rithee, why so severe
always on the priesthood, Mr. Bayes? What have they merited to pull down
your indignation? I thought the ridiculing men of that character upon
the stage, was by this time a topic as much worn out with you, as love
and honour in the play, or good fulsome flattery in the dedication. But
you, I find, still continue your old humour, to date from the year of
Hegira, the loss of Eton, or since orders were refused you. Whatever
hangs out, either black or green colours is presently your prize: and
you would, by your good will, be as mortifying a vexation to the whole
tribe, as an unbegetting year, a concatenation of briefs, or a voracious
visitor; so that I am of opinion, you had much better have written in
your title-page,

Manet alta mente repostum
Judicium _Cleri_, spretaeque injuria _Musoe_."

The same reproach is urged by Settle. See vol. ix.

[40] Vol. xviii. [The _Diary_ had not been deciphered when Scott wrote.
--ED.]

[41] There was, to be sure, in the provoking scruples of that rigid
sect, something peculiarly tempting to a satirist. How is it possible to
forgive Baxter, for the affectation with which he records the enormities
of his childhood?

"Though my conscience," says he, "would trouble me when I sinned, yet
divers sins I was addicted to, and oft committed against my conscience,
which, for the warning of others, I will here confess to my shame. I was
much addicted to the _excessive gluttonous eating of apples and pears_,
which I think laid the foundation of the imbecility and flatulency of my
stomach, which caused the bodily calamities of my life. To this end, and
to concur with naughty boys that gloried in evil, I have oft gone into
other men's orchards, and stolen the fruit, when I had enough at home."
There are six other retractions of similar enormities, when he
concludes: "These were my sins in my childhood, as to which, conscience
troubled me for a great while before they were overcome." Baxter was a
pious and worthy man; but can any one read this confession without
thinking of Tartuffe, who subjected himself to penance for killing a
flea, with too much anger?

[42] See vol. xviii. Mr. Malone thinks tradition has confounded a
present made to the poet himself probably of L100, with a legacy
bequeathed to his son Charles, which last did amount to L500, but which
Charles lived not to receive.

[43] She is distinguished for beauty and virtue, by the a