To these famous Divines I might add the most eminent and renowned Philosophers of Antiquity, who, either out of a Contempt of Mankind, or to gratify their peculiar Tempers, or to correct the Vices and Follies of Men, and to instil virtuous Maxims in those who would only receive them in some pleasant way, set up for good Humour, Mirth, and Drollery, as their standing Method of Life, and of Conversation with the World; and have left behind them some of their occasional Sayings upon record, which do more Honour to their Memories than the most elaborate Treatises would have done, and more Good to Men; upon whom a Jest, or witty Saying, is more fitted to operate and make Impression than long Deductions and Reasonings, and particularly on Princes and great Men, who will receive no Instruction but in some very artful and short Way: whereof even the rude Diogenes, the Cynick, has given us a most incomparable Example, in his occasional Conference with Alexander the Great, who was put into such Temper by the mere Freedom and Raillery of the Philosopher, as to take every thing in good part he said to him, and consequently be dispos’d to reflect upon it, and to act with Discretion. At the Head of these Philosophers I place Socrates, who has very generally in all Ages pass’d for the wisest of Men, and was declared so by an Oracle; which, at least, was therein directed and influenc’d by some considerable human Authority, or by the common Sentiments of Men at that time. His Character I shall give you in the words of the most ingenious Addison, who was himself a Master of Humour and Drollery, and practis’d them in Perfection, and with great Success in almost all his Prose-writings. “Socrates, says he[50], who was the greatest Propagator of Morality in the Heathen World, and a Martyr for the Unity of the Godhead, was so famous for the exercise of the Talent [of Raillery and Humour] among the politest People of Antiquity, that he gain’d the Name of the Drole.[51]” A Character that intitled him to the greatest Merit, as it most of all enabled him to promote Virtue.
I might also offer to your Confederation the Affair of Comedies; which all polite Governments have permitted, or establish’d, in their several populous and wealthy Cities, as the necessary and proper means to encounter Vice and recommend Virtue, and to employ innocently and usefully the vacant Hours of many, who know not how to employ their Time, or would employ it amiss, by entering into [52] Factions and Cabals to disturb the State; or by Gaming, or by backbiting Conversations about their Neighbours. And as Comedies, which were originally very gross, grew by Use more polite and refin’d in Satire and Raillery: so the most celebrated Wits and Statesmen, and Persons of the greatest Quality, have engag’d and join’d with others in them, and performed with the greatest Success and Reputation to themselves; and have been valu’d, not only for their Talents of Irony and Drollery, which were essential to the Credit of such Performances; but applauded, as acting the virtuous Part of Droles.
In fine, Books of Satire, Wit, Humour, Ridicule, Drollery, and Irony, are the most read and applauded of all Books, in all Ages, Languages, and Countries. And as those which are exquisite in their kinds, are the standing Entertainment of the Ingenious and Learned; so others, of a lower kind, are to be found among the lower Readers, who sleep under all Works which do not make them merry.
In a word, the Opinions and Practices of Men in all Matters, and especially in Matters of Religion, are generally so absurd and ridiculous that it is impossible for them not to be the Subjects of Ridicule.
For what else can be expected from Men who generally take up their Opinions without any Inquiry into their Reasonableness or Truth, and upon the most incompetent Grounds? I cannot be supposed to injure Mankind, if I consider them under the Character which the very ingenious Sir Richard Steele gives of himself; who acknowledges [53] that (even while he took upon himself the Title of the Censor of Great Britain, and in so many fine Papers corrects his Countrymen, and particularly the Freethinkers, whom he directs the Magistrate to punish with Death) it had been with him, as it is with too many others, that a [53] sort of an implicit Religion seem’d the most easy and most comfortable; and that a blind Veneration for he knew not what, and he knew not whom, stood for every thing important. And he confesses he was not enough aware, that this Implicitness of Conduct is the great Engine of Popery, fram’d for the Destruction of good Nature, as well as good Sense. If so great a Man could take up with such a Method, and act the Part of a Censor and Director of others, in a Matter which he had not at all consider’d, what can be expected else from others, but absurd and ridiculous Opinions and Practices?
And if some Men will fall into absurd and ridiculous Opinions, Habits, Forms, Figures 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 punish’d by the Magistrate, any more than for any other Faults in writing; but either to neglect and despise it, as Rage and Scolding, which drop into Oblivion with the Sound, and would have a Life given it by Resentment: or to allow Men to criticize and ridicule one another for their Ironies and Drollery, and to exercise their Wit and Parts against each other; that being the true Method to bring Things to a Standard, to fix the Decency and Propriety of Writing, to teach Men how to write to the Satisfaction of the ingenious, polite, and sensible Part of Mankind: for Decency and Propriety will stand the Test of Ridicule, and triumph over all the false Pretences to Wit; and Indecency and Impropriety will sink under the Trial of Ridicule, as being capable of being baffled by Reason, and justly ridicul’d. And if any kind or degree of Ridicule be absurd or ridiculous, that will appear so upon Trial, no less than the low and gross Ridicule prevalent among the unpolite Part of the World: But that will never appear. On the contrary, Ridicule of certain kinds, and under reasonable Directions and Rules, and used in proper Time, Place, and Manner, (all which also are only to be found out and fix’d by Trial and Experience) is both a proper and necessary Method of Discourse in many Cases, and especially in the Case of Gravity, when that is attended with Hypocrisy or Imposture, or with Ignorance, or with soureness of Temper and Persecution; all which ought to draw after them the Ridicule and Contempt of the Society, which has no other effectual Remedy against such Methods of Imposition. And to determine in some measure the Nature and Extent of the Irony I contend for, as Just, I profess to approve the noble Sarcasm of Elijah[56]; wherein he thus mocks the Priests of Baal, saying in effect to them, “Cry aloud, for your Baal is a fine God: He is either talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a Journey; or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked.” And I concur with the Psalmist[57], who thought it no Indecency to say, that he that sits in Heaven shall laugh them (that is, certain Kings, who were David’s Enemies) to scorn; the Lord shall have them in Derision: and must judge, that laughing to scorn, and deriding the greatest Men upon Earth, even Kings and Princes, to be a laudable and divine Method of dealing with them, who are only to be taught or rebuk’d in some artful way. I also approve of the following Sarcasm or Irony, which has a better Authority for it than Elijah or the Psalmist. Moses introduces God speaking thus after the Fall[58], Behold the Man is become like one of us, to know Good and Evil! And I think this Passage shews, that the whole Affair of the Fall, of which we have so very brief an Account, was a very entertaining Scene; and would have appear’d so, if set forth at large; as indeed it does under the Hands of our Divines, who have supplied that short Narration by various Additions, founded on Conjectures, and particularly under the fine Hand of Dr. Tho. Burnet, who has made a most ingenious Dialogue of what he suppos’d pass’d between Eve and the Serpent[59]. To say nothing of Milton’s famous Paradise Lost.