An earthquake, too, does not trouble 142
those who experience it for the first time in the same manner
as those who have become accustomed to it. How great the
astonishment of a man who beholds the sea for the first time!
And the beauty of the human body, seen suddenly for the first
time, moves us more than if we are accustomed to seeing it. That
which is rare seems valuable, while things that are familiar 143
and easily obtained seem by no means so. If, for example, we
should imagine water as rare, of how much greater value would it
seem than all other valuable things! or if we imagine gold as
simply thrown about on the ground in large quantities like
stones, to whom do we think it would be valuable, or by whom
would it be hoarded, as it is now? Since then the same things
according to the frequency or rarity that they are met with seem
to be now valuable and now not so, we conclude that it may be
that we shall be able to say what kind of a thing each of 144
them appears to be according to the frequency or rarity with
which it occurs, but we are not able to say what each external
object is absolutely. Therefore, according to this Trope also,
we suspend our judgment regarding these things.
THE TENTH TROPE.
The tenth Trope is the one principally connected with 145
morals, relating to schools, customs, laws, mythical beliefs,
and dogmatic opinions. Now a school is a choice of a manner of
life, or of something held by one or many, as for example the
school of Diogenes or the Laconians.
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