[Thatcher Introduction]:
Plutarch was born of a wealthy family in Boeotia at Chaeronea about 50 A.D. Part
of his life seems to have been spent at Rome, but he seems to have returned to Greece and
died there about 120 A.D. But little further is know of his life. He was one of the
greatest biographers the world has ever known, while his moral essays show wide learning
and considerable depth of contemplation.
1. THE COURSE that ought to be taken for the training of freeborn children, and
the means whereby their manners may be rendered virtuous, will, with the reader's leave,
be the subject of our present disquisition.
2. In the management of which, perhaps it may be expedient to take our rise from
their very procreation. I would therefore, in the first place, advise those who desire to
become the parents of famous and eminent children, that they keep not company with all
women that they light on; I mean such as harlots, or concubines. For such children as are
blemished in their birth, either by the father's or the mother's side, are liable to be
pursued, as long as they live, with the indelible infamy of their base extraction, as that
which offers a ready occasion to all that desire to take hold of it of reproaching and
disgracing them therewith.
Misfortune on that family's entailed,
Whose reputation in its founder failed.
Wherefore, since to be well-born gives men a good stock of confidence, the
consideration thereof ought to be of no small value to such as desire to leave behind them
a lawful issue. For the spirits of men who are alloyed and counterfeit in their birth are
naturally enfeebled and debased; as rightly said the poet again---
A bold and daring spirit is oft daunted,
When with the guilt of parents' crimes 'tis haunted.
So, on the contrary, a certain loftiness and natural gallantry of spirit is wont to
fill the breasts of those who are born of illustrious parents. Of which Diaphantus, the
young son of Themistocles, is a notable instance; for he is reported to have made his
boast often and in many companies, that whatsoever pleased him pleased also all Athens;
for whatever he liked, his mother liked; and whatever his mother liked, Themistocles
liked; and whatever Themistocles liked, all the Athenians liked. Wherefore it was
gallantly done of the Lacedaemonian states, when they laid a round fine on their king
Archidamus for marrying a little woman, giving this reason for their so doing: that he
meant to beget for them not kings, but kinglings.
3. The advice which I am, in the next place, about to give, is, indeed, no other
than what has been given by those who have undertaken this argument before me. You will
ask me what is that? It is this: that no man keep company with his wife for issue's sake
but when he is sober, having drunk either no wine, or at least not such a quantity as to
distemper him; for they usually prove wine-bibbers and drunkards, whose parents begot them
when they were drunk. Wherefore Diogenes said to a stripling somewhat crack-brained and
half-witted: Surely, young man, your father begot you when he was drunk. Let this
suffice to be spoken concerning the procreation of children; and let us pass thence to
their education.
4. And here, to speak summarily, what we are wont to say of arts and sciences
may be said also concerning virtue: that there is a concurrence of three things requisite
to the completing them in practice---which are nature, reason and use. Now by reason here
I would be understood to mean learning; and by use, exercise. Now the principles come from
instruction, the practice comes from exercise, and perfection from all three combined. And
accordingly as either of the three is deficient, virtue must needs be defective. For if
virtue is not improved by instruction, it is blind; if instruction is not assisted by
nature, it is maimed; and if exercise fail of the assistance of both, it is imperfect as
to the attainment of its end. And as in husbandry it is first requisite that the soil be
fertile, next that the husbandman be skillful, and lastly that the seed he sows be good;
so here nature resembles the soil, the instructor of youth the husbandman, and the
rational principles and precepts which are taught, the seed. And I would peremptorily
affirm that all these met and jointly conspired to the completing of the souls of those
universally celebrated men, Pythagoras, Socrates, and Plato, together with all others
whose eminent worth has begotten them immortal glory. And happy is that man certainly, and
well-beloved of the Gods, on whom by the bounty of any of them all these are conferred.
And yet if any one thinks that those in whom Nature has not thoroughly done her part
may not in some measure make up her defects, if they be so happy as to light upon good
teaching, and withal apply their own industry towards the attainment of virtue, he is to
know that he is very much, nay, altogether, mistaken. For as a good natural capacity may
be impaired by slothfulness, so dull and heavy natural parts may be improved by
instruction; and whereas negligent students arrive not at the capacity of understanding
the most easy things, those who are industrious conquer the greatest difficulties. And
many instances we may observe, that give us a clear demonstration of the mighty force and
successful efficacy of labor and industry. For water continually dropping will wear out
hard rocks hollow; yes, iron and brass are worn out with constant handling. Nor can we, if
we would, reduce the felloes of a cart-wheel to their formed straightness, when once they
have been bent by force; yes, it is above the power of force to straighten the bended
staves sometimes used by actors upon the stage. So far is that which labor effects, though
against nature, more potent than what is produced according to it. Yes, have we not many
millions of instances more which evidence the force of industry? Let us see in some few
that follow. A man's ground is of itself good; yet, if it be not manured, it will contract
barrenness; and the better it was naturally, so much the more is it ruined by
carelessness, if it be ill-husbanded. On the other side, let a man's ground be more than
ordinarily rough and rugged; yet experience tells us that, if it be well manured, it will
be quickly made capable of bearing excellent fruit. Yes, what sort of tree is there which
will not, if neglected, grow crooked and unfruitful; and what but will, if rightly
ordered, prove faithful and bring its fruit to maturity? What strength of body is there
which will not lose its vigor and fall to decay by laziness, nice usage, and debauchery?
And, on the contrary, where is the man of never so crazy a natural constitution, who can
not render himself far more robust, if he will only give himself to exercise activity and
strength? What horse well-managed from a colt proves not easily governable by the rider?
