[257:6] Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 225. "And they laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison; but the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth." (Acts, v. 18, 19.) [258:1] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 28. [258:2] Eusebius: Life of Constantine, lib. 3, ch. liv. "_Æsculapius_, the son of Apollo, was endowed by his father with such skill in the healing art that he even restored the dead to life." (Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 246.) [258:3] Murray: Manual of Mythology, pp. 179, 180. [258:4] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 304. [258:5] Marinus: Quoted in Taylor's Diegesis, p. 151. [258:6] Pausanias was one of the most eminent Greek geographers and historians. [259:1] "And when Jesus departed thence, _two blind men_ followed him, crying and saying: thou son of David, have mercy on us. . . . And Jesus said unto them: Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord. Then touched he their eyes, saying: According to your faith be it unto you, and their eyes were opened." (Matt. ix. 27-30.) [259:2] Middleton's Works, vol. i. pp. 63, 64. [259:3] Ibid. p. 48. [259:4] Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 62. [259:5] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 76. [260:1] See Middleton's Letters from Rome, p. 76. [260:2] "Nunc Dea, nunc succurre mihi, nam posse mederi Picta docet temptes multa tabella tuis." (Horace: Tibull. lib. 1, Eleg. iii. In Ibid.) [260:3] Chambers's Encyclo., art. "Æsculapius." [260:4] Murray: Manual of Mythology, p. 180. [260:5] Apol. 1, ch. xxii. [260:6] Deane: Serp. Wor. p. 204. See also, Bell's Pantheon, vol. i. p. 29. "There were numerous oracles of Æsculapius, but the most celebrated one was at Epidaurus. Here the sick sought responses and the recovery of their health by sleeping in the temple. . . . The worship of Æsculapius was introduced into Rome in a time of great sickness, and an embassy sent to the temple Epidaurus to entreat the aid of the god." (Bulfinch: The Age of Fable, p. 397.) [261:1] Aryan Mytho. vol. ii. p. 238. [261:2] Herodotus: bk. vi. ch. 61. [261:3] See Philostratus: Vie d'Apo. Gibbon, the historian, says of him: "Apollonius of Tyana, born about the same time as Jesus Christ. His life (that of the former) is related in so fabulous a manner by his disciples, that we are at a loss to discover whether he was a sage, an impostor, or a fanatic." (Gibbon's Rome, vol. i. p. 353, _note_.) What this learned historian says of Apollonius applies to Jesus of Nazareth. _His_ disciples have related his life in so fabulous a manner, that some consider him to have been an impostor, others a fanatic, others a sage, and others a GOD. [262:1] See Philostratus, p. 146. [262:2] Ibid. p. 158. [262:3] See Ibid. p. 182.