[269] "It is not uncommon for those who have grown wise by the labour of others, to add a little of their own, and overlook their master."--_Johnson. We have before compared Cicero to Addison as regards the purpose of inspiring their respective countrymen with literary taste. They resembled each other in the return they experienced. [270] Dialog. 18. [271] Ibid. [272] Dialog. 19. [273] Dialog. 18 and 22 Quinct. xii 10. III. THE APOLLONIUS OF TYANA (_From the_ ENCYCLOPAEDIA METROPOLITANA _of 1826._) APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. PAGE INTRODUCTION.--HIS LIFE WRITTEN BY PHILOSTRATUS, INDIRECTLY AGAINST CHRISTIANITY 305 1. HIS BIRTH, EDUCATION, PYTHAGOREAN TRAINING, AND TRAVELS 306 2. HIS POLITICAL ASPECT 309 3. HIS REPUTATION 316 4. HIS PROFESSION OF MIRACLES 319 5. NOT BORNE OUT BY THE INTERNAL CHARACTER OF THE ACTS THEMSELVES 323 6. NOR BY THEIR DRIFT 326 7. BUT AN IMITATION OF SCRIPTURE MIRACLES 328 APOLLONIUS OF TYANA. Apollonius, the Pythagorean philosopher, was born at Tyana, in Cappadocia, in the year of Rome 750, four years before the common Christian era.[274] His reputation rests, not so much on his personal merits, as on the attempt made in the early ages of the Church, and since revived,[275] to bring him forward as a rival to the Divine Author of our Religion. A narrative of his life, which is still extant, was written with this object, about a century after his death (A.D. 217), by Philostratus of Lemnos, when Ammonius was systematizing the Eclectic tenets to meet the increasing influence and the spread of Christianity. Philostratus engaged in this work at the instance of his patroness Julia Domna, wife of the Emperor Severus, a princess celebrated for her zeal in the cause of Heathen Philosophy; who put into his hands a journal of the travels of Apollonius rudely written by one Damis, an Assyrian, his companion.[276] This manuscript, an account of his residence at AEgae, prior to his acquaintance with Damis, by Maximus of that city, a collection of his letters, some private memoranda relative to his opinions and conduct, and lastly the public records of the cities he frequented, were the principal documents from which Philostratus compiled his elaborate narrative.[277] It is written with considerable elegance and command of Greek, but with more attention to ornament than is consistent with correct taste. Though it is not a professed imitation of the Gospels, it contains quite enough to show that it was written with a view of rivalling the sacred narrative; and accordingly, in the following age, it was made use of in a direct attack upon Christianity