A martial host, ghastly with bloody arms,1all wounded in the fore part of their bodies, distilling blood mingled with sweat, and they lean upon the bending spoils [p. 201] of their enemies. If you enquire who they are, they answer, We are of the Fabricii, Camilli, and Lucii, and Cincinnati, and Fabii Maximi, and Claudii Marcelli, and the Scipios. I perceive also in the train of Virtue Caius Marius angry with Fortune, and Mucius Scaevola holding out his burning 'hand and crying with a loud voice, Will ye attribute this to Fortune also? And Marcus Horatius, who behaved himself gallantly at the river Tiber, when he cut the bridge and swam over, being loaded with Tyrrhenian darts, showing his wounded thigh, thus expostulates from out of the deep whirlpit of the river, Was I also thus maimed by mere chance? Such is the company of Virtue, when she comes to the dispute; ‘a company powerful in arms, terrible to their foes.’
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And now methinks I behold, as from a turret, Virtue
and Fortune coming to this conference. As to Virtue, her
gait is modest, her countenance grave, the blushing color
of her face shows her earnest desire of obtaining victory
and honor in this contest. Fortune in her hasty pace,
leaves her far behind, but she is led and accompanied by
many brave and gallant men,
1 Odyss. XI. 41.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 4.
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