The entire character of
his life is of course altered by such an impression." He then goes on to
say that in consequence of this mistaken idea, it is not worth while for
him to quote Dryden's 'Life of Plutarch,' which was originally prefixed
to the translations re-edited by himself. Yet I trust I may be excused
if I again quote North's 'Life of Plutarch,' as the following passage
seems to set vividly before us the quiet literary occupation of his
later days.
"For Plutarch, though he tarried a long while in Italy, and in Rome, yet
that tooke not away the remembrance of the sweet aire of Greece, and of
the little towne where he was borne; but being touched from time to time
with a sentence of an ancient poet, who saith that,
"'In whatsoever countrey men are bred
(I know not by what sweetnesse of it led),
They nourish in their minds a glad desire,
Unto their native homes for to retire,'
"he resolved to go back into Greece againe, there to end the rest of his
daies in rest and honour among his citizens, of whom he was honourably
welcomed home. Some judge that he left Rome after the death of Trajan,
being then of great yeares, to leade a more quiet life. So being then at
rest, he earnestly took in hand that which he had long thought of
before, to wit, the Lives, and tooke great pains with it until he had
brought his worke to perfection, as we have done at this present;
although that some Lives, as those of Scipio African, of Metellus
Numidicus, and some other are not to be found.
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