Plutarch's Moralia (Holland)/Essay 19
OF EXILE OR BANISHMENT
THE SUMMARY
[There is not a man, how well soever framed to the world and settled therein, who can promise unto himself any peaceable and assured state throughout the course of his whole life; but according as it seemeth good to the eternal and wise providence of the Almighty (which governeth all things) to chastise our faults, or to try our constancy in faith; he ought in time of a calm to prepare himself for a tempest, and not to attend the midst of a danger before he provide for his safety, but betimes and long before to fortify and furnish himself with that whereof he may have need another day in all occurrences and accidents whatsoever. Our author, therefore, in this treatise writing to comfort and encourage one of his friends, cast down with anguish occasioned by his banishment, sheweth throughout all his discourse that virtue it is which maketh us happy in every place, and that there is nothing but vice that can hurt and endamage us. Now as touching his particularising of this point, in the first place he treateth what kind of friends we have need of in our affliction, and how we ought then to serve our turns with them: and in regard of exile more particularly, he adjoineth this advertisement, above all other things to see unto those goods which we may enjoy during the same, and to oppose them against the present grief and sorrow. Afterwards he proveth by sundry and divers reasons, that banishment is not in itself simply naught; he discovereth and layeth open the folly and misery of those who are too much addicted unto one country, shewing by notable examples that a wise man may live at ease and contentment in all places; that the habitation in a strange region, and the same limited and confined straitly within certain precincts, doth much more good ordinarily than harm; that a large country lying out fax every way maketh a man never a whit the more happy: whereas contrariwise, to be enclosed and pent up bringeth many commodities with it, declaring that this is the only life; and that it is no life at all to be evermore flitting to and fro from place to place. Now when he hath beautified this theme abovesaid with many fair similitudes and proper inductions, he comforteth those who are debarred and excluded from any city or province; refuting with very good and sound arguments certain persons who held banishment for a note of infamy; shewing withal, that it is nothing else but sin and vice which bringeth a man into a lamentable state and condition: concluding by the examples of Anaxagoras and Socrates, that neither imprisonment, nor death, can enthral or make miserable the man who loveth virtue. And contrariwise, he giveth us to understand by the examples of Phaethon ind Icarus, that vicious and sinful persons fall daily and continually one way or other into most grievous calamities through their own audaciousness and folly.] Semblable is the case of wise sentences and of good friends; the best and most assured be those reputed which are present with us in our calamities, not in vain and for a shew, but to aid and succour us: for many there be who will not stick to present themselves, yea, and be ready to confer and talk with their friends in time of adversity; howbeit, to no good purpose at all, but rather with some danger to themselves, like as unskilful divers, when they go about to help those that are at point to be drowned, being clasped about the body, sink together with them for company. Now the speeches and discourses which come from friends and such as would seem to be helpers ought to tend unto the consolation of the party afflicted, and not to the defence and justification of the thing that afflicteth: for little need have we of such persons as should weep and lament with us in our tribulations and distresses, as the manner is of the chori or quires in tragedies, but those rather who will speak their minds frankly unto us, and make remonstrance plainly: That for a man to be sad and sorrowful, to afflict and cast down himself, is not only every way bootless and unprofitable, but also most vain and foolish: but where the adverse occurrents themselves being well handled and managed by reason, when they are discovered what they be, give a man occasion to say thus unto himself:
Thou hast no cause thus to complain,
Unless thou be dispos'd to fain.
A mere ridiculous folly it were to ask either of body and flesh what it aileth, or of soul what it suffereth, and whether by the occurrence of this accident it fare worse than before; but to have recourse unto strangers without, to teach us what our grief is, by wailing, sorrowing, and grieving together with us: and therefore, when we are apart and alone by ourselves, we ought each one to examine our own heart and soul about all and every mishap and infortunity, yea, and to peise and weigh them, as if they were so many burdens, for the body is pressed down only by the weight of the fardel that loadeth it; but the soul oftentimes of itself giveth a surcharge over and above the things that molest it. A stone of the own nature is hard, and ice of itself cold; neither is there anything without that giveth casually to the one the hardness to resist, or to the other the coldness to congeal; but banishments, disgraces, repulse, and loss of dignity, as also contrariwise, crowns, honours, sovereign magistracies, pre-eminences, and highest places, being powerful either to afflict or rejoice hearts, in some measure more or less, not by their own nature, but according to judgment and opinion, every man maketh to himself light or heavy, easy to be borne or contrariwise intolerable: whereupon we may hear Polynices answering thus to the demand made unto him by his mother:
Polynices. How then? is it a great calamity.
Polynices. To quit the place of our nativity?
Polynices. The greatest cross of all it is doubtless,
Polynices. And more indeed than my tongue can express;
but contrariwise, you shall hear Alcman in another song, according to a little epigram written of him by a certain poet:
At Sardis, where mine ancestors sometime abode did make.
If I were bred and nourished, my surname I should take
Of some Celmus or Bacelat, in robes of gold array'd.
And jewels fine, while I upon the pleasant tabour play'd.
But now Alcman I cleped am, and of that Sparta great
A citizen, and poet: for in Greekish muse my vein
Exalts me more than Dascyles or Gyges, tyrants twain:
for it is the opinion, and nothing else, that causeth one and the same thing to be unto some good and commodious, as current and approved money, but to others unprofitable and hurtful.
