PLURALISM. 133 PLUTARCH. Crown for that of the Pope. Consult: Sehulte, l.rhrhiwh des latholischen und evangelischen Kirclienrechts (Giessen, 188G) ; for England, T}ie tftuliites Revised, vol. viii. (London, 1894). PLURALISM. In philosophy, a term used to designate any theory that states the universe in terms of more than one ultimate principle. Its anton.Tn is monism (q.v. ), when used in the strifter sense. PLUSH (Fr. pluche. peluclie. plusli. shag, from Lat. pilus, hair). A variety of woven cloth, luiving a long shaggj- pile on the upper surface. Although woven like velvet, it diflers from it in the greater length of the pile, and in its not being clipped or shorn to a uniform length. Formerly it was made of a double warp, one thread being usually double worsted yarn, the other, intended to form the pile, of goat's hair, and the filling of worsted; occasionally only worsted was used. Kow it is made ver>- extensively of silk and cot- ton, the silk taking the place of the goat's hair to form the pile. This silk plush is the material used for making gentlemen's hats, instead of beaver-hair, as formerly. It is also worked in colored silks, for many articles of ladies' attire. A variety made of mohair is much used for up- holstery. Recently the Tussah silk, a wild silk of India, has been extensively used in the manu- facture of plush. See Weavixgs. PLU'TARCH (Gk. nXoi^rapxos, I'loutarchos) (e.40-c.l2o A.D.). An encyclopa>dic writer and a charming type of the Greek gentleman and .scholar of Roman times. He was born at Chfe- ronca. in Boeotia, the coimtrv of Hesiod and Pin- dar, to whom he often alludes. His writings in- troduce us to a pleasant circle of kinsmen and friends, his grandfather Lamprias, his father, brother, and four sons, his wife. Timoxena, to whom he addresses a beautiful 'consolation' on the death of their little daughter, his Roman friends, Sossius Senecio. iletrins Florus, and Junius Arulenus Rusticus. His biography must be collected from his works. He was a student at Athens at the time of Xero's visit to Greece, A.D. 66. Later he traveled in Greece. Egypt, and Italy. He visited Rome more than once, and remained there for some time in the reign of Ves- pasian, enjoying the friendship of prominent men, lecturing on moral philosophy and gathering the materials for his historical works. Real mas- tery of the Latin language and genuine insight into Roman institutions he never attained. He established himself for the last of his life at Cha>ronea, paying frequent visits to Athens, and to Delphi, where he exercised priestly functions. At Cha'ronea he held the office of archon and that of building inspector, recording his experiences perhaps in the treatise on the precepts of govern- ment and the essay on the' question whether an old man ought to take part in politics. Greek moral philosophy being at that time the best substitute for religion, he became to many friends and young people a guide, philosopher, spiritual director, and physician of the soul, a I'Ole which a generation earlier Seneca had assumed with more self-consciousness and display at Rome. He recalled old memories of Rome and Athens in his 'table talk.' He wrote out his old lectures and pave new ones to the young people of an informal school that gathered about him. He composed dialogues in the manner of Cicero rather than of Plato. He continued his historical studies and published his parallel Lives of Greeks and Ro- nuins. These, the best known of his writings, have been called 'the food of great souls,' because of their power to kindle emulation in youth, and the enormous influence which, through Amyot, Jlontaigne. and Sliakespeare, they have exercised upon modern literature. Forty-six of them are extant, arranged in twenty-two sets. The}' cover all classical antiquity from Theseus-Romulus and Lycurgus-Xuma to Demosthenes-Cicero and Alex- ander-ticsar. They were not composed in the order of chronology or of their present arrange- ment. There are in addition four single biog- raphies. The formal comparisons that follow most of the pairs are often somewhat forced. They stirred Shakespeare's sense of humor and provoked the delightful parody of Captain Flu- ellen's comparison of King Henry to Alexander on the basis of the resemblance of JIacedon to Jlonmouth. They may be spurious, as the com- paiison was a recognized fonn of rhetorical ex- ereitation. The Lives are avowedly character sketches with a moral, rather than severe histor- ical studies. But they belong to the small category of the world's books which are read by all edu- cated men. not merely consulted by scholars, and Avhose influence spreads in ever widening circles. Our knowledge of antiquity owes more to Plu- tarch than to any other one writer, and in the loss of his sources it is hardly necessary to add that the Lives become our primary authority for countless facts of history. Hardly less interesting, though less known than the Lives, are the multifarious discursive or didactic essays and dialogues (some of them spurious) grouped under the title of Moralia. These comprise : The nine books of Table Talk or Symposiaca. a curious illustration of the play- ful pedantry that was accounted good conversa- tion in later Grseco-Roman cultured circles: edi- fying moral disquisitions enlivened by anecdote and quotation on such topics as "How a Young ilan Ought to Read Poetry." "How to Distin- guish a Flatterer from a Friend." "On Exile." "On Super.stition," Rules for the Care of the Health." "Advice to the ilarried." etc. ; more elaborate essays or dialogues on religious or philosophical topics — The Banquet of the Seven Wise ilen," "On Isis and Osiris," a chief source of our knowledge of E,a>'ptian religion : "On the Failure of the Oracles," '"On the Genius of Socrates." "On the Contradictions of the Stoics," "On the Creation of the World Soul in Plato's Tiniieus." Plutarch's intimate knowledge of Plato lends a certain unity and seriousness of tone to all this discursive literary productivity. He was widely read also in the literature of the Stoics and Epicureans, but mainly to refute them when they diverged from Plato. His religion, too. if we make allowance for the temper of the age and for suggestions derived from later phi- losophies, is best characterized as a mild, vague Platonic theism. Literal interpreters, insisting on the doctrine of demons and the allegorical mysticism, exaggerate his credulity and super- stition. As a true Platonist. he is greatly con- cerned for edification and shrinks from shocking any genuine religious faith. Hellenic patriotism required him to deal gently with Greek polythe- ism and the Greek oracles. He makes extensive and fantastic use of the allegorical methods of the Stoics and Philo for the reconciliation of philosophy with both Hellenic and barbarian
