Two views that devalue the idols. The passage joins two devices against self-deception — of the body and of the love of fame. The first is the EXERCISEphysical definition of the body: "turn it inside out and see" (ἔκστρεψον καὶ θέασαι) what it is and what it turns into in old age, sickness, debauchery (γηρᾶσαν, νοσῆσαν, πορνεῦσαν). The bare look breaks the spell of the flesh (cf. 8.24 — the bath as oil-sweat-filth; 06-13).

DOGMAFame on a speck. The second is the EXERCISEview from above upon fame: "short-lived" (βραχύβιον) are the praiser and the praised, the rememberer and the remembered — all four roles ephemeral. More: all the talk is "in a nook of this zone" (ἐν γωνίᾳ τοῦ κλίματος), where not even there do all agree, "nor anyone with himself"; "the whole earth is a point" (ὅλη ἡ γῆ στιγμή). The spatial diminishment (earth-as-point) compounds the temporal (short life), and posthumous fame is left without support (cf. 04-03 — oblivion; 9.30 — the view from above on the swarming). There are no term-lemmata in the text. The governing discipline is desire (to devalue body and fame), the sustaining one assent (not to judge them goods).