Page:The religion of Plutarch, a pagan creed of apostolic times; an essay (IA religionofplutar00oakeiala).pdf/101

 legends as embodied in Epic and Tragic poetry. Reason and common sense admit the high value of imaginative literature in ethical education, and reason and common sense decide what practical advice shall be given to youthful students of fiction, in order that moral lessons may be driven home, immoral incidents, descriptions, and characters made harmless, or even beneficial, while, at the same time, even purely æsthetic considerations are not neglected.

At the commencement of the "De Iside et Osiride" Plutarch deals fully with numerous examples of religious practices coming under his third description of the sources of religious belief, that, namely, of Law or established Custom. He discusses their meaning in the light of a principle which he states as follows:—"In the religious institutions (connected with the worship of Isis and Osiris) nothing has become established which, however it may appear irrational, mythical, superstitious, has not some moral or salutary reason, or some ingenious historical or physical explanation." He is not always successful in his search after a moral meaning, or even an ingenious

a work on How to study Poetry, Zeno one entitled On Poetical Study, and Cleanthes another, called On the Poet.
 * [Footnote: poetarum versus a Platone vituperatos." Chrysippus had composed

The opinion of so conscientious a scholar on Plutarch's "appropriations" is worth quoting:—"tenendum est Plutarchum non eum fuisse qui more compilatorum libros aliorum ad verbum exscriberet sed id egisse ut ea quæ legisset atque collegisset referret, sed ita ut modo sua intermisceret, modo nonnulla omitteret vel mutaret."]