(Let me go back now to Africanus and Laelius. When Carthage had been destroyed[326] and all Libya made subject to Rome, Africanus sent Laelius home and he embarked to carry the good news to their fatherland. And Scipio was grieved at the separation from his friend, but he did not think his sorrow inconsolable. Laelius too was probably afflicted at having to embark alone, but he did not regard it as an insupportable calamity. Cato also made a voyage and left his intimate friends at home, and so did Pythagoras and Plato and Democritus, and they took with them no companion on their travels, though they left behind them at home many whom they dearly loved. Pericles also set out on his campaign against Samos without taking Anaxagoras, and he conquered Euboea by following the latter's advice, for he had been trained by his teaching: but the philosopher himself he did not drag in his train as though he were part of the equipment needed for battle. And yet in his case too we are told that much against his will the Athenians separated him from the society of his teacher. But wise man that he was, he bore the folly of his fellow-citizens with fortitude and mildness. Indeed he thought that he must of necessity bow to his country's will when, as a mother might, however unjustly, she still resented their close friendship; and he probably reasoned as follows. (You must take what I say next as the very words of Pericles.[327]) “The whole world is my city and fatherland, and my friends are the gods and lesser divinities and all good men whoever and wherever they may be. Yet it is right to respect also the country where I was born, since this is the divine law, and to obey all her commands and not oppose them, or as the proverb says kick against the pricks. For inexorable, as the saying goes, is the yoke of necessity. But we must not even complain or lament when her commands are harsher than usual, but rather consider the matter as it actually is. She now orders Anaxagoras to leave me and I shall see no more my best friend, on whose account the night was hateful to me because it did not allow me to see my friend, but I was grateful to daylight and the sun because they allowed me to see him whom I loved best.[328] But, Pericles, if nature had given you eyes only as she has to wild beasts, it would be natural enough for you to feel excessive grief. But since she has breathed into you a soul, and implanted in you intelligence by means of which you now behold in memory many past events, though they are no longer before you: and further since your reasoning power discovers many future events and reveals them as it were to the eyes of your mind; and again your imagination sketches for you not only those present events which are going on under your eyes and allows you to judge and survey them, but also reveals to you things at a distance and many thousand stades[329] removed more clearly than what is going on at your feet and before your eyes, what need is there for such grief and resentment? And to show that I have authority for what I say,)
Νοῦς ὁρῇ καὶ νοῦς ἀκούει
(‘The mind sees and the mind hears,’)
φησὶν ὁ Σικελιώτης, οὕτως ὀξὺ χρῆμα καὶ τάχει χρώμενον ἀμηχάνῳ, ὥσθ᾽ ὅταν τινὰ τῶν δαιμόνων Ὄμηρος ἐθέλῃ κεχρημένον ἀπίστῳ πορείας ἐπιδεῖξαι τάχει,
(says the Sicilian;[330] and mind is a thing so acute and endowed with such amazing speed that when Homer wishes to show us one of the gods employing incredible speed in travelling he says:)
Ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἂν ἀΐξῃ νόος ἀνέρος
(‘As when the mind of a man darts swiftly.’[331])
