Plutarch's Moralia (Holland)/Essay 14
OF FORTUNE
THE SUMMARY
[Long time hath this proverb been current, That there is nothing in this world but good fortune and misfortune. Some have expounded and taken it thus; as if all things were carried by mere chance and aventure, or moved and driven by inconstant fortune, an idol forged in their brain, for that they were ignorant in the providence of the True God, who conducteth ordinarily all things in this world by second causes and subaltern means, yea, the very motion, will, and works of men, for the execution of his ordinance and purpose. Now Plutarch, not able to arise and reach up to this divine and heavenly wisdom hidden from his knowledge, stayeth below; and yet, poor pagan and ethnic though he were, he confuteth that dangerous opinion of fortune; shewing that it taketh away all distinction of good and evil, quencheth and putteth out the light of man's life, blending and confounding vice and virtue together. Afterwards he proveth that prudence and wisdom over-ruleth this blind fortune, by considering the mastery and dominion that man hath above beasts: the arts also and sciences whereof he maketh profession, together with his judgment and will directly opposite and contrary to all casualties and changes.]
Blind fortune rules man's life alway,
Sage counsel therein bears no sway,
said one (whoever it was) that thought all human actions depended upon mere casualty, and were not guided by wisdom. What? and hath justice and equity no place at all in this world? can temperance and modesty do nothing in the direction and managing of our affairs? Came it from fortune; and was it indeed by mere chance that Aristides made choice to continue in poverty, when it was in his power to make himself a lord of much wealth and many goods? or that Scipio, when he had forced Carthage, took not to himself, nor so much as saw any part of all that pillage? And was it long of fortune, or by casualty that Philocrates having received of King Philip a great sum of gold, bought therewith harlots and dainty fishes? or that Lasthenes and Euthycrates betrayed the city Olynthus, measuring sovereign good and felicity of man by belly-cheer, and those pleasures which of all other be most dishonest and infamous? And shall we say, it was a work of fortune that Alexander, son of Philip, not only himself forbare to touch the bodies of the captive women taken in war, but also punished all such as offered them violence and injury: and contrariwise, came it by ill luck and unhappy fortune, that another Alexander, the son of King Priamus, slept and lay with his friend's wife, when he lodged and entertained him in his house, and not only so, but carried her away with him, and by that occasion brought all manner of calamity upon two main parts of the continent, to wit, Europe and Asia, and filled them both with those miseries that follow wars?
If we grant that all these occurrents came by fortune, what should let us, but we might as well say that cats, goats and apes be likewise by fortune given to be always lickerous, lecherous, shrewd and saucy. But in case it be true (as true it is) that the world hath in it temperance, justice and fortitude; what reason is there to say that there is no prudence and wisdom therein? Now if it be yielded that the world is not void of prudence, how can it be maintained that there should not be in it sage counsel? For temperance (as some say) is a kind of prudence; and most certain it is that justice should be assisted by prudence; or to say more truly, ought to have it present with her continually. Certes, sage counsel and wisdom in the good use of pleasures and delights, whereby we continue honest, we ordinarily do call continence and temperance; the same in dangers and travails, we term tolerance, patience and fortitude; in contracts and management of state affairs we give the name of loyalty, equity and justice; whereby it cometh to pass, that if we will attribute the effects of counsel and wisdom unto fortune, we must likewise ascribe unto her the works of justice and temperance. And so (believe me) to rob and steal, to cut purses, and to keep whores, must proceed from fortune; which if it be so, let us abandon all discourse of our reason, and betake ourselves wholly to fortune to be driven and carried to and fro at her pleasure like to the dust, chaff or sweepings of the floor, by the puffs of some great wind. Take away sage and discreet counsel; farewell then all consultation as touching affairs, away with deliberation, consideration and inquisition into that which is behoveful and expedient: for surely then Sophocles talked idly, and knew not what he spake in saying thus:
Seek, and be sure to find with diligenc,
But lose what you forlet by negligence.
And in another place, where dividing the affairs of man, he saith in this wise:
What may be taught, I strive to learn;
What may likewise be found
I seek, for wishes all I pray,
And would to God be bound.
