r, which the writer, under the name
of "Horseherd," addressed to me. I receive many such anonymous
communications, but regret that it is only rarely possible for me to
answer them or to give them attention, much as I should like to do so. In
this particular case, the somewhat abrupt, but pure, human tone of the
letter appealed to me more than usual, and at my leisure I attempted an
answer. My article, which called forth the letter of the Horseherd, was
entitled "The 'True History' of Celsus,"(5) in the July number of the
_Deutsche Rundschau_, 1895, and, with a few corrections, is as follows:--

In an article which appeared in the March number of the _Deutsche
Rundschau_, 1895, entitled "The Parliament of Religions in Chicago," I
expressed my surprise that this event which I had characterised as in my
opinion the most important of the year 1893, had been so little known and
discussed in Germany--so little, that the editors of the _Wiener
Fremdenblatt_ thought it needful to explain the nature of the Chicago
Congress. Likewise, when in answer to the question as to what I should
consider the most desirable discovery of the coming year in my department,
I answered the discovery of the _Sermo Verus_ of Celsus; this, too,
appeared to be a work so little known, that the editors considered it
necessary to add that Celsus was a renowned philosopher of the second
century, who first subjected the ever spreading system of Christianity to
a thorough criticism in a work entitled _Sermo Verus_. The wish, yes, even
the hope, that this lost book, of which we gain a fair idea from the reply
of Origen, should again make its appearance, was prompted by the recent
discoveries of ancient Greek papyrus manuscripts in Egypt. Where so many
unexpected discoveries have been made, we may hope for yet more. For who
would have believed that ancient Greek texts would be found in a
mummy-case, the Greek papyrus leaves being carelessly rolled together to
serve as cushions for the head and limbs of a skeleton? It was plain that
these papyrus leaves had been sold as waste paper, and that they were
probably obtained from the houses of Greek officials and military
officers, who had established themselves in Egypt during the Macedonian
occupation, and whose furniture and belongings had been publicly sold and
scattered on occasion of their rapid withdrawal. There were found not only
fragments of classical texts, as of Homer, Plato, and the previously
unknown t