chrysorrhoas, 
and  afterwards  changed  into  that  of  Pactolus  upon  this 
occasion. 

Pactolus,  the  son  of  .  .  .  and  Leucothea,  during  the 
performance  of  the  mysteries  sacred  to  Venus,  ravished 
Demodice  his  own  sister,  not  knowing  who  she  was  ;  for 

♦  Whence  probably  our  English  word  doion. 


486  OF  THE  NAMES 

which  being  overwhelmed  with  grief,  he  threw  himself 
into  the  river  Chrysorrhoas,  which  from  that  time  forward 
was  called  Pactolus,  from  his  own  name.  In  this  river  is 
found  a  most  pure  gold  sand,  which  the  force  of  the  stream 
carries  into  the  bosom  of  the  Happy  Gulf. 

Also  in  this  river  is  to  be  found  a  stone  which  is  called 
the  preserver  of  the  fields,  resembling  the  color  of  silver, 
very  hard  to  be  found,  in  regard  of  its  being  mixed  with 
the  gold  sand.  The  virtue  of  which  is  such,  that  the  more 
wealthy  Lydians  buy  it  and  lay  it  at  the  doors  of  their 
treasuries,  by  which  means  they  preserve  their  treasure, 
whatever  it  be,  safe  from  the  seizure  of  pilfering  hands. 
For  upon  the  approach  of  thieves  or  robbers,  the  stone 
sends  forth  a  sound  like  that  of  a  trumpet.  Upon  which 
the  thieves  surprised,  and  believing  themselves  appre- 
hended by  officers,  throw  themselves  headlong  and  break 
their  necks ;  insomuch  that  the  place  where  the  thieves 
thus  frighted  come  by  their  violent  deaths  is  called  Pacto- 
lus's  prison. 

In  this  river  also  there  grows  an  herb  that  bears  a  pur- 
ple flower,  and  is  called  chrysopolis ;  by  which  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  neighboring  cities  try  their  purest  gold.  For 
just  before  they  put  their  gold  into  the  melting-pot,  they 
touch  it  with  this  herb ;  at  what  time,  if  it  be  pure  and 
unmixed,  the  leaves  of  the  herb  will  be  tinctured  with  the 
gold  and  preserve  the  substance  of  the  matter ;  but  if  it 
be  adulterated,  they  will  not  admit  the  discoloring  moist- 
ure ;  —  as  Chrysermus  relates  in  his  Third  Book  of 
Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Tmolus,  full  of  all 
manner  of  wild  beasts,  formerly  called  Carmanorion,  from 
Carmanor  the  son  of  Bacchus  and  Alexirrhoea,  who  was 
killed  by  a  wild  boar  as  he  was  hunting ;  but  afterward 
Tmolus  upon  this  occasion. 

Tmolus,  the  son  of  Mars  and  Theogone,  king  of  Lydia, 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  487 

while  he  was  a  hunting  upon  Carmanorion,  chanced  to  see 
the  fair  virgin  Arrhippe  that  attended  upon  Diana,  and  fell 
passionately  in  love  with  her.  And  such  was  the  heat  of 
his  love,  that  not  being  able  to  gain  her  by  fair  means,  he 
resolved  to  vitiate  her  by  force.  She,  seeing  she  could  by 
no  means  escape  his  fury  otherwise,  fled  to  the  temple  of 
Diana,  where  the  tyrant,  contemning  all  religion,  ravished 
her,  —  an  infamy  which  the  nymph  not  being  able  to  sur- 
vive immediately  hanged  herself.  But  Diana  would  not 
pass  by  so  great  a  crime ;  and  therefore,  to  be  revenged 
upon  the  king  for  his  irreligious  insolence,  she  set  a  mad 
bull  upon  him,  by  which  the  king  being  tossed  up  in  the 
air,  and  falling  down  upon  stakes  and  stones,  ended  his 
days  in  torment.  But  Theoclymenus  his  son,  so  soon  as 
he  had  buried  his  father,  altered  the  name  of  the  moun- 
tain, and  called  it  Tmolus  after  his  father's  name. 

Upon  this  mountain  grows  a  stone  not  unlike  a  pumice- 
stone,  which  is  very  rare  to  be  found.  This  stone  changes 
its  color  four  times  a  day  ;  and  is  to  be  seen  only  by  vir- 
gins that  are  not  arrived  at  the  years  of  understanding. 
But  if  marriageable  virgins  happen  to  see  it,  they  can 
never  receive  any  injury  from  those  that  attempt  their 
chastity ;  —  as  Clitophon  reports. 

VIII.    Ltcobmas. 

Lycormas  is  a  river  of  Aetolia,  formerly  called  Evenus 
for  this  reason.  Idas  the  son  of  Aphareus,  after  he  had 
ravished  away  by  violence  Marpessa,  with  whom  he  was 
passionately  in  love,  carried  her  away  to  Pleuron,  a  city  of 
Aetolia.  This  rape  of  his  daughter  Evenus  could  by  no 
means  endure,  and  therefore  pursued  after  the  treacherous 
ravisher,  till  he  came  to  the  river  Lycormas  But  then 
despairing  to  overtake  the  fugitive,  he  threw  himself  for 
madness  into  the  river,  which  from  his  own  name  was 
called  Evenus. 


488  OF  THE   NAMES 

Tn  this  river  grows  an  herb  which  is  called  sarissa,  bo- 
cause  it  resembles  a  spear,  of  excellent  use  for  those  that 
are  troubled  with  dim  sight ;  —  as  Archelaus  relates  in  his 
First  Book  of  Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  Myenus,  from  Myenus  the  son  of 
Telestor  and  Alphesiboea ;  who,  being  beloved  by  his 
mother-in-law  and  unwilling  to  defile  his  father's  bed,  re- 
tired himself  to  the  mountain  Alphius.  But  Telestor, 
being  made  jealous  of  his  wife,  pursued  his  son  into  the 
wilderness  ;  and  followed  him  so  close,  that  Myenus,  not 
being  able  to  escape,  flung  himself  headlong  from  the  top 
of  the  mountain,  which  for  that  reason  was  afterwards 
called  Myenus. 

Upon  this  mountain  grows  a  flower  called  the  white  vio- 
let, which,  if  you  do  but  name  the  word  step-dame,  presently 
dies  away  ;  —  as  Dercyllus  reports  in  his  Third  Book  of 
Mountains. 

IX.    Maeander. 

Maeander  is  a  river  of  Asia,  formerly  called  the  Re- 
turner. For  of  all  rivers  in  the  world  it  is  the  only  stream 
which,  taking  its  rise  from  its  own  fountain,  seems  to  run 
back  to  its  own  head. 

It  is  called  Maeander  from  Maeander,  the  son  of  Cerca- 
phus  and  Anaxibia,  who,  waging  war  with  the  Pessinun- 
tines,  made  a  vow  to  the  Mother  of  the  Gods,  that  if  he 
obtained  the  victory,  he  would  sacrifice  the  first  that  came 
to  congratulate  him  for  his  good  success.  Now  it  hap- 
pened that  the  first  that  met  him  were  his  son  Archelaus, 
his  mother,  and  his  sister.  All  which,  though  so  nearly 
related  to  him,  he  ofl"ered  in  sacrifice  to  the  satisfaction  of 
his  vow.  But  then  no  less  grieved  for  what  he  had  done, 
he  cast  himself  into  the  river,  which  from  this  accident 
was  afterwards  called  by  his  own  name  Maeander ;  —  as 
Timolaus  tells  us  in  his  First  Book  of  Phrygian  Relations. 


or  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  489 

Agathocles  the  Samian  also  makes  mention  of  this  story, 
in  his  Commonwealth  of  Pessinus. 

But  Demostratus  of  Apamea  relates  the  story  thus: 
Maeander  being  a  second  time  elected  general  against  the 
Pessinuntines,  and  obtaining  the  victory  quite  contrary  to 
his  expectation,  gave  to  his  soldiers  the  offerings  due  to 
the  Mother  of  the  Gods.  At  which  the  Goddess  being 
offended,  she  deprived  him  of  his  reason  to  that  degree, 
that  in  the  height  of  his  madness  he  slew  both  his  wife 
and  his  son.  But  coming  somewhat  to  himself  and  re- 
penting of  what  he  had  done,  he  threw  himself  into  the 
river,  which  by  his  name  was  called  Maeander. 

In  this  river  there  is  a  certain  stone,  which  by  Antiphra- 
sis  is  called  sophron,  or  the  sober-stone ;  which  if  you 
drop  into  the  bosom  of  any  man,  it  presently  makes  him 
mad  to  that  degree  as  to  murder  his  nearest  relations,  but 
having  once  atoned  the  Mother  of  the  Gods,  he  is  present- 
ly restored  to  his  wits  ;  —  as  Damaratus  testifies  in  his 
Third  Book  of  Rivers.  And  Archelaus  makes  mention  of 
the  same  in  his  First  Book  of  Stones. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Sipylus,  so  called 
from  Sipylus  the  son  of  Agenor  and  Dioxippe.  For  he 
having  killed  his  mother  by  mistake,  and  being  haunted 
by  the  Furies,  retired  to  the  Ceraunian  mountain,  and 
there  hanged  himself  for  grief.  After  which,  by  the 
providence  of  the  Gods,  the  mountain  was  called  Si- 
pylus. 

In  this  mountain  grows  a  stone  that  resembles  a  cylin- 
der, which  when  children  that  are  obedient  to  their 
parents  find,  they  lay  it  up  in  the  temple  of  the  Mother 
of  the  Gods.  Nor  do  they  ever  transgress  out  of  impiety  ; 
but  reverence  their  parents,  and  are  obedient  to  their 
superior  relations  ;  —  as  Agatharchides  the  Samian  relates 
in  his  Fourth  Book  of  Stones,  and  Demaratus  in  his 
Fourth  Book  of  Phrygia. 


490  OF  THE  NAMES 


X.     Marstas. 

Marsyas  is  a  river  of  Phrygia,  flowing  by  the  city 
Celaenae,  and  formerly  called  the  fountain  of  Midas  for 
this  reason.  Midas,  king  of  Phrygia,  travelling  in  the 
remoter  parts  of  the  country,  and  wanting  water,  stamped 
upon  the  ground ;  and  there  presently  appeared  a  golden 
fountain.  But  the  water  proving  gold,  and  both  he  and 
his  soldiers  being  ready  to  perish  for  thirst,  he  invoked  the 
compassion  of  Bacchus,  who  listening  to  his  prayers  sup- 
plied him  with  water.  The  Phrygians  having  by  this 
means  quenched  their  thirst,  Midas  named  the  river  that 
issued  from  the  spring  the  Fountain  of  Midas.  Afterwards 
it  was  called  Marsyas,  upon  this  occasion. 

Marsyas  being  overcome  and  flayed  by  Apollo,  certain 
Satyrs  are  said  to  have  sprung  from  the  stream  of  his 
blood  ;  as  also  a  river  bearing  the  name  of  Marsyas  ;  —  as 
Alexander  Cornelius  recites  in  his  Third  Book  of  Phrygian 
Relations. 

But  Euemeridas  the  Cnidian  tells  the  story  after  this 
manner.  It  happened  that  the  wine-bag  which  was  made 
of  Marsyas's  skin,  being  corroded  by  time  and  carried 
away  negligently  by  the  wind,  fell  at  last  from  the  land 
into  Midas's  well ;  and  driving  along  with  the  stream,  was 
taken  up  by  a  fisherman.  At  what  time  Pisistratus  the 
Lacedaemonian,  being  commanded  by  the  oracle  to  build 
near  the  place  where  the  relics  of  the  Satyr  were  found, 
reflected  upon  the  accident,  and  in  obedience  to  the  oracle 
having  built  a  fair  city,  called  it  Noricum,  which  in  the 
Phrygian  language  signifies  a  wine-bag. 

In  this  river  grows  an  herb  called  the  pipe,  which  being 
moved  in  the  wind  yields  a  melodious  sound  ;  —  as  Dercyl- 
lus  reports  in  his  First  Book  of  Satyrics. 

Near  to  this  river  also  lies  the  mountain  Berecyntus, 
deriving  its  name  from  Berecyntus,  the  first  priest  to  the 


or  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  491 

Mother  of  the  Gods.  Upon  this  mountain  is  found  a 
stone  which  is  called  machaera,  very  much  resembling 
iron ;  which  if  any  one  happens  to  light  upon  while  the 
solemnities  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods  are  performing,  he 
presently  runs  mad  ;  —  as  Agatharchides  reports  in  bis 
Phrygian  Relations. 


XL    Strtmon. 

Strymon  is  a  river  of  Thrace,  that  flows  along  by  the 
city  Edonis.  It  was  formerly  called  Palaestinus,  from 
Palaestinus  the  son  of  Neptune.  For  he  being  at  war 
with  his  neighbors,  and  seized  with  a  violent  sickness, 
sent  his  son  Haliacmon  to  be  general  of  his  army ;  who, 
rashly  giving  battle  to  his  enemies,  was  slain  in  the  fight. 
The  tidings  of  which  misfortune  being  brought  to  Palae- 
stinus, he  privately  withdrew  himself  from  his  guards,  and 
in  the  desperation  of  his  grief  flung  himself  into  the 
River  Conozus,  which  from  that  accident  was  afterwards 
called  Palaestinus.  But  as  for  Strymon,  he  was  the  son  of 
Mars  and  Helice  ;  and  hearing  that  his  son  Rhesus  was 
slain,  he  flung  himself  into  the  river  Palaestinus,  which 
was  after  that  called  Strymon,  by  his  own  name. 

In  this  river  grows  a  stone  which  is  called  pausilypus, 
or  the  grief-easing  stone.  This  stone  if  any  one  find  who 
is  oppressed  with  grief,  he  shall  presently  be  eased  of  his 
sorrow  ;  —  as  Jason  of  Byzantium  relates  in  his  Thracian 
Histories. 

Near  to  this  river  lie  the  mountains  Rhodope  and  Hae- 
mus.  These  being  brother  and  sister,  and  both  falling  in 
love  with  each  other,  the  one  was  so  presumptuous  as  to 
call  his  sister  his  Juno,  the  other  to  call  her  brother  her 
Jupiter  ;  which  so  off'ended  the  Deities,  that  they  changed 
them  into  mountains  bearing  their  own  names. 

In  these  two  mountains  grow  certain  stones,  which  are 


492  or  THE  NAMES 

called  philadelphi,  or  the  loving  brethren.  These  stones 
are  of  a  crow-color,  and  resembling  human  shape,  and  if 
they  chance  to  be  named  when  they  are  separated  one 
from  another,  they  presently  and  separately,  as  they  lie, 
dissolve  and  waste  away  ;  —  as  Thrasyllus  the  Mendesiau 
testifies  in  his  Third  Book  of  Stones,  but  more  accurately 
in  his  Thracian  Histories. 


XII.    Sagaris. 

Sagaris  is  a  river  of  Phrygia,  formerly  called  Xerobates 
because  in  the  summer  time  it  was  generally  dry.  But  it 
was  called  Sagaris  for  this  reason  :  Sagaris,  the  son  of 
Myndon  and  Alexirrhoe,  contemning  and  slighting  the 
mysteries  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods,  frequently  affronted  and 
derided  her  priests  the  Galli.  At  which  the  Goddess  hei- 
nously offended,  struck  him  with  madness  to  that  degree, 
that  in  one  of  his  raging  fits  he  flung  himself  into  the 
river  Xerobates,  which  from  that  time  forward  was  called 
Sagaris. 

In  this  river  grows  a  stone,  which  is  called  autoglyphus, 
that  is,  naturally  engraved  ;  for  it  is  found  with  the  Mother 
of  the  Gods  by  nature  engraved  upon  it.  This  stone, 
which  is  rarely  to  be  found,  if  any  of  the  Galli  or  gelded 
priests  happen  to  light  upon,  he  makes  no  wonder  at  it, 
but  undauntedly  brooks  the  sight  of  a  preternatural  ac- 
tion ;  —  as  Aretazes  reports  in  his  Phrygian  Relations. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Ballenaeus,  which 
in  the  Phrygian  language  signifies  royal ;  so  called  from 
Ballenaeus,  the  son  of  Ganymede  and  Medesigiste,  who 
perceiving  his  father  almost  wasted  with  a  consumption, 
instituted  the  Ballenaean  festival,  observed  among  the  na- 
tives to  this  day. 

In  this  river  is  to  be  found  a  stone  called  aster,  which 
from  the  latter  end  of  autumn  shines  at  midnight  like  fire. 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  493 

It  is  called  in  the  language  of  the  natives  h alien,  which 
being  interpreted  signifies  a  king  ;  —  as  Hermesianax  the 
Cyprian  affirms  in  his  Second  Book  of  his  Phrygian  Re- 
lations. 


XIII.      SCAMANDER. 

ScAMANDER  is  a  river  of  Troas,  which  was  formerly  called 
Xanthus,  but  changed  its  name  upon  this  occasion.  Sca- 
mander,  the  son  of  Corybas  and  Demodice,  having  sudden- 
ly beheld  the  ceremonies  while  the  mysteries  of  Rhea  were 
solemnizing,  immediately  ran  mad,  and  being  hurried  away 
by  his  own  fury  to  the  River  Xanthus,  flung  himself  into 
the  stream,  which  from  thence  was  called  Scamander. 

In  this  river  grows  an  herb  like  a  vetch,  that  bears  a 
cod  with  berries  rattling  in  it  when  they  are  ripe  ;  whence 
it  derived  the  name  of  sistrum,  or  the  rattle ;  whoever 
has  this  herb  in  possession  fears  no  apparition  nor  the 
sight  of  any  God ;  —  as  Demostratus  writes  in  his  Second 
Book  of  Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Ida,  formerly  Gar- 
garus  ;  on  the  top  of  which  stand  the  altars  of  Jupiter 
and  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods.  But  it  was  called  Ida 
upon  this  occasion.  Aegesthius,  who  descended  from  Ju- 
piter, falling  passionately  in  love  with  the  nymph  Ida,  ob- 
tained her  good-will,  and  begat  the  Idaean  Dactyli,  or 
priests  of  the  Mother  of  the  Gods.  After  which,  Ida 
running  mad  in  the  temple  of  Rhea,  Aegesthius,  in  remem- 
brance of  the  love  which  he  bare  her,  called  the  moun- 
tain by  her  name. 

In  this  mountain  grows  a  stone  called  cryphius,  as  be- 
ing never  to  be  found  but  when  the  mysteries  of  the  Gods 
are  solemnizing ;  —  as  Heraclitus  the  Sicyonian  writes  ia 
his  Second  Book  of  Stones. 


494  OF  THE  NAMES 


XIV.     Tanais. 

Tanais  is  a  river  of  Scythia,  formerly  called  the  Ama- 
zonian river,  because  the  Amazons  bathed  themselves 
therein  ;  but  it  altered  its  name  upon  this  occasion.  Ta- 
nais, the  son  of  Berossus  and  Lysippe,  one  of  the  Ama- 
zons, became  a  vehement  hater  of  the  female  sex,  and 
looking  upon  marriage  as  ignominious  and  dishonorable, 
applied  himself  wholly  to  martial  affairs.  This  so  offended 
Venus,  that  she  caused  him  to  fall  passionately  in  love 
with  his  own  mother.  True  it  is,  at  first  he  withstood  the 
force  of  his  passion  ;  but  finding  he  could  not  vanquish  the 
fatal  necessity  of  yielding  to  divine  impulse,  and  yet  desir- 
ous to  preserve  his  respect  and  piety  towards  his  mother, 
he  flung  himself  into  the  Amazonian  river,  which  was  af- 
terwards called  Tanais,  from  the  name  of  the  young  man. 

In  this  river  grows  a  plant  which  is  called  halinda,  re- 
sembling a  colewort ;  which  the  inhabitants  bruising,  and 
anointing  their  bodies  with  the  juice  of  it,  find  themselves 
in  a  condition  better  able  to  endure  the  extremity  of  the 
cold  ;  and  for  that  reason,  in  their  own  language  they  call 
it  Berossus's  oil. 

In  this  river  grows  a  stone  not  unlike  to  crystal,  resem- 
bling the  shape  of  a  man  with  a  crown  upon  his  head. 
Whoever  finds  the  stone  when  the  king  dies,  and  has  it 
ready  against  the  time  that  the  people  meet  upon  the 
banks  of  the  river  to  choose  a  new  sovereign,  is  presently 
elected  king,  and  receives  the  sceptre  of  the  deceased 
prince ;  —  as  Ctesiphon  relates  in  his  Third  Book  of 
Plants  ;  and  Aristobulus  gives  us  the  same  account  in  his 
First  Book  of  Stones. 

Near  to  this  river  also  lies  a  mountain,  in  the  language 
of  the  natives  called  Brixaba,  which  signifies  the  forehead 
of  a  ram.  And  it  was  so  called  upon  this  occasion. 
Phryxus  having  lost  his  sister  Helle  near  the  Euxine  Sea, 


OF   RIVERS   AND   MOUNTAINS.  495 

and,  as  Nature  in  justice  required,  being  extremely  trou- 
bled for  his  loss,  retired  to  the  top  of  a  certain  hill  to  dis- 
burden himself  of  his  sorrow.  At  which  time  certain 
barbarians  espying  him,  and  mounting  up  the  hill  with 
their  arms  in  their  hands,  a  gold-fleeced  ram  leaping  out 
of  a  thicket,  and  seeing  the  multitude  coming,  with  articu- 
late language  and  the  voice  of  a  man,  awakened  Phryxus, 
who  was  fast  asleep,  and  taking  him  upon  his  back,  car- 
ried him  to  Colchis.  From  this  accident  it  was  that  the 
mountainous  promontory  was  called  the  ram's  forehead. 

In  this  mountain  grows  an  herb,  by  the  barbarians  called 
phryxa  (which  being  interpreted  signifies  hating  the 
wicked)^  not  unlike  our  common  rue.  If  the  son  of  a  for- 
mer mother  have  it  in  his  possession,  he  can  never  be  in- 
jured by  his  step-dame.  It  chiefly  grows  near  the  place 
which  is  called  Boreas's  Den,  and  being  gathered,  is  colder 
than  snow.  But  if  any  step-dame  be  forming  a  design 
against  her  son-in-law,  it  sets  itself  on  fire  and  sends  forth 
a  bright  flame.  By  which  means  they  who  are  thus  warned 
avoid  the  danger  they  are  in ;  —  as  Agatho  the  Samian 
testifies  in  his  Second  Book  of  Scythian  Relations. 

XV.    Thermodon. 

Thermodon  is  a  river  of  Scythia,  deriving  its  name  from 
this  accident.  It  was  formerly  called  Crystallus,  as  being 
often  frozen  in  the  summer,  the  situation  of  the  place  pro- 
ducing this  effect.  But  that  name  was  altered  upon  this 
occasion.  .  .  . 

XVI.    Nile. 

The  Nile  is  a  river  in  Egypt,  that  runs  by  the  city  of 
Alexandria.  It  was  formerly  called  Melas,  from  Melas  the 
son  of  Neptune ;  but  afterwards  it  was  called  Aegyptus 
upon  this  occasion.     Aegyptus,  the  son  of  Vulcan  and 


496  OF   THE   NAMES 

Leucippe,  was  formerly  king  of  the  country,  between 
whom  and  his  own  subjects  happened  a  civil  war;  on 
which  account  the  river  Nile  not  increasing,  the  Egyptians 
were  oppressed  with  famine.  Upon  which  the  oracle  made 
answer,  that  the  land  should  be  again  blessed  with  plenty, 
if  the  king  would  sacrifice  his  daughter  to  atone  the 
anger  of  the  Gods.  Upon  which  the  king,  though  greatly 
afflicted  in  his  mind,  gave  way  to  the  public  good,  and  suf- 
fered his  daughter  to  be  led  to  the  altar.  But  so  soon  as 
she  was  sacrificed,  the  king,  not  able  to  support  the  burden 
of  his  grief,  threw  himself  into  the  river  Melas,  which 
after  that  was  called  Aegyptus.  But  then  it  was  called 
Nilus  upon  this  occasion. 

