Plutarch, An Virtus Doceri Possit, William Clark Helmbold (Translator), 3

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[3] What then? He who says that the physician’s art concerns itself with rashes and hang-nails, but not with pleurisy or fever or inflammation of the brain, in what does he differ from one who says that schools and lectures and precepts are for instruction in trifling and childish duties, but that for the great and supreme duties there is only brute knocking about and accident? For just as he is ridiculous who declares that one must be taught before pulling at the oar, but may steer the boat even without having learned; so one who grants that the other arts are acquired by learning, but deprives virtue of this, appears to be acting directly contrary to the practice of the Scythians. For the Scythians, as Herodotus¹ says, blind their slaves that these may hand over the cream to themselves; but such a man as this gives Reason, like an eye, as it were, to the subservient and ancillary arts, while denying it to virtue.

Yet when Callias, son of Charias, asked the general Iphicrates,² Who are you? Bowman, targeteer, horseman, or hoplite? Iphicrates replied, None of these, but the one who commands them all. Ridiculous, therefore, is the man who declares that the art of using the bow, or of fighting in heavy armour, or of manipulating the sling, or of riding a horse may be taught, but that the art of commanding and leading an army comes as it chances and to whom it chances without previous instruction! Surely he is yet more ridiculous who affirms that prudence alone cannot be taught, for without prudence there can be no gain or profit from the other arts. But if prudence is in command, the principle which orders all the arts, which assigns each person to a place of usefulness,³ what joy, for instance, can one have at a banquet, though the servants are welltrained and have learned to

Carve the meat and roast it well and pour the wine,⁴

if there be no system nor order in the servitors?⁵

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

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

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.) — 3 focus

[3] τί οὖν; ὁ λέγων λειχῆνος ἰατρικὴν εἶναι καὶ παρωνυχίας, πλευρίτιδος δὲ καὶ πυρετοῦ καὶ φρενίτιδος 20 μὴ εἶναι, τί διαφέρει τοῦ λέγοντος ὅτι τῶν μικρῶν καὶ παιδικῶν καθηκόντων εἰσὶ διδασκαλεῖα καὶ λόγοι καὶ ὑποθῆκαι, τῶν δὲ μεγάλων καὶ τελείων ἄλογος τριβὴ καὶ περίπτωσίς ἔστιν; ὡς γὰρ ὁ λέγων ὅτι δεῖ κώπην ἐλαύνειν μαθόντα κυβερνᾶν 25 δὲ καὶ μὴ μαθόντα¹ γελοῖός ἐστιν, οὕτως ὁ μὲν τῶν ἄλλων ἀπολείπων τεχνῶν μάθησιν ἀρετῆς δʼ ἀναιρῶν τοὐναντίον ἔοικε τοῖς Σκύθαις ποιεῖν· ἐκεῖνοι μὲν γάρ, ὥς φησιν Ἡρόδοτος,² τοὺς οἰκέτας ἐκτυφλοῦσιν ὅπως παραδῶσιν³ αὐτοῖς· οὗτος δὲ ταῖς δούλαις 440b καὶ ὑπηρέτισι τέχναις ὥσπερ ὄμμα τὸν λόγον ἐντιθεὶς 5 τῆς ἀρετῆς ἀφαιρεῖ. καίτοι γʼ ὁ στρατηγὸς Ἰφικράτης πρὸς τὸν Χαβρίου Καλλίαν ἐρωτῶντα καὶ λέγοντα⁴ τίς εἶ; τοξότης; πελταστής; ἱππεύς; ὁπλίτης;ʼ, οὐδείς ἔφη τούτων ἀλλʼ ὁ τούτοις πᾶσιν ἐπιτάττων. γελοῖος οὖν ὁ λέγων, ὅτι τοξικὴ καὶ 10 ὁπλιτικὴ καὶ τὸ σφενδονᾶν καὶ τὸ ἱππεύειν διδακτόν ἐστι, στρατηγία δὲ καὶ τὸ στρατηγεῖν ὡς ἔτυχε παραγίγνεται καὶ οἷς ἔτυχε μὴ μαθοῦσιν. οὐκοῦν ἔτι γελοιότερος ὁ μόνην τὴν φρόνησιν μὴ διδακτὴν ἀποφαίνων, ἧς ἄνευ τῶν ἄλλων τεχνῶν ὄφελος οὐδὲν 15 440c οὐδʼ ὄνησίς ἐστιν. εἰ δʼ ἡγεμὼν αὕτη καὶ κόσμος οὖσα πασῶν καὶ τάξις εἰς τὸ χρήσιμον ἕκαστον καθίστησιν, αὐτίκα τίς δείπνου χάρις, ἠσκημένων καὶ μεμαθηκότων παίδων

δαιτρεῦσαί⁵ τε καὶ⁶ ὀπτῆσαι καὶ οἰνοχοῆσαι,

20 εἰ μὴ διάθεσις μηδὲ τάξις εἴη περὶ⁷ τοὺς διακονοῦντας;

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.) — 3 focus

[3] Now he that says that the art of physic may be proper for a tetter or a whitlow, but not to be made use of for a pleurisy, a fever, or a frenzy, in what does he differ from him that should say that it is fit there should be schools, and discourses, and precepts, to teach trifling and childish things, but that all skill in greater and more manly things comes from use without art and from accidental opportunity? For as he would be ridiculous who should say, that one who never learned to row ought not to lay hand on the oar, but that he might guide the helm who was never taught it; so is he that gives leave for men to be instructed in other arts, but not in virtue. He seems to be quite contrary to the practice of the Scythians, who, as Herodotus¹ tells us, put out their servants’ eyes, to prevent them from running away; but he puts the eye of reason into these base and slavish arts, and plucks it from virtue. But the general Iphicrates—when Callias, the son of Chabrias, asked him, What art thou? Art thou an archer or a targeteer, a trooper or a foot-soldier?—answered well, I am none of all these, but one that commands them all. He therefore would be ridiculous that should say that the skill of drawing a bow, of handling arms, of throwing with a sling, and of good horsemanship, might indeed be taught, but the skill of commanding and leading an army came as it happened, one knew not how. And would not he be still more ridiculous who should say that prudence only could not be taught, without which all those arts are useless and unprofitable? When she is the governess, ranking all things in due place and order, every thing is assigned to become useful; for instance, how ungraceful would a feast be, though all concerned were skilful and enough practised in cookery, in dressing and serving up the meat, and in filling the wine as they ought, if all things were not well disposed and ordered among those that waited at the table?...

Notes on the current edition

Can Virtue Be Taught?

1. Herodotus, iv. 2, which passage is not at all explicit, but appears to mean that the slaves are blinded to prevent their stealing that part of the milk considered most valuable by their masters.

2. Cf. Moralia, 99 e, 187 b.

3. There is, perhaps, a lacuna at this point, as indicated by Pohlenz, who supplies how, then, must one not pay even more heed to prudence than to the other arts?

4. Homer, Od. xv., 323.

5. Possibly a large part of the essay is missing.

Plutarch An Virtus Doceri Possit 3

William Clark Helmbold (Translator)

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