For to have apologized to every one had been too servile and
misbecoming the dignity of his person; whereas equally to have
neglected every one had been an act of insolence and imprudence. And
very handsome it is that Diomedes, though in the heat of the battle he
answers the king only with silence, yet after the battle was over useth
more liberty towards him, speaking thus:—
You called me coward, sir, before the Greeks.
It is expedient also to take notice of the different carriage of a wise
man and of a soothsayer popularly courting the multitude. For Chalcas
very unseasonably makes no scruple to traduce the king before the
people, as having been the cause of the pestilence that was befallen
them. But Nestor, intending to bring in a discourse concerning the
reconciling Achilles to him, that he might not seem to charge Agamemnon
before the multitude with the miscarriage his passion had occasioned,
only adviseth him thus:—
But thou, O king, to council call the old....
Wise weighty counsels aid a state distress’d,
And such a monarch as can choose the best;
which done, accordingly after supper he sends his ambassadors. Now this
speech of Nestor tended to the rectifying of what he had before done
amiss; but that of Chalcas, only to accuse and disparage him.
There is likewise consideration to be had of the different manners
of nations, such as these. The Trojans enter into battle with loud
outcries and great fierceness; but in the army of the Greeks,
Sedate and silent move the numerous bands;
No sound, no whisper, but the chief’s commands;
Those only heard, with awe the rest obey.
For when soldiers are about to engage an enemy, the awe they stand in
of their officers is an argument both of courage and obedience. For
which purpose Plato teacheth us that we ought to inure ourselves to
fear blame and disgrace more than labor and danger. And Cato was wont
to say that he liked men that were apt to blush better than those that
looked pale.
Moreover, there is a particular character to be noted of the men who
undertake for any action. For Dolon thus promiseth:—
I’ll pass through all their host in a disguise
To their flag-ship, where she at anchor lies.
But Diomedes promiseth nothing, but only tells them he shall fear
the less if they send a companion with him; whereby is intimated,
that discreet foresight is Grecian and civil, but rash confidence is
barbarous and evil; and the former is therefore to be imitated, and the
latter to be avoided.
It is a matter too of no unprofitable consideration, how the minds
of the Trojans and of Hector too were affected when he and Ajax were
about to engage in a single combat. For Aeschylus, when, upon one of
the fighters at fisticuffs in the Isthmian games receiving a blow on
the face, there was made a great outcry among the people, said: “What
a thing is practice! See how the lookers-on only cry out, but the man
that received the stroke is silent.” But when the poet tells us, that
the Greeks rejoiced when they saw Ajax in his glistering armor, but
The Trojans’ knees for very fear did quake,
And even Hector’s heart began to ache;[70]
who is there that wonders not at this difference,—when the heart of
him that was to run the risk of the combat only beats inwardly, as if
he were to undertake a mere wrestling or running match, but the very
bodies of the spectators tremble and shake, out of the kindness and
fear which they had for their king?
In the same poet also we may observe the difference betwixt the humor
of a coward and a valiant man. For Thersites
Against Achilles a great malice had,
And wise Ulysses he did hate as bad;
but Ajax is always represented as friendly to Achilles; and
particularly he speaks thus to Hector concerning him:—
Hector! approach my arm, and singly know
What strength thou hast, and what the Grecian foe.
Achilles shuns the fight; yet some there are
Not void of soul, and not unskill’d in war:
wherein he insinuates the high commendation of that valiant man. And in
what follows, he speaks like handsome things of his fellow-soldiers in
general, thus:—
Whole troops of heroes Greece has yet to boast,
And sends thee one, a sample of her host;
wherein he doth not boast himself to be the only or the best champion,
but one of those, among many others, who were fit to undertake that
combat.
What hath been said is sufficient upon the point of dissimilitudes;
except we think fit to add this, that many of the Trojans came into the
enemy’s power alive, but none of the Grecians; and that many of the
Trojans supplicated to their enemies,—as (for instance) Adrastus, the
sons of Antimachus, Lycaon,—and even Hector himself entreats Achilles
for a sepulture; but not one of these doth so, as judging it barbarous
to supplicate to a foe in the field, and more Greek-like either to
conquer or die.
11. But as, in the same plant, the bee feeds on the flower, the goat
on the bud, the hog on the root, and other living creatures on the
seed and the fruit; so in reading of poems, one man singleth out the
historical part, another dwells upon the elegancy and fit disposal of
words, as Aristophanes says of Euripides,—
His gallant language runs so smooth and round,
That I am ravisht with th’ harmonious sound;[71]
but others, to whom this part of my discourse is directed, mind only
such things as are useful to the bettering of manners. And such we are
to put in mind that it is an absurd thing, that those who delight in
fables should not let any thing slip them of the vain and extravagant
stories they find in poets, and that those who affect language should
pass by nothing that is elegantly and floridly expressed; and that
only the lovers of honor and virtue, who apply themselves to the study
of poems not for delight but for instruction’s sake, should slightly
and negligently observe what is spoken in them relating to valor,
temperance, or justice. Of this nature is the following:—
And stand we deedless, O eternal shame!
