Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3: Essays and Miscellanies
PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS
That It Is Not Possible To Live Pleasurably According To The Doctrine Of Epicurus That A Philosopher Ought Chiefly To Converse With Great Men Sentiments Concerning Nature, With Which Philosophers Were Delighted Abstract Of A Discourse Showing That The Stoics Speak Greater Improbabilities Than The Poets Symposiacs Common Conceptions Against The Stoics Contradictions Of The Stoics The Eating Of Flesh Concerning Fate Against Colotes, The Disciple And Favorite Of Epicurus Platonic Questions
LITERARY ESSAYS
The Life And Poetry Of Homer The Banquet Of The Seven Wise Men How A Young Man Ought To Hear Poems Abstract Of A Comparison Between Aristophanes And Menander The Malice Of Herodotus
THAT IT IS NOT POSSIBLE TO LIVE PLEASURABLY ACCORDING TO THE DOCTRINE OF EPICURUS. PLUTARCH, ZEUXIPPUS, THEON, ARISTODEMUS.
Epicurus's great confidant and familiar, Colotes, set forth a book with this title to it, that according to the tenets of the other philosophers it is impossible to live. Now what occurred to me then to say against him, in the defence of those philosophers, hath been already put into writing by me. But since upon breaking up of our lecture several things have happened to be spoken afterwards in the walks in further opposition to his party, I thought it not amiss to recollect them also, if for no other reason, yet for this one, that those who will needs be contradicting other men may see that they ought not to run cursorily over the discourses and writings of those they would disprove, nor by tearing out one word here and another there, or by falling foul upon particular passages without the books, to impose upon the ignorant and unlearned.
Now as we were leaving the school to take a walk (as our manner is) in the gymnasium, Zeuxippus began to us: In my opinion, said he, the debate was managed on our side with more softness and less freedom than was fitting. I am sure, Heraclides went away disgusted with us, for handling Epicurus and Aletrodorus more roughly than they deserved. Yet you may remember, replied Theon, how you told them that Colotes himself, compared with the rhetoric of those two gentlemen, would appear the complaisantest man alive; for when they have raked together the lewdest terms of ignominy the tongue of man ever used, as buffooneries, trollings, arrogancies, whorings, assassinations, whining counterfeits, black-guards, and blockheads, they faintly throw them in the faces of Aristotle, Socrates, Pythagoras, Protagoras, Theophrastus, Heraclides, Hipparchus, and which not, even of the best and most celebrated authorities. So that, should they pass for very knowing men upon all other accounts, yet their very calumnies and reviling language would bespeak them at the greatest distance from philosophy imaginable. For emulation can never enter that godlike consort, nor such fretfulness as wants resolution to conceal its own resentments. Aristodemus then subjoined: Heraclides, you know, is a great philologist; and that may be the reason why he made Epicurus those amends for the poetic din (so, that party style poetry) and for the fooleries of Homer; or else, it may be, it was because Metrodorus had libelled that poet in so many books. But let us let these gentlemen pass at present, Zeuxippus, and rather return to what was charged upon the philosophers in the beginning of our discourse, that it is impossible to live according to their tenets. And I see not why we two may not despatch this affair betwixt us, with the good assistance of Theon; for I find this gentleman (meaning me) is already tired. Then Theon said to him,
Plutarch
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The Complete Works Volume 3
PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS
THAT A PHILOSOPHER OUGHT CHIEFLY TO CONVERSE WITH GREAT MEN.
SENTIMENTS CONCERNING NATURE WITH WHICH PHILOSOPHERS WERE DELIGHTED
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I. WHAT IS NATURE?
CHAPTER II. WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PRINCIPLE AND AN ELEMENT?
CHAPTER III. WHAT ARE PRINCIPLES?
CHAPTER V. WHETHER THE UNIVERSE IS ONE SINGLE THING.
CHAPTER VII. WHAT IS GOD?
CHAPTER VIII. OF THOSE THAT ARE CALLED GENIUSES AND HEROES
CHAPTER IX. OF MATTER.
CHAPTER X. OF IDEAS.
CHAPTER XI. OF CAUSES.
CHAPTER XII. OF BODIES.
