love his country, and deny
the gods who made and preserve it? But then who am I to condemn? When I
see the gods to hurl thunderbolts upon those who flout them, it will be
time enough for us mortals to assume the robes of judgment. I will hope
that farther thought will reclaim you from your truant wanderings.'

Do not imagine, Fausta, that conversations like this have the least
effect to chill the warm affections of Portia towards us both. Nature
has placed within her bosom a central heat, that not only preserves her
own warmth, but diffuses itself upon all who approach her, and changes
their affections into a likeness of her own. We speak of our differing
faiths, but love none the less. When she had paused a moment after
uttering the last words, she again turned her eye upon the statue of
Christ, and, captivated by its wondrous power, she dwelt upon it in a
manner that showed her sensibilities to be greatly moved. At length she
suddenly started, saying:

'If truth and beauty were the same thing, one need but to look upon this
and be a believer. But as in the human form and face, beauty is often
but a lie, covering over a worse deformity than any that ever disfigures
the body, so it may be here. I cannot but admire and love the beauty; it
will be wise, I suppose, not to look farther, lest the dream be
dissolved.'

'Be not afraid of that, dearest mother; I can warrant you against
disappointment. If in that marble you have the form of the outward
beauty, here, in this roll, you will find the inward moral beauty of
which it is the shrine.'

'Nay, nay, Lucius, I look no farther or deeper. I have seen too much
already.'

With these words, she arose, and we accompanied her to the portico,
where we walked, and sat, and talked of you, and Calpurnius, and
Gracchus.

Thus you perceive I have told you first of what chiefly interests
myself: now let me turn to what at this moment more than everything else
fills all heads in Rome--and that is Livia. She is the object of
universal attention, the centre of all honor. It is indescribable, the
sensation her beauty, and now added to that, her magnificence, have made
and still make in Rome. Her imperial bearing would satisfy even you; and
the splendor of her state exceeds all that has been known before. This
you may be surprised to hear, knowing what the principles of Aurelian
have been in such things; how strict he has been himself in a more than
republican simplicity, and how se