ON ECONOMICS.

Prior to all things, it is requisite to speak of the works through which the union of a family is preserved. These, therefore, are to be divided after the accustomed manner; viz. rural, forensic, and political works are to be attributed to the husband; but to the wife, such works as pertain to spinning wool, making of bread, cooking, and, in short, every thing of a domestic nature. Nevertheless, it is not fit that the one should be entirely exempt from the works of the other. For sometimes it will be proper when the wife is in the country that she should superintend the labourers, and perform the office of the master of the house; and that the husband should sometimes convert his attention to domestic affairs; and partly inquire about, and partly inspect what is doing in the house. For thus, what pertains to the mutual association of both will be more firmly connected by their joint participation of necessary cares. Since, however, our discussion has extended thus far, it appears to me that I ought not to omit to mention manual operations;[113] for it will not be incongruous to add this also to what has been said about works.

What occasion, therefore, is there to say, that it is fit the man should meddle with agricultural labours? For there are not many by whom this will not be admitted. But though so much luxury and idleness occupies the life of men of the present day, yet it is rare to find one who is not willing to engage in the labour of sowing and planting; and to be employed in other works which pertain to agriculture. Perhaps, however, the arguments will be much less persuasive, which call on the man to engage in those other works which belong to the woman. For such men as pay great attention to neatness and cleanliness will not conceive the spinning of wool to be their business: since, for the most part, vile diminutive men, and the tribe of such as are delicate and effeminate apply themselves to the elaboration of wool, through an emulation of feminine softness. But it does not become a man, who is truly so called, to apply himself to things of this kind; so that neither shall I, perhaps, advise those to engage in such employments, who have not given perfectly credible indications of their virility and modesty. What, therefore, should hinder the man from partaking of[114] the works which pertain to a woman, whose past life has been such as to free him from all suspicion of absurd and effeminate conduct? For in other domestic works, is it not thought that more of them pertain to men than to women? For they are more laborious, and require corporeal strength, such as to grind, to knead meal, to cut wood, to draw water from a well, to transfer large vessels from one place to another; to shake coverlets and carpets, and every other work similar to these. And it will be sufficient, indeed, for these things to be performed by men. But it is also fit that some addition should be made to the legitimate work of a woman, so that she may not only engage with her maid servants in the spinning of wool, but may also apply herself to other more virile works. For it appears to me that the making of bread, the drawing of water [from a well], the lighting of fires, the making of beds, and every other work similar to these are the proper employments of a freeborn woman. But a wife will seem much more beautiful to her husband, and especially if she is young, and not yet worn out by the bearing of children, if she becomes his associate in gathering grapes, and collecting olives; and if he is verging to old age, she will[115] render herself more pleasing to him, by partaking with him of the labour of sowing and ploughing, and extending to him, while he is digging or planting, the instruments proper for such works. For when a family is governed after this manner by the husband and wife, so far as pertains to necessary works, it appears to me that it will be conducted in this respect in the best manner.

THE END.

C. Whittingham, College House, Chiswick.

THE FOLLOWING IS A LIST OF TRANSLATIONS AND ORIGINAL WORKS

BY T. TAYLOR.

Translations.

FROM THE GREEK.

THE HYMNS OF ORPHEUS, 12mo. 2s. 6d. sewn.

PLOTINUS ON THE BEAUTIFUL, 12mo. 1s. 6d. sewn.

PROCLUS ON EUCLID, and his Elements of Theology, in which the principal Dogmas of a Theology coeval with the Universe are unfolded. 2 vols. 4to. 2l. 10s. boards.

FOUR DIALOGUES OF PLATO, viz. the Cratylus, Phædo, Parmenides, and Timæus, 8vo. 7s. 6d. boards.

THE PHÆDRUS OF PLATO, 4to. 6s. boards.

SALLUST ON THE GODS AND THE WORLD. 8vo. 3s. boards.

TWO ORATIONS OF THE EMPEROR JULIAN, one to the Sovereign Sun, and the other to the Mother of the Gods. 8vo. 3s. boards.

FIVE BOOKS OF PLOTINUS, viz. on Felicity; on the Nature and Origin of Evil; on Providence; on Nature. Contemplation, and the One; and on the Descent of the Soul. 8vo. 5s. boards.

PAUSANIAS’S DESCRIPTION OF GREECE, with copious Notes, in which much of the Mythology of the Greeks is unfolded from genuine ancient sources. 3 vols. 8vo. 18s. boards.

ARISTOTLE’S METAPHYSICS, with copious Notes, in which the Platonic Doctrine of Ideas is largely unfolded. 4to. 2l. 2s. boards.

THE DISSERTATIONS OF MAXIMUS TYRIUS. 2 vols. 12mo. 12s. boards.

THE WORKS OF PLATO, in which the Substance is given of nearly all the existing Greek MSS., Commentaries and Scholia on Plato, and his most abstruse Dogmas are unfolded. 5 vols. 4to. 10l. 10s. boards.

THE WORKS OF ARISTOTLE, accompanied with copious Elucidations from the best of his Greek Commentators, viz. Alexander Aphrodisiensis, Syrianus, Ammonius Hermæas, Priscianus, Olympiodorus, Simplicius, &c. 9 vols. 4to. 47l. 5s. boards.

THE SIX BOOKS OF PROCLUS ON THE THEOLOGY OF PLATO, to which a Seventh Book is added by the Translator, in order to supply the deficiency of another Book on this subject, which was written by Proclus, but since lost. Also Proclus’s Elements of Theology. 2 vols. 4to. 5l. 10s. boards.

SELECT WORKS OF PLOTINUS, and Extracts from Synesius on Providence. 8vo. 18s. boards.