CHAPTER XIII. OF THOSE THINGS THAT ARE LEAST IN NATURE.
CHAPTER XIV. OF FIGURES.
CHAPTER XV. OF COLORS.
Color is the visible quality of a body.
CHAPTER XVI. OF THE DIVISION OF BODIES.
CHAPTER XVII. HOW BODIES ARE MIXED AND CONTEMPERATED ONE WITH ANOTHER.
CHAPTER XVIII. OF A VACUUM.
CHAPTER XIX. OF PLACE.
CHAPTER XX. OF SPACE.
CHAPTER XXI. OF TIME.
CHAPTER XXII. OF THE SUBSTANCE AND NATURE OF TIME.
CHAPTER XXIII. OF MOTION.
CHAPTER XXIV. OF GENERATION AND CORRUPTION.
CHAPTER XXV. OF NECESSITY.
CHAPTER XXVI. OF THE NATURE OF NECESSITY.
CHAPTER XXVII. OF DESTINY OR FATE.
CHAPTER XXVIII. OF THE NATURE OF FATE.
CHAPTER XXIX. OF FORTUNE.
CHAPTER XXX. OF NATURE.
BOOK II.
CHAPTER I. OF THE WORLD.
CHAPTER II. OF THE FIGURE OF THE WORLD.
CHAPTER III. WHETHER THE WORLD BE AN ANIMAL.
CHAPTER IV. WHETHER THE WORLD IS ETERNAL AND INCORRUPTIBLE.
CHAPTER V. WHENCE DOES THE WORLD RECEIVE ITS NUTRIMENT?
CHAPTER VII. IN WHAT FORM AND ORDER THE WORLD WAS COMPOSED.
CHAPTER VIII. WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THE WORLD'S INCLINATION.
CHAPTER XI. OF HEAVEN, WHAT IS ITS NATURE AND ESSENCE.
CHAPTER XIII. WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF THE STARS, AND HOW THEY ARE COMPOSED.
CHAPTER XIV. OF WHAT FIGURE THE STARS ARE.
CHAPTER XV. OF THE ORDER AND PLACE OF THE STARS.
CHAPTER XVI. OF THE MOTION AND CIRCULATION OF THE STARS.
CHAPTER XVII. WHENCE DO THE STARS RECEIVE THEIR LIGHT?
CHAPTER XX. OF THE ESSENCE OF THE SUN.
CHAPTER XXI. OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SUN.
CHAPTER XXII. WHAT IS THE FIGURE OR SHAPE OF THE SUN.
CHAPTER XXIV. OF THE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN.
CHAPTER XXV. OF THE ESSENCE OF THE MOON.
CHAPTER XXVI. OF THE SIZE OF THE MOON.
CHAPTER XXVII. OF THE FIGURE OF THE MOON.
CHAPTER XXVIII. FROM WHENCE IS IT THAT THE MOON RECEIVES HER LIGHT?
CHAPTER XXIX. OF THE ECLIPSE OF THE MOON.
CHAPTER XXXI. HOW FAR THE MOON IS REMOVED FROM THE SUN.
BOOK III.
CHAPTER I. OF THE GALAXY, OR THE MILKY WAY.
CHAPTER II. OF COMETS AND SHOOTING FIRES, AND THOSE WHICH RESEMBLE BEAMS.
CHAPTER IV. OF CLOUDS, RAIN, SNOW, AND HAIL.
CHAPTER V. OF THE RAINBOW.
CHAPTER VI. OF METEORS WHICH RESEMBLE RODS, OR OF RODS.
CHAPTER VII. OF WINDS.
CHAPTER VIII. OF WINTER AND SUMMER.
CHAPTER IX. OF THE EARTH, WHAT IS ITS NATURE AND MAGNITUDE.
CHAPTER X. OF THE FIGURE OF THE EARTH.
CHAPTER XI. OF THE SITE AND POSITION OF THE EARTH.
CHAPTER XII. OF THE INCLINATION OF THE EARTH.
CHAPTER XIII. OF THE MOTION OF THE EARTH.
CHAPTER XIV. INTO HOW MANY ZONES IS THE EARTH DIVIDED?
