Plutarch
(c. 46
-120 AD)
On Listening to Lectures
1. The discourse which I gave on the subject
of listening to lectures I have written out and sent to you, my dear
Nicander, so that you may know how rightly to listen to the voice of
persuasion, now that you are no longer subject to authority, having
assumed the garb of a man. Now absence of control, which some of the
young men, for want of education, think to be freedom, establishes the
sway of a set of masters, harsher than the teachers and attendants of
childhood, in the form of the desires, which are now, as it were, unchained.
And just as Herodotus says that women put off their modesty along with
their undergarments, so some of our young men, as soon as they lay aside
the garb of childhood, lay aside also their sense of modesty and fear,
and, undoing the habit that invests them, straightway become full of
unruliness. But you have often heard that to follow God and to obey
reason are the same thing, and so I ask you to believe that in persons
of good sense the passing from childhood to manhood is not a casting
off of control, but a recasting of the controlling agent, since instead
of some hired person or slave purchased with money they now take as
the divine guide of their life reason, whose followers alone may deservedly
be considered free. For they alone, having learned to wish for what
they ought, live as they wish; but in untrained and irrational impulses
and actions there is something ignoble, and changing one's mind many
times involves but little freedom of will.
2. We may find a comparison in the
case of newly naturalized citizens; those among them who were
alien born and perfect strangers find fault with many of the things
that are done, and are discontented; whereas those who come from
the class of resident aliens, having been brought up under our
laws and grown to be well acquainted with them, have no difficulty
in accepting what devolves upon them and are content. And so you,
who have been brought up for a long time in contact with philosophy,
and have from the beginning been accustomed to philosophic reasoning
as an ingredient in every portion of early instruction and information,
ought to feel like an old friend and familiar when you come to
philosophy, which alone can array young men in the manly and truly
perfect adornment that comes from reason.
I think you may not find unwelcome some preliminary remarks about
the sense of hearing, which Theophrastus asserts is the most emotional
of all the senses. For nothing which can be seen or tasted or
touched brings on such distractions, confusions, and excitements,
as take possession of the soul when certain crashing, clashing,
and roaring noises assail the hearing. Yet this sense is more
rational than emotional. For while many places and parts of the
body make way for vice to enter through them and fasten itself
upon the soul, virtue's only hold upon the young is afforded by
the ears, if they be uncontaminated and kept from the outset unspoiled
by flattery and untouched by vile words. For this reason Xenocrates
advised putting ear protectors on children rather than on athletes,
on the ground that the latter have only their ears disfigured
by the blows they receive, while the former have their characters
disfigured by the words they hear; not that he would thus court
heedlessness or deafness, but he advises vigilance against vile
words, until such time as other words, of good sort, fostered
in the character by philosophy, should, like watchmen, have taken
under their charge the post chiefly exposed to influence and persuasion.
And Bias of old, on receiving orders to send to Amasis the portion
of the sacrificial animal which was at the same time the best
and the worst, cut out the tongue and sent it to him, on the ground
that speech contains both injuries and benefits in the largest
measure. Most people in bestowing an affectionate kiss on little
children not only take hold of the children by the ears but bid
the children to do the same by them, thus insinuating in a playful
way that they must love most those who confer benefit through
the ears. For surely the fact is plain, that the young man who
is debarred from hearing all instruction and gets no taste of
speech not only remains wholly unfruitful and makes no growth
towards virtue, but may also be perverted towards vice, and the
product of his mind, like that of a fallow and untilled piece
of ground, will be a plentiful crop of wild oats. For if the impulses
towards pleasure and the feelings of suspicion towards hard work
(which are not of external origin nor imported products of the
spoken word, but indigenous sources, as it were, of pestilent
emotions and disorders without number) be allowed to continue
unconstrained along their natural channels, and if they be not
either removed or diverted another way through the agency of goodly
discourse, thus putting the natural endowments in a fit condition,
there is not one of the wild beasts but would be found more civilized
than man.
3. Therefore, since listening to
lectures is attended by great benefit, but by no less danger,
to the young, I think it is a good thing to discuss the matter
continually both with oneself and with another person. The reason
for so doing is because we observe that a poor use is made of
this by the great majority of persons, who practice speaking before
they have acquired the habit of listening. They think that there
must be study and practice in discourse, but as for hearing, benefit
will come however it be used. It is true that, in the case of
persons playing ball, learning to throw and learning to catch
take place at the same time; but in the use of discourse its proper
reception comes before its delivery, just as conception and pregnancy
come before parturition. It is said that when fowls labour and
bring forth wind-eggs, these result from some imperfect and infertile
residue from conception; and if young men have not the power to
listen, or the habit of getting some profit through listening,
the speech brought forth by them is windy indeed, and
Void of repute and unheeded
beneath the clouds it is scattered.
