Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/195

 vain terrors—from spectres of supernatural beings called up by the imagination, from deceptive hopes and excessive desires; arming it with reason, and purifying it not by mystic tapers or the like, but by sound ideas, by truth, and by fortitude. The Roman Lucretius hails Epicurus as one who, amid thick darkness, raised a beacon on high and lit up the real interests of life. In a similar spirit, but in a still higher strain, this Hellenised Syrian extols Epicurus as a truly sacred name, a man of gifts indeed divine, the only one who has rightly perceived and handed on the truth, and has so become the emancipator of his votaries. (, 61.)

Among the genuine writings of Lucian there are only two pieces which allude to Christianity. One of these has already been noticed. It is the memoir of Alexander. As we have seen, the mysteries of the false prophet were prefaced by a proclamation—"If any atheist, Christian, or Epicurean has come to spy out the sacred rites, let him flee" (. 38). In an earlier passage of the same piece we learn that at one time there was a movement against Alexander on the part of the more intelligent people in Asia Minor, who saw through his impostures, and that in this reaction the Epicureans, a numerous body, took the lead. Alexander met this danger with a bold front. He proclaimed that—

"All Pontus was full of atheists and Christians, who dared to utter the vilest blasphemies concerning him; and he exhorted the people to stone them out of the country if they wished to have the favour of his god." (, 25.)