Smith argues that in a nation distracted by faction, few preserve their judgment untainted by the general contagion, that a true party man hates and despises candor (which is selected out of politics), that the real impartial spectator is most distant amidst the violence and rage of contending parties, and that partisans impute their own prejudices even to God—concluding that faction and fanaticism have always been by far the greatest corrupters of moral sentiments.