For although they can incline and
turn vessels properly to receive any liquid which is being poured
into them, in order that there may actually be a filling and not
a spilling, they never learn to apply themselves to a speaker
and to accord attention to his lecture so that none of its good
points may escape them. But here is the most ridiculous thing
in the world: if they chance upon somebody who is giving an account
of a dinner or a procession or a dream or a wordy brawl which
he has had with another man, they listen in silence, and importune
him to continue; yet if anybody draws them to one side and tries
to impart something useful, or to advise them of some duty, or
to admonish them when in the wrong, or to mollify them when incensed,
they have no patience with him; but, eager to get the better of
him if they can they fight against what he says, or else they
beat a hasty retreat in search of other foolish talk, filling
their ears like worthless and rotten vessels with anything rather
than the things they need. As skillful horse trainers give us
horses with a good mouth for the bit, so too skillful educators
give us children with a good ear for speech, by teaching them
to hear much and speak little. Indeed, Spintharus declared in
commendation of Epameinondas that it was not easy to find a man
who knew more and spoke less. And it is a common saying that nature
has given to each of us two ears and one tongue, because we ought
to do less talking than listening.
4. In all cases, then, silence is
a safe adornment for the young man, and especially so, when in
listening to another he does not get excited or bawl out every
minute, but even if the remarks be none too agreeable, puts up
with them, and waits for the speaker to pause, and, when the pause
comes, does not at once interpose his objection, but as Aeschines
puts it, allows an interval to elapse, in case the speaker may
desire to add something to what he has said, or to alter or unsay
anything. But those who instantly interrupt with contradictions,
neither hearing nor being heard, but talking while others talk,
behave in an unseemly manner; whereas the man who has the habit
of listening with restraint and respect, takes in and masters
a useful discourse, and more readily sees through and detects
a useless or false one, showing himself thus to be a lover of
truth and not a lover of disputation, nor forward and contentious.
Wherefore it is sometimes said not unaptly that it is even more
necessary to take the wind of self opinion and conceit out of
the young, than to deflate wine-skins, if you wish to fill them
with something useful; otherwise, being full of bombast and inflation,
they have no room to receive it.
5. Now the presence of envy, attended
by malice and hostility, is not a good thing for any undertaking,
but it stands in the way of all that is honorable; and it is the
very worst associate and counselor for one that would listen to
a lecture, inasmuch as it makes what is profitable to be vexatious,
unpleasing, and unacceptable, because envious persons are pleased
with anything rather than with the good points of a discourse.
Now the man that is stung by the wealth, or repute, or beauty
possessed by another, is merely envious; for he is depressed by
the good fortune of others; but one who feels discontentment at
an excellent discourse is vexed by what is for his own good. For
just as light is a good thing for those who can see, so is discourse
for those who can hear, if they be willing to receive it.
Now while envy in other matters is engendered by certain untrained
and evil dispositions of a man, the envy that is directed against
a speaker is the offspring of an unseasonable desire for repute
and a dishonest ambition, and it does not suffer the person in
such a mood even to pay attention to what is being said, but it
confuses and distracts his mind which at one moment is engaged
in reviewing its own condition to see whether it be inferior to
that of the speaker, then anon it turns to dwell on the other
persons present to see whether they are showing any pleasure or
admiration; it is disconcerted by their approval, and irritated
at the audience if they find the speaker acceptable; disregards
and dismisses the part of the discourse already delivered because
the memory of it is painful, but for what still remains trembles
with anxiety lest that part prove better than the part already
delivered; eager that the speakers may most quickly have done
when they are speaking most excellently; and when the lecture
is over, it does not ponder upon any point of the discussion but
proceeds to count as votes the comments and attitudes of those
present; if any approve, fleeing and recoiling from these as though
frantic; if any disapprove or distort the things said, hastening
to join their company; and if it be impossible to distort, then
it falls to making comparisons with others who could have spoken
better and more forcibly to the same purport - until by spoiling
and maltreating the lecture it has succeeded in making the whole
thing useless and unprofitable to itself.
