tians!" exclaimed Petronius. "They have
filled thee with disquiet, and destroyed thy sense of life. May Hades
devour them! Thou art mistaken in thinking that their religion is good,
for good is what gives people happiness, namely, beauty, love, power;
but these they call vanity. Thou art mistaken in this, that they are
just; for if we pay good for evil, what shall we pay for good? And
besides, if we pay the same for one and the other, why are people to be
good?"

"No, the pay is not the same; but according to their teaching it begins
in a future life, which is without limit."

"I do not enter into that question, for we shall see hereafter if it
be possible to see anything without eyes. Meanwhile they are simply
incompetents. Ursus strangled Croton because he has limbs of bronze; but
these are mopes, and the future cannot belong to mopes."

"For them life begins with death."

"Which is as if one were to say, 'Day begins with night.' Hast thou the
intent to carry off Lygia?"

"No, I cannot pay her evil for good, and I swore that I would not."

"Dost thou intend to accept the religion of Christ?"

"I wish to do so, but my nature cannot endure it."

"But wilt thou be able to forget Lygia?"

"No."

"Then travel."

At that moment the slaves announced that the repast was ready; but
Petronius, to whom it seemed that he had fallen on a good thought,
said, on the way to the triclinium,--"Thou has ridden over a part of the
world, but only as a soldier hastening to his place of destination, and
without halting by the way. Go with us to Achaea. Caesar has not given up
the journey. He will stop everywhere on the way, sing, receive crowns,
plunder temples, and return as a triumphator to Italy. That will
resemble somewhat a journey of Bacchus and Apollo in one person.
Augustians, male and female, a thousand citharae. By Castor! that will be
worth witnessing, for hitherto the world has not seen anything like it!"

Here he placed himself on the couch before the table, by the side of
Eunice; and when the slaves put a wreath of anemones on his head, he
continued,--"What hast thou seen in Corbulo's service? Nothing. Hast
thou seen the Grecian temples thoroughly, as I have,--I who was passing
more than two years from the hands of one guide to those of another?
Hast thou been in Rhodes to examine the site of the Colossus? Hast thou
seen in Panopeus, in Phocis, the clay from which Prometheus shaped man;
or in Sparta the eggs lai