He  believed  in  speech  above  every  thing.  It  was
his  chief  stock  in  trade,  however  large  that  might
be.  It  was  his  staff  of  life — well-sharpened  and  full
of  knobs.  He  would  have  talked  if  there  had  been
no  profit  in  it ;  but  then  he  was  as  keen  for  gain  as


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The  Pantheon  at  Home.  55

any  razor  of  Aristophanes.  Also,  he  was  full  of  the
traditions  of  his  country,  of  the  fame  of  its  great
orators  and  writers,  and  of  the  fact  that  in  Athens,
from  time  immemorial,  all  great  things  had  been  in
the  gift  of  persuasive  and  eloquent  speech — from  the
thrones  of  Cecrops  and  Solon  to  those  of  Pericles
and  Plato  and  Demosthenes.  So  speech  was  de-
voutly worshiped  by  him — even  more  than  Pallas
Athene  herself.  A  few  philosophers  objected  to  this ;
but  even  they,  for  the  most  part,  advocated  silence
with  endless  speech.  Dio  had  only  fallen  in  with
the  average  Athenian  in  that  shop  near  the  Pan-
theon— though  he  had  fallen  in  with  a  razor  on  legs.
He  was  amused,  but  he  was  saddened.  He  could
not  but  confess  to  himself  the  justice  of  the  unpleas-
ant inference  which  the  shrewd  fellow  drew  from
the  current  religious  beliefs.  Certainly,  what  with
the  great  number  of  gods  and  goddesses,  and  their
abounding  dissensions,  mistakes,  prejudices,  injus-
tices, and  limitations  of  place  and  power  as  well  as
knowledge,  it  was  not  a  very  promising  task  he  had
undertaken.  How  could  he  be  sure  of  getting  for
it  even  the  notice  of  a  single  divinity?  But  he  kept
his  thoughts  to  himself,  and,  till  the  man  had  well
shown  the  contents  of  his  shop,  allowed  him  to  ex-
pend his  oily  eloquence  without  interruption.
