myths in Italy belong to the age of Romulus, seven centuries before Christ, if, indeed, Romulus can be called a myth. When the age of written monuments begins, the mythical period ends. Hence the Jewish people cannot properly be said to have ever had myths. And the man who talks of mythical beings in Judea during the reign of Tiberius, may undertake to persuade us that Napoleon III. is a myth. We know the current events of that period, year by year, and month by month. The Annals of Tacitus, the Commentaries of Cæsar, have not, even humanly speaking, the critical evidence in their favour possessed by the Four Gospels.
§ II.—Moderate Rationalism.
The errors of this section are all sprung from the same parent, namely, from the denial of the existence of mysteries, or of truths whose depth is beyond the understanding of man. The basis on which the condemnations contained in the section rest, is, firstly, the recognition of the fact that mysteries do exist, and have been revealed; secondly, the logical principle that the science of Faith, commonly called theology, must be conducted in a different manner from the natural sciences. To show the folly of the propositions herein censured, I ask whether a man would not be crazed who should try to settle the truth of the story of Hengist from Euclid? Of course he would, because he would be applying the principles of a purely abstract science to an historical question, which can only be solved by the testimony of trustworthy witnesses. Yet the absurdity of such an attempt is infinitely less than
