religious revival; and that, moreover, it was blameworthy in Plutarch that "he never took pains to understand" Christianity.[1] Further, it must be added, that the historian's natural desire to illustrate Plutarch's times, rather than to display Plutarch himself, has led him to commit serious injustice by his uncritical acceptance of certain spurious tracts as the genuine workmanship of Plutarch.
The conclusion at which Professor Mahaffy arrives, that Plutarch was "a narrow and bigoted Hellene,"[2] is intelligible enough to those who accept the view which we have endeavoured to combat in Chapter III. of the following essay, a view which is simply a belated survival of the ancient prejudice which consigns to eternal perdition the followers of other Religions, because they are wilfully blind to the light with which our own special Belief has been blessed in such splendour. But the man who, after even the most casual study of Plutarch's utterances on Religion, can seriously describe him as "narrow and bigoted" will maintain, with equal serenity, that it is the practice of the sun to shine at midnight. Professor Mahaffy, indeed, in using such expressions, is at variance with his own better judgment, inasmuch as he elsewhere concedes that, "had Plutarch been at Athens when St. Paul came there, he would have been the first to give the Apostle a respectful hearing."[3]
