questioned him more closely still, he said he recollected having
done another deed. When he was a robber, he met once in the desert
a beautiful woman; and she prayed him to do her no harm, but to take
her away with him as a slave, whither he would; for, said she, "I am
fleeing from the apparitors and the Governor's curials for the last
two years. My husband has been imprisoned for 300 pieces of gold,
which he owes as arrears of taxes; and has been often hung up, and
often scourged; and my three dear boys have been taken from me; and
I am wandering from place to place, and have been often caught
myself and continually scourged; and now I have been in the desert
three days without food."

And when the robber heard that, he took pity on her, and took her to
his cave, and gave her 300 pieces of gold, and went with her to the
city, and set her husband and her boys free.

Then Paphnutius said, "I never did a deed like that: and yet I have
not passed my life in ease and idleness. But now, my son, since God
hath had such care of thee, have a care for thine own self."

And when the musician heard that, he threw away the flutes which he
held in his hand, and went with Paphnutius into the desert, and
passed his life in hymns and prayer, changing his earthly music into
heavenly; and after three years he went to heaven, and was at rest
among the choirs of angels, and the ranks of the just.

This story, as I said, is a miniature sketch of the state of the
whole Roman Empire, and of the causes why men fled from it into the
desert. Christianity had reformed the morals of individuals; it had
not reformed the Empire itself. That had sunk into a state only to