Sometimes Jesus employed an innocent artifice, which Joan of Arc also used: he affected to know something intimate respecting him whom he wished to gain, or he would perhaps recall to him some circumstance dear to his heart.

It was thus that he attracted Nathanael,[1] Peter,[2] and the Samaritan woman.[3] Concealing the true source of his strength--his superiority over all that surrounded him--he permitted people to believe (in order to satisfy the ideas of the time--ideas which, moreover, fully coincided with his own) that a revelation from on high revealed to him all secrets and laid bare all hearts.

Every one thought that Jesus lived in a sphere superior to that of humanity.

They said that he conversed on the mountains with Moses and Elias;[4] they believed that in his moments of solitude the angels came to render him homage, and established a supernatural intercourse between him and heaven.[5] [Footnote 1: John i.

48, and following.] [Footnote 2: John i.