Till Hector’s arm involve the ships in flame?
Haste, let us join, and combat side by side.[72]
For to see a man of the greatest wisdom in danger of being totally cut
off with all those that take part with him, and yet affected less with
fear of death than of shame and dishonor, must needs excite in a young
man a passionate affection for virtue. And this,
Joyed was the Goddess, for she much did prize
A man that was alike both just and wise,
teacheth us to infer that the Deity delights not in a rich or a proper
or a strong man, but in one that is furnished with wisdom and justice.
Again, when the same Goddess (Minerva) saith that the reason why she
did not desert or neglect Ulysses was that he was
Gentle, of ready wit, of prudent mind,
she therein tells us that, of all things pertaining to us, nothing
is dear to the Gods and divine but our virtue, seeing like naturally
delights in like.
And seeing, moreover, that it both seemeth and really is a great thing
to be able to moderate a man’s anger, but a greater by far to guard
a man’s self beforehand by prudence, that he fall not into it nor be
surprised by it, therefore also such passages as tend that way are not
slightly to be represented to the readers; for example, that Achilles
himself—who was a man of no great forbearance, nor inclined to such
meekness—yet warns Priam to be calm and not to provoke him, thus,
Move me no more (Achilles thus replies,
While kindling anger sparkled in his eyes),
Nor seek by tears my steady soul to bend:
To yield thy Hector I myself intend:
Cease; lest, neglectful of high Jove’s command,
I show thee, king, thou tread’st on hostile land;
and that he himself first washeth and decently covereth the body of
Hector and then puts it into a chariot, to prevent his father’s seeing
it so unworthily mangled as it was,—
Lest the unhappy sire,
Provoked to passion, once more rouse to ire
The stern Pelides; and nor sacred age,
Nor Jove’s command, should check the rising rage.
For it is a piece of admirable prudence for a man so prone to anger,
as being by nature hasty and furious, to understand himself so well as
to set a guard upon his own inclinations, and by avoiding provocations
to keep his passion at due distance by the use of reason, lest he
should be unawares surprised by it. And after the same manner must the
man that is apt to be drunken forearm himself against that vice; and
he that is given to wantonness, against lust, as Agesilaus refused to
receive a kiss from a beautiful person addressing to him, and Cyrus
would not so much as endure to see Panthea. Whereas, on the contrary,
those that are not virtuously bred are wont to gather fuel to inflame
their passions, and voluntarily to abandon themselves to those
temptations to which of themselves they are endangered. But Ulysses
does not only restrain his own anger, but (perceiving by the discourse
of his son Telemachus, that through indignation conceived against such
evil men he was greatly provoked) he blunts his passion too beforehand,
and composeth him to calmness and patience, thus:—
There, if base scorn insult my reverend age,
Bear it, my son! repress thy rising rage.
If outraged, cease that outrage to repel;
Bear it, my son! howe’er thy heart rebel.
For as men are not wont to put bridles on their horses when they are
running in full speed, but bring them bridled beforehand to the race;
so do they use to preoccupy and predispose the minds of those persons
with rational considerations to enable them to encounter passion, whom
they perceive to be too mettlesome and unmanageable upon the sight of
provoking objects.
Furthermore, the young man is not altogether to neglect names
themselves when he meets with them; though he is not obliged to give
much heed to such idle descants as those of Cleanthes, who, while he
professeth himself an interpreter, plays the trifler, as in these
passages of Homer: Ζεῦ πάτερ Ἴδηθεν μεδέων, and Ζεῦ ἄνα Δωδωναῖε.[73]
For he will needs read the last two of these words joined into one, and
make them ἀναδωδωναῖε; for that the air evaporated from the earth by
exhalation (ἀνάδοσις) is so called. Yea, and Chrysippus too, though he
does not so trifle, yet is very jejune, while he hunts after improbable
etymologies. As when he will need force the words εὐρύοπα Κρονίδην to
import Jupiter’s excellent faculty in speaking and powerfulness to
persuade thereby.
But such things as these are fitter to be left to the examination of
grammarians; and we are rather to insist upon such passages as are both
profitable and persuasive. Such, for instance, as these:—
My early youth was bred to martial pains,
My soul impels me to the embattled plains!
