beginning of the
work, dropped it suddenly, as if bitten by a serpent.

'Ha!' cried Milo, 'said I not so? Art thou so idiotic, learned Solon, as
to believe in such fancies? How is it with thee? Is thy blood hot or
cold?--thy teeth loose or fast?--thy arm withered or swollen?'

Solon stood surveying the pile, with a look partly of anger, partly of
sorrow.

'Neither, fool!' he replied. 'These possess not the power nor worth
fabled of magic. They are books of dreams, visions, reveries, which are
to the mind what fogs would be for food, and air for drink, innutritive
and vain. Papias!--Irenaeus!--Hegesippus!--Polycarp!--Origen!--whose
names are these, and to whom familiar? Some are Greek, some are Latin,
but not a name famous in the world meets my eye. But we will order them
on their shelves, and trust that time, which accomplishes all things,
will restore reason to Piso. Milo, essay thy strength--my limbs are
feeble--and lift these upon yonder marble; so may age deal gently with
thee.'

'Not for their weight in wisdom, Solon, would I again touch them. I have
borne them hither, and if the priests speak truly, my life is worth not
an obolus. I were mad to tempt my fate farther.'

'Avaunt thee, then, for a fool and a slave, as thou art!'

'Nay now, master Solon, thy own wisdom forsakes thee. Philosophers, they
say, are ever possessors of themselves, though for the rest they be
beggars.'

'Beggar! sayest thou? Avaunt! I say, or Papias shall teach thee'--and he
would have launched the roll at the head of Milo, but that, with quick
instincts, he shot from the apartment, and left the pedagogue to do his
own bidding.

So, Fausta, you see that Solon is still the irritable old man he was,
and Milo the fool he was. Think not me worse than either, for hoping so
to entertain you. I know that in your solitude and grief, even such
pictures may be welcome.

When I related to Julia the scene and the conversation at the shop of
Publius, she listened not without agitation, and expresses her fears
lest such extravagances, repeated and become common, should inflame the
minds both of the people and their rulers against the Christians. Though
I agree with her in lamenting the excess of zeal displayed by many of
the Christians, and their needless assaults upon the characters and
faith of their opposers, I cannot apprehend serious consequences from
them, because the instances of it are so few and rare, and are palpable
exceptions to th