mythology. The maxim holds good in the social as well as in the
mechanical world, that, when two bodies strike, the form of both
is changed. Paganism was modified by Christianity; Christianity
by Paganism.

THE TRINITARIAN DISPUTE. In the Trinitarian controversy, which
first broke out in Egypt--Egypt, the land of Trinities--the chief
point in discussion was to define the position of "the Son."
There lived in Alexandria a presbyter of the name of Arius, a
disappointed candidate for the office of bishop. He took the
ground that there was a time when, from the very nature of
sonship, the Son did not exist, and a time at which he commenced
to be, asserting that it is the necessary condition of the filial
relation that a father must be older than his son. But this
assertion evidently denied the coeternity of the three persons of
the Trinity; it suggested a subordination or inequality among
them, and indeed implied a time when the Trinity did not exist.
Hereupon, the bishop, who had been the successful competitor
against Arius, displayed his rhetorical powers in public debates
on the question, and, the strife spreading, the Jews and pagans,
who formed a very large portion of the population of Alexandria,
amused themselves with theatrical representations of the contest
on the stage--the point of their burlesques being the equality of
age of the Father and his Son.

Such was the violence the controversy at length assumed, that the
matter had to be referred to the emperor. At first he looked upon
the dispute as altogether frivolous, and perhaps in truth
inclined to the assertion of Arius, that in the very nature of
the thing a father must be older than his son. So great, however,