Garmathone,  queen  of  Egypt,  having  lost  her  son  Chry- 
sochoas  while  he  was  yet  very  young,  with  all  her  servants 
and  friends  most  bitterly  bemoaned  her  loss.  At  what 
time  Isis  appearing  to  her,  she  surceased  her  sorrow  for  a 
while,  and  putting  on  the  countenance  of  a  feigned  grati- 
tude, kindly  entertained  the  goddess.  She,  willing  to  make 
a  suitable  return  to  the  queen  for  the  piety  which  she 
expressed  in  her  reception,  persuaded  Osiris  to  bring  back 
her  son  from  the  subterranean  regions.  When  Osiris  un- 
dertook to  do  this,  at  the  importunity  of  his  wife,  Cerberus 
—  whom  some  call  the  Terrible  —  barked  so  loud,  that 
Nilus,  Garmathone's  husband,  struck  with  a  sudden  frenzy, 
threw  himself  into  the  river  Aegyptus,  which  from  thence 
was  afterwards  called  Nilus. 

In  this  river  grows  a  stone,  not  unlike  to  a  bean,  which 
so  soon  as  any  dog  happens  to  see,  he  ceases  to  bark.  It 
also  expels  the  evil  spirit  out  of  those  that  are  possessed, 
if  held  to  the  nostrils  of  the  party  afflicted. 

There  are  other  stones  which  are  found  in  this  river, 
called  koUotes,  which  the  swallows  picking  up  against  the 
time  that  Nilus  overflows,  build  up  the  wall  which  is  called 
the   Chelidonian  wall,  which  restrains  the  inundation  of 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  497 

the  water  and  will  not  suffer  the  country  to  be  injured 
by  the  fury  of  the  flood ;  —  as  Thrasyllus  tells  us  in  his 
Relation  of  Egypt. 

Upon  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Argyllus,  so  called  for 
this  reason. 

Jupiter  in  the  heat  of  his  amorous  desires  ravished  away 
the  ^ymph  Arge  from  Lyctus,  a  city  of  Crete,  and  then 
carried  her  to  a  mountain  of  Egypt  called  Argillus,  and 
there  begat  a  son,  whom  he  named  Dionysus  (or  Bacchus) ; 
who,  growing  up  to  years  of  manhood,  in  honor  of  his 
mother  called  the  hill  Argillus ;  and  then  mustering  to- 
gether an  army  of  Pans  and  Satyrs,  first  conquered  the 
Indians,  and  then  subduing  Spain,  left  Pan  behind  him 
there,  the  chief  commander  and  governor  of  those  places. 
Pan  by  his  own  name  called  that  country  Pania,  which  was . 
afterward  by  his  posterity  called  Spania ;  —  as  Sosthenes 
relates  in  the  Thirteenth  Book  of  Iberian  Relations. 

XVII.      EUKOTAS. 

HiMERUS,  the  son  of  the  Nymph  Taygete  and  Lacedae- 
mon,  through  the  anger  of  offended  Venus,  at  a  revelling 
that  lasted  all  night,  deflowered  his  sister  Cleodice,  not 
knowing  what  he  did.  But  the  next  day  being  informed 
of  the  truth  of  the  matter,  he  laid  it  so  to  heart,  that 
through  excess  of  grief  he  flung  himself  into  the  river 
Marathon,  which  from  thence  was  called  liimeros ;  but 
after  that  Eurotas,  upon  this  occasion. 

The  Lacedaemonians  being  at  war  with  the  Athenians, 
and  staying  for  the  full  moon,  Eurotas  their  captain-gene- 
ral, despising  all  religion,  would  needs  fight  his  enemies, 
though  at  the  same  time  he  was  warned  by  thunder  and 
lightning.  However,  having  lost  his  army,  the  ignominy 
of  his  loss  so  incessantly  perplexed  him,  that  he  flung  him- 
self into  the  river  Himerus,  which  from  that  accident  was 
afterwards  called  Eurotas. 


498  OF   THE  NAMES 

Tu  this  river  grows  a  stone  which  is  shaped  like  a  hel- 
met, called  thrasydeilos,  or  rash  and  timorous.  For  if  it 
hears  a  trumpet  sound,  it  leaps  toward  the  bank  of  the 
river ;  but  if  you  do  but  name  the  Athenians,  it  presently 
sinks  to  the  bottom  of  the  water.  Of  these  stones  there 
are  not  a  few  which  are  consecrated  and  laid  up  in  the 
temple  of  Minerva  of  the  Brazen  House ;  —  as  Nicanor 
the  Samian  relates  in  his  Second  Book  of  Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Taygetus,  deriving 
its  name  from  the  nymph  Taygete,  who,  after  Jupiter  had 
deflowered  her,  being  overcome  by  grief,  ended  her  days 
by  hanging  at  the  summit  of  the  mountain  Amyclaeus, 
which  from  thence  was  called  Taygetus. 

Upon  this  mountain  grows  a  plant  called  Charisia,  which 
.the  women  at  the  beginning  of  the  spring  tied  about  their 
necks,  to  make  themselves  more  passionately  beloved  by 
men ;  —  as  Cleanthes  reports  in  his  First  Book  of  Moun- 
tains. But  Sosthenes  the  Cnidian  is  more  accurate  in  the 
relation  of  these  things,  from  whom  Hermogenes  borrowed 
the  subject  of  his  writing. 

XVin.    Inachus. 

Inachus  is  a  river  in  the  territories  of  Argos,  formerly 
called  Carmanor.    Afterwards  Haliacmon,  for  this  reason. 

Haliacmon,  a  Tirynthian  by  birth,  while  he  kept  sheep 
upon  the  mountain  Coccygium,  happened  against  his  will 
to  see  Jupiter  and  Rhea  sporting  together ;  for  wliich 
being  struck  mad,  and  hurried  by  the  violence  of  the  fren- 
zy, he  flung  himself  into  the  river  Carmanor,  which  after 
that  was  called  Haliacmon.  Afterwards  it  was  called  Ina- 
chus upon  this  occasion. 

Inachus,  the  son  of  Oceanus,  after  that  Jupiter  had  de- 
flowered his  daughter  lo,  pursued  the  Deity  close  at  the 
heels,  abusing  and  cursing  him  all  the  way  as  he  went. 


OF  RIVERS  AND   MOUNTAINS.  499 

Which  so  offended  Jupiter,  that  he  sent  Tisiphone,  one  of 
the  Furies,  who  haunted  and  plagued  him  to  that  degree, 
that  he  flung  himself  into  the  river  Haliacmon,  afterwards 
called  by  his  own  name  Inachus. 

In  this  river  grows  an  herb  called  cynura,  not  unlike 
our  common  rue,  which  the  women  that  desire  to  mis- 
carry without  any  danger  lay  upon  their  navels,  being  fii-st 
steeped  in  wine. 

There  is  also  found  in  this  river  a  certain  stone,  not 
unlike  a  beryl,  which  in  the  hands  of  those  who  intend  to 
bear  false  witness  will  grow  black.  Of  these  stones  there 
are  many  laid  up  in  the  temple  of  Juno  Prosymnaea ;  —  as 
Timotheus  relates  in  his  Argolica,  and  Agatho  the  Samian 
in  his  Second  Book  of  Rivers. 

Agathocles  the  Milesian,  in  his  History  of  E-ivers,  also 
adds,  that  Inachus  for  his  impiety  was  thunderstruck  by 
Jupiter,  and  so  the  river  dried  up. 

Near  to  this  river  lie  the  mountains  Mycenae,  Ape- 
santus,  Coccygium,  and  Athenaeum  ;  so  called  for  these 
reasons.  Apesantus  was  first  called  Selenaeus.  For  Juno, 
resolving  to  be  revenged  upon  Hercules,  called  the  moon 
(Selene)  to  her  assistance,  who  by  the  help  of  her  magical 
charms  filled  a  large  chest  full  of  foam  and  froth,  out  of 
which  sprang  an  immense  lion ;  which  Iris  binding  with 
her  own  girdle  carried  to  the  mountain  Opheltium,  where 
the  lion  killed  and  tore  in  pieces  Apesantus,  one  of  the 
shepherds  belonging  to  that  place.  And  from  that  acci- 
dent, by  the  will  of  the  Gods,  the  hill  was  called  Apesan- 
tus ;  —  as  Demodocus  writes  in  his  First  Book  of  the  His- 
tory of  Hercules. 

In  this  river  grows  an  herb  called  selene,  with  the  froth 
of  which,  being  gathered  in  the  spring,  the  shepherds 
anoint  their  feet,  and  keep  them  from  being  bit  or  stung 
by  any  creeping  vermin. 

Mycenae  was  formerly  called  Argion,  from  the  many-eyed 


500  OF    THE  NAMES 

Argos ;  but  afterwards  the  name  was  changed  upon  this 
occasion. 

When  Perseus  had  slain  Medusa,  Stheno  and  Euryale, 
sisters  to  her  that  was  killed,  pursued  him  as  a  murderer. 
But  coming  to  this  hill  and  despairing  to  overtake  him,  out 
of  that  extreme  love  which  they  had  for  their  sister  they 
made  such  a  bellowing  {nvAtidnog),  that  the  natives  from 
thence  called  the  top  of  the  mountain  Mycenae ;  —  as  Ctesias 
the  Ephesian  relates  in  his  First  Book  of  the  Acts  of  Per- 
seus. But  Chrysermus  the  Corinthian  relates  the  story 
thus  in  the  First  Book  of  his  Peloponnesiacs.  For  he  says 
that,  when  Perseus  was  carried  aloft  in  the  air  and  lit  upon 
this  mountain,  he  lost  the  chape  of  his  scabbard.  At  what 
time  this  same  Gorgophonos  (or  Gorgon-slayer),  king  of 
the  Epidaurians,  being  expelled  his  kingdom,  received  this 
answer  upon  his  consulting  the  oracle,  that  he  should  visit 
all  the  cities  of  the  Argolic  territory,  and  that  where  he 
found  the  chape  of  a  scabbard  (called  in  Greek  ftvx^s,-),  he 
should  build  a  city.  Thereupon  coming  to  the  mountain 
Argium,  and  finding  there  an  ivory  scabbard,  he  built  a 
city,  and  from  the  accident  called  it  Mycenae. 

In  this  mountain  there  is  found  a  stone,  which  is  called 
coiybas,  of  a  crow-color,  which  he  that  finds  and  wears 
about  him  shall  never  be  afraid  of  any  monstrous  appari 
tions.  As  for  the  mountain  Apesantus,  this  may  be  added, 
that  Apesantus,  the  son  of  Acrisius,  as  he  was  a  hunting 
in  that  place,  chanced  to  tread  upon  a  venomous  serpent, 
which  occasioned  his  death.  Whom  when  his  father  had 
buried,  in  memory  of  his  son  he  named  the  hill  Apesantus, 
which  before  was  called  Selinuntius. 

The  mountain  Coccygium  derived  its  name  from  this 
accident.  Jupiter  falling  desperately  in  love  with  his  sis- 
ter Juno,  and  having  vanquished  her  by  his  importunity, 
begat  a  male  child.  From  whence  the  mountain,  before 
called  Lyrceum,  was  named  Coccygium ;  —  as  Agathonymus 
relates  in  his  Persis. 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  501 

In  this  mountain  grows  a  tree,  which  is  called  paliurus  ; 
upon  the  boughs  of  which  whatever  fowl  happens  to  perch, 
it  is  presently  entangled  as  it  were  with  bird-lime,  and  can- 
not stir  ;  only  the  cuckoo  it  lets  go  free,  without  any  harm  ; 
—  as  Ctesiphon  testifies  in  his  First  Book  of  Trees. 

As  for  the  mountain  Athenaeum,  it  derives  its  name 
from  Minerva.  For  after  the  destruction  of  Troy,  Dio- 
mede  returning  to  Argos,  ascended  the  mountain  Ceraunius, 
and  there  erecting  a  temple  to  Minerva,  called  the  moun- 
tain Athenaeum  from  her  name  Athena. 

Upon  the  top  of  this  mountain  grows  a  root  like  to  that 
of  rue,  which  if  any  woman  unwarily  taste  of,  she  presently 
runs  mad.  This  root  is  called  Adrastea ;  —  as  Plesimachus 
writes  in  his  Second  Book  of  the  E-eturns  of  the  Heroes. 

XIX.  Alpheus. 

Alpheus  is  a  river  of  Arcadia,  running  by  the  walls  of 
Pisa,  a  city  of  Olympia.  It  was  formerly  called  Stymphelus, 
from  Stymphelus  the  son  of  Mars  and  Dormothea ;  who, 
having  lost  his  brother  Alcmaeon,  threw  himself  for  grief 
into  the  river  Nyctimus,  for  that  reason  called  Stymphelus. 
Afterwards  it  was  called  Alpheus  upon  this  occasion. 

Alpheus,  one  of  those  that  derive  their  descent  from  the 
Sun,  contending  with  his  brother  Cercaphus  about  the 
kingdom,  slew  him.  For  which  being  chased  away  and 
pursued  by  the  Furies,  he  flung  himself  into  the  river 
Nyctimus,  which  after  that  was  called  Alpheus. 

In  this  river  grows  a  plant  which  is  called  cenchritis, 
resembling  a  honey-comb,  the  decoction  of  which,  being 
given  by  the  physicians  to  those  that  are  mad,  cures  them 
of  their  frenzy ;  —  as  Ctesias  relates  in  his  First  Book  of 
Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Cronium,  so  called 
upon  this  occasion.     After  the  Giants'  war,  Saturn,  to  avoid 


502  OF  THE  NAMES 

the  threats  of  Jupiter,  fled  to  the  mountain  Cturus,  and 
called  it  Cronium  from  his  own  name.  Where  after  he 
had  absconded  for  some  time,  he  took  his  opportunity,  and 
retired  to  Caucasus  in  Scythia. 

In  this  mountain  is  found  a  stone,  which  is  called  the 
cylinder,  upon  this  occasion.  For  as  oft  as  Jupiter  either 
thunders  or  lightens,  so  often  this  stone  through  fear  rolls 
down  from  the  top  of  the  mountain  ;  —  as  Dercyllus  writes 
in  his  First  Book  of  Stones. 


XX.     Euphrates. 

Euphrates  is  a  river  of  Parthia,  washing  the  walls  of 
Babylon,  formerly  called  Medus  from  Medus  the  son  of 
Artaxerxes.  He,  in  the  heat  of  his  lust,  having  ravished 
away  and  deflowered  Hoxane,  and  finding  he  was  sought 
after  by  the  king,  in  order  to  be  brought  to  punishment, 
threw  himself  into  the  river  Xaranda,  which  from  thence- 
forward was  called  by  his  name  Medus.  Afterwards  it 
was  called  Euphrates  upon  this  occasion. 

Euphrates  the  son  of  Arandacus,  finding  his  son  Axurta 
abed  with  his  mother,  and  thinking  him  to  be  some  one  of 
the  citizens,  provoked  by  his  jealousy,  drew  his  sword  and 
nailed  him  to  the  bed.  But  perceiving  himself  the  author 
of  what  could  not  be  recalled,  he  flung  himself  for  grief 
into  the  river  Medus,  which  from  that  time  forward  was 
called  by  his  name  Euphrates. 

In  this  river  grows  a  stone  called  aetites,  which  mid- 
wives  applying  to  the  navels  of  women  that  are  in  hard 
labor,  it  causes  them  to  bring  forth  with  little  pain. 

In  the  same  river  also  there  grows  an  herb  which  is 
called  axalla,  which  signifies  heat.  This  herb  they  that 
are  troubled  with  quartan-agues  apply  to  their  breasts, 
and  are  presently  delivered  from  the  fit;  —  as  Cbrysermus 
writes  in  his  Thirteenth  Book  of  Rivers. 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  503 

Near  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Drimylus,  where  grows 
a  stone  not  unlike  a  sardonyx,  worn  by  kings  and  princes 
upon  their  diadems,  and  greatly  available  against  dimness 
of  sight ;  —  as  Nicias  Mallotes  writes  in  his  Book  of 
Stones. 

XXI.    Caicus. 

Caicus  is  a  river  of  Mysia,  formerly  called  Astraeus, 
from  Astraeus  the  son  of  Neptune.  For  he,  in  the  height 
of  Minerva's  nocturnal  solemnities  having  deflowered  his 
sister  by  a  mistake,  took  a  ring  at  the  same  time  from  her 
finger ;  by  which  when  he  understood  the  next  day  the 
error  which  he  had  committed,  for  grief  he  threw  himself 
headlong  into  the  river  Adurus,  which  from  thence  was 
called  Astraeus.  Afterwards  it  came  to  be  called  Caicus 
upon  this  occasion. 

Caicus,  the  son  of  Hermes  and  Ocyrrhoe  the  Nymph, 
having  slain  Timander  one  of  the  noblemen  of  the  country, 
and  fearing  the  revenge  of  his  relations,  flung  himself  into 
the  river  Astraeus,  which  from  that  accident  was  called 
Caicus. 

In  this  river  grows  a  sort  of  poppy,  which  instead  of 
fruit  bears  stones.  Of  these  there  are  some  which  are 
black  and  shaped  like  harps,  which  the  Mysians  throw 
upon  their  ploughed  lands ;  and  if  the  stones  lie  still  in- 
the  place  where  they  are  thrown,  it  is  a  sign  of  a  barren 
year ;  but  if  they  fly  away  like  so  many  locusts,  they  prog- 
nosticate a  plentiful  harvest. 

In  the  same  river  also  grows  an  herb  which  is  called 
elipharmacus,  which  the  physicians  apply  to  such  as  are 
troubled  with  immoderate  fluxes  of  blood,  as  having  a 
peculiar  virtue  to  stop  the  orifices  of  the  veins ;  —  accord- 
ing to  the  relation  of  Timagoras  in  his  First  Book  of 
Rivers. 

Adjoining  to  the  banks  of  this  river  lies  the  mountain 


504  OF  THE  NAMES 

Teuthras,  so  called  from  Teuthras  king  of  the  Mysians ; 
who  in  pursuance  of  his  sport,  as  he  was  a  hunting,  ascend- 
ing the  hill  Thrasyllus  and  seeing  a  monstrous  wild  boar, 
followed  him  close  with  the  rest  of  his  train.  On  the  other 
side,  the  boar,  to  prevent  the  hunters,  like  a  suppliant  fled 
to  the  temple  of  Orthosian  Diana,  into  which  when  the 
hunters  were  about  to  force  their  entrance,  the  boar  in 
articulate  words  cried  out.  Spare,  O  king,  the  nursling  of 
the  Goddess.  However,  Teuthras,  exalted  with  his  good 
success,  killed  the  poor  boar.  At  which  Diana  was  so 
highly  offended,  that  she  restored  the  boar  to  life,  but 
struck  the  offender  with  scurf  and  madness.  Which  af- 
fliction the  king  not  enduring  betook  himself  to  the  tops 
of  the  mountains.  But  his  mother  Leucippe,  understand- 
ing what  had  befallen  her  son,  ran  to  the  forest,  taking 
along  with  her  the  soothsayer  Polyidus,  the  son  of  Coer- 
anus ;  by  whom  being  informed  of  all  the  several  circum- 
stances of  the  matter,  by  many  sacrifices  she  at  last  atoned 
the  anger  of  the  Goddess,  and  having  quite  recovered  and 
cured  her  son,  erected  an  altar  to  Orthosian  Diana,  and 
caused  a  golden  boar  to  be  made  with  a  man's  face. 
Which  to  this  day,  if  pursued  by  the  hunters,  enters  the 
temple,  and  speaks  with  the  voice  of  a  man  the  word 
"  spare."  Thus  Teuthras,  being  restored  to  his  former 
health,  called  the  mountain  by  his  own  name  Teuthras. 

In  this  mountain  grows  a  stone  called  antipathes  (or  the 
resister),  which  is  of  excellent  virtue  to  cure  scabs  and 
leprosies,  being  powdered  and  mixed  with  wine ;  —  as 
Ctesias  the  Cnidian  tells  us  in  his  Second  Book  of  Moun- 
tains. 

XXn.    ACHELOUS. 

AcHELOus  is  a  river  of  Aetolia,  formerly  called  Thestius. 
This  Thestius  was  the  son  of  Mars  and  Pisidice,  who  upon 
some  domestic  discontent  travelled  as  far  as  Sicyon,  where 


OF  RIVERS   AND  MOUNTAINS.  {j05 

after  he  had  resided  for  some  time,  he  returned  to  his 
native  home.  But  finding  there  his  son  Calydon  and  his 
mother  both  upon  the  bed  together,  believing  him  to  be  an 
adulterer,  he  slew  his  own  child  by  a  mistake.  But  when 
he  beheld  the  unfortunate  and  unexpected  fact  he  had 
committed,  he  threw  himself  into  the  river  Axenos,  which 
from  thence  was  afterwards  called  Thestius.  And  after 
that,  it  was  called  Achelous  upon  this  occasion. 

Achelous,  the  son  of  Oceanus  and  the  Nymph  Nais, 
having  deflowered  his  daughter  Cletoria  by  mistake,  flung 
himself  for  grief  into  the  river  Thestius,  which  then  by 
his  own  name  was  called  Achelous. 

In  this  river  grows  an  herb,  which  they  call  zaclon,  very 
much  resembling  wool ;  this  if  you  bruise  and  cast  into 
wine,  it  becomes  water,  and  preserves  the  smell  but  not 
the  virtues  of  the  wine. 

In  the  same  river  also  is  found  a  certain  stone  of  a 
mixed  black  and  lead  color,  called  linurgus  from  the 
effect ;  for  if  you  throw  it  upon  a  linen  cloth,  by  a  certain 
affectionate  union  it  assumes  the  form  of  the  linen,  and 
turns  white ;  —  as  Antisthenes  relates  in  the  Third  Book 
of  his  Meleagris,  though  Diodes  the  Rhodian  more  accu- 
rately tells  us  the  same  thing  in  his  Aetolics. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Calydon,  so  called 
from  Calydon,  the  son  of  Mars  and  Astynome  ;  for  that 
he,  by  an  accident  having  seen  Diana  bathing  herself,  was 
transformed  into  a  rock  ;  and  the  mountain  which  before 
was  named  Gyrus  was  afterwards  by  the  providence  of  the 
Gods  called  Calydon. 

Upon  this  mountain  grows  an  herb  called  myops.  This 
if  any  one  steep  in  water  and  wash  his  face  with  it,  he 
shall  lose  his  sight,  but  upon  his  atoning  Diana,  he  shall 
recover  it  again ;  —  as  Dercyllus  writes  in  his  Third  Book 
of  Aetolics. 


506  OF  THE  NAMES 


XXIII.  Araxes. 

Araxes  is  a  river  in  Armenia,  so  called  from  Araxus  the 
son  of  Pylus.  For  he,  contending  with  his  grandfather  Ar- 
belus  for  the  empire,  shot  him  with  an  arrow.  For  which 
being  haunted  by  the  Furies,  he  threw  himself  into  the 
river  Bactros,  for  that  reason  called  Araxes ;  —  as  Ctesi- 
phon  testifies  in  his  First  Book  of  the  Persian  Affairs. 
Araxes,  king  of  the  Armenians,  being  at  war  with  his 
neighbors  the  Persians,  before  they  came  to  a  battle,  was 
told  by  the  oracle  that  he  should  win  the  victory  if  he 
sacrificed  to  the  Gods  two  of  the  most  noble  virgins  in  his 
kingdom.  Now  he,  out  of  his  paternal  affection  to  his 
children,  spared  his  own  daughters,  and  caused  two  lovely 
virgins,  the  daughters  of  one  of  his  nobility,  to  be  laid 
upon  the  altar.  Which  Mnesalces,  the  father  of  the  vic- 
tims, laying  to  heart,  for  a  time  concealed  his  indignation  ; 
but  afterwards,  observing  his  opportunity,  he  killed  both 
the  king's  daughters,  and  then  leaving  his  native  soil  fled 
into  Scythia.  Which  when  Araxes  understood,  for  grief 
he  threw  himself  into  the  river  Halmus,  which  then  was 
altered  and  called  Araxes. 

In  this  river  grows  a  plant  which  is  called  araxa,  which 
in  the  language  of  the  natives  signifies  a  virgin-hater. 
For  that  if  it  happen  to  be  found  by  any  virgin,  it  falls  a 
bleeding  and  dies  away. 

In  the  same  river  there  is  also  found  a  stone  of  a  black 
color,  called  sicyonus.  This  stone,  when  the  oracle  advises 
the  sacrificing  of  a  human  victim,  is  laid  upon  the  altar  of 
the  mischief-diverting  Gods.  And  then,  no  sooner  does 
the  priest  touch  it  with  his  knife,  but  it  sends  forth  a 
stream  of  blood ;  at  what  time  the  superstitious  sacrificers 
retire,  and  with  bowlings  and  loud  ohoning  carry  the  stone 
to  the  temple;  —  as  Dorotheus  the  Chaldaean  relates  in 
his  Second  Book  of  Stones. 


