d of his race.

He praised many of the virtues of the Mohammedan religion, such as
honesty, cleanliness, temperance, and devoutness, and denounced with
scathing sarcasm, not Christ, but professing Christians whose conduct
towards himself was beneath the dignity of the pagan. But this in no
way detracts from his admiration of the genuine follower of Christ. He
says that "religious ideas have more influence than certain
narrow-minded philosophers are willing to believe; they are capable of
rendering great services to humanity." Again, he says that "the
Christian religion is the religion of a civilised people; it is
entirely spiritual, and the reward which Jesus Christ promises to the
elect is that they shall see God face to face; and its whole tendency
is to subdue the passions; it offers nothing to excite them."

There were frequently heated arguments on religion between Napoleon
and members of his suite during the dreary hours at Longwood, and on
one of these occasions he, Montholon, and Antommarchi are the
debaters. To the former he suddenly flashed out: "I know men well, and
I tell you that Jesus Christ was not a man"; then he curtly attacks
the pretentious doctor by informing him that "aspiring to be an
atheist does not make a man one."

Dr. Alexander Mair published in the _Expositor_, some twenty years
ago, a critical study of the authenticity of the declarations imputed
to Napoleon when at St. Helena on the subject of the Christian
religion, from which I make the following extract:--

"One evening at St. Helena," says M. Beauterne, "the conversation was
animated. The subject treated of was an exalted one; it was the
divinity of Jesus Christ. Napoleon defended the truth of this doctrine
with the arguments and eloquence of a man of genius, with something
also of the native faith of the Corsican and the Italian. To the
objections of one of the interlocutors, who seemed to see in the
Saviour but a sage, an illustrious philosopher, a great man, the
Emperor replied:--

"'I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man.

"'Superficial minds may see some resemblance between Christ and the
founders of empires, the conquerors, and the gods of other religions.
That resemblance does not exist.

"'I see in Lycurgus, Numa, Confucius, and Mahomet merely legislators;
but nothing which reveals the Deity. On the contrary, I see numerous
relations between them and myself. I make out resemblances,
weaknesses, and co