nce, wrote all those oracles
scattered in Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel relative to his enterprises,
for the particularisation of which they afford ample materials." Writing
of his analysis, in the "Critical Review," of Paulus' Commentary on the
New Testament, he blames the editor for a suppression--"an attempt to
prove, from the first and second chapter of Luke, that Zacharias, who
wrote these chapters, meant to hold himself out as the father of Jesus
Christ as well as of John the Baptist. The Jewish idea of being
conceived of the Holy Ghost did not exclude the idea of human parentage.
The rabbinical commentator on Genesis explains this." He was called
"Godless Billy Taylor," but says he: "When I publish my other pamphlet in
proof of the great truth that Jesus Christ wrote the 'Wisdom' and
translated the 'Ecclesiasticus' from the Hebrew of his grandfather
Hillel, you will be convinced (that I am convinced) that I and I alone am
a precise and classical Christian; the only man alive who thinks
concerning the person and doctrines of Christ what he himself thought and
taught." His "Letter concerning the two first chapters of Luke" has the
further title, "Who was the father of Christ?" He calls "not absolutely
indefensible" the opinion of the anonymous German author of the "Natural
History of Jesus of Nazareth," that Joseph of Arimathaea was the father
of Jesus Christ. He mentions that "a more recent anonymous theorist,
with greater plausibility, imagines that the acolytes employed in the
Temple of Jerusalem were called by the names of angels, Michael, Raphael,
Gabriel, accordingly as they were stationed behind, beside, or before,
the mercy-seat; and that the Gabriel of the Temple found means to impose
on the innocence of the virgin." "This," he says, "is in many ways
compatible with Mary's having faithfully given the testimony put together
by Luke." He gives at great length the arguments in favour of Zacharias
as the father, and tells Josephus' story of Mundus and Paulina. {68}

Norwich was then "a little Academe among provincial cities," as Mr.
Seccombe calls it; he continues:

"Among the high lights of the illuminated capital of East Anglia were the
Cromes, the Opies, John Sell Cotman, Elizabeth Fry, Dr. William Enfield
(of Speaker fame), and Dr. Rigby, the father of Lady Eastlake; but pre-
eminent above all reigned the twin cliques of Taylors and Martineaus, who
amalgamated at impressive intervals for purposes of