4

I easily fly over the Ocean. And having entered a new world, as if into another city, I measure all things in a few days. And from there I cross over again to a third world, then to a fourth and a fifth and a tenth and a hundredth and a thousandth, and to what extent? For already a darkness of ignorance meets me, and black deceit and endless wandering and imperfect imagination and incomprehensible foolishness. But why am I to count the very atoms themselves, from which so many worlds have come to be, so that I leave nothing unexamined, especially of things so necessary and beneficial, from which a household and a city prosper?

I have therefore recounted these things, wishing to show the contradiction existing in their doctrines and how their investigation of things proceeds to the infinite and indefinite, and their end is inconclusive and useless, being confirmed by no manifest deed and clear word.

4

Ὠκεανὸν εὐκόλως ὑπερίπταμαι. εἰσελθὼν δὲ εἰς κόσμον καινὸν καὶ ὥσπερ εἰς ἄλλην πόλιν μετρῶ τὰ πάντα ὀλίγαις ἡμέραις. κἀκεῖθεν ὑπερβαίνω πάλιν εἰς τρίτον κόσμον, εἶτα εἰς τέταρτον καὶ πέμπτον καὶ δέκατον καὶ ἑκατοστὸν καὶ χιλιοστὸν καὶ μέχρι ποῦ· ἤδη γάρ μοι σκότος ἀγνοίας ἀπαντᾷ καὶ ἀπάτη μέλαινα καὶ ἄπειρος πλάνη καὶ ἀτελὴς φαντασία καὶ ἀκατάληπτος ἄνοια. πλὴν τί μέλλω καὶ τὰς ἀτόμους αὐτὰς ἀριθμεῖν, ἐξ ὧν οἱ τοσοῦτοι κόσμοι γεγόνασιν, ἵνα μηδὲν ἀνεξέταστον παραλείπω μάλιστα τῶν οὕτως ἀναγκαίων καὶ ὠφελίμων, ἐξ ὧν οἶκος καὶ πόλις εὐδαιμονεῖ;

Ταῦτα μὲν τοίνυν διεξῆλθον βουλόμενος δεῖξαι τὴν ἐν τοῖς δόγμασιν οὖσαν αὐτῶν ἐναντιότητα καὶ ὡς εἰς ἄπειρον αὐτοῖς καὶ ἀόριστον πρόεισιν ἡ ζήτησις τῶν πραγμάτων καὶ τὸ τέλος αὐτῶν ἀτέκμαρτον καὶ ἄχρηστον, ἔργῳ μηδενὶ προδήλῳ καὶ λόγῳ σαφεῖ βεβαιούμενον.