When Southey's animadversions appeared, they were replied to by "William Okely, M.D., Presbyter of the Brethren's Church, and Minister of their Congregation at Bristol," in a letter written in a good-humoured style, yet caustic withal. Unfortunately, as long as Southey's work lasts the poison will remain, while the antidote will be forgotten. The Doctor observes:
"What could possibly induce you, with such ill-judged eagerness, to rake into the kennels of oblivion? Why do you exhibit among your authorities the publications of such a vile fellow as Rimius? Was you not informed that he wrote with all the rancour of a renegado, and all the spite of an enemy? Is such a man proper to be publicly called forth as a witness against a church which he had deserted from no excess of virtue; against a church which, yourself being judge, has, by its silent but honorable exertions, first glorified God among the heathen, and then stimulated the rest of the Christian world to engage in similar attempts; against a church which, according to your own representations, possesses in herself the rare principle of gradual melioration, and, by a constant course of good living, has, in the face of watchful enemies, been able to rise superior to the consequences of former acknowledged indiscretions in language? Did you know that those writings were sinking fast into deserved neglect? That the copies had become so rare, that it was scarcely possible to obtain one? What merit, I ask you, is there in such publications, that you should thus studiously fish them out of the mud which was already closing over them, and after carefully scraping off the filth and mould which they had contracted, spread over them a coating of your own poetical varnish?...
"What motive shall we assign for your conduct? You could not have intended to warn the Christian world against indulging in similar imprudences; for you well know that in the present day, society has not the smallest tendency that way. You could not mean to warn the Brethren against the recurrence of the same absurdities; for you acknowledge yourself that they have already for a long period risen superior to them; and instead of the least tendency to relapse, they have repeatedly and publicly confessed their mistake, and have suffered so much, and such often unmerited obloquy, on account of their long-exploded phraseology, that they are more likely in future to keep too far within bounds from over caution, than once more wildly to overleap them.