De Tranquillitate Animi
Plutarch
Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. VI. Helmbold, William Clark, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1939 (printing).
Now he[*](Democritus; Diels, Frag. d. Vorsokratiker ⁵, ii. p. 132, Frag. 3; Marcus Aurelius, iv. 24; Seneca, De Tranquillitate Animi, xiii. 1, where the statement is made that these words form the beginning of Democritus’s work (see especially Siefert, op. cit., p. 8); De Ira, iii. 6. 3. But Plutarch misunderstands the meaning; Democritus did not advise renouncing public life completely: Cf. Moralia, 1100 b-c. Note also the word many in the present passage. (The following paragraph is cited by Stobaeus, vol. iii. pp. 651 f. ed. Hense.)) who said, The man who would be tranquil in his mind must not engage in many affairs, either private or public, first of all makes our tranquillity very expensive if it is bought at the price of inactivity; it is as though he advised every sick man:
Lie still, poor wretch, and move not from your bed.[*](Euripides, Orestes, 258; quoted again 501 c, infra, and in Moralia, 788 f, 901 a, 1126 a; the words are addressed by Electra to Orestes, delirious after the murder of his mother, and must be taken closely with the following clause.)And yet it is true that a state of bodily stupor is a bad remedy for insanity; but no whit better as a physician of the soul is he who would relieve it of its disturbances and distress by prescribing idleness and softness and the betrayal of friends and family and country.[*](Cf.Moralia, 135 b.)
In the next place, it is also false that those who are not occupied with many things are tranquil in mind. For if that were true, women ought to be more tranquil than men, since for the most part they keep at home; but as it is, the North Wind
Blows not through the soft-skinned maid,as Hesiod[*](Works and Days, 519, where the poet adds who stays indoors with her dear mother.Cf. 516 f, infra.) says, yet more pain and excitement and despondency than one could enumerate, caused by jealousy and superstitition and ambition and vain imaginings, seep into the women’s quarters. And though Laërtes[*](Homer, Od., i. 191.) lived twenty years by himself in the country
and abandoned his birthplace,[*](That is, the town of Ithaca; he continued to live on the island.) his home, and his kingship, yet he had grief as an ever-constant companion of his inactivity and dejection. And for some persons, even inactivity itself often leads to discontent, as in this instance:
- With one old woman, who his food and drink
- Would place beside him,
And he himself is greatly disturbed and distressed at this and says:
- The swift Achilles, Peleus’ noble son,
- Continued in his wrath beside the ships;
- Nor would he ever go to council that
- Ennobles men, nor ever go to war,
- But wasted away his heart, remaining there,
- And always longed for tumult and for war.[*](Homer, Il., i. 488 ff.)
For this reason not even Epicurus[*](Usener, Epicurea, p. 328, Frag. 555. The following passage is cited by Stobaeus, vol. iii. p. 652 ed. Hense.) believes that men who are eager for honour and glory should lead an inactive life, but that they should fulfil their natures by engaging in politics and entering public life, on the ground that, because of their natural dispositions, they are more likely to be disturbed and harmed by inactivity if they do not obtain what they desire. But he is absurd in urging public life, not on those who are able to undertake it, but on those who are unable to lead an inactive life; tranquillity and discontent should be determined, not by the multitude or the fewness of one’s occupations, but by their excellence or baseness; for the omission of good acts is no less vexatious and disturbing than the commission of evil acts, as has been said.[*](Probably by Democritus (Cf. Frag. 256), not Plutarch.)
- But here I sit beside my ships,
- A useless burden to the earth.[*](Ibid. xviii. 104.)