the heart of a Marcus Aurelius knows more about men and boys than I do."

"Ah, but I failed," said Galen. "The young Commodus was like a nibbling
fish; you thought you had him, but he always took the bait and left the
hook. The wisdom I fed to him fattened his wickedness. If I had known
then what I have learned from teaching Commodus and others, not even
Marcus Aurelius could have persuaded me to undertake the task--medical
problem though it was, and promotion though it was, and answer though it
was to all the doctors who denounced me as a charlatan. I bought my
fashionable practise at the cost of knowing it was I who taught young
Commodus the technique of wickedness by revealing to him all its
sinuosities and how, and why, it floods a man's mind."

"He was a beast in any case," said Pertinax.

"Yes, but a baffled, blind beast. I removed the bandage from his eyes."

"He would have pulled it off himself."

"I did it. I turned a mere golden-haired savage into a criminal who
knows what he is doing."

"Well, drink and forget it!" said Pertinax. "I, too, have done things
that are best forgotten. We attain success by learning from defeat, and
we forget defeat in triumph. I know of no triumph that did not blot out
scores of worse things than defeat. When I was in Britain I subdued
rebellion and restored the discipline of mutinying legions. How? I am
not such a fool as to tell you all that happened! When I was in Africa
men called me a great proconsul. So I was. They would welcome me back
there, if all I hear about the present man is true. But do you suppose