he spectators.

[B] The islands of the Happy, or the Fortunatae Insulae, are
spoken of by the Greek and Roman writers. They were the abode
of Heroes, like Achilles and Diomedes, as we see in the Scolion
of Harmodius and Aristogiton. Sertorius heard of the islands at
Cadiz from some sailors who had been there; and he had a wish
to go and live in them and rest from his troubles (Plutarch,
Sertorius, c. 8). In the Odyssey, Proteus told Menelaus that he
should not die in Argos, but be removed to a place at the
boundary of the earth where Rhadamanthus dwelt (Odyssey, iv.
565):--

"For there in sooth man's life is easiest:
Nor snow nor raging storm nor rain is there
But ever gently breathing gales of Zephyr
Oceanus sends up to gladden man."

It is certain that the writer of the Odyssey only follows some
old legend, without having any knowledge of any place which
corresponds to his description. The two islands which Sertorius
heard of may be Madeira and the adjacent island. Compare
Pindar, Ol. ii. 129.

9. Mimi,[A] war, astonishment, torpor, slavery, will daily wipe out
those holy principles of thine. + How many things without studying
nature dost thou imagine, and how many dost thou neglect?[B] But it is
thy duty so to look on and so to do everything, that at the same time
the power of dealing with circumstances is perfected, and the
contemplative faculty is exercised, and the confidence which comes from
the knowledge of each several thing is maintained without showing it,
but yet not concealed. For when wilt thou enjoy simplicity, when
gravity, and when the knowledge of every several thing, both what it is
in substance, and what place it has in the universe, and how long it is
formed to exist, and of what things it is compounded, and to whom it can
belong, and who are able both to give it and take it away?

[A] Corais conjectured [Greek: misos] "hatred" in place of
Mimi, Roman plays in which action and gesticulation were all or
nearly all.

[B] This is corrupt. See the addition of Schultz.

10. A spider is proud when it has caught a fly, and another when he has
caught a poor hare, and another when he has taken a little fish in a
net, and another when he has taken wild boars, and another when he has
taken bears, and another when he has taken Sarmatians. Are not these
robbers, if thou examinest their opinions?[A]