23. If you give a grape to
him when hungry, a must-cake, an onion, a thistle,
3547
a cucumber, a fig, will he know that
his hunger can be appeased by all these, or of what kind each should be
to be fit
for eating?
3548
If you made a very great fire,
or surrounded him with venomous creatures, will he not go through the
midst of flames, vipers,
tarantulæ,
3549
without knowing that they are dangerous,
and ignorant even of fear? But again, if you set before him
garments and furniture, both for city and country life, will he indeed
be able to distinguish
3550
for what each is fitted? to discharge what service they are
adapted? Will he declare for what purposes of dress the
stragula
3551
was made, the
coif,
3552
zone,
3553
fillet,
cushion, handkerchief, cloak, veil, napkin, furs,
3554
shoe, sandal, boot? What, if you go
on to ask what a wheel is, or a sledge,
3555
a winnowing-fan, jar, tub, an oil-mill,
ploughshare, or sieve, a mill-stone, ploughtail, or light hoe; a carved
seat, a needle, a strigil, a laver, an open seat, a ladle, a platter, a
candlestick, a goblet, a broom, a cup, a bag; a lyre, pipe, silver,
brass, gold,
3556
a book, a rod, a
roll,
3557
and the rest of
the equipment by which the life of man is surrounded and
maintained? Will he not in such circumstances, as we said, like
an ox
3558
or an ass, a
pig, or any beast more senseless, look
3559
at these indeed, observing their various
shapes, but
3560
not knowing what
they all are, and ignorant of the purpose for which they are
kept? If he were in any way compelled to utter a sound, would he
not with gaping mouth shout something indistinctly, as the dumb usually
do?
3547
Carduus
, no doubt the esculent thistle, a kind of artichoke.
3548
So, according to an emendation in LB.,
esui
, adopted by
Orelli and others, instead of the
ms.
reading
et sui.
3549
There has been much discussion as to whether the
solifuga
or
solipuga
here spoken of is an ant or spider.
3550
The
ms.
reads
discriminare,
discernere
, with the latter word, however, marked as spurious.
3551
A kind
of rug.
3552
Mitra.
3553
Strophium
, passing round the breast, by some regarded as a kind
of corset.
3554
Mastruca
, a garment made of the skins of the
muflone
, a
Sardinian wild sheep.
3555
Tribula
, for rubbing out the corn.
3556
Aurum
is omitted in all edd., except those of LB., Hild., and
Oehler.
3557
Liber
, a roll of parchment or papyrus, as opposed to the
preceding
codex
, a book of pages.
3558
The
ms.
reads
vobis
unintelligibly, corrected by Meursius
bovis.
3559
So Orelli and modern edd.; but Crusius gives as the
ms.
reading
conspici-etur
(not
-et
),
as given by Ursinus, and commonly received—“Will he
not…be seen?”
3560
The
ms.
and first five edd. read
et
—“and,” changed in LB. to
sed
.