Yet another takes his stand upon the false or the true
orthography, and so on, with various similar nonsense only worthy of
contempt. They fast, they become thin and emaciated, they scourge the
skin, and lengthen the beard, they rot, and in these things they place
the anchor of their highest good. They despise fortune, and put up
these as shield and refuge against the strokes of fate. With such-like
most vile thoughts they think to mount to the stars, to be equal to
gods, and to understand the good and the beautiful which philosophy
promises.
CES. A grand thing, indeed, that time, which does not suffice for
necessary things, however carefully we use it, should come to be chiefly
consumed about superfluous things, and things vile and shameful.
Is it not rather a thing to laugh at than to praise in Archimedes, that
at the time when the city was in confusion, everything in ruins, fire
broken out in his room, enemies there at his back who had it in their
power to make him lose his brain, his life, his art; that he, meanwhile,
having abandoned all desire or intention of saving his life, lost it
while he was inquiring, perhaps, into the proportion of the curve to the
straight line, of the diameter to the circle, or other similar mathesis,
as suitable for youth, as it were unsuitable for one who, being old,
should be intent upon things more worthy of being put as the end of
human desires?
MAR.
Pages:
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62