"Have you not then observed how a Man's Reason (like fire, scarce visible and just going out) retires into it self, and what with inactivity and dullness, every little flitting object so flatters and endangers the extinguishing it, that there remains but some obscure indications that the Man is alive."
— Plutarch (c. 46-120)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
William Taylor
Date
1718 [first published 1684-1694]
Metaphor
"Have you not then observed how a Man's Reason (like fire, scarce visible and just going out) retires into it self, and what with inactivity and dullness, every little flitting object so flatters and endangers the extinguishing it, that there remains but some obscure indications that the Man is alive."
Metaphor in Context
[...] But what should they hide their Heads for, who, with regard to the works of Nature, own and magnifie a God, who Celebrate his Justice and Providence, who in point of Morality, are due Observers of the Law, Promoters of Society and Community among all Men, Lovers of the Publick-weal, and in the administration thereof, prefer the common Good before private Advantage? What would such Men Cloister up themselves, and live Recluses from the World? For would you have them out of the way, for fear they should set a good example, and allure others to Virtue out of AEmulation of the Precedent? If Themistocles his Valour had been unknown at Athens, Greece had never given XERXS that Repulse: Had not CAMILLUS shewn himself in defence of the Romans, their City Rome had no longer stood: Sicily had not recovered her Liberty, had PLATO been a Stranger to DION: Truly (in my mind) to be known to the World under some eminent Character, not only carries a reputation with it, but makes the Vertues in us become practical like Light, which renders us not only visible but useful to others: EPAMINONDAS during the first Forty Years of his Life in which no notice was taken of him, was an useless Citizen to THEBES; but afterwards, when he had once gained Credit and the Government amongst them, he both rescued the City from present destruction, and freed even Greece her self from imminent slavery, exhibiting (like Light, which is in its own nature Glorious, and to others Beneficial at the same time) a valour seasonably active and serviceable to his Countrey, yet interwoven with his own Laurels: For
Vertue, like finest Brass, by use grows bright.
And not our Houses alone, when (as SOPHOCLES has it) they stand long untenanted, run the faster to ruine, but Mens natural parts lying unemployed for lack of Acquaintance with the World, contract a kind of filth or rust and craziness thereby. For sottish ease, and a life wholly sedentary and given up to Idleness, spoils and debilitates, not only the Body but the Soul too: And as close Waters shadowed over by bordering Trees, and stagnated in default of Springs, so supply current and motion to them become foul and corrupt; so methinks the Innate Faculties and Powers, of a dull unstirring Soul, what ever usefulness, whatever Seeds of good she may have latent in her, yet when she puts not those Powers into Action, when once they stagnate, they lose their vigour and run to decay; See you not how on Nights approach a sluggish drowsiness oft-times seizes the Body, and sloath and unactivness surprize the Soul, and she finds her self heavy and quite unfit for Action? Have you not then observed how a Man's Reason (like fire, scarce visible and just going out) retires into it self, and what with inactivity and dullness, every little flitting object so flatters and endangers the extinguishing it, that there remains but some obscure indications that the Man is alive.
But when the Orient Sun brings back the day,
It chases Night and dreamy Sleep away.
(pp. 38-9)
Vertue, like finest Brass, by use grows bright.
And not our Houses alone, when (as SOPHOCLES has it) they stand long untenanted, run the faster to ruine, but Mens natural parts lying unemployed for lack of Acquaintance with the World, contract a kind of filth or rust and craziness thereby. For sottish ease, and a life wholly sedentary and given up to Idleness, spoils and debilitates, not only the Body but the Soul too: And as close Waters shadowed over by bordering Trees, and stagnated in default of Springs, so supply current and motion to them become foul and corrupt; so methinks the Innate Faculties and Powers, of a dull unstirring Soul, what ever usefulness, whatever Seeds of good she may have latent in her, yet when she puts not those Powers into Action, when once they stagnate, they lose their vigour and run to decay; See you not how on Nights approach a sluggish drowsiness oft-times seizes the Body, and sloath and unactivness surprize the Soul, and she finds her self heavy and quite unfit for Action? Have you not then observed how a Man's Reason (like fire, scarce visible and just going out) retires into it self, and what with inactivity and dullness, every little flitting object so flatters and endangers the extinguishing it, that there remains but some obscure indications that the Man is alive.
But when the Orient Sun brings back the day,
It chases Night and dreamy Sleep away.
(pp. 38-9)
Categories
Provenance
Searching in Google Books
Citation
Text from "Whether 'Twere Rightly Said, Live Conceal'd," trans. Charles Whitaker in Plutarch's Morals: Translated from the Greek by Several Hands, 5th ed., vol. 3 of 5 (London: Printed for William Taylor, 1718), 35-42. <Link to Google Books>
See also Liberty Fund edition, digitized from Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by Several Hands. Corrected and Revised by William W. Goodwin, with an Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1878). This 1878 American edition is based on the 5th edition of 1718. <Link to OLL>
See also Liberty Fund edition, digitized from Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by Several Hands. Corrected and Revised by William W. Goodwin, with an Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1878). This 1878 American edition is based on the 5th edition of 1718. <Link to OLL>
Date of Entry
01/25/2012
