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Title: Selections from the Observator (1681-1687)
Author: Roger L'Estrange
Commentator: Violet Jordain
Release Date: July 26, 2012 [EBook #40339]
Language: English
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THE AUGUSTAN REPRINT SOCIETY
SIR ROGER L'ESTRANGE
_SELECTIONS FROM_
THE
OBSERVATOR
(1681-1687)
_Introduction by_ Violet Jordain
PUBLICATION NUMBER 141
WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY
University of California, Los Angeles
1970
GENERAL EDITORS
William E. Conway, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
George Robert Guffey, _University of California, Los Angeles_
Maximillian E. Novak, _University of California, Los Angeles_
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
David S. Rodes, _University of California, Los Angeles_
ADVISORY EDITORS
Richard C. Boys, _University of Michigan_
James L. Clifford, _Columbia University_
Ralph Cohen, _University of Virginia_
Vinton A. Dearing, _University of California, Los Angeles_
Arthur Friedman, _University of Chicago_
Louis A. Landa, _Princeton University_
Earl Miner, _University of California, Los Angeles_
Samuel H. Monk, _University of Minnesota_
Everett T. Moore, _University of California, Los Angeles_
Lawrence Clark Powell, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
James Sutherland, _University College, London_
H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., _University of California, Los Angeles_
Robert Vosper, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
CORRESPONDING SECRETARY
Edna C. Davis, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Roberta Medford, _William Andrews Clark Memorial Library_
[Illustration: THE OBSERVATOR. =Numb. 1.= For text go to Page 9.]
INTRODUCTION
I fancy, _Trimmer_, that if You and I could but
get leave to peep out of our Graves again a matter
of a hundred and fifty year hence, we should find
these Papers in Bodlies Library, among the Memorialls
of State; and Celebrated for the Only Warrantable
Remains concerning this Juncture of Affairs.
(_Observator_ No. 259, 16 December 1682)
When the first of 931 single, folio sheets of the _Observator_ appeared
on 13 April 1681, the sixty-five-year-old Roger L'Estrange, their sole
author, had been a controversial London Royalist for over twenty years.
As Crown protégé, he had served intermittently as Surveyor of the Press,
Chief Licenser, and Justice of the King's Peace Commission; as a writer,
he had produced two newspapers, the _Intelligencer_ and the _Newes_
(1663-1666), dozens of political pamphlets, and seven translations from
Spanish, Latin, and French.[1] Rightly nicknamed "bloodhound of the
press," L'Estrange was notorious for his ruthless ferreting out of
illegal presses and seditious publishers, as well as for his tireless
warfare against the powerful Stationers' Company.[2] No less well known
were his intransigent reactionary views, for we can estimate that some
64,000 copies of pamphlets bearing his name were circulating in the City
during the two years preceding the _Observator_.[3] Thus the
_Observator_ papers represent not only the official propaganda of the
restored monarchy, but also the intellectual temper of a powerful,
influential man whose London fame was sufficiently demonstrated in the
winter of 1680, when he was publicly burned in effigy during that year's
Pope-burning festivities.
In the muddy torrent of "Intelligences," "Mercuries," "Courants,"
"Pacquets," and sundry newssheets, the _Observator_ marks the beginnings
of a new sort of journalism, one which was to shape the development of
the English periodical. Although _Heraclitus Ridens_ and its opponent
_Democritus Ridens_ initiated the dialogue form for the newspaper
seventy-two days before the _Observator_, their relatively short run
relegates these pioneers to a shadowy background, as it does the even
earlier trade paper in dialogue, the _City and Country Mercury_
(1667).[4] The eighty-two issues of _Heraclitus Ridens_ and thirteen of
_Democritus Ridens_ cannot be compared in quantity to the 931 issues of
the _Observator_ published three or four times a week from 13 April 1681
to 9 March 1687, nor can their stiff dialogues be compared in importance
to L'Estrange's much fuller exploitation of the form. Consequently, even
though he did not initiate the newspaper in dialogue form, L'Estrange is
unanimously given the honor of having popularized the form, or, in the
words of Richmond P. Bond, of having "borrowed the dialogue and fastened
it on English journalism for a generation as a factional procedure."[5]
Imitators did not wait long. Nine days after the first _Observator_,
L'Estrange's arch-enemy, Harry Care, changed to dialogue the _Popish
Courant_ section of his _Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome_,
relinquishing the expository format which he had followed since 1678.
Later, after the Glorious Revolution, the popularity of L'Estrange's
paper is evident in the spate of imitative "Observators" that ensued:
_The English Spy: Or, the Critical Observator_ (1693); _The Poetical
Observator_ (1702); Tutchin's _Observator_ (1702--a Whig organ) and
Leslie's _Observator_ (1704--a Tory organ); _The Comicall Observator_
(1704); _The Observator Reviv'd_ (1707), and more. As late as 1716 there
was created a _Weekly Observator_. By the turn of the century, the very
term "Observator" had come to signify a controversy _in dialogue_.[6]
Interestingly enough, even the typography of L'Estrange's _Observator_
may have left its mark on succeeding journals. A brief comparison of
Interregnum newspapers (such as _Newes Out of Ireland_ in 1642, _The
Scotch Mercury_ in 1643, _The Commonwealth Mercury_ in 1658) with John
Dunton's _The Athenian Mercury_ (1693) and Charles Leslie's _Observator_
(1704) reveals a marked difference in typography. In the earlier papers
the typography is generally uniform, with italics used for proper names
and quotations, whereas L'Estrange's and Leslie's papers exhibit the
whole range of typeface available to the seventeenth-century printer.
Dissenter Dunton's _Athenian Mercury_, on the other hand, shows much
less eccentricity in its typography, limiting itself to generous use of
italics only, while Defoe's _Review_ goes back to the earlier restraint
and presents a neat, uniform page. Whether these typographical
differences are attributable to particular political views or merely to
"schools" of printing is difficult to say.
In addition to this obvious sort of superficial imitation, there are
many indications that L'Estrange's _Observator_ had a more permanent
influence on posterity. It has been suggested that the periodical
specializing in query and answer between reader and editor, which was
initiated by John Dunton's _Athenian Mercury_ and which we still have
today, may have been inspired by the _Observator's_ habitual retorts to
opponents.[7] James Sutherland isolates in Defoe certain qualities of
prose style which he attributes to Defoe's extensive reading of
L'Estrange; and he sees L'Estrange's natural colloquial manner as
setting a pattern for journalists who followed him.[8] Far-fetched as it
may seem at first glance, even Addison's _Spectator_ shows a certain
similarity to the _Observator_. Although the manner, tone, language, and
political views of the two are antithetical, the _Spectator's_ peculiar
blend of moralizing and diversion is reminiscent of L'Estrange's work.
In both papers we notice a serious didactic purpose tempered by literary
techniques and imaginative handling of material. Decades before
Addison's famous credo--"to make their Instruction Agreeable, and their
Diversion useful ... to enliven Morality with Wit, and to temper Wit
with Morality"[9]--L'Estrange had formulated a similar theory:
_Obs._: Where there has been Any thing of That which you
call Raillery, or Farce; It has amounted to no more then
a Speaking to the Common People in their Own Way....
He that Talks Dry Reason to them, does as good as treat
'em in an Unknown Tongue; and there's no Other way of
Conveying the True Sense, & Notion of Things, either to
their Affections, or to their Understandings, then by the
Palate....
(II, No. 15)
And as a link between L'Estrange and Addison we have Defoe's analogous
promise in "the Introduction" to the _Review_: "After our Serious
Matters are over, we shall at the end of every Paper, Present you with a
little Diversion, as any thing occurs to make the World Merry."[10]
These notions rest, of course, on the ancient _dulce et utile_, though
modified in various ways in each of the three papers to suit the
temperaments of their writers, the tastes of their mass-audiences, and
different times. It is perhaps not irresponsible, then, to say that the
synonymous titles of Addison's and L'Estrange's periodicals symbolize an
affinity of purpose and technique. Indeed, the _Observator_ can, in many
ways, be considered a rather crude and primitive ancestor of the
_Spectator_.[11]
The purpose of the _Observator_ and its main targets are clearly
formulated in _Observator_ No. 1, as well as in the prefatory "To the
Reader," which was written in 1683 for the publication of Volume 1 of
the collected papers. The "faction" which L'Estrange proposes to reprove
consists at first (1681-1682) of Shaftesbury's republican-minded
followers and of the perpetrators of the Popish Plot. In his evaluation
of the Plot, L'Estrange agrees with some modern historians,[12] for he
never doubted that it was a Whig fabrication, an invented cause around
which the party members could rally and which neatly veiled the
parliamentary power-struggle behind the scenes. Titus Oates is
consequently the _Observator's_ _bête noire_, and Andrew Marvell's
pamphlet, _The Growth of Popery_, is for L'Estrange the odious origin of
the Plot:
_Obs._: I do not know Any man throughout the whole Tract
of the Controversy that has held a Candle to the Devil
with a Better Grace then the Author of that Pamphlet ...
that Furnishes so Clear a Light toward the Opening of
the Roots, Springs, and Causes of our Late Miserable
Disorders, and Confusions.... Prethee let Otes'es
Popish Plot, Stand, or Fall, to it's Own Master; provided
that Marvels may be Allow'd to be the Elder Brother....
(II, No. 16)
Toward the end of 1682, when the Whigs had ceased being an imminent
threat to the government and all but one of the Whig newspapers had been
silenced, L'Estrange turned his attack against the more moderate
Trimmers, as illustrated in _Observator_ III, No. 88. But whether the
offensive is against Whigs or Trimmers, Dissenters and advocates of
toleration are always in the line of L'Estrange's fire as chief
subverters of absolute monarchy and of the Church of England, as is
evident in the satire of _Observator_ Nos. 13 and 110. On the eve of the
Glorious Revolution, this rigid stand lost him the support of both the
Anglican clergy and the universities, support of which he was so proud
in his "To the Reader." Finally, _Observator_ No. 1 singles out the Whig
press as one of its chief targets. The "Smith" referred to in that first
number is Anabaptist Francis "Elephant" Smith, publisher of the
outrageous _Mirabilis Annus_ books, the inflammatory pamphlet _Vox
Populi_, and the offensive paper _Smith's Protestant Intelligence_;
"Harris" is Benjamin Harris, publisher of the Whig paper, _Domestic
Intelligence_. These, together with Harry Care (_Weekly Pacquet of
Advice from Rome_ and _Popish Courant_), Richard Janeway (_Impartial
Protestant Mercury_), Langley Curtis (_The Protestant Mercury_), and
hordes of anti-Royalist authors or publications are habitually quoted or
referred to in L'Estrange's counterpropaganda. His untiring countering
of Whig publications earned him Nahum Tate's hyperbolic praise in _The
Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel_:
Than _Sheva_, none more loyal Zeal have shown,
Wakefull, as _Judah's_ Lion for the Crown,
Who for that Cause still combats in his Age,
For which his Youth with danger did engage.
In vain our factious Priests the Cant revive,
In vain seditious Scribes with Libels strive
T'enflame the Crow'd, while He with watchfull Eye
Observes, and shoots their Treasons as they fly.
Their weekly Frauds his keen Replies detect,
He undeceives more fast than they infect.
So _Moses_ when the Pest on _Legions_ prey'd,
Advanc'd his Signal and the Plague was stay'd.[13]
Parochial as these concerns seem today, the _Observator_ in its totality
goes far beyond the Harry Cares and "Elephant" Smiths in its exhortation
to greater rationality in areas ancillary to but transcending politics
proper. Its assiduous ridicule of Enthusiasm, following in the steps of
Meric Casaubon and Henry More,[14] its analyses of political
manipulation of the naive populace, its explanations of psychological
appeals, its Orwellian warnings against the snares of loaded diction and
the dangers of affective political rhetoric--all these efforts evident
in the few _Observators_ represented here are an important step in the
direction of a less superstitious, less hysterical century.
Paradoxically, L'Estrange mobilized progressive ideas in the service of
an archaic political and religious administration, thereby familiarizing
the man on the street with notions and attitudes commonly known as
Enlightened.
The sugar coating in the _Observator_ is, however, as significant as the
pill, and distinguishes L'Estrange's journalism from his predecessors'.
Apart from the traditional satiric blend of verbal banter and polemic,
which has received ample commentary,[15] his use of established literary
modes further enhances the colloquies, making them especially diverting
for his audience and interesting for us. As dialogues, the papers belong
to a genre whose popularity has remained constant from Plato onward. The
appeal of the form lies in its pleasurable verisimilitude, immediacy,
adaptability to differing points of view, and, especially after the
Restoration, in its potentiality for humorous repartee.[16] As
_satiric_ dialogues, L'Estrange's sheets satisfy what seems to be a
universal love of ridicule, an innate trait of the human mind, although
there is no agreement among students of satire as to its exact
psychological operations. In addition to adopting this form, which
belongs to imaginative literature rather than to journalism, L'Estrange
spices his _Observator_ with a number of other devices designed to
provide variety, change in speed, and amusement for his reader, who is
in turn bullied, joshed, castigated, reasoned, or laughed into accepting
L'Estrange's views.
Frequently, for example, the dialogue gives way to a pointed anecdote
(old or current, invented or factual), such as the story of Jack of
Leyden in _Observator_ No. 1, or the following from a later dialogue,
humorously satirizing the dour William Prynne and the Puritans' strange
concepts of sin:
_Trimmer_: A Gentleman that had Cut-off his own hair on
the Saturday, came the next day to Church in his first Perriwig.
The Parson (that was already Enter'd into his Sermon)
turn'd his Discourse presently, from his Text in the
Holy Bible, to the Subject of Prynnes _Unloveliness of
Lovelocks_; and Thrash'd for a matter of a Quarter of an
hour, upon the Mortal Sin of Wearing False Hair. The
Gentleman, finding that he would never give him over,
'till he had Preach'd him into a Flat State of Reprobation,
fairly took off his Perriwig, and Clapt it upon One of the
Buttons at the Corner of the Pew. The Poor Man had not
One word more to say to the Perriwig; and was run so far
from his Text, that he could not for his heart find the way
home again: So that to make short on't; He gave the
People his Blessing, and Dismiss'd the Congregation.
(II, No. 21)
Frequently, also, L'Estrange satirizes by means of parody or ludicrous
examples of his enemies' rhetoric or behavior, as in the case of the
"Dissenting Academies" in _Observator_ No. 110. But most important of
the techniques for entertaining are his creation of carefully delineated
speaker-_personae_ and his "Characters," again both borrowed from the
literary tradition.
After the first twenty-nine _Observators_, which are experimental in
that "Q" and "A" have shifting personalities (as in Nos. 1 and 13),
L'Estrange manipulates "Whig" and "Tory" for 171 papers, changes to
"Whig" and "Observator" for 33 papers, briefly (six papers) shifts to
"Whig" and "Courantier," and finally settles down to "Trimmer" and
"Observator" for the remaining 692 papers. In all these, the Tory
satirist (whether he be "Tory" or "Observator") is presented as the
conventional "snarling dog" described by Robert C. Elliott,[17] with
appropriate outbursts of polemic, invective, bitter irony, and railing
humor. Even the traditional crudity is there, although compared to, say,
the _Popish Courant_, L'Estrange manifests a Victorian restraint.
