The object for which this and kindred stories are referred to, is to prove that the Jewish mind was so intensely credulous and superstitious on the subject of demoniacal action at the time of our Lord, that there was nothing so monstrous, which it was not in the habit of accepting as fact. We are also repeatedly informed that the followers of Jesus shared in this unbounded credulity. It may be even inferred from the assertion before us, that they were far more credulous. The argument which this writer adduces is plausible, and it may be stated thus. If a writer like Josephus, who was extensively acquainted with Greek literature, and the Talmudists who belonged to the _élite_ of the nation, could narrate such follies as facts, what must have been the beliefs of the vulgar herd? We must not forget that the followers of Jesus were chiefly from the lower orders. “The common people heard him gladly.” The inference which the reader is allowed to draw is that they must have been addicted to yet more gross credulity. What were the reasons which induced Josephus, a man who had seen the wide world, to relate this monstrous story I shall not inquire. One can hardly believe that he was a dupe; his reporting it, however, no more proves that such beliefs were universal when he wrote, than the existence of a wide‐ spread spiritualistic literature proves that a belief in spirit‐rapping prevails generally among all classes of society at the present day, although many of the believers in spiritualism belong to the educated classes, and readily accept absurdities which the sound sense of multitudes of artisans would immediately repudiate. The argument before me tells in a direction precisely opposite to that which is intended by those who have invoked it, and it is marvellous that they do not perceive that it is destructive of their own case. I put it as follows: If the authors of the Gospels entertained the views of demoniacal agency which this author represents them to have held, their narratives, which directly lead them to refer to that subject, would have contained numerous references to stories of the type of that quoted from Josephus. Let me illustrate this argument by an example. The Arabs and other Orientals believe in the power of demons and magicians over external nature. They consider this action to be of frequent occurrence. Their literature therefore abounds with accounts of such monstrous interventions. But the Gospels, with the exception of the history of the Temptation, do not contain an account of a single marvel wrought by the agency of demons on external nature. Demoniacal agency is repeatedly mentioned by them; but it belongs to an order of phenomena of an entirely different character. What, I ask, is the only legitimate inference? That the authors of the Gospels were free from the superstitions in question.