Magnificent Jerusalem it is! Yet destined soon to
fall. For the day draws near when the Roman Titus shall weep on
Scopus over its fading splendors and then shall smite it to the
dust.
One purchase only does Quintus make. In a shop where Egyptian
wares are sold he says to Aulus:
"Look on this scarab, this sacred beetle, which has been shaped by
some workman down in Thebae on the Nile. We may be sure that no
people believes more intensely in a future life. What compliment
they pay this physical frame of men when they hold that embalmment
restores to the soul its former body! After the judgment of
Osiris, if their lives be true, the worthy shall enjoy the
companionship of the great god forever. No other people wears such
a visible emblem of their faith in another life. I will buy this
scarab for an amulet against accident and evil."
But where had the workman gone who once had shaped that token of
immortality? Whither had vanished his carver's skill? Where had
disappeared his projects and his dreams? Quintus is not thinking
of any proconsulship he may win, or even of the love light in the
eyes of Lucretia, as he climbs again the heights of Scopus.
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