"Whig," on the other hand, is presented as a naive, credulous,
not-too-bright individual whose main fault is not so much that he is a
Whig but that he is a Whig because he has no mental capacity for
discrimination. The "A" speaker of No. 13 (apparently a humorous thrust
at John Eachard, author of _Grounds and Occasions of the Contempt of the
Clergy_) with his preference for Prynne, Baxter, and Smith over Tacitus,
Livy, and Caesar, is typical of the later "Whig" _persona_. Humorless,
misguided, and chronically given to believing even the most outrageous
gossip, "Whig" cuts a foolish and therefore amusing figure when pitted
against the sophisticated, trenchant-minded "Tory." "Trimmer" is quite
different. L'Estrange here creates a much more intelligent opponent, one
who is given the liberty of satirizing "Observator" himself and even
patronizing him with the nickname "Nobs." Instead of naivete and obvious
stupidity, "Trimmer" has the guile and surface morality of the perfect
hypocrite, a "pretending friend" as "Observator" notes in _Observator_
III, Nos. 88 and 202. The humor in these later dialogues does not emerge
from the "Trimmer" personality but from the frequent self-satire and
criticism on the part of L'Estrange. "Trimmer," for example, is allowed
to mock the prose style, figures of speech, stubbornness and
repetitiveness of "Observator," as "Trimmer's" chiding tone in
_Observator_ III, No. 88 suggests. To borrow a term from Robert C.
Elliott, the entertainment of these later colloquies resides primarily
in the technique of the "satirist satirized."[18] L'Estrange, in short,
creates both _adversariuses_ as _dramatis personae_ rather than as
simple straw men, a departure from the run-of-the-mill Restoration
dialogue evident in the following interruption of his artfully built
illusion:
_Obs._: For Varieties sake then, we'le to work another way.
Do You keep up your Part of Trimmer still: Do Just as
you use to do; and be sure to maintain your Character;
Leave the Whig and the Tory to Me.
_Trimmer_: For the Dialogue sake it shall be done.
_Obs._: But then you must Consider that there are Severall
sort of Trimmers: as your State-Trimmer, Your Law-Trimmer....
_Trimmer_: And You shall Suppose Mee to be a Statesman.
_Obs._: But of what Magnitude? A Lord? A Knight?...
_Trimmer_: Why truly Nobs, if they be all of a Price, I
don't care if I be a Lord.
_Obs._: We are over that Point then; And so I am your
Lordships most Humble Servant.
But this role playing within role playing is discarded at the end of the
paper, the role of Lord being apparently too cumbersome:
_Trimmer_: No more of your Lordships, as you love me,
Nobs; for I am e'en as weary as a Dog of my Dignity.
(No. 242)
The "Character," however, is not only L'Estrange's favorite satiric tool
but perhaps the literary form most frequently used in the _Observator_.
L'Estrange himself attests to his partiality in his parting comment at
the close of the _Observator_:
_Obs._: For my Fancy lyes more to Character, then to
Dialogue; and whoever will be so Kind as to Furnish me
with Spitefull Materials, shall get his Own again with
Interest, in an Essay upon Humane Nature.
(III, No. 246)
The Character was, of course, still highly popular in the latter half
of the century, as Chester Noyes Greenough's listings show,[19] so that
in indulging his own taste, L'Estrange was also catering to the tastes
of his public. Of whatever other value the _Observator_ may be to the
modern student, it is invaluable as a fine example of the
state-of-the-Character toward the end of the century. Practically every
type of Character analyzed by Benjamin Boyce in his two studies can be
found repeatedly in L'Estrange's dialogues:[20] the earlier imitations
of Theophrastan Characters, with their parallelisms and antitheses; the
Overburian Character, with its extravagant metaphors; the externally
dramatized; the subjective; the sprung. There are Characters of
ideologies, of political parties, of virtues, of vices, of Whigs and
Dissenters (vices), of Tories and Anglicans (virtues). There are several
"Credo-Characters" (confessions or manifestoes), and finally there is
the habitually dramatized self-exposing Character which becomes
indistinguishable from the _dramatis persona_, as is the Character of
the Modern Whig in Nos. 13 and 110. Among the _Observators_ included
here, the definition of "Dissenter" in No. 1 is based on Character
techniques, as is the conceit of the Protestant as "Adjective
Noun-Substantive" in the same number. So is also the lengthy exposure of
"Leaders" in III, No. 202, beginning with "They Talk, to the Ears, and
to the Passions of their Hearers."
A final comment about L'Estrange's prose, which has been variously
labeled "colloquial," "idiomatic," "vulgar," "coarse"--all vaguely
descriptive terms suggesting value judgment, and none precise enough to
give an intelligible account of what L'Estrange actually does. In
addition to the obvious device of choppy syntax and deliberately
careless constructions simulating extemporaneous speech, L'Estrange's
figures and proverbial material demonstrate his meticulous shaping of an
"applied prose"[21] particularly suitable for the audience whose
opinions he tried to sway. His metaphors and analogies tend to rely on
commonly known objects or experiences, and because of rhetorical
necessity they are almost always unpleasantly graphic. A random sampling
yielded the following results: about twenty-five percent of the figures
in the _Observator_ deal with some specific part of the human body
(nails, spleen, mouth, eyes, ears, knees, heels, flesh, guts, belly) or
physiological processes (ulcerating, itching, chewing, digesting,
spitting, reeking, seeing, crouching, sweating, gobbling). There is no
euphemistic delicacy in these figures; L'Estrange carefully selects the
most earthy, common vehicles, thus achieving what James Sutherland has
termed "racy" and "vigorous" prose.[22] Another twenty-four percent of
the figures are based on common occupations, daily activities, or
objects familiar to the simpler citizen of London. These figures
ordinarily pivot on barter or trade (horse traders, hagglers, fishwives,
car men); on activities such as cooking, gambling, or glass-making; and
on such objects as clothing, bagpipes, paper-pellets, bonnets, and
chamber-pots. The rest derive from the animal kingdom, the Scriptures,
street-entertainment (jugglers, puppets, high-rope walkers) and folk
medicine (glysters and plasters). It is obvious that these
figures--their concreteness, sensuousness, and closeness to the daily
experience of the ordinary reader--are a main ingredient in the richly
colloquial texture of L'Estrange's prose, as is the proverbial material
which he incorporates unsparingly.
In L'Estrange's language the law of the land cannot be misunderstood,
for it calls _a spade a spade_ (No. 106; T-S699).[23] The factions win
their objectives _by hook or crook_ (No. 100; T-H588) even though they
are as _mad as March Hares_ (No. 15; T-H148) and _as Blind as Beetles_
(No. 15; T-B219). Certain things are _as clear as the Day_ (No. 25;
T-D56) or _as plain as the nose o'my face_ (No. 40; T-N215), whereas
others are so confused that one can _make neither Head nor tayl on't_
(No. 35; T-H258). When _noses are put out of joint_ (No. 38; T-N219) and
Tories are given a _bone to pick_ (No. 55; T-B522), there will obviously
be _no love lost betwixt_ Whigs and Tories (No. 97; T-L544).
Thus L'Estrange's Characters, together with the fanciful anecdotes,
self-satire, parodies, and _personae_, provide the satire and humor in
the _Observator_, the whole being couched in familiar, pungent language.
As L'Estrange counters the faction, propagandizes, and exhorts to
rational behavior, he also amuses and delights, always hoping that the
laughter provoked by his satiric treatment will cure what he saw as
follies of his age, always appealing to the common reader whose sense of
humor, he believed, was probably more developed than his sense.
California State College,
Dominguez Hills
NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION
1: The translations before 1681 are _The Visions of Dom Francisco de
Quevedo_ (1667); _A Guide to Eternity_ (1672); _Five Love-letters
from a Nun_ (1677); _The Gentleman-Apothecary_ (1678); _Seneca's
Morals_ (1678); _Twenty Select Colloquies of Erasmus_ (1679); and
_Tully's Offices_ (1680).
2: Various perspectives on L'Estrange's life and works can be found
in the following: George Kitchin, _Sir Roger L'Estrange_ (London,
1913) for L'Estrange's life and impact on the Restoration press; J.
G. Muddiman, _The King's Journalist_ (London, 1923) for L'Estrange's
rivalry with Henry Muddiman, editor of the _Oxford [London]
Gazette_; David J. Littlefield, "The Polemic Art of Sir Roger
L'Estrange: A Study of His Political Writings, 1659-1688"
(Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Yale University, 1961) for an
overview of L'Estrange as a political pamphleteer.
3: In 1679 L'Estrange wrote six new pamphlets and reprinted three
old ones; in 1680 eleven new and seventeen old; at the start of
1681, ten new and seventeen old. A probable norm of 1000-1500 copies
per pamphlet edition has been estimated by Joseph Frank, _The
Beginnings of the English Newspaper, 1620-1660_ (Cambridge, Mass.,
1961), p. 314; two orders of 1500 pamphlets each were given to the
Restoration printer Nathaniel Thompson, as noted by Leona
Rostenberg, "Nathaniel Thompson, Catholic Printer and Publisher of
the Restoration," _The Library_, 3rd ser., X (1955), 195.
4: _Heraclitus Ridens_ was considered by generations of historians
as the first newspaper in dialogue; most recently, James Sutherland
(_English Literature of the Late Seventeenth Century_, Oxford, 1969,
p. 241) has given precedence to _The City and Country Mercury_.
5: _Studies in the Early English Periodical_ (Chapel Hill, 1957), p.
38.
6: Ibid., pp. 38-39.
7: Walter Graham, _English Literary Periodicals_ (New York, 1930),
pp. 38, 63, 168.
8: _On English Prose_ (Toronto, 1965), pp. 72-74.
9: _The Spectator_, No. 10, ed. Donald F. Bond (Oxford, 1965), I,
44.
10: _The Review_, ed. Arthur Wellesley Secord (Facsimile Text
Society, New York, 1938), I, 4.
11: Several of the literary techniques in the _Spectator_ had been
introduced into journalism by L'Estrange. _Spectator_ No. 1, for
example, presents a _persona_ in the character of "Mr. Spectator";
No. 2 contains a dream-allegory; Nos. 11 and 34 present indirect
discourse between _dramatis personae_; No. 19 sketches a Character
of the Envious Man--all literary modes abundant in the _Observator_.
12: See especially J. R. Jones, _The First Whigs; The Politics of
the Exclusion Crisis, 1678-1683_ (London, 1961), pp. 20, 24, 50-51,
56, 94, 112, 123-124.
13: For attribution and identification of Sheva, see G. R. Noyes,
ed., _The Poetical Works of John Dryden_ (Boston, 1909), pp. 137,
966.
14: The works that are echoed in the Observator are Meric Casaubon,
_A Treatise Concerning Enthusiasme ..._ (London, 1655) and Henry
More, _Enthusiasmus Triumphatus ..._ (London, 1656).
15: The mixture of tones is discussed in Alvin Kernan, _The Cankered
Muse_ (New Haven, 1959), pp. 68, 76; Leonard Feinberg, _Introduction
to Satire_ (Ames, Iowa, 1967), pp. 124-125; Gilbert Highet, _The
Anatomy of Satire_ (Princeton, 1962), p. 18.
16: Hugh Macdonald, "Banter in English Controversial Prose After the
Restoration," _Essays and Studies by Members of the English
Association_, XXXII (1946), 22, 26, 38.
17: _The Power of Satire: Magic, Ritual, Art_ (Princeton, 1960), pp.
133-136, 164-165.
18: Ibid., pp. 130-222 (_passim_).
19: _A Bibliography of the Theophrastan Character in English, With
Several Portrait Characters_ (Cambridge, Mass., 1947).
20: _The Theophrastan Character in England to 1642_ (Cambridge,
Mass., 1947) and _The Polemic Character, 1640-1661_ (Lincoln, Neb.,
1955).
21: The term is suggested by Ian Gordon (_The Movement of English
Prose_, London, 1966, p. 136) in his discussion of the simple,
clear, journalistic style practiced by L'Estrange, Defoe, and Swift
in their political writings.
22: _On English Prose_, p. 70.
23: The symbol "T" and accompanying numbers refer to the entries in
Morris Palmer Tilley, _A Dictionary of the Proverb in England in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries_ (Ann Arbor, 1950).
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
The sources for the parts of the _Observator_ in _Dialogue_
reprinted here are Volume I of the first collected edition published
in 1684, and Volume III, published and bound together with Volume II
in 1687, both in the collection of the William Andrews Clark
Memorial Library. The pieces reprinted from Volume I consist of the
prefatory "To the Reader," and _Observator_ Nos. 1, 13, and 110; the
papers reprinted from Volume III consist of _Observator_ Nos. 88 and
202. In this edition the following editorial changes have been made:
black letter type is indicated by underlining; inverted letters have
been corrected; obvious compositor's errors have been corrected; and
inconsistencies in font due to compositors' carelessness have been
normalized. The frontispiece to this facsimile reprint is reproduced
from the Clark copy and measures approximately 13-7/16" x 8-5/8" in
the original.
THE OBSERVATOR
To the _READER_.
Most _Prefaces_ are, (Effectually) _Apologies_; and neither the _Book_,
nor the _Author_, one Jot the _Better_ for them. If the _Book_ be
_Good_, it will not _Need_ an _Apology_; If _Bad_, it will not _Bear_
One: For where a man thinks, by _Calling_ himself _Noddy_, in the
_Epistle_, to _Atone_, for _Shewing_ himself to be one, in the _Text_;
He does (with Respect to the Dignity of an _Author_) but _Bind up Two
Fools_ in _One Cover_: But there's no more Trusting some People with
_Pen, Ink, and Paper_, then the Maddest Extravagants in _Bedlam_, with
_Fire_, _Sword_, or _Poyson_. He that _Writes Ill_, and _Sees_ it, why
does he _Write on_? And, with a kind of _Malice Prepense, Murder_ the
_Ingenious_ part of _Mankind_? He that _Really Believes_ he Writes
_Well_; why does he pretend to _Think_ Otherwise? Now take it which way
you please, a man runs a Risque of his _Reputation_, for want, either of
_Skill_, and _Judgment_, the _One_ way; Or of _Good Faith_, and _Candor_
the _Other_. Beside a Mighty Oversight, in _Imagining_ to bring himself
off, from an _Ill_ Thing, _Done_, or _Said_, by Telling the World that
he did it for _This_ or _That Reason_. When a Book has once past the
_Press_ into the _Publique_; there's no more _Recalling_ of it, then of
a _Word Spoken_, out of the _Air_ again. And a man may as well hope to
Reverse the _Decree_ of his _Mortality_, as the _Fate_ of his
_Writings_. In short: When the _Dice_ are _Cast_, the _Author_ must
stand his _Chance_.
