lligent men of their day, at work in exposing the story
of Herod's cruelty, by showing that, considering the extent of
territory embraced in the order, and the population within it, the
assumed destruction of life stamped the story false and ridiculous. A
governor of a Roman province who dared make such an order would be so
speedily overtaken by the vengeance of the Roman people, that his head
would fall from his body before the blood of his victims had time to
dry. Archelaus, his son, was deposed for offenses not to be spoken of
when compared with this massacre of the infants."

No wonder that there is no trace at all in the Roman catacombs, nor in
Christian art, of this fictitious story, until about the beginning of
the fifth century.[174:1] Never would Herod dared to have taken upon
himself the odium and responsibility of such a sacrifice. _Such a crime
could never have happened at the epoch of its professed perpetration._
To such lengths were the early Fathers led, by the servile adaptation of
the ancient traditions of the East, they required a _second edition_ of
the tyrant Kansa, and their holy wrath fell upon Herod. The Apostles of
Jesus counted too much upon human credulity, they trusted too much that
the future might not unravel their maneuvers, the sanctity of their
object made them too reckless. They destroyed all the evidence against
themselves which they could lay their hands upon, but they did not
destroy it all.

FOOTNOTES:

[166:1] _A heavenly voice_ whispered to the foster-father of Jesus, and
told him to fly with the child into Egypt, which was immediately done.
(See Matthew, ii. 13.)

[166:2] Life and Relig. of the Hindoos, p. 134.

[166:3] Anacalypsis, vol. i. p. 129. See also, Cox: Aryan Mythology,
vol. ii. p. 134, and Maurice: Hist. Hindostan, vol. ii. p. 331.

[166:4] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. pp. 273 and 259.

[167:1] See Prog. Relig. Ideas, vol. i. p. 61.

[167:2] See Higgins: Anacalypsis, vol. i. 130, 13-, and Maurice: Indian
Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 112, 113, and vol. iii. pp. 45, 95.

[167:3] Indian Antiquities, vol. i. pp. 112, 113.

[167:4] Asiatic Researches, vol. i. p. 259.

[167:5] Farrar's Life of Christ, p. 58.

[167:6] See Introduction to Gospel of Infancy, Apoc.

[167:7] See vol. x. Asiatic Researches.

[168:1] Beal: Hist. Buddha, pp. 103, 104.

[168:2] Amberly's Analysis, p. 229.

[168:3] The Shih-king. Decade ii, ode 1.

[168:4] Bonwick: Egyptian Belief, pp