act is the appearance (the opinion), whether the thing appears good or
bad. If good, he is free from blame; if bad, himself suffers the
penalty, for it is impossible that he who is deceived can be one person,
and he who suffers another person--whoever remembers this will not be
angry with any man, will not be vexed at any man, will not revile or
blame any man, nor hate, nor quarrel with any man.

So then all these great and dreadful deeds have this origin, in the
appearance (opinion)? Yes, this origin and no other. The Iliad is
nothing else than appearance and the use of appearances. It appeared to
Alexander to carry off the wife of Menelaus. It appeared to Helene to
follow him. If then it had appeared to Menelaus to feel that it was a
gain to be deprived of such a wife, what would have happened? Not only
would the Iliad have been lost, but the Odyssey also. On so small a
matter then did such great things depend? But what do you mean by such
great things? Wars and civil commotions, and the destruction of many men
and cities. And what great matter is this? Is it nothing? But what great
matter is the death of many oxen, and many sheep, and many nests of
swallows or storks being burnt or destroyed? Are these things then like
those? Very like. Bodies of men are destroyed, and the bodies of oxen
and sheep; the dwellings of men are burnt, and the nests of storks. What
is there in this great or dreadful? Or show me what is the difference
between a man's house and a stork's nest, as far as each is a dwelling;
except that man builds his little houses of beams and tiles and bricks,
and the stork builds them of sticks and mud. Are a stork and a man then
like things? What say you? In body they are very much alike.

Does a man then differ in no respect from a stork? Don't suppose that I
say so; but there is no difference in these matters (which I have
mentioned). In what then is the difference? Seek and you will find that