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These, said I, are the preliminaries, which I would
have you make use of against those choleric accusers and
testy snarlers of whom I have given you warning. But
now to take in hand once more, as it were, the first end of
the bottom of thread, in this same dark discourse of the
Gods, wherein there are so many windings and turnings
and gloomy labyrinths, let us by degrees and with caution
direct our steps to what is most likely and probable. For,
even in those things which fall under our daily practice
and management, we are many times at a loss to determine
the undoubted and unquestioned truth. For example,
what certain reason can be given for that custom amongst
us, of ordering the children of parents that die of a consumption or a dropsy to sit with both their feet soaking in
the water till the dead body be burnt? For people believe,
that thereby the disease is prevented from becoming hereditary, and also that it is a charm to secure those children
from it as long as they live. Again, what should be the
reason, that if a goat take a piece of sea-holly in her
mouth, the whole herd will stand still till the goat-herd
come and take it out? Other hidden properties there are,
which, by virtue of certain touches and transitions, pass
from some bodies into others with incredible swiftness and
often to incredible distances. But we are more apt to
wonder at distances of time than those of space. And yet
there is more reason to wonder, that Athens should be
infected with an epidemic contagion taking its rise in
Ethiopia, that Pericles should die and Thucydides be smitten with the infection, than that, upon the impiety of the
Delphians and Sybarites, delayed vengeance should at
length overtake their posterity. For these hidden powers
and properties have their sacred connections and correspondences between their utmost endings and their first
beginnings; of which although the causes be concealed
from us, yet silently they bring to pass their proper effects.
[p. 166]
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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