xv SUBSTANCE AND SHADOW 41 



Tiberius Caesar the fire brigade hurried off to the 

 relief of the colony at Ostia, supposing it to be in 

 flames ; during the greater part of the night there 

 had been a dull glow in the sky, which appeared to 

 proceed from a thick smoky fire. No one has any 

 doubt that these burnings in the heavens contain 

 flame as really as they display it : they have a 

 certain substance in them. As to those for- 7 



merly discussed, I mean rainbows and halos, it is a 

 question whether they deceive the sight and consist 

 of an illusion ; or really contain what appears in 

 them. I and those who think with me cannot con 

 vince ourselves that the rainbow and halo have a 

 basis of any definite material in them. For we judge 

 that in a mirror there is nothing but a deception : 

 the mirror only pretends to show a foreign body. 

 What is revealed does not exist in the mirror. 8 

 Otherwise it would not come out of it, nor would it 

 be forthwith obscured by another image : nor would 

 innumerable forms now fade from it, now be received 

 by it. What follows, then ? That these are mere 

 phantoms and the insubstantial imitation of real 

 bodies. Indeed, in certain instances, people have so 

 arranged mirrors that the objects have been distorted 

 and degraded in the reflection. For, as I have already 

 said, there are some mirrors that twist the faces of 

 those who look into them, some that enormously 

 increase them until they exceed all size and propor 

 tions of these bodies of ours. 



XVI 



AT this point I wish to tell you a little story 

 to show you how unscrupulous lust is in seizing 



