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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Plutarch <strong>and</strong> the Greece <strong>of</strong> His Age<br />
biographies.<br />
In the nature <strong>of</strong> the case their value ag<br />
truthful records is greatly impaired by<br />
the st<strong>and</strong><br />
point from which they were written; but it is this<br />
fact that has given them an attractiveness <strong>and</strong> a<br />
rency<br />
cur<br />
such as no other works <strong>of</strong> their kind have<br />
equalled. Plutarch s Lives have for centuries been<br />
the monitors <strong>of</strong> youth <strong>and</strong> the solace <strong>of</strong> the aged.<br />
have been read <strong>and</strong> admired wherever men have<br />
They<br />
honored courage, fortitude, intrepidity, self-control,<br />
patriotism, humaneness in short, every<br />
character that can be classed among<br />
Greeks <strong>and</strong> Romans, ancients <strong>and</strong> moderns,<br />
trait <strong>of</strong><br />
the virtues.<br />
learned<br />
<strong>and</strong> illiterate, rich <strong>and</strong> poor, have been fascinated by<br />
them, <strong>and</strong> it is on them that their author s fame<br />
chiefly rests. To many persons, in fact to the great<br />
majority <strong>of</strong> readers, Plutarch is known only as the<br />
writer <strong>of</strong> charming biographies; yet these constitute<br />
a good deal less than half his extant works.<br />
Plutarch holds that men find the patli <strong>of</strong> virtue<br />
<strong>and</strong> continue to walk in it, by reflection, deliberation,<br />
introspection; by a systematic, rigid <strong>and</strong> continued<br />
self-examination in other words, by a practical ap<br />
plication <strong>of</strong> the methods that philosophy points out.<br />
Man is sane <strong>and</strong> sound only so long as he puts into<br />
practice the principles <strong>of</strong> virtue. So long<br />
the slave <strong>of</strong> his passions he is in need <strong>of</strong><br />
as he is<br />
a physician.<br />
Philosophy is the sanitation <strong>of</strong> the soul; the genuine<br />
philosopher is the real physician <strong>of</strong> the soul. In<br />
pursuance <strong>of</strong> his chosen vocation, Plutarch wrote a<br />
number <strong>of</strong> essays for the purpose <strong>of</strong> giving instruction