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of discord, like Milo, in the closing fissure of the parted oak, may perish in the separation their hands have effected.

I cannot help adding to this paper, long as it is, a very pleasing little story, from the dialogue on friendship in Lucian. Toxaris, a Scythian, and Menesippus, a Grecian, are contending for the superiority of their two countries, on this excellence of our nature. They each produce examples furnished by their respective nations; and, among others related by the Grecian, is the following.

"Zenothemis, of Massilia, was the son of Charmoleus. When I was ambassador in Italy, he was pointed out to me in the streets, and a most beautiful young man he appeared to be; besides which, I was informed that his fortune and rank were superior to most. There sat by him in a chariot a woman, extremely ugly and deformed: she had but one eye, and her right side seemed to be palsied and shrunk; in short, nothing could be more disgusting than her appearance altogether. On expressing the utmost astonishment to see a youth, so handsome and engaging, coupled with such a piece of deformity, the whole affair was thus explained to me. Zenothemis was the dear friend of Menecrates, the father of this unlovely creature. They were origi nally of equal rank and fortune; but it happened that, on a certain occasion, Menecrates was at once deprived of all his riches, and stripped of his honours and dignities, by the six hundred senators, for giving sentence contrary to law. A deep dejection seized the heart of the unhappy man, on being thus reduced from affluence to absolute want, to which was added a load of infamy and disgrace. But there was a circumstance in his fortunes, which gave him

more pain than all besides, and that was, the deformity of his daughter, the person you beheld in that chariot, then about two-and-twenty, to whom no man, that was not a beggar, would have thought of uniting himself, even in the prosperity of the father, much less at a time when there was nothing in the other scale.

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"As he was one day deploring these misfortunes to his friend; Be comforted,' said Zenothemis, 'you shall never feel the distresses of poverty, and this daughter of yours shall marry a man of family equal to her own.' Saying this, he took Menecrates with him to his house, and obliged him to accept of a part of his fortune. Next day he ordered a very splendid entertainment to be got ready, to which Menecrates and some other friends were invited. As soon as they had supped, and poured a libation to the gods, Zenothemis took a goblet, charged to the brim with delicious wine, and holding it in his hand, Receive,' says he to Menecrates, this cup of friendship from a son-in-law, for this very day do I mean to wed your daughter Cydimache! Ženothemis,' replied the father, this cannot be; I can never bear to see you, my virtuous friend, with your merits and person, made so miserable by such an unsuitable connection.' Zenothemis, without listening to the father, led forth the delighted maid into the bridechamber, and, after a while, returned to Menecrates. From that time he has lived with her, treats her with exemplary constancy, regard, and even tenderness, and, as you see, carries her with him wherever he goes. So far from being ashamed of the match, himself the happiest of in his power to do honour Providence has rewarded

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it is his glory, and he feels men in having had it thus to the name of friendship.

his merit, in giving him a most beautiful boy, the fruit of this connection. The other day he carried this little child into the senate, with an olive-branch round its head, and clad in mourning, to excite their pity in behalf of its grandfather. The child smiled sweetly upon those around him, and clapped its hands before the senators, who were so wrought upon by the little orator, that they pardoned Menecrates, and restored him, soon after, to his fortune and his honours."

N° 90. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8.

Je suppose que le livre qui fait mention de César ne soit pas un livre profane, écrit de la main des hommes qui sont menteurs, trouvé par hasard dans les bibliothèques parmi d'autres manuscrits, qui contiennent des histoires vraies et apocryphes; qu'au contraire il soit inspiré, saint, divin, qu'il porte en soi ces caractères ; qu'il se trouve depuis près de deux mille ans dans une société nombreuse qui n'a permis qu'on ait fait pendant tout ce temps la moindre altération, et qu'il s'est fait une religion de la conserver dans toute son intégrité; qu'il y ait même un engagement religieux et indispensable d'avoir de la foi pour tous les faits contenus dans ce volume, où il est parlé de César et de sa dictature; avouez-le, Lucile, vous douteriez alors qu'il y ait eu un César.

LA BRUYERE. Let us suppose that the book which gives us an account of Cæsar were not a profane composition, the production of men who are liars, found by chance among other manuscripts in libraries which contain true and doubtful histories; but that, on the contrary, it were inspired, holy, divine; that it bore the marks of this; that it were found in the custody of a numerous body of men, who had preserved it for two thousand years, during which time they would not suffer it to undergo the smallest alteration; and that they had considered it as a part of their religion to preserve it in all its integrity, a part of their religion to believe the facts it contained respecting Cæsar and his distatorship; confess, Lucilius, you would then doubt whether there ever lived in the world such a man as CÆSAR.

ALL presumptions against revelation, and all objections against the general scheme of Christianity, having been shown, in the foregoing papers on this subject, to be built upon principles and suppositions,

that combat with nature and experience; the obstacles to the belief of miracles having been removed, on the ground of human incompetency to judge of their necessity, their references, and their dependencies, or to prescribe a course for God's providence to act in; the interposition of a Mediator having. been proved to be perfectly consonant to the natural constitution of things, and the course of our temporal concerns; and lastly, the limited prevalence, and doubtful character of Christianity, having been shown to be perfectly consistent with the ways of Providence, entirely reconcileable to the strictest notions of equity, and making altogether a constitutive part of the great plan of temptation, of trial, and of discipline ;-all this being made perfectly clear and satisfactory, under what pretext can those shelter their obduracy, their contumacy, and their caprice, who refuse to come to the examination of the positive evidence of Christianity, with minds disposed to bestow upon it that candid and serious attention which they are ready to give to the ordinary details of historical evidence? If there are no reasonable presumptions against the Gospel history on the score of the facts it records, surely, in point of testimony, it has a much greater right to be believed than common history, as being supported by a greater number of credible vouchers, and those ocular witnesses, than any annals which the world affords us.

Now, as to the facts, they would undoubtedly be unworthy of credit, on whatever authority they reposed, if there were an inconsistency among them, or a general air of incredibility over them; but these two points may be cleared up beyond all question, and fairly rescued out of the hands of controversy.

The circumstance in which this incredibility and this inconsistency would most notoriously manifest

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