wondered how two augurs could meet without laughing in each other's faces. This tendency continued through the first century A.D., but seems to have given way after that to a revival of religious feeling and to a more devout tone in philosophy.

502. The Change in Moral Standards due in Part to Despotism. "That effeminacy fell upon men which always infects them when they live under the rule of an all-powerful soldiery. But with effeminacy there came in time a development of the feminine virtues. Men ceased to be adventurous, patriotic, just, magnanimous; but in exchange they became chaste, tender-hearted, loyal, religious, capable of infinite endurance in a good cause."-SEELEY, Roman Imperialism, 33.

G. EXTRACTS TO SHOW THE HIGHER PAGAN MORALITY.

503. From the Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius : Aurelius thanks the gods "for a good grandfather, good parents, a good sister, good teachers, good associates, and good friends."

"From my mother I learned piety, and abstinence not only from evil deeds but from evil thoughts." From a tutor "... not to credit miracle workers and jugglers, with their incantations and driving away of demons; . . to read carefully, and not to be satisfied with a superficial understanding of a book."

"There are briers in the road? Then turn aside from them, but do not add, 'Why were such things made?' Thou wilt be ridiculed by a man who is acquainted with nature, as thou wouldst be by a carpenter or shoemaker if thou didst complain that there were shavings and cuttings in his shop."

"All that is from the gods is full of providence."

"On every vexation apply this principle: This is not a misfortune, but to bear it nobly is good fortune."

"The best way to avenge thyself is not to become like the wrongdoer."

"When thou wishest to delight thyself, think of the virtues of those who live with thee."

"Love men; revere the gods." [Does not this come near 'the two commandments'?]

"As emperor I am a Roman, but as a man my city is the world." "Think of thyself as a member of the great human body, - else thou dost not love men from thy heart."

"Suppose that men curse thee, or kill thee

if a man stand by a

pure spring and curse it, the spring does not cease to send up wholesome

water."

"To say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and all that belongs to the soul is a dream and a vapor; life is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after fame is oblivion. What then is there about which we ought seriously to employ ourselves? This one thing-just thoughts and social acts, words that do not lie, and temper which accepts gladly all that happens."

"Why then dost thou not wait in tranquillity for thy end, whether it be extinction or removal to another life? And until that time comes, what is sufficient? Why, what else than to venerate the gods and bless them, and to do good to men, and to practice tolerance and self-restraint."

"Everything harmonizes with me which is harmonious to thee, O Universe! Nothing is too early or too late which is in due time for thee! Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O Nature ! From thee are all things, in thee are all things; to thee all things return. The poet says, Dear city of Cecrops; and shall not I say, Dear city of Zeus?" "Many grains of frankincense upon the same altar; one falls before, another after; but it makes no difference."

"Pass through this little space of time conformably to Nature, and end thy journey in content-just as an olive falls when it is ripe, blessing Nature who produced it and thanking the tree on which it grew."

"What is it to me to live in a universe if devoid of gods. But in truth gods do exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put the means in man's power to enable him not to fall into real evil."

"It is sweet to live if there be gods, and sad to die if there be none."1

504. From Epictetus:-

"He is unreasonable who is grieved at things which happen from the necessity of nature."

"Nothing is smaller than love of pleasure and love of gain and pride. Nothing is superior to magnanimity and gentleness and love of mankind and beneficence."

"What we ought not to do we should not even think of doing."

"No man is free who is not master of himself."

"Think of God more frequently than you breathe."

"Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress."

"If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad."

1 Read Watson's Marcus Aurelius, or Matthew Arnold's, in Essays in Criticism, First Series.

"Do not so much be ashamed of that disgrace which proceeds from men's opinions as fly from that which comes from the truth."

"No man who loves money and pleasure and fame, also loves mankind, but only he who loves virtue."

"If you wish to be rich, know it is neither a good thing nor in your power; if you wish to be happy, it is a good thing and in your power; for the one is a temporary loan of fortune, but happiness comes from the will."

"When you die you will not exist, but you will be something else of which the world has need; you came into existence not when you chose, but when the world had need of you."

"To me all significations are auspicious if I choose; for, whatever results, it is in my power to derive benefit from it."

"It is not possible to be free from faults; but it is possible to direct your efforts incessantly to bring faultlessness."

"Death or pain is not formidable, but the fear of pain or death."

