Omnia debet enim cibus integrare novando, Et fulcire cibus, cibus omnia sustentare. Nequidquam,... Sic igitur magni quoque circum moenia mundi Expugnata dabunt labem putrisque ruinas.... Iamque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator Crebrius incassum manuum cecidisse laborem: Et cum tempora temporibus praesentia confert Praeteritis, laudat fortunas saepe parentis,... Nec tenet, omnia paulatim tabescere et ire Ad capulum, spatio aetatis defessa vetusto. [8] Cf. pages 41, 49. [9] Lucretius, ii. 29-33: Inter se prostrati in gramine molli Propter aquae rivum, sub ramis arboris altae, Non magnis opibus iucunde corpora curant: Praesertim cum tempestas arridet, et anni Tempa conspergunt viridantis floribus herbas. [10] Horace, _Odes_, iv. 1: Iam nec spes animi credula mutui... Sed cur, heu! Ligurine, cur Manat rara meas lacrima per genas? III DANTE In the _Phaedo_ of Plato there is an incidental passage of supreme interest to the historian. It foreshadows, and accurately defines, the whole transition from antiquity to the middle age, from naturalism to supernaturalism, from Lucretius to Dante. Socrates, in his prison, is addressing his disciples for the last time. The general subject is immortality; but in a pause in the argument Socrates says: “In my youth ... I heard some one reading, as he said, from a book of Anaxagoras, that Reason was the disposer and cause of all, and I was delighted at this notion, which appeared quite admirable, and I said to myself: ‘If Reason is the disposer, Reason will dispose all for the best, and put each particular in the best place;’ and I argued that if any desired to find out the cause of the generation or destruction or existence of anything, he must find out what ... was best for that thing.... And I rejoiced to think that I had found in Anaxagoras a teacher of the causes of existence such as I desired, and I imagined that he would tell me first whether the earth is flat or round; and whichever was true, he would proceed ... to show the nature of the best, and show that this was best; and if he said that the earth was in the centre [of the universe], he would further explain that this position was the best, and I should be satisfied with the explanation given, and not want any other sort of cause.... For I could not imagine that when he spoke of Reason as the disposer of things, he would give any other account of their being, except that this was best.... These hopes I would not have sold for a large sum of money, and I seized the books and read them as fast as I could, in my eagerness to know the better and the worse.