"Is it true that they worship an ass and a dove?"
"Nonsense!"
"I did not want to believe it; and at any rate they are kind, and succor all who suffer, even strangers who do not belong to their sect."
"How do you know?"
"One hears a great deal about them in Alexandria."
"Alas! alas!—I never persecute an imaginary foe, as such I reckon the creeds and ideas of other men; still, I cannot but ask myself whether it can add to the prosperity of the state when citizens cease to struggle against the pressure and necessity of life and console themselves for them instead, by the hope of visionary happiness in another world which perhaps only exists in the fancy of those who believe in it."
"I should wish that life might end with death," said Antinous thoughtfully; "and yet—"
"Well?"
"If I were sure that in that other world I should find those I long to see again, then I might long for a future life."
"And would you really like, throughout all eternity, to push and struggle in the crowd of old acquaintances which death does not diminish but rather multiplies?"