This brazen statue AristocreonSuch a one then was Chrysippus, an old man, a philosopher, one who praised the regal and civil life, and thought there was no difference between a scholastic and voluptuous one.
To's friend Chrysippus newly here has put,
Whose sharp-edged wit, like sword of champion,
Did Academic knots in sunder cut.
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Since then there are in their discourses many things
written by Zeno himself, many by Cleanthes, and most of
all by Chrysippus, concerning policy, governing, and being
governed, concerning judging and pleading, and yet there
is not to be found in any of their lives either leading of
armies, making of laws, going to parliament, pleading before the judges, fighting for their country, travelling on
embassies, or bestowing of public gifts, but they have all,
feeding (if I may so say) on rest as on the lotus, led their
whole lives, and those not short but very long ones, in
foreign countries, amongst disputations, books, and walkings; it is manifest that they have lived rather according
to the writings and sayings of others than their own professions, having spent all their days in that repose which
Epicurus and Hieronymus so much commend.
[p. 429]
Chrysippus indeed himself, in his Fourth Book of Lives,
thinks there is no difference between a scholastic life and
a voluptuous one. I will set down here his very words:
‘They who are of opinion that a scholastic life is from
the very beginning most suitable to philosophers seem to
me to be in an error, thinking that men ought to follow
this for the sake of some recreation or some other thing
like to it, and in that manner to spin out the whole course
of their life; that is, if it may be explained, to live at
ease. For this opinion of theirs is not to be concealed,
many of them delivering it clearly, and not a few more
obscurely.’ Who therefore did more grow old in this
scholastic life than Chrysippus, Cleanthes, Diogenes, Zeno,
and Antipater, who left their countries not out of any discontent, but that they might quietly enjoy their delight,
studying, and disputing at their leisure. To verify which,
Aristocreon, the disciple and intimate friend of Chrysippus,
having erected his statue of brass upon a pillar, engraved
on it these verses:
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. 4.
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