We may discover two great canons in the operations of the Apologists. In the first place, they seek to show that all things prophesied of the Messiah were fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth; and, secondly, that everything which befel Jesus was prophesied of the Messiah. These canons need only to be stated to show the sheer impossibility of the enterprise to {184} anyone who attaches meaning to words. But in the early centuries of our era there was little disposition with Jew or Greek to do this where those books were concerned, whose age and beauty gave them a peculiar hold upon the mind. In each case the preconception had grown up, as about the myths of Isis, for example, that such books were in some way sacred and inspired. The theory gave men an external authority, but it presented some difficulties; for, both in Homer and in _Genesis_ as in the Egyptian myths, there were stories repugnant to every idea of the divine nature which a philosophic mind could entertain. They were explained away by the allegoric method. Plutarch shows how the grossest features of the Isis legend have subtle and spiritual meanings and were never meant to be taken literally--that the myths are _logoi_ in fact; and Philo vindicates the Old Testament in the same way.[51] The whole procedure was haphazard and unscientific; it closely resembled the principles used by Artemidorus for the interpretation of dreams--a painful analogy. But, in the absence of any kind of historic sense, it was perhaps the only way in which the continuity of religious thought could then be maintained. It is not surprising in view of the prevalence of allegory that the Christians used it--they could hardly do anything else. Thus with the fatal aid of allegory, the double thesis of the Apologists became easier and easier to maintain. The most accessible illustration of this line of apology is to be found in the second chapter of _Matthew_. We may set out in parallel columns the events in the life of Jesus and the prophecies which they fulfil. (a) The Virgin-Birth. _Isaiah_ 7, 14: Behold a virgin shall conceive. (b) Bethlehem. _Micah_ 5,2: And thou, Bethlehem, etc. (c) The Flight into Egypt. _Hosea_ 11, 1: Out of Egypt have I called my son. (d) The Murder of the children. _Jerem._ 31, 15: Rachel weeping. (e) Nazareth. _Judges_ 13, 5: A Nazarene. {185} It is hardly unfair to say that the man who cited these passages in these connexions had no idea whatever of their original meaning, even where he quotes them correctly. Here is a fuller scheme taken from the _Apology_ which Justin addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius. (The numbers on the left refer to the chapter in the first _Apology_.)