But set case that exile be a grievous calamity, as many men do both say and sing; even so, among those meats which we eat there be many things bitter, sharp, hot and biting in taste, howbeit, by mingling therewith somewhat which is sweet and pleasant, we take away that which disagreeth with nature; like as there be colours also offensive to the sight, in such sort as that the eyes be much dazzled and troubled therewith, by reason of their unpleasant hue or excessive and intolerable brightness. If then, for to remedy that inconvenience by such offensive and resplendent colours, we have devised means either to intermingle shadows withal, or turn away our eyes from them unto some green and delectable objects; the semblable may we do in those sinister and cross accidents of fortune; namely, by mixing among them those good and desirable blessings which a man presently doth enjoy, to wit, wealth and abundance of goods, a number of friends, and the want of nothing necessary to this life: for I do not think that among the Sardinians there be many who would not be very well content with those goods and that estate which you have even in exile, and chuse rather with your condition of life otherwise, to live from home and in a strange country, than (like snails, evermore sticking fast to their shells) be without all good things else, and enjoy only that which they lave at home in peace, without trouble and molestation. Like as therefore in a certain comedy there was one who exhorted his friend, being fallen into some adversity, to take a good heart, and fight against fortune; who when he demanded of him again how he should combat with her, made answer: Marry, after a philosophical manner; even so let us also maintain battle, and be revenged of adversity, by following the rule of philosophy, and being armed with patience as becometh wise men. For after what sort do we defend ourselves against rain? or how be we revenged of the north wind? marry, we seek for fire, we go into a stouph, we make provision of clothes, and we get an house over our heads; neither do we sit us down in the rain until we be thoroughly wet to the skin, and then weep our fill; and even so, have you also in those things which are presently about you good means, yea, and better than any other, to revive, refresh, and warm this part of your life which seemeth to be frozen and benumbed with cold, as having no need at all of any other helps and succours, so long as you will use the foresaid means, according as reason doth prescribe and direct. For true it is, that the ventoses or cupping-glasses that physicians use, drawing out of man's body the worst and most corrupt blood, do disburden and preserve all the rest. But they that are given to heaviness and sorrow, who love also evermore to whine and complain, by gathering together and multiplying continually in their cogitations the worst matters incident unto them, and eftsoons consuming themselves with the dolorous accidents of their fortune, cause those means to be unprofitable unto them which otherwise are wholesome and expedient, and even at such a time especially when they should do most good.
As for those two tuns, my good friend, which Homer saith to be set in heaven full of men's destinies, the one replenished with good and the other with bad, it is not Jupiter who sitteth to dispense and distribute them abroad, sending unto some mild and pleasant fortunes intermingled always with goodness, but unto others continual streams (as a man would say) of mere misfortunes without any temperature of any goodness at all: but even among our own selves as many as be wise and are of any sound understanding, draw out of their happy fortunes whatsoever cross and adverse matter is mingled therewith, and by this means make their life the pleasanter; and as a man would say more potable; whereas contrariwise, many men do let their fortunes run (as it were) through a colander or strainer, wherein the worst stick and remain in the way behind, whiles the better do pass and run out; and therefore it behoveth that although we be fallen into anything that is in truth naught and grievous unto us, we set a cheerful countenance on the matter, and make the best supply and recompense that we can by those good things that otherwise we have and do remain with us besides, lenifying and polishing the strange and adverse accident which happeneth without by that which is mild and familiar within.
But as touching those occurrents that simply of their own nature be not ill, and wherein whatsoever doth trouble and offend us ariseth altogether and wholly upon a vain conceit and foolish imagination of our own; we ought to do as our manner is with little children that be afraid of masks and disguised visors; for like as we hold the same close and near unto them, handle and turn them in our hands before them every way, and so by that means acquaint them therewith, until they make no reckoning at all of them; even so by approaching near, by touching and perusing the said calamities with our understanding and discourse of reason, we are to consider and discover the false appearance, the vanity and feigned tragedy that they pretend; like to which is that present accident which now is befallen unto you, to wit, the banishment out of that place which, according to the vulgar error of men, you suppose to be your native country. For to say a truth, there is no such distinct native soil that nature hath ordained, no more than either house, land, smith's forge or chirurgeon's shop is by nature, as Ariston was wont to say; but every one of these and such-like, according as any man doth occupy or use them, are his, or to speak more properly, are named and called his: for man, according to the saying of Plato, is not an earthly plant, having the root fixed fast within the ground and unmovable, but celestial and turning upward to heaven, whose body from the head as from a root that doth strengthen the same abideth straight and upright. And hereupon it is that Hercules in a certain tragedy said thus:
What, tell you me of Argive or Thebain,
I do not vaunt of any place certain.
No borough town, nor city, comes amiss
Throughout all Greece, but it my country is.
And yet Socrates said better than so; who gave it out that he was neither Athenian nor Grecian, but a citizen of the world; as if a man should say for example sake, that he were either a Rhodian or a Corinthian; for he would not include himself within the precincts and limits of the promontories Sunium or Tænarus, nor yet the Ceraunian mountains:
But seest thou this starry firmament,
So high above and infinitely vast,
In bosom moist of water element,
The earth beneath how it encloseth fast.
