was publish'd in 1642. In the Absence of the Author,
_Birkenhead_, from _Oxford_, it was continued by _Heylin_. _Birkenhead_
pleas'd the Generality of Readers with his _Waggeries_ and _Buffooneries_;
and the Royal Party were so taken with it, that the Author was recommended
to be Reader of _Moral Philosophy_ by his Majesty;" who, together with the
religious Electors, it is justly to be presum'd, thought _Waggery_ and
_Buffoonery_, not only Political, but _Religious_ and _Moral_, when
employ'd against _Puritans_ and _Dissenters_.

IX. King _Charles_ the Second's Restoration brought along with it glorious
_High-Church_ Times; which were distinguish'd as much by _laughing_ at
_Dissenters_, as by persecuting them; which pass for a Pattern how
Dissenters are to be treated; and which will never be given up, by
_High-Church-men_, as faulty, for ridiculing Dissenters.

The King himself, who had very good natural Parts, and a Disposition to
banter and ridicule every Body, and especially the _Presbyterians_, whose
Discipline he had felt for his Lewdness and Irreligion in _Scotland_, had
in his _Exile_ an Education, and liv'd, among some of the greatest
_Droles_ and _Wits_ that any Age ever produc'd; who could not but form him
in that way, who was so well fitted by Temper for it. The Duke of
_Buckingham_ was his constant Companion. And he had a [90] _great
Liveliness of Wit, and a peculiar Faculty of turning all things into
ridicule_. He was Author of the _Rehearsal_; which, as a most noble Author
says, is [91] _a justly admir'd Piece of comick Wit_, and _has furnish'd
our best Wits in all their Controversies, even in Religion and Politicks,
as well as in the Affairs of Wit and Learning, with the most effectual and
entertaining Method of exposing Folly, Pedantry, false Reason, and ill
Writing_. The Duke of _Buckingham_ [92] brought _Hobbes_ to him to be his
_Tutor_, who was a _Philosophical Drole_, and had a great deal of _Wit_ of
the _drolling_ kind. _Sheldon_, who was afterwards Archbishop of
_Canterbury_, and attended the King constantly in his Exile as his
_Chaplain_, was an eminent _Drole_, as appears from Bishop _Burnet_, who
says[93], that _he had a great Pleasantness of Conversation, perhaps too
great_.

And _Hide_, afterwards Earl of _Clarendon_, who attended the King in his
Exile, seems also to have been a great Drole, by Bishop _Burnet_'s
representing him, as one, that _had too much Levity in his Wit, and that
did