1 We are indebted for more than one useful suggestion to our colleagues
Messrs. Charles Michel and Joseph Bidez, who were kind enough to read the
proofs of the French edition.
2 An outline of the present state of the subject will be found in a recent
volume by Gruppe, _Griechische Mythologie_, 1906, pp. 1606 ff., whose views
are sharply opposed to the negative conclusions formulated, with certain
reservations, by Harnack, _Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, pp. 274 ff.
Among the latest studies intended for the general reader that have appeared
on this subject, may be mentioned in Germany those of Geffcken (_Aus der
Werdezeit des Christentums_, Leipsic, 1904, pp. 114 ff.), and in England
those of Cheyne (_Bible Problems_, 1904), who expresses his opinion in
these terms: "The Christian religion is a synthesis, and only those who
have dim eyes can assert that the intellectual empires of Babylonia and
Persia have fallen."--Very useful is the new book of Clemen,
_Religionsgeschichtliche Erklärung des Neuen Testaments_, Giessen, 1909.
3 _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 342, n. 4; see the new texts commented on by
Usener, _Rhein. Museum_, LX, 1905, pp. 466 ff.; 489 ff., and my paper
"Natalis Invicti," _C. R. Acad. des inscr._, 1911.
4 See page 70. Compare also _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 341. The imitation
of the church is plain in the pagan reform attempted by the emperor Julian.