A Why, yes! nothing could be more fmportant. But even yet I don’t clearly understand what you mean.

B Well, I made straight for Rome, wanting to see an oculist; for I was having more and more trouble with my eye.

A I know all that, and hoped you would find an able man.

B As I had resolved to pay my respects to Nigrinus the Platonic philosopher, which I had not done for a long time, I got up early and went to his house, and when I had knocked at the door and the man had announced me, I was asked in. On entering, I found him with a book in his hands and many busts of ancient philosophers standing round about. Beside him there had been placed a tablet filled with figures in geometry and a reed globe, made, I thought, to represent the universe.