TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

Marcus Minucius Felix, the author of the following Dialogue, was a proselyte to Christianity: he resided at Rome, and followed the profession of a lawyer.

To discover the time at which he composed this Dialogue, has been the subject of much inquiry amongst critics. But inquiries of that nature are little adapted to the present taste; and therefore it may suffice to observe, that Minucius appears to have imitated Tertullian, and to have been copied by Cyprian in his treatise De Idolorum Vanitate; and hence, that the Dialogue may, by plausible conjecture, be referred to the reign of the Emperor Caracalla.

The speakers in the Dialogue are Cæcilius, a Heathen, and Octavius, a Christian; and Minucius, as their common friend, is chosen to moderate between the two disputants.

It is generally supposed that Minucius meant to report the very arguments employed by Cœcilius and Octavius in the course of their disputation. But this is exceedingly improbable. The discourses of the Heathen and of the Christian are made to tally with each other according to the wont of the Schools; the topics are numerous, and the authorities urged are still more numerous. No one could have recollected, after an interval of many years, the precise arrangement of the two discourses, and all their topics and their authorities.

We may therefore suppose that Cæcilius and Octavius disputed about religion, and that Cœcilius was converted to Christianity by his an

tagonist; but we cannot, with any likelihood, suppose that Minucius made an exact recital of all the arguments on each side.

In this Dialogue, Cæcilius at first assumes the character of an Academic philosopher; he then speaks like an Epicurean; and at length becomes an advocate for the popular superstitions of Paganism. He arraigns the ignorance and presumption of the Christians; declaims against the many flagitious practices laid to their charge; censures their unsociable austerity; and concludes with objecting to some of the religious tenets professed, or said to be professed by them.

Octavius, in the character of a Christian philosopher, encounters the arguments of Cœcilius, maintains the unity of God, asserts his Providence, vindicates the manners of Christians, and partly attempts to explain their tenets, and partly refers a more ample con

sideration of them to some future opportunity

of discourse.

Then Cæcilius acknowledges his belief in one God, and his conviction that there is a Providence; he also admits the proof of the innocent manners of the Christians. As to other particulars he hesitates, but still expresses his hopes of obtaining full satisfaction on more deliberate inquiry. He perceived that all the systems of Paganism were erroneous, and that the once hated and despised Christians knew the One God and his Providence; and therefore he desired to be of their sect, or, in the language of those times, to be admitted into the rank of Catechumen.

It was necessary to give this brief analysis of the Dialogue, lest Minucius should be supposed to have undertaken to explain and vindicate the Christian religion at large.