the power of the elephant. Milo being of the number, and in his foolish
exhilaration and sportive approbation of Sapor's feats having gone up to
him and patted him on his side, the beast, receiving as an affront that
plebeian salutation, quickly turned upon him, and taking him by one of his
feet, held him in that displeasing manner---his head hanging down--and
paraded leisurely round the green, Milo making the while hideous outcry,
and the whole company, especially the slaves and menials, filling the air
with screams of laughter. At length Vabalathus, thinking that Milo might
be injured, called out to Sapor, who thereupon released him, and he,
rising and adjusting his dress, was heard to affirm, that it had never
happened so while he was in the service of Gallienus.

These things for the little Gallus.

Satisfied now with the amusements of the evening and the pleasures of the
day, we parted from one another, filled with quite different sentiments
from those which had possessed us in the morning. Do members of this
great human family ever meet each other in social converse, and freely
open their hearts, without a new and better strength being given to the
bonds which hold in their embrace the peace and happiness of society? To
love each other, I think we chiefly need but to know each other.
Ignorance begets suspicion, suspicion dislike or hatred, and so we live
as strangers and enemies, when knowledge would have led to intimacy and
friendship. Farewell!




Letter VI.