Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 3 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
3. Philinus having ended his discourse, Marcion said: In my opinion,
not only those that separate profit from honesty are obnoxious to
Socrates’s curse, but those also that separate pleasure from health,
as if it were its enemy and opposite, and not its great friend and
promoter. Pain we use but seldom and unwillingly, as the most violent
instrument. But from all things else, none, though he would willingly,
can remove pleasure. It still attends when we eat, sleep, bathe, or
anoint, and takes care of and nurses the diseased; dissipating all
that is hurtful and disagreeable, by applying that which is proper,
pleasing, and natural. For what pain, what want, what poison so quickly
and so easily cures a disease as seasonable bathing? A glass of wine,
when a man wants it, or a dish of palatable meat, presently frees us
from all disturbing particles, and settles nature in its proper state,
there being as it were a calm and serenity spread over the troubled
humors. But those remedies that are painful do hardly and only by
little and little promote the cure, every difficulty pushing on and
forcing Nature. And therefore let not Philinus blame us, if we do not
make all the sail we can to fly from pleasure, but more diligently
endeavor to make pleasure and health, than other philosophers do to
make pleasure and honesty, agree. Now, in my opinion, Philinus, you
seem to be out in your first argument, where you suppose the beasts
use more simple food and are more healthy than men; neither of which
is true. The first the goats in Eupolis confute, for they extol their
pasture as full of variety and all sorts of herbs, in this manner,
We feed almost on every kind of trees,
Young firs, the ilex, and the oak we crop.
Sweet trefoil, fragrant juniper, and yew,
Wild olives, thyme,—all freely yield their store.
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