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It seems therefore very strange how it came to pass
that arts should stand in no need of Fortune to compass
their proper end, but that which is the greatest and most
complete of all arts, and which is the very sum of man's
worth and commendation, should prove to be nothing at
all. But there is a kind of good counsel in stretching and
slackening of strings, which they call the art of music; and
in dressing of meats, which we call cookery; and in washing of clothes, which we call the art of fulling; and we
teach our children how to put on their shoes and clothes,
and to take their meat in their right hand, and hold their
bread in their left; as being sensible that even such common
[p. 480]
things as these do not come by Fortune, but require
attention and heed. But do the greatest things and the most
important to a happy state require no wisdom, and have
no share in rational proceeding and forecast? Yet no
man ever wetted clay and then left it, as if there would
be bricks by chance and Fortune; nor, having provided
wool and leather, sat him down and prayed to Fortune that
they might be made clothes and shoes for him; nor can
any man, when he hath amassed together much gold and
silver, and furnished himself with a multitude of slaves
and attendants, and enclosed himself in a great palace with
many gates, and set out costly couches and tables, fancy to
himself that, if he have not wisdom with them, these things
will be his happiness, and an undisturbed, blissful, and unchangeable life. One asked Iphicrates the general, by way
of taunt, what he was ? For he was neither spearman nor
archer, nor yet bore light armor. I am (replied he) one
that commands and uses all these.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 2.
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