"'Teach me, then, the doctrine—teach me how to act with certainty.'
"'You ask for the rule of method and certainty from one who has been accused of folly and persecuted under that pretext. You have made a wrong choice in an adviser; for instruction, you must go to the philosophers and sages.'
"'I would rather appeal to you; I already know the value of their science.'
"'Well, since you insist, I will inform you that method is identical with the doctrine, because it is synonymous with the supreme truth revealed in it. All is reduced to a knowledge of the doctrine.'
"Spartacus reflected, and after a moment's silence said—
"'I wish to learn from you the supreme formula of the doctrine.'
"'You will hear it, not from me, however, but from Pythagoras, the echo of all sages. "O DIVINE TETRAID!" That is the formula which, under all images, symbols, and emblems, humanity has proclaimed, by the voices of many religions, when it could be seized on by no spiritual means, without incarnation, without idolatry—as it was when first given as a boon to mankind.'
"'Speak—speak! To make yourself understood, recall some of these emblems, that you may speak in the stern language of the absolute.'
"'I cannot, as you wish, separate these two things—absolute religion, and religion in its manifestation. Nature in our epoch exhibits them together. We judge the past, and without living in it, find the confirmation of our ideas. I wish to make myself understood.'
"'Speak!—but first speak of God. Does the formula apply to God, the infinite essence? It would be criminal, did it not apply to that whence it emanates. Have you reflected on the nature of God?'