Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/58

Rh 44 L U C I A N carry off the stolen goods into the mountains on the back of the unfortunate donkey, who gets well beaten for stumbling on the rough road. Seeing, as he fancies, some roses in a garden, he goes in quest of them, and again gets beaten as a thief by the gardener (p. 585). After many adventures with the bandits, he attempts to run away, but is caught. A council is held, and he is condemned to die along with a captive girl who had essayed to escape on his back. Suddenly, however, soldiers appear, and the bandits are arrested (p. 595). Again the ass escapes &quot; to the great and populous city of Beroea in Macedonia &quot; (p. 603). Here he is sold to a strolling conjurer, afterwards to a market- gardener; and both experiences are alike painful. Again he passes into the possession of a cook, where lie gets fat and sleek on food more suited to his concealed humanity than the hard fare he has of lite lived upon (p. 614). At last, during an exhibition in the theatre, he sees some roses being carried past, and, making a successful rush to devour them, he recovers his former shape. &quot; I am Lucius,&quot; he exclaims to the wondering president of the exhibition, &quot;and my brother s name is Caius. It was a Thessalian vit3h that changed me into a donkey.&quot; Thus all ends well, and he returns safe to his country. Droll and graphic as many of the adventures are, they but too clearly show the profligate morals of the age. The treatise On the Syrian Goddess (Mylitta, the moon- goddess, the Semitic Venus) is written in the Ionic dialect in imitation perhaps of the style of Herodotus, though the resemblance is by no means close. The writer professes to be an Assyrian (p. 452), and to describe the wonders in the various temples of Palestine and Syria ; he descants on the eunuchs of Syria and the origin of the self-imposed privation of manhood professed and practised by the Galli. The account of the temples, altars, and sacrifices is curious, if really authentic ; after the manner of Pausanias it is little more than a list, with the reasons in most cases added, or the origin of the custom explained. De Morte Fe.regrini is a narrative of one Proteus, a Cynic, who after professing various doctrines, and among them those of Christianity, ended his own life by ascending a burning pyre (p. 357). l The founder of the Christian religion is described (p. 334) as &quot;the man who had been crucified (or fixed to a stake, dva&amp;lt;r/&amp;lt;oAo7n.o-0eWa) in Palestine,&quot; and as one &quot; still worshipped for having introduced a new code of morals into life.&quot; The zeal of the early converts is shown by their flocking to the prison whsn Proteus had been arrested, by the sympathy conveyed from distant cities of Asia (p. 336), by contributions of money for his support, and by their total indifference to life; for &quot;the poor wretches have persuaded themselves that they will live for ever. 1 The founder of the religion, &quot; that first lawgiver of theirs,&quot; says Lucian, &quot; made them believe that they are all brothers when once they have abjured the gods of Greece and worshipped the crucified man who is their teacher, and have begun to live according to his laws&quot; (p. 337). Bis accusatus is a dialogue commencing with a satire on the folly of the popular notion that the gods alone are happy. Zeus is represented as disproving this by enume rating the many and heavy duties that fall to their lot in the government of the world, and Herrnes remarks on the vast crowds of philosophers of rival sects, by whose influence the respect and worship formerly paid to the gods have seriously declined. A trial is supposed to be held under the presidency of the goddess AI K?;, between the Academy, the Porch, the schools of the Cynics and Epicureans, and Pleasure, Revelry, Virtue, Luxury, etc., as variously impugned or defended by them. Then Conversa- 1 It is open to controversy whether lie was not a martyr at the stake. tion and Rhetoric come before the court, each having an action for defamation to bring against Syrus the essayist, who of course is Lucian himself (p. 823). His defence is heard against the charges of both, and in both cases he is triumphantly acquitted. This essay is brilliant from its clever parodies of Plato and Demosthenes, and the satire on the Socratic method of arguing by short questions and answers. The Lover of Lying (^iXoi/^euS^s) discusses the reason why some persons seem to take pleasure in falsehood for its own sake, and when there is nothing to be gained by it. Under the category of lying all mythology (e.g., that of Homer and Hesiod) is included, and the question is asked, why the hearers of such stories are amused by them 1 Quack remedies, charms, and miraculous cures are included among the most popular kinds of falsehood ; witchcraft, spiritualism, exorcism, expulsion of devils, spectres, are discussed in turn, and a good ghost story is told in p. 57. An anecdote is given of Democritus, who, to show Ids disbelief in ghosts, had shut himself up in a tomb, and when some young men, dressed up with death s heads, came to frighten him at night, and suddenly appeared to him while he was engaged in writing, he did not even look up, but called out to them, &quot;Stop your joking&quot; (p. 59). This treatise, a very interesting one, concludes with the reflexion that truth and sound reason are the only remedies for vain and superstitious terrors. The dialogue No.vigium sen Vota (nAoiov 17 ex at/ ) gi ves an apparently authentic account of the measurements and fittings of an Egyptian ship which has arrived with a cargo of corn at the Piraeus, driven out of its course to Italy by adverse winds. The full length is 180 feet, the breadth nearly 50, the depth from deck to the bottom of the hold 43 feet. The &quot;wishes&quot; turn on a party of friends, who have been to see the ship, declaring what they would most desire to possess. One would have the ship filled with gold, another a fine house with gold plate ; a third would be a &quot; tyrant &quot; with a large force devoted to his interests ; a fourth would like to make himself invisible, enter any house that he pleased, and be transported through the air to the objects of his affection. After hearing them all, the first speaker, Lycinus (Lucian), says that he is content with the privilege of laughing heartily at the vanity of human wishes, especially when they are those of professed philosophers. The dialogue between Philo and Lycinus, Convivium scu Lapithx, is a very amusing description of a banquet, at which a party of dignified philosophers quarrelled over their viands at a marriage feast, and came to blows. The style is a good imitation of Plato, and the scene reminds one of the &quot;clients dinner&quot; in the fifth satire of Juvenal. One of the party is so irritated by taunts that he flings a goblet half full of wine at the head of another, who retorts by spitting in the face of the aggressor (p. 441). Matters come to a climax by the attempt of one of the guests, Zenothemis, to secure for himself a fatter fowl which had been served to his next neighbour Hermon. Each seizes his bird and hits the other with it in the face, at the same time pulling his beard. Then a general fight ensues, and serious wounds are inflicted. The story is, of course, a satire on philosophy, the favourite topic of a writer who believed neither in gods nor in men. The Piscator, a dialogue between Lucian, Socrates, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Plato, and others, commences with a general attack on the author as the enemy of philosophy. Socrates proposes that the culprit should be tried, and that Philosophia should assist in the prosecution. Lucian declares tha L he does not know where such a person lives, long as he has been looking for her ( 11). She is founu at last, but declares Lucian has never disparaged