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Now, with respect to the first portion of Mr. Buckle's 
assertion, after the reference which I have made I shall 
content myself with saying that, to a great extent, it is not 
true ; and that the little truth which it contains is so put as 
greatly to misrepresent the fact. But with respect to the 
second portion, that “ some of the most beautiful passages in 
the apostolic writings are quotations from Pagan writers, is 
well known to every scholar," — if my rational will did not 
exert a powerfully controlling influence, I should be impelled 
to use hard language. I shall only say that it is positively 
untrue, and that he ought to have known that it was so ; or 
if he did not know it, it is only consistent with the fact that 
he had never read the New Testament through, or had 
forgotten its contents. Perhaps I may be allowed to put in a 
charitable supposition, that he has confounded the numerous 
quotations of the Old Testament found in the pages of the New 
with supposed quotations from Pagan writers. What is the 
fact ? There are only two quotations from Pagan writers in 
the whole New Testament, both made by the Apostle Paul, 
the one of which is the well-known passage in his speech at 
Athens, quoted from the poet Aratus, “ We are also his 
offspring and the other is the passage in the Epistle to Titus, 
the quotation from Epimenides, “The Cretans are always 
liars, evil beasts, slow bellies." I do not discern that either 
of these passages has any pre-eminent beauty beyond the 
other numerous beautiful passages contained in the Apostle's 
writings. The latter, which simply asserts that the national 
character of the Cretans united some of the cruel qualities of 
the brute with the cunning and truthlessness of the Greek, 
is certainly not conspicuous for its beauty, although it is 
doubtless a plain statement of an unpleasant fact. 
I am not ignorant that some attempts have been made 
to show that St. Paul had read -ZEschylus, Sophocles, and 
Euripides. As to whether he had done so or not, I wish to 
express no opinion. But the evidence which can be gathered 
from his writings that he had, is at best extremely small, 
and the whole is a matter of conjecture. As for the other 
writings of the New Testament, they do not present a trace 
that their authors had ever read a Pagan writer of any kind, 
with perhaps the single exception of St. Luke. Even here 
the indications are most indistinct and uncertain. There is 
not the smallest indication that a single saying of Christ 
which he reports was derived from such a source. If there 
are any other assertions in Mr. Buckle's work made with 
equal recklessness, it deprives him of all authority as a correct 
reporter of facts. 
Assertions like those of Mr. Buckle are somewhat similar to 
