Clivedurdle

Penguin is carrying out a real service to (British?) humanity by their series "Great Ideas."

Gibbon is wonderful!

"The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events."

"...the complaint of Celsus that the Christians were perpetually correcting and altering their gospels."

"Under the reign of Tiberius the whole earth or at least a celebrated province of the Roman Empire was involved in a preternatural darkness for three hours. Even this miraculous event passed without notice in an age of science and history. "