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 great end rather in practical than theoretic virtue, and thereby violated the first principles of your master, which would be very shocking! Are you sure, too, that these gentlemen have actually 'withdrawn the sacred veil, which covers from profane eyes the luminous spectacles?' Are you quite convinced that every one of these worthies lived at least five hundred years after the great master; for I need not tell so profound a Platonist as yourself, that it was not till that period that even glimpses of the great master"s meaning were discovered. Strange! that  should alike favour the philosophy of theory, and the philosophy of facts. Mr. Vivian Grey, benefiting, I presume, by the lapse of further centuries, is about to complete the great work which Proclus and Porphyry commenced."

"My dear sir, you are pleased to be very amusing this morning."

"My dear boy! I smile, but not with joy.