Page images
PDF
EPUB

66

noured by growing rich; and his poverty attended him to his grave, whither he was carried at the expence of the public. As he was born poor, he resolved to continue so; and his friend Pelopidas could never prevail upon him to think otherwise. "I am not ashamed, said he to him, of a poverty that has "not prevented me from deserving the first employ "ments in the commonwealth and the command of "her armies. Poverty has brought no shame upon me, nor will I bring any upon poverty, by quitting " it."

[ocr errors]

[d] He was as little solicitous about glory as money. He never made any interest for offices: dignities courted him, and often did violence to his modesty in obliging him to accept them; though he always discharged them in such a manner as did more honour to them than they to him.

1

His integrity, sincerity, and invincible love of justice, procured him the entire confidence of his citizens, and even of his enemies. Nobody could avoid loving and admiring him for his good nature and affability, which nothing could alter; nor did they in the least take away from the high esteem and veneration, which his great qualities had gained him. [e] It is in virtues of this social kind that Plutarch places the real grandeur of Epaminondas. Nor indeed is any thing more extraordinary than such qualities with an almost absolute power in the midst of wars, and victories, and at the head of the greatest affairs; nor can any thing more necessary be proposed for the imitation of persons of quality, who are often tempted to substitute artifice, dissimulation, airs of haughtiness and pride, instead of them.

[d] Gloria quoque non cupidior quam pecuniæ; quippe recusanti omnia imperia ingesta sunt; honoresque ita gessit, ut ornamentum non accipere, sed dare ipsi dignitati videretur. Jam literarum studium jam philosophiæ doctrina tanta, ut

mirabile videretur, unde tam insig nis militiæ scientia homini inter literas nato. Just. ibid.

[ε] Ἦν ἀληθῶς μέγας ἐγκρατεία, καὶ δικαιοσύνη, καὶ μεγαλοψυχία, καὶ προ 6777. Plut. in Pelop.

c 3

His

His elevation of mind made him always bear with mildness and patience the jealousy of his equals, the ill humour of his citizens, the calumnies of his enemies, and the ingratitude of his country after his great services. [f] He was fully of opinion, that greatness of soul consisted principally in suffering these trials without concern, complaining, or abating any thing of his zeal for the public good; [g] because the ill usage of our country, like that of our parents, should be borne with submission.

There never was a greater master in the art of war. In him intrepid valour was united with the most consummate prudence. And all these virtues were no less the effect of his excellent education, than of his happy genius. From his infancy he had expressed such a wonderful taste for study and labour, that one would wonder how a man born in the midst of letters, and brought up in the bosom of philosophy, could have possibly acquired so perfect a knowledge in the art of war. Thus great men are formed; which we cannot inculcate too much into youth designed for the army, the service of the state, or any employment in general whatsoever, as several of them are apt to look upon study as useless, and almost dishonourable. [h] Tully, in his third book de Oratore, gives a long list of the most illustrious officers in Greece, who were all very industrious to improve their minds by the study of the sciences, and philosophy in particular. Among these were Pisistratus, Pericles, Alcibiades, Dion of Syracuse, whom we shall speak of by and by, Timotheus the son of Conon, Agesilaus, and Epaminondas. It is a great misfortune for persons raised to preferments and the administration of public affairs, to enter upon them, as Tully expresses it, naked and unarmed, i. e. without knowledge, understanding, or

[1] τὸ δὲ Ευκοφάνημα καὶ τὴν πείρην Επαμεινώνδας ἤνεγκε πράως μέγα μέρος ἀνδρείας καὶ μεγαλοψυχίας τὴν ἐν τοῖς woλırınois àvežıxaxiav wasμer. Plut. in Pelop.

[g] Ut parentum sævitiam, sic patrie, patiendo ac ferendo leniendam esse. Liv. 1. 37. n. 34.

[h] Lib. 3. de Oratore, n. 137,

141.

almost

almost any tincture of the sciences that adorn and cultivate the mind. [i] Nunc contra plerique ad honores adipiscendos, & ad rempublicam gerendam nudi veniunt atque inermes, nullâ cognitione rerum, nullâ scientiâ ornati.

2. The Deliverance of Syracuse.

Two very illustrious men were engaged in restoring liberty to Syracuse, Dion and Timoleon. The first laid the foundations, and the second entirely finished that great work.

