“Nor can we doubt that the best of them were acceptable to the Almighty himself, for he granted to them to see darkly and from afar what he has brought nigh to us, and poured into our hearts by divine revelation.  You all know the name of Plato.  He, from whom Salvation was hidden, saw remotely, by presentiment as it were, many things which to us, the Redeemed, are clear and plain and near.  He perceived the relation of earthly beauty and heavenly truth.  The great gift of Love binds and supports us all and Plato gave the name of the divine Eros, that is divine love, to an inspired devotion to the Imperishable.  He placed goodness—­the Good—­at the top of the great scale of Ideas which he constructed.  The Good was, to him, the highest Idea and the uttermost of which we can conceive:—­Good, whose properties he made manifest by every means his lofty and lucid mind could command.  This heathen, my brethren and sisters, was well worthy of the grace bestowed on us.  Do justice then to the blinded souls, justice in Plato’s sense of the word; he calls the virtue of reason Wisdom; the virtue of spirit Courage, and the virtue of the senses Temperance.  Well, well!  ’Prove all things and hold fast that which is good.’  That is to say:  consider what may be worth anything in the works of the heathen that it may be duly preserved; but, on the other hand, tread all that is idolatry in the dust, all that brings the unclean thing among us, all that imperils our souls and bodies, or anything that is high and pure in life; but do not forget, my beloved, all that the heathen have done for us.  Be temperate in all things; avoid excess of zeal; for thus, and thus only, can we be just.  ’It is not to hate, but to love each other that we are here.’  It was not a Christian but Sophocles, one of the greatest of the heathen, who uttered those words, and he speaks them still to us!”

Eusebius paused and drew a deep breath.

Dada had listened eagerly, for it pleased her to hear all that she had been wont to prize spoken of here with due appreciation.  But since Eusebius had begun to discourse about Plato she had been disturbed by two men sitting just in front of her.  One was tall and lean, with a long narrow head, and the other a shorter and more comfortable-looking personage.  The first fidgeted incessantly, nudging and twitching his companion, and looking now and then as if he were ready to start up and interrupt the preacher.  This behavior evidently annoyed his neighbors who kept signing to him to be quiet and hushing him down, while he took no notice of their demonstrations but kept clearing his throat with obtrusive emphasis and at last scraped and shuffled his feet on the floor, though not very noisily.  But Eusebius began again: