Chapter VI.--The Old Man Opposes His Personal Experience to the Argument of Peter.
"And the old man answered: 1 You have spoken truly, 2 and yet, notwithstanding all your incomparable demonstration, I am prevented from yielding assent by my own personal knowledge. For I was an astrologer, and dwelt first at Rome; and then forming a friendship with one who was of the family of Caesar, I ascertained accurately the genesis of himself and his wife. And tracing their history, I find all the deeds actually accomplished in exact accordance with their genesis, and therefore I cannot yield to your argument. For the arrangement 3 of her genesis was that which makes women commit adultery, fall in love with their own slaves, and perish abroad in the water. And this actually took place; for she fell in love with her own slave, and not being able to bear the reproach, she fled with him, hurried to a foreign land, shared his bed, and perished in the sea.'
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[With chaps. 6-9, there is a general correspondence in Recognitions, ix. 32-37. The arrangement is quite different. The old man's representation, that the story he tells is that of a friend, is peculiar to the Homilies.--R.] ↩
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One ms. adds "greatly," and an Epitome "great things." ↩
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That is, the position of the stars at her birth. ↩
