may build the following observations:

First; That we are well warranted in calling the view under which the
learned men of that age beheld Christianity an obscure and distant view.
Had Tacitus known more of Christianity, of its precepts, duties,
constitution, or design, however he had discredited the story, he would
have respected the principle. He would have described the religion
differently, though he had rejected it. It has been very satisfactorily
shown, that the "superstition" of the Christians consisted in
worshipping a person unknown to the Roman calendar; and that the
"perniciousness" with which they were reproached was nothing else but
their opposition to the established polytheism; and this view of the
matter was just such an one as might be expected to occur to a mind
which held the sect in too much contempt to concern itself about the
grounds and reasons of their conduct.

Secondly; We may from hence remark how little reliance can be placed
upon the most acute judgments in subjects which they are pleased to
despise; and which, of course, they from the first consider as unworthy
to be inquired into. Had not Christianity survived to tell its own
story, it must have gone down to posterity as a "pernicious
superstition;" and that upon the credit of Tacitus's account, much, I
doubt not, strengthened by the name of the writer, and the reputation of
his sagacity.

Thirdly; That this contempt, prior to examination, is an intellectual
vice, from which the greatest faculties of mind are not free. I know
not, indeed, whether men of the greatest faculties of mind are not the
most subject to it. Such men feel themselves seated upon an eminence.
Looking down from their height upon the follies of mankind, they behold
contending tenets wasting their idle strength upon one another with the
common disdain of the absurdity of them all. This habit of thought,
however comfortable to the mind which entertain it, or however natural
to great parts, is extremely dangerous; and more apt than almost any
other disposition to produce hasty and contemptuous, and, by
consequence, erroneous judgments, both of persons and opinions.

Fourthly; We need not be surprised at many writers of that age not
mentioning Christianity at all, when they who did mention it appear to
have entirely misconceived its nature and character; and, in consequence
of this misconception, to have regarded it with negligence and contempt.

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