CHAPTER XV. OF EARTHQUAKES.
CHAPTER XVII. OF TIDES, OR OF THE EBBING AND FLOWING OF THE SEA.
CHAPTER XVIII. OF THE AUREA, OR A CIRCLE ABOUT A STAR.
BOOK IV.
CHAPTER I. OF THE OVERFLOWING OF THE NILE.
CHAPTER II. OF THE SOUL.
CHAPTER IV. OF THE PARTS OF THE SOUL.
CHAPTER VI. OF THE MOTION OF THE SOUL.
CHAPTER VII. OF THE SOUL'S IMMORTALITY.
CHAPTER X. HOW MANY SENSES ARE THERE?
CHAPTER XIII. OF OUR SIGHT, AND BY WHAT MEANS WE SEE.
CHAPTER XIV. OF THOSE IMAGES WHICH ARE PRESENTED TO OUR EYES IN MIRRORS.
CHAPTER XV. WHETHER DARKNESS CAN BE VISIBLE TO US.
CHAPTER XVI. OF HEARING.
CHAPTER XVII. OF SMELLING.
CHAPTER XVIII. OF TASTE.
CHAPTER XIX. OF THE VOICE.
CHAPTER XXII. OF RESPIRATION OR BREATHING.
BOOK V
CHAPTER I. OF DIVINATION.
CHAPTER II. WHENCE DREAMS DO ARISE.
CHAPTER III. OF THE NATURE OF GENERATIVE SEED.
CHAPTER IV. WHETHER THE SPERM BE A BODY.
CHAPTER V. WHETHER WOMEN DO GIVE A SPERMATIC EMISSION AS MEN DO.
CHAPTER VI. HOW IT IS THAT CONCEPTIONS ARE MADE.
CHAPTER VII. AFTER WHAT MANNER MALES AND FEMALES ARE GENERATED.
CHAPTER VIII. BY WHAT MEANS IT IS THAT MONSTROUS BIRTHS ARE EFFECTED.
CHAPTER X. WHENCE IT IS THAT ONE BIRTH GIVES TWO OR THREE CHILDREN.
CHAPTER XIII. WHENCE ARISETH BARRENNESS IN WOMEN, AND IMPOTENCY IN MEN?
CHAPTER XIV. HOW IT ARISES THAT MULES ARE BARREN.
CHAPTER XV. WHETHER THE INFANT IN THE MOTHER'S WOMB BE AN ANIMAL.
CHAPTER XVII. WHAT PART OF THE BODY IS FIRST FORMED IN THE WOMB.
CHAPTER XXII. OF WHAT ELEMENTS EACH OF THE MEMBERS OF US MEN IS COMPOSED.
CHAPTER XXIII. WHAT ARE THE CAUSES OF SLEEP AND DEATH?
CHAPTER XXIV. WHEN AND FROM WHENCE THE PERFECTION OF A MAN COMMENCES.
CHAPTER XXV. WHETHER SLEEP OR DEATH APPERTAINS TO THE SOUL OR BODY.
CHAPTER XXVI. HOW PLANTS INCREASE.
CHAPTER XXVII. OF NUTRITION AND GROWTH.
CHAPTER XXX. OF HEALTH, SICKNESS, AND OLD AGE.
SYMPOSIACS.
BOOK 1.
BOOK II.
BOOK III
BOOK IV.
BOOK V.
BOOK VI.
BOOK VII.
BOOK VIII.
BOOK IX
COMMON CONCEPTIONS AGAINST THE STOICS.
LAMPRIAS, DIADUMENUS
CONTRADICTIONS OF THE STOICS.
THE EATING OF FLESH.
CONCERNING FATE.
AGAINST COLOTES, THE DISCIPLE AND FAVORITE OF EPICURUS.
PLATONIC QUESTIONS.
LITERARY ESSAYS.
THE LIFE AND POETRY OF HOMER
THE BANQUET OF THE SEVEN WISE MEN.
ABSTRACT OF A COMPARISON BETWEEN ARISTOPHANE AND MENANDER
THE MALICE OF HERODOTUS.
INDEX.
Abuse of and by one's enemies.