is own speculations. As M.
Renan says: "The Christ who communicates private revelations to him _is
a phantom of his own making_;" "it is _himself_ he listens to, _while
fancying that he hears Jesus_."[509:1]

In studying the writings of the early advocates of Christianity, and
Fathers of the Christian Church, where we would naturally look for the
language that would indicate the real occurrence of the facts of the
Gospel--if real occurrences they had ever been--we not only find no such
language, but everywhere find every sort of sophistical ambages,
ramblings from the subject, and evasions of the very business before
them, as if on purpose to balk our research, and insult our skepticism.
If we travel to the very sepulchre of Christ Jesus, it is only to
discover that he was never there: _history_ seeks evidence of his
existence as a man, but finds no more trace of it than of the shadow
that flits across the wall. "The Star of Bethlehem" shone not upon _her_
path, and the order of the universe was suspended without _her_
observation.

She asks, with the Magi of the East, "Where is he that is born King of
the Jews?" and, like them, finds no solution of her inquiry, but the
guidance that guides as well to one place as another; descriptions that
apply to AEsculapius, Buddha and Crishna, as well as to Jesus;
prophecies, without evidence that they were ever prophesied; miracles,
which those who are said to have seen, are said also to have denied
seeing; narratives without authorities, facts without dates, and records
without names. In vain do the so-called disciples of Jesus point to the
passages in Josephus and Tacitus;[510:1] in vain do they point to the
spot on which he was crucified; to the fragments of the true cross, or
the nails with which he was pierced, and to the _tomb_ in which he was
laid. Others have done as much for scores of _mythological personages_
who never lived in the flesh. Did not Damus, the beloved disciple of
Apollonius of Tyana, while on his way to India, see, on Mt. Caucasus,
the identical chains with which Prometheus had been bound to the rocks?
Did not the Scythians[510:2] say that Hercules had visited their
country? and did they not show the print of his foot upon a rock to
substantiate their story?[510:3] Was not his _tomb_ to be seen at Cadiz,
where his _bones_ were shown?[510:4] Was not the _tomb_ of Bacchus to be
seen in Greece?[510:5] Was not the _tomb_ of Apollo to be seen at
Delphi?[510:6]