ia clashed with Orestes the Prefect. To hold the
people under by psychologic methods was better than the old plans of
alternate bribery and force--so argued the Bishop.

Orestes had come under the spell of Hypatia, and the Republic of Plato
was saturating his mind.

"To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another
world is just as base as to use force," said Hypatia in one of her
lectures. Orestes sat in the audience and as she spoke the words he
clapped his hands. The news was carried to the Bishop, who gently
declared that he would excommunicate him.

Orestes sent word back that the Emperor should be informed of how this
Bishop was misusing his office by making threats of where he could land
people he did not like, in another world. Neither the Bishop nor the
Prefect could unseat each other--both derived their power from the
Emperor. For Orestes to grow interested in the teachings of Hypatia,
instead of siding with the Bishop, was looked upon by the loyalists as
little short of treason.

Orestes tried to defend himself by declaring that the policy of the
Caesars had always been one of great leniency toward all schools of
philosophy. Then he quoted Hypatia to the effect that a fixed, formal
and dogmatic religion would paralyze the minds of men and make the race,
in time, incapable of thought.

Therefore, the Bishop should keep his place, and not try to usurp the
functions of the police. In fact, it was better to think wrongly than
not to think at all. We learn to think by thinking, and if the threats
of the Bishop were believed at all, it would mean the death of science
and philosophy.

The Bishop made answer by declaring that Hypatia was endeavoring to
found a Church of her own, with Pagan Greece as a basis. He intimated,
too, that the relationship of Orestes with Hypatia was very much the
same as that which once existed between Cleopatra and Mark Antony. He
called her "that daughter of Ptolemy," and by hints and suggestions made
it appear that she would, if she could, set up an Egyptian Empire in
this same city of Alexandria where Cleopatra once so proudly reigned.

The excitement increased. The followers of Hypatia were necessarily few
in numbers. They were thinkers--and to think is a task. To believe is
easy. The Bishop promised his followers a paradise of ease and rest. He
also threatened disbelievers with the pains of hell. A promise on this
side--a threat on that! Is it not a wonder t