"Well, my dear friend, we have foiled Signor Zicci in one of his predictions at least.

You will have no faith in him hereafter." "The Ides are come, not gone." "Tush! if he is a soothsayer, you are not Caesar.

It is your vanity that makes you credulous.

Thank Heaven, I do not think myself of such importance that the operations of Nature should be changed in order to frighten me." "But why should the operations of Nature be changed?
There may be a deeper philosophy than we dream of,--a philosophy that discovers the secrets of Nature, but does not alter, by penetrating, its courses." "Ah! you suppose Zicci to be a prophet,--a reader of the future; perhaps an associate of Genii and Spirits!" "I know not what to conjecture; but I see no reason why he should seek, even if an impostor, to impose on me.

An impostor must have some motive for deluding us,--either ambition or avarice.