Now that I may not be thought to Enterfere with my self, by _Declaiming_
against _One Preface_ in _Another_: I do here previously Renounce to All
the Little Arts and Forms of Bespeaking the _Good Will_ of the _Reader_;
As a _Practice_, not only _Mean_, _Light_, and _Unprofitable_; but
wholly _Contrary_ to the _Bent_ of _My Inclination_; as well as
_Inconsistent_ with the very _Drift_, and _Quality_ of my _Design_. For
These _Papers_ were _Written_, Indifferently, for the _Enformation_ of
the _Multitude_; and for the _Reproof_ of a _Faction_: _Two Interests_
that I am not much _Sollicitous_, or _Ambitious_, to _Oblige_: And upon
_This Consideration_ it is, that I have _Address'd_ them to the _Reader_
in _Generall_; as a _Calculation_ that will serve for _All Meridians_:
But if I could have Resolved upon a _Dedication_, with any _Particular
Mark_, or _Epithete_ of _Distinction_; it should have been, _To the
IGNORANT, the SEDITIOUS_, or _the SCHISMATICAL Reader_; for _There_,
properly, lies _my Bus'ness_.
The Reader will find in the _First Number_ of This Collection, the _True
Intent_, and _Design_ of the _Undertaking_; And he will likewise find,
in the very _Date_ of it, (April 13. 1681.) the _Absolute Necessity_ of
some Such _Application_, to Encounter the _Notorious Falshoods_; the
_Malicious Scandals_, and the _Poysonous Doctrines_ of _That Season_.
Whether I had Sufficient _Ground_, or _Reason_, for the Warmth I have
Exprest in These Papers, upon Several Occasions, (out of an Affectionate
Sense of my _Duty_, and a _Zeal_ for the _Peace_, _Welfare_, and
_Safety_ of my _Country_;) I _Dare_, and I _Do Appeal_ to the _King_,
and his _Ministers_; to the _Consciences_ of as many of his Majesties
_Subjects_, as are not _Stark Blind_ because they _WILL_ not _See_; and
to the Justice of the Nation. I do _Appeal_, I say, to his Majesties
_Proclamations_; to his _Royal Declaration_; Several _Orders_ of
_Councel_; the _Examinations_, and _Confessions_ of _Unquestionable
Witnesses_; The _Solemnity_ of so many _Tryals_, _Sentences_, and
_Executions_; and the _Criminals_, Every Man of 'em, Either
_Acknowledging_ the _Crime_, or _Justifying_ the _Treason_: But the
_FACT_, however made as _Clear_ as the _Day_. There's the _Flight_ of
the _Conspirators_; Their _Arms Seiz'd_; Their _Councels Laid Open_;
_Men Listed_; The _Methods_ of the _Confederacy Detected_, to the very
_Time_, and _Place_ for the _Perpetration_ of the _Villany_; to the very
_Circumstance_ of the _Providential Fire_ at _Newmarket_, that
_Disappointed_ it. I have All These _Demonstrative Proofs_, and
_Convincing Evidences_, to _Warrant_ me in the most _Violent
Presumptions_ of a _Rebellion_ in _Agitation_: And the _Phanatiques
Themselves_ made good the _Worst_ Things that ever I said of the
_Party_: In _Vindication_ of the _Importunity_ of All my _Foreboding_,
if not _Prophetical Suspicions_: Nay, they were come to the very
_Point_, and _Crisis_ of the _Operation_, of That _Unaccountable_, and
_Amazing Vote_. [_If his Majesty shall come by Any Violent Death (which
God Forbid) it shall_ be _Reveng'd to the Utmost upon the Papists_.] The
_King_, and the _Duke_ were to be _Murder'd_ by _Republican_, and
_Fanatical Rebells_: _There's_ your _VIOLENT DEATH_. And _Then_,
[Reuenge it upon the Papists:] For [_the Thing_ (says _Keeling_) _was to
be laid upon the Papists as a Branch of the Popish Plot_. Walcots Tryal.
Fol.9.] And the _Next_ Step was, for the _Traytors_ to _Unriddle_ the
_Mystery_, and to _Expound_, Who were the _Papists_. [_The Lord Mayor,
and the Sheriffs_] _were Three_ of 'em. _They_, were to be Kill'd; And
[_as many of the_ Lieutenancy _as they could get; And the Principal
Ministers of State; My Lord_ Halifax, _My Lord_ Rochester, _and my_ Lord
Keeper: (_They_ were _Three Papists more_.) _My Lord_ Keeper _was to
have been_ Hang'd _upon the same Post that_ College _had hung. Sir_ John
Moor _to be_ Hung-up _in_ Guildhall, _as a Betrayer of the Rights and
Liberties of the City. And the Judges Lordships to be_ Flay'd, _and_
Stuff'd, _and_ Hung-up _in_ Westminster Hall: _And a great many of the_
Pensionary Parliament Hang'd-up, _as Betrayers of the Rights of the
People_. Walcots Tryal, p. 15.] You have here, a _Practical Explanation_
of the _True-Protestant Way_, (in case of _the King's Violent Death_)
_of Revenging it to the Utmost upon the Papists_. And This Intended
_Assassination_ (says _Ferguson_ (in the same Page)) [_Is a Glorious
Action, and such an Action as_ I HOPE TO SEE PUBLIQUELY GRATIFY'D BY
PARLIAMENT; _And Question not but you will be Fam'd for it, and_ Statues
_Erected for you, with the Title of_ LIBERATORES PATRIAE. _Ibid._] Now
when Matters were come to _This Pass_ once, I think it was High Time to
Write _Observators_.
I might Enlarge my self, upon the _Inducements_ that Mov'd me to Enter
upon This _Province_; The _Needfullness_ of some _Popular Medium_ for
the _Rectifying_ of _Vulgar Mistakes,_ and for _Instilling_ of
_Dutyfull_, and _Honest Principles_ into the _Common People_, upon That
_Turbulent_, and _Seditious Juncture_: But I am not Willing to _Clogg_
my _Preface_, with the _Repetition_ of what I have spoken so _Expressly_
to, in the _Book_.
I am now to Advertise the _Reader_, in the next Place; That as I have
not Strain'd, so much as _One Syllable_, in the _Whole Course_ of _These
Papers_, beyond the _Line_ of _Truth_, Nor let fall _One Word, Contrary_
to my _Conscience_; Nor _Layd-on_ so much as _One False Colour_, for a
_Blind_, or a _Disguise_: As I have not done any Thing of All This, I
say; Nor _Gratify'd_ so much as _One Passion_ to the Prejudice, of any
_MAN_, or _THING_; or of _Common Justice it Self_: So neither, on the
_Other_ hand, was I less _Cautious_, and _Considerate_, in the
_Undertaking_ of This _Duty_, then I have been _Clear_, and _Impartial_,
in the _Discharge_, and _Manage_ of it.
I was no sooner Possess't, of the _Reason_, and the _Expedience_ of
the _Thing_; but I fell presently to _Deliberate_ upon the
_Invidious Difficulties_; The _Scandals_, _Reproches_, and a
Thousand Other _Mischiefs_, and _Inconveniencies_, that would
probably _Attend_ it. I laid them All _before_ me; And upon a _Full
Computation_ of the _Matter, Pro_ and _Con_; I Resolv'd, at last, to
Put _pen to paper_; not without some _Vanity_ perhaps, in
_Affecting_ the _Honour_ of being _Revil'd_, by the _Blasphemers_ of
_God_, and the _King_. I shall say Nothing of the _Traytors_; The
_Papists_; The _Fidlers_; The _All-manner-of-Rogues_, and
_Debauchees_ that they have _made_ me: For their _Cause_ is
_Founded_ upon a _Sacrilegious Hypocrisy; Maintain'd_ by _Fraud_,
_Scandal_, and _Imposture_. And when they have a mind to _Blacken_
a man, 'tis not a _Straw_ matter, for any _Foundation_ of _Fact_, or
_History_: But _Paint_ him as like the _Devil_ as they _Can_; and to
make short Work on't, _One Fanatique_ Sits to _Another_, for the
_Picture_. But _These Scurrilities_ have more of _Noise_ in 'em,
then of _Weight_: And Those People that had the face to _Calumniate
Charles the First_, for a _TYRANT_, and a _PAPIST_; And the
_Confidence_, at This very day, to do as much for _Charles the
Second_; They that _Preach REBELLION_ out of the _GOSPEL_; Give it
the _Name_ of _GOD'S TRUTH, GOD'S CAUSE_; And offer up the _Bloud_
of _Kings_ as an _Acceptable Sacrifice_ to _Jesus Christ_: What
_Christian_ will not _Value_ himself, upon the _Reputation_ of lying
under the _Scourge_ of _Those Tongues_, and _Pens_, that Offer these
_Outrages_ to their _Maker_, and their _Saviour_? So that these
_Clamours_, and _Maledictions_, I look upon, as Matter, rather of
_Advantage_, then _Discredit_; Where _Loyalty_ to the _King_, and to
the _Church_, is made the _Crime_: But yet I must Confess, I had
_Some Other Mortifications_ in my _Thought_, that went a little
_Nearer_ me.
As first, the _Indecency_ of a _Gentlemans_ Entring into a
_Street-Brawl_, (and _Bare-fac'd_ too) with the _Sink_ of _Mankind_,
both for _Quality_, and _Wickedness_. 21y. The _Disproportion_, and the
_Indecorum_ of the Thing, for an _Old Fellow_ that now Writes _Sixty
Eight_, to run about, a _Masquerading_, and _Dialoguing_ of it, in
_Twenty Fantastical Shapes_, only to furnish a _Popular Entertainment_,
and _Diversion_. 31y. The _Scandalous Appearance_ of it, for Me to take
up the _Profession_, and _Bus'ness_ of a _Pamphleteer_; And (almost) to
Lose the _Name_ of my _Family_, by it, in _Exchange_ for That of the
_Observator_. 41y. I had This Prospect before me too. What
_Construction_ would be made upon't; (If I may speak it with _Modesty_)
even to the _Lessening_ of my _Character_; And Consequently, to my
Detriment, Every way, as well in Respect of _Fortune_, as _Esteem_: For
men are apt, in such Cases as This, to _Mistake_, the _Intent_, as well
as the _Reason_ of the _Office_; and to Impute the most _Sacred_, and
_Consciencious Zeal_ of an _Upright Heart_, in the performance of the
most _Important_, and _Necessary Duty_, only to a _Levity_ of _Mind_,
perchance; Or in Other Terms; to an Over _Officious_, and _Pragmatical
Itch of Medling_: It makes a man to be lookt upon, as if a _Pamphlet_
were his _Masterpiece_; and when he's once _Nail'd_ to _That Post_, he
may reckon upon't, that he's at the _Top_ of his _Preferment_. Upon
These _Four Difficulties_, I Reason'd with my self, after This Manner.
To the _First_; What do I care, for having so much _Dirt_ Thrown at me,
that will _Wash off_ again? And at the worst, the Engaging with such a
_Rabble_ of _Contaminated Varlets_, is no more then _Leaping_ into the
_Mud_ to help my _Father. Secondly. 'Tis not for a man in years_, to do
so and so. Well! And here's a _Reputative Circumstance_, on the _One_
hand, against an _Indispensable Duty_, on the _Other_. The _Common
people_ are _Poyson'd_, and will run _Stark Mad_, if they be not
_Cur'd_: Offer them _Reason_, without _Fooling_, and it will never
_Down_ with them: And give them _Fooling_, without _Argument_, they're
never the _Better_ for't. Let 'em _Alone_, and All's _Lost_. So that the
_Mixture_ is become as _Necessary_, as the _Office_; And it has been _My
Part_, only to _Season_ the _One_ with the _Other. Thirdly_, I must Set
the _Conscience_ of the Action, against the _Reproch_. And _Lastly; 'Tis
nothing to me what Other People_ Think, _so long as I am Conscious to my
Self that I Do what I_ Ought.
All This I Computed upon, _before-hand_; And thus far, I have not been
_Deceiv'd_ in my _Account_. I have been _Baited_ with _Thousands_ upon
_Thousands_ of _Libells_. I have Created _Enemies_ that do me the
_Honour_ to _Hate_ me, perhaps, next to the _King Himself_ (God Bless
him) and the _Royal Family_. Their _Scandals_ are _Blown over_: Their
_Malice, Defeated_, And whenever _my Hour comes_, I am ready to Deliver
up my _Soul_, with the _Conscience_ of an _Honest Man_, as to what I
have done, in _This Particular_: And I do here Declare, in the
_Presence_ of an _All-Seeing_, and an _All-Knowing God_, That as I have
never yet receiv'd any _Answer_, more then _Cavil_, and _Shuffling_, to
the _Doctrine_, and _Reasoning_ of _These Papers_: So I never _made use_
of Any _Sophism_, or _Double Meaning_, in Defence of the _Cause_ that I
have here taken upon me to _Assert_: But have dealt _Plainly_, and
_Above-Bord_, without either _Fallacy_, or _Collusion_.
After This _View_ of the _Worst side_ of my _Case_; (And (in truth) a
kind of _Abstract_ of it, in _Minutes_) I should be Extremely wanting,
both to _God_ and _Man_, in not taking _This Occasion_, of making
_known_ to the _world_, the _Many Generous Instances_ of _Affection_,
and _Respect_, which I have received, not only from the most
_Considerable_ Part of his Majesties _Loyal Subjects_ of _All
Qualities_, and _Degrees_; But _Particularly_ from the _Two Famous
Universities Themselves_: And, in short, from the most _Eminent Persons_
of the _Long Robe_, in their _Several Professions_: In _Testimony_ of
their _Favourable Acceptance_ of my _Honest Endeavours_ toward the
Service, both of the _Church_, & the _State_. And This I am Obliged to
leave behind me, upon _Record_; out of a _Double Right_, & _Regard_, as
well to my _Friends_, as to my _Self_: For I reckon upon it, as an
_Accumulation_ of _Honour_, to _Me_, to be _Rescu'd_ out of the hands of
_Publique Enemies_, and _Apostates_, by Men of the Clear _Contrary
Character_; That is to say; by Men of _Unquestionable Integrity_, and of
_Unspotted Faith_.
