Plutarch, An Virtus Doceri Possit, William Clark Helmbold (Translator), 2

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[2] O mortal men! Why do we assert that virtue is unteachable, and thus make it non-existent? For if learning begets virtue, the prevention of learning destroys it. Yet truly, as Plato¹ says, just because a foot of verse is out of measure with the lyre and fails to harmonize with it, brother does not war with brother, nor does friend quarrel with friend, nor do states conceive hatred toward other states and wreak upon each other the most extreme injuries and suffer them as well; nor can anyone say that civil strife has ever broken out in a state over a question of accent, as, for instance, whether we should read Telchines or Telchines,² nor that a quarrel has ever arisen in a household between husband and wife as to which is the warp and which the woof. Yet, for all that, no one, unless he has received instruction, would attempt to handle a loom or a book or a lyre, though he would suffer no great harm if he did so, but he is merely afraid of becoming ridiculous (for, as Heracleitus³ says, It is better to conceal ignorance); but everyone thinks that without instruction he will handle successfully a home, a marriage, a commonwealth, a magistracy - though he has not learned how to get along with wife, or servant, or fellow-citizen, or subject, or ruler!

Diogenes, when he saw a child eating sweet-meats, gave the boy’s tutor a cuff, rightly judging the fault to be, not that of him who had not learned, but of him who had not taught. Then, when it is impossible to eat and drink politely in company if one has not learned from childhood, as Aristophanes⁴ says,

Not to laugh like a clown, nor dainties gulp down, nor to

cross one leg on the other;

yet can men enter without censure the fellowship of a household, a city, a marriage, a way of life, a magistracy, if they have not learned how they should get along with fellow-beings? When Aristippus was asked by someone, So you are everywhere, it seems, aren’t you? Well then, he replied with a laugh, I am wasting my fare,⁵ if indeed I am everywhere. Why, then, would you also not say, If men do not become better by teaching, the fee given to their tutors is wasted? For these are the first to receive the child when it has been weaned and, just as nurses mould its body with their hands,⁶ so tutors by the habits they inculcate train the child’s character to take a first step, as it were, on the path of virtue. So the Spartan,⁷ when he was asked what he effected by his teaching, said, I make honourable things pleasant to children. And yet what do tutors teach? To walk in the public streets with lowered head; to touch salt-fish with but one finger, but fresh fish, bread, and meat with two⁸; to sit in such and such a posture; in such and such a way to wear their cloaks.⁹

An Virtus Doceri Possit. Plutarch. William Clark Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1939.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Can Virtue Be Taught? (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. VI. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1939 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Εἰ διδακτὸν ἡ ἀρετή Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.) — 2 focus

[2] ὦ · ἄνθρωποι, τί τὴν ἀρετὴν λέγοντες ἀδίδακτον εἶναι ποιοῦμεν ἀνύπαρκτον; εἰ γὰρ ἡ μάθησις γένεσίς ἐστιν, ἡ τοῦ μαθεῖν κώλυσις ἀναίρεσις. καίτοι γʼ ὥς φησιν ὁ Πλάτων διὰ τὴν τοῦ ποδὸς¹ πρὸς τὴν λύραν καὶ ἀμετρίαν καὶ ἀναρμοστίαν οὔτʼ 5 ἀδελφὸς ἀδελφῷ πολεμεῖ οὔτε φίλος φίλῳ διαφέρεται, οὔτε πόλεις πόλεσι διʼ ἀπεχθείας γιγνόμεναι τὰ ἔσχατα² δρῶσί τε καὶ πάσχουσιν ὑπʼ ἀλλήλων· οὐδὲ περὶ προσῳδίας ἔχει τις εἰπεῖν στάσιν ἐν πόλει γενομένην,³ 439d πότερον Τελχινας ἢ Τέλχινας⁴ ἀναγνωστέον 10 οὐδʼ ἐν οἰκίᾳ διαφορὰν ἀνδρὸς καὶ γυναικὸς ὑπὲρ κρόκης ἢ στήμονος. ἀλλʼ ὅμως οὔτʼ ἂν ἱστὸν οὔτε βιβλίον ἢ λύραν ὁ μὴ μαθὼν μεταχειρίσαιτο, καίπερ εἰς οὐδὲν μέγα βλαβησόμενος, ἀλλʼ αἰδεῖται γενέσθαι καταγέλαστος· ἀμαθίην γὰρ Ἡράκλειτός⁵ φησι κρύπτειν 15 ἄμεινον· οἶκον δὲ καὶ γάμον καὶ πολιτείαν καὶ ἀρχὴν οἷόν τε⁶ καλῶς μεταχειρίσασθαι μὴ γυναικὶ μὴ θεράποντι μὴ πολίτῃ μὴ ἀρχομένῳ καὶ ἄρχοντι; παιδὸς ὀψοφαγοῦντος, ὁ Διογένης τῷ παιδαγωγῷ κόνδυλον ἔδωκεν, ὀρθῶς οὐ τοῦ μὴ μαθόντος ἀλλὰ 20 τοῦ μὴ διδάξαντος τὸ ἁμάρτημα ποιήσας. εἶτα παροψίδος 439e μὲν ἢ κύλικος οὐκ ἔστι κοινωνεῖν ἐπιδεξίως, ἂν μὴ μάθῃ τις εὐθὺς ἐκ παίδων ἀρξάμενος, ὡς Ἀριστοφάνης⁷

