Plutarch

“ Howbeit, the most part mightily fear and have in horror that verse of Menander:
No man alive can safely say,
This case shall never me assay,
as not knowing how material it is to the exempting and freeing of a man from all grief and sorrow, to meditate beforehand, and to be able to look open-eyed full against fortune, and not to make those apprehensions and imaginations in himself soft and effeminate, as if he were fostered and nourished in the shadow, under many foolish hopes which ever yield to the contrary, and be not able to resist so much as any one. ”

“ For otherwise a man cannot devise nor express how and in what sort a flatterer could insinuate himself and creep into favour, under the colour of pleasure, if he saw that friendship in the own nature never admitted anything that was pleasant and delectable. But like as false and counterfeit pieces of gold, which will not abide the touch, represent only the lustre and bright glittering of gold: So a flatterer resembling the sweet and pleasant behaviour of a friend, sheweth himself always jocund, merry and delightsome, without crossing at any time. ”

“ When thou hast studied philosophy and profited therein, thou shalt never lead a life in discontentment, but shalt learn how to away with any estate and course of life, and therein find no small joy and heart's ease. Thy riches thou wilt rejoice in, because thou shalt have better means to do good unto all men: In poverty likewise thou wilt take joy in regard thou shalt have fewer cares to trouble thee: Glory will turn to thy solace, when thou shalt see thyself so honoured: and thy low estate and obscure condition will be no less comfort, for that thou shalt be safe and secured from envy. ”

“ Neither would Pollux take upon him to be a god alone by himself, but chose rather with his brother Castor to be a demi-god, and for to communicate unto him his own immortality, thought it no disgrace to participate with his mortal condition; and even so may a man say unto one whom he would admonish: My good friend, it lies in you without diminishing one whit of those good things which you have at this present, to make your brother equal unto yourself, and to join him in honour with you, giving him leave to enjoy (as it were) your greatness, your glory, your virtue, and your fortune ”

“ For it is mere madness to grieve and sorrow for those things that are lost and gone, and not to rejoice for that which is saved. And like as little children, if a man chance to take from them but one of their gauds, among many other toys that they play withal, throw away the rest for very curst-heart, and then fall a-puling, weeping and crying out aright; semblably, as much folly and childishness it were, if when fortune thwarteth us in one thing, we be so far out of the way and disquieted therewith, that with our plaints and moans we make all her other favours unprofitable unto us. ”

“ First, a man must consider well whether there be an uniform equality in all his intentions and actions or no? whether he continue and persist still, taking pleasure in the same things, and praising the same at all times? whether he compose and direct his life according to one and the same mould and pattern? like as it becometh a man who is an ingenuous lover of that friendship and conversation which is ever after one manner, and always like itself: for such a one indeed is a true friend. ”

“ There shall curiosity find the ruins of men, the wasting and consuming of their state, the spoil of wives and other women, the deceitful trains of servants to beguile their masters, the calumniations and slanderous surmises raised by friends, poisoning casts, envy, jealousy, shipwreck and overthrow of houses, calamities and utter undoing of princes and great rulers: Satisfy thyself herewith to the full, and take thy pleasure therein as much as thou wilt ”

“ But there is nothing that doth so much hurt unto our tranquillity of mind as this, when our affection and will to a thing is disproportioned unto our might and power; as if we set up greater sails than our vessel will bear, building our hopes and desires as castles in the air without a sound foundation, and promising ourselves more than reason is; for afterwards when by proof we see that we cannot reach thereto, and find that the success is not answerable to our conceit, we grumble by and by against fortune, and we blame our destiny; whereas we should accuse our own folly and rashness. ”

“ For as it were a point of great folly and madness to adorn the statue of a brother, and in the meantime to beat and maim his body; even so, to reverence and honour the name of a brother in others, and withal to shun, hate, and disdain a brother indeed, were the case of one that were out of his wits, and who never conceived in his heart and mind that nature is the most sacred and holy thing in the world. ”

“ And now of this point, needless it is to discourse any longer.
But forasmuch as many men neither will nor dare control and reform their friends when they do amiss, so long as they be in prosperity; as being of opinion that such admonition cannot have access nor reach into a fortunate state that standeth upright; and yet the same persons when men are falling, are ready to lay them along, and being once down, to make a football of them, or tread them under feet, or else keep them so when they be once under the hatches, giving their liberty of speech full scope to run over them all at once ”

“ And yet we must not forget nor omit those blessings and comforts of this life which we enjoy in common with many more, but to make some reckoning and account of them: and namely to joy in this, that we live; that we have our health; that we behold the light of the sun; that we have neither war abroad nor civil sedition and dissension at home; but that the land yieldeth itself arable and to be tilled, and the sea navigable to every one that will, without fear of danger; that it is lawful for us to speak and keep silence at our pleasure ”

“ As for us, we can cast a wanton eye secretly into the coaches and horse-litters of wives and women as they ride, we can look out of our windows, and hang with our bodies half forth, to take the full view of them as they pass by: and all this while we think that we commit no fault, suffering our curious eye and wandering mind to slide and run to everything. ”

“ Crates, the philosopher of Thebes, therefore did very well, Who being in danger and debt to no man, only wearied with the cares and troubles of housekeeping, and the pensive thoughts how to hold his own, left all and gave over his estate and patrimony, which amounted to the value of eight talents, took himself to his bag and wallet, to his simple robe and cloak of coarse cloth, and fled into the sanctuary and liberties of philosophy and poverty. ”

“ Men learn to sing, to dance, to read and write, to till the ground, and to ride horses, they learn likewise to shoe themselves, to do on their apparel decently; they are taught to wait at cup and trencher, to give drink at the table, to season and dress meat: and none of all this can they skill to perform and do handsomely, if they be not trained thereto: and yet shall that, for which these and such-like qualities they learn, to wit, good life and honest conversation, be reckoned a mere casual thing, coming by chance and fortune, and which can neither be taught nor learned? ”

