Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/396

374 howbeit in some of them there is a kind of (I wot not what) alacrity, haughtiness, and jollity, proceeding from the lightness of the mind; and to say in a word, there is in manner not one of them all destitute of one active motion or other, serving for action; but a common imputation this is and a blame laid generally upon all passions, that with their violent pricks (as it were) they incite, provoke, urge, compel, and force reason; only fear, which being no less void of audacity and boldness than of reason, carrieth with it a certain blockishness or stupidity, destitute of action, perplexed, idle, dead, without any exploit or effect whatsoever; whereupon it is named in Greek, that is to say, a bond, and , that is to say, trouble, for that it both bindeth and also troubleth the mind. But of all sorts of fear there is none so full of perplexity, none so unfit for action as that of superstition. The man who saileth not is not afraid of the sea; neither feareth he the wars who followeth not warfare; no more than he who keepeth home and stirreth not out of doors is afraid of thieves that rob by the highway-side; or the poor man that hath nought to lose, of the sycophant or promoter; nor he that liveth in mean estate, of envy; no more (I say) than he that is in Gaul feareth earthquake, or in Ethiopia thunder and lightning: but the superstitious man that stands in fear of the gods, feareth all things, the land, the sea, the air, the sky, darkness, light, silence, and his very dreams. Servants whiles they be asleep forget the rigour and hardness of their masters. Sleep easeth the chains, gyves, and fetters of those that lie by the heels bound in prison; dolorous inflammations, smart wounds, painful ulcers and marimuls that eat and consume the flesh, yield some ease and alleviation unto patients whiles they be asleep, according as he saith in the tragedy: O sweet repose, O sleep so gracious, That dost allay our maladies, How welcome art thou unto us, Bringing in season remedies! Thus said he: But superstition will not give a man leave thus to say: For it alone maketh no truce during sleep; it permitteth not the soul at any time to breathe and take rest, no nor suffereth it to pluck up her spirits and take heart again by removing out of her the unpleasant, tart, and troublesome opinions as touching the divine power; but as if the sleep of superstitious folk were a very hell and place of damned persons, it doth present unto them terrible visions and monstrous fancies; it raiseth devils,