he English--for we are perspicuous--with the cool dispassionate
reasoning of the Germans. Gibbon sought after the truth, found it, and
made it clear.'

'Then you think Gibbon a truthful writer?'

'Why, yes; who shall convict Gibbon of falsehood? Many people have
endeavoured to convict Gibbon of falsehood; they have followed him in his
researches, and have never found him once tripping. Oh, he is a
wonderful writer! his power of condensation is admirable; the lore of the
whole world is to be found in his pages. Sometimes in a single note he
has given us the result of the study of years; or, to speak
metaphorically, "he has ransacked a thousand Gulistans, and has condensed
all his fragrant booty into a single drop of otto.'"

'But was not Gibbon an enemy to the Christian faith?'

'Why, no; he was rather an enemy to priestcraft, so am I; and when I say
the philosophy of the Bible is in many respects unsound, I always wish to
make an exception in favour of that part of it which contains the life
and sayings of Jesus of Bethlehem, to which I must always concede my
unqualified admiration--of Jesus, mind you; for with his followers and
their dogmas I have nothing to do. Of all historic characters Jesus is
the most beautiful and the most heroic. I have always been a friend to
hero-worship, it is the only rational one, and has always been in use
amongst civilised people--the worship of spirits is synonymous with
barbarism--it is mere fetish; the savages of West Africa are all
spirit-worshippers. But there is something philosophic in the worship of
the heroes of the human race, and the true hero is the benefactor.
Brahma, Jupiter, Bacchus, were all benefactors, and, therefore, entitled
to the worship of their respective peoples. The Celts worshipped Hesus,
who taught them to plough, a highly useful art. We, who have attained a
much higher state of civilisation than the Celts ever did, worship Jesus,
the first who endeavoured to teach men to behave decently and decorously
under all circumstances; who was the foe of vengeance, in which there is
something highly indecorous; who had first the courage to lift his voice
against that violent dogma, "an eye for an eye"; who shouted conquer, but
conquer with kindness; who said put up the sword, a violent unphilosophic
weapon; and who finally died calmly and decorously in defence of his
philosophy. He must be a savage who denies worship to the hero of
Golgotha.'

'But he was