much better to be free, as I am and not compelled to find an answer to all the riddles of the universe! (120) Nothing can exist, say you, apart from the deity.  Strato, however, says he does not need the deity to construct the universe.  His mode of construction again differs from that of Democritus.  I see some good in Strato, yet I will not assent absolutely either to his system or to yours (121).  All these matters lie far beyond our ken.  We know nothing of our bodies, which we can dissect, while we have not the advantage of being able to dissect the constitution of things or of the earth to see whether she is firmly fixed or hovers in mid air (122).  Xenophanes, Hicetas, Plato and Epicurus tell strange things of the heavenly bodies.  How much better to side with Socrates and Aristo, who hold that nothing can be known about them! (123) Who knows the nature of mind?  Numberless opinions clash, as do those of Dicaearchus, Plato and Xenocrates.  Our sapiens will be unable to decide (124).  If you say it is better to choose any system rather than none, I choose Democritus.  You at once upbraid me for believing such monstrous falsehoods (125).  The Stoics differ among themselves about physical subjects, why will they not allow me to differ from them? (126) Not that I deprecate the study of Physics, for moral good results from it (127).  Our sapiens will be delighted if he attains to anything which seems to resemble truth.  Before I proceed to Ethics, I note your weakness in placing all perceptions on the same level.  You must be prepared to asseverate no less strongly that the sun is eighteen times as large as the earth, than that yon statue is six feet high.  When you admit that all things can be perceived no more and no less clearly than the size of the sun, I am almost content (128).

Sec.116. Tres partes:  cf.  I. 19. Et a vobismet:  “and especially by you”.  The threefold division was peculiarly Stoic, though used by other schools, cf.  Sext. P.H. II. 13 (on the same subject) [Greek:  hoi Stoikoi kai alloi tines].  For other modes of dividing philosophy see Sext. A.M. VII. 2. At illud ante:  this is my em. for the MSS. velut illud ante, which probably arose from a marginal variant “vel ut” taking the place of at; cf. a similar break in 40 sed prius, also in 128 at paulum ante.  Such breaks often occur in Cic., as in Orator 87 sed nunc aliud, also T.D. IV. 47 repenam fortasse, sed illud ante. For velut Halm writes vel (which Bait. takes), Dav. verum. Inflatus tumore:  cf. De Off. I. 91 inflati opinionibus. Bentl. read errore. Cogere:  this word like [Greek:  anankazein] and [Greek:  biazesthai] often means simply to argue irresistibly. Initia:  as in 118, bases of proof, themselves naturally incapable of proof, so [Greek:  archai] in Gk. Digitum:  cf. 58, 143. Punctum esse etc.:  [Greek: