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Men deliberate and dispute variously concerning virtue, whether prudence and justice and the right ordering
of one's life can be taught. Moreover, we marvel that the
works of orators, shipmasters, musicians, carpenters, and
husbandmen are infinite in number, while good men are
only a name, and are talked of like centaurs, giants, and
the Cyclops, and that as for any virtuous action that is sincere and unblamable, and manners that are without any
touch and mixture of bad passions and affections, they are
not to be found; but if Nature of its own accord should
produce any thing good and excellent, so many things of
a foreign nature mix with it (just as wild and impure productions with generous fruit) that the good is scarce discernible. Men learn to sing, dance, and read, and to be
skilful in husbandry and good horsemanship; they learn
how to put on their shoes and their garments; they have
those that teach them how to fill wine, and to dress and
cook their meat; and none of these things can be done as
they ought, unless they be instructed how to do them.
And will ye say, O foolish men! that the skill of ordering
one's life well (for the sake of which are all the rest) is not
to be taught, but to come of its own accord, without reason
and without art?
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 1.
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