of iron who wrought forth the Word of God, and verily the bonds
that bound them were of iron also!

Glaucus found Ione in tears; he had already assumed the sweet privilege
to console. He drew from her a recital of her interview with her
brother; but in her confused account of language, itself so confused to
one not prepared for it, he was equally at a loss with Ione to conceive
the intentions or the meaning of Apaecides.

'Hast thou ever heard much,' asked she, 'of this new sect of the
Nazarenes, of which my brother spoke?'

'I have often heard enough of the votaries,' returned Glaucus, 'but of
their exact tenets know I naught, save that in their doctrine there
seemeth something preternaturally chilling and morose. They live apart
from their kind; they affect to be shocked even at our simple uses of
garlands; they have no sympathies with the cheerful amusements of life;
they utter awful threats of the coming destruction of the world; they
appear, in one word, to have brought their unsmiling and gloomy creed
out of the cave of Trophonius. Yet,' continued Glaucus, after a slight
pause, 'they have not wanted men of great power and genius, nor
converts, even among the Areopagites of Athens. Well do I remember to
have heard my father speak of one strange guest at Athens, many years
ago; methinks his name was PAUL. My father was amongst a mighty crowd
that gathered on one of our immemorial hills to hear this sage of the
East expound: through the wide throng there rang not a single
murmur!--the jest and the roar, with which our native orators are
received, were hushed for him--and when on the loftiest summit of that
hill, raised above the breathless crowd below, stood this mysterious
visitor, his mien and his countenance awed every heart, even before a
sound left his lips. He was a man, I have heard my father say, of no
tall stature, but of noble and impressive mien; his robes were dark and
ample; the declining sun, for it was evening, shone aslant upon his form
as it rose aloft, motionless, and commanding; his countenance was much
worn and marked, as of one who had braved alike misfortune and the
sternest vicissitude of many climes; but his eyes were bright with an
almost unearthly fire; and when he raised his arm to speak, it was with
the majesty of a man into whom the Spirit of a God hath rushed!

'"Men of Athens!" he is reported to have said, "I find amongst ye an
altar with this inscription:

TO TH