assions, emancipated the stifled energies in him.
The projects of vengeance and the visions of restoration which he had
brooded over for five long years, now rose before him as realised
already under the vivid influence of the desecrated scenes around. As
he stood beneath the shattered porticoes of the sacred place, not a
stone crumbling at his feet but rebuked him for his past inaction, and
strengthened him for daring, for conspiracy, for revenge, in the
service of the outraged gods. The ruined temples he had visited in his
gloomy pilgrimages now became revived by his fancy, as one by one they
rose on his toiling memory. Broken pillars soared from the ground;
desecrated idols reoccupied their vacant pedestals; and he, the exile
and the mourner, stood forth once again the ruler, the teacher, and the
priest. The time of restitution was come; though his understanding
supplied him with no distinct projects, his heart urged him to rush
blindly on the execution of his reform. The moment had
arrived--Macrinus should yet be avenged; the temple should at last be
restored.

He descended into the city; he hurried--neither welcomed nor
recognised--through the crowded streets; he entered the house of a man
who had once been his friend and colleague in the days that were past,
and poured forth to him his wild determinations and disjointed plans,
entreating his assistance, and promising him a glorious success. But
his old companion had become, by a timely conversion to Christianity, a
man of property and reputation in Alexandria, and he turned from the
friendless enthusiast with indignation and contempt. Repulsed, but not
disheartened, Ulpius sought others who he had known in his prosperity
and renown. They had all renounced their ancient worship--they all
received him with studied coldness or careless disdain; but he still
persisted in his useless efforts. He blinded his eyes to their
contemptuous looks; he shut his ears to their derisive words.
Persevering in his self-delusion, he appointed them messengers to their
brethren in other countries, captains of the conspiracy that was to
commence in Alexandria, orators before the people when the memorable
revolution had once begun. It was in vain that they refused all
participation in his designs; he left them as the expressions of
refusal rose to their lips, and hurried elsewhere, as industrious in
his efforts, as devoted to his unwelcome mission, as if half the
population of t