ou are not
at all moved by "the broken oar" or "the dove's neck." In the first place,
I will ask why?--for in the case of the oar, I feel that that which appears
to be the case, is not really so; and that in the dove's neck there appear
to be many colours, but are not in reality more than one. Have we, then,
said nothing more than this? Let all our arguments stand: that man is
tearing his cause to pieces; he says that his senses are voracious.
Therefore you have always one backer who will plead the cause at his own
risk: for Epicurus brings the matter down to this point, that if once in a
man's life one of his senses has decided wrongly, none of them is ever to
be trusted. This is what he calls being true, and confiding in his own
witnesses, and urging his proofs to their just conclusion; therefore
Timagoras the Epicurean declares, that when he had twisted his eye with
his hand, he had never seen two flames appear out of one candle: for that
the error was one of opinion, and not one of his eyes; just as if the
question were what the fact is, and not what it appears to be. However, he
is just like his predecessors. But as for you, who say that of the things
perceived by your senses, some are true and some false, how do you
distinguish between them? Cease, I beg of you, to employ common topics: we
have plenty of them at home.

If any god were to ask you, while your senses are sound and unimpaired,
whether you desire anything further, what would you answer? I wish,
indeed, he would ask me! You should hear how ill he treats us: for how far
are we to look in order to see the truth? I can see the Cumaean villa of
Catulus from this place, but not his villa near Pompeii; not that there is
any obstacle interposed, but my eyesight cannot extend so far. What a
superb view! We see Puteoli, but we do not see our friend Avianus, though
he may perhaps be walking in the portico of Neptune; there was, however,
some one or other who is often spoken of in the Schools who could see
things that were a thousand and eighty furlongs off; and some birds can
see further still. I should therefore answer your god boldly, that I am
not at all contented with these eyes of mine. He will tell me, perhaps,
that I can see better than some fishes; which are not seen by us, and
which even now are beneath our eyes, and yet they cannot look up far
enough to see us: therefore, as water is shed around them, so a dense air
is around us. But we desire nothing be