certain events which transpired
in England in the year 1850. This, of course, would of itself be
sufficient to make ten Dr. Dickkopfs turn to and prove the contrary;
and any one of them, I imagine, might, and probably would, thus
reply. Excuse his clumsy style. He would say:--

"'That there may have been, and very probably was, some nucleus of
fact which may have served as a groundwork for these pseudo-historical
memorials, is not denied: but to regard that document of which it
is professedly a condensation as a genuine record of the period in
question, can only, we conceive, be the infelicity of an essentially
uncritical mind. Most evidently, whether we regard the known events and
relations of that age (as far as they have come down to us) or the
internal characteristics of the document itself, we discover
unequivocal traces of an unhistoric origin. Let us look at both these
sources of evidence in order. If we mistake not, the document, even
as it now stands, bears on its very front, that the original document,
so far from being a literal description of the events of the time to
which it professedly related, was allegorical, or at most historico-
allegorical, and most likely designed broadly to caricature and
satirize some perceived tendencies or conditions of the English
religious development in certain parties of that age. But whether it
be, or be not, reducible to the class of allegorieo-ecclesiastico-
political satire, certainly no person of critical discernment can for
a moment allow it to be a literal statement of historic events. And
first to look at the internal evidence.

"'Is it possible to overlook the singular character of the names
which everywhere meet us? They, in fact, tell their own tale, and
almost, as it were, proclaim of themselves that they are allegorical.
Wiseman, Newman (two of them, be it observed), Masterman, Philpotts,
Wilde. Who, that has been gifted with even a moderate share of
critical acumen, can fail to see that these are all fictitious names,
invented by the allegorist either to set forth certain qualities or
attributes of certain persons whose true names are concealed, or, as
I rather think, to embody certain tendencies of the times, or represent
certain party characteristics. Thus the name "Wiseman" is evidently
chosen to represent the proverbial craft which was attributed to the
Church of Rome; and Nicholas has also been chosen (as I apprehend)
for the purpose of indicating the so