My _Back Friends_ are as _Merry_, now, as _a Laugh on One side of the
Mouth_ can Make 'em; at the _Conceit_ of calling the several _Presents_
which have been made me (and they are very _Considerable_) by the name
of a _Gathering_; and they do not Stick to put it about, That I was my
_Own Sollicitor_ for the _Begging_ of it. I have been Told of One, that
_said_ as much; _for whose sake_, I would Advise _All Parents_ to take
it for a _Warning_, not to _Stuff_ their _Childrens Heads_ so Damnably,
with _Greek and Latin_, as to leave no _Room_ for _Brains_, and _Good
Manners_. But what if it _be a Gathering_? Are not All _Publique
Benevolences; Publique Works; Publique Acknowledgments_; the _same
Thing_? Neither do I find any more _Scandal_, in receiving a _Reward_
for a _Service_ in a _Common Cause_, then in a _Lawyers_ taking a _Fee_,
in a _Private_ One: But be it what it _will_: I shall Transmit the
_Acknowledgment_ of it, with This Paper, as the _Glory of my Life_: And
Value my self Incomparably more upon so _Eminent_ a _Mark_ of a _General
Esteem_; then upon the _Advantage_ of _Ten times a Greater Sum_, by _Any
Other way_. But _Gatherings_, with some People, are only _Honourable_,
when they are Apply'd to the _Maintaining_ of _Conspirators_, and
_Affidavit-Men_: And they Account _Money_ much better _Bestow'd_ upon
the _Subversion_ of the _Government_, then toward the _Defending_ of it:
But _That Orange is Squeez'd as far as 'twill Drop, already_.
Now to the _Calumny_ of _My Setting This Bus'ness afoot; First_, I thank
God, that neither my _Mind_, nor my _Condition_ were ever Sunk _so_ Low,
yet, as to _Descend_ to _That way of Application_. 21y, As I hope to be
Sav'd, the Matter was Proceeded upon, in _Several Places_, and a _Long
Time_, before ever I had the Least _Inkling_, or _Imagination_ of it;
And when it was so far _Advanc'd, without my Privity_, I must Certainly
have been both a Great _Fool_, and a Great _Clown_, either to have
_Oppos'd_, or _Refus'd_, a Token of so _Obliging_, and so _Generous_ a
_Respect_. To Conclude; If any man has been so _Misled_, as to _Intend_
That for a _Personal Charity_; which I cannot _Honourably_ Own the
_Receiving_ of, under _That Notion_; I am ready to Return him his
Proportion, with a Thousand Acknowledgments: But This shall not Hinder
me yet, from _Cherishing_ in my _Thoughts_, the _Remembrance_ of what
_Honour_ soever has been done me for the sake of the _Publique_.
The Reflexions that have been Pass'd upon my _Quality_, and
_Conversation_, need no Further Answer, then to Appeal to my very
_Name_, and my _Acquaintance_: But for the _Charge_ of being a _Papist_,
it is as _False_, as it is _Malicious_.
I am to say One Word more now, concerning my _L. Shaftsbury_; whose
_Name_, and _Title_, I have often Occasion to make mention of, in This
Book. The _Reader_ is to take Notice, that it is Intended of the _Late
Earl of Shaftsbury_, who Dy'd at _Amsterdam, Jan. 168-2/3. The Surviving
Heir of That Honour, and Family, having ever Demean'd himself with a
Remarkable Loyalty, and Respect, toward the King, and his Government_.
=Numb. 1.=
THE OBSERVATOR.
In _QUESTION_ and _ANSWER_.
=WEDNESDAY=, April 13. 1681.
_Q. WEll! They are so. But do you think now to bring'um to their Wits
again with a_ Pamphlet?
_A._ Come, Come; 'Tis the _Press_ that has made'um _Mad_, and the
_Press_ must set'um _Right_ again. The Distemper is _Epidemical_; and
there's no way in the world, but by _Printing_, to convey the _Remedy_
to the _Disease_.
_Q. But what is it that you call a_ Remedy?
_A._ The _Removing_ of the _Cause_. That is to say, the _Undeceiving_ of
the _People_: for they are well enough Disposed, of themselves, to be
Orderly, and Obedient; if they were not misled by _Ill Principles_, and
Hair'd and Juggled out of their Senses with so many Frightful _Stories_
and _Impostures_.
_Q. Well! to be Plain and Short; You call your self the_ Observator:
_What is it now that you intend for the Subject of your_ Observations?
_A._ Take it in few words then. My business is, to encounter the
_Faction_, and to Vindicate the _Government_; to detect their
_Forgeries_; to lay open the Rankness of their _Calumnies_, and
_Malice_; to Refute their _Seditious Doctrines_; to expose their
_Hypocrisy_, and the _bloudy Design_ that is carry'd on, under the Name,
and Semblance, of _Religion_; And, in short, to lift up the Cloke of the
_True Protestant_ (as he Christens himself) and to shew the People, the
_Jesuite_ that lies skulking under it.
_Q. Shall the_ Observator _be a_ Weekly Paper, _or How_?
_A._ No, No; but oftner, or seldomer, as I see Occasion.
_Q. Pray favour me a word; When you speak of a_ True Protestant, _don't
you mean a_ Dissenting Protestant?
_A._ Yes, I do: For your _Assenting_ and _Consenting Protestant_ (you
must know) is a _Christian_.
_Q. And is not a_ Dissenting Protestant _a_ Christian too?
_A._ Peradventure, he _is_ one; peradventure, _not_: For a _Dissenter_
has his Name from his _Disagreement_, not from his _Perswasion_.
_Q. What is a Dissenter then?_
_A._ Tis Impossible to say either what a _Dissenter IS_, or what he is
_NOT_. For he's a _NOTHING_; that may yet come to be _ANY thing_. He may
be a _Christian_; or he may be a _Turk_; But you'l find the best account
of him in his _Name_. _A DISSENTER, is one that thinks OTHERWISE._ That
is to say, let the _Magistrate_ think what he pleases, the _Dissenter_
will be sure to be of _another Opinion_. A _Dissenter_ is not of _This_,
or of _That_, or of _Any Religion_; but _A Member Politique of an
Incorporate Faction_: or Otherwise; A _Protestant-Fault-Finder_ in a
_Christian Commonwealth_.
_Q. Well! but tho' a_ Dissenter _may be_ any thing; _A_ Dissenting
Protestant _yet tells ye_ what _he Is_.
_A._ He does so, he tells ye that he _is_ a _Negative_: an
_Anti-Protester_; One that _Protests AGAINST_, but not _FOR_ any thing.
_Q. Ay; but so long as he opposes the_ Corruptions _of the Church of_
Rome.
_A._ Well: And so he does the _Rites_, and _Constitutions_ of the Church
of _England_ too. As a _Protestant_, he does the _former_; and the
_Other_ as a _Dissenter_.
_Q. But is there no_ Uniting _of These_ Dissenters?
_A._ You shall as soon make the Winds blow the same way, from all the
Poynts of the Compass.
_Q. There are_ Good _and_ Bad, _of_ all Opinions, _there's no doubt
on't: But do you think it fayr, to Condemn a_ whole Party _for some_ Ill
men _in't_?
_A._ No, by no means: The _Party_ is neither the _Worse_, for having
_Ill_ men in it, nor the _Better_, for _Good_. For whatever the
_Members_ are, the _Party_ is a _Confederacy_; as being a _Combination_,
against the _Law_.
_Q. But a man may_ Mean honestly, _and yet perhaps ly under some_
Mistake. _Can any man help his Opinion?_
_A._ A man may _Mean well_, and _Do Ill_; he may shed _Innocent Bloud_,
and _think he does God good Service_. 'Tis True: A man cannot help
_Thinking_; but he may help _Doing_: He is _Excusable_ for a _Private_
Mistake, for _That's_ an Error only to _himself_; but when it comes once
to an _Overt Act_, 'tis an _Usurpation_ upon the _Magistrate_, and
there's no Plea for't.
_Q. You have no kindnesse, I perceive, for a_ Dissenting Protestant;
_but what do you think of a bare_ Protestant _without any_ Adjunct?
_A._ I do look upon _Such_ a _Protestant_ to be a kind of an _Adjective
Noun-Substantive; It requires something to be joyn'd with it, to shew
its Signification_. By _Protestancy_ in _General_ is commonly understood
a _Separation_ of Christians from the Communion of the Church of _Rome_:
But to _Oppose Errors_, on the _One hand_, is not Sufficient, without
keeping our selves _Clear_ of Corruptions, on the _Other_. Now it was
the _Reformation_, not the _Protestation_, that Settled us upon a _true
Medium_ betwixt the two _Extreams_.
_Q. So that you look upon the_ Protestation, _and the_ Reformation, _it
seems, as two several things_.
_A._ Very right; But in such a manner only, that the _Former_, by Gods
Providence, made way for the _Other_.
_Q. But are not all_ Protestants _Members of the_ Reformed Religion?
_A._ Take notice, _First_, that the _Name_ came Originally from the
_Protestation_ in 1529. against the _Decree of Spires_; and that the
_Lutheran Protestants_ and _Ours_ of the Church of _England_, are not of
the _Sam Communion_. Now _Secondly_; If you take _Protestants_ in the
_Latitude_ with our _Dissenters_, they are not so much a _Religion_,
as a _Party_; and whoever takes this Body of _Dissenters_ for _Members_
of the _Reformed Religion_ sets up a _Reformation_ of a _hundred and
fifty Colours_ and as may [sic] _Heresies_. The _Anabaptists, Brownists,
Antinomians, Familists, &c._ do all of them set up for _Dissenting
Protestants_; but God forbid we should ever enter these _People_ upon
the Roll of the _Reformation_.
_Q._ Well! _but what do you think of_ Protestant Smith _and_ Protestant
Harris?
_A._ Just as I do of _Protestant Muncer_, and _Protestant Phifer_; a
Brace of _Protestants_ that cost the Empire 150000 Lives: and our own
_Pretended Protestants_ too, of Later Date, have cost _This Nation
little lesse_.
_Q. Ay: But these are men of quite another Temper: Do not you see how
zealous they are for the Preservation of the_ King's Person, _the_
Government, _and the_ Protestant Religion?
_A._ I _See_ well enough what they _Say_, and I _know_ what they _do_.
Consider, _First_, that they are Profess'd _Anabaptists: Smith_ no less
then a _pretended Prophet_; and the _Other_, a kind of a _Wet
Enthusiast. Secondly_; 'tis the very _Doctrine_ of the _Sect_ to root
out _Magistracy_, Cancel _Humane Laws; Kill_, and take _Possession_; and
_wash their Feet with the Bloud of the Ungodly_; and where ever they
have set Footing, they have _Practic'd_ what they _Taught_. Are not
these likely men now, to help out a _King_, and a _Religion_, at a dead
lift? If you would be further satisfy'd in the Truth of things, reade
_Sleidan, Spanhemius, Gastius, Hortensius, Bullinger, Pontanus, The
Dipper dipp'd, Bayly's Disswasive, Pagets Heresiography_, &c.
_Hortensius_ tells ye, how _Jack of Leydens Successor_ murthered his
Wife, to make way to his Daughter, _P._ 74. and after that, cut a girls
throat, for fear she should tell Tales. _Gastius_ tells us of a Fellow
that cut off his brothers Head, as by Impulse, and then cry'd, _The Will
of God is fulfilled, lib. I. Pa. 12. Jack of Leyden_ started up from
Supper, _to do some business_ (he said) _which the Father had commanded
him_, and cut off a Soldiers Head; and afterwards cut off his Wives head
in the _Market-place. Sleydans Comment. Lib. 10._
_Q. You will not make the_ Protestant-Mercury _to be an_ Anabaptist
_too, will ye_?
_A._ If you do make him _any thing_, I'le make him _That_. But in one
word, they are _Factious_ and _Necessitous_; and consequently, the
fittest Instruments in the world, for the Promoting of a _Sedition_.
First, as they are _Principled_ for't; and then, in respect of their
_Condition_; for they are every man of them under the Lash of the Law,
and Retainers to Prisons; So that in their _Fortunes_ they can hardly
be _worse_. Insomuch, that it is a common thing for them to lend a Name
to the countenancing of a Libel which no body else dares own.
_Q. Well! but let them be as_ poor, _and_ malicious _as_ Devils, _so
long as they have neither_ Brains, _nor_ Interest, _what hurt can their
Papers do_?
_A._ The Intelligences, you must know, that bear their _Names_, are not
of _their Composing_, but the Dictates of a _Faction_, and the Venom of
a Club of _Common-wealths-men_ instill'd into those Papers.
_Q. These are_ Words, _all this while, without_ Proofs; _Can you shew us
particularly where the Venom lies?_
_A._ It is the business of every Sheet they Publish, to Affront the
_Government_, the _Kings Authority_, and _Administration_; the
_Privy-Council_; the _Church, Bench, Juries, Witnesses_; All _Officers,
Ecclesiastical, Military_, and _Civil_: and no matter for _Truth_ or
_Honesty_, when a _Forg'd Relation_ will serve their turn. 'Tis a common
thing with them, to get half a dozen _Schismaticall_ Hands to a
_Petition_, or _Address_ in a corner, and then call it, the sense of the
Nation: and when all's done, they are not above twenty Persons, that
make all this Clutter in the Kingdom.
_Q. But to what End do they all this?_
_A._ To make the Government _Odious_, and _Contemptible_; to magnifie
their own Party; and fright the People out of their _Allegeance_, by
_Counterfeit Letters, Reports_, and _false Musters_, as if the sober and
considerable part of the Nation were all on their side.
_Q. We are in Common Charity to_ allow, _for_ Errors, _and_
Mis-reports, _and not presently to make an Act of_ Malice, _and_
Design, _out of every_ Mistake. _Can you shew me any of these_
Counterfeits, _and_ Impostures _that you speak of? These_ Cheats _upon
the_ People, _and_ Affronts _upon the_ Government?
_A._ Yes, yes; Abundantly. And Il'e give you Instances immediately upon
every poynt you'l ask me: Only This note, by the way; That let them be
_mistakes_, or _Contrivances_, or what you will, they all run
Unanimously _against_ the Government, without so much as one Syllable in
_favour_ of it: Which makes the matter desperately suspitious.
_Q. Let me see then, in the First place, where any_ Affront _is put upon
the_ Government.
_A. Some Persons_ (Says Smiths Prot. Int. N. 7.) _in_ Norwich, _&c. who
have a greater stock of_ Confidence, _and_ Malice, _then_ Wisdom, _and_
Honesty, _are so far transported with_ Zeal _to serve the_ Devil, _or
his_ Emissaryes _the_ Papists, _that they are now Prosecuting several_
Dissenting Protestants _upon_ Stat. 35. Eliz. _&c._ (And so the
Protestant-Mercury, _N._ 15.) _Some People at_ Norwich, _are playing
the_ Devil _for_ Godsake: _several honest, peaceable_, Protestant
Dissenters, _having been troubled for not coming to_ Church, _or having
been Present at_ Religious Meetings &c. Now what greater _Affront_ can
there be to _Government_, then This language, _First_, from an
_Anabaptist_ that is a _Professed Enemy_ to _all Government_; and
_Secondly_, from a _Private Person_, Bare-fac'd, to arraign a _Solemn
Law_: A _Law_ of this _Antiquity_; a _Law_ of _Queen Elizabeth's_, (a
Princesse so much Celebrated by our _Dissenters themselves_ for her
_Piety, Good Government_, and _Moderation_;) a _Law_ which, upon
Experience, has been found so _Necessary_, that the bare _Relaxing_ of
it, cost the _Life_ of a _Prince_, the _Bloud_ of _two or three hundred
thousand_ of his _Subjects_, and a _Twenty-years-Rebellion_? To say
nothing of the dangerous Consequence of making it _Unsafe_ for
_Magistrates_ to discharge their Dutyes, for fear of _Outrages_, and
_Libells_.
