e, that light is darkness, and darkness light." He
replied, "I will easily do this. What are light and darkness but a state
of the eye? Is not light changed into shade when the eye comes out of
sunshine, and also when it is kept intensely fixed on the sun? Who does
not know, that the state of the eye in such a case is changed, and that
in consequence light appears as shade; and on the other hand, when the
state of the eye is restored, that shade appears as light? Does not
an owl see the darkness of night as the light of day, and the light of
day as the darkness of night, and also the sun itself as an opaque and
dusky globe? If any man had the eyes of an owl, which would he call
light and which darkness? What then is light but the state of the eye?
and if it be a state of the eye, is not light darkness, and darkness
light? therefore each of the propositions is true." Afterwards the
legate asked him to make this true, That a raven is white and not black;
and he replied, "I will do this also with ease;" and he said, "Take a
needle or razor, and lay open the feathers or quills of a raven; are
they not white within? Also remove the feathers and quills, and look at
its skin; is it not white? What is the blackness then which envelops it
but a shade, which ought not to determine the raven's color? That
blackness is merely a shade. I appeal to the skilful in the science of
optics, who will tell you, that if you pound a black stone or glass into
fine powder, you will see that the powder is white." But the legate
replied, "Does not the raven appear black to the sight?" The confirmator
answered, "Will you, who are a man, think in any case from appearance?
you may indeed say from appearance, that a crow is black, but you cannot
think so; as for example, you may speak from the appearance and say that
the sun rises, advances to its meridian altitude, and sets; but, as you
are a man, you cannot think so; because the sun stands unmoved and the
earth only changes its position. The case is the same with the raven;
appearance is appearance; and say what you will, a raven is altogether
and entirely white; it grows white also as it grows old; and this I have
seen." We next requested him to tell us from his heart, whether he was
in joke, or whether he really believed that nothing is true but what a
man makes true? and he replied, "I swear that I believe it." Afterwards
the legate asked him, whether he could make it true that he was out of
his s