When one is young it at first seems improbable that one will reach old age; and when we do, seldom do we think of it as achievement. There are nonetheless advantages that come with age, among them retirement, in addition to unblemished leisure and finally the time just to think, to recall and to reflect. The Greek biographer and philosopher Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus (Latin) aka Plutarch (c.46–c.120) had a more rousing version of the cause.

For the mind alone flourishes in age; and while time takes away everything else, it adds wisdom to old age.

Philosophy, therefore, ought to be regarded as the most important branch of study. For as regards the cure of the body, men have found two branches, medicine and exercise: the former of which gives health, and the latter good condition of body; but philosophy is the only cure for the maladies and disorders of the soul. For with her as ruler and guide we can know what is honourable, what is disgraceful; what is just, what unjust; generally speaking, what is to be sought after, what to be avoided…

Excerpt From
Plutarch. “Plutarch’s Morals”

Having read but a smattering of Plutarch’s book under the title of the Moralia (loosely translated as Customs and Mores) I have concluded that many of the precepts are misinformed or outdated by today’s standards though I suspect as well there are those who might convincingly argue otherwise in spite of the book’s antiquity. The book is a canon of behaviour; but I believe I am safe to say it has no more assurance than the Tanakh, the Bible, the Quran or the Encyclopedia Brittanica of altering human conduct. Indeed there are repeated intonations by the author that abuse of the mitzvah is common. In the end the lessons are but schoolyard models hardly chains about one’s neck. If any one of us is to be frank, we’ve likely more than once fallen into the peril of immorality by Plutarch’s superlative estimate.

My admission of misbehaviour may appear unique, but it is no more enticing than to know the balance of another’s chequing account – personal yes, material no. My objective is instead to punctuate the innate vitality of life, that ultimate confession that so frequently invades the candid sphere of old age: We all did it! Similarly one divines from the advantage of old age the once obscured realms of ideal behaviour – spared as we then are of the competing appetites of youth and ignorance. It is this intelligence which so often lends a soporific tone to an elder’s cadence.

As a directional guide however I question whether armchair philosophy is either life’s corollary or the answer. The conclusions appear removed from practicality – if not indeed fact. At best the recognition of moral persuasion is most frequently observed in hindsight in which case I am uncertain whether its plausibility is authentic or whether it is merely a slightly digestible punishment. It is nothing I find to encounter those who – belonging to the most puritanical modes of evangelism – are equally zealous about excusing the misbehaviour of others.  While it is evidence perhaps of a Christian theme it nonetheless denounces the strength of religious conduct. Faced with these conflicting paradigms one wonders which if either should realistically prevail. Or do we instead refute one of the two propositions?

Eventually – notwithstanding the seeming ambivalence – we come to our own conclusion about what is right or just. All that we have read or been told dissolves. This is not however to suggest the majority is persuaded left or right; rather that we generally come to the middle. Speaking for myself, I have determined to contain my involvement in these heady matters of “the maladies and disorders of the soul”.to the realm of conjecture only. I highly doubt my authenticity for a text of moral conduct whether direct or indirect. Meanwhile I shall instead focus upon the future, submitting unabashedly to the allure of the material world within my orbit.

Post Scriptum:

Below is another of Plutarch’s brief interjections. It legitimizes his general theory of morality while foreshadowing today’s topical subjects.

And I have myself noticed that those who practise to speak acceptably and to the gratification of the masses promiscuously, for the most part become also profligate and lovers of pleasure in their lives.

Idem