I was like one who never casts a look behind, who hesitates before some Rubicon to be crossed, but having touched the farther bank sees no more the shore he has just left."
In many regions-- Egypt, Babylonia, &c. - individual investigators of the great religions have thought they found traces of an early - one hesitates to write, of a " primitive " - monotheism.
When Pliny hesitates about a small affair relating to Dio Chrysostom (the Bithynian friend of Nerva and Trajan), the emperor betrays a not unnatural impatience in his response: potuisti non haerere, mi Secunde carissime (82).
He was condemned at Rome, and in a letter to The Times (loth of September 1884) declares that it was on account of his disobedience to the decrees of the Roman Congregation: "I am a dutiful son of the Church who hesitates to obey an order of his mother because he does not see clear enough the maternal authority in it."
