“I do not wish to destroy life; I wish to live, to go on the path of life,” he said to himself.

He remembered all that Pamphilius had said to him in their former interviews, and it seemed to him now so clear and indubitable that he was amazed that he could ever have believed in the stranger, and have renounced his intention of going to the Christians. He remembered also what the stranger had said to him:⁠—

“Go when you have had experience of life.”

“Well, I have had experience of life, and found nothing in it.”

He also remembered how Pamphilius had said to him that whenever he should come to them they would be glad to receive him.

“No, I have erred and suffered enough,” he said to himself. “I will renounce everything, and I will go to them and live as it says here.”