"Have you not then observed how a Man's Reason (like fire, scarce visible and just going out) retires into it self, and what with inactivity and dullness, every little flitting object so flatters and endangers the extinguishing it, that there remains but some obscure indications that the Man is alive."
Whether 'Twere Rightly Said, Live Conceal'd [from Plutarch's Morals]
Text from "Whether 'Twere Rightly Said, Live Conceal'd," trans. Charles Whitaker in <u>Plutarch's Morals: Translated from the Greek by Several Hands</u>, 5th ed., vol. 3 of 5 (London: Printed for William Taylor, 1718), 35-42. &lt;<a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=U0RWAAAAYAAJ">Link to Google Books</a>&gt;<br>

<br>
See also Liberty Fund edition, digitized from <u>Plutarchâ€™s Morals. Translated from the Greek by Several Hands</u>. Corrected and Revised by William W. Goodwin, with an Introduction by Ralph Waldo Emerson, 5 vols. (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1878). This 1878 American edition is based on the 5th edition of 1718. &lt;<a href="http://oll.libertyfund.org/title/1753">Link to OLL</a>&gt;