These are the bounds of a native country within the pourprise and compass whereof whosoever is, ought not to think himself either banished, pilgrim, stranger or foreigner; namely, whereas he shall meet with the same fire, the same water, the same air, the same magistrates, the same governors and presidents; to wit, the sun, the moon and the morning star; the same laws throughout, under one and the selfsame order and conduct; the solstice and tropic of summer in the north; the solstice and tropic of winter in the south; the equinoxes both of spring and fall, the stars Pleiades and Arcturus; the seasons of seedness, the times of planting; one king, and the same prince of all, even God, who hath in his hand the beginning, the midst, and the end of the whole and universal world; who by his influence goeth according to nature, directly through and round about all things, attended upon with righteousness and justice, to take vengeance and punishment of those who transgress any point of divine law: which all we likewise that are men do exercise and use by the guidance and direction of nature against all others, as our citizens and subjects.
Now say that thou dost not dwell and live in Sardis, what matter is that? surely it is just nothing: No more do all the Athenians inhabit in the boroughs or tribe Colyttus; nor the Corinthians in the street Cranium; nor yet the Lacedaemonians in the village Pytane: are those Athenians then to be counted strangers, and not inhabitants of the city, who have removed out of Melite into Diomea: considering that even there they do solemnise yet the month of their transmigration named thereupon Metageitnion; yea, and do celebrate a festival holiday and sacrifice, which in memorial of that removing they call Metageitnia, for that this passage of theirs into another neighbourhood they received and entertained right willingly with joy and much contentment? I suppose you will never say so. Now tell me what part of this earth habitable, or rather of the whole globe and compass thereof, can be said far distant or remote one from the other, seeing that the mathematicians are able to prove and make demonstration by reason that the whole, in comparison and respect of heaven or the firmament, is no more than a very prick which hath no dimension at all? But we, like unto pismires driven out of our hole, or in manner of bees dispossessed of our hive, are cast down and discomforted by and by, and take ourselves to be foreigners and strangers, for that we know not how to esteem and make all things our own, familiar and proper unto us, as they be. And yet we laugh at the folly of him who said: That the moon at Athens was better than at Corinth; being in the meanwhile after a sort in the same error of judgment, as if when we are gone a journey from the place of our habitation, we should mistake the earth, the sea, the air and the sky, as if they were others and far different from those which we are accustomed unto: for nature hath permitted us to go and walk through the world loose and at liberty: but we for our parts imprison ourselves, and we may thank ourselves that we are pent up in straight rooms, that we be housed and kept within walls; thus of our own accord we leap into close and narrow places; and notwithstanding that we do thus by ourselves, yet we mock the Persian kings, for that (if it be true which is reported of them) they drink all of the water only of the river Choaspes, by which means they make all the continent besides waterless, for any good they have by it: whereas, even we also, when we travel and remove into other countries, have a longing desire after the river Cephisus or Eurotas; yea, and a mind unto the mountain Tagïetus or the hill Parnassus; whereby upon a most vain and foolish opinion, all the world besides is not only void of water, but also like a desert, without city, and altogether inhabitable unto us.
Contrariwise, certain Egytians by occasion of some wrath and excessive oppressing of their king, minding to remove into Ethiopia, whenas their kinsfolk and friends requested them to turn back again, and not to forsake their wives and children, after a shameless manner shewing unto them their genital members, answered them: That they would neither want wives nor children, so long as they carried those about them. But surely a man may avouch more honestly, and with greater modesty and gravity, that he who in what place soever feeleth no want or miss of those things which be necessary for this life, cannot complain and say: That he is there out of his own country, without city, without his own house and habitation, or a stranger at all; so as he only have as he ought, his eye and understanding bent hereunto, for to stay and govern him in manner of a sure anchor, that he may be able to make benefit and use of any haven or harbour whatsoever he arriveth unto. For when a man hath lost his goods, it is not so easy a matter to recover them soon again; but surely every city is straight-ways as good a native country unto him, who knoweth and hath learned how to use it; to him (I say) who hath such roots as will live, be nourished and grow in every place and by any means, such as Themistocles was furnished with; and such as Demetrius the Phalerian was not without; who being banished from Athens, became a principal person in the court of King Ptolemaeus in Alexandria, where he not only himself lived in great abundance of all things, but also sent unto the Athenians from thence rich gifts and presents. As for Themistocles, living in the estate of a prince, through the bountiful allowance and liberality of the King of Persia, he was wont (by report) to say unto his wife and children: We had been utterly undone for ever, if we had not been undone. And therefore Diogenes, surnamed the Dog, when one brought him word and said. The Sinopians have condemned thee to be exiled out of the kingdom of Pontus: And I (quoth he) have confined them within the country of Pontus with this charge:
That they shall never pass the utmost bonds
Of Euxine sea that hems them with her stronds.
