Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
Between Heathenism and Christianity - College of Stoic Philosophers
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"<br />
Plutarch <strong>and</strong> the Greece <strong>of</strong> His Age<br />
the salient features <strong>of</strong> a situation, <strong>and</strong> can place them<br />
before the reader in the most effective light. A large<br />
proportion <strong>of</strong> the anecdotes <strong>of</strong> illustrious men, belong<br />
ing to a remoter antiquity, current in modern litera<br />
ture, have found their way into it through the me<br />
dium <strong>of</strong> his writings. He <strong>of</strong>ten reminds one <strong>of</strong> Hero<br />
dotus notwithst<strong>and</strong>ing his antipathy to this author,<br />
<strong>and</strong> whose veracity he vigorously impeaches in one<br />
<strong>of</strong> his essays assuming, <strong>of</strong> course, that De Malignitateis<br />
really the work <strong>of</strong> Plutarch. Like Herodotus,<br />
he <strong>of</strong>ten w<strong>and</strong>ers from the main theme <strong>of</strong> his narra<br />
tive, but never looses sight <strong>of</strong> it, <strong>and</strong> always returns<br />
to it without unduly distracting the reader s attention.<br />
Like Herodotus, he is <strong>of</strong>ten reminded <strong>of</strong> a<br />
little<br />
story" that he forthwith proceeds to tell; <strong>and</strong>, as in<br />
the case <strong>of</strong> Herodotus, the reader feels that some<br />
thing <strong>of</strong> value has been added to the narrative by the<br />
story. Like Herodotus, too, he exhibits a strange<br />
mixture <strong>of</strong> credulity with sterling good sense. So it<br />
happens that the Father <strong>of</strong> History <strong>and</strong> the man<br />
whom Jean Paul Richter calls the Biographical<br />
Shakespeare <strong>of</strong> Universal History <strong>of</strong>ten meet on com<br />
mon ground, in spite <strong>of</strong> the aversion <strong>of</strong> the one to<br />
the other. Of course the canvas on which the his<br />
torian paints is much larger; the interests he dis<br />
cusses are much more momentous; but he does<br />
not treat them with greater seriousness than does<br />
the biographer <strong>and</strong> moralist.<br />
j<br />
Plutarch Perhaps the most succinct statement <strong>of</strong><br />
creed is a passage in Isis <strong>and</strong> Osiris. He says:<br />
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