The Education of Children (intro-4)

It is generally believed that the essay which stands first in the collected works of Plutarch cannot have been written by him. The arguments against the genuineness of the essay, based both on external and internal evidence, are too long to be repeated here, but they may be found in Wyttenbach’s edition vol. vi. pp. 29-64.

The essay, however, is interesting in itself, since it reflects in many ways the educational conditions of its time. Frankly recognizing the difference in natural endowments, the author insists on the great benefits which inevitably come from training. Physical training is of course required, and military training is held to be most important for preparing men to win in battle. A knowledge of philosophy is the final goal of education.

The invectives against the indifference of parents about the education of their children, and their unwillingness to pay adequate salaries so as to secure men of character as teachers, may have the same familiar ring two thousand years hence.

Finally, a word is added on the excesses of young men, and a warning against flatterers,—suggested perhaps by Plutarch’s essay devoted to that subject.

Let us consider what may be said of the education of free-born children, and what advantages they should enjoy to give them a sound character when they grow up.

It is perhaps better to begin with their parentage first; and I should advise those desirous of becoming fathers of notable offspring to abstain from random cohabitation with women; I mean with such women as courtesans and concubines. For those who are not well-born, whether on the father’s or the mother’s side, have an indelible disgrace in their low birth, which accompanies them throughout their lives, and offers to anyone desiring to use it a ready subject of reproach and insult. Wise was the poet who declares:

The home’s foundation being wrongly laid, The offspring needs must be unfortunate.[*]

A man, though bold, is made a slave whene’er He learns his mother’s or his sire’s disgrace.[*]

In this connexion we should speak of a matter which has not been overlooked by our predecessors. What is this? It is that husbands who approach their wives for the sake of issue should do so only when they have either not taken any wine at all, or at any rate, a very moderate portion. For children whose fathers have chanced to beget them in drunkenness are wont to be fond of wine, and to be given to excessive drinking. Wherefore Diogenes, observing an emotional and crack-brained youth, said, Young man, your father must have been drunk when he begot you ! So much for my views on the subject of birth. We must now speak of education.

As a general statement, the same assertion may be made in regard to moral excellence that we [*]

Now it is a fortunate thing and a token of divine love if ever a heavenly power has bestowed all these qualities on any one man; but if anybody imagines that those not endowed with natural gifts, who yet have the chance to learn and to apply themselves in the right way to the attaining of virtue, cannot repair the want of their nature and advance so far as in them lies, let him know that he is in great, or rather total, error. For indifference ruins a good natural endowment, but instruction amends a poor one; easy things escape the careless, but difficult