OF  RIVERS   AND   MOUNTAINS.  507 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Diorphus,  so  called 
from  Diorphus  the  son  of  the  Earth,  of  whom  this  story  is 
reported.  Mithras  desirous  to  have  a  son,  yet  hating 
woman-kind,  lay  with  a  stone,  till  he  had  heated  it  to  that 
degree  that  the  stone  grew  big,  and  at  the  prefixed  time 
was  delivered  of  a  son,  called  Diorphus  ;  who,  growing  up 
and  contending  with  Mars  for  courage  and  stoutness,  was 
by  him  slain,  and  by  the  providence  of  the  Gods  was 
transformed  into  the  mountain  which  was  called  Diorphus 
by  his  name. 

In  this  mountain  grows  a  tree,  not  unlike  a  pomegranate- 
tree,  which  yields  plenty  of  apples,  in  taste  like  grapes. 
Now  if  any  one  gather  the  ripest  of  this  fruit,  and  do  but 
name  Mars  while  he  holds  it  in  his  hand,  it  will  presently 
grow  green  again  ;  —  as  Ctesiphon  witnesses  in  his  Thir- 
teenth Book  of  Trees. 


XXIV.    Tigris. 

Tigris  is  a  river  of  Armenia  flowing  into  Araxes  and  the 
lake  of  Arsacis,  formerly  called  Sollax,  which  signifies 
running  and  carried  downward.  It  was  called  Tigris  upon 
this  occasion. 

Bacchus,  through  the  design  of  Juno  running  mad,  wan- 
dered over  sea  and  land,  desirous  to  be  quit  of  his  distem- 
per. At  length  coming  into  Armenia,  and  not  being  able 
to  pass  the  river  before-mentioned,  he  called  upon  Jupiter ; 
who,  listening  to  his  prayers,  sent  him  a  tiger  that  carried 
him  safely  over  the  water.  In  remembrance  of  which 
accident,  he  called  the  river  Tigris ;  —  as  Theophilus  re- 
lates in  his  First  Book  of  Stones.  But  Hermesianax  the 
Cyprian  tells  the  story  thus  :  — 

Bacchus  falling  in  love  with  the  Nymph  Alphesiboea, 
and  being  able  to  vanquish  her  neither  with  presents  nor 
entreaties,  turned  himself  into  the  shape  of  the  river  Ti- 


508  or  THE  NAMES 

gris.  and  overcoming  his  beloved  by  fear,  took  her  away, 
and  carrying  her  over  the  river,  begat  a  son  whom  he  called 
Medus  ;  who  growing  up  in  years,  in  remembrance  of  the 
accident  he  called  the  river  by  the  name  of  Tigris ;  —  as 
Aristonymus  relates  in  his  Third  Book  .  .   . 

In  this  river  a  stone  is  to  be  found,  called  myndan,  very 
white ;  which  whoever  possesses  shall  never  be  hurt  by 
wild  beasts  ;  —  as  Leo  of  Byzantium  relates  in  his  Third 
Book  of  Rivers. 

Near  to  this  river  lies  the  mountain  Gauran ;  so  called 
from  Gauran  the  son  of  the  satrap  Roxanes ;  who,  being 
extremely  religious  and  devout  towards  the  Gods,  re- 
ceived this  reward  of  his  piety,  that  of  all  the  Persians  he 
only  lived  three  hundred  years  ;  and  dying  at  last  without 
being  ever  afflicted  with  any  disease,  was  buried  upon  the 
top  of  the  mountain  Gauran,  where  he  had  a  sumptuous 
monument  erected  to  his  memory.  Afterwards,  by  the 
providence  of  the  Gods,  the  name  of  the  mountain  was 
changed  to  that  of  Mausorus. 

In  this  mountain  grows  an  herb,  which  is  like  to  wild 
barley.  This  herb  the  natives  heat  over  the  fire,  and 
anointing  themselves  with  the  oil  of  it,  are  never  sick,  till 
the  necessity  of  dying  overtakes  them ;  —  as  Sostratus 
writes  in  his  First  Collection  of  Fabulous  History. 

XXV.    Indus. 

Indus  is  a  river  in  India,  flowing  with  a  rapid  violence 
into  the  country  of  the  fish-devourers.  It  was  first  called 
Mausolus,  from  Mausolus  the  son  of  the  Sun,  but  changed 
its  name  for  this  reason. 

At  the  time  when  the  mysteries  of  Bacchus  were  solem- 
nized and  the  people  were  earnest  at  their  devotion,  Indus, 
one  of  the  chief  of  the  young  nobility,  by  force  deflowered 
Damasalcidas,  the  daughter  of  Oxyalcus  the  king  of  the 
country,  as  she  was  carrying  the  sacred  basket ;  for  which 


OF  RIVERS  AND  MOUNTAINS.  509 

being  sought  for  by  the  tyrant,  in  order  to  bring  him  to 
condign  punishment,  for  fear  he  threw  himself  into  the 
river  Mausolus,  which  from  that  accident  was  afterwards 
called  Indus. 

In  this  river  grows  a  certain  stone  called  .  .  .  which  if 
a  virgin  carry  about  her,  she  need  never  be  afraid  of  being 
deflowered. 

In  the  same  river  also  grows  an  herb,  not  unlike  to 
bugloss.  Which  is  an  excellent  remedy  against  the  king's- 
evil,  being  administered  to  the  patient  in  warm  water  ;  — 
as  Clitophon  the  Rhodian  reports  in  his  First  Book  of  In- 
dian Relations. 

Near  to  this  mountain  lies  the  mountain  Lilaeus,  so 
called  from  Lilaeus  a  shepherd ;  who,  being  very  super- 
stitious and  a  worshipper  of  the  Moon  alone,  always  per- 
formed her  mysteries  in  the  dead  time  of  the  night.  Which 
the  rest  of  the  Gods  taking  for  a  great  dishonor,  sent  two 
monstrous  lions  that  tore  him  in  pieces.  Upon  which 
the  Moon  turned  her  adorer  into  a  mountain  of  the  same 
name. 

In  this  mountain  a  stone  is  found  which  is  called  clitoris, 
of  a  very  black  color,  which  the  natives  wear  for  orna- 
ment's sake  in  their  ears  ;  —  as  Aristotle  witnesses  in  his 
Fourth  Book  of  Rivers. 


INDEX. 


A. 

"  A  Bird  in  the  hand  is  worth  two  in  the 
bush,"  a  proverb  among  the  Greeks,  iv, 
229. 

"  Abstain  from  beans,"  meaning  of  the 
aphorism,  i.  29. 

Achelous,  a  river  in  Aetolia,  v.  604. 

Acrotatus,  apothegm  of,  i.  400. 

Actaeon,  a  beautiful  youth  of  Corinth, 
murdered,  iv.  313-315. 

Ada,  queen  of  Caria,  sends  delicacies  to 
Alexander,  i.  199. 

Adiraantus,  admiral  of  the  Corinthian  fleet 
at  the  battle  of  Salamis;  liis  com'age 
vindicated,  iv.  861. 

Adrastus,  anecdote  of,  i.  288. 

Advice  to  a  new-married  couple,  ii.  486- 
507. 

Aeacus,  his  two  sons,  v.  466. 

Aemilius  Censorinus,  v.  475. 

Aemilius  of  Sybaris,  v.  464. 

Aemilius  Paulus,  sayings  of,  i.  232 ;  iv.  201. 

Aeolus  King  of  Etruria,  v.  467. 

Aeschines,  quoted.  Prom.  i.  40  ;  anecdote 
of,  55;  Eumen.  59;  Frag.  163;  Prom. 
299  ;  Ctesiphon,  334  ;  his  early  life,  and 
concern  in  public  affairs,  v.  34 ;  incurs 
the  hostility  of  Demosthenes,  ib. ;  ac- 
cused by  Demostlienes  and  acquitted, 
84,  35;  impeaches  Ctesiphon,  is  fined 
and  exiled,  35 ;  his  school  at  Rhodes, 
ib. ;  his  death,  ib. ;  his  orations,  ib. ;  his 
public  employments,  36. 

Aeschylus,  quoted,  Septem,  i.  210,  286; 
815,  329,  493  ;  quoted,  ii.  47  ;  anecdote 
of,  77,  160 ;  Frag.  48,  83,  127,  165,  374, 
413,  458,  463,  474,  477;  quoted,  iii. 
Frag.  24,  222  ;  quoted,  iv.  20,  54,  385  ; 
Frag.  276,  279;  quoted,  v.  Frag.  170 
Prom.  241,  320,  398. 

Aesop  murdered  by  the  citizens  of  Delphi, 
iv.  160 ;  their  punishment,  161.  See 
Esop. 

Agamedes  and  Trophonius  built  the  tem- 
ple at  Delphi,  i.  313. 

Agasicles,  apothegms  of,  i.  385. 

Agatharcides  the  Samian,  his  Persian  His- 
tory, V.  451, 


Agatho  the  Samian,  v.  474. 

Agathocles,  anecdote  of,  i.  46;  ii.  317. 

Aged  Men,  shall  they  meddle  in  Stata 
AiTairs?  v.  64-96. 

Agesianax,  quoted,  v.  235,  236. 

Agesilaus,  reply  of,  i.  73,  219,220;  his 
sayings  and  great  actions,  385-397 ;  hia 
upright  character,  ii.  109 ;  115, 319,  455 ; 
iii.  his  punishment,  47  ;  79  ;  anecdote  of, 
v.  67;  his  faults,  118;  457;  his  Italian 
History,  468. 

Agesipolis,  two  of  the  name,  apothegms  of, 
i.  397,  398. 

Agis,  king  of  Sparta,  his  sayings,  i.  218, 
221 ;  anecdote  of,  v.  95. 

Agis,  son  of  Archidamus,  apothegm  of 
i.  398. 

Agis  the  Argive,  ii.  125. 

Agis  the  Last,  apothegm  of,  i.  400. 

Agis  the  Younger,  apothegms  of,  i.  400. 

Ajax's  soul,  her  place  in  Hell,  iii.  442. 

Alba,  king  of,  torn  in  pieces  by  horses, 
v.  455. 

Albinus,  a  Roman  general,  v.  453. 

Alcaeas,  quoted  ii.  296  ;  iii.  264. 

Alcamenes,  apothegm  of,  i.  400. 

Alcibiades,  i.  143 ;  his  sayings,  211 ;  his 
lustful  conduct,  489 ;  the  prince  of  flat- 
terers, ii.  108,  471  ;  failure  of,  460 ;  spoke 
with  hesitation,  v.  110,  112. 

Alcippus,  a  Lacedaemonian,  banished  for 
his  virtue ;  his  wife  slays  herself  and 
her  daughters,  iv.  320-322. 

Alcmaeon,  saying  of,  i.  288 ;  philosophical 
opinions  ;  of  the  planets  iii.  140 ;  of  hear- 
ing, 170;  of  smeUing,  170;  of  taste,  170; 
of  the  barrenness  of  mules,  182 ;  of  em- 
bryos, 184  ;  of  the  formation  of  the  body, 
184 ;  of  the  cause  of  sleep,  188 ;  of 
health,  sickness,  and  old  age,  192. 

Alcman,  quoted ;  Frag.  i.  494 ;  iii.  16 ;  v. 
279. 

Alcmaeonidae,  unfairly  represented  by 
Herodotus,  iv.  338,  847. 

Alenas  the  Thessalian,  iii.  67. 

Alexander  of  Macedon  and  Porus  i.  45; 
lament  of,  140;  and  Criso  the  runner, 
152  ;  his  sayings,  198-202;  the  Fortune 
or  Virtue  of,  475-516 ;  anecdotes  of,  ii. 


512 


INDEX. 


126,  138,  473  ;  his  moderation,  475 ;  was 
he  a  great  drinker,  iii.  29,  2ly  ;  his  pur- 
pose to  attack  the  Romans,  iv.  219  ;  v. 
140. 

Alexander,  tyrant  of  Pherae,  his  cruel 
temper  softened  by  a  play,  i.  492. 

Alexandridas,  apothegm  of,  i.  401. 

Alexarchus,  his  Italian  History,  v.  456. 

Alexidemas,  at  tlie  Banquet  of  the  Seven 
Wise  Men,  ii.  8-41. 

Alexinus,  the  sophist,  i.  76. 

Alexis,  quoted,  ii.  58. 

Alpha,  why  placed  first  in  the  Alphabet, 
iii.  438. 

Alpheus,  a  river  in  Arcadia,  v.  501. 

Amasis,  king  of  Egypt,  required  to  drink 
the  ocean  dry,  ii.  13 ;  questions  of, 
16. 

Ammonius,  teacher  of  Plutarch,  anecdote 
of,  ii.  147. 

Amphiaraus,  quoted,  i.  317 ;  his  lance 
turned  into  a  laurel,  v.  455. 

Amphidamas,  poets  meet  at  his  grave  in 
Chalcis,  ii.  19. 

Amphion,  first  invented  playing  on  the 
harp  and  lyric  poesy,  i.  105. 

Anarcharsis,  and  Eumetis,  ii.  8  ;  his  utter- 
ances at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven  Wise 
Men,  12,  15,  20,  21,  27,  39. 

Anatole,  a  mountain,  v.  482. 

Anaxagoras,  saying  of,  i.  159 ;  said  the  sun 
was  red-hot  metal,  179 ;  anecdote  of, 
332,  357,  iii.  35,  37;  philosopliical  opin- 
ions ;  Homoeomeries,  108  ;  of  the  origin 
of  bodies,  119;  how  bodies  are  mixed, 
126 ;  of  fortune,  131 ;  of  the  world's 
inclination,  136  ;  of  the  stars,  138,  140  ; 
of  the  sun,  142,  143;  of  the  moon,  145, 
147;  of  the  milky  way,  149;  of  shooting 
stars,  150;  of  thunder,  lightning  and 
hurricanes,  151 ;  of  the  rainbow,  153  ; 
of  earthquakes,  157  ;  of  the  sea,  158 ; 
of  the  overflow  of  the  Nile,  160 ;  of  the 
voice,  172;  of  generation,  178;  of  the 
generation  of  animals,  186  ;  of  reason 
in  animals,  187 ;  of  sleep,  190 ;  v.  145, 
255. 

Anaxander,  apothegm  of,  i.  401. 

Anaxllas,  apothegm  of,  i.  402. 

Anaximander,  philosophical  opinions  ;  of 
principles,  iii.  107  ;  the  stars  w^ere  heav- 
enly deities,  121  ;  of  the  stars,  140;  of 
the  essence  and  magnitude  of  the  sun, 
141,  142  ;  of  eclipses  of  the  sun,  144  ;  of 
the  moon,  145  ;  of  fire  from  clouds,  150  ; 
of  winds,  154  ;  of  the  earth,  155 ;  of 
the  sea,  158;  of  the  generation  of  ani- 
mals, 186. 

Anaxinienes,  philosophical  opinions  ;  air  is 
the  principle  of  all  beings,  iii.  107  ;  of 
heaven,  137;  of  the  stars,  139,  140; 
cause  of  summer  and  winter,  141  ;  of 
the  shape  of  the  sun  and  summer  and 
winter  soltice,  143  ;  of  the  moon,  146 ; 
of  clouds   151 ;  of  the  rainbow,  153  :  of 


the  earth,  155  ;  of  earthquakes,  157  ;  v. 
313. 
Ancients,  suppers  of  the,  iii.  255-259. 
Audocides,  one  of  the  ten  Attic  orators, 
V.  21-23  ;  of  a  noble  family,  21 ;  accused 
of  impious  acts,  22;  his  adventures  in 
Cyprus,  22,  23;  his  exile,  23;  his  ora- 
tions, lb. 
Androclidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  402. 
Anecdotes  of 

Aeschylus,  ii.  458. 

Agathocles,  i.  46. 

Agesilaus,  i.  73,  219,  220;  v.  67,  118. 

Agis,  king  of  Sparta,  v.  95. 

Alcibiades,  ii.  108,  109. 

Alexander  tlie  Great,  i.  45 ;  ii.  473. 

Ammonius,  ii.  147. 

Anaxagoras,  i.  332. 

Antigonus,  i.  44,  47,  67,  202,  205,  334; 

iv.  231. 
Antimachus,  i.  308. 
Antiochus  Hierax,  iii.  60. 
Antipater,  i.  64,  197,  205,  215. 
Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  127. 
Apelles  the  painter,  i.  16,  153 ;  ii.  122, 

133. 
Appius  Claudius,  v.  89. 
Arcesilaus  and  Apelles,  ii.  133. 
Archelaus  of  Macedon,  i.  67,  193. 
Archidamus,  i.  74. 
Archimedes,  ii.  174;  v..  71. 
Archytas  of  Tarentum,  i.  18,  24. 
Aristippus,  i.  11,  55,  147,  459;  ii.  55. 
Athenian  barber,  iv.  238. 
Attalus  and  Eimienes,  iii.  61. 
Augustus  Caesar  and  Fulvius,  iv.  235, 

236. 
Bocchoris,  i.  63. 
Brasidas,  ii.  458. 

Caesar,  i.  293;  iv.  204,  205;  v.  67. 
Cato,  i.  295 ;  ii.  490. 
Cato  and  Catulus,  i.  73. 
Cleon,  V.  100,  116. 
Corinna,  v.  404. 
Crassus,  i.  288,  290. 
Croesus  and  Solon,  ii.  122. 
Demades  and  Phocion,  ii.  298. 
Demaratus  and  Philip,  ii.  146. 
Demetrius  Phalereus,  ii.  145;  iii.  21. 
Demostlienes,  i.  15,  65,  334;  ii.  460;  T. 

44,  49,  50-53. 
Diogenes,  i.  51,  67,  141,  142,  166,  283, 

285,  311,  487  ;  ii.  455,  458;  iii.  21,  29. 
Diogenes  and  Philip,  ii.  147. 
Diogenes  and  the  mouse,  ii.  453. 
Dion,  i.  64,  333. 
Dionysius  of  Syracuse,  i.  83,  152,  493; 

ii.  108,  140;  iv.  238. 
Epaminondas,  v.  72,  95,  101,  120,  121, 

125,  401. 
Euclid,  i.  55. 
Eudoxus,  ii.  174. 
Eumenes ;  iii.  61 ;  iv.  232. 
Fulvius  and  Augustus,  iv.  235,  236. 
Hiero,  i.  291. 


INDEX. 


5]8 


Hyperides,  v.  55,  56 

Isocrales,  v.  81. 

Leaena,  iv.  229,  230. 

Lucretia,  i.  'i55. 

Lycurgiis,  tlie  lawgiver,  i.  7. 

Lycurgus,  tlie  oraior,  v.  3a. 

Lj-sander,  i.  72 ;  ii.  495. 

Lysias,  iv.  226. 

Magas,  i.  45. 

Menander,  v.  403. 

Niisica,  i.  285. 

Nero,  V.  123. 

Nicias,  the  Athenian  general,  i.  177. 

Nicias,  the  painter,  ii.  173;  v.  71. 

Kicostratus  and  Archidamus,  i.  74. 

Olympias,  ii.  404,  495. 

Tericles,  i.  15,  18,  66,  211,  332;  ii.  309, 
315  ;  V.  67,  106. 

Philip  of  Macedon,  i.  305;  ii.  146,  147, 
494. 

Phocion,  ii.  298;  v.  118. 

Pindar,  v.  404. 

Pisistratus,  iii.  41. 

Plato,  i.  71. 

Plato  and  Socrates,  ii.  148. 

Polemon,  i.  55. 

Pompey,  v.  70. 

Postumia,  i.  290. 

Priest  of  Hercules,  iii.  90. 

Prometheus,  i.  289. 

Ptolemy  Lagus,  i.  45. 

Pythagoras,  ii.  174. 

Roman  Senator  and  his   wife,  iv.  233- 
235. 

Scaurus,  i.  295. 

Scilurus,  a  Scythian  king,  iv.  244. 

Seleucus  Callinicus,  iv   237. 

Seneca,  i.  53. 

Simonides,  v.  68. 

Socrates,  i.  11, 13,  23,  26,  38,  53,  141, 150. 

Socrates  and  Plato,  ii.  148. 

Solon,  v.  89. 

Solon  and  Croesus,  ii.  122. 

Sophocles,  v.  68. 

Stasicrates,  i..  495. 

Stilpo  the  philosopher,  ii.  468. 

Stratonicus,  iii.  21. 

Sylla,  V.  72. 

Terpander,  i.  91,  92. 

Themistocles,  i.  73,  290,  296;  iii.  21; 
V.  120 

Theramenes,  i.  306. 

Timotheus  ttie  musician,  i   92. 

Valeria,  i.  3-56. 

Xanthippe,  wife  of  Socrates,  i.  53,  292. 

Xenocrates,  i.  71. 

Xenophon,  i.  333. 

Xerxes  and  Ariamenes,  iii.  59,  60 

Zeno,  i.  72,  142,  283;  ii.  455;  iii.  25; 
iv.  225. 
Anger,  concerning  the  cure  of,  i.  33-59. 
Animal  Food,  sliall  it  be  eaten  ?     Of  Eat- 
ing of  Flesh,  V.  3-16. 
Animals,  generation  of,  iii.  186  ;  how  many 

species  of,  187  ;  appetites  and  pleasures 


of,  191  :  ails  and  cures  of,  510 ;  their 
intelligence,  v.  157--217. 

Aniiis,  king  of  the  Tuscans,  v.  475. 

Antalcidas,  his  sayings,  i.  222,  402 ;  h'lB 
reply  to  a  railing  Athenian,  v.  125. 

Anthes,  the  first  author  of  hymns,  i.  105. 

Anthias,  the  sacred  fish,  v.  208. 

Anthipphus,  Lydian  harmony  first  used 
by,  i.  114. 

Antichthon,  the,  iii.  155. 

Antigonus,  anecdote  of,  i.  25;  saying  of. 
44,  47,  67,  202,  205,  334,  484 ;  iv.  231. 

Antigonus  the  Second,  his  sayings,  i.  205; 
ii.  319. 

Antimachus,  anecdote  of,  i.  308. 

Antiochus  and  Charicles,  iii.  49. 

Antiochus  and  Seleucus,  iii.  60. 

Antiochus,  apothegm  of,  i.  403. 

Antiochus  Hierax,  anecdotes  of,  i,  206; 
iii.  60. 

Antiochus  Sidetes,  anecdotes  of,  i.  207. 

Antiochus  the  Spartan,  his  saying,  i.  221. 

Antiochus  the  Third,  anecdotes  of,  i.  206. 

Aiitipater,  anecdotes  of,  i.  64,  197,  205, 
215;  ii.  135,  208;  v.  249,517. 

Antiperistasis  of  motion,  v  435. 

Antiphanes,  witty  saying  of  his,  ii.  456. 

Antiphon,  one  of  the  ten  Attic  orators,  ii. 
142;  V.  17-21  ;  his  birth,  education,  &c., 
17  ;  wrote  speeches  for  others,  ib. ;  a 
man  of  great  talent  and  learning,  18; 
concerned  in  the  revolution  which  sub- 
verted the  popular  government,  ib. ;  on 
the  overthrow  of  the  oligarchical  party 
he  was  involved  in  their  ruin,  ib.  ;  num- 
ber of  his  orations,  19 ;  decree  of  the 
senate  against  him,  20 ;  his  condemna- 
tion and  punishment,  21 ;  opinion  con- 
cerning the  moon,  iii.  146 ;  of  the  sea, 
158. 

Antisthenes,  quoted,  i.  77,  289,  496;  r. 
12.5. 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  ii.  127. 

Apelles,  the  painter,  anecdotes  of,  i.  16, 
153 ;  his  picture  of  Alexander,  494 ; 
and  Megabyzus,  ii.  122  ;  and  Arcesilaus, 
133. 

Aphareus,  adopted  son  of  Isocrates,  wrote 
orations  and  tragedies,  v.  32. 

Apis,  the  sacred  bull  of  the  Egyptians,  iv. 
68  ;  slain  by  Ochus,  king  of  Persia,  74, 
92. 

Apollo  and  the  dragon  Python,  iv.  20. 

Apollo,  inventor  of  the  flute  and  harp,  i. 
113. 

Apollo,  temple  of,  iv.  478-498;  the  inscrip- 
tion ei  over  its  gate,  479. 

Apollodorus  first  invented  the  mixing  of 
colors  and  the  softening  of  shadows,  v. 
400. 

Apollonides,  of  shadow,  v.  265;  of  spota 
in  the  moon,  269. 

Apollonis  of  Cyzicum,  iii.  41. 

