Cleo. This is exceeding kind. I am no Ways engaged; and you give me a
vast Deal of Pleasure.

Hor. The more I have thought and reflected on what you said of Honour
last _Tuesday_, the more I have perceiv'd and felt the Truth of it in
Spight of my Teeth. But I shall never dare to speak of so wretched an
Origin.

Cleo. The Beginning of all Things relating to Human Affairs was ever
small and mean: Man himself was made of a Lump of Earth. Why should we
be ashamed of this? What could be meaner than the Origin of Ancient
_Rome_? Yet her own Historians, proud as they were, scrupled not to
mention it, after she was arrived at the Height of her Glory, and
become a Goddess, _Dea Roma_, to whom Divine Honours were paid
throughout the Empire, and a stately Temple was erected within her own
Walls.

Hor. I have often wonder'd at that _Dea Roma_, and her Statues
resembling those of _Pallas_. What could they pretend her Divinity to
consist in?

Cleo. In her vast Power, which every Freeman had the Privilege to
imagine, he had a Share in.

Hor. What a _Bizar_, what a monstrous Humour must it have been, that
could make a wife People suppose that to be a Goddess, which they knew
to be a City!

Cleo. Nothing in the Universe, but the Pride of the Citizens. But I