and mould (as a man might term it) was cast and set down in Plutarch's Morals, so as men may perceive expressly that the one could well skill to perform rightly, that which the other had taught wisely. For Dion writeth, that among other honours which the Senate of Rome gave by decree unto Trajan, they gave him the title of the Good Emperor. And Eutropius reporteth that even unto his time, when a new emperor came to be received of the Senate, among the cries of good handsel, and the wishes of good luck that were made unto him, one was: Happier be thou than Augustus, and better than Trajan. Howsoever the case stood, it is very certain that Plutarch dedicated the collection of his Apothemes to him. But when he had lived a long time at Rome, and was come home again to his own house, he fell to writing of this excellent work of Lives, which he called Parallelon, as much to say, as a coupling or matching together, because he matcheth a Grecian with a Roman, setting down their lives each after other, and comparing them together, as he found any likeness of nature, conditions, or adventures betwixt them, and examining what the one of them had better or worse, greater or less, than the other: which things he doth with so goodly and grave discourse everywhere, taken out of the deepest and most hidden secrets of moral and natural philosophy, with so sage percepts and fruitful instructions, with so effectual commendation of vertue, and detestation of vice, with so many goodly allegations of other authors, with so many fit comparisons, and with so many high inventions: that the book may better be called by the name of the Treasury of all rare and perfect learning, than by any other name. Also it is said, that Theodorus Gaza, a Grecian of singular learning, and a worthy of the ancient Greece, being asked on a time by his familiar friends (which saw him so earnestly given to his study, that he forgat all other things) what author he had leverest choose, if he were at that point that he must needs choose some one to hold him to alone, did answer that he would choose Plutarch: because that if they were all put together, there was no one both so profitable, and so pleasant to read, as he. Sosius Senecio to whom he dedicateth his work, was a Senator of Rome, as witnesseth Dion, who writeth that the three persons whom Trajan most loved and honoured, were Sosius, Parma, and Celsus, insomuch that he caused images of them to be set up. True it is that he wrote the lives of many other men, which the spitefulness of time hath bereft us of, among which he himself maketh mention of the lives of Scipio Africanus and Metellus Numidicus. And I have read a little epistle of a son of his, whose name is not expressed, copied out of an old copy in the Library of S. Mark in Venice, wherein he writeth to a friend of his, a register of all the books that his father made: and there among the couples of lives he setteth down the lives of Scipio and Epaminondas, and lastly the lives of Augustus Cæsar, of Tiberius, of Caligula, of Claudius, of Nero, of Galba, of Vitellius, and of Otho. But having used all the diligence that I could in searching the chief libraries of Venice, and Rome, I could never find them out. TO THE READER BY SIR THOMAS NORTH' THE profit of stories, and the praise of the Author, are sufficiently declared by Amyot, in his epistle to the reader: so that I shall not need to make many words thereof. And indeed if you will supply the defects of this translation, with your own diligence and good understanding: you shall not need to trust him, you may prove your selves, that there is no profane study better than Plutarch. All other learning is private, fitter for universities than cities, fuller of contemplation than experience, more commendable in students themselves, than profitable unto others. Whereas stories are fit for every place, reach to all persons, serve for all times, teach the living, revive the dead, so far excelling all other books, as it is better to see learning in noble men's lives, than to read it in philosophers' writings. Now for the author, I will not deny but love may deceive me, for I must needs love him with whom I have taken so much pain: but I believe I 1 Sir Thomas North was a translator from the Romance languages during the latter half of the sixteenth century. He translated Amyot's French version of Plutarch's Lives in 1579. might be bold to affirm, that he hath written the profitablest story of all authors. For all other were fain to take their matter, as the fortune of the countries whereof they wrote fell out: But this man being excellent in wit, learning, and experience, hath chosen the special acts of the best persons, of the famousest nations of the world. But I will leave the judgment to yourselves. My only purpose is to desire you to excuse the faults of my translation, with your own gentleness, and with the opinion of my diligence and good extent. And so I wish you all the profit of the book. Fare ye well. The four and twentieth day of January, 1579. PLUTARCH THE LIFE OF DEMOSTHENES HE that made the little book of the praise of Alcibiades, touching the victory he wan at the horse-race of the Olympian Games, (were it the Poet Euripides as some think, or any other) my friend Sossius: said, That to make a man happy, he must of necessity be born in some famous city. But to tell you what I think hereof, doubtless, true happiness chiefly consisteth in the vertue and qualities of the mind, being a matter of no moment, whether a man be born in a pelting village, or in a famous city: no more than it is for one to be born of a fair or foul mother. For it were a madness to think that the little village of Iulid, being the least part of the Isle of Ceos (the whole island of itself being but a small thing) and that the Isle of Ægina (which is of so small a length, that a certain Athenian on a time made a motion it might be taken away, because it was but as a straw in the sight of the haven of Piræus) could bring forth famous poets, and excellent comedians: and not breed an honest, just, and wise man, and of noble courage. For, as we have reason to think that arts and sciences which were first devised and invented to make some things necessary for men's use, or otherwise to win fame and credit, are drowned, and cast away in little poor villages: So are we to judge also, that vertue, like a strong and fruitful plant, can take root, and bring forth in every place, where it is graffed in a good nature, and gentle person, that can patiently away with pains. And therefore if we chance to offend, and live not as we should: we cannot accuse the meanness of our country where we were born, but we must justly accuse ourselves. Surely he that hath taken upon him to put forth any work, or to write any history, into the which he is to thrust many strange things unknown to his country, and which are not ready at his hand to be had, and dispersed abroad in divers places, and are to be gathered out of divers books and authorities: first of all, he must needs 32 remain in some great and famous city throughly inhabited, where men do delight in good and vertuous things, because there are commonly plenty of all sorts of books: and that perusing them, and hearing talk also of many things besides, which other historiographers peradventure have not written of, and which will carry so much more credit, because men that are alive may presently speak of them as of their own knowledge, whereby he may make his work perfect in every point, having many and divers necessary things contained in it. But I myself that dwell in a poor little town, and yet do remain there willingly lest it should become less: whilst I was in Italy, and at Rome, I had no leisure to study and exercise the Latin tongue, as well for the great business I had then to do, as also to satisfy them that came to learn philosophy of me: so that even somewhat too late and now in my latter time, I began to take my Latin books in my hand. And thereby a strange thing to tell you, but yet true: I learned not nor understood matters so much by the words, as I came to understand the words by common experience and knowledge I had in things. But furthermore, to know how to pronounce the Latin tongue well, or to speak it readily, or to understand the signification, translations, and fine joining of the simple words one with another, which to beautify and set forth the tongue: surely I judge it to be a marvellous pleasant and sweet thing, but withal, it requireth a long and laboursome study, meet for those that have better leisure than I have, and that have young years on their backs to follow such pleasure. Therefore, in this present book, which is the fifth of this work, where I have taken upon me to compare the lives of noble men one with another: undertaking to write the lives of Demosthenes and Cicero, we will consider and examine their nature, manners and conditions, by their acts and deeds in the government of the commonwealth, not meaning otherwise to confer their works and writings of eloquence, neither to define which of them two were sharper or sweeter in his oration. For as the poet Ion sayeth, In this behalf a man may rightly say, |