Page:Apollonius of Tyana - the pagan Christ of the third century.pdf/31

26 asked, "Who are you?" they answer, "We are gods." "Why?" "Because we are virtuous." The biographer of Apollonius, who, amidst all the virtues with which he has adorned his hero, has certainly omitted that of modesty, goes on to say that the latter was deeply affected by the intense wisdom of this reply. As might have been expected, Apollonius receives from the Brahmins a full, complete, and literal confirmation of the doctrines of Pythagoras. .The chief amongst them, one Iarchas, remembers having been "some other"—an ancient king or a demi-god in a country the praises of which he sings with that extreme humility which is so characteristic of the whole of that venerable corporation. Next to him we have Palamedes, one of the heroes of the Trojan war, who, in his new existence on earth, reappears as a Brahmin. It may be stated here by the way that Apollonius remembers having been a pilot in some former stage of existence, and how he had duped a number of Phœnician pirates who had tried to drag him into one of their predatory schemes. The conversations with the