6. Therefore a man must let his
desire to hear make truce with his desire for repute, and listen
cheerfully and affably as though he were a guest at some dinner
or ceremonial banquet, commending the speaker's ability in those
parts wherein he achieves a success, and favorably accepting the
goodwill, if nothing else, of the speaker who propounds his opinions
and tries to persuade others by the reasons which have persuaded
himself. Where he is successful we must reflect that the success
is not due to chance or accident, but to care, diligence, and
study, and herein we should try to imitate him in a spirit of
admiration and emulation; but where there are mistakes, we should
direct our intelligence to these, to determine the reasons and
origin of the error. For as Xenophon asserts that good householders
derive benefit both from their friends and from their enemies,
so in the same way do speakers, not only when they succeed, but
also when they fail, render a service to hearers who are alert
and attentive. For poverty of thought, emptiness of phrase, an
offensive bearing, fluttering excitement combined with a vulgar
delight at commendation, and the like, are more apparent to us
in others when we are listening than in ourselves when we are
speakers. Wherefore we ought to transfer our scrutiny from the
speaker to ourselves, and examine whether we unconsciously commit
such mistakes. For it is the easiest thing in the world to find
fault with one's neighbour, and also a useless and inane proceeding
unless it be applied in some way to correcting or avoiding similar
faults. And everyone ought to be ready ever to repeat to himself,
as he observes the faults of others, the utterance of Plato, "Am
I not possibly like them?" For as we see our own eyes brightly
reflected in the eyes of those near us, so we must get a picture
of our own discourses in the discourses of others, that we may
not too rashly disdain others, and may give more careful attention
to ourselves in the matter of speaking. To this end the process
of comparison is useful, if, when we have come away from the lecture
and are by ourselves, we take some topic that seems to have been
ineffectually or inadequately treated, and try our hand at the
same thing, and address ourselves to supplying a deficiency here,
or amending there, to say the same thing in other words, or attempting
to treat the subject in a wholly new way; and this is what Plato
actually did for the discourse of Lysias. For to offer objections
against a discourse which has been delivered is not difficult,
but very easy; but to set up a better against it is a very laborious
task. As the Spartan said, on hearing that Philip had razed the
city of Olynthus to the ground. "Yes, but even he could not
possibly set up such another." Whenever, therefore, in discoursing
thus upon a given subject, we find that we do not much excel those
who have already spoken, we abate much of our disdain, and our
presumption and self-esteem are very speedily cut short by being
put to the test in such comparisons.
7. Now admiration, which is the
antithesis of disdain, obviously betokens a kindlier and gentler
nature, but even this requires certainly no little caution, perhaps
even more. For while it is true that disdainful and self-confident
persons are less apt to get benefit from the speakers, yet the
enthusiastic and ingenuous are more apt to get harm; and they
cause no one to question the saying of Heracleitus, that "A
fool is wont to be agog at every word that's said." In praising
a speaker we must be generous, but in believing his words cautious;
as touching the style and the delivery of the performers, we should
observe with a kindly and simple mind; but as for the utility
and the truth of what they say, we must play the keen and heartless
critics, that the speakers may feel no hatred, yet their words
may do no harm. For we unwittingly receive into our minds a great
many false and vicious doctrines by feeling goodwill and confidence
towards the speakers. Upon a time the Spartan officials, after
approving the proposal made by a man whose life had not been good,
appointed another man of good repute in his life and character
to present it, thus quite rightly and for the good of the State
trying to accustom the people to being influenced more by the
behaviour than by the speech of their counsellors. But in a philosophic
discussion we examine what he says quite apart. For as in war
so also in lectures there is plenty of empty show. For example,
a speaker's grey hair, his formality, his serious brow, his self-assertion,
and above all the clamour and shouting of the audience as he brings
them to their feet, combine to disconcert the young and inexperienced
listener, who is, as it were, swept away by the current. The speaker's
style also has a spice of deception when it is pleasing and copious,
and is applied to the subject with dignity and artfulness. For
as most of the mistakes of persons singing to the flute escape
the audience, so an exuberant and impressive style flashed upon
the listener blinds him to the matter set forth. It seems to have
been Melanthius, who being asked about Diogenes' tragedy, said
he could not get a sight of it, there were so many words in the
way; and the discussions and exercises of most popular lecturers
not only use words to conceal their thoughts, but they so sweeten
their voice by certain harmonious modulations and softenings and
rhythmic cadences, as to ravish away and transport their hearers.
It is an empty pleasure they give, and an even more empty renown
they acquire, so that the remark of Dionysius fits their case
exactly. For he, as it appears, at some performance promised to
a harp-player of great repute certain large gifts, but afterwards
gave him nothing, on the ground that he had already discharged
his obligation. "For," said he, "all the time that
you were giving pleasure to us with your signing, you were enjoying
the pleasure of your hopes." And this is just the meed that
such lectures have for those who deliver them; for the speakers
are admired in as far as they are entertaining, and afterwards,
no sooner has the pleasure of listening passed away, than their
repute deserts them, and so the time of their hearers and the
life of the speakers is simply wasted.
