it floods a man's mind."

"He was a beast in any case," said Pertinax.

"Yes, but a baffled, blind beast. I removed the bandage from his eyes."

"He would have pulled it off himself."

"I did it. I turned a mere golden-haired savage into a criminal who
knows what he is doing."

"Well, drink and forget it!" said Pertinax. "I, too, have done things
that are best forgotten. We attain success by learning from defeat, and
we forget defeat in triumph. I know of no triumph that did not blot out
scores of worse things than defeat. When I was in Britain I subdued
rebellion and restored the discipline of mutinying legions. How? I am
not such a fool as to tell you all that happened! When I was in Africa
men called me a great proconsul. So I was. They would welcome me back
there, if all I hear about the present man is true. But do you suppose
I did not fail in certain instances? They praise me for the aqueducts I
built, and for the peace I left along the border. But I also left dry
bones, and sons of dead men who will teach their grandsons how to hate
the name of Rome! I sent a hundred thousand slaves from Africa.
Sometimes, when I have dined unwisely and there is no Galen near to
freshen up my belly juices, I have nightmares, in which men and women
cry to me for water that I took from them to pour into the cities. I
have learned this, Galen: Do one thing wisely and you will commit ten
follies. You are lucky if you have but ten failures to detract from one
success--as lucky as a man who has but ten mistresses to interfere with
his enjoyment of his wife!"

He spoke of mistresses because the girls were coming down the temple
steps to take part in the sunset ceremony. The torches they carried
were unlighted yet; their figures, draped in linen, looked almost
super-humanly lovely in the deepening twilight, and as they laid their
garlands on the marble altar near the temple steps and grouped
themselves again on either side of it their movements suggested a
phantasmagoria fading away into infinite distance, as if all the
universe were filled with women without age or blemish. There began to
be a scent of incense in the air.

"We only imitate this kind of thing in Rome," said Pertinax. "A larger
scale, a coarser effect. What I find thrilling is the sensation they
contrive here of unseen mysteries. Whereas--"

"There won't be any mystery left presently! They'll strip your last
veil from imagination!" Sextus