lessons from Socrates or
Plato,--nothing to form in him a taste or judgment different from that
of the rest of his countrymen, and of persons of the same rank of life
with himself. Supposing it to be true, which it is not, that all his
points of morality might be picked out of Greek and Roman writings, they
were writings which he had never seen. Supposing them to be no more than
what some or other had taught in various times and places, he could not
collect them together.

Who were his coadjutors in the undertaking,--the persons into whose
hands the religion came after his death? A few fishermen upon the lake
of Tiberias, persons just as uneducated, and, for the purpose of framing
rules of morality, as unpromising as himself. Suppose the mission to be
real, all this is accounted for; the unsuitableness of the authors to
the production, of the characters to the undertaking, no longer
surprises us: but without reality, it is very difficult to explain how
such a system should proceed from such persons. Christ was not like any
other carpenter; the apostles were not like any other fishermen.

But the subject is not exhausted by these observations. That portion of
it which is most reducible to points of argument has been stated, and, I
trust, truly. There are, however, some topics of a more diffuse nature,
which yet deserve to be proposed to the reader's attention.

The character of Christ is a part of the morality of the Gospel: one
strong observation upon which is, that, neither as represented by his
followers, nor as attacked by his enemies, is he charged with any
personal vice. This remark is as old as Origen: "Though innumerable lies
and calumnies had been forged against the venerable Jesus, none had
dared to charge him with an intemperance." (Or. Ep. Cels. 1. 3, num. 36,
ed. Bened.) Not a reflection upon his moral character, not an imputation
or suspicion of any offence against purity and chastity, appears for
five hundred years after his birth. This faultlessness is more peculiar
than we are apt to imagine. Some stain pollutes the morals or the
morality of almost every other teacher, and of every other lawgiver.*
Zeno the stoic, and Diogenes the cynic, fell into the foulest
impurities; of which also Socrates himself was more than suspected.
Solon forbade unnatural crimes to slaves. Lycurgus tolerated theft as a
part of education. Plato recommended a community of women. Aristotle
maintained the general right of making