8. One ought therefore to strip
off the superfluity and inanity from the style, and to seek after
the fruit itself, imitating not women that make garlands, but
the bees. For those women, culling flower-clusters and sweet-scented
leaves, intertwine and plait them, and produce something which
is pleasant enough, but short-lived and fruitless; whereas the
bees in their flight frequently pass through meadows of violets,
roses, and hyacinths, and come to rest upon the exceeding rough
and pungent thyme, and on this they settle close, and when they
have got something of use, they fly away home to their own special
work. In such wise, then, the sincere and single-minded student
ought to regard flowery and dainty language and theatrical and
spectacular subject matter as the pasturage of drones who practice
the popular lecture; these he should leave alone and use all diligence
to sound the deep meaning of the words and the intention of the
speaker, drawing from it what is useful and profitable, and remembering
that he has not come to a theatre or music-hall, but to a school
and classroom with the purpose of amending his life by what is
there said. Hence it follows that in making his examination and
forming his judgement of the lecture he should begin with himself
and his own state of mind, endeavouring to estimate whether any
one of his emotions has become less intense, whether any one of
his troubles weighs less heavily upon him, whether his confidence
and his high purpose have become firmly rooted, whether he has
acquired enthusiasm for virtue and goodness. As a matter of course,
when he rises to leave the barber's shop, he stands by the mirror
and feels his head, examining the cut of his hair and the difference
made by its trimming; so on his way home from a lecture or an
academic exercise, it would be a shame not to direct his gaze
forthwith upon himself and to note carefully his own spirit, whether
it has put from it any of its encumbrances and superfluities,
and has become lighter and more cheerful. "For," as
Ariston says, "neither a bath nor a discourse is of any use
unless it removes impurity."
9. Let the young man, then, find
pleasure when he finds profit from a discourse; but he should
not hold that the pleasure derived from the lecture is an end
in itself, nor would I have him hum a merry note or show a jovial
face as he leaves the philosopher's school, any more than he should
seek to be sprinkled with perfume when he needs a fomentation
and a hot poultice; but he should feel grateful if by pungent
discourse someone has cleansed his mind teeming with fogginess
and dullness as a beehive is cleared by smoke. For even though
it is quite right for a speaker not to be altogether neglectful
of pleasantness and persuasion in his style, yet the young man
should make least concern of this, at any rate at first. Afterwards
no doubt he may have an eye to that; for just as those who drink,
after they have quenched their thirst, begin then to observe the
ornamentation of the drinking-cups and to turn them about, so
that young man, when he is well replenished with doctrines and
has some respite, may be allowed to inspect the style to see whether
it contains anything elegant and exquisite. But he who at the
very outset does not stick to the subject matter, but insists
that the style shall be pure Attic and severely plain, is like
the man who is unwilling to swallow an antidote for a poison unless
the cup be of the finest Attic ware, or unwilling to put on an
overcoat in winter unless the wool be from Attic sheep, but must
needs sit still and inactive, with a delicate thin jacket of Lysias's
language cast over him. Indeed, this sort of unhealthiness has
produced much barrenness of mind and of good sense, much foolery
and bibble-babble in the schools, since younger men do not keep
in view the life, the actions, and the public conduct of a man
who follows philosophy, but rate as matters for commendation points
of style and phrasing, and a fine delivery, while as for what
is being delivered, whether it be useful or useless, whether essential
or empty and superfluous, they neither understand nor wish to
inquire.
10. This leads up to the matter
of proposing problems. Now the person who comes to a dinner is
bound to eat what is set before him and not to ask for anything
else or to be critical; so he who comes to a feast of reason,
if it be on a specified subject, must feel bound to listen to
the speaker in silence. For those persons who lead the speaker
to digress to other topics, and interject questions, and raise
new difficulties, are not pleasant or agreeable company at a lecture;
they get no benefit from it, and they confuse both the speaker
and his speech. However, when the speaker requests his hearers
to ask questions or to propose problems, one should always manifestly
propose some problem which is useful and essential. Now Odysseus
among the suitors is derided for:
Asking for morsels of food
and not for swords or for cauldrons.
for they regard it just as much
a sign of magnanimity to ask for something great as to give it.
But there is more reason for ridiculing a hearer who diverts the
speaker to petty and frivolous problems, such as some of the young
men are in the habit of proposing when they are only fooling and
withal showing off their skill in logic or mathematics; take,
for example, the question about the division of indeterminate
propositions for "What is movement as determined by the bounding
side or by the diagonal?" To such persons we may retort the
remark of Philotimus to the man who was dying of consumption.
When he had addressed the physician, asking him for something
to cure a sore finger, Philotimus, perceiving his condition from
his colour and respiration, said, "My dear sir, your concern
is not about a sore finger." And so for you, young man, it
is not the time to be inquiring about such questions, but how
you may be rid of self-opinion and pretension, love affairs and
nonsense, and settle down to a modest and wholesome mode of living.
11. It is quite necessary that in
formulating questions the questioner should accommodate himself
to the proficiency or natural capacity of the speaker, to those
matters "in which he is at his best"; not forcibly to
divert one who is more concerned with the ethical side of philosophy,
by plying him with questions in natural science or mathematics,
or to drag the man who poses as an authority on natural science
into passing judgement on the hypothetical propositions of logic
or solutions of quibbles like the Liar Problem. For just as one
who should go about to split wood with a key, or to open his door
with an axe, would not be thought to offer an indignity to those
instruments but to deprive himself of the proper use and function
of each, so those persons who ask of a speaker something for which
he is not apt by nature or by practice, and do not gather and
take what he has to offer, not only suffer harm thereby, but also
incur the name and blame of malice and hostility as well.
12. A man must also guard against
proposing many problems or proposing them often himself. For this
is, in a way, the mark of a man who is taking occasion to show
himself off. But to listen good-naturedly when another advances
them, marks the considerate gentleman and the scholar. The only
exception is in case some matter of his own is troublesome and
urgent, some emotion requiring repression, or a disorder requiring
relief. For perhaps it may not even be "better to conceal
ignorance," as Heracleitus puts it, but to set it forth in
public, and cure it. And if some fit of temper, or attack of superstition,
or an intense disagreement with members of our own household,
or a mad desire born of love,
Stirring the heart-strings
never stirred before.
brings confusion to our thoughts,
we must not run away to other kinds of discourse to escape being
taken to task, but we must listen to the discussion of these very
matters both at the formal exercises, and after the exercises,
when we approach the men privately and question them further.
But save us from the contrary course, followed by the majority,
who are delighted with the philosophers and admire them when they
are discoursing about other people; but if the philosopher leaves
the other people alone, and addresses himself frankly and freely
to them, and sets them in mind of matters that much concern them,
they are annoyed and think him officious. For, as a rule, they
imagine that they listen to the tragedians in the theatres; but
in matters out of school they think the philosophers are no better
men than themselves. Now there is some reason that they should
feel thus towards the popular lecturers; for when these get up
from the speaker's chair and put away their books and lecture
notes, it is apparent that in the real pursuits of life they are
small men and rank lower than he average; but towards philosophers
of the real sort it is not right that they have such a feeling,
not realizing that seriousness and jest in them, nod, or smile,
or frown, and above all, what they say to each person apart, may
yield a return which is profitable for those who have acquired
the habit of patient attention.
13. The proprieties in regard to
bestowing commendation also require some caution and moderation,
for the reason that neither deficiency nor excess therein befits
the free man. An offensive and tiresome listener is the man who
is not to be touched or moved by anything that is said, full of
festering presumption and ingrained self-assertion, as though
convinced that he could say something better than what is being
said, who neither moves his brow nor utters a single word to bear
witness that he is glad to listen, but by means of silence and
an affected gravity and pose, seeks to gain a reputation for poise
and profundity; as though commendation were money, he feels that
he is robbing himself of every bit that he bestows on another.
For there are many who take that saying of Pythagoras wrongly
and out of harmony with his meaning. He declared that he had gained
this advantage from philosophy, to wonder at nothing; but these
men think that their advantage gained is to commend nothing, to
show respect for nothing, holding that impunity from wonder lies
in disdain, and seeking to attain to dignity by means of contempt.
Now it is true that philosophic reasoning, through knowledge and
acquaintance with the cause in every case, does away the wonder
and amazement that spring from blindness and ignorance, but at
the same time it does not destroy our serenity, moderation, or
human interest. For to persons who are truly and consistently
good it is the highest credit to bestow credit upon someone deserving
of credit, and the most conspicuous honour to honour such a man,
since this argues a superabundant and generous store of repute;
whereas those who are niggardly in their commendation of others
give the impression of being pinched and starving for their own.
On the other hand, however, the opposite type of person, light-minded
and flighty, who uses no judgement, but hangs intent on every
word and syllable with an ejaculation ready on his lips, is frequently
no satisfaction to the disputants themselves, and is always a
painful affliction for the audience, startling them as he does
and exciting them to join him contrary to their judgement, as
though they for shame could not help being dragged into the applause.
