Plutarch, De Amore Prolis, ed. William W. Goodwin, 1

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[1] APPEALS to foreign judicatures first came in request among the Grecians out of their distrust of one another’s justice, they deeming it as requisite to fetch justice from abroad, as any other necessary commodity which was not of their own growth. And is it not even so that philosophers, by reason of dissensions amongst themselves, have in the decision of some questions appealed to the nature of irrational beings, as to a strange city, and have submitted the final determination of such questions to the affections or to the dispositions of brutes, as being unbiassed and not corrupted by bribes? Or else this is the general complaint of human frailty, that while we differ about the most necessary and the greatest things, we consult horses, dogs, and birds, how we should marry, beget children, and bring them up; and, as if the evidence of Nature in ourselves were not to be trusted, we appeal to the dispositions and affections of brute beasts, and testify against the manifold transgressions of our own lives, intimating how at the very first and in the first things we are confounded and disturbed. For Nature conserves the propriety in them pure, unmixed, and simple; but in men, the mixture of ascititious opinions and judgments (as oil is served by the druggists) alters the properties, and does not preserve what is their peculiar. Nor need we wonder if irrational animals follow Nature more than rational; for plants do it more than animals, for they have neither imagination nor passion for what is not according to Nature, but are bound in chains, and ever go that one way that Nature leads them. Brutes do little regard gentleness, wit, or liberty; they have indeed the use of irrational incitements and appetites, which put them upon wandering and running about,—but seldom far, for they seem to lie at the anchor of Nature, who guides them in the right way (as it were) by bit and bridle. But reason, the lord and master in man, finds sometimes one turning, sometimes another; but in all its wanderings leaves no mark or footstep of Nature.

De Amore Prolis. Plutarch. ed. William W. Goodwin. Boston. 1874.

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Of Natural Affection Towards One's Offspring (English) (Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals, Vol. IV. Goodwin, William W., editor; Brown, R., translator. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company; Cambridge: Press of John Wilson and Son, 1874.)

Editions (1)

Περὶ τῆς εἰς τὰ ἔκγονα φιλοστοργίας Perseus (Plutarch. Plutarchi Chaeronensis Moralia, Vol IΙI. Vernardakēs, Grēgorios N., editor. Leipzig: Teubner, 1891.) — 1 focus

