Jl-ly 1, 1886.] 



♦ KNOW^LEDGE ♦ 



281 



■was the result of my first process. After a second bypriotie 

 operation the next day the patient could read, -when first 

 aroused, the whole of a title-page of a pamphlet, and in 

 about five minutes after, she read two lines of the text. 

 After another operation the same day she could read the 

 small close print in the Appendix ; and was able the same 

 evening to write a letter home reporting progi-ess for the first 

 time for twelve mouths. She only requii-ed two more 

 hvpnotic operations, when she was found able to read the 

 smallest-sized print in a newspaper, after which she left me 

 quite cured, and, as I have heard, she continued well ever 

 since." 



The explanation in such cases would seem to be unmis- 

 tiikably that indicated by Braid in the expression to which 

 I have taken exception above. By the actions which 

 directed the attention to the act of vision, the nervous force 

 would seem to have been directed along the channels from 

 which .some cause or caus&s had before unfortunately diverted 

 it — the ojitic nerve and the various ramifications extending 

 from it. These channels of communication between the 

 brain and the eyes having been thus again opened, remained 

 tlienceforth as they had been before thej'bad been obstructed. 

 Be it noticed that the words here used — nervous force, 

 channel of communication, obstructed, opened, and so forth 

 — must not be understood in their litei-al sense; they are 

 simpily convenient forms of expression for qualities, processes, 

 itc, about which we know in reality very little. 



{To he continued.') 



HOW THE BIBLE CAME TO US. 



By a Sti'dext of Divixitv. 

 {Concluded from 2^- 215.) 



THE X E W X E S T A M E N T. 



HE history of the collection of booklets which 

 we call now the New Testament is very 

 diflerent in nature from that of the larger 

 collection called the Old Testament. As 

 we have seen, the Jews gradually accepted 

 more and more from among the old works 

 which at first were for the most part re- 

 jected : and so such materials as the books of Judges, Samuel, 

 and Kings, disregarded by Hilkiah and Huldah, took their 

 place in the sacred collection ; while afterwards the ill- com- 

 piled and comparatively unsatisfactory books of Chronicles, 

 Ezra, and Nehemiah were included. Later still other works, 

 some better, some wor.se, but all wanting in the antiquity 

 which probably was the real secret of the original idea of 

 inspiration, were added to the varied conglomerate. 



With the New Testament the case was diflerent. Upwards 

 of fifty gospels existed, from among which four only were 

 selected ; many very remarkable acts were attributed to the 

 Apostles besides those recorded in the accepted Acts ; all 

 manner of letters, fiom epistles by Abraham to others equally 

 authentic by Pilate and Mary, and even Christ, asserted 

 claims to acceptance besides those few which bore, more or 

 less satisfactorily, the feeble critical analysis which the 

 knowledge of the second and third centuries could apply. 



We have no means of determining with any accuracy the 

 degree of knowledge attained by the .Jews before our era ; for 

 we see no traces of any process of selection. Everything old 

 and Jewish seemed to them sacred. But, comparing what 

 the Christians of the second and third centuries accepted 

 with what they rejected, we can form some idea, not only of 



their acumen, but of their knowledge. We see indeed, 

 noting how certain stories which a few centuries before 

 would have been accepted unhesitatingly were .sifted out as 

 incredible, that only a moderate advance in knowledge 

 would have enabled them, by sifting out yet other writings, 

 to have .saved some modern theologians an immeu.se amount 

 of trouble and some twinges of conscience (we may well hope) 

 in the painful work of reconciling nescience with knowledtre 

 and inconsi.stent narratives with each other. 



For this reason, as giving us a measure of early Christian 

 critical ideas, we may as well, in the first instance, consider tlie 

 nature of the rejected works, of which it has been justly re- 

 marked that they contain much which might easily be 

 reconciled with the contents of the received books, though 

 (happily or unh.appily, according to the point of view one 

 may adopt) they also contain a great deal which even the 

 most advanced theological ingenuity would probably be 

 unable satisfactorily to explain. 



In one gospel we have an account of the childhood and 

 early life of the Virgin Mary. It would appear from this 

 record that, at the .age of three years, the little lady was 

 brought to the Temple, and accomplished the quasi-miracu- 

 lous feat of walking up the steps without help. The choice 

 of Joseph as IMary's future husband was determined by a 

 dove, who came down from heaven (where doves, it is well 

 known, have their home, and where marriages are made) to 

 announce the selection of the carpenter of Nazareth as her 

 spouse. In the Gospel of the Infixncy we have two stories 

 of the childhood of Christ, which even in those uncritical 

 days must have seemed j^ar tropforl. At the age of five, he 

 amused himself one day moulding clay birds ; being chidden 

 for this, he gave them life and tliey flew away. This use of 

 means towards an end which, since it was eventually ob- 

 tained by a miracle, might as well have been attained by a 

 single miraculous eflbrt, reminds one of the blind man cured 

 by clay and saliva, who (unless these are supposed to have a 

 special ophthalmic efiicacy) might have been as readily 

 made to see at once. Another miracle of the Infancy re- 

 minds us of the fig-tree cursed for barrenness. A boy had 

 beaten the infant ; but Jesus, far from omitting to re.sistevil, 

 caused him to fall dead immediately. The Gospel of Nico- 

 demus gives the names of those who accused Christ before 

 Pilate. We also find that one of the women cured by Christ 

 ^vas called Veronica ; and we learn what happened when 

 Christ " descended into hell." 



The record of the acts of the apostles by Abdias, who 

 came immediately after their time, is chiefly remarkable, 

 perhaps, for the account of the contest between Peter and 

 Simon the magician, before Nero. The contest, according to 

 this veracious history, ended unpleasantly for both. The 

 last encounter was a sort of flying-match. Simon floated 

 fairh' high at this simncr, and appeared likely to triumph, 

 when Peter made the sign of the cross, on which Simon 

 became submissive to the customary action of gravity, and 

 falling heavily, broke both his legs. Nero was annoyed at 

 this, for he woidd seem to have made Simon a favourite, and 

 he therefore caused Peter to bs crucified head downwards. 

 No miracle intervening, Peter came thus by his death. 



Among the forged letters maj- be mentioned two bv Pilate 

 in singularly bad Latin to Tiberius, and several by Christ, 

 including one written to Abgarus, King of Edessa, which 

 must clearly have been miraculous, since there was no king 

 of Edessa in Christ's time. There were also letters by Mary, 

 and several passed batween Seneca and St. Paul which 

 St. Jerome and St. Augustine were content to receive as 

 authentic. 



But in fact the number of forgeries of this sort which ap- 

 peared in the second and third centuries was enormous. 

 The piously disposed seemed to think they could in no 



