run into the sea, and that yet the sea is not full (Eccles. i. 7), and who will not marvel at this abyss of memory which exhausts all things, which gives all back again, and yet is never overfull or too void? In truth our mind is greater than the universe, since that which contains is necessarily greater than that which is contained.
12. Finally, the eye (or a mirror) resembles the mind in many ways. If you hold anything before it, of whatever shape or colour, it will soon display a similar image in itself. That is to say, unless you are in the dark, or turn your back, or are too far off, at a distance greater than is fitting, or hinder the impression, or confuse it by movement; for in these cases it must be confessed that the result will be failure. I speak, therefore, of what takes place naturally, when light is present and the object is suitably placed. Just as, then, there is no need for the eye to be compelled to open and look at any object, since, naturally thirsting for light, it rejoices to be fed by gazing, and suffices for all objects (provided that it be not confused by too many at once), and just as it can never be satiated by seeing, so does the mind thirst for objects, ever longs and yearns to observe, grasps at, nay, seizes on all information, and is indefatigable, provided that it be not surfeited with an excess of objects, and that they be presented to its observation one after the other, and in the proper order.
13. Even the heathen philosophers saw that a harmony of morals was necessary for man, although, being ignorant of that other light granted by heaven, which is the most certain guide to eternal life, they set up these sparks as torches; a vain endeavour. Thus Cicero says: “The seeds of virtue are sown in our dispositions, and, if they were allowed to develope, nature herself would lead us to the life of the blest.” This goes rather too far! “Now, however, from the time when we are brought forth to the light of day, we continually move in all wickedness, so that we almost seem to suck in faults with our nurse’s milk” (Tuscul. iii.) Thus the truth of the statement that the seeds of virtue are born with man is bound up with this two-
