human
Well, my dear friend, we have foiled Signor Zicci in one of his predictions at least. You will have no faith in him hereafter.
gpt
The Ides are come, not gone.
human
Tush! if he is a soothsayer, you are not Caesar. It is your vanity that makes you credulous. Thank Heaven, I do not think myself of such importance that the operations of Nature should be changed in order to frighten me.
gpt
But why should the operations of Nature be changed? There may be a deeper philosophy than we dream of,--a philosophy that discovers the secrets of Nature, but does not alter, by penetrating, its courses.
human
Ah! you suppose Zicci to be a prophet,--a reader of the future; perhaps an associate of Genii and Spirits!
gpt
I know not what to conjecture; but I see no reason why he should seek, even if an impostor, to impose on me. An impostor must have some motive for deluding us,--either ambition or avarice. I am neither rich nor powerful; Zicci spends more in a week than I do in a year. Nay, a Neapolitan banker told me that the sums invested by Zicci in his hands, were enough to purchase half the lands of the Neapolitan noblesse.
human
Grant this to be true: do you suppose the love to dazzle and mystify is not as strong with some natures as that of gold and power with others? Zicci has a moral ostentation; and the same character that makes him rival kings in expenditure makes him not disdain to be wondered at even by a humble Englishman.