e; or, if
the air is inflammable, a little flame is seen to flicker round the
lamp, which spreads and multiplies till the conflagration becomes
general, is followed by an explosion, and kill all who are in the
way.--G.]

[Footnote 84: Dr. Lardner, perhaps alone of the Christian critics,
presumes to doubt the truth of this famous miracle. (Jewish and Heathen
Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 47-71.)]

The silence of Jerom would lead to a suspicion that the same story which
was celebrated at a distance, might be despised on the spot. * Note:
Gibbon has forgotten Basnage, to whom Warburton replied.--M.

Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.--Part IV.

The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected with the
ruin of the Christian church. Julian still continued to maintain the
freedom of religious worship, without distinguishing whether this
universal toleration proceeded from his justice or his clemency. He
affected to pity the unhappy Christians, who were mistaken in the most
important object of their lives; but his pity was degraded by contempt,
his contempt was embittered by hatred; and the sentiments of Julian were
expressed in a style of sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly
wound, whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was
sensible that the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer,
he countenanced, and perhaps enjoined, the use of the less honorable
appellation of Galilaeans. [85] He declared, that by the folly of the
Galilaeans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics, contemptible to
men, and odious to the gods, the empire had been reduced to the brink of
destruction; and he insinuates in a public edict, that a frantic patient
might sometimes be cured by salutary violence. [86] An ungenerous
distinction was admitted into the mind and counsels of Julian, that,
according to the difference of their religious sentiments, one part
of his subjects deserved his favor and friendship, while the other was
entitled only to the common benefits that his justice could not refuse
to an obedient people. According to a principle, pregnant with mischief
and oppression, the emperor transferred to the pontiffs of his own
religion the management of the liberal allowances for the public
revenue, which had been granted to the church by the piety of
Constantine and his sons. The proud system of clerical honors and
immunities, which had been constructed with so much art and labor,
was levelled to t