Scepticism is an ability which sets up antitheses among appearances and judgements in any way whatever: an ability by which, because of the equal weight of the opposed accounts, we come first to suspension of judgement, and afterwards to tranquillity.
We say of none of the things we speak about that it certainly is as we say it is; we merely report, like a chronicler, how each thing appears to us at the moment. Honey appears to us to be sweet — this we grant, for we perceive sweetness through the senses. But whether it is also sweet in its essence is for us a matter of doubt.
The Sceptic had the same experience as the painter Apelles. Painting a horse, and wishing to represent the foam of its mouth, he failed so utterly that he gave up and flung at the picture the sponge on which he wiped his brushes — and the sponge, striking the picture, produced the very effect he sought. So too the Sceptics hoped to gain tranquillity by resolving the contradictions of things, and, being unable to do this, they suspended judgement; and tranquillity followed, as if by chance, as a shadow follows a body.
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