Adde furorem animi proprium atque oblivia rerum,
Adde quod in nigras lethargi mergitur undas[39];
the bodily waste, produced by long-continuous speaking—
Perpetuus sermo nigrai noctis ad umbram
Aurorae perductus ab exoriente nitore[40];
the reflex action of the senses, produced by the nervous strain of witnessing games and spectacles for many days in succession; the insensibility to the pain of the severest wounds in the excitement of battle! In his account of the plague of Athens, in which he enters into much greater detail than Thucydides, he displays the minute observation of a physician, as well as the profound thought of a moralist.
The 'vivida vis' of his understanding is apparent also in the clearness and consecutiveness of his philosophical style. His complaint of 'the poverty of his native tongue' is directed against the capacities of the Latin language for scientific, not for poetical expression—
Nunc et Anaxagorae scrutemur Homoeomerian
Quam Grai memorant nec nostra dicere lingua
Concedit nobis patrii sermonis egestas[41].