l the
ancients; who asserted that nothing could be ascertained, or perceived, or
known: that the senses of man were narrow, his mind feeble, the course of
his life short, and that truth, as Democritus said, was sunk in the deep;
that everything depended on opinions and established customs; that nothing
was left to truth. They said in short, that everything was enveloped in
darkness; therefore Arcesilas asserted that there was nothing which could
be known, not even that very piece of knowledge which Socrates had left
himself. Thus he thought that everything lay hid in secret, and that there
was nothing which could be discerned or understood; for which reasons it
was not right for any one to profess or affirm anything, or sanction
anything by his assent, but men ought always to restrain their rashness
and to keep it in check so as to guard it against every fall. For rashness
would be very remarkable when anything unknown or false was approved of;
and nothing could be more discreditable than for a man's assent and
approbation to precede his knowledge and perception of a fact. And he used
to act consistently with these principles, so as to pass most of his days
in arguing against every one's opinion, in order that when equally
important reasons were found for both sides of the same question, the
judgment might more naturally be suspended, and prevented from giving
assent to either.

This they call the New Academy, which however appears to me to be the old
one, if, at least, we reckon Plato as one of that Old Academy. For in his
books nothing is affirmed positively, and many arguments are allowed on
both sides of a question; everything is investigated, and nothing positive
affirmed. Still let the school whose principles I have explained, be
called the Old Academy, and this other the New; which, having continued to
the time of Carneades, who was the fourth in succession after Arcesilas,
continued in the same principles and system as Arcesilas. But Carneades,
being a man ignorant of no part of philosophy, and, as I have learnt from
those who had been his pupils, and particularly from Zeno the Epicurean,
who, though he greatly differed from him in opinion, still admired him
above all other men, was also a person of incredible abilities...

_The rest of this Book is lost._

SECOND BOOK OF THE ACADEMIC QUESTIONS.

I. Lucius Lucullus was a man of great genius, and very much devoted to the
study of the most important a