e Thee, O my God, for having
made me the cesspool of the world."

One day, a rumour ran through the holy city, and even reached the ears
of the hermit: a very great personage, a man occupying a high position,
the Prefect of the Alexandrian fleet, Lucius Aurelius Cotta, was about
to visit the city--was, indeed, now on his way.

The news was true. Old Cotta, who was inspecting the canals and the
navigation of the Nile, had many times expressed a desire to see the
stylite and the new city, to which the name of Stylopolis had been
given. The Stylopolitans saw the river covered with sails one morning.
Cotta appeared on board a golden galley hung with purple, and followed
by all his fleet. He landed, and advanced, accompanied by a secretary
carrying his tablets, and Aristaeus, his physician, with whom he liked
to converse.

A numerous suite walked behind him, and the shore was covered with
_laticlaves_(*) and military uniforms. He stopped, some paces from the
column, and began to examine the stylite, wiping his face meanwhile with
the skirt of his toga. Being of a naturally curious disposition, he
had observed many things in the course of his long voyages. He liked to
remember them, and intended to write, after he had finished his Punic
history, a book on the remarkable things he had witnessed. He seemed
much interested by the spectacle before him.

(*) The _laticlave_ was a toga, with a broad purple band,
worn by Roman senators as the distinguishing mark of their
high office.

"This is very curious!" he said, puffing and blowing. "And--which is a
circumstance worthy of being recorded--this man was my guest. Yes, this
monk supped with me last year, after which he carried off an actress."

Turning to his secretary--

"Note that, my son, on my tablets; also the dimensions of the column,
not omitting the shape of the top of it."

Then, wiping his face again--

"Persons deserving of belief have assured me that this monk has not left
his column for a single moment since he mounted it a year ago. Is that
possible, Aristaeus?"

"That which is possible to a lunatic or a sick man," replied Aristaeus,
"would be impossible to a man sound in body and mind. Do you know,
Lucius, that sometimes diseases of the mind or body give to those
afflicted by them a strength which healthy men do not possess? For, as
a matter of fact, there is no such thing as good health or bad health.
There are only different conditions o