ted, from which one cannot possibly doubt that Socrates thought that
nothing could be known. He excepted one thing only, asserting that he did
know that he knew nothing; but he made no other exception. What shall I
say of Plato? who certainly would never have followed up these doctrines
in so many books if he had not approved of them; for there was no object
in going on with the irony of the other, especially when it was so
unceasing.

XXIV. Do I not seem to you, not, like Saturninus, to be content with
naming illustrious men, but also sometimes even to imitate them, though
never unless they are really eminent and noble? And I might have opposed
to you men who are annoying to you, but yet disputants of great accuracy;
Stilpo, Diodorus, and Alexinus: men who indulged in far-fetched and
pointed sophisms; for that was the name given usually to fallacious
conclusions. But why need I enumerate them, when I have Chrysippus, who is
considered to be the great support of the portico of the Stoics? How many
of the arguments against the senses, how many against everything which is
approved by ordinary practice, did he not refute! It is true that I do not
think very much of his refutations; but still, let us grant that he did
refute them. Certainly he would never have collected so many arguments to
deceive us with their excessive probability, unless he saw that it was not
easily possible to resist them.

What do you think of the Cyrenaic School? philosophers far from
contemptible, who affirm that there is nothing which can be perceived
externally; and that they perceive those things alone which they feel by
their inmost touch, such as pain, or pleasure. And that they do not know
what colour anything is of, or what sound it utters; but only feel that
they themselves are affected in a certain manner.

We have said enough about authors: although you had asked me whether I did
not think that since the time of those ancient philosophers, in so many
ages, the truth might have been discovered, when so many men of genius and
diligence were looking for it? What was discovered we will consider
presently, and you yourself shall be the judge. But it is easily seen that
Arcesilas did not contend with Zeno for the sake of disparaging him; but
that he wished to discover the truth. No one, I say, of preceding
philosophers had said positively, no one had even hinted that it was
possible for man never to form opinions: and that for a wise man it wa