a rather unusual phrase for the ethical finis. Ut moveri non possint:  so [Greek:  kineisthai] is perpetually used in Sext. Est ut opinor:  so Halm after Ernesti for sit of the MSS.  I think it very likely that the MSS. reading is right, and that the whole expression is an imitation of the Greek [Greek:  hikanos eioestho] and the like.  The subj. is supported by D.F. III. 20, De Off. I. 8, Ad Att. XIII. 14, 3, where ut opinor is thrown in as here, and by Ac. II. 17, D.F. III. 21, 24, N.D. I. 109, where si placet is appended in a similar way.

Sec.Sec.30—­36.  Summary.  With respect to physical science, we might urge that nature has constructed man with great art.  His mind is naturally formed for the attainment of knowledge (30).  For this purpose the mind uses the senses, and so gradually arrives at virtue, which is the perfection of the reason.  Those then who deny that any certainty can be attained through the senses, throw the whole of life into confusion (31).  Some sceptics say “we cannot help it.”  Others distinguish between the absolute absence of certainty, and the denial of its absolute presence.  Let us deal with these rather than with the former (32).  Now they on the one hand profess to distinguish between true and false, and on the other hold that no absolutely certain method for distinguishing between true and false is possible (33).  This is absurd, a thing cannot be known at all unless by such marks as can appertain to no other thing.  How can a thing be said to be “evidently white,” if the possibility remains that it may be really black?  Again, how can a thing be “evident” at all if it may be after all a mere phantom (34)?  There is no definite mark, say the sceptics, by which a thing may be known.  Their “probability” then is mere random guess work (35).  Even if they only profess to decide after careful pondering of the circumstances, we reply that a decision which is still possibly false is useless (36).

Sec.30. Physicis:  neuter not masc.; cf.  I. 6. Libertatem et licentiam:  et = “and even.” Libertas = [Greek:  parresia] as often in Tacitus. Abditis rebus et obscuris:  cf. n. on I. 15, and the word [Greek:  syneskiasmenos] Sext. Adv.  Math. VII. 26. Lucem eripere:  like tollere (n. on 26), cf. 38, 103 and N.D. I. 6.  For the sense see n. on 16, also 61. Artificio:  this word is used in Cic. as equivalent to ars in all its senses, cf. 114 and De Or. II. 83. Fabricata esset:  the expression is sneered at in 87. Quem ad modum primum:  so Halm rightly for MSS. prima or primo, which latter is not often followed by deinde in Cicero. Primum is out of position, as in 24. Appetitio pulsa:  = mota, set in motion.  For [Greek:  horme] see 24. Intenderemus:  as in the exx. given in 20. Fons:  “reservoir,”