translation is by P pei. The French transla-
\ mi\ ■ -i . which appeared in 1559, has considera- ble merit, and has been often reprinted. The English translation of sir Thomas North | Lond. 1612), which is avowedly made from thai ol Ann ot. is often very happy in point of expression, and is deservedly much esteemed. The Lives were also translated into French by Dacier (Par. 1721, 8 vols, Ito). rhe translation sometimes Drydeu's, the ii r-t volume of which was pub- lished in 1683, was executed by a greal number ofper- \ ording to a note by Malone i Dryden's Prosi ii, .;:il |, there wen- forty-one of them. Dryden himself translated nothing, bul he wrote the dedication t.. the .Ink.' of < Irmond, and the Life of Plutarch which i- pr. ii\. 'I to the translation. The translation by John and William Langbome, an insipid and tasteless ver- sion, has the merit of being tolerably correct in render- meaning of the original. The last and best i ttion i- that of professor Long, which
• only includes the lives of those Romans who
in th< < 'i\ il Wars ol Rome ; this trans-
l w iih a valuable body of notes,
formed five volumes of Knight's "Monthly Volumes"
of Plutarch, which consist of j comprehended under the title ol hi- .' ' 'Aical Works, many of
th.ni I" ii m ethical character. The minor
already referred to, of which that on the mal lotus is one are usually com-
prised in t!,.- collection entitled if or alia. Plutarch writings of P] ito; he was strongly op- i reans: if he belonged to any philo- v as that ol the Academics. Bul there • ni of philosophy in his writings, ■ rized by depth of thought or He 1 ■ i for himself a system, if we : hat whii h had little of the connected "ut of the writings of various oral end is alwaye appan nl in well as in bis biographies. A kind, I ition, and a love of everythin
. and give
ind of pleasure that he has in
friend, whose singleness
i rightly appreciated the important of educa-
up ••! children. II.- philos. [>hy was practical, and in
• ii- applicatio i , M,.r ,,| 1 ind his •■ Man
•■ lii itous in . \|.r. --I..1, u b< in his precepts. Notwithstanding all the deductions
that the most fastidious critic may make from Plu- tarch's moral writings, it cannot be denied that there is something in them which always pleases, and the more so the better we become acquainted with them; ami this is ii" small m.rit in a writer. With regard to the purely ethical writings of Plutarch, archdean Trench says that they indicate a better state of society than is generally attributed t.> hi- age Plutarch dot a nol speak a- .me crying in the wilderness, bul as to a circle of sympathetic hearer- who will answer i<> his appeals. It may I..- supposed that hi- native kindliness of heart would prevent him from taking the lull measure of the sin with which he was surrounded. No doubl he was deficient in the fierce indignation which consume. I the heart of Tacitus and pul a lash int.. the hands of Juve- nal. But it is certain from many passages in his writ- ings that he took no rose-colored view of life. Several
of his statements almost a nl u> the confession of
original sin. Plutarch's Btyle hear- no resemblance to the simplicity of the Attic writer-. It has not the air of being much elaborated, and apparently his sentences Sowed easily from him. 11. i- nearly always animate. I ami pleasing, ami the epithet pictorial may be justly applied t" him. Sometimes hi- sentences are long and ill-constructed, and the order of the words appears ii"t
the best thai could he chosen to express his meaning; certainly it is nol the order in which the besl Greek writers of an earlier age would have arranged their thoughts. Sometimes he i- obscure, both from this cause and the kind of illustration in which he abounds. lie occasionally uses and perhaps affects poetic words, hut they are such as give energy to his thoughts ami expression to his language. Altogether lie is read with pleasure in the original by those who are familiar with him, but he is somewhat harsh and crabbed t<> a stran- ger. 1 1 is his merit, in the age in which he lived, treat- in : ol such subjects a- biography and morals, not to have fallen into a merely rhetorical style, to have bal- anced antitheses, and to have contented himself with the inanity of commonplaces. Whatever he says is manly and invigorating in thought, and clear and for- cible in expression.
The first Greek edition of the M oralia, which i- ex- ceedingly incorrect, was printed by the elder Aldus, with the following title, Plutarchi Opuscula.lxxxii, Gr. I Ven. 1509, foL). It was afterwards printed at Basle
by Froben (1542, foL, and 1574, foL). Th ily good
editi f the Moralia is that printed at Oxford, and
edited by D. VVyttenbach, who labored on it twenty- four years. This edition consists of six volumes of text
.17'.'."'. 1800), and two volumes of notes (1810 1821), Ito. There is a print of it which is generally hound in ."> \"1-. 8vo, with two volumes of notes. The notes by Wyttenbach were printed at Leipsic in 1821, in two vols. 8vo. The firs! edition of all the works of Plu- tarch is by II. Stephens (Geneva, 1572, 13 vols. 8vo),