φησί. [B] τούτῳ τοι χρώμενος ῥᾷστα μὲν Ἀθήνηθεν ὄψει τὸν ἐν Ἰωνίᾳ, ῥᾷστα δὲ ἐκ Κελτῶν τὸν ἐν Ἰλλυριοῖς καὶ Θρᾴκῃ, καὶ τὸν ἐν Κελτοῖς ἐκ Θρᾴκης καὶ Ἰλλυριῶν. καὶ γὰρ οὐδ᾽, ὥσπερ τοῖς φυτοῖς οὐκ ἔνι σώζεσθαι τὴν συνήθη χώραν μεταβάλλουσιν, ὅταν ἡ τῶν ὡρῶν ᾖ κράσις ἐναντία, καὶ τοῖς ἀνθρώποις συμβαίνει τόπον ἐκ τόπου μεταβάλλουσιν ἢ διαφθείρεσθαι παντελῶς ἢ τὸν τρόπον ἀμείβειν καὶ μετατίθεσθαι περὶ ὧν ὀρθῶς πρόσθεν ἐγνώκεσαν. [C] οὔκουν οὐδὲ τὴν εὔνοιαν ἀμβλυτέραν ἔχειν εἰκός, εἰ μὴ καὶ μᾶλλον ἀγαπᾶν [pg 184] καὶ στέργειν· ἕπεται γὰρ ὕβρις μὲν κόρῳ, ἔρως δὲ ἐνδείᾳ. καὶ ταύτῃ τοίνυν ἕξομεν βέλτιον, ἐπιτεινομένης ἡμῖν τῆς πρὸς ἀλλήλους εὐνοίας, καθέξομέν τε ἀλλήλους ἐν ταῖς ἑαυτῶν διανοίαις ἱδρυμένους ὥσπερ ἀγάλματα. καὶ νῦν μὲν ἐγὼ τὸν Ἀναξαγόραν, αὖθις δὲ ἐκεῖνος ὄψεται ἐμέ· κωλύει δὲ οὐδὲν [D] καὶ ἅμα βλέπειν ἀλλήλους, οὐχὶ σαρκία καὶ νεῦρα καὶ μορφῆς τύπωμα, στέρνα τε ἐξεικασμένα πρὸς ἀρχέτυπον σώματος· καίτοι καὶ τοῦτο κωλύει τυχὸν οὐδὲν ταῖς διανοίαις ἡμῶν ἐμφαίνεσθαι· ἀλλ᾽ εἰς τὴν ἀρετὴν καὶ τὰς πράξεις καὶ τοὺς λόγους καὶ τὰς ὁμιλίας καὶ τὰς ἐντεύξεις, ἃς πολλάκις ἐποιησάμεθα μετ᾽ ἀλλήλων, οὐκ ἀμούσως ὑμνοῦντες παιδείαν καὶ δικαιοσύνην καὶ τὸν ἐπιτροπεύοντα νοῦν τὰ θνητὰ καὶ τὰ ἀνθρώπινα, [248] καὶ περὶ πολιτείας καὶ νόμων καὶ τρόπων ἀρετῆς καὶ χρηστῶν ἐπιτηδευμάτων διεξιόντες, ὅσα γε ἡμῖν ἐπῄει[332] ἐν καιρῷ τούτων μεμνημένοις. ταῦτα ἐννοοῦντες, τούτοις τρεφόμενοι τοῖς εἰδώλοις τυχὸν οὐκ ὀνείρων νυκτέρων[333] ἰνδάλμασι προσέξομεν οὐδὲ κενὰ καὶ μάταια προσβαλεῖ τῷ νῷ φαντάσματα πονηρῶς ὑπὸ τῆς τοῦ σώματος κράσεως αἴσθησις διακειμένη. οὐδὲ γὰρ αὐτὴν παραληψόμεθα τὴν αἴσθησιν ὑπουργεῖν ἡμῖν καὶ ὑπηρετεῖσθαι· [B] ἀλλ᾽ ἀποφυγὼν αὐτὴν ὁ νοῦς ἐμμελετήσει τούτοις πρὸς κατανόησιν καὶ συνεθισμὸν τῶν ἀσωμάτων [pg 186] διεγειρόμενος· νῷ γὰρ δὴ καὶ τῷ κρείττονι σύνεσμεν, καὶ τὰ τὴν αἴσθησιν ἀποφυγόντα καὶ διεστηκότα τῷ τόπῳ, μᾶλλον δὲ οὐδὲ δεόμενα τόπου ὁρᾶν τε καὶ αἱρεῖν πεφύκαμεν, ὅσοις ἀξίως βεβίωται τῆς τοιαύτης θέας, ἐννοοῦντες αὐτὴν καὶ συναπτόμενοι.
(So if you employ your mind you will easily from Athens see one who is in Ionia; and from the country of the Celts one who is in Illyria or Thrace; and from Thrace or Illyria one who is in the country of the Celts. And moreover, though plants if removed from their native soil when the weather and the season are unfavourable cannot be kept alive, it is not so with men, who can remove from one place to another without completely deteriorating or changing their character and deviating from the right principles that they had before adopted. It is therefore unlikely that our affection will become blunted, if indeed we do not love and cherish each other the more for the separation. For ‘wantonness attends on satiety,’[334] but love and longing on want. So in this respect we shall be better off if our affection tends to increase, and we shall keep one another firmly set in our minds like holy images. And one moment I shall see Anaxagoras, and the next he will see me. Though nothing prevents our seeing one another at the same instant; I do not mean our flesh and sinews and ‘bodily outline and breasts in the likeness’[335] of the bodily original—though perhaps there is no reason why these too should not become visible to our minds—but I mean our virtue, our deeds and words, our intercourse, and those conversations which we so often held with one another, when in perfect harmony we sang the praises of education and justice and mind that governs all things mortal and human: when too we discussed the art of government, and law, and the different ways of being virtuous and the noblest pursuits, everything in short that occurred to us when, as occasion served, we mentioned these subjects. If we reflect on these things and nourish ourselves with these images, we shall probably pay no heed to the ‘visions of dreams in the night,’[336] nor will the senses corrupted by the alloy of the body exhibit to our minds empty and vain phantoms. For we shall not employ the senses at all to assist and minister to us, but our minds will have escaped from them and so will be exercised on the themes I have mentioned and aroused to comprehend and associate with things incorporeal. For by the mind we commune even with God, and by its aid we are enabled to see and to grasp things that escape the senses and are far apart in space, or rather have no need of space: that is to say, all of us who have lived so as to deserve such a vision, conceiving it in the mind and laying hold thereof.”)
