Page:Apollonius of Tyana - the pagan Christ of the third century.pdf/82

Rh king, and a procurator, and a few remarkable prodigies alone distinguished Him from a crowd of other existences which had nothing whatever to do with the destinies of humanity. Apollonius, on the contrary, a Greek by birth, had stored his vast intellect with the religious doctrines of the whole world, from India to Spain; his life extended over a century. Like a luminous meteor he traversed the universe, in constant intercourse with kings and the powerful ones of the earth, who venerate and fear him; and if he ever meets with hostility and opposition, he triumphs over it majestically, always stronger than his tyrants, never subject to humiliations, never brought into contact with public executioners. The most wonderful miracles are performed at every step; and although the partial greatness which was enjoyed for a time by the Jewish Christ cannot be denied, and the partial truth which He taught cannot be gainsayed, and although those who have been driven into His small Church by the abuse of popular Paganism are tolerated, yet it would be absurd to hail Him as the founder of the universal