"The matter is this," said Am-nem-hat. "It is recorded in thy sacred books that when the apostles were going about Jerusalem, imparting the Paraclete by the laying on of their hands, and working divers miracles, one Simon, a magician, came unto them and offered money unto them if they would communicate unto him the same power, so that he also might become a thaumaturgist. But one of them, named Peter, did bitterly rebuke him, saying, ’Thy money perish with thee!’ Now, the apostles had faith; the people who saw them doing all these wonderful works had faith, and were baptized by Philip. Simon Magus himself had faith as much as any one of them, and, when Peter rebuked him, with fear and trembling he besought Peter, saying, ’Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me.’ Now, here seem to have been all of the conditions of faith and willingness in Simon of which thou hast spoken, and yet Peter manifestly regarded the desire of Simon as a sort of sacrilege. Why was this so?" "Why," said Ammonius, "Peter declared that his thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money was evil; and that his heart was not right in the sight of God, and that he should repent of his wickedness, and that his very thought showed that he was still in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity." "That is very true," answered Am-nem-hat, "but his tender of money to the apostles only proves his appreciation of the value of the power which he desired to purchase. Peter saith not that Simon was a bad man, but that this particular thing was wicked; why was it so in him, and not in them?" "Because," replied Ammonius, "it is manifest from the whole record that Simon desired to purchase this power for himself, and to use it for his own purposes." "Certainly so," persisted Am-nem-hat, "but in what respect was it sacrilegious for him to desire to use the power for his own purposes, any more than it would have been to use his brain, or his hand, for his own advancement; or his learning, or skill, for the acquisition and cultivation of which he had, perhaps, expended money?"