absolute reality can never be known.

[1] _Adv. Math._ VII. 55; _Hyp._ II. 32.

[2] _Adv. Math._ XI. 140.

[3] Diog. IX. 11, 61.




CHAPTER III.


_The Sceptical Tropes_.

The exposition of the Tropes of Pyrrhonism constitutes
historically and philosophically the most important part of the
writings of Sextus Empiricus. These Tropes represent the sum
total of the wisdom of the older Sceptical School, and were held
in high respect for centuries, not only by the Pyrrhoneans, but
also by many outside the narrow limits of that School. In the
first book of the _Hypotyposes_ Sextus gives two classes of
Tropes, those of [Greek: epochê] and the eight Tropes of
Aenesidemus against Aetiology.

The Tropes of [Greek: epochê] are arranged in groups of ten,
five and two, according to the period of the Sceptical School to
which they belong; the first of these groups is historically the
most important, or the Ten Tropes of [Greek: epochê], as these