And where is there one to be found which, if not broken betimes, proves not stiff-necked
and unmanageable? Yes, why need we wonder at anything else when we see the wildest beasts
made tame and brought to hand by industry? And lastly, as to men themselves, that
Thessalian answered not amiss, who, being asked which of his countrymen were the meekest,
replied: Those that have received their discharge from the wars.
But what need of multiplying more words in this matter, when even the notion of the
word athos in the Greek language imports continuance, and he that should call moral
virtues customary virtues would seem to speak not incongruously? I shall conclude this
part of my discourse, therefore, with the addition of one only instance. Lycurgus, the
Lacedaemonian lawgiver, once took two whelps of the same litter, and ordered them to be
bred in quite a different manner; whereby one became dainty and ravenous, and the other of
a good scent and skilled in hunting; which done, a while after he took occasion thence in
an assembly of the Lacedaemonians to discourse in this manner: Of great weight in the
attainment of virtue, fellow-citizens, are habits, instruction, precepts, and indeed the
whole manner of life---as I will presently let you see by example. And, withal, he
ordered the producing those two whelps into the midst of the hall, where also there were
set down before them a plate and a live hare. Whereupon, as they had been bred, the one
presently flies upon the hare, and the other as greedily runs to the plate. And while the
people were musing, not perfectly apprehending what he meant by producing those whelps
thus, he added: These whelps were both of one litter, but differently bred; the one,
you see, has turned out a greedy cur, and the other a good hound. And this shall
suffice to be spoken concerning custom and different ways of living.
5. The next thing that falls under our consideration is the nursing of children,
which, in my judgment, the mothers should do themselves, giving
their own breast to those they have borne. For this office will certainly be performed
with more tenderness and carefulness by natural mothers, who will love their children
intimately, as the saying is, from their tender nails. Whereas, both wet and dry nurses,
who are hired, love only for their pay, and are affected to their work as ordinarily those
that are substituted and deputed in the place of others are. Yes, even Nature seems to
have assigned the suckling and nursing of the issue to those that bear them: for which
cause she has bestowed upon every living creature that brings forth young milk to nourish
them. And, in conformity thereto, Providence has only wisely ordered that women should
have two breasts, that so, if any of them should happen to bear twins, they might have two
several springs of nourishment ready for them. Though, if they had not that furniture,
mothers would still be more kind and loving to their own children. And that not without
reason; for constant feeding together is a great means to heighten the affection mutually
betwixt any persons. Yes, even beasts, when they are separated from those that have grazed
with them, do in their way show a longing for the absent. Wherefore, as I have said,
mothers themselves should strive to the utmost to nurse their own children.
But if they find it impossible to do it themselves, either because of bodily weakness
(and such a case may fall out), or because they are apt to be quickly with child again,
then are they to choose the most honest nurses they can get, and not to take whomsoever
they have offered them. And the first thing to be looked after in this choice is, that the
nurse be bred after the Greek fashion. For as it is needful that the members of children
be shaped aright as soon as they are born, that they may not afterwards prove crooked and
distorted, so it is no less expedient that their manners be well-fashioned from the very
beginning. For childhood is a tender thing, and easily wrought into any shape. Yes, and
the very souls of children readily receive the impressions of those things that are
dropped into them while they are yet but soft; but when they grow older, they will, as all
hard things are, be more difficult to be wrought upon. And as soft wax is apt to take the
stamp of the seal, so are the minds of children to receive the instructions imprinted on
them at that age. Whence, also, it seems to me good advice which divine Plato gives to
nurses, not to tell all sorts of common tales to children in infancy, lest thereby their
minds should chance to be filled with foolish and corrupt notions. The like good counsel
Phocylides, the poet, seems to give in this verse of his:
If we'll have virtuous children, we should choose
Their tenderest age good principles to infuse.
6. Nor are we to omit taking due care, in the first place, that those
children who are appointed to attend upon such young nurslings, and to be bred with them
for play-fellows, be well-mannered, and next that they speak plain, natural Greek; lest,
being constantly used to converse with persons of a barbarous language and evil manners,
they receive corrupt tinctures from them. For it is a true proverb, that if you live with
a lame man, you will learn to halt.
7. Next, when a child is arrived at such an age as to be put under the care of
pedagogues, great care is to be used that we be not deceived in them, and so commit our
children to slaves or barbarians or cheating fellows. For it is a course never enough to
be laughed at which many men nowadays take in this affair; for if any of their servants be
better than the rest, they dispose some of them to follow husbandry, some to navigation,
some to merchandise, some to be stewards in their houses, and some, lastly, to put out
their money to use for them. But if they find any slave that is a drunkard or a glutton,
and unfit for any other business, to him they assign the government of their children;
whereas, a good pedagogue ought to be such a one in his disposition as Phoenix, tutor to
Achilles, was.
And now I come to speak of that which is a greater matter, and of more concern than any
that I have said. We are to look after such masters for our children as are blameless in
their lives, not justly reprovable for their manners, and of the best experience in
teaching. For the very spring and root of honesty and virtue lies in the felicity of
lighting on good education. And as husbandmen are wont to set forks to prop up feeble
plants, so do honest schoolmasters prop up youth by careful instructions and admonitions,
that they may duly bring forth the buds of good manners. But there are certain fathers
nowadays who deserve that men should spit on them in contempt, who, before making any
proof of those to whom they design to commit the teaching of their children, either
through unacquaintance, or, as it sometimes falls out, through unskillfulness, intrust
them to men of no good reputation, or, it may be, such as are branded with infamy.
