Perhaps it would be possible to prove
this, should we direct the argument to each of the irrational 77
animals in turn. As for example, who would not say that the
birds are distinguished for shrewdness, and make use of
articulate speech? for they not only know the present but the
future, and this they augur to those that are able to understand
it, audibly as well as in other ways. I have made this
comparison superfluously, as I pointed out above, as I think 78
I had sufficiently shown before, that we cannot consider our own
ideas superior to those of the irrational animals. In short, if
the irrational animals are not more untrustworthy than we in
regard to the judgment of their ideas, and the ideas are
different according to the difference in the animals, I shall be
able to say how each object appears to me, but in regard to what
it is by nature I shall be obliged to suspend my judgment.
THE SECOND TROPE.
Such is the first Trope of [Greek: epoche]. The second, we said 79
above, is based upon the differences in men. For even if one
assent to the hypothesis that men are more trustworthy than the
irrational animals, we shall find that doubt arises as soon as
we consider our own differences. For since man is said to be
composed of two things, soul and body, we differ from each other
in respect to both of these things; for example, as regards the
body, we differ both in form and personal peculiarities. For the 80
body of a Scythian differs from the body of an Indian in
form, the difference resulting, it is said, from the different
control of the humors.
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