While these books as a whole lack the freshness and originality and the exquisite simplicity of the best Bible books, they show in some respects an advance in thought and survey. There is more mysticism in the apocryphal writings. Wisdom is personified, almost merging into a being. Angels and spirits play a larger part. Immortality is brought to the fore, and Asmodeus, a sort of devil, appears upon the scene. Some of these ideas, such as the personification of wisdom and the existence of a devil, were further fostered in Christianity and developed into distinct doctrines, while the inherent rationalism of Judaism gradually threw them off. Now to consider briefly the books in detail: I Esdras. Esdras is a later version in Greek of the events told in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, but it begins further back in the reign of Josiah and carries the story through the exile down to the re-dedication of the Second Temple. The author breathes into it some later religious ideas of his own time. The following story quoted from it is known as the "Dispute of the Courtiers": "Now King Darius made a great feast unto all his subjects and unto all that were born in his house, and unto all the princes of Medea and of Persia. "Then the three young men of the body-guard that kept the King's person, spake one to another: let every one of us say one thing which shall be strongest; and he whose sentences shall seem wiser than the others, unto him shall Darius the King give great gifts and great honors in token of victory. The first wrote, Wine is the strongest. The second wrote, The King is the strongest. The third wrote, Woman is the strongest: but, above all things, Truth beareth away the victory. "Then began the first, who had spoken of the strength of wine, and said thus: O sirs, how exceeding strong is wine. It causeth all men to err that drink it: it maketh the mind of the king and of the fatherless child to be all one; of the bondman and of the freeman, of the poor man and of the rich; it turneth also every thought into jollity and mirth, so that a man remembereth neither sorrow nor debt: and it makes every heart rich, so that a man remembereth neither king nor satrap: and when they are in their cups, they forget their love both to friends and brethren, and a little after draw their swords: but when they awake from their wine they remember not what they have done. O sirs, is not wine the strongest, seeing that it enforceth to do thus. And when he had so spoken, he held his peace.