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<FONT> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> study bible</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> moscow russia</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> moscow russia</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> assembly of god church</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> jew for jesus</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> middle age weapon</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> rime of the ancient mariner</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> st petersburg russia</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> woman in the bible</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> thailand tour</A> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> fishing tour</A> </FONT> essor W. S. Ferguson PLUTARCH was a kindly man, well educated in philosophy and rhetoric. He lived between 46 and 125 A. D. in little, out-of-the-way Botian Chæronea. He spent his days lecturing and in friendly correspondence and conversation with many cultivated contemporaries among both Greeks and Romans. He was fortunate in his age. If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, says Gibbon, without hesitation, name that in which Plutarch wrote. It was the twilight time of antiquity; and in the works of Plutarch 1 are clearly mirrored the charm and languor, the incentive to stroll and loiter, and the dimming of vision, characteristic of the hour before the sun sank and all the ways were darkened. 1 PLUTARCHS SUPERSTITION His versatility is remarkable, and he has ever at hand an apt illustration for every situation; but his fertility tempts him to digress, and his learning is not matched by critical power. An admirable example of his mode of thought as well as an epitome of his natural philosophy appears in the following passage from his Life of Pericles: There is a story, that once Pericles had brought to him from a country farm of his, a rams head with one horn, and that Lampon, the diviner, upon seeing the horn grow strong and solid out of the midst of the forehead, gave it as his judgment, that, there being at that time two potent factions, parties, or interests in the city, the one of Thucydides and the other of Pericles, the government would come about to that one of them in whose ground or estate this token or indication of fate had shown itself. But that Anaxagoras, cleaving the skull in sunder, showed to the bystanders that the brain had not filled up its natural place, but being oblong, like an egg, had collected from all parts of the vessel which contained it, in a point to that place from whence the root of the horn took its rise. And that, for that time, Anaxagoras was much admired for his explanation by those that were present; and Lampon no less a little while after, when Thucydides was overpowered, and the whole affairs of the state and government came into the hands of Pericles. And yet, in my opinion, it is no absurdity to say that they were both in the right, both natural philosopher and diviner, one justly detecting the cause of this event, by which it was produced, the other the end for which it was designed. For it was the business of the one to find out and give an account of what it was made, and in what manner and by what means it grew as it did; and of the other to foretell to what end and purpose it was so made, and what it might mean or portend. Those who say that to find out the cause of a prodigy is in effect to destroy its supposed signification as such, do not take notice that, at the same time, together with divine prodigies, they also do away with signs and signals of human art and concert, as, for instance, the clashings of quoits, fire-beacons, and the shadows on sun-dials, every one of which things has its cause, and by that cause and contrivance is a sign of something else. But these are subjects, perhaps, that would better befit another place. 2 HIS CURIOSITY AND HIS PATRIOTISM Plutarch was a widely read man. The world in which he lived was rather the world which his mind portrayed than that upon which his eyes looked. In other words, he lived in his past much more fully than in his present. For everything that had happened he had a gentle but persistent curiosity. Customs hallowed by time evoked in him the utmost tenderness; but his nature was without a vestige of fanaticism. To the hot, strenuous youth of his age, to zealots for preserving the old, and to harsh innovators alike he seemed probably a trifler and perhaps a bore. They must have turned with impatience from his universal charity; for he was a widely loyal man, loyal to his petty civic duties, his family obligations, his friends, his reputation, his race. 3 By his interest in, and profession of, practical morality Plutarch was called to be a biographer, but it is to his loyalty to his people that we owe his Parallel Lives. In their composition he was guided by the desire to show the arrogant Romans and the later Greeks in whose midst he lived, that a great Hellenic man of affairs could be put in worthy comparison with every outstanding Roman general and statesman. 4 SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHIC BIOGRAPHY IN ANTIQUITY Biography in antiquity was a branch of science and also a branch of philosophy. Scientific biography was interested in facts as such, in the collocation of miscellaneous information about persons. It laid claim to objectivity of details, but left free room for individuality to display itself in their selection. The principle of choice might be pruriency, political, class, or philosophic animosity, or mere love of scandal. Such biography might be with or without style, with or without painstaking: it was commonly without critical method. The precipitate of much lost scientific biography lies before us in the Lives of the Twelve Cæsars by Plutarchs contemporary, Suetonius. 