Puffed like the down of a gray-headed thistle.If it be a pleasing thing then to be of a good fame, it is on the contrary afflictive to be of an ill one; and it is most certain that nothing in the world can be more infamous [p. 188] than want of friendship, idleness, atheism, debauchery, and negligence. Now these are looked upon by all men except themselves as inseparable companions of their party. But unjustly, some one may say. Be it so then; for we consider not now the truth of the charge, but what fame and reputation they are of in the world. And we shall forbear at present to mention the many books that have been written to defame them, and the blackening decrees made against them by several republics; for that would look like bitterness. But if the answers of oracles, the providence of the Gods, and the tenderness and affection of parents to their issue,—if civil policy, military order, and the office of magistracy be things to be looked upon as deservedly esteemed and celebrated, it must of necessity then be allowed also, that they that tell us it is none of their business to preserve the Greeks, but they must eat and drink so as not to offend but pleasure their stomachs, are base and ignominious persons, and that their being reputed such must needs extremely humble them and make their lives untoward to them, if they take honor and a good name for any part of their satisfaction.
This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
Table of Contents:
And do not they then that stand so well affected
towards applause and fame themselves own they cast away
very extraordinary pleasures, when they decline magistrature, public offices, and the favor and confidences of princes,
from whom Democritus once said the grandest blessings of
human life are derived? For he will never induce any mortal
to believe, that he that could so highly value and please
himself with the attestation of his brother Neocles and the
adoration of his friend Colotes would not, were he clapped
by all the Greeks at the Olympiads, go quite out of his
wits and even hollow for joy, or rather indeed be elated
in the manner spoken of by Sophocles,
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. 2.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.