“I knew it!” exclaimed Theon, triumphantly; “I knew it was impossible. But where will not prejudice lead men, when even the upright Cleanthes is capable of slander?”
“He is utterly incapable of it,” said the Master; “and the inaccuracy, in this case, I rather suspect to rest with you than with him. To deny the existence of the Gods would indeed be presumption in a philosopher; a presumption equalled only by that of him who should assert their existence.”
“How!” exclaimed the youth, with a countenance in which astonishment seemed to suspend every other expression.
“As I never saw the Gods, my son,” calmly continued the Sage, “I cannot assert their existence; and, that I never saw them, is no reason for my denying it.”
“But do we believe nothing except that of which we have ocular demonstration?”
“Nothing, at least, for which we have not the evidence of one or more of our senses; that is, when we believe on just grounds, which, I grant, taking men collectively, is very seldom.”
“But where would this spirit lead us? To impiety!—to Atheism!—to all, against which I felt confidence in defending the character and philosophy of Epicurus!”
“We will examine presently, my son, into the meaning of the terms you have employed. But as respects your defence of my philosophy, I am sorry that you presumed so much, where you knew so little. Let this serve for another caution against pronouncing before you examine, and asserting before you enquire. It is my usual custom,” continued the Master, “with the youth who frequent my School, to defer the discussion of all important questions, until they are naturally, in the course of events, suggested to their own minds. Their curiosity once excited, it is my endeavor, so far as in me lies, to satisfy it. When you first entered the Garden, your mind was unfit for the examination of the subject you have now started: it is no longer so; and we will therefore enter upon the enquiry, and pursue it in order.”
“Forgive me if I express—if I acknowledge,” said the youth, slightly recoiling from his instructor, “some reluctance to enter on the discussion of truths, whose very discussion would seem to argue a doubt,—and—”
“And what then?”