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Rh of nature, and the whole thing a delusion, it did not better the condition I was in. A man will contend for a false faith stronger than he will for a true one, from the fact that the truth defends itself, but a falsehood must be defended by its adherents: first, to prove it to themselves, and, secondly, that they may appear right in the estimation of their friends. But the fact is, this case is about as follows: The Roman taxation was cutting off the support of the priests, and they were smarting under it. Again, the double taxing — that is, the tithes to the priests and the tax to the Romans — was bearing heavily on the common people, so that they could not stand it, and the priests saw that one of them would have to go unpaid; and, as they saw the Romans were the stronger, they wrote these things in the Tosephta, and read it daily in all their synagogues and temples, that the Jewish mind might be prepared for the event, knowing that they would magnify a mote into a mountain, when it came to anything outside of the common laws of nature, and knowing that if they could get the common people to believe in the things there would be no end to their fighting. And from all appearances the excitement was fast driving the people that way. It had already become a by-word with the children of Bethlehem and Jerusalem that the Jews had a new king, that neither Cæsar nor Herod would reign any more, that they would have to pay no more taxes to keep up the Roman government. Such talk and sayings were common among the poorer classes of society.