Selected Essays of Plutarch
PREFACE
The essays here rendered into English have not been selectedas the very best pieces in Plutarch’s Moralia, but, first, as typicalexamples of his writing in that kind, and, second, as coveringbetween them a tolerably large field of interesting matter. TheMoralia offer us perhaps the best of all extant material forjudging the civilization of the middle classes of society justbefore and after the year 100 of our era. From them and fromPliny’s Letters we are able to form a fairly complete picture ofa large part of that sounder social element which lay betweenthe froth and the dregs.
In the Introduction some remarks are offered concerningPlutarch’s literary style. Here it will suffice to say that theEnglish version does not seek to be either more formal or morevivacious, either more imposing or more humorous, than theoriginal. An attempt has been made to preserve the tone asfaithfully as the substance. In making Plutarch write as hedoes in the following pages the translator hopes that il ne luya au moins rien presté qui le desmente ou qui le desdie. It is fairto add that no modern version of the Moralia has been consultedfor the purposes of this rendering. In the Introduction, however,one cannot fail to owe much suggestion to Gréard andVolkmann.
In the spelling of Greek proper names every modern scholarmust follow his own best judgement. It does not follow that,because it is necessary to say ‘Plato’ and usual to say ‘Parmenio’,it is equally judicious to say ‘Chilo’. Nor can anysafe rule be laid down for a choice between ‘Pisistratus’ and‘Peisistratus’. Perhaps the most advisable course is to safeguard,as far as possible, the pronunciation of those who areunfamiliar with Greek, and the spelling ‘Pheidias’ may dosomething towards correcting the common English tendency topronounce the first syllable as it is pronounced in ‘fiddle’.Notes upon the proper names will be found after the text byreaders who may require them.
4The text generally adopted is that of Bernardakis in theTeubner series, but recourse has been had throughout toWyttenbach, and in a number of places which are commonlyacknowledged to be corrupt the translator has ventured ona modest emendation of his own. These places are markedin the translation by an asterisk in the