"And everything else in this city is like those eyes! Where are there so many gods and priests, where do they sacrifice so often, where do they fast and apply themselves so assiduously to repentance and the cleansing of the soul? And yet, where does vice display itself so freely and so unchecked? This Alexandria--in her youth as dissolute as she was fair --what is she now but an old hag? Now that she is toothless, now that wrinkles disfigure her face, she has turned pious, that, like the wolf in sheep's clothing, she may revenge herself by malice for the loss of joy and of the admiration of her lovers! I can find no more striking comparison than this; for, even as hags find a hideous pleasure in empty chatter and spiteful slanderings, so she, once so beautiful and renowned, has sunk deeper and deeper in the mire, and can not endure to see anything that has achieved greatness or glory without maliciously bespattering it with poison. "Justice!--yes, I will exercise justice, oh, sublime and virtuous hero, going forth to murder--a dagger hidden in your bosom! I thank you for that lesson! "Pride of the Museum!--you lead me to the source whence all your corruption flows. It is that famous nursery of learning where you, too, were bred up. There, yes, there they cherish the heresy that makes the gods into puppets of straw, and the majesty of the throne into an owl for pert and insignificant birds to peck at. Thence comes the doctrine that teaches men and women to laugh at virtue and to break their word. There, where in other days noble minds, protected by the overshadowing favor of princes, followed out great ideas, they now teach nothing but words-- empty, useless words. I saw and said that yesterday, and now I know it for certain--every poison shaft that your malice has aimed at me was forged in the Museum." He paused for breath, and then continued, with a contemptuous laugh: "If the justice which you rate higher than logic were to take its course, nothing would be juster than to make an end this day of this hot-bed of corruption. But your unlearned fellow-citizens shall taste of my justice, too. You yourself will be prevented by the beasts in the Circus from looking on at the effect your warning words have produced. But as yet you are alive, and you shall hear what the experiences are which make the severest measures the highest justice. "What did I hope to find, and what have I really found? I heard the Alexandrians praised for their hospitality--for the ardor with which they pursue learning--for the great proficiency of their astronomers--for the piety which has raised so many altars and invented so many doctrines; and, lastly, for the beauty and fine wit of their women.