Although they are not altogether so ridiculous, if they offend herein through
unskillfulness; but it is a thing most extremely absurd, when, as oftentimes it happens,
though they know they are told beforehand, by those who understand better than themselves,
both of the inability and rascality of certain schoolmasters, they nevertheless commit the
charge of their children to them, sometimes overcome by their fair and flattering
speeches, and sometimes prevailed on to gratify friends who entreat them. This is an error
of like nature with that of the sick man, who, to please his friends, forbears to send for
the physician that might save his life by his skill, and employs a mountebank that quickly
dispatches him out of the world; or of his who refuses a skillful shipmaster, and then, at
his friend's entreaty, commits the care of his vessel to one that is therein much his
inferior. In the name of Jupiter and all the gods, tell me how can that man deserve the
name of a father, who is more concerned to gratify others in their requests, than to have
his children well educated? Or, is it not rather fitly applicable to this case, which
Socrates, that ancient philosopher, was wont to say---that, if he could get up to the
highest place in the city, he would lift up his voice and make this proclamation thence: What
mean you, fellow-citizens, that you thus turn every stone to scrape wealth together, and
take so little care of your children, to whom, one day, you must relinquish it all?"---to
which I would add this, that such parents do like him that is solicitous about his shoe,
but neglects the foot that is to wear it. And yet many fathers there are, who so love
their money and hate their children, that, lest it should cost them more than they are
willing to spare to hire a good schoolmaster for them, they rather choose such persons to
instruct their children as they are worth; thereby beating down the market, that they may
purchase ignorance cheap. It was, therefore, a witty and handsome jeer which Aristippus
bestowed on a sottish father, who asked him what he would take to teach his child. He
answered, A thousand drachmas. When the other cried out: Oh, Hercules, what a
price you ask! for I can buy a slave at that rate. Do so, then, said the philosopher,
and you shall have two slaves instead of one---your son for one, and him you buy for
another. Lastly, how absurd it is, when you accustom your children to take their food with
their right hands, and chide them if they receive it with their left, yet you take no care
at all that the principles that are infused into them be right and regular.
And now I will tell you what ordinarily is like to befall such prodigious parents, when
they have their sons ill-nursed and worse-taught. For when such sons are arrived at man's
estate, and, through contempt of a sound and orderly way of living, precipitate themselves
into all manner of disorderly and servile pleasures, then will those parents dearly repent
of their own neglect of their children's education, when it is too late to amend; and vex
themselves, even to distraction, at their vicious courses. For then do some of those
children acquaint themselves with flatterers and parasites, a sort of infamous and
execrable persons, the very pests that corrupt and ruin young men; others waste their
substance; others, again, come to shipwreck on gaming and reveling. And some venture on
still more audacious crimes, committing adultery and joining in the orgies of Bacchus,
being ready to purchase one bout of debauched pleasure at the price of their lives. If now
they had but conversed with some philosopher, they would never have enslaved themselves to
such courses as these; though possibly they might have learned at least to put in practice
the precepts of Diogenes, delivered by him indeed in rude language, but yet containing, as
to the scope of it, a great truth, when he advised a young man to go to the public stews,
that he might then inform himself, by experience, how things of great value and things of
no value at all were there of equal worth.
8. In brief therefore I say (and what I say may justly challenge the repute of
an oracle rather than of advice), that the one chief thing in that matter---which
comprises the beginning, middle and end of all---is good education and regular
instruction; and that these two afford great help and assistance toward the attainment of
virtue and felicity. For all other good things are but human and of small value, such as
will hardly recompense the industry required to the getting of them. It is, indeed, a
desirable thing to be well-descended; but the glory belongs to our ancestors. Riches are
valuable; but they are the goods of Fortune, who frequently takes them from those that
have them, and carries them to those that never so much as hoped for them. Yes, the
greater they are, the fairer mark they are for those to aim at who design to make our bags
their prize; I mean evil servants and accusers. But the weightiest consideration of all
is, that riches may be enjoyed by the worst as well as the best of men. Glory is a thing
deserving respect, but unstable; beauty is a prize that men fight to obtain, but, when
obtained, it is of little continuance; health is a precious enjoyment, but easily
impaired; strength is a thing desirable, but apt to be the prey of disease and old age.
And, in general, let any man who values himself upon strength of body know that he makes a
great mistake; for what indeed is any proportion of human strength, if compared to that of
other animals, such as elephants and bulls and lions? But learning alone, of all things in
our possession, is immortal and divine. And two things there are that are most peculiar to
human nature, reason and speech; of which two, reason is the master of speech, and speech
is the servant of reason, impregnable against all assaults of fortune, not to be taken
away by false accusation, nor impaired by sickness, nor enfeebled by old age. For reason
alone grows youthful by age; and time, which decays all other things before it carries
them away with it, leaves learning alone behind. Whence the answer seems to me very
remarkable, which Stilpo, a philosopher of Megara, gave to Demetrius, who, when he leveled
that city to the ground and made the citizens slaves, asked Stilpo whether he had lost
anything. Nothing, he said, for war cannot plunder virtue. To this saying that of Socrates
also is very agreeable; who, when Gorgias (as I take it) asked him what his opinion was of
the king of Persia, and whether he judged him happy, returned answer, that he could not
tell what to think of him, because he knew not how he was furnished with virtue and
learning---as judging human felicity to consist in those endowments, and not in those
which are subject to fortune.
9. Moreover, as it is my advice to parents that they make the breeding up of
their children to learning their chief care, so I here add, that the learning they ought
to train them up unto should be sound and wholesome, and such as is most remote from those
trifles which suit the popular humor. For to please the many is to displease the wise. To
this saying to mine Euripides himself bears witness:
I'm better skilled to treat a few, my peers,
Than in a crowd to tickle vulgar ears;
Though others have the luck on't, when they babble
Most to the wise, then most to please the rabble.
