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A word on the terminology is necessary: Aristotelian usage is probably intended throughout the greater part of the w ork. I have, therefore, followed most English Aristotelians in my rendering of many terms, with δύναμις capacity or faculty or power, φρόνησις prudence, and the like. ἕξις I have rendered acquired state, but πάθος and its forms and derivatives I have translated emotions, passions, experiences, according to my interpretation of the context.See Mr. H. Rackham’s very just remarks in the preface to his recent (L.C.L., 1935) edition of the Atheniensium Respublica.
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It is interesting to notice that Pope in the Essay on Man (ii. 51 if.) has apparently drawn his philosophy from Plutarch’s diluted Aristotelianism rather than from the fountain head. Cf. T. Sinko (Eos, xv. 1909, pp. 119-122), who further holds this essay to be the product of Plutarch’s youth, comparing the more mature attitude toward the passions to be found in De Cohibenda Ira and De Tranquillitate Animi.
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The ms. tradition is fairly good. The work has been well edited by Mr. Pohlenz in the Teubner series; from this edition most of the critical notes and the parallel passages have been taken.
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The work is No. 72 in Lamprias’s catalogue of Plutarch’s writings.
