[143] ‘quaedam exercendi tantum ingenii causa quaeruntur, et semper extra vitam iacent’ Sen. Ben. vi 1, 1.
[144] ‘multum illis temporis verborum cavillatio eripuit et captiosae disputationes, quae acumen inritum exercent’ Ep. 45, 5.
[145] ‘We terminate in this, in learning what is said, and in being able to expound it to another, in resolving a syllogism, and in handling the hypothetical syllogism’ Epict. Disc. iv 4, 14.
[146] ‘Thanks [to the gods] too that, in spite of my ardour for philosophy, I did not fall into the hands of any sophist, or sit poring over essays or syllogisms, or become engrossed in scientific speculation’ M. Aurelius To himself i 17.
[147] ‘verum esse arbitror, ut Antiocho nostro familiari placebat, correctionem veteris Academiae potius quam aliquam novam disciplinam putandam [Stoicorum rationem]’ Cic. Ac. i 12, 43.
[148] ‘tunc intellegere nobis licebit, quam contemnenda miremur, simillimi pueris, quibus omne ludicrum in pretio est. quid ergo inter nos et illos interest, ut Ariston ait, nisi quod nos circa tabulas et statuas insanimus, carius inepti? illos reperti in litore calculi leves delectant, nos ingentium maculae columnarum’ Sen. Ep. 115, 8. This tone is clearly derived from Cynism, as the reference to Aristo indicates. A modern Cynic is still more sweeping in his condemnation: ‘all the nastiness and stupidity which you call science and art’ (Count Leo Tolstoy in the Westminster Gazette, Sept. 3, 1910).
CHAPTER VII.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF PHYSICS.
Physics.