5 In Plutarchs Parallel Lives, we have, on the other hand, the precipitate of much lost philosophic biography. He stands for us at the end of a long development, in the course of which many contemporary, or approximately contemporary, biographies were produced, each to be superseded perhaps by its successor, as they all were finally superseded and destroyed by those of Plutarch. The plundering of the countless books and pamphlets, plays, and memoirs, cited in the Parallel Lives, the culling of the multitude of anecdotes and bons mots with which they are set and enlivened, were by no means the personal work of Plutarch. Many, if not most, of them he found gathered for him by his nameless predecessors. He was under no professional sense of duty to look up and verify his references, and he regularly omitted to do it. Mistakes abound in Plutarchs Lives. But even the historian finds them pardonable when he has the assurance that the materials in conjunction with which they appear were taken by men of greater patience and leisure than Plutarch from works, many of them lost, reaching back over the centuries to the earliest Greek literature. 6 PLUTARCHS OWN CONTRIBUTION TO HIS LIVES The Lives of Plutarch are thus in a sense the product of many ages and of many minds. But, like mediæval cathedrals, they have unity of design and style. This is not wholly the result of their origin in a community of philosophic biographers. It is in large part the result of Plutarchs own architectonic powers. He was far from being a colorless and characterless compiler. His Lives seldom seem lumpy. They reveal, throughout, the quaint personality of the author. His philosophic standpoint is betrayed in almost every line of criticism they contain. His mastery of literary technique is never wanting. The quiet humor, unobtrusive and delicate, is unmistakably his. Piquancy is a Greek trait, and Plutarch was a Greek. He is never indecent, as his contemporaries understood that term, but he never forgot the natural human interest in the intimate relations of men and women. His dramatic sense needs no more than mention: Shakespeares debt to Plutarch in his Julius Cæsar, Coriolanus, and Antony and Cleopatra speaks volumes on this point. 7 Yet, when everything has been said in praise of his fine qualities, it is still true that his mind, like that of the philosophic biographers who preceded him, was an unfortunate medium for the great men of affairs of antiquity to have to pass through on their way to us. They were all sicklied over by the pale cast of ethical interpretation. Men of flesh and blood, actuated by all the reasons and passions of which human beings of diverse but distinguished endowments were capable, tend to appear as puppets exemplifying laudable virtues and deterrent vices. Man whose natures are truly revealed only in the work which they accomplished are isolated from their societies, and characterized by what they did or said at insignificant moments. Trivialities serve Plutarchs purpose of ethical portraiture as well as or better than the historic triumphs and failures of his heroes. Trite ethical considerations are made decisive for the formation of policies and the reaching of decisions instead of the realities of each historical situation. Hence one of the chief duties of modern historians and modern historical biographers has been to murder Plutarchs men, and put in their stead the real statesmen and generals of ancient times. The latter part of their task, however, they could not even attempt without the materials Plutarch furnishes to them. As for the difficulty of the former, it is well disclosed by the story Mahaffy tells of the illiterate Irish peasant who said of a certain fortunate neighbor that he had as many lives as Plutarch. 8 Note 1. For a volume of selected Lives, see Harvard Classics, xii. [back] CONTENTS · BOOK CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD PREVIOUSNEXT Search Amazon: Click here to shop the Bookstore.Welcome · Press <b> <A href="http://www.new-tradition.org"> pontiac aztec</A></b> <br> ime, when the 1 many thousands of the multitude were gathered together, insomuch that they trod one upon another, he began to say 2 unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.[2] But there is nothing covered up, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.[3] Wherefore whatsoever ye have said in the darkness shall be heard in the light; and what ye have spoken in the ear in the inner chambers shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.[4] And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.[5] But I will warn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, who after he hath killed hath power 3 to cast into hell; 4 yea, I say unto you, Fear him.[6] Are not five sparrows sold for two pence? and not one of them is forgotten in the sight of God.[7] But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not: ye are of more value than many sparrows.[8] And I say unto you, Every one who shall confess me 5 before men, him 6 shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God:[9] but he that denieth me in the presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God.[10] And every one who shall speak a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Spirit it shall not be forgiven.[11] And when they bring you before the synagogues, and the rulers, and the authorities, be not anxious how or what ye shall answer, or what ye shall say:[12] for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say.[13] And one out of the multitude said unto him, Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me.[14] But he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?[15] And he said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness: for 7 a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.