the mind has to grasp, and which makes the endeavour to include all things within the limits of our knowledge, very weary work. (iii) The lack of opportunities to acquire the arts, or their rapid departure when they occur (for the years of youth, which are the most suitable for mental culture, are spent in playing, and the succeeding years, in the present condition of mankind, bring far more opportunities for worthless than for serious matters); or if a suitable opportunity present itself, it vanishes before we can grasp it. (iv) The weakness of our intellects and the lack of sound judgment. The result of this is that we get no farther than the outside shell, and never attain to the kernel. (v) Finally, the circumstance that, if any wish to grasp the true nature of things by patient observation and experiments repeated as often as possible, the process is too wearisome, and is at the same time deceptive and uncertain (for instance, in such accurate observations the most careful observer may make an error, and as soon as one error creeps in, the whole observation becomes worthless).
9. If all this be true, how can we dare hope for a universal, sure, easy, and thorough road to learning? I answer: Experience teaches us that this is true, but the same experience teaches us also that the proper remedies can be found. These things have been ordained thus by God, the all-wise arranger of the universe, and are for our good. He has given us a short spa of life because, in our present state of corruption, we should be unable to employ a longer one profitably. For if we, who are born and die, and with whom the end of life is but a few years distant from the beginning, give ourselves up to folly: what would we not do if we had hundreds or thousands of years before us? God, therefore, has only wished to grant as much time as He deemed sufficient preparation for a better life. For this purpose life is long enough, if only we know how to use it.
10. The diversity of objects has been equally ordained by God for our advantage, that there might be no
