Herculaneum Fragments

...being continuous, and though they [say that] the good things... to distinguish [them] one cannot say, [nor] mix iron and earthen vessels, [but] colliding for very many years, [they] remain indestructible like adamant. But they appear, because of their love of life, to have shuddered at death, not because of living pleasantly, and they push away their own [mental] applications when idleness occurs to them; [and] contemplation falls to them unexpectedly, and for this reason they endure writing [about] things [which are] perceptible, and are compelled to agree [with] Democritus. But those [who are] sound of mind, for what necessary reasons they are unable to [understand], these things will straightway coincide with the limit of life. And if [it] happens in the eye, having traveled [it] unspeakably for those who are ignorant, most sharply and... and [being] without war, and then to take them completely, [they] being, as it were, undaunted, [they] pay out... not even the least... [they] having left off, [they] held the application.