Apollonius,  consolation  to,  i.  299-899- 

Apollonius,  the  Peripatetic,  iii.  57 


33 


614 


INDEX. 


Apothegms  of  Kings  and  Great  Command- 
ers, i.  185-250. 
Agathocles,  sayings  of,  i.  193. 
Agesilaiis,  219. 
Agis,  218-221. 
Alcibiades,  211. 
Alexander  the  Great,  198-202. 
Antalcidas,  222. 
Antigonus,  202. 
Antigen  us  the  Second,  205. 
Antiochus  Sidetes,  207. 
Antioclius  the  Spartan,  221. 
Antiochus  the  Third,  206. 
Antipater,  205. 
Archelaus,  193. 
Archidamus,  218. 
Aristides,  210. 

Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  187. 
Artaxerxes  Mnemon,  188. 
A  teas,  189. 

Augustus  Caesar,  248-250. 
Brasidas,  218. 
Caecilius  Metellus,  239. 
Caius  Fabricius,  227. 
Caius  Marius,  239. 
Caius  Popiiius,  240. 
Cato  the  Elder,  233-235. 
Chabrias,  213. 
Charillus,  217. 
Cicero,  244. 
Cneus  Domitius,  231. 
Cneus  Pompeius,  241-244. 
Cotys,  189. 
Cyrus  the  Elder,  186. 
Cyrus  the  Younger,  188. 
Darius,  186. 
Demetrius,  204. 
Demetrius  Phalereus,  217. 
Dion,  193. 

Dionysius  the  Elder,  191. 
Dionysius  the  Younger,  192. 
Epammondas,  222-226. 
Eudaemonidas,  221. 
Eumenes  of  Pergamus,  206. 
Fabius  Maximus,  227-228. 
Gelo,  190. 
Hegesippus,  213. 
Hiero,  190. 
Idathyrsus,  189. 
Iphicrates,  212. 
LucuUus,  241. 
Lycurgus,  217. 
Lysander,  219. 
Lysimachus,  205. 
Manius  Curius,  226. 
Memnon,  189. 
Nicostratus,  221. 
Orontes,  188. 
Parysatis,  188. 
Paulus  Aemilius,  23*2. 
Pelopidas,  225. 
Pericles,  211. 

Philip  of  Macedon,  194-198. 
Phocion,  213,  216. 
Pisistratus,  216. 


Poltys,  189. 

Ptolemy  Lagus,  202, 

Pyrrhus  the  Epirot,  207. 

Pytheas,  213. 

Scilurus,  190. 

Scipio  Junior,  235-239. 

Scipio  the  Eider,  229. 

Semiramis,  187. 

Teres,  189. 

Themistocles,  208. 

Theopompus,  217. 

Timotheiis,  212. 

Titus  Quinctius,  230. 

Xerxes,  187. 
Apple  tree,  of  the,  iii.  333. 
Appius  Claudius,  anecdote  of,  v.  89. 
Arar,  a  river  in  Gaul,  v.  484. 
Aratus,  quoted,   ii.  98 ;  iii.   116 ;    of   the 

stars,  141 ;   quoted,  334,  497  ;    quoted, 

V.  112;  177. 
Araxes,  a  river  in  Armenia,  v.  506. 
Arcadian  prophet  in  Herodotus,  iii.  38. 
Arcadio  the  Archaean,  saying  of,  i.  44. 
Arcesilaus,  i.  53, 148 ;  quoted,  258,  315;  and 

Battus,  ii.  115 ;  his  kindness  to  Apelles, 

133;  V.  371,  391. 
Archelaus,  king  of  Macedon,  anecdote  of, 

i.  67,  193. 
Archelaus,  his  opinions  concerning  prin- 
ciples, iii.  109. 
Archias,  ii.  379  et  seq. ;  iv.  313-315. 
Arcliidamidas,  apothegms  of,  i.  404. 
Archidamus,  i.  4,  74,  218,  404  ;  ii,  379  et 

seq. 
Arcliilochus     the    poet,     banished    from 

Sparta,  i.  96  ;  quoted,  97  ;  his  improve- 
ments in  music,  122,  123,  177  ;   phrase 

of  ii.  17;  61,  84;  iii.  26;  v.  108,  216, 

320. 
Archimedes,  of  the  sun's  diameter,  v.  71 ; 

ii.  anecdote  of,  173,  174. 
Archytas  of  Tarentum,  anecdotes  of,  i.  18, 

24. 
Ardalus,  a  minstrel  at  the  Banquet  of  the 

Seven  Wise  Men,  ii.  11, 12. 
Aregeus,  apothegm  of,  i.  403. 
Aretades  Cnidus,  his  Macedonian  History, 

V.  458  ;  his  Second  Book  of  Islands,  467 
Aretaphila,  her  fortitude  and  virtue,  i.  S67 
Argive  women,  their  repulse  of  the  Spar- 
tan army,  i   346. 
Argives,  wrestling  matches  of,  i.  121 ;  im 

posed  a  fine  for  playing  with  more  than 

seven  strings,  130  ;  combat  of  the,  v.  45 ; 

combat  with  the  Lacedaemonians,  452. 
Ariamenes  yields  the  throne  of  Persia  to 

his  younger  brother  Xerxes,  iii.  59. 
Arion  and  the  dolphins,  ii.  33-36. 
Aristarchus,  iii.  36  ;  concerning  the  eclipse 

of  the  sun,  144  ;  v.  246. 
Aristides,  his  Persian  History,  v.  453. 
Aristides,  his  sayings,  i.  210  ;  ii.  495. 
Aristides  Milesius,  his  Italian  History,  v. 

451,  452,  453,  458,  459,  460,  462,  463. 

465,  466 ;  Italian  Commentaries,  461 , 


INDEX. 


515 


quoted,  462;  Italian  History,  469,  473, 
474,  475,  476. 

Aristippus,  anecdotes  of,  i.  11,  55,  79, 147, 
459,  ii.  55,  2it5,  459. 

Aristo  of  Chios,  ii.  369. 

Aristobolus,  iiis  Third  Book  of  Italian  His- 
tory, V.  470. 

Arislocles,  Third  Book  of  his  Italian  His- 
tory, V.  466,  476. 

Aristoclia,  a  beautiful  maiden,  iv.  312,  318. 

Aristodemus,  his  Third  Collection  of 
Fables,  V.  274. 

Aristodeiuus,  king  of  Messenia,  i.  177. 

Aristodemus,  the  Epicurean,  ii.  158,  159, 
180. 

Aristoraenes,  preceptor  of  Ptolemy,  ii. 
149. 

Ariston,  apothegm  of,  i.  403  ;  iii.  18  ;  his 
opinion  of  moral  virtue,  462 ;  v.  111. 

Aristonicus  the  musician,  i.  494. 

Aristonymus,  a  woman  hater,  v.  468. 

Aristophanes,  his  comedy  of  "The  Clouds," 
i.  23 ;  quoted,  79,  125,  500 ;  quoted,  ii. 
78,  149.  429;  his  coarseness  and  buf- 
foonery, iii.  11 ;  compared  with  Me- 
nander,  11-14 ;  quoted,  iv.  196,  273 ; 
quoted,  v.  42,  405. 

Aristotinus,  tyranny  of,  i.  3.57-363 ;  v  172. 

Aristotle  quoted,  i.  37 ;  50;  on  harmony, 
119 ;  155,  272,  326  ;  the  teacher  of  Alex- 
ander, 478,  ii.  302,  319  ;  letter  of,  455  ; 
quoted,  iii.  11,  79 ;  his  philosophical 
opinions  ;  of  nature,  105  ;  of  principles 
and  elements,  106 ;  of  God,  121 ;  of 
matter,  123  ;  of  ideas,  123  ;  of  causes, 
124;  of  a  vacuum,  127;  of  motion,  128; 
of  fortune,  131  ;  of  the  world,  133,  134, 
135 ;  of  vacuum,  137 ;  of  the  world, 
137  ;  of  heaven,  137  ;  of  the  stars,  140 ;  of 
the  sun,  142  ;  of  the  summer  and  winter 
solstices,  143  ;  of  the  moon,  146  ;  of  the 
milky  way,  148  ;  of  comets,  149 ;  of 
thunder  and  lightning,  151  ;  of  earth- 
quakes, 157  ;  of  tides,  159;  of  tlie  motion 
of  the  soul,  164  ;  of  the  senses,  166  ;  ot 
the  voice,  172;  of  generative  seed,  177; 
of  the  sperm,  177  ;  of  emission  of  women, 
177;  of  conception,  178;  of  generation, 
179  ;  of  the  first  form  in  the  womb,  184  ; 
of  seven  months'  children,  185 ;  ot  the 
species  of  animals,  187;  of  sleep,  18'J; 
of  plants,  190  ;  quoted,  225,  226  ;  opin- 
ions concerning  the  soul,  465 ;  opinion 
concerning  a  plurality  of  worlds,  iv.  33  ; 
concerning  prophetic  inspiration,  54,  v. 
189,  253,  262,  313,  316,  355  ;  quoted, 
439 ;  his  Second  Book  of  Paradoxes, 
468. 

Aristoxenus,  of  music,  i.  114,  115, 12.5, 134. 

Arsione  Queen,  i.  319. 

Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  his  sayings,  i. 
187. 

Artaxerxes  Mnemon,  his  sayings,  i.  188. 

Aruntius  and  MeduUina,  v.  463. 

Asclepiades,  opinions  :  of  the  soul,  iii.  161; 


of  respiration,  174 ;  of  two  or  three 
children  at  one  birth,  180 ;  animals  in 
the  womb,  188  ;  of  health,  sickness,  and 
old  age,  192. 

Aster  the  archer,  v.  456. 

Astycratidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  405. 

Ateas,  saying  of,  i.  189 ;  ii.  177. 

Atephomarus,  king  of  the  Gauls,  v.  469. 

Atheism  and  superstition  compared,  i.  168, 
et  seq. 

Athenian  barber,  iv.  238. 

Atlienian  citizens,  their  number,  v.  42 ; 
their  temper  and  disposition,  100. 

Athenians,  whether  they  were  more  re- 
nowned for  their  warlike  achievements, 
or  for  their  learning,  v.  399-411. 

Athenodorus,  memorable  action  of,  iii.  50. 

Athens,  not  renowned  for  epic  or  lyric 
verse,  i.  404  ;  was  a  democracty,  v.  397  ; 
the  nurse  of  history,  of  painting,  and 
poetry,  400,  401. 

Atoms,  doctrine  of,  v.  846-348. 

Atreus  and  Thyestes,  v.  470.  471. 

Attains  and  Eumenes,  their  kindness  and 
fidelity  to  each  other,  iii.  61,  62. 

Attica,  invasion  of,  by  Datis,  v.  450,  451. 

Augustus  Caesar,  his  sayings,  i.  248-2-50 ; 
the  favored  son  of  Fortune,  iv.  205 ;  v. 
67. 

Augustus  Caesar  and  Fulvius,  anecdote 
of,  iv.  235,  236. 

Autobulus,  V.  166,  et  seq. 

Autumn,  dreams  in,  iii.  482. 


B. 


Bacchus,  ii.  12,  29 ;  iv.  256,  264,  269. 

Ballemaeus,  mount,  v.  492. 

Banishment,  or  flying  one's  country,  iii, 

15-35. 
Banquet  of  the  Seven  Wise  Men ;   Solon, 

Bias,    Thales,    Anacharsis,    Cleobulus, 

Pittacus,  Cliilo,  ii.  3-41. 
Barley,  sow,  in  dust,  iii.  505. 
Barrenness  in  women,  iii.  181. 
Barrenness  of  mules,  iii.  182. 
Bashfulness,  i.  60-77. 
Basilocles,  iii  69,  70. 
Baths,  hot  and  cold,  iii.  612. 
Battus,  ii   115. 
Bear,  cunning  of  the,  v.  186. 
Bears,  Hesh  of,  iii.  509. 
Beasts,  flesh  of  sacrificial,  iii.  36. 
Bees  cannot  abide  smoke,  iii.  615  ;  stingy 

ing  of,  516. 
Bellerophon,  fable  of,  i.  351. 
Berecyntus,  mount,  v.  490. 
Berosus    concerning    the   eclipse    of   the 

moon,  iii.  146. 
Bewitching,  power  of,  iii.  327. 
Bias,  quoted,  1. 17,  406  ;  at  the  Banquet  of 

the  Seven  Wise  Men,  ii.  4,  14,  128. 
Bion,  saying  of,  i.   70  ;  his  opinion  con- 

i,ci ii...„   "-T  punishment  of  children  for 


516 


INDEX. 


the  sins  of  their  fathers,  iv.  171  ;  saying 

of,  V.  170. 
Bird  or  tiie  egg,  which  was  first,  iii.  242- 

246. 
Birds,  prophetic  nature  of,  v.  193. 
Birth,  two  or  tiiree  at  one,  iii.  180. 
Birtlulavs  of  famous  men,  iii.  400. 
Biton  and  Cleobis,  their  filial  piety,  i.  313. 
Boar  and  the  toil,  iii    152. 
Bocchoris,  anecdote  of,  i.  63. 
Bodies,  of,  iii.  124;  division  of,  126;  how 

mixed  with  one  another,  126. 
Body,  passions  of  the,  iii.  175;  what  part 

is  first  formed,  184 ;  diseases  of  the,  iv. 

504-508. 
Book  of  Rivers,  v.  455. 
Boedromion,  month  of,  iii.  444. 
Boethus,  his  opinion  concerning  comets, 

iii.  150. 
Brasidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  218;  ii.  458. 
Brennus,  king  of  the  Gauls,  v.  460. 
Britain,  longevity  in,  iii.  193. 
Brixaba,  mount,  v.  494. 
Brotherly  love,  iii.  36-68. 
Brute  animals,  ails  and  cures  of  iii.  510; 

their  intelligence  ;  wiiich  are  the  most 

crafty,  water  or  land  animals  ?  v.  157- 

217. 
Brute  beasts  make  use  of  reason,  v.  218- 

238. 
Bucephalus,  the  horse,  v.  183. 
Bulimy  or  the  greedy  disease,  iii.  355. 
Busiris,   king   of  Egypt,   strangers   mur- 
dered by,  V.  474. 


Caecilius  Metellus,  apothegm  of,  i.  239. 
Caesar,  Augustus,  his  sayings,  i.  248-2-50  ; 

anecdotes  of,  293  ;  iv.  205 ;  and  Fulvius, 

235,  236  ;  v.  67,  132. 
Caesar,  C.  Julius,  his  sayings,  i.  246-248 ; 

his  magnanimity,  293  ;  his  reliance  on 

fortune,  iv.  205. 
Cae.sar,   Tiberius,  sayings  of,  i.   277  ;   ii. 

126  ;  iii.  23  ;  v.  288. 
Caicus,  a  river,  v.  503. 
Caius  Fabricius,  apothegm  of,  i.  227. 
Caius  Gracchus,  i.  40 ;  v.  99. 
Caius  Marius,  apotliegm  of,  i.  239. 
Caius  Maximus,  and  his  two  sons,  v.  466. 
Caius  Popilius,  apothegm  of,  i.  240. 
Callicratidas,  apotliegms  of,  i.  412 ;  saying 

of  ii.  187. 
Callimachus,  saying  of,  i.  323  ;  ii.  118  ;  iii. 

23,  321. 
Callisthenes,  saying  of,  i.  37 ;  his  Book  of 

Transformations,  v.  454  ;  Third  Book  of 

the  Macedonics,  456 ;    Third   Book  of 

History  of  Thrace,  v.  469. 
Calpurnius  Crassus,  liberated  from  captiv- 
ity, V.  465. 
Talpurius  and  Florentia,  v.  467. 
Ualydon,  mount,  v.  505. 


Camillus,  anecdote  of,  iv.  204. 

Gamma,  tlie  Galatian,  her  revenge,  i.  372 

Canus,  tlie  piper,  v.  71. 

Caphene  and  Nymphaeus,  i  348. 

Capln'sias,  ii.  379,  et  seq. 

Carneades,  i.  160 ;  a  striking  observation 
of  his,  ii.  123. 

Cassius,  a  Roman  traitor,  v.  457. 

Castor  and  Pollux,  iii.  48. 

Cato  and  Catulus,  anecdotes  of,  i.  73. 

Cato,  saying  of  i.  61,  and  Catulus,  7?  ;  his 
integrity,  295  ;  his  sayings,  ii.  42, 72,  76, 
261,  318,  490;  v.  10,  66,^^67;  anecdotes 
of  83,  112,  120,  123,  144,  155,  418. 

Cato  the  Elder,  apothegms  of,  i.  233-235. 

Catoptrics,  doctrine  of  the,  v.  257. 

Cattle,  salt  given  to,  v.  497. 

Catulus,  V.  457. 

Caucasus,  mount,  v.  483. 

Caudine  Forks,  defeat  of  the  Homans  at 
the,  V.  452.  453. 

Cause  of  a  fever,  iii.  192. 

Causes,  of,  iii.  123. 

Causes  of  sleep  and  death,  iii.  188. 

Celtic  women,  virtue  of  the,  i.  347. 

Cephisocrates,  ii.  133. 

Cephisophan,  a  rhetorician,  i.  98. 

Ceres,  mistress  of  earthly  things,  v.  286, 
286. 

Chabrias,  his  sayings,  i.  213. 

Chasremon,  quoted  ;  Frag.  ii.  475. 

Cliamelon,  tlie,  v.  202. 

Cliaplet  of  flowers  at  table,  iii.  260-265. 

Ciiaricles  and  Antrochus,  iii.  49. 

Charillus,  iiis  sayings,  i.  217,432;  ii.  97, 
116. 

Cliaron,  the  Theban,  ii.  381. 

Chasms  in  the  earth  closed  by  men  leaping 
into  them,  v.  454. 

Chersias  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven 
Wise  Men,  ii.  3-41. 

Children,  training  of,  i.  3-32;  similitude 
to  their  parents,  iii.  180;  similitude  to 
strangers,  181. 

Chilo,  i.  280;  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven 
Wise  Men,  ii.  3-41. 

Chilon,  saying  of  i.  471. 

Chiomara  of  Galatia,  i.  374. 

Chios  women,  virtue  of  the,  i.  344. 

Chorus  of  the  Aeantis,  iii.  226-228. 

Chorus  of  the  Leontis,  iii.  227. 

Chromatic  scale,  m  music,  i.  117. 

Chrysermus,  his  Peloponnesian  History, 
V.  452  ;  Second  Boole  of  Histories,  457  ; 
First  Book  of  Italian  History,  468. 

Chrysippus,  ii.  87;  his  opinion  concerning 
fate,  iii.  130;  of  moral  virtue,  462;  his 
doctrines  refuted,  488;  iv.  3?  2,  et  seq., 
428-477 ;  v.  205 ;  his  opinion  concern- 
ing the  cause  of  cold  combated,  324, 
471. 

Cicero,  apothegm  of  i.  244 ;  810,  311 ;  v 
96. 

Cilician  geese,  v.  175. 

Cinesias,  the  lyric  poet,  i.  180. 


INDEX. 


517 


Cinna  stoned  to  death,  v.  469. 

Cios,  maids  of,  i.  354. 

Circe,  her  supposed  conversation  with 
Ulysses,  v.  218-219. 

Cithaeron,  mount,  v.  479. 

Cieanthes,  liis  opinion  concerning  the  stars, 
iii.  139,  140 ;  v.  176,  420. 

Cleobis  and  Biton,  i.  313. 

Cleobulus  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven 
Wise  ]Men,  ii.  3-41. 

Cleoderaus  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven 
Wise  Men,  ii.  3-41 ;  first  brought  tiie 
cupping-glass  into  request,  20. 

Cleodorus,  the  physician,  ii.  16. 

Cleombrotus,  i.  413;  iv.  3,  4,  26. 

Cleomenes,  v.  161. 

Cleon,  anecdotes  of,  v.  100,  116. 

Cleomenes,  apothegms  of,  i.  413,  416,  346. 

Clisthenes,  vindicated  from  the  aspersions 
of  Herodotus,  iv.  343. 

Clitonymus,  his  Italian  History,  v.  458 ; 
Second  Book  of  his  Sybaritics,  v.  464. 

Clitophon,  his  First  Book  of  Galilean  His- 
tory, V.  460. 

Cloelia  and  Valeria,  i.  356. 

Clonas,  a  musical  composer,  i.  107,  109. 

Clouds,  eruption  of  fire  out  of  the,  iii. 
150;  rain,  hail,  and  snow,  151. 

Cneus  Domitius,  apothegm  of,  i.  231 

Cneus  Pompeius,  apothegms  of,  i.  241- 
244. 

Cocles,  the  Roman,  v.  145. 

Codrus,  king  of  Athens,  v.  462. 

Coeranus  and  the  dolphins,  v.  215. 

Cold,  First  Principle  of,  v.  309-330. 

Color,  does  it  exist  in  the  dark,  v.  344,  345. 

Colors,  of,  iii.  125. 

Colotes  the  Epicurean,  ii.  187  ;  misrepre- 
sents Democritus  ;  v.  341 ;  his  doctrines, 
349  ;  misrepresents  Plato,  355,  356  ;  falls 
at  the  feet  of  Epicurus,  360  ;  disparage- 
ment of  Socrates  361  ;  against  Stilpo, 
867 ;  assaults  the  Philosophers,  367  ; 
condemns  the  opinion  of  Epicurus,  368; 
Cyrenaic  philosophers  ridiculed,  369 ; 
treats  Arcesilaus  unfairly,  371  ;  absurd- 
ity of  Epicurianism,  373 ;  opinions  of 
Epicurus,  274  ;  danger  of  his  doctrines, 
377,  378,  338-385 ;  book  written  by,  v. 
388. 

Comets  and  shooting  fires,  iii.  149. 

Comminius  Super,  a  Laurentine,  v.  472. 

Common  conceptions  against  the  Stoics, 
iv.  372-427. 

Comparison  betwixt  Aristophanes  and 
Menander,  iii.  11-14. 

Comparison  between  the  actions  of  the 
Greeks  and  Romans,  v.  450-476. 

Conception,  how  it  is  made,  iii.  178. 

Concerning  Music,  i.  102-135. 

Concerning  such  whom  God  is  slow  to 
punish,  iv.  140-188. 

Concerning  the  fortune  of  the  Romans, 
iv.  198-219 

Concerning  the  virtue  of  Homer,  i.  340-384. 


Concerning  the  virtue  of  women,  i.  340- 

384. 
Conciseness  of  speech  recommended,  iv. 

243 ;  examples  given,  243,  244. 
Conjugal  Precepts,  ii.  486-507 ;  Advice  to 

a  New-married  Couple. 
Consolation  to  Apollonius,  i.  299-339. 
Consolatory  Letter  from  Plutarch  to  hia 

Wife,   Timoxena,   on    Occasion   of  the 

Death  of  their  Daughter,    two   years 

old,  V.  386-394. 
Contingent  and  possible  defined,  v.  299. 
Contradictions  of  the  Stoics,  iv.  428-477. 
Cora  and  Proserpine,  v.  285. 
Corinna,  anecdote  of,  v.  404. 
Corinthian  Hall  at  Delphi,  iii.  80-82. 
Cornelius  Scipio,  consul,  v.  96,  112,  114 

136. 
Cotys,  his  sayings,  i.  189. 
Crabs  charmed  by  fifes,  v.  163. 
Cranes,  flight  of,  v.  175,  203. 
Grantor,  quoted,   i.    300,    304,   324,    826; 

his  opinion  of  the  soul,  ii.  327,  328,845. 

349,  360. 
Crassus,  anecdotes  of,  i.  288,  290 ;  v.  125. 
Crassus  Calpurnius,  v.  465. 
Crassus's  mullet,  v.  196. 
Crates,  i.    141;   saying  of,   495;  ii.    146; 

opinion  of  the  stars,  iii.  140 ;  321,  v.  419. 

423. 
Cratinus  the  comic  poet,  v.  410. 
Crato,  iii.  198. 
Creon's  daughter,  i.  472. 
Cretinus,  the  Magnesian,  v.  121. 
Criticism  on  passages  in  Homer,  ii  69-72, 

74-84,  89,  90. 
Criticism  on  Sophocles,  ii.  72. 
Critolaus,  his  History  of  the  Epirots,  y. 

