Lucullus, second livre des Académiques Passage 56

cui non adsentior potius †quare fallar† potest id quod dilucide docetur a politioribus physicis, singularum rerum singulas proprietates esse. fac enim antiquos illos Servilios, qui gemini fuerunt, tam similes quam dicuntur, num censes etiam eosdem fuisse? non cognoscebantur foris : at domi; non ab alienis : at a suis. an non videmus hoc usu venire, ut quos numquam putassemus a nobis internosci posse eos consuetudine 20 adhibita tam facile internosceremus ut ne minimum quidem similes viderentur.

“I do not assent to him, especially †why should I be deceived† when the more refined natural philosophers clearly teach that every individual thing possesses its own individual properties. Suppose those ancient Servilii, who were twins, were as similar as they are said to have been. Do you therefore think they were identical? They were not recognized outside the home, but they were at home; not by strangers, but by their own people. Do we not see it happen in experience that people whom we never thought we could distinguish become, through familiarity, so easily distinguishable that they no longer seem even slightly alike?”

je ne lui donne pas mon assentiment. Au contraire, ce que des physiciens plus raffinés enseignent clairement peut établir que je me trompe : chaque chose possède ses propriétés particulières. Suppose que les anciens Servilius, qui étaient jumeaux, aient été aussi semblables qu’on le raconte. Penses-tu qu’ils aient même été identiques ? On ne les distinguait pas au-dehors, mais on les distinguait chez eux ; les étrangers ne les reconnaissaient pas, mais leurs proches le faisaient. Ne voyons-nous pas couramment que des hommes dont nous n’aurions jamais cru pouvoir apprendre à discerner l’un de l’autre, une fois l’habitude acquise, sont si facilement distingués qu’ils ne nous paraissent plus présenter la moindre ressemblance ?