Chapter XXXIV. How Plato Changed the Oracles in Proverbs Into a More Hellenic Form

IN the Proverbsof Solomon it is briefly stated: ‘The memory of the just is associated with praises, but the name of the ungodly is extinguished’;[1] and again it is said: ‘Call no man blessed before his death’[2]: so now hear how Plato interprets the thought in the seventh Book of the Laws,saying:

[P] [3] ‘Whosoever of the citizens should reach the end of their life after having wrought good and laborious works either in body or soul, and been obedient to the laws, it would be fitting that they should receive eulogies.

‘By all means.

‘It is not safe, however, to honour those who are still alive with eulogies and hymns, before a man has finished his whole course of life, and crowned it with a noble end. And let us have all these honours common to men and to women who have been conspicuously good.’