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+ + ON BEING A BUSYBODY (DE CURIOSITATE) +
+ INTRODUCTION +

This essay, which was apparently written only a short time before De Garrulitate,And no doubt also before De Tranquillitate (so rightly + Brokate). has much the same interest and charm as that pleasant + work. The essays are akin in many ways; portions of the later treatise are + merely a reshaping of ideas and commonplaces which the earlier had + adumbrated.

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The source of much of this work has been traced to Ariston of Chios by O. + Hense (Rhein. Mus.,x Iv. 541 if.); and F. + Krauss + Die Rhetorischen Schriften + Plutarchs, Munich Diss., Nürnberg, 1912, pp. 67 ff. See also + the interesting table (p. 87) of rhetorical figures which places our + essay in the very centre of Plutarch's literary activity. has + shown with some success the relation to diatribe literature.

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The essay was already known to Aulus Gellius (xi. 16), who speaks with + feeling of the difficulty of rendering πολυπραγμοσύνη in LatinIt is hard to render it in English also. The translator + uses the word curiosity - Ed.; nor has + it been unknown to English moralists. Jeremy Taylor has again borrowed + largely from it in his Holy Living, ii. 5.

+

In the translation of this and the preceding essay I am greatly indebted to + Mr. Tucker's + Select Essays of Plutarch, Oxford, + Clarendon, 1913. spirited version, from which I have taken + numerous phrases and sometimes whole sentences.

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The work is No. 97 in the Lamprias catalogue.

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It is perhaps best to avoid a house which has no ventilation, or is gloomy, + or cold in winter, or unhealthy; yet if familiarity has made you fond of + the place, it is possible to make it brighter, better ventilated, and + healthier by altering the lights, shifting the stairs, and opening some + doors and closing others. Even some cities have gained by such changes. So + in the case of my own town,Chaeroneia which used to face the west and + receive the full force of the sun in the late afternoon from Parnassus, they + say that it was turned by Chaeron to face the east. And Empedocles,Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokratiker + 5, i. p. 284, A 14; cf. Moralia, 1126 b. the natural + philosopher, by blocking up a certain mountain gorge, which permitted the + south wind to blow a dire and pestilential draught down upon the plains, was + thought to have shut plague out of his country.

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Since, then, there are certain unhealthy and injurious states of mind which + allow winter and darkness to enter the soul, it is better to thrust these + out and to make a clean sweep to the foundations, thus giving to ourselves a + clear sky and light and pure air; but if that is impossible, it is best at + least to interchange and readjust them in some way or other, turning or + shifting them about. +

+

Such a malady of the mind, to take the first instance, is curiosity, which + is a desire to learn the troubles of others, + Cf. Menander's typical curious slave, + a πολυπράγμων, who says (Frag. 850 + Kock): οὐδεν γλυκύτερόν ἐστιν ἢ πάντ' + εἰδέναι.. a disease which is thought to be free + from neither envy nor malice: + Why do you look so sharp on others' ills, + Malignant man, yet overlook your own?Kock, Com. Att. Frag., iii. p. 476, ades. + 359; Cf. 469 b, supra. + + Shift your curiosity from things without and turn it inwards; if + you enjoy dealing with the recital of troubles, you have much occupation at + home: + Great as the water flowing down Alizon, + Many as the leaves around the oak,A verse of unknown origin; the text is probably + corrupt. + + so great a quantity of transgressions will you find in your own + life, of afflictions in your own soul, of oversights in the performance of + your own obligations.

+

For as Xenophon + Oeconomicus, viii. 19, 20. says that + good householders have a special place for sacrificial utensils, and a + special place for dinner-ware, and that farming implements should be stored + elsewhere, and apart from them the weapons of war; even so in your own case + you have one store of faults arising from envy, another from jealousy, + another from cowardice, another from pettiness. Assault these, examine + these! Block up the windows and the side-doors of your curiosity that open + on your neighbours' property, and open up others leading to your own-to the + men's quarters, to the women's quarters, to the living-rooms of your + servants! Here this curiosity and meddlesomeness of yours will have an + occupation not unhelpful or malicious, but useful + and salutary if each one will but say to himself, Where did I err? And what deed have I done? What duty neglected? + Pythagoras, + Carmina Aurea, 42; + cf. Moralia, 168 b. + +

