adoration of Isis under a new name restored, but even her image, standing on the crescent moon, reappeared.  The well-known effigy of that goddess, with the infant Horus in her arms, has descended to our days in the beautiful, artistic creations of the Madonna and Child.  Such restorations of old conceptions under novel forms were everywhere received with delight.  When it was announced to the Ephesians that the Council of that place, headed by Cyril, had decreed that the Virgin should be called “the Mother of God,” with tears of joy they embraced the knees of their bishop; it was the old instinct peeping out; their ancestors would have done the same for Diana.

This attempt to conciliate worldly converts, by adopting their ideas and practices, did not pass without remonstrance from those whose intelligence discerned the motive.  “You have,” says Faustus to Augustine, “substituted your agapae for the sacrifices of the pagans; for their idols your martyrs, whom you serve with the very same honors.  You appease the shades of the dead with wine and feasts; you celebrate the solemn festivities of the Gentiles, their calends, and their solstices; and, as to their manners, those you have retained without any alteration.  Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans, except that you hold your assemblies apart from them.”  Pagan observances were everywhere introduced.  At weddings it was the custom to sing hymns to Venus.

Introduction of Roman rites.  Let us pause here a moment, and see, in anticipation, to what a depth of intellectual degradation this policy of paganization eventually led.  Heathen rites were adopted, a pompous and splendid ritual, gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax-tapers, processional services, lustrations, gold and silver vases, were introduced.  The Roman lituus, the chief ensign of the augurs, became the crozier.  Churches were built over the tombs of martyrs, and consecrated with rites borrowed from the ancient laws of the Roman pontiffs.  Festivals and commemorations of martyrs multiplied with the numberless fictitious discoveries of their remains.  Fasting became the grand means of repelling the devil and appeasing God; celibacy the greatest of the virtues.  Pilgrimages. were made to Palestine and the tombs of the martyrs.  Quantities of dust and earth were brought from the Holy Land and sold at enormous prices, as antidotes against devils.  The virtues of consecrated water were upheld.  Images and relics were introduced into the churches, and worshiped after the fashion of the heathen gods.  It was given out that prodigies and miracles were to be seen in certain places, as in the heathen times.  The happy souls of departed Christians were invoked; it was believed that they were wandering about the world, or haunting their graves.  There was a multiplication of temples, altars, and penitential garments.  The festival of the purification of the Virgin was invented to remove the uneasiness of