He was standing by a table, and his hand lay upon an open volume.
'You are of noble blood, lord Marcian,' he continued, 'and the greatness of your ancestors is not unknown to you.

Tell me by what motive you have been induced to play the traitor against Rome.

I cannot think it was for the gain that perishes.

Rather would I suppose you misled by the opinion of Cassiodorus, whose politics were as unsound as his theology.

I read here, in his treatise _De Anima_, that there is neither bliss nor torment for the soul before the great Day of Judgment--a flagrant heresy, in utter contradiction of the Scriptures, and long ago refuted by the holy Augustine.