t and his slave, but we lived in an intimacy which
the Christians thought criminal; but my master, who knew the will of
the gods, with whom he told me he often conversed, assured me it was
perfectly innocent.

"This happy life continued about four years, when my master's death,
occasioned by a surfeit got by overfeeding on several exquisite
dainties, put an end to it.

"I now fell into the hands of one of a very different disposition, and
this was no other than the celebrated St. Chrysostom, who dieted me with
sermons instead of sacrifices, and filled my ears with good things, but
not my belly. Instead of high food to fatten and pamper my flesh, I had
receipts to mortify and reduce it. With these I edified so well, that
within a few months I became a skeleton. However, as he had converted
me to his faith, I was well enough satisfied with this new manner of
living, by which he taught me I might insure myself an eternal reward in
a future state. The saint was a good-natured man, and never gave me
an ill word but once, which was occasioned by my neglecting to place
Aristophanes, which was his constant bedfellow, on his pillow. He was,
indeed, extremely fond of that Greek poet, and frequently made me read
his comedies to him. When I came to any of the loose passages he would
smile, and say, 'It was pity his matter was not as pure as his style;'
of which latter he was so immoderately fond that, notwithstanding the
detestation he expressed for obscenity, he hath made me repeat those
passages ten times over. The character of this good man hath been very
unjustly attacked by his heathen contemporaries, particularly with
regard to women; but his severe invectives against that sex are his
sufficient justification.

"From the service of this saint, from whom I received manumission, I
entered into the family of Timasius, a leader of great eminence in
the imperial army, into whose favor I so far insinuated myself that he
preferred me to a good command, and soon made me partaker of both his
company and his secrets. I soon grew intoxicated with this preferment,
and the more he loaded me with benefits the more he raised my opinion of
my own merit, which, still outstripping the rewards he conferred on me,
inspired me rather with dissatisfaction than gratitude. And thus,
by preferring me beyond my merit or first expectation, he made me an
envious aspiring enemy, whom perhaps a more moderate bounty would have
preserved a dutiful servan