believe, to
define the formal object of logic; to give the square of a circle; to
find the mathematical [side [87]] of the double of the cube and sphere,
or to find a fixed rule for the measurement of the degrees of longitude
of the terrestrial sphere; than to define the nature of the Indians,
and their customs and vices. This is a memorandum-book in which I have
employed myself for forty years, and I shall only say: Quadraginta
annis proximus fui generationi huic, et dixi semper hi errant corde;
[88] and I believe that Solomon himself would place this point of
knowledge after the four things impossible to his understanding which
he gives in chapter XXX, verse 18 of Proverbs. Only can they tell the
One who knows them by pointing to the sky and saying, Ipse cognovit
figmentum nostrum. [89] But in order that you may not say to me that I
am thus ridding myself of the burden of the difficulty, [90] without
making any effort or showing any obedience, I shall relate briefly
what I have observed, for it would be impossible to write everything,
if one were to use all the paper that is found in China.

2. The knowledge of men has been considered by the most erudite persons
as a difficult thing. Dificile est, noscere hominem animal varium et
versipelle. [91] Man is a changeable theater of transformations. The
inconstancies of his ages resemble the variation of the year. A
great knowledge of man did that blind man of the eighth chapter of
St. Mark have who said, with miraculous sight, that he saw men as
trees: Video homines velut arbores ambulantes. [92] For the tree in
the four seasons of the year has its changes as has man in his four
ages; and thus said the English poet Oven:

"Ver viridem flavamque aestas, me fervida canam
Autumnus calvam, frigida fecit hyems." [93]

"For this is the inconstancy of man in his [various] ages: green in
his childhood; fiery in the age of his virility; white in old age; and
bald in his decrepitude." But his greatest change is in his customs,
for he is a continual Proteus, and an inconstant Vertumnus. [94]
Thus does Martial paint his friend:

"Dificilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus est idem;
Nec tecum possum vivere, nec sine te." [95]

From this came the proverb "Quot capita, tot sententiae." [96] For
in the changeable affection of man are locked up all the meteoric
influences of natural transformations.

3. It is a fact that the difficulty of knowing these Indians is