There were people with me on the porch and in the courts, and on the cloisters and on the steps of the three sides of the Temple there were other people--I will say a million of people, all waiting breathlessly to hear his proclamation.

The pillars were not more still than we.

Ha, ha, ha! I fancied I heard the axles of the mighty Roman machine begin to crack.

Ha, ha, ha! O prince, by the soul of Solomon, your King of the World drew his gown about him and walked away, and out by the farthest gate, nor opened his mouth to say a word; and--the Roman machine is running yet!" In simple homage to a hope that instant lost--a hope which, as it began to fall and while it was falling, he unconsciously followed with a parting look down to its disappearance--Ben-Hur lowered his eyes.
At no previous time, whether when Balthasar was plying him with arguments, or when miracles were being done before his face, had the disputed nature of the Nazarene been so plainly set before him.

The best way, after all, to reach an understanding of the divine is by study of the human.