How skill’d he was in each obliging art;
The mildest manners, and the gentlest heart.[74]
For while the author tells us that fortitude may be taught, and that an
obliging and graceful way of conversing with others is to be gotten by
art and the use of reason, he exhorts us not to neglect the improvement
of ourselves, but by observing our teachers’ instructions to learn a
becoming carriage, as knowing that clownishness and cowardice argue
ill-breeding and ignorance. And very suitable to what hath been said is
that which is said of Jupiter and Neptune:—
Gods of one source, of one ethereal race,
Alike divine, and heaven their native place;
But Jove the greater; first born of the skies,
And more than men or Gods supremely wise.[75]
For the poet therein pronounceth wisdom to be the most divine and royal
quality of all; as placing therein the greatest excellency of Jupiter
himself, and judging all virtues else to be necessarily consequent
thereunto. We are also to accustom a young man attentively to hear such
things as these:—
Urge him with truth to frame his fair replies
And sure he will, for wisdom never lies:
The praise of wisdom, in thy youth obtain’d,
An act so rash, Antilochus, has stain’d:
Say, is it just, my friend, that Hector’s ear
From such a warrior such a speech should hear?
I deemed thee once the wisest of thy kind,
But ill this insult suits a prudent mind.[76]
These speeches teach us that it is beneath wise men to lie or to deal
otherwise than fairly, even in games, or to blame other men without
just cause. And when the poet attributes Pindarus’s violation of the
truce to his folly, he withal declares his judgment that a wise man
will not be guilty of an unjust action. The like may we also infer
concerning continence, taking our ground for it from these passages:—
For him Antaea burn’d with lawless flame,
And strove to tempt him from the paths of fame.
In vain she tempted the relentless youth,
Endued with wisdom, sacred fear, and truth:
At first, with worthy shame and decent pride,
The royal dame his lawless suit denied!
For virtue’s image yet possessed her mind:[77]
in which speeches the poet assigns wisdom to be the cause of
continence. And when in exhortations made to encourage soldiers to
fight, he speaks in this manner:—
What mean you, Lycians? Stand! O stand, for shame!
Yet each reflect who prizes fame or breath,
On endless infamy, on instant death;
For, lo! the fated time, the appointed shore;
Hark! the gates burst, the brazen barriers roar![78]
he seems to intimate that continent men are valiant men; because they
fear the shame of base actions, and can trample on pleasures and stand
their ground in the greatest hazards. Whence Timotheus, in the play
called Persae, takes occasion handsomely to exhort the Grecians thus:—
Brave soldiers of just shame in awe should stand;
For the blushing face oft helps the fighting hand.
And Aeschylus also makes it a point of wisdom not to be blown up with
pride when a man is honored, nor to be moved or elevated with the
acclamations of a multitude, writing thus of Amphiaraus:—
His shield no emblem bears; his generous soul
Wishes to be, not to appear, the best;
While the deep furrows of his noble mind
Harvests of wise and prudent counsel bear.[79]
For it is the part of a wise man to value himself upon the
consciousness of his own true worth and excellency.
Whereas, therefore, all inward perfections are reducible to wisdom, it
appears that all sorts of virtue and learning are included in it.
12. Again, boys may be instructed, by reading the poets as they ought,
to draw something that is useful and profitable even from those
passages that are most suspected as wicked and absurd; as the bee is
taught by Nature to gather the sweetest and most pleasant honey from
the harshest flowers and sharpest thorns. It does indeed at the first
blush cast a shrewd suspicion on Agamemnon of taking a bribe, when
Homer tells us that he discharged that rich man from the wars who
presented him with his fleet mare Aethe:—
Whom rich Echepolus, more rich than brave,
To ’scape the wars, to Agamemnon gave
(Aethe her name), at home to end his days;
Base wealth preferring to eternal praise.[80]
Yet, as saith Aristotle, it was well done of him to prefer a good
beast before such a man. For, the truth is, a dog or ass is of more
value than a timorous and cowardly man that wallows in wealth and
luxury. Again, Thetis seems to do indecently, when she exhorts her son
to follow his pleasures and minds him of companying with women. But
even here, on the other side, the continency of Achilles is worthy
to be considered; who, though he dearly loved Briseis—newly returned
to him too,—yet, when he knew his life to be near its end, does not
hasten to the fruition of pleasures, nor, when he mourns for his friend
Patroclus, does he (as most men are wont) shut himself up from all
business and neglect his duty, but only bars himself from recreations
for his sorrow’s sake, while yet he gives himself up to action and
military employments. And Archilochus is not praiseworthy either, who,
in the midst of his mourning for his sister’s husband drowned in the
sea, contrives to dispel his grief by drinking and merriment. And yet
he gives this plausible reason to justify that practice of his,
To drink and dance, rather than mourn, I choose;
Nor wrong I him, whom mourning can’t reduce.
For, if he judged himself to do nothing amiss when he followed sports
and banquets, sure, we shall not do worse, if in whatever circumstances
we follow the study of philosophy, or manage public affairs, or go to
the market or to the Academy, or follow our husbandry. Wherefore those
corrections also are not to be rejected which Cleanthes and Antisthenes
have made use of. For Antisthenes, seeing the Athenians all in a tumult
in the theatre, and justly, upon the pronunciation of this verse,—