When I look on the mockeries that are
acting around us; when I behold a priesthood deceivers, a people
deluded, a religion defiled, then, I confess it, my indignation
overpowers my patience, and I burn to destroy, where I ought only to
hope to reform.'
'I knew you always violent of imagination; but when I last saw you your
enthusiasm was love. Your wife--'
'Peace! She deceived me!'
'Your child--'
'Lives with me at Rome.'
'I remember her an infant, when, fourteen years since, I was your
neighbour in Gaul. On my departure from the province, you had just
returned from a journey into Italy, unsuccessful in your attempts to
discover there a trace either of your parents, or of that elder brother
whose absence you were wont so continually to lament. Tell me, have
you, since that period, discovered the members of your ancient
household? Hitherto you have been so occupied in listening to the
history of my wrongs that you have scarcely spoken of the changes in
your life since we last met.'
'If, Probus, I have been silent to you concerning myself, it is because
for me retrospection has little that attracts.
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