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But as it is, like the Lamia in the fable, who, they say, when at home sleeps + in blindness with her eyes stored away in a jar, but when she goes abroad + puts in her eyes and can see, so each one of us, in our dealings with others + abroad, puts his meddlesomeness, like an eye, into his maliciousness; but + we are often tripped up by our own faults and vices by reason of our + ignorance of them, since we provide ourselves with no sight or light by + which to inspect them. Therefore the busybody is also more useful to his + enemies than to himself, + Cf.Moralia, 87 b-c. for he rebukes and drags + out their faults and demonstrates to them what they should avoid or correct, + but he neglects the greater part of his own domestic errors through his + passionate interest in those abroad. So Odysseus + Cf. Homer, Od., xi. 88 ff.; Ps.-Lucian, De Astrologia, 24. refused to converse + even with his mother until he had learned from the seerTeiresias. the matters by + reason of which he had come to the House of Hades; and when he had his + answer, he both turned to his mother and also made inquiries of the other + women, + Od., xi. 229 ff. asking who was + Tyro, who the beautiful Chloris, why Epicaste met her death Tying a noose, sheer-hung, from the high roof. + Ibid. 278; Epicaste is better + known as Jocasta, the mother of Oedipus. + + But we, while treating our own affairs with + considerable laxity and ignorance and neglect, pry into the pedigrees of the + rest of the world: our neighbour's grandfather was a Syrian and his + grandmother a ThracianThat is, both were probably slaves.; so-and-so owes three + talents and has not paid the interest. We inquire also into such matters as + where so-and-so's wife was coming back from, + i.e., where she had been. and + what A and B's private conversation in the corner was about. Yet Socrates + went about seeking to solve the question of what arguments Pythagoras used + to carry conviction; and Aristippus, when he met Ischomachus at Olympia, + asked him by what manner of conversation Socrates succeeded in so affecting + the young men. And when Aristippus had gleaned a few odd seeds and samples + of Socrates' talk, he was so moved that he suffered a physical collapse and + became quite pale and thin. Finally he sailed for Athens and slaked his + burning thirst with draughts from the fountain-head, and engaged in a study + of the man and his words and his philosophy, of which the end and aim was to + come to recognize one's own vices and so rid oneself of them.

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Yet there are some who cannot bear to face their own lives, regarding these + as a most unlovely spectacle, or to reflect and revolve upon themselves, + like a light, the power of reason, but their souls, being full of all manner + of vices, shuddering and frightened at what is within, leap outwards and + prowl about other people's concerns and there batten and make fat their own + malice. For as a domestic fowl will often, though its own food lies near at + hand, slip into a corner and there scratch + + Where one sole barley grain perhaps appears + In the dung-heap,Perhaps a verse of Callimachus (Frag. anon. 374 ed. + Schneider). + + in the same way busybodies, passing over topics and narratives + which are in plain view and matters concerning which no one prevents their + inquiring or is vexed if inquiry is made, pick out the hidden and obscure + troubles of every household. And yet it was surely a clever answer that the + Egyptian gave to the man who asked him what he was carrying wrapped up: That's why it is wrapped up. And + why, if you please, are you inquisitive about what is + concealed? If it were not something bad, it would not be concealed. Yet it + is not customary to walk into the house of someone else without at least + first knocking on the door; but nowadays there are doormen and formerly + there were knockers to be struck at the door and give warning, so that the + stranger might not catch the mistress of the house or the unmarried daughter + unawares, or a slave being punished or the maid-servants screaming. But it + is for these very things that the busybody slips in. A sober and respectable + household he would not willingly enter as a spectator even if he were + invited to come; but the matters to conceal which keys and bolts and + streetdoors are used-these are what he uncovers and communicates to + outsiders. And yet the winds with which we are most + vexed, as AristonVon Arnim, Stoic. Vet. + Frag., i. pp. 89-90, Frag. 401. says, are those which pull up our garments, but the + busybody strips off not only the mantles and tunics of those near him, but + also their very walls; he flings the doors wide open and makes his way, + like a piercing wind, through + the maiden of tender skin, + Hesiod, Works and Days, 519; Cf. 465 d, supra. and creeps in, searching out with slanderous + intent drunken revels and dances and all-night festivals.

