Icaromenippus

Friend Well, talk of foolhardiness! did you like the idea of

falling into the sea, and giving us a Mare Menippeum after the irae of the Icarium?

No fear. Icarus’s feathers were fastened with wax, and Pe course, directly the sun warmed this, he moulted and fell. No wax for me, thank you.

Friend How did you manage, then? I declare I shall be believing you soon, if you go on like this.

Menippus Well, I caught a fine eagle, and also a particularly powerful vulture, and cut off their wings above the shoulder-joint.

But no; if you are not in a hurry, I may as well give you dhe enterprise from the beginning.

Friend Do, do; I am rapt aloft by your words already, my. mouth open for your bonne bouche; as you love me, leave me not in those upper regions hung up by the ears!

Menippus Listen, then; it would be a sorry sight, a friend deserted, with his mouth open, and sus. per aures.—Well, a very short survey of life had convinced me of the absurdity and meanness and insecurity that pervade all human objects, such as wealth, office, power. I was filled with contempt for them, realized that to care for them was to lose all chance of what deserved care, and determined to grovel no more, but fix my gaze upon the great All. Here I found my first problem in what wise men call the universal order; I could not tell how it came into being, who made it, what was its beginning, or what its end. But my next step, which was the examination of details, landed me in yet worse perplexity. I found the stars dotted quite casually about the sky, and I wanted to know what the sun was. Especially the phenomena of the moon struck me as extraordinary, and quite passed my comprehension; there must be some mystery to account for those many phases, I conjectured. Nor could I feel any greater certainty about such things as the passage of lightning, the roll of thunder, the descent of rain and snow and hail.