ill easily defend itself, even if
we are absent.

These things, then, which have now been explained, being sufficiently
understood, we will proceed to say a little on the subject of assent and
approbation, which the Greeks call {~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER UPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER TAU~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER ALPHA WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER THETA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER SIGMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}. Not that the subject
itself is not an extensive one, but because the foundations have been
already laid a little while ago. For when we were explaining what power
there was in the senses, this point was at the same time established, that
many things were comprehended and perceived by the senses, which is a
thing which cannot take place without assent. Secondly, as this is the
principal difference between an inanimate and an animated being, that the
inanimate being does nothing, but the animated one does something (for it
is impossible even to imagine what kind of animal that can be which does
nothing)--either sense must be taken from it, or else assent (which is
wholly in our own power) must be given. But mind is in some degree denied
to those beings whom they will not allow either to feel or to assent. For
as it is inevitable that one scale of a balance must be depressed when a
weight is put in it, so the mind, too, must yield to what is evident; for
just as it is impossible for any animal to forbear discerning what is
manifestly suited to its nature (the Greeks call that {~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PSILI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER KAPPA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER EPSILON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER IOTA WITH PERISPOMENI~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER NU~}), so it is
equally impossible for it to withhold its assent to a manifest fact which
is brought under its notice.

Although, if those principles which we have been maintaining are true,
there is no advantage whatever in discussing assent. For he who perceives
anything, assents immediately. But these inferences also follow,--that
memory can have no existence without assent, no more can notions of things
or arts. And what is most important of all is, that, although some things
may be in our power, yet they will not be in the power of that man who
assents to nothing.