n the case of _Osiris_, the Egyptian Saviour, at his birth, a voice was
heard proclaiming that: "The Ruler of all the Earth is born."[148:4]

In Plutarch's "_Isis_" occurs the following:

"At the birth of Osiris, there was heard a voice that the Lord
of all the Earth was coming in being; and some say that a
woman named Pamgle, as she was going to carry water to the
temple of Ammon, in the city of Thebes, heard that voice,
which commanded her to proclaim it with a loud voice, that the
great beneficent god Osiris was born."[148:5]

Wonderful demonstrations of delight also attended the birth of the
heavenly-born _Apollonius_. According to Flavius Philostratus, who wrote
the life of this remarkable man, a flock of swans surrounded his mother,
and clapping their wings, as is their custom, they sang in unison, while
the air was fanned by gentle breezes.

When the god _Apollo_ was born of the virgin Latona in the Island of
Delos, there was joy among the undying gods in Olympus, and the Earth
laughed beneath the smile of Heaven.[148:6]

At the time of the birth of "_Hercules the Saviour_," his father Zeus,
the god of gods, spake from heaven and said:

"This day shall a child be born of the race of Perseus, who
shall be the mightiest of the sons of men."[149:1]

When _AEsculapius_ was a helpless infant, and when he was about to be put
to death, a voice from the god Apollo was heard, saying:

"Slay not the child with the mother; _he is born to do great
things_; but bear him to the wise centaur Cheiron, and bid him
train the boy in all his wisdom and teach him to do brave
deeds, that men may praise his name in the generations that
shall be hereafter."[149:2]

As we stated above, the story of the Song of the Heavenly Host belongs
exclusively to the _Luke_ narrator; none of the other writers of the
synoptic Gospels know anything about it, which, if it really happened,
seems very strange.

If the reader will turn to the apocryphal Gospel called
"_Protevangelion_" (chapter xiii.), he will there see one of the reasons
why it was thought best to leave this Gospel out of the canon of the New
Testament. It relates the "Miracles at Mary's labor," similar to the
_Luke_ narrator, but in a still more wonderful form. It is probably from
this apocryphal Gospel that the Luke narrator copied.

FOOTNOTES:

[147:1] Luke, ii. 8-15.

[147:2] Translated from the origina