ork of preparation for the Gospel which had been
accomplished among men on the eve of the mission of the Apostles. St.
Augustine, after quoting Seneca, exclaims: "What more could a Christian
say than this Pagan has said?" The enlightened pagans had reached nearly
the last point attainable without a new dispensation, when the fulness
of time was come. We have seen the breadth and the splendour of the
domain of Hellenic thought, and it has brought us to the threshold of a
greater kingdom. The best of the later classics speak almost the
language of Christianity, and they border on its spirit.

But in all that I have been able to cite from classical literature,
three things are wanting,--representative government, the emancipation
of the slaves, and liberty of conscience. There were, it is true,
deliberative assemblies, chosen by the people; and confederate cities,
of which, both in Asia and Africa, there were so many leagues, sent
their delegates to sit in Federal Councils. But government by an elected
Parliament was even in theory a thing unknown. It is congruous with the
nature of Polytheism to admit some measure of toleration. And Socrates,
when he avowed that he must obey God rather than the Athenians, and the
Stoics, when they set the wise man above the law, were very near giving
utterance to the principle. But it was first proclaimed and established
by enactment, not in polytheistic and philosophical Greece, but in
India, by Asoka, the earliest of the Buddhist kings, two hundred and
fifty years before the birth of Christ.

Slavery has been, far more than intolerance, the perpetual curse and
reproach of ancient civilisation, and although its rightfulness was
disputed as early as the days of Aristotle, and was implicitly, if not
definitely, denied by several Stoics, the moral philosophy of the Greeks
and Romans, as well as their practice, pronounced decidedly in its
favour. But there was one extraordinary people who, in this as in other
things, anticipated the purer precept that was to come. Philo of
Alexandria is one of the writers whose views on society were most
advanced. He applauds not only liberty but equality in the enjoyment of
wealth. He believes that a limited democracy, purged of its grosser
elements, is the most perfect government, and will extend itself
gradually over all the world. By freedom he understood the following of
God. Philo, though he required that the condition of the slave should be
made comp