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And like Cleon in the comedy,Aristophanes, Knights, 79; + Klopidai (Thief-deme) is a play upon + the actual deme Kropidai. + His hands in Beggar-town, his mind on Thefton,Or better, + Theevingen. + so the mind of the busybody is at the same time in mansions of the + rich, in hovels of the poor, in royal courts, and in bridal chambers of the + newly-wed. He searches out everybody's business, that of strangers and that + of rulers, nor is this search of his without danger; but just as though a + man should taste aconite + Cf.Moralia, 49 e. through curiosity about its + properties, he would find that he had killed the taster before he had got + his taste, so those who search out the vices of those more powerful than + themselves destroy themselves before they acquire their knowledge. For + instance those who scarcely glance + Cf. Xenophon, Memorabilia, iv. 3. 14. at these sunbeams which have + been poured down so lavishly upon us all, but recklessly dare to gaze upon + the orb itself and to rend its radiance apart, striving to force their way + within, are blinded. This is the reason why Philippides, + Cf. 508 c, supra. + the comic poet, made an excellent reply when King Lysimachus once + said to him, Which one of my possessions may I share + with you? + Anything, Sire, said Philippides, except your secrets. For only the most pleasant + and most decorous attributes of kings are displayed openly-their banquets + and wealth and festivals and favours; but if there is anything secret, do not approach it, but let it be! The joy + of a prosperous king is not concealed, nor is his laughter when he is + amused, nor his outlay on entertainment and favours; but it is time for + alarm when something is hidden, something dark, unsmiling, unapproachable, a + storehouse of festering wrath, or the meditation of a punishment indicative + of sullen anger, or jealousy of a wife, or some suspicion against a son, or + distrust of a friend. Beware of this darkening and gathering cloud! That + which is now hidden will be disclosed to you when the cloud bursts forth + amid crashes of thunder and bolts of lightning!

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What escape is there, then, from this vice? By a process of shifting and + diverting our inquisitiveness, as has been said,In 515 d, supra. and, if possible, by turning the soul to + better and more pleasant subjects. Direct your curiosity to heavenly things + and things on earth, in the air, in the sea. Are you by nature fond of small + or of great spectacles? If of great ones, apply your curiosity to the sun: + where does it set and whence does it rise? Inquire into the changes in the + moon, as you would into those of a human being: what becomes of all the + light she has spent and from what source did she regain it, how does it + happen that + When out of darkness first she comes anew, + She shows her face increasing fair and full; + And when she reaches once her brightest sheen, + Again she wastes away and comes to naught?Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. + 2, p. 315, Sophocles, Frag. 787 (871 + ed. Pearson); the full quotation may be found in Life of Demetrius, xlv. (911 c-d). + Cf. also Moralia, 282 + b. + + And these are secrets of Nature, yet Nature is not vexed with those + who find them out. Or suppose you have renounced great things. Then turn + your curiosity to smaller ones: how are some + plants always blooming and green and rejoicing in the display of their + wealth at every season, while others are sometimes like these, but at other + times, like a human spendthrift, they squander all at once their abundance + and are left bare and beggared? Why, again, do some plants produce elongated + fruits, others angular, and still others round and globular?

+

But perhaps you will have no curiosity about these subjects since there is + nothing evil in them. Yet if your zest for meddling must by all means be for + ever feeding and dwelling on depraved things, like a maggot on dead matter, + let us escort it to history and supply it with an unstinted abundance of + evils. For there you will find The deaths of men, + the shufflings off of life,Aeschylus, Suppliants, + 937; cf. Moralia, 937 f. + seductions of women, assaults of slaves, slanders of friends, + compounding of poisons, envies, jealousies, shipwrecks of households, + overthrow of empires. Glut and enjoy yourself and cause no trouble or pain + to any of your associates!