455  ;  Fourth  Book  of  Celestial  Appear- 
ances, 457. 
Crocodile,  story  of  a,  v.  196,  206,  210. 
Croesus,  ii.  85,  122 ;  iv.  3,  39. 
Cronium,  mount,  v.  501. 
Ctesiphon,  his  Third  Book  of  the  Boeotian 

History,  v.  458. 
Ctesiphon  the  Pancratiast,  i.  42. 
Curatii  and  Horatii,  v.  461. 
Cure  of  anger,  i.  33-59. 
Curiosity,   of,    ii.   424-445;    mischiefs    of 

vain,  iv.  236. 
Cuttle-fish,  wariness  of  the,  v.  200;  sign 

of  a  storm,  505. 
Cyanippus,  a  Syracusan,  v.  462. 
Cyanippus,  a  Thessalian,  v.  463. 
Cyclades  islands,  iii.  24. 
Cyclobonis,  a  brook  near  Athens,  v.  110. 
Cynaegirus,    an     Athenian    commander, 

story  of,  V.  450. 
Cyprus,  female  parasites  of,  called  Steps. 

ii.  103. 
Cyrus  the  Elder,  his  sayings,!.  186;    ii. 

319 ;  enlarges  the  Persian  empire,  iv, 

85. 
Cyrus  the  Younger,  his  sayings,  i.  188. 


518 


INDEX. 


D. 


Daemon  of  Socrates,  Discourse  concern- 
ing the,  ii.  378-423. 

Daemons,  their  nature,  attributes,  and 
actions,  iv.  14,  et  seq. ;  some  of  them  are 
malignant  and  cruel,  19 ;  tliey  are  mor- 
tal, 15,  23,  24 ;  vain-glorious,  28 ;  have 
the  care  of  oracles,  21,  27 ;  sometimes 
have  quarrels  and  combats  with  one 
another,  27 ;  our  souls  are  by  nature 
endued  with  similar  powers,  50,  et  seq. ; 
in  the  Moon,  v.  289 ;  will  of  the,  304 ; 
providence  of  the,  307,  308. 

Damindas,  apothegm  of,  i  407. 

Damis,  apothegm  of,  i.  406. 

Damonidas,  apothegm  of.  i.  406. 

Darius,  his  sayings,  i.  186,  502 ;  v.  458. 

Darkness,  wliether  visible,  iii.  169. 

Datis,  a  Persian  commander,  his  invasion 
of  Attica,  V.  450. 

Daughters  who  had  carnal  knowledge  of 
their  fathers,  v.  464. 

Death  appertains  to  soul  or  body,  iii.  189. 

Death  a  reward  for  distinguished  piety; 
illustrated  by  the  cases  of  Bion  and 
Cleobis,  of  Agamedes  and  Trophonius, 
of  Pindar  and  Euthynous,  i.  313,  314. 

Death  of  fire  is  the  generation  of  air,  v. 
316. 

Death  the  brother  of  sleep,  i.  311. 

Debates  at  entertainments,  iii.  3'J4. 

Debt,  Evils  of.  Against  running  in  Debt, 
or  Taking  up  Money  upon  Usury,  v. 
412-424. 

Debt  of  nature,  i.  309. 

Decrees  proposed  to  the  Athenians,  v.  58. 

Decius  of  Rome,  v.  462. 

Deity,  knowledge  of  a,  whence  derived,  iii. 
115. 

Delay  of  Providence  in  Punishing  the 
Wicked.  De  sera  Numinis  Vindicta, 
iv.  140-188. 

Delight  in  hearing  the  passions  of  men 
represented,  iii.  314. 

Delphi,  a  walk  in,  iii.  69 ;  the  statues 
there,  70 ;  atmosphere  of,  72 ;  ancient 
oracles  of  73  ;  Corinthian  Hall  at,  80- 
82 ;   statue  of  Phyrne,  83. 

Delphic  Oracle,  inscription  on  the.  Know 
thyself,  and  Nothing  too  much,  i.  328. 

Demades  and  Phocion,  anecdotes  of,  ii.  298 ; 
V.  141,  148. 

Demaratus  and  Philip,  anecdote  of,  ii. 
146. 

Demaratus,  apothegm  of.  i.  407,  482  ;  his 
Second  Book  of  Arcadian  History,  v. 
461. 

Demetrius  Phalereus,  his  saying,  i.  217  ; 
anecdotes  of,  ii.  145 ;  iii.  21 ;  v.  145. 

Demetrius,  his  sayings,  i.  204. 

Demetrius  of  Tarsus,  comes  to  Delphi, 
iv.  3. 

Demochares,  a  nephew  of  Demosthenes, 


procures  a  statue  to  be  set  up  for  his 
uncle,  v.  58-60;  a  decree  for  a  statue 
for  himself,  60,  fil. 
Democracy  and  Oligarchy,  v.  895-398. 
Democrates,  saying  of,  v.  109. 
Democritus,  saying  of,  i.  22,  263,  275;  ii. 
440  ;  iii.  7 ;  his  philosophical  opinions, 
121,  123,  126,   127,  128,  129,  132,  133, 
135,  139,   140,  142,  145,  149,  155,  156, 
157,  160,  162,  163,  164,  166,  168,  169, 
171,  176,  177,   179,  183,  187,  227;  liis 
opinions  misrepresented,  t.  341 ;  his  doc- 
trine concerning  atoms,  345,  346,  381. 
Demodocus,  i.  105. 
Demonides,  the  cripple,  ii.  51. 

Demosthenes,  the  orator,  anecdotes  of,  i. 
15,  65;  quoted  67,  145,  286,  313,  815, 
325 ;  anecdote  of,  334,  481;  quoted,  ii. 
300 ;  anecdote  of,  460  ;  quoted,  iv.  212  ; 
quoted,  v.  34,  35 ;  sketch  of  his  life, 
43-53  ;  his  birth,  education,  and  early 
years,  43;  calls  his  guardians  to  ac- 
count, ib. ;  is  chosen  choregus,  44  ;  his 
methods  to  obtain  excellence  in  speak- 
ing, ib. ;  opposes  the  designs  of  Philip, 
45;  describes  "  action  "  as  of  supreme 
importance  in  oratory,  ib. ;  his  early 
failures  as  an  orator,  ib. ;  defends  the 
Olynthians,  46;  is  admired  by  Philip, 
though  an  enemy,  ib. ;  his  magnanimity, 
47  ;  his  conduct  at  Chaeronea,  ib. ;  his 
patriotism,  ib. ;  the  oration  for  the 
Crown,  ib. ;  accused  of  receiving  a  bribe, 
48 ;  his  exile,  ib. ;  recalled,  ib. ;  returns 
to  the  administration  of  public  affairs, 
49 ;  leaves  Athens  to  avoid  being  deliv- 
ered up  to  Antipater,  ib. ;  his  death,  50; 
his  family,  ib. ;  honors  paid  to  his  mem- 
ory, 51 ;  anecdotes  of  him,  49,  50-53 ;  his 
great  temperance,  53 ;  his  public  ser- 
vices recounted  in  a  decree,  58-60; 
quoted,  69,  109,  110,  124,  138,  146,  409, 
411,  448. 

Dercyllidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  407. 

Dercyllus,  his  First  Book  of  Foundations, 
v.  461 ;  Third  Book  of  Italian  History, 
474. 

Destiny,  or  fate,  iii.  130. 

Deucalion  [like  Noah]  sent  forth  a  dove 
from  the  ark,  and  with  like  purpose,  v. 
179. 

Diagoras  the  Melian,  iii.  118. 

Diana  Orthia,  rites  of,  i.  98. 

Dicasarchus,  opinion  concerning  the  soul, 
iii.  161  ;  of  divination,  176  ;  v.  93. 

Dignity  of  places  at  table,  iii.  210,  212. 

Dinarchus,  an  Athenian  orator,  v.  57,  58 ; 
becomes  rich,  57  ;  his  exile  in  Chalcis, 
58 ;  restored,  ib. ;  his  orations,  ib. 

Diodes  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven  Wise 
Men,  ii.  .3-41 ;  his  philosophical  opin- 
ions, iii.  179,  182,  192,  185,  182. 

Diogenes  Laertes,  quoted,  i.  77. 

Diogenes  quoted,  i.  4,  12;  anecdotes  of 
51,  67, 141,  142,  166,  283,  285,  311,  487 


INDEX. 


519 


quoted,  ii.  HS,  155,  193;   story  of  the 
mouse,  403;  iv.  311,  455,  458,  465,  466, 
iii.  21,  27,  29,  31  ;  his  philosophical  opin- 
ions, 132,  136,   138,   143,  148,  163,  183, 
187,  189  ;  494  ;  v.  8,  65, 
Diogenes  and  Pliilip,  ii.  147. 
Diogenianus,  iii.  71,  73,  et  seq. 
Diomedes,  ii.  41 ;  liberated  from  captivity, 

V.  465. 
Dion,  example  of,  i.  64,  193,  333. 
Dionysius,  tyrant  of  Sicily,  does  not 
relish  tlie  Lacedaemonian  broth,  i.  83; 
his  unreasonable  anger,  152 ;  his  say- 
ings, 449,  484,  491 ;  his  ungenerous  be- 
havior, 493;  parasites  of,  ii.  166;  314; 
anecdote  of,  iv.  238. 

Dionysius  and  Plato,  ii.  108,  140. 

Dionysius  the  Elder,  his  sayings,  i.  191 ; 
V.  84. 

Dionysius  the  Younger,  his  sayings,  i.  192, 
601. 

Diophantus,  saying  of,  i.  4. 

Diorphus,  mount,  v.  507. 

Discourse  to  an  Unlearned  Prince,  iv.  323- 
330. 

Diseases  of  the  body,  iv.  504-508. 

Divination,  of,  iii.  176  ;  iv.  59. 

Dog,  habit  of  biting  of  stones,  iii.  516  ;  af- 
fection for  his  master,  v.  180,  182,  184  ; 
docility  of  the,  191. 

Dolphin,  sagacity  of  the,  v.  200 ;  nature 
of  the,  204  ;  story  of  a,  213  ;  its  love  of 
music,  214;  stories  of  affectionate,  215, 
216. 

Dolphin  and  Arion,  ii.  33-36  ;  and  the  lad 
of  Jasus,  v.  215. 

Domitian  is  mentioned  [which  fixes  the 
era  of  Plutarcli]  ii.  443. 

Domitius,  anecdote  of,  i.  288,  295 ;  v.  125. 

Dorian  Mood,  of  music,  i.  109,  115. 

Dorians  pray  for  bad  making  of  their  hay, 
iii.  504. 

Dorotheus,  his  First  Book  of  'transforma- 
tions, v.  466  ;  his  Fourth  Book  of  Ital- 
ian Histor}^  V.  463. 

Dositheus,  his  Third  Book  of  Sicilian  His- 
tory, V.  463,  471,  472,  474  ;  Third  Book 
of  Lydian  History,  469 ;  his  Pelopidal, 
471 ;  First  Book  of  Sicilian  History, 
475. 

Dream,  a  romantic,  ii.  407-411. 

Dreams  and  Omens,  ii.  401,  402. 

Dreams  in  Autumn,  iii.  432. 

Dreams,  whence  do  they  arise,  iii.  170. 

Drink  either  five  or  three,  iii.  282-284. 

Drink  passeth  through  the  lungs,  iii.  363. 


Earth,  its  nature  and  magnitude,  iii.  154  ; 
figure  of  the,  155 ;  site  and  position  of 
the,  155;  inclination  of  the,  1.55;  motion 
of  the,  156  ;  zones  of  the,  156  ;  exhala- 
tions from  the,  iv.  53 ;  its  form  and  its 


place,  V.  247 ;   an  instrument  of  time. 

439. 

Earthquakes,  of,  iii.  157. 

Echo,  what  gives  the,  iii.  172. 

Eclipse  of  the  moon,  iii.  146. 

Eclipses  of  the  sun,  iii.  144. 

Ecphantus,  his  opinion  concerning  the  mo 
tion  of  the  earth,  iii.  166. 

Egg  or  the  bu-d,  which  was  first,  iii.  242- 
246. 

Egypt,  its  Religion  and  Philosophy;  of 
Isis  and  Osiris,  or  of  the  Ancient  Re- 
ligion and  Philosophy  of  Egypt,  iv.  66- 
139. 

Egyptian  skeleton  at  feasts,  ii.  6. 

Egyptians  in  Ethiopia,  iii.  20. 

Et  at  Apollo's  temple  at  Delphi,  iv.  479- 
498. 

Eleans,  the,  v.  426. 

Elements,  mixture  of  the,  iii.  126. 

Elephant,  understanding  of  the,  v.  178; 
stories  of,  178;  of  kmg  Porus,  183; 
most  beloved  by  the  Gods,  187  ;  amour 
of  the,  188 ;  chirurgery  of  the,  192. 

Elephas,  mount,  v.  478. 

Elysian  fields  in  the  moon,  v.  289. 

Elysius  the  Terinean,  vision  of,  i.  314. 

Embryo,  how  nourished,  iii.  183;  is  an 
animal,  ib. 

Empedocles,  i.  59;  saying  of,  158,  183, 
195,  357,  469  ;  quoted,  ii.  49  ;  quoted,  iii. 
34,81;  his  philosophical  opinions,  112, 
114, 125-129,  131,  132, 136-L38, 143,  145, 
147, 154,  158,  163,  165,  168-170, 174, 178 
-184,  188-191;  quoted,  209,  262,  293, 
333,  497,  618  ;  quoted,  iv.  21,  52,  85,  87, 
108,  2J3;  quoted,  v.  169,  232,  246,  249, 
252,  2.55,  318,  348,  350,  351  ;  misunder- 
stood  by  Colotes,  35  ;  quoted,  381,  420. 
421,439,497. 
Emprepes,  apothegm  of,  i.  408. 
Enemies,  how  a  man  may  profit  by  his,  i. 

280-298. 
Entertainment,  late  to  an,  iii.  417. 
Envy  and  Hatred,  ii.  95-99. 
Epamiiiondas,  his  sayings,  i.  222-226,  277; 
his  great  actions,  22-5 ;  his  consistency 
of  character,  ii.  109  ;  182,  18-5,  309,  313, 
319,  381,  396,  399,  414  ;  iii.  6  ;  v.  72,  75, 
95,   101,  121,  125;   his  invasion  of  La- 
conia,  401,  407,  458. 
Epaminondas,  son  of,  beheaded,  v.  458. 
Epimenides,  long  sleep  of,  v.  66  ;  279. 
Ephorus,  his  opinion  concerning  the  over- 
flowing of  the  Nile,  iii.  161. 
Epicharmus,  quoted,  i.  315,496;  ii.  141; 

quoted,  496  ;  iv.  242. 
Epicureans,  misrepresentations  of  the,  v. 

352-354. 
Epicurus,  quoted,  i.  138,  139,  159  ;  famous 
sentence  of,  ii.  92 ;  his  doctrine ;  refuta- 
tion of  it ;  pleasure  is  not  attainable, 
157-203 ;  reverence  of  his  brothers,  iii. 
57;  his  philosophical  opinions.  111,  122, 
124,   127,  128,  131,  134,  136,  139,  142, 


520 


INDEX. 


143,  151,  163,  164,  165,  169,  177,  183 ; 
opinions  of,  v.  350,  374 ;  danger  of  his 
doctrines,  377,  378;  disciples  of,  383, 
385. 

Epigenes,  opinion  concerning  comets,  iii. 
160. 

Erasistratus,  his  opinion  of  the  soul,  iii. 
163  ;  of  superfetation,  180 ;  his  definition 
of  a  fever,  192. 

Eratosthenes,  his  pliilosophical  opinions ; 
of  time,  iii.  128 ;  of  the  sun,  147  ;  v. 
456. 

Erectheus,  sacrifice  of  his  daughter,  v. 
463. 

Eryxo  of  Cyrene,  i.  378. 

Esop,  fable  of,  ii.  11,  12,  16,  19-22,  23; 
dog  of,  25 ;  at  the  Banquet  of  tlie  Seven 
Wise  Men,  3-41 ;  iii.  63,  202. 

Eteocles  the  Theban,  i.  257. 

Euboea,  king  of,  drawn  in  pieces  by  horses, 
V.  455. 

Euboidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  408. 

Euclid,  anecdote  of,  i.  55 ;  ii.  173. 

Euclides,  his  brotherly  love,  iii.  61. 

Euctus  and  Eulaeus,  ii.  146. 

Eudaemonidas,  his  sayings,  i.  221. 

Eudamidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  408. 

Eudemus,  of  matter,  ii.  334. 

Eudorus,  system  of  numbers,  ii.  343,  345. 

Eudoxus,  anecdotes  of,  ii.  174 ;  his  opinion 
of  the  cause  of  winter  and  summer,  iii. 
141 ;  of  the  overflow  of  the  Nile,  161. 

Euemerus,  his  opinion  of  God,  iii.  118. 

Eumenes  of  Pergamus,  his  sayings,  i.  206  ; 
anecdotes  of,  iii  61,  iv.  232. 

Eumetis  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven 
Wise  Men,  ii.  3-41 ;  lier  riddle,  20. 

Euphorion,  quoted  v.  321. 

Euphrates,  the  river,  v.  302 

Euphranor,  the  painter,  v.  400. 

Eupolis,  saying  of,  ii.  112. 

Euphorion,  quoted,  iii.  321. 

Euripides  quoted,  i.  3,  158,  2'Jl,  300,  301, 
302,  308,  320,  329,  330,  335,  458  ;  Hip- 
pol,  4,  14,  471 ;  Protesilaus,  23  ;  Dictys, 
26,  58  ;  BeUerophon,  63,  141 ;  Frag. 
287,  472;  Pirithous,  70;  Orestes  37, 
137,  140,  165,  170,  286 ;  Medea,  64,  71, 
255;  Iph.  Aul.  153,302;  Bacchae,  163; 
Troad,  170;  Plioeniss,  257,  303,  327; 
Danae,  307  ;  Adrastus,  288  ;  Sthene- 
boea,  301  ;  Ino,  303,  304  ;  Alcestis,  310  ; 
Phaed.  312  ;  Suppliants,  316  ;  Cres- 
phontes,  316 ;  Erectheus,  500  ;  Hypsi- 
pyle,  317,  465;  ii.  54,  56,  62,  87,  92,  121, 
148,  150,  251,  300,  306,  357,  363,  391, 
472;  Cresphontes,  93  ;  Hippol.  73,  108, 
173,  198,  373,  374;  Frag.  86,  181,  318, 
437,  501  ;  Orestes,  143,  443  ;  Medea,  66; 
Iph.  Aul.  49,  85 ;  Phoeniss,  51,  61,  66, 
130,  151 ;  Ion,  102, 131,  144  ;  Erectheus, 
182;  Electra,  85;  Aeolus,  85,  88,  175; 
Here.  Furens,  151;  Hecuba,  197;  Iph. 
Taur.  447  ;  iii.  27,  99,  116, 194;  Frag.  3, 
19,  33,  41,  42,  94, 230, 458,  475,  512 ;  Hip- 


pol. 483  ;  Orestes,  168,  437  ;  Phoeniss,  16, 
32,  43,  49,  257;  Stheneboea,  217  ;  Iph 
Taur.  21 ;  Androm.,  232 ;  Hipsipyle,  291 
iv.  17,  128, 142,  270,  308,  450,  478,  497 
Frag.  47,  220,  233,  251,  272,  273,  292, 
301,  325,  392,  461,  475;  Bacchae,  223 
272,  422,  506;  Hippol.  294,  298;  Cy 
clops,  56;  Aeolus,  105;  Troad,  132 
Orestes,  141,  507  ;  Ino,  158,  231,  415 
Alcestis,  197  ;  Danae,  274,  283  ;  Sthene- 
boea, 288;  Androm.  401 ;  Here.  Furens 
459,  467  ;  v.  126,  128,  157,  172 ;  Frag 
15,  79,  105,  108,  118,345;  Aeolus,  71 
Hippol.  158;  Iph.  Taur.  374;  Orestes 
77,  380;  Troad,  440;  Erectheus,  463 
Meleager,  466. 

Eurotas,  a  river  in  Laconia,  v.  497. 

Eurycratidas,  apothegm,  i.  410. 

Eurydice    of    Hierapolis,    her    epigram, 
i.  32. 

Euthrymenes,  liis  opinion  of  the  overflow 
of  the  Nile,  iii.  160. 

Euthynous  and  Pindar,  i.  313. 

Entropion,  anecdote  of,  i.  25. 

Evenus  quoted,  ii.  102,  192. 

Eveuus,  son  of  Mars,  v.  475. 

Exercises,  different  liinds  of,  iii.  248-250. 

Exile,  consolations  of,  iii.  15-35. 

Eyes,  images  of  the,  iii.  169. 


F. 


Fabius  Maximus.  his  sayings,  i.  227,  228; 
in  the  Punic  war,  v.  453. 

Fable  of  Minerva,  i.  41. 

Fable  of  the  defeat  of  Neptune,  iii.  444. 

P'able  of  the  Fox  and  Leopard,  ii.  72. 

Fable  of  the  Lydian  mule,  ii,  11. 

Fabricianus,  v.  474. 

Fabric! us,  iv.  201. 

Face  appearing  in  tlie  moon,  v.  234-292. 

Fasting  creates  more  thirst  than  liunger, 
iii.  339. 

Fate  or  destiny,  iii.  130;  nature  of,  130; 
V.  293-308. 

Faunus  King  of  Italy ;  strangers  mur 
dered  by,  v.  474. 

Fever,  cause  of  a,  iii.  192. 

Fig-trees,  of,  iii.  250,  835. 

Figures,  of,  iii.  125. 

Filial  treachery  in  Persian  and  Boman 
history,  v.  458. 

Fire  or  water,  which  is  most  useful,  v. 
331-337. 

Firmus  and  Nucerica,  v.  471. 

Fish  called  the  fisherman,  v.  201 . 

Fish,  eating  of,  iii.  472. 

Fisherman's  nets,  rotting  of,  iii.  503. 

Fishes,  of;  the  labrax,  mullet,  scate,  an- 
thias,  doli)hin,  cuttlefish,  starfish,  tor- 
pedo, the  fisherman,  tunny,  amiae,  pion- 
etras,  sponge,  porphj'rae,  hegemon, 
whale,  pinoterus,  gilthead,  phycides. 
galeus,  tortoise,  v.  195,  208. 


INDEX. 


521 


Fittest  time  for  a  man  to  know  his  wife, 
iii.  274-279. 

Fives,  we  reckon  by,  iv.  42-47. 

Five  tragical  histories  of  Love,  iv.  312-322. 

Flattery :  How  to  know  a  Flatterer  from 
a  Friend,  ii.  100-1515. 

Flattery  fatal  to  whole  kingdoms,  ii.  118 

Flesli  exposed  to  the  moon,  iii.  284-287. 

Flute  girls,  wliether  they  are  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  a  feast,  iii.  388. 

Folly  of  Seeking  Many  Friends,  i.  464- 
474. 
,,        Food,  digesting  of,  iii.  283-295. 

Fortune,  of,  ii.  475-481 ;  iii.  131 ;  is  a  cause 
by  accident,  v.  302 ;  not  the  same  as 
chance,  303  ;  relates  to  men  only,  803. 

Fortune  of  the  Romans,  iv.  198-219. 

Fox,  cunning  of  the,  v.  179. 

Fresh  water  washes  clothes  better  than 
salt,  iii.  224-226. 

Friends,  folly  of  seeking  many,  i.  461-474. 

Frogs,  croaking  of,  v.  210. 

Frost  makes  hunting  diificult,  iii.  510. 

Fruit,  salt  not  found  in,  iii.  498. 

Fulvius  and  Augustus,  anecdotes  of,  iv. 
235,  236. 

Fulvius  Stellus,  v.  468. 

Fundanus,  i.  84,  35. 


G. 


Galaxy  or  milky  way,  iii.  148. 

Galeus,  affection  of  for  their  young,  v.  209. 

Ganges,  the  river,  v.  481. 

Garlands  at  sacred  games,  iii.  411. 

Garrulity,  or  Talkativeness,  iv.  220-253. 

Gauran,  mount,  v.  -508. 

Gelo,  his  saying,  i.  190. 

Generation  and  corruption,  iii.  128. 

Generation  of  males  and  temales,  iii.  178  ; 

of  animals,  186  ;  of  the  Gods,  400. 
Generative  seed,  iii.  177. 
Geniuses  and  heroes,  opinions  concerning, 

iii.  122. 
Geometer,  God  always  plays  the,  iii.  402. 
Germanicus,  ii.  96. 
Gnatho,  the  Sicilian,  iii.  3. 
Gobryas,  a  Persian  noble,  ii.  104. 
God  always  plays  the  Geometer,  iii.  402. 
God  bade  Socrates  act  the  Midwife's  part, 

v.  425. 
God,  Father  and  Maker  of  all  things,  v. 

