g is true, meaning by that pure truth. You will say it is
true that homicide is wrong. Yes; for we know well the wrong and the
false. But what will you say is good? Chastity? I say no; for the world
would come to an end. Marriage? No; continence is better. Not to kill?
No; for lawlessness would be horrible, and the wicked would kill all the
good. To kill? No; for that destroys nature. We possess truth and
goodness only in part, and mingled with falsehood and evil.

386

If we dreamt the same thing every night, it would affect us as much as
the objects we see every day. And if an artisan were sure to dream every
night for twelve hours' duration that he was a king, I believe he would
be almost as happy as a king, who should dream every night for twelve
hours on end that he was an artisan.

If we were to dream every night that we were pursued by enemies, and
harassed by these painful phantoms, or that we passed every day in
different occupations, as in making a voyage, we should suffer almost as
much as if it were real, and should fear to sleep, as we fear to wake
when we dread in fact to enter on such mishaps. And, indeed, it would
cause pretty nearly the same discomforts as the reality.

But since dreams are all different, and each single one is diversified,
what is seen in them affects us much less than what we see when awake,
because of its continuity, which is not, however, so continuous and
level as not to change too; but it changes less abruptly, except rarely,
as when we travel, and then we say, "It seems to me I am dreaming." For
life is a dream a little less inconstant.

387

[It may be that there are true demonstrations; but this is not certain.
Thus, this proves nothing else but that it is not certain that all is
uncertain, to the glory of scepticism.]

388

_Good sense._--They are compelled to say, "You are not acting in good
faith; we are not asleep," etc. How I love to see this proud reason
humiliated and suppliant! For this is not the language of a man whose
right is disputed, and who defends it with the power of armed hands. He
is not foolish enough to declare that men are not acting in good faith,
but he punishes this bad faith with force.

389

Ecclesiastes[152] shows that man without God is in total ignorance and
inevitable misery. For it is wretched to have the wish, but not the
power. Now he would be happy and assured of some truth, and yet he can
neither know, nor desire not to k