an ordinary one necessarily took me away from words meaning the same as the Latin. 1t would
Book XII 485 all the time when talking they have not the slightest idea what they come from and could not care less. So too when something unusual happens whether in the realm of bodily or spiritual vision, they anxiously ask about its causes and meaning, and pester the pundits for an explanation.
40. Now it has been my practice, when someone asks me, for example, what "skere" means, and I reply "steep or sheer,"34 and that does not satisfy him, but he goes on to ask what the word "skere" comes from, my practice has been to toss the ball back to him and ask him what "sheer" comes from. Of course he has no idea, but because it is quite a common word, he happily puts up with not knowing its origin, while whenever a new word has come to his ears, he thinks it is not enough to learn what it means unless he also inquires what it comes from.
So then, whenever anyone inquires of me how it is that visions similar to bodily realities are seen in ecstasies, which rarely happen to the soul, I toss the ball back and inquire how they are seen by people in their sleep, which is part of the soul's everyday experience; and nobody is concerned, or not very much, to look into that point, as though, forsooth, the nature and source of such visions is less wonderful simply because they happen every day, and a matter of less concern simply because everybody has them. Or else, ifthey are acting rightly in not inquiring about these things, they would be acting even more rightly if they were not so curious about the other sort as well.
l myself, however, am filled with much greater wonder, not to say total stupe faction, at the swiftness and ease with which the soul manufactures in itself the images of bodies which it has seen through the eyes of the body, than at the visions seen in dreams or even in ecstasies. But in any case, whatever the nature of such visions may be, it is certainly not something bodily. lf you are not satis fied with knowing this, go and inquire of others what also gives rise to them; l myself, I readily admit, just do not know.
The causes ofsuch visions are to befound either in the body or the spirit, or in the action of good or evil spirits
19. 41. Many physical conditions, of course, like extreme pallor, blushing, trembling, oreven diseases, sometimes have their causes in the body, sometimes in the soul; in the body when it gets soaking wet, or when food or some other substance is inserted into the body from outside; in the soul on the other hand when it is troubled with fear or embarrassed with shame, or is angry or in love or anything of that sort. lt is indeed entirely natural if the animating and controlling
34. The Latin words are catus and prudens vel acutus. Finding an unusual English word very like an ordinary one necessarily took me away from words meaning the same as the Latin. 1t would have been wonderful if "cute" had been an unusual word, being related to "acute" in much the same way as catus to acutus, with a more or less similar range ofmeanings. But alas, it isn't.