Kitap 2
20
What are you doing, man? What follows is against the Academics, who denied the evidence of the senses.—C. You contradict yourself every day; and you will not give up these paltry cavils. When you eat, where do you put your hand,—to your mouth, or to your eye? When you bathe, where do you go? Do you ever call a kettle a dish, or a spoon a spit? If I were a servant to one of these gentlemen, were it at the hazard of being flayed every day, I would plague him. Throw some oil into the bath, boy. I would take pickle, and pour upon his head. What is this? Really, sir, I was impressed by a certain semblance so like oil as not to be distinguished from it. Give me the soup. I would carry him a dish full of vinegar. Did I not ask for the soup? Yes, sir; this is the soup. Is not this vinegar? Why so, more than soup? Take it and smell it, take it and taste it. How do you know, then, but our senses deceive us? If I had three or four fellow-servants to join with me, I would make him either choke with passion and burst, or change his opinions. But now they insult us by making use of the gifts of nature, while in words they destroy them. Those must be grateful and modest men, at least, who, while eating their daily bread, dare to say, We do not know whether there be any such beings as Demeter, or Core, or Pluto. Not to mention that while they possess the blessings of night and day, of the annual seasons, of the stars, the earth, and the sea, they are not the last affected by any of these things; but only study to give out some idle problem, and when they have thus relieved themselves, go and bathe; but take not the least care what they say, nor on what subjects, nor to whom, nor what may be the consequence of their talk,—whether any well-disposed young man, on hearing such doctrines, may not be affected by them, and so affected as entirely to lose the seeds of his good disposition; whether they may not furnish an adulterer with occasions of growing shameless in his guilt; whether a public plunderer may not find excuses from these doctrines; whether he, who neglects his parents, may not gain an additional confidence from them.
