Moralia: Volume VI

by Plutarch

Plutarch (Plutarchus), ca. 45-120 CE, was born at Chaeronea in Boeotia in central Greece, studied philosophy at Athens, and, after coming to Rome as a teacher in philosophy, was given consular rank by the emperor Trajan and a procuratorship in Greece by Hadrian. He was married and the father of one daughter and four sons. He appears as a man of kindly character and independent thought, studious and learned.

Plutarch wrote on many subjects. Most popular have always been the 46 Parallel Lives, biographies planned to be ethical examples in pairs (in each pair, one Greek figure and one similar Roman), though the last four lives are single. All are invaluable sources of our knowledge of the lives and characters of Greek and Roman statesmen, soldiers and orators. Plutarch's many other varied extant works, about 60 in number, are known as Moralia or Moral Essays. They are of high literary value, besides being of great use to people interested in philosophy, ethics and religion.

The Loeb Classical Library edition of the Moralia is in fifteen volumes, volume XIII having two parts.

Genres: Philosophy, Classics

544 pages, hardback

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Plutarch (later named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus; AD 46–AD 120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist, known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia. He is classified as a Middle Platonist. Plutarch's surviving works were written in Greek, but intended for both Greek and Roman readers.

Reviews

[Unknown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shift your curiosity from things without and turn it inwards. —On Being a Busybody, 515d

It is also highly conducive to tranquility of mind to examine, if possible, one’s fortunes, but if that is not possible, to observe persons of inferior fortune, and not, as most people do, compare oneself with those who are superior; as, for example, those in prison account fortunate those who have been set free; and they, men born free; and free men, citizens; and citizens, in their turn, the rich; and the rich, satraps; and satraps, kings; and kings, the gods, scarcely stopping short of desiring the power to produce thunder and lightning. Thus, through being always conscious that they lack things which are beyond them, they are never grateful . . . what is this other than collecting excuses for ingratitude to Fortune in order to chastise and punish oneself. But he, at least, who has a mind filled with salutary thoughts, knowing that the sun looks down upon countless myriads of men, if he be less famous or less wealthy than some others, does not sit down in sorrow and dejection, but since he knows that he lives ten thousand times better and more suitably than tens of thousands in so great a number, he will go on his way praising his own guardian spirit and his life. —On Tranquility of Mind, 470a

__________
This volume contains the following essays:
• Can Virtue be Taught?
• On Moral Virtue
• On the Control of Anger
• On Tranquility of Mind
• On Brotherly Love
• On Affection for Offspring
• Whether Vice be Sufficient to Cause Unhappiness
• Whether The Affections of The Soul Are Worse Than Those of The Body
• Concerning Talkativeness
• On Being a Busybody
__________

What difficulty is there about refraining from reading the inscriptions on tombs as we journey along the roads? Or what is there arduous in just glancing at the writing on walls when we take our walks? We have only to remind ourselves that nothing useful or pleasant has been written there: merely so-and-so “commemorates” so-and-so “wishing him well,” and someone else is the “best of friends,” and much twaddle of this sort. It may seem that no harm will come from reading these, but harm you it does by imperceptibly instilling the practice of searching out matters which do not concern you . . . this practice of throwing sidelong and furtive glances , distorting the soul as it does, is shameful, and the habit it implants is depraved.—On Being a Busybody, 520d, 521b

I used to have a subscription to The Economist Newspaper.

Every week when it arrived, I’d spend the best part of a day reading it pretty much cover to cover. I was learning about the world; what was going on; important issues. I was an informed citizen . . . But was I? And even if I was . . . to what end? For what purpose?

Shortly after this, I discovered the podcast, Hello Internet. I began listening, and discovered one of the two hosts was apparently completely uninterested in the news, and the other, being a former Journalist, found this curious. They promised to discuss the News as a topic in a future episode . . . Eventually I reached the episode. I started to mull over what was discussed and I ended up cancelling my subscription to The Economist, as well as not following the news at all from that point onwards.

I did this for a few reasons:
1. The news does not have enough time/space to go into the full reason for why something happened/is happening.
Being an informed citizen was the reason that I took out my subscription. And, granted, The Economist probably does a better job than most of achieving that, but casual news readers are not informed citizens. At best, they are aware citizens. They know that something is going on, not why it is going on, or how it came to pass.

