42 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION PART 



after-time to be, tells how he flung himself in remorse 

 from the mountain known as Pilatus, which overlooks 

 the lake of Lucerne. With truer insight, a striking 

 modern story, LEtui de Nacre, by Anatole France, 

 makes Pilate, on his retirement to Sicily in old age, 

 thus refer to the incident in conversation with a 

 Roman friend who had loved a Jewish maiden. 



'A few months after I had lost sight of her I heard 

 by accident that she had joined a small party of men and 

 women who were following a young Galilean miracle- 

 worker. His name was Jesus, he came from Nazareth, and 

 he was crucified for I don't know what crime. Pontius, do 

 you remember this man ? ' Pontius Pilate knit his brow, 

 and put his hand to his forehead like one who is searching 

 his memory ; then after a few moments of silence : ' Jesus,' 

 murmured he, ' Jesus of Nazareth. No, I don't remember 

 him.' 



On the third day after his death, Jesus is said to 

 have risen from the grave, and appeared to a faith- 

 ful few of his disciples. On the fortieth day after 

 his resurrection he is said to have ascended to heaven. 

 Both these statements rest on the authority of the 

 biographies which were compiled some years after his 

 death. Jesus wrote nothing himself; therefore the 

 ' brethren,' as his intimate followers called one an- 

 other, had no other sacred books than those of the 

 Old Testament. They believed that Jesus was the 

 Messiah predicted in Daniel and some of the apocry- 

 phal writings, and they cherished certain ' logia ' or 

 sayings of his which formed the basis of the first 

 three Gospels. The earliest of these, that bearing 

 the name of Mark, probably took the shape in which 

 we have it (some spurious verses at the end excepted) 



