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GRYLLUS. Save ye, Mr. Ulysses.
ULYSSES. And you too, by Jove, Mr. Gryllus.
GRYLLUS. What is't your worship would have with
me?
ULYSSES. Knowing you were all born men, I pity the
condition ye are now in; and I pity ye the more, for that
[p. 220]
being Greeks ye are fallen under this misfortune; and
therefore I made it my request to Circe that she would
restore ye again to your former shape, as many of you as
were desirous, to the end ye might return home again
with us.
GRYLLUS. Hold, Mr. Ulysses, not a word more of this,
I beseech your worship. For we all contemn thee, as one
that none but fools call cunning, and as vainly vauntest
thyself to be wiser than other men, and yet art afraid of
being changed from worse to better; like children that
are frightened at physician's doses and hate going to
school, although the medicines and the precepts make
them healthy and learned of diseased and fools; just so
thou refusest to be transformed out of one thing into
another. And now thy bones rattle in thy skin for dread
of living with Circe, lest she should transform thee into a
hog or a wolf; and thou wouldst persuade us living in
plenty of all enjoyments not only to forsake these blessings, but to abandon her that has so well provided for us,
to sail along with thee, and to become men again, the most
miserable of all creatures.
ULYSSES. In my opinion, Gryllus, this same wicked cup
has not only deprived thee of thy shape, but of thy sense
and reason too; or else thou art got drunk with those
opinions which are everywhere exploded as nasty and
villanous, unless some voluptuous pleasure of custom and
habit has bewitched thee to this body.
GRYLLUS. Neither of these, O king of the Cephallenians.
But if thou art come hither to dispute, and not to rail and
swagger, we shall soon convince thee, having experience
of both manners of living, that our way is to be preferred
before that which thou so much applaudest.
ULYSSES. Nay, then go on; I'll listen with both ears to
hear this paradox discussed.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 5.
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