Pyrrho 291
light, moisture, solidity, heat, cold, motion, vapours and other powers.
For example, purple appears different in its shade of colour in sunlight,
moonlight and lamplight. Our own complexion appears different in the
middle of the day and
men to lift it in the air, is easily shifted in the water, whether [the rock]
is in its nature heavy but buoyed by the water, or light and weighed
down by the air. So we are ignorant of properties, as we are of the oil
[which is the base for] perfumes.
[7] The seventh mode is based on distances, kinds of positions, places
and things in places. According to this mode, things that are held to be
large now appear small, square things round, level things bumpy, straight
things crooked, pale things differently coloured. The sun, at any rate,
appears small from a distance, mountains appear misty and smooth from
far away but jagged up close. 86. Further, the sun appears one way when
rising but a different way when it is in the middle of the heavens and
the same body appears one way in a grove and another in a clearing.
Further, the image varies according to the sort of position [of the object],
for example, the neck of a dove, depending on the way it is turned. Since
these things are never observed outside of some place and position, their
nature is not known to us.
[8] The eighth mode is based on quantities and [qualities of things,
whether these be] hotness or coldness, swiftness or slowness, paleness
or variety of colour. For example, wine drunk in moderate amount fortifies
us but in excessive amount weakens; similarly, with food and the like.
[9] 87. The ninth mode is based on that which is unceasing, odd, or
rare. At any rate, in those places where earthquakes happen continuously,
they occasion no wonder, nor, for that matter, does [the presence of] the
sun, because it is seen daily. (The ninth mode is eighth in the list of
Favorinus and tenth in the lists of Sextus and Aenesidemus. And the
tenth is eighth in Sextus and ninth in Favorinus.)
[10] The tenth mode is based on the comparison of things with each
other, for example, the light in comparison with the heavy, the strong
in comparison with the weak, the larger in comparison with the smaller,
up in comparison with down. At any rate, right is not by nature right,
but is so understood in relation to something else; at any rate if it moves,
it won't be to the right any more. 88. Similarly, "father" and "brother"
are relational terms and day is so designated in relation to the sun and,
in general, everything in relation to the intellect. Therefore, things relative
are, in themselves, unknowable.
These are the ten modes.
The school of Agrippa introduces, in addition to these, five other
modes, one based on disagreement, one forcing an infinite regress, one