omitted]. And Pindar says, that his songs make him move,
As brisk as Dolphins, whom a charming tune
Hath raised from th' bottom of the quiet flood.
And certain fish are taken by means of dancing; for as the dance goes on
they lift up their heads above water, being much pleased and delighted
with the sight, and twisting their backs this way and that way, in
imitation of the dancers. Therefore I see nothing peculiar in those
pleasures, that they should be accounted proper to the mind, and all
others to belong to the body, so far as to end there. But music, rhythm,
dancing, song, passing through the sense, fix a pleasure and titilation
in the sportive part of the soul and therefore none of these pleasures
is enjoyed in secret, nor wants darkness nor walls about it, according
to the women's phrase; but circuses and theatres are built for them.
And to frequent shows and music-meetings with company is both more
delightful and more genteel; because we take a great many witnesses,
not of a luxurious and intemperate, but of a pleasant and respectable,
manner of passing away our time.
Upon this discourse of Callistratus, my father Lamprias, seeing the
musicians grow bolder, said: That is not the reason, sir, and, in my
opinion, the ancients were much out when they named Bacchus the son of
Forgetfulness. They ought to have called him his father; for it seems
he hath made you forget that of those faults which are committed about
pleasures some proceed from a loose intemperate inclination, and others
from heedlessness or ignorance. Where the ill effect is very plain,
there intemperate inclination captivates reason, and forces men to sin;
but where the just reward of intemperance is not directly and presently
inflicted, there ignorance of the danger and heedlessness make men
easily wrought oil and secure. Therefore those that are vicious, either
in eating, drinking, or venery, which diseases, wasting of estates,
and evil reports usually attend, we call intemperate. For instance,
Theodectes, who having sore eyes, when his mistress came to see him,
said,
All hail, delightful light;
or Anaxarchus the Abderite,
A wretch who knew what evils wait on sin,
Yet love of pleasure drove him back again.
Once almost free, he sank again to vice,
That terror and disturber of the wise.
Now those that take all care possible to secure themselves from all
those pleasures that assault them either at the
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