Plutarch wisheth all health to his paccius.
It was late before I received your letter, wherein you
make it your request that I would write something to you
concerning the tranquillity of the mind, and of those
things in the Timaeus which require a more perspicuous
interpretation. At the same time a very urgent occasion
called upon our common friend and companion Eros to
sail directly to Rome; that which quickened him to a
greater expedition was a dispatch he received from Fundanus, that best of men, who, as his custom is, always enjoins
the making haste. Therefore, wanting full leisure to consummate those things justly which you requested, and
being on the other side unwilling to send one from me to
your dear self empty handed, I have transcribed my
commonplace book, and hastily put together those collections which I had by me concerning this subject; for I
thought you a man that did not look after flourishes of
style and the affected elegance of language, but only
required what was instructive in its nature and useful to us
in the conduct of our lives. And I congratulate that bravery
of temper in you, that though you are admitted into the
confidence of princes, and have obtained so great a vogue
of eloquence at the bar that no man hath exceeded you,
you have not, like the tragic Merops, suffered yourself to
be puffed up with the applause of the multitude, and
transported beyond those bounds which are prescribed to
[p. 137]
our passions; but you call to mind that which you have so
often heard, that a rich slipper will not cure the gout, a
diamond ring a whitlow, nor will an imperial diadem ease
the headache. For what advantage is there in honor,
riches, or an interest at court, to remove all perturbations
of mind and procure an equal tenor of life, if we do not
use them with decency when they are present to our
enjoyment, and if we are continually afflicted by their loss
when we are deprived of them? And what is this but the
province of reason, when the sensual part of us grows
turbulent and makes excursions, to check its sallies and
bring it again within the limits it hath transgressed, that it
may not be carried away and so perverted with the gay
appearances of things. For as Xenophon gives advice, we
ought to remember the Gods and pay them particular
devotions when our affairs are prosperous, that so when
an exigency presseth us we may more confidently invoke
them, now we have conciliated their favor and made them
our friends. So wise men always ruminate upon those
arguments which have any efficacy against the troubles of
the mind before their calamities happen, that so the
remedies being long prepared, they may acquire energy,
and work with a more powerful operation. For as angry
dogs are exasperated by every one's rating them, and are
flattered to be quiet only by his voice to which they are
accustomed; so it is not easy to pacify the brutish affections of the soul but by familiar reasons, and such as are
used to be administered in such inward distempers.
