roud of; he
who was lord of the most extensive country owned a spot that
appeared to me about as large as one of Epicurus's atoms. When I
looked down upon Peloponnesus, and beheld Cynuria, {176a} I
reflected with astonishment on the number of Argives and
Lacedemonians who fell in one day, fighting for a piece of land no
bigger than an Egyptian lentil; and when I saw a man brooding over
his gold, and boasting that he had got four cups or eight rings, I
laughed most heartily at him: whilst the whole Pangaeus, {176b}
with all its mines, seemed no larger than a grain of millet.

FRIEND.

A fine sight you must have had; but how did the cities and the men
look?

MENIPPUS.

You have often seen a crowd of ants running to and fro in and out of
their city, some turning up a bit of dung, others dragging a bean-
shell, or running away with half a grain of wheat. I make no doubt
but they have architects, demagogues, senators, musicians, and
philosophers amongst them. Men, my friend, are exactly like these:
if you approve not of the comparison, recollect, if you please, the
ancient Thessalian fables, and you will find that the Myrmidons,
{177} a most warlike nation, sprung originally from pismires.

When I had thus seen and diverted myself with everything, I shook my
wings and flew off,

"To join the sacred senate of the skies." {178a}

Scarce had I gone a furlong, when the Moon, in a soft female voice,
cried out to me, "Menippus, will you carry something for me to
Jupiter, so may your journey be prosperous?" "With all my heart,"
said I, "if it is nothing very heavy." "Only a message," replied
she, "a small petition to him: my patience is absolutely worn out
by the philosophers, who are perpetually disputing about me, who I
am, of what size, how it happens that I am sometimes round and full,
at others cut in half; some say I am inhabited, others that I am
only a looking-glass hanging over the sea, and a hundred conjectures
of this kind; even my light, {178b} they say, is none of my own, but
stolen from the Sun; thus endeavouring to set me and my brother
together by the ears, not content with abusing him, and calling him
a hot stone, and a mass of fire. In the meantime, I am no stranger
to what these men, who look so grave and sour all day, are doing o'
nights; but I see and say nothing, not thinking it decent to lay
open their vile and abominable lives to the public; for when I catch
them thieving, or practisi