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But curiosity apparently takes no pleasure in stale calamities, but wants + them hot and fresh; it enjoys the spectacle of novel tragedies and has not + much zest for association with the comic and more cheerful side of life. + Consequently when anyone tells the tale of a wedding or a sacrifice or a + complimentary escort, the busybody is a careless and inattentive listener, + and declares that he has already heard most of the details and urges the + narrator to cut them short or skip them. But if + someone sitting near at hand narrates the seduction of a maiden or the + adultery of a wife or the framing of a law-suit or a quarrel of brothers, + the busybody neither dozes off to sleep nor pleads an engagement, But asks more speech and proffers both his earsCallimachus, Frag. + anon. 375 ed. Schneider.; and that saying,Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. + 2, p. 913, ades. 386. + + Alas! + How much more readily than glad events + Is mischance carried to the ears of men! + is spoken truly when applied to busy bodies. For as + cupping-glasses + Cf. 469 b, supra, and Moralia, 600 c. draw from the flesh what is worst in + it, so the ears of busy bodies attract the most evil stories. Or rather, as + cities have certain unlucky and dismal gates through which they lead out + condemned criminals and cast out the refuse + Cf.Moralia, 271 a. and the scapegoats, while + nothing undefiled or sacred either goes in or out through them, so also the + ears of busy bodies give passage and thoroughfare to nothing good or decent, + but only to gruesome tales, serving, as they do, as conveyance for foul and + polluted narratives. + The only song that's heard within my house + Is wailing cries. + Cf. 463 b, supra. + + This is the one Muse and Siren for busybodies, this is the sweetest + of all music to their ears.

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For curiosity is really a passion for finding out whatever is hidden and + concealed, and no one conceals a good thing when he has it; why, people even + pretend to have good things when they have them + not. Since, then, it is the searching out of troubles that the busybody + desires, he is possessed by the affliction called malignancy, + A term better expressed + by the German Schadenfreude. + brother to envy and spite. For envy is pain at another's good, while + malignancy is joy at another's evil + Cf.Moralia, 1046 b.; and both spring from a + savage and bestial affliction, a vicious nature.

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So painful for all of us is the revelation of our own troubles that many die + rather than reveal to physicians some hidden malady. Just imagine + HerophilusOf + Chalcedon, a great anatomist of the Alexandrian age (flor. circa 300 b.c.). or + ErasistratusOf Ceos, + worked in Alexandria at the height of his fame (258 b.c.). or + Asclepius himself, when he was a mortal man,Asclepius, the son of Apollo, was + deified after death as the god of medicine. carrying about their + drugs and instruments, calling at one house after another, and inquiring + whether a man had an abscess in the anus or a woman a cancer in the womb! + And yet the inquisitiveness of this profession is a salutary thing. Yet + everyone, I imagine, would have driven such a man away, because he does not + wait to be sent for, but comes unsummoned to investigate others' + infirmities. And busybodies search out these very matters and others still + worse, not to cure, but merely to expose them. For this reason they are + hated deservedly. For example, we are annoyed and displeased with + customs-officials, not when they pick up those articles which we are + importing openly, but when in the search for concealed goods they pry into + baggage and merchandize which are another's property. And yet the law allows + them to do this and they would loseSince the collection of taxes and duties was farmed out + to individuals, they would be the losers in failing to make a minute + search for dutiable articles. by not doing so. But busybodies + ruin and abandon their own interests in their + excessive occupation with those of others. Only rarely do they visit the + farm, for they cannot endure the quiet and silence of being alone. But if, + after a long absence, they do chance to put in there, they have more of an + eye for their neighbours' vines than for their own, and they ask how many of + their neighbours' cattle have died, or how much of his wine has turned sour. + But they are soon sated with such news and run away. Yet the true and + genuine farmer does not care to hear even news that makes its own way from + the city; he saysKock, + Com. Att. Frag., iii. p. + 473, ades. 347; Cf. 511 e, supra, where it is the typical Athenian + slave of whom his farmer-master complains. + + Then he will tell me while he digs + On what terms peace was made. The cursed scamp + Now strolls around and meddles with these things. + +

