Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/418

396 For when a man hath lost his goods, it is not so easy a matter to recover them soon again; but surely every city is straight-ways as good a native country unto him, who knoweth and hath learned how to use it; to him (I say) who hath such roots as will live, be nourished and grow in every place and by any means, such as Themistocles was furnished with; and such as Demetrius the Phalerian was not without; who being banished from Athens, became a principal person in the court of King Ptolemaeus in Alexandria, where he not only himself lived in great abundance of all things, but also sent unto the Athenians from thence rich gifts and presents. As for Themistocles, living in the estate of a prince, through the bountiful allowance and liberality of the King of Persia, he was wont (by report) to say unto his wife and children: We had been utterly undone for ever, if we had not been undone. And therefore Diogenes, surnamed the Dog, when one brought him word and said. The Sinopians have condemned thee to be exiled out of the kingdom of Pontus: And I (quoth he) have confined them within the country of Pontus with this charge:

Stratonius being in the isle Seriphos, which was a very little one, demanded of his host for what crimes the punishment of exile was ordained in that country; and when he heard and understood by him that they used to banish such as were convicted of falsehood and untruth: Why then (quoth he again) hast not thou committed some false and lewd act, to the end that thou mightest depart out of this straight place and be enlarged? where, as one comical poet said: A man might gather and make a vintage (as it were) of figs with slings, and foison of all commodities might be had, which an island wanted. For if one would weigh and consider the truth indeed, setting aside all vain opinion and foolish conceits, he that is affected unto one city alone is a very pilgrim and stranger in all others; for it seemeth neither meet, honest, nor reasonable that a man should abandon his own for to inhabit those of others. Sparta is fallen to thy lot (saith the proverb), adorn and honour it, for so thou art bound to do; be it that it is of small or no account; say that it is seated in an unwholesome air, and subject to many diseases, or be plagued with civil dissensions, or otherwise troubled with turbulent affairs. But whosoever he be whom fortune hath deprived of his own native country, certes she