Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/179

Rh Whereupon, being in a passionate humour, and thinking it a great indignity thus to wear away and do nothing, he breaketh forth himself afterwards into this speech:

But here sit I close to my ships, from action more and less An idle lusk to load the earth, I cannot but confess.

Insomuch as Epicurus himself, that great patron and maintainer of pleasure, would not advise nor thinketh meet that those who by nature are of an ambitious and aspiring mind, or desirous of glory, should take their ease and sit still, but by the guidance and direction of their natural inclination, to manage the weighty affairs of state and govern the commonweal: saying, that men born for action would be more troubled and discontented in mind with doing nothing, namely, when they see how they miss and fail of that which so greatly they desired. Howbeit I must note the absurd folly of the man and his want of judgment, in that he seemeth to call and exhort unto the rule of weal-public not those who are able and sufficient, but such only as cannot away with a private life and sitting still: neither ought we to measure and determine either the tranquillity or trouble of the spirit by the paucity or multitude of affairs, but rather by their honesty or dishonesty: for as we have already said, no less discontentment and trouble groweth to the mind by neglecting and omitting things honest, than by affecting and committing things dishonest. As for those who have determinately set by one special kind of life as void of all grief and trouble, to wit, some making choice to live as husbandmen in tillage of the ground; others to lead a single and unmarried life, and some again have esteemed a king's life to be it: to such Menander answereth prettily in these verses:

I thought one while that rich and moneyed men, O Phanias, who were not hard bestead To pay for use in every hundred ten. Do neither groan nor sigh all night in bed: Nor as they turn and toss from top to toe Eftsoons, woe is me, alas, what shall I do? Breathe out from heart full pensive and opprest. But sweetly take repose and sleep in rest.

And coming more nearly unto the point, when he perceived that rich men were as restless and as much disquieted as the poor, he concludeth thus:

But now, I wot, that life and pensive pain Are near of kin and cousin-germans twain. Who live in wealth, I see, feel grief of heart, And men in honour, of sorrows have their part No less than those whose want and penury Doth age with them and keep them company.