Plutarch on Exercises Proper for a Scholar

Plutarch, Matthew Poole · Constitution of Man Series · 7 pages

A dialogue between Moschion and Zeuxippus, published in Plutarch's Morals under the title Rules for the preservation of health, in Matthew Poole's translation from the Goodwin revision of 1878. The joke it opens with sets the tone: as the man who said he would prescribe nothing for the teeth to those who lived by the sea was teaching them the benefit of sea-water, so one would think there was no need to write to scholars about exercise at all.

The exercise recommended is the daily use of speech, and the claim made for it is not metaphorical. It is wonderful, Plutarch says, what an exercise speaking is, not only for health but for strength — though not fleshly and athletic strength, the kind that makes the external parts firm like the outside of a house, but the kind that gives right tone and inward vigour to the vital and noble parts. The physiology offered is that of his day: the voice, being a motion of the spirit firmly seated in the bowels as in a fountain, increases the heat, thins the blood, purges every vein, opens all the arteries, and prevents the coagulation of any superfluous matter. The analogy given is to those who anointed wrestlers and had them hold their breath against the friction, observing carefully which parts were being rubbed.

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