ON LISTENING TO LECTURES (DE RECTA RATIONE AUDIENDI)
INTRODUCTION
The essay on listening to lectures was first delivered
as a formal lecture, and afterwards written out for
the benefit of the young Nicander, who had just
assumed the toga virilis, and was about to take up
the serious study of philosophy. One can see in
Terence, Andria, i. 1. 24, for example, how the young
men of good family, suddenly released from the care
of tutors by assuming the toga virilis, conventionally
took up a more or less serious avocation. Some
took to horses or hunting, while others went on to
the higher studies.
It must be quite evident that this essay is, in a
way, a supplement and corollary to the preceding
essay on the study of poetry. The former is concerned with the young, the latter with the more
mature who are undertaking serious study, and
particularly the study of philosophy, in which
Plutarch was intensely interested. But it is quite
clear that the lectures to which he refers dealt with
many other subjects besides philosophy.
The essay has an astonishingly modern tone.
The different types of students — the diffident
student, the lazy student, the contemptuous student,
the over-enthusiastic student who makes a nuisance
of himself, the over-confident student who likes to
ask questions to show off his own scrappy knowledge,
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the student who has no appreciation of his privilege
in hearing a great scholar—all these are portrayed
in a thoroughly realistic manner.
Stress is laid on the great contrast between the
scholar (particularly the philosopher) and the
popular lecturer (the sophist). Then as now, it
seems, people were not always willing to listen
patiently to the scholar, but more often inclined to
resort to lectures of the lighter and more entertaining
sort. In this matter, as in many others, Plutarch
marks the distinction of character—the character of
the lecturer, and the effect of the lecture on the
character of the hearer. The sophists, having no
particular character themselves and being below the
general average of mankind, can do little or nothing
to improve the character of their hearers, but, on
the other hand, practically everything that the
scholar says or does has its value for the upbuilding
of character if only one have the ability to profit
by it.
Proper behaviour in the lecture-room is the main
theme of the essay. No lecture can be so bad
that it contains nothing good, and while the
lecture itself must be subjected to unsparing
criticism, the lecturer must always be treated with
kindly consideration, and must not be disturbed
by any improper behaviour on the part of his
audience.
It is worth while to compare Pliny's Letters, vi. 17
and i. 13 for the record of certain improprieties
committed by audiences in Rome. On the general
subject of higher education and the wide diffusion
of knowledge at this time and later, reference may
be made to W. W. Capes, University Life in Ancient
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Athens, and J. W. H. Walden, The Universities of
Ancient Greece (New York, 1909).
In the catalogue of Lamprias, in which this essay
is No. 102, the title is given as
Περὶ τοῦ ἀκούειν
τῶν φιλοσόφων, ‘On Listening to the Lectures of
Philosophers,’ but it is probable that this title is
merely explanatory, for Plutarch himself uses
ἀκούειν alone in this sense in the very first line of
the essay.