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These things then, said Sylla, agree with my story,
and are taken thence. But I should first willingly ask,
what need there is of making such a preamble against
these opinions, which are at hand and in every man's
mouth, concerning the face that is seen within the orb of
the moon. Why should we not, said I, being, by the difficulty there is in these discourses, forced upon those? For,
as they who have long lain lingering under chronical diseases, after they have been worn out and tired with experimenting all ordinary remedies and the usual rules of
living and diet, have at last recourse to lustrations and
purifications, to charms and amulets fastened about the
neck, and to the interpretation of dreams; so in such obscure and abstruse questions and speculations, when the
common, apparent, and ordinary reasons are not satisfactory, there is a necessity of trying such as are more extravagant, and of not contemning but enchanting ourselves
(as one may say) with the discourses of the ancients, and
endeavoring always to find out the truth.
Plutarch. Plutarch's Morals. Translated from the Greek by several hands. Corrected and revised by. William W. Goodwin, PH. D. Boston. Little, Brown, and Company. Cambridge. Press Of John Wilson and son. 1874. 5.
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