racter, the need for real 'wisdom and virtue', was much
greater than it is at the present day. That is one of the causes that
make antiquity so interesting. Of course, different periods of antiquity
varied greatly, both in the conventional standard demanded and in the
spiritual force which answered or surpassed the demand. But, in general,
the strong governments and orderly societies of modern Europe have made
it infinitely easier for men of no particular virtue to live a decent
life, infinitely easier also for men of no particular reasoning power or
scientific knowledge to have a more or less scientific or sane view of
the world.

That, however, does not carry us far towards solving the main problem:
it brings us no nearer to knowledge of anything that we may call
typically a religious creed or an authorized code of morals, in any age
from Hesiod to M. Aurelius.

The book which I have ventured to call a Creed or Catechism is the work
of Sallustius _About the Gods and the World_, a book, I should say,
about the length of the Scottish Shorter Catechism. It is printed in the
third volume of Mullach's _Fragmenta Philosophorum_; apart from that,
the only edition generally accessible--and that is rare--is a duodecimo
published by Allatius in 1539. Orelli's brochure of 1821 seems to be
unprocurable.

The author was in all probability that Sallustius who is known to us as
a close friend of Julian before his accession, and a backer or inspirer
of the emperor's efforts to restore the old religion. He was concerned
in an educational edition of Sophocles--the seven selected plays now
extant with a commentary. He was given the rank of prefect in 362, that
of consul in 363. One must remember, of course, that in that rigorous
and ascetic court high rank connoted no pomp or luxury. Julian had
dismissed the thousand hairdressers, the innumerable cooks and eunuchs
of his Christian predecessor. It probably brought with it only an
increased obligation to live on pulse and to do without such pamperings
of the body as fine clothes or warmth or washing.

Julian's fourth oration, a prose hymn _To King Sun_, +pros Helion
basilea+, is dedicated to Sallustius; his eighth is a 'Consolation to
Himself upon the Departure of Sallustius'. (He had been with Julian in
the wars in Gaul, and was recalled by the jealousy of the emperor
Constantius.) It is a touching and even a noble treatise. The nervous
self-distrust which was habitual in Julian make