mulgated, and the world would not have profited from the great
moral superiority with which his Father had endowed him. Jesus, son of
Sirach, and Hillel, had uttered aphorisms almost as exalted as those
of Jesus. Hillel, however, will never be accounted the true founder of
Christianity. In morals, as in art, precept is nothing, practice is
everything. The idea which is hidden in a picture of Raphael is of
little moment; it is the picture itself which is prized. So, too, in
morals, truth is but little prized when it is a mere sentiment, and
only attains its full value when realized in the world as fact. Men of
indifferent morality have written very good maxims. Very virtuous men,
on the other hand, have done nothing to perpetuate in the world the
tradition of virtue. The palm is his who has been mighty both in words
and in works, who has discerned the good, and at the price of his
blood has caused its triumph. Jesus, from this double point of view,
is without equal; his glory remains entire, and will ever be renewed.

CHAPTER VI.

JOHN THE BAPTIST--VISIT OF JESUS TO JOHN, AND HIS ABODE IN THE DESERT
OF JUDEA--ADOPTION OF THE BAPTISM OF JOHN.

An extraordinary man, whose position, from the absence of documentary
evidence, remains to us in some degree enigmatical, appeared about
this time, and was unquestionably to some extent connected with Jesus.
This connection tended rather to make the young prophet of Nazareth
deviate from his path; but it suggested many important accessories to
his religious institution, and, at all events, furnished a very strong
authority to his disciples in recommending their Master in the eyes of
a certain class of Jews.

About the year 28 of our era (the fifteenth year of the reign of
Tiberius) there spread throughout Palestine the reputation of a
certain Johanan, or John, a young ascetic full of zeal and enthusiasm.
John was of the priestly race,[1] and born, it seems, at Juttah near
Hebron, or at Hebron itself.[2] Hebron, the patriarchal city _par
excellence_, situated at a short distance from the desert of Judea,
and within a few hours' journey of the great desert of Arabia, was at
this period what it is to-day--one of the bulwarks of Semitic ideas,
in their most austere form. From his infancy, John was _Nazir_--that
is to say, subjected by vow to certain abstinences.[3] The desert by
which he was, so to speak, surrounded, early attracted him.[4] He led
there the life of a Yogi of