dissembled vanity:--"Si quid est in me ingenii, Judices, quod sentio
quam sit exiguum;"--the quotation would be strong evidence, were there
any doubt, that the oration, which opens with this address, actually
came from Cicero's pen. These instances, however simple, may serve to
point out to a reader who is little accustomed to such researches the
nature and value of the argument.

The testimonies which we have to bring forward under this proposition
are the following:--

I. There is extant an epistle ascribed to Barnabas,* the companion of
Paul. It is quoted as the epistle of Barnabas, by Clement of Alexandria,
A.D. CXCIV; by Origen, A.D. CCXXX. It is mentioned by Eusebius, A.D.
CCCXV, and by Jerome, A.D. CCCXCII, as an ancient work in their time,
bearing the name of Barnabas, and as well known and read amongst
Christians, though not accounted a part of Scripture. It purports to
have been written soon after the destruction of Jerusalem, during the
calamities which followed that disaster; and it bears the character of
the age to which it professes to belong.

_________

* Lardner, Cred. edit. 1755, vol. i. p. 23, et seq. The reader will
observe from the references, that the materials of these sections are
almost entirely extracted from Dr. Lardner's work; my office consisted
in arrangement and selection.
_________


In this epistle appears the following remarkable passage:--"Let us,