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And the busybody, shunning the country as something stale and uninteresting + and undramatie, pushes into the bazaar and the market-place and the harbours + : Is there any news? + Weren't you at market early this morning? Well then, + do you suppose the city has changed its constitution in three hours? + If, however, someone really does have something of that nature to tell him, + he dismounts from his horse, grasps his informant's hand, kisses him, and + stands there listening. But if someone meets him and tells him that there is + no news, he exclaims as though he were annoyed, What + do you mean? Haven't you been at market? Didn't you pass the War Office? + Didn't you interview the new arrivals from Italy either? It is for + this reason that the legislation of the Locrian magistrates was excellent. + For if anyone who had been out of town came up and + asked, Is there any news? they fined him. Just as + cooksThe + professional cook was also a butcher. pray for a good crop of + young animals and fishermen for a good haul of fish, in the same way + busybodies pray for a good crop of calamities, a good haul of difficulties, + for novelties, and changes, that they, like cooks and fishermen, may always + have something to fish out or butcher.

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Another good law was that of the legislator of Thurii,Charondas. for he forbade the + lampooning on the comic stage of all citizens except adulterers and + busybodies. And indeed adultery does seem to be a sort of curiosity about + another's pleasure and a searching out and examination of matters which are + closely guarded and escape general observation, while curiosity is an + encroaching, a debauching and denuding of secret things.

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Since a natural consequence of much learning is to have much to say (and for + this reason Pythagoras + Cf. Life of + Numa, viii. (65 b); De Vita et Poesi Homeri, 149 (Bernardakis, + vol. vii. p. 420); Lucian, Vitarum + Auctio, 3. enjoined upon the young a five years' + silence which he called a Truce to Speech), a + necessary concomitant of inquisitiveness is to speak evil. + Cf. 508 c, supra. For what the curious delight to hear they + delight to tell, and what they zealously collect from others they joyously + reveal to everyone else. Consequently, in addition to its other evils, their + disease actually impedes the fulfilment of their desires. + Cf. 502 e-f, supra. For everyone is on his guard to hide things + from them and is reluctant to do anything while a busybody is looking, or to + say anything while one is listening, but defers consultation and postpones + the consideration of business until such an inquisitive person is out of the way. And if, when either some secret matter is + under discussion or some important business is being transacted, a busybody + comes on the scene, men drop the matter from the discussion and conceal it, + as one does a tidbit when a cat runs by. Consequently these persons are + often the only ones to whom those matters are not told or shown which + everyone else may hear and see.

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For the same reason the busybody is deprived of everybody's confidence + Cf. 503 c-d, supra.: we should prefer, on any account, to + entrust our letters and papers and seals to slaves and strangers rather than + to inquisitive friends and relatives. That noble Bellerophon + Cf. Il., + vi. 168. did not break the seal even on a letter accusing himself + which he was carrying, but kept his hands from the king's letter by reason + of that same continence which kept him from the king's wife. + Inquisitiveness, in fact, is indicative of incontinence no less than is + adultery, and in addition, it is indicative of terrible folly and fatuity. + For to pass by so many women who are public property open to all and then to + be drawn toward a woman who is kept under lock and key and is expensive, and + often, if it so happens, quite ugly, is the very height of madness and + insanity. And it is this same thing which busybodies do: they pass by much + that is beautiful to see and to hear, many matters excellent for relaxation + and amusement, and spend their time digging into other men's trifling + correspondence, gluing their ears to their neighbours' walls, whispering + with slaves and women of the streets, and often incurring danger, and always + infamy.

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For this reason the most useful means possible for turning the busybody from + his vice is for him to remember what he has + previously learned.With + this chapter may be compared chapter 19 of De Vitioso Pudore (Moralia, 536 c-d). For, as + Simonides + Cf. the same story, illustrating the + avarice of Simonides, in Moralia, 555 f; there the box containing his fees is full + of silver. used to say that when he opened his boxes after some + time, he always found the fee-box full, but the thanks-box empty, so if one + opens from time to time the deposit-box of inquisitiveness and examines it, + full as it is of many useless, futile, and unlovely things, perhaps this + procedure would give sufficient offence, so completely disagreeable and + silly would it appear. Suppose a man should run over the works of the + ancients and pick out the worst passages in them and keep a book compiled + from such things as headless lines in HomerLines which begin with a + short syllable instead of the long one demanded by the metre: cf. Moralia, + 397 d, 611 b; Athenaeus, xiv. 632 d. and solecisms in the + tragedians and the unbecoming and licentious language applied to women by + which Archilochus + Cf.Moralia, 45 a. makes a sorry spectacle of + himself, would he not deserve that curse in the tragedy, Be damned, compiler of men's miseries?Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. + 2, p. 913, ades. 388; cf. Moralia, 855 b. + And even without this curse, such a man's treasurehouse of other + people's faults is unbecoming and useless. It is like the city populated by + the vilest and most intractable of men which Philip founded and called + Roguesborough. + Cf. Jacoby, Frag. d. gr. Historiker, ii. B, p. 561, + Theopompus, Frag. 110. +

