“Plotinus,” said Hermon, the chief of the Epicureans, who had meanwhile entered the apartment, “let this hypocrite have what he wants, and send him away.  I and my followers are perfectly willing to remove at once into the inferior apartments, and leave ours for his occupation with all their furniture, and the reversion of our bill of fare.  Thou should’st know that the imputations of the vulgar against our sect are the grossest calumnies.  The Epicurean places happiness in tranquil enjoyment, not in luxury or sensual pleasures.  There is not a thing I possess which I am not perfectly willing to resign, except the society of my female disciple.”

“Thy female disciple!” exclaimed the horrified Plotinus.  “Thou art worse than the Stoic!”

“Plotinus,” said the Epicurean, “consider well ere, as is the manner of Platonists, thou committest thyself to a proposition of a transparently foolish nature.  Thou desirest to gather all sorts of philosophers around thee, but to what end, if they are restrained from manifesting their characteristic tenets?  Thou mightest as well seek to illustrate the habits of animals by establishing a menagerie in which panthers should eat grass, and antelopes be dieted on rabbits.  An Epicurean without his female companion, unless by his own choice, is no more an Epicurean than a Cynic is a Cynic without his rags and his impudence.  Wilt thou take from me my Pannychis, an object pleasing to the eye, and leave yonder fellow his tatters and his vermin?”

The apartment had gradually filled with philosophers, and Hermon was pointing to a follower of Diogenes whose robe so fully bespoke his obedience to his master’s precepts that his skin seemed almost clean in comparison.

“Consider also,” continued the Epicurean, “that thou art thyself by no means exempt from scandal.”

“What does the man mean?” demanded Plotinus, turning to Porphyry.

“Get them away,” whispered the disciple, “and I will tell thee.”

Plotinus hastily conceded the point raised with reference to the interesting Pannychis, and the philosophers went off to effect their exchange of quarters.  As soon as the room was clear, he repeated: 

“What does the man mean?”

“I suppose he is thinking of Leaena,” said Porphyry.

“The most notorious character in Rome, who, finding her charms on the wane, has lately betaken herself to philosophy?”

“The same.”

“What of her?”

“She has followed thee here.  She affects the greatest devotion to thee.  She vows that nothing shall make her budge until thou hast recovered from thy ecstasy, and admitted her as thy disciple.  She has rejected numerous overtures from the philosopher Theocles; entirely for thy sake, she affirms.  She comes three times a day to inquire respecting thy condition, and I fear it must be acknowledged that she has once or twice managed to get into thy chamber.”