He gets no benefit from the lecture because for him it has been
made full of confusion and fluttering excitement by his continual
applaudings, and he departs with the name of being one of three
things: a dissembler, a flatterer, or a boor in all that relates
to discourse.
Now a man sitting as a judge in court is bound to listen without
regard either to enmity or favor, but in sober judgement with
regard to justice; but at scholarly lectures no law and no oath
prohibits us from receiving the lecturer with goodwill. Indeed,
the ancients gave Hermes a place beside the Graces from a feeling
that discourse demands, above all, graciousness and friendliness.
For it is not possible for a speaker to be a failure so abject
and complete that he does not afford something meriting commendation,
an original thought, a reminiscence from others, the very subject
and purpose of his discourse, or at least the style and arrangement
of his remarks,
Just as amid urchin's foot
and the rough rest harrow
Flowering snowdrops grow, delicate in their bloom.
For when some have declaimed a panegyric
upon vomiting or fever, nay I vow, even upon a kitchen-pot, not
without a certain amount of plausibility, how could it be that
a discourse delivered by a man who in some sort bears the repute
and name of philosopher, should not offer, at some point, to benevolent
and humane bearers some respite and opportunity for commendation?
We know, at any rate, that all persons in the bloom of youth do
somehow or other, as Plato says, act as a stimulus upon the man
inclined to love; the fair ones he names "children of the
gods," the dark "manly," while the hook-nosed he
endearingly terms "kingly," the snub-nosed "fetching,"
the sallow "honey-hued," and so welcomes and likes them
all; for love, like ivy, is clever in attaching itself to any
support. Much more, then, will the scholar and diligent hearer
always be ready to discover some cause for which he may openly
bestow on every speaker some commendation not inappropriate. So
Plato, although he cannot commend Lysias's speech for invention,
and although he condemns its arrangement as disorderly, nevertheless
commends the style, and that "each word was clearly and roundly
turned." One might find fault with Archilochus for his subject
matter, Parmenides for his versification, Phocylides as commonplace,
Euripides for his loquacity, and Sophocles for his unevenness;
and it is equally true of the orators that one of them has no
power to portray character, another is slow to rouse emotion,
another is lacking in grace; yet it is a fact that each one of
them is commended for the special faculty with which Nature has
taught him to move us and draw us on. It follows, then, that there
is ample and abundant opportunity for hearers to show friendliness
toward those who are speaking. For some it is quite enough, even
if we do not attest this by the voice, that we vouchsafe to them
a gentleness of glance, a serenity of countenance, and a disposition
kindly and free from annoyance.
Finally, the following matters, even with speakers who make a
complete failure, are, as it were, general and common requirements
at every lecture: to sit upright without any lounging or sprawling,
to look directly at the speaker, to maintain a pose of active
attention, and a sedateness of countenance free from any expression,
not merely of arrogance or displeasure but even of other thoughts
and preoccupations. Now in every piece of work, beauty is achieved
through the congruence of numerous factors, so to speak, brought
into union under the rule of a certain due proportion and harmony,
whereas ugliness is ready to spring into being if only a single
chance element be omitted or added out of place. And so in the
particular case of a lecture, not only frowning, a sour face,
a roving glance, twisting the body about, and crossing the legs
are unbecoming, but even nodding, whispering to another, smiling,
sleepy yawns, bowing down the head and all like actions, are culpable
and need to be carefully avoided.
14. There are others who think that
the speaker has a function to perform, and the hearer none. They
think it only right that the speaker shall come with his discourse
carefully thought out and prepared, while they, without consideration
or thought of their obligations, rush in and take their seats
exactly as though they had come to dinner, to have a good time
while others toil. And yet even a well-bred guest at dinner has
a function to perform, much more a hearer; for he is a participant
in the discourse and a fellow-worker with the speaker and he ought
not rigorously to examine the speaker's little slips, applying
his criticism to every word and action while he himself, without
being subject to any criticism, acts unhandsomely and commits
many gross improprieties in the matter of listening. On the contrary,
just as in playing ball it is necessary for the catcher to adapt
his movements to those of the thrower and to be actively in accord
with him, so with discourses, there is a certain accord between
the speaker and the hearer, if each is heedful of his obligation.
