 fell into the hands of one of a very different disposition, and this
was no other than the celebrated St. Chrysostom, who dieted me with sermons
instead of sacrifices, and filled my ears with good things, but not my belly.
Instead of high food to fatten and pamper my flesh, I had receipts to mortify
and reduce it. With these I edified so well, that within a few months I became a
skeleton. However, as he had converted me to his faith, I was well enough
satisfied with this new manner of living, by which he taught me I might ensure
myself an eternal reward in a future state. The saint was a good-natured man,
and never gave me an ill word but once, which was occasioned by my neglecting to
place Aristophanes, which was his constant bedfellow, on his pillow. He was,
indeed, extremely fond of that Greek poet, and frequently made me read his
comedies to him. When I came to any of the loose passages he would smile, and
say, 'It was pity his matter was not as pure as his style;' of which latter he
was so immoderately fond that, notwithstanding the detestation he expressed for
obscenity, he hath made me repeat those passages ten times over. The character
of this good man hath been very unjustly attacked by his heathen contemporaries,
particularly with regard to women; but his severe invectives against that sex
are his sufficient justification.«
    »From the service of this saint, from whom I received manumission, I entered
into the family of Timasius, a leader of great eminence in the imperial army,
into whose favour I so far insinuated myself that he preferred me to a good
command, and soon made me partaker of both his company and his secrets. I soon
grew intoxicated with this preferment, and the more he loaded me with benefits
the more he raised my opinion of my own merit, which, still outstripping the
rewards he conferred on me, inspired me rather with dissatisfaction than
gratitude. And thus, by preferring me beyond my merit or first expectation, he
made me an envious aspiring enemy, whom perhaps a more moderate bounty would
have preserved a dutiful servant.«
    »I fell now acquainted with one Lucilius, a creature of the prime minister
Eutropius, who had by his favour been raised to the post of a tribune; a man of
low morals, and eminent only in that meanest of qualities, cunning. This
gentleman, imagining me a fit tool for the minister's purpose, having often
sounded my principles of honour and honesty, both which he declared to