_Q. Well! but what have you to say now to the_ Kings Authority, _his_
Administration, _and his_ Privy Council.
_A. Smith_ (in his _Vox Populi, P._ 13.) saith, that _the King is
oblig'd to pass or Confirm those Laws his People shall Chuse_, at which
rate, if they shall tender him a Bill for the _Deposing_ of himself, he
is bound to _agree_ to't. _Secondly_, in the same Page, _he Denies the
Kings Power of Proroguing, or Dissolving Parliaments_; which is an
_Essential_ of _Government_ it self, under what Form soever, and he's no
longer a _King, without it_. And then for his _Administration, P._ 1.
the _Anabaptist_ charges upon his Majesty [_those many surprizing and
astonishing Prorogations, and Dissolutions_ (as he has worded his
Meaning) _to be procur'd by the Papists_.] And then, _P._ 15. he wounds
both the _King_, and his _Council_, at a Blow; in falling upon _those
that make the King break his Coronation-Oath_; arraigning his _Council_
in the _First_ place, and the _King himself_ in the _Second_; and that
for no less then the breach of _Oath_, and _Faith_.----Wee'l talk out
the Rest at our next Meeting.
_London_, Printed for _H. Brome_, at the Gun in S. _Pauls_ Church-yard.
=Numb.= 13.
THE OBSERVATOR.
In _QUESTION_ and _ANSWER_.
=SATURDAY=, May 14. 1681.
_Q_. _But which way lies_ your _Humour_ then?
_A._ My way (you must know) lies more to _History_, and _Books_, and
_Politicks_, and _Religion_, and _such as That_, But take this along
with you too; that I am for turning over of _Men_, as well as _Books_;
for that's the Profitable Study when all's done.
_Q. Pre' thee commend me to the_ Common Hangman _then, If He that_ turns
over _the most_ men _be the_ Greatest Philosopher. _But how_ turning
over _of_ Men?
_A._ That is to say, I _Read_ Them; I _Study_ them; I speak of _turning
over_ their _Actions_, not their _Bodys_. And Pray observe my _Simile.
Every_ Action _of a mans_ Life _resembles_ a Page _in a_ Book. D'ye Mark
me?
_Q._ I _were to Blame else, But what are the Authors that you would
recommend to a bodys Reading?_
_A._ Why thereafter as the Subject is, As for _History_; ye have _Clarks
Lives_, and _Examples_; _Lloyd's Memoirs_; the _Popes Warehouse_, &c.
For _Politicks_; There's Mr. _Baxters Holy Commonwealth_, the _Assemblys
Catechism_, The Letter about the _Black Box_, &c. For _Law_, ye have Mr.
_Prinn's Soveraign Power of Parliaments_; _Smiths Vox Populi_, &c. For
_Morals_, There's _Youth's Behaviour_; And then For _Deep Knowledge_, ye
have _Brightman's Revelations Reveal'd_; _Lilly's Hieroglyphicks_; the
_Northern Star_, _Jones_ of the _Heart_: All Excellent Pieces in their
kinds, and not Inferior (perhaps) to any of the Ancients.
_Q. I was never so happy as to meet with any of these Authors. But what
d'ye think of_ Cornelius Tacitus?
_A._ A _Talking, Tedious, Empty Fellow_.
_Q. Well but is not_ Titus Livius _a pretty Good_ Historian?
_A._ Ha Ha Ha. That Same _Titus_ is an Errant _Puppy_, A _Damn'd,
Insipid, Lying Coxcomb. Titus Livius_ a good _Historian_ sayst thou? Why
if I had a _Schoolboy_ that writ such _Latin_ I'de tickle his _Toby_ for
him.
_Q. But what's your Opinion of_ Caesars Commentaries _then? I mean, for
a_ Narrative?
_A._ A _Narrative_ d'ye say? Deliver me from such _Narratives_! Why 'tis
no more to be compar'd to the _Narratives_ that are written _now adays_,
then an _Apple_ is to an _Oyster_.
_Q. But however He was a very_ Brave Fellow, _was he not_?
_A._ He was an _Arbitrary_, Oppressing, Tyrannical _Fellow_. And then
for his _Bravery_, he did pretty well at the Battel of _Leipsick_, and
after that, at _Lepanto_; and when you have said that, you have said
all.
_Q. You have read all these Authors, have you not?_
_A._ Why verily I _have_, and I have _not_. They are a company of
_Lying, Ridiculing Rascals_; They do not _AFFECT_ me at all: they are
below me, they are not worth my notice.
_Q. What would I give to be as well vers'd in_ History, _as you are_?
_A._ And that's Impossible, let me tell ye; Utterly Impossible: For I
reade just six times as much as any other Man. I have Read more
_Folio's_ then ever _Tostatus_ read _Pages_. In one Word; I reade as
much in _one hour_, as any other man reads in _six_.
_Q. Why how can that be?_
_A._ Why you must know I have a notable Faculty that way. I read ye _two
Pages_ at a _view_: the _Right-hand_ Page with _one eye_, and the _Left_
with _t'other_, and then I carry _three Lines_ before me at a time with
_each eye_.
_Q. But can ye_ Keep _what ye_ Reade, _at this rate_?
_A._ I _remember_ six times more then I _reade_; for I supply all that
was left out, and yet 'tis a wonderfull thing, I cannot for my heart's
blood remember _Faces_. I dare swear I have taken one man for another
twenty times; but I am altogether for _Things_, and _Notions_, d'ye see,
and such like; _Countenances_, let me tell ye, don't _AFFECT_ me; And
yet I have a strange aversion for the two Faces I saw with you t'other
day.
_Q. What D'ye mean_, Kings-man _and_ Church-man?
_A. Devil's-man_ and _Damms-man_: A couple of _Canary-Birds_, I'le
warrant 'em: But _Kings-man_ is better yet then _Duke's-man_.
_Q. Why do ye talk thus of men of Quality, and Considerable Families?_
_A._ Well! but I may live to see their Honours laid in the dust tho' for
all that. Prethee why is not _Circingle-man, Lawn-sleeve-man,
Mitre-man_, as good a name as _Church-man_? Pray what Family is this
same _Church-man_ of, for I know a world of the _Name_? He's of the
_Prelatical House_, I suppose, Is he not?
_Q. Well, and is he ever the worse for that?_
_A._ Only _Antichrist_ is the _Head_ of the _Family_. Come let me talk a
little roundly to ye. How many sound _Protestant Divines_ may there be
of that House now, d'ye think, in _England_, and _Wales_, and the Town
of _Berwick upon Tweed_? not above _Six_, if I be a _Christian_, and all
the rest are _Tantivy's_, and worshippers of the Beast: But I may live
yet to have the scowring of some of their Frocks for 'em.
_Q. Prethee when didst thou see Mr._ Sancroft?
_A._ Not a good while; but _Harry_ and I had a Crash t'other day yonder
at _Greenwich_.
_Q. What's become of_ L'Estrange _I wonder?_
_A._ Who! _Towzer?_ that _Impudent Dog_; That _Tory-Rascal_; That
_Fidling Curr_. He's in the Plot with _Celiers_, and young _Tong_, as
sure as thou'rt alive, and as Rank a _Papist_ (let him swear what he
will) as ever Piss't.
_Q. But has he not taken the_ Sacrament _to the_ contrary?
_A._ A _Popish Proselyte_ is no more to be believ'd, upon his _Oath_,
than the _Devil himself_ if he were to Expound upon the _Gospel_. Why
they have Dispensations to swear any thing.
_Q. What and continue Papists still?_
_A._ Yes: And go on still with the Hellish Popish Plot, as heartily as
ever they did before. Why don't you see how the Toad Brazens it out
still that he was not at _Somerset-House_? tho' _Prance_ and _Mowbray_
swear they saw him there?
_Q. Well, But who knows best? He_ Himself, _or the_ Witnesses?
_A._ Not a fart matter; For whether 'twas so or not; It were better
Forty such Rogues were Hang'd then one Kings-Evidence Disparag'd.
_Q. But did they not swear a little short, think ye?_
_A._ Nay, they might have sworn _homer_, I must confess.
_Q. But now you mind me of_ Somerset-House; _Do'nt you remember a young
Fellow of_ Cambridge _that Refus'd to receive the Sacrament, because (as
he told his Master) he was reconcil'd to the Church, of_ Rome, _and
Converted, and Baptiz'd at_ Somerset-House? _This is an old story ye
must know. Why might not this be_ Towzer?
_A._ Nay as like as not, for the _Universitys_ are the very _Seminarys_
of _Popery_, and it will never be well with _England_ till _those
Calves_ be turn'd a _grazing_.
_Q. But is there no believing of a_ Converted Papist _upon his_ Oath?
_Why does the Law receive 'em then (upon such and such Certain Tests)
for_ statutable Protestants?
_A._ The _Law_ never was among 'em as _I_ have been. There's no such
thing (I tell ye) as a _Converted Papist_, and he shall sooner change
his _shape_, then his _Nature: Kiss a Book, Kiss mine Arse_.
_Q. Why d'ye talk thus at random?_
_A._ Come, come, the _Outlandish Doctor_ for my mony: that told one of
the _Macks_ t'other day in the face of the _Bench_, that _he would let
down his Breeches and shite upon him. Plain-dealing's a Jewell._
_Q. Thou'rt e'en as busy with a_ Backside _as a_ Glyster-Pipe. _But
(sluttery a part) Pray have a care what ye say; for if a_ Proselyted
Papist _be not to be trusted upon his_ Oath, _what becomes of the_ Kings
Evidence _that_ swear _under the_ same Circumstances? _But here's enough
of this; and Pre'thee tell us now, how go squares in the_ State _all
this while_?
_A._ Oh very bad, very bad, nothing but _Tory-Rorys_, from top to
bottom. _Tory-Judges; Tory-Jurys; Tory-Justices; Tory-Officers;
Tory-Crackfarts; Tory-Pamphlets_. All, _Certiorari-men_, and _Yorkists_.
But I rattled up some of 'em there at the----_What d'ye
call't-House_----Oh they'r grown strangely Insolent since these Bawling
Addresses.
_Q. Why what do they do?_
_A._ Why they set every _Rascally Squire_ and _Doctor above_ me: Nay,
they'l scarce put off their hats to me unless I begin; and then they
stand grinning at Me and my Train. Would you think now that a fellow
should have the Impudence to call Me to an account, for nothing in the
world, but saying, that _he had_ a Bitch _to his_ Wife, _and_ she _a_
Rogue _to her_ Husband. And then to be call'd _Sirrah_ for my pains,
only for telling a _Court-Kinsman_ of his that _I should Lace the Rogue,
his Cozens Coat for him_. Well If I had not sent a Fool o'my errant I
had had the Rascal in _Lob's_ Pound before this time.
_Q. And how came ye to miss?_
_A._ Why the Agent that I employ'd was so set upon his Guts, that he
never minded the discourse at the Table. We had had him else. Or if he
could but have got him to ha' met me, we'd ha' done his business.
_Q. But d'ye take this to be fair dealing now; to set any man at work to
betray his Host; or to give such language to people of Condition?_
_A._ What not when the _Protestant Religion_ lies at _stake_? Why
Pre'thee I tell the Proudest of 'em all to their Teeth, that they are
_Villains_ and _Scoundrells_. What do I care for their _Graces_ and
_Reverences_, they _Pimp_ for _Preferment_, and some of 'em shall hear
on't too _next Parliament_. But Hark ye I have a great deal of work upon
my hands, and I want an _Ammanuensis_ out of all Cry.
_Q. Why ye had a Pretty Fellow to'ther day, what's become of him?_
_A._ I'l tell ye then. A _Taylor_ had made him a _Garment_: and
afterwards coming to him for the _mony_, he deny'd the Receit on't and
being prest upon it, he offer'd to purge himself upon _Oath_, that he
never had any such Garment. Upon this, the matter rested for a while;
but at length, it was prov'd where he had _Sold_ it, and so the Taylor
had satisfaction. In short, I turn'd him away apon't, for he is no
servant for me that's _taken_ in a false Oath.
_Q. How is it possible for you to go thorough with all your
Writing-work?_
_A._ Nay that's true; considering what a deal of other business I have;
for really there would be no Justice done, if I did not look after
_Witnesses_, _Jurys_, Choice of _City-Officers_, Election of _Members_
to serve in _Parliament_, both for _Town_, and _Country_; the disposing
of _Ecclesiastical Dignitys_; the _Jurisdiction_ of _Courts_; the
_Government_ of _Prisons_; the _Regulation_ of _Messengers Fees_: In one
word, the stress of the whole Government lyes in a manner upon my
shoulders; And I am so _Harrass'd_ with it, that I profess I was e'en
thinking, a little before the Meeting of the last Parliament, to lay out
a matter of _Twenty or Thirty Thousand Pound_ upon some Pretty Seat in
the Country, and Retire.
_Q. Why truly for a man that has seen the world as you have done, what
can he do better?_
_A._ Yes, I have seen the world to my Cost. 'Twas a sad thing for me,
you must think, that never went to bed in my Mothers House without four
or five Servants to wait upon me, (and if I had a mind to a _Tart_, a
_Custard_, or a _Cheescake_ at any time, I had 'em all at command:) to
be _Hackny'd_, and _Jolted_ up and down in a Forreign Country like a
_Common Body_.
_Q. But what was it that put you upon_ Travel?
_A._ The Desire I had to see _Religions_, and _Fashions_: And now it
comes in my head. Did you ever see my _Grounds and Occasions of the
Contempt of the Clergy_?
_Q. Was That Yours then?_
_A. Mum_; betwixt friends. But I shall have a touch ere long at the
_Creed-making Rascal_ there.
_Q. Who's that?_ Athanasius?
_A._ The very same. What a _Declaration_ is there?
_Q. But how d'ye like the Kings Declaration?_
_A. Not at all. Not at all._ It runs so much upon the _Arbitrary_, and
the _Prelatick_? Yes, and upon something else too.
_Q. Come, 'Faith we should not part with dry lips, What d'ye think of
one_ Roomer _now to the Health of? (Hark, and I'le tell ye.)_
_A._ I'le drink no _Traitors_ Health.
_Q. Why prethee what is_ Civilly-Drinking _his Health, more then_
Dutifully Praying _for't_?
_A._ No: I am of the mans mind that said, I _hope the Devil will have
him; and if there be any punishment in Hell greater then another_, I
_hope the Devil will tear his soul to pieces_. So Farewell.
_Q. What a Blessed sort of_ Subjects _and_ Christians _are these, that
value themselves in the_ One Capacity, _for their_ Contempt _of_
Authority: _And in the_ other, _for the Zeal of Flying out into_
Blasphemys, _and_ Execrations, _instead of_ Prayers? _But what shall_ I
_call this at last? A_ Romantique, _or an_ Historical Observator?
