ve carried him no further than Josephus and the worthy, but
somewhat antique, episcopal and other authorities to whom he refers;
that even his reading of Josephus may have been of the most cursory
nature, directed not to the understanding of his author, but to the
discovery of useful controversial matter; and that, in view of the not
inconsiderable misrepresentation of my statements to which I have
drawn attention, it might be that Mr. Gladstone's exposition of the
evidence of Josephus was not more trustworthy. I proceed to show that
my previsions have been fully justified. I doubt if controversial
literature contains anything more _piquant_ than the story I have to
unfold.

That I should be reproved for rapidity of judgment is very just;
however quaint the situation of Mr. Gladstone, as the reprover, may
seem to people blessed with a sense of humour. But it is a quality,
the defects of which have been painfully obvious to me all my life;
and I try to keep my Pegasus--at best, a poor Shetland variety of that
species of quadruped--at a respectable jog-trot, by loading him
heavily with bales of reading. Those who took the trouble to study my
paper in good faith and not for mere controversial purposes, have a
right to know, that something more than a hasty glimpse of two or
three passages of Josephus (even with as many episcopal works thrown
in) lay at the back of the few paragraphs I devoted to the Gadarene
story. I proceed to set forth, as briefly as I can, some results of
that preparatory work. My artistic principles do not permit me, at
present, to express a doubt that Mr. Gladstone was acquainted with the
facts I am about to mention when he undertook to write. But, if he did
know them, then both what he has said and what he has not said, his
assertions and his omissions alike, will require a paragraph to
themselves.

The common consent of the synoptic Gospels affirms that the miraculous
transference of devils from a man, or men, to sundry pigs, took place
somewhere on the eastern shore of the Lake of Tiberias; "on the other
side of the sea over against Galilee," the western shore being,
without doubt, included in the latter province. But there is no such
concord when we come to the name of the part of the eastern shore, on
which, according to the story, Jesus and his disciples landed. In the
revised version, Matthew calls it the "country of the Gadarenes:" Luke
and Mark have "Gerasenes." In sundry very ancient manus