by the other speakers, it is clearly Plutarch himself who is modestly represented under this guise. After a warning, characteristic of Plutarch both as regards its purport and the manner in which it is conveyed (by means of a historical reminiscence), that these questions are not to be tested "like a painting by the touch," the writer brings a party of philosophers together at Delphi "shortly before the Pythian games held under Callistratus." Two of these philosophers are already known to us. Like the eagles or swans of the ancient legend they had met at Delphi coming from opposite quarters of the globe;[1] Demetrius, of Tarsus, returning home from Britain, and Cleombrotus, of Lacedæmon, from prolonged journeyings by land and sea, in Egypt and the East. Cleombrotus, being possessed of a competence, employed his means and his leisure in travel, for the purpose of accumulating evidence to form the basis of that branch of philosophy whose end and aim, as he expressed it, was Theology.[2] A preliminary discussion takes place respecting the "everlasting lamp" which Cleombrotus had been shown
- [Footnote: referred to is, of course, his De Hiatu in Oratoribus Atticis et Historicis
Græcis.)]
- ↑ Plutarch does not, of course, wish to convey the suggestion that Apollo's shrine is still the centre of the earth, and that Britain is as far away in one direction as the Red Sea is in another. The oracle's repulse of Epimenides, who wished to be certain on the point, indicates that the question is one surrounded with difficulty, and that the wise man will do best to leave it alone. Bouché-Leclerq has a startling comment: "Plutarque ajoute que, de son temps, la mesure avait été verifiée par deux voyageurs partis l'un de la Grande Bretagne et l'autre du fond de la mer Rouge" (La Divination, iii. p. 80).
- ↑ 410 A, B. Cf. note, p. 90.
