Plutarch, De Tranquillitate Animi, William Clark Helmbold (Translator), 2

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[2] Now he¹ who said, The man who would be tranquil in his mind must not engage in many affairs, either private or public, first of all makes our tranquillity very expensive if it is bought at the price of inactivity; it is as though he advised every sick man:

Lie still, poor wretch, and move not from your bed.²

And yet it is true that a state of bodily stupor is a bad remedy for insanity; but no whit better as a physician of the soul is he who would relieve it of its disturbances and distress by prescribing idleness and softness and the betrayal of friends and family and country.³

In the next place, it is also false that those who are not occupied with many things are tranquil in mind. For if that were true, women ought to be more tranquil than men, since for the most part they keep at home; but as it is, the North Wind

Blows not through the soft-skinned maid,

as Hesiod⁴ says, yet more pain and excitement and despondency than one could enumerate, caused by jealousy and superstitition and ambition and vain imaginings, seep into the women’s quarters. And though Laërtes⁵ lived twenty years by himself in the country

With one old woman, who his food and drink

Would place beside him,

and abandoned his birthplace,⁶ his home, and his kingship, yet he had grief as an ever-constant companion of his inactivity and dejection. And for some persons, even inactivity itself often leads to discontent, as in this instance:

The swift Achilles, Peleus’ noble son,

Continued in his wrath beside the ships;

Nor would he ever go to council that

Ennobles men, nor ever go to war,

But wasted away his heart, remaining there,

And always longed for tumult and for war.⁷

And he himself is greatly disturbed and distressed at this and says:

But here I sit beside my ships,

A useless burden to the earth.⁸

For this reason not even Epicurus⁹ believes that men who are eager for honour and glory should lead an inactive life, but that they should fulfil their natures by engaging in politics and entering public life, on the ground that, because of their natural dispositions, they are more likely to be disturbed and harmed by inactivity if they do not obtain what they desire. But he is absurd in urging public life, not on those who are able to undertake it, but on those who are unable to lead an inactive life; tranquillity and discontent should be determined, not by the multitude or the fewness of one’s occupations, but by their excellence or baseness; for the omission of good acts is no less vexatious and disturbing than the commission of evil acts, as has been said.¹⁰

De Tranquillitate Animi. Plutarch. William Clark Helmbold (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1939.

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Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

On Tranquillity of Mind (English) (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. VI. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1939 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Περὶ εὐθυμίας Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol III. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.) — 2 focus

[2] ὁ μὲν οὖν εἰπὼν ὅτι δεῖ¹ τὸν εὐθυμεῖσθαι μέλλοντα μὴ πολλὰ πρήσσειν μήτε ἰδίῃ μήτε ξυνῇ, πρῶτον μὲν ἡμῖν πολυτελῆ τὴν εὐθυμίαν καθίστησι, 25 γιγνομένην ὤνιον ἀπραξίας· οἷον ἀρρώστῳ παραινῶν ἑκάστῳ 465d

μένʼ, ὦ ταλαίπωρʼ, ἀτρέμα σοῖς ἐν δεμνίοις

² καίτοι κακὸν μὲν ἀναισθησίας σώματι φάρμακον ἀπονίας· οὐδὲν δὲ βελτίων ψυχῆς ἰατρὸς ὁ ῥᾳθυμίᾳ καὶ μαλακίᾳ καὶ προδοσίᾳ φίλων καὶ οἰκείων καὶ 5 πατρίδος ἐξαιρῶν τὸ ταραχῶδες αὐτῆς καὶ λυπηρόν. ἔπειτα καὶ ψεῦδός ἐστι τὸ εὐθυμεῖν τοὺς μὴ πολλὰ πράσσοντας· ἔδει γὰρ εὐθυμοτέρας εἶναι γυναῖκας ἀνδρῶν οἰκουρίᾳ τὰ πολλὰ συνούσας· νυνὶ δʼ ὁ μὲν βορέας 10

διὰ παρθενικῆς ἁπαλόχροος οὐ διάησιν

ὥς φησιν Ἡσίοδος,³ λῦπαι δὲ καὶ ταραχαὶ καὶ κακοθυμίαι διὰ ζηλοτυπίας καὶ δεισιδαιμονίας καὶ φιλοτιμίας 465e καὶ κενῶν δοξῶν, ὅσας οὐκ ἂν εἴποι τις, εἰς τὴν γυναικωνῖτιν ὑπορρέουσιν ὁ δὲ Λαέρτης εἴκοσιν 15 ἔτη καθʼ αὑτὸν ἐν ἀγρῷ διαιτώμενος

γρηὶ σὺν ἀμφιπόλῳ, ἥ οἱ βρῶσίν τε πόσιν τε

⁴ παρτίθει,⁵ τὴν μὲν πατρίδα καὶ τὸν οἶκον καὶ τὴν βασιλείαν ἔφυγε, τὴν δὲ λύπην μετʼ ἀπραξίας καὶ κατηφείας ἀεὶ συνοικοῦσαν εἶχεν. ἐνίους δὲ καὶ τὸ 20 μὴ πράσσειν αὐτὸ πολλάκις εἰς ἀθυμίαν καθίστησιν, ὡς τοῦτον·

αὐτὰρ ὁ μήνιε νηυσὶ παρήμενος ὠκυπόροισι

⁶

διογενὴς Πηλέως υἱός, πόδας ὠκὺς Ἀχιλλεύς 465f

οὔτε ποτʼ εἰς ἀγορὴν πωλέσκετο κυδιάνειραν, 25

οὔτε ποτʼ ἐς πόλεμον, ἀλλὰ φθινύθεσκε φίλον κῆρ

αὖθι μένων, ποθέεσκε δʼ ἀυτήν τε πτόλεμόν τε.

