He who abandons a thing, but clings to the idea of the thing, continues--" "That sounds like Plato," said Stephanus with a smile.
"All that heathen farrago comes back to me today," cried Paulus.

"I used to know it well, and I have often thought that his face must have resembled that of the Saviour." "But only as a beautiful song might resemble the voice of an angel," said Stephanus somewhat drily.

"He who plunges into the depths of philosophic systems--" "That never was quite my case," said Paulus.

"I did indeed go through the whole educational course; Grammar, Rhetoric, Dialectic and Music--" "And Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy," added Stephanus.
"Those were left to the learned many years since," continued Paulus, "and I was never very eager for learning.

In the school of Rhetoric I remained far behind my fellows, and if Plato was dear to me I owe it to Paedonomus of Athens, a worthy man whom my father engaged to teach us." "They say he had been a great merchant," interrupted Stephanus.