credulity. The Turkish sultan must bless the name of Omar. The Persian sophi must bless the name of Ali. Marcus Aurelius himself was initiated in the mysteries of Eleusis.

We ought not therefore to be surprised, that Julian should have debased his reason by condescending to the forms and usages of superstition; but it is impossible not to feel indignant against Theodoret, as the only historian who relates that he sacrificed a woman in the temple of the moon at Carres. This infamous story must be classed with the absurd tale of Ammianus, that the genius of the empire appeared to Julian before his death, and with the other equally ridiculous one, that when Julian attempted to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, there came globes of fire out of the earth, and consumed all the works and workmen without distinction.

Iliacos intra muros peccatur et extrà.

HORACE, book i. ep. ii. 16.

Both christians and pagans equally circulated fables concerning Julian; but the fables of the christians, who were his enemies, were filled with calumny. Who could ever be induced to believe, that a philosopher sacrificed a woman to the moon, and tore out her entrails with his own hands? Is such atrocity compatible with the character of a rigid stoic?

He never put any christians to death: he granted them no favours, but he never persecuted them. He permitted them, like a just sovereign, to keep their own property; and he wrote in opposition to them like a philosopher. He forbade their teaching in the schools the profane authors, whom they endeavoured to decry-this was not persecuting them; and he prevented them from tearing one another to pieces in their outrageous hatred and quarrels-this was protecting them. They had in fact therefore nothing with which they could reproach him, but with having abandoned them, and with not being of their opinion. They found means however of rendering execrable to posterity a prince, who, but for his change of religion,

would have been admired and beloved by all the world.

Although we have already treated of Julian, under the article APOSTATE; although, following the example of every sage, we have deplored the dreadful calamity he experienced in not being a christian, and have done justice elsewhere to his various excellences, we must nevertheless say something more upon the subject.

We do this in consequence of an imposture equally absurd and atrocious, which we casually met with in one of those petty dictionaries with which France is now inundated, and which unfortunately are so easily compiled. This dictionary of theology which I am now alluding to, proceeds from an ex-jesuit called Paulian, who repeats the story, so discredited and absurd, that the emperor Julian, after being mortally wounded in a battle with the Persians, threw some of his blood towards heaven, exclaiming, "Galilean, thou hast conquered;"-a fable which destroys itself, as Julian was conqueror in the battle, and Jesus Christ certainly was not the God of the Persians.

Paulian, notwithstanding, dares to assert, that the fact is incontestable. And upon what ground does he assert it? Upon the ground of its being related by Theodoret, the author of so many distinguished lies; and even this notorious writer himself relates it only as a vague report; he uses the expression, "It is said." This story is worthy of the calumniators who stated, that Julian had sacrificed a woman to the moon, and that after his death a large chest was found among his moveables filled with human heads.

This is not the only falsehood and calumny with which this ex-jesuit Paulian is chargeable. If these contemptible wretches knew what injury they did to our holy religion, by endeavouring to support it by imposture, and by the abominable abuse with which they assail the most respectable characters, they would be less audacious and infuriated. They care not how

* Theodoret, chap. xxv.

ever for supporting religion; what they want is, to gain money by their libels; and despairing of being read by persons of sense, and taste, and fashion, they go on gathering and compiling theological trash, in hopes that their productions will be adopted in the seminaries.*

We sincerely ask pardon of our well-informed and respectable readers, for introducing such names as those of the ex-jesuits Paulian, Nonotte, and Patouillet; but after having trampled to death serpents, we shall probably be excused for crushing fleas.†

* See the article PHILOSOPHY.

†M. de Voltaire is the first writer who has dared to do complete justice to this prince, who was certainly one of the most extraordinary men that ever filled a throne. Being appointed in early life, and almost immediately upon quitting the schools of the philosopers, to the government of the Gauls, he protected them with equal courage from the inroads of the Germans, and from the peculations and extortions of the imperial collectors, who were ravaging the country in the name of Constantius. His private life was that of a sage; an able and active commander during the campaign, in winter he became an assiduous, just, and humane magistrate. Constantius endeavoured to recal him, but the army revolted, and compelled him to accept the title of Augustus. The details of this event transmitted to us by history, exhibit Julian as equally free from reproach at this crisis, as in the other circumstances of his life. He was obliged to decide between certain death and war against a tyrant polluted by blood and rapine, debased by superstition and effeminacy, and who, it was evident, had resolved on his destruction. His right was the same as Constantine's, who had indeed by no means so satisfactory a justification of his conduct.

