Book I. chap. II. 6, 7.

[47] _Institutes_, Book I. chap. IX.

[48] _Institutes_, Book I. chap. XII.

[49] Equally great has been Plutarch’s influence on English thought and life. Sir Thomas North’s translation of Amyot’s version appeared in 1579, and furnished Shakespeare with the materials for his _Coriolanus_, _Julius Cæsar_, and _Antony and Cleopatra_. Milton, Wordsworth, and Browning are also debtors to the _Parallel Lives_. (P.)

[50] “Comment il faut nourrir les enfants,” in the translation by Amyot. “Of the Training of Children,” in Goodwin’s edition of the _Morals_ (Vol. I.).

[51] The references that follow are to Plutarch’s _Morals_. The first translation into English was by Philemon Holland, in 1603. The American edition in five volumes (Boston, 1871) is worthy of all commendation. The references I make are to this edition. (P.)

[52] Of course Plutarch, like all the writers of antiquity, writes only in behalf of free-born children in good circumstances. “He abandons,” as he himself admits, “the education of the poor and the lowly.”

Plutarch seems to aim at what appears to him to be _practicable_. That he was liberal in his opinions must be evident, I think, from this extract: “It is my desire that all children whatsoever may partake of the benefits of education alike; but if yet any persons, by reason of the narrowness of their estates, cannot make use of my precepts, let them not blame me that give them, but Fortune, which disableth them from making the advantage by them they otherwise might. Though even poor men must use their utmost endeavor to give their children the best education; or, if they can not, they must bestow upon them the best that their abilities will reach.” (_Morals_, vol. I. pp. 19, 20.) (P.)

[53] _Of the Training of Children_, § 6.

[54] _Morals_, vol. II. p. 44.

[55] _Morals_, I. p. 463. This language directly follows the quotation given in the note (1) at the close of this paragraph. (P.)

[56] The exact reading is as follows: “For the mind requires not like an earthen vessel to be filled up; convenient fuel and aliment only will influence it with a desire of knowledge and ardent love of truth.” (_Morals_, I. p. 463.) This makes the author’s meaning more apparent. (P.)

[57] This does not mean that Plutarch sets a low value on memory, for he says: “Above all things, we must exercise the memory of children, for it is the treasury of knowledge.”

[58] “_Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri_.”

[59] “_Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano_.” (Sat. x. 356.)