Leontion. The gods, to manifest their power, as they often do by miracles, could as easily fix a feather eternally on the most tempestuous promontory, as the mark of their feet upon the flint.
Ternissa. They could indeed; but we know the one to a certainty, and have no such authority for the other. I have seen these pinasters from the extremity of the Piraeus, and have heard mention of the altar raised to Boreas: where is it?
Epicurus. As it stands in the centre of the platform, we cannot see it from hence; there is the only piece of level ground in the place.
Leontion. Ternissa intends the altar to prove the truth of the story.
Epicurus. Ternissa is slow to admit that even the young can deceive, much less the old; the gay, much less the serious.
Leontion. It is as wise to moderate our belief as our desires.
Epicurus. Some minds require much belief, some thrive on little. Rather an exuberance of it is feminine and beautiful. It acts differently on different hearts; it troubles some, it consoles others; in the generous it is the nurse of tenderness and kindness, of heroism and self-devotion; in the ungenerous it fosters pride, impatience of contradiction and appeal, and, like some waters, what it finds a dry stick or hollow straw, it leaves a stone.
Ternissa. We want it chiefly to make the way of death an easy one.
Epicurus. There is no easy path leading out of life, and few are the easy ones that lie within it. I would adorn and smoothen the declivity, and make my residence as commodious as its situation and dimensions may allow; but principally I would cast under-foot the empty fear of death.
Ternissa. Oh, how can you?