CLI. The things are as clear as daylight.

IPH. A hundred accidents happen every day which convince the greatest
unbelievers.

CLI. Quite true.

TIM. Who could contradict the many famous incidents which are related
to us in books?

CLI. Only people devoid of common sense can do so; how can anything in
print be doubted?

ARI. Sostratus has not said a word yet. What is your opinion about it?

SOS. Madam, all minds are not gifted with the necessary qualities
which the delicacy of those fine sciences called abstruse require.
There are some so material that they cannot conceive what others
understand most easily. There is nothing more agreeable, Madam, than
all the great promises of these sublime sciences. To transform
everything into gold; to cause people to live for ever; to cure with
words; to make ourselves loved by whomsoever we please; to know all
the secrets of futurity; to bring down from heaven, according to one's
will, on metals, impressions of happiness; to command demons, to raise
invisible armies and invulnerable soldiers--all this is delightful, no
doubt; and there are people who experience no difficulty whatever in
believing all this to be possible; it is the easiest thing for them to
conceive. But for me, I acknowledge that my coarse, gross mind can
hardly understand and refuses to believe it; that, in fact, it thinks
it all too good ever to be true. All those beautiful arguments of