PT. in. Progress and Civilisation. 151 



the Apostles. Humanly speaking, we should be led 

 to suppose that had it been confined to the limits of 

 Judea, it would have been crushed by the persecuting 

 influence of the Pharisees. But this precious seed 

 was transplanted to a more genial clime. Blighted 

 in the land of its birth, it sprang up with vigour 

 and luxuriance in the soil of Europe. Asia rejected, 

 Europe claimed it. From the moment that, under 

 the authority of St. Paul, the converts to the new 

 Faith w a re absolved from obedience to the Levitical 

 Law, the purely Jewish portion were speedily ab- 

 sorbed into the universal character of the new Faith. 

 The difficulties and obstacles which it met with at 

 home were no longer encountered in the new and 

 larger theatre to which it was transferred. The 

 Romans and the Greeks had little intolerance either 

 in their nature or their policy. The fanciful and 

 poetical Mythology which they had moulded into a 

 religion, did not sink deeply enough into their minds 

 to inspire either zeal or enthusiasm, and in the eyes 

 of the philosophic and educated classes was regarded 

 only as a graceful superstition. The readers of 

 Cicero, the disciples of Plato, and above all of 

 Socrates, were not contented with this shadowy and 

 unsubstantial worship. The upper and more edu- 



