ave caused
these pagans to imitate for such long ages and in such widespread
localities the Christian mysteries. Indeed, Edward Carpenter comments,
"One has only, instead of the word 'Jesus' to read Dionysis or Krishna
or Hercules or Osiris or Attis, and instead of 'Mary' to insert Semele
or Devaki or Alcmene or Neith or Nona, and for Pontius Pilate to use the
name of any terrestrial tyrant who comes into the corresponding story,
and lo! the creed fits in all particulars into the rites and worship of
a pagan God."

A legend stated that Plato, born of Perictione, a pure virgin, suffered
an immaculate conception through the influences of Apollo (B.C. 426).
The God declared to Ariston, to whom she was about to be married, the
parentage of the child.

St. Dominic, born A.D. 1170, was said to be the offspring of an
immaculate conception. He was free from original sin and was regarded as
the adopted son of the Virgin Mary.

St. Francis, the compeer of St. Dominic, was born A.D. 1182. A
prophetess foretold his birth; he was born in a stable; angels sang
forth peace and good will into the air, and one, in the guise of Simeon,
bore him to baptism.

The Egyptian trinities are well known: thus, from Amun by Maut proceeds
Khonso; from Osiris by Isis proceeds Horus; from Neph by Sate proceeds
Anouke. The Egyptians had propounded the dogma that there had been
divine incarnations, the fall of man, and redemption.

In India, centuries before Christianity, we find the Hindu trinity;
Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva. In the Institutes of Manu, a code of civil law
as well as religious law, written about the ninth century before
Christ, is found a description of creation, the nature of God, and rules
for the duty of man in every station of life from the moment of birth to
death.

Professor James T. Shotwell when speaking of paganism reminds us, "Who
of us can appreciate antique paganism? The Gods of Greece or Rome are
for us hardly more than the mutilated statues of them in our own
museums; pitiable, helpless objects before the scrutiny and comments of
a passing crowd. Venus is an armless figure from the Louvre; Dionysos
does not mean to us divine possession, the gift of tongues, or
immortality; Attis brings no salvation. But to antiquity the 'pagan'
cults were no mockery. They were as real as Polynesian heathenism or
Christianity to-day." (_James T. Shotwell_: "_The Religious Revolution
of To-day._")

It is seen, therefore, that from ti