Now would I gladly know, what is it that men may find and what can they learn, in case all things in the world be directed by fortune? What senate house of city would not be dissolved and abolished? what counsel chamber of prince should not be overthrown and put down, if all were at the disposition of fortune? We do her wrong in reproaching her for blindness, when we run upon her as we do, blind, and debasing ourselves into her; for how can we chuse but stumble upon her indeed, if we pluck out our own eyes, to wit, our wisdom and dexterity of counsel, and take a blind guide to lead us by the hand in the course of this our life? Certes, this were even as much as if some one of us should say, the action of those that see is fortune, and not sight of eyes, which Plato calleth φωσφόρα, that is, light-bearers: the action likewise of them that hear is nothing else but fortune, and not a natural power and faculty to receive the stroke or repercussion of the air, carried by the ear to the brain. But better it were (I trow) and so will every wise body think, to take heed how to discredit our senses so as to submit them to fortune: For why? Nature hath bestowed upon us sight, hearing, taste and smelling, with all the parts of the body endued with the rest of their powers and faculties, as ministers of counsel and wisdom. For it is the soul that seeth, it is the soul and understanding that heareth, all the rest are deaf and blind: and like as if there were no sun at all we should (for all the tars besides) live in perpetual night as Heraclitus saith; even so, if man had not reason and intelligence, notwithstanding all his other senses, he should not differ in the whole race of his life from brute and wild beasts; but now in that we excel and rule them all, it is not by chance and fortune: but Prometheus (that is to say) the use and discourse of reason is the very cause hat hath given us in recompense
Both horse and ass, with breed of beeves so strong
To carry us, and ease our labour long,
according as we read in Æschylus the poet. Forasmuch as otherwise fortune and nature both have been more favourable and beneficial to most of the brute beasts in their entrance into this life, than unto man; for armed they be with horns, tusks, spurs and stings; moreover, as Empedocles saith:
The urchin strikes with many a prick,
Which grow on back both sharp and thick.
Again, there be many beasts clad and covered with scales and shag hair; shod also with claws and hard hoofs: only man, as Plato saith, is abandoned and forsaken by nature, all naked, unarmed, unshod, and without any vesture whatsoever:
But by one gift which she hath given,
Amends she makes, and all is even;
and that is, the use of reason, industry and providence:
For strength of mortal man is small,
His limbs but weak and sinews all:
Yet by his wit and quick conceit,
By cunning casts and subtle sleight,
No beast in sea, or mount, so fell,
So wild or sly, but he doth quell.
What beast more nimble, more light and swift than is the horse? but for man it is that he runneth in the race: the dog is courageous and eager in fight, but it is in the defence of man: fishes yield a most delicate and sweet meat, and swine be full of good flesh, but both of them serve as viands for the food and nourishment of man: what creature is bigger or more terrible to see to than is the elephant? howbeit he maketh man sport and pastime, he is shewed as a goodly sight in festival solemnities where people be assembled, he is taught to frisk and dance his measures, to fall upon his knees likewise and do reverence: and verily these and such-like sleights and examples are exhibited not in vain nor without good profit, but to this end, that thereby we may know how far forth reason and wisdom doth advance and lift up a man, above what things it maketh him surmount, and how by means thereof he ruleth all, and surpasseth all:
At fight with fists we are not good,
Nor yet in tripping feet,
In wrestling we may well be blam'd,
Our running is not fleet.
But in all these feats we are inferior to brute beasts, howbeit for experience, memory, wisdom and artificial sleights (as Anaxagoras said) we go beyond them all, and thereby we have the mastery and use of them, making them to serve our turns: we strain honey out of the combs of bees; we press milk out of beasts' udders; we rob and spoil them; we drive and carry them away, and whatsoever they have, insomuch as in all this there is nothing that can be justly attributed to fortune, but all proceeds from counsel and forecast.
Furthermore, the works of carpenters are done by hand of man, so are they also of smiths and braziers, of masons, builders, gravers and imagers: in all which there is nothing to be seen that a man can say is done by chance or fortune, at leastwise when it is wrought absolutely and as it should be. And say that it may fall out otherwhiles that a good artisan, whether he be a cutter in brass or a mason, a smith or a carpenter, may meet with fortune and do some little thing by chance; yet the greatest pieces of work and the most number are wrought and finished respectively by their arts, which a certain poet hath given us secretly to understand by these verses:
March on your way, each artisan,
Who live upon your handicraft,
On forth, I say, in comely train,
Your sacred panniers bear aloft;
You that Ergane dread and fear,
The daughter grim of Jupiter.
