by dint of a little symbolical interpretation, will be reconciled with the polytheism of the majority. The most absurd of their legends will have to be put aside. Their sacrifices must cease to be distinguished by the shedding of blood and by acts of impurity, and for the future they must represent acts of submission and gratitude to the Deity, the source of all good, not clumsily-contrived means of working upon the Divine will, and propitiating it for the obtainment of gross and selfish objects. The upright intention and the moral character of the worshipper must alone determine the true worth of all religious acts. Now all these conditions were already peculiar to Christianity, but reformed Paganism was to enjoy them too; and further, to possess other advantages which Christianity had not. Jesus was only the offspring of an obscure and contemptible people; His doctrine was but the refinement of a paltry local tradition; His life, of which little was known by the great majority of his contemporaries, was extremely short. He soon fell a victim to the attacks of two or three priests, a petty
