Now Lysias nursed a proudly Roman mind Disdainful of all nations save his own-- Disdainfully a Roman but the more, That he by purchase, not by birth, was such; The nation that he ruled he most disdained. Child of the high-bred fashion of his time, By choice and culture he a skeptic was. Skeptic, he yet was superstitious too, Open and weak to supernatural fears; He easily believed in magic powers, Charms, sorceries, witchcrafts, incantations, spells, And all the weird pretensions of the East. His habit of disdain and skepticism Made him a cynic in his views of men; Whereby he oft, wise-seeming, was unwise. He took upon himself laconic airs In speech, in action airs abrupt, as who Bold was, and strong, and from reflection deep-- The manner, rather than the matter, his. To any chance observer of his ways In use of office and position, these Could but have seemed comportable and fair. Accesses too of gentleness he had, Wherein a strain of kindly in the man Opened and gushed in flow affectionate, Or well-becoming courtesy and grace. This Roman chiliarch, Claudius Lysias, now Found himself much at leisure and at ease, Rid of that worrying case of prisoner strange; Unconscious satisfaction with himself Warmed at his heart, a pleasurable glow-- He had so neatly got it off his hands! He was quite ready, mind acquitted thus, Heart buoyant, to disport himself. He saw That in the man before him he had met No dull mere mediocrity, but one Who, besides being ruler of the Jews, As Paul pronounced him, had a quality, An individual difference, all his own. Claudius might test this man, get him to talk-- An interesting study, learn his make. Besides the pleasure to his appetite For piquant knowledge of his fellow-man, It might in some way, indirect the better, Give him a point or two of policy To guide the conduct of his rulership Among a people difficult to rule. In such mood, idle, curious, partly wise, This half-wise man, unwise through cynicism, Gave himself leave to say to Shimei: "Pretend that I am of thy kind, like him, Let me hear how thou with the sentry talked."