CHAPTER XVIII.

The Sceptical Formulae.

When we use any one of these Tropes, or the Tropes of 187 [Greek:  epoche], we employ with them certain formulae which show the Sceptical method and our own feeling, as for instance, the sayings, “No more,” “One must determine nothing,” and certain others.  It is fitting therefore to treat of these in this place.  Let us begin with “No more.”

CHAPTER XIX.

The Formula “No more."

We sometimes express this as I have given it, and sometimes 188 thus, “Nothing more.”  For we do not accept the “No more,” as some understand it, for the examination of the special, and “Nothing more” for that of the general, but we use “No more” and “Nothing more” without any difference, and we shall at present treat of them as one and the same expression.  Now this formula is defective, for as when we say a double one we really mean a double garment, and when we say a broad one we really mean a broad road; so when we say “No more” we mean really no more than this, or in every way the same.  But some of the Sceptics use 189 instead of the interrogation “No?” the interrogation “What, this rather than this?” using the word “what” in the sense of “what is the reason,” so that the formula means, “What is the reason for this rather than for this?” It is a customary thing, however, to use an interrogation instead of a statement, as “Who of the mortals does not know the wife of Jupiter?” and also to use a statement instead of an interrogation, as “I seek where Dion dwells,” and “I ask why one should admire a poet.”  The word “what” is also used instead of “what for” by Menander—­“(For) what did I remain behind?” The formula “Not more this than this” expresses our own condition of mind, and signifies that 190 because of the equality of the things that are opposed to each other we finally attain to a state of equilibrium of soul.  We mean by equality that equality which appears to us as probable, by things placed in opposition to each other we mean simply things which conflict with each other, and by a state of equilibrium we mean a state in which we do not assent to one thing more than to another.  Even if the formula “Nothing 191 more” seems to express assent or denial, we do not use it so, but we use it loosely, and not with accuracy, either instead of an interrogation or instead of saying, “I do not know to which of these I would assent, and to which I would not.”  What lies before us is to express what appears to us, but we are indifferent to the words by which we express it.  This must be understood, however, that we use the formula “Nothing more” without affirming in regard to it that it is wholly sure and true, but we present it as it appears to us.

CHAPTER XX.