Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/413

Rh either to afflict or rejoice hearts, in some measure more or less, not by their own nature, but according to judgment and opinion, every man maketh to himself light or heavy, easy to be borne or contrariwise intolerable: whereupon we may hear Polynices answering thus to the demand made unto him by his mother:

but contrariwise, you shall hear Alcman in another song, according to a little epigram written of him by a certain poet:

for it is the opinion, and nothing else, that causeth one and the same thing to be unto some good and commodious, as current and approved money, but to others unprofitable and hurtful.

But set case that exile be a grievous calamity, as many men do both say and sing; even so, among those meats which we eat there be many things bitter, sharp, hot and biting in taste, howbeit, by mingling therewith somewhat which is sweet and pleasant, we take away that which disagreeth with nature; like as there be colours also offensive to the sight, in such sort as that the eyes be much dazzled and troubled therewith, by reason of their unpleasant hue or excessive and intolerable brightness. If then, for to remedy that inconvenience by such offensive and resplendent colours, we have devised means either to intermingle shadows withal, or turn away our eyes from them unto some green and delectable objects; the semblable may we do in those sinister and cross accidents of fortune; namely, by mixing among them those good and desirable blessings which a man presently doth enjoy, to wit, wealth and abundance of goods, a number of friends, and the want of nothing necessary to this life: for I do not think that among the Sardinians there be many who would not be very well content with those goods and that estate which you have even in exile, and chuse rather with your condition of life otherwise, to live from home and in a strange country, than (like snails, evermore sticking fast to their shells) be without all good things else, and enjoy only that which they lave at home in peace, without trouble and molestation. Like