_London_, Printed for _Johanna Brome_, at the Gun in S. _Pauls_
Church-yard.
=Numb.= 110
THE OBSERVATOR.
In _DIALOGUE_.
=SATURDAY=, March 11. 1681.
_WHIG._ Come; I'le shew ye my _study, Tory_.
_TORY._ Why you have got a Brave _Library_ here.
_Wh._ For a _Choice Collection_, let me tell ye, as any is in
_Christendom_.
_To._ You have all the _Greek_ and _Latin Fathers_, I suppose; the
_Councells_, the _Schoolmen_, and those People.
_Wh._ I had'em all; but there's a great deal of _Trash_; and so I e'en
rid my hands of'em; though some of'em did pretty well too; considering
those _Dark Times_. Now here can I sit as _Snug_ as a _Hare_ in her
_Form_, and Chat away a Winters Evening with a _Good Fire_, a _Pipe_,
and a _Friend_, and never feel how the time spends.
_To._ Well! And why should not You and I keep our _Conferences_ here
too?
_Wh._ Best of all: There's no body within hearing; and then we have our
_Books_ and _Papers_ about us, and all in such Order, that I'le lay my
Finger, Blindfold, upon any book you'le call for.
_To._ But what Subject are they mostly of?
_Wh._ Matters of _State, History, Travells_, The Rights and Power of the
_People, Reformation, Religion, Discipline, Admonitions, Remonstrances,
Petitions, Appeals_; as ye see'em mark'd upon the Shelves. But all this
is nothing, you'l say, when y'ave seen my _Gallery_. Open that same Door
before ye.
_To._ Bless me! What a Treasure's here?
_Wh._ Look ye now. That side is all _News-Books,_ and _Political
Divinity_.
_To._ You mean _Polemical_ Divinity I suppose.
_Wh._ Ay Ay; 'Tis all one for that. Now all to'ther side is _Dissenting
Protestants_; as _Cartwright, Brown, Barrow, Robinson_, _Hetherington,
Trask, Naylor, Best, Biddle, Muggleton_. And here are your _Muncerians,
Apostoliques, Separatists, Catharists, Enthusiasts, Adamits, Huttites,
Augustinians, Libertines, Georgites, Familists, Ranters Seekers,
Sweet-Singers, Antinomians, Arrians, Socinians, Millenaryes, Quakers_:
And in Two words; all the _Godly Party_. They make Fourteen Folio's of
Catalogue.
_To._ But ha'ye no _Manuscripts_?
_Wh._ Yes I have Three cases there beyond the Chimny, that I wou'd not
change for _Bodlies Library_ three times over.
_To._ What do they treat of?
_Wh._ Two of 'em are altogether upon the _Art of Government_, and the
_Third_ is Cramm'd with _Lampoon_ and _Satyr_. You sha'not name me any
one Copy that has scap'd me; nor any Exigent of State; but I'le furnish
ye out of these Papers with an Expedient for't.
_To._ And wherein does this _Art of Government_ Consist?
_Wh._ In _Foresight, Experience, Presence of Thought, Prudence of
Direction_, and _Vigour of Execution_. To be short; Every Motion of the
_Head_, the _Eye_, the _Hand_, the _Foot_, the _Body_. Contributes a
part to this Great Work.
_To._ Is it a Science that may be Convey'd by _Instruction_?
_Wh._ With as much Ease as _Fencing_, or _Dancing_. There are Three or
Four _Dissenting Academies_ here about the Town, where People are taught
to _Nod, Wink, Gape, Cough, Spit_; Nay the very _Tuning_ of their
_Hum's_ and _Haw's_, by _Rule and Method_; when to _Smite the Breast_,
and when to _Dust the Cushion_; when to _Leap_ in the _Pulpit_, and when
to _Swim_; when to be _Serene_, and when to _Thunder_: Nay the _Faces_
they are to make at every _Period_; and the very _Measure_ of their
_pauses_; that the _Parenthesis_ may be large enough for the _Groans_, &
_Ejaculations_ of the _Secret ones_ to _Play_ in; they are taught to
Pray for the _King_ with _One Tone_ and _Countenance_, and for the
_Parliament_ with _another_.
_To._ I have Observ'd them indeed to Cry with a Loud Voice, _Lord!
strengthen the Hands of the One_, & then to drop the Note into a kinde
of a Piping whisper, with a _Lord! Turn the Heart of the Other_; which
is as much as to say, _Alas! the Poor Gentleman is out of his way, and
we must set all hands at work to bring him to comply with his_
Parliament, _though that_ Handy work, _at last, bring his_ Royall Head
_to the_ Scaffold.
_Wh._ If you wou'd not be a _Rogue_ now and tell tales, I could let ye
in to the whole _Popular Mystery_; and shew ye the _Folly_, and the
_Vanity_ of any other Claim to _Sovereign Power_. And then _I_ have all
the _Prints_ brought me as soon as ever they come out.
_To._ Pre'thee let's fall to work then.
_Wh._ Come, I'le give you a sight of one of my _Boxes_ first; but I must
be gone in a quarter of an hour upon absolute Necessity.
_To._ Well! And whether in such hast?
_Wh._ There's One at _Newington_ has promis'd me an _Answer_ to the
_Dissenters Sayings_; and then I am told of a _Godly Divine_ at
_Clapham_, that has a _Reply_ ready to the _Notes upon College_.
_To._ Let's make the best of our time then. Stay a little; what have we
here?
_Wh._ Every thing is _Titled_, ye see, ready to your hand; so that you
may Pick and Chuse.
_To._ Let me see then. _Pious Frauds; Mentall Reservations;
Infallibility of the Assembly; Baxters Saints; Cases of Conscience;
Dispensations, Contributions, Maxims, Intelligence, Orders, Committees,
Juryes, Caballs, Religion, Property, Demands, Proposals, Grievances,
Pretences, Salvo's, Distinctions, Explanations, Projects, Directions,
Advices, Resolutions, Invectives, Fictions, Forms of Reproaches_, suited
to _All Persons, Orders_, and _Qualities; True-Protestant Privileges_;
The _Doctrine_ of _Probabilityes_, and _Implicit Obedience_.
_Wh._ Now upon all these Heads, ye have _Authoritys, Precedents_; and
all the _Colours, Arguments_, and _Elucidations_ that the matter will
bear.
_To._ But your _Pious Frauds, Mentall Reservations, Infallibility,
Dispensations, Salvo's, Distinctions, Probabilityes, Implicit Faith_;
These are all _Popish Points_.
_Wh._ They are so, when they are apply'd to the service of the
Church of _Rome_: but the _True Protestant-Cause Sanctifies_ the
_Principle_. As there's a great difference betwixt the _Popes
Excommunicating_ of an _Hereticall Prince_; and the _Generall
Assemblys Excommunicating_ of an _Antichristian, Episcopall Prince_;
betwixt a _Popish Gunpowder-Treason_, in the _Cellers, under_ the
_Parliament-House_; and a _Gunpowder Commission_ to _Kill_ and
_Slay_ within the _walls_ of the _Same House, above ground_; though
to Carnal Eyes they may both appear to _Center_ in the same _Point_:
And so in like manner, betwixt a _Conspiracy_ of _Papists_ to _cut
off the King_, and _Subvert the Government_; and a
_True-Protestant-Association_, to the very _same Effect_: Nay with
this Advantage too; that the Latter Propounds the Accomplishing of
that, in a matter of a _month_ or _six weeks_, which the Zeal of
their Fore-fathers was at least _Ten_, or a _dozen years a doing_.
_To._ 'Tis a Great Ease for a man to have all these Subjects
_Common-Plac'd_ to his hand.
_Wh._ Right. And where you may turn to any thing you have a mind to see,
with a _wet Finger_.
_To._ But Pray'e How do you approve (in many of our _Seisures_) of the
_Application_ of _Popish Trinkets_ to _Prophane Uses_, which were by
them Dedicated to the service of a _Superstitious Religion_?
_Wh._ You cannot Imagine, though an _Embroder'd Cope_ may be an
_Abomination_, what a _Cordial the Pearl_ of it is to a _True-Protestant
Professor. Lambs-Wool_ drinks no way better then out of a _Chalice_. Or
in other Cases; 'Tis but Destroying the _Popish Form_ of an _Idolatrous
Vessell_, and the _Intrinsick Value_ is never the less _Current_
according to the _Standard_ of the _Reformation_. The _Picture_ of the
_Blessed Virgin_, with our _Saviour_ in her Arms, is never a jot the
worse for _sale_ to a _Painter_, for being an object of _Idolatry_ about
the _Altar_.
_To._ And yet I have seen it Committed to the _Flames_, but it has been
an Oversight, betwixt the _Zeal_ and the _Ignorance_ of the
_Magistrate_. How many _Curious Crucifixes_, and _Reliques_, with
_Delicate Inlayings_, and _Carvings_ have I seen Expos'd at _Gill_ the
_Constables_ in _Westminster_; truly, at very _Reasonable Rates_?
_Wh._ Not unlikely; but then ye must know, they were _Seiz'd_ in _One
Capacity_, and _sold_ in _Another_; for they were _vended_ in the
Contemplation of the _Workmanship_, though they were _taken_ as the
_Fooleries_ of a _False Religion_. We have in our days seen the
_Representation_ of the _Trinity_, Demolish'd in a _Church-Window_, with
Extraordinary _Zeal_ and _Approbation_.
_To._ Why truly I am as much against the making of any _Image_ or
_Figure_ of _God the Father_ under the _Form_ of a _Man_, as any body;
for _Twenty Mistakes_ and _Inconveniencies_ that may arise upon the
Consideration of such an _Object_; but I know no hurt in the world in
the Representing of our _Saviour_ under a _Human shape_; or of the _Holy
Ghost_ under the shadow of a _Dove_: beside that the thing is presum'd
to have been done by _Authority_; for otherwise, the same _Zeal_ that
Destroys but the _Window_ of the _Church_, would not stick at the
Destroying perhaps of every thing else that belongs to't. But prethee
tell me One thing, suppose the _Blessed Trinity_, so Represented, should
be the _Seal_ of an _Ancient_ Community, or _Society_ of men, what's the
difference betwixt that _Figure_, in _Graving_, or in _Nealing_; in
_Silver_, or in _Glass_? Would not you as much _scruple_ the putting of
that _Seal_ to a _Lease_, as the _seeing_ of that _Figure_ in a
_Church-Window_?
_Wh._ No; by no means; for the _One_ is Purely a _Civil Act_; and the
_Other_ has a Regard to _Religious Worship_.
_To._ And yet this _Image_, or _Pretended Resemblance_, is the _same
thing_ in the _One_, as it is in the _Other_. Well! I am Extremly
pleas'd with this Private Corner for Liberty of Discourse.
_Wh._ Here you may have all the _Papers_ as they come out, _Fresh and
Fresh_: All the _Arguments_, and _Politiques_ of the _Dissenting Party_;
Chuse _your own Theme_, Take _your own Time_, and Treat upon _your own
Conditions_.
_To._ That's as fair as any Mortall can wish; So that when the day does
not afford other matter to work upon, we may Look a little more narrowly
into the _Merits_ of the _Cause_. And so much for that. But here let me
ask ye a Question: Do you know a _Little Cause-Jobber_ yonder somewhere
about _Kings-street, in Covent Garden_?
_Wh._ Does he not use the _Christian Coffee-House_?
_To._ The very same. He was saying t'other day that _L'Estrange_ was a
_Pensioner of Cromwels_; a _Papist_; and that he durst not bring his
_Action_ against any man for _Calling_ him so: That he was a _Rogue_; a
_Fidler_; Liv'd in _Covent-Garden_ a good while, and got his _Living_ by
his _Trade_; And that a _Magistrate_, not far from that place, would
_Justify_ it. The Two first Points, I suppose, will be Disputed in
another place: And for the _Fidler_: 'Tis well known that _L'Estrange_
liv'd Eight or Nine years in one of the _Piazza-Houses_ there; and kept
_Servants_ that would have Scorn'd to have Sorted themselves with any
thing so mean as this _Paltry Varlet_. But to the Business. How far will
the _Privilege_ of a _True-Protestant-Whig_ Justify a _Villain_ in so
many _Scandalous Lyes_?
_Wh._ So far as the _Common Good_ of the _Cause_ is more Valuable then
the _single Credit_ of a _Private Person_. But what say ye now to
_Curtis's Advertisement_ (in his Last _Mercury_) of _Tong's Narrative_,
and _Case_; concerning _L'Estrange_, Printed for C W?
_To._ I say, 'tis _first_, a _Cheat_; for 'tis none of _Tong's Writing_;
_2ly_, 'Tis _Another Cheat_; for 'twas Printed for _Langley Curtis_,
with his Name to _Tongs Appointment_ for the Printing of it: Only he has
Fobb'd a _New_, and a _False Title-Page_ to't. But what says Mr.
_Oates_, all this while, to _L'Estranges Enformation_ against _Tonge_,
in the _Shammer Shamm'd_? where that young Fellow has the Impudence to
declare under his hand, the very _Foundation_ of _Oates's_ Plot to be a
_Cheat_: And _I appeal to all Good Protestants for Justice upon that
Scandalous Wretch_.
_Wh._ Nay, 'tis a horrible Abuse, and really the man stands in's own
light: What was't? 500 or a 1000 Pound that he recover'd of One that did
not say the Hundredth part of what this comes to? The Lord Deliver me! I
knew the Time when 'twas _half a Hanging-matter_ to have made the least
doubt of any Branch of the Hellish Plot: But for this Audacious Fool to
say in Expresse Terms, that [_the_ Four Jesuites Letters, _wherein_
Oates _pretended was the whole Discovery, were_ Counterfeits] is utterly
Intolerable. I'le e'en go my ways immediately, and talk with the Doctor
about it.
_London_, Printed for _Joanna Brome_, at the Gun in S. _Pauls_
Church-yard.
Vol. 3. =Numb. 88=
THE OBSERVATOR,
_A_ Schism _a Greater Judgment then a_ Pestilence. _The_ Natural
Rhetorique _of the_ Non-Cons. _The_ Danger _of them. Several_ Sorts
_and_ Degrees _of Danger. Of Coming_ About, _or Coming_ Over. _The_
Cause _Transferr'd from_ Government _to_ Religion.
=Munday=, September 28. 1685.
_OBSERVATOR._ If I were the _Master_ of a _Territory_, I would as soon
_Trust_ so many _Spirits_ in my _Pulpits, to Blow a Pestilence thorough
my Dominions_, as so many of our _Non-Conforming Divines_; and reckon my
_People_ much _Safer_ too, under the Danger of a _Plague_, then under
the _Consequences_ of a _Schism_: For the _One Taints_ but the Bodies of
Men; the _Other Destroys_ their very Souls; the _One_ takes them
_Promiscuously_, the _Good_, and the _Bad, One_ with _Another_: But the
_'Tother Marks_, and _Singles-out_ the _Best Men_ for _Ruine_, with a
_Privilege_ of _Exemption_, to those that neither fear _God_, nor _Man_.