Stratonius being in the isle Seriphos, which was a very little one, demanded of his host for what crimes the punishment of exile was ordained in that country; and when he heard and understood by him that they used to banish such as were convicted of falsehood and untruth: Why then (quoth he again) hast not thou committed some false and lewd act, to the end that thou mightest depart out of this straight place and be enlarged? where, as one comical poet said: A man might gather and make a vintage (as it were) of figs with slings, and foison of all commodities might be had, which an island wanted. For if one would weigh and consider the truth indeed, setting aside all vain opinion and foolish conceits, he that is affected unto one city alone is a very pilgrim and stranger in all others; for it seemeth neither meet, honest, nor reasonable that a man should abandon his own for to inhabit those of others. Sparta is fallen to thy lot (saith the proverb), adorn and honour it, for so thou art bound to do; be it that it is of small or no account; say that it is seated in an unwholesome air, and subject to many diseases, or be plagued with civil dissensions, or otherwise troubled with turbulent affairs. But whosoever he be whom fortune hath deprived of his own native country, certes she hath granted and allowed him to make choice of that which may please and content him. And verily, the precept of the Pythagoreans serveth to right good stead in this case to be practised: Choose (say they) the best life; use and custom will make it pleasant enough unto thee. To this purpose also it may be wisely and with great profit said: Make choice of the best and most pleasant city, time will cause it to be thy native country, and such a native country as shall not distract and trouble thee with any business, nor impose upon thee these and such-like exactions: Make payment and contribute to this levy of money: Go in embassage to Rome: Receive such a captain or ruler into thine house, or take such a charge upon thee at thine own expenses.
Now he that calleth these things to remembrance, if he have any wit in his head, and be not over-blind every way in his own opinion and self-conceit, will wish and choose, if he be banished out of his own country, to inhabit the very isle Gyaros, or the rough and barren island Cinarus, where trees or plants do hardly grow, without complaining with grief of heart, without lamenting and breaking out into these plaints and womanly moans, reported by the poet Simonides in these words:
The roaring noise of purple sea,
Resounding all about,
Doth fright me much, and so enclose.
That I cannot get out;
but rather he will bear in mind and discourse with himself the speech that Philip, King of Macedonia, sometime delivered: for when his hap was in the wrestling place to fall backward and lie along on the ground; after he was up again upon his feet, and saw the whole proportion and print of his body in the dust of the floor: Hercules (quoth he), what a small deal of the earth is our portion by the appointment of nature, and yet see how we will not rest, but covet to conquer the whole world that is habitable.
You have seen (I suppose) the isle Naxos; if not, yet at leastwise the island Thuria near by; of which twain this was in old time the habitation of Orion; but in the other there dwelt Ephialtes and Otus: as for Alcmseon, he made his abode and residence upon the muddy bank, which the river Achelous had newly gathered and cast up, after it was a little dried and compact together, to avoid the pursuit (as the poets say) of the Furies; but in my conceit rather, because he would decline the offices of state, civil magistracies, seditious broils, and biting calumniations sib to furies in hell, he chose such a strait and narrow place to inhabit, where he might lead a life in quietness and repose, secured from all such busy affairs. And Tiberius Caesar, in his latter days, lived seven years (even until his death) in the little island Caprea, in such wise, as the very temple and imperial throne of the whole world retired and drawn in (as it were) into the heart, for all that time never went out from thence; and yet for his part, the ordinary cares incident unto the empire, which were brought from all parts and came upon him to amuse his head continually on every side, would not permit him to enjoy clearly without turbulent anguish of mind that intended rest and quietness of his in the said island. But even that man, who may by his departure into some little island be freed and delivered from no small troubles and calamities, is notwithstanding miserable if he do not eftsoons say unto himself when he is apart, yea, and chant oftentimes these verses of Pindarus:
Love well the place where cypress trees do grow.
But thin and small. The forest great let go
Of Candle isle, about the Ida hill:
As for myself, small lands I hold and till.
By fortune given, and those without an oak;
My heart likewise no griefs nor cares do yoke.
Exempt I am from civil tumults and seditions; I am not subject to the command of princes and governors; my hand is not in the charge and administration of state affairs, nor in any public ministries or services, which hardly admit excuse or refusal. For considering that Callimachus seemeth not unwisely in one place to say thus: Measure not wisdom by the Persian schcene: why then should we (meting felicity with schosnes and parasangs) complain, lament and torment ourselves, as if we were unhappy, if our fortune be to dwell in a little isle which is not in circuit above two hundred furlongs, and nothing near four days' sailing about, as Sicily is? for what good can a spacious and large region do for to procure felicity, or make a man to lead a quiet and peaceable life? Hear you not how Tantalus in the tragedy crieth out, and saith thus:
The spacious land and country large,
Call'd Berecynthian plain.
Days' journeys twelve right out, I sow
Yearly with com and grain;
But now, my soul, sometime an heavenly power.
Descended thence into this earthly bower,
Speaks thus to me: Learn, and betimes take heed,
Love not this world too much, I do thee rede.
