f the organs. Having studied what
are called maladies, I have come to consider them as necessary forms of
life. I take pleasure in studying them in order to be able to conquer
them. Some of them are worthy of admiration, and conceal, under apparent
disorder, profound harmonies; for instance, a quartan fever is certainly
a very pretty thing! Sometimes certain affections of the body cause a
rapid augmentation of the faculties of the mind. You know Creon? When he
was a child, he stuttered and was stupid. But, having cracked his skull
by tumbling off a ladder, he became an able lawyer, as you are aware.
This monk must be affected in some hidden organ. Moreover, this kind of
existence is not so extraordinary as it appears to you, Lucius. I may
remind you that the gymnosophists of India can remain motionless, not
merely for a year, but during twenty, thirty, or forty years."

"By Jupiter!" cried Cotta, "that is a strange madness. For man was born
to move and act, and idleness is an unpardonable crime, because it is
an injury to the State. I do not know of any religion in which such an
objectionable practice is permitted, though it possibly may be in some
of the Asiatic creeds. When I was Governor of Syria, I found _phalli_
erected in the porches at the city of Hera. A man ascended, twice a
year, and remained there for a week. The people believed that this man
talked with the gods, and interceded with them for the prosperity of
Syria. The custom appeared senseless to me; nevertheless I did nothing
to put it down. For I consider that a functionary ought not to interfere
with the manners and customs of the people, but on the contrary, to see
that they are preserved. It is not the business of the government to
force a religion on a people, but to maintain that which exists, which,
whether good or bad, has been regulated by the spirit of the time,
the place, and the race. If it endeavours to put down a religion, it
proclaims itself revolutionary in its spirit, and tyrannical in its
acts, and is justly detested. Besides, how are you to raise yourself
above the superstitions of the vulgar, except by understanding them and
tolerating them? Aristaeus, I am of opinion that I should leave this
nephelo-coccygian(*) in the air, exposed only to the indignities the
birds shower on him. I should not gain anything by having him pulled
down, but I should by taking note of his thoughts and beliefs."

(*) Nephelo-coccygia, the cloud-city bu