[98] _E.g._, Dr. August Tholuck.—At the termination of an article, “_Ueber den Einfluss des Heidenthums aufs Leben_,” in which he ransacks classical authors and Christian fathers for anything which may serve to exhibit the degradation of Pagan society, he quotes the words of Athanasius to give expression to the conclusion referred to in the text. The whole of Champagny’s brilliant and fascinating work on the Cæsars is dominated by the same spirit, a spirit utterly inconsistent with that attitude of philosophical detachment in which history should be written, (_Études sur l’Empire Romain_, tome iii., “_Les Césars_.”) Archbishop Trench, too, says of our period that it “was the hour and power of darkness; of a darkness which then, immediately before the dawn of a new day, was the thickest.” (_Miracles_, p. 162.) Prof. Mahaffy, in the same uncritical spirit, refers to the “singular” and “melancholy” spectacle presented by Plutarch in his religious work, “_clinging to the sinking ship, or rather, trying to stop the leak and declare her seaworthy_.” (_Greeks under Roman Sway_, p. 321.) [99] See Dean Merivale, _Romans under the Empire_, vol. vii. [100] See “St. Paul and Seneca” (Dissertation ii. in Lightfoot on “Philippians”) for a full account of the question from the historical and critical standpoints. The learned and impartial Bishop has no difficulty in proving that the resemblances between Stoicism and Christianity were due to St. Paul’s acquaintance with Stoic teaching, and not to Seneca’s knowledge of the Christian faith.