the universe and of all that is in the universe; however, that he has not the figure of a man; and that he is the creator of the universe, and as it were the Father of all things in common, and that a portion of him pervades everything. Zeno. lxxii. But Chrysippus, Posidonius, Zeno, and Boëthus say, that all things are produced by fate. And fate is a connected cause of existing things, or the reason according to which the world is regulated. lxxiv. Apollodorus says, "If any one were to take away from the books of Chrysippus all the passages which he quotes from other authors, his paper would be left empty." Chrysippus. iii. One of the sophisms of Chrysippus was, "If you have not lost a thing, you have it." xi. Pythagoras used to say that he had received as a gift from Mercury the perpetual transmigration of his soul, so that it was constantly transmigrating and passing into all sorts of plants or animals. Pythagoras. iv. He calls drunkenness an expression identical with ruin.1 vi. Among what he called his precepts were such as these : Do not stir the fire with a sword. Do not sit down on a bushel. Do not devour thy heart.2 xvii. In the time of Pythagoras that proverbial phrase "Ipse dixit" was introduced into ordinary life. 8 XXV. Xenophanes was the first person who asserted... that the soul is a spirit. Xenophanes. ii It takes a wise man to discover a wise man. Ibid. Protagoras asserted that there were two sides to every question, exactly opposite to each other. Protagoras. iii 1 See Hall, page 457. 2 See Spenser, page 30. 8 Αὐτὸς ἔφα (The master said so). And no man knows distinctly anything, And no man ever will. Pyrrho. viii. Democritus says, "But we know nothing really; for truth lies deep down." Euripides says, Who knows but that this life is really death, Ibia And whether death is not what men call life? Ibid. The mountains, too, at a distance appear airy masses and smooth, but seen near at hand, they are rough. iz. If appearances are deceitful, then they do not deserve any confidence when they assert what appears to them to be true. zi. The chief good is the suspension of the judgment, which tranquillity of mind follows like its shadow. Ibid. Epicurus laid down the doctrine that pleasure was the chief good. Epicurus ri. He alludes to the appearance of a face in the orb of the moon. Fortune is unstable, while our will is free. (Translation by C. D. Yonge, B. A.) It was a saying of Demetrius Phalereus, that "Men having often abandoned what was visible for the sake of what was uncertain, have not got what they expected, and have lost what they had, being unfortunate by an enigmatical sort of calamity." 8 1 See Shakespeare, page 146. The Deipnosophists. vi. 23. 2 See Campbell, page 8 Said with reference to mining operations. 512. ATHENÆUS. AUGUSTINE. ALI TALEB. - 767 Every investigation which is guided by principles of Nature fixes its ultimate aim entirely on gratifying the stomach.1 The Deipnosophists. vii. 11. Dorion, ridiculing the description of a tempest in the "Nautilus" of Timotheus, said that he had seen a more formidable storm in a boiling saucepan." On one occasion some one put a very little wine wine-cooler, and said that it was sixteen years old. very small for its age," said Gnathæna. viii. 19. into a "It is xiii. 47. Goodness does not consist in greatness, but greatness in goodness.3 SAINT AUGUSTINE. 354-430. xiv. 46. When I am here, I do not fast on Saturday; when at Rome, I do fast on Saturday. Epistle 36. To Casulanus. The spiritual virtue of a sacrament is like light, al though it passes among the impure, it is not polluted.5 Works. Vol. iii. In Johannis Evangelum, c. tr. 5, Sect. 15. ALI BEN ABOU TALEB. -660. Believe me, a thousand friends suffice thee not; 1 See Johnson, page 371. 3 See Chapman, page 37. 5 See Bacon, page 169. 2 Tempest in a teapot. - Proverb. 4 See Burton, page 193. 6 Ali Ben Abou Taleb, son-in-law of Mahomet, and fourth caliph, who was for his courage called "The Lion of God," was murdered A. D. 660. He was the author of a "Hundred Sayings." 7 Translated by Ralph Waldo Emerson, and wrongly called by him a translation from Omar Khayyám. Found in Dr. Hermann Tolowiez's "Polyglotte der Orientalischen Poesie." Translated by James Russell Lowell thus: He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, 768 OMAR KHAYYẨM. ALPHONSO THE WISE. OMAR KHAYYẨM. --1123. (Translated by Edward Fitzgerald.) I sometimes think that never blows so red A Moment's Halt a momentary taste Of BEING from the Well amid the Waste And, Lo! the phantom Caravan has reach'd The NOTHING it set out from. Oh, make haste! Heav'n but the Vision of fulfill'd Desire, Stanza zlviii. Stanza lxvii. The Moving Finger writes; and having writ, Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. Stanza Izzi. Better than in the Temple lost outright. Stanza Izzrii. Stanza ci. ALPHONSO THE WISE. 1221-1284. Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.1 1 Carlyle says, in his "History of Frederick the Great," book ii. chap. vii. that this saying of Alphonso about Ptolemy's astronomy, "that it seemned a crank machine; that it was pity the Creator had not taken advice," is still remembered by mankind, this and no other of his many sayings. VILLON. DANTE. 1265-1321. (Cary's Translation.) All hope abandon, ye who enter here. Hell. Canto iii. Line 9. The wretched souls of those who lived No greater grief than to remember days Line 34. Canto v. Line 121. 1 See Longfellow, page 618. 2 But where is last year's snow? This was the greatest care that Villon, the Parsian poet, took.-RABELAIS book ii. chap. xiv. |