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| My ignorance of many natural phenomena is no excuse for your ignorance as to the origin of souls. You ought, according to your boasting dream to know everything. The thing of most importance was forgotten in your cargo of Eastern wares. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
31. Another part of my
‘smoke’ which you frequently laugh at is my
pretence, as you say, to know what I do not know, and the parade I make
of great teachers to deceive the common and ignorant people. You, of
course, are a man not of smoke but of flame, or rather of lightning;
you fulminate when you speak; you cannot contain the flames which have
been conceived within your mouth, and like Barchochebas,3194
3194 Son of a Star; the leader of the Jewish revolt against Hadrian,
a.d. 132–5. | the leader of the revolt of the Jews,
who used to hold in his mouth a lighted straw and blow it out so as to
appear to be breathing forth flame: so you also, like a second
Salmoneus,3195 brighten the whole path on which
you tread, and reproach us as mere men of smoke, to whom perhaps the
words might be applied,3196 “Thou
touchest the hills and they smoke.” You do not understand the
allusion of the Prophet3197 when he speaks
of the smoke of the locusts; it is no doubt the beauty of your eyes
which makes it impossible for you to bear the pungency of our
smoke.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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