ve its way, then.... Could she alone fight against it?

She could! Would she submit?--She? Her will should stand firm, her
reason free, to the last--to the death if need be.... And yet last
night!--last night!

At last she spoke, without looking up.

'And what if you have found a man in that crucified one? Have you found
in him a God also?'

'Does Hypatia recollect Glaucon's definition of the perfectly righteous
man?.... How, without being guilty of one unrighteous act, he must
labour his life long under the imputation of being utterly unrighteous,
in order that his disinterestedness may be thoroughly tested, and by
proceeding in such a course, arrive inevitably, as Glaucon says, not
only in Athens of old, or in Judaea of old, but, as you yourself will
agree, in Christian Alexandria at this moment, at--do you remember,
Hypatia?--bonds, and the scourge, and lastly, at the cross itself.... If
Plato's idea of the righteous man be a crucified one, why may not mine
also? If, as we both--and old Bishop Clemens, too--as good a Platonist
as we, remember--and Augustine himself, would agree, Plato in speaking
those strange words, spoke not of himself, but by the Spirit of God,
why should not others have spoken by the same Spirit when they spoke the
same words?'

'A crucified man.... Yes. But a crucified God, Raphael! I shudder at the
blasphemy.'

'So do my poor dear fellow-countrymen. Are they the more righteous in
their daily doings, Hypatia, on account of their fancied reverence for
the glory of One who probably knows best how to preserve and manifest
His own glory? But you assent to the definition? Take care!' said he,
with one of his arch smiles, 'I have been fighting with Augustine, and
have become of late a terrible dialectician. Do you assent to it?'

'Of course--it is Plato's.'

'But do you assent merely because it is written in the book called
Plato's, or because your reason tells you that it is true?.... You
will not tell me. Tell me this, then, at least. Is not the perfectly
righteous man the highest specimen of men?'

'Surely,' said she half carelessly: but not unwilling, like a
philosopher and a Greek, as a matter of course, to embark in anything
like a word-battle, and to shut out sadder thoughts for a moment.

'Then must not the Autanthropos, the archetypal and ideal man, who is
more perfect than any individual specimen, be perfectly righteous also?'

'Yes.'

'Suppose, then, for the sake of one of th