and fear;
but the great body of the faithful could not be classed with such.
Apollo's nets were wide, and their meshes small; and hardly may
one tell what all his fishermen landed: this less for that they
cannot be described than because they ought not to be. Enough that
the mass were of the sybarites of the world, and of the herds
in number vaster and in degree lower--devotees of the unmixed
sensualism to which the East was almost wholly given. Not to
any of the exaltations--not to the singing-god, or his unhappy
mistress; not to any philosophy requiring for its enjoyment the
calm of retirement, nor to any service for the comfort there is
in religion, nor to love in its holier sense--were they abiding
their vows. Good reader, why shall not the truth be told here?
Why not learn that, at this age, there were in all earth but two
peoples capable of exaltations of the kind referred to--those
who lived by the law of Moses, and those who lived by the law
of Brahma. They alone could have cried you, Better a law without
love than a love without law.

Besides that, sympathy is in great degree a result of the mood we
are in at the moment: anger forbids the emotion. On the other hand,
it is easiest taken on when we are in a state of most absolute
self-satisfaction. Ben-Hur walked with a quicker step, holding his
head higher; and, while not less sensitive to the delightfulness
of all about him, he made his survey with calmer spirit, though
sometimes with curling lip; that is to say, he could not so soon
forget how nearly he himself had been imposed upon.

CHAPTER VII

In front of Ben-Hur there was a forest of cypress-trees, each a
column tall and straight as a mast. Venturing into the shady
precinct, he heard a trumpet gayly blown, and an instant after
saw lying upon the grass close by the countryman whom he had run
upon in the road going to the temples. The man arose, and came
to him.

"I give you peace again," he said, pleasantly.

"Thank you," Ben-Hur replied, then asked, "Go you my way?"

"I am for the stadium, if that is your way."

"The stadium!"

"Yes. The trumpet you heard but now was a call for the competitors."

"Good friend," said Ben-Hur, frankly, "I admit my ignorance of
the Grove; and if you will let me be your follower, I will be
glad."

"That will delight me. Hark! I hear the wheels of the chariots.
They are taking the track."

Ben-Hur listened a moment, then completed the introduction by