The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVII: Prose, 1668-1691: An essay of Dramatick Poesie and Shorter Works

The Life of Plutarch

Plutarchs Lives 239 The Life of Plutarch I know not by what Fate it comes to pass, that Historians, who give immortality to others, are so ill requited by Posterity, that their Actions and their Fortunes are usually forgotten; neither themselves incourag'd, while they live, nor their memory preserv'd entire to future Ages. 'Tis the ingratitude of Mankind to their greatest Benefactors, that they, who teach us wisdome by the surest ways, (setting before us what we ought to shun or to pursue, by the examples of the most famous Men whom they Record, and by the experience of 10 their Faults and Vertues,) should generally live poor and unregarded; as if they were born only for the publick, and had no interest in their own well-being; but were to be lighted up like Tapers, and to waste themselves, for the benefit of others. But this is a complaint too general, and the custom has been too long establish'd to be remedied; neither does it wholly reach our Author: He was born in an Age, which was sensible of his vertue; and found a Trajan to reward him, as Aristotle did an Alexander. But the Historians, who succeeded him, have either been too envious, or too careless of his re20 putation; none of them, not even his own Country-men, having given us any particular account of him; or if they have, yet their Works are not transmitted to us; so that we are forc'd to glean from Plutarch, what he has scatter'd in his Writings, concerning himself and his Original: Which (excepting that little memorial, that Suidas, and some few others, have left concerning him) is all we can collect, relating to this great Philosopher and Historian. He was born at Chceronea a small City of Bceotia in Greece, between Attica and Phocis, and reaching to both Seas: The so Climate not much befreinded by the Heavens; for the air is thick and foggy; and consequently the Inhabitants partaking of its influence, gross feeders, and fat witted; brawny, and 29 Seas:] ~. 01-4. 240 Prose 1668-1691 unthinking, just the constitution of Heroes: Cut out for the Executive and brutal business of War; but so stupid in the designing part, that in all the revolutions of Greece they were never Masters, but only in those few years, when they were led by Epaminondas, or Pelopidas. Yet this foggy ayre, this Country of fat weathers, as Juvenal calls it, produc'd three wits, which were comparable to any three Athenians: Pindar, Epaminondas, and our Plutarch, to whom we may add a fourth, Sextus Chceronensis , the Prasceptor of the learned Emperour Marcus 10 Aurelius; and the Nephew of our Authour. Cheeronea, (if we may give credit to Pausanias, in the ninth Book of his description of Greece) was anciently call'd Arne; from Arne the Daughter of Alolus; but being scituated to the west of Parnassus in that low-land country, the natural unwholsomness of the Ayre was augmented by the evening Vapours cast upon it from that Mountain, which our late Travellers describe to be full of moisture and marshy ground inclos'd in the inequality of its ascents: And being also expos'd to the winds which blew from that quarter, the Town was perpetually 20 unhealthful, for which reason, sayes my Author, Chceron, the Son of Apollo and Thero, made it be rebuilt, and turn'd it towards the rising Sun; From whence the Town became healthful and consequently populous; in memory of which benefit it afterwards retain'd his name. But as Etymologies are uncertain , and the Greeks, above all Nations, given to fabulous derivations of Names, especially, when they tend to the Honour of their Country, I think we may be reasonably content to take the denomination of the Town, from its delightful or chearful standing; as the word Charon sufficiently implies. so But to lose no time, in these grammatical Etymologies, which are commonly uncertain ghesses, 'tis agreed that Plutarch was here born; the year uncertain; but without dispute in the reign of Claudius. Joh. Gerrhard Vossius has assign'd his birth in the latter end 7 Pindar] 03-4; Pyndar Ol-2. 11 Charonea] Oib; Cheeronea Oia, 02-4. 14 low-land] 03-4; low land Oi-z. 34 Gerrhard] Oib; Gerrard Oia, 02-4. Plutarchs Lives 241 of that Emperour: Some other Writers of his...