red you with an eye to winning
my case, yet I cannot help praising you for the astuteness of your
questions. After they had spent much time in discussing these points
and asserting that I had bewitched the woman, and after the doctor who
was present on that occasion had denied that I had done so, you, with
shrewdness more than human, asked them what profit I derived from my
incantations. They replied, 'The woman had a fit.' 'What then?' you
asked, 'Did she die?' 'No,' said they. 'What is your point then? How
did the fact of her having a fit profit Apuleius?' That third question
showed brilliant penetration and persistence. You knew that it was
necessary to submit all facts to stringent examination of their
causes, that often facts are admitted while motives remain to seek,
and that the representatives of litigants are called pleaders of
_causes_, because they set forth the causes of each particular act. To
deny a fact is easy and needs no advocate, but it is far more arduous
and difficult a task to demonstrate the rightness or wrongness of a
given action. It is waste of time, therefore, to inquire whether a
thing was done, when, even if it were done, no evil motive can be
alleged. Under such circumstances, if no criminal motive is
forthcoming, a good judge releases the accused from all further
vexatious inquiry. So now, since they have not proved that I either
bewitched the woman or caused her to have a fit, I for my part will
not deny that I examined her at the request of a physician; and I will
tell you, Maximus, why I asked her if she had noises in her ears. I
will do this not so much to clear myself of the charge which you,
Maximus, have already decided to involve neither blame nor guilt, as
to impart to you something worthy of your hearing and interesting to
one of your erudition. I will tell you in as few words as possible. I
have only to call your attention to certain facts. To instruct you
would be presumption.

49. The philosopher Plato, in his glorious work, the _Timaeus_, sets
forth with more than mortal eloquence the constitution of the whole
universe. After discoursing with great insight on the three powers
that make up man's soul, and showing with the utmost clearness the
divine purpose that shaped our various members, he treats of the
causes of all diseases under three heads. The first cause lies in the
elements of the body, when the actual qualities of those elements,
moisture and cold and their two opp