Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/210

188 those plants which the earth bringeth forth, some there are which not only by their own nature be wild and savage, and withal bearing no fruit at all; but (that which worse is) in their growth do hurt unto good seeds and fruitful plants: and yet skilful gardeners and husbandmen judge them to be arguments and signs, not of bad ground, but rather of a kind and fat soil; semblably the passions and affections of the mind simply and in themselves are not good, howbeit they spring as buds and flowers from a towardly nature, and such as gently can yield itself to be wrought, framed, and brought into order by reason.

In this kind I may range that which the Greeks call ή Δυσωπία, which is as much to say, as a foolish and rustical shamefastness; no evil sign in itself, howbeit the cause and occasion of evil and naughtiness. For they that be given to bash and shame over-much and when they should not, commit many times the same faults that they do who are shameless and impudent: here only is the difference, that they, when they trespass and do amiss, are displeased with themselves, and grieve for the matter; whereas these take delight and pleasure therein: for he that is graceless and past shame hath no sense or feeling of grief when he hath committed any foul or dishonest act; contrariwise, whosoever be apt to bash and be ashamed quickly are soon moved and troubled anon, even at those things which seem only dishonest, although they be not indeed.

Now, lest the equivocation of the word might breed any doubt, I mean by dysopia, immoderate bashfulness, whereby one blusheth for shame exceedingly and for everything, whereupon such an one is called in Greek dysopetus, for that his visage and countenance together with his mind changeth, falleth and is cast down: for like as κατήφεια in Greek is defined to be a sad heaviness, which causeth a down-look; even so, that shame and dismayedness which maketh us that we dare not look a man in the face as we should and when we ought, they call ή Δυσωπία. And hereupon it was that the great orator Demosthenes said of an impudent fellow that he had in his eyes not κοράς but πορνάς, i.e., harlots, playing prettily upon the ambiguity of the word κορη, which signifieth both the round apple in the eyes, and also a maiden or virgin: but contrariwise the over-bashful person (whom we speak of) sheweth in his countenance a mind too soft, delicate and effeminate, and yet he flattereth himself therein, and calleth that fault (wherein the impudent person surpasseth him) shamefastness. Now Cato was wont to say that he loved to see young folk rather to blush