xandrian relatives, condemned every form of communion with the
gentiles, and would undoubtedly have quitted the residence of his host
if he had ventured to adorn it in honor of the feast-day of the false
gods. Gamaliel's nephew, Rabbi Ben Jochai, enjoyed a reputation little
inferior to that of his father, Ben Akiba. The elder was the greatest
sage and expounder of the law--the son the most illustrious astronomer
and the most skilled interpreter of the mystical significance of the
position of the heavenly bodies, among the Hebrews.

It redounded greatly to the honor of Apollodorus that he should be
privileged to shelter under his roof the sage Gamaliel and the famous
son of so great a father, and in his hours of leisure he loved to occupy
himself with learned subjects, so he had done his utmost to make their
stay in his house in every way agreeable to them. He had bought, on
purpose for them, a kitchen slave, himself a strict Jew and familiar
with the requirements of the Levitical law as to food, who during their
stay was to preside over the mysteries of the hearth, instead of the
Greek cook who usually served him, so that none but clean meat should be
prepared according to the Jewish ritual. He had forbidden his grown-up
sons to invite any of their Greek friends into the house during the
visit of the illustrious couple or to discuss the festival; they were
also enjoined to avoid using the names of the gods of the heathen in
their conversation--but he himself was the first to sin against this
prohibition.

He, like all the Hebrews of good position in Alexandria, had acquired
Greek culture, felt and thought in Greek modes, and had remained a Jew
only in name; for though they still believed in the one God of their
fathers instead of in a crowd of Olympian deities, the One whom they
worshipped was no longer the almighty and jealous God of their nation,
but the all-pervading plasmic and life-giving Spirit with whom the
Greeks had become familiar through Plato.

Every hour that they had spent in each other's company had widened
the gulf between Apollodorus and Gamaliel, and the relations of the
Alexandrian to the sage had become almost intolerable, when he learnt
that the old man--who was related to himself--had come to Egypt with his
nephew, in order to demand the daughter of Apollodorus in marriage. But
the fair Ismene was not in the least disposed to listen to this grave
and bigoted suitor. The home of her people was to