Ἀλλ᾽ ὁ μὲν Περικλῆς, ἅτε δὴ μεγαλόφρων ἀνὴρ [C] καὶ τραφεὶς ἐλευθέρως ἐν ἐλευθέρᾳ τῇ πόλει, ὑψηλοτέροις ἐψυχαγώγει λόγοις αὑτόν· ἐγὼ δὲ γεγονὼς ἐκ τῶν οἷοι νῦν βροτοί εἰσιν ἀνθρωπικωτέροις ἐμαυτὸν θέλγω καὶ παράγω λόγοις, καὶ τὸ λίαν πικρὸν ἀφαιρῶ τῆς λύπης, πρὸς ἕκαστον τῶν ἀεί μοι προσπιπτόντων ἀπὸ τοῦ πράγματος δυσχερῶν τε [D] καὶ ἀτόπων φαντασμάτων ἐφαρμόζειν τινὰ παραμυθίαν πειρώμενος, ὥσπερ ἐπῳδὴν θηρίου δήγματι δάκνοντος αὐτὴν ἔσω τὴν καρδίαν ἡμῶν καὶ τὰς φρένας. ἐκεῖνό τοι πρῶτόν ἐστί μοι τῶν φαινομένων δυσχερῶν. νῦν ἐγὼ μόνος ἀπολελείψομαι καθαρᾶς ἐνδεὴς ὁμιλίας καὶ ἐλευθέρας ἐντεύξεως· οὐ γὰρ ἔστι μοι τέως ὅτῳ διαλέξομαι θαρρῶν ὁμοίως. πότερον οὖν οὐδ᾽ ἐμαυτῷ διαλέγεσθαι ῥᾴδιόν ἐστί μοι; ἀλλ᾽ ἀφαιρήσεταί μέ τις καὶ τὴν ἔννοιαν καὶ προσαναγκάσει νοεῖν ἕτερα καὶ θαυμάζειν παρ᾽ ἃ βούλομαι; ἢ τοῦτο μέν ἐστι τέρας ἤδη καὶ προσόμοιον τῷ γράφειν ἐφ᾽ ὕδατος καὶ τῷ λίθον ἕψειν καὶ τῷ ἱπταμένων ὀρνίθων ἐρευνᾶν ἴχνη τῆς πτήσεως; οὐκοῦν ἐπειδὴ [249] τούτων ἡμᾶς οὐδεὶς ἀφαιρεῖται, συνεσόμεθα δήπουθεν αὐτοί πως ἑαυτοῖς, ἴσως δὲ καὶ ὁ δαίμων ὑποθήσεταί τι χρηστόν· οὐ γὰρ εἰκὸς ἄνδρα ἑαυτὸν ἐπιτρέψαντα τῷ κρείττονι [pg 188] παντάπασιν ἀμεληθῆναι καὶ καταλειφθῆναι παντελῶς ἔρημον· ἀλλ᾽ αὐτοῦ καὶ ὁ θεὸς χεῖρα ἑὴν ὑπερέσχε [B] καὶ θάρσος ἐνδίδωσ[337] καὶ μένος ἐμπνεῖ καὶ τὰ πρακτέα τίθησιν ἐπὶ νοῦν καὶ τῶν μὴ πρακτέων ἀφίστησιν. εἵπετό τοι καὶ Σωκράτει δαιμονία φωνὴ κωλύουσα πράττειν ὅσα μὴ χρεὼν ἦν· φησὶ δὲ καὶ Ὅμηρος ὑπὲρ Ἀχιλλέως· τῷ γὰρ ἐπὶ φρεσὶ θῆκεν, ὡς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὰς ἐννοίας ἡμῶν ἐγείροντος, ὅταν ἐπιστρέψας ὁ νοῦς εἰς ἑαυτὸν αὑτῷ τε πρότερον ξυγγένηται καὶ τῷ θεῷ δι ἑαυτοῦ μόνου, [C] κωλυδόομενος ὑπ᾽ οὐδενοός. οὐ γὰρ ἀκοῆς ὁ νοῦς δεῖται πρὸς τὸ μαθεῖν οὐδὲ μὴν ὁ θεὸς φωνῆς πρὸς τὸ διδάξαι τὰ δέοντα· ἀλλ᾽ αἰσθήσεως ἔξω πάσης ἀπὸ τοῦ κρείττονος ἡ μετουσία γίνεται τῷ νῷ· τίνα μὲν τρόπον καὶ ὅπως οὐ σχολὴ νῦν ἐπεξιέναι, τὸ δ᾽ ὅτι γίνεται δῆλον[338] καὶ σαφεῖς οἱ μάρτυρες, οὐκ ἄδοξοί τινες οὐδ᾽ ἐν τῇ Μεγαρέως [D] ἄξιοι τάττεσθαι μερίδι, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἀπενεγκαμένων ἐπὶ σοφία τὰ πρωτεῖα.[339]