The _One_ Sweeps away a Number of Single _Persons_; the _Other_ Tears to
pieces the _Sinews_ of a _Community_. The _One_ does, in _some Degree_,
Conduce to the _Purging_ of a _Wicked Nation_, when the _Wrath_ of
_Heaven_ is _Appeas'd_ by the _Discharge_ of some _Dreadfull Judgment_
upon't; (as the _Air_ is Clear'd by _Thunder_) The _Other_ does All that
is _Possible_ to the _Filling-up_ of the _Measure_ of a _Publique
Iniquity_; and the making of a Land Ripe for _Vengeance_.
_TRIMMER._ Prethee what _Danger_? Or what needs this _Lashing_, when
they are All Tongue-Ty'd; and Driven into _Holes_, and _Hiding-Places_,
to keep out of the way of _Messengers_, and _Constables_, and out of the
_Clutches_ of the _Corporation-Act_, and _Other Penal Laws_ against
their _Private Meetings_?
_Obs._ What dost thou Talk of Tongue-Ty'd? Why I will undertake it; (and
in _Serious Good Earnest_ too) _Gagg_ the Whole Set of'em; Give Every
man his _Pulpit_, or his _Chair_, and only a Bare Standing in't; and if
they do not _Wink_, and _Nod_, and _Cuff_ any Prince in _Christendom_
out of his _Dominions_, without a _Word Speaking_, I'le be thy
_Bond-slave_. Why they do not do their Bus'ness, man, by the Force of
_Logique, Grammar_, or by the _Dint_ of _Theology_: But by _Groans,
Pangs, Tragical Ululations, Silent Interjections, Whining Apostrophes,
Melting Epiphonemas_; and in a word; by the Helps of _Natural
Rhetorick_, without _Need_, of either _Sense_, or _Syllables_.
_Trim._ They _Preach_, and _Pray_, without _Speaking_ then.
_Obs._ No No. They do Talk for _Fashion_-sake: But Observe it while you
will; They move the _Passions_ of their _Auditory_, in the _Belfry_, or
the _Church-Porch, Forty times more_ then Directly under the _Pulpit_:
For the _Emphasis_ of an _Action_; a _Motion, Tone_, or _Countenance_,
makes a much Deeper _Impression_, than that of a _Naked, Empty, Sound_:
And for _My Part_, I fancy, it might do as well for 'em to Whistle their
_Preachments_ as to Articulate them: For the _Masterpiece_, or the All
in All of it, lies Mainly, in _Hitting_ the _Tune_.
_Trim._ D'ye call this Reasoning, or Ridiculing?
_Obs._ 'Tis _Both_ in _One_: For it is the _Ridiculous Truth_, and the
_Just Reason, Method_, and _State_ of the _Matter_: And when People are
once _Juggled_ Out _of their Wits_, they must be _Fool'd_ Into _'em
again_. Now there needs no more to the doing of _That Work_, then the
bare _Drawing_ of the _Curtain_, and letting People into the
_Tyring-Room_. For the _Cause_, is all over, _Theatrical_: The _Actors_
are _Hypocrites_, in their _Manners_, as well as in the _Etymon_; and
the whole _Manage_, fitter for a _Stage_, then a _Pulpit_. So that the
most _Certain Way_ in _Nature_, for the making of the _Practice,
Odious_; and the _Disabusing_ of the _Undiscerning Multitude_, is to
_lay Open_ their _False Colours, Shapes_, & _Disguises_; and _Expose_
Every thing in its _Naked Simplicity_ to the _Light_.
_Trim._ And what if a man should Allow This sort of People now, to be
the most _Uncouth, Hideous Monsters_ of the _Creation_? To have the
_Teeth_, the _Nails_, the _Fierceness_, the _Strength_, & the _Appetite_
of the most _Ravenous_ of _Wild Beasts_? This Discourse, of _Caution_,
and _Description_, might do well enough in the _Countrys_ of _Lyons_,
and _Tygers_: But what's All This, to _his Majesties Dominions_, where
there are either _None_ of These Creatures, _at all_, or No _Other_, at
least, then such as have their _Nails Par'd_, and their _Chops Muzzled_:
And no more _Danger_ of them, at present, then of our _Beeves_, and
_Muttons_.
_Obs._ Dost not thou know that there are _Several_ Sorts, & Degrees of
_Danger_? A man may be Wheedled into a _Precipice_, as well as Thrown
into't: A man may be Hugg'd or Suck'd to _Death_, without any Biting, or
Scratching in the Case: A man may be Poyson'd in his _Porridge_, as well
as Strangl'd in his _Bed_: A man may have False Opinions _Impos'd_ upon
him by a _Fallacy_, or _Fraud_ in _Argument_, as well as Extorted from
him, by the Force of _Menace_, and _Torment_. And his Bus'ness, at last,
is _done_, as Dead, _One way_ as _T'other_: And so for the Degrees of
_Danger_; There's _Danger at Hand_; there's _Danger_ at a _Distance_;
_Danger_ in _Design_, and _Danger_ in _Practice_; And _Danger_, in fine,
through All the _Preparatory_, and _Mediate Tendencies_ to _Mischief_,
to the _Last Effect_ that _Pushes_ it self forth to _Execution_.
_Trim._ Very Good! And what are All These _Sorts_, and _Degrees_ of
_Danger_ to the _Instances_ we have now _Before_ us?
_Obs._ 'Tis true; The _Faction_ is not in Condition to _Attacque_ the
_Government_ by _Force_: Their _Armies_ are _Scatter'd_, and their
_Squadrons Defeated_; the _Whole Party_ put to their _Shifts_; and the
very _Best_ of 'em, has enough to do to _save his Own Bacon_. Their
_Teeth_ are _Drawn_, I'le Allow ye, All but here and there a _Stump_;
And yet they'l _Pinch, Plaguily_, though they cannot _Worry_, and
_Tear_: And with _Time_, and _Good Discipline_, they'l come to _Grow
again_. They have the _Same Principles_ to friend, that _ever_ they had:
Only they must be _Manag'd Another Way_: And there can never Want
_Matter_, for _Artificial Flattery, Wheedling, Imposture_ and
_Hypocrisy_, to _Work_ upon. They are not in Condition to _Advance_, at
this time of the Day, in the face of the _Sun_, and of the _Government_,
with their _Petticoats Flying_, under the _Auspicious Direction_ of
their _Tutelary Angel, Ferguson_; and [Fear Nothing but God] for their
_Motto_. But they must Supply want of _Strength_, by _Stratagem_; and
_Carry-on_ their _Approches_, out of sight. 'Tis only a little more
_Patience_, and the _Work_ will be brought about, as sure at the
_Long-Run_, by a _Mine_, as by a _Battery_: And the _Certifying_ of _a
Hundred and Fifty Perrots_ into the _Service_, and _Protection_ Of the
_Government_, will be of Greater _Effect_, then the _Drawing-up_ of _Ten
Thousand men in Arms_, Against it. Now _These Methods_ lye All _Open_
still, only they are somewhat more _About_. Now as to _Dangers Remote_,
or _Nearer hand; Dangers_ of _Design_, or _Dangers_ of _Practice_: All
the _Preparatories_, & _Dispositions_ to _Mischief_, in their _Secret
Impulses_, and _Causes_, are as _Vigorous_ Now, as Ever they were, that
is to say, within Two or Three Motions of a _Publique Violence_: Only
This Difference in the Case, that we have _Hitherto_, been in the
_Greatest Danger_ of our _Profess'd_, & _Open Enemies_: And _Now_, God
bless us from our _Pretending Friends_: For all on a Sudden, the
_Trimmers_ are come-up to be _Stark Church-of-England-men_; And the
_Phanatiques_, gotten a _Form Higher_, into the _Seat_ or _Classes_ of
the _Trimmers_.
_Trim._ Thou art _Well, neither Full nor Fasting_. Neither _Fanatique_,
nor _Trimmer_, nor _Church-of-England-man_ I perceive, will please ye;
The _Controversy_ of a New King; or a Common-Wealth, is _Out of Doors_;
The Question of Liberty of Conscience; The _Privilege_ of _Private
Meetings_ for Religous Worship; And a _Challenge_ of _Dispensation_ from
the _Rites, Ceremonies, and_ Discipline _of the Church, are_ All layd
aside. And All This will not serve the _Turn_ yet. Now if Men go to
_Church_; Take _Tests_, make _Declarations_; And _Do_ and _Perform_ All
that the _Law Requires_ of'em; where's the _Danger_ of These People I
beseech ye?
_Obs._ Not in their _coming over_ with their _Bodies_, but in _Staying
behind_, in their _Good Wills_, and _Affections_: Nay, and in their
_Communicating_ with the _Church_ in the _Morning_, and in the
_Afternoon_, with the _Schism_: And pray will you Note in them, One
Thing _More_ too. 'Tis worth the while, when they _Ramble_ from their
_Own Parish_, to _Observe_ whither they go: For I have known the very
_Streets Throng'd_, out of Distance of _Hearing One Word_ that the
_Minister says_, with the _Same Superstition_, that the _Quakers Flock_
to the _Door_, when they are _Lock'd-out_ of the _Meeting-House_: In
which Case, It has yet the _Semblance_ of a _Private Meeting_; And in
Truth, looks liker a _Political Muster_, then a _Religious Exercise_:
But Heark ye for One Word, before we go any further; Suppose a Man
should have sayd about the _Beginning_ of _July Last_, in a _Brisk
Reply_ to a _Reflexion_ made upon the _Western-Rebells_; (at that time
in their _Pride_ and _Glory_) [The King has as Loyal Subjects in That
Army as Any are in T'other.] Wouldst thou have me, in Construction of
_Common Sense_, and _Honesty_, look upon _That Person_, to be,
Effectually Come over, and in the _State_ of _a True
Church-of-England-man_; only for _Keeping_ the _Law_, with his _Heels_,
when he _Breaks_ it, with his _Tongue_, and _Doctrine_? Now this is more
then I Owe ye, upon the Matter in hand: For you have Carry'd the
_Question_ quite _back_ again, from the _Non-Con-Ministers_, to the
_Generality_, and the _Multitude_ of the _Dissenters_: which is a Point
Wholly _Excepted_, and out of the _Limits_ of _Our Debate_: For All
their _Conventicles_ without a _Mouth_, are _Monsters_; Meer
_Nullities_, & _Bilks_, without a _Teacher_: So that I have _Restrain'd_
my _Applications_, Singly, to the _Rabbi's_ of the _Faction_, as
_Including_, and _Implying_ the _Sense_, and the _Intent_ of their
_Disciples_: Nay and _so far Including_ it, that they are _Barely_, the
_Passive Instruments_ of their _Leaders_. Now These _Heads_ of the
_Divided Parties_, are a sort of People, that do not, by any Means, fall
within the _Charitable Prospect_ of _Your Qualifications_: For they
_Stand-off_, in _Contempt_, and _Defyance_ of the _Orders_, & _Censures_
of the _Church_, and of the _Law_, as much at _This Instant_, as _ever_
they did. Their _Followers Maintain_, and _Support_ them in That
_Stubbornness_ of _Disobedience_; And so the _Opposition_ stands yet
_Firm_, in _Effect_, though with _Less Noise_ of _Menace_, and _Tumult_.
The _Branches_, 'tis True, are _Lopt_; but the _Root_, not so much as
_Touch'd_; Nay, and in such a Condition of _Vegetative Virtue_, and
_Vigour_, that it wants nothing but _Time_, and a _Favourable Season_ to
make it _Sprout_ again. And This you may Assure your self of, that
Nothing less then an _Utter_, an _Open_, a _Solemn_, and an _Irrevocable
Divorce_, betwixt _These Libertine-Seducers_, and Those that have been
_Trepann'd_, and _Inveigled_, out of the _Bosom_ of the _Church_, into
the _Arms_ of the _Schism_: Nothing I say, less then Some such
_Unalterable Act_, or _Decree_ of _Separation_, can ever _Secure_,
either the _Church_, or the _State_ from the _Pernicious Consequences_
of this _Intelligence_: For betwixt _Blind Pity_, and _Foolish Zeal_, on
the _One_ hand, and all the _Arts_, of _Moving_, and _Provoking_ Those
_Passions_, and _Affections_, on the _Other_, there is _kept-up_, and
_Cherish'd_, a _Communication_ of _Reciprocal Kindness_, between them,
that keeps the _Fire alive_ still in the _Embers_, 'till by _Degrees_,
it _Blows-up_ All at last into a _Common Flame_. Now take away _These
Bellows_, and _T'other Sparks_, and a man may _Sleep_ in his _Bed_,
without _Dreaming_ of _Conflagrations_, or the _Dread_ of Rising with
his Throat Cut.
_Trim._ I will not Excuse some _Hot-Headed Blades_, that let their
_Tongues_ run before their _Wits_; And make it a Point of _Honour_, to
_Brave_ All the _Terrors_ of _Death_, and _Dungeons_, in defence of the
_Cause_ that they have _Undertaken_. The _Less said_, the _Better_;
Though a Body cannot, in _Generosity_, but have some sort of
_Compassion_, for a Man that Suffers _Death_, with _Constancy of Mind_,
Even in a Mistaken Cause, if it be according to his _Conscience_.
_Obs._ If these _Impressions_ were _Inbred_, and the _Errors_ purely
their _Own_, it would be a _Point_, not only of _Good Nature_, but of
_Common Justice_, and _Humanity_, to have a _Tenderness_ for _People_
under an _Invincible Mistake_: But you have Started the _Strongest
Argument_ in the World, against your _self_ here, by _Enforcing_ the
_Necessity_ of Clearing the _Stage_ of the _Seditious Oracles_, that
_Inspire These Desperate Resolutions_.
_Trim._ Why All matter of _Violence, Heat_ of _Dispute_, and _Clamour_
of _Argument_, is at an _End_. You hear no more of your _Scottish_, and
_Western Declarations_; No more _Competitors_ for the _Crown_; or
_Confederates_ for a _Republique_: And therefore prethee, _let_ us be at
_Peace_ while we _May_ be at _Peace_; and do not stand _Puzzling_ the
_People_ with _Danger_, where _No Danger is_.
_Obs._ Soft and Fair, _Trimmer_; those _Declarations, Practices_, and
_Attempts_, are not to be _Repeated_ again in the _same Age_: But there
are _more ways to the Wood then One_: And 'tis All a case, to a man
that's _Robb'd_, whether the _Thieves_ came in at the _Door_, or at the
_Window_. 'Tis very Right, That, since the Breaking of the _Rebellion_,
the _Non-Cons_ lay their _Fingers_ upon their _Mouths_; and not _One
Word_ of _Late_, upon the Subject of _Liberties_, and _Properties_; or
of the Danger of _Tyranny_, and of _Arbitrary Power_: But All other
_Grievances_ are Now _Swallow'd-up_ in _One_: They are All in _Tears_
for fear of the _Protestant Religion_; and _That's the Topique that's
now Carry'd-on, through All Shapes, Figures, and Disguises_.
