, as if by a miracle, into the symbol of some deep and noble
principle of the unseen world.'

'And do you think that he of Perga did not see as much? or that we can
pretend to surpass, in depth of insight, the sages of the elder world?
Be sure that they, like the poets, meant only spiritual things, even
when they seem to talk only of physical ones, and concealed heaven under
an earthly garb, only to hide it from the eyes of the profane; while we,
in these degenerate days, must interpret and display each detail to the
dull ears of men.'

'Do you think, my young friend,' asked Theon, 'that mathematics can
be valuable to the philosopher otherwise than as vehicles of spiritual
truth? Are we to study numbers merely that we may be able to keep
accounts; or as Pythagoras did, in order to deduce from their laws the
ideas by which the universe, man, Divinity itself, consists?'

'That seems to me certainly to be the nobler purpose.'

'Or conic sections, that we may know better how to construct machinery;
or rather to devise from them symbols of the relations of Deity to its
various emanations?'

'You use your dialectic like Socrates himself, my father,' said Hypatia.

'If I do, it is only for a temporary purpose. I should be sorry to
accustom Philammon to suppose that the essence of philosophy was to be
found in those minute investigations of words and analyses of notions,
which seem to constitute Plato's chief power in the eyes of those who,
like the Christian sophist Augustine, worship his letter while they
neglect his spirit; not seeing that those dialogues, which they fancy
the shrine itself, are but vestibules--'

'Say rather, veils, father.'

'Veils, indeed, which were intended to baffle the rude gaze of the
carnal-minded; but still vestibules, through which the enlightened soul
might be led up to the inner sanctuary, to the Hesperid gardens and
golden fruit of the Timaeus and the oracles.... And for myself, were
but those two books left, I care not whether every other writing in the
world perished to-morrow.'[Footnote: This astounding speech is usually
attributed to Proclus, Hypatia's 'great' successor.]

'You must except Homer, father.'

'Yes, for the herd.... But of what use would he be to them without some
spiritual commentary?'

'He would tell them as little, perhaps, as the circle tells to the
carpenter who draws one with his compasses.'

'And what is the meaning of the circle?' asked Philammon.

'It m