The course pursued by the author is directly opposite to this. He has been compelled to adopt it, because it is the only method by which extreme credulity and superstition can be fastened on the writers of the Gospels. The available contemporary literature, besides that contained in the New Testament, which can throw light on the opinions of the followers of Jesus, is very small. The point which requires proof is that the entire Jewish nation, _without any exception_, was a prey to the basest superstition and credulity. Unless this can be established, the charge against the authors of the Gospels falls to the ground, except so far as it can be proved by the Gospels themselves. The contemporary proof of it, however, failing, he endeavours to substantiate his position by quoting the opinions of writers separated from the times of Jesus by several centuries, and affirming that they were held by the entire body of His contemporaries. Such a mode of reasoning is useless to support anything but a foregone conclusion. A brief reference to the authorities relied upon will at once expose the fallacy of the argument. First, certain differences existing between the Septuagint and the Hebrew Scriptures are pressed into the service, which are no instances of either credulity or superstition. Then the frequent idolatries which prevailed among the Jews prior to the captivity are adduced as a proof of the superstitious tendencies of the Jewish mind, as if superstitions prevalent at the time of Becket were any evidence of the condition of English thought at the present day. Next the absurdities in the Apocryphal Book of Tobit are put in as evidence, although the contrary evidence afforded by the other books of the Apocrypha, which contain no traces of such superstitions, is left without mention. The writings of an Assyrian Jew who lived about three hundred and fifty years before the Christian era are about as valid to prove the opinions held by Christ and his followers as the opinions of Cicero would be in evidence of the beliefs of Constantine. Then reference is made to the angelology and demonology contained in the writings of Philo, who was unquestionably a contemporary of our Lord; but not the smallest hint is given to the reader that he was deeply tinged with the principles of the Neo‐Platonic philosophy, a mode of thought wholly alien from that of the Palestinian Jews, or that Philo was himself an Alexandrian Jew. Next the book of Enoch is quoted, which (whenever it was written, for its date is uncertain) is unquestionably not the work of a Palestinian Jew. This book, which is an Apocalypse, contains a monstrous angelology and demonology, and abounds with extravagances. Although part of it was written prior to the Advent, other portions are clearly subsequent to it. Its author is unknown; but it is highly probable from certain resemblances of expression between it and the New Testament, that he was acquainted with portions of the latter; or,