Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/403

Rh they punish him: thus when he lieth sick in bed, he driveth his physician out of the chamber, when he is come to visit him; when he is in sorrow, he shutteth and locketh his door upon the philosopher that cometh to comfort him and give him good counsel: Let me alone (will he say) and give me leave to suffer punishment as I have deserved, wicked and profane creature that I am, accursed, hated of all the gods, demigods, and saints in heaven. Whereas if a man (who doth not believe nor is persuaded that there is a God) be otherwise in exceeding grief and sorrow, it is an ordinary thing with him to wipe away the tears as they gush out of his eyes and trickle down the cheeks, to cause his hair to be cut, and to take away his mourning weed. As for a superstitious person; how should one speak unto him, or which way succour and help him? without the doors he sits clad in sackcloth, or else girded about his loins with patched clothes and tattered rags; oftentimes he will welter and wallow in the mire, confessing and declaring (I wot not) what sins and offences that he hath committed; to wit, that he hath eaten or drunk this or that which his god would not permit; that he hath walked or gone some whither against the will and leave of the divine power. Now, say he be of the best sort of these superstitious people, and that he labour but of the milder superstition; yet will he at leastwise sit within house, having about him a number of all kinds of sacrifices and sacred aspersions; ye shall have old witches come and bring all the charms, spells and sorceries they can come by, and hang them about his neck or other parts of his body (as it were) upon a stake, as Bion was wont to say.

It is reported that Tyribasus, when he should have been apprehended by the Persians, drew his cimeter, and (as he was a valiant man of his hands) defended himself valiantly; but so soon as they that came to lay hands on him cried out and protested that they were to attach him in the king's name and by commission from his majesty, he laid down his weapon aforesaid immediately, and offered both his hands to be bound and opinioned. And is not this whereof we treat the semblable case? whereas others withstand their adversity, repel and put back their afflictions, and work all the means they can for to avoid, escape and turn away that which they would not have to come upon them. A superstitious person will hear no man, but speak in this wise to himself: Wretched man that thou art, all this thou sufferest at the hands of God, and this is befallen unto thee by his commandment, and the divine providence; all hope he