It was only very recently that I received your letter in which you urged me to write you something on tranquillity of mind, and also something on those subjects in the We possess a work of Plutarch entitled , but it is addressed by the writer to his sons, Autobulus and Plutarch (, 1012 a ff.). which require more careful elucidation. And at the same time it chanced that our friend ErosSee 453 c, supra. was obliged to sail at once for Rome, since he had received from the excellent FundanusThe principal speaker of , 452 f, supra. a letter, which, in his usual style, urged haste. But since I neither had the time I might have desired to meet your wishes nor could I bring myself to let the friend who carne from me be seen arriving at your home with hands quite empty, I gathered together from my note-books those observations on tranquillity of mind which I happened to have made for my own use, believing that you on your part requested this discourse, not for the sake of hearing a work which would aim at elegance of style, but for the practical use in living it might afford; and I congratulate you because, though you have commanders as your friends and a reputation second to none of the forensic speakers of our day, your experience has not been that of Merops in the play, and because it cannot be said of you, as of him, that The plaudits of the mob have driven youNauck, ², p. 606, Euripides, Frag. 778. from those emotions given us by nature; but you continue to remember what you have often heard, that an aristocratic shoe does not rid us of the gout, nor an expensive ring of a hangnail, nor a diadem of a headache. For what power is there in money or fame or influence at court to help us to gain ease of soul or an untroubled life, if it is not true that the use of them is pleasant to us when we have them and that we never miss them when we have them not?Cf. Frag. , 2 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 123); Lucretius, iii. 957: semper avet quod abest. And how else can this be achieved except through reason, which has been carefully trained quickly to hold back the passionate and irrational part of the soul when it breaks bounds, as it often does, and not to allow it to flow away and be swept downstream because it does not have what it wants? Therefore, just as Xenophon, i. 6. 3. advised that in prosperity we should be particularly mindful of the gods and should honour them, so that, when some need comes upon us, we may invoke them with the confidence that they are already well-disposed and friendly; so also with such reasonings as give help in controlling the passions: wise men should give heed to them before the passions arise in order that, being prepared far in advance, their help may be more efficacious. For as savage dogs become excited at every strange cry and are soothed by the familiar voice only, so also the passions of the soul, when they are raging wild, are not easily allayed, unless customary and familiar arguments are at hand to curb the excited passions.

Now heDemocritus; Diels, ⁵, ii. p. 132, Frag. 3; Marcus Aurelius, iv. 24; Seneca, , xiii. 1, where the statement is made that these words form the beginning of Democritus’s work (see especially Siefert, op. cit., p. 8); , iii. 6. 3. But Plutarch misunderstands the meaning; Democritus did not advise renouncing public life completely: Cf. , 1100 b-c. Note also the word many in the present passage. (The following paragraph is cited by Stobaeus, vol. iii. pp. 651 f. ed. Hense.) who said, The man who would be tranquil in his mind must not engage in many affairs, either private or public, first of all makes our tranquillity very expensive if it is bought at the price of inactivity; it is as though he advised every sick man: Lie still, poor wretch, and move not from your bed.Euripides, , 258; quoted again 501 c, infra, and in , 788 f, 901 a, 1126 a; the words are addressed by Electra to Orestes, delirious after the murder of his mother, and must be taken closely with the following clause. And yet it is true that a state of bodily stupor is a bad remedy for insanity; but no whit better as a physician of the soul is he who would relieve it of its disturbances and distress by prescribing idleness and softness and the betrayal of friends and family and country.Cf., 135 b.

In the next place, it is also false that those who are not occupied with many things are tranquil in mind. For if that were true, women ought to be more tranquil than men, since for the most part they keep at home; but as it is, the North Wind Blows not through the soft-skinned maid, as Hesiod, 519, where the poet adds who stays indoors with her dear mother.Cf. 516 f, infra. says, yet more pain and excitement and despondency than one could enumerate, caused by jealousy and superstitition and ambition and vain imaginings, seep into the women’s quarters. And though LaërtesHomer, , i. 191. lived twenty years by himself in the country With one old woman, who his food and drink Would place beside him, and abandoned his birthplace,That is, the town of Ithaca; he continued to live on the island. his home, and his kingship, yet he had grief as an ever-constant companion of his inactivity and dejection. And for some persons, even inactivity itself often leads to discontent, as in this instance: The swift Achilles, Peleus’ noble son, Continued in his wrath beside the ships; Nor would he ever go to council that Ennobles men, nor ever go to war, But wasted away his heart, remaining there, And always longed for tumult and for war.Homer, , i. 488 ff. And he himself is greatly disturbed and distressed at this and says: But here I sit beside my ships,A useless burden to the earth.Ibid. xviii. 104. For this reason not even EpicurusUsener, , p. 328, Frag. 555. The following passage is cited by Stobaeus, vol. iii. p. 652 ed. Hense. believes that men who are eager for honour and glory should lead an inactive life, but that they should fulfil their natures by engaging in politics and entering public life, on the ground that, because of their natural dispositions, they are more likely to be disturbed and harmed by inactivity if they do not obtain what they desire. But he is absurd in urging public life, not on those who are able to undertake it, but on those who are unable to lead an inactive life; tranquillity and discontent should be determined, not by the multitude or the fewness of one’s occupations, but by their excellence or baseness; for the omission of good acts is no less vexatious and disturbing than the commission of evil acts, as has been said.Probably by Democritus (Cf. Frag. 256), not Plutarch.

