Though this Word is true evermore, yet men are as unable to understand it when they hear it for the first time as before they have heard it at all. For, though all things come to pass in accordance with this Word, men seem as if they had no experience of them, when they make trial of words and deeds such as I set forth, dividing each thing according to its nature and showing how it truly is. But other men know not what they are doing when awake, even as they forget what they do in sleep. The many do not take heed of such things as they meet with, nor do they mark them when they are taught, though they think they do.
Nature loves to hide.
The lord whose is the oracle at Delphoi neither utters nor hides his meaning, but shows it by a sign. And the Sibyl , with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her. The things that can be seen, heard, and learned are what I prize the most. The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears. Of all whose discussions I have heard, there is not one who attains to understanding that wisdom is apart from all.