Plato wrote a book on the One Ideal Constitution, but because of its forbidding character he could not persuade anyone to adopt it; but Alexander established more than seventy cities among savage tribes, and sowed all Asia with Grecian magistracies, and thus overcame its uncivilized and brutish manner of living. Although few of us read Plato’s Laws, yet hundreds of thousands have made use of Alexander’s laws, and continue to […]
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Moralia: The True Meaning of “Eye for Eye”
Plato writes in “Phaedrus” that if Wisdom has a visible image, men would be transported by her beauty and loveliness, and be roused to pursue wisdom above all else. But alas, we have no eye for wisdom; Plutarch relates a story of the legendary lawgiver Lycurgus that suggests the true meaning of the law, “eye for eye”. The well-to-do citizens resented Lycurgus’ radical reform, denounced him and pelted him, wishing […]
Read more“Moralia: IV. The Nature of Food” by Plutarch
For no living man feeds upon another living creature ; nay, we put to death the animate creatures and destroy these things that grow in the ground, which also are partakers in life, in that they absorb food, and increase in size ; and herein we do wrong. For anything that is changed from what it was by nature into something else is destroyed, and it undergoes utter corruption that […]
Read more“Moralia: III. Advice to Husband and Wife” by Plutarch
Excellent marriage advice from Plutarch. Fishers of Men Fishing with poison is a quick and easy way to catch fish, but it makes the fish inedible and bad. In the same way women who employ love-potions and magic spells upon their husbands, and gain the mastery over them through pleasure, find themselves consorts of dull-witted, degenerate fools. The men bewitched by Circe were of no service to her, after they […]
Read more“Moralia: II. Consolation of Grief” by Plutarch
The Stream of Time What is there cruel or so very distressing in being dead? For what wonder if the separable be separated, if the combustible be consumed, and the corruptible be corrupted? For at what time is death not existent in our very selves? As Heraclitus says: “Living and dead are potentially the same thing, and so too waking and sleeping, and young and old. For the latter revert […]
Read more“Moralia: I. Education in Virtue” by Plutarch
Relaxation and Labour In my time I have seen fathers in whom excessive affection had become the cause of no affection: in their eagerness that their children may the sooner rank first in everything, they lay upon them unreasonable tasks, which the children find themselves unable to perform, and so come to grief; besides, being depressed by their unfortunate experiences, they do not respond to the instruction which they receive. […]
Read moreOn the World as a Stage: III. Participating in Justice
Plato writes that the beautiful things in this world are images of the absolute and everlasting Beauty that can be seen only with the eye of the mind. Things in this world change constantly and have no substance, but they are beautiful because they participate in Beauty. In the same vein, justice is made manifest in this world by people participating in or enacting Justice. Sometimes it’s almost as if a […]
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