He was thinking, no doubt, of the miracle-monger of Tyana, Apollonius, who certainly had heard of the doctrine of the Redeemer.

But among the thousand nine hundred and ninety, who here bring beasts to the altar, who ever remembers this?
Quite lately I heard one of our garden laborers ask how much a day he ought to sacrifice to the sun, his god.
I told him a keration--for that is what the poor creature earns for a whole day's work.

He thought that too much, for he must live; so the god must be content with a tithe, for the taxes to the State on his earnings were hardly more." "The divinity ought no doubt to be above all else to us," Melissa observed.

"But when your laborer worships the sun, and looks for its benefits, what is the difference between him and you, or me, or any of us, though we call the sun Helios or Serapis, or what not ?" "Yes, yes," replied Andreas.

"The sun is adored here under many different names and forms, and your Serapis has swallowed up not only Zeus and Pluto, but Phoebus Apollo and the Egyptian Osiris and Ammon, and Ra, to swell his own importance.