gy and government, they both rushed forthwith and
incontinently to the press, until their publications became too
voluminous and numerous to be patiently read or easily counted. Of
course, what they printed was imbued with the changing aspects of the
questions they handled and open to the imputation of inconsistency, of
which Baxter was generally disregardful and Mather mostly unconscious.

Sir Roger L'Estrange was one of the great wits and satirists of his
age. His style was rough and reckless. A vehement and fierce upholder of
the doctrines of arbitrary government, he was knighted by James the
Second. His controversial writings, having all the attractions of
unscrupulous invective and homely but cutting sarcasm, were much
patronized by the great, and extensively read by the people. All
Nonconformists and Dissenters were the objects of his coarse abuse. He
issued an ingenious pamphlet with this title: "_The Casuist uncased; in
a Dialogue betwixt Richard and Baxter, with a moderator between them,
for quietness sake._" The two disputants range over a variety of
subjects, and are quite vehement against each other; the Moderator
interposing to keep them to the point, preserve order in the debate,
and, as occasion required, reduce them to "quietness." At one stage of
the altercation, he exclaimed: "If an Angel from Heaven, I perceive,
were employed to bring you two to an agreement, he should lose his
labor." Great was the amusement of all classes to find that the language
uttered by the combatants, on each side, was taken from one or another
of writings published by Richard Baxter, during his diversified
controversial life.

If any skilful and painstaking humorist of our day, should feel so
disposed, he might, by wading through the sea of Cotton Mather's
writings, pick up material enough for the purpose; and, by cutting in
halves paragraphs and sentences, entertain us in the same way, by giving
to the public, through the Press, "_A Dialogue betwixt COTTON and
MATHER, with a Moderator between them for quietness sake._"

THE
HISTORICAL MAGAZINE;
AND
Notes and Queries concerning the Antiquities,
History and Biography of America.

This Magazine was commenced in January, 1857, for the purpose of
furnishing a medium of intercommunication between Historical Societies,
Authors, and Students of History