in human life, and which in my dealings I wholly set aside; nevertheless
they seem to me worthy of investigation, like any other delusion, if by
resolving it we may arrive at conditional truth. It is because one man
is afraid of another that these restraints--justice, truth, and what
else you will--have received these high-sounding names, have been
stamped as characteristics of the gods, and placed under the protection
of the immortals; nay, our anxious care has gone so far that it has been
taught as a doctrine that it is beautiful and good to cloud our free
enjoyment of existence for the sake of these illusions. Think of
Antisthenes and his disciples, the dog-like Cynics--think of the fools
shut up in the temple of Serapis! Nothing is beautiful but what is
free, and he only is not free who is forever striving to check his
inclinations--for the most part in vain--in order to live, as feeble
cowards deem virtuously, justly and truthfully.

"One animal eats another when he has succeeded in capturing it, either
in open fight or by cunning and treachery; the climbing plant strangles
the tree, the desert-sand chokes the meadows, stars fall from heaven,
and earthquakes swallow up cities. You believe in the gods--and so do
I after my own fashion--and if they have so ordered the course of this
life in every class of existence that the strong triumph over the
weak, why should not I use my strength, why let it be fettered by those
much-belauded soporifics which our prudent ancestors concocted to cool
the hot blood of such men as I, and to paralyze our sinewy fists.

"Euergetes--the well-doer--I was named at my birth; but if men choose to
call me Kakergetes--the evil-doer--I do not mind it, since what you call
good I call narrow and petty, and what you call evil is the free and
unbridled exercise of power. I would be anything rather than lazy
and idle, for everything in nature is active and busy; and as, with
Aristippus, I hold pleasure to be the highest good, I would fain earn
the name of having enjoyed more than all other men; in the first place
in my mind, but no less in my body which I admire and cherish."

During this speech many signs of disagreement had found expression,
and Publius, who for the first time in his life heard such vicious
sentiments spoken, followed the words of the headstrong youth
with consternation and surprise. He felt himself no match for this
overbearing spirit, trained too in all the arts of argument