Moral Letters to Lucilius Section 11

Isto enim modo dicat licet sapientes fuisse, per quos Tunc laqueis captare feras et fallere visco Inventum et magnos canibus circumdare saltus. Omnia enim ista sagacitas hominum, non sapientia invenit.

Je suis encore d’autre avis que Posidonius, quand il prétend que les outils en fer sont de l’invention des sages. À ce compte il pourrait leur attribuer aussi

Et la toile perfide, et la glu du chasseur,

Et sa meute, des bois ceignant la profondeur;

toutes inventions de l’industrie humaine, non de la sagesse.

On another point also I differ from Posidonius, when he holds that mechanical tools were the invention of wise men. For on that basis one might maintain that those were wise who taught the arts Of setting traps for game, and liming twigs For birds, and girdling mighty woods with dogs. It was man’s ingenuity, not his wisdom, that discovered all these devices.