56 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION, 



" possessed " human beings, and, in one case, to 

 have permitted a crowd of the infernal agents to 

 enter into a herd of swine; if he verily believed that 

 he actually did these things ; and if it be true that the 

 belief is a superstition limited to the ignorant or 

 barbaric mind; what value can he attached to any state- 

 ment that Jesus is reported to have made about a spiritual 

 world? 



Here then (i) in the attitude of the early Chris- 

 tians toward all mundane afifairs as of no moment 

 compared with those affecting their souls' salvation; 



(2) in the assumed authority of Scripture as a full 

 revelation of both earthly and heavenly things; and 



(3) in the assumed infallibility of the words of Jesus 

 reported therein; we have three factors which suf- 

 fice to explain why the great movement toward dis- 

 covery of the orderly relations of phenomena was 

 arrested for centuries, and theories of capricious gov- 

 ernment of the universe sheltered and upheld. 



While, as has been said, the unity of the Empire 

 secured Christianity its fortunate start; the multi- 

 form elements of which the Empire was made up — 

 philosophic and pagan — being gradually absorbed 

 by Christianity, secured it acceptance among the 

 diflferent subject-peoples. The break up of the Em- 

 pire secured its supremacy. 



The absorption of foreign ideas and practices by 

 Christianity, largely through the influence of Hel- 

 lenic Jews, was an added cause of arrest of inquiry. 

 The adoption of pagan rites and customs, resting, 



