they might urge in their behalf. But,' said
he, 'I tell them now, as I have told them before, that it can be of no
avail. The acts of former Emperors, from Nero to the present hour, have
sufficiently declared what the light is in which a true Roman should
view the superstition that would supplant the ancient worship of the
gods. It is enough for me, that such is the acknowledged aim, and
asserted tendency and operation of this Jewish doctrine. No merits of
any kind can atone for the least injury it might inflict upon that
venerable order of religious worship which, from the time of Romulus,
has exercised over us its benignant influence, and, doubtless, by the
blessings it has drawn down upon us from the gods, crowned our arms with
a glory the world has never known before--putting under our feet every
civilized kingdom from the remotest East to the farthest West, and
striking terror into the rude barbarians of the German forests.
Nevertheless, they shall be heard; and if it is from thee, Christian,
that we are to know what thy faith is, let us now hear whatever it is in
thy heart to say. There shall no bridle be put upon thee; but thou hast
freest leave to utter what thou wilt. There is nothing of worst
concerning either Rome or her worship, her rulers or her altars, her
priesthood or her gods, but thou mayest pour it forth in such measure as
shall please thee, and no one shall say thee nay. Now say on; the day
and the night are before thee.'

'I shall require, great Emperor,' replied Probus, 'but little of either;
yet I thank thee, and all of our name who are here present thank thee,
for the free range which thou hast offered. I thank thee too, and so do
we all, for the liberty of frank and undisturbed speech, which thou hast
assured to me. Yet shall I not use it to malign either the Romans or
their faith. It is not with anger and fierce denunciation, O Emperor,
that it becomes the advocate, of what he believes to be a religion from
Heaven, to assail the adherents of a religion like this of Rome,
descended to the present generation through so many ages, and which all
who have believed it in times past, and all who believe it now, do hold
to be true and woven into the very life of the state--the origin of its
present greatness, and without which it must fall asunder into final
ruin, the bond that held it together being gone. If the religion of Rome
be false, or really injurious, it is not the generations now living who
a