The Characters of Theophrastus

The Characters of Theophrastus - A Translation, with Introduction

What stories are new? asks Thackeray, subtle observer of men. All types of all characters march through all fables: tremblers and boasters; victims and bullies: dupes and knaves; long-eared Neddies, giving themselves leonine airs; Tartuffes wearing virtuous clothing; lovers and their trials, their blindness, their folly and constancy. With the very first page of the human story do not love, and lies too, begin? So the tales were told ages before sop; and asses under lions manes roared in Hebrew; and sly foxes flattered in Etruscan; and wolves in sheeps clothing gnashed their teeth in Sanscrit, no doubt. The sun shines[xii] to-day as he did when he first began shining; and the birds in the tree overhead, while I am writing, sing very much the same note they have sung ever since there were finches. There may be nothing new under and including the sun; but it looks fresh every morning, and we rise with it to toil, hope, scheme, laugh, struggle, love, suffer, until the night comes and quiet. And then will wake Morrow and the eyes that look on it; and so da capo. All this is very true; the changes which may be observed in human nature are small, and the old types of Theophrastus are all about us nowadays and really look and act much the same as they did to the eyes of the ancient Peripatetic. Offices and institutions have somewhat changed, and many character-types due to new vocations have come into being since then, e.g. the newsboy, the bishop, the reporter, the hotel-clerk, and the[xiii] jockey. But these are only accidents of civilization, and the peculiarities of office or the type or professional character do not touch the vital essence of human nature, although they may modify its expression. When one speaks of a coward, one means an intrinsic quality in human kind which is essentially the same whether found in a hoplite or in a modern infantryman, but which may express itself differently in the two cases. The types described by Theophrastus are types of such intrinsic qualities, and his pictures of ancient vices and weaknesses show men much as we see them now. They are not merely types of professions or callings. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 58242
Author: Theophrastus, 369? BCE-285? BCE
Release Date: Nov 6, 2018
Format: eBook
Language: English

Contributors

Translator: Bennett, Charles E. (Charles Edwin), 1858-1921, Hammond, William A. (William Alexander), 1861-1938