For this Ergane (that is to say, Minerva) all artisans and artificers acknowledge and honour for their patroness, and not fortune. True it is that the report goes of a certain painter, who drawing the picture of an horse, had done very well in all respects, both in portraiture and also colours, save only that he pleased not himself in painting the foam and swelling froth which useth to gather about the bit as he champeth upon the same, and so falleth from his mouth when he snuffeth and bloweth; this, I say, he liked not, neither thought he it workmanly done, insomuch as he wiped it out many times and began it anew; but never was it to his mind; at last, in a pelting cafe because it would frame no better, he takes me his sponge full as it was of colours, and flang it against the table wherein he wrought; but see the wonderful chance; this sponge, lighting as it did upon the right place, gave such a print, and dashed so, as that it represented the froth that he so much desired most lively; and to my remembrance there is not in any history set down an artificial thing but this that fortune ever did.
Artificers use altogether in every piece of work their squires, their rules, their lines and levels; they go by measures and numbers, to the end that in all their works there should not be anything found done either rashly or at aventure. And verily these arts are petty kinds of prudence and so called; or rills and riverets flowing from prudence, or certain parcels rather of it, sprinkled and dispersed among the necessities of this life: and thus much is covertly signified by the fable of the fire that Prometheus divided by sparkles, which slew some here, some there; for semblably, the small parcels and fragments of wisdom, being cut into sundry portions, are ranged into their several ranks and become arts. A wonderful thing how these arts and sciences should have no dealing with fortune nor need her help, for to attain unto their proper ends; and yet prudence, which is the greatest sovereign and most perfect of them all, yea, and the very height of all the glory, reputation and goodness of man, should be just nothing. In the winding up and letting down of the strings of an instrument, there is one kind of wisdom, and that is called music; in the dressing and ordering of meats and viands there is another, which they name cookery; in washing and scouring of clothes and garments there is a third, to wit, the fuller's craft. As for our little children, we teach them to draw on their shoes, to make them ready and dress themselves in their clothes decently, to take meat in their right hand, and to hold bread in the left; an evident argument and proof that even such small matters as these depend not of chance and fortune, but require skill and heed taking.
Shall we say then that the greatest and most principal things that are, even those that be most material and necessary for man's felicity, use not wisdom, nor participate one whit with providence and the judgment of reason? There is no man so blockish and void of understanding, that after he hath tempered clay and water together, lets it alone and goeth his way when he hath so done, looking that of the own accord, or by fortune, there will be bricks or tiles made thereof: neither is any one such a sot, as when he hath bought wool and leather, sits him down and prays unto fortune that thereof he may have garments or shoes: and is there any man so foolish, think you, who having gathered together a great mass of gold and silver, gotten about him a mighty retinue of slaves and servants, and being possessed of divers fair and stately houses with many a door within and without, and those surely locked on every side, having before him in his eyesight a sort of sumptuous beds with their rich and costly furniture, and of tables most precious, will repose sovereign felicity therein, or think that all this can make him to live happily, without pain, without grief, secure of change and alteration, if he have not wisdom withal?
There was one that cavilled upon a time with Captain Iphicrates, and by way of reproach and minding to prove that he was of no reckoning, demanded what he was? For (quoth he) you are not a man-at-arms, nor archer, nor yet targetier: I am not indeed, I confess (quoth Iphicrates), but I am he who command all these, and employ them as occasion serveth; even so wisdom is neither gold nor silver, it is not glory or riches, it is not health, it is not strength, it is not beauty: what is it then? Surely even that which can skill how to use all these, and by means whereof each of these things is pleasant, honourable and profitable; and contrariwise, without which they are displeasant, hurtful and dangerous, working his destruction and dishonour who possesseth them. And therefore right good counsel gave Prometheus in Hesiodus to his brother Epimetheus on this one point:
Receive no gifts at any time,
Which heavenly Jove shall lend:
But see thou do refuse them all,
And back again them send.
Meaning thereby these outward goods of fortune's gift, as if he would have said: Go not about to play upon a flute, if thou have no knowledge in music; nor to read if thou know never a letter in the book; mount not on horseback, unless thou canst tell how to sit him and ride; and even so he advised him thereby not to seek for office and place of government in commonweal, wanting wit as he did; nor to lay for riches, so long as he bare a covetous mind and wist not how to be liberal; nor to marry a wife, for to be his master and to lead him by the nose: for not only wealth and prosperity happening above desert unto unadvised folk, giveth occasion (as Demosthenes said) unto them for to commit many follies; but also worldly happiness beyond all reason and demerit, causeth such as are not wise to become unhappy and miserable in the end.