And Nausithous, leaving the wide and large country Hyperia, for that the Cyclopes were so near neighbours unto it, and departing into an island far remote from other men, where he lived alone by himself without conversing with any people,
From other mortal men apart,
Of surging sea within the heart,
provided for his citizens and subjects a most pleasant life. As for the islands called Cyclades, they were at first (by report) inhabited by the children of Minos, and afterwards the offspring of Codrus and Neleus held the same, into which foolish persons nowadays think themselves sore punished and undone for ever if they be confined. And yet, what island is there destined and appointed for exiled and banished people but it is larger than the territory Scilluntia, wherein Xenophon, after that renowned expedition and voyage of his into Persia, passed his old age in elegancy and much happiness? semblably, the Academy, a little pingle or plot of ground, the purchase whereof cost not above three thousand drachms, was the habitation of Plato, Xenocrates and Polemon, wherein they kept their schools, and lived at repose all their lifetime: and yet I must needs except one day every year, upon which Xenocrates was wont to go down to the city, for to see the plays and pastimes exhibited with new tragedies at the feast called Bacchanals, only to honour (as folk said) and countenance that solemnity with his personal presence. Also Theocritus of Chios challenged and reproached Aristotle many times, for that to live in the court of Philip and Alexander,
Upon the mouth of Borborus to dwell
He chose, and Academy bade farewell.
Now was this Borborus a river, so called by the Macedonians, which ran along the city of Pella in Macedonia. As for islands. Homer the poet doth of purpose and expressly recommend unto us and celebrate them with heavenly and divine praises in this wise:
At Lemnos he arrived then,
Whereas the city stood.
In which sometime that prince divine.
King Thoas made abode:
And whatsoever Lesbos isle,
The palace and the seat
Of gods above contains enclos'd
Within her pourpris great.
When won he had the stately isle.
Which Scyros sometime hight.
The native place and town of Mars,
The god of arms and fight.
Likewise:
And those came from Dulichium,
And eke the sacred isles.
Against Elis, Echinades
Within sea many miles.
Moreover, it is said that of famous and renowned men, devout Æolus, and best beloved of the gods, dwelt in one isle; the most prudent and wise Ulysses in another; Ajax likewise, that right valiant and hardy warrior, and Alcinous, the most courteous prince for hospitality and entertainment of strangers, were islanders. Zeno the philosopher, when news was brought unto him that the ship of his which remained alone of all the rest was drowned in the sea with all the freight and merchandise therein: Thou hast done well, O fortune (quoth he), to drive us to our studying gown and philosopher's life again; even so, in mine opinion, there is no reason that a man (unless he be very much besotted and transported with the vain wind of popularity), when he is confined and enclosed within an island, should complain of fortune therefore, but rather praise her, for that she hath rid him of much anguish of spirit and trouble of his head, delivered him from tedious travel and wandering pilgrimages up and down in the world from place to place; freed him from the perils of sea, removed him from the tumultuous stirs of the multitude in judicial courts and public assemblies of the city; and reduced him to a settled and staid life, full of rest and tranquillity, not distracted with any superfluous and needless occupations, wherein he may live indeed properly to himself, being ranged within the centre and circumference of those things which are required only for necessity. For what island is there which hath not housen, walking places, stouphs and bains, or that is without fishes or hares, if a man be disposed to pass the time in fishing or hunting; and that which is the greatest matter of all, you may oftentimes there enjoy fully your rest and repose, which other do so much thirst and hunger after; for whereas when we are haply playing at dice, or otherwise keeping close at home, there will be some of these sycophants or busy priers and curious searchers into all our actions, ready to draw us out of our houses of pleasure in the suburbs, or out of our delightsome gardens, to make our apparence judicially in the common place, or to perform our service and give attendance in the court: there will be none such about to sail into the island where thou art confined for to trouble thee; none will come to thee to demand or crave anything, to borrow money, to request thy suretyship, or thy assistance for to second him in the suit of any ofiice and magistracy; unless peradventure some of thy best friends only and nearest kinsfolk, of mere love and affectionate desire to see thee, sail over for thy sake; for the rest of thy life besides is permitted to be as free and safe as a sanctuary, not subject to any spoil, trouble or molestation, if thou be willing and can skill to use thy liberty and repose.
As for him who thinketh those to be happy who trudge up and down in the world abroad, spending most part of their time out of their own houses, either in common inns and hostelries, or else in ferrying from place to place, he is much like unto him that supposeth the wandering planets to be in a better state than the other stars which be fixed in the firmament and remove not; and yet there is not one of the said planets but is carried round in a peculiar and proper sphere of their own, as it were in a certain isle, keeping always a just order in their revolution: for according as Heraclitus saith; The very sun himself will never pass beyond his bounds; and if he do, the furies which are the ministers of justice will find him out and be ready to encounter him. But these and all such-like reasons, my good friend, we are to allege unto them and sing in their ears, who being sent away and confined to some one isle, cannot possibly change for another country, nor have commerce and dealing in any place else whatsoever, those I say,
Whom surging waves of sea both night and day
Enclose perforce, and cause them there to stay.
As for you unto whom no certain place is limited and assigned for to inhabit, but who are debarred and excluded only out of one, are thus to think, that the exclusion out of one city alone is an overture and ready way made unto all others.
