Chapter XLIII.—Simon’s Subterfuges.

Then says Simon:  “If you are angry, I shall neither ask you any questions, nor do I wish to hear you.”  Then Peter:  “If you are now seeking a pretext for escaping, you have full liberty, and need not use any special pretext.  For all have heard you speaking all amiss, and have perceived that you can prove nothing, but that you only asked questions for the sake of contradiction; which any one can do.  For what difficulty is there in replying, after the clearest proofs have been adduced, ‘You have said nothing to the purpose?’  But that you may know that I am able to prove to you in a single sentence that the soul is immortal, I shall ask you with respect to a point which all know; answer me, and I shall prove to you in one sentence that it is immortal.”  Then Simon, who had thought that he had got, from the anger of Peter, a pretext for departing, stopped on account of the remarkable promise that was 126made to him, and said:  “Ask me then, and I shall answer you what all know, that I may hear in a single sentence, as you have promised, how the soul is immortal.”