Besides, I find by my own observation, that those persons who make it their
business to speak so as to deserve the favor and approbation of the scum of the people,
ordinarily live at a suitable rate, voluptuously and intemperately. And there is reason
for it. For they who have no regard to what is honest, so they may make provision for
other men's pleasures, will surely not be very propense to prefer what is right and
wholesome before that which gratifies their own inordinate pleasures and luxurious
inclinations, and to quit that which humors them for that which restrains them.
If any one ask what the next thing is wherein I would have children instructed, and to
what further good qualities I would have them insured, I answer, that I think it advisable
that they neither speak nor do anything rashly; for, according to the proverb, the best
things are the most difficult. But extemporary discourses are full of much ordinary and
loose stuff, nor do such speakers well know where to begin or where to make an end. And
besides other faults which those who speak suddenly are commonly guilty of, they are
commonly liable to this great one, that they multiply words without measure; whereas,
premeditation will not suffer a man to enlarge his discourse beyond a due proportion. To
this purpose it is reported of Pericles, that, being often called upon by the people to
speak, he would not, because (as he said) he was unprepared. And Demosthenes also, who
imitated him in the management of public affairs, when the Athenians urged him to give his
counsel, refused it with this answer: I have not yet prepared myself. Though it may
be that this story is a mere fiction, brought down to us by uncertain tradition, without
any credible author. But Demosthenes, in his oration against Midias, clearly sets forth
the usefulness of premeditation. For there he says: I confess, O Athenians! that I came
here provided to speak: and I will by no means deny that I have spent my utmost study upon
the composing this oration. For it had been a pitiful omission in me, if, having suffered
and still suffering such things, I should have neglected that which in this cause was to
be spoken by me. But here I would not be understood altogether to condemn all
readiness to discourse extempore, nor yet to allow the use of it upon such
occasions as do not require it; but we are to use it only as we do physic.
Still, before a person arrives at complete manhood, I would not permit him to speak
upon any sudden incident occasion; though, after he has attained a radicated faculty of
speaking, he may allow himself a greater liberty, as opportunity is offered. For as they
who have been a long time in chains, when they are at last set at liberty, are unable to
walk, on account of their former continual restraint, and are very apt to trip, so they
who have been used to a fettered way of speaking a great while, if upon any occasion they
be enforced to speak on a sudden, will hardly be able to express themselves without some
tokens of their former confinement. But to permit those that are yet children to speak
extemporally is to give them occasion for extremely idle talk. A wretched painter, they
say, showing Apelles a picture, told him withal that he had taken a very little time to
paint it. If you had not told me so, said Apelles, I see cause enough to believe
it was a hasty draft; but I wonder that in that space of time you have not painted many
more such pictures.
I advise therefore (for I return now to the subject that I have digressed from) the
shunning and avoiding, not merely of a starched, theatrical, and over-tragedial form of
speaking, but also of that which is too low and mean. For that which is too swelling is
not fit for the management of public affairs; and that, on the other side, which is too
thin is very inapt to work any notable impression upon the hearers. For as it is not only
requisite that a man's body be healthy, but also that it be of a firm constitution, so
ought a discourse to be not only sound, but nervous also. For though such as is composed
cautiously may be commended, yet that is all it can arrive at; whereas that which has some
adventurous passages in it is admired also. And my opinion is the same concerning the
affections of the speaker's mind. For he must be neither of a too confident nor of a too
mean and dejected spirit; for the one is apt to lead to impudence, the other to servility;
and much of the orator's art, as well as great circumspection, is required to direct his
course skillfully betwixt the two.
And now (whilst I am handling this point concerning the instruction of children) I will
also give you my judgment concerning the frame of a discourse; which is this, that to
compose it in all parts uniformly not only is a great argument of a defect in learning,
but also is apt, I think, to nauseate the auditory when it is practiced; and in no case
can it give lasting pleasure. For to sing the same tune, as the saying is, is in
everything cloying and offensive; but men are generally pleased with variety, as in
speeches and pageants, so in all other entertainments.
10. Wherefore, though we ought not to permit an ingenious child entirely to
neglect any of the common sorts of learning, so far as they may be gotten by lectures or
from public shows; yet I would have him to salute these only as in his passage, taking a
bare taste of each of them (seeing no man can possibly attain to perfection in all), and
to give philosophy the pre-eminence of them all. I can illustrate my meaning by an
example. It is a fine thing to sail around and visit many cities, but it is profitable to
fix our dwelling in the best. Witty also was the saying of Bias, the philosopher, that, as
the wooers of Penelope, when they could not have their desire of the mistress, contented
themselves to have to do with her maids, so commonly those students who are not capable of
understanding philosophy waste themselves in the study of those sciences that are of no
value. Whence it follows, that we ought to make philosophy the chief of all our learning.
For though, in order to the welfare of the body, the industry of men has found out two
arts---medicine, which assists to the recovery of lost health, and gymnastics, which help
us to attain a sound constitution---yet there is but one remedy for the distempers and
diseases of the mind, and that is philosophy. For by the advice and assistance thereof it
is that we come to understand what is honest, and what dishonest; what is just, and what
unjust; in a word, what we are to seek, and what to avoid.
