s
destroy his country by his fatuity. I confess, that till that order be
repealed, the superstition will spread.'

'But it only places us upon equal ground.'

'It is precisely there where we never should be placed. Should the
conspirator be put upon the ground of a citizen? Were the late rebels of
the mint to be relieved from all oppression, that they might safely
intrigue and conspire for the throne?'

'Christianity has nothing to do with the empire,' I answered, 'as such.
It is a question of moral, philosophical, religious truth. Is truth to
be exalted or suppressed by edicts?'

'The religion of the state,' replied Varus, 'is a part of the state; and
he who assails it, strikes at the dearest life of the state,
and--forgive me--is to be dealt with--ought to be dealt with--as a
traitor.'

'I trust,' I replied, 'that that time will never again come, but that
reason and justice will continue to bear sway. And it is both reasonable
and just, that persons who yield to none in love of country, and whose
principles of conduct are such as must make good subjects everywhere,
because they first make good men, should be protected in the enjoyment
of rights and privileges common to all others.'

'If the Christians,' he rejoined, 'are virtuous men, it is better for
the state than if they were Christians and corrupt men. But still that
would make no change in my judgment of their offence. They deny the gods
who preside over this nation, and have brought it up to its present
height of power and fame. Their crime were less, I repeat, to deny the
authority of Aurelian. This religion of the Galileans is a sore, eating
into the vitals of an ancient and vigorous constitution, and must be cut
away. The knife of the surgeon is what the evil cries out for and must
have--else come universal rottenness and death. I mourn that from the
ranks of the very fathers of the state, they have received an accession
like this of the house of Piso.'

'I shall think my time and talent well employed,' I replied, 'in doing
what I may to set the question of Christianity in its true light before
the city. It is this very institution, Varus, which it needs to preserve
it. Christianize Rome, and you impart the very principle of endurance,
of immortality. Under its present corruptions, it cannot but sink. Is it
possible that a community of men can long hold together as vicious as
this of Rome?--whose people are either disbelievers of all divine
existence