Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/49

Rh in poetry (as Plato saith very well) he that is inspired and (as it were) ravished with the divine instinct of the Muses, will make a ridiculous fool of him who otherwise is an excellent poet, and his craftsmaster as having learned the exquisite knowledge of the art; but also in battles, the heat of courage set on fire with a certain divine inspiration is invincible and cannot be withstood. This is that martial fury which (as Homer saith) the gods do infuse or inspire rather into warlike men: And again:

Thus having said he did inspire The prince's heart with might and ire.

And again:

One god or other surely doth him assist, Else faring thus, he never could persist.

As if to the discourse of reason they had adjoined passion as a prick to incite, and a chariot to set it forward. Certes, even these very Stoics with whom now we argue, and who seem to reject all passions, we may see oftentimes how they stir up young men with praises, and as often rebuke them with sharp admonitions and severe reprehensions. Whereof there must needs ensue of the one part pleasure, and of the other part displeasure. For surely checks and fault-findings strike a certain repentance and shame: of which two, the former is comprised under sorrow, and the latter under fear: and these be the means that they use principally to chastise and correct withal. Which was the reason that Diogenes upon a time, when he heard Plato so highly praised and extolled: And what great and worthy matter (quoth he) find you in that man, who having been a philosopher so long and taught the precepts thereof, hath not in all this time grieved and wounded the heart of any one person? For surely the mathematical sciences a man cannot so properly call the ears or handles of philosophy (to use the words of Xenocrates) as he may affirm that these affections of young men, to wit, bashfulness, desire, repentance, pleasure and pain, are their handles, whereof reason and law together taking hold by a discreet, apt and wholesome touch, bring a young man speedily and effectually into the right way. And therefore the Lacedæmonian schoolmaster and governor of children said very well, when he professed that he would bring to pass that the child whom he took into his tuition should joy in honest things, and grieve in those that were foul and dishonest. Than which there cannot possibly be named a more worthy or commendable end of the liberal education and bringing up of a young youth well descended.