"I say that I am immortal, Dionysus (Bacchus), son of Deus." _Aristophanes_, in Myst. Of Adoni, pp. 80, and 105. CHAPTER XXVII. THE MIRACLES OF CHRIST JESUS AND THE PRIMITIVE CHRISTIANS. The legendary history of Jesus of Nazareth, contained in the books of the New Testament, is full of prodigies and wonders. These alleged prodigies, and the faith which the people seem to have put in such a tissue of falsehoods, indicate the prevalent disposition of the people to believe in everything, and it was among such a class that Christianity was propagated. All leaders of religion had the reputation of having performed miracles; the biographers of Jesus, therefore, not wishing _their_ Master to be outdone, have made him also a wonder-worker, and a performer of miracles; without them Christianity could not prosper. Miracles were needed in those days, on all special occasions. "There is not a single historian of antiquity, whether Greek or Latin, who has not recorded oracles, prodigies, prophecies, and _miracles_, on the occasion of some memorable events, or revolutions of states and kingdoms. Many of these are attested in the gravest manner by the gravest writers, _and were firmly believed at the time by the people_."[252:1] Hindoo sacred books represent _Crishna_, their Saviour and Redeemer, as in constant strife against the evil spirit. He surmounts extraordinary dangers; strews his way with miracles; raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring the maimed, the deaf and the blind; everywhere supporting the weak against the strong, the oppressed against the powerful. The people crowded his way and adored him as a GOD, and these miracles were the evidences of his divinity for centuries before the time of Jesus. The learned Thomas Maurice, speaking of Crishna, tells us that he passed his innocent hours at the home of his foster-father, in rural diversions, his divine origin not being suspected, _until repeated miracles soon discovered his celestial origin_;[252:2] and Sir William Jones speaks of his _raising the dead_, and saving multitudes _by his miraculous powers_.[253:1] To enumerate the miracles of Crishna would be useless and tedious; we shall therefore mention but a few, of which the Hindoo sacred books are teeming.