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to certain persons, the charge of forgery has been insinuated 
against the letter of Pliny, and Tacitus has been charged with 
having ignorantly applied to the Christians what was true only 
of the Jews. A similar process has been applied to several other 
important documents connected with early Christian history. 
It is unquestionable that the practice of forging writings in 
the names of men of high reputation was very common in an- 
cient times, and opinion seems to have attached but little crimi- 
nality to the act. Of this the vast number of forged works 
known to have been once in existence is sufficient evidence. 
Whether our morality in connection with this subject be im- 
proved in modern times may be difficult to determine, because 
the probability of detection, which in the ancient world was 
small, in the modern world is great. I have often been disposed 
to question whether all these forgeries were put forth with the 
express purposes of deception. Perhaps some of them might 
have resembled many classes of modern fictitious writings, and 
the knowledge that the writer composed it as a fiction has 
perished. Still, however, many of these writings must have 
been composed with the direct purpose of deception. We may 
judge of the hardihood with which it was practised from the 
fact that St. Paul thought it necessary to take precautions 
against letters being forged in his name in his lifetime. Let it 
be observed that this habit was far from being confined to 
matters connected with religion. 
Happily, however, the forgers of the ancient world were great 
bunglers in their art. They set all matters of history and pro- 
bability. at defiance. They freely put opinions into the mouths 
of authors which were only broached long after they were dead. 
Their powers of throwing themselves into the feelings and ideas 
of past times were of the meanest possible kind. They had not 
among them a single Daniel Defoe. Not one of them has suc- 
ceeded in effectually personating a character. To speak gene- 
rally, a small amount of critical acumen is all that is necessary 
to detect a large number of the forgeries of the ancient world. 
This consideration is sufficient to prove that the off-hand 
manner of pronouncing this or that work spurious because 
forgeries were common, is one which is entirely unwarrant- 
able. It is hardly possible to find a forged work attributed 
to a known author which contains a successful imitation of his 
style. I need hardly say that there are certain indications of 
truthfulness derived from minute acquaintance with facts, cus- 
toms, localities, and opinions which the most successful writer 
of modern fiction would be unable successfully to imitate. 
It is an important question how far from differences of style 
we are entitled to infer differences of authorship. The style of 
