calumniate you as evil-doers, they may be con-
founded in witnessing your good behaviour as
Christians." — " Let it suflSce, that in past years
you acted as they do, who now wonder that you
refuse to pursue with them the same course of
debaucheries." — '*Let none of you suffer as a
murderer, or as a thief, or as a mischievous per-
son, or as a busybody." Then follow particular
injunctions on all the leading duties of social life.
So far as such exhortations as these were effi-
cacious, they would produce just those manners
which, as Pliny believed, actually prevailed
among the Christians.
