-226 TREATISES ATTRIBUTED TO CYPRIAX. yearsof cattle,knowing the consuls[under whom they ran], learningtheirage,tracingtheirDreed,recordingtheirvery grandfathersand great-grandfathers!How unprofitablea matter is allthis;nay, how disgracefuland ignominious! Were you to inquireof thisman — thisvery man, I say, who can compute by memory the whole family of his equine race,and can relateitwith great quicknesswithout interferingwith the exhibition— who were the parents of Christ,he cannot tell,or he is the more unfortunateif he can. But if,again,I should ask him by what road he has come to that exhibition,he willconfess[thathe has come] by the naked bodiesof prostitutesand of profligatewomen, by [scenesof] public lust,by public disgrace,by vulgar lasciviousness,by the common contempt of allmen. And, not to objectto him what perchancehe has done,stillhe has seen what was not fitto be done,and he has trainedhis eyes to the exhibitionof idolatryby lust:he would have dared,had he been able,to take thatwhich is holy intothe brothelwith him ; since,as he hastensto the spectaclewhen dismissedfrom the Lord's [table],and stillbearing with him, as is usual,the Eucharist,that unfaithfulman has carriedabout the holy body of Christ among the filthy bodies of harlots,and has deserved a deeper condemnation for the way [by which he has gone thither],than for the pleasurehe has receivedfrom the exhibition. 6. But now to pass from thisto the shamelesscorruption of the stage. I am ashamed to tellwhat thingsare said; I am even ashamed to denounce the thingsthatare done— the tricksof arguments, the cheatingsof adulterers,the im modestiesof women, the scurrilejokes,the sordidparasites, even the toga'd fathersof familiesthemselves,sometimes stupid,sometimes obscene,but in allcasesdull,in allcases immodest. And though no individual,or family,or pro fession,is spared by the discourseof thesereprobates,yet every one flocksto the play. The general infamy is de lightfulto see or to recognise; itisa pleasure,nay, even to learn it. People flockthitherto the publicdisgraceof the brothelforthe teachingof obscenity,that nothing lessmay