aratists. In the natural order of things,
these circumstances and conditions, opinions and peculiarities,
would have descended to the son as certainly and really as any
portion of his father's estate; and, as we have seen, he was
actually in course of acquiring them, when the second saving
event overtook him.

Upon a youth of Ben-Hur's mind and temperament the influence of
five years of affluent life in Rome can be appreciated best by
recalling that the great city was then, in fact, the meeting-place
of the nations--their meeting-place politically and commercially,
as well as for the indulgence of pleasure without restraint.
Round and round the golden mile-stone in front of the Forum--now
in gloom of eclipse, now in unapproachable splendor--flowed
all the active currents of humanity. If excellences of manner,
refinements of society, attainments of intellect, and glory of
achievement made no impression upon him, how could he, as the son
of Arrius, pass day after day, through a period so long, from the
beautiful villa near Misenum into the receptions of Caesar, and be
wholly uninfluenced by what he saw there of kings, princes, ambassadors,
hostages, and delegates, suitors all of them from every known land,
waiting humbly the yes or no which was to make or unmake them? As
mere assemblages, to be sure, there was nothing to compare with the
gatherings at Jerusalem in celebration of the Passover; yet when
he sat under the purple velaria of the Circus Maximus one of three
hundred and fifty thousand spectators, he must have been visited by
the thought that possibly there might be some branches of the family
of man worthy divine consideration, if not mercy, though they were of
the uncircumcised--some, by their sorrows, and, yet worse, by their
hopelessness in the midst of sorrows, fitted for brotherhood in the
promises to his countrymen.

That he should have had such a thought under such circumstances was
but natural; we think so much, at least, will be admitted: but when
the reflection came to him, and he gave himself up to it, he could
not have been blind to a certain distinction. The wretchedness of
the masses, and their hopeless condition, had no relation whatever
to religion; their murmurs and groans were not against their gods
or for want of gods. In the oak-woods of Britain the Druids held
their followers; Odin and Freya maintained their godships in Gaul
and Germany and among the Hyperboreans; Egypt was satisfied with