One or two of his stories were surprising in ironical suggestion; surprising too because they showed his convinced paganism.
Here is one which reveals his exact position: "When Joseph of Arimathea came down in the evening from Mount Calvary where Jesus had died he saw on a white stone a young man seated weeping.

And Joseph went near him and said, 'I understand how great thy grief must be, for certainly that Man was a just Man.' But the young man made answer, 'Oh, it is not for that I am weeping.

I am weeping because I too have wrought miracles.

I also have given sight to the blind, I have healed the palsied and I have raised the dead; I too have caused the barren fig tree to wither away and I have turned water into wine ...

and yet they have not crucified me.'" At the time this apologue amused me; in the light of later events it assumed a tragic significance.