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And now, God be praised, there is an end of all those
questions which were the grounds of consulting the oracle.
For now we repose altogether in the soft slumbers of peace;
all our wars are at an end. There are now no tumults, no
civil seditions, no tyrannies, no pestilences nor calamities
depopulating Greece, no epidemic diseases needing powerful and choice drugs and medicines. Now, when there is
nothing of variety, nothing of mystery, nothing dangerous,
but only bare and ordinary questions about small trifles
and vulgar things, as whether a man may marry, whether
take a voyage by sea, or lend his money safely at interest,—and when the most important enquiries of cities are concerning the next harvest, the increase of their cattle, or
the health of the inhabitants,—there to make use of
verses, ambiguous words, and confounding obscurities,
[p. 101]
where the questions require short and easy answers, causes
us to suspect that the sacred minister studies only cramp
expressions, like some ambitious sophister, to wrest admiration from the ignorant. But the Pythian priestess is
naturally of a more generous disposition; and therefore,
when she is busy with the Deity, she has more need of
truth than of satisfying her vain-glory, or of minding
either the commendations or the dispraise of men.
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. 3.
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