15. Then also the terms used in
commendations must not be indiscriminate. For Epicurus himself
is displeasing when he says of his friends' letters that they
give rise to hullabaloos. And those persons who nowadays introduce
into our lecture-rooms outlandish expressions, who are wont to
exclaim over a lecture "Divine," and "Inspired,"
and "Unapproachable," as though it were no longer enough
to say "Hear, Hear!" and "Good!" and "Right!"
as Plato and Socrates and Hypereides and their friends used to
do to show their commendation, behave in a most unseemly manner,
and traduce the speakers, as though these desired such high-flown
and excessive commendations. Exceedingly displeasing also are
those who use an oath in testifying to their approval of the speakers
as though in a law court. No less so are those who fail to respect
the quality of persons, and cry aloud to a philosopher "Smart!"
or to an aged man "Clever!" or "Flowery!",
thus transferring to the philosophers the expressions of those
who make a sport and an opportunity to show off out of their scholastic
exercises, and applying meretricious commendation to sober discourse,
as though they should put on an athlete's head a crown of lilies
or roses instead of laurel or wild olive! Once when Euripides
the poet was going over for the members of his chorus a lyric
passage set to music one of them burst out laughing; whereat Euripides
remarked, "If you were not so stupid and ignorant, you would
not have laughed while I was singing in most solemn measure."
And so, as I think, one who is a philosopher and statesman might
repress the exuberance of a graceless hearer by saying, "you
seem to me to be an ill-bred fool; else, while I am giving instruction
or admonition, or discoursing upon the gods or the State or its
government, you would not be whistling and dancing a jig to my
words." Just consider what it really means, if, when a philosopher
is speaking, the people outside, by reason of the clamour and
shouting of those within are unable to make out whether the applause
is for some flute-player, or harper, or dancer.
16. Moreover, admonitions and rebukes
must be listened to neither with stolid indifference nor with
unseemly emotion. For those who can submit to being reproved by
philosophers so light-heartedly and heedlessly as to laugh when
being taken to task and to commend those who take them to task,
as parasites do when abused by those at whose expense they live,
are utterly forward and bold, and they give no good or genuine
proof of manliness by their shameless behaviour. As for a pleasant
scoff, wittily delivered and in pure fun, if a man knew how to
take it cheerfully and without offence, his conduct argues no
ignoble or uncultured mind, but one altogether generous and Spartan.
On the other hand, to hear a reprehension or admonition to reform
character, delivered in words that penetrate like a biting drug,
and not to be humbled at hearing it, not to run into a sweating
and dizziness, not to burn with shame in the soul, but, on the
contrary to listen unmoved, grinning, dissembling in the face
of it all, is a notable sign of an illiberal nature in the young,
dead to all modesty because of a habitual and continued acquaintance
with wrongdoing, with a soul like hard and calloused flesh, upon
which no lash can leave a weal.
Such is the behaviour of those who belong to this class. But young
men of the opposite temperament, if they ever hear a single word
directed against themselves, run away without looking back, and
try to desert philosophy; and, although the sense of modesty which
Nature has bestowed upon them is an admirable beginning for their
salvation, they lose it through effeminacy and weakness, since
they display no firmness under reproof, nor do they accept corrections
with the proper spirit, but they turn away their ears toward the
agreeable and gentle converse of sundry flatterers or voluble
talkers, who enchant them with useless and unprofitable but nevertheless
pleasant utterances. Just as one who runs away from the physician
after an operation, and will not submit to be bandaged, sustains
all the pain of the treatment, but waits not for its benefits;
so when the word has cut and wounded a man's foolishness, if he
give it no chance to heal and quiet the wound, he comes away from
philosophy with a smart and pain but with no benefit. For not
only the wound of Telephus, as Euripides says,
Is soothed by fine-rasped
filing from the spear,
but the smart from philosophy which
sinks deep in young men of good parts is healed by the very words
which inflicted the hurt. For this reason he who is taken to task
must feel and suffer some smart, yet he should not be crushed
or dispirited, but, as though at a solemn rite of novitiate which
consecrates him to philosophy, he should submit to the initial
purifications and commotions, in the expectation that something
delectable and splendid will follow upon his present distress
and perturbation. Indeed even if the reproof seems to be given
unjustly, it is an admirable thing to endure it with continued
patience while the man is speaking; and when he has gotten to
the end, to go to him with an explanation, and ask him to reserve
for some real misconduct the frankness and earnestness that he
has employed in the present instance.
17. Moreover, just as in learning
to read and write, or in taking up music or physical training,
the first lessons are attended with much confusion, hard work,
and uncertainty, but later, as the learner makes progress, by
slow degrees, just as in his relations with human beings, a full
familiarity is engendered and knowledge which renders everything
attractive, feasible, and easy, both to say and to do, so also
is it with philosophy, which undoubtedly has something knotty
and unfamiliar in its terms and subject matter at the outset;
yet one ought not to take fright at its beginnings, and to abandon
it in timorous and craven fashion; rather should he examine each
point, and persist and stick to the task of getting on, while
awaiting that familiarity which makes every noble thing a pleasure.