_Trim._ We shall have fine Work, Next Bout!
_London_, Printed for _Charles Brome_, at the Gun in St. _Paul's_
Church-yard.
Vol. 3. =Numb. 202=
THE OBSERVATOR.
_The way of Promoting_ Fears, _and_ Jelousies. _The_ People _meerly_
Passive _in the Bus'ness. Both Parts seem to_ Contend _for the_ Same
Common Principles. _The_ Rise of Jelousies.
=Saturday=, August 21. 1686.
_TRIMMER._ The _Accommodating_ of Words, Phrases, and Texts to the
Matter in hand, with the Interjecting, here and there, of Certain
_Emphatical Winks_, and _Innuendo's_, to the _Common People_, will do
the Bus'ness of _Fears and Jelousies_, you need never _Doubt_ it,
without any more Ceremony.
_OBSERVATOR._ I do no more _Doubt_ it, then I do, that a Proper Remedy;
Rightly Prepar'd; and Administer'd in the _Due_ Time and Proportion,
will _Work_ such or such an _Effect_. But the _Skill_ lyes, in the
Judgment of the Distemper; The Constitution of the Patient; The Choice
of the Physick; The Prescription of the Composition, the Preparation,
and the Dos. Now _Your_ way of _Operating_, is only the Mechanicall
_Part of the Bus'ness_; and no more, then the giving of a _Box_, a
_Gally-pot_, or a _Glass_, with a Note of _Directions_, out of _One_
hand into _Another_: which Any _Porter_ that Plyes at the _Next Corner_,
would do as _Dext'rously_, as ever a _Doctor_ of the _College_. The
_Difficulty_, and the _Mystery_, is Over, before _You_ have any thing to
_Do_ with it: The _Poysonous_, and _Intoxicating Draught_, Prepar'd; The
_Multitude_ set a-Gaping for't, and Your _Office_, is only at last, to
_Pour it down their Throats_. There's Matter of _History_, and _Fact_,
enough, 'tis true, to _Satisfy any man_, that People may be made as
_Mad_ with _Cant_, and _Gibberish_, as if they had taken _Henbane_; and
that _the_ Sting _of_ Jelousy, will put them out of their _Wits_ as soon
as _the_ Biting _of a_ Mad-Dog: But we are in the _Dark_ all this while,
for the Rise, the Progress, and the Methods of Enflaming _Jelousies_, to
bring'em up to that _Pitch_. Prethee let me Understand a little of their
Birth, Growth, Discipline, and Education; How they are Fed, Nourish'd,
and Entertain'd? What's the End, and Use of them? What Language do they
_Speak_; or how comes it to pass, that the _Same_ Words, and Phrases,
without _Any Intelligence_ with _Grammar, Logique, Common Usage_, or
_Propriety_, should _Transport_ Some _Men_ into _Outrages, Palpitations
of the Heart, Horrors_, and _Tremblings_, both of _Mind_, and of _Body_;
and yet Work no more upon Others, then they _did_, before the very
Letters of'em were taken out of the _Alphabet_? I do not call ye to a
_Strict Shrift_ upon _Every Point_, but I Expect you shall say
something to the _Whole Matter_; for a _Few Words_, in Order, will give
a man more _Light_ to the _Reason_ of a Thing, then as many _Volumes_,
in Confusion.
_Trim._ You are in the _Right_; that the _Craft_ lies in the Project,
and the Preparatory _Manage_ of this Affair, and that the _Danger_ is
gone too _Far_, when the _Mine_ is already _Wrought_; the _Powder
Dispos'd_, and nothing wanting to the _Final Execution_ of the
_Mischief_, but the _Lighting_ of the _Match_, and the Applying of the
_Coal_ to the _Train_. You have _Well_ and _Truly_ enough _Observed_,
the _Wonderfull Force_, that _Some Certain_ Words, and Phrases have;
upon the _Affections_ of the _Multitude_; without the Least _Shadow_ of
any Logical, Grammatical, or Philosophical _Reason_ for the _Operation_
of them. Now you must know, that _These_ Words, and Phrases, are made
_Use_ of, and _Understood_, in the way of a Cypher, or a Jargon, and not
according to the _Ordinary Acceptation_ of them, in a _Regular_ way of
_Writing_, or of _Speaking_; So that, Effectually, the _Efficacy_ of
such _Words_, and _Phrases_, is given for _Granted_; and how they come
to _Obtain that Force_, remains the _Single Question_.
Now towards the _Understanding_ of this Matter, you must Consider, that
no _State_ can be _Supplanted_, but by _Turning_ the _Peoples Hearts_,
against the _Persons_, & the _Actions_ of their _Superiors_: So that in
_All Conspiracies_ to _Destroy_ a _Government_, Fears & Jelousies, are
_the_ Corner Stone _of the Babel_. Their Hearts are no sooner _Lost_,
but they withdraw their Bodies too, and so, by _Degrees, Erect_ Laws,
and Religions of their Own; and look upon themselves, by This time, as
in _Another Commonwealth_.
_Obs._ 'Tis most _Certainly True_; and that in this _Separation_, they
set-up an _Interest_ of _Direct_ Spite, as well as Opposition, to That
of the _Church_, and of the _State_.
_Trim._ This is the very Course, and Progress of a _Popular Jelousy_:
But pray take Notice as we go, that the _People_, are thus far, _Meerly_
Passive; and _Contribute No Otherwise_, to the _Ruine_ of the
_Publique_, then _a_ Snapping Sea does, to the _Sinking_ of a _Vessell_,
when the _Billows_ are _Hurry'd-on_ by the _Violence_ of an
Irresistible Tempest: if the _Winds_ would but let the _Waves alone_,
they'd be _Quiet_. When they come once to Gather into [Private
Meetings,] (or as you call them, Conventicles) you may _Then_ accompt
upon it, that they are as good as put to _School_, to _Learn_ the
Mystery of their _Profession_. For there are Canting-Schools, as well as
Reading-Schools: and under This _Discipline_, they come by _Insensible
Degrees_, to part with their _English_ Tongue, as well as with their
_English_ Principles, and Manners. Nay, and Effectually, to take up such
_Uncouth, Novel_, and _Strange_ Thoughts, Opinions, and Practices, that
it looks, as if the English-Man, the Christian, and the Subject, were
all lost in a Disguise. They are now, you must know, under New Lords,
and Consequently, under New Laws; where they are _Train'd-up_ to _New
Ways_ of Understanding Things, and to a _New Idiome_ of Expressing them.
Religion, Law, Government, Conscience, Good Manners, are so _Sacred_ in
Themselves, that the _Worst_ of Men cannot but _Pretend_ a _Veneration_
for them; but how to _Baffle_, or to _Elude_ the _Force_, the
_Obligation_, and the _Authority_ of them; and, at the Same Time, to
set-up for the _Asserters_, and _Supporters_ of _These Publique Rights,
Privileges_, and _Duties, There_ lies the _Difficulty_ of the
_Undertaking_.
_Obs._ That is to say, how to _Resolve_ Religion, into an _Empty_
Notion: To Talk Christianity into a Paradox; and, with Christ in our
_Mouths_, at _London_, to _fall down_, and _Worship_ Mahomet, in _Buda_:
How to _Confound_ Gods, and the Governments Friends and Enemies, so as
to make the _Common People_ take _One_ for _T'other_. Now This can be no
way done, but by setting-up the Counterfeit of Religion, Law, and
Conscience, against the _Genuine_, and _Authentique_ Original; and by
making Evil, to be Good, and Good, to be Evil.
_Trim._ You must _Note_, further, that in This _Opposition_, the Main
Cause appears to be the _very Same_, on _Both sides_; and _Both Parts_
seem to _Contend_, for the Same Common Principles, of _Divine Worship_,
and of _Civil Obedience_.
_Obs._ Only the _One_ Flies to the _Invisible Lights_ and _Dictates_ of
the _Spirit_, in Matter of Religion; (taking Fancy for Revelation) and,
in the Matter of Government, has Recourse to Certain _Unaccountable
Whimsies_, of [Powers Reserv'd,] where there _never was any Power at
all_; & _These Fooleries_, they _Trump_ upon the _Little People_, under
the _Pompous Name_ of [_FUNDAMETALS_;] while the _Rulers_, on the
_Other_ hand, Stick to the Law, to the Text, and to the _Approved Sense_
of the Best Interpreters of Both, for their _Guide_.
_Trim._ Very Good! And after they have _Departed_ from the Common Rule,
and _Divided_ themselves from the Common Interest; it is but Reasonable
to _Expect_, that they will Set-up Another Interest, and Another Rule to
_Themselves_.
_Obs._ Well! But how do they _Manage That Province_ all this while, as
to the _Subject_, I mean, that we were _Speaking_ of?
_Trim._ Why their way is, only to put _Religion_, and _Government_ in
_Another Dress_; but under the Name, of [Religion,] and [_Government_,]
_Still_; and then to lay on a _Superstructure_, Answerable to the
_Foundation_; I speak of the Leaders only; for their Disciples are
_Blanck Paper_; and ready for _any Impression_. They _Talk_, to the
Ears, and to the Passions of their _Hearers_, not to their
Understandings: and their _Auditors_ gather more of their _Meaning_,
from their _Gestures, Actions, Countenances_, and from _Pathetical
Tones_, then from the _Words Themselves_. As for _Sense_, or _No Sense_,
'tis _all a Case_; for 'tis the _Jingle_, not the _Matter_, that does
_Their Bus'ness_. The _Less_ the People Understand, the _More_ they are
Edify'd; for they take the _Congruities_ of Carnal Reason, for Vain
Philosophy; and Incomprehensible Nonsense, passes for _the Work of the_
Light Within. Their _Religion_ lies alltogether in Groan, and Rapture:
_They Sacrifice to the_ Unknown God; and in One Word; They _Supply_ the
_Want_ of Knowledge, with an _Excess_ of Zeal; and when they cannot
_Understand_ the Plain English of a _Discourse_, they Wrap Themselves up
in the Mystery. The making of a _Party_, & the Saving of their own
_Skins_, are the _Two Main Points_ of the _Leaders_; and therefore, they
_Cover_ themselves under Ambiguity, & Riddle; & Compass those Matters,
by _Theatrical Gesticulations_, & _Actions_, which they dare not
_Venture_ upon, in _Words_ at _Length_, or by the _Dint_ of _Argument_;
for there is no _Law_ against _making of_ Faces, _and Dusting of_
Cushions, They are told _Mightily_, and _Plainly_, of _Heaven_, and
_Hell_; but in such a _Manner_, that they will _Never Allow_ God, and
the Government to be _Both of a side. Schism_ is Dignified with the
_Name_ of Conscience; the Story of their _Grievances_, is the
_Bitterest_ of Satyrs; Their very Petitions have the force of
_Invectives_; and the _Smoother_, the _Softer_, you find the _Surface_
of them, the _Falser_, and the more _Dangerous_ they are at the
_Bottom_: For betwixt the Persecution that is _Insinuated_, on the part
of the _Government_, & the Innocence, the Piety, and the Modesty, on
that of the Sufferers, Nothing can more Provoke, a _Horror_, and
_Indignation_ for the _One_, or a _Tenderness_, & _Compassion_, for the
_Other_.
_Obs._ That is to say, among Those that are not _Well Enform'd_, in the
_Reason_, and _Equity of the Cause in Question_.
_Trim._ Come Come. I tell ye _Nakedly_ how things Are, and not how they
Ought to be: and I speak of _Those Men_ too, that neither Do, nor Will,
nor Can make a _Right Judgment_ upon the Matter in _Issue_. They do not
take down _Reasons_ in Connexion; neither do their _Teachers_ so much as
Offer at'em; But _their Work_ is, only to _Feed_ Itching Ears, and
Humours, with _New-Quoyn'd Words, Affectate Phrases_: And briefly, to
_Instruct_ their _Disciples_, by _Signs_ and _Tokens_, like so many
_Dancing Horses_ to fall Lame upon all Four, for the _Pope_; to
come-over, for the _Grand Vizier_; and at the very _Sound_ of Babylon,
Anti-Christ, or Absolute Power, to Snort, and Boggle, as if they _Smelt
Fire_. If I may tell ye the _Arrant Truth_, and _Simplicity_ of my
_Heart_; This is the very Train of a Popular Institution. They are
Tutor'd, and Inur'd, to the Assuming of such and such _Passions_, upon
such and such _Occasions_; and they do All their _Ayres_, and _Tricks_,
by the Direction of the _Hand_, or _Eye. They Dance_ to _Sounds, Hints,
Nodds, Forms_, and _Syllables_; not to the force of _Fair Reasonings_,
and _Natural Conclusions_; Nay, they are Taught, when to be _Angry_;
when to be _Pleas'd_; and their very _Inclinations_, and _Aversions_,
are none of their _Own, Neither_: The _Whole Bus'ness_, in short, is
Artifice, Manage, and Practice; for _All their_ Mistakes, _and_
Mis-understandings, _take the_ Same Biass.
_Obs._ I do _Observe_, indeed, that they Shelter themselves under the
_Dark Prophets_, and the _Revelation_. The _Number of the Beast_, they
have all at their _Fingers Ends_; the _Geneva-Bibles_ are _Thumm'd_ over
and over, at the _Same Texts_: As upon the Subject of the _Groves_, &
the _High Places, Christian Liberty, Will-Worship, Humane Inventions,
Idolatry, Superstition_, &c. There's not a _Verse_ in the whole _Bible_,
against _Persecution_, but makes them Shake their Heads at the
_Government_. Popery by _Interpretation_, is Episcopacy: The _Liberty_
of the Subject, has an _Aking Tooth_ at the _Prerogative_ of the Prince:
But finally; such and such Terms, and Forms of Speaking, are, by Common
Consent, to pass for _Current_, under such or such a Sense, and
Meaning, how _Contrary_ soever, to their _Proper_, and _Genuine
Signification_, or _Import_. But this speaks only to the Propagating of
_Jelousies_, not to the Rise of them.
_Trim._ If you Ask me the [Rise] of _Jelousies_, I must _Answer_ ye,
that they are _Begotten_ betwixt Ambition, Avarice, Hypocrisy, Craft,
Malice, and Disloyalty, on the _One_ side; and Ignorance, Obstinacy,
Blind Zeal, and an Impetuous Temerity, on the _Other_.
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1967-1968
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Transcriber's Note
The closing square brackets have been removed from the end of the
following as no opening bracket was found in the text.
1. Page 13 - _Some People at_ Norwich, _are playing
the_ Devil _for_ Godsake: _several honest, peaceable_, Protestant
Dissenters, _having been troubled for not coming to_ Church, _or having
been Present at_ Religious Meetings &c.]
2. Page 14 - _Smith_ (in his _Vox Populi, P._ 13.) saith, that _the King is
oblig'd to pass or Confirm those Laws his People shall Chuse_.]
On Page 14 the fullstop after Chuse has been changed to a comma.
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