deep, and high, and broad, to resolve for us the reason of this
averted face of heaven, save that of which I speak, I cannot guess.'

'Nor I,' said Aurelian; 'I confess it. It must be so My work is not
three, nor two; but one. I have brought peace to the empire in all its
borders. My legions all rest upon their arms. Not a sword, but is in its
sheath--there, for the present, let it be glued fast. The season, so
propitious for the great work of bringing again the empire into peace
and harmony with the angry gods, seems to have been provided by
themselves. How think you, Nicomachus?'--turning suddenly to me, as if
now, for the first time, aware that I was standing at his side.

I answered, 'that I was slow to receive the judgment of Fronto or of
himself in that matter. That I could not believe that the gods, who
should be examples of the virtues to mankind, would ever ordain such
sufferings for their creatures as must ensue, were the former violences
to be renewed against the Christians. So far from thinking them a
nuisance in the state, I considered them a benefit.'

'The Greek too,' said Fronto, breaking in, 'is then a Christian.'

'I am not a Christian, priest, nor, as I think, shall ever be one; but,
far sooner would I be one, than take my faith from thee, which, however
it might guide me well through the wine vaults of the temple, or to the
best stalls of the market, or to the selectest retreats of the suburra,
would scarce show the way to heaven. I affront but the corruptions of
religion, Aurelian. Sincerity I honor everywhere. Hypocrisy nowhere.' I
thought Fronto would have torn me with his teeth and nails. His white
face grew whiter, but he stood still.

'Say on,' said the Emperor, 'though your bluntness be more even than
Roman.'

'I think,' I continued, 'the Christians a benefit to the state, for this
reason; not that their religion is what they pretend, a heaven-descended
one, but that, by its greater strictness, it serves to rebuke the common
faith and those who hold it, and infuse into it something of its own
spirit. All new systems, as I take it, in their first beginning are
strict and severe. It is thus by this quality they supersede older and
degenerate ones; not because they are truer, but because they are purer.
There is a prejudice among men, that the gods, whoever they may be, and
whatever they may be, love virtue in men, and for that accept them.
When, therefore, a religion fails to recommend and