the surface, and these parts which thus open, and have a certain fashion
contrary to the purpose of the baker's art, are beautiful in a manner,
and in a peculiar way excite a desire for eating. And again, figs, when
they are quite ripe, gape open; and in the ripe olives the very
circumstance of their being near to rottenness adds a peculiar beauty to
the fruit. And the ears of corn bending down, and the lion's eyebrows,
and the foam which flows from the mouth of wild boars, and many other
things,--though they are far from being beautiful if a man should examine
them severally,--still, because they are consequent upon the things which
are formed by nature, help to adorn them, and they please the mind; so
that if a man should have a feeling and deeper insight with respect to
the things which are produced in the universe, there is hardly one of
those which follow by way of consequence which will not seem to him to be
in a manner disposed so as to give pleasure. And so he will see even the
real gaping jaws of wild beasts with no less pleasure than those which
painters and sculptors show by imitation; and in an old woman and an old
man he will be able to see a certain maturity and comeliness; and the
attractive loveliness of young persons he will be able to look on with
chaste eyes; and many such things will present themselves, not pleasing
to every man, but to him only who has become truly familiar with Nature
and her works.

3. Hippocrates, after curing many diseases, himself fell sick and died.
The Chaldaei foretold the deaths of many, and then fate caught them too.
Alexander and Pompeius and Caius Caesar, after so often completely
destroying whole cities, and in battle cutting to pieces many ten
thousands of cavalry and infantry, themselves too at last departed from
life. Heraclitus, after so many speculations on the conflagration of the
universe, was filled with water internally and died smeared all over with
mud. And lice destroyed Democritus; and other lice killed Socrates. What