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OCTAVIUS

XL.

« Pour moi, dis-je, je prends part aussi à la victoire, et suis très heureux de n'avoir point à prononcer sur le différend de mes amis. Je ne m'amuserai point néanmoins à rendre de grandes actions de grâces à Octavius, car je ne lui saurais donner les louanges qu'il mérite. C’est trop peu du témoignage d'un homme, et encore du témoignage d'un seul. C'est Dieu qui lui donnera sa récompense, et qui lui à déjà donné une si belle harangue, et lui a fait obtenir la victoire. » Nous nous retirâmes ensuite fort joyeux, Cecilius d'avoir cru, Octavius d'avoir vaincu, et moi de la foi de l'un et de la victoire de l'autre.

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The Octavius of Minucius Felix

Chapter XL.

--Argument: Then Caecilius Exclaims that He is Vanquished by Octavius; And That, Being Now Conqueror Over Error, He Professes the Christian Religion. He Postpones, However, Till the Morrow His Training in the Fuller Belief of Its Mysteries.

While, therefore, I was silently turning over these things in my own mind, Caecilius broke forth: "I congratulate as well my Octavius as myself, as much as possible on that tranquillity in which we live, and I do not wait for the decision. Even thus we have conquered: not unjustly do I assume to myself the victory. For even as he is my conqueror, so I am triumphant over error. Therefore, in what belongs to the substance of the question, I both confess concerning providence, and I yield to God; ¹ and I agree concerning the sincerity of the way of life which is now mine. Yet even still some things remain in my mind, not as resisting the truth, but as necessary to a perfect training ² of which on the morrow, as the sun is already sloping to his setting, we shall inquire at length in a more fitting and ready manner."

Chapter XLI.

--Argument: Finally, All are Pleased, and Joyfully Depart: Caecilius, that He Had Believed; Octavius, that He Had Conquered; And Minucius, that the Former Had Believed, and the Latter Had Conquered.

"But for myself," said I, "I rejoice more fully on behalf of all of us; because also Octavius has conquered for me, in that the very great invidiousness of judging is taken away from me. Nor can I acknowledge by my praises the merit of his words: the testimony both of man, and of one man only, is weak. He has an illustrious reward from God, inspired by whom he has pleaded, and aided by whom he has gained the victory."

After these things we departed, glad and cheerful: Caecilius, to rejoice that he had believed; Octavius, that he had succeeded; and I, that the one had believed, and the other had conquered.