be. And I must say that it has ever
been such to me. I, from what I have read of our moralists and
philosophers, and from what I have reflected, have arrived at principles
not very different from such as you have now hinted at--'

'And are those of Fronto or Varus like yours, lady?'

'I fear not,' said Portia.

'Yours then, let me say, are the religion, which you have first found
within your own breast, a gift from the gods, and then by meditation
have confirmed and exalted; theirs, the common faith of Rome. Could your
faith rejoice in or permit the horrors I have this day witnessed and but
now described? Yet of theirs they are the legitimate fruit, the
necessary product.'

'Out of the best,' replied Portia, 'I believe, Nicomachus, may often
come the worst. There is naught so perfect and so wise, but human
passions will mar and pervert it. I should not wonder if, in ages to
come, this peace-loving faith of the Christians, should it survive so
long, should itself come to preside over scenes as full of misery and
guilt as those you have to-day seen in the streets of Rome.'

'It may be,' I rejoined. 'But it is nevertheless our duty, in the
selection of our principles, to take those which are the purest, the
most humane, the most accordant with what is best in us, and the least
liable to perversion and abuse. And whether, if this be just, it be
better that mankind should have presented for their imitation and honor
the character and actions of Jesus Christ, or those of Jupiter "Greatest
and Best," may be left for the simplest to determine.'

Portia is so staunch a Roman, that one cannot doubt that as she was born
and has lived, so she will die--a Roman. And truth to say, were all like
her, there were little room for quarrel with the principles that could
produce such results. But for one such, there are a thousand like Varus,
Fronto, and Aurelian.

As after this interview, which was prolonged till the shades of evening
began to fall, I held communion with myself on the way to the quiet
retreats of Tibur, I could not but entertain apprehensions for the
safety of the friends I had just left. I felt that where such men as
Varus and Fronto were at the head of affairs, wielding, almost as they
pleased, the omnipotence of Aurelian, no family nor individual of
whatever name or rank could feel secure of either fortune or life. I had
heard indeed such expressions of regard fall from the Emperor for Piso
and his beautiful wif