urt the generosity of my wife, but that I
even repulsed it with some severity. What other motives can you
allege? Why are you struck dumb? Why this silence? What has become of
that ferocious utterance with which you opened the indictment, couched
in the name of my step-son? 'This is the man, most excellent Maximus,
whom I have resolved to indict before you.'

103. Why did you not add 'He whom I indict is my teacher, my
step-father, my mediator'? But how did you proceed? 'He is guilty of
the most palpable and numerous sorceries.' Produce one of these many
sorceries or at least some doubtful instance from those which you
style so palpable. Nay, see whether I cannot reply to your various
charges with two words to each. 'You clean your teeth.' Excusable
cleanliness. 'You look into mirrors.' Philosophers should. 'You write
verse.' 'Tis permitted. 'You examine fish.' Following Aristotle. 'You
worship a piece of wood.' So Plato. 'You marry a wife.' Obeying law.
'She is older than you.' Nothing commoner. 'You married for money.'
Take the marriage-settlement, remember the deed of gift, read the
will!

If I have rebutted all their charges, word by word, if I have refuted
all their slanders, if I am beyond reproach, not only as regards their
accusations but also as regards their vulgar abuse, if I have done
nothing to impair the honour of philosophy, which is dearer to me than
my own safety, but on the contrary have smitten my adversary hip and
thigh and vanquished him at all points, if all my contentions are
true, I can await your estimate of my character with the same
confidence with which I await the exercise of your power; for I regard
it as less serious and less terrible to be condemned by the proconsul
than to incur the disapproval of so good and so perfect a man.

THE FLORIDA

_The exordium to a discourse delivered in a town through which
Apuleius passes in the course of a journey._

1. It is the usual practice of wayfarers with a religious disposition,
when they come upon a sacred grove or holy place by the roadside, to
utter a prayer, to offer an apple, and pause for a moment from their
journeying. So I, on entering the revered walls of your city, feel
that, for all my haste, it is my duty to ask your favour, to make an
address, and to break the speed of my journey. I cannot conceive aught
that could give a traveller juster cause to halt in sign of reverence;
no altar crowned with flowers, no grotto shadowed