Note 148 — Chapter VI · OF REASON AND SPEECH.
Reading edition
‘tunc intellegere nobis licebit, quam contemnenda miremur, simillimi pueris, quibus omne ludicrum in pretio est. quid ergo inter nos et illos interest, ut Ariston ait, nisi quod nos circa tabulas et statuas insanimus, carius inepti? illos reperti in litore calculi leves delectant, nos ingentium maculae columnarum’ Sen. Ep. 115, 8. This tone is clearly derived from Cynism, as the reference to Aristo indicates. A modern Cynic is still more sweeping in his condemnation: ‘all the nastiness and stupidity which you call science and art’ (Count Leo Tolstoy in the Westminster Gazette, Sept. 3, 1910).