H. CHRISTIANITY.

505. Some Inner Sources of its Power. - Meanwhile a new creative force had arisen-the greatest single power that has ever worked upon the souls of men. God as a tender father replaced the gods demanding worship for themselves as the price of holding their hands from afflicting men. Confidence in a blissful life after death replaced the old gloomy and shadowy future. The obligation of pure and helpful living was substituted for the duty of minute ceremonial. Christianity made hope, love, and mutual helpfulness the essence of religion for the masses of men, and it replaced the lofty but trembling aspirations of the noblest philosophers by a sure and glowing faith. Individuals in the pagan world, it is true, like Plato and Aurelius, held opinions regarding God, duty, immortality, not unlike the teachings of Christ; but through Christianity these higher doctrines, "which the noblest intellects of [pagan] antiquity could barely grasp, have become the truisms of the village school, the proverbs of the cottage and the alley."

1

1 Lecky, European Morals. See that work (II. 1-4) on the relation of pagan speculation and teaching to Christian faith; and also some good pages in Matthew Arnold's Essays in Criticism, First Series, 345-348.

506. Debt to the Roman Empire.'-In three distinct ways the Empire had made preparation for Christianity.

The gentler humanizing tendency of the age, and the change in standard of morals, made easier the victory of Christianity, with its emphasis on humility and self-sacrifice. The debt to the political organization will be noted later (§ 533). Easiest of all to trace is the debt to Roman imperial unity. Except for the widespread rule of Rome, Christianity could hardly have reached beyond Judea. The early Christian writers recognized this, and regarded the creation of the Empire as a providential preparation. No other government was tolerant enough to permit the spread of such novel worship. The Empire had tolerated broadly the religions of all nations (except those believed to be seriously immoral), and so melted down sharp local prejudices. The political and social unification of the Empire, with its common language and customs, laid the foundation for its spiritual union in Christianity. Says Renan:

"It is not easy to imagine how, in the face of an Asia Minor, a Greece, an Italy, split into a hundred small republics, and of Gaul, Spain, Africa, Egypt, in possession of their old national institutions, the apostles could have succeeded, or even how their project could have been started."

507. The Earlier Persecutions. - The Roman Empire encouraged the utmost freedom of thought upon all subjects. Marcus Aurelius, in appointing men to the endowed chairs of philosophy at Rome, seems to have been indifferent as to their agreement with his own philosophical beliefs. Why, then, did Rome persecute the early Christians?

To understand this at all, it is best to treat separately the "persecution" under Nero, and the persecutions in the following century.

We know from the Book of Acts that within thirty years after the death of Christ his disciples were to be found in all large cities of the eastern part of the Empire, and that they

1 Read Fisher's Beginnings of Christianity, 47–73.

had appeared in Rome itself. They were still confined, however, almost wholly to the lower classes of society, and cultivated Romans heard of them only by chance, if at all, and as a despised sect of the Jews. The Jews themselves accused the Christians of all crimes and impieties, of eating young children and of horrible orgies in the secret love-feasts, or communion suppers. The accusation was accepted carelessly, because of the secrecy of the Christian meetings and the deplorable tendencies to licentious rites in various eastern religions which Rome had been compelled to check. The great fire in Rome, 64 A.D. (§ 458 5), first brought the Christians to general notice, and gave occasion for the first important mention of them by a pagan historian. The origin of the fire, says Tacitus, was charged [probably by the Jews] upon the new sect, —

"Whom the vulgar call Christians, and who were already branded with deserved infamy. Christus, from whom the name was derived, was executed when Tiberius was imperator, by Pontius Pilate, the procurator in Judea. But the pernicious superstition, checked for the time, again broke out, not only in its first home, but even in Rome, the meeting place of all horrible and immoral practices from all parts of the world."

Tacitus plainly does not think the charge of incendiarism proven, but he rather approves the punishment of these "haters of the human race." Nero was glad to satisfy the rage of the Roman populace by sacrificing such victims, and numbers were put to death with fiendish tortures. Some were wrapped in skins of wild beasts to be torn by dogs; others were tarred with pitch and used as torches to illuminate the revels in Nero's gardens. The punishment, however, was not in name or fact a religious persecution proper, and it was of course confined to the city of Rome."

Fifty years later, Pliny was a provincial governor under

1 On the church at Rome, see Fisher's Beginnings, 520–533; Pennsylvania Reprints, IV. No. 1; Farrar's Darkness and Dawn (a novel).

2 Ramsay, ch. xi.; Renan in the Hibbert Lectures, 1880, Second Lecture, 70-100; Milman, II. 35-39; Hardy; Fisher; Capes; Bury.