"No one" cried the Alexandrian "ever thinks of the son of Alcmene when he
asseverates--it only means 'really,--truly--'"

"To be sure you are not fastidiously accurate in the choice of your words
and names, and where there is so much to be seen and enjoyed as there is
here one's thoughts are not always connected. That is intelligible--
quite, peculiarly intelligible! And in this city folks are so polite
that they are fain to wrap truth in some graceful disguise. May I, a
barbarian from Judea, be allowed to set it before you, bare of clothing,
naked and unadorned."

"Speak, I beg you, speak."

"You are Jews; but you had rather not be Jews, and you endure your origin
as an inevitable evil. It is only when you feel the mighty hand of the
Most High that you recognize it and claim your right to be one of His
chosen people. In the smooth current of daily life you proudly number
yourselves with his enemies. Do not interrupt me, and answer honestly
what I shall ask you. In what hour of your life did you feel yourself
that you owed the deepest gratitude to the God of your fathers?"

"Why should I deny it?--In the hour when my lost wife presented me with
my first-born son."

"And you called him?"

"You know his name is Benjamin."

"Like the favorite son of our forefather Jacob, for in the hour when you