s and Grimaces; there will be those who will _laugh_, nay,
cannot help _laughing_ at them. Hence most Parties laugh at one another,
without the least Scruple, and with great Applause of their own Parties;
and the Leaders of the same Party laugh with one another, when they
consider the absurd and ridiculous Opinions they profess, and how they
cheat and govern their Followers; agreeably to what _Cicero_ reports of
_Cato_[54], "_Vetus autem illud_ Catonis _admodum scitum est, qui_ mirari
se _aiebat, quod non rideret haruspex cum haruspicem vidisset_."

I think it may be justly suppos'd, that Pope _Alexander_ and _Thomas
Becket_ could not but laugh together at the Simplicity and Weakness of
their Followers, the Papists, who receiv'd for truth the following Story.
It was told as a Fact[55], "that when _Thomas Becket_, who never drank any
thing but Water, sat at Table with _Pope Alexander_, and that his Holiness
would needs taste of his Cup; lest his abstemiousness should be known, God
turn'd the Water into Wine: so that the _Pope_ found nothing but Wine in
the Cup. But when _Becket_ pledg'd him, it was turn'd into Water again."

_Laughing_ therefore, and _Ridicule_ in _serious Matters_, go round the
World with no inconsiderable Applause, and seem highly proper for this
World of Nonsense and Folly. To hinder _laughing_ upon such just Occasions
as are given, is almost all one as to hinder _breathing_. A very witty,
drolling, Dramatick Poet, and of the first Rank for Quality, says in a
_Prologue_ to his Auditors.

"_Suppose now, at this Instant, one of you_
"_Were tickled by a Fool, what would you do?_
"_'Tis ten to one you'd_ laugh: _here's just the Case._
"_For there are Fools that tickle with their Face._
"_Your gay Fool tickles with his Dress and Motions;_
"_But your_ grave Fool _of_ Fools _with_ silly Notions.
"_Is it not then unjust that Fops should still_
"_Force one to_ laugh, _and then take laughing ill?_

II. _Secondly_, If it be a Fault in those reverend Divines, mention'd in
the foregoing Article, to use _Irony_, _Drollery_, _Ridicule_, and
_Satire_, in any Case; or if the Fault lies in an exorbitant Use thereof,
or in any particular Species of _Drollery_; as, for example, such
_Drollery_ as is to be found in the polemical Writings and Sermons of Dr.
_South_; it is fit some Remedy should be employ'd for the Cure of this
Evil. And the Remedy I would propose, should not be to have the Authors
pun