Plutarch, who was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia, probably about A.D. 50,
and was a contemporary of Tacitus and Pliny, has written two works still
extant, the well-known _Lives_, and the less-known _Moralia_. The
_Lives_ have often been translated, and have always been a popular work.
Great indeed was their power at the period of the French Revolution. The
_Moralia_, on the other hand, consisting of various Essays on various
subjects (only twenty-six of which are directly ethical, though they
have given their name to the _Moralia_), are declared by Mr. Paley "to
be practically almost unknown to most persons in Britain, even to those
who call themselves scholars."[1] _Habent etiam sua fata libelli._
In older days the _Moralia_ were more valued. Montaigne, who was a great
lover of Plutarch, and who observes in one passage of his Essays that
"Plutarch and Seneca were the only two books of solid learning he
seriously settled himself to read," quotes as much from the _Moralia_ as
from the _Lives_. And in the seventeenth century I cannot but think the
_Moralia_ were largely read at our Universities, at least at the
University of Cambridge. For, not to mention the wonderful way in which
the famous Jeremy Taylor has taken the cream of "Conjugal Precepts" in
his Sermon called "The Marriage Ring," or the large and copious use he
has made in his "Holy Living" of three other Essays in this volume,
namely, those "On Curiosity," "On Restraining Anger," and "On
Contentedness of Mind," proving conclusively what a storehouse he found
the _Moralia_, we have evidence that that most delightful poet, Robert
Herrick, read the _Moralia_, too, when at Cambridge, so that one cannot
but think it was a work read in the University course generally in those
days. For in a letter to his uncle written from Cambridge, asking for
books or money for books, he makes the following remark: "How kind
Arcisilaus the philosopher was unto Apelles the painter, Plutark in his
Morals will tell you."[2]
In 1882 the Reverend C. W. King, Senior Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge, translated the six "Theosophical Essays" of the _Moralia_,
forming a volume in Bohn's Classical Library. The present volume
consists of the twenty-six "Ethical Essays," which are, in my opinion,
the cream of the _Moralia_, and constitute a highly interesting series
of treatises on what might be called "The Ethics of the Hearth and
Home." I have grouped these Essays in such a manner as to enable the
reader to read together such as touch on the same or on kindred
subjects.
As is well known, the text of the _Moralia_ is very corrupt, and the
reading very doubtful, in many places. In eight of the twenty-six Essays
in this volume I have had the invaluable help of the text of Rudolf
Hercher; help so invaluable that one cannot but sadly regret that only
one volume of the _Moralia_ has yet appeared in the _Bibliotheca
Teubneriana_. Wyttenbach's text and notes I have always used when
available, and when not so have fallen back upon Reiske. Reiske is
always ingenious, but too fond of correcting a text, and the criticism
of him by Wyttenbach is perhaps substantially correct. "In nullo
auctore habitabat; vagabatur per omnes: nec apud quemquam tamdiu
divertebat, ut in paulo interiorem ejus consuetudinem se insinuaret." I
have also had constantly before me the Didot Edition of the _Moralia_,
edited by Frederic Duebner.
Let any reader who wishes to know more about Plutarch, consult the
article on Plutarch, in the Ninth Edition of the _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, by the well-known scholar F. A. Paley. He will also do well
to read an Essay on Plutarch by R. W. Emerson, reprinted in Volume III.
of the Bohn's Standard Library Edition of Emerson's Works, and Five
Lectures on Plutarch by the late Archbishop Trench, published by Messrs.
Macmillan and Co. in 1874. All these contain much of interest, and will
repay perusal.
In conclusion, I hope this little volume will be the means of making
popular some of the best thoughts of one of the most interesting and
thoughtful of the ancients, who often seems indeed almost a modern.
Cambridge,
_March_, 1888.
[1] See article _Plutarch_, in _Encyclopaedia
Britannica_, Ninth Edition.
[2] Grosart's _Herrick_, vol. i. p. liii. See in this
volume, p. 180, and also note to p. 288. Richard Baxter
again is always quoting the _Moralia_.
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