καὶ λέγει περιπαθῶν ἐπὶ τούτῳ καὶ ἀσχάλλων αὐτός

ἀλλʼ ἧμαι παρὰ νηυσὶν ἐτώσιον ἄχθος ἀρούρης.

⁷ ὅθεν οὐδʼ Ἐπίκουρος⁸ οἴεται δεῖν ἡσυχάζειν, ἀλλὰ τῇ φύσει χρῆσθαι πολιτευομένους καὶ πράσσοντας 5 τὰ κοινὰ τοὺς φιλοτίμους καὶ φιλοδόξους, ὡς μᾶλλον 466a ὑπʼ ἀπραγμοσύνης ταράττεσθαι καὶ κακοῦσθαι πεφυκότας, ἂν ὧν ὀρέγονται μὴ τυγχάνωσιν. ἀλλʼ ἐκεῖνος μὲν ἄτοπος οὐ τοὺς δυναμένους τὰ κοινὰ πράσσειν προτρεπόμενος ἀλλὰ τοὺς ἡσυχίαν ἄγειν 10 μὴ δυναμένους. δεῖ δὲ μὴ πλήθει μηδʼ ὀλιγότητι πραγμάτων, ἀλλὰ τῷ καλῷ καὶ τῷ αἰσχρῷ τὸ εὔθυμον ὁρίζειν καὶ τὸ δύσθυμον· τῶν γὰρ καλῶν ἡ παράλειψις οὐχ ἧττον ἢ τῶν φαύλων⁹ ἡ πρᾶξις ἀνιαρόν ἐστι καὶ ταραχῶδες, ὡς εἴρηται. 15

Translations (1)

Of the Tranquillity of the Mind. Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. I. Goodwin, William W., editor; Morgan, Matthew, translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.) — 2 focus

[2] Besides, he that affirmed that whosoever would enjoy tranquillity of mind must disengage himself from all private and public concerns, would make us pay dear for our tranquillity by buying it with idleness; as if he should prescribe thus to a sick man: —

Lie still, poor wretch, and keep thy bed.

Now stupefaction is a bad remedy for desperate pain in the body, and verily he would be no better physician for the soul who should order idleness, softness, and neglect of friends, kinsfolk, and country, in order to remove its trouble and grief. It is likewise a false position that those live most contentedly who have the least to do; for then by this rule women should be of more sedate dispositions than men, since they only sit at home and mind their domestic affairs. Whereas in fact, as Hesiod expresseth it, —

The virgins’ tender limbs are kept from cold;

Not the least wind to touch them is so bold;

but nevertheless we see that grief and troubles and discontentments, arising from jealousy or superstition or vain opinions, flow as it were with a torrent into the apartments of the females. And though Laertes lived twenty years in the fields secluded from the world, and

Only a toothless hag did make his bed,

Draw him his drink, and did his table spread,

though he forsook his house and country, and fled from a kingdom, yet grief with his sloth and sadness still kept him company. There are some to whom idleness hath been an affliction; as for instance, —

But raging still, amidst his navy sat

The stern Achilles, steadfast in his hate;

Nor mix’d in combat, nor in council join’d;

But wasting cares lay heavy on his mind:

In his black thoughts revenge and slaughter roll,

And scenes of blood rise dreadful in his soul.

⁴

And he himself complains of it, being mightily disturbed, after this manner: —

I live an idle burden to the ground.

⁵

Hence it is that Epicurus adviseth those who aspire to glory not to stagnate in their ambition, but be in perpetual motion, and so obey the dictates of their genius in managing the commonwealth; because they would be more tormented and would suffer greater damages by idleness, if they were disappointed of that they were in the eager pursuit of. But the philosopher is absurd in this, that he doth not excite men who have abilities to qualify themselves for charges in the government, but only those who are of a restless and unquiet disposition. For the tranquillity and perturbation of the mind are not to be measured by the fewness or multitude of our actions, but by their beauty or turpitude; since the omission of what is good is no less troublesome than the commission of evil.

Notes on the current edition

On Tranquillity of Mind

1. Democritus; Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokratiker ⁵, ii. p. 132, Frag. 3; Marcus Aurelius, iv. 24; Seneca, De Tranquillitate Animi, xiii. 1, where the statement is made that these words form the beginning of Democritus’s work (see especially Siefert, op. cit., p. 8); De Ira, iii. 6. 3. But Plutarch misunderstands the meaning; Democritus did not advise renouncing public life completely: Cf. Moralia, 1100 b-c. Note also the word many in the present passage. (The following paragraph is cited by Stobaeus, vol. iii. pp. 651 f. ed. Hense.)

2. Euripides, Orestes, 258; quoted again 501 c, infra, and in Moralia, 788 f, 901 a, 1126 a; the words are addressed by Electra to Orestes, delirious after the murder of his mother, and must be taken closely with the following clause.

3. Cf. Moralia, 135 b.

4. Works and Days, 519, where the poet adds who stays indoors with her dear mother. Cf. 516 f, infra.

5. Homer, Od., i. 191.

6. That is, the town of Ithaca; he continued to live on the island.

7. Homer, Il., i. 488 ff.

8. Ibid. xviii. 104.

9. Usener, Epicurea, p. 328, Frag. 555. The following passage is cited by Stobaeus, vol. iii. p. 652 ed. Hense.

10. Probably by Democritus ( Cf. Frag. 256), not Plutarch.

Plutarch De Tranquillitate Animi 2

William Clark Helmbold (Translator)

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