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Busybodies, however, by gleaning and gathering the blunders and errors and + solecisms, not of lines or poems, but of lives, carry about with them a most + inelegant and unlovely record-box of evils, + their own memory. Therefore just as at Rome there are some who take no + account of paintings or statues or even, by Heaven, of the beauty of the + boys and women for sale, but haunt the monster-market, examining those who + have no calves, or are weasel-armed,That is, with exceptionally short arms. or have + three eyes, or ostrich-heads, and searching to learn whether there has been + born some Commingled shape and misformed + prodigy,Nauck, + Trag. Graec. Frag. + 2, p. 680, Euripides, Frag. 996; + cf. Life + of Theseus, xv. (6 d). + yet if one continually conduct them to such sights, they will soon + experience satiety and nausea; so let those who are curious about life's + failures, the blots on the scutcheon, the delinquencies and errors in other + people's homes, remind themselves that their former discoveries have brought + them no favour or profit.

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The greatest factor, however, in ridding ourselves of this affliction is the + habit of beginning early to train and teach ourselves to acquire this + self-control. It is, in fact, by habituation that the disease has come to + increase, advancing, as it does, little by little. How this habit is + acquired, we shall learn when we discuss the proper training. So first let + us begin with the most trifling and unimportant matters. What difficulty is + there about refraining from reading the inscriptions on tombs as we journey + along the roads? Or what is there arduous in just glancing at the writing on + walls when we take our walks? We have only to remind ourselves that nothing useful or pleasant has been written there: + merely so-and-so commemorates so-and-so wishing him well, and someone else is the best of friends, and much twaddle of this + sort.I quote + Shilleto's note: Plutarch rather reminds one, in + his evident contempt for Epitaphs, of + the cynic who asked, Where are all the bad + people buried? Where indeed? + It may seem that no harm will come from reading these, but harm you + it does by imperceptibly instilling the practice of searching out matters + which do not concern you. And as hunters do not allow young hounds to turn + aside and follow every scent, but pull them up and check them with the + leash, keeping their sense of smell pure and untainted for their proper task + in order that it may keep more keenly to the trail, With nostrils tracking down the paths of beastsFrom an unknown poet: + Empedocles? (cf. Diels, Hermes, xv. 176).; so one + should be careful to do away with or divert to useful ends the sallies and + wanderings of the busybody, directed as they are to everything that one may + see and hear. For as eagles and lions + Cf.Moralia, 966 c. Eagles + is probably corrupt. Pohlenz suggests cats. + draw in their claws when they walk so that they may not wear off the + sharpness of the tips, so, if we consider that curiosity for learning has + also a sharp and keen edge, let us not waste or blunt it upon matters of no + value.

