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
2. True, said I, but methinks there is some small track to the cause
of this effect, if you come to the effluvia of bodies. For smell,
voice, breath, and the like, are effluvia from animal bodies, and
material parts that move the senses, which are wrought upon by their
impulse. Now it is very likely that such effluvia must continually
part from animals, by reason of their heat and motion; for by that
the spirits are agitated, and the body, being struck by those, must
continually send forth effluvia. And it is probable that these pass
chiefly through the eye. For the sight, being very vigorous and
active, together with the spirit upon which it depends, sends forth
a strange fiery power; so that by it men act and suffer very much,
and are always proportionably pleased or displeased, according as the
visible objects are agreeable or not. Love, that greatest and most
violent passion of the soul, takes its beginning from the eye; so that
a lover, when he looks upon the fair, flows out, as it were, and seems
to mix with them. And therefore why should any one, that believes men
can be affected and prejudiced by the sight, imagine that they cannot
act and hurt as well? For the mutual looks of mature beauties, and
that which comes from the eye, whether light or a stream of spirits,
melt and dissolve the lovers with a pleasing pain, which they call the
bitter-sweet of love. For neither by touching or hearing the voice of
their beloved are they so much wounded and wrought upon, as by looking
and being looked upon again. There is such a communication, such a
flame raised by one glance, that those must be altogether unacquainted
with love that wonder at the Median naphtha, that takes fire at a
distance from the flame. For the glances of a fair one, though at a
great distance, quickly kindle a fire in the lover’s breast. Besides
everybody knows the remedy for the jaundice; if they look upon the
bird called charadrios, they are cured. For that animal seems to be of
that temperature and nature as to receive and draw away the disease,
that like a stream flows out through the eyes; so that the charadrios
will not look on one that hath the jaundice; he cannot endure it, but
turns away his head and shuts his eyes, not envying (as some imagine)
the cure he performs, but being really hurted by the effluvia of
the patient. And of all diseases, soreness of the eyes is the most
infectious; so strong and vigorous is the sight, and so easily does it
cause infirmities in another.
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