The Extant Works of Macrobius, Vol. 2

change the various juice into one flavor by a certain mixture and the property of their own spirit. We too shall commit to the pen whatever we have sought through diverse reading, so that it may coalesce into an order, with that same pen digesting it. For things are better preserved in the mind when they are distinct, and that very distinction, not without a certain ferment by which the whole is seasoned, confuses the use of one flavor with various libations, so that, even if it appears whence something was taken, it nevertheless appears to be something other than that from which it is known to have been taken; which we see nature doing in our body without any effort of our own. The foods which we receive, as long as they persevere in their own quality and float about solid, are an annoying burden to the stomach; but when they have been changed from what they were, then finally they pass into strength and blood. Let us perform the same in these things by which minds are nourished, so that whatever we have drunk in, we do not allow to remain whole, lest it be foreign, but let it be concocted into a certain digestion: otherwise they can go into the memory, but not into the talent. From all things, let us gather that from which one thing may be made from all things, just as one number is made from individual units. Let our mind do this: let it hide all things by which it has been aided, but show the thing itself which it has effected; as those who prepare fragrant perfumes take care above all that the ingredients which are to be seasoned have no odor of their own, clearly intended to confuse the juices of all...

6. eodem] i. e., by the same pen.

7. solida innatant] Cf. VII, 8, 2: It makes it float on the wet food which it has found in the middle of the stomach, and not adhere to the lining of the stomach, from whose heat digestion is promoted.

male stomacho oneri sunt] "What? Should male be changed to magno or magnopere? By no means. For male means 'greatly,' as in Terence, male timeo (I am greatly afraid)." Zeun. — The learned man seems to have looked to Hec. III, 2, 2, male metuo, but what is read in Eun. IV, 7, 4, male mulcabo ipsam, and other similar things, is more appropriate to this passage.

8. odora pigmenta] i. e., aromatics or fragrant ointments. Thus in Firm. Math. VIII, 17, the juices of herbs are called the pigmenta of herbs.

ut nullius sint odoris propria] i. e., that they may retain none of those odors that had been there before, either as a primary or sole characteristic.

quae condientur, confusura ... in spiramentum unum.] Why there should be anything in these words contrary to the laws of language in the eyes of Zeunius, I do not understand. Quae condientur are those things which will be prepared by seasoning or mixing, or composed by art, cf. Cic. de or. III, 25, 99, unguentis .. acerrima suavitate condita; and those things are said to be confusura omnium sucos odoraminum in spiramentum unum which are about to pour forth such a scent that they may confound...