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In the second place, then, let us accustom ourselves not to look inside when + we pass another's door, nor with our curious gaze to clutch, as it were by + main force, at what is happening within, but let us ever keep ready for use + the saying of Xenocrates, that it makes no + difference whether it is the feet or the eyes that we set within another's + house; for what the eyes behold is neither just nor honourable, and not + even pleasant. Unsightly, stranger, are the things + within,Nauck, + Trag. Graec. Frag. + 2, p. 617, Euripides, Frag. 790, + probably from the Philoctetes. + since the greater part of what we see inside is of this + sort-kitchen utensils lying about and servant-girls sitting in idleness, and + nothing important or pleasurable. And this practice of throwing sidelong and + furtive glances, distorting the soul as it does, is shameful, and the habit + it implants is depraved. For instance, when Diogenes + Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xii. 58. saw the + Olympic victor Dioxippus making his triumphal entry in his chariot and + unable to tear his eyes away from a beautiful woman who was among the + spectators of the procession, but continually turning around and throwing + side-glances in her direction, Do you see, said + the Cynic, how a slip of a girl gets a strangle-hold + on our athlete? And you may observe how every kind of spectacle + alike gets a strangle-hold on busybodies and twists their necks round when + they once acquire a habit and practice of scattering their glances in all + directions. But, as I think, the faculty of vision should not be spinning + about outside of us,That + is, outside of the control of reason. like an ill-trained servant + girl, but when it is sent on an errand by the soul it should quickly reach + its destination and deliver its message, then return again in good order + within the governance of the reason and heed its command. But as it is, the + words of Sophocles + Electra, 724-725. come true: + + Then the Aenianian's hard-mouthed yearlings break + From his control and bolt; + that is, the senses which have not received what we called above + right instruction and training run away, dragging the intellect with them, + and often plunge it into deep disaster. Consequently, though that story + about DemocritusDiels, + Frag. d. Vorsokratiker + 5, ii. p. 89, A 27. is false, that he + deliberately destroyed his sight by fixing his eyes on a red-hot mirror and + allowing its heat to be reflected on his sight, in order that his eyes might + not repeatedly summon his intellect outside and disturb it, but might allow + his mind to remain inside at home and occupy itself with pure thinking, + blocking up as it were windows which open on the street; yet nothing is more + true than this, that those who make most use of the intellect make fewest + calls upon the senses.Plutarch is thinking of some such passage as Plato, Phaedo, 66 a. We observe, for instance, + that men have built their sanctuaries of the MusesThat is, halls devoted to learning, + such as the Museion at Alexandria and the Academy at Athens. far + from cities and that they have called night kindly + + Cf. Aeschylus, Agamemnon, 265. from a belief that its quiet and + absence of distraction is greatly conducive to the investigation and + solution of the problems in hand.

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Yet truly, neither is this + Cf. 520 d, supra. a difficult nor arduous task: when men are + reviling and abusing each other in the market-place, not to approach them, + or when a crowd is running to see something or other, to remain seated, or, + if you are without self-control, to get up and go away. For you will reap no + advantage from mixing yourself with busy bodies, whereas you will obtain great benefit from forcibly turning aside + your curiosity and curtailing it and training it to obey reason.

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And after this it is well to make our training more intensive and pass by a + theatre where a successful performance is in progress; and, when our + friends urge us to see a certain dancer or comedian, to thrust them aside; + and, when shouts are heard on the racecourse or in the circus, not to turn + round. For as Socrates + Cf. 513 d, supra. used to advise the avoidance of such foods + as tempt us to eat when we are not hungry and such drinks as tempt us to + imbibe when we are not thirsty, so we also should avoid and guard against + such sights and sounds as master and attract us without fulfilling any need + of ours. Thus Cyrus + Cf. Xenophon, Cyropaedia, v. 1. 8; Moralia, 31 c. was unwilling to see + Pantheia; and when Araspes declared that the woman's beauty was worth + seeing, Cyrus said, Then this is all the more reason + for keeping away from her. For if, persuaded by you, I should go to her, + perhaps she herself might tempt me, when I couldn't spare the time, to + go to see her again and sit by her, to the neglect of many important + matters. So too Alexander + Cf. Life of + Alexander, xxii. (677 b); Moralia, 97 d, 338 e. would not go to + see Darius's wife who was said to be very beautiful, but although he visited + her mother, an elderly woman, he could not bring himself to see the young + and beautiful daughter. Yet we peep into women's litters and hang about + their windows, and think we are doing nothing wrong in thus making our + curiosity prone to slip and slide into all kinds of vice. +