2. Most of the time, the news is irrelevant.
Think about all the news stories you’ve read over the past week. How many do you think will actually matter in a week’s time? What about in a month? Six months? By the time you get to a year later, most of the stories you thought mattered so much will be lost to the mists of time. Why? Because most of these stories do not matter. They have no intrinsic value. Junk food, as the host put it, something to entice and seduce you but is ultimately worthless.

3. Most news stories have no relevance to you.
Let’s say you did come across a news story that was important. What direct relevance does it have to you? Likely none. What can you do to affect it? Likely nothing.

In an attempt to persuade his co-host that he is missing out on knowing about the world around him, he comes up with a metaphor:

It’s like you’re on a train. And instead of looking out of the window enjoying the view and seeing what’s going on in the world around you, you’re just sitting there reading a book.(Paraphrased)

His co-host declares he could not disagree more strongly, and explains that it is in fact the other way around: most people are missing out on the view around them because they have their heads buried in a newspaper.

Perhaps there are benefits to the news. But if there are any, they are benefits on a societal level. Not an individual level. Society may need the news . . .but you don't.

Now this is the news, something that most people would think is a something important, something worth spending one’s time on. If the news is ultimately worthless, what about some of the things that have arisen in our modern world, which most people spend arguably more time on . . . Facebook. Instagram. Memes. Clickbait “news” articles. In fact, almost all forms of digital “entertainment”.

You might retaliate that some of these things are harmless fun, and people need a break to unwind and relieve their minds. These things do not achieve that. In fact, these things are contrary to Nature, and serve to cloud and corrupt the mind with irrelevancy and refuse; absolute worthlessness.

And to bring this back to the quote above: there is a further danger in this; these things become habituated into people’s daily lives; they cannot resist, they search out matters which do not concern them, which deliver mental harm and corrode the mind, disrupting the harmony of a potential contemplative and meditative peace which the mind can achieve, something (especially nowadays) people now desire more than ever, yet are unwilling to cast aside the things which are antithetical to exactly that which they yearn for; simply (for most people) because they see everyone around them also participating in these things. Because they think that participating in these things are what makes up modern society. Make up modern society they might, but many aspects of modern society are not good for individuals. They do not realise they have an option to participate in aspects of modernity; why would they not; Modernity is good, no?

Modernity is not. Modernity is contrary to Nature. Contrary to Humanism.

The ultimate danger of this is an almost invisible one: if these things are all the mind is given to feed on, then that mind, too, becomes worthless, irrelevant, lacking intellective and creative capacity and value. Just as with a bad physical diet, the body can continue to operate, so can the mind when it is exposed to these aforementioned things . . . but only so far, only on the surface. Beneath the mind festers and rots, as it is fed on ordure and excrement, becoming more and more Unhuman.

Let us not even touch on something even worse than the above mentioned things . . . advertising. Something which contains even less worth and value than any of the above: but is worse because it is not consensual.

Yet it is possible to reduce this to an absolute minimum and even to avoid certain situations so that you are completely shielded from advertising of any sort. Shielded from worthlessness and valuelessness, and anything which, intentionally or not, harms and degrades the mind.

When I used to spend a significant amount of time reading the news, listening to news podcasts, playing video games, browsing facebook, reading blogs . . . my mind was crowded, noisy, and in a state of unrest (something I did not have entirely realise at the time). Now, these things eliminated, my mind is quiet, tranquil, at peace.

As far as is Moral, as far as is Ethical, as far as possible: cast off the shackles of modernity and emulate the Ancients. Embrace Nature. Cultivate Humanity.
__________
This volume contains more of what the title promises. A great selection.
__________
On Moral Virtue
In this world things are of two sorts, some of them existing absolutely, others in some relation to us. (443e)

In the activity of the mind, pure and uncontaminated by passion . . . a self-sufficing perfection and power of reason, by which the most divine and blessed element of knowledge becomes possible . . . (444c)

The passions rush in unawares and cause the greatest waste of time. (447e)

In his pleasures, a man must rid himself of excessive desire. (452a)
__________
On The Control of Anger
. . . man is able to get along with what comforts he has and is in no need of many superfluities. (461a)

We must, therefore, accustom the body to contentment by plain living and to self-sufficiency, for those who need but little are not disappointed by much. (461c)

Anyone who is prone to anger should abstain from rare and curiously wrought things, like drinking-cups and seal-rings and precious stones; for their loss drives their owner out of his senses more than do objects which are easily procured and may be seen everywhere. (461e)

This is the reason why, when Nero had an octagonal tent built, a huge structure which was a sight o be seen because of its beauty and costliness, Seneca remarked, “You have proved yourself a poor man, for if you ever lose this you will not have the means to procure another like it.” And indeed it did so happen that the ship which conveyed it was sunk and the tent lost. But Nero remembered Seneca’s saying and bore his loss with greater moderation. (462e/f?)
__________
On Tranquility of Mind
Just as the shoe is turned with the foot, and not the contrary, so do men’s dispositions make their lives like themselves. For it is not, as someone has said, habituation which makes the best life sweet to those who have chosen it, but wisdom which makes the same life at once both best and sweetest. Therefore let us cleanse the fountain of tranquility that is in our own selves, in order that external things also, as if our very own and friendly, may agree with us when we make no harsh use of them. (466f)

The breeze is favouring that bears you to the Muses and the Academy . . . (467e)

Let us resume our discussion of circumstances. For just as in a fever everything we eat seems bitter and unpleasant to the taste, and yet when we see others taking the same food and finding no displeasure in it, we no longer continue to blame the food and the drink, Burt accuse ourselves and our malady; so we shall case blaming and being disgruntled with circumstances if we see others accepting the same events cheerfully and without offence. (468f)

But most people, as Arcesilaüs said, think it right to examine poems and paintings and statues of others with the eyes of both the mind and the body, pouring over them minutely and in every detail, whereas they neglect their own life, which has many not unpleasing subjects for contemplation, looking ever to externals and admiring the repute and the fortunes of others, as adulterers do other men’s wives, yet despising themselves and their own possessions. (470a)

When Megabyzus the Persian came up to the studio of Apelles and attempted to chatter about art, Apelles shut his mouth by saying, “As long as you kept still, you seemed to be somebody because of your gold and purple; but now even these lads who gridnt eh pigments are laughing at your nonsense.” (471f)

Not all pursuits are for everyone, but one must, obeying the Pythian inscription, “know one’s self,” and then use one’s self for that one thing which Nature has fitted one and not do violence to nature by dragging one’s self towards the emulation of now one sort of life, now another. (472c)

Every man has within himself the storerooms of tranquility and discontent, and the jars containing blessings and evils are not stored “on the threshold of Zeus,” but in are in the soul. (473b)

I am delighted with Diogenes, who, when he say his host in Sparta, preparing with much ado for a certain festival, said, “Does not a good man consider every day a festival?” (477c
__________
On Brotherly Love
Such is the advice, then, which one would give to the superior brother. The inferior brother, on the other hand, must reflect that his brother is not the only one who is richer or more learned or more famous than himself, but that he is frequently inferior to many others—then thousand times ten thousand, whether, then, he envies every man as he walks about, or whether, among the vast number of fortunate beings, the only one that distresses him is his nearest and dearest, he has no room left for any other man to surpass him in wretchedness. (485c)
______
On Affection for Offspring
. . . a great deviation and departure from Nature, confused and disordered as we are at the very beginning concerning even the first principles . . . in men, through reason and habit, they have been modified by many opinions and adventitious judgements so that they have lost their proper form . . . (493c)

Exulting . . . in the pleasing odour of her flesh, and the peculiar adornment of her body . . . (493f)

Flattering the saccharine quality of its sweetness which tickles our palates . . . (494a)

Indulged in such follies as young men commit. (496f)
__________
Concerning Talkativeness
Those who have received a noble and truly royal education learn first to be silent, and then to speak. (506c)

It was a witty answer that King Archelaüs have to a loquacious barber, who, as he wrapped his towel around him, asked, “How shall I cut your hair, Sire?” “In Silence,” said Archelaüs. (509a)

And he will run on, reciting and full stretch the whole eighth book of Thucydides, and deluge the questioner until,. Before he has done, Miletus is at war again and Alcibiades exiled for the second time. (513b)

