MINUCIUS FELIX. 4C0 CHAPTER XIII. ABGTTMENT. — Cceciliusat lengthconcludesthatthenew reli gion is to be repudiated;and thatwe must not rashly pronouncexcpondoubtfulmatters. " However, ifyou have a desireto philosophize,letany one of you who is sufficientlygreat,imitate,if he can,Socrates the princeof wisdom. The answer of that man, whenever he was asked about celestialmatters,iswellknown: 'What is above us is nothing to us.' Well, therefore,did he deserve from the oraclethe testimony of singularwisdom, which oraclehe himselfhad a presentimentof,thathe had been preferredto allmen for the reason,not that he had discoveredall things,but because he had learntthat he knew nothing. And thus the confessionof ignorance isthe heightof wisdom. From thissourceflowedthe safedoubting of Arcesilas,and long afterof Carneades,and of very many of the Academics,1in questionsof the highestmoment, in which speciesof philosophythe unlearnedcan do much with caution,and the learned can do gloriously.What ! is not the hesitationof Simonides the lyricpoet to be admired and followed by all? Which Simonides,when he was asked by Hiero the tyrantwhat, and what likehe thought the gods to be, asked firstof allfor a day to deliberate; then postponed his reply for two days; and then,when pressed,he added only another; and finally,when the tyrantinquiredintothe causesof such a long delay,he repliedthat,the longer his research continued,the obscurerthe truth became to him.2 In my opinionalso,thingswhich are uncertainought to be leftas they are. Nor, while so many and so great men are deliberating,shouldwe rashlyand boldlygive an opinionin anotherdirection,lesteithera childishsuperstitionshould be introduced,or allreligionshouldbe overthrown." 1Thisisotherwiseread," AcademicPyrrhonists." * Cicero,deNaturaDeorum,i.22.