ceptions, but ever aspiring after those that shall be
worthier and worthier.

'And now, O Emperor, for the same reason that we believe God the
creator did implant in us all, of all tribes and tongues, this deep
desire to know, worship, and enjoy him, so that no people have ever been
wholly ignorant of him, do we believe that he has, in these latter
years, declared himself to mankind more plainly than he did in the
origin of things, or than he does through our own reason, so that men
may, by such better knowledge of himself and of all necessary truth
which he has imparted, be raised to a higher virtue on earth, and made
fit for a more exalted life in heaven. We believe that he has thus
declared himself by him whom you have heard named as the Master and Lord
of the Christian, and after whom they are called, Jesus Christ. Him, God
the creator, we believe, sent into the world to teach a better religion
than the world had; and to break down and forever destroy, through the
operation of his truth, a thousand injurious forms of false belief. It
is this religion which we would extend, and impart to those who will
open their minds to consider its claims, and their hearts to embrace its
truths, when they have once been seen to be divine. This has been our
task and our duty in Rome, to beseech you not blindly to receive, but
strictly to examine, and, if found to be true, then humbly and
gratefully to adopt this new message from above--'

'By the gods, Aurelian,' exclaimed Porphyrius, 'these Christians are
kindly disposed! their benevolence and their philosophy are alike. We
are obliged to them--'

'Not now, Porphyrius,' said Aurelian. 'Disturb not the Christian. Say
on, Probus.'

'We hope,' continued Probus, nothing daunted by the scornful jeers of
the philosopher, 'that we are sincerely desirous of your welfare, and so
pray that in the lapse of years all may, as some have done, take at our
hands the good we proffer them; for, sure we are, that would all so
receive it, Rome would tower upwards with a glory and a beauty that
should make her a thousand-fold more honored and beloved than now, and
her roots would strike down, and so fasten themselves in the very centre
of the earth, that well might she then be called the Eternal City. Yet,
O Emperor, though such is our aim and purpose; though we would propagate
a religion from God, and, in doing so, are willing to labor our lives
long, and, if need be, die in the sacred cause, yet