428. 
God,  what  is,  iii.  118. 
Gods,  generation  of  the,  iii.  400. 
Gorgias,  i.  340 ;    at  tlie  Banquet  of  the 

Seven  Wise  Men,  ii.  3-41;  44,  134;  ii. 

502,  V.  405. 
Government.     Of  the  Three  Sorts  of  Gov- 
ernment,   Monarchy,   Democracy,   and 

Oligarchy,  v.  395-398. 
Gracchus,  Caius,  example  of,  i  40. 
Greek  music,  principles  of,  i.  102,  103 
Greeii  Questions,  ii.  265-293. 


Groom,  saying  of  the  king's,  i.  21. 

Gryilus,  v.  218,  et  seq. 

Guests,  should  the  entertainer   seat  the, 

iii.  203-210;  to  a  wedding  supper,  300; 

that  are  called  shadows,  iii.  381. 
Gylippus,  his  dishonesty,  i.  23. 


H. 


Habits  of  animals,  v.  173-177. 

Halo,  of  the,  iii.  160. 

Haiycon,  of  tiie,  v.  211. 

Hannibal  and  Fabius,  i.  228. 

Hares,  cunning  of  the,  v.  185. 

Harp,  an  invention  of  Apollo,  i.  113. 

Hart,  tears  of  the,  iii.  507. 

Health,  pre.servation  of,  i.  251-279. 

Health,  sickness,  and  old  age,  iii.  192. 

Hearing,  of,  i.  441-468  ;  iii.  170. 

Heaven,  its  nature  and  essence,  iii.  137; 
division  of,  137. 

Hebrus,  a  river  of  Thrace,  v.  480. 

Hedgehog,  ingenuity  of  the,  v.  186. 

Hedgehog  of  the  sea,  v.  203. 

Hegemoa,  of  the  fish,  v.  206. 

Hegesippus,  sayings  of,  &c.,  i.  213. 

Hegesistratus,  an  Ephesian,  v.  476. 

Helicon  the  mathematician,  i.  57. 

Hephaestion,  the  friend  of  Alexander,  i. 
489,  505. 

Heracleo,  v.  194. 

Heraclides,  his  compendium  of  music,  L 
105 ;  ii.  158 ;  his  philosophical  opinions, 
iii.  139,  149,  156,  159,  165. 

Heraclides  the  wrestler,  iii.  220. 

Heraclitus,  i.  44,  79,  276,  308,  448,  453  ; 
ii.  74,  165,  330,  358.  477;  iii.  26,  74;  hia 
philosophical  opinions,  122,  125,  127, 
128,  130,  131,  143,  144,  145,  146; 
apothegm,  v.  9 ;  quoted,  73,  169,  425. 

Hercules  and  lole,  v.  459. 

Hercules  in  Antisthenes,  precept  of,  i.  77. 

Hercules,  ridiculous  representation  of,  v. 
70  ;  and  King  Faunus,  474. 

Hercules,  the  woman-hater;  his  temple  in 
Phocis,  iii.  90 ;  singular  anecdote,  ib 

Hermes,  iv.  74. 

Hermias,  v.  121. 

Hermogenes,  ii.  194;  iii.  161. 

Herodotus,  quoted,  i.  80,  441 ;  saying  of, 
ii.  202,  489 ;  Arcadian  prophet,  iii.  38 ; 
quoted,  iv.  248,  335  et  seq. ;  malice  of, 
iv. 331-371;  v.  397. 

Herondas,  apothegm  of,  i.  410. 

Herons,  artificies  of  the,  v.  176. 

Herophilus,  opinion  of,  iiL  128,  103. 

Hesiana.x,  his  Third  Book  of  African  His- 
tory, v.  465. 

Hesiod,  quoted,  Works  and  Days,  i.  22, 
65,  70,  138,  156,  178,  261,  296,  307,  325, 
327 ;  ii.  Works  and  Days,  24 ;  sparo 
diet  recommended  by,  27 ;  and  the 
dolphin  36  ;  Works  and  Days,  63,  64, 
65,  73,  87,  92,  302,  303,  449,  452,  480, 


522 


INDEX. 


483;  Theogony,  102;  iii.  Works  and 
Days,  64,  210,  382,  416,  436,  438;  iv. 
15;  Works  and  Days,  48,  49,  68,  87, 
154,  173,  264,  385,  442,  457  ;  Theogony, 
53,  118,  324,  458  ;  iv.  86  ;  v.  Works  and 
Days,  153,  168,  172,  279. 

Hicetes,  his  opinion  of  the  earth,  iii.  154. 

Hiero,  his  sayings,  i.  190 ;  anecdote  of, 
291. 

Hiero  the  Spartan,  statue  of,  iii.  76. 

Hiero  the  Tyrant,  statue  of,  iii.  75. 

Hieronymus,  saying  of,  i.  38,  50 ;  462. 

Hiraerius,  an  Athenian  parasite,  ii.  126. 

Hippasus,  opinions  of,  iii.  111. 

Hippocrates,  saying  of,  i.  4;  quoted,  261, 
292;  ii.  165,185;  his  magnanimity,  ii. 
466. 

Hippocratidas,  apothegm  of.  i.  412. 

Hippodamus,  apothegm  of,  i.  411. 

Hippolytus,  son  of  Theseus,  v.  471,  472 

Hippotnacus,  ii.  294. 

Hipponax,  i.  108. 

History  of  music,  i.  104  et  seq. 

History  of  wind  instruments,  i.  108. 

Homer,  passages  in,  criticised,  ii.  69-72, 
74-84,  89,  90. 

Homer,  virtue  of,  i.  340-384 ;  quoted : 
Iliad,  i.  34,  38,  39,  51,  55,  62,  104,  132 
138,  141,  151,  153,  1.54,  156,  161,  165 
178,  180,  181.  200,  251,  292,  303,  305, 
306,  310,  324,  325,  329,  330,  331,  385 
466,  469,  475,  486,  490,  507,  508,  510 
511;  ii.  28,  32,  41,  44,  47,  48,  49.  52 
63,  55,  56,  59,  62,  63,  65,  67,  68,  74,  75 
77,  79,  81,  82,  84,  88,  89,  90,  91,  108 
114,  115,  120,  123,  131,  140,  142,  145 
150,  151,  152,  154,  185,  197,  198,  200 
237,  295,  305,  310,  311,  314,  817,  319 
413,   501,  505;  iii.   25,  26,  47,  53,  54 

107,  120,  152,  206,  207,  221,  231,  248 
255,  301,  313,  317,  321,  323,  325,  336 
854,  364,  381,  394,  401,  413,  418,  437 
442,  447,  448,  449,  450,  480,  486,  492, 
493,  515;  iv.  16,  6-5,  108,  111,  152,  191 
194,  195,  216,  237,  238,  280,  285,  291 
327,  329,  383,  386,  401,  405,  434,  462 
483,  490,  499,  504;  v.  78,  79,  85,  88 
90,  92,  96,  104,  119,  122,  123,  134,  135 
138,  146,  147,  171,  182,  200,  208,  214 
266,  276,  281,  315,  339,  3-50,  371,  386 
394,  400,  418,  443,  444,  447  ;  Odyss.  i 

52,  134,  138,  154,  236,  252,  305,  310 
318,  325,  4-52,  469 ;  ii.  41,  43,  47,  48,  52 

53,  54,  56,  59,  63,  65,  67,  70,  71,  82,  83 

108,  110,  114,  115,  127,  140,  149,  158 
159,  162,  184,  195,  304,  316,  317,  320' 
371,  427,  463,  467,  478;  iii.  10,  42,  45 
72,  81,  101,  196,  201,  207,  226,  232,  238 
249,  259,  280,  285,  321,  338,  836,  359 
365,  395,  419,  425,  437,  438,  451,  466 
477,  499;  iv.  5,  30,  86,  97,  191,  200,  219 
224,  226,  230,  281,  289,  307,  325,  401 
405;  V.  3,  11,  10.5,  106,  143,  171,  184 
281,  285,  290,  315,  323,  403,  416,  422 
423,  446. 


Honey,  the  bottom  of,  iii.  370. 

Horatii  and  Curatii,  v.  460,  461. 

Horatius  Codes,  v.  456. 

Horsehair,  for  fishing  lines,  Iii.  505. 

Horses,  called  TivxoaKudEg,  iii.  253. 

Horus,  son  of  Osiris,  iv.  80,  114  et  seq. 

Hounds  that  hunt  hares,  v.  184. 

How  animals  are  begotten,  iii.  186. 

How  a  man  may  receive  advantage  and 
profit  from  his  enemies,  i.  280-298. 

How  a  man  may  praise  himself  without 
being  envied,  ii.  306. 

How  a  young  man  ought  to  hear  poems, 
ii.  43. 

How  plants  grow,  and  whether  they  are 
animals,  iii.  190. 

How  to  know  a  flatterer,  ii.  100-156. 

Hunger,  cause  of,  iii.  341 ;  allayed  by 
drinking,  345. 

Hurricanes,  of,  iii.  150. 

Hyagnis,  first  that  sung  to  the  pipe,  i.  107. 

Hydraspes,  a  river  in  India,  v.  477. 

Hyperides,  the  Athenian  orator,  ii.  140 ; 
V.  53-57  ;  his  part  in  public  affairs,  53 ; 
his  friendship  for  Demosthenes,  54  ;  this 
friendsiiip  broken,  ib. ;  demanded  by  An- 
tipater,  he  escapes  to  Aegina,  ib.  ;  ia 
apprehended,  tortured,  and  put  to  death, 
55  ;  an  excellent  orator,  ib.  ;  his  amoroua 
propensities,  55,  56  ;  his  patriotism,  56 ; 
sent  as  ambassador,  56,  57. 

Hypsipyle,  foster-child  of,  i.  465. 


I. 


Ibis,  habits  of,  imitated  by  the  Egyptians, 
V.  192. 

Ihycus,  tlie  poet,  iv.  240. 

Ichneumon,  of  the,  v.  174. 

Ida,  mount,  v.  493. 

Idathyrsus,  his  sayings,  i.  189. 

Ideas,  of,  iii.  123. 

Images  presented  to  our  eyes  in  mirrors, 
iii.  169. 

Iniauination,  imaginable  and  phantom, 
difference  between,  iii.  167. 

Immortality  of  the  soul,  argument  for  it, 
iv.  169,  170. 

Impotency  in  men,  iii.  181. 

Improbablities  of  the  Stoics,  iii.  194-196. 

Inachus,  a  river  in  Argolis,  v.  498 

Incest,  case  of,  v.  467. 

Indus,  the  river,  v.  508. 

Infants,  seven  months',  iii.  184. 

Inquisitiveness,  or  vain  curiosity ;  of  curi- 
osity, or  an  over-busy  inquisitiveness 
into  things  impertinent,  ii.  424-445. 

lole,  the  beloved  of  Hercules,  v.  459. 

Ion  the  tragedian,  i.  322,  328 ;  v.  186,  254. 

Iphicrates,  his  saying,  i.  80,  212 ;  v.  105. 

Iphigenia  at  Aulis,  v.  459,  460. 

Irascible  faculty,  v.  441. 

Isaeus,  an  Athenian  orator,  v.  33 ;  consid- 
ered by  some  equal  to  Lysias,  ib. ;  the 


INDEX. 


523 


teacher  of  Demosthenes,  iJ. ;  number  of 
his  orations,  ib. 

Isis  and  Osiris,  iv.  66-135. 

Ismenodora,  iv.  256,  264,  269,  311. 

Israenus,  a  river  of  Boeotia,  v.  478. 

Isocratfcs,  an  Athenian  orator,  iii.  198  ; 
v.  27-33  ;  his  parentage,  birth,  and  edu- 
cation, 27  ;  composed  orations  tor  otliers, 
28 ;  his  school  at  Cliios,  ib. ;  his  great 
success  as  a  teacher  of  rhetoric,  ib. ; 
lived  to  a  great  age,  29 ;  his  death  and 
burial,  30;  number  of  his  orations,  31; 
his  timidity,  27,  31 ;  his  description  of 
the  use  of  rhetoric,  31 ;  the  two  suits 
against  him,  32,  409 ;  his  Panegyric, 
410. 

Isthmian  games,  iii.  318. 

Ivy,  nature  of,  iii.  265-268. 


J. 


Jason,  saying  of,  v.  140. 

Jewish  religion,  statements  and  conjectures 

respecting  it,  iii.  307-312. 
Jews,  their  fatal  inaction  in  war  because 

it  was  their  Sabbath  day,  i.  178. 
Juba,  his  third  Book  of  Lybian  History, 

V.  465. 


L. 


Lacedaemonians,  their  laws  and  customs, 

i.   82-101;    their   currency,    99 ;   influx 

of  gold  and  silver,  100;  refuse  to  assist 

Philip  and  Alexander  in  their  designs 

against     Persia,    101  ;     lose    all    their 

ancient    glory,  101 ;    combat    with   the 

Argives,  v.  452. 
Lachares,  tyranny  of,  ii.  166. 
Laconic  answers,  iv.  243. 
Laconic  Apothegms,  of,  i.  385^40. 

Acrotatus,  400. 

Agasicles,  385. 

Agesilaus,  385-397. 

Agesipolis,  397,  398. 

Agis,  son  of  Archidamus,  398. 

Agis  the  Last,  400. 

Agis  the  Younger,  400. 

Alcamenes,  the  son  of  Teleclus,  400. 

Alexandridas,  401. 

Anaxander,  401. 

Anaxilas,  402. 

Androclidas,  402. 

Antalcidas,  402. 

Antiochus,  403. 

Archidamidas,  404. 

Archidamus,  two  of  the  name,  404. 

Aregeus,  403. 

Ariston,  403. 

Astycratidas,  405. 

Bias,  406. 

Callicratidas,  412. 

CharUlus,  432. 


Cleombrotus,  413. 

Cleomenes,   son  of  Cleombrotus,  418. 

416. 

Damindas,  407. 

Damis,  406. 

Damonidas,  406. 

Deraaratus,  407. 

DercyUidas,  407. 

Emprepes,  408. 

Euboidas,  408. 

Eudamidas,  son  of  Archidamas,  408. 

Eurycratidas,  410. 

Herondas,  410. 

Hippocratidas,  412. 

Hippodamus,  411. 

Lampsace,  366. 

Lasus,  123. 

Leonidas,  the  son  of  Anaxandrias,  417. 

Leo,  the  son  of  Eucratidas,  417. 

Leotychidas,  416. 

Linus,  i.  105. 

Lycurgus,  the  Lawgiver,  419-425. 

Lysander,  425. 

Namertes,  427. 

Nicander,  427. 

Paedaretus,  429. 

Panthoidas,  427. 

Pausanias,  son  of  Clocmbrotus,  428. 

Pausanias,  son  of  Plistoanax,  428. 

Phoebidas,  431. 

Plistoanax,  430. 

Polycratidas,  431. 

Polydorus,  430. 

Soos,  431. 

Telecrus,  431. 

Thectamenes,  411. 

Themisteas,  410. 

Theopompus,  410. 

Thorycion,  411. 

Zeuxidamus,  410. 
Lacydes,  King  of  the  Argives,  i.  290. 
Lais,  murder  of,  iv.  302. 
Larapis,  a  sea  commander,  v.  78. 
Lampsace,  apothegm  of,  i.  366. 
Lamps  and  tables  of  the  ancients,  iii.  374 
Land,  food  of  the,  iii.  302-306. 
Lasus,  apothegm  of,  i.  123. 
Leaena,  anecdote  of,  iv.  229,  230. 
Least  things  in  nature,  iii.  125. 
Leo,  apothegm  of,  i.  417. 
Leo  Byzantinus,  saying  of,  i.  288 ;  and 

his  wife,  v.  110. 
Leonidas,  apotliegm  of,  1.  417  ;  vindicated 

from  the  statements  of  Herodotus,  iv. 

354 ;  V.  156  ;  at  thermopylae,  453. 
Leotychidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  427. 
Leprosy  caused  by  dewy  trees,  iii.  500. 
Leptis,  custom  in,  ii.  498. 
Leucippius,  his  opinions  of  the  world,  iii. 

135;  of  the  earth,  155;  of  the  senses,  165. 
Light  and  darkness,  of,  v.  325. 
Lightning,  of,  iii.  150. 
Light,  of  reflected,  iii.  168,  169 ;   v.  236, 

et  seq. 
Lilaeus,  raotmt,  v.  508,  509. 


524 


INDEX. 


Linus,  elegies  of,  i.  105. 

Lions,  of,  V.  187. 

Liquids,  of,  iii.  359. 

Live  concealed,  whetlier  'twere  riglitly 
said,  iii.  3-10. 

Lives  of  the  ten  Attic  orators,  v.  17-63. 

Love  :  Five  tragical  histories  of,  iv.  312- 
322. 

Love,  of  iv.  254-311 ;  makes  a  man  a 
poet,  iii.  217-219. 

Love  oi'  wealth,  ii.  294-305. 

Lucretia,  the  Roman  matron,  i.  355. 

Lucullus,  apothegm  of,  i.  241;  quoted,  iii. 
51 ;  V.  84. 

Lugudumum,  mount,  v.  485. 

Lyaeus  and  choraens,  i.  54. 

Lybian  crows,  v.  175. 

Lycastus  and  Parasius,  v.  472. 

Lycian  women,  virtue  of  the.  i.  351. 

Lycoronas,  a  river  in  Actolia,  v.  487. 

Lycurgus,  an  Athenian  orator,  v.  36-42 ; 
treasurer  of  the  commonwealth,  36  ;  his 
great  public  services,  37  ;  his  fidelity  in 
office  and  great  reputation,  37  ;  his  jus- 
tice and  integrity,  37,  38 ;  useful  laws 
procured  by  liis  influence,  38 ;  his  dili- 
gence in  the  study  and  practice  of  ora- 
tory, 39  ;  his  hicorruptible  lionesty,  40; 
his  death,  ih. ;  lionors  paid  to  his  mem- 
ory, 26. ;  ins  family,  40,  41 ;  his  orations 
and  success  as  an  orator,  41 ;  his  benev- 
olence, 42 ;  a  decree  for  honors  to  be 
paid  to  his  memory,  61-63. 

Lycurgus,  the  Spartan  lawgiver,  anecdote 
of,  i.  7  ;  ills  institutions,  82,  ei.  spq. ;  their 
final  overthrow,  101,  217,  419-425;  his 
sayings,  ii.  22,  312  ;  v.  12,  92. 

Lydian  mood,  of  music,  i.  109,  114. 

Lyric  nomes,  i.  106. 

Lysander,  i.  72 ,  his  great  victory  over  the 
Athenians,  99 ;  introduces  gold  and  sil- 
ver into  Lacedaemon,  100  ;  the  results, 
ib. ;  his  sayings,  219,  425;  saying  of  ii. 
149  ;  anecdote  of,  495 ;  iii.  100  :  v.  92. 

Lysias,  the  Athenian  orator,  his  remarks 
on  music,  i.  104 ;  anecdote  of,  iv.  226  ; 
V.  24-26  ;  his  birth,  early  residence  in 
Athens,  residence  in  Thurii,  and  return 
to  Athens,  24 ;  banished  by  the  Thirty 
Tyrants,  25 ;  return  after  their  over- 
throw, ib.  ;  death,  ib. ;  number  of  his 
orations,  ib. ;  his  other  works,  26 ;  his 
eloquence,  ib. ;  v.  33. 

Lysimaclie,  the  priestess,  i.  73. 

Lysimachus,  his  sayings,  i.  20-5,  259. 

Lysippus,  his  statue  of  Alexander,  i.  494. 


M. 

Madness  of  animals  v.  167. 
Maeandar,  a  river  in  Asia,  v.  488. 
Magas,  anecdote  of,  i.  45. 
Magpie,  story  of  a,  v.  189. 
Maimactes,  king  of  the  gods,  i.  45. 


Man,  perfection  of  a,  iii.  189 ;  most  un- 
happy of  all  creatures,  iv.  504 ;  com- 
pounded of  three  parts,  v.  286. 

Maneros,  the  tbster-son  of  Isis,  iv.  79. 

Manius  Curius,  apothegm  of,  i.  226. 

Manlius,  son  of,  beheaded,  v.  458. 

Man's  progress  in  virtue,  ii.  446-474. 

Mantinea,  battle  of,  v.  401. 

Marius,  sacrifice  of  his  daughter,  v.  463. 

Mars,  some  bad  actions  of  his,  v.  466,  467. 

Marsyas,  a  river  in  Phrygia,  v.  490. 

Marsyas,  the  musician,  i.  41,  108. 

Massinissa,  his  vigorous  old  age,  v.  83. 

Mathematics  applied  to  Music,  i.  118-121; 
affords  unspeakable  delight,  ii.  173, 174. 

Matter,  of  iii.  122. 

Medius,  the  parasite,  ii.  137. 

Megasthenes,  saying  of,  v.  275. 

Megisto  and  Micca,  and  other  women  of 
Elis,  i:  357-363. 

Meilichius,  king  of  the  gods,  i.  45. 

Melannippedes,  quoted,  iv.  279. 

Melanthius,  quoted,  i.  35,  449  ;  ii.  103  ;  iv. 
147. 

Melian  women,  virtue  of  the,  i.  348. 

Melisponda,  and  Nephalia,  i.  69. 

Melissus  ;  his  opinion  of  generation,  iii. 
128. 

Mimnermus,  quoted,  iii.  475. 

Memnon,  his  saying,  i.  189. 

Menalippides,  i.  114,  123. 

Menander  quoted,  i.  70,  138,  158,  161,  164, 
335  :  quoted,  ii.  52,  57,  65,  i:6,  87,  124, 
192,  297,  334,  335,  470;  his  superiority 
to  Aristophanes,  iii.  11-14;  quoted,  38, 
65,  196,  488 ;  iv.  290 ;  anecdote  of.  v. 
403  ;  saying  of,  425. 

Mendesian  goat,  v.  225. 

Menedemus,  i.  77 ;  ii.  115, 464  ;  his  opinion 
of  the  nature  of  moral  virtue,  iii.  461. 

Menelaus,  the  mathematician,  v.  257. 

Men,  impotency  in,  iii.  181  ;  elements  of, 
188  ;  have  better  stomaclis  in  autumn, 
240 ;  temper  of  270-272 ;  when  asleep 
are  never  thunderstruck,  295-300;  leap- 
ing into  chasms,  v.  464 ;  having  carnal 
knowledge  of  brutes,  468. 

Menon,  his  definition  of  virtue,  i.  464. 

Menyllus,  his  First  Book  of  Boeotic  His- 
toi-y,  V.  460  ;  Third  Book  of  Italian  His- 
tory, 467. 

Messenians,  saying  among  the,  v.  416. 

Metellus,  quoted,  iii.  53 ;  iv.  201 ;  v.  459, 
461. 

Meteors,  of,  which  resemble  rods,  iii.  153. 

Metiochus,  nis  misuse  of  power,  v.  127. 

Metius  Fufetius,  king  of  Alba,  torn  in 
pieces,  v.  455 

Metrocles,  i.  144. 

Metrodorus,  ii.  158, 160, 161, 167,  169, 175, 
180,  183,  496  ;  his  philosophical  opinions, 
iii.  115,  127,  132,  149,  1.50, 151, 153, 154, 
155,  157,  158  ;  v.  378,  383,  384. 

Micca  and  Megisto,  and  other  women  of 
EUs,  i.  357-363. 


INDEX. 


525 


M'idas,  i.  32G  ;  v.  454. 

Miletus,  maidens  of,  i.  354. 

Mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly,  but  they 
grind  fine,  iv.  148. 

Miltiades,  v.  408-411. 

Mind,  tranquillity  of  the,  i.  136-167. 

Minerva  admonished  by  a  satyr,  i.  41 ; 
iii.  195  ;  temple  of,  v.  461. 

Mirrors,  causes  and  reasons  of,  iii.  169 ; 
V.  236,  et  seq. 

Mithridates,  i.  204 ;  ii.  121 ;  story  of,  iii. 
219. 

Mixture  of  the  elements,  iii.  126. 

Mnemosyne,  the  mother  of  the  Muses, 
i.  22. 

Mnesarete,  statue  of,  iii.  83. 

Mnesipliilus,  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven 
Wise  Men,  ii  3-41. 

Mnesitheus,  the  physician,  iii.  511. 

Monarchy,  Democracy,  and  Oligarchy,  v. 
395-398. 

Money  upon  usury,  v.  412-424. 

Monstrous  births,  of,  iii.  179. 

Moon  :  essence  of  the,  iii.  145  ;  magnitude 
of  the,  145 ;  figure  of  the,  145  ;  whence 
her  light,  145 ;  eclipses  of  the,  146 ; 
phases  of  the,  147  ;  distance  from  the 
sun,  147 ;  of  the  face  appearing  within 
the  orb  of  the  moon,  v.  234-292 ;  its 
distance  from  the  earth,  246  ;  its  nature, 
253-260  ;  its  size,  261  ;  why  called  Glau- 
copis,  267  ;  is  it  inhabited,  274,  275. 

Moot  point  in  Homer's  Iliad,  iii.  446. 

Moral  virtue,  essay  on,  iii.  461-494. 

Moschio,  dialogue  on  liealth,  i.  251,  252. 

Motherland  a  Cretan  expression,  v.  85. 

Motion,  of,  iii.  128. 

Mount  Athos'  shade,  v.  270. 

Mule  and  the  salt,  v.  184. 

Mule,  superanuated,  v.  182. 

Mules,  barrenness  of,  iii.  182. 

Mullet,  of  the,  v.  213. 

Muses,  number  of  the,  iii.  450. 

Mushrooms  produced  by  thunder,  iii.  295- 
300. 

Music,  treatise  concerning,  i.  102-135 ; 
pleasures  from  bad,  iii.  376;  for  enter- 
tainments, 389. 

Musonius,  his  rule  of  health,  i.  35. 

Must,  sweet,  iii.  511. 

Mycende,  mount,  501. 


N. 

Namertes,  apothegm  of,  i.  427. 

Names  of  rivers  and  mountains,  and  of 

such  things  as  are  to  be  found  therein, 

and  the  fables  connected  therewith,  v. 

477-509. 
Nasica,  his  saying,  i.  285. 
Natural  affection  towards  one's  offspring, 

iv.  189-197. 
Natural  philosophy,  iii.  105. 
Natural  Questions,  Plutarch's,  iii.  495-618. 


Nature,  of,  iii  1,31  ;  what  is,  105 ;  thinga 
that  are  least  in,  125  ;  animated,  v.  160. 

Necessity,  of,  iii.  129;  nature  of,  129;  de- 
fined, v.  299. 

Nephalia  and  Melisponda,  i.  59. 

Neptune,  ii.  38,  39,  41 ;  iii.  44. 

Nero,  i.  53;  iv.  228,  229;  anecdote  of,  v 
123. 

New  diseases  and  how  caused,  iii.  42. 

New-married  couple,  advice  to,  ii.  486- 
507. 

New  wine,  of,  iii.  279. 

Nicander,  apothegm  of,  i.  427,  441, 

Nicias  Maleotes,  quoted,  v.  459. 

Nicias,  the  Athenian  general,  superstition 
of,  i.  177 ;  V.  107. 

Nicias,  the  painter,  anecdote  of,  ii.  178 ; 
V.  71. 

Nicostratus  and  Archidamus,  i.  74 ;  apo- 
thegm of,  221. 

Niger,  anecdote  of,  i.  267. 

Nightingale,  of  the,  v.  189. 

Nile,  the  river,  v.  495  ;  overflow  of  the, 
iii.  160;  water  of  the,  415. 

Niloxenus,  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven 
Wise  Men,  ii.  3-41. 

Niobe,  i.  328. 

Noises  in  the  night  and  day,  iii.  406. 

Nunia,  of  the  reign  of,  iv.  208-210. 


o. 


Oenopides,  his  discovery  of  the  obliquity 

of  the  Zodiac,  iii.  138. 
Ogyia,  an  island  west  from  Britain  and  its 

neighbor  islands,  described,  v.  281-283. 
Oil,  top  of  the,  iii.  370;  on  the  sea,  503; 

is  transparent,  v.  318 ;  does  not  easily 

freeze,  319. 
Old  age,  health,  and  sickness,  iii.  192. 
Old  men  love  pure  wine,  iii.  221 ;  read  best 

at  a  distance,  221-224 ;  easily  foxed,  268- 

270;  in  state  affairs,  v.  64-96. 
Oligarchy,  Monarchy,  and  Democracy,  v. 

395-398. 
Olympias,  anecdotes  of,  ii.  494,  495. 
Olympus,  a  Phrygian  player,  i.  107,  108 

110,  112,  11.5,  116,  123. 
Omens  and  dreams,  ii.  401,  402. 
Onesicrates,  banquet  of,  i.  103  ;  133. 
Onoraademus,  wisdom  of,  i.  295  ;  v.  129. 
Opinions  of  philosophers,  iii.  104-193. 
Optatus,  V.  171. 
Oracle  in  Cilicia,  iv.  55. 
Oracles  of  Delphi,  iii.  73. 
Oracles,  why  they  cease  to  giv2  aD^wers, 

iv.  3-64. 
Orestes,  slays  his  mother,  v.  474. 
Origin  of  things,  opinions  concerning  the, 

iii.  107-113. 
Orontes,  his  saying,  i.  188. 
Orpheus,  never  nnitated  any  one,  i.  107. 
Orphic  Fragments,  iv.  59,  404. 
Oryx,  fables  of  the,  v.  193. 


526 


INDEX. 


Osiris,  iv.  75-135 ;  story  about  his  'birth, 
74  ;  great  actions  of,  75  ;  his  death,  76  ; 
his  body  torn  in  pieces  by  Typhon,  80  ; 
is  identical  with  Serapis  and  Bacchus, 
89  ;  with  tlie  bull  Apis,  90  ;  sacred  vest- 
ments of,  135. 

Otliryadas,  ii.  338. 

Otus,  the  bird,  v.  163. 

Oxen,  teaching  of,  v.  193. 


Paeans,  makers  of,  i.  110. 

Paedaretus,  apothegm  of,  i.  429. 

Painter,  neat  saj'ing  of  a,  ii.  379. 

Painting  is  silent  poetry,  v.  402. 

Palladium  in  Ilium  and  in  Rome,  v.  461. 

Palm  tree,  of  the,  iii.  514. 

Panaetius,  sayings  of,  i.  57. 

Pancrates,  i.  117. 

Pandora's  box,  i.  306. 

Pangaeus,  mount,  v.  480. 

Pantlioidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  427. 

Papirius  Tolueer,  v.  468. 

Parallels,  or  a  comparison  between  the 
actions  of  Greeks  and  Romans,  v.  450- 
476. 

Parmenides,  ii.  357  ;  his  philosophical  opin- 
ions :  of  generation  and  corruption,  iii. 
128;  of  necessity,  129;  of  the  world, 
135;  of  the  moon,  145;  of  the  galaxy, 
149;  of  tlie  earth,  155;  of  earthquakes, 
157 ;  of  tlie  soul,  163 ;  deiended  from 
the  misrepresentations  of  the  Epicu- 
reaai,  v.  852-354;  quoted,  357;  359, 
381. 

Partridge,  cunning  of  the,  v.  185. 

Parysatis,  her  saying,  i.  188. 

Passions  of  the  body,  iii.  175. 

Passions  of  the  soul,  or  diseases  of  the 
body,  which  are  worse,  iv.  504,  508. 

Paulus  Aemilius,  apothegm  of,  i  232. 

Pausanius,  i.  305 :  apothegm  of,  428. 

Pausanias,  tiie  Spartan  traitor,  v.  457. 

Pauson  the  Painter,  iii.  73. 

Pederasty,  or  the  love  of  boys,  iv.  259 ; 
defended,  259,  260  ;  instances  of  its 
power,  284-286 ;  severely  condemned, 
304 ;  the  connection  is  uncertain  and 
shortlived,  307  ;  it  ceases  on  the  sprout- 
ing of  tlie  beard,  307. 

Pelopidas,  his  saying,  i.  225. 

Pelops  and  his  two  sons,  v.  470,  471. 

Pemplides,  iv.  272,  275,  279. 

Pergamus,  woman  of,  i.  374. 

I^eriander,  at  the  Banquet  of  tlie  Seven 
Wise  Men,  ii.  3-41 ;  tyrant  of  Corinth 
sends  three  hundred  boys  to  be  castrated, 
vi.  341 ;  the  crime  prevented,  342. 

Pericles,  anecdotes  of,  i.  15,  18,  66,  211, 
332;  ii.  309,  315;  v.  67, 102;  his  abso- 
lute sway  over  the  Athenians,  106  ;  his 
soliloquy  when  about  to  address  the 
people,  130,  131 ;  410,  413. 


Periclitus,  a  Lesbian  harper,  i.  108. 

Persaeus,  anecdote  of,  i.  70. 

Perseus,  king  of  Macedonia,  his  sorrow  on 
losing  his  kingdom,  i.  160. 

Persian  Magi,  killers  of  mice,  ii.  96. 

Persian  women,  virtue  of  the,  i.  347. 

Persians  had  a  monarchy,  v.  397. 

Pestilence,  relief  from,  a  virgin  sacrificed 
for,  V.  472. 

Petron,  doctrine  of,  i.  30. 

Phaedimus,  v.  171,  194. 

Phaeton,  i.  141. 

Phalaris,  brazen  cow  of,  v.  474. 

Pharmaces,  of  the  moon,  v.  265. 

Phasisa,  a  river  of  Thrace,  v.  482. 

Phayllus,  iv.  282. 

Phemius,  the  poet,  i.  105. 

Pherecrates,  fragment  of,  i.  124. 

Piiidias,  statue  of  Venus,  ii.  498 ;  ir. 
133. 

Philammon,  verses  in  honor  of  Latona, 
Diana,  and  Apollo,  i.  105. 

Philemon  and  ^Iagas,  i.  45. 

Philinus,  iii.  69,70. 

Philip  of  Macedonia,  examples  from,  i.  44, 
45;  sayings  of,  194-198,  305;  anecdotes 
of,  ii.  141,  146,  147,  494;  iii.  22;  v. 
115. 

Pliilippides,  the  comedian,  ii.  430. 

Philippus,  his  demonstration  of  the  figure 
of  the  moon,  ii.  173. 

Philolaus,  his  philosopliical  opinions  :  of 
the  nutriment  of  the  world,  iii.  134 ;  of 
the  essence  of  the  sun,  142  ;  of  the  posi- 
tion of  the  earth,  155 ;  of  the  motion 
of  the  earth,  156. 

Philosophers  ought  chiefly  to  converse 
with  great  men,  ii.  368-377. 

Philosophers,  their  various  opinions.  Of 
those  sentiments  concerning  nature  with 
which  philosophers  were  delighted,  iii. 
104-193. 

Philosophical  discourses  at  merry  meet 
ings,  iii.  198-203. 

Philosophy,  threefold  division  of,  iii.  104. 

Philotas  and  Antigona,  i.  504. 

Philotas,  son  of  Parmenio,  i.  504. 

Piiilotimus,  the  physician,  i.  452;  ii.  153. 

Philoxenus,   i.    125 ;    sayings  of,   ii.   42; 

iii.  3 ;  iv.  289,  423. 
Phocian   women,   virtue   of  the,  i.   343 ; 

355. 
Phocion,  his  saying,  on  the  death  of  Alex- 
ander, i.  49;  his  savings,  70;  wife  of, 
102;  210;  ii.  135,  298,  311,  321,  328; 
V.  83,  109,  118;  his  magnanimity,  122; 
his  reply  to  Demades,  125;  142,  149.  _ 
Phocus,  a  story  of  love  respecting  him,  iv 

319. 
Phocylides  the  poet,  quoted  i.  9,  462. 
Piioebidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  431;  v.  48. 
Phoenix,  tutor  to  Achilles,  i.  9 ;    ii.  160. 
Phrygian  mood  of  music,  i.  109. 
Phryne,  the  statue  of,  iii.  83. 
Phrynis,  the  musician,  ii.  470. 


INDEX. 


527 


Pieria  and  other  women  of  Myus,  i.  363, 
364. 

Pierus,  the  first  that  wrote  in  praise  of 
the  Muses,  i.  105. 

Pindar  and  Euthynous,  i.  314. 

Pindar,  his  sayings,  i.  10. 15,  77, 114  ;  quot- 
ed, 143,  173,  174,  286,  293,  303,  304,  310, 
313,  328 ;  his  description  of  the  state  of 
the  blessed,  336  ;  quoted,  ii.  57,  143,  177, 
193,  306 ;  quoted,  iii.  9,  23,  74,  93,  95, 
96,  194,  207,  218, 377,  455,  458,  491,  516 ; 
quoted,  iv.  96,  150,  103,  260,  289,  405, 
497;  quoted,  v  64,  111,  117,  141,  144, 
148,  194,  197,  202,  214,  249,  252,  255, 
256,  316,  330,  404;  anecdote  of,  404, 
440. 

Pine,  sacred  to  Neptune  and  Bacchus,  iii. 
318. 

Pine  trees,  of,  iii.  250. 

Pinoteras,  the  fish,  v.  204. 

Pisius,  of  love,  iv.  270,  et  seq. 

Pisistratus,  i.  216  ;  anecdote  of,  iii.  41 ;  200 

Pittacus,  sayings  of,  i.  31,  150;  his  reply 
to  Myrsilus,  ii.  5  ;  at  the  Banquet  of  the 
Seven  Wise  Men,  3-41 ;  iii.  50  ;  iv.  231 ; 
V.  145. 

Pitwater,  of,  iii.  514, 

Place,  ot,  iii.  127;  v.  470. 

Place  at  table  called  Consular,  iii.  210- 
212. 

Plague  in  Falerie  and  in  Lacedaemon,  v. 
472. 

Plain  of  truth,  i.  29. 

Planetiades,  i.  9,  11. 

Plants  grow,  how,  iii.  190 ;  nourishment 
and  growth  of,  191. 

Plato,  quoted,  i.  9,  19,  24,  26 ;  saying  of, 
27 ;  quoted,  30, 41,  57, 71,  74,  79  ;"  on  har- 
mony, 115,  118;  quoted,  141,  173,  256, 
264,  279,  287  ;  laws,  292 ;  quoted,  297, 
311,  314,  321,  337,  339,  456;  quoted, 
ii.  49,  92,  100,  104,  106  ;  at  the  court  of 
Dionysius,  108,  141;  109,  146;  and 
Socrates,  148 ;  150,  168,  174,  261,326; 
concerning  the  soul,  328  et  seq.,  334  ; 
quoted,  344,  352,  353,  355,  356,  359,  364, 
455,  456,  457,  492,  496,  504  ;  quoted,  iii. 
19,  81 ;  his  philosopliical  opinions  :  of 
the  universe,  112,  114,  115;  of  the  un 
derstanding,  116;  what  is  God,  119;  of 
God,  121 ;  of  matter  and  ideas,  123 ; 
of  causes  and  of  bodies,  124  ;  of  colors, 
125  ;  of  bodies,  126  ;  of  place  and  time, 
127,  128 ;  of  motion,  128 ;  of  necessity, 
129;  of  fate,  130;  of  fortune,  131;  of 
the  world,  134,  135,  137 ;  of  the  stars, 
137-141 ;  of  the  sun,  142,  143 ;  of  the 
moon,  145,  146;  of  the  rainbow,  152; 
of  earthquakes,  158 ;  of  the  sea,  159 ; 
of  the  soul,  161-165 ;  of  sight,  168 ;  of 
hearing,  170 ;  of  the  voice,  171 ;  of  the 
echo,  172;  of  divination,  176;  of  gen- 
erative seed,  177  ;  of  the  embryo,  183; 
of  reason  in  animals,  187  ;  of  sleep,  189; 
that  plants  are  animals,  190 ;    quoted, 


200,  201,  213,  221,  223,  243,  368-370, 
401,  406,  462,  464,  499 ;  iv.  18,  28,  30, 
41.45;  his  opinion  about  daemons,  86, 
87;  109,  115-117,  119,  146,  254,  261, 
292,  305;  quoted,  v.  10,  82,  103,  116, 
120, 172,  257, 276,  288,  293,  295,  297,  302, 
305,  306,  338,  355,  364,  377,  381,  413, 
425-433,  435,  440,  441,  444. 

Pleasure  not  attainable  according  to  Epi- 
curus, ii.  157-203. 

Pleasures  from  bad  music,  iii.  376. 

Plistoanax,  apothegm  of,  i.  430. 

Plurality  of  worlds,  iv.  29-39. 

Plutarch,  his  rules  for  the  preservation 
of  health,  i.  251-279 ;  his  Symposiacs, 
197-460  ;  his  natural  questions,  iii.  495- 
518 ;  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  iv. 
169 ;  V.  137,  339  ;  consolatory  letter  to 
his  wife,  386,  394;  his  Platonic  ques- 
tions, 425-449;  liis  spurious  remains, 
450-509. 

Poet,  love  makes  a  man  a,  iii.  217-219. 

Poetry,  essay  on.  How  a  young  man 
ought  to  hear  poems,  ii.  92-94, 

Polemon,  his  kind  reply,  i.  55. 

Tolicy  or  government  defined,  r.  896.        ^ 

Political  precepts,  v.  /7-156.  7 

Poltys,  saying  of,  i.  189. 

Polus,  the  tragedian,  v.  69. 

Polybus,  of  seven-months'  infants,  iii.  185; 
V.  83. 

Polycephalus,  the  nome,  i.  108. 

Polycratidas,  apothegm  of,  i.  431. 

Polycrita,  a  woman  of  Naxos,  i.  364,  366. 

Polydorus,  apothegm  of,  i.  430. 

Polyhistor,  his  Third  Book  of  Italian  His- 
tory, 476. 

Polymnestus,  his  improvements  in  music, 
i.  107,  110,  112,  123. 

Polypus,  why  it  changes  color,  iii.  506 ; 
many-colored,  v.  202. 

Polysperchon's  treachery,  i.  64;  71. 

Pompey,  his  great  actions  and  sayings,  1 
241;  290,  statutes  of,  293,  v.  70,  102, 
112,114;  owed  his  success  to  Sylla, 
115. 

Porsena  of  Clusium,  war  with  the  Romans, 
V.  451,  456. 

Porus,  an  Indian  king,  i.  202. 

Posidonius,  his  opinion  of  fate,  iii.  130 ;  of 
a  vacuum,  137;  of  eclipses,  v.  262. 

Possible  and  contingent  defined,  v.  299. 

Postumia,  chastity  of,  i.  290. 

Power,  necessity,  &c.,  defined,  v.  300. 

Praise,  inordinate,  a  sign  of  a  flatterer,  il. 
116,  117,  120;  young  people  are  often 
spoiled  by  it,  123. 

Preservation  of  health,  rules  for,  i.  251- 
279. 

Priam  and  Polydore,  v.  465 
1  Price  of  peace,  women  given  as  the,  v. 
I      468. 
I  Priest  of  Hercules,  iii.  90. 

Principle  and  element,  difference  between, 
I      iii.  106. 


52^ 


INDEX. 


Principle  of  cold,  v.  309-830. 

Principles,  wiiat  they  are,  iii.  106. 

Prize  for  poets  at  tiie  games,  iii.  316. 

Procles,  tyrant  of  Epidaurus,  puts  Timar- 
clius  to  death,  iii.  89  ;  his  own  unhappy 
end,  ib. 

Procreation  of  the  soul  as  discussed  in 
the  Timaeus  of  Plato,  ii.  326-367. 

Prog-ress  in  virtue,  how  it  may  be  ascer- 
tained, ii.  446-474. 

Prometlieus,  anecdote  of,  i.  289. 

Prosodia,  songs  called,  1,  106. 

Proserpine,  the  same  as  Isis,  iv.  88 ;  and 
Cora,  V.  285,  286. 

Protagoras  quoted,  i.  332. 

Protogenes,  iv.  257,  258,  260-265. 

Providence  of  God,  iv.  140-188 ;  v.  305 ; 
of  the  inferior  gods,  306  ;  of  the  Dae- 
mons, .307,  308. 

Ptoleniaeus  Philadelphus,  i.  25. 

Ptolemaeus  Soter,  i.  88. 

Ptolemy  Lagus,  anecdote  of,  i.  45 ;  his  say- 
ing, 202 ;  ii.  177. 

Publius  Decius,  his  dream,  v.  462. 

Publius  Nigidius,  v.  96. 

Punishment  of  the  wicked,  why  so  long 
delayed,  iv.  140-188. 

Pupius  Piso,  the  rhetorician,  iv.  245. 

Purple  shell  fish,  v.  205. 

Pylades  and  Orestes,  their  friendship,  i. 
465. 

Pyraechmes's  horses,  v.  455. 

Pyrander,  his  Fourth  Book  of  Pelopon- 
nesian  Histories,  v.  474. 

Pyrandus,  the  commissary,  v.  469. 

Pyrrhon  the  Stoic  philosopher,  anecdote 
of,  ii.  467. 

Pyrrhus,  the  Epirot,  his  saying,  i.  207. 

Pythagoras,  his  aphorisms,  i."28,  29;  of 
music,  130  ;  quoted,  175  ;  aphorism,  179, 
294  ;  symbols  of,  419,  454,  471  ;  his  un- 
seasonable reproof,  ii.  148 ;  his  joy  on 
discovering  the  relation  to  each  other  of 
the  three  sides  of  a  right-angled  triangle, 
174  ;  his  philosophical  opinions  ;  of  the 
principles  of  things,  iii.  109 ;  of  the 
unity  of  God,  121 ;  of  geniuses  and 
heroes,  122;  of  matter,  123;  of  causes, 
124 ;  of  bodies,  126  ;  of  time,  127 ;  of 
motion,  128 ;  of  generation  and  corrup- 
tion, 129;  of  the  world,  132-137  ;  of  the 
zodiac,  138;  of  the  summer  and  winter 
solstice,  143 ;  of  the  moon,  145  ;  of  the 
zones,  156;  of  the  soul,  161-164;  of 
the  voice,  172;  of  divination,  176;  of 
generative  seed,  177  ;  of  reason  in  ani- 
mals, 187 ;  precepts  of,  derived  his 
philosophy  from  Egyptian  priests,  iv. 
72. 

Pythagorean  philosophy  of  dreams,  dae- 
mons, ii.  412,  413. 

Pythagoreans,  why  they  do  not  eat  fish, 
i.  422-426  ;  iii.  22. 

Pytheas,  his  saving,  i.  213;  iii.  159; 
apothegm  o*'       1U7,  110. 


Pythian  games,  iii.  816. 

Pythian  priestess,  i.  8,  9,  62,  63  ;  why  she 
now  ceases  to  deliver  her  oracles  in 
verse,  iii.  69-103. 

Pythes,  the  Lydian,  i.  382. 

Pythocles,  his  Third  Book  of  Italian  His- 
tory, V.  460;  Third  Book  of  the  Georg- 
ics,  476. 

Pythoclides  the  flute  player,  i.  114. 

Python  of  Aenos,  ii.  314. 

Q. 

Quarry  of  Carystus,  i.  54. 

Questions  or  Causes,  Second  Book  of,  y. 

475. 


E. 


Raillery,  of,  iii.  229-240. 
Rain,  snow  and  hail,  of,  iii.  151. 
Rainbow,  of  the,  iii.  151. 
Rational  faculty,  of  the,  v.  441. 
Reason,  beasts  make  use  of,  v.  218-233. 
Reason,  habit  of  our,  iii.  166. 
Remarkable    speeches   of  some    obscure 

men  amongst  the  Spartans,  i.  432-440. 
Remora  or  Echeues,  iii.  252. 
Reproof,  how  to  be  administered,  ii.  138- 

156. 
Respiration  or  breathing,  iii.  173. 
Rhesus  and  Similius,  v.  466. 
Rhohope  and  Haemus,  mountains,  v.  491. 
Riddles  and  their  solutions,  ii.  19,  20. 
Roman  questions,  ii.  204-264. 
Roman  senator  and  his  wife,  iv.  233-235. 
Rome  saved  by  the  cackling  of  geese,  iT. 

211  ;  favored  by  fortune,  215. 
Romans,  fortune  of  the,  iv.  198-219. 
Romulus,  his  birth  and  education,  iv.  206- 

208 ;  murdered  in  the  senate,  v.  470 ; 

and  Remus,  suckled  by  a  she-wolf,  473. 
Rules  for  the  preservation   of  health,  i. 

251-279. 
Rutilius  the  usurer,  v.  419. 


s. 


Sabinus  of  Galatia,  iv.  308. 

Sacadas,  a  flute  player,  i.  109,  110, 112. 

