and false words, of those who understand them least, was to manifest and prove itself.  Those who hold this conviction dare not conceal, or misrepresent, or undervalue, any one of those weighty and memorable sentences which are to be found in the Meditation of Marcus Aurelius. If they did, they would be underrating a portion of that very truth which the preachers of the Gospel were appointed to set forth; they would be adopting the error of the philosophical Emperor without his excuse for it.  Nor dare they pretend that the Christian teaching had unconsciously imparted to him a portion of its own light while he seemed to exclude it.  They will believe that it was God’s good pleasure that a certain truth should be seized and apprehended by this age, and they will see indications of what that truth was in the efforts of Plutarch to understand the ‘Daemon’ which guided Socrates, in the courageous language of Ignatius, in the bewildering dreams of the Gnostics, in the eagerness of Justin Martyr to prove Christianity a philosophy ... in the apprehension of Christian principles by Marcus Aurelius, and in his hatred of the Christians.  From every side they will derive evidence, that a doctrine and society which were meant for mankind cannot depend upon, the partial views and apprehensions of men, must go on justifying, reconciling, confuting, those views and apprehensions by the demonstration of facts” [72]

[Footnote 72:  Maurice, Philos. of the First Six Centuries, p. 37.  We venture specially to recommend this weighty and beautiful passage to the reader’s serious attention.]

But perhaps some reader will say, What advantage, then, can we gain by studying in Pagan writers truths which are expressed more nobly, more clearly, and infinitely more effectually in our own sacred books?  Before answering the question, let me mention the traditional anecdote[73] of the Caliph Omar.  When he conquered Alexandria, he was shown its magnificent library, in which were collected untold treasures of literature, gathered together by the zeal, the labour, and the liberality of a dynasty of kings.  “What is the good of all those books?” he said.  “They are either in accordance with the Koran, or contrary to it.  If the former they are superfluous; if the latter they are pernicious.  In either case let them be burnt.”  Burnt they were, as legend tells; but all the world has condemned the Caliph’s reasoning as a piece of stupid Philistinism and barbarous bigotry.  Perhaps the question as to the use of reading Pagan ethics is equally unphilosophical; at any rate, we can spare but very few words to its consideration.  The answer obviously is, that God has spoken to men, [Greek:  polymeros kai polytropos], “at sundry times and in divers manners,” [74] with a richly variegated wisdom.[75] Sometimes He has taught truth by the voice of Hebrew prophets, sometimes by the voice of Pagan philosophers.  And all His voices demand our listening ear.