beat me. Some fell and did not rise again; others rose again, and then again fell head over heels on the top of one another. Of weals and bruises everyone had enough, but they nowise heeded them, so that I could not but wonder at this their dulness, which counted their own falls and wounds for so little; while when one offended another, that one immediately rose in arms and warred with him.
(The Fickleness and Unsteadiness of Mankind in all Matters.)
9. I also perceived among men great delight in novelties and changes with regard to clothing, building, speech, gait, and other matters. Some, I saw, who did nothing but change their attire, wearing sometimes this, sometimes that manner of clothing; others imagined a new fashion of building, and after a while destroyed it again. While working they seized now this thing, now that, and then again abandoned it, seemingly through inconstancy. For if one died because of the burden under which he laboured or if he abandoned it, then immediately others were found who disputed it, squabbled and fought about it in a wondrous fashion. Among them all there was none who spoke, or did something, or erected an edifice, without the others laughing at it, misrepresenting it, destroying it. One fashioned a thing with vast labour and expense, finding in it great pleasure, then another, approaching him, overturned, de-
