least impiety either in his actions or his words. Nor did he amuse
himself to reason of the secrets of nature, or to search into the manner
of the creation of what the sophists call the world, nor to dive into the
cause of the motions of the celestial bodies. On the contrary, he
exposed the folly of such as give themselves up to these contemplations;
and he asked whether it was, after having acquired a perfect knowledge of
human things, that they undertook to search into the divine, or if they
thought themselves very wise in neglecting what concerned them to employ
themselves in things above them? He was astonished likewise that they
did not see it was impossible for men to comprehend anything of all those
wonders, seeing they who have the reputation of being most knowing in
them are of quite different opinions, and can agree no better than so
many fools and madmen; for as some of these are not afraid of the most
dangerous and frightful accidents, while others are in dread of what is
not to be feared, so, too, among those philosophers, some are of opinion
that there is no action but what may be done in public, nor word that may
not freely be spoken before the whole world, while others, on the
contrary, believe that we ought to avoid the conversation of men and keep
in a perpetual solitude. Some have despised the temples and the altars,
and have taught not to honour the gods, while others have been so
superstitious as to worship wood, stones, and irrational creatures. And
as to the knowledge of natural things, some have confessed but one only
being; others have admitted an infinite number: some have believed that
all things are in a perpetual motion; others that nothing moves: some
have held the world to be full of continual generations and corruptions;
others maintain that nothing is engendered or destroyed. He said besides
that he should be glad to know of those persons whether they were in
hopes one day to put in practice what they learned, as men who know an
art may practise it when they please either for their own advantage or
for the service of their friends; or whether they did imagine that, after