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Since, therefore, for the attainment of justice you may sometimes forgo an + honest gain that you may accustom yourself to keep clear of dishonest + profit, so likewise, for the attainment of continence, you may sometimes + keep aloof from your own wife in order that you may never be stirred by + another's. Then apply this habit to inquisitiveness and endeavour sometimes + not to hear or see some of the things that concern you, and when someone + wishes to tell you something that has happened in your house, put him off + and refuse to hear words that are supposed to have been spoken about you. It + was, in fact, curiosity which involved Oedipus in the greatest calamities. + Believing that he was no Corinthian, but a foreigner, and seeking to + discover his identity, he encountered Laïus; and when he had killed Laïus + and had taken, in addition to the throne, his own mother to wife, though + seeming to all to be blessed by fortune, he began again to try to discover + his identity. And although his wife attempted to prevent him, all the more + vigorously did he cross-examine the old man who knew the truth, bringing + every form of compulsion to bear. And at last, when circumstances were + already bringing him to suspect the truth and the old manThe herdsman who had saved Oedipus + on Cithaeron. cried out, Alas! I stand + on the dread brink of speech,Sophocles, Oedipus Rex, 1169. + Oedipus was none the less so inflamed and maddened by his + afflictionCuriosity. that he replied, And I of + hearing, and yet hear I mustSophocles, l.c., + 1170.; so bitter-sweet, so uncontrollable is the + itching of curiosity, like the itching of a sore which gets bloody whenever + we scratch it. But the man who has got rid of this + disease and is gentle by nature will say, if he is ignorant of something + unpleasant, + Forgetfulness of evil, sovereign queen, + How wise you are!Euripides, Orestes, 213. + + +

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We must, therefore, also habituate ourselves to things like these: when a + letter is brought to us, not to open it quickly or in a hurry, as most + people do, who go so far as to bite through the fastenings with their teeth + if their hands are too slow; when a messenger arrives from somewhere or + other, not to rush up, or even to rise to our feet; when a friend says, I have something new to tell you, to say, I should prefer that you had something useful or + profitable. +

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When I was once lecturing in Rome, that famous Rusticus,Probably Arulenus Rusticus, put to + death in or after 93 a.d. for having in his biography of Paetus Thrasea + called his subject sanctus (Dio, lxvii. 13. 2, cf. also Tacitus, Agricola, 2). whom Domitian later killed through + envy at his repute, was among my hearers, and a soldier came through the + audience and delivered to him a letter from the emperor. There was a silence + and I, too, made a pause, that he might read his letter; but he refused and + did not break the seal until I had finished my lecture and the audience had + dispersed. Because of this incident everyone admired the dignity of the man.

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But when one nourishes his curiosity upon permissible material until he + renders it vigorous and violent, he is no longer able to master it easily, + since it is borne, by force of habit, toward forbidden things. And such + persons pry into their friends' correspondence, thrust themselves into + secret meetings, become spectators of sacred rites which it is an impiety + for them to see, tread consecrated ground, + investigate the deeds and words of kings.

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And yet surely in the case of despots, + Cf. Aristotle, Politics, v. (viii.) 9. 3 (1313 b 12 ff.). who have + to know everything, it is the tribe of socalled Ears and Jackals that makes them most + detested. It was Darius Nothus, who had no confidence in himself and + regarded everyone with fear and suspicion, who first instituted Listeners; and Jackals + were distributed by the Dionysii + Cf. Life of + Dion, xxviii. (970 b-c). among the people of + Syracuse. Consequently when the revolution came, these were the first + persons whom the Syracusans arrested and crushed to death. And in fact the + tribe of informers is from the same clan and family as busy bodies. But + while informers search to see whether anyone has planned or committed a + misdemeanour, busy bodies investigate and make public even the involuntary + mischances of their neighbours. And it is said that the person called + aliterios + Transgressor, or outlaw; + Plutarch rejects this explanation in Moralia, 297 a. first acquired his name from being a + busybody. For it appears that when there was a severe famine at Athens and + those who possessed wheat would not contribute it to the common stock, but + groundThe verb + ἀλεῖν, from which ἀλιτήριος is here derived. it in + their houses secretly by night, some persons went about listening for the + noise of the. mills, and so acquired the name aliterioi. It was + in the same way, they say, that the sycophant + Informer; cf. Life of + Solon, xxiv. (91 e); Athenaeus, 74 e-f. won his name. + Since the export of figs + σῦκα. was prohibited, men who + revealed + φαίνειν, from which the noun -φάντης. and gave information against + those who did export them were called + sycophants. So it is well worth the while of busybodies to + consider this fact also, that they may be ashamed of the resemblance and + relationship of their own practice to that of persons who are very cordially + hated and loathed.

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