_Lucian._ I have no measure for ascertaining the distance between the opinions and practices of men; I only know that they stand widely apart in all countries on the most important occasions; but this newly-hatched word _heresy_, alighting on my ear, makes me rub it. A beneficent God descends on earth in the human form, to redeem us from the slavery of sin, from the penalty of our passions: can you imagine He will punish an error in opinion, or even an obstinacy in unbelief, with everlasting torments? Supposing it highly criminal to refuse to weigh a string of arguments, or to cross-question a herd of witnesses, on a subject which no experience has warranted and no sagacity can comprehend; supposing it highly criminal to be contented with the religion which our parents taught us, which they bequeathed to us as the most precious of possessions, and which it would have broken their hearts if they had foreseen we should cast aside; yet are eternal pains the just retribution of what at worst is but indifference and supineness? _Timotheus._ Our religion has clearly this advantage over yours: it teaches us to regulate our passions. _Lucian._ Rather say it _tells_ us. I believe all religions do the same; some indeed more emphatically and primarily than others; but _that_ indeed would be incontestably of Divine origin, and acknowledged at once by the most sceptical, which should thoroughly teach it. Now, my friend Timotheus, I think you are about seventy-five years of age. _Timotheus._ Nigh upon it. _Lucian._ Seventy-five years, according to my calculation, are equivalent to seventy-five gods and goddesses in regulating our passions for us, if we speak of the amatory, which are always thought in every stage of life the least to be pardoned. _Timotheus._ Execrable! _Lucian._ I am afraid the sourest hang longest on the tree. Mimnermus says: In early youth we often sigh Because our pulses beat so high; All this we conquer, and at last We sigh that we are grown so chaste. _Timotheus._ Swine!