otions of the senses set down either that which has no
existence for true, or that which is existent for false, it is not
strange that a man should be silent about all things, but rather that he
assent to anything; nor is it incredible that he should have no judgment
about things which appear, but rather that he should have contrary
judgments. For it is less to be wondered, that a man should neither
affirm the one nor the other but keep himself in a mean between two
opposite things, than that he should set down things repugnant and
contrary to one another. For he that neither affirms nor denies, but
keeps himself quiet, is less repugnant to him who affirms an opinion
than he who denies it, and to him who denies an opinion than he who
affirms it. Now if it is possible to withhold one's assent concerning
these things, it is not impossible also concerning others, at least
according to your opinion, who say that one sense does not exceed
another, nor one imagination another.

The doctrine then of retaining the assent is not, as Colotes thinks,
a fable or an invention of rash and light-headed young men who please
themselves in babbling and prating; but a certain habit and disposition
of men who desire to keep themselves from falling into error, not
leaving the judgment at a venture to such suspected and inconstant
senses, nor suffering themselves to be deceived by those who hold
that in doubtful matters things which do not appear to the senses are
credible and ought to be believed, when they see so great obscurity and
uncertainty in things which do appear. But the infinity you assert is a
fable, and so indeed are the images you dream of: and he breeds in
young men rashness and self-conceitedness who writ of Pythocles, not yet
eighteen years of age, that there was not in all Greece a better or more
excellent nature, that he admirably well expressed his convictions, and
that he was in other respects behaved like a women,--praying that all
these extraordinary endowments of the young man might not work him
hatred and envy. But these are sophists and arrogant, who write so
impudently and proudly against great and excellent personages. I confess
indeed, that Plato, Aristotle, Theophrastus and Democritus contradicted
those who went before them; but never durst any man besides Colotes set
forth with such an insolent title as this against all at once.

Whence it comes to pass that, like to such as have offended some
Divinity, confes