We learn by it how we are to demean ourselves towards the gods, towards our parents,
our elders, the laws, strangers, governors, friends, wives, children, and servants. That
is, we are to worship the gods, to honor our parents, to reverence our elders, to be
subject to the laws, to obey our governors, to love our friends, to use sobriety towards
our wives, to be affectionate to our children, and not to treat our servants insolently;
and (which is the chief lesson of all) not to be overjoyed in prosperity nor too much
dejected in adversity; not to be dissolute in our pleasures, nor in our anger to be
transported with brutish rage and fury. These things I account the principal advantages
which we gain by philosophy. For to use prosperity generously is the part of a man: to
manage it so as to decline envy, of a well-governed man; to master our pleasures by reason
is the property of wise men; and to moderate anger is the attainment only of extraordinary
men. But those of all men I count most complete, who know how to mix and temper the
management of civil affairs with philosophy; seeing they are thereby masters of two of the
greatest good things that are---a life of public usefulness as statesmen, and a life of
calm tranquility as students of philosophy. For, whereas there are three sorts of
lives---the life of action, the life of contemplation, and the life of pleasure---the man
who is utterly abandoned and a slave to pleasure is brutish and mean-spirited; he that
spends his time in contemplation without action is an unprofitable man; and he that lives
in action and is destitute of philosophy is a rustical man, and commits many absurdities.
Wherefore we are to apply our utmost endeavor to enable ourselves for both; that is, to
manage public employments, and withal, at convenient seasons, to give ourselves to
philosophical studies. Such statesmen were Pericles and Archytas the Tarentine; such were
Dion the Syracusan and Epaminondas the Theban, both of whom were of Plato's familiar
acquaintance.
I think it not necessary to spend many more words about this point, the instruction of
children in learning. Only it may be profitable at least, or even necessary, not to omit
procuring for them the writings of ancient authors, but to make such a collection of them
as husbandmen are wont to do of all needful tools. For of the same nature is the use of
books to scholars, as being the tools and instruments of learning, and withal enabling
them to derive knowledge from its proper fountains.
11. In the next place, the exercise of the body must not be neglected; but
children must be sent to schools of gymnastics, where they may have sufficient employment
that way also. This will conduce partly to a more handsome carriage, and partly to the
improvement of their strength. For the foundation of a vigorous old age is a good
constitution of the body in childhood. Wherefore, as it is expedient to provide those
things in fair weather which may be useful to the mariners in a storm, so is it to keep
good order and govern ourselves by rules of temperance in youth, as the best provision we
can lay in for age. Yet must they husband their strength, so as not to become dried up (as
it were) and destitute of strength to follow their studies. For, according to Plato, sleep
and weariness are enemies to the arts.
But why do I stand so long on these things? I hasten to speak of that which is of the
greatest importance, even beyond all that has been spoken of; namely, I would have boys
trained for the contests of wars by practice in the throwing of darts, shooting of arrows,
and hunting of wild beasts. For we must remember in war the goods of the conquered are
proposed as rewards to the conquerors. But war does not agree with a delicate habit of
body, used only to the shade; for even one lean soldier that has been used to military
exercises shall overthrow whole troops of mere wrestlers who know nothing of war. But,
somebody may say, while you profess to give precepts for the education of all free-born
children, why do you carry the matter so as to seem only to accommodate those precepts to
the rich, and neglect to suit them also to the children of poor men and plebeians? To
which objection it is no difficult thing to reply. For it is my desire that all children
whatsoever may partake of the benefit of education alike; but if yet any persons, by
reason of the narrowness of their estates, cannot make use of my precepts, let them not
blame me that give them for Fortune, which disabled them from making the advantage by them
they otherwise might. Though even poor men must use their utmost endeavor to give their
children the best education; or, if they cannot, they must bestow upon them the best that
their abilities will reach. Thus much I thought fit here to insert in the body of my
discourse, that I might the better be enabled to annex what I have yet to add concerning
the right training of children.
12. I say now, that children are to be won to follow liberal studies by
exhortations and rational motives, and on no account to be forced thereto by whipping or
any other contumelious punishments. I will not argue that such usage seems to be more
agreeable to slaves than to ingenuous children; and even slaves, when thus handled, are
dulled and discouraged from the performance of their tasks, partly by reason of the smart
of their stripes, and partly because of the disgrace thereby inflicted. But praise and
reproof are more effectual upon free-born children than any such disgraceful handling; the
former to incite them to what is good, and the latter to restrain them from that which is
evil. But we must use reprehensions and commendations alternately, and of various kinds
according to the occasion; so that when they grow petulant, they may be shamed by
reprehension, and again, when they better deserve it, they may be encouraged by
commendations. Wherein we ought to imitate nurses, who, when they have made their infants
cry, stop their mouths with the nipple to quiet them again. It is also useful not to give
them such large commendations as to puff them up with pride; for this is the ready way to
fill them with a vain conceit of themselves, and to enfeeble their minds.
13. Moreover, I have seen some parents whose too much love to their children has
occasioned, in truth, their not loving them at all. I will give light to this assertion by
an example, to those who ask what it means. It is this: while they are over-hasty to
advance their children in all sorts of learning beyond their equals, they set them too
hard and laborious tasks, whereby they fall under discouragement; and this, with other
inconveniences accompanying it, cause them in the issue to be ill affected to learning
itself. For as plants by moderate watering are nourished, but with over-much moisture are
glutted, so is the spirit improved by moderate labors, but overwhelmed by such as are
excessive. We ought therefore to give children some time to take breath from their
constant labors, considering that all human life is divided betwixt business and
relaxation. To which purpose it is that we are inclined by nature not only to wake, but to
sleep also; that as we have sometimes wars, so likewise at other times peace; so some
foul, so other fair days; and, as we have seasons of important business, so also the
vacation times of festivals. And, to contract all in a word, rest is the sauce of labor.
