Without trouble and labor and struggles there can be no victory, and men rarely earn fame without fighting for victory." The old man's vehemence was contagious; the lad's spirit was roused, and he exclaimed warmly: "What do you say?
that I am afraid of struggles and trouble?
I am ready to stake everything, even my life, only to win fame.
But to measure stone, to batter defenceless blocks with a mallet and chisel, or to join the squares with accurate pains--that does not tempt me.

I should like to win the wreath in the Palaestra by flinging the strongest to the ground, or surpass all others as a warrior in battle; my father was a soldier too, and he may talk as much as he will of 'peace,' and nothing but 'peace,' all the same in his dreams he speaks of bloody strife and burning wounds.

If you only cure him I will stay no longer on this lonely mountain, even if I must steal away in secret.

For what did God give me these arms, if not to use them ?" Petrus made no answer to these words, which came is a stormy flood from Hermas' lips, but he stroked his grey beard, and thought to himself, "The young of the eagle does not catch flies.

I shall never win over this soldier's son to our peaceful handicraft, but he shall not remain on the mountain among these queer sluggards, for there he is being ruined, and yet he is not of a common sort." When he had given a few orders to the overseer of his workmen, he followed the young man to see his suffering father.
It was now some hours since Hermas and Paulus had left the wounded anchorite, and he still lay alone in his cave.