§120. _Libertas ... non esse_: a remarkable construction. For the Academic liberty see Introd. p. 18. _Quod tibi est_: after these words Halm puts merely a comma, and inserting _respondere_ makes _cur deus_, etc. part of the same sentence. Bait. follows. _Nostra causa_: Cic. always writes _mea, tua, vestra, nostra causa_, not _mei, tui, nostri, vestri_, just as he writes _sua sponte_, but not _sponte alicuius_. For the Stoic opinion that men are the chief care of Providence, see _N.D._ I. 23, II. 37, _D.F._ III. 67, _Ac._ I. 29 etc., also Zeller. The difficulties surrounding the opinion are treated of in Zeller 175, _N.D._ II. 91--127. They supply in Sext. _P.H._ I. 32, III. 9--12 an example of the refutation of νοουμενα by means of νοουμενα. _Tam multa ac_: MSS. om. _ac_, which I insert. Lactantius qu. the passage without _perniciosa_. _Myrmecides_: an actual Athenian artist, famed for minute work in ivory, and especially for a chariot which a fly covered with its wings, and a ship which the wings of a bee concealed. See Plin. _Nat. Hist._ VII. 21, XXXVI. 5. §121. _Posse_: n. on I. 29. _Strato_: R. and P. 331. _Sed cum_: _sed_ often marks a very slight contrast, there is no need to read _et_, as Halm. _Asperis ... corporibus_: cf. fragm. 28 of the _Ac. Post._, also _N.D._ I. 66. _Somnia_: so _N.D._ I. 18 _miracula non disserentium philosophorum sed somniantium_, _ib._ I. 42 _non philosophorum iudicia sed delirantium somnia_, also _ib._ I. 66 _flagitia Democriti_. _Docentis_: giving _proof_. _Optantis_: Guietus humorously conj. _potantis,_ Durand _oscitantis_ (cf. _N.D._ I. 72), others _opinantis_. That the text is sound however may be seen from _T.D._ II. 30 _optare hoc quidem est non docere_, _De Fato_ 46, _N.D._ I. 19 _optata magis quam inventa_, _ib._ III. 12 _doceas oportet nec proferas_; cf. also _Orat._ 59 _vocis bonitas optanda est, non est enim in nobis_, i.e. a good voice is a thing to be prayed for, and not to be got by exertion. There is a similar Greek proverb, ευχη μαλλον η αληθεια, in Sext. _P.H._ VIII. 353. _Magno opere_: Hermann wishes to read _onere_. The phrase _magnum onus_ is indeed common (cf. _De Or._ I. 116), but _magnum opus_, in the sense of "a great task," is equally so, cf. _T.D._ III. 79, 84, _Orat._ 75. _Modo hoc modo illud_: 134. §122. _Latent ista_: see n. on fragm. 29 of the _Ac. Post._; for _latent_ cf. I. 45. Aug. _Cont. Ac._ II. 12, III. 1 imitates this passage. _Circumfusa_: cf. I. 44, and 46 of this book. _Medici_: cf. _T.D._ I. 46 _Viderentur_: a genuine passive, cf. 25, 39, 81. _Empirici_: a school of physicians so called. _Ut ... mutentur_: exactly the same answer was made recently to Prof. Huxley's speculations on protoplasm; he was said to have assumed that the living protoplasm would have the same properties as the dead. _Media pendeat_: cf. _N.D._ II. 98, _De Or._ III. 178.