Nor is it thus in living creatures only, but in things inanimate too. For even in bows and
harps, we loosen their strings, that we may bend and wind them up again. Yes, it is
universally seen that, as the body is maintained by repletion and evacuation, so is the
mind by employment and relaxation.
Those parents, moreover, are to be blamed who, when they have committed their sons to
the care of pedagogues or schoolmasters, never see or hear them perform their tasks;
wherein they fail much of their duty. For they ought, ever and again, after the
intermission of some days, to make trial of their children's proficiency; and not intrust
their hopes of them to the discretion of a hireling. For even that sort of men will take
more care of the children, when they know that they are regularly to be called to account.
And here the saying of the king's groom is very applicable, that nothing made the horse so
fat as the king's eye.
But we must most of all exercise and keep in constant employment the memory of
children; for that is, as it were, the storehouse of all learning. Wherefore the
mythologists have made Mnemosyne, or Memory, the mother of the Muses, plainly intimating
thereby that nothing does so beget or nourish learning as memory. Wherefore we must employ
it to both those purposes, whether the children be naturally apt or backward to remember.
For so shall we both strengthen it in those to whom Nature in this respect has been
bountiful, and supply that to others wherein she has been deficient. And as the former
sort of boys will thereby come to excel others, so will the latter sort excel themselves.
For that of Hesiod was well said---
Oft little add to little, and the account
Will swell: heapt atoms thus produce a mount.
Neither, therefore, let the parents be ignorant of this, that the exercising of
memory in the schools does not only give the greatest assistance towards the attainment of
learning, but also to all the actions of life. For the remembrance of things past affords
us examples in our consults about things to come.
14. Children ought to be made to abstain from speaking filthily, seeing, as
Democritus said, words are but the shadows of actions. They are, moreover, to be
instructed to be affable and courteous in discourse. For as churlish manners are always
detestable, so children may be kept from being odious in conversation, if they will not be
pertinaciously bent to maintain all they say in dispute. For it is of use to a man to
understand not only how to overcome, but also how to give ground when to conquer would
turn to his disadvantage. For there is such a thing sometimes as a Cadmean victory; which
the wise Euripides attests, when he said---
Where two discourse, if the one's anger rise,
The man who lets the contest fall is wise.
Add we now to these things some others of which children ought to have no less,
yes, rather greater care; to-wit, that they avoid luxurious living, bridle their tongues,
subdue anger, and refrain their hands. Of how great moment each of these counsels is, I
now come to inquire; and we may best judge of them by examples. To begin with the last:
some men there have been, who, by opening their hands to take what they ought not, have
lost all the honor they got in the former part of their lives. So Gylippus the
Lacedaemonian, for unsewing the public money-bags, was condemned to banishment from
Sparta. And to be able also to subdue anger is the part of a wise man. Such a one was
Socrates; for when a hectoring and debauched young man rudely kicked him, so that those in
his company, being sorely offended, were ready to run after him and call him to account
for it, What, said he to them, if an ass had kicked me, would you think it
handsomely done to kick him again? And yet the young man himself escaped not
unpunished; for when all persons reproached him for so unworthy an act, and gave him the
nickname of Laktistes, or the kicker, he hanged himself. The same Socrates---when
Aristophanes, publishing his play which he called The Clouds, therein threw all
sorts of the foulest reproaches upon him, and a friend of his, who was present at the
acting of it, repeated to him what was there said in the same comical manner, asking him
withal, Does not this offend you, Socrates?---replied: Not at all, for I can as
well bear with a fool in a play as at a great feast. And something of the same nature
is reported to have been done by Archytas of Tarentum and Plato. For Archytas, when, upon
his return from the war, wherein he had been a general, informed that his land had been
impaired by his bailiff's negligence, sent for him, and said only thus to him when he
came: If I were not very angry with you, I would severely correct you. And Plato,
being offended with a gluttonous and debauched servant, called to him Speusippus, his
sister's son, and said to him: Go beat you, this fellow: for I am too much offended
with him to do it myself.
These things, you will perhaps say, are very difficult to be imitated. I confess it;
but yet we must endeavor to the utmost of our power, by setting such examples before us,
to repress the extravagancy of our immoderate, furious anger. For neither are we able to
rival the experience or virtue of such men in many other matters; but we do, nevertheless,
as sacred interpreters of divine mysteries and priests of wisdom, strive to follow these
examples, and, as it were, to enrich ourselves with what we can nibble from them.
And as to the bridling of the tongue, concerning which also I am obliged to speak, if
any man think it a small matter or of mean concernment, he is much mistaken. For it is a
point of wisdom to be silent when occasion requires, and better than to speak, though
never so well. And, in my judgment, for this reason the ancients instituted mystical rites
of initiation in religion, that, being in them accustomed to silence, we might thence
transfer the fear we have of the gods to the fidelity required in human secrets. Yes,
indeed, experience shows that no man ever repented of having kept silence; but many that
they have not done so. And a man may, when he will, easily utter what he has by silence
concealed; but it is impossible for him to recall what he has once spoken. And, moreover,
I can remember infinite examples that have been told me of those that have procured great
damages to themselves by intemperance of the tongue: one or two of which I will give,
omitting the rest. When Ptolemy Philadelphus had taken his sister Arsinöe to wife,
Sotades for breaking an obscene jest upon him lay languishing in prison a great while; a
punishment which he deserved for his unseasonable babbling, whereby to provoke laughter in
others he purchased a long time of mourning to himself. Much after the same rate, or
rather still worse, did Theocritus the Sophist both talk and suffer. For when Alexander
commanded the Greeks to provide him a purple robe, wherein, upon his return from the wars,
he meant to sacrifice to the Gods in gratitude for his victorious success against the
barbarians, and the various states were bringing in the sums assessed upon them,
Theocritus said: I now see clearly that this is what Homer calls purple death, which I
never understood before. By which speech he made the king his enemy from that time
forwards. The same person provoked Antigonus, the king of Macedon, to great wrath, by
reproaching him with his defect, as having but one eye. Thus it was Antigonus commanded
Eutropion, his master-cook (then in waiting), to go to this Theocritus and settle some
accounts with him. And when he announced his errand to Theocritus, and called frequently
about the business, the latter said: I know that you have a mind to dish me up raw to
that Cyclops; thus reproaching at once the king with the want of his eye, and the cook
with his employment. To which Eutropion replied: Then you shall lose your head, as the
penalty of your loquacity and madness. And he was as good as his word; for he departed
and informed the king, who sent and put Theocritus to death.
