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Patrick, Mary Mills, 1850-1940

"Sextus Empiricus and Greek Scepticism"

While therefore such a difference exists in men 85
in regard to the body, and we must be satisfied with
referring to a few only of the many examples given by the
Dogmatics, it is probable that men also differ from each other
in respect to the soul itself, for the body is a kind of type of
the soul, as the physiognomical craft also shows. The best
example of the numerous and infinite differences of opinion
among men is the contradiction in the sayings of the Dogmatics,
not only about other things, but about what it is well to seek
and to avoid. The poets have also fittingly spoken about 86
this, for Pindar said--
"One delights in getting honors and crowns through
storm-footed horses,
Another in passing life in rooms rich in gold,
Another still, safe travelling enjoys, in a swift ship,
on a wave of the sea."
And the poet says--
"One man enjoys this, another enjoys that."
The tragedies also abound in such expressions, for instance,
it is said--
"If to all, the same were good and wise,
Quarrels and disputes among men would not have been."
And again--
"It is awful indeed, that the same thing some mortals
should please,
And by others be hated."
Since therefore the choice and the avoidance of things, 87
depends on the pleasure and displeasure which they give, and the
pleasure and displeasure have their seat in perception and
ideas, when some choose the things that others avoid, it is
logical for us to conclude that they are not acted upon
similarly by the same things, for otherwise they would have
chosen or avoided alike.


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