While his army, under the conduct of his generals, marches towards Greece, crossing the Alps and the north of Italy, Julian, at the head of a chosen body of cavalry, passes the Rhine, traverses Germany and Pannonia, partly through dominions belonging to the empire, and partly through those of barbarians, and is seen descending the mountains of Macedonia, while he was supposed still to be in Gaul. This march, unique as it is in history, is nevertheless scarcely known; for the hatred of the priests made them envy Julian even his military glory.

Within six months from the commencement of his reign, he secured all the frontiers of the empire, excited a universal respect both for his justice and clemency, extinguished the quarrels that existed between christians, which began to disturb and shake the empire, and replied to their revilings, and counteracted their plots, only by arguments and pleasantry. He at last undertook, against

JUST AND UNJUST.

WHO has given us the perception of just and unjust? God, who gave us a brain and a heart. But when does our reason inform us that there are such things as

the Parthians, that war which had for its sole object the obtaining for the eastern provinces a secure barrier against incursion. Never was so short a reign attended with more real glory. Under his predecessors, as well as under the princes who succeeded him, it was a capital crime to wear robes of purple; one of the courtiers once accused before him a citizen who, out of pride or folly, had adorned himself with this dangerous distinction. Well then, says Julian, he only wants purple shoes; carry him a pair from me, and his dress will be then complete.

The "Satire of the Cæsars" is a work abounding with keen observation and sound philosophy; the stern, but just and wellgrounded judgment here pronounced on these princes by one of their successors, is a record perfectly singular in history. In his "Letters to Philosophers," in his "Discourse to the Athenians," he shows himself superior in genius and acquirements to Marcus Antoninus, his model; the only emperor, besides himself, who left any written works behind him. In order to form a correct judgment of the philosophical writings of Julian and his book against the christians, we must compare them, not with the works of modern philosophers, but with those of the Greek philosophers, of the learned and ingenious men of his own age, and of the fathers of the church; it will be then seen, that few men could be compared with advantage to this prince, who died at the age of thirtytwo, after having gained battles on the Rhine and on the Euphrates.

He died like Epaminondas in the bosom of victory, and conversing tranquilly with the philosophers who followed his army. Fanatics had predicted his death; and the Persians, far from exulting at it, ascribed it to the treason of the Romans. Extraordinary precautions were necessary to prevent the christians from tearing to pieces his body, and violating his tomb. Jovian, his successor, was a christian. He made a disgraceful treaty with the Persians, and died at the end of a few months, the victim of intemperance and debauchery.

Those who reproach Julian for not having secured a successor to the empire worthy of replacing himself, forget the shortness of his reign, the necessity of beginning with the re-establishment of peace, and the difficulty of providing for the government of an immense empire, the constitution of which required a single master, could not endure a feeble sovereign, and furnished no means for an undisturbed election.-French Ed.

We need not, in allusion to the cominencement of this able note, advert to the effective manner in which Gibbon, in the " Decline and Fall," has seconded Voltaire.-T.

vice and virtue? Just at the same time she teaches us that two and two make four. There is no innate knowledge, for the same reason that there is no tree that bears leaves and fruit when it first starts above the earth. There is nothing innate, or fully developed in the first instance; but we repeat here what we have often said-God causes us to be born with organs, which, as they grow and become unfolded, make us feel all that it is necessary for our species to feel, for the conservation of that species.

How is this continual mystery performed? Tell me, ye yellow inhabitants of the Isles of Sunda, ye black Africans, ye beardless Canadians; and you-Plato, Cicero, and Epictetus. You all equally feel that it is better to give the superfluity of your bread, your rice, or your manioc, to the poor man who meekly requests it, than to kill him or scoop his eyes out. It is evident to the whole world, that a benefit is more honourable to the performer than an outrage, that gentleness is preferable to fury.

The only thing required then is to exercise our reason in discriminating the various shades of what is right and wrong. Good and evil are often neighbours; our passions confound them; who shall enlighten and direct us? Ourselves, when we are calm and undisturbed. Whoever has written on the subject of human duties, in all countries throughout the world, has written well, because he wrote with reason. All have said the same thing: Socrates and Epictetus, Confucius and Cicero, Marcus Antoninus and Amurath II., had the same morality.

We would repeat every day to the whole of the human race-Morality is uniform and invariable; it comes from God: dogmas are different; they come from ourselves.

Jesus never taught any metaphysical dogmas; he wrote no theological courses; he never said,-I am consubstantial; I have two wills and two natures with only one person. He left to the cordeliers and the jacobins who would appear twelve hundred years after him, the delicate and difficult topic of argument, whe