IAMBLICHUS’ LIFE OF PYTHAGORAS, or Pythagoric Life. Accompanied by Fragments of the Ethical Writings of certain Pythagoreans, in the Doric Dialect; and a Collection of Pythagoric Sentences from Stobæus and others, which are omitted by Gale in his Opuscula Mythologica, and have not been noticed by any Editor. 8vo. 14s. boards.

THE COMMENTARIES OF PROCLUS ON THE TIMÆUS OF PLATO. In the translation of this admirable work, which is most deservedly intitled A Treasury of all Ancient Philosophy, upwards of eleven hundred necessary emendations of the text are given by the Translator. The mathematical also, as well as the philosophical reader, will find these Commentaries replete with information of a most interesting nature, which has hitherto escaped the notice of all modern writers; such as that the Atlantic Ocean, beyond the Straits of Gibraltar, was marshy and full of breakers in the time of Plato and Aristotle, owing to the subsidency of the Atlantic Island; that the fixed stars have periodic revolutions on their axis, unknown to us; that every planet has a multitude of satellites; and many other equally admirable and interesting particulars. 2 vols. royal 4to. 5l. 5s. boards.

IAMBLICHUS ON THE MYSTERIES OF THE EGYPTIANS, CHALDÆANS, AND ASSYRIANS. 8vo. 16s.

POLITICAL PYTHAGORIC FRAGMENTS, and ETHICAL FRAGMENTS OF HIEROCLES, preserved by Stobæus. 8vo. 6s.

FROM THE LATIN.

THE FABLE OF CUPID AND PSYCHE FROM APULEIUS, with an Introduction explaining the Meaning of the Fable, and proving that it alludes to the Descent of the Soul. 8vo. 5s. boards.

PROCLUS ON PROVIDENCE AND FATE; Extracts from his Treatise entitled Ten Doubts concerning Providence; and Extracts from his Treatise on the Subsistence of Evil; as preserved in the Bibliotheca Gr. of Fabricius. See Proclus on the Theology of Plato.

Original Works.

HISTORY OF THE RESTORATION OF THE PLATONIC THEOLOGY, by the genuine Disciples of Plato. See the second vol. of Proclus on Euclid.

A DISSERTATION ON THE ELEUSINIAN AND BACCHIC MYSTERIES, in which much new and important Information, relative to those most venerable and august Institutions, is given from Greek Manuscripts. 8vo. 5s. A Second Edition of this Work is printed in Nos. XV. and XVI. of the Pamphleteer.

A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF ALL THE EXISTING CHALDÆAN ORACLES, with concise Explanations. See the third vol. of the Old Monthly Magazine; Nos. XXXII. XXXIII. and XXXIV. of the Classical Journal.

A DISSERTATION ON NULLITIES AND DIVERGING SERIES, in which Nullities are proved to be infinitely small quantities, and the Platonic Doctrine of το εν, or the One, is illustrated. See the end of the first edition of the Translation of Aristotle’s Metaphysics.

AN ANSWER to Dr. Gillies’s Supplement to his Translation of Aristotle’s Ethics and Politics, in which the extreme Unfaithfulness of that Translation is unfolded. 12mo. 2s. 6d. sewn.

A POETICAL PARAPHRASE on the SPEECH OF DIOTIMA ON THE BEAUTIFUL, in the Banquet of Plato. See the Translation of the Fable of Cupid and Psyche.

HYMNS. See the before-mentioned Sallust, Julian, Plotinus, and Cupid and Psyche.

A new edition of HEDERIC’S GREEK LEXICON, in which many words are inserted, not found in other modern Lexicons, and an Explanation is given of some words agreeably to the Platonic Philosophy. 4to. 1803. 2l. 2s. boards.

THE ELEMENTS OF THE TRUE ARITHMETIC OF INFINITES, in which all the Propositions in the Arithmetic of Infinites invented by Dr. Wallis, relative to the Summation of Infinite Series, and also the Principles of the Doctrine of Fluxions, are demonstrated to be false; and the Nature of Infinitesimals is unfolded. 4to. 5s. sewn.

MISCELLANIES IN PROSE AND VERSE; containing the Triumph of the Wise Man over Fortune, according to the Doctrine of the Stoics and Platonists; The Creed of the Platonic Philosopher; A Panegyric on Sydenham, &c. &c. 12mo. 2s. 6d. boards.

A DISSERTATION ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF ARISTOTLE, in four Books; in which his principal Physical and Metaphysical Dogmas are unfolded; and it is shown from indubitable evidence, that his Philosophy has not been accurately known since the destruction of the Greeks. The insufficiency also of the Philosophy that has been substituted by the Moderns for that of Aristotle is demonstrated. This volume was written as an Introduction to the Translation of Aristotle’s Works. 4to. 5l. 5s. boards.

THEORETIC ARITHMETIC, in three Books; containing the Substance of all that has been written on this Subject by Theo of Smyrna, Nicomachus, Iamblichus, and Bœtius.—Together with some remarkable particulars respecting perfect, amicable, and other Numbers, which are not to be found in the writings of any ancient or modern Mathematicians. Likewise a Specimen of the manner in which the Pythagoreans philosophized about Numbers; and a Developement of their mystical and theological Arithmetic, 8vo. 14s. boards.

ORPHIC FRAGMENTS, hitherto inedited. See No. XXXIII. of the Classical Journal.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Pg 14: ‘rulers that excell’ replaced by ‘rulers that excel’. Pg 81: ‘to be seperated’ replaced by ‘to be separated’. Pg 98: ‘external af-affairs’ replaced by ‘external affairs’. Footnote 51 (Pg 107): “the’ o’erflowings” replaced by “th’ o’erflowings”. Catalog: ‘EGYPTIANS, CHALDEANS’ replaced by ‘EGYPTIANS, CHALDÆANS’.