n had also written several books against Magic (i.
68). Now it is known that there was a Celsus, a friend of Lucian,
who had also written against Magic, and to whom Lucian dedicated
his 'Pseudomantis, or Alexander of Abonoteichos.'

It was clearly obvious to identify the two persons, and there was
much to be said in favour of the identification. But there was
this difficulty. Origen indeed speaks of the Celsus to whom he is
replying as an Epicurean, and here and there Epicurean opinions
are expressed in the fragments of the original work that Origen
has preserved. But Origen himself was somewhat puzzled to find
that the main principles of the author were rather Platonic or
Neo-platonic than Epicurean, and this observation has been
confirmed by modern enquiry. The Celsus of Origen is in reality a
Platonist.

It still being acknowledged that the friend of Lucian was an
Epicurean, this discovery seemed fatal to the supposition that he
was the author of the work against the Christians. Accordingly
there was a tendency among critics, though not quite a unanimous
tendency, to separate again the two personalities which had been
united. At this point Dr. Keim comes upon the scene, and he asks
the question, Was Lucian's friend really an Epicurean? Lucian
nowhere says so in plain words, but it was taken as a _prima
facie_ inference from some of the language used by him. For
instance, he describes the Platonists as being on good terms with
this very Alexander of Abonoteichos whom he is ridiculing and
exposing. He appeals to Celsus to say whether a certain work of
Epicurus is not his finest. He says that his friend will be
pleased to know that one of his objects in writing is to see
justice done to Epicurus. All these expressions Dr. Keim thinks
may be explained as the quiet playful irony that was natural to
Lucian, and from other indications in the work he concludes that
Lucian's Celsus may well have been a Platonist, though not a
bigoted one, just as Lucian himself was not in any strict and
narrow sense an Epicurean.

When once the possibility of the identification is conceded, there
are, as Dr. Keim urges, strong reasons for its adoption. The
characters of the two owners of the name Celsus, so far as they
can be judged from the work of Origen on the one hand and Lucian
on the other, are the same. Both are distinguished for their
opposition to magical arts. The Celsus of the Pseudomantis is a
friend of Lucian, and it is pre