As I was admiring all of this, I was somehow able to return my eyes once more to the earth; then, "I feel," Africanus began, "that you still, even now, contemplate that seat and home of humanity; if it seems so small to you (as it is), then you will surely condemn human affairs when you will be gazing at these heavens forever. Indeed, how are you able to look at those crowds of chattering people? Or would you rather look to that hoped for glory of the life to come which you must seek? You see that the earth is inhabited in places few and far between, and between these inhabited places—like blemishes—have been raised vast swathes of emptiness; and those who live on the earth without having been broken upon this way have been made to be such that nothing can flow between them, from some to others; but some at an angle, some moving across, still more standing against you all: from whom you all certainly expect no glory."
Haec ego admirans referebam tamen oculos ad terram identidem. Tum Africanus: "Sentio," inquit, "te sedem etiam nunc hominum ac domum contemplari; quae si tibi parva, ut est, ita videtur, haec caelestia semper spectato, illa humana contemnito! Tu enim quam celebritatem sermonis hominum aut quam expetendam consequi gloriam potes? Vides habitari in terra raris et angustis in locis et in ipsis quasi maculis, ubi habitatur, vastas solitudines interiectas eosque, qui incolunt terram, non modo interruptos ita esse, ut nihil inter ipsos ab aliis ad alios manare possit, sed partim obliquos, partim transversos, partim etiam adversos stare vobis; a quibus exspectare gloriam certe nullam potestis."
As I was admiring all of this, I was somehow able to return my eyes once more to the earth; then, "I feel," Africanus began, "that you still, even now, contemplate that seat and home of humanity; if it seems so small to you (as it is), then you will surely condemn human affairs when you will be gazing at these heavens forever. Indeed, how are you able to look at those crowds of chattering people? Or would you rather look to that hoped for glory of the life to come which you must seek? You see that the earth is inhabited in places few and far between, and between these inhabited places—like blemishes—have been raised vast swathes of emptiness; and those who live on the earth without having been broken upon this way have been made to be such that nothing can flow between them, from some to others; but some at an angle, some moving across, still more standing against you all: from whom you all certainly expect no glory."
Haec ego admirans referebam tamen oculos ad terram identidem. Tum Africanus: "Sentio," inquit, "te sedem etiam nunc hominum ac domum contemplari; quae si tibi parva, ut est, ita videtur, haec caelestia semper spectato, illa humana contemnito! Tu enim quam celebritatem sermonis hominum aut quam expetendam consequi gloriam potes? Vides habitari in terra raris et angustis in locis et in ipsis quasi maculis, ubi habitatur, vastas solitudines interiectas eosque, qui incolunt terram, non modo interruptos ita esse, ut nihil inter ipsos ab aliis ad alios manare possit, sed partim obliquos, partim transversos, partim etiam adversos stare vobis; a quibus exspectare gloriam certe nullam potestis."