the conqueror of the conqueror, and
makes him subserve his own purposes; purposes, of a higher nature than
the mere soldier ever dreamed of. No one can stand and contemplate this
form, without being made a lover of beauty rather than of blood and
death; and beauty is peace.'

'It must be impossible,' replied the bitter spirit, 'for one who loves
Palmyra better than his native Rome, to see much merit in Aurelian. It
is a common saying, Piso is a Palmyrene. The report is current too that
Piso is about to turn author, and celebrate that great nation in
history.'

'I wish I were worthy to do so,' I answered, 'I might then refute
certain statements in another quarter. Yet events have already refuted
them.'

'If my book,' replied Spurius, 'be copied a thousand times, the
statements shall stand as they are. They are founded upon indisputable
evidence and philosophical inferences.'

'But, Spurius, they are every one contradicted by the late events.'

'No matter for that, if they were ever true they must always be true.
Reasoning is as strong as fact. I found Palmyra a vulgar, upstart,
provincial city; the most distasteful of all spots on earth to a refined
mind; such I left it, and such I have shown it to the world.'

'Yet,' I urged, 'if the Palmyrenes in the defence of their country
showed themselves a brave, daring, and dangerous foe, as they certainly
were magnanimous; if so many facts and events prove this, and all Rome
admits it, it will seem like little else than malice for such pages to
circulate in your book. Besides, as to a thousand other things I can
prove you to have seen amiss.'

'Because I have but one eye, am I incapable of vision? Am I to be
reproached with my misfortunes? One eye is the same as two; who sees two
images except he squint? I can describe that wain, loaded down with wine
casks, drawn by four horses with scarlet trappings, the driver with a
sweeping Juno's favor in his cap, as justly as you can. Who can see
more?'

'I thought not, Spurius, of your misfortune, though I must think two
eyes better for seeing than one, but only of favorable opportunities for
observation. You were in Palmyra from the ides of January to the nones
of February, and lived in a tavern. I have been there more than half a
year, and dwelt among the citizens themselves. I knew them in public and
in private, and saw them under all circumstances most favorable to a
just opinion, and I can affirm that a more discolored pic