fraudare juvat vitem crescentibus uvis?"
157 Cf. Shakspere, "Romeo and Juliet," A. ii. Sc. vi. 9–15.
158 Herodotus, i. 8.
159 An allusion to the well-known Fable of Æsop, No. 82 in Halm's edition.
160 This comparison of the mirror is beautifully used by Keble in his "Christian Year:"
"Without a hope on earth to find A mirror in an answering mind." Wednesday before Easter.
161 Does this throw light on Esther, i. 10–12?
162 By their patronage.
163 "Republic," v. p. 462, C.
164 By the power of sympathy. This is especially true of eyes. Wyttenbach compares the Epigram in the Anthology, i. 46. 9. Καὶ γὰρ δέξιον ὄμμα κακούμενον ὄμματι λαίῳ Πολλάκι τοῦς ἰδίους ἀντιδίδωσι πόνους.
165 Reading καλον with Hercher.
166 The ancients hardly ever drank wine neat. Hence the allusion. The symposiarch, or arbiter bibendi, settled the proportions to be used.
167 Compare the French proverb, "Le beau soulier blesse souvent le pied."
168 Thessaly was considered by the ancients famous for enchantments and spells. So Juvenal, vi. 610, speaks of "Thessala philtia," and see Horace, "Odes," i. 27. 21, 22; "Epodes," v. 45.
169 Wyttenbach well compares the lines of Menander:—
ἔνεστ᾽ἀληθὲς φίλτρον εὐγνώμων τρόπός, τούτῳ κατακρατεῖν ἀνδρὸς εἴωθεν γυνή.
170 An allusion to Homer, "Iliad," xiv. 214–217.
171 Called by the Romans "pronuba Juno." See Verg. "Æneid," iv. 166; Ovid, "Heroides," vi. 43.
172 See Pausanias, vi. 25. The statue was made of ivory and gold.
173 Compare Terence, "Hecyra," 201. "Uno animo omnes socrus oderunt nurus." As to stepmotherly feelings, the "injusta noverca" has passed into a proverb with all nations. See for example Hesiod, "Works and Days," 823, ἄλλοτε μητρυιὴ πἐλει ἡμἐρη, ἄλλοτε μήτηρ.
174 Wyttenbach compares Seneca's "Fidelem si putaveris facies." "Ep." iii. p. 6.
175 Euripides, "Medea," 190–198.
176 Homer, "Iliad," xiv. 205, 209.
177 See Mulier Parturiens, Phaedrus' "Fables," i. 18.
178 Euripides, "Andromache," 930.
179 Proverb. Cf. Horace, "Oleum adde camino," ii. "Sat." iii. 321.
180 See Æsop's Fables, No. 121. Halme. Δραπέτης is the title. All readers of Plautus and Terence know what a bugbear to slaves the threat of being sent to the mill was. They would have to turn it instead of horses, or other cattle.
181 That is, Yoking oxen for the plough.
182 Procreation of children was among the ancients frequently called Ploughing and Sowing. Hence the allusions in this paragraph. So, too, Shakspere, "Measure for Measure," Act i. Sc. iv. 41–44.
183 The reference is to the rites of Cybele. See Lucretius, ii. 618.
184 See Erasmus, "Adagia." The French proverb is "La nuit tous les chats sont gris."
185 "Laws," p. 729, C.
186 From the words of Andromache to Hector, "Iliad," vi. 429, 430.
187 Theano was the wife of Pythagoras.
188 See Livy, xxix. 14. Propertius, v. 11. 51, 52. Ovid, "Fasti," iv. 305 sq.
189 And mother of the Gracchi.
190 Jeremy Taylor, in his beautiful sermon on "The Marriage Ring," has borrowed not a few hints from this treatise of Plutarch, as usual investing with a new beauty whatever he borrows, from whatever source. He had the classics at his fingers' end, and much of his unique charm he owes to them. But he read them as a philosopher, and not as a grammarian.
CONSOLATORY LETTER TO HIS WIFE.
§ i. Plutarch to his wife sends greeting. The messenger that you sent to me to announce the death of our little girl seems to have missed his way en route for Athens; but when I got to Tanagra I heard the news from my niece. I suppose the funeral has already taken place, and I hope everything went off so as to give you least sorrow both now and hereafter. But if you left undone anything you wished to do, waiting for my opinion, and thinking your grief would then be lighter, be it without ceremoniousness or superstition, both which things are indeed foreign to your character.
