Preface
19
punishment from without, were ill at ease. As Mr. W. L. Courtney tells us, when the first century before Christ was drawing to its close, the whole of the Mediterranean shore was anxiously and restlessly seeking for something that it called soteria or salvation. And it seems clear that, whatever soteria may be, it is not good to eat or to drink. In fine, the red roses and the ivory flesh of the girls had alike grown grey; meat and drink were bitter in the mouth.
The only thing that can be urged against the Alexandrian theory of life is this: it didn't work.
Arthur Machen
