the infinitely great, so that we lose ourselves in them and no longer see virtues. We find fault with perfection itself.
358. Man is neither angel nor brute, and the unfortunate thing is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.
359. We do not sustain ourselves in virtue by our own strength, but by the balancing of two opposed vices, just as we remain upright amidst two contrary gales. Remove one of the vices, and we fall into the other.
360. What the Stoics propose is so difficult and foolish!
The Stoics lay down that all those who are not at the high degree of wisdom are equally foolish and vicious, as those who are two inches under water.
361. The sovereign good. Dispute about the sovereign good.--Ut sis contentus temetipso et ex te nascentibus bonis.48 There is a contradiction, for in the end they advise suicide. Oh! What a happy life, from which we are to free ourselves as from the plague!
362. Ex senatus-consultis et plebiscitis...
To ask like passages.
363. Ex senatus-consultis et plebiscitis scelera exercentur. Seneca.
588.[49]
Nihil tam absurde dici potest quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosophorum.50
Quibusdam destinatis sententiis consecrati quae non probant coguntur defendere.51
Ut omnium rerum sic litterarum quoque intemperantia laboramus.52
Id maxime quemque decet, quod est cujusque suum maxime.53
Hos natura modos primum dedit.54
Paucis opus est litteris ad bonam mentem.55
Si quando turpe non sit, tamen non est non turpe quum id a multitudine laudetur.56
Mihi sic usus est, tibi ut opus est facto, fac.57
364. Rarum est enim ut satis se quisque vereatur.58
Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes deos.59
Nihil turpius quam cognitioni assertionem praecurrere.60
Nec me pudet, ut