. . . a desire to dwell perpetually on the joys of remembrance. (513e)
__________
On Being a Busybody
There are some who cannot bear to face their own lives, regarding these as a most unlovely spectacle, or to reflect and revolve upon themselves, like a light, the poet of reason, but their souls, being full of all manner of vices, shouldering and frightened at what his within, leap outwards and prowl about other people’s concerns and there batten and make fat their own malice. (516c)

It was surely a clever answer that the Egyptian gave to the man who asked him what he was carrying wrapped: “That is why it is wrapped up.” (516e)

A natural consequence of much learning is to have much to say (and for this reason Pythagoras enjoined upon the young a five years’ silence which he called a “Truce to Speech”). (519c)

Consequently, though that story about Democritus is false, that he deliberately destroyed his sight by fixing his eyes on a red-hot mirror and allowing its heat to be reflected on his sight, in order that his eyes might not repeatedly summon his intellect outside and disturb it, but might allow his mind to remain inside at home and occupy itself with pure thinking, blocking up as it were windows which open on the street; yet nothing is more true than this, that those who make most use of the intellect make fewest call upon the senses. (521c)

We peep into women’s litters and hang about their windows, and think we are doing nothing wrong in thus making our curiosity prone to slip and slide into all kinds of vice. (522a)

We must, therefore, also habituate ourselves to things like these: when a letter is brought to us, not to open it quickly or in a hurry, as most people do, who go so far as to bite through the fastenings with their teeth if their hands are too slow; when a messenger arrives from somewhere or other, not to rush up, or even to rise to our feet; when a friend says, “I have something new to tell you,” to say, “I should prefer that you had something useful or profitable.”
When I was once lecturing in Rome, that famous Rusticus, whom Domitian later killed through envy at his repute, was among my hearers, and a soldier came through the audience and delivered him a letter from the emperor. There was a silence and I, too, made a pause, that he might read his letter; but he refused and did not break the seal until I had finished my lecture and the audience had dispersed. Because of this incident everyone admired the dignity of the man. (522d)

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wanting to read Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, I went to my college bookstore and searched without success. However, I did come across the sixth volume of Plutarch's Moralia in the Modern Library edition, and bought it instead. I enjoyed this volume, reading it in bits and pieces over the next few months, and digesting it between readings. I don’t remember much in particular about it now (that was over thirty years ago), but as Emerson once said, “I no more remember the books I have read than the meals I have eaten, but they have made me.” The wisdom found in this small volume certainly had a part in helping me to grow and develop. I especially remember pondering at length on Plutarch’s essays on whether virtue can be taught, controlling anger, and tranquility of mind. I can’t lay claim to having benefited from them until many years later, but they helped to set me on that lifelong pursuit of those virtues.

[Fabian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic.

[Alexander Rolfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent volume. I enjoyed On Talkativeness the most. All the essays have good stories and good advice. I'm always glad to hear about Plutarch's own life. He mentions his vow to pass a few days without anger, then a month or two, etc., which he based on a saying of Empedocles to "fast from evil." He also describes how his wife and friends used to exasperate him with charges of laxity for going too easy on his slaves. It's also fun when he alludes to people that my kids and I first met as friends of Pliny the Younger (in his letters); in this volume, one essay is addressed to Rufinus, and later Plutarch tells an anecdote of Rusticus refusing to interrupt his talk in Rome.

But the stories about other people are interesting too-- Socrates's wife upsetting the table in fury in the presence of his friend, Diogenes making fun of the auctioneer as he's being sold into slavery, barbers being too talkative. This volume also says that Plato was sold into slavery, which was news to me.

Plutarch is full of great quotes. I liked this one from Aristotle, writing to Antipater: "It is not Alexander alone who had the right to be proud because he rules over many men, but no less right to be proud have they who have true notions concerning the gods."

[Stuart Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plutarch speaks on the teaching of virtue, brotherly love, the love of offspring, and other topics. The final two chapters on garrulity and being a busybody are particularly funny. It is in the last two that one can see how Plutarch was the Uncle Remis or Poor Richard of his time. Or maybe Anne Landers.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read On Moral Virtue, On Control of Anger, and On Tranquility of Mind

[jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have benefited from everyone of Plutarch's writings, but this particular volume has been the most delightful and informative, both historically and personally. I highly recommend it.