Now if any man will object and say; In this case of exile and banishment we are disabled for bearing rule and office of state, we sit not at council table in the senate house; we are not presidents in the public plays and solemnities, etc. You may answer and reply again in this manner; Neither are we troubled with factions and civil dissensions; we are not called upon nor charged with payments in public levies and exactions; neither be we bound to make court unto great governors, and to give attendance at their gates; nor to take care and regard whether he who is chosen to succeed us in the government of our province be either hasty and choleric, or otherwise given to oppression and hard dealing: but as Archilochus, making no account at all of the fruitful corn-fields and plenteous vineyards in Thasos, despised and contemned the whole isle because of some other rough, hard, and uneven places in it, giving out thereof in these terms:
This island like an ass's back doth stick,
All overspread with woods so wild and thick:
Our people all at first no strangers were,
From foreign parts who hither did arrive;
Time out of mind those that inhabit here
Were born in place, and so remain'd alive.
All cities else and nations at one word
With aliens peopled be, who like to men
At table play, or else upon chess-board
Removed have, and leapt, some now, some then.
If women, we may be allow'd to grace
Our native soil, and with proud words exalt.
Presume we dare to say that in this place,
A temperate air we have without default,
Where neither heat nor cold excessive is;
If ought there be that noble Greece doth yield,
Or Asia rich, of best commodities,
And daintiest fruits, by river or by field.
We have it here, in foison plentiful
To hunt, to catch, to reap, to crop and pull.
And yet even he who hath set such goodly praises upon his native country, left the same, went into Macedonia, and there lived in the court of King Archelaus. You have heard likewise (I suppose) this little epigram in verse:
Interred and entombed lieth here
Euphorion's son, the poet Æschylus
(In Athens town though born sometime he were),
To Gelas near, in corn so plenteous.
For he also abandoned his own country, and went to dwell in Sicily, like as Simonides did before him. And whereas this title or inscription is commonly read (This is the history written by Herodotus the Halicarnassean), many there be who correct it and write in this manner, Herodotus the Thurian, for that he removed out of the country wherein he was bom, became an inhabitant among the Thurians, and enjoyed the freedom of that colony. As for that heavenly and divine spirit in the knowledge of muses and poetry:
Homerus, who with wondrous pen.
Set forth the battles Phrygian,
what was it that caused so many cities to debate about the place of his nativity, challenging every one unto themselves, but only this; that he seemed not to praise and extol any one city above the rest? Moreover, to Jupiter, surnamed Hospital, know we not that there be many, and those right great, honours done.
Now if any one shall say unto me, that these personages were all of them ambitious, aspiring to great honour and glory, do no more, but have recourse unto the sages, and those wise schools and learned colleges of Athens; call to mind and consider the renowned clerks and famous philosophers, either in Lycaeum or the Academy: go to the gallery Stoa, the learned school Palladium, or the music-school Odæum. If you affect, love and admire above all other the sect of the Peripatetics, Aristotle, the prince thereof, was born in Stagira, a city of Macedonia; Theophrastus in Eressus; Strato came from Lampsacus; Glycon from Troas; Ariston from Chios; and Critolaus from Phaselus. If your mind stand more to praise the Stoics, Cleanthes was of Assos; Zeno was a Citiean; Chrysippus came from Soli; Diogenes from Babylon; and Antipater from Tharsus; and Archidamus, being an Athenian born, went to dwell among the Parthians, and left behind him at Babylon in succession the Stoic discipline and philosophy. Who was it that chased and drave these men out of their native countries? certes, none but even of their own accord and voluntary motion they sought all abroad for their contentment and repose, which hardly or not at all can they enjoy at home in their own houses who are in any authority and reputation; so that, as they have taught us very well out of their books, other good sciences which they professed, so this one point of living in quietness and rest they have shewed unto us by practice and example. And even in these days also, the most renowned and approved clerks, yea, and greatest men of mark and name, live in strange countries, far remote from their own habitations; not transported by others, but of themselves removing thither; not banished, sent away and confined, but willing to fly and avoid the troublesome affairs, negotiations and business which their native countries amuse them with.
That this is true, it may appear by the most approved, excellent and commendable works and compositions which ancient writers have left unto posterity; for the absolute finishing whereof it seemeth that the Muses used the help and means of their exile. Thus Thucydides the Athenian penned the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians whiles he was in Thracia, and namely, near unto a place called the For estof the Fosse. Xenophon compiled his story at Scillos in Elea; Philip wrote in Epirus; Timaeus, who was born at Taurominum in Sicily, became a writer in Athens; Androtion the Athenian at Megarae, and Bachilides the poet in Peloponnesus; who all and many others besides, being banished out of their countries, were never discouraged nor cast down, but shewed the vivacity and vigour of their good spirits, and took their exile at fortune's hands as a good maintenance and provision of their journey; by means whereof they live in fame and renown now after their death: whereas on the other side, there remaineth no memorial at all of those by whose factions and sidings they were driven out and exiled. And therefore he deserveth to be well mocked who thinketh that banishment carrieth with it some note of infamy and reproach as necessarily adherent thereto. For what say you to this? Is Diogenes to be counted infamous, whom when King Alexander saw sitting in the sun, he approached near, and standing by him, demanded whether he stood in need of anjrthing or no? he had no other answer from him but this, that he had need of nothing else but that he should stand a little out of the sunshine, and not shadow him as he did; whereupon Alexander, wondering at his magnanimity and haughty courage, said presently unto those friends that were about him; If I were not Alexander I would be Diogenes. And was Camillus disgraced any way for being banished out of Rome, considering that even at this day he is reputed and taken for the second founder thereof? Neither lost Themistocles the glory which he had won among the Greeks by his exile, but rather acquired thereto great honour and estimation with the barbarians. And no man is there so base-minded and careless of honour and credit but he would choose rather to be Themistocles, banished as he was, than Leobates his accuser, and the cause of his banishment; yea, and to be Cicero, who was exiled, than Clodius, who chased him out of Rome; or Timotheus, who was constrained to abandon and forsake his native country, than Aristophon, who indicted him and caused him to leave the same. But for that the authority of Euripides, who seemeth mightily to defame and condemn banishment, moveth many men; let us consider what be his several questions and answers to this point:
Jocasta. How then! is it a great calamity
To lose the place of our nativity?
