s won't permit us to carry certain things to market, nor others
in a certain state. If we do, we are fined or imprisoned. Treat a
Christian in the same way, say I. Let them just go thoroughly to work,
and our temples will soon be filled again.'

'But these Christians,' I observed, 'seem to be a harmless people.'

'But they have no religion, that anybody can call such. They have no
gods, nor altars, nor sacrifices; such can never be harmless. To be
sure, as to sacrifices, I think there is such a thing as doing too much.
I am not for human sacrifices. Nor do I see the need of burning up a
dozen fat oxen or heifers, as was done the other day at the Temple of
the Sun. We in Norentum burn nothing but the hoofs and some of the
entrails, and the rest goes to the priest for his support. As I take it,
a sacrifice is just a sign of readiness to do everything and lose
everything for the gods. We are not expected to throw either ourselves,
or our whole substance upon the altar; making the sign is sufficient.
But, as I said, these Christians have no altar and no sacrifice, nor
image of god or goddess. They have, at Norentum, an old ruinous
building--once a market--where they meet for worship; but those who have
been present say, that nothing is to be seen; and nothing heard but
prayers--to what god no one knows--and exhortations of the priests. Some
say, that elsewhere they have what they call an altar, and adorn their
walls with pictures and statues. However all this may be, there seems to
be some charm about them, or their worship, for all the world is running
after them. I long for the news I shall get from Varenus Hirtius. If
these omens have not set the Emperor at work for us, nothing will. Here
we are at the gates, and I turn toward the Claudian market. May the day
go happily with you.'

So we parted; and I bent my way toward the gardens of Sallust.

As I moved slowly along through the streets, my heart was filled with
pity for this people, the Christians; threatened, as it seemed to me,
with a renewal of the calamities that had so many times swept over them
before. They had ever impressed me as a simple-minded, virtuous
community, of notions too subtle for the world ever to receive, but
which, upon themselves, appeared to exert a power altogether beneficial.
Many of this faith I had known well, and they were persons to excite my
highest admiration for the characters which they bore. Need I name more
than the princess Julia