readiness for sacrifice. And it was effective too, for it seemed to be
doing rapidly what the best paganism was doing very slowly--attaining,
almost without thinking about it, the realisation of the noblest ideals.

"And so it came to pass that on this morning Marius saw for the first
time the wonderful spectacle--wonderful, especially, in its evidential
power over himself, over his own thoughts--of those who believe. There
were noticeable, among those present, great varieties of rank, of age,
of personal type. The Roman _ingenuus_, with the white toga and gold
ring, stood side by side with his slave; and the air of the whole
company was, above all, a grave one, an air of recollection. Coming thus
unexpectedly upon this large assembly, so entirely united, in a silence
so profound, for purposes unknown to him, Marius felt for a moment as if
he had stumbled by chance upon some great conspiracy. Yet that could
scarcely be, for the people here collected might have figured as the
earliest handsel, or pattern, of a new world, from the very face of
which discontent had passed away. Corresponding to the variety of human
type there present, was the various expression of every form of human
sorrow assuaged. What desire, what fulfilment of desire, had wrought so
pathetically on the features of these ranks of aged men and women of
humble condition? Those young men, bent down so discreetly on the
details of their sacred service, had faced life and were glad, by some
science, or light of knowledge they had, to which there had certainly
been no parallel in the older world. Was some credible message from
beyond 'the flaming rampart of the world'--a message of hope regarding
the place of men's souls and their interest in the sum of
things--already moulding anew their very bodies, and looks, and voices,
now and here? At least, there was a cleansing and kindling flame at work
in them, which seemed to make everything else Marius had ever known look
comparatively vulgar and mean."