Sacred  games,  garlands  of,  iii.  411. 

Sacrificed  beasts,  iii.  361. 

Sagaris,  a  river  in  Phrygia,  v.  492. 

Salman tica,  women  of,  i.  352. 

Salt  and  cummin,  why  does  Homer  call  it 

divine,  iii.  336. 
Salt  given  to  cattle,  iii.  497  ;  not  found  in 

fruit,  498. 
Sappho,  i.  42,  114  ;  ii.  506 ;  quoted,  iii.  97, 

263,  506  ;  quoted,  iv.  260. 
Sappho's  measures,  grace  in,  iii.  74. 
Sardanapalus,  his  luxury  and  lust,  i.  497. 
Sardians  and  Smyrnaeaus,  v.  468. 


INDEX. 


529 


Saturn  and  his  four  children,  v.  456,  457. 
yatyrus  the  orator,  i.  47. 
Scanuander,  a  river  in  Troas,  v.  493. 
Scaurus,  liis  magnanimity,  i.  295. 
Seiluru.s,  liis  saying,  i.  199  ;  anecdote  of, 

iv.  244. 
Scipio  the  Elder,  apothegm  of,  i.  229 ;  ii. 

475  ;  iv.  201 ;  v.  9e,  112,  114,  136. 
Scipio  the  Younger,  his  sayings  and  great 

actions,  i.  235-239. 
Scopas,  saying  of,  ii.  303. 
Scytliinus,  verses  of,  iii.  86. 
fcjea  calves,  of,  v.  210. 
Sea,  of  the,  iii.  158 ;   ebbing  and  flowing 

of    the,    159 ;    food    of  the,   302-306 ; 

made  hot  by  wind,  501. 
Sea-sickness,  iii.  602. 
Sea  water  nourishes  not  trees,  iii.  495 ; 

upon  wine,  502;  oil  on  the,  503. 
Seed,  nature  of  generative,  iii.  177  ;  that 

fall  on  the  oxen's  horns,  368;    water- 
ing of,  496  ;  watered  by  thunder  show- 
ers, 498 ; 
Seleucus,  the  mathematician,  iii.  159. 
Seleucus  Callinicus,  anecdote  of,  iv.  237. 
Self-praise.     How  a  man  may  inoffensively 

praise  himself  witliout  being  liable   to 

envy,  ii.  306-325. 
Semirarais,  her  saying,  i.  187  ;  497  ;  iv.  85 
Seneca,  anecdote  of,  i.  53. 
Senses,  of  the,  iii.  164  ;  represent  what  is 

true,  165 ;  number  of  the,  165 ;  actions 

of  the,  166. 
Sentiments  concerning  Nature  with  which 

Philosophers  were  delighted,   in.    104- 

193 
Serapio,  iii.  74,  79,  81,82. 
Serapis  is  Pluto,  iv.  88,  89. 
Serpent  and  the  Aetolian  woman,  v.  188. 
Seven  months'  infants,  of,  iii.  184. 
Seven  Wise  Men,  Banquet  of  the,  ii.  3-41. 
Servius  TuUius,  his  birth,  elevation,  and 

prosperous  reign,  iv.  212,  213. 
Shadows,  guests  called,  iii.  381. 
Sheep  bitten  by  wolves,  iii.  254. 
She-wolves,  of,  iii.  517. 
Ships  in  winter,  saiHng  of,  iii.  500. 
Sibyl  with  her  frantic  grimaces,  iii.  74. 
Sight,  of  our,  iii.  168. 
Silence  commended,  iv.  230,  243. 
Simonides   quoted,  i.  149,  257,  295,  305, 

309,  318;  quoted,  ii.  44,  101,   136,  436, 

457,  471 ;  quoted,  iii.  22,  87,  2-59,  409, 

451,  459,  473  ;  quoted,  iv.  158;  saying 

of,  V.  66,  68,  71 ;  121. 
Sipylus  mount,  v.  489. 
Siramnes,  saying  of,  i   185. 
Sleep  or  death,  causes  of,  iii.  188  ;  whether 

it  appertains  to  the  soul  or  body,  189. 
Smelling,  of,  iii.  170. 
Smyrna  and  Cinyras,  v.  4f)4. 
Snow,  preservation  of,  iii.  3-50. 
Soclarus,  iv.  292 ;  v.  156,  158,  160,  166, 

168,  170,  171,  216. 
Socrates,  anecdotes  of,  i.  11,  13,  23,  26,  38, 


63,  141,  150,  162;  rules  of  health,  2-55; 

quoted,  307,  310,  312,  326,  336  ;  ii.  46, 

148,  150,  338,  441  ;  his  Daemon,  378- 

423,  441,  495;  in.  19.  35,  112,  121,  123; 

iv.  249  ;  v.  93, 359,  361,  362,-364,  377, 

381. 
Socrates,  his   Second  Book  of  Thracian 

History,  v.  462. 
Soil,  deep,  for  wheat,  iii.  504 ;  lean  soil 

for  barley,  504. 
Solon  and  Croesus,  anecdote  of,  ii.  122. 
Solon  quoted,  i.  155,  297 ;  at  tlie  Banquet 

of  the    Seven    Wise    Men,    ii.    3-41 ; 

quoted,  297,  454,  487  ;  quoted,  iii.  50 ; 

anecdote  of,  iv.  260,  304;  v.  89,  118, 

118,  68,  72,  131. 
Sophocles  quoted,  i.  13,  46,  57,  244,  288 ; 

Thamyras,  -39;  Frag.  58,  63;  Tyro,  206, 

467  ;  Antig  51,  462  ;  Oed  Tyr.  179, 470  ; 

quoted,  ii.  45,  57,  61,  72;  criticisms  on, 

a.   72;    Frag.  173,  241,  244,  298,  431, 

452,  456,  470,  495 ;  Oed.  Tyr.  60,  170, 

442,   476,   495;   Antig.    110;    Trachin. 

311;  Electra,  440;  quoted  iii.  97,  210, 

222  ;   Frag.  7  Antig.  45,  227,  Oed.  Tyr. 

4, 235, 474  ;  Oed.  Col.  232  ;  Electra,  437 ; 

quoted,  iv.  87,  246,  287,  304  ;  Oed.  Tyr. 

197,    202;    Tracliin.   281;    Antig.    239, 

283,  404 ;  Frag.  221,  226,  274,  284,  301 ; 

quoted,  v.  69,  76,  158,  216 ;   Oed.  Col. 

68  ;  Frag.  75,  84,  110,  116  ;  anecdote  of, 

68,  72. 
Sostratus,  his   Second  Book  of   Tuscan 

History,  v.  468. 
Sotades,  jest  of,  i.  25. 
Soterichus,  the  musician,  i.  103,  112. 
8dul  of  Ajax,  her  place  in  hell,  iii.  442. 
Soul  or  body,  death  appertains  to,  iii.  189. 
Soul,  procreation  of  tiie,  ii.  326-367  ;  its 

nature  and  essence,  iii.  161,  163  ;   parts 

of  the,  162  ;  principal  part  of  the,  173  ; 

in  what  part   of  the   body  it   resides, 

163  ;  motion  of  the,  168  ;  immortality  of 

the,  164  ;  state  of,  after  death,  v.  371 ; 

three   sorts    of    motion    in    the,    393 ; 

state  of  after  death,  393,  394  ;  ancient- 

er  than  the  body,  432. 
Souls  dispersed  into  the  earth,  moon,  &c., 

V.  438. 
Sounds  in  tlie  night  and  day,  iii.  406. 
Sows,  tame  and  wild,  iii.  508. 
Space,  of,  iii.  127. 
Sparta  had  an  oligarchy,  v.  397. 
Speech  composed  of  nouns  and  verbs,  v 

444. 
Speech  of  a  statesman,  what  it  should  be, 

v.  107. 
Sperm,  whether  it  be  a  body,  iii.  177. 
Spermatic  emission  of  women,  iii.  177 
Sphodrias,  v.  118. 
Spiders,  labor  of  the,  v.  174. 
Sponge,  of  the,  v.  205. 
Spurious  remains  of  Plutarch,  v.  450-509 
Star-fish,  subtlety  of  the,  v.  201. 
Stark  drunk,  those  that  are,  iii.  281. 


34 


530 


INDEX. 


Stars,  essence  of  the,  iii.  138;  what  figure 
they  are,  139  ;  order  and  place  of,  139; 
motion  and  circulation  of,  140 ;  whence 
do  they  receive  their  light,  140  ;  which 
are  called  the  Dioscuri,  the  twins  or 
Castor  and  Pollux,  141 ;  how  they  prog- 
nosticate, 141 ;  number  of  the,  whether 
odd  or  even,  446. 

Stasicrates  proposes  to  turn  Mount  Athos 
into  a  statue  of  Alexander,  i.  495. 

Stesichorus,  i.  109,  112;  iv.  497. 

Steward  of  a  feast,  iii.  212-216. 

Stilpo,  the  philosopher,  i.  13,  76,  144,  161 ; 
anecdote  of,  ii.  468;  defended,  v.  365- 
a67. 

Stoics  speak  greater  improbabilities  than 
the  poets,  iii.  194-460 ;  their  opinions 
concerning  djBoions,  iv.  24  ;  common 
conceptions  against  the,  372-427  ;  con- 
tradictions of  the,  428-477. 

Strabo,  quoted,  i.  27. 

Strato,  i.  155;  iii.  163;  v.  161. 

Stratonica  of  Galatia,  i.  373. 

Stratonicus,  anecdote  of,  ii.  298 ;  iii.  21. 

Strymon,  a  river  in  Thrace,  v.  491. 

Subtlety  and  cunning,  instances  of. 

Summer  and  winter,  cause  of,  iii.  141. 

Summer  and  wniter  soltice,  iii.  143. 

Sun,  essence  of  the,  iii.  141  ;  magnitude 
of  the,  142 ;  figure  or  shape  of  the,  143  ; 
turning  and  returning  of  the,  143 ; 
eclipses  of  the,  144. 

Superstition  of  the  Gauls,  Scythians,  and 
Carthagenians,  i.  182, 183. 

Superstition,  or  indiscreet  devotion,  i.  168- 
184;  folly  of,  ii.  387. 

Supper,  many  guests  at,  iii.  323. 

Supper-room,  why  too  narrow  at  first  for 
guests,  iii.  326. 

Suppers  of  the  ancients,  iii.  255-259. 

Swallows  in  the  house,  iii.  419 ;  intelli- 
gence of  the,  V.  174. 

Sylla,  i.  32-35;  anecdote  of,  v.  72,  115, 
135. 

Symposiacs,  or  table  discourses,  iii.  197- 
460. 

Synonix  and  Camma,  iv.  302. 


Table,  dignity  of  places  at,  iii.  210-212. 
Tables  and  lamps  of  the  ancients,  iii.  372 
Talkativeness,  or  garrulity,  iv.  220-253. 
Talk,  deliberate  or  tumultuous,  iii.  395. 
Tarpeia,  a  virgin,  the  story  of,  v.  460. 
Tarrais,  a  river  in  Scythia,  v.  494. 
Taste,  of  iii.  170. 
Taxiles  of  India,  i.  201. 
Taygetus,  muunt,  v.  498. 
Tears  of  the  hart,  iii.  507. 
Tears  of  wild  boars,  iii.  507. 
Telamon  and  Periboea,  v.  467. 
Telamon  and  Phocus,  v.  466. 
Telecrus,  apothegm  of,  i.  431. 


Telegonus,  son  of  Ulysses,  v.  476. 

Telephanes  of  Megara,  i.  117. 

Telephus,  i.  289. 

Telesias  the  Theban,  an  eminent  fiute- 
player,  i.  125. 

Telesphorus,  in  an  iron  cage,  iii.  31. 

Temple  of  Apollo,  iv.  478-498. 

Teres,  his  saying,  i.  189. 

Teribazus,  anecdote  of,  i.  176. 

Terpander,  the  musician,  fined  by  the 
Epliori,  and  why?  i.  91,  92;  an  inventor 
of  ancient  music,  102,  105,  109 ;  an  ex- 
cellent composer  to  the  harp,  106,  112; 
added  the  octave  to  the  heptachord,  102, 
122. 

Teuthras,  mount,  v.  50B,  504. 

Thales,  at  the  Banquet  of  the  Seven  Wise 
Men,  ii.  3-41 ;  first  of  philosopers  ;  the 
Ionic  sect  took  its  denomination  from 
him,  iii.  107  ;  his  philosophical  opinions ; 
difference  between  a  principle  and  an 
element,  106  ;  that  the  intelligence  of 
the  world  was  God,  121  ;  of  geniusea 
and  heroes,  122;  of  division  of  bodies, 
126  ;  of  necessity,  129  ;  of  the  division 
of  heaven,  137 ;  of  the  eclipses  of  the 
sun,  144  ;  that  the  moon  borrows  her 
light  from  the  sun,  146  ;  that  the  earth 
is  globular,  and  the  centre  of  the  uni- 
verse, 155;  of  earthquakes,  157;  of  the 
overflow  of  the  Nile,  160 ;  of  the  soul, 
161 ;  iv.  337,  480. 

Thaletas,  a  composer,  i.  110,  112;  power 
of  his  music,  133. 

Thamyras,  the  singer,  i.  105. 

Theanor,  ii.  395,  396. 

Thebes,  liberation  of,  ii.  414-523. 

Thectamenes,  apothegm  of,  i.  411. 

Themisteas,  apothegm  of,  i.  410. 

Themistocles  quoted,  i.  73 ;  his  saying, 
208  ;  suspected  of  treason,  290 ;  296, 480 ; 
quoted,  ii.  97,  311,  471  ;  his  kind  re- 
ception by  the  Persian  king,  iii.  21,  30  ; 
iv.  208,  361,  364 ;  v.  101,  116,  120,  121, 
127. 

Theo,  iii.  70,  71,  74,  88. 

Theocritus,  his  remark  and  death,  i.  25, 
73;  ii.  380;  iii.  516. 

Theodoras,  saying  of,  i.  142;  ii.  321 ;  849; 
iii.  31 ;  his  Book  of  Transformations,  v. 
464. 

Theognis,  i.  473  ;  ii.  59,  473  ;  iii.  506. 

Theon,  ii.  157,  et  seq. ;  v.  273-275. 

Theophilus,  his  Third  Book  of  Italian 
History,  v.  459  ;  Second  Book  of  Pelo- 
ponnesian  Histories,  470. 

Theophrastus,  savings  of,  i.  276,  304,  442, 
ii.  303  ;  iii.  45,  64  ;  v.  202,  218,  219,  331, 
427. 

Theopompus,  his  sayings,  i.  217,  410;  T. 
137. 

Theotinus,  his  Italian  History,  v.  456. 

Theramenes,  anecdote  of,  1.  306. 

Thermodon,  a  river  in  Scythia,  v.  495 

Thero,  anecdote  of,  iv.  2»6. 


INDEX. 


631 


Theseus  and  his  son  Hippolytus,  v.  471. 
Thespecius,  iv.  177,  182,  et  seq.  188. 
Thirst,  cause  of.  iii.  341. 
Thorycion,  apothegm  of,  i.  411. 
Thrasoiiides,  quoted,  ii.  297. 
Thucydides,  quoted,  i.  70,  76,  472,  490 ; 

quoted,  ii.  98, 117,  149,  152,  458 ;  quoted, 

iii.  88  ;  quoted,  iv.  141  ;  quoted,  v.  65, 
106,  403. 
Thunder,  of,  iii.  150. 
Thymbris,  and  his  son  Rustius,  v.  466. 
Tides,  of,  iii.  159. 
Tigris,  the  river,  v.  507. 
Timaeus,  his  opinion  of  tides,  iii.  159. 
Tiniesias,  the  oracle  and,  i.  471 ;  anecdote 

of,  V.  127. 
Time,   essence    and   nature   of,  iii.   127, 

128. 
Tiraoclea,   at  the   taking   of   Thebes,   i. 

376. 
Timoleon,  ii.  314. 
Tiraotheus,  tlie  musician,  anecdote  of,  i. 

92,  106  ;  ii.  83,  179,  212,  200;  v.  76. 
Titus  Quinctius,  apothegm  of,  i.  230. 
Tmolus,  mount,  v.  486. 
Torpedo  or  crampfish,  v.  201. 
Torquatus  and  Clusia,  v.  459. 
Tortoise,   their  care  for  their  young,  v. 

209. 
Training  of  children,  i.  3-32. 
Tranquillity  of  the  mind,  the,  i.  136-167. 
Transmutation  of  bodies,  i.  14. 
Trees  and  seeds,  watering  of,  iii.  496. 
Trees  not  nourished  by  sea-water,  iii.  495. 
Triangles,  of,  v.  433. 
Trisimachus,  his  book  of  Foundations  of 

Cities,  V.  455. 
Trochilus  and  crocodile,  v.  206. 
Troilus  wept  less  than  Priam,  i.  323. 
Trojan  women,  virtue  of  the,  i.  342. 
Trophonius  and  Agamedes,  i.  313. 
True  friendship,  of,  i.  464-474;  ii,  100- 

1.S4. 
True  happiness,  of,  v.  392. 
Tullus  Hostilius,  v.  455. 
Tunnies,  dim  sight  of  the,  v.  204. 
Typhon,  in  Egyptian  mythology,  iv.  80, 

81,  86,  88,  91,  92,  99,  101,  105,  109,  114, 

118,  122. 
Tyrrhene  women,  virtue  of  the,  i.  349. 


u. 


Ulysses,  i  160 ;  in  the  island  of  Circe,  v. 
218,  et  seq. 

Unity  of  God.  Of  the  word  u  engraven 
over  the  gate  of  the  temple  of  Apollo  at 
Delphi,  iv.  478-498. 

Universe,  whether  it  is  one,  iii.  114;  di- 
vision of  the,  V.  429. 

Unlearned  Prince,  discourse  to  an,  ii.  323- 
330. 

Usurers,  what  sort  of  men  they  are,  471. 

Usury,  evils  of,  v.  412-424. 


V. 

Vacuum,  of  a,  iii.  126  ;  there  can  be  none 

in  nature,  iv.  33 ;   suppose  there  were, 

it  would  have  no  beginning,  middle,  or 

end,  34. 
Valeria  and  Cloelia,  i.  356. 
Valerius  Conatus  swallowed  up  alive,  y. 

455. 
Valeria  Tusculanaria,  v.  464. 
Venus's  hands  wounded  by  Diomedes.  iii. 

141. 
Verses  seasonably  and  unseasonably  ap- 

phed,  iii.  4.S6. 
Vice  and  virtue,  ii.  480,  485. 
Vice,  whether  it  is  sufficient  to  render  a 

man  unhappy,  iv.  499-503. 
Vines  irrigated  with  wine,  iii.  513 ;  rank  (rf 

leaves,  iii.  513. 
Virtue  and  vice,  ii.  482-485. 
Virtue  may  be  taught,  i.  78-80. 
Virtue  of  Homer,  i.  340-384. 
Virtue  or  fortune,  to  which  of  these  was 

due  the  greatness  and  glory  of  Rome'' 

iv.  ■'98-219. 
Virtue,  progress  in,  ii.  446-474. 
Virtues  of  women,  i.  340-384. 
Vision,  doctrine  of,  iii.  168;  v.  236,  et  seq. 
Voice  is  incorporeal,  iii.  172. 
Voice,  of  the,  iii.  171. 
Vowels  and  semi-vowels,  iii.  438. 


w. 

Water  made  colder  by  stones  and  lead,  iii. 

348. 

Water  or  fire,  which  is  more  useful?  v. 
331-337. 

Water,  white  and  black,  iii.  518. 

Wealth,  the  love  of,  ii.  294-305. 

Well  water,  change  of  the  temperature  in, 
iii.  347. 

West  wind  the  swiftest,  iii.  515. 

Wliale,  of  the,  v.  207. 

Wheat,  sow,  in  clay,  iii.  505. 

Whether  an  aged  man  ought  to  meddle  in 
state  affairs,  v.  64-96. 

Whether  vice  is  sufficient  to  render  a  man 
unhappy,  iv.  499-503. 

Wliether  the  passions  of  the  soul,  or  dis- 
eases of  the  body,  are  worse,  iv.  604- 
508. 

Whether  'twere  rightly  said,  "  Live  con- 
cealed," iii.  3-10. 

Whirlwinds,  of,  iii.  150. 

Why  the  oracles  cease  to  give  answers,  iv. 
3-64. 

Wicked,  delay  of  Providence  in  punishing 
the,  iv.  140-188. 

Widows  in  India,  iv.  502. 

Wild  beasts,  steps  of,  iii.  609  ;  their  tracks, 
509. 

Wild  boars,  tears  of  the,  iii.  607. 


532 


INDEX. 


Winds,  of,  iii.  154. 

Wine,  whether  it  is  potentiall3'  cold,  iii. 
272-274 ;  straining  of,  351  ;  middle  of, 
370 ;  sea  water  upon,  502 ;  irrigation 
with,  513. 

Winter  and  summer,  cause  of,  iii.  141, 154. 

Winter,  ships  in,  iii.  500  ;  sea  least  hot  in, 
601. 

Wise  Men,  the  Seven,  Banquet  of,  ii  3-41 ; 
their  names,  iv.  480. 

Woman,  of  Pergamus,  i.  374. 

Woman  of  Thessaly  torn  in  pieces  by 
dogs,  V.  463. 

Women,  the  virtues  of,  i.  340-384 ;  bar- 
renness in,  iii.  181 ;  are  hardly  foxed, 
268-270  ;  temper  of,  270-272  ;  given  as 
the  price  of  peace,  v.  468. 

Word  ei  at  Apollo's  temple  at  Delphi,  iv. 
479-498. 

World,  how  it  was  brought  into  its  present 
order,  iii.  113. 

World,  of  the,  iii.  132 ;  figure  of  the,  133  ; 
wliether  it  bean  animal,  133;  whetlier 
it  is  eternal  and  incorruptible,  133 ;  its 
nutriment,  134  ;  from  what  element  was 
it  raised,  134  ;  in  wliat  form  and  order 
was  it  composed,  135 ;  cause  of  its  in- 
clination, 136  ;  thing  which  is  beyond 
the,  136 ;  wliat  parts  on  the  right  and 
left  hand,  137. 

Worlds,  plurality  of,  iv.  29-38. 

Wrestling,  of,  iii.  24G. 


X. 


Xanthippe,  wife  of  Socrates,  anecdotes  of, 

i.  53,  292. 
Xenaentus,  v.  109. 
Xenocrates,    anecdote    of,    i.    71 ;    442 ; 


his  opinions    concerning    the    soul,   ii. 

327  ;  439  ;  of  triangles,  iii.  17  ;  24,  139  ; 

his  opinion  about  daemons,  iv.  87  ;  say 

ing  of,  V.  10,  494. 
Xenocrita,  a  composer,  i.  110  ;  380. 
Xenodamus,  a  composer,  i.  110. 
Xenoplianes,    his   reply,   i.   66,    183 ;    his 

philosoplucal  opinions,  iii.  134,  138,  141, 

144,  145,  150,  155;  quoted,  ii.  49;  iv, 

291. 
Xenophon  quoted,  i.  137 ;  maxim  of,  281, 

333,  447  ;  ii.   115,  144,   178,  301,  307  ; 

the  scene  of  his  old  age,  iii.  24 ;  v.  67, 

72,  121,  113.  139. 
Xerxes,  his  saying,  i.  39,  187 ;  and  Ari- 

manes,  iii.  59,  60 ;  invasion  of  Greece, 

V.  451,  452. 

Y. 

Year,  length  of,  in  different  planets,  iii 
147. 


Zaleucus,  laws  of,  ii.  315. 

Zaratas,  ii.  327. 

Zeno,  saying  of,  i.  56;    anecdotes  of,  72, 

142,  283  ;  ii.  321,  365,  455  ;  quoted,  467  ; 

481 ;  iii.  25,  113,  125,  128, 132-135,  139 ; 

his  definition  of  virtue,  462 ;  anecdote 

of,  iv.  225 ;  v.  382. 
Zenocrates,  v.  288,  377,  441. 
Zeuxidamus,  apothegm  of,  i.  410. 
Zeuxippus,  dialogue  on  health,  i.  251-277 

ii.  157  ets&f. ;  iv.  270,  278,  288. 
Zeiixis,  reply  of,  i.  468. 
Zopyrus  Byzantius,   his   Third  Book  of 

Histories,  v.  473. 
Zoroaster,  ii.  357  ;  iv.  106. 


Cambridge ;  Press  of  John  Wilson  and  Son. 


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