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A Why, yes! nothing could be more fmportant. But even yet I don’t clearly understand what you mean.
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B Well, I made straight for Rome, wanting to see an oculist; for I was having more and more trouble with my eye.
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A I know all that, and hoped you would find an able man.
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B As I had resolved to pay my respects to Nigrinus the Platonic philosopher, which I had not done for a long time, I got up early and went to his house, and when I had knocked at the door and the man had announced me, I was asked in. On entering, I found him with a book in his hands and many busts of ancient philosophers standing round about. Beside him there had been placed a tablet filled with figures in geometry and a reed globe, made, I thought, to represent the universe.
3
Well, he greeted me in very friendly way and asked me how I was getting on. I told him everything, and naturally in my own tum wanted to know how he was getting on, and whether he had made up his mind to take the trip to Greece again. Beginning:-to talk on these topics and to explain his position, my dear fellow, he poured enough ambrosial speech over me to put out of date the famous Sirens Odyss. 12, 39; 167. (if there ever were any) and the nightingales Odyss. 19, 518. and the lotus of Homer. Odyss. 9, 94. The lotus is mentioned because of its effect. 1t made Odysseus’ shipmates Among the Lotus-eaters fain to stay And gather lotus, and forget their homes. A divine utterance!
