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OF CHRIST.
TALE XLIII.
OF CHRIST, WHO, BY HIS PASSION, DELIVERED US FROM HELL.
In the middle of Rome, there was once an immense chasm, which no human efforts could fill up. The gods being questioned relative to this extraordinary circumstance, made answer, "That unless a man could be found who would voluntarily commit himself to the gulf, it would remain unclosed for ever." Proclamations were sent forth, signifying that he who was willing to offer himself a sacrifice for the good of his country, should appear—but not a man ventured to declare himself. At length Marcus Aurelius (41) said, "If ye will permit me to live as I please during the space of one whole year, I will cheerfully surrender myself, at the end of it, to the yawning chasm." The
