calling the angels gods. The moral precepts of the decalogue are found also among the heathen, except the commands, " Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and, "Remember the Sabbath day." He prefers Lycurgus and Solon to Moses. As to Samson and David, they were not very remarkable for valor, and exceeded by many Greeks and Egyptians, and all their power was confined within the narrow limits of Judea. The Jews never had any general equal to Alexander or Ctesar. Solomon is not to be compared with Theognis, Socrates, and other Greek sages ; moreover he is said to have been overcome by women, and therefore does not deserve to be ranked among wise men. Paul was an arch-traitor; calling God now the God of the Jews, now the God of the Gentiles, now both at once ; not seldom contradicting the Old Testament, Christ, and himself, and generally accommodating his doctrine to circumstances. The heathen emperor thinks it absurd that Christian baptism should be able to cleanse from gross sins, while it cannot re- move a wart, or gout, or any bodily evil. He puts the Bible far below the Hellenic literature, and asserts, that it made men slaves, while the study of the classics educated great heroes and philosophers. The first Christians he styles most contemptible men, and the Christians of his day he charges with ignorance, intolerance, and worshipping dead persons, bones, and the wood of the cross. With all his sarcastic bitterness against Christianity, Julian undesignedly furnishes some valuable arguments for the his- torical character of the religion he hated and assailed. The learned and critical Lardner, after a careful analysis of his work against Ckristianity, thus ably and truthfully sums up Julian's testimony in favor of it : "Julian argues against the Jews as well as against the 78 THIED PERIOD. A.D, 311-590. Christians. He has borne a valuable testimony to the history and to the books of the New Testament, as all must acknowl- edge who have read the extracts just made from his work. He allows that Jesus was born in the reign of Augustus, at the time of the taxing made in Judea by Cyrenius : that the Christian rehgion had its rise and began to be propagated in the times of the emperors Tiberius and Claudius. He bears witness to the genuineness and authenticity of the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the Acts of the Apostles: and he so quotes them, as to intimate, that these were the only histor- ical books received by Christians as of authority, and the only authentic memoirs of Jesus Christ and his apostles, and the doctrine preached by them. He allows their early date, and even argues for it. He also quotes, or plainly refers to the Acts of the Apostles, to St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, the Corin- thians, and the Galatians. He does not deny the miracles of Jesus Christ, but allows him to have '