IN RELIGION. 145 turning system ; an aversion to whatever is established; a contempt of authority ; an impatienceof subordination ; a thirst for dictatorship ? with this difference, that these religious dissidents loose the reins of their self-government, instead of those of their country. We know to what a degree the love of novelty, the longing to see any thing they have not seen before, though the object be ever so disgusting, is carried by ow countrymen. The poet who best knew human nature, who best painted the characters ofEnglishmen, said, « In England any monster will make (be the making of) a man." This is so true, that a dwarf, a giant, an unnatural birth in an animal, will afford delight ; the greater the distortion the higher the pleasure.. We have seen to what excess this passion for what is novel and mon- strous may be carried, in the instance of a late preposterous prophetess, a creature born, and bred among the dregs of the people, with nothing to recommend her
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