For come it will without long delay, bringing with it abundant
light for the subject of study; it will inspire also a passionate
love for virtue; and anyone who could endure to pass the rest
of his life without this passion, because he has exiled himself
from philosophy for want of true manliness, brands himself either
as a very presumptuous man or else a coward.
It is quite possible that the subject of philosophy contains some
matter which is difficult for young and inexperienced students
to apprehend at the outset. But, at the same time, they must hold
themselves responsible for most of the uncertainty and misunderstanding
in which they find themselves involved, since quite opposite characters
come to fall into the same error. Some, because of a feeling of
shame and a desire to spare the speaker, hesitate to ask questions
and to get the argument firmly fixed in their minds, nodding their
heads in assent as though they comprehended it; others, led by
an unseasonable ambition and inane rivalry with their fellow-students,
to show off their acuteness and their ability to learn easily,
avow that they have the meaning before they have grasped it, and
so do not grasp it at all. Then the result is that those modest
and silent persons, after leaving the lecture, distress themselves
over their difficulties, and finally, driven by necessity, with
even greater shame this time, they trouble the lecturers with
questions which they should have asked before, and try to catch
up; but with the ambitious and self-confident young men, the result
is that they are all the time trying to cover up and conceal the
ignorance that abides with them.
18. Let us therefore put from us
all such foolishness and pretension, and, as we go onward to the
task of learning, let us take pains thoroughly to comprehend all
profitable discourses; let us submit with patience to the laughter
of those reputed to be clever, as did Cleanthes and Xenocrates,
who, although they seemed to be slower than their schoolmates,
yet did not try to escape learning or give it up in despair, but
were the first to make jokes at themselves by comparing themselves
to narrow-necked bottles and bronze tablets, as much as to say
that they found great difficulty in taking in what was said, yet
they kept it safely and securely. For not only is one bound, as
Phocylides says,
Many a time to be cheated
of hope when he seeks to be noble,
but he is bound also many a time
to be laughed at and to be in disrepute, and to put up with joking
and buffoonery as he struggles with insight and main against his
ignorance and overthrows it.
On the other hand, however, we certainly must not neglect the
mistake that leads to the opposite extreme, which some persons
are led to commit by laziness, thus making themselves unpleasant
and irksome. For when they are by themselves they are not willing
to give themselves any trouble but they give trouble to the speaker
by repeatedly asking questions about the same things, like unfledged
nestlings always agape toward the mouth of another and desirous
of receiving everything ready prepared and predigested. There
is another class, who, eager to be thought astute and attentive
out of due place, wear out the speakers with loquacity and officiousness,
by continually propounding some extraneous and unessential difficulty
and asking for demonstrations of matters that need no demonstration,
and so, as Sophocles puts it,
Much time it takes to go
a little way,
not only for themselves but for
the rest of the company too. For holding back the speaker on every
possible occasion by their inane and superfluous questions, as
in a company of persons travelling together, they impede the regular
course of the lecture, which has to put up with halts and delays.
Now such persons are, according to Hieronymus, like cowardly and
persistent puppies which, at home, bite at the skins of wild animals,
and tear off what bits they can, but never touch the animals themselves.
But as for those lazy persons whom we have mentioned, let us urge
them that, when their intelligence has comprehended the main points,
they put the rest together by their own efforts, and use their
memory as a guide in thinking for themselves, and, taking the
discourse of another as a germ and seed, develop and expand it.
For the mind does not require filing like a bottle, but rather,
like wood, it only requires kindling to create in it an impulse
to think independently and an ardent desire for the truth. Imagine,
then, that a man should need to get fire from a neighbour, and,
upon finding a big bright fire there, should stay there continually
warming himself; just so it is if a man comes to another to share
the benefit of a discourse, and does not think it necessary to
kindle from it some illumination for himself and some thinking
of his own, but, delighting in the discourse, sit enchanted; he
gets, as it were, a bright and ruddy glow in the form of opinion
imparted to him by what is said, but the mouldiness and darkness
of his inner mind he has not dissipated nor banished by the warm
glow of philosophy.
Finally, if there be need of any other instruction in regard to
listening to a lecture, it is that it is necessary to keep in
mind what has here been said, and to cultivate independent thinking
along with our learning, so that we may acquire a habit of mind
that is not sophistic or bent on acquiring mere information, but
one that is deeply ingrained and philosophic, as we may do if
we believe that right listening is the beginning of right living.
translated
by Frank Cole Babbit
1960
Now go to the Study
Questions for Plutarch's Essay