The most moderate of the Solunarians were in their Opinion against this practice, and the High Men taking advantage of them, drew them in to Concur in making a Law with yet more Severity against them, effectually to keep them out of Employment.
The low Solunarians were easy to be drawn into this Project, as it was only a Confirming former Laws of their own making, and all Things run fair for the Design; but as the High Men had further Ends in it than barely reducing the Crolians to Conformity, they coucht so many gross Clauses into their Law, that even the Grandees of the Solunarians themselves could not comply with; nay even the Patriarchs of the Solunarian Church declar'd against it, as tending to Persecution and Confusion.
This Disappointment enrag'd the Party, and that very Rage entirely ruin'd their Project; for now the Nobility, the Patriarchs, and all the wise Men of the Nation, joining together against these Men of Heat and Fury, the Queen began to see into their Designs, and as she was of a most pious and peaceable Temper, she conceiv'd a just Hatred of so wicked and barbarous a Design, and immediately dismiss'd from her Council and Favour the Great Scribe, and several others who were Leaders in the Design, to the great mortification of the whole Party, and utter Ruin of the intended Law against the Crolians.
Here I could not but observe, as I have done before in the Case of the banish'd King, how impolitick these high Solunarian Church-men acted in all their Proceedings, for had they contented themselves by little and little to ha' done their Work, they had done it effectually; but pushing at Extremities they overshot themselves, and ruin'd all.
For the Grandees and Patriarchs made but a few trifling Objections at first, nay and came off, and yielded some of them too; and if these would ha' consented to ha' parted with some Clauses which they have willingly left out since, they had had it pass'd; but these were as hot Men always are, too eager and sure of their Game, they thought all was their own, and so they lost themselves.
If they rail'd at the low Solunarian Church-men before, they doubled their Clamors at them now, all the Patriarchs, and all the Nobility and Grandees, nay even the Queen her self came under their Censure, and every Body who was not of their Mind were Prestarians and Crolians.
As this Rage of theirs was implacable, so, as I hinted before, it drove them into another Subdivision of Parties, and now began the Mysterious Plot to be laid which I mention'd before; for the Cortez being summon'd, and the Law being proposed, some of these high Solunarians appear'd in Confederacy with the Crolians, in perfect Confederacy with them, a thing no Body would have imagin'd could ever ha' been brought to pass.
Now as these sorts of Plots must always be carry'd very nicely, so these high Gentlemen who Confederated with the Crolians, having, to spight the other, resolv'd effectually to prevent the passing the Law against the Qualification of the Crolians, it was not their Business immediately to declare themselves against it as a Law, but by still loading it with some Extravagance or other, and pushing it on to some intolerable Extreme, secure its miscarriage.
In the managing this Plot, one of their Authors was specially employ'd, and that all that was really true of the Crolian Dissenters might be ridicul'd, his Work was to draw monstrous Pictures of them, which no Body could believe; this took immediately, for now People began to look at their Shooes to see if they were not Cloven Footed as they went a long Streets; and at last finding they were really shap'd like the rest of the Lunar Inhabitants, they went back to the Author, who was a Learned Member of a certain Seminary, or Brother-hood of the Solunarian Clergy, and enquir'd if he were not Mad, Distracted and Raving, or Moon-blind, and in want of the thinking Engine; but finding all things right there, and that he was in his Senses, especially in a Morning when he was a little free from, &c. that he was a Good, Honest, Jolly, Solunarian Priest, and no room could be found for an Objection there. Upon all these Searches it presently appear'd, and all Men concluded it was a meer Fanatick Crolian Plot; that this High Party of all were but Pretenders, and meer Traytors to the True High Solunarian Church-Men, that wearing the same Cloth had herded among them in Disguise, only to wheedle them into such wild Extravagancies as must of necessity confuse their Councils, expose their Persons, and ruin their Cause. ---- According to the like Practice, put upon their Abrograzian Prince, and of which I have spoken before.
And since I am upon the detection of this most refin'd Practice, I crave leave to descend to some particular Instances, which will the better evince the Truth of this Matter, and make it appear that either this was really a Crolian Plot, or else all these People were perfectly Distracted; and as their Wits in that Lunar World, are much higher strain'd than ours, so their Lunacy, where it happens, must according to the Rules of Mathematical Nature, bear an extream Equal in proportion.