[16] And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:[17] and he reasoned within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have not where to bestow my fruits?[18] And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my grain and my goods.[19] And I will say to my soul, 8 Soul, 9 thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry.[20] But God said unto him, Thou foolish one, this night is 10 thy soul 11 required of thee; and the things which thou hast prepared, whose shall they be?[21] So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.[22] And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, 12 what ye shall eat; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.[23] For the life 13 is more than the food, and the body than the raiment.[24] Consider the ravens, that they sow not, neither reap; which have no store-chamber nor barn; and God feedeth them: of how much more value are ye than the birds![25] And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit unto the 14 measure of his life?[26] If then ye are not able to do even that which is least, why are ye anxious concerning the rest?[27] Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; yet I say unto you, Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.[28] But if God doth so clothe the grass in the field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; how much more shall he clothe you, O ye of little faith?[29] And seek not ye what ye shall eat, and what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind.[30] For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: but your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.[31] Yet seek ye his 15 kingdom, and these things shall be added unto you.[32] Fear not, little flock; for it is your Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.[33] Sell that which ye have, and give alms; make for yourselves purses which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief draweth near, neither moth destroyeth.[34] For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.[35] Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning;[36] and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightwayunto him.[37] Blessed are those servants, 16 whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them sit down to meat, and shall come and serve them.[38] And if he shall come in the second watch, and if in the third, and find them so, blessed are those servants.[39] But 17 know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be broken 18 through.[40] Be ye also ready: for in an hour that ye think not the Son of man cometh.[41] And Peter said, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even unto all?[42] And the Lord said, Who then is the 19 faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them their portion of food in due season?[43] Blessed is that servant, 20 whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.[44] Of a truth I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath.[45] But if that servant 21 shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;[46] the lord of that servant 22 shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall cut 23 him asunder, and appoint his portion with the unfaithful.[47] And that servant, 24 who knew his lords will, and made not ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes;[48] but he that knew not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom they commit much, of him will they ask the more.[49] I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what 25 do I desire, if it is already kindled?[50] But I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished![51] Think ye that I am come to give peace in the earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:[52] for there shall be from henceforth five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three.[53] They shall be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against her mother; mother in law against her daughter in law, and daughter in law against her mother in law.[54] And he said to the multitudes also, When ye see a cloud rising in the west, straightway ye say, There cometh a shower; and so it cometh to pass.[55] And when ye see a south wind blowing, ye say, There will be a scorching 26 heat; and it cometh to pass.[56] Ye hypocrites, ye know how to interpret 27 the face of the earth and the heaven; but how is it that ye know not how to interpret 28 this time?[57] And why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right?[58] For as thou art going with thine adversary before the magistrate, on the way give diligence to be quit of him; lest haply he drag thee unto the judge, and the judge shall deliver thee to the officer, 29 and the officer 30 shall cast thee into prison.[59] I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou have paid the very last mite. Note 1. Gr. the myriads of. [back]Note 2. Or, say unto his disciples, First of all beware ye. [back]Note 3. Or, authority. [back]Note 4. Gr. Gehenna. [back]Note 5. Gr. in me. [back]Note 6. Gr. in him. [back]Note 7. Or, for even in a mans abundance his life is not from the things which he possesseth. [back]Note 8. Or, life. [back]Note 9. Or, life. [back]Note 10. Gr. they require thy soul. [back]Note 11. Or, life. [back]Note 12. Or, soul. [back]Note 13. Or, soul. [back]Note 14. Or, his stature. [back]Note 15. Many ancient authorities read the kingdom of God. [back]Note 16. Gr. bondservants. [back]Note 17. Or, But this ye know. [back]Note 18. Gr. digged through. [back]Note 19. Or, the faithful steward, the wise man whom &c. [back]Note 20. Gr. bondservant. [back]Note 21. Gr. bondservant. [back]Note 22. Gr. bondservant. [back]Note 23. Or, severely scourge him. [back]Note 24. Gr. bondservant. [back]Note 25. Or, how would I that it were already kindled. [back]Note 26. Or, hot wind. [back]Note 27. Gr. prove. [back]Note 28. Gr. prove. [back]Note 29. Gr. exactor. [back]Note 30. Gr. exactor. 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