BOOK I CH. Ix § 22. 97

arbour, Ambr. Hex. 18 32 ut si quis in campi medio, quem sol meridianus illuminat, locum aliquem obsaepiat et densis ramorum frondibus tegat: nonne quo splendidior foris species loci ejus effulgeat, hoc horrenti desuper scena gurgustium ejus intus obscurius fit? where gurg. gus seems to mean the hollow depth of the arbour, agreeably to Vanicek’s account (Htym. Wort. p. 50) where he connects it with gurges, voro, &c. and supposes it to mean a ‘swallow’ ‘abyss’, ‘hole’ and then ‘a dark mean dwelling’.
varietate. C. translates Plato’s wemoxtdpéevov by varietate distinctum Tim. c.10. On the position of -ne ef. Leg. 1 12 with Dumesnil’s n,
quae si esset: ‘had it been a delight, he could not have dispensed with it so long’; cf. Lact.17 fortasse quaerat aliquis a nobis idem illud, guod apud Ciceronem quaerit Hortensius: si deus unus est, quae esse beata solitudo queat? The Epicureans following Aristotle made the happiness of God consist in the contemplation of his own perfection § 51, which is not however inconsistent with a delight in his perfection as reflected in the creation.
§ 23 ut fere dicitis. The Stoic belief that the universe was made for man is stated at length 11 133, 154 foll. where see notes.
sapientiumne. The earlier Stoics divided all mankind into the wise or virtuous (for Zeno summed up all virtue in practical wisdom ¢povnars) and the fools or wicked, allowing of no mean between these extremes, cf. Ac. Ir 136, Parad. 5, 6, V. D. ut 79, Fin. tv 74: the later Stoics confessed that the Sage was merely an ideal not to be found on earth, and introduced an intermediate class of the zpoxdmrovres, those who were on the way to wisdom.
propter paucos: the universal complaint, or boast, of philosophers, see I11 79 sapientiam nemo assequitur, Div. 11 61 st quod raro fit id portentum putandum est, sapientem esse portentum est, Zeller Socrates tr. p. 313, Stoics tr. p. 254, Lucian Hermotimus 1, Mayor’s Juvenal x11 26 n.
de improbis bene mereretur. Absence of compassion, contempt for ignorance and weakness, despair of reformation, were characteristic marks of the old aristocratic philosophies, in contrast to the new religion which was to be preached in the first instance to the poor. The Epicurean here thinks it impossible that God should do a kindness to bad men or fools, who in the same breath are spoken of as most miserable: the Gospel recognizes human misery and sin as the strongest claims to the divine compassion. Cf. Orig. ¢. Cels. 11 59 and 62.
deinde quod: the 2nd deinde is opposed to mazime, the Ist to primum.
ita multa=tot: so Att. VI 2 8 inclusum senatum habuerunt ita multos dies ut interierint nonnulli. Cf. tam multa—quam multa N. D. 1 97.
ut ea sapientes—leniant, stulti nec vitare possint: ‘there are so many troubles in life that all the wise can do is to alleviate them by a balance of good, the foolish can neither avoid their approach nor endure