μὴ κιχλίζειν μηδʼ ὀψοφαγεῖν μηδʼ ἴσχειν τὼ πόδʼ 25 ἐπαλλάξ·⁸

οἴκου δὲ καὶ πόλεως καὶ γάμου καὶ βίου καὶ ἀρχῆς κοινωνίαν ἀνέγκλητον ἐνδέχεται γενέσθαι, μὴ μαθόντων ὅντινα χρὴ τρόπον ἀλλήλοις συμφέρεσθαι; ὁ Ἀρίστιππος ἐρωτηθεὶς ὑπό τινος πανταχοῦ σὺ 5 ἄρʼ εἶ;ʼ γελάσας οὐκοῦν ἔφη παραπόλλυμι τὸ ναῦλον, 439f εἴ γε πανταχοῦ εἰμι. τί οὖν οὐκ ἂν εἴποις καὶ αὐτός εἰ μὴ γίγνονται μαθήσει βελτίονες ἄνθρωποι, παραπόλλυται ὁ μισθὸς τῶν παιδαγωγῶν πρῶτον γὰρ οὗτοι λαμβάνοντες ἐκ γάλακτος, ὥσπερ αἱ τίτθαι 10 ταῖς χερσὶ τὸ σῶμα πλάττουσιν, οὕτω τὸ ἦθος ῥυθμίζουσι τοῖς ἔθεσιν, εἰς ἴχνος τι πρῶτον ἀρετῆς καθιστάντες. καὶ ὁ Λάκων ἐρωτηθείς τί παρέχει παιδαγωγῶν, · τὰ καλά ἔφη τοῖς παισὶν ἡδέα ποιῶ. καίτοι⁹ διδάσκουσιν οἱ παιδαγωγοὶ κεκυφότας ἐν ταῖς ὁδοῖς 15 440a περιπατεῖν, ἑνὶ δακτύλῳ τὸ τάριχος ἅρασθαι,¹⁰ δυσὶ τὸν ἰχθῦν σῖτον κρέας· οὕτω καθῆσθαι, τὸ ἱμάτιον οὕτως ἀναλαβεῖν.¹¹

Translations (1)

That Virtue May Be Taught Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor; Patrick, John translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 2 focus

[2] Why do we, by asserting that virtue is not to be taught, make it a thing that does not at all exist? For if by its being learned it is produced, he that hinders its being learned destroys it. And now, as Plato¹ says, we never heard that because of a blunder in metre in a lyric song, therefore one brother made war against another, nor that it put friends at variance, nor that cities hereupon were at such enmity that they did to one another and suffered one from another the extremest injuries. Nor can any one tell us of a sedition raised in a city about the right accenting or pronouncing of a word,—as whether we are to say Τελχῖνας or Τέλχινας,—nor that a difference arose in a family betwixt man and wife about the woof and the warp in cloth. Yet none will go about to weave in a loom or to handle a book or a harp, unless he has first been taught, though no great harm would follow if he did, but only the fear of making himself ridiculous (for, as Heraclitus says, it is a piece of discretion to conceal one’s ignorance); and yet a man without instruction presumes himself able to order a family, a wife, or a commonwealth, and to govern very well. Diogenes, seeing a youth devouring his victuals too greedily, gave his tutor a box on the ear, and that deservedly, as judging it the fault of him that had not taught, not of him that had not learned better manners. And what? is it necessary to begin to learn from a boy how to eat and drink handsomely in company, as Aristophanes expresses it,—

Not to devour their meat in haste, nor giggle,

Nor awkwardly their feet across to wriggle,

and yet are men fit to enter into the fellowship of a family, city, married estate, private conversation, or public office, and to manage it without blame, without any previous instruction concerning good behavior in conversation?

When one asked Aristippus this question, What, are you everywhere? he laughed and said, I throw away the fare of the waterman, if I am everywhere. And why canst not thou also answer, that the salary given to tutors is thrown away and lost, if none are the better for their discipline and instruction. But, as nurses shape and form the body of a child with their hands, so these masters, when the nurses have done with them, first receive them into their charge, in order to the forming of their manners and directing their steps into the first tracks of virtue. To which purpose the Lacedaemonian, that was asked what good he did to the child of whom he had the charge, answered well: I make good and honest things pleasant to children. These masters also teach them to bend down their heads as they go along, to touch salt fish with one finger only, but fresh fish, bread, and flesh with two; thus to scratch themselves, and thus to tuck up their garments.

Notes on the current edition

Can Virtue Be Taught?

1. Cleitophon, 407 c; Cf. Moralia, 534 f.

2. The latter, according to Herodianus Technicus, i. p. 17 (ed. Lentz).

3. Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokratiker 5, i. p. 172, Frag. 95; the fragment is given more fully in Moralia, 644 f and in a different form in Frag. 1 of That Women Also Should be Educated (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 125).

4. Adapted from Clouds, 983.

5. Cf. Juvenal, viii. 97: furor est post omnia perdere naulum, which indicates the proverbial character of the expression. Aristippus, having the entree everywhere, need waste no money in transit.

6. Cf. Moralia, 3 e; Plato, Republic, 377 c.

7. Cf. Moralia, 452 d, infra.

8. The point is obscure and the text corrupt.

9. Cf. Moralia, 5 a and 99 d. See Aristophanes, Clouds, 973 ff., for the way good boys should sit and walk in public; Birds, 1568, for the proper way to wear a cloak.

Plutarch An Virtus Doceri Possit 2

William Clark Helmbold (Translator)

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