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And since we have arrived at this point in our
argument: What is more profitable to life than Art ?
And it was fire that discovered and still preserves all
the arts. That is why they make Hephaestus the
first of artificers. Man has been granted but a little
time to live and, as Ariston1 says, sleep, like a taxcollector, takes away half of that. But I would rather
say that it is a question of darkness ; for although
a man might stay awake all night, yet no good would
come of his wakefulness if fire did not give him the
benefits of day and remove the difference between
day and night.2 If, then, there is nothing more
advantageous to man than life and life is many times
increased by fire, how should fire not be the most
useful of all things ?
Plutarch. Moralia. with an English Translation by. Harold Cherniss and William C. Helmbold. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1957. 12.
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