15.  You    go    still    further,   and    make    this    proposition:
"  Another  may  have  attacked  buildings  devoted  to  secular  or
to  sacred  purposes :  he  ought  not  for  this  crime  to  be  placed
beyond  the  reach  of  pardon."     In  this  sentence  you  have  in
deed  come  to  the  most  flagrant  crime  of  your  fellow-citizens,
in  speaking  of  injury  done  to  sacred  buildings  ;  but  even  you
have  not  affirmed  that  this  is  a  crime  equal  only  to  the  utter
ance  of  an  insolent  word.     You  have  contented  yourself  with
asking,  on  behalf  of  those  who  were  guilty  of  this,  that  for
giveness  which  is  rightly  asked  from  Christians  on  the  ground
of  their  overflowing  compassion,  not   on   the  ground  of  an
alleged  equality  of  all  offences.     I  have  already  quoted  a  sen
tence  of  Scripture,  "  All  the  ways  of  the  Lord  are  mercy  and
truth."     They  shall  therefore  find  mercy  if  they  do  not  hate
truth.     This  mercy  is  granted,  not  as  if  it  were  due  on  the
ground  of  the  faults  of  all  being  only  equal  to  the  fault  of
those  who  have  uttered  rude  words,  but  because  the  law  of
Christ  claims  pardon  for  those  who  are  penitent,  however  in
human  and  impious  their  crime  may  have  been.     I  beg  you,
esteemed  sir,  not  to  propound  these  paradoxes  of  the  Stoics  as
rules  of  conduct  for  your  son  Paradoxus,  whom  we  wish  to
see  grow  up  in  piety  and  in  prosperity,  to  your  satisfaction.
