Complete Works of Plutarch Part 76

What's wrong is so,--believe men what they will.

And Cleanthes, hearing this pa.s.sage concerning wealth:--

Great is th' advantage that great wealth attends, For oft with it we purchase health and friends, (Euripides, "Electra," 428.)

presently altered it thus:

Great disadvantage oft attends on wealth; We purchase wh.o.r.es with't and destroy our health.

And Zeno corrected that of Sophocles,

The man that in a tyrant's palace dwells His liberty for's entertainment sells,

after this manner:--

No: if he came in free, he cannot lose His liberty, though in a tyrant's house;

meaning by a free man one that is undaunted and magnanimous, and one of a spirit too great to stoop beneath itself. And why may not we also, by some such acclamations as those, call off young men to the better side, by using some things spoken by poets after the same manner? For example, it is said,

'Tis all that in this life one can require, To hit the mark he aims at in desire.

To which we may reply thus:--

'Tis false; except one level his desire At what's expedient, and no more require.

For it is an unhappy thing and not to be wished, for a man to obtain and be master of what he desires if it be inexpedient. Again this saying,

Thou, Agamemnon, must thyself prepare Of joy and grief by turns to take thy share, Thy father, Atreus, sure, ne'er thee begat, To be an unchanged favorite of Fate: (Euripides, "Iphigenia at Aulus," 29.)

we may thus invert:--

Thy father, Atreus, never thee begat, To be an unchanged favorite of Fate: Therefore, if moderate thy fortunes are, Thou shouldst rejoice always, and grief forbear.

Again it is said,

Alas! this ill comes from the powers divine That oft we see what's good, yet it decline.

(From the "Chrysippus" of Euripides, Frag. 838.)

Yea, rather, say we, it is a brutish and irrational and wretched fault of ours, that when we understand better things, we are carried away to the pursuit of those which are worse, through our intemperance and effeminacy. Again, one says,

For not the teacher's speech but practice moves.

(From Menander.)

Yea, rather, say we, both the speech and practice,--or the practice by the means of speech,--as the horse is managed with the bridle, and the s.h.i.+p with the helm. For virtue hath no instrument so suitable and agreeable to human nature to work on men withal, as that of rational discourse. Again, we meet with this character of some person:--

A. Is he more inclined to male or female love?

B. He bends both ways, where beauty moves.

But it had been better said thus:--

He's flexible to both, where virtue moves.

For it is no commendation of a man's dexterity to be tossed up and down as pleasure and beauty move him, but an argument rather of a weak and unstable disposition. Once more, this speech,

Religion damps the courage of our minds, And ev'n wise men to cowardice inclines,

is by no means to be allowed; but rather the contrary,

Religion truly fortifies men's minds, And a wise man to valiant acts inclines,

and gives not occasion of fear to any but weak and foolish persons and such as are ungrateful to the Deity, who are apt to look on that divine power and principle which is the cause of all good with suspicion and jealousy, as being hurtful unto them. And so much for that which I call correction of poets' sayings.

There is yet another way of improving poems, taught us well by Chrysippus; which is, by accommodation of any saying, to transfer that which is useful and serviceable in it to divers things of the same kind.

For whereas Hesiod saith,

If but a cow miscarry, the common fame Upon the next ill neighbor lays the blame; (Hesiod, "Work and Days," 348.)

the same may be applied to a man's dog or a.s.s or any other beast of his which is liable to the like mischance. Again, Euripides saith,

How can that man be called a slave, who slights Ev'n death itself, which servile spirits frights?

the like whereof may be said of hard labor or painful sickness. For as physicians, finding by experience the force of any medicine in the cure of some one disease, make use of it by accommodation, proportionably to every other disease of affinity thereto, so are we to deal with such speeches as are of a common import and apt to communicate their value to other things; we must not confine them to that one thing only to which they were at first adapted, but transfer them to all other of like nature, and accustom young men by many parallel instances to see the communicableness of them, and exercise the promptness of their wits in such applications so that when Menander says,

Happy is he who wealth and wisdom hath,

they may be able to judge that the same is fitly applicable to glory and authority and eloquence also. And the reproof which Ulysses gives Achilles, when he found him sitting in Scyrus in the apartment of the young ladies,

Thou, who from n.o.blest Greeks deriv'st thy race, Dost thou with spinning wool thy birth disgrace?

may be as well given to the prodigal, to him that undertakes any dishonest way of living, yea, to the slothful and unlearned person, thus:--

Thou, who from n.o.blest Greeks deriv'st thy race, Dost thou with fuddling thy great birth disgrace?

or dost thou spend thy time in dicing, or quail-striking, (The word here used [Greek omitted] denotes a game among the Grecians, which Suidas describes to be the setting of quails in a round compa.s.s or ring and striking at the heads of them; and he that in the ring struck one had liberty to strike at the rest in order, but he that missed was obliged to set up quails for others; and this they did by turns.) or deal in adulterate wares or griping usury, not minding anything that is great and worthy thy n.o.ble extraction? So when they read,

For wealth, the G.o.d most served, I little care, Since the worst men his favors often wear, (From the "Aeolus," of Euripides, Frag. 20.)

they may be able to infer, therefore, as little regard is to be had to glory and bodily beauty and princely robes and priestly garlands, all which also we see to be the enjoyments of very bad men. Again, when they read this pa.s.sage,

A coward father propagates his vice, And gets a son heir to his cowardice,

they may in truth apply the same to intemperance, to superst.i.tion, to envy, and all other diseases of men's minds. Again, whereas it is handsomely said of Homer,

Unhappy Paris, fairest to behold!

and

Hector, of n.o.ble form.