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.
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