A few notes of general character are here appended. Biographical and
mythological details may be found in classical dictionaries. They are,
however, rarely necessary to make clear the object of the author’s
allusions. A word or a phrase not in the original has, in a few cases,
been inserted in the translation to preclude the necessity of a note.
Τοῦ θείου of the title. It is not clear from the writings of
Plutarch to what extent he was a monotheist. He uses θεὸς both with
and without the article. In some cases his meaning is perfectly
clear; in others not. The New Testament writers, whose monotheism is
beyond question, frequently use the article before the name of God.
In like manner proper names sometimes have the article and sometimes
are without it. Thus we have Παῦλος and ὁ Παῦλος, Πιλᾶτος usually
has the article while Τίτος never has it, etc.
CHAP. 3. The thought here expressed regarding the mills of the gods
has been put into the form of a couplet by Longfellow in his Poetic
Aphorisms, thus:
“Though the mills of God grind slowly
yet they grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting,
with exactness grinds He all.”
The purport of the passage is plain, but the parallelism between the
fact and the figure is not very close. The idea is much older than
Plutarch.
CHAP. 4. “The ingle-side” or ancestral hearth. According to the
ancients the hearth was the center and beginning of the family and
the state. The expression, which is often used by Plato and others,
is equivalent to the _remotest beginning_. Compare also the Roman
Vesta.
5. “God having placed Himself,” etc. The following extract from the
Timaeus of Plato will serve to illustrate our author’s meaning. “Let
me tell you then why the Creator made this world of generation. He
was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And
being free from jealousy, he desired that all things should be as
like himself as they could be. This is in the truest sense the
origin of creation and of the world, as we shall do well in
believing on the testimony of wise men. God desired that all things
should be good and nothing bad, so far as this was attainable.
Wherefore also finding the whole visible sphere not at rest, but
moving in an irregular and disorderly fashion, out of disorder he
brought order, considering that this was in every way better than
the other. Now the deeds of the best could never be or have been
other than the fairest and best; and the Creator, reflecting on the
things which are by nature visible, found that no unintelligent
creature taken as a whole was fairer than the intelligent taken as a
whole; and that intelligence could not be present in anything which
was devoid of soul. For which reason, when he was framing the
universe, he put intelligence in soul, and soul in body, that he
might be the creator of a work which was, by nature, fairest.
Wherefore, using the language of probability, we may say that the
world became a living creature, truly endowed with soul and
intelligence by the providence of God.”
6. “Souls going forth from him.” The idea here is, that the human
soul existed previous to its incarnation in the human body, and that
it is a direct emanation from the Deity. This doctrine is fully
expounded by Plato. How to establish the immortality of the soul, if
it comes into existence with the body, was a serious problem with
the ancients. Plutarch seems to have regarded both the soul and the
body as eternal and uncreated, but the latter without form until it
was united with the soul. Or we may put the case otherwise by saying
that the soul, upon entering into a conscious existence, shapes the
hitherto formless body into an abode for itself. He also holds that
the soul consists of two parts: The one part seeks after truth and
has an affection for the beautiful; the other is subject to the
passions and under the dominion of error. “For which reason,” the
author here assumes that the words ἔθος and ἦθος are from the same
root. The former means, use and wont; the latter was originally
applied to the haunts or abodes of animals; then the manners,
habits, and dispositions of men. Aristotle says, ἡ δ᾽ ἠθικὴ ἐξ ἔθους
περιγίνεται, ὅθεν καὶ τοῦνομα ἔσχηκε μικρὸν περικλῖνον ἀπὸ τοῦ
ἤθους. (Ethical is from ἔθος, for which reason the word differs but
slightly from ἤθος.) Plutarch himself says that custom is second
nature. It is easy to trace the connection between a man’s acts and
the psychical forces, the character, that produces them.
8. “An ill-omened deed.” It was a prevalent belief in antiquity that
misfortunes fell upon those who were concerned in disturbing a
swallow’s nest.
10. Near the end. The Greeks ventured to consult oracles of the dead
only on rare and extraordinary occasions. They probably borrowed the
custom from the East.
11. The story of Glaucus is told at length by Herodotus in the third
book of his history and is often alluded to by later writers. The
ethical import of the anecdote is far-reaching.
17. “Gardens of Adonis.” Shakespeare probably had these in mind when
he wrote (King Henry VI. Part 1, scene sixth): “Thy promises are
like Adonis’ gardens, That one day bloomed and fruitful were the
next.” At Taenarus, the most southern point of the Peloponnesus,
there was believed to be an entrance to the lower world.
22. “None more dreaded by his enemies.” To return good for good and
evil for evil was a fundamental article of Greek ethics. It is more
than once alluded to in the Anabasis, and is found in nearly all
Greek writers. Socrates, however, takes a firm stand against the
principle and maintains that whatever is intrinsically wrong can
never under any circumstances become right.
“An inclination toward the earth.” The author here assumes that
γένεσις, procreation, beginning, is both in fact and etymologically,
connected with νεῦσις ἐπὶ γῆν, an inclination or tendency toward the
earth. It need hardly be said that his idea is pure fancy.
This eruption of Vesuvius, as is well known, took place in the year
79. Decaearchea or Puteoli was one of the cities destroyed together
with Herculaneum, Pompei and others. Vespasian was one of the few
Roman emperors, who, up to his time, died a natural death.
What is meant by a Pindaric viper is not known. Plutarch is
evidently of the opinion that its young gnaw their way out of the
mother’s womb instead of being born in the natural way, and the
allusion to Nero’s treatment of his mother is plain. Nero’s love for
music and his proficiency in the musical art are evidently held up
to ridicule in this passage.