-that is, he admits that the highest, purest, most Divine person
ever seen on earth (for all this he declares in the most unqualified
terms) stooped to the arts of Simon Magus or Apollonius of Tyana. He
was a "thaumaturge"--"tard et a contre-coeur"--"avec une sorte de
mauvaise humeur"--"en cachette"--"malgre lui"--"sentant le vanite de
l'opinion"; but still a "thaumaturge." Moreover, He was so almost of
necessity; for M. Renan holds that without the support of an alleged
supernatural character and power, His work must have perished.
Everything, to succeed and be realised, must, we are told, be fortified
with something of alloy. We are reminded of the "loi fatale qui
condamne l'idee a dechoir des qu'elle cherche a convertir les hommes."
"Concevoir de bien, en efifet, ne suffit pas; il faut le faire reussir
parmi les hommes. Pour cela, des voies moins pures sont necessaires."
If the Great Teacher had kept to the simplicity of His early lessons,
He would have been greater, but "the truth would not have been
promulgated." "He had to choose between these two alternatives, either
renouncing his mission or becoming a 'thaumaturge.'" The miracles
"were a violence done to him by his age, a concession which was wrung
from him by a passing necessity." And if we feel startled at such a
view, we are reminded that we must not measure the sincerity of
Orientals by our own rigid and critical idea of veracity; and that
"such is the weakness of the human mind, that the best causes are not
usually won but by bad reasons," and that the greatest of discoverers
and founders have only triumphed over their difficulties "by daily
taking account of men's weakness and by not always giving the true
reasons of the truth."

L'histoire est impossible si l'on n'admet hautement qu'il y a pour
la sincerite plusieurs mesures. Toutes les grandes choses se font
par le peuple, or on ne conduit pas le peuple qu'en se pretant a
ses idees. Le philosophe, qui sachant cela, s'isole et se
retranche dans sa noblesse, est hautement louable. Mais celui qui
prend l'humanite avec ses illusions et cherche a agir sur elle et
avec elle, ne saurait etre blame. Cesar savait fort bien qu'il
n'etait pas fils de Venus; la France ne serait pas ce qu'elle est
si l'on n'avait cru mille ans a la sainte ampoule de Reims. Il
nous est facile a nous autres, impuissants que nous sommes,
d'appeler cela mensonge, et fiers de notre timide honne