reats of Aesculapius. Will any one, who chances to
remember it, repeat the beginning of that particular passage in my
discourse? You hear, Maximus, how many voices supply the words. I will
order this same passage to be read aloud, since by the courteous
expression of your face you show that you will not be displeased to
hear it. (_The passage is read aloud._)

56. Can any one, who has the least remembrance of the nature of
religious rites, be surprised that one who has been initiated into so
many holy mysteries should preserve at home certain talismans
associated with these ceremonies, and should wrap them in a linen
cloth, the purest of coverings for holy things? For wool, produced by
the most stolid of creatures and stripped from the sheep's back, the
followers of Orpheus and Pythagoras are for that very reason forbidden
to wear as being unholy and unclean. But flax, the purest of all
growths and among the best of all the fruits of the earth, is used by
the holy priests of Egypt, not only for clothing and raiment, but as a
veil for sacred things. And yet I know that some persons, among them
that fellow Aemilianus, think it a good jest to mock at things divine.
For I learn from certain men of Oea who know him, that to this day he
has never prayed to any god or frequented any temple, while if he
chances to pass any shrine, he regards it as a crime to raise his hand
to his lips in token of reverence. He has never given firstfruits of
crops or vines or flocks to any of the gods of the farmer, who feed
him and clothe him; his farm holds no shrine, no holy place, nor
grove. But why do I speak of groves or shrines? Those who have been on
his property say they never saw there one stone where offering of oil
has been made, one bough where wreaths have been hung. As a result,
two nicknames have been given him: he is called Charon, as I have
said, on account of his truculence of spirit and of countenance, but
he is also--and this is the name he prefers--called Mezentius, because
he despises the gods. I therefore find it the easier to understand
that he should regard my list of initiations in the light of a jest.
It is even possible that, thanks to his rejection of things divine, he
may be unable to induce himself to believe that it is true that I
guard so reverently so many emblems and relics of mysterious rites. I
care not a straw what Mezentius may think of me; but to others I make
this announcement clearly and unshrinkingly.