The histories which have come down to us of the life of Christ are scanty, and, as has been shewn, in all probability much mixed with fable and with the ideas of later times. Still they present to us a character so peculiar and so strongly marked, as to force upon us the impression that it was a real one. Even though the supposition that there never was such a person as Jesus Christ were not manifestly absurd in an historical view, the existence of the books before us might be sufficient to convince us that it must be abandoned; for invention generally falls into some well-known track of ideas; and it is in the highest degree improbable that several writers could concur in an accordant and well-sustained delineation of a singular, but yet wholly imaginary, character. The attentive perusal of the four Gospels leaves, then, the conviction, that Jesus really lived; and, further, that there was in him a combination of traits which do not frequently meet in the same individual, the result being a character which has few or no parallels in history. It has been often said that this singularity of character does itself afford an evidence of the divinity of his mission. But the inference is unwarrantable, unless it can be proved that the character contains something necessarily superhuman; whereas it may, perhaps, be shewn that each feature of it is resolvable into the operation of feelings and powers common, more or less, to all men, influenced by the circumstances in which he was placed.