[179] on which account the most illustrious of all the Greek poets appears to me to have said:— "Swift as a winged bird or fleeter thought." [121] Showing by these words the exceeding speed of its promptitude, placing the thought after the winged bird as a sort of climax; for the mind advances at the same moment to very many things and bodies, hurrying on with indescribable impetuosity, and without a moment’s lapse of time it speeds at once to the borders of both earth and sea, bringing together and dividing infinite magnitudes by a single word; and at the same time it soars to such a height above the earth, that it penetrates [122] [123] [124] through the air and reaches even the aether, and scarcely stops at the very furthest circle of the fixed stars.