To those who believe that one quite special kind of life is free from pain, as some do the life of farmers, others that of bachelors, others that of kings, the words of MenanderKock, , iii. p. 79, Frag. 281 (p. 378 ed. Allinson, L.C.L.); from the . are a sufficient reminder: I used to think the wealthy, Phanias, Who have no need to borrow, would not groan Of nights, nor tossing up and down would cry Ah, woe is me! but that they slept a sweet And tranquil sleep. He then goes on to relate that he observes that even the wealthy fare the same as the poor: Is there then kinship between life and grief? Grief’s in a famous life; with a rich life It stays; with a mean life it too grows old. But like people at seaThe rest of this chapter and the beginning of the next is cited by Stobaeus, vol. iii. p. 249 ed. Hense. It is also imitated by St. Basil, ii. (vol. i. p. 8 ed. Deferrari, L.C.L.). who are cowardly and seasick and think that they would get through this voyage more comfortably if they should transfer from their little boat to a ship, and then again from the ship to a man-of-war; but they accomplish nothing by the changes, since they carry their nausea and cowardice along with them; so the exchange of one mode of life for another does not relieve the soul of those things which cause it grief and distressCf. Lucretius, iii. 1057 ff.: commutare locum quasi onus deponere possit; Seneca, , ii. 13 f.: these are inexperience in affairs, unreasonableness, the want of ability or knowledge to make the right use of present conditions. These are the defects which, like a storm at sea, torment rich and poor alike, that afflict the married as well as the unmarried; because of these men avoid public life, then find their life of quiet unbearable; because of these men seek advancement at court, by which, when they have gained it, they are immediately bored. Through helplessness the sick are hard to please,Euripides, , 232. for their wives are troublesome, they grumble at the doctor, they are vexed with the bed, Each friend that comes annoys, that goes affronts, as IonNauck, ², p. 743, Frag. 56. has it. But later, when the disease is over and a sounder disposition supervenes, health returns and makes everything pleasant and agreeableCf., 101 c-d.: he that yesterday loathed eggs and delicate cakes and fine bread to-day eats eagerly and willingly of a coarse loaf with olives and water-cress.

Such contentment and change of view toward every kind of life is created by reason when it has been engendered within us. Alexander wept when he heard AnaxarchusDiels, ⁵, ii. p. 238, A 11; this Anaxarchus accompanied Alexander to India (Diogenes Laertius, ix. 61). discourse about an infinite number of worlds, and when his friends inquired what ailed him, Is it not worthy of tears, he said, that, when the number of worlds is infinite,Cf. F. M. Cornford, , xxviii. (1934), 1 ff. on Innumerable Worlds in Presocratic Philosophy. we have not yet become lords of a single one? But Crates, though he had but a wallet and a threadbare cloak, passed his whole life jesting and laughing as though at a festival. It was, indeed, burdensome to Agamemnon to be lord of many men: Agamemnon you shall know, King Atreus’ son, Whom, beyond all, Zeus cast into a mesh Of never-ending caresHomer, , x. 88-89.; but Diogenes, when he was being sold at auction,Cf. Diogenes Laertius, vi. 29. lay down on the ground and kept mocking the auctioneer; when this official bade him arise, he would not, but joked and ridiculed the man, saying, Suppose you were selling a fish? And Socrates,Cf., 607 f. though in prison, discoursed on philosophic themes to his friends; but Phaethon, when he had mounted up to heaven, wept because no one would deliver to him his father’s horses and chariot.

So, just as the shoe is turned with the foot, and not the contrary, so do men’s dispositions make their lives like themselves. For it is not, as someoneA Pythagorean precept, Cf. , 602 b, 47 b-c, 123 c; probably not Democritus, as Hirzel (, xiv. 367) suggests, or Seneca, as Apelt in his translation of Plutarch supposes. has said, habituation which makes the best life sweet to those who have chosen it, but wisdom which makes the same life at once both best and sweetest. Therefore let us cleanse the fountain of tranquillity that is in our own selves, in order that external things also, as if our very own and friendly, may agree with us when we make no harsh use of them: It does no good to rage at circumstance; Events will take their course with no regard For us. But he who makes the best of those Events he lights upon will not fare ill.Euripides, , Frag. 287 (Nauck, ², p. 446); quoted also in , 153 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 424).