Yes, my friend,” said Julius, in conclusion, “the philosophers are right; life does not give what the soul desires. This I have experienced in my marriage. But the fact that life does not give that happiness which the soul desires does not prove that your fraudulent practices can give it,” he added with a smile.

“In what do you see we are fraudulent?” asked Pamphilius.

“Your fraud consists in this: that in order to free men from the evils connected with the facts of life, you repudiate all the facts of life⁠—life itself. In order to free yourselves from disenchantment, you repudiate enchantment, you repudiate marriage itself.”

“We do not repudiate marriage,” said Pamphilius.

“If not marriage, then you repudiate love.”

“On the contrary, we repudiate everything except love. For us it is the chief cornerstone of everything.”