r at school, it would hardy have counted for much to
my credit, for my brother Apollonius, who was about a year younger than
I, learned all the most difficult things as if they were mere child's
play, and in dialectic exercises there soon was no rhetorician in
Alexandria who could compete with him. No system was unknown to him, and
though no one ever knew of his troubling himself particularly to study,
he nevertheless was master of many departments of learning. There were
but two things in which I could beat him--in music, and in all athletic
exercises; while he was studying and disputing I was winning garlands in
the palaestra. But at that time the best master of rhetoric and argument
was the best man, and my father, who himself could shine in the senate as
an ardent and elegant orator, looked upon me as a half idiotic
ne'er-do-weel, until one clay a learned client of our house presented him
with a pebble on which was carved an epigram to this effect: 'He who
would see the noblest gifts of the Greek race, should visit the house of
Herophilus, for there he might admire strength and vigor of body in
Menander, and the same qualities of mind in Apollonius.' These lines,
which were written in the form of a lute, passed from mouth to mouth, and
gratified my father's ambition; from that time he had words of praise for
me when my quadriga won the race in the Hippodrome, or when I came home
crowned from the wrestling-ring, or the singing match. My whole life was
spent in the baths and the palaestra, or in gay feasting."

"I know it all," exclaimed Stephanus interrupting him, "and the memory of
it all often disturbs me. Did you find it easy to banish these images
from your mind?"

"At first I had a hard fight," sighed Paulus. "But for some time now,
since I have passed my fortieth year, the temptations of the world
torment me less often. Only I must keep out of the way of the carriers
who bring fish from the fishing towns on the sea, and from Raithu to the
oasis."

Stephanus looked enquiringly at the speaker, and Paulus went on: "Yes, it
is very strange. I may see men or women--the sea yonder or the mountain
here, without ever thinking of Alexandria, but only of sacred things; but
when the savor of fish rises up to my nostrils I see the market and fish
stalls and the oysters--"

"Those of Kanopus are famous," interrupted Steplianus, "they make little
pasties there--" Paulus passed the back of his hand over his bearded lips,