ly the glory of the
empire, had withered under Galilaean superstition.... How the only path
toward the full enjoyment of eye and ear was a frank return to those
deities, from whose worship they originally sprang, and connected with
which they could alone be enjoyed in their perfection.... But I need not
teach you how to do that which you have so often taught me: so now
to consider our spectacle, which, next to the largess, is the most
important part of our plans. I ought to have exhibited to them the monk
who so nearly killed me yesterday. That would indeed have been a triumph
of the laws over Christianity. He and the wild beasts might have given
the people ten minutes' amusement. But wrath conquered prudence; and
the fellow has been crucified these two hours. Suppose, then, we had a
little exhibition of gladiators. They are forbidden by law, certainly.'

'Thank Heaven, they are!'

'But do you not see that is the very reason why we, to assert our own
independence, should employ them?'

'No! they are gone. Let them never reappear to disgrace the earth.'

'My dear lady, you must not in your present character say that in
public; lest Cyril should be impertinent enough to remind you that
Christian emperors and bishops put them down.'

Hypatia bit her lip, and was silent.

'Well, I do not wish to urge anything unpleasant to you.... If we could
but contrive a few martyrdoms--but I really fear we must wait a year
or two longer, in the present state of public opinion, before we can
attempt that.'

'Wait? wait for ever! Did not Julian--and he must be our model--forbid
the persecution of the Galilaeans, considering them sufficiently
punished by their own atheism and self-tormenting superstition?'

'Another small error of that great man.--He should have recollected that
for three hundred years nothing, not even the gladiators themselves,
had been found to put the mob in such good humour as to see a few
Christians, especially young and handsome women, burned alive, or thrown
to the lions.'

Hypatia bit her lip once more. 'I can hear no more of this, sir. You
forget that you are speaking to a woman.'

'Most supreme wisdom,' answered Orestes, in his blandest tone, 'you
cannot suppose that I wish to pain your ears. But allow me to observe,
as a general theorem, that if one wishes to effect any purpose, it is
necessary to use the means; and on the whole, those which have been
tested by four hundred years' experience will be