Besides all these things, we are to accustom children to speak the truth, and to
account it, as indeed it is, a matter of religion for them to do so. For lying is a
servile quality, deserving the hatred of all mankind; yes, a fault for which we ought not
to forgive our meanest servants.
14. Thus far have I discoursed concerning the good-breeding of children, and the
sobriety requisite to that age, without any hesitation or doubt in my own mind concerning
any thing that I have said. But in what remains to be said, I am dubious and divided in my
own thoughts, which, as if they were laid in a balance, sometimes incline this way, and
sometimes that way. I am therefore loath to persuade or dissuade in the matter. But I must
venture to answer one question, which is this: whether we ought to admit those that make
love to our sons to keep them company, or whether we should not rather thrust them out of
doors, and banish them from their society. For when I look upon those straightforward
parents, of a harsh and austere temper, who think it an outrage not to be endured that
their sons should have anything to say to lovers, I am tender of being the persuader or
encourager of such a practice. But, on the other side, when I call to mind Socrates, and
Plato, and Xenophon, and Aeschines, and Cebes, with a whole troop of other such men, who
have approved those masculine loves, and still have brought up young men to learning,
public employments, and virtuous living, I am again of another mind, and am much
influenced by my zeal to imitate such great men. And the testimony also of Euripides is
favorable to their opinion, when he says---
Another love there is in mortals found;
The love of just and chaste and virtuous souls.
And yet I think it not improper here to mention withal that saying of Plato, spoken
betwixt jest and earnest, that men of great eminence must be allowed to show affection to
what beautiful objects they please. I would decide then that parents are to keep off such
as make beauty the object of their affection, and admit altogether such as direct the love
to the soul; whence such loves are to be avoided as are in Thebes and Elis, and that sort
which in Crete they call ravishment; and such are to be imitated as are in Athens and
Sparta.
16. But in this matter let every man follow his own judgment. Thus far have I
discoursed concerning the right ordering and decent carriage of children. I will now pass
thence, to speak somewhat concerning the next age, that of youth. For I have often blamed
the evil custom of some, who commit their boys in childhood to pedagogues and teachers,
and then suffer the impetuosity of their youth to range without restraint; whereas boys of
that age need to be kept under a stricter guard than children. For who does not know that
the errors of childhood are small, and perfectly capable of being amended; such as
slighting their pedagogues, or disobedience to their teachers' instructions? But when they
begin to grow towards maturity, their offences are oftentimes very great and heinous; such
as gluttony, pilfering money from their parents, dicing, revelings, drunkenness, courting
of maidens, and defiling of marriage-beds. Wherefore it is expedient that such impetuous
heats should with great care be kept under and restrained. For the ripeness of that age
admits no bounds in its pleasures, is skittish, and needs a curb to check it; so that
those parents who do not hold in their sons with great strength about that time find to
their surprise that they are giving their vicious inclinations full swing in the pursuit
of the vilest actions. Wherefore it is a duty incumbent upon wise parents, in that age
especially, to set a strict watch upon them, and to keep them within the bounds of
sobriety by instructions, threatenings, entreaties, counsels, promises, and by laying
before them examples of those men (on one side) who by immoderate love of pleasures have
brought themselves into great mischief, and of those (on the other hand) who by abstinence
in the pursuit of them have purchased to themselves very great praise and glory. For these
two things (hope of honor, and fear of punishment) are, in a sort, the first elements of
virtue; the former whereof spurs men on more eagerly to the pursuit of honest studies,
while the latter blunts the edge of their inclinations to vicious courses.
17. And in sum, it is necessary to restrain young men from the conversation of
debauched persons, lest they take infection from their evil examples This was taught by
Pythagoras in certain enigmatical sentences, which I shall here relate and expound, as
being greatly useful to further virtuous inclinations. Such are these: Taste not of
fish that have black tails; that is, converse not with men that are smutted with
vicious qualities. Stride not over the beam of the scales; wherein he teaches us
the regard we ought to have for justice, so as not to go beyond its measures. Sit not
on a phoenix, wherein he forbids sloth, and requires us to take care to provide
ourselves with the necessaries of life. Do not strike hands with every man; he
means we ought not to be over hasty to make acquaintances or friendships with others. Wear
not a tight string; that is, we are to labor after a free and independent way of
living, and to submit to no fetters. Stir not up the fire with a sword; signifying
that we ought not to provoke a man more when he is angry already (since this is a most
unseemly act), but we should rather comply with him while his passion is in its heat. Eat
not your heart; which forbids to afflict our souls, and waste them with vexatious
cares. Abstain from beans; that is, keep out of public offices, for anciently the
choice of the officers of state was made by beans. Put not food in a chamber-pot;
wherein he declares that elegant discourse ought not to be put into an impure mind; for
discourse is the food of the mind, which is rendered unclean by the foulness of the man
who receives it. When men are arrived at the goal, they should not turn back; that
is, those who are near the end of their days, and see the period of their lives
approaching, ought to entertain it contentedly, and not to be grieved at it.