Polynices. The greatest cross I hold it is doubtless,
And more indeed than my tongue can express.
Jocasta. The manner would I gladly understand,
And what doth grieve man shut from native land?
Polynices. This one thing first, the sorest grief must be.
That of their speech they have not liberty.
Jocasta. A spite it is, no doubt, and that of servile kind.
For men to be debarr'd to speak their mind.
Polynices. Besides, they must endure the foolishness
And ignorance of rulers more or less.
But herein I cannot allow of his sentence and opinion as well and truly delivered. For first and foremost, not to speak what a man thinketh is not the point of a slavish and base person, but rather he is to be counted a wise and prudent man who can hold his tongue at those times and in such occasions as require taciturnity and silence; which the same poet hath taught us in another place more wisely, when he saith:
Silence is good when that it doth avail,
Likewise to speak in time and not to fail.
And as for the folly and ignorance of great and mighty persons, we must abide no less when we tarry at home than in exile; nay, it falleth out many times that men at home fear much more the calumniations and violence of those who unjustly are in high places of authority within cities, than if they were abroad and out of their own countries. Again, this also is most false and absurd, that the said poet depriveth banished persons of their liberty and frank speech. Certes, this were a wonderful matter, that Theodorus wanted his freedom of tongue, considering that when King Lysimachus said unto him: And hath thy country chased and cast thee out, being so great a person among them? Yea (quoth he again), for that it was no more able to bear me than Semele to bear Bacchus: neither was he daunted and afraid, notwithstanding that the king shewed unto him Telesphorus enclosed within an iron cage, whose eyes he had caused before to be pulled out of his head, his nose and ears to be cropt, and his tongue to be cut, adding withal these words: See how I handle those that displease and abuse my person. And what shall we say of Diogenes? Wanted he (think you) his liberty of speech? who being come into the camp of King Philip, at what time as he made an expedition against the Grecians, invaded their country and was ready to give them battle, was apprehended and brought before the king as a spy, and charged therewith: I am indeed (quoth he) come hither to spy your insatiable avarice, ambition and folly, who are about now to hazard in one hour (as it were) with the cast of a die, not only your crown and dignity, but also your life and person; semblably, what think you of Annibal the Carthaginian? was he tongue-tied before Antiochus, banished though himself were, and the other a mighty monarch? For when he advised Antiochus to take the opportunity presented unto him, and to give battle unto the Romans his enemies, and the king having sacrificed unto the gods, answered again, that the entrails of the beast killed for sacrifice would not permit, but forbade him so to do: Why then (quoth he by way of reproof and rebuke), you will do that belike which a piece of dead flesh biddeth you, and not that which a man of wisdom and understanding counselleth you unto. But neither geometricians, nor those that use lineary demonstrations, if haply they be banished, are deprived of their liberty, but that they may discourse and speak frankly (if their art and science of such things as they have learned and known: how then should good, honest, and honourable persons be debarred of that freedom, in case they be exiled? But in truth, it is cowardice and baseness of mind which always stoppeth the voice, tieth the tongue, stifleth the wind-pipe, and causeth men to be speechless. But proceed we to that which followeth afterwards in Euripides:
Jocasta. But thus we say, those that are banished
With hopes always of better days be fed.
Polynices. Good eyes they have, afar off they do see.
Staying for things that most uncertain be.
Certainly these words imply rather a blame and reprehension of folly than of exile. For they be not those who have learned and do know how to apply themselves unto things present, and to use their estate such as it is, but such as continually depend upon the expectance of future fortunes, and covet evermore that which is absent and wanting, who are tossed to and fro with hope as in a little punt or boat floating upon the water; yea, although they were never in their lifetime without the walls of the city wherein they were born: moreover whereas we read in the same Euripides:
Jocasta. Thy father's friends and allies, have not they
Been kind and helpful to thee, as they may?
Polynices. Look to thyself, from troubles God thee bless.
Friend's help is naught, if one be in distress.
Jocasta. Thy noble blood, from whence thou art descended:
Hath it not thee advanc'd and much amended?
Polynices. I hold it ill to be in want and need,
For parentage and birth doth not men feed.
These speeches of Polynices are not only untrue, but also bewray his unthankfulness, when he seemeth thus to blame his want of honour and due regard for his nobility, and to complain that he was destitute of friends by occasion of his exile, considering that in respect of his noble birth, banished though he were, yet so highly honoured he was that he was thought worthy to be matched in marriage with a king's daughter, and as for friends, allies and confederates, he was able to gather a puissant army of them, by whose aid and power he returned into his own country by force of arms, as himself testifieth a little after in these words:
Many a lord and captain brave here stands
With me in field, both from Mycenae bright,
And cities more of Greece, whose helping hands
(Though loth) I must needs use in claim of right.