I. DION.

I question whether among the lives of illustrious men left us by Plutarch, there is one more beautiful and curious than that of Dion; but there is certainly none which shews more the value of a good education, and of what great advantage the conversation of men of learning and virtue may be. I shall confine myself chiefly to this point, by making some reflections on such circumstances in the life of Dion as relate to it.

REFLECTION THE FIRST.

The Conversation of Men of Learning and Probity very useful to Princes.

Dion was brother to Aristomache, the wife of the elder Dionysius. A kind of chance, or rather, says Plutarch, a peculiar providence, which laid the foundations of the liberty of Syracuse at a distance, led Plato thither, the prince of philosophers. Dion became his friend and disciple, and improved very much by his lectures. For, though educated in slavish principles under a tyrant, and habituated to a cowardly and servile subjection; though bred up in pomp and pleasures, and accustomed to a kind of life, which made

[] Lib. 3. de Oratore, n. 136.
C 4

all

all happiness consist in voluptuousness and magnificence; he had no sooner heard the discourses of this philosophy, and tasted of that philosophy which leads. to virtue, than he found his soul enflamed with the love of it.

The second Dionysius succeeded his father at an age, when, as [k] Livy says of another king of Syracuse, he was so far from being able to govern with wisdom, that he was scarce capable of using his liberty with moderation. He was no sooner upon the throne, than the courtiers took pains to get the ascendant of him, and beset the young prince with continual flatteries. Their whole employment was to find out every vain amusement for him, to engage him continually in feasting, the company of women, and all other shameful pleasures. Dion, being fully of opinion that all the vices of the young Dionysius proceeded only from his bad education, endeavoured to introduce him into good conversation, and gave him a taste of discourse capable of improving his manners. To this end he prevailed upon him to send for Plato to his court. And though the philosopher had no great inclination for the journey, as expecting no great benefit from it, he could not resist the earnest solicitations which were made him from all parts. He therefore came to Syracuse, and was received with extraordinary marks of honour and distinction.

Plato found the most happy dispositions in the world in the young Dionysius, who gave himself up without reserve to his lectures and advice. But as he had very much improved himself by the instructions and example of his master Socrates, the most skilful man that ever the Pagan world produced for instilling a taste for truth, he was careful to manage the young tyrant with wonderful address, declining to oppose his passions directly, labouring to gain his confidence by kindness and insinuation, and studying to make

[k] Puerum, vix dum libertatem, nedum dominationem, modicè laturum. Lætè ad ingenium tutores

atque amici ad præcipitandum in omnia vitia acceperunt. Liv. lib. 24. n. 4.

virtue at once amiable to him, and victorious over vice, which holds men only in its chains by the allurements, pleasures, and delights it lays before them.

The

The change was sudden and surprising. young prince, who had wallowed till then in idleness, sensuality, and the consequential ignorance of every duty, awaking as it were from a lethargy, began to open his eyes, to discern the beauty of virtue, to have a taste for the pleasures and joys of a solid and agreeable conversation, and gave himself up as eagerly to the desire of being taught and instructed, as before he was averse to it, and abhorred it. The court, which is the ape of princes, and conforms universally to their inclinations, entered into the same sentiments. All the rooms of the palace were like so many schools of geometry, covered with the dust the geometricians used in tracing their lines; and in a little time the study of philosophy, and the most sublime sciences, became the general and prevailing taste.

The great advantage of these studies, with reference to a prince, is not only the storing his mind with an infinity of very curious, useful, and often necessary branches of knowledge, but also the withdrawing him from a state of idleness and insolence, and the vain amusements of a court; the inuring him to a life of seriousness and application; the raising a desire in him of being instructed in the duties of royalty, and becoming acquainted with such as have excelled in the art of reigning; in a word, the enabling him to govern by himself, and see every thing with his own eyes, that is, to be truly a king. But this will be always opposed by courtiers and flatterers, as was now the case with Dionysius the younger.

REFLECTION THE SECOND.

Flatterers, the fatal Pest of Courts, and Ruin of Princes.

What Tully says of flattery with relation to friendship, is no less true with reference to the courts of

princes,

« EelmineJätka »