One day, in the Brucheium, the most splendid and crowded quarter of Alexandria, I arose and preached.
The East and West contributed to my audience.

Students going to the Library, priests from the Serapeion, idlers from the Museum, patrons of the race-course, countrymen from the Rhacotis--a multitude--stopped to hear me.

I preached God, the Soul, Right and Wrong, and Heaven, the reward of a virtuous life.

You, O Melchior, were stoned; my auditors first wondered, then laughed.

I tried again; they pelted me with epigrams, covered my God with ridicule, and darkened my Heaven with mockery.