Much like also be the speeches of his mother, lamenting in this wise:
No nuptial torch at all I lighted have
To thee, as doth a wedding feast beseem,
No marriage song was sung, nor thee to lave
Was water brought from fair Ismenus stream;
whom it had become and behoved rather to rejoice and be glad in heart, when she heard that her son was so highly advanced and married into so royal an house; but in taking grief and sorrow herself that there was no wedding torch lighted, and that the river Ismenus afforded no water to bathe in at his wedding; as if new-married bridegrooms could not be furnished either with fire or water in the city Argos; she attributeth unto exile the inconveniences which more truly proceed from vanity and folly.
But some man will say unto me; That to be banished is a note of ignominy and reproach: true it is indeed, but among fools only, who think likewise that it is a shame to be poor, to be bald, to be small of stature, yea, and to be a stranger forsooth, a tenant, inmate or alien inhabitant: For certes, such as will not suffer themselves to be carried away with these vain persuasions, nor do subscribe thereto, esteem and have in admiration good and honest persons, never respecting whether they be poor, strangers and banished or no: Do we not see that all the world doth honour and reverence the temple of Theseus as well as Parthenon and Eleusinium, temples dedicated to Minerva, Ceres and Proserpina? and yet was Theseus banished from Athens; even that Theseus by whose means the same city was first peopled, and is at this day inhabited; and that city lost he which he held not from another, but founded first himself. As for Eleusis, what beauty at all would remain in it, if we dishonour Eumolpus and be ashamed of him who removing out of Thracia, instituted at first among the Greeks the religion of sacred mysteries, which continueth in force and is observed at this day? what shall we say of Codrus, who became king of Athens? whose son, I pray you, was he? was not Melanthius his father a banished man from Messina? Can you chuse but commend the answer of Antisthenes to one who said unto him; Thy mother is a Phrygian: So was (quoth he) the mother of the gods: why answer you not likewise when you are reproached with your banishment? even so was the father of that victorious conqueror Hercules: the grandsire likewise of Bacchus, who being sent out for to seek Lady Europa, never returned back into his native country:
For being a Phœnician bom,
At Thebes he after did arrive,
Far from his native soil beforn.
And there begat a son belive.
Who Bacchus did engender tho'.
That moves to fury women, hight
Mad Bacchæs, running to and fro,
In service, such is his delight.
As for that which the poet Æschylus would seem covertly by these dark words to insinuate, or rather to shew afar off, when he saith thus:
And chaste Apollo, sacred though he were.
Yet banished a time, heaven did forbear,
I am content to pass over in silence, and will forbear to utter according as Herodotus saith: and whereas Empedocles in the very beginning of his philosophy maketh this preface:
An ancient law there stands in force.
Decreed by gods above,
Grounded upon necessity.
And never to remove:
That after man hath stain'd his hands
In bloodshed horrible,
And in remorse of sin is vext
With horror terrible,
The long-liv'd angels which attend
In heaven, shall chase him quite.
For many thousand years from view
Of every blessed wight:
By virtue of this law, am I
From gods exiled now.
And wander here and there throughout
The world I know not how.
This he meaneth not of himself alone, but of all us after him, whom he declareth and sheweth by these words to be mere strangers, passengers, foreigners and banished persons in this world. For it is not blood (quoth he), O men, nor vital spirit contemperate together, that hath given unto us the substance of our soul and beginning of our life; but hereof is the body only composed and framed, which is earthly and mortal; but the generation of the soul which cometh another way, and descendeth hither into these parts beneath, he doth mitigate and seem to disguise by the most gentle and mild name that he could devise, calling it a kind of pilgrimage from the natural place; but to use the right term indeed, and to speak according to the very truth, she doth vague and wander as banished, chased and driven by the divine laws and statutes to and fro, until such time as it settleth to a body, as an oyster or shellfish to one rock or other in an island beaten and dashed upon with many winds and waves of the sea round about (as Plato saith), for that it doth not remember nor call to mind from what height of honour and from how blessed an estate it is translated, not changing, as a man would say, Sardis for Athens, nor Corinth for Lemnos or Scyros, but her resiance in the very heaven and about the moon, with the abode upon earth, and with a terrestrial life; whereas it thinketh it strange and as much discontented here for that it hath made exchange of one place for another not far distant; much like unto a poor plant that by removing doth degenerate and begin to wither away: and yet we see that for certain plants some soil is more commodious and sortable than another, wherein they will like, thrive, and prosper better: whereas contrariwise there is no place that taketh from a man his felicity, no more than it doth his virtue, fortitude or wisdom: for Anaxagoras during the time that he was in prison wrote his quadrature of the circle: and Socrates, even when he drunk poison, discoursed as a philosopher, exhorting his friends and familiars to the study of philosophy, and was by them reputed happy; but contrariwise, Phaëthon and Icarus, who (as the poets do report) would needs mount up into heaven, through their own folly and inconsiderate rashness fell into most grievous and woeful calamities.