“ For it is not long of any opinions good or bad which arise in them, that some of them are strong, venturous and fearless, yea, and ready to withstand any perils presented before them; others again be so surprised with fear and fright that they dare not stir or do anything: but the force and power which lieth in the blood, in the spirits and in the whole body, is that which causeth this diversity of passions, by reason that the passible part, growing out of the flesh as from a root, doth bud forth and bring with it a quality and proneness semblable. ”

“ But no sooner had Plato incurred his displeasure and was out of favour: no sooner had Denys the Tyrant bidden philosophy farewell, and given himself again to belly-cheer, to wine, vanities, wantonness, and all looseness of life: but all at once it seemed the whole court was transformed likewise (as it were by the sorcery and enchantment of Circes) into hatred and detestation of good letters; so as they forgat all goodness, and betook themselves to folly and sottishness. ”

“ But principally we are to observe whether our wrangling humour and desire to be cavilling about questions disputable be allayed in us or no, as also whether we have yet given over to devise reasons and arguments to assail others; like as champions armed with hurlbats of tough leather about their arms, and balls in their hands, to annoy their concurrents, taking more pleasure and delight to fell and astonish with one rap our adversary, and so to lay him along on the earth, than to learn or teach him: for surely modesty, mildness, and courtesy in this kind will do well ”

“ Moreover, before and all about the image or idol to which the sacrifice was made, the place resounded and rung again with the noise of flutes and hautboys, with the sound also of drums and timbrels, to the end that the pitiful cry of the poor infants should not be heard. Now if any Tryphones or other such-like giants, having chased and driven out the gods, should usurp the empire of the world and rule over us, what other sacrifices would they delight in, or what offerings else and service besides could they require at men's hands? ”

“ But surely this feebleness of mind and faint heart of theirs resembleth the weak constitution and temperature of the body, which cannot away either with scorching heat or chilling cold. For be they praised by those who set upon them thus impudently, they are ready to leap out of their skins for joy; and say they doubt for to be accused, checked, rebuked or suspected, if haply they deny, then they are ready to die for woe and fear. ”

“ Now then, and never before, begin we to take an hatred to vices, when by the light of reason we consider and weigh the shame and loss that cometh unto us by them: as for example, we know and see that these great praters, whiles they desire to win love, gain hatred; thinking to do a pleasure, they displease; looking to be well esteemed, are mocked and derided; they lay for lucre, and get nothing; they hurt their friends, aid their enemies, and undo themselves. ”

“ That he who is accustomed to praise his enemies, and neither to grieve nor envy at their welfare, shall the better abide the prosperity of his friend, and be furthest off from envying his familiars in any good success or honour that by well-doing they have achieved. And is there any other exercise in the world that can bring greater profit unto our souls, or work a better disposition and habit in them, than that which riddeth us of emulation and the humour of envy? ”

“ For to say a truth, most of our friendships be but shadows, semblances and images of that first amity which nature hath imprinted and engraffed in children toward their parents, in brethren toward their brethren: and he who doth not reverence nor honour it, how can he persuade and make strangers believe that he beareth sound and faithful goodwill unto strangers? Or what man is he who in his familiar greetings and salutations, or in his letters, will call his friend and companion brother, and cannot find in his heart so much as to go with his brother in the same way? ”

“ But these flatterers will affirm that kings and princes, rich men and rulers, are not only blessed, happy, and fortunate; but also excel all others in wisdom, knowledge and virtue. There is not one of them that can endure so much as to hear the Stoics, who hold that the sage and wise man (such a one as they depaint unto us) ought all at once to be called rich, fair, noble, yea, and a king: whereas our flatterers will have the rich man only, whom they are disposed to flatter, to be an orator and a poet ”

“ For there is (my good friend) a ready means in the very beginning to break the force of choler, like as there is a way to dissolve a tyrannical rule and dominion, that is to say, not to obey at the first, not to give ear and be ruled by her commandment, when she shall bid thee to speak and cry out aloud, or to look with a terrible countenance, or to knock or beat thyself; but to be still and quiet, and not to reinforce and increase the passion, as men do exasperate a sickness with struggling, striving, tossing and roaring out aloud. ”

“ Who feed on fruits of earth so manifold,
be either more honoured or richer than himself, will not therefore be cast down straightway, and sit mourning and lamenting for sorrow; but rather in the way as he goeth, and whensoever he Cometh abroad, salute and bless with praise and thanksgiving that good fortune of his and blessed angel that guideth his life, for that his lot is to live far better, more at heart's ease, and in greater reputation than many millions of millions of other men. ”

“ But contrariwise, it fareth with a flatterer even as with the chameleon; for as he can take upon him any colour save only white; semblably, a flatterer cannot possibly frame himself to anything that good is and of importance: but there is no naughtiness and badness in the world which he will not quickly imitate. And well I may compare such fellows to ill painters, who when through insufficiency in their art they be not able to draw to the life, the beauty and favour of a good face, will be sure yet to express the rivels, warts, moles, freckles, scars and such-like deformities. ”

“ But it should seem that curiosity delighteth not in such naughty things that be very old and long since done; but in those which be fresh, fire new, hot and lately committed, as joying more to behold new tragedies. As for comedies and matters of mirth, she is not greatly desirous to be acquainted with such. And therefore, if a man do make report of a marriage, discourse of a solemn sacrifice, or of a goodly shew or pomp that was set forth, the curious busybody (whom we speak of) will take small regard thereto and hear it but coldly and negligently. ”