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There are, then, many kinds of political activity by which old men may readily benefit the commonwealth by giving of their best, namely reason, judgement, frankness, and sapience profound, as poets sayPlutarch seems to have no particular poet in mind, but merely indicates that he is using poetic diction.; for not only do our hands or our feet or the strength of our body constitute a possession and a part of the State, but first of all our soul and the beauties of the soul - justice, moderation, and wisdom. And since these acquire their proper quality late and slowly, it is absurd that house, farm, and other property or possessions should derive all the benefit from aged men but that they should be no longer of use to their country in general and their fellow-citizens by reason of their age, for age does not so much diminish our power to perform inferior services as it increases our power for leading and governing. And that is the reason why they make the older Hermae without hands or feet, but with their private parts stiff,Plutarch seems to be in error; at any rate the extant Hermae which represent elderly men do not differ in the particular mentioned from those which represent younger men. indicating figuratively that there is no need whatsoever of old men who are active by their body’s use, if they keep their mind, as it should be, active and fertile.
