than mountain. Accordingly to that mode of speech of yours, one tree 5 must be said to be nearer the sky than another; which is false, because among puny objects there cannot exist great differences except while they are compared with one another. When one comes to compare such objects with the mighty frame of things, it is immaterial how much the one is bigger than the other, because the very small things, however great the differences among them, are quite dwarfed by comparison with the universe. [68] The argument seems to require _ulla_ = any, instead of _nulla_ = no. [69] The specific references are not contained in the Latin words; the modern counterpart of the Roman games of ball serves, however, to bring out the meaning of the illustration. XII But to return to my main theme; for the reasons which I have detailed, most authorities are satisfied that snow is formed in the part of the atmosphere which is in the vicinity of the earth. It is less compacted than hail because congealed through less intense cold. For the air near us has at once too much cold to allow its passage into water and rain, and at the same time too little to get hardened into hail. Through this moderate but not too intense cold the water is massed and turns into snow. XIII Why, I fancy I hear you say, do you pursue so laboriously those 1 frivolous explanations of yours, by which no one is made either more accomplished or more virtuous? You tell us all about the formation of snow; it would be far more to the point that we should be told why it is a wrong thing for snow to be bought.[70] I see you wish to drag me into a dispute with luxury, a quarrel of daily occurrence that never leads to any tangible result. Let us withal brace ourselves for the struggle; even if luxury win the day, it must find us fighting and resisting to the death. [70] _I.e._ the moral turpitude of sinking into such debased luxury as to require snow should be set forth rather than mere theories of the formation of snow; the ethical should take precedence of the physical.