hat this is an error
inherent in the plan of the novel. Bourdaloue, a great authority,
extends this restriction still farther, and denounces all attempts to
unmask hypocrisy by raillery, because in doing so the satirist is
necessarily compelled to expose to ridicule the religious vizard of
which he has divested him. Yet even against such authority it may be
stated, that ridicule is the friend both of religion and virtue, when
directed against those who assume their garb, whether from hypocrisy or
fanaticism. The satire of Butler, not always decorous in these
particulars, was yet eminently useful in stripping off their borrowed
gravity and exposing to public ridicule the affected fanaticism of the
times in which he lived. It may also be remembered, that in the days of
Queen Anne a number of the Camisars or Huguenots of Dauphine arrived as
refugees in England, and became distinguished by the name of the French
prophets. The fate of these enthusiasts in their own country had been
somewhat similar to that of the Covenanters. Like them, they used to
assemble in the mountains and desolate places, to the amount of many
hundreds, in arms, and like them they were hunted and persecuted by the
military. Like them, they were enthusiasts, though their enthusiasm
assumed a character more decidedly absurd. The fugitive Camisars who
came to London had convulsion-fits, prophesied, made converts, and
attracted the public attention by an offer to raise the dead. The
English minister, instead of fine and imprisonment and other inflictions
which might have placed them in the rank and estimation of martyrs, and
confirmed in their faith their numerous disciples, encouraged a dramatic
author to bring out a farce on the subject which, though neither very
witty nor very delicate, had the good effect of laughing the French
prophets out of their audience and putting a stop to an inundation of
nonsense which could not have failed to disgrace the age in which it
appeared. The Camisars subsided into their ordinary vocation of
psalmodic whiners, and no more was heard of their sect or their
miracles. It would be well if all folly of the kind could be so easily
quelled: for enthusiastic nonsense, whether of this day or of those
which have passed away, has no more title to shelter itself under the
veil of religion than a common pirate to be protected by the reverence
due to an honoured and friendly flag.

Still, however, we must allow that there is great