“And suppose it is Athens to-morrow?”
“Then I will love Athens to-morrow.”
“Thank you. Now I understand that it is all over with Hellas. Old Greece is so corrupt, that it is hardly worth conquering.”
“Protagoras taught that man is the measure of all things; therefore I measure the value of all things by myself; what has value for me, that I prize.”
“Is that the teaching of your prophets? Then we have better ones; do you know Zarathrustra?”
“If it would do you a pleasure, I wish I had known him from childhood.”
“Then you might have been able to distinguish good and evil, light and darkness, Ormuzd and Ahriman. And you would have lived in the hope that light will eventually conquer; and that all discordances will be reconciled through suffering.”
“I can at any rate try. Is it a large book?”
“What are the names of your sacred books?”
“Sacred! What is that?”