[1] 493a ἔκκλητοι κρίσεις καὶ ξενικῶν δικαστηρίων ἀγωγαὶ¹ τοῖς Ἕλλησι τὸ πρῶτον ἀπιστίᾳ τῇ πρὸς 493b ἀλλήλους ἐπενοήθησαν, ἀλλοτρίας δικαιοσύνης ὥσπερ ἑτέρου τινὸς τῶν ἀναγκαίων μὴ φυομένου παρʼ αὐτοῖς 5 δεηθεῖσιν. ἆρʼ οὖν καὶ οἱ φιλόσοφοι τῶν προβλημάτων ἔνια διὰ τὰς πρὸς ἀλλήλους διαφορὰς ἐπὶ τὴν τῶν ἀλόγων φύσιν ζῴων ὥσπερ ἀλλοδαπὴν πόλιν ἐκκαλοῦνται, καὶ τοῖς ἐκείνων πάθεσι καὶ ἤθεσιν ὡς ἀνεντεύκτοις καὶ ἀδεκάστοις ἐφιᾶσι τὴν κρίσιν; 10 ἢ καὶ τοῦτο τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης κακίας ἔγκλημα κοινόν ἐστι, τὸ περὶ τῶν ἀναγκαιοτάτων καὶ μεγίστων 493c ἀμφιδοξοῦντας ἡμᾶς ζητεῖν ἐν ἵπποις καὶ κυσὶ καὶ ὄρνισι, πῶς γαμοῦμεν αὐτοὶ καὶ γεννῶμεν καὶ τεκνοτροφοῦμεν, ὡς μηδὲν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς δήλωμα τῆς φύσεως 15 ὂν τὰ² τῶν θηρίων ἤθη καὶ πάθη προσαγορεῦσαι καὶ καταμαρτυρῆσαι τοῦ βίου ἡμῶν πολλὴν τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν ἐκδιαίτησιν καὶ παράβασιν, εὐθὺς ἐν ἀρχῇ καὶ περὶ τὰ πρῶτα συγχεομένων καὶ ταραττομένων. ἄκρατον γὰρ ἐν ἐκείνοις ἡ φύσις καὶ ἀμιγὲς καὶ 20 ἁπλοῦν φυλάττει τὸ ἴδιον· ἐν δʼ ἀνθρώποις ὑπὸ τοῦ λόγου καὶ τῆς συνηθείας, ὃ τοὔλαιον ὑπὸ τῶν μυρεψῶν πέπονθε, πρὸς πολλὰ μιγνυμένη δόγματα καὶ κρίσεις ἐπιθέτους ποικίλη γέγονε καὶ ἰδία,³ τὸ δʼ 493d οἰκεῖον οὐ τετήρηκε. καὶ μὴ θαυμάζωμεν, εἰ τὰ ἄλογα ζῷα τῶν λογικῶν μᾶλλον ἕπεται τῇ φύσει · καὶ γὰρ 5 τὰ φυτὰ τῶν ζῴων,⁴ οἷς οὔτε φαντασίαν οὔθʼ ὁρμὴν ἔδωκεν ἑτέρων⁵ ὄρεξιν τοῦ κατὰ φύσιν ἀποσαλεύουσαν, ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐν δεσμῷ συνειργμένα μένει καὶ κεκράτηται, μίαν ἀεὶ πορείαν ἣν ἡ φύσις ἄγει πορευόμενα. τοῖς δὲ θηρίοις τὸ μὲν πραΰτροπον τοῦ 10 λόγου καὶ περιττὸν καὶ φιλελεύθερον ἄγαν οὐκ ἔστιν, ἀλόγους δʼ ὁρμὰς καὶ ὀρέξεις ἔχοντα καὶ χρώμενα πλάναις καὶ περιδρομαῖς, πολλάκις οὐ μακρὰν ἀλλʼ ὡς ἐπʼ ἀγκύρας τῆς φύσεως σαλεύει· καθάπερ⁶ οὖν 493e ὁδὸν⁷ ὑφʼ ἡνίᾳ καὶ χαλινῷ βαδίζοντα δείκνυσιν εὐθεῖαν. 15 ὁ δὲ δεσπότης ἐν ἀνθρώπῳ καὶ αὐτοκρατὴς λόγος ἄλλας ἄλλοτε παρεκβάσεις καὶ καινοτομίας ἀνευρίσκων οὐδὲν ἴχνος ἐμφανὲς οὐδʼ ἐναργὲς ἀπολέλοιπε τῆς φύσεως.

Translations (1)

On Affection for Offspring Perseus (Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. VI. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1939 (printing).) — 1 focus

[1] Trials of cases on appeal¹ before special arbitrators and the carrying of cases before foreign courts were first devised by the Greeks by reason of their mutual distrust, since they had need of the justice supplied by others than themselves, like any other non-indigenous necessity. Is it thus, then, that philosophers also, because of their disagreements with each other, refer some of their questions to the nature of irrational animals, as though to a foreign city, and submit the decision to the emotions and character and habits of these creatures as to a court that cannot be influenced or bribed? Or is this also a common charge against human depravity - that, being in doubt about the most necessary and important things, we seek among horses and dogs and birds how we ourselves should marry and beget and bring up children (as though we had no plain indication of Nature in ourselves); and that we term the traits which brute beasts have characters and emotions, and accuse our life of a great deviation and departure from Nature, confused and disordered as we are at the very beginning concerning even the first principles? For in dumb animals Nature preserves their special characteristics pure and unmixed and simple, but in men, through reason and habit, they have been modified by many opinions and adventitious judgements so that they have lost their proper form and have acquired a pleasing variety comparable to the variety of perfumes made by the pharmacist on the basis of a single oil. And let us not wonder if irrational animals follow Nature more closely than rational ones; for animals are, in fact, outdone in this by plants, to which Nature has given neither imagination nor impulse, nor desire for something different, which causes men to shake themselves free from what Nature desires; but plants, as though they were fastened in chains, remain in the power of Nature, always traversing the one path along which Nature leads them. Yet in wild beasts versatility of reasoning and uncommon cleverness and excessive love of freedom are not too highly developed; and though they have irrational impulses and desires and often wander about on circuitous paths, they do not go far afield, but ride, as it were, at the anchor provided by Nature, who points out to them the straight way, as to an ass which proceeds under bit and bridle. But in man ungoverned reason is absolute master, and, discovering now one way of deviation and innovation and now another, has left no clear or certain vestige of Nature visible.²

Plutarch De Amore Prolis 1

ed. William W. Goodwin

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