in a potential voice
in all such crises as that supposed. It might also, perhaps, be
designed obliquely to intimate, that, 'whatever the clergy and the
theologians of different parties might wish to realize, it was,
after all, the powerful and independent class of the laity who were
the "mastermen," and would not succumb to any spiritual guides whatever,
even though called by the specious names of Wisemen and Newmen. The
mere singularity of the names alone ought to decide the point. And
what further confirms our view is, that it is impossible to point
out any Englishmen of any distinction who ever had any of these
names. Here we do not argue from conjecture, after merely looking
into the most recent biographical repertories (as, for example,
the "Bibliotheca Clarisimorum Virorum," in three hundred and fifty
volumes folio); for it is no argument that this meagre collection
makes no mention of any such names; since, in the successive
compilations of such works, (as the world grows older,) it has
been found necessary to extrude from time to time thousands of lesser
names, which had twinkled in preceding ages. But, deeply anxious to
establish truth, we have at infinite pains caused to be fished up,
from the depths of the archives of our national museums, very rare
reprints of some of the works of the age nearest that in which these
events are said to have occurred, and in none of these works is there
an individual mentioned of the name of Newman or Masterman, and
only one comparatively obscure person of the name of Wiseman,--a
presumptive proof that they were fictitious names. Is it possible
that these curious and varied coincidences can be the mere effect
of chance?'

"I shall spare you," said Harrington, "Dr. Dickkopf's learned
etymological disquisitions on the names Wilde and Philpotts, which,
aided by the imputed 'rashness' of the one, and the 'intoxicated zeal'
of the other, he clearly demonstrated to be fictitious.

"After which, I will suppose him to proceed thus:--

'We presume we have said enough to convince any acute and candid mind
of the extreme improbability of the document being designed to convey
to posterity a literal statement of facts; not that we for a moment
think it necessary to suppose that any evil design actuated the writer,
whoever he might be. It was most likely intended, as we have already
said, to be an allegorico-political caricature of certain events which
did undeniably occur, and which fo