But to return from this digression, our children, as I have said, are to be debarred
the company of all evil men, but especially flatterers. For I would still affirm what I
have often said in the presence of divers fathers, that there is not a more pestilent sort
of men than these, nor any that more certainly and speedily hurry youth into precipices.
Yes, they utterly ruin both fathers and sons, making the old age of the one and the youth
of the other full of sorrow, while they cover the hook of their evil counsels with the
unavoidable bait of voluptuousness. Parents, when they have good estates to leave their
children, exhort them to sobriety, flatterers to drunkenness; parents exhort to
continence, these to lasciviousness; parents to good husbandry, these to prodigality;
parents to industry, these to slothfulness. And they usually entertain them with such
discourses as these: The whole life of man is but a point of time; let us enjoy it
therefore while it lasts, and not spend it to no purpose. Why should you so much regard
the displeasure of your father?---an old doting fool, with one foot already in the grave,
and 'tis to be hoped it will not be long ere we carry him there altogether. And some
of them there are who procure young men foul harlots, yes, prostitute wives to them; and
they even make a prey of those things which the careful fathers have provided for the
sustenance of their old age. A cursed tribe! True friendship's hypocrites, they have no
knowledge of plain dealing and frank speech. They flatter the rich, and despise the poor;
and they seduce the young, as by a musical charm. When those who feed them begin to laugh,
then they grin and show their teeth. They are mere counterfeits, bastard pretenders to
humanity, living at the nod and beck of the rich; free by birth, yet slaves by choice, who
always think themselves abused when they are not so, because they are not supported in
idleness at others' cost. Wherefore, if fathers have any care for the good breeding of
their children, they ought to drive such foul beasts as these out of doors. They ought
also to keep them from the companionship of vicious school-fellows, for these are able to
corrupt the most ingenuous dispositions.
18. These counsels which I have now given are of great worth and importance;
what I have now to add touches certain allowances that are to be made to human nature.
Again, therefore, I would not have fathers of an over-rigid and harsh temper, but so mild
as to forgive some slips of youth, remembering that they themselves were once young. But
as physicians are wont to mix their bitter medicines with sweet syrups, to make what is
pleasant a vehicle for what is wholesome, so should fathers temper the keenness of their
reproofs with lenity. They may occasionally loosen the reins, and allow their children to
take some liberties they are inclined to, and again, when it is fit, manage them with a
straighter bridle. But chiefly should they bear their errors without passion, if it may
be; and if they chance to be heated more than ordinary, they ought not to suffer the flame
to burn long. For it is better that a father's anger be hasty than severe; because the
heaviness of his wrath, joined with implacableness, is no small argument of hatred towards
the child. It is good also not to discover the notice they take of divers faults, and to
transfer to such cases that dimness of sight and hardness of hearing that are wont to
accompany old age; so as sometimes not to hear what they hear, nor to see what they see,
of their children's miscarriages. We use to bear with some failings in our friends, and it
is no wonder if we do the like to our children, especially when we sometimes overlook
drunkenness in our very servants. You have at times been too straight-handed to your
son; make him at other times a larger allowance. You have, it may be, too angry with him;
pardon him the next fault to make him amends. He has made use of a servant's wit to
circumvent you in something; restrain your anger. He has made bold to take a yoke of oxen
out of the pasture, or he has come home smelling of his yesterday's drink; take no notice
of it; and if of ointments too, say nothing. For by this means the wild colt sometimes is
made more tame. Besides, for those who are intemperate in their youthful lusts, and
will not be amended by reproof, it is good to provide wives; for marriage is the strongest
bond to hamper wild youth withal. But we must take care that the wives we procure for them
be neither of too noble a birth nor of too great a portion to suit their circumstances;
for it is a wise saying, drive on your own track. Whereas men that marry women very much
superior to themselves are not so truly husbands to their wives, as they are unawares made
slaves to their portions.
I will add a few words more, and put an end to these advices. The chief thing that
fathers are to look to is that they themselves become effectual examples to their
children, by doing all those things which belong to them and avoiding all vicious
practices, that in their lives, as in a glass, their children may see enough to give them
an aversion to all ill words and actions. For those that chide children for such faults as
they themselves fall into unconsciously accuse themselves, under their children's names.
And if they are altogether vicious in their own lives, they lose the right of reproaching
their very servants, and much more do they forfeit it towards their sons. Yes, what is
more than that, they make themselves even counselors and instructors to them in
wickedness. For where old men are impudent, there of necessity must the young men be so
too. Wherefore we are to apply our minds to all such practices as may conduce to the good
breeding of our children. And here we may take example from Eurydice of Hierapolis, who,
although she was an Illyrian, and so thrice a barbarian, yet applied herself to learning
when she was well advanced in years, that she might teach her children. Her love towards
her children appears evidently in this Epigram of hers, which she dedicated to the Muses:
Eurydice to the Muses here doth raise
This monument, her honest love to praise;
Who her grown sons that she might scholars breed,
Then well in years, herself first learned to read.
And thus have I finished the precepts which I designed to give concerning this subject.
But that they should all be followed by any one reader is rather, I fear, to be wished
than hoped. And to